posted Oct 23rd, 2006 - The AA Class teams had their fastest round of the meet at the end of the first competition day. Round seven brought a sequence with four Random Formations to the table. Most of the teams used the great opportunity to improve the meet average significantly.

Air Force CAD did not only improve the number of the meet average with the highscore of 26 points for this round. The Air Force team also climbed up one slot on the leaderboard. Skydive Chicago's Furies had the second place with a 1-point lead after seven rounds.

26-pointer for Air Force CAD won second place

The Furies did well in round eight and tied the leader's score of 22 points. However, even Ranch Pulse was not able to get even close to Air Force CAD's handling of the four Random Formations.

The leader was probably glad to have the 8-point cushion after seven rounds. Air Force CAD stole four points and is now four points behind the first place. The Furies had a lot of work ahead to win back the second place.

Round eight did not change the situation between Air Force CAD and the Furies. The slow sequence did not allow any team to make a big move. Ranch Pulse increased the cushion by one point with another highscore and now leads by five points. Only Mile-Hi Levitation made it to the 10th point, as well, while nine teams scored 9-pointers.

These three teams will apparently divide the medals between themselves. The order is still open. Air Force CAD's meet videos of the NSL Playoffs 2006 can still be viewed on NSL-TV.

Black Cat charges in Round 9

Black Cat and Airspeed Odyssey were obviously both tired of their sleepy performances yesterday. Today's energy situation is completely different, at least after the first two rounds. DeLand Groove and Fastrax controlled the game throughout the first seven rounds, Black Cat and Odyssey have now taken over.

The Russian team still got two Random Formations farther than Odyssey and claimed this round's highscore with 29 points. However, Odyssey won two points over DeLand Groove and Fastrax and is now moving in on the Golden Knights. The Army team held the bronze medal position by four points over Odyssey. The distance is now down to one single point with one more round to go.

There is a serious race for the gold medals going on between DeLand Groove and Fastrax, while Airspeed Odyssey has now made the competition for the bronze medal just as exciting. The additional factor is the recent Russian charge. Black Cat has caught up with Fastrax and is only two points behind Groove. The Russian team still has the chance to leave all US teams behind. However, this would require a repetition of the performance in round nine.

Cross Keys Vision in trouble in Round 9

Cross Keys Vision brought back some additional excitement into the competition of USPA's Advanced Class in Eloy. The situation after eight rounds did not indicate that Vision's second place could be in jeopardy at all. However, the Fat Lady had obviously not entered the stage yet, and there is new hope for new challengers.

Perris Voltage and Cross Keys O2 Project probably never thought that there could still be a chance for silver medals. Vision's 8-pointer in round nine opened the door. The Cross Keys team lost a total of six points in the judging room in the last three rounds, three of these in round nine. It speaks for the previous performance of Vision that the team is still in second place. However, the distance has shrunk to two points, and two hungry contenders are pushing each other to the limits.

It might have played to their advantage that Voltage and O2 Project have been challenging each other. They are now closer to the next higher position than they might have expected. However, the distance would not have been so close without the help by Cross Keys Vision.

In the meantime, Arizona Divewerkz swallowed another Open Class team. Arizona Razor, Elsinore Select and Kaktus Hunter have become victims of AZDW's outstanding performance in the Advanced Class competition. Dallas Thunder would be the next one up (134 - 129 after nine rounds).

Ranch Pulse vs. Air Force CAD

The Fat Lady has not sung yet in the AA/Intermediate Class, as well. It never looked as if Ranch Pulse could be threatened by any other team. The situation seemed to be similar to the way how Arizona Divewerkz controlled the competition in the AAA/Advanced Class.

Air Force CAD seemed to be mostly engaged in the battle for the second place with the Furies and was only in 3rd place throughout round six. The Air Force team shook off the Chicago ladies in round seven with the stunning 26-pointer. It went almost unnoticed that this move also reduced the huge distance to Ranch Pulse significantly at the same time.

CAD did not shake the bushes in the slow sequence of round eight. However, the faster round nine allowed the Air Force team to make the next move, and the cadets did so. The 17-pointer was the next highscore for a round, and it reduced the distance to the Ranch team from five to two points. Pulse had an 8-point advantage over CAD after six rounds...

The remaining 2-point lead does not seem to be very safe any longer. The last round of the meet seems to favor the Air Force team, which took great advantage of each faster sequence. C-B-J-11 is a great opportunity for a team to make a move, and CAD has already made similar moves two times in this meet.

CAD won four points over Pulse in round seven (Q-D-F-A) and three points in round nine (H-7-G). The difference is currently only two points. It seems to be an open game again.