posted May 4th, 2021 - It took a little while, however, the 8-way leaderboard of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud is finally complete with scores and videos for the first four rounds. In fact, there is one scoring number missing, as the Sandbaggers were done after three rounds at the live part of the event at Skydive City.

The pickup 8-way team was not expected to continue with the cloud part of the Shamrock Showdown. The idea to keep the leaderboard in both events open until the completion of the 10-round meet in the NSL cloud format was developed when it became obvious that the weather would not allow more than the four rounds for all teams at the event site.

The three national 8-way teams from France, Russia and Qatar had already expressed their interest in participating before the live event began at Skydive City. They had plans to visit Florida for training and the competition before travel restrictions and other implications of the corona virus crisis interfered with the plans.

They agreed to be a part of the Shamrock Showdown the same way as the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020 had brought teams together last year, when FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 and USPA Nationals 2020 were both canceled. Goal was to offer the teams a new opportunity to define their performance level in the run-up to the same events a year later.

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Shamrock Showdown Cloud 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	France	FR	30	-2	25		28		19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		102	25.5
2	Tanay 8	RU	29	-2	26		25		16	-2	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		96	24.0
3	Airspeed XP8	US	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	23	-3	19	-2	21	-1	15		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		78	19.5
5	Rhythm 8	US	14	-1	13	-1	14	-1	9		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		50	12.5
6	Sandbaggers	US	8		5		7		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7

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Russia's Tanay 8-way team with Rounds 1 - 4 of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021

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Three of the four best 8-way teams in the world agreed to the NSL cloud procedures and join AZXP8 on the Shamrock Showdown leaderboard, after completing their respective rounds wherever it would be possible. AZXP8 had completed their first four rounds at Skydive City, and the same InTime judging panel (Claire King, Jim Rees, Dirk Venter) agreed to evaluate all other rounds by the other teams, as well.

The French national 8-way team and the Qatar Falcons completed their first four rounds shortly after the Shamrock Showdown, while Russia's Tanay 8-way team needed more time for their first competition rounds. The InTime judging panel eventually came together again online on Monday and added the missing scores to the 8-way leaderboard.

The first part of the four Shamrock Showdown Cloud rounds now resembles somehow the first competition day at a world meet or a world cup, where the national teams rarely perform more than two or three rounds in either event on the same day. Each day is usually split in two parts, one half for 4-way, the other half for 8-way competition, disregarding all other competitive skydiving events. The second day of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud will feature the next three rounds. The exact date for judging and publishing scores and videos is not set yet. However, the results will not be posted randomly, as it happened for the first four rounds. Rounds 5 - 7 will only follow when all videos of all four teams are available and judged.

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FAI Dubai Mondial 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		N,21,B,5	14,C,13	22,M,20	17,H,16	J,E,12,4	7,19,15	G,K,8,2	O,L,F,P,A	10,11,18	9,Q,D,1	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21	19	27	26	26	18	20	28	19	25	229	22.9
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	22	19	22	23	27	20	20	28	19	25	225	22.5
3	Barkli 8	RU	19	18	22	22	21	15	15	24	16	20	192	19.2
4	EADS 8	DE	14	13	15	15	18	14	14	16	13	16	148	14.8
5	VIVA 8	CH	13	13	15	15	14	11	12	17	13	13	136	13.6
6	Dubai Asaar 8	AE	11	11	12	11	10	10	10	12	12	12	111	11.1
7	M8Trix	NL	11	11	11	12	12	10	10	12	10	-	99	11.0
8	Brit Chicks 8	UK	11	11	12	11	14	10	11	11	6	-	97	10.8
9	South Africa 8	ZA	12	11	11	10	13	9	9	11	10	-	96	10.7
10	Qatar Falcons	QA	11	9	11	11	12	9	9	11	8	-	91	10.1
11	Australia	AU	10	8	9	11	12	10	9	13	-	-	82	10.3
12	The 8 Team	BE	8	11	7	11	12	9	10	12	-	-	80	10.0
12	CTR Optimum 8	BR	9	9	11	12	10	9	10	10	-	-	80	10.0
14	Austria	AT	8	8	9	10	10	6	7	8	-	-	66	8.3
15	Maximum Ride	CA	8	8	7	8	7	8	7	7	-	-	60	7.5
16	Singapore 8	SG	8	7	8	5	5	6	7	8	-	-	54	6.8

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The situation on the 8-way leaderboard after Round 4 deserves all attention and careful handling. It was expected that the 8-way competition at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August would become the most competitive event in Formation Skydiving competition, and only three months are left until Round 1 in Tanay.

The previous scores ever since the completion of the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia indicated that the 8-way teams from the United States, Russia, France and Qatar would be ready for an even more exciting battle at the next world meet. Tanay 8 won the 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals 2019 and then at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019. AZXP8 finished ahead of France at the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020, after the 3rd place at the world cup in October 2019.

The current leaderboard of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud after Round 4 presents another new situation. France has taken an 8-way lead for the first time since Round 2 at the FAI World Meet 2012 in Dubai. Mathieu Bernier and his French 8-way team mates owned the top of each 8-way leaderboard at world meets between August 2006 and December 2012. They lost it to the Golden Knights in Round 3 of the FAI Mondial 2012 and never got it back - until now. However, the Shamrock Showdown Cloud is not a world meet, the event is not over yet, and only the final numbers in Tanay will count...