posted Apr 19th, 2011 - Back to the World Challenge 2011 where it is time for the Top 10 videos of Round 8.

The adjusted leaderboard with the marks and numbers for the point deductions is the same as it was after Round 7. This is not a mistake, the Top 10 teams did not have any infringements marked on their score sheets. It was the cleanest round of the meet so far.

Once again, it did not change much in the Top 10 rankings. NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed neutralized each other. Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge secured the 3rd place, and SportsLotto got a little bit closer to SDC Rhythm XP, while NPC Aerokart Maubeuge caught up with Satori round by round. The French 8-way experts had probably suffered the biggest loss of all top teams in Round 3 and tried hard to work their way further up the leaderboard. It was a tough uphill battle.

World Challenge 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
R.	AAA Class	10,C,5	20,P,2	H,M,Q,K,A	L,J,16,12	E,7,15	O,11,22	14,B,17	6,13,9	4,3,21	1,G,8	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	27	25(-1)	65	29	33	23(-1)	28	28	22	25	305	30.5
2	Arizona Airspeed	26	24(-2)	60(-2)	27	34	24(-1)	27(-1)	28	23	25	298	29.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge	26	25	52	27	31(-1)	25	29	27	24	24	290	29.0
4	XL	25	24	58	24	32	24	26	25	21	23	282	28.2
5	SDC Rhythm XP	22	23	56	23	27(-2)	20(-1)	24	21	19	22	257	25.7
6	SportsLotto	21(-2)	23(-1)	49(-3)	23	29	20	25(-1)	23	21	21	255	25.5
7	NPC Aerokart Maubeuge	24	20(-1)	41(-4)	22	26(-1)	21	26	22	21	20	243	24.3
8	Satori	19	19(-1)	57	21	25	19(-1)	24	21	17	20	242	24.2
9	Aerodyne DB Defenders	21(-1)	21	44(-1)	20(-1)	27	19(-1)	25	21	19	19	236	23.6
10	Thunder	13(-4)	20(-1)	41(-2)	23	27	20	23(-1)	21	19	17	224	22.4

The new Block 13 came with the sequence of Round 8, and all Top 10 teams agreed on the technique this time. A few teams had applied a forward rotation at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championships 2011, including SDC Rhythm XP. However, the backward rotation has won the tests and experiments after the recent dive pool changes with the introduction of a new Block 13.

Only the two French Open Class teams applied a different technique for Block 6 (Stardian - Stardian) where the rear piece moves over the front piece. All other teams had it the opposite way, including the French female lineup, Aerodyne Deep Blue Defenders. The French delegation was split this time, and coach Marin Ferre will have a reason why the reigning female world champions have their own technique.

Hayabusa often applies the French engineering and techniques, not in this case though. Hayabusa's rear piece went under the front piece, together with the other seven Top 10 teams.

The engineering was still different between the French teams, Hayabusa and the six other Top 10 teams. All three French teams and Hayabusa decided to let the Tail sit after Block 13 and become the point of the 2-way Cat for Block 9. This changed the transition from the end of Block 9 to the first Stardian of Block 6, as well.

The other six teams preferred to use the A-slots for Block 9, which changed the moves for the rear piece partners to the top of Block 9 and to the top of Block 6.

The scores don't indicate that any of those differences in block techniques and engineering made any significant difference. The first of two consecutive 3-block sequences went by without much turmoil.