posted Sep 9th, 2015 - The preview of the first rounds in 8-way at the FAI World Cup 2015 was exciting enough, and the speculations were running wild, whether the sequence would be fast enough for a new world record or not.

It turned out that it was not the right sequence at the right time. French 8-way world champion of 2006, 2008 and 2010, Clement Martin Saint Leon, was correct when he said that his team is not ready to score higher than 31 at this point in time. It could have been different if the same sequence came in Round 10...

However, the French 8-way team was not done with scoring on the top level after Round 1. There was not the same discussion about the sequence of Round 2, even though it included the next very fast Block 3 (Double Chinese Ts - Double Donuts) and three Random Formations (L,G,E).

FAI World Cup 2015			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		1,4,D	E,3,L,G	C,16,N,9	13,J,11	Q,2,A,14	K,7,8	P,18,21	15,12,F	B,22,O,10	20,5,M	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	28	30	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	58	29.0
2	Tanay	RU	24	24	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	48	24.0
3	M8trix	NL	20	17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	37	18.5
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	17	19	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	36	18.0
5	ex3menergy	IT	11	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	21	10.5
6	Awkward Turtles	UK	7	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	11	1.1

The 8-way experts know that random formations do not necessarily guarantee high scores, as it is the case in 4-way competition. Random formations in 8-way require more communication than the fastest blocks. Thus, Round 2 in 8-way did not create the same excitement as the sequence of Round 1 did.

The French 8-way team saw and then handled it differently and posted a 30-pointer in Round 2. Even former 8-way world champion Chris Talbert was impressed. The new NSL-TV clip includes Aerodyne Maubeuge's Round 2.

The same video clip also includes Round 1 of the Dutch national 8-way team M8trix. Their 20-pointer is a new national record for a single round and improves the former 17-pointer highscore by three points. Henny Wiggers brought a bottle of champagne as soon as Round 2 was completed...