posted Apr 22nd, 2025 - The high-level field of teams at the Shamrock Showdown 2025 required a panel of judges who would have their own competition experiences and all expertise and knowledge that is currently available in formation skydiving competition.

Claire King, Dirk Venter and Jim Rees all had jobs in judging and meet management at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 and made the same road trip to Florida as Aethers (FR), Arizona Airspeed (US) and Netunos (BR). They have attended Shamrock Showdown events in the past, as well, and committed early to the double-pack of high-level events.

Dirk Venter and Claire King are the inventors of the InTime scoring system, which is the world's most popular program for judging all competitive skydiving events, not only formation skydiving. They are also FAI judges and competed with the South African 4-way team Jazz Republic for a decade. Jim Rees is U.S. delegate to the FAI/ISC and current member of the ISC Formation Skydiving Committee, and there is hardly any relevant formation skydiving event where he is not invited to share his knowledge and experiences with the organizers and participants. He trained and competed with the USPA Advanced Class champions of 2005, Mass Defiance, and continued for several years in 4-way Open. Claire King, Dirk Venter and Jim Rees all became engaged in other important areas of the sport while they were still actively competing.The high-level field of teams at the Shamrock Showdown 2025 required a panel of judges who would have their own competition experiences and all expertise and knowledge that is currently available in formation skydiving competition.

Shamrock Showdown 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Busts	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		17,M,10		20,19,F		18,22,K		N,G,3,16		O,E,P,21		9,L,5		6,13,1		C,J,Q,4		D,8,A,H		12,11,14		Total	Busts	Avg
1	Aethers	FR	25		23		21		24		34		32		23		32		29		18		261	-0	26.1
2	Golden Knights	US	19	-2	24		18	-2	24		28	-1	26	-2	20		27	-2	26	-1	15	-2	227	-12	22.7
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	-1	21		18		22		27	-2	28	-1	18	-1	24	-4	26		17		224	-9	22.4
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	20		17	-2	17		16	-2	24	-3	24	-1	19		18	-7	21	-1	15		191	-16	19.1
5	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	17	-2	18		14		18	-2	24		19	-2	15	-1	24		21		12	-1	182	-8	18.2
6	Airbus 4-way Illertissen	DE	15	-4	14	-2	13		16		19	-3	19		15		23		19		12		165	-9	16.5
7	Jen and the Double D's	US	15		13	-1	13		13	-1	18	-1	13		13		18	-2	17		9	-2	142	-7	14.2
8	4Action	US	9	-1	10	-1	8	-1	9		13	-1	10		9		11	-3	12		9		100	-7	10.0

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NSL Live Talk with judges Claire King, Dirk Venter, Jim Rees

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They met with the NSL News to evaluate the results of the Shamrock Showdown and discuss the topics that connect teams, competitors and judges who create the leaderboards together. One of the main topics was naturally the quality of the team performances and of the judging panels.

Judging of especially indoor competition has become very challenging in the past years. The judges are facing a high-pressure environment that hardly allows any breaks between competition rounds. Team, competitors and audience expect the scores to be posted as quickly as possible, and some events have even introduced live judging. At the same time, the competitors want to see accurate results, which requires more time for detailed evaluation of the performances.

Teams have changed their approach to scoring at a competition after the rule change in 2004 that the NSL News covered on 8 November 2024. The number of rule infringements at outdoor events have increased consistently ever since, and indoor competition has lifted the red markings on the leaderboards to an extreme level. However, especially the best teams in the world, first Arizona Airspeed between 2022 and 2024, followed by the French Aethers, have recently demonstrated that it is possible to perform on the highest level and still follow the defined rule requirements.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Busts	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		D,4,17		C,22,10		5,P,Q,18		1,M,J,O		16,6,19		H,8,21		12,13,A		L,G,K,9		15,F,7		E,2,N,B		Total	Busts	Avg
1	Aethers Medjay	FR	32		23	-1	35		41		28		27		29		45		32		37	-2	329	-3	32.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	-2	24		31		34		26		26	-1	27		49		34		36		314	-3	31.4
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	29	-1	22	-2	33		40	-1	24	-3	23	-4	26		43	-4	28	-3	38	-3	306	-21	30.6
4	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	28		22	-2	30		39		25		23	-4	25		38	-2	27	-3	33		290	-11	29.0
5	NFTO	UK	24	-1	22		26	-1	28	-4	22	-1	22		22	-1	36		29		30		261	-8	26.1
5	Fly X Amnesya	IT	26		19		25	-2	32	-1	23		22	-2	23		32	-5	27	-4	32		261	-14	26.1
7	Qatar Lions	QA	26	-1	19	-3	28	-1	31	-5	24		21	-2	22	-1	34		24	-4	31		260	-17	26.0
8	Echochamber	SE	23	-1	17	-2	27	-1	32	-2	22	-1	22		25	-1	34	-3	27	-2	28	-4	257	-17	25.7
9	Papea	ES	26	-1	18	-3	25		35	-2	19	-2	21	-3	21	-2	33	-3	28	-2	29	-3	255	-21	25.5
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	22		18		21	-3	29	-2	21		21	-1	20	-1	28	-3	25	-1	24	-2	229	-13	22.9
11	Realfly Fire	CH	22		14	-3	23		31		19		18	-3	18	-1	26	-4	21	-3	25	-1	217	-15	21.7
12	Netunos	BR	20	-1	16		20	-3	26	-2	18		18	-1	18		27		21	-1	19	-3	203	-11	20.3
13	Singapore	SG	16		10	-4	11	-4	17	-5	14	-1	15	-2	11	-4	15	-3	15	-2	19	-1	143	-26	14.3
14	Thailand	TH	8	-1	7	-2	7		11	-5	7		7	-3	5	-3	8	-4	11		8	-3	79	-21	7.9

Arizona Airspeed and Aethers both demonstrated together again at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 that the world's highest performance level is still the cleanest one at the same time, while the rest of the leaderboard continues to show the increasing number of infringements.

Aethers went even a step further at the Shamrock Showdown and delivered a historic outdoor performance, where the world class judges together could not find any infringements at all, despite a few red markings here and there.

The Shamrock Showdown was only the first outdoor competition of the year for the best teams in the world and a starting point into the 2025 season. Cleaning up, improving techniques and performance, and potentially increasing the pace, will be the task for the outdoor season heading towards the major events. However, the leaderboard of the indoor world championship was the conclusion of the indoor competition season, where the teams are showing the best they have to offer after intensive preparations. The outdoor scores at the Shamrock Showdown also include several point deductions due to video issues at exit time and sub-terminal maneuvers, which are not a factor at indoor competition. The two leaderboards are speaking their own language, and the team performances and judging conditions were the main topics of the NSL Live Talk conversation.