posted Oct 2nd, 2006 - The video footage of the Southwest Skydiving League has arrived at the NSL headquarters, and the first round of the NSL Playoffs 2006 event in Elsinore has been uploaded.

The NSL News story on September 20 provided already a lot of background information before the two SSL top teams of the 2006 season, Elsinore Gravity and Perris Fury, finally met each other live on the competition site at Skydive Elsinore.

Perris Fury had obviously the better start into the competition and won the first round by one point. However, both teams went already neck to neck in this round, as they did throughout the whole competition. The numbers show how close it was in round one.

Elsinore Gravity completed the 18th point (Chinese T of Block 22 on the third page) at 34.05 seconds, according to the NSL stopwatch. Perris Fury had the last grip at 34.34 seconds. Gravity missed the 19th point (Phalanx) at 35.31 seconds, Fury at 35.42 seconds.

Perris Fury still took the 1-point lead due to a point deduction for Elsinore Gravity. The home team received only 17 points on the scoreboard. Event judge Mary Koolhaas apparently did not accept Gravity's completion of Block 13 (Hammer - Hammer) on the third page.

It was a close call, and the NSL-TV audience has the opportunity to evaluate the same situation. The communication of the break at the end of Block 13 did obviously not happen according to the most common plan. Usually, the tail of the cat drops the grips when the front of the formation is complete. The point of the cat just helps the communication by turning the head back toward the center.

In this case, the point of the cat dropped the grips and initiated the break of the second Hammer, whether the formation was complete or not. The unplanned break of the formation cannot be the reason for a point deduction. It only indicates to the judges and to the audience that there is a situation that might require a closer look.

The completion of Elsinore Gravity's second Hammer was apparently not clean and clear enough for the SSL judge, and it did not count as a scoring formation. Elsinore Gravity's score was reduced from 18 points in working time to 17 points on the scoreboard, and Perris Fury was one point up after round one.

Elsinore Aquila once again features the sequence of the first round in the AA Class. The same sequence (Q-13-O) was already presented by Air Force Shockwave in the NSL News story on September 22, and also by FSC Wind Damaged on September 27. The NSL Playoffs 2006 weekend has produced several meet videos, which can now be viewed and compared directly with each other on the scoring page, round by round.

Aquila's 9-pointer was the highest score for round one in Elsinore that weekend. The nationwide highscore of 15 points was posted at the Ranch, where Pulse outscored the whole rest of the field. A total of 28 AA Class teams competed at locations all across the USA on the playoffs weekend.