posted Feb 24th, 2018 - Saturday's 4-way part of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018 was over after Round 7, and the 8-way teams were in full action in the afternoon.

The competition between Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP is very different compared to last year's event. Airspeed has a year of training in the bag and has left Rhythm far behind this time.

Team captain Niklas Hemlin had told the NSL News after the Wind Games 2018 that his team is behind NMP PCH HayaBusa when fast sequences are coming up.

Airspeed has obviously worked on this team skill, as the results are showing. Together with the strong technical execution of the blocks, there is no Airspeed weakness that Rhythm could benefit from. This makes it very difficult for the challenger to get close.

HayaBusa coach Gery Smith is watching the Airspeed performance very carefully, as the opponent will be closing in on the 4-way world champions from Belgium this way, as well.

The NSL-TV camera captured the top teams live when they were performing Round 4. The Golden Knights Gold team followed the two top teams in the same flying session, and the new lineup is in 3rd place.

Kurt Isenbarger is neither in an active 4-way nor in the 8-way lineup this year, and former 8-way videographer Drew Starr has also made it into the strongest 4-way lineup after becoming an 8-way world champion first. He is in Kurt Isenbarger's outside center slot and piece partner with Jen Davidson.

Drew Starr and Jen Davidson have both been competing for Paraclete's Indoor Cloud League team on a regular basis. Matt Davidson and Sean Sweeney are flying the same rear piece as last year.

The same flying session also features the team in 4th place, Ranch 2nd Generation (R2G), who perform as strongly as it was expected. R2G even brought their team videographer Kamuran "Sonic" Bayrasli to Raeford who competes once again with the Ranch ProShop Ho's in the AA Class.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		6,P,O,9	N,1,21	D,J,E,K,14	8,Q,L,5	10,12,F	3,19,22	17,B,20	11,13,7	C,16,18	H,M,A,G,15	4,2,6	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	40	26	45	33	27	21	33	-	-	-	-	225	32.1
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	37	27	40	28	24	22	26	-	-	-	-	204	29.1
3	Golden Knights Gold	US	36	24	35	27	22	22	25	-	-	-	-	191	27.3
4	Ranch 2nd Generation	US	34	22	30	24	21	20	29	-	-	-	-	180	25.7
5	Golden Knights	US	29	21	28	24	20	16	22	-	-	-	-	160	22.9
6	Dallas 350	US	26	18	25	23	20	18	23	-	-	-	-	153	21.9
7	Phoenix XP	US	28	20	29	20	15	17	21	-	-	-	-	150	21.4
8	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	30	19	22	21	15	18	22	-	-	-	-	147	21.0
9	Fast4ward XP	US	26	19	25	20	16	16	23	-	-	-	-	145	20.7
10	Savage XP	US	24	17	25	18	17	16	21	-	-	-	-	138	19.7
10	Golden Knights Black	US	26	18	24	19	17	14	20	-	-	-	-	138	19.7
12	4Shadow	US	25	18	21	16	14	13	19	-	-	-	-	126	18.0
13	AZ Defiance	US	21	16	19	17	16	14	15	-	-	-	-	118	16.9
14	SCZ ZEUS	US	22	17	21	15	14	11	17	-	-	-	-	117	16.7
15	Vega XP	US	21	15	17	16	13	12	16	-	-	-	-	110	15.7
16	CB4	US	16	16	22	16	13	10	16	-	-	-	-	109	15.6
17	Fantasticate	US	18	11	22	12	14	14	16	-	-	-	-	107	15.3
18	Pandemonium	US	19	14	15	15	13	13	12	-	-	-	-	101	14.4
19	Harpia	BR	18	13	17	13	12	13	14	-	-	-	-	100	14.3
20	CoNEXTion XP	US	16	15	18	18	15	7	9	-	-	-	-	98	14.0
21	Can't Wait	US	15	12	20	11	10	10	12	-	-	-	-	90	12.9

There is another interesting internal duel on the AAA Class leaderboard that features two teams who will face each other at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia later this year.

Phoenix XP will compete for the U.S. delegation, while Parachute Montreal Fuzion represents Canada in 4-way Women. Both teams have plans until 2020, and the Paraclete XP indoor event is the first time that they compete directly with and against each other.

They are also located right next to each other on the leaderboard after Round 7. The Canadian national team had a very weak Round 3, which was the fastest sequence of the first seven rounds. The heavy 7-point loss in one round turned the 1-point lead after Round 2 into a 6-point deficit.

Fuzion has not lost a round after that and reduced the distance to three points. The remaining three rounds will show a great competition for the top spot of 4-way Women teams. Amanda Lampton (iFLY Dallas), Lauren Byrd and Morgan Womble (Paraclete XP) are also regular player coaches at Indoor Cloud League events. The new U.S. team is starting on a level that promises medal contention in Australia...