posted Mar 2nd, 2017 - The story of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2017 has been the story of the showdown between SDC Rhythm XP and Arizona Airspeed so far. The Sun Path Products NSL News mentioned earlier that Airspeed's 3rd place was a very unusual finishing spot that happened last time at the World Challenge 2010.

A third place on U.S. soil is even more unusual, and it was back in 2006 when two U.S. teams finished in front of Airspeed. It never happened again - until last weekend. Paraclete XP was the second team that placed in front of the reigning U.S. 4-way champions, by one single point.

Paraclete's 4-way teams have always been on the very top level on their home turf at the annual championship. Airspeed's original member Kirk Verner, multiple 4-way and 8-way world champion, and Paraclete owner John D'Annunzion have invited the best of the best into their lineups year by year.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	7,20,G	17,J,4	10,16,B	12,F,D,E	O,P,22,19	K,N,6,15	3,14,M	C,1,21	13,2,L	9,18,8	Total	Avg
1	SDC Rhythm XP	28	25	25	30	27	27	26	26	23	23	260	26.0
2	XP4	27	28	24	30	27	27	26	23	22	24	258	25.8
3	Arizona Airspeed	21	29	25	31	27	29	23	25	23	24	257	25.7
4	R2G	22	23	18	25	21	24	19	18	18	18	206	20.6
5	Spaceland Lite	20	19	18	26	21	21	18	16	16	17	192	19.2
6	The Four Horsemen	18	21	20	23	19	22	18	17	14	16	188	18.8
7	SDMW Next XP	22	19	19	20	16	21	17	18	18	17	187	18.7
8	GK Gold	26	26	25	31	20	28	25	-	-	-	181	25.9
9	CSC Swift	19	18	17	21	16	20	17	18	17	16	179	17.9
10	Minions	18	18	18	21	19	19	19	17	15	14	178	17.8
11	GK Black	15	13	18	22	20	18	18	19	13	15	171	17.1
12	3 Men and a Babe Jeana	16	21	16	21	15	17	16	17	15	16	170	17.0
13	Phoenix XP	17	16	17	20	16	17	15	16	15	16	165	16.5
14	DeOrbit Burn	18	14	14	14	16	17	15	17	16	17	158	15.8
15	Fabio's Angels	16	16	12	16	15	16	12	15	13	14	145	14.5
16	Relentless Strike	13	13	11	16	14	14	12	13	11	12	129	12.9
17	Flyin' for Bryan	15	14	13	8	11	11	13	13	10	13	121	12.1
18	Hotdogs and Kraut	12	10	11	10	9	11	12	12	6	11	104	10.4

Brian "BK" Krause has joined the XP4 lineup several times after leaving the Golden Knights, and former Airspeed member Thomas Hughes, who was still in the active lineup at the FAI Mondial 2016, has competed in Paraclete's 8-way lineups before.

This year's lineup was new and completed approximately 1.5 hours of tunnel training time before the competition and then finished with a 25.8 average in 2nd place.

All four XP4 members were also busy with other chores while they competed against the two best U.S. 4-way teams. The above leaderboard is showing the other teams that they were serving as player coaches at the same time. Brian Krause and John D'Annunzio were both in the 3 Men and a Babe Jeana lineup. Thomas Hughes was player coaching CSC Swift, and Kirk Verner won the internal player coaching 4-way competition with the Four Horsemen.

All four XP4 members were also in 8-way teams that entered the flying chamber right after the 4-way teams. Kirk Verner, Thomas Hughes and Brian Krause competed together for XP8, while John D'Annunzio was player coaching the 8-way XP team, with help from Thomas Hughes.

Brian Krause was player coaching three additional 8-way lineups: Elisa and Friends, Veloce Nico's and Veloce Rookies. Kirk Verner filled a slot for Spaceland Lite's 8-way team.

That was still not enough for Kirk Verner and Brian Krause. They were also judging the 4-way competition when they were not in the flying chamber. They got help from some Golden Knights when needed, and Tim D'Annunzio was helping with the 8-way judging. John D'Annunzio was running the meet logistics during the breaks. Once in a while they were even dirtdiving with XP4...