posted May 28th, 2015 - The AA Class competition at the World Challenge 2015 lived up to the name of the event as much as all other categories did this year. Teams from seven different countries gave the AA Class competition the atmosphere of a world meet.

The Sun Path Products NSL News zoomed in on the details of the AA Class competition on April 23rd, with the main focus on the winner, UK home team Chatterchicks, and the teams in the medal rankings.

The team right behind the medalists did not get much attention at all, even though Equinox from Lithuania was within striking distance round by round and only seven points behind the bronze medals after Round 10.

World Challenge 2015			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		6,H,1	22,9	P,D,E,K	18,Q,13	J,G,21	O,A,N,15	14,11	B,8,2	C,7,20	4,19	Total	Avg
1	Chatterchicks	UK	16	17	28	13	17	20	14	17	17	13	172	17.2
2	Dubai Asaar Red	AE	16	14	22	14	17	18	13	17	16	15	162	16.2
3	Blue Rebels	GR	15	17	21	14	18	19	12	14	17	12	159	15.9
4	Equinox	LT	15	15	23	11	15	19	11	13	16	14	152	15.2
5	No Mercy	PL	16	13	22	12	17	16	12	12	10	12	142	14.2
6	AirRush	DK	11	13	20	11	15	15	9	12	12	11	129	12.9
9	Ballista	IE	10	13	15	9	15	11	9	12	13	10	117	11.7

The Equinox team story began at the World Challenge 2012 when the team from Lithuania appeared for the first time on the NSL leaderboard. Equinox has not missed a World Challenge ever since and competed for the first time in the AA Class this year. All three medal winners in this category had previous AA Class competition experiences.

Equinox started with Zivile Gudaityte (Point), Gintaras Jancauskas (Tail), Rasa Skuodiene (Outside Center) and Algimantas Skuodis (Inside Center) in the Rookie Class at the World Challenge 2012 and placed 4th with a 14.1 average.

The team came back with a new Point (Mindaugas Civilis) a year later in the A Class and finished 15th (10.5) with the new lineup in the new category. Equinox repeated the A Class at the World Challenge 2014 and won the bronze medals with an 18.5 average, then posted a 20.2 average at the Polish Indoor Open 2014.

The same lineup came back to the team's 4th World Challenge this year and competed for the first time in the AA Class with the impressive 4th place finish and the 15.2 average.

Equinox also competes at outdoor meets throughout the year, and the chart of the scoring progression is convincing, as well. The meets in Lithuania are small ones, and the national championships in a small country usually have a leaderboard with less than a handful of 4-way teams. However, the team history also includes three trips to the ESL Championship where Equinox meets a much larger field of 4-way teams at an outdoor competition.

Equinox won the ESL silver medals in Teuge, Netherlands, last year. Nine A Class teams competed at the event. The ESL Championship 2015 is scheduled for September 19th in the United Kingdom, and it would be the first major outdoor competition in the AA class for the same lineup of 2013, 2014 and 2015. And then there is the Clash of Champions at the very end of the year, open for AA Class teams, and with cash prizes...