posted Mar 10th, 2021 - The AA/Intermediate Class competition at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021 offered actually the most exciting battles for 4-way medals, as the teams on the top of the leaderboard were closer than in all other 4-way categories. On top of that, there were all kind of interesting aspects related to this year's national indoor championships.

Kyle Hermberg, organizer of the Indoor Cloud League team at iFLY Dallas, was the defending AA/Intermediate Class champion of last year's indoor championship. The NSL News reported on February 15th that he would visit Paraclete XP again this year, this time with a complete lineup from iFLY Dallas (Aaron Perkins, Caden Maydew, Michael Erickson).

Kaos Theory XP was expected to be one of the top contenders, after the 2nd place at Paraclete XP last year and a 1st place at an online outdoor competition in September last year. The NSL News had posted a team update on February 9th, after a training weekend in the run-up to the championship event.

Kaos Theory XP were back with exactly the same lineup as in February 2020, while Kyle Hermberg was the only returning Barhons member in his new Dallas Dynasty lineup. The competition rules allow one reigning champion to come back in the same category.

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Paraclete XP Indoor 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	E,C,21		8,22		N,1,6		15,20		G,7,O		D,P,M,9		A,11,H		F,B,K,18		19,2		Q,13,L		Total	Avg
1	Kaos Theory	18	-1	15		18		13	-1	24		29		17	-1	19		14		22		189	18.9
2	Dallas Dynasty	19		13		17		14	-1	23		25	-2	18		19		15		15	-3	178	17.8
3	ZEUS	19	-1	13		17	-1	11	-2	21	-1	24	-2	17	-1	19		13	-1	18	-1	172	17.2
4	SDC Rhebellion XP	18	-1	9	-2	17		11	-1	20	-1	23	-2	19		19		11	-4	17	-2	164	16.4
5	Eclipse	16		11		16		12		17		24		13		18		12		15		154	15.4
6	Bolting-batch of Beastliness	14		11		16		12		16		19		13		17		13		16		147	14.7
7	AZ Aardvark	14		9		11		11		16		16		14		14		10		15		130	13.0
8	Suprise!	8		8		10		7		12		14		8		11		8		12		98	9.8
9	Name Pending	9		6		7		7		14		13		7		8		7		8		86	8.6
10	Podunk Hopscotch Mafia	6		6		9		6		10		13		9		6		8		4		77	7.7

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Kaos Theory XP - Dallas Dynasty - ZEUS - SDC Rhebellion XP at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021

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The highscores for each round are showing that the teams in the Top 4 positions all had the potential to win medals. Kaos Theory XP and Dallas Dynasty had the cleanest performances and won the two top spots also with the low number of point deductions. In fact, the final ranking order is identical with the total number of point deductions between the same four teams.

The NSL News had introduced SDC Rhebellion XP with NSL Live Talk on February 3rd. The three present team members (Aga Horoszko, Kelsey Strock, Greg Bush) said that they were aiming at the positions on the top of the leaderboard this year, and they came very close at the team's first competition.

Steve Lefkowitz had filled Eric Bambach's slot at the February training camp. The complete lineup then performed the ten competition rounds and claimed one sole highscore in Round 7, followed by another tied highscore in Round 8. It was not enough this time to make it to one of the medal positions.

Bronze medal winner ZEUS was also a returning team, with three members of the 2020 event (Amer Kassas, Mike Talerico, Randy Cutlip). They had even tried to make it to the medal rankings with two different lineups last year, one with Ryan Weeks, the other one with Eric Harper.

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Paraclete XP Indoor 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	9,N,8	H,22,G	4,21	A,E,P,20	O,6,M	L,18,19	7,2	13,J,14	K,B,C,Q	D,F,1	Total	Avg
1	Barhons	16	18	15	19	24	15	16	17	28	24	192	19.2
2	F-5	22	14	15	17	23	15	15	17	29	24	191	19.1
3	CT True Blue	19	16	15	20	23	12	15	16	29	18	183	18.3
4	TailSpin XP	16	14	13	21	24	14	17	16	22	17	174	17.4
5	SCZ ZEUS 1	12	16	14	19	21	14	15	14	25	22	172	17.2
6	AVG Honor	20	16	13	17	22	13	15	15	20	18	169	16.9
7	SCZ ZEUS 2	13	15	14	14	19	11	15	16	23	20	160	16.0
8	Wind Tunnel Fun	13	15	14	17	18	13	13	12	24	20	159	15.9
9	Teiwaz	16	14	13	17	20	12	16	14	20	16	158	15.8
10	Fourmidables	15	14	12	18	17	12	15	13	15	15	146	14.6
11	AVG + 1	14	13	10	13	16	8	10	14	19	15	132	13.2
12	Wind Warriors	9	13	11	13	14	11	13	11	17	11	123	12.3

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Barhons - F-5 - ZEUS at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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This time, Amer Kassas, Mike Talerico and Randy Cutlip came to Paraclete XP with former Vega XP member Nick Walker in the lineup. The average after ten rounds was exactly the same as with Ryan Weeks last year. However, the lower scores of the other teams on the top of the 2021 leaderboard allowed ZEUS to step onto the 4-way AA/Intermediate Class podium for the first time.

Amer Kassas had launched the ZEUS team project at Skydive City in 2013, and he attended the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship for the first time in February 2018. Randy Cutlip and Mike Talerico joined ZEUS in 2019 and continued in 2020. Nick Walker then agreed to train and compete with ZEUS this year, and the first outdoor competition with the same lineup is the Shamrock Showdown on home turf next week.

The closer look at last year's Paraclete XP AA/Intermediate Class leaderboard is also showing a very similar situation. The teams in the Top 4 positions shared all the highscores for the ten rounds. Bronze medalist CT True Blue were new in the AAA/Advanced Class this year, after the 3rd place in the AA/Intermediate Class. Tail Spin XP missed the event this time, after three consecutive visits and the 4th place a year ago.

Three CT True Blue members (Rhianna Sullivan, Ethan Beattie, Andrew Yin) now follow up with outdoor competition at the Shamrock Showdown, together with Ben Liston and Doug Hendrix. CPI Legacy will post scores on the AAA Class leaderboard and hunt for the $200 cash per round in the Skins Game, after handicap between Round 6 and Round 10...