posted Oct 4th, 2010 - The NSL News followed the 8-way Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2010 with two stories.

The first story on 13 September 2010 was posted after the 8-way teams had completed three rounds. The competition was still open at that time, even though it was almost impossible to imagine that Arizona Airspeed would be able to keep up with the Golden Knights.

It happened though, as Airspeed needed Round 1 to warm up and then tied the Golden Knights scores in Round 2 and Round 3. Things seemed to settle as expected when the US Army team won Round 4 and Round 5 by three points each. However, Airspeed's 22-pointer in Round 6 brought up new speculations whether a miracle would still be possible or not. Airspeed won four points over the Golden Knights just in this one round, and the lead was back down to five points, with four more rounds to go.

USPA Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	P,1,J,A	K,13,4	9,O,2	D,20,17	15,B,L,3	E,10,Q,M	N,22,7	16,H,12	19,21,6	G,14,5	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	24	19	15	19	30	18	18	23	17	16	199	19.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	21	19	15	16	27	22	18	21	17	15	191	19.1
3	Paraclete XP8	16	16	12	17	25	16	18	18	12	13	163	16.3
4	Perris Moxie	14	13	10	11	13	13	12	15	11	10	122	12.2
5	Dallas Rogue	15	14	11	11	14	13	11	10	11	10	120	12.0
6	FIGJAM	11	11	9	10	11	12	11	13	11	9	108	10.8
7	Carolina Black Ice	12	10	9	8	10	9	10	8	9	9	94	9.4
8	Perris Cobra Kai	11	8	8	8	8	8	9	11	8	9	88	8.8
9	Perris Lunulata	5	7	3	6	6	7	7	3	5	5	54	5.4

New NSL-TV videos, provided by CamScore, feature Round 1 of the 8-way competition, and Airspeed's first competition jump is a part of the show. The 21-pointer was a great start after two training jumps on the day before the competition, and it included one point deduction.

Airspeed's lineup was exactly the same one as in 2009 where the defending USPA 8-way champions had finished with gold medals and a 19.6 meet average. The Golden Knights had to accept the 2nd place finish after the first year of intensive 8-way training.

The Golden Knights knew that they had to be ready for a serious 8-way competition after last year's experiences with Airspeed and the fact that Airspeed's 8-way lineup can always come up with an 18- or 19-average level at any time and without training.

8-way Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2010

The Golden Knights were ready this time. The tough competition with France and Russia at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 had provided the new competitors in the Golden Knights lineup with great meet experiences, and the second year of intensive training had lifted the performance to the 20-point average level - almost exactly.

The second NSL News story on 15 September 2010 followed up after the 8-way competition was completed and the Golden Knights had taken back the 8-way title after a long time of Airspeed's 8-way dominance.

The new videos do not include the Golden Knights. However, NSL-TV will very soon follow up with more 8-way videos of the 8-way competition at the World Meet in Menzelinsk with all ten rounds of the Golden Knights and the other top contenders. This new round of NSL-TV from the USPA Nationals features several other 8-way teams that competed at the USPA Nationals 2010.