posted Mar 2nd, 2024 - The most exciting part of this year's Paraclete XP Indoor Championship was the competition for bronze medals in 4-way Open. It was a surprise when Arizona Airspeed gave away the meet opener, and the Golden Knights were still in 1st place after Round 2, however, the top of the leaderboard was still finally back in expected order.

It was a surprise that the new Golden Knights lineup were able to defend the 2nd place successfully that they had beginning in Round 3. The incredible 30-pointer in Round 1 did not only outscore Arizona Airspeed, it also created a big lead over the two other contenders for the positions behind Airspeed, SDC Rhythm XP and XPG4.

The Golden Knights had to accept the Airspeed dominance, while they even increased the distance to SDC Rhythm XP Starr in the lineup last yearand XPG4 to ten points after Round 10. The Golden Knights with three of the current members (Jeshua Stahler, Nick Birkner, Mike Connors) had finished in 2nd place with Drew Starr, when Airspeed won all ten rounds. The new and current lineup then placed 4th at the USPA Nationals 2023. With the Golden Knights taking back the 2nd place, and even in the lead after Round 2, SDC Rhythm XP and XPG4 seemed to have only the bronze medal position to compete for. They did so throughout all ten rounds and were tied in 3rd place, after SDC Rhythm XP had eliminated the 6-point deficit after the first four rounds.

Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2024		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	4,21,F		6,14,5		H,10,K,8		2,D,B,15		O,J,P,22		20,17,18		L,M,C,19		E,13,3		A,1,Q,G		11,12,16		N,9,1		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	28		26	-1	29		33		34		28		38	-1	29		39		26		-		310	31.0
2	Golden Knights	30		25		22	-1	28	-2	27	-2	20	-3	31	-4	26	-1	31	-3	24		-		264	26.4
3	SDC Rhythm XP	23	-2	23	-1	23		25	-1	30		20	-2	33	-1	25	-1	31	-1	21		35		254	25.4
4	XPG4	24		23	-1	25	-1	28		28	-1	18	-2	33		24	-1	30		21		30	-1	254	25.4
5	XPerimental	24		21		20	-1	24		25		17	-2	29	-1	21	-2	25	-3	19		-		225	22.5
6	RhEvolution XP	22		19	-1	19	-1	23	-1	23	-1	21		28		19	-1	25		19		-		218	21.8
7	Netunos	22		18	-2	19	-2	17	-5	26	-1	16	-2	28	-1	17	-3	26	-2	19		-		208	20.8
8	Chicken Bolts	19	-1	19		19	-1	20		22	-2	16		26	-1	19		26		18		-		204	20.4

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Golden Knights - SDC Rhythm XP - XPG4 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2024

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The situation between XPG4 and SDC Rhythm XP after the first four rounds on Saturday was the next surprise. The 6-point lead for XPG4 was unexpected, as they were recently dealing with personnel changes and slot scrambles that the complete lineup explained during the NSL Live Talk conversation after the completion of the ten rounds and the tie-breaker.

SDC Rhythm XP, on the other side of this duel, started their second year at the same place and the same time with the same lineup. Steve Loufek had joined Doug Barron, Keith Conner and Chris Webb at the end of the 2022 season, when Carl Kallgren did not come back to continue with SDC Rhythm XP.

It was a promising start for the new lineup who finished in 3rd place behind Arizona Airspeed and Golden Knights a year ago. The Qatar Tigers in 3rd place were a guest team at the national indoor championship, and XPG4 were in 5th place of the U.S. teams. However, Rhythm knew of the strength of XPG4's 2022 and 2023 lineup, with Anna Brunner in the inside center slot since the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2022.

The new Rhythm lineup had finished behind XPG4 twice in the last year, first at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving in Norway, where XPG4 completed the same ten sequences in 4-way Women that SDC Rhythm XP did in 4-way Open. The same order between XPG4 and Rhythm was confirmed at the USPA Nationals.

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NSL TV Unfiltered Round 11 - NSL Live Talk with XPG4

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The situation for the upcoming new duel between the same two U.S. teams changed when XPG4 did not continue with Anna Brunner, as the NSL News reported on February 16th, while SDC Rhythm XP were back with the same lineup for their second year.

New XPG4 member Jennifer Davidson was not ready to take her new slot at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2024, and Morgan Womble substituted for the U.S. 4-way Women team. She used to be the tail for the original XPG4 lineup and switched to the point slot for the national indoor championship.

XPG4 had scrambled the slots in training before the Paraclete XP indoor competition to find the best constellation, which put Michelle Karamon and Jeana Billings into different slots, as well. Only Brenn Richards continued in her tail slot. It seemed like SDC Rhythm XP was in the better position before the competition, with the same lineup and the same slots for all team members. That's the reason for the surprising leaderboard after Round 4, when XPG4 were six points ahead of SDC Rhythm XP. It was time for Rhythm to do something about it, and they did so, beginning in Round 5. They did not give away any of the remaining six rounds and forced XPG4 finally into the extra round, where they showed their best performance of the meet.