posted Jul 9th, 2004 - Round two of the IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 had the fastest sequence of the 4-way competition (O-B-Q-J-14). The two top contenders, DeLand Majik and France Maubeuge, came up with different engineering once again. This time, it was Majik that seemed to have the shorter moves. France decided to use all the "A-slots" and longer moves to the Phalanx (Q) and to the Donut (J), while the DeLand team used a different Phalanx for a much shorter move to the Donut.

The results of this round seemed to confirm what the first jump had already indicated. The French team seemed to continue with the same commanding performance they had shown at the Mondial 2003. Was the Malevsky Cup to become the statement that the French team wanted to make? Can nobody be in the way of the French machine, not even DeLand Majik?

It surely looked like that after two rounds. The difference in the second round was even more significant compared to the first round. Majik just completed the first Bipole of Block 14 (Bipole - Bipole) for the 29th point in working time, while Maubeuge completed the 540 turns and the second Bipole for the score of 30 points. Majik even had only 28 points on the Omniskore screen at the first viewing before the judges decided to give the DeLand team the Bipole at freeze frame time.

However, a closer look at Majik's round two shows that both teams were actually closer than in round one where France was just a little bit faster. Majik had one very bad Block 14 in round two and also a flaw in the Donut at the end of the jump. These two Majik mistakes gave France the edge and added another point to the lead in round two. Fact is that France was now up by two points and that Majik went the same pace as Maubeuge.

The beating continued for Sinapsi PD in round two. The judges had already indicated in the first round that they were not willing to guess after the exit and on the hill. The first point deductions due to non-judgeable formations or inters in round one were apparently only warnings. Round two brought the real damage. Eight teams had n.j.'s on the hill, including Sinapsi PD with a two-point deduction for the first two formations. The Russian Sky Panthers were no victims of the MI-8 exit and had a very nice round with 25 points. They were now six points ahead of the Italian team after two rounds. It was the biggest upset of the meet at this point.

The Russian female team Ladybirds suffered the most and dramatically. The total damage was seven points, including three two-point penalties and one n.j.-deduction. The worst thing for the Russian team was the fact that all the other teams collected many points in this fast round. Overall, the Ladybirds were a very positive surprise of the female 4-way competition and kept up with UK's V-Max and Italy's Kewara in several of the ten rounds. In fact, the Russian team came out of the starting blocks like a whirlwind and won the first round by three points over V-Max and Kewara. However, round two cut the wings of the Ladybirds, at least for a little while. The recovery came quickly though.

The review of the Malevsky Cup videos will continue on Monday.