posted May 11th, 2021 - The last time Jeremie Rollett commented 8-way competition for NSL Live Talk was in November 2020. The French 8-way world champion of 2006 and 2008, currently coaching the Qatar Falcons, discussed the results of the 8-way competition of the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020 together with Matt Davidson, 8-way world champion with the Golden Knights in 1997 and between 2012 and 2018.

The Qatar Falcons were not a part of the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020, while Matt Davidson had fended off the French national 8-way team by two points after ten rounds. This time, the Qatar Falcons are on the 8-way leaderboard of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021, and their coach Jeremie Rollett was back for more NSL Live Talk on Tuesday morning.

The new discussion and debriefing of the situation after Round 4 did not include an active competitor in this 8-way meet. Gary Smith, still reigning FAI bronze-medal coach of the Qatar Falcons at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 and Jeremie Rollett's predecessor as the 8-way coach, and Golden Knights team captain Andrew Starr joined him online early on Tuesday morning in North Carolina.

Andrew Starr is still very active in training and competition. In fact, he is aiming at winning his next world championship title in the near future, either in 8-way or in 4-way. However, he will not compete at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 this August, where AZXP8 will try to defend the U.S. gold medals in 8-way.

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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

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France - Russia - United States - Qatar at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021

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It is an unusual situation for Andrew Starr, who has not missed a world meet since 2010. He and Matt Davidson won their four 8-way gold medals between 2012 and 2018 together. The Golden Knights are still the reigning 8-way world champions, but only Matt Davidson will have the opportunity to defend his title successfully, after joining AZXP8 last year.

Andrew Starr still almost made it to the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 with the U.S. delegation. SDC Rhythm XP had asked him to join the U.S. national 4-way team when JaNette Lefkowitz decided to step back after winning the 4-way title at the USPA Nationals 2019.

He began to train for the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 with SDC Rhythm XP and competed with the new U.S. national team in 4-way Open at the Wind Games. The impressive 32.0 average in Spain turned out to be the highest indoor average for SDC Rhythm XP in team history.

Andrew Starr had the U.S. Army's permission to train and compete with the civilian team until the world meet in August 2020. However, he had to withdraw from the Rhythm project when the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 was canceled and rescheduled for August 2021.

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NSL Coaches Corner with Andrew Starr - Gary Smith - Jeremie Rollett

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Jeremie Rollett, Gary Smith and Andrew Starr were very well prepared for the NSL Coaches Corner and for a debriefing of the first four 8-way rounds. The audience and all 8-way competitors have the opportunity to learn all the details that the 4-way and 8-way world champions could communicate in an hour of NSL Live Talk.

The outcome of the 8-way competition at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021 is still just as open-ended as it seems to be impossible to predict the final placing order at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 this August.

All four teams are not far from each other with pace and scoring potential, while there will be only three medal positions at the world meet. Point deductions and too many mistakes have created a gap between the Qatar Falcons and the other three 8-way teams. However, the gap may even get smaller as soon as more Shamrock rounds will be judged and posted, and Jeremie Rollett has still scheduled a lot of outdoor training before Round 1 in August.

The InTime judging panel will now continue with the evaluation of all available videos. At least all ten rounds of France and Qatar will soon be added to the 8-way leaderboard.