posted Jun 24th, 2019 - The NSL News has covered the recent change in Arizona Airspeed's lineup from several different angles. Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine broke the news during a live interview on June 13th. The NSL News followed up with an evaluation of NMP PCH HayaBusa's and Arizona Airspeed's lineups since 2011 a day later.

The NSL News visit at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic on the following weekend offered the opportunity to discuss the situation with new Airspeed member Matt Davidson on June 16th. His 4-way team mate in Raeford, Golden Knights team captain Drew Starr, added his good wishes for Matt Davidson's next step on June 20th.

The ongoing duel with NMP-PCH HayaBusa on the top of the 4-way world and the impact of the recent news from Belgium and Arizona both were the dominating topics, even though Airspeed still have to qualify for the next FAI World Meet next year in Tanay to take on the Belgian 4-way world champions once again.

This year's USPA Nationals at Skydive Paraclete will be the qualification event, and there is a team that would like to compete for the U.S. delegation in Russia, as well: SDC Rhythm XP. The NSL News was interested in Rhythm's take of the new situation, and JaNette Lefkowitz had enough time on a rare off-weekend for a new NSL Live Talk conversation.

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Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP have been in a similar situation before. Airspeed's lineups of 2016 was done after the FAI World Meet 2016. Thomas Hughes left the team, and Ari Perelman became the new point. Niklas Hemlin took the vacant outside center slot, and Mikhail Markine moved from point to tail, Thiago Gomes from tail to inside center.

The new 2017 lineup was the fourth different one within four years (2014 - 2017). Ari Perelman was announced as the new Airspeed member in June 2016 and joined the active Airspeed lineup after the national championships in October 2016. Airspeed had less than a year to get ready for the next duel with their U.S. challenger, SDC Rhythm XP at the USPA Nationals 2017. Only the winner would compete at the FAI World Meet in Australia 2018.

On the other side, the 2017 season was the third year for Rhythm with the new and current lineup. The pressure on Airspeed was higher than ever, which materialized at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2017. Rhythm finished ahead of Airspeed and Paraclete XP4 in 1st place, and the pressure on Airspeed became even higher.

Airspeed's new lineup had little over six months left after the indoor meet to turn the outcome at the USPA Nationals. They made it, while the winning margin of six points was the closest one in the Rhythm/Airspeed history.

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USPA Nationals 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		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	23	25	23	23	22	31	31	270	27.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	32	29	22	24	22	21	23	29	29	258	25.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29	31	28	23	22	20	23	19	28	29	252	25.2

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The current situation is even more challenging for Arizona Airspeed. SDC Rhythm XP is now in the team's 5th year with the same lineup, and Airspeed has even less time with the new team member. There are less than three months left until Round 1 at the USPA Nationals 2019.

Rhythm lost a year of training and competition due to Doug Barron's injury. However, Rhythm's tail has been back in full action, first with indoor training, and then outdoors with the beginning of the 2019 summer season. The chances for SDC Rhythm XP to win the qualification for Tanay 2020 are probably even better than they were in 2017 for Australia.

JaNette Lefkowitz explained the situation from her team's position. She said that Airspeed's personnel change was not the main factor in Rhythm's motivation. Her team was more excited and encouraged by Doug Barron's recovery, which brought the team back on track quicker than expected.

Both teams skipped the Paraclete Summer Classic, which they had on their meet agenda for the year, with their own reasons. Matt Davidson already had the Golden Knights lineup for the event, and Rhythm decided to use the meet weekend for training.

The world champions from Belgium will once again witness the U.S. battle for the slot of their main opponent in 2020. They had competed as a guest team at the previous 6-point showdown in Perris 2017, and they will be back in September in Raeford for a probably even tighter race - behind them...