posted Jul 13th, 2017 - The Sun Path Products NSL News goes back to the coverage of the Tomscat Trophy 2017, which featured not only the first appearance of the Dutch 20+ Project teams on a AAA Class leaderboard.

In fact, this year's Tomscat Trophy had record participation, as the story on 21 June 2017 explained, and the competition was exciting, especially in two of the four categories. Only the teams in the Rookie Class did not hurt each other too much, and the two top spots in the AAA Class had the team names written before the meet began.

However, there was a good AAA Class battle between Cool Runnings and Gravity Abuse for the bronze medals, which ended up with the more experienced AAA Class team ahead by seven points.

It was still a very good meet for Gravity Abuse, who competed for the first time in the AAA Class and left the 10-average benchmark behind right away. Gravity Abuse was one of the two Belgian teams at the Tomscat Trophy and has been a classical example for progressing through the four competition categories, step by step and with changing lineups, before ending up on the highest competitive level. The eight rounds in Hoogeveen brought four slot switchers to the new AAA Class team, which gives the 10+ average even more value.

Tomscat Trophy 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		14,E,20	3,7,4	B,15,10	H,F,2,6	5,1,16	P,8,K,22	19,J,M,L	17,21,11	Total	Avg
1	Team Orange	NL	15	16	15	19	15	17	23	15	135	16.9
2	Out of the Blue	NL	14	13	14	15	8	13	18	13	108	13.5
3	Cool Runnings	NL	11	10	11	13	8	11	15	10	89	11.1
4	Gravity Abuse	BE	8	11	8	12	10	10	13	10	82	10.3
5	Under Construction	NL	5	5	6	9	6	6	9	5	51	6.4

Gravity Abuse started in the Rookie Class at the ISR Grand Prix in November 2011 and came back in the same category next year. The 2012 season concluded at the ESL Championship, where the Belgian delegation won the ESL Spirit that year.

The 2013 season brought the step up into the A Class, which came at the Tomscat Trophy. The conclusion of the first A Class season was the ISR Grand Prix this time, after competing again at the ESL Championship, where Belgium defended the ESL title successfully.

Gravity Abuse staid for three years in the AA Class and attended a total of seven indoor and outdoor meets between 2014 and 2016. Then it was time to make the last move, which came at the Tomscat Trophy 2017. The 10.3 average is the team's second highest outdoor result ever and is only slightly below the 10.6 average in the AA Class last year.

The AA Class competition at the Tomscat Trophy had to take place without Gravity Abuse this year, and another team from Belgium took care of the top position. Falco is a new team from the country of the reigning 4-way world champions and finished ahead of seven other AA Class teams from the Netherlands.

Tomscat Trophy 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		14,E,20	7,4	B,15,6	H,F,2	1,22	P,8,K	19,J,M	21,11	Total	Avg
1	Falco	BE	9	8	9	14	7	9	11	9	76	9.5
2	Dimension	NL	8	9	8	12	8	8	12	8	73	9.1
3	XLR 4	NL	6	8	8	10	6	6	10	7	61	7.6
3	Team van Beveren	NL	5	7	7	9	6	8	11	8	61	7.6
3	4 Midable	NL	6	9	7	12	6	8	6	7	61	7.6
6	Bad Habits	NL	6	8	7	8	4	9	10	7	59	7.4
7	Paradocks	NL	6	8	6	9	2	9	10	6	56	7.0
8	Lightning	NL	5	8	6	9	5	2	7	4	46	5.8

The AA Class competition at the Tomscat Trophy was the toughest one of all four categories. Falco won by three points over Dimension after eight very competitive rounds. Dimension was safe in 2nd place, while the battle for the bronze medals ended up in a tie between three teams.

The highscores for the single rounds are showing how close the potential of all teams was. Even Paradocks in 7th place still tied a highscore in Round 7, and Bad Habits finished only two points behind the three tied teams in 3rd place.

One of the three teams in 3rd place competed in the AA Class for the first time. 4midable started in the A Class at the ESL Championship 2014 and left this category behind after competing at the ESL Championship and the ISR Grand Prix last year. The same lineup of 2016 is now competing in the AA Class.

Paradocks has also made the move up into the AA Class competition with the same lineup, after several years in the A Class. Last and not least, Lightning also competed for the first time in the AA Class. Lightning had started in the Rookie Class at the ESL Championship 2013.