posted Nov 10th, 2011 - It is about time to go back to the beginning of the USPA Nationals 2011 and the complete aftermath. The videos of the first two rounds of the Top 5 teams are now available for reviews, thanks to USPA and Skydive Arizona. The videos come along with the extended leaderboard, including the point deductions.

SDC Rhythm XP has received the most attention of all top contenders so far, and there are good resons for that. The impressive performance and the drama of the last two rounds was naturally a very exciting part of the AAA/Open Class competition. The announcement that Center Inside Rob Radez steps back added breaking news to the interesting Rhythm coverage.

However, it is still not really fair that the winner, Arizona Airspeed, had to wait so long for the first NSL News story. Reason for that is probably the fact that the most convincing victory did not surprise anybody and was clearly expected by the NSL News audience, according to the results of the poll questions prior to the event.

USPA Nationals 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open Class	M,5,13	21,14,22	12,20,D	11,Q,16	O,C,10,K	P,L,19,8	18,6,2	15,9,G	7,F,17	A,B,N,J,3	Total	Avg
1	USA Arizona Airspeed	25	19	19	22	26	24	21	26	31	30	243	24.3
2	USA Golden Knights Gold	18 (-1)	17	18	21	24	23	19	21	29	28	218	21.8
3	USA Perris Fury	20 (-2)	17	16	21	26	22	15	21	29	29	216	21.6
4	SDC Rhythm XP	22	17	18	21	24	20	19	22	26	26	215	21.5
5	USA Paraclete XP4	21	16	16	20	23	19	17	22	26	28	208	20.8

Throw Down member Ari Perelman said before the competition began that he expected a distance of at least 20 point between Airspeed and the next team. It turned out to be a 25-point victory over the Golden Knights Gold lineup in 2nd place.

The 24.3 average doesn't seem to be anything exciting, as Aerodyne Aerokart from France (25.5) and NMP-PCH Hayabusa from Belgium (24.9) posted significantly higher averages at the World Cup 2011 in August. However, the competition draw logically makes a difference, and the one in Eloy was not a fast one.

Airspeed's progression in 2011 becomes more visible when compared to other teams that attended the same meets. The NSL News took a closer look at the scores at the Shamrock Showdown 2011 to get a better understanding of the recent Airspeed performance level.

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Airspeed won clearly and without much competition at all. However, the numbers show that the US national team of 2012 has to be on alert and keep working hard looking at the competition from France and Belgium. SDC Rhythm XP went from 19.7 at the Shamrock Showdown to 21.5 at the USPA Nationals, while Airspeed posted a 24.9 average in March and now finished with a 24.3 average. Even Paraclete XP4, only in 5th place in Eloy increased the scoring level from 19.9 to 20.8 between March and October.

It is surely much easier to increase the scoring level coming from a lower average. Airspeed started the 2011 season on a very high level, with 25.0 at the Valentine's Meet 2011 and 24.9 at the Shamrock. The lack of competition in the USA does not help much either, as all Airspeed members mentioned.

Any potential pressure was already completely gone after Round 1, which Airspeed won by three points. Two more points were added to the Airspeed lead in Round 2, and the other teams knew by then that Airspeed was out of reach. The scores of Round 1 were also the beginning of the Rhythm drama, as the underdog took the sole 2nd place and defended it successfully in the slow sequence of Round 2. The NSL News will add the sequence of Round 2 (21,14,22) to the collection of slow sequences and follow up on this topic soon.