posted Nov 3rd, 2006 - The showdown between Perris Fury and Elsinore Gravity at the last SSL meet of the 2006 season now goes into overtime. Both teams were tied after six rounds and decided to take off for an additional round, which was supposed to break the tie.

It did not work out that way since both teams were so locked into the tied situation. Nothing changed after the 35 seconds of the jump-off round. Both teams posted the highest scores of the meet for the fastest sequence (E-7-19) of the seven rounds.

It was another very close call though. Elsinore Gravity was on a slightly faster pace and increased the lead page by page (0.37 seconds - 0.88 seconds - 1.51 seconds - 1.73 seconds). Gravity built the Ritz of Block 19 on the 5th page and almost completed the second formation of the block (Icepick at 35.25 seconds).

Perris Fury barely squeezed the Ritz as the 22nd scoring formation into the working time and finished the jump-off round with the same score as Elsinore Gravity. Sunset at Skydive Elsinore came shortly after the completion of the tie-breaker, and the teams decided to share the gold medals.

There was no reason to determine a winner, as it would be necessary at a world championship or a national championship. The rules of the International Parachuting Committee (IPC) would have offered the regulations how to break the tie in such a situation.

If two or more teams have equal scores the following order of procedures will be applied: 1) one tie break round, if possible (for the first three placings only), 2) the highest score in any completed round, 3) the highest score starting with the last completed round and continuing in reverse order, round by round until the tie is broken, 4) the fastest time (measured to hundreths of a second) to the last common scoring formation in the last completed round.

The two teams executed the one required jump-off round (1). Both teams scored the same highest score in round seven (2) with the currently featured 22-pointer. Next step is to find the tie-breaking round by going backwards round by round (3). Amazingly, each of the last five rounds ended up with tied scores. Round 2 would finally break the tie, and Elsinore Gravity's 16-pointer would have been the winning score.

The NSL News coverage of the USPA Nationals 2006 includes what happened to Perris Fury and Elsinore Gravity a month after the NSL Playoffs 2006 weekend on September 16. The story on October 31 was the latest part of the west coast showdown, and even this story will not be the last one covering the topic.