posted Aug 13th, 2004 - Fyodor Mozgovoy, Malevsky Cup staff member and team videographer for the Ladybirds, provided the NSL News with an update of the Russian national championships, which were held at the beginning of August. Here are the scores of the 4-way competition:

The 4-way results did not bring any surprises. The Sky Panthers dominated the field of 12 teams from the beginning to the end and confirmed the qualification as the 2004 national team easily with a 20.2 meet average after ten rounds. The same team had finished the Malevsky Cup 2004 with a 20.1 average. Extreme.RU and Kolumna Quick Blue took the next two places, only in switched order compared to the Malevsky Cup. Extreme.RU scored slightly higher with a 17.6 average, while Kolumna Quick Blue finished significantly below the team's Malevsky Cup average (17.1 - 16.1).

Synairgy took the 6th place with a much improved average (13.1 - 14.7), and the Russian national team of the Women's Class, the Ladybirds, was the most improved team of the Russian 4-way championship. The Ladybirds had posted a 12.1 meet average at the Malevsky Cup 2004 and now finished with 14.1 on the scoreboard after ten rounds. This result brings the Russian women's team closer to the medal positions at this year's world meet next month in Croatia. The USA, France and Italy are expected to be the strongest contenders for the medals in this separate IPC class. However, if the Ladybirds can come up with a similar progression between now and the beginning of the world meet, then the team might move into a strong underdog position for the medals.

The most exciting part of the national championship in Russia was the 8-way competition. Russia had only one very strong 8-way team in the last decade, which finally captured the 8-way sword Excalibur and the gold medals for Russia for the first time in 8-way history in 2001. The same team defended the gold medals in a nerve wrecking battle, including jump-off and tie-breaker, at the Mondial 2003 in France.

However, there was already ain interesting story behind the Russian 8-way situation in 2003. The winning Russian 8-way team was disbandoned after the success at the world meet in 2001. Sponsor Igor Sitnikov united most of the world champion team members in the new team Evolution Pro and became one of the team members. Evolution Pro performed well beyond expectations at the World Cup 2002 in Spain. The team progression stalled in 2003, and Sitnikov made a very brave decision not to jump with the team but call in members of the 2001 line-up. This turned out to be a very smart move since the team then defended the Russian gold medals successfully.

Evolution Pro of the 2004 season had a new line-up with three new members and only four members of the original team that won the 8-way world championship in 2001. Three other 2001 world champions have been members of the Sky Panthers in 4-way.

Earlier this year, and to many people's surprise, the Sky Panthers decided to form an 8-way team, as well, which included two more world champions of the 2001 line-up. Finally, all 2001 world champions are fully back in 8-way competition, but they are almost evenly divided between these two 8-way teams.

The 8-way competition at the Russian national championship was as close as the team line-ups would indicate. Both teams were tied in first place after eight rounds. Evolution Pro won four points in round nine and looked like the new champion. The SkyPanthers still fought back and reduced the deficit to one single point after round ten. However, Evolution Pro and four world champions of 2001 and 2003 will represent Russia in Croatia, unless there will be another emergency call...