posted May 27th, 2012 - The NSL News barely completed the coverage of the past weekend before the new leaderboard shows scores from France. The first competition of the Coupe de France 2012 takes place this weekend in Pamiers, and a total of 31 teams have completed six rounds in 4way. Eleven teams are registered for the AAA Class competition, which is now synchronized with the international NSL Network.

It is the 3rd meet this year for two of the French teams. Monaco Rebootizer Aerial and Amethys Maubeuge both attended first the Aerokart Indoor Championship 2012 in February and then the World Challenge 2012 at the beginning of April in Bedford. Now they are posting their first outdoor scores of 2012.

Several other French teams were also on the Aerokart leaderboard in February and now follow up with their first outdoor meet.

Coupe de France 2012 - May		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	14,21,D	Q,18,7	4,15,E	1,A,12	16,8,20	K,F,5,13	Total	Avg
1	Amethys Maubeuge (FR)	16	14	16	14	13	16	89	14.8
2	Perros Maubeuge (FR)	12	14	15	14	13	15	83	13.8
3	Monaco Rebootizer Aerial (FR)	13	14	11	13	13	15	79	13.2
4	Armee Air Nice (FR)	10	14	14	13	9	15	75	12.5
5	Tororouge VolVertical PCP (FR)	11	12	13	9	8	11	64	10.7
5	Annecy Veloce NoLimit (FR)	11	13	9	11	6	14	64	10.7
7	Cahors Zone (FR)	10	10	9	9	9	8	55	9.2
8	Diomedea Veloce Airbus (FR)	8	10	9	8	8	10	53	8.8
9	Orleans Vol Vertical (FR)	7	9	10	8	6	5	45	7.5
9	Infini 4 (FR)	8	9	6	7	6	9	45	7.5
11	Corbas Annecy (FR)	5	0	7	7	6	7	32	5.3

The NSL leaderboard is ranking all French teams in the same AAA Class category. However, both teams in the first two places, Amethys Maubeuge and Perros Maubeuge, are not eligible to win medals of the Coupe de France. They have members or coaches of the official French national teams in their lineups.

Former French 4way and 8way world champion Erwan Pouliquen competes with Perros Maubeuge this weekend as a player coach, and the other members are potential candidates for open slots in the French national teams in the future. The other French B-Team this weekend, Amethys Maubeuge, consists of only B-Team members, and the lineup is slightly different than it was in Bedford in April.

The two B-Team lineups of the Aerokart Indoor Championship 2012 (Maubeuge NPC B1 and Maubeuge NPC B2) have also changed in the meantime, which is nothing unusual. National manager Jérémie Rollett and his coaches (Marin Ferré, Erwan Pouliquen) constantly try to find the most balanced lineups for the national B-Teams.

French Nationals 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge NPC B1	13	17	18	14	17	12	29	18	13	14	165	16.5
2	Maubeuge NPC B2	14	17	21	13	15	13	24	17	13	13	160	16.0
3	Monaco Rebootizer Aerial	15	15	15	13	15	13	23	16	13	12	150	15.0
4	Armee Air Nice	15	15	18	12	15	12	19	17	12	12	147	14.7

The official leader of the first Coupe de France competition after six rounds, Monaco Rebootizer Aerial, is not under the umbrella of the national teams. Three current members are former French 4way and 8way champions and medal winners at World Championships of Formation Skydiving in the past. The NSL News has given this team special attention in earlier stories.

Monaco Rebootizer Aerial has won the Coupe de France in 2010 and 2011, and their closest challenger was the French Air Force team from Nice, Armee de L'Air Nice, at every single 2011 meet, including the French Nationals 2011.

It seems like it will not be much different this year, and the same race is on. The Nice Air Force team won the indoor competition in February by eight points after ten rounds, which is a copy of the 2011 situation. The Monaco Rebootizer Aerial outdoor veterans then came back to win the first Coupe de France meet last year by five points (14.4 - 13.8) and are up by four points after six rounds this weekend. The meet is not over yet though...