posted Mar 2nd, 2015 - Once again, and as in many other larger 4-way competitions, there were several battles at different areas of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2015 leaderboard.

After yesterday's closer look at the top of the leaderboard, the Sun Path Products NSL News zooms in on another very interesting part in the middle of the AAA/Open Class field.

Two teams caught the special attention with their interesting lineups, XP4 and Dark Majik Bus. Six of the eight competitors in both lineups were former 4-way and 8-way world champions (Solly Williams, Shannon Pilcher, Doug Park with Dark Majik Bus - Brian Krause, Kirk Verner, Chris Talbert with XP4). Thomas Mack, training and competing with the German national 4-way team Airbus, was the 4th Dark Majik Bus member. John D'Annunzio completed the XP4 lineup.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2015		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	D,2,8	4,J,B,17	14,19,P	1,L,20	11,21,G	Q,C,H,22	3,12,5	M,E,16,9	N,10,6	K,7,O,15	Total	Avg
7	Dark Majik Bus	13	22	18	14	18	22	16	28	18	19	188	18.8
8	Paraclete XP4	19	21	17	19	17	24	15	23	11	21	187	18.7

Both teams were in similar situations, with two former world champions who have not been competing in a very long time. Doug Park won his 4-way gold medal with DeLand Majik at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia. Chris Talbert trained and competed with the Golden Knights in 4-way and 8-way, but won his gold medal in 8-way with Arizona Airspeed at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia.

Solly Williams was Doug Park's DeLand Majik team mate in 2004, and they agreed to celebrate a 4-way reunion at the Paraclete indoor meet.

John D'Annunzio asked Chris Talbert to join the XP4 lineup. The Sun Path Products marketing manager said jokingly that he would agree if John D'Annunzio could produce a fitting jump suit within a week. His former Golden Knighst and Airspeed jump suit did not fit so well any longer. John D'Annunzio did not hesitate and had the new suit ready in time. Chris Talbert kept his promise and was ready on Saturday morning.

U.S. Nationals 2002 - 4-way				1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class			B,12,2		K,6,4		20,5,13		D,Q,11,18		N,3,9		A,21,16		22,H,L,J		G,C,7,15		E,19,17		10,P,M,8		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights Gold	US	E	19		21		19		21		29		22		23		23		22		19		218	21.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	E	19		22		18		21		26		22		22		21		23		21		215	21.5
3	DeLand Majik	US	E	19		19		20		20		24	-2	22		23		24		22		19		212	21.2

The story of the two teams began actually much earlier. Chris Talbert was in the Golden Knights lineup that outscored Arizona Airspeed and DeLand Majik both at the USPA Nationals 2002. It was a close race, and Chris Talbert then competed for the USA in 4-way at the World Meet 2003 in France. The Golden Knights finished 2nd behind France with a 21.4 average.

The story was not over at this point in time. The Golden Knights competed a few months later against the same teams at the USPA Nationals 2003. It was an even closer horse race than in 2002 (213 - 211 - 210) in Lake Wales. DeLand Majik won this time and followed up with the 4-way gold medals at the World Meet 2004. Chris Talbert was then recruited for the Airspeed 8-way lineup in 2008 and won gold in Maubeuge, France.

Last weekend, both teams won one day each. Chris Talbert with XP4 was ahead of Solly Williams and Doug Park with Dark Majik Bus after seven rounds on Saturday evening and thought that this race would have the same outcome as in 2002. The two Majik members, with 2004 alternate Shannon Pilcher, came back strongly on Sunday and won by one single point...