posted Jan 28th, 2019 - Last weekend featured the annual SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Championship. Host Ben Liston, original member of Mass Defiance, has grown his event to one of the biggest 4-way competitions in the world, and he missed his set maximum capacity (42) only by one team this year. In fact, only the Word Challenge in Bedford, Great Beritain, attracts more teams to an indoor 4-way competition.

This year's event also featured the new lineup of the U.S. shooting star in 4-way competition, Ranch 2nd Generation (R2G). The defending champions had one personnel change after the USPA Nationals 2018, as the NSL News reported on 3 November 2018.

R2G won the AAA Class competition at SkyVenture New Hampshire for the first time in 2017 with the original lineup (Michelle Karamon, Brenn Richards, Christopher Kuhlmann, Joey Marshall). The 2018 lineup with Chris Haslam in the tail slot defended the title successfully last year.

The 2019 event last weekend was once again the first 4-way competition for a new team member. R2G with new tail Jeana Billings launched their 2019 season the same way as in 2018. The 25.8 average is a new team record and beats last year's 25.4 at SkyVenture New Hampshire, as well.

SkyVenture New Hampshire 2019		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	15,H,M,C		9,14,16		G,Q,22,J		L,18,5		6,14,20		17,D,F,A		10,1,C		K,11,7		E,3,21		B,13,N,P		Total	Avg
1	Ranch 2nd Generation	34		25		24	-1	23		21		36		20	-1	23	-3	21	-3	31	-1	258	25.8
2	SaLiteO	27	-3	17	-4	18	-1	16	-2	17	-1	28	-5	17		19		20		25		204	20.4
3	Defiance	27	-1	18	-1	20	-1	16	-1	17		27		13	-1	19	-2	19		21	-1	197	19.7
4	LMNOP	21	-3	18	-2	16	-1	16	-1	14	-1	24	-2	12	-1	17	-1	18		19	-2	175	17.5
5	SNE Fly Girls	19	-2	16		14		10	-1	12	-1	18	-3	12	-1	15		14		18		148	14.8
6	Fast Pick Up	13		11	-1	9	-1	8		10		15		8		10		11	-1	11	-2	106	10.6

The 25.8 average after the ten challenging rounds in the 12-foot flying chamber is also higher than the previous team record of 25.7 that R2G had posted at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018. There is a very good chance that the new lineup will move up to the 26+ level at the next Paraclete XP meet in February.

The dive pool at SkyVenture New Hampshire is limited and excludes five of the 22 blocks (2, 4, 8, 12, 19). However, the other 17 blocks require the highest skills level of a 4-way team to get to a similar scoring level. All 17 blocks were drawn this year, including the new versions of Block 1 and Block 13, and Block 14 (Bipole - Bipole) came up in two rounds.

The meet videos also show the procedure for the start of the working time: "At the start of each round, team members shall enter the column walking. Every team member must walk in on the net. Working time starts when any member completely breaks contact with the net."

The next indoor meet at Paraclete XP will include the five missing blocks, while there will be more space in the 16-foot chamber to perform all other blocks, which are still very challenging at SkyVenture New Hampshire.

Ranch 2nd Generation - SaliteO - Defiance at the SkyVenture New Hampshire Championship 2019

Ranch 2nd Generation did not face any opposition this year and won with the biggest difference to the team in 2nd place in the event's history. However, there was a very exciting battle for the 2nd place.

Spaceland Lite with the complete lineup had finished 2nd last year without much competition. They were back last weekend with Alex Jordaan for Kim Hollander. The South African national competitor had filled a slot for Spaceland Lite before, where he met his former Savolo team mate Andre van Heerden. They had competed together for South Africa at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov.

This year, host Ben Liston was back with a Defiance lineup and put up some resistance before the three original members (Ben Liston, John Silva, Brian Stephens) and Doug Hendrix had to settle in 3rd place. This duel for the 2nd place featured two very different halves. Defiance was in command through the first five rounds and were still two points ahead after Round 6. SaliteO then won the second five rounds by ten points with a very consistent performance.

Ben Liston was able to squeeze his ten rounds into the agenda of the meet director, while the only missing original Defiance member Jim Rees cannot leave his judging desk to join the competition. Ben Liston made up for his team mate's situation by completing ten additional rounds with Ride it Like It’s Stolen. That's the team with former Mass Defiance videographer Steve "Scuba" Feldman...