posted Dec 18th, 2012 - It happened again - and this time even more precisely than ever before. The results of the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012, including the popular Shamrock Showdown Skins Game, mirrored the outcome of the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in the same year.

This is nothing really new, as the NSL News has checked and reported the interesting records with earlier stories. However, this year's facts are even more amazing. It seems like nothing changed between March and December 2012.

The results at the DeLand meet in March have correctly predicted the new world champions several times before. It is new and unique that the three sets of FAI medals at the Mondial Dubai 2012 were given to the same three teams who were on the top of the leaderboard in DeLand - in exactly the same order.

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 Open 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
1	Arizona Airspeed	25	20(-1)	18(-1)	35	36(-1)	25(-4)	33	31	23(-1)	20	266	26.6
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	23	21	20	33	34(-2)	29	30(-2)	30	20(-3)	21	261	26.1
3	Aerodyne Aerokart	23(-1)	21	19(-1)	33	29(-4)	28(-2)	28	29(-1)	23	21	254	25.4

It is also impressive that the NSL News audience predicted the outcome correctly at both events and only with slight differences.

It was not that easy to see what would be happening eight months later. The ranking order between Arizona Airspeed, NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Aerodyne Aerokart at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship was completely upside down only a few weeks later. Hayabusa won the World Challenge 2012, and Airspeed finished in 3rd place. It seemed more like anything would be possible this year.

Placing France 3rd in the polls was a big call and a big risk for the audience. The French 4way teams had placed 3rd only once in the modern history of Formation Skydiving, since the current dive pool system was introduced in 1985. France had won only gold (7) and silver (6) between 1987 and 2010, and they came into the 2012 season as the reigning 4way world champions.

Mondial Dubai 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open	5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O, 8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	2,J,4	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed (US)	27	34	27(-1)	22	23	23(-2)	32	25	40	26	279(282)	27.9
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	25(-1)	34(-2)	27(-1)	21(-1)	23	24(-1)	32(-1)	27	40	25(-1)	278(286)	27.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart (FR)	26	30(-2)	27	21	23	25	29(-1)	23(-2)	37	24	265(270)	26.5

The French medal history did not impress the NSL audience too much, and Arizona Airspeed had their own experiences. The Airspeed institution has won 4way gold medals often enough before. It was still amazing to see that NMP-PCH Hayabusa was expected to finish ahead of Aerodyne Aerokart - in March in DeLand and then in Dubai.

The race for the gold medals between Hayabusa and Airspeed was eventually much closer than the results of the polls predicted. In fact, anything could have happened in Dubai, as everybody knows by now. However, fact is that the order of the three top spots turned out to be identical with the results at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship this year - in the polls and in reality.

The 2013 schedule will offer the same event order as in the past years, which includes once again the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship with the Shamrock Showdown Skins Game in DeLand. But there is no World Championship of Formation Skydiving scheduled next year...