Four storylines creating #DCI2023 competitive intrigue

With two full weeks and counting in the books on the 2023 DCI Summer Tour, the season’s competitive storylines are beginning to take shape.

As the summer schedule shifts toward key mid- and late-July “regional” events, here are four key competitive threads to keep an eye on.

1. Mile-High Showdown

The defending DCI World Champion Blue Devils, who have taken first place in each of their DCI Tour appearances since returning to competition in 2022 following 2020's COVID-19 shutdown, will face potentially their fiercest 2023 competitor to date Saturday, July 15 in Fort Collins, Colorado.

View scores from the 2023 DCI Tour

On the campus of Colorado State University, the Concord, California corps will go head-to-head with Boston Crusaders, who provided the closest season-long competition a year ago, scoring as close as 0.175 points to Blue Devils on the 2022 DCI Tour. The Boston corps, at season’s end, landed in a tie for second place with Bluecoats.

Blue Devils and Boston Crusaders, performing on opposite sides of the country so far, hold two of the 2023 DCI Tour’s highest individual scores to date, with the Concord corps’ 85.800, earned July 10 in Roseville, California, standing as the current top mark. Boston Crusaders’ top score to date, 83.850, was logged July 9 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and was only surpassed by the Bluecoats on July 11 in Douglasville, Georgia.

 

2. Going Back & Forth

Colts and Troopers, a pair of corps who made competitive waves as breakthrough finalists in 2022, have posted intriguing scores in early 2023 meetings.

After a string of head-to-head wins for Troopers, the Dubuque, Iowa corps moved ahead in the standings, earning an advantage of 0.3 points over its Wyoming-based counterpart July 9 in La Crosse.

The two will continue to perform head-to-head one more time, July 12 in Ankeny, Iowa, before going their separate ways on the DCI Tour map.

3. Pacific Push

In the past week, one of the more noticeable in-season scoring movers, Pacific Crest, has been making its way through the leaderboard on the West Coast.

The southern California corps, in its first appearance of the season July 1 in Vista, California, checked in 1.5 points behind The Academy. In its two most recent performances, though, Pacific Crest tied and then outscored the Arizona corps, simultaneously pulling within a point of Blue Knights.

Pacific Crest scored 1.95 points behind The Academy, and 5.538 points behind Blue Knights, at the end of the 2022 season. Those three corps will meet July 12 in Salt Lake City, Utah and July 15 in Fort Collins, Colorado.

 

4. Debuts & Finales

For many DCI participating corps with abbreviated touring schedules, the upcoming week marks the beginning and ending of several corps’ performance slates.

Saturday, July 16 in Duarte, California features a lineup of six California-based Open Class corps, all but one of which will complete their 2023 tours at said event, including Golden Empire, Blue Devils B, Blue Devils C, Vessel and Impulse.

On the flip side, several corps make their first 2023 appearance during the days ahead, including Seattle Cascades’ first DCI Tour appearance since 2019, July 12 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Battalion will also make its 2023 debut at the same event, in its hometown.

Later in the week, Southwind will kick off its summer schedule July 13 in Tupelo, Mississippi, and Guardians will hit the road July 15 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

View the 2023 DCI Tour Schedule

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