posted May 12th, 2021 - The 8-way competition of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021 is finally over, at least for the French national 8-way team and for the Qatar Falcons. AZXP8 and Tanay 8 may or may not submit their own additional videos for the evaluation by the same InTime judging panel.

The French 22.0 average that the highly experienced InTime judging panel approved after the ten rounds is probably a confidence booster for the young French 8-way team. Having the lead over Russia's Tanay 8-way team, AZXP8 and the Qatar Falcons after Round 4 was already meaningful, as Andrew Starr, Jeremie Rollett and Gary Smith agreed on during the NSL Live Talk on Monday. However, finishing with one of the highest 8-way averages in history made it even better for France.

Three point deductions in the last two rounds allowed the Qatar Falcons indeed to get close to the French highscores for these two rounds. Coach Jeremie Rollett had anticipated more competitive scores by his Qatar 8-way team in the second half of the meet.

France collected a total of five point deductions, which kept the team from matching the highest national 8-way average in the history of the sport. However, Mathieu Bernier's 8-way team posted a series of seven consecutive rounds without any infringements between Round 2 and Round 8.

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Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		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		Total	Avg
1	France	FR	30	-2	25		28		19		18		23		20		22		17	-2	18	-1	220	22.0
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	23	-3	19	-2	21	-1	15		17		18	-1	15	-3	19		17		17		181	18.1
3	Tanay 8	RU	29	-2	26		25		16	-2	-		-		-		-		-		-		96	24.0
4	Airspeed XP8	US	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
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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France at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021

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Even without the point deductions and a 22.5 average, the French performance would still be quite far behind the standing world record average of 23.9 that the Golden Knights had posted at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2016. Andrew Starr, the new and current Golden Knights team captain, still owns this historic scoring number.

AZXP8 member Matt Davidson was his team mate in 2016 and shares the 23.9 record average with Jesse Stahler and David Flynn, who are Andrew Starr's current 4-way and 8-way team mates. David Flynn was filming the record average in 2016 before moving into the active lineup in front of the camera.

Andrew Starr was still the alternate when the previous Golden Knights lineup posted their first 23+ average at the USPA Nationals 2014. He had moved into the active lineup a year later and matched the 23.7 record average at the next USPA Nationals, before improving it to 23.9 at the world meet in 2016.

The Golden Knights are the only 8-way team in history so far who have posted 23+ averages, and Matt Davidson will be the only 8-way competitor at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 who has these 23+ averages in his personal records.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2016			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		12,A,16		18,15,O		1,F,E,C		17,B,14		10,2,20		21,11,G		J,5,19		L,M,K,7		D,8,4		3,13,Q		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31		25		26	-1	22		20		22		19		26		24		24	-1	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	-1	20	-1	25		18		16		19		17		23		19		20		199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23		19		25		17		14	-1	16		16		21		20		19		190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19		16		20		15		7	-2	10	-4	13		16	-1	15		15		146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15		14	-1	16	-1	14		11		13		13		14	-1	13		17		140	14.0
6	Airbus München	DE	16		15		17		11		11		13		12		14		12		15		136	13.6
7	Australia	AU	13		13		14	-1	12		9	-1	13		12		15		10		14		125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11		10	-1	9	-2	11		8		10		8	-1	10		11		11		99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11		8	-1	10		9		5	-2	9		9		11		8		13		93	9.3

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Golden Knights at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2016

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Even French national coach and 8-way member Mathieu Bernier has not seen a 23+ average yet, despite his own three 8-way gold medals in 2006, 2008 and 2010. He was also in the French 8-way lineup with the highest national record average. The 2012 lineup finished with a 22.5 average at the FAI Dubai Mondial 2012 - four points behind the Golden Knights.

Mathieu Bernier has now guided the current French 8-way lineup to the same performance level, disregarding the point deductions. The difference for France in Tanay this year is the list of opponents, which does not include the U.S. Army team.

No other teams in the history of 8-way competition have ever posted 22+ or even 23+ averages in 10-round outdoor meets. Mathieu Bernier has his current lineup up to the highest French 8-way speed in history with the 22+ average, while his AZXP8 opponent Matt Davidson has the 23+ with the Golden Knights in his records.

Mathieu Bernier and Matt Davidson now have three months left to get to their own record performance levels before Round 1 at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August. Russia's Tanay 8-way team and the Qatar Falcons surely have similar goals.

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FAI World Meet 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	RU	19	18	22	22	21	15	15	24	16	20	192	19.2
4	EADS	DE	14	13	15	15	18	14	14	16	13	16	148	14.8
5	VIVA	CH	13	13	15	15	14	11	12	17	13	13	136	13.6
6	Dubai Asaar	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	UK	11	11	12	11	14	10	11	11	6	-	97	10.8
9	South Africa	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	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	SG	8	7	8	5	5	6	7	8	-	-	54	6.8

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