posted Jul 17th, 2023 - The events of the NSL Network are meant to offer 4-way teams and competitors regular opportunities to collect competition experiences before attending national or international events where the performance pressure is usually on a significantly higher level. In addition, using the synchronized competition draw allows the participants at different meets and geographically distant locations to compare their scores on combined leaderboards that the National Skydiving League has been creating since 2004 on SKYLEAGUE.COM.

Events such as Skydive Spaceland Houston's Pre-Nationals and Paraclete XP's Summer Classic have been parts of the Texas and Noth Carolina Skydiving Leagues in the past, and they were established as main events with the same purpose. Teams and competitors competed under the conditions that would have to be expected at national championships or international FAI/ISC events.

It is a natural result of these events' purposes that the teams evaluate their current performance level and assess their positions in the runup to the national championships, the USPA Nationals this year in the United States in September, and the FAI Outdoor World Cup at the beginning of August.

Skydive Paraclete XP is the host of the USPA Nationals 2023, and the visiting teams in Raeford even had the opportunity to check out the logistics and become familiar with the facilities and the jump planes. The winner of the AA/Intermediate Class competition, Mile-Hi SpeedRun, was one of the visiting teams, and they take back the Paraclete XP experiences to Colorado.

Pre-Nationals/Summer Classic 2023		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AA/Intermediate Class	2,J,F		20,15		H,21,G		Q,1,7		11,K,6		9,P,B		N,14,E		19,8		M,18,C		22,D,13		Total	Avg
1	Mile-Hi SpeedRun	13		8	-1	12		10		9		16		9		-		-		-		77	11.0
2	Spaceland Toxic	13		6	-2	13	-1	12		8	-1	13	-1	11		(7)		(11)		(9)		76	10.3
3	Spaceland Disturbance Delicious	12		8		10	-2	10	-1	9	-1	13	-1	9		(3)	-1	(10)		(7)	-3	62	9.1
4	XP Falcons	7	-1	4	-1	1	-2	5		6		8		3		-		-		-		34	4.9

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Mile-Hi SpeedRun - Spaceland Toxic - Disturbance Delicious at the Paraclete XP Summar Classic/Skydive Houston's Pre-Nationals 2023

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Mile-Hi SpeedRun visited Skydive Paraclete XP exactly for that reason. Colorado is geographically closer to Skydive Spaceland Houston and the Pre-Nationals, and the team still decided to travel to the east coast and take a closer look at the facilities of the USPA host this year. They knew that they would have a few more AA Class opponents in Texas who would use the same competition draw.

The Pre-Nationals at Skydive Spaceland Houston featured once ahain Spaceland Toxic on the AA/Intermediate Class leaderboard, one of the longest-standing team projects in the United States. Team founder Demo McDonnell has a new lineup for the 2023 season, and he missed Josh Schirard at the team's first meet the year, his second returning team mate of 2022. Julie Goldstein has replaced Laura Galdamez, and Texas Skydiving League director Scott Latinis substituted for missing team member Josh Schirard.

Last year's Toxic lineup won the bronze medals in the AA/Intermediate Class of the USPA Nationals, and the Texas team provides a good target if any other U.S. team is aiming at a set of new USPA medals.

It took Spaceland Toxic 2022 a 10.8 average performance to win the bronze medals without much pressure from behind. In fact, there was only a 3-point difference to the silver medal position that Cinnamon Roll Fight Club created in the last two rounds.

USPA Nationals 2022		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	H,13,19		1,L,K		O,N,22		14,Q,7		C,B,A,2		8,20		J,G,9		11,E,F		18,M,P		15,6		Total	Avg
1	SDC Rhebellion XP	10	-4	13		12	-1	12	-1	16		10		17		15		14		9		128	12.8
2	Cinnamon Roll Fight Club	10	-3	12	-1	12	-1	9	-1	12	-3	9	-1	13	-2	9	-8	15	-1	10	-1	111	11.1
3	Spaceland Toxic	10	-3	10	-1	11	-1	7	-3	14	-1	10	-1	12	-4	12	-1	14		8	-1	108	10.8
4	Air Force Tall Boys	10	-1	11		11		7	-1	10	-1	7	-1	10	-1	12		11	-1	9		98	9.8
5	49 1/2 Fingers	9		10		10		7		9	-2	6		10		11	-2	11		7		90	9.0
6	Archridge FAM	9		9		10		8		12	-1	7		10		6	-1	9		7		87	8.7
7	Fouriners	9	-1	9	-1	11		7	-1	5	-2	7	-1	8	-4	11	-1	10		7	-1	84	8.4
8	Joanne and the Creepers	8	-1	9		9		7		10		7	-1	11		6	-7	9		7		83	8.3
8	Anion Flux XP	7	-2	9	-1	9	-1	8		9		7	-1	8	-2	9	-1	9		8		83	8.3
10	Air Raid XP	6	-3	9		11		9		9	-1	4		8	-1	9		12		5	-1	82	8.2
11	CSC Constellation	10	-1	6	-2	8		7	-1	9	-2	6	-1	9	-2	10		9		7		81	8.1
12	Air Force Artemis	8	-2	8		6	-1	6	-1	10	-1	5		10		9		9		6	-1	77	7.7
13	Pick me up before you go go	5	-2	6	-3	7		6		10		7		8	-1	9		8	-1	6		72	7.2
14	DeLand Pound Cakes	8		7		7		6		8	-1	5		8		9		5		6		69	6.9
15	Air Force PoisEN	5	-3	6	-1	7		6		8		5		2	-1	8		7		6		60	6.0
16	Frequent Fallers	3	-1	5		2	-2	3		6		5		4	-1	3	-2	5		4		40	4.0

Spaceland Toxic is probably aiming at an even better finish than in 2022, while Mile-Hi SpeedRun is obviously on track to become one of the major opponents for Toxic's new lineup. The Colorado team could complete only seven rounds at Skydive Paraclete XP, due to the inclement weather on Saturday.

The teams at Skydive Spaceland Houston completed all ten rounds, and Mile-Hi SpeedRun was one point ahead of Toxic after Round 7. Both teams will probably complete all ten rounds at the USPA Nationals in September when they will have a live re-match at the same place and the same time.

The NSL News had introduced the second Texas team in the AA/Intermediate Class, Disturbance Delicious, with the Indoor Cloud League update on July 11th. The Pre-Nationals was the team's first outdoor competition, and it was a promising start.

The new team was able to tie the highscores of the other two top teams twice in the seven rounds that all teams completed. They were not far behind in the other five rounds. Teams from Texas will probably play a significant role once again at the national championship. However, the Colorado team is one point ahead, at least after the seven rounds last weekend.