posted Jul 6th, 2018 - Last weekend's events created once again an interesting international AAA Class leaderboard. Teams from Germany, United States and Czech Republic competed at three different locations (Nordcup at YUU Skydive in Itzehoe, CZ Cup in Most, SCSL June meet in Elsinore) and used the same competition draw.

AtomiX YUU won the AAA Class competition in Germany easily and finished on top of the combined leaderboard. AtomiX was still not very happy with the 10-round performance, as the German team has scored significantly higher last year and was aiming at a higher meet average than the 15.5 that won the AAA Class competition last weekend.

The German team in 2nd place, Wolfpack, even outscored AtomiX in Round 10. The German national championships are scheduled for the last August weekend, where AtomiX will try to challenge the reigning Airbus 4-way champions once again for the top spot in Germany.

Airbus is dealing with their own troubles, as inside center Joern Thiele injured his shoulder and will not be able to recover quickly enough to compete at the German Nationals 2018. Chances are better that he will still be ready for the trip to Australia in October and the 4-way competition at the FAI World Meet 2018.

June 30th, 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		22,K,13		F,20,B,8		10,O,21		C,17,18		9,N,D,19		2,1,J		12,L,3		M,16,Q,P		H,6,A,11		4,15,5		Total	Avg
1	AtomiX-YUU Skydive	DE	13	-1	17		16		15	-1	17		13	-1	16		22		17		9	-1	155	15.5
2	Elsinore Elevate	US	12		16		14		13		17		-		-		-		-		-		72	14.4
3	HF Flying Circus	CZ	10		15		11		13		13		12		11		-		-		-		85	12.1
4	Wolf Pack	DE	9		14		11		12		12	-2	11		10		17		12		10		118	11.8
5	Sky....	CZ	0		7		8	-2	6	-2	11		1	-7	8		-		-		-		41	5.9

Elsinore Elevate in 2nd place on the combined leaderboard is the home team at Skydive Elsinore. Josh Hall is the player-coach for the new team, with Zack Winoker, Brian Schroeder, Brian Young and videographer John Legge in the lineup.

The team members have been jumping together in one capacity or another for roughly three years and decided to team up for the 2018 season. Skydive Elsinore's events coordinator Mary SantAngelo said that the Elevate members are a constant fixture at Skydive Elsinore: "When they're not training, you can find them load organizing most weekends, coaching FS skills camps, or just plain having fun at the DZ."

Player-coach Josh Hall is a former member of Arizona Airspeed. He was recruited after the USPA Nationals 2010 where he still competed with Perris Fury, Airspeed's strongest opponent. He joined the new Airspeed lineup of 2011/2012 with three new members (Josh Hall, Thomas Hughes, Niklas Hemlin). Only Mark Kirkby had come back from the previous Airspeed lineup.

Josh Hall trained and competed with Airspeed for two years and won the FAI 4-way gold medals for the U.S. delegation at the Mondial Dubai 2012 after a dramatic 10-round battle with NMP PCH HayaBusa.

June 30th, 2018			1		2		3		4		5		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		22,K,13		F,20,B,8		10,O,21		C,17,18		9,N,D,19		Total	Avg
1	AtomiX-YUU Skydive	DE	13	-1	17		16		15	-1	17		78	15.6
2	Elsinore Elevate	US	12		16		14		13		17		72	14.4
3	HF Flying Circus	CZ	10		15		11		13		13		62	12.4
4	Wolf Pack	DE	9		14		11		12		12	-2	58	11.6
5	Sky....	CZ	0		7		8	-2	6	-2	11		33	6.6

Last weekend's AAA Class teams completed different numbers of rounds at the three different locations, between five in Elsinore and ten in Germany. The adjusted leaderboard is showing the standings of all teams after Round 5.

The Czech teams were between the two other two events with seven completed rounds in Most. HF Flying Circus in the team's second AAA Class year had launched the 2018 outdoor season with an impressive 13.8 average in May. The two faster rounds after Round 7 would have probably lifted last weekend's meet average before the slow sequence of Round 10.

The first seven rounds of last weekend's competition draw each had two blocks in the sequence. In fact, only Round 8 had one block and three random formations, before two more blocks in Round 9 and the 3-block sequence of Round 10 slowed down the scoring on the final stretch.

HF Flying Circus are still launching a Satellite (Random Formation O) for each exit, which is also causing a slower scoring start into the working time of 35 seconds.