posted Dec 25th, 2012 - It is time to give a very special part of the Mondial Dubai 2012 leaderboard the deserved attention that the winner of the unofficial Scandinavian Championship, Bardagi, lately received.

This special part of the leaderboard is the "grey area" between the professional top performers in the sport and the recreational teams and competitors who use their weekends, holidays, vacations and personal resources to train as much as possible.

The end of the year is the right time to determine the unofficial amateur world champion of 2012.

This is not an easy task, and the NSL News audience will have the opportunity to make the final call.

There are a few questions that have to be discussed before checking one of the three team names that seem to be the right candidates this year: Satori from the United Kingdom, Ex3mo from Italy or the international Thunder lineup.

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 Class	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
6	Satori (UK)	18	26	21	17	15(-3)	18(-1)	23	17	27	(18)	182	20.0
7	Ex3mo 4 (IT)	17(-1)	24(-2)	20	14	17	19	22	18(-1)	28(-1)	-	179	19.9

Each of the three teams has good reasons to be voted for. Satori and Ex3mo had an exciting battle going in Dubai that the German team Paratec-Saar was also involved in for the first three rounds.

Target was the 6th place and the last slot in the finals, which would allow one team to make it to Round 10 of the competition.

The former unofficial amateur world champion from Germany fell out of this race in Round 4 and never made it back. It became a 2-team battle from then on.

The special scoreboard between Satori and Ex3mo shows that the UK team had the upper hand throughout the first half of the meet.

There was a simple reason that explains the slower start of the Italian 4way champion. Coach Pete Allum had to fill the slot, as the NSL News had reported earlier:

"Italy's 4way team Ex3mo had bad luck right before the competition. Placido Udine was in a car crash and is badly injured. Pete Allum is filling the slot, and the team wished Paci well in the latest NSL Reality TV clip."

The Ex3mo lineup with Pete Allum was eventually warmed up and began cutting into the Satori lead. It was not enough, and the British 4way champion was still three points ahead of Ex3mo after Round 9.

Both teams had earlier battles this year, first at the World Challenge 2012, followed by the World Cup 2012.

Satori dominated at both events, however, Pete Allum helped to push the Italian team very close to the slot in the finals in Dubai, with the highest Ex3mo outdoor average this year.

The NSL News has recently defined the unofficial amateur world champion as the best team after the semifinals that does not make it into the finals. Germany was in this spot in 2006 and 2010, Italy's Spin Team in 2008.

Of course, there is no clear definition at all, and that's the main reason why such a title cannot be assigned officially.

It is difficult enough to decide whether Satori is a part of the story or not after making it to the Top 6 rankings, but it is not even the end of the story.

It completes the meet action of this special battle in Dubai, but it becomes more complicated when the question of the best amateur team in the world includes teams that did not compete at the Mondial 2012.

Thunder is not eligible to compete at FAI events, due to the team's international lineup. It is impossible to say whether Thunder would have taken the 6th place on the leaderboard or not. However, Thunder surely is on the same performance and scoring level as the other two candidates.

In fact, all three teams actually competed together at the World Challenge and at the World Cup. Thunder outscored Satori in Bedford by three points and ran away from Satori and Ex3mo in Prostejov.

This still does not mean that Thunder would have definitely won in Dubai. Thunder had the World Cup as the main goal, while Satori and Ex3mo focused on the Mondial, and timing is important in sports. It's up to the audience...