posted Jun 25th, 2025 - The NSL News presented the situation of the Golden Knights after the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2025 on June 23rd, including NSL Live Talk with the complete lineup after Round 10 on Sunday. It was no surprise that the U.S. Army team was in great spirits after a convincing performance last weekend.

Next step for the Golden Knights follows, as planned, at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025, where they will have the next re-match, this time with the Aethers from France and SDC Rhythm XP. The Golden Knights will be in the same situation at Skydive Teuge in the Netherlands as Arizona Airspeed was at the Summer Classic before the competition began.

The reigning 4-way world champions with their new lineup had reduced the distance to the Golden Knights to three points (224 - 227) at Skydive DeLand and were planning to be on eye level at Paraclete XP. The Golden Knights finished 34 points behind the French national 4-way Open Class team at the Shamrock Showdown and now travel to the Netherlands with the goal to get much closer to the Aethers than they were in DeLand. The U.S. Army team with coach Niklas Hemlin seem to be in a much better position at this point in time compared to Arizona Airspeed. The Golden Knights would have a whole year of time to catch up with the French team, no matter what the difference is by now, if they win the national outdoor championship later this year. Airspeed have only four months to catch up with the Golden Knights until the USPA showdown in October in Eloy.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2025		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	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	19		22		24		23		25		19		20		26	-2	22	-1	21		221	22.1
2	Arizona Airspeed	19		22		23		23		22		19		17		28		13	-2	19		205	20.5
3	Platinum XP	10		12		11		12	-1	11		11		9		13		11		10	-1	110	11.0
4	XP Angels	10		11	-3	13		11	-1	13	-1	1		9	-2	12	-2	8		11		99	9.9

---

Golden Knights - Arizona Airspeed at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2025

---

Arizona Airspeed was showing clearly how important and challenging the road to the next USPA championship title would be this year. They started with outdoor training as soon as national indoor championship and indoor world championship were over.

Airspeed had to face additional difficulties to deal with even before the outdoor season began. The lineup for indoor training and events was not consistent. The complete new lineup (Chris Kuhlmann, Joey Marshall, Alisson de Vargas, Doug Hendrix) was in action at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, and then different (Chris Kuhlmann, Joey Marshall, Niklas Hemlin, Doug Hendrix) at the FAI Indoor World Championship. Indoor training was split to a certain extent between the two different lineups.

The new lineup was free for their near future after the indoor world championship, and they wanted to see where they were at the starting point of the U.S. outdoor season. The performance at the 3-point battle with the Golden Knights at the Shamrock Showdown was at least promising. Airspeed's new lineup then traveled again to the east coast to check the situation after they, and the Golden Knights, had over two months for outdoor training. The outcome of the Summer Classic, with a 16-point deficit after Round 10, was probably as shocking for Airspeed as it was inspiring for the Golden Knights.

Shamrock Showdown 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	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	Avg
1	Aethers	FR	25		23		21		24		34		32		23		32		29		18		261	26.1
2	Golden Knights	US	19	-2	24		18	-2	24		28	-1	26	-2	20		27	-2	26	-1	15	-2	227	22.7
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	-1	21		18		22		27	-2	28	-1	18	-1	24	-4	26		17		224	22.4
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	20		17	-2	17		16	-2	24	-3	24	-1	19		18	-7	21	-1	15		191	19.1
5	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	17	-2	18		14		18	-2	24		19	-2	15	-1	24		21		12	-1	182	18.2
6	Airbus 4-way Illertissen	DE	15	-4	14	-2	13		16		19	-3	19		15		23		19		12		165	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	14.2
8	4Action	US	9	-1	10	-1	8	-1	9		13	-1	10		9		11	-3	12		9		100	10.0

Golden Knights - Arizona Airspeed at the Shamrock Showdown 2025

---

It was not a bad start for Airspeed at Skydive Paraclete XP at all, as they were only one point behind after Round 4. However, the difference grew to seven points after seven rounds at the end of the first day, and Airspeed had to come up with a good plan for the remaining three rounds.

Then it really happened what the audience has been seeing regularly in the history of Arizona Airspeed. They won their first round of the competition on Sunday morning by two points, after two point deductions for the Golden Knights, and the remaining 5-point difference was close enough for a similar comeback as other Airspeed lineups have shown in the past.

Unfortunately, the next round did not end in any way how it was expected. Airspeed followed up on the usual indication of a serious comeback with something that the audience has not seen in the history of Arizona Airspeed competition - a serious exit funnel. The B-slots for the exit of Block 5 (Opal - Opal) could apparently not be trained well enough by the new lineup, and the resulting 9-point loss in Round 9 sealed the dominance of the Golden Knights. Round 9 had additional unplanned obstacles for Arizona Airspeed. The opening of Joey Marshall's parachute caused trouble, and he had to cut it away. Similarly to NMP PCH HayaBusa a few days earlier in Laurinburg, a rescue mission in the surrounding woods was necessary to recover the parachute, including a climbing session by U.S. Army member Dustin Gebhardt, who had also witnessed the HayaBusa swamp mission in Laurinburg. Golden Knights and NMP PCH HayaBusa meet again at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025, where Arizona Airspeed will not be present.

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Aethers Medjay	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Golden Knights	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Lions	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	XPG4	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Agera	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Out Of The Blue	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	RhEvolution XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Ayro	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Chop Chop	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	British Army Volt4ge	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Axis	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Les Hermines	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Bripac	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Austria	AT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-