posted Jun 21st, 2024 - Last weekend's leaderboards featured several potential medal contenders for this year's national outdoor championships. Paranodon's Futura 8 team won bronze medals in the RRR Class of the German Outdoor Nationals 2023. They have moved up to A Class competition, where they could compete for the German top spots once again.

Paranodon's Futura 6.9 team, with former Airbus videographer Andreas Trögele and his son Julius in the lineup, placed 3rd at the German Indoor Nationals 2024 and will try to defend the position at the outdoor championship. Austrian team Black Mantis are back on their way to medal positions after rebuilding the lineup a few times in the wake of the corona virus crisis.

Airbus Oceanside Illertissen and Meltemi Oceanside Illertissen took the two top positions at the German Outdoor Nationals 2023 and are more focused on the international rankings at the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2024 shortly after the national championship, where they will probably defend their titles successfully. Paranodon's SOS seniors have not competed at national outdoor championships in the past years, while they have won SOS world championship titles instead.

NSL 4-way Network June 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		Q,M,A,O	1,14	11,6	J,D,E,7	B,4,15	F,18,21	9,19	P,20,13	N,22,8	2,C,H	Total	Avg
1	Futura 6.9 Paranodon	DE	16	8	9	14	6	8	8	6	6	9	90	9.0
2	AeroDynamics	US	11	7	7	11	7	8	7	7	7	9	81	8.1
3	GAGS Paranodon Futura Illertissen	DE	3	8	7	9	9	7	9	6	8	11	77	7.7
4	4 Brain	DE	15	4	4	10	6	6	8	8	7	8	76	7.6
5	Paranodon Imparable	DE	12	6	5	11	6	7	3	7	4	7	68	6.8
6	Luctor Et Decensus	NL	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	6.0

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Aero Dynamics at the Great Lakes Skydiving League

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U.S. team Aero Dynamics is new to 4-way competition, and the NSL News introduced the lineup with the update on June 17th. However, the team members are talented and trained well enough to skip the A Class competition and 4-way Beginners category at the USPA Nationals.

The first scores and the performance of the Aero Dynamics indicate that the Great Lakes Skydiving League team could walk away with USPA gold medals in the lowest category, and they decided to take on the AA Class dive pool with its 16 blocks and longer sequences. In fact, the 8.1 average last weekend will probably be lifted close to the 10-average level when Aero Dynamics continue with competition practice at the August meet of the Great Lakes Skydiving League.

The 10-average level is usually the benchmark where teams become medal contenders in 4-way Intermediate at the USPA national championships in the United States. The top contender in this category this year is probably CSC Constellation XP, who placed 4th at last year's national outdoor championship with a 9.2 average, three points behind the bronze medals (92 - 95). CSC Constellation XP already won the AA/Intermediate Class competition at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2024 with an 18.3 indoor average.

Cloud Games 2024		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	B,J,D,1	6,P,K	19,15	21,M,13	8,18	N,G,2	14,L,7	C,22,A	F,20,E	Q,9,4	Total	Avg
1	4Action	9	9	7	11	8	10	8	9	-	-	71	8.9
2	Dank's Dingleberries	9	8	5	9	4	4	5	-	-	-	44	6.3
3	Kit A Till Us War Ashes Locos	5	4	2	6	2	3	2	4	6	4	38	3.8
4	Low Expectations	6	6	3	5	3	3	3	-	-	-	29	4.1
5	Volaticus	0	5	5	6	0	7	3	-	-	-	26	3.7
6	Luau Confusion	5	0	3	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	12	3.0

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4Action at the Cloud Games 2024

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Florida Skydiving League team 4Action is even closer to the 10-average level than the AerOhio team. They applied the competition draw of the Cloud Games, an event that copies the synchronization of the competition draw at different locations once a year.

As a result, 4Action and Aero Dynamics used different competition draws at Spaceland Clewiston and AerOhio, and the teams cannot compare their scores directly. 4Action won the AA/Intermediate Class competition of the Cloud Games easily, even though they finished below their standing team record average.

However, at least the scores for the first two rounds would have been higher with better weather conditions in South Florida. The cloud ceiling was too low for the working time of 35 seconds, and 4Action was done with scoring action after 30 seconds. They could neither complete the last two rounds. 4Action would have reached the 10-average level with normal working time and without point deductions, which sets them up as a medal contender in September. The Cloud Games last weekend was the 4th 4-way competition for 4Action this year.