posted Jun 29th, 2017 - It was on 27 June 2015 when the Sun Path Products NSL News gave the elite club of the highest scoring teams in history of 4-way Formation Skydiving competition previously special attention.

Arizona Airspeed and the French national team of 2015 had posted indoor scores in 10-round meets that were all 27-pointers or higher. The story was posted a few days after the Sun Path Products NSL News had covered the new 24+ indoor teams, Evolution and SDC Rhythm XP on 23 June 2015.

Of course, the situation in 4-way outdoor competition is very different, as it is still difficult even for the best teams in the world to master the slowest sequences in a competition draw with 20+ scores. The story on 14 June 2015 was the last outdoor update and welcomed Evolution to the 20+ outdoor club. The highest outdoor number is 22+ so far, achieved only by NMP PCH HayaBusa, Arizona Airspeed and France.

The 20+ outdoor club has recently welcomed a new member though, and the ten meet rounds with only 20+ scores and higher happened at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017. It was not Arizona Airspeed with the new 2017 lineup. SDC Rhythm XP mastered the slowest sequence of the meet (22,O,10) with a 20-pointer in Round 9, while Airspeed ended up with 19 points for the same sequence.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,20,17	8,7,11	P,G,14,N	H,C,9,15	J,F,3,5	Q,E,M,13	2,21,L	6,12,B	22,O,10	A,1,19	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	24	21	27	33	33	33	21	23	19	24	258	25.8
2	SDC Rhythm XP	23	20	28	30	31	31	21	22	20	24	250	25.0
3	R2G	16	14	19	20	20	20	14	14	14	14	165	16.5
4	Phoenix XP	14	15	17	17	14	18	14	13	13	14	149	14.9

The current SDC Rhythm XP lineup in its second year is now ahead of Airspeed as of the 20+ membership. The new Airspeed lineup has attended two outdoor meets so far and had an 18-pointer (14,2,16) as the lowest score for a round at the Shamrock Showdown 2017, followed by the 19-pointer in Raeford.

Rhythm had finished with one 18-pointer (8,11,Q) and two 19-pointers (H,22,19 - 14,2,16) at the Shamrock Showdown before posting the first complete 20+ scores in a 10-round meet at the XP Summer Classic.

No other previous Rhythm lineup was able to get to the 20+ benchmark before. The lineup of 2013 - 2015 (Christy Frikken, JaNette Lefkowitz, Steve Lefkowitz, Mikhail Markine, with Shannon Pilcher on camera) came very close in its third year at the USPA Nationals 2015.

The sequence of Round 10 (20,14,10) did not only stop Rhythm on the way to a 10-round meet with only 20-pointers and higher. Arizona Airspeed's 2015 lineup (Chris Farina, Thiago Gomes, Niklas Hemlin, Thomas Hughes, with Justin Price on camera) was on the way to a 21+ meet before Round 10.

USPA Nationals 2015		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	J,H,2,8	6,D,18	F,9,L,O	1,17,E	K,19,N,P	3,7,5	4,A,B,12	11,16,M	15,Q,22	20,14,10	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	27	24	43	23	26	25	25	23	21	19	256	25.6
2	SDC Rhythm XP	22	21	42	25	27	20	23	20	20	16	236	23.6
3	Golden Knights	23	19	37	22	24	19	23	21	19	17	224	22.4
4	Carolina Turbo XP	22	20	34	22	25	20	19	21	18	16	217	21.7
5	HG XP	15	18	30	18	22	19	18	15	14	12	181	18.1
6	Prestige Worldwide	18	16	27	15	16	16	14	16	14	13	165	16.5
7	EOS	17	14	26	16	15	15	15	17	13	13	161	16.1
8	Dallas 350	16	16	23	15	17	17	15	16	14	11	160	16.0
9	Verve XP	15	13	27	14	17	16	16	16	13	12	159	15.9
10	Spaceland Lite	16	14	23	13	17	13	13	13	14	10	146	14.6
11	Camdak.is	14	11	21	12	12	13	12	8	10	8	121	12.1

The 20-pointer in Round 9 at Paraclete's XP Summer Classic was one of the two rounds where SDC Rhythm XP outscored Arizona Airspeed, and it completed the 20+ meet. The sequence of Round 10 was no problem for either team to go beyond 20 points.

SDC Rhythm XP's 2015 member Mikhail Markine joined Airspeed in 2016 and is still short of a 20+ meet so far, together with his new team mate Ari Perelman, while his former team mates JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz have the 20+ in their records by now, after taking new slots at the beginning of the 2016 season with the new lineup.

The same counts for Thiago Gomes who joined Airspeed in 2013, after his three years with SDC Rhythm XP, while Niklas Hemlin is the only current Airspeed member on the world's very top level with 22+ outdoor meets.

New Rhythm members Andrew Happick and Doug Barron were far from 20+ before joining forces with JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz at the beginning of the 2016 season. Rhythm was still eight points behind Airspeed in Raeford this month; however, they are ahead of three Airspeed members in the 20+ elite club...