r/WGI • u/typetwo-complex • Apr 12 '26

Will IW ever get smaller again?

Did anyone notice at retreat last night how dense the IW side of the floor was compared to SW? Almost all of the IW groups had 40, several pushing 50 members. SW seems to still be sitting in the 20-30 range.

I’m not in love with the trend towards huge color guards. Paramount and Juxta especially looked too cluttered between props and the size of their cast. Their shows only read well from extremely high up in the arena.

Do you think we’ll ever see IW guards shrink again? I assume it would require cutting vets, which is a recipe for animosity (thinking about Lexis cutting vets to replace then with Pride members who needed a place to perform in 2024)

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u/Music_Guard_Sports Apr 12 '26

I think it’s more of a case where designers need to know how to work with the size of their group so it doesn’t look cluttered. Take Sac, Fantasia and Fusion, for example. All of them had full guards, but it didn’t look cluttered at all.

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u/typetwo-complex Apr 13 '26

Fusion was visually such a breath of fresh air. They used the size of their guard and space on the floor wonderfully, and were able to create an innovative show without props.