posted Nov 17th, 2009 - The NSL News goes back to the 8-way competition at the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships. The story on 2 May 2009 had introduced a new 8-way lineup for the 2009 season.

Dallas Rogue had started training for the USPA Nationals 2009 and aimed for a medal position with a strong lineup of amateur competitors. The NSL News followed up a few times on the progression of the team.

Dallas Rogue eventually finished with a 13.9 average and ended up in 4th place with this result. It was simply unfortunate timing for the Rogue approach, as the lineups of the three other top teams were loaded with professional competitors and former world champions.

The same meet average would have been good enough for USPA bronze medals at nine of the national championships since 1997.

Arizona Airspeed, Golden Knights and Paraclete XP were just too strong and/or too well trained for the Dallas Rogue lineup.

There were only two national championships since 1997 when a 13.9 average would not have been good enough to win a bronze medal. Team Ace scored a 15.2 average at the USPA Nationals 2007, while Arizona Airspeed won as usual and Knight Trax placed 2nd. Ace was a pickup team, howewer, the lineup consisted of six former Airspeed members, plus Kai Wolf and Steve Simar.

This year's 8-way competition was tight as never before in the battle for the gold and silver medals, but it was not the closest one for the bronze medals. The USPA Nationals 2002 had Airspeed once again in 1st place (18.2) and the Golden Knights (16.8) quite safely in 2nd place.

Then there was a furious battle for the bronze medals between DeLand Majik's 8-way lineup (15.8) and a well trained Arizona Vengeance lineup (15.5) guided by Dan BC. Dallas Rogue's 13.9 average would have been just enough for the 5th place in 2002.

Rogue member Scott Latinis will remember the 2002 competition, as he was a Vengeance member that year. Airspeed's current 4-way world champion Andy Delk was his team mate by then, together with Eric Gin, Dennis Rook and Christopher Irwin, who all joined Airspeed at a later time.

It was the second time now for Scott Latinis that he was competing with a well trained and high-scoring 8-way team that missed the bronze medal in an unusually competitive 8-way year.

He placed 3rd in 8-way a year after the first miss in 2002, but Perris Vengeance was not eligible for USPA medals in 2003.

However, the third Vengeance year finally brought him the 8-way bronze medal in 2004 with a 12.8 average.

This year in Spaceland he scored higher with Dallas Rogue. However, the 18.7 average for the third place was far out of reach for any amateur lineup.