posted Jul 13th, 2004 - The two top contenders, DeLand Majik and France Maubeuge, did not change anything in round three. It seemed as if Majik had settled at the identical pace that France was going after a slightly slower start. Both teams scored 24 points in time for a sequence on the faster side (7-16-H) and were once again far ahead of Sinapsi PD and the Sky Panthers with 22 points each. The Italian team had apparently shaken off the terrible start into the competition and at least tied the Russian national team for the first time. However, Sinapsi PD and the Sky Panthers completed Block 7 (Side Buddies - Side Buddies), while DeLand Majik and France Maubeuge completed the whole next Block 16 (Compressed Accordean - Box).

The identical pace between the French and the U.S. national teams was confirmed in round four. Both teams ended up in a deadlocked freeze frame in almost exactly the same situation between the completition of Block 21 (Zig Zag - Marquis) and the Diamond of Block 10 (Diamond - Bunyip). It was the second consecutive tied round after France had won rounds one and two and was in the lead by two points.

Sinapsi PD continued to recover. After keeping up with the Sky Panthers in round three, found four was now the first time that the Italian team won one point back from the Russians and got very close to France and Majik with the score of 19 points. The two leaders finished round three with 20 points each.

The race for the fifth place remained as exciting as it had been throughout the first three rounds. The Danez and the Russian team Kolumna Quick Blue were tied in fifth position with the Extreme.RU and the German team EADS shortly behind. Round four was not a good round for the Danez. The team chose to dive the Diamond from the MI-8 tail gate ramp, as several other teams did, and almost funneled the exit. The subterminal recovery took a long time and was costly for the Danish national team. The three other contenders for the fifth position scored 16 points, while the Danez ended up with 12 points on the Omniskore screen.

The variety of different Diamonds off the MI-8 ramp was quite amazing, there were no limits. Diamonds floated straight up line of flight, or angled to the left or to the right; they dove straight head down, or to the left or right, and the French national team launched it completely sidewards. The Danez were the only top team that had problems with the diving Diamond. The down-hill momentum can be very helpful for the aggressive move of the tail. However, if the angle gets too steep trouble is waiting ahead.

Unfortunately, the quality of the Omniskore transmission from the judging station to the DZ-TV had a weak phase in the middle of the competition. Chief judge Klaus Wellens explained that there was a problem with a graphic card that caused the lower quality. The NSL-TV missed several transmissions while trying to fix the problem, and some of the videos show the lower quality. However, the archived videos of round five will be on tomorrow.