posted Jun 14th, 2015 - It was to be expected that the world's two current top contenders, NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed, would be in the mix for the answer to the current poll question:

"Which team was the last one posting only 20-pointers and higher at a 10-round outdoor competition?"

It is also not a big surprise that the bronze medalist at the last world meet and winner of the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship, Evolution from Canada, would get their votes.

Other than that, the SKYLEAGUE.COM audience quickly filtered out the serious contenders of the five options.

France is on top of the "4-way Elite Club" with only 22-pointers at the World Cup 2013, together with NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed, and Barkli is also a club member on the 20-pointer level.

However, both were not anywhere close to the 20-pointer level at recent major events.

The winner is neither NMP-PCH Hayabusa nor Arizona Airspeed. Evolution was the only team with 20-pointers and higher scores at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014.

The sequence of Round 8 (22,20,15) was the maker or breaker for the three medal winners.

The new world champions from Belgium and Airspeed both had all 22-pointers and higher on the leaderboard before it was time for the slowest sequence of the meet. Evolution had one 20-pointer in Round 7 as the lowest score.

The results for Round 8 were surprising, as only Evolution broke the 20-point level for this sequence.

Hayabusa completed 19 points within working time and had one point deduction, while Airspeed scored 17 points without any penalties..

World Meet 2014		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	E,3,C,5	F,6,D,21	19,H,2	M,4,1	O,14,A,P	8,J,16	7,11,12	22,20,15	17,G,18	13,B,9	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	32	29	25	25	33	25	22(-1)	18(-1)	26	29	264	26.4
2	Arizona Airspeed (US)	31	27(-2)	25	24	31(-1)	23(-1)	22(-1)	17	24	29	253	25.3
3	Evolution (CA)	31	28(-1)	24	22(-2)	28	23	20(-1)	21	25	27(-1)	249	24.9

The scores for Round 8 reduced the distance between Airspeed and Evolution from seven to three points, and the Canadians used the momentum to win another point in Round 9 for a 2-point difference. Airspeed then came back with full strength in Round 10 and eventually fended off the final charge by Evolution.

It has actually been a while since Hayabusa and Airspeed had a 10-round outdoor competition with only 20-pointers and higher. NMP-PCH Hayabusa climbed up to the 22-pointer level of the "4-way Elite Club" at the World Cup in August 2013 and had no 10-round meet on any club level ever since.

Arizona Airspeed's last membership performances dates back to the Mondial Dubai in December 2012 with a 22-pointer level. The 2013/2014 lineup did not record any 10-round outdoor events with only 20-pointers and higher. Neither Hayabusa's nor Airspeed's new and current lineups have attended enough 10-round outdoor meets yet to perform again on club level, which Evolution also missed at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship.

All three medal winners of the last world meet are launching the new 2-year cycle and the 2015 competition season with new lineups. Airspeed has two club members on the 22-pointer level (Thomas Hughes, Niklas Hemlin), while Thiago Gomes, Chris Farina and videographer Justin Price have no club membership at all yet.

Hayabusa has four team members on the 22-pointer level (including Danny Jacobs) and Jeroen "Bob" Nollet without membership qualification. Evolution's complete new lineup has actually earned the membership, as new Point Jean Christophe "JC" Oumet was filming the team in Prostejov last year. It is still only a partial membership at this point in time, as he still has to follow up with the performance in front of the camera...

However, welcome to the "4-way Elite Club" on the 20-pointer level, Evolution, and congratulations to all SKYLEAGUE.COM visitors who had the correct answer.