posted Oct 17th, 2017 - The Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2017 was dominated by the winner, Vega XP from North Carolina, with a 13-point distance to the team in 2nd place, the Cali4nia Raptors/Meta4 from Northern California.

However, there surely was competition for all medal positions, as the highscores for each round are showing. Vega XP simply had the most consistent performance throughout all ten rounds, which eventually created the 14.0 average and secured the USPA gold medals. On top of the consistency, Vega XP was also the cleanest team in the Top 10, with only two point deductions. The combination of a consistent and clean performance is almost a guarantee for success.

It was the team in 11th place, SCZ ZEUS, that was finally cleaner than the winner. In fact, ZEUS was one of only two of 37 teams in this category without any penalties at all, together with Spaceland Toxic Heveh in 15th place.

There was also only one team in the Top 10 that did not have a previous scoring history. All other teams in the higher rankings of the Intermediate Class had competition experiences before they traveled to Perris in September.

USPA Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	D,20,E	A,B,4	C,2,11	L,J,F,M	18,N,7	1,O,19	H,P,15	14,G,21	Q,8,K	9,22	Total	Avg
1	Vega XP	14	15	11	27	11	13	15	10	13	11	140	14.0
2	Cali4nia Raptors	11	13	11	26	10	11	14	9	12	10	127	12.7
3	CoNEXTion XP	9	13	11	26	12	11	9	9	14	10	124	12.4
4	TSC Cadence	10	11	10	23	11	10	11	10	14	9	119	11.9
5	Dallas InterSpeediate	11	14	11	17	11	8	10	9	12	12	115	11.5
6	Spaceland Toxic	12	11	10	19	11	9	10	8	11	11	112	11.2
6	HADES	10	9	9	25	9	9	10	9	11	11	112	11.2
8	Southern Mix	9	13	8	21	10	8	11	9	10	10	109	10.9
9	Orange Crush	9	10	10	19	9	10	11	8	10	11	107	10.7
10	Platinum 4.0	10	11	9	21	10	10	7	8	9	8	103	10.3
11	Zhills ZEUS	9	10	8	18	10	10	11	8	8	9	101	10.1
12	Babes on our Bellies (BOOBs)	9	12	9	17	9	9	8	8	9	10	100	10.0
13	4GetAboutit	10	8	9	17	10	9	9	9	8	10	99	9.9
14	Spaceland Special Reserve	8	12	8	20	8	9	9	8	6	10	98	9.8
15	Spaceland Toxic Heveh	9	9	9	19	9	7	10	7	8	8	95	9.5
16	Tailspin	10	11	9	14	10	9	11	6	6	7	93	9.3
17	SDC Connect 4	10	10	8	14	9	8	7	6	10	8	90	9.0
18	Brazucas	7	11	8	19	8	6	6	6	9	8	88	8.8
19	Hard on the Kittens	6	10	8	14	10	8	9	6	6	8	85	8.5
20	Carolina Ice	8	9	6	13	7	9	9	6	6	9	82	8.2
21	Hands Full	8	7	8	12	9	6	7	7	9	7	80	8.0
22	Squid Squad	8	9	5	16	7	8	7	6	6	6	78	7.8
22	Masha and the Bears	7	11	5	14	6	6	7	5	9	8	78	7.8
24	Mid-Air Collusion	7	7	8	14	9	5	6	6	6	7	75	7.5
24	4Tune	9	8	5	16	3	6	8	6	7	7	75	7.5
26	Lady and the Tramps	5	9	5	13	7	4	8	7	7	7	72	7.2
27	SDC Rhelativity	4	8	5	10	7	9	6	7	8	6	70	7.0
27	Perris Feathers	7	9	7	10	8	6	4	5	7	7	70	7.0
29	Perris Fource Majeure	7	4	5	12	6	6	6	6	5	8	65	6.5
30	The Elusive 4	6	7	6	9	6	4	8	5	6	7	64	6.4
31	4getTunnel	4	0	7	14	6	5	4	5	7	7	59	5.9
32	Force of Nature	6	8	6	11	6	4	7	4	1	5	58	5.8
33	San Diego Action Figures	6	5	3	8	4	6	6	5	4	6	53	5.3
33	Perris Fourmation	5	8	3	7	6	4	7	3	6	4	53	5.3
35	Easily Amused	4	6	3	1	2	5	2	2	4	3	32	3.2
36	Epic Flail	0	5	3	7	4	1	0	3	2	4	29	2.9
37	Win Or Lose We Booze	3	3	3	4	1	1	1	2	3	0	21	2.1

The winner, Vega XP, had the team's first showing at the USPA Nationals 2015 with a 7.3 average in 26th place. It was a different lineup, and Vega XP came back this year with three of the original team members and a well planned training and competition schedule.

The first Vega 2017 scores came from the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, which was also the starting point for the duel with USPA bronze medalist CoNEXTion XP.

Vega finished behind CoNEXTion, who had former Carolina Turbo XP member Joey Freeman in the lineup as the player coach. His Turbo team mates Doug Barron and Andrew Happick are now training and competing with SDC Rhythm XP.

Texas Crush had finished in 2nd place at the Paraclete indoor meet and will compete for the U.S. delegation in 4-way Women this week at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017.

Vega finished eight points behind CoNEXTion at Paraclete (17.7 - 18.5) at the end of February, and both teams had the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017 on their competition schedule next.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	K,20,11	8,7	P,G,14	H,C,9	J,F,15	Q,E,M,13	2,21	6,B,N	22,O,L	A,1,19	Total	Avg
1	CoNEXTion 4 XP	10	11	13	21	15	14	9	13	11	9	126	12.6
2	Vega XP	9	11	11	18	14	12	8	14	10	9	116	11.6
3	Off Constantly	2	2	6	4	4	5	3	6	5	5	42	4.2

The outdoor event at Paraclete XP's skydiving center in Raeford took place in June, half way on the 2017 road to the USPA Nationals, and the outcome was similar as it was in February. CoNEXTion XP won by ten points this time, and the distance between both teams had even increased.

However, Vega used the remaining three months obviously very efficiently and improved the outdoor average from 11.6 in June to the 14.0 winning average at the USPA Nationals. CoNEXTion XP finished on the same scoring level as in June and had to accept that Vega turned the table at the right time. The 12.4 average was still rewarded with the USPA bronze medals and was only three points behind silver.

Vega XP did not only improve the June average significantly to finally outscore CoNEXTion and win the USPA gold medals. The 14.0 average in Perris was also one of the highest results in the history of this category. Only four other USPA gold medalists have posted 14+ averages since 1997, and the NSL News will follow up soon with more of the Intermediate Class history.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	18,N,B	4,M,11	6,13	E,Q,7	D,8,J	C,H,K,F	14,P,O	15,20	1,L,19	21,2	Total	Avg
1	CoNEXTion XP	18	18	14	23	21	34	18	11	17	11	185	18.5
2	Texas Crush	16	13	14	26	19	30	19	13	14	14	178	17.8
3	STF Vega XP	16	13	15	23	17	35	18	13	13	14	177	17.7
4	Laka	14	14	15	25	20	28	20	9	11	15	171	17.1
5	Alternating Current	17	14	13	21	20	27	16	11	14	11	164	16.4
6	The World's Most Interesting Team	15	14	13	20	14	26	17	12	14	14	159	15.9
7	Flash.2	15	15	13	25	14	25	14	11	12	13	157	15.7
8	The Knights Who Say	11	13	11	19	14	12	14	11	11	10	126	12.6
9	TSC Cadence	13	12	12	16	7	19	14	7	11	12	123	12.3
10	Last Minute	13	11	9	18	11	16	12	10	12	8	120	12.0