posted Jul 8th, 2004 - Only European hard-core 4-way fans were actually able to watch the early rounds of the Malevsky Cup on NSL-TV. Even these valued Skyleague.com visitors had to get up very early to watch NSL-TV. The current software program allows the NSL-TV to show only one jump per team at an event. The NSL-TV decided to feature as many teams and jumps as possible round by round.

It was a quite exciting procedure. The NSL-TV dubbed and computerized the jumps with the very first Omniskore viewing by the judges. DeLand Majik's videographer Graham Harding helped to set up the direct connection between the NSL office and the judging room. The video files were uploaded while the judges watched the jump the second time. Finally, each video was available for the NSL audience almost exactly at the same time when the score for the same jump was posted. It was almost like live TV.

However, a lot of this on-line action happened at times when the European audience was just waking up early in the morning and the American audience was sound asleep. Moscow is three hours ahead of the central European time and nine hours ahead of the American east coast time. The American west coast was additional three hours behind. The whole NSL audience was only able to watch the last jumps of each competition day, which remained on NSL-TV until the competition continued next morning.

The NSL News received requests from visitors who would have liked to watch more of the video files. The NSL-TV was not able to make that happen during the competition. However, all the files are still stored on the server, and they will be shown on NSL-TV during the next ten days, one round per day. This will give everybody the chance to catch up.

The coverage of all rounds has now begun with round one, the links can be found at the NSL-TV page. The first round of the meet changed the expected three-team competition already into a race only between France Maubeuge and DeLand Majik. Italy's Sinapsi PD had a more complicated and slower engineering and did not seem to perform with full confidence. The penalty for an incomplete separation between the end of Block 3 (Side Flake Opal - Turf) and the Murphy Flake (C) reduced the 19 points in time to 17 points on the score board.

France Maubeuge and DeLand Majik did not hold back at the meet opener and left the Italian team in the dust. France was even more aggressive than the US national team and almost completed the 24th point, while Majik was just beginning to take grips for the second Cat of Block 15(Cat - Cat), which would have been the 23nd point. However, both teams made already very clear that there would be only two teams running for the gold medeal and the $12,000 cash for the first place.

The Sky Panthers, Russian national 4-way team in Stupino, caught Sinapsi PD by surprise and used the bad Italian start to take a two-point lead in the bronze medal position. Nobody knew by then that the Panthers would never give back the third place and finish the meet five points ahead of Sinapi PD.

The first team videographers also had to experience the difficulties of the MI-8 tail gate exit. V-Max lost one point on the hill due to a non-judgeable Murphy Flake, and the judges could not see the first two points of the Russian team Evolution Pro. The teams in positions five to eight showed already in round one how tight this horse race would be. Kolumna Quick Blue, Extreme.RU, EADS and the Danez were tied in fifth place with 17 points after the first round. The same four teams would be separated by two points after ten rounds (169 - 171).

Come back tomorrow for round two on NSL-TV. New rounds of the other previous NSL meets will also be uploaded very soon.