posted Jun 22nd, 2025 - As every competition, the Summer Classic 2025 began with the famous Round 1. It was a delayed start, as an unexpected layer of fog was in the way of the Twin Otter taking off at the scheduled time. This gave the six teams at Skydive Paraclete XP some extra time for the preparations.

Round 1 of any competition is usually the one that is better prepared than any other round. The competition draw is known the night before the beginning of a competition, and the teams have much more time to get ready for Round 1. It was different this time in Raeford, as the draw was published on Saturday morning. The delay allowed the teams to spend more time for the final preparations.

Weather delays and interruptions are an unwelcome part of outdoor formation skydiving competition, even though they happen regularly due to the nature of the sport. The psychology and dynamics of a weather hold before Round 1 might be a special one, just as every first round of a competition has its own mental challenges. In the first video of the Summer Classic, NSL TV Unfiltered features once again the run-up to the first take-off for Round 1, with special attention to the two U.S. top teams, Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed. It includes the return of the two teams to the hangar after landing, which Niklas Hemlin commented briefly with "smiles don't lie". He related to the first reactions of the Golden Knights.

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Round 1 of the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2025

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It seemed like the highly anticipated duel between Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed would live up to the expectations that promised a tight battle for the upper hand in the United States. They tied three of the first four rounds, and there was only a 1-point advantage for the Golden Knights after Round 4.

It was not the same at the end of the first day when the U.S. Army team had created a 7-point lead, without giving away a single round. Airspeed still have to win a round over the Golden Knights, which they had done three times at the Shamrock Showdown 2025. They have three more rounds left on Sunday at Skydive Paraclete XP to change the situation.

There were two more interesting duels going on in Raeford. One of them featured new team XP Angels and the 4-way veterans of Platinum XP, who exchanged highscores round by round until video troubles stopped the all-female lineup of the XP Angels from challenging Platinum XP for the 3rd place. Both teams completed all ten rounds on Saturday and plan to add the Super Sequence of Round 11 to their duel on Sunday morning. The situation was the same for the first four rounds on the AA/Intermediate Class leaderboard, where four new big-way record holders of the South American 104-way decided to add the 4-way competition to their visit at Skydive Paraclete XP. They were two points ahead of SDD Intravenous XP after Round 4 before an injury stopped them from continuing. NSL Live Talk with SDD Intravenous XP at the end of the day will soon introduce the reigning U.S. indoor champions in the A/Beginner Class.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2025			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/4-way Open		3,8,7	H,21,2	1,L,P,6	17,9,10	F,13,1	12,J,D,22	20,16,19	K,M,15,0	5,18,C	4,14,B	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	19	22	24	23	25	19	20	-	-	-	152	21.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	22	23	23	22	19	17	-	-	-	145	20.7
3	Platinum XP	US	10	12	11	12	11	11	9	13	11	10	110	11.0
4	XP Angels	US	10	11	13	11	13	1	9	12	8	11	99	9.9
Rank	AA/4-way Intermediate		G,F,22	M,13,K	N,18,4	C,9,15	J,1,20	11,7	8,A,2	L,19,H	O,21,6	P,B,E,Q	Total	Avg
1	Danielson Intravenous XP	US	6	9	7	8	7	7	7	-	-	-	51	7.3
2	Brazilian 4	BR	7	9	8	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	32	8.0