Santa Clara recovered from the down season of 1980 by winning its fourth DCI World Championship in '81. Then, over the next seven years, SCV would place second five times and third twice before winning its fifth DCI title in 1989 with its 'Phantom of the Opera' show. After that nine-year streak, the Vanguard had sixth, fourth, and seventh place finishes before the corps' original director, Gail Royer, stepped down after the 1992 season and died soon after. Dr. Len Kruszecki was appointed as Royer's successor, but SCV placed no better than 5th during his four seasons. In 1996, J.W. Koester became SCV's director, and the corps placed fifth at DCI, improved to third in '97, second in '98, and won its sixth DCI World Championship in 1999. Under the directorship of Rick Valenzuela, 2000–05; Jeff Pearson, 2006–08; Jeff Fiedler, 2009–15, and Charles Frost through 2019, the Santa Clara Vanguard continued its unbroken string of appearing in every DCI Finals since 1972. The Vanguard is the only corps able to make such a claim. After a 19-year drought, their 2018 show 'Babylon' returned Vanguard to the top of the leader board, with its 2nd highest score (98.625) ever in a DCI final's event.