posted Mar 24th, 2005 - The current NSL-TV offers the most exciting footage. All six top contenders of the AAA Class can be viewed at the same time: the Golden Knights, Airspeed Odyssey and Airspeed Velocity with round five of the SSL Valentine's Meet 2005; DeLand Fire, the Golden Knights, DeLand Majik and Team Fastrax with round one of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005. The Shamrock TV offers in addition the footage of Italy's Sinapsi PD and several other international top teams.

Most interestingly, round five of the Valentine's Meet and round one of the Shamrock Showdown are almost identical. Both sequences include the same two Blocks (11 and 16), plus one Random Formation. The Blocks are in different order, and the Random Formation is a different one in each sequence (A-16-11 in Eloy, 11-16-J in DeLand).

However, it is well worth looking at the videos of both meets and compare the techniques and its execution directly. Especially both jumps of the Golden Knights invite a closer evaluation and seem to confirm the conclusion of the NSL News story on March 22 that there was a significant progression for the Army team between the two meets.

The sequence of the Valentine's Meet was the faster one since it had the Random Formation A (Unipod) as the exit formation and a very fast transition to the Compressed Accordeon of Block 16 as the following maneuver on the hill. Block 16 is also faster compared to Block 11 and was the first Block of the sequence in Eloy.

The slow Block 11 as the first maneuver of round one in DeLand and the Random Formation at the end of the sequence made it more difficult for the teams in DeLand to score high. However, the Golden Knights finished the faster round five in Eloy with a score of 21 points and posted 21 points for the slower round one in DeLand, as well. DeLand Fire tied the Army Team's score for the same round with 21 points.

The new round of the Valentine's Meet had a different sequence for the AA Class competition. Block 16 has memory and needed to be replaced by another Block. Canadian T - Canadian T (Block 8) took the place for Block 16, while Photon - Photon completed the sequence as in the AAA Class draw (A-8-11).

The Golden Knights Gold, Arizone Divewerkz and Elsinore Equinox finished this round in the same order as they would finish after the six rounds (10 - 9 - 8 points). The A Class sequence had the shorter version of the AA Class (A-8), and both Air Force teams tied the highest score of eight points for this round.

The A Class team "No Use PA" turned this round into a real fun jump when the exit funneled and Block 8 did not go that well. The team members finally decided to spin the pieces of Block 8 a little bit more than required and added some freestyle to the freefall fun. It shows that 4-way competition can also be done and taken on the lighter side. Enjoy the new round of NSL-TV.