Due to tremendous growth in the organization, ALLIANCE declared their intention to compete in Open Class for the 2009 season, including all DCA South regional shows and the World Championships in Rochester, New York.

"Although we had initially planned to win Class-A, defend the title, and then move to Open Class, we were tasked by a recent rule change that would deny the ability for a Class-A corps to move into Open Class finals on Sunday night in the event our score was high enough to warrant the change", stated Terry Reilley, Executive Director of ALLIANCE. In previous years, all corps competed in the same preliminary contest at the World Championships, regardless of declared class. Any Class-A division corps that placed within the top ten scores of the preliminary competition would be required to compete in the Open Class finals.

Due to a rule change proposal submitted and apporved at the DCA Rules Congress meeting held in December 2008, the Class-A corps were given their own Finals contest and were hence no longer required to move into Open Class finals. A rule clarification was made later by DCA Secretary Glen Johnson, stating that the top ten scoring corps - regardless of declared class - would be considered member corps and would be granted voting rights.

ALLIANCE staff and management had set goals for 2009 based on the possibility of moving into Open Class Finals in the event their score justified the move, but the new rule forced the corps to re-evaluate these goals and the decision was made to step up to Open Class a season early.

This decision was posted on Drum Corps Planet and has been met with positive support.