posted Aug 26th, 2011 - The World Cup videos of Round 4 in the 4way Open Class are now available for reviews. They include Ex3mo's Round 4, while the Italian team is getting ready for Round 1 of the Italian Nationals 2011.

Another Italian team that attended the World Cup will compete in the AAA Class competition in Fano this weekend. Evolution's duel with the German team NEVA was featured by the NSL News on 22 August 2011.

Ex3mo is probably Italy's top contender this year, and Evolution will try to get close to the medal rankings. Sinapsi won the national championships in 2009 and 2010 but has not registered for this year's national championships. Ex3mo finished with an 18.2 average in Germany and does not seem to have serious competition in Fano this weekend where former Sinapi member Livio Piccolo is hosting the event.

World Cup 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Round 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open Class	C,22,19	E,M,1,2	12,9,16	O,8,10	Q,14,5	P,17,K,18	21,L,J,13	3,11,B	20,G,H,4	N,F,A,7	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	22	27	23 (-1)	22	26	25	25	24	24	37	255	25.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	22	27	23	21 (-1)	24	25	21	23	24	39	249	24.9
3	Paratec-Saar	16 (-2)	23	19	15 (-2)	19	18	16	19	20	31	196	19.6
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	18	21	19	16 (-2)	19	16	15	19	19	33	195	19.5
5	Gradient Alpha	17	21	17 (-2)	13 (-2)	20	20	19	18	17	27	189	18.9
6	EX3MO4	15 (-1)	19	17	17	17	16	19	18	16	28	182	18.2
7	Bardagi	15	20	17	15	16	14	19	15	17	29	177	17.7
8	Dynamite	14	18	16	16	17	17	17	17	17	-	149	16.6
9	Rotor Out	14	18	15 (-1)	13	17	18	16	15	17	-	143	15.9
10	SonicNutz	11 (-1)	16 (-1)	16	12	15	16	16	16	16	-	134	14.9
11	Whooops	11	15	13	11	14	12	16	13	13	-	118	13.1

The Italian Nationals 2011 are a great success before it has even started in the AAA Class. Italy introduced the Rookie Class this year for the first time, and nine teams made it a very convincing effort. The scores on the Italian Rookie Class leaderboard are impressive, and all teams are new on Italian leaderboards.

However, the competition in the A Class was the most exciting one so far. Black Out turned the 2nd place of 2010 into a clear victory this year, while Senso Unico and Nytro battled it out for the 2011 silver medals. They ended up tied after ten rounds and had to go into overtime. Nytro scored a 14-pointer in the jumpoff round (Q-7-1) and outscored Senso Unico by three points.

The Sky Devils also came back after a 3rd place in the A Class last year and decided to compete in the AA Class, even though there was no competition. The AAA Class teams kick off their 10-round meet tomorrow.

The videos of the World Cup's Round 4 offer more interesting insights of the judging. The audience has the opportunity to check out the Diamonds of the German team Paratec-Saar on the 1st and 3rd page where the judges decided that both formations were incomplete. NMP-PCH Hayabusa lost the exit Satellite as a scoring formation due to the lack of grip visibility.

Sky Panthers Barkli offers the most interesting case though. There is no doubt that the team is in some serious trouble at the end of the second page when the Tail breaks the Canadian T after the completion of Block 8. It is no surprise that the inter to the Diamond of Block 10 is too confused and out of synch to make it a clean separation and a scoring point for the Diamond.

However, calling the second Canadian T of Block 8 as an incomplete formation challenges the understanding of 4way competitors and coaches. It is true that the Tail breaks the formation, which is probably a violation of the team rules, in Russia as well as everywhere else in the 4way world. It still doesn't mean that the Canadian T was not complete. A team can break a formation however they feel like doing it, and a "bad" break cannot be an indicator for an infringement. There are several frames where the second Canadian T is complete before the Tail drops the grips, and the Sky Panthers were apparently penalized for an infringement that is nowhere in the rules.

World Cup 2011 Judging
Is the Canadian T of Sky Panthers Barkli a complete scoring formation or not?	Yes No
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