posted Jun 9th, 2018 - The Open Class competition on the 14+ leaderboard of the Indoor Cloud League has become more exciting month by month, and the quality has gone up to a world class performance level.

The NSL News provided video evidence of the April competition with the story on 7 May 2018, and the top performances continued in May.

The AAA and AA sequences both could be drawn for any 4-way Open Class competition, and the monthly sequences for these two categories offer an opportunity for all teams in the highest class of 4-way competition to take on two sequences. The situation is the same for AA and A Class sequences, as well as for the A and RRR categories.

Last month, there were five teams who performed both Open Class sequences, including two national teams (Bad Boys, Czech Republic, 4-way Open and Phoenis XP, United States, 4-way Women). Four of the teams are well trained teams, while a pickup lineup of Florida Skydiving League competitors posted the scores for iFLY Tampa.

Indoor Cloud League 2018			AAA		AA		Total
Rank	May 14+		Q,7,N,12		A,7,8		Total
1	HF Flying Circus	CZ	23		24		47
1	HF Bad Boys	CZ	23		24		47
3	Phoenix XP	US	22	-1	20	-1	42
4	Seattle Swift	US	23		18	-5	41
5	iFLY Tampa	US	18		18	-1	36

The scores are showing clearly that consistent training creates a significant distance between well trained teams and other lineups, even though Florida presents a respectable performance.

There is still a 5-point difference between the pickup lineup and the well trained team in 4th place, Seattle Swift, after the two rounds.

It would be a 6-point difference to Phoenix XP without the five point deductions that Seattle Swift had to accept for the AA Class sequence.

The video shows that the Northwest Skydiving League team transferred the Phalanx (Random Formation Q) of May's AAA Class sequence (Q,7,N,12) into the AA sequence (A,7,8) which started actually with a Unipod (Random Formation A).

The 23 points in working time had to be cut to the posted 18-pointer, as the shown Phalanx was five times an incorrect formation.

Correct Unipods would have lifted Seattle Swift's total to 46 points, only one point short of the two Czech teams with the tied total of 47.

USPA Nationals 2017			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		O,4,9		G,21,A,H		N,D,J,14		L,16,12		K,19,6		E,2,10		P,11,15		17,3,22		F,7,1		Q,5,M,20		Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	31		33		28	-2	23	-1	25		23		23	-1	22		31		31		270	27.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		32		29		22		24		22		21	-1	23		29		29		258	25.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29		31		28	-1	23		22		20	-1	23		19		28	-1	29		252	25.2
4	Golden Knights	US	24		26	-1	28		22		18	-3	19		20		19	-1	24		23		223	22.3
5	Airspeed Odyssey	US	25	-1	23	-1	27	-1	19		22		19		19		17		23	-1	23		217	21.7
6	Defiance	US	24		24		26		18		19		17	-1	19		16	-1	24		22	-1	209	20.9
7	GKBC	US	24		19	-4	24		15	-2	17	-1	17		18		16		23		20	-1	193	19.3
8	Dallas 350	US	18		23		24		16		16	-1	16		16		11		22		19		181	18.1
9	ISR FireFlash	BE	21		22		19	-1	14	-2	17		16	-1	14	-2	16		20		19	-1	178	17.8
10	SDMW NEXT XP	US	15	-3	25		17	-3	17		15	-2	16	-1	16	-1	15		23		14	-3	173	17.3
11	Spaceland Lite	US	19		22		19		12	-2	17		14		13	-1	8	-2	19		17	-1	160	16.0
12	Phoenix XP	US	16	-1	18		19		13		13	-1	13	-1	14		14		15	-2	17		152	15.2
13	Long Shot	US	16	-1	14	-1	15	-2	13	-1	13	-1	14		12	-2	12		16	-1	17		142	14.2
14	Seattle Swift	US	15	-2	17		13	-1	13		14		13		14		10	-1	17		15	-1	141	14.1
15	Arizona Alpha	US	17		17		11	-3	12	-1	14		13	-1	12		13		17		12	-2	138	13.8
16	Perris Quicksilver	US	15		17		12	-3	11		11	-1	13		12		10	-1	16		13		130	13.0

The same four teams were separated by only one single point for the 6-point AAA sequence with the slot-switching Block 12 (Bundy - Bundy) at the end, and Phoenix XP was close to the first Bundy and the 23rd scoring point, as well.

Seattle Swift is eligible to win USPA's Advanced Class gold medals this year after the 5th place in the Advanced Class competition of the USPA Nationals 2017, one single point behind a USPA bronze medal, and they will be one of the top contenders in this category.

Phoenix XP competed in the Open Class in Perris last year and was ahead of Seattle Swift at that time. The latest Indoor Cloud League scores indicate that the Northwest team has been catching up

NWSL and ICL organizer Deb Correia said that she considers the incorrect formation in the AA sequence a good learning opportunity for Seattle Swift. It is important to carefully check the sequences of a competition draw, even though it sounds so simple. There have been occasions at world championships where teams prepared an incorrect sequence, and there is no re-jump in such a case...