posted Dec 26th, 2004 - Round five of the NSL Championship 2004 can now be viewed on NSL-TV. It offers the next opportunity to study Arizona Blade with Thomas Hughes in the Center Outside position and Point Natasha Montgomery. The recent NSL News stories covered Montgomery's and Hughes' new team plans with Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo in the 2005 line-up. The news initiated an interesting discussion at the NSL Forum, which mostly gives Montgomery credit for her efforts to put the new team together.

By the way: the NSL Forum was down for a little while due to attacks on the sophisticated program set up by Skyleague.com's webmaster, Craig Buxton. QWK.net, the server for the NSL website, and Buxton both reacted very quickly. It took them only less than a day to get the website and the Forum running again. The server is still working on the attack problem, and the website might be slow or temporarily down once in a while. Please be patient, and NSL apologies for the inconvenience.

Webmaster Buxton is also busy to make the necessary adjustments for the change of the year. Skyleague.com will soon be ready for updates of any kind for the new season. There are 2005 league schedules to be posted, new teams to be added, and the first draw and scoresheet for the season opener in February need to be prepared.

Back to the NSL-TV. Round five was another great round for Arizona Blade. The score of 18 points was the highest for the round, once again, even though the Danez and DeLand Scape had great performances, as well. Blade went clearly past the 16th point of these teams, which is the first Bipole of Block 14, completed the block move and scored the Yuan (D) still within working time. A score of 19 points would probably have made any top team in the world very happy. Blade finished this round with 18 points.

The sequence of round five was identical between the AAA Class and the AA Class. Carolina Ice and Elsinore Equinox tied this round. The team from Carolina went a slightly faster pace after an exit funnel and still managed to get ten points in time. The Bipole of Block 14 alone is one of the most challenging exit formations and did not come out very well for Ice. All other AAA and AA Class teams mastered the difficult exit. Block 14 on the hill is another challenge and can slow down the pace of the first page significantly. Enjoy the great performances on NSL-TV.

The recent "case study" and future Sinapsi PD member, Pete Allum, flies the Center Inside position for DeLand Scape. Thomas Hughes, the next "case study", is in the Center Outside position for Arizona Blade. The NSL News will evaluate and explain the rule situation for Hughes' new team after a short break for a few days.