posted Mar 26th, 2013 - Seven of the 16 AAA Class teams at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013 are launching their 2013 competition season with the popular double header.

It began in DeLand two weeks ago and is followed by the World Challenge 2013 in Bedford.

Four of the teams did the same last year, and two of them have finished neck to neck in the last three events that they attended together.

World Challenge 2011		Rd.1	Rd.2	Rd.3	Rd.4	Rd.5	Rd.6	Rd.7	Rd.8	Rd.9	Rd.10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,C,5	20,P,2	H,M,Q,K,A	L,J,16,12	E,7,15	O,11,22	14,B,17	6,13,9	4,3,21	1,G,8	Total	Avg
5	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	22	23	56	23	27(-2)	20(-1)	24	21	19	22	257	25.7
10	Thunder (INT)	13(-4)	20(-1)	41(-2)	23	27	20	23(-1)	21	19	17(-3)	224	22.4

SDC Rhythm XP and Thunder were still far away from each other at the World Challenge 2011, in rankings and meet averages both.

Thunder continued with the same lineup in 2012 and competed for the first time at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship in DeLand, then followed up at the World Challenge 2012.

Rhythm replaced Center Inside Rob Radez with Chris Farina at the end of the 2011 season and had to allow Thunder to get closer at the first outdoor competition last year. Both teams placed next to each other on the Paraclete leaderboard, and Thunder was even closer in Bedford a few weeks later.

Paraclete XP Outdoor 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	Q,8,H,22	16,19,13	10,14,2	E,C,20,K	5,M,9	A,6,F,17	D,21,N,B	P,O,G,J,1	18,4,7	12,15,3	Total	Avg
4	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	21	17	15	28	29	23	27	27	19	18	224	22.4
5	Thunder (BE)	20	17	16	27	27	22	27	26	17	17	216	21.6

World Challenge 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	D,Q,9,10	17,P,11	2,21,7	14,J,O,M	A,L,18,16	N,H,20,G	C,E,19,22	1,8,4	K,6,3	12,F,5	Total	Avg
6	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	29	23(-4)	22(-1)	29(6)	21(-2)	30	26	21	23	23(-1)	247	24.7
7	Thunder (INT)	29	25	23	31	16(-5)	23(-6)	26	21	24	23	241	24.1

SDC Rhythm XP concluded another very successful season with silver medals at the USPA Nationals 2012, while Thunder became the unofficial amateur world champion after a great performance at the World Cup 2012 in Prostejov.

Thunder made new plans for the 2013 season with the same lineup, including the same two events at the beginning of the competition season. Rhythm first lost Chris Farina at the beginning of the 2013 season, who became Arizona Airspeed's new Point, and then also Thiago Gomes who was first Airspeed's new alternate and then took the Point slot when Niklas Hemlin stepped back.

This time, Thunder did not only move closer to the same US opponent with a new lineup at both teams' first outdoor competiton of the new year. Thunder outscored Rhythm for the first time in any of their duels and reversed the ranking order.

Thunder	SDC Rhythm XP

Paraclete XP Outdoor 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	6,17,15	B,11,16	18,N,22	9,4,F	J,E,C,3	K,O,12,M	5,D,8	Q,13,14	G,7,H,10	1,20,21	Total	Avg
4	Thunder (BE)	19	17(-2)	16(-2)	26(-1)	26(-2)	24(-1)	21	13(-4)	22	17(-1)	201	20.1
5	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	17	18(-1)	17	25	28(-1)	21(-2)	21	15(-2)	19(-1)	15(-2)	196	19.6

The advantage of Thunder's and any team's lineup consistency is obvious, even though the chart of Thunder's outdoor scoring progression is not pretty.

All teams at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013 had to deal with the same tough combination of a slow competition draw and sharp judging, and Thunder suffered as much as the whole field.

However, the placing and the scores of all other teams put Thunder's results in proportion, and the amateur world champion keeps moving forward. There is no doubt that Thunder now wants to defend the position against Rhythm who have become the challenger at the moment. Thunder's main contender for last year's unofficial amateur title, SportLoto from Russia, will also put pressure on the Dutch/Belgian combination in Bedford.

Thunder's main focus will probably be on the penalty situation. The damage at the World Challenge 2012 and the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 was severe and kept Thunder from scoring and placing even better. The team members were not happy with the many point deductions and were planning to take on the issue.