posted Sep 15th, 2013 - The AA/Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals has always been exciting and included great battles for the medal positions. However, this year's situation after Round 7 is unique in the history of the event.

It has never been the case yet that the team in 8th place is still in medal contention, only four points away from the bronze medal position. The race for gold, silver and bronze medals is far from being over with three more rounds to go.

The special AA/Intermediate Class leaderboard is showing how close the teams are. There was only one single round where a team, the current leader from Texas, managed to outscore all other teams. The other highscores for a round are scattered all over the first eight places. All eight teams have posted scores on several different leaderboards earlier this year and are well prepared to continue with this battle for three more rounds. Each team has the potential to move up quickly with a good round - and drop with a not so good one...

USPA Nationals 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA/Intermediate Class	D,O,A,P	13,4	20,B,18	Q,F,2	G,21,K	9,M,H	L,1,15	E,N,11	J,19,8	6,14	Total	Avg
1	Dallas Khaos Khobalt	16	9	7	17	12	21	8	-	-	-	90	12.9
2	Synergy	17	8	6	15	12	21	7	-	-	-	86	12.3
3	Prophecy	14	9	9	14	11	17	9	-	-	-	83	11.9
4	SDC Jetstream Tango	15	8	9	12	9	20	9	-	-	-	82	11.7
4	CSC Survival Instinct	16	8	7	15	10	18	8	-	-	-	82	11.7
6	Vertigo 4 Black	13	9	10	15	12	13	9	-	-	-	81	11.6
7	Spaceland SPX5	13	7	10	14	11	18	7	-	-	-	80	11.4
8	Carolina Dynamic	17	9	9	13	11	12	8	-	-	-	79	11.3

Every year, new teams make their trip to the national championships for the first time. Most of the times, they take the first big competition as a learning experience. It is unusual that a new team is in contention for the top spots on the leaderboard right away, as Synergy is doing it this week.

A team from Skydive City in Florida is one of the new teams, and the Sun Path Products NSL News was interested in the first impressions of the team members.

1zt Rodeo is a pickup team of new competitors who have participated in the FSL Tunnel Kicker events of the Indoor Cloud League at iFLY Orlando where they connected with each other and eventually formed their own new teams.

USPA Nationals 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA/Intermediate Class	D,O,A,P	13,4	20,B,18	Q,F,2	G,21,K	9,M,H	L,1,15	E,N,11	J,19,8	6,14	Total	Avg
25	Now Call	9	4	6	9	6	12	6	-	-	-	52	7.4
26	Block Blue	13	6	5	7	1	9	7	-	-	-	48	6.9
27	1zt Rodeo	9	1	6	8	8	9	5	-	-	-	46	6.6
28	55 North	11	4	4	6	7	8	4	-	-	-	44	6.3
29	SDMW Direct Action	7	5	6	6	5	10	4	-	-	-	43	6.1

Zunday and Pyro4ic, could not make the trip to Skydive Chicago with the complete lineups, and three members of the two teams, plus FSL shooting star Erica Gorski, joined forces to compete at the USPA Nationals 2013 in the Intermediate Class.

All four 1zt Rodeo members had only Rookie Class and A Class experiences before they came to Ottawa and had to deal with the longer sequences and five AA Class blocks that they had not done before. Several other teams are in the same situation in this week's AA/Intermediate Class competition.

1zt Rodeo quickly scheduled some flying time at iFLY Orlando after the travel plans were finalized and tried to learn as much as possible in the 12-foor flying chamber. After that, FSL indoor head coach Ari Perelman, AZ Prime member in the AAA/Open Class competition, and Gilles Dutrisac, filling in for Steve Lefkowitz at SDC Jetstream Tango, tried to help as much as possible. 1zt Rodeo is currently in 27th place of 40 teams and is surrounded by Midwest Skydiving League teams who have also trained and competed in the Rookie and A Class categories earlier this year. It's a great competition within the competition, and all teams are having a great time.