posted May 3rd, 2012 - The 4way Open Class field at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 included one pickup team with a very interesting and competitive lineup. Explosion finished with a 19.1 average in 7th place after an exciting 1-point battle with Satori and not too far behind the DeLand Norgies.

The NSL-TV fans in the audience now have the opportunity to watch four individual world class competitors fly together in the team for a meet, Explosion. Martin Lemay is in the Center Outside slot and has Katie Woods as his Point piece partner. Shannon Pilcher (Center Inside) and Nick Grillet (Tail) are in the rear piece.

Martin LeMay is the Center Inside for his Canadian family 4way team Evolution and finished 5th at the World Meet 2010 in Russia. Katie Woods trained and competed with Satori before moving to the USA. Shannon Pilcher won 4way gold medals with DeLand Fire at the World Meet 2006 in Germany, and Nick Grillet is the official alternate for Arizona Airspeed.

The Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 was Shannon Pilcher's second 4way competition after his accident in the Swiss Alpes in October 2010. His first 4way comeback was with Oldspeed (Andy Delk, Jack Jefferies, Dan BC) at the USPA Nationals 2011. Now he has even more 4way plans for the near future, and the NSL News will soon follow up with more information.

Martin LeMay will continue with Evolution in 2012, and the complete family lineup has plans to win the Candian Nationals 2012 and then compete at the World Meet 2012 in Dubai before father Michel Lemay will step back and offer his slot to a new Evolution member. Explosion's Point and Martin Lemay's piece partner in DeLand, Katie Woods, is also exploring her Canadian options.

Nick Grillet posted his highest career average with the Explosion lineup. He does not often have the opportunity to train with Airspeed. However, he is eager to be ready at any time should the opportunity come up for him. The current Airspeed lineup has plans until Dubai 2012, and Nick Grillet may get his chance whenever a new lineup will be put together.

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
6	Deland Norgies	18	16	15	22	26	20	26	26	18	14	201	20.1
7	Explosion	18	17	15	20	24	18	24	23	19	13	191	19.1
8	UK Satori	15	14	12	23	26	23	22	23	16	16	190	19.0
14	Russia Black Cat	19	14	15	21	27	-	-	-	-	-	96	19.2

The battle between the four teams on this part of the leaderboard behind the TOP 5 was very exciting, and it actually included Black Cat from Russia. Black Cat could not make the second half of the meet but was very competitive throughout the first five rounds on Friday. In fact, Black Cat needed only five rounds to post the same number of highscores for a round than the other three teams.

Each of the four teams in this internal battle on the Paraclete XP leaderboard had a total of three highscores. DeLand Norgies and Satori also dominated the Shamrock Showdown Skins Game and each won $800 cash. It was no surprise that two of their highscore rounds in this group were also the ones where both teams won their skins, DeLand Norgies in Rounds 7 and 8, Satori in Rounds 6 and 10.

Black Cat was not present any longer when the Skins Game began. However, the Russian team was only one point behind the Norgies after Round 5, and the three highscores in the first five rounds and the 19.2 average indicate that Black Cat might have been in the game for some money, too. Maybe next year...