posted Apr 19th, 2012 - The extended leaderboard of the World Challenge 2012, which inludes the number of point deductions per round for each team, does not look pretty for the teams behind the TOP 3. XL is the only exception with a total of only three penalties. This makes XL actually the cleanest team of the TOP 10 this year.

XL was in between two different scoring levels this year. The TOP 3 were too strong and too well trained, even for a pickup team of world class competitors, and there was not much competition for XL other than that. Arizona Airspeed in 3rd place was 22 points ahead of XL and SDC Rhythm XP 21 points behind in 5th place.

XL was probably somehow one of the targets for Rhythm, as both teams had also competed with each other at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championships 2012. XL had finished 19 points ahead of Rhythm in Raeford and added two points in Bedford.

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
4	XL	30(-1)	27	24	32(-2)	26	31	27	21	24	26	268	26.8
5	SDC Rhythm XP	29	23(-4)	22(-1)	29(6)	21(-2)	30	26	21	23	23(-1)	247	24.7
5	Aerokart Maubeuge	29	27	23	34(-1)	19(-3)	26(-2)	22(-1)	19(-1)	23(-1)	25(-1)	247	24.7
7	Thunder	29	25	23	31	16(-5)	23(-6)	26	21	24	23	241	24.1
8	Satori	27(-2)	24(-1)	21	32	22(-1)	27(-1)	20(-4)	19	23	23	238	23.8

SDC Rhythm XP finished with a lower indoor average (25.8 - 24.7) this time, which may not sound too good for SDC Rhythm XP. The US top team is eager to consistently improve its own performance and scoring level. The main reason for the hold is the ugly shape of the extended leaderboard for the teams between 5th and 8th place.

Rhythm would have been much closer to XL without the total damage of 14 points, which happened mostly (13) on the first day of the World Challenge 2012. In fact, Rhythm suffered the most of all TOP 10 teams. The Rhythm meet average before the 14 penalties is 26.1 which would been another new record average for the team.

The XL target was actually more in reach for Rhythm than at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship. The scores before penalties show a difference of only ten points.

SDC Rhythm XP at the World Challenge 2012 - SDC Rhythm XP at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012

Rhythm cleaned it up in the second half of the competition and lost only one single point in the judging room on Saturday. It did not happen by slowing down since Rhythm kept up with XL even better on Saturday than throughout the first five rounds on Friday.

The second day was the opposite for Aerokart Maubeuge. The French team did not have one round on Saturday without a point deduction, and this unfortunate record streak began already in Round 4 on Friday. The total French damage was 10 points.

SDC Rhythm XP also shared the most devastating damage of a 6-point deduction with Thunder. Rhythm lost the six points in Round 4, which can be reviewed in the new NSL-TV clip. It was an unexpected loss since Rhythm is very well tunnel trained, and the sequence of Round 4 was a real indoor feast. Thunder lost six points in Round 6 for a terrible start into the second day of the meet. It came after a 5-point loss in Round 5, the last one on Friday. Thunder did not have any other point deductions in the whole meet and was one of the very few teams that finished with a higher World Challenge average than in 2011.