posted Sep 5th, 2008 - A new link on the front page leads to the leaderboard and the news pages of the ESL Championship 2008. The numbers on the front page below the link to the event show the current situation in the race for the ESL Spirit between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Only the delegations from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are really in the race for the trophy, even though teams from seven different countries are competing on Texel in the Netherlands (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, United Kingdom).

The scores of the best two teams of each nation and in each category count for the ESL Spirit challenge. This means that the scores of up to eight teams add up to the total for each delegation. The Dutch and the UK delegation each have signed up at least eight teams for the competition and are the only serious challengers for the popular ESL trophy.

The Netherlands are the defending champion of the ESL Championship 2007 and also won the ESL Spirit in 2005. Belgium won the very first ESL Championship event in 2004 and then again in 2006. Hayabusa was the strong leader for the Belgian delegation at these events.

The ESL sword may find a new home this year. It is the first time that the ESL Championship has a new location. The first four events were hosted by the Spa Skydiving Center in Belgium, this year's championship takes place on the Dutch island of Texel, summer home of former 4-way world champion Gary Smith.

The new location attracted the highest number of UK teams in the 5-year history of the event to Texel. Nine British teams crossed the channel to get from one island to the other, and they have worked out a comfortable 17-point lead after two rounds.

Each of the 29 teams in Texel have already competed earlier this year and have scores posted on their team pages - with one exception. The "Texel Airport Team" is new and has a mystery lineup.

It seems to be the joker for the Dutch delegation, as the team is currently leading in the AAA Class collecting a good number of points for the Netherlands. The NSL News will try to find out who competes in the lineup of the Texel Airport.

However, the UK delegation is not overly impressed so far by the leader of the Dutch delegation. The UK teams are scoring evenly well across the board in all four competition classes so far. The British AA Class teams, Phantom and Phobia, are a very strong combination and are currently holding the only double lead of all four classes (47 - 33) against Yottsu! and Mind Your Step.

The UK teams also dominate the Rookie Class so far. Innuendo and Zero Degrees have worked out a 19-point lead (65 - 46) over Creeps and 4igami.

The Dutch teams are winning the AAA Class so far, where the Airport mystery team and Pulse are up by nine points (58 - 49) over Satori and Wingnutz, and the A Class (Tiramisu and Empat Laki Laki over Strangers and Unagi 38 - 31).

It is an interesting race after two rounds, and those scores of Round 3 that have already been available after completing half of the round on Friday indicate that the UK delegation will probably increase the lead. Phantom and Phobia outscored the Dutch rivals again (32 - 27) and added five points to the difference. The British A Class teams lost only one point in Round 3 compared to seven points in rounds one and two. Round 3 will be completed on Saturday.