posted Mar 29th, 2021 - The small field of teams at the live part of the Shamrock Showdown 2021 at Skydive City generated more than enough exciting competition and interesting information. There was actually no area on the 4-way AAA Class leaderboard that did not have rounds and duels to follow carefully.

Arizona Airspeed did not have any opposition on the top of the leaderboard, and the U.S. indoor champions competed mostly against the competition draw. However, that alone was challenging enough with the 4-way world paying all the attention to the Airspeed performance at the first outdoor competition of the world meet year, even though the team will not compete at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 this August.

On top of the high level of attention to the Airspeed performance there was also the Super Sequence in Round 2 that was a serious test for the current lineup.

There was also the next U.S. duel between XPG4, the 4-way indoor champions in 4-way Women, and Skydive Midwest NEXT, with Lauren Byrd and Megan George in the lineup, both former members of the U.S. national outdoor team in 4-way Women at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018, Phoenix XP. This duel was interrupted with a 2-point difference to the advantage of NEXT after Round 4.

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Shamrock Showdown 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way AAA	1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		N,17,A,6		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	24		53		32	-1	24		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		133	33.3
2	Skydive Midwest NEXT	16		25	-3	22		16		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		79	19.8
3	XPG4	16		25	-1	20		16		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		77	19.3
4	CPI Legacy	13	-1	19	-1	14	-2	12		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		58	14.5
5	Quiet Riot	12		19		14	-1	12		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		57	14.3

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CPI Legacy - Quiet Riot at the Shamrock Showdown 2021

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Last and not least in the 4-way AAA Class competition, an even closer duel took place behind Skydive Midwest NEXT and XPG4.

All Rhythm 8 members competed in 4-way at the Shamrock Showdown, as well. Lauren Byrd, Gorka Amian and Greg Oldendick had their 4-way duel with XPG4 at the same time. Doug Barron did not compete with SDC Rhythm XP and joined forces with his 8-way team mates Brian Ball and Scott Latinis for Quiet Riot. Rhythm 8 videographer Justin Wageman was also filming the 4-way team.

Rhythm 8 members Doug Hendrix and Ben Liston had their own plans, and Quiet Riot needed a 4-way fan to fill the open slot. Local 4-way and 8-way veteran Dave Ruffell had a previous Rhythm 8 experience when he competed with Doug Barron's 8-way team at the USPA Nationals 2016, together with Quiet Riot member Brian Ball.

At the same time, Ben Liston had recruited his 8-way team mate Doug Hendrix and the other three CT True Blue members for the CPI Legacy lineup. Ethan Beatie and Andrew Yin were in the active lineup, while Rhianna Sullivan was filming the team. She had competed with CT True Blue in the 4-way Advanced Class competition of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021.

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Shamrock Showdown 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		N,17,A,6		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
2	Rhythm 8	14	-1	13	-1	14	-1	9		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		50	12.5
3	Sandbaggers	8		5		7		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7

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Rhythm 8 at the Shamrock Showdown 2021

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It turned out that the two 4-way teams out of the Rhythm 8 lineup gave each other a neck-to-neck race throughout the four rounds at Skydive City. In fact, only the first round separated the two teams by one point. They tied their scores in the next three rounds, and the 1-point difference of Round 1 was the end of the closest Shamrock duel.

Ben Liston and his young team mates from New England managed to maintain the 1-point difference despite a total of four point deductions. Quiet Riot could not benefit enough from their cleaner performance with only one infringement in Round 3.

The Rhythm 8 lineup at the Shamrock Showdown is the team for the 2021 season and the USPA Nationals, Doug Barron explained. The Skydive Midwest NEXT members of his 8-way lineup will compete with Megan George at the national championships, where Doug Barron will have to defend the 4-way Open Class title of 2019 against Arizona Airspeed.

Ben Liston will probably have a Mass Defiance lineup together, maybe with Doug Hendrix, who was already in Ben Liston's indoor lineups. Brian Ball and Scott Latinis could recruit a new Quiet Riot lineup for the USPA Nationals 2021, maybe with Shamrock team mate Dave Ruffell...