posted Mar 10th, 2023 - The Shamrock Showdown 2023 is in full swing since Friday morning. Seven teams will try to complete up to seven rounds on the first day of the competition, four more teams will join the event on Saturday morning and complete their rounds over the weekend.

Arizona Airspeed and NMP PCH HayaBusa are actually planning to go back into training mode after the completion of their ten rounds on Saturday. Skydive DeLand is using a PAC for the daily operation, as well, which is the jump plane for the next world championship in Israel 2024.

Arizona Airspeed and NMP PCH HayaBusa both will most likely be their countries' national teams in 4-way Open next year, and they want to use the first opportunity for exit training. France and Qatar Tigers are in the same situation, while they have not indicated a similar plan yet.

Host Solly Williams welcomed the teams at the time of the competition draw and pointed out the extremely high quality of the AAA Class field at the comeback of the Shamrock Showdown to Skydive DeLand. He has lived, worked and jumped there since he moved to Florida and since the first editions of the Shamrock Showdown. His own team DeLand Majik, 4-way world champions in 2004, were the home turf defenders when the Shamrock Showdown was launched in 2002.

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Shamrock Showdown 2023 Unfiltered: Team Briefing and competition draw

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As usual, the teams went straight to work after receiving the competition draw at 7.00 pm. It was already quite dark when the NSL-TV camera captured some of the instant engineering efforts at Skydive DeLand.

There was more than enough light on Friday morning when the teams were called to the boarding area for the first round from the Cessna Caravan. Especially the first load resembled the previous outdoor world championship in Eloy, when the four national teams from the United States, Belgium, Qatar and France boarded the plane for Round 1.

The results of Round 1 brought the first surprise to the leaderboard. The NSL News pointed out on March 3rd that Arizona Airspeed's current lineup did not give away any outdoor round in 2022 and did not even allow another team to tie a highscore.

That changed in Round 1 of the Shamrock Showdown when the young French 4-way team tied Arizona Airspeed's 26-pointer. It was apparently not a coincidence, as they matched the Airspeed score once again in Round 4. France is only seven points behind Airspeed after Round 5. There was a difference of 20 points between the same two teams after four rounds in Eloy.

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Shamrock Showdown 2023 Unfiltered: Round 1 Preparations

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