posted Aug 14th, 2005 - Most of the DeLand Fire members have not even made it back from Europe yet after winning the Malevsky Cup 2005 in Russia at the beginning of July. There were work and coaching commitments, Gary Smith even joined the original DeLand Majik line-up for the 4-way competition at the World Games. DeLand Fire also made a few training jumps in Europe and recently competed as a guest team at the German national championship of 2005.

German Nationals 2005		Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Rd6	Rd7	Rd8	Rd9	Rd10	Total	Avg
Rank	Team	10-12-11	8-5-C	Q-A-M-18	L-7-H-13	21-K-O-3	1-4-B	E-22-J-6	19-16-F	2-20-G	15-14-P	Total	Avg
Guest	DeLand Fire	17	21	27	24	21	21	22	23	17	19	212	21.2
1	EADS	15	18	24	21	18	18	19	18	16	15	182	18.2
2	FSC Remscheid	13	17	24	20	19	18	17	21	17	14	180	18.0
3	X-Ray Remscheid	11	12	17	17	15	13	15	16	13	13	142	14.2
4	Südwest	11	14	15	18	14	14	14	15	13	13	141	14.1
5	Sportfördergrp. BW	8	10	16	13	12	12	13	11	11	11	117	11.7
6	Final Four	9	11	14	13	11	11	11	11	10	8	109	10.9

It was no surprise that DeLand Fire took the first place at the competition in Germany, even though it was not the original line-up. Alternate and team videographer Thomas Hughes filled in for Fire's Tail Ian Bobo, and the DeLand team finished the 10-round meet with a 21.2 average.

It was another great showing for DeLand Fire, however, the race for the official German 4-way championship was the most exciting part of the competition. Two teams had set their goals for the set of gold medals and the qualification as the new German national 4-way team for next year's world meet on home turf: the defending champion EADS and the challenger, FSC Remscheid.

EADS had finished in fifth place at last year's world meet in Croatia, the best placement of a German 4-way team. The 18.3 team record average was the best score of a German team in history. However, the young team of FSC Remscheid was not scared and took on the challenge, even though it seemed to be a very high goal.

Both teams visited Skydive DeLand in March for training camps and attended the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005. The NSL News story on May 13 covered the internal German race at the FSL March meet.

The challenger had the upper hand at the beginning of the season. However, the competition in March did not mean much for neither of the two teams since it was the very beginning of the 2005 season. EADS had just arrived the night before the meet and still completed all ten meet rounds on one day in DeLand.

The defending champion showed his real strength after enough training and at the right time. EADS competed at the World Games 2005, as well, finished the 5-round meet with a 20.0 average and seemed to be ready for the German national championship four weeks later.

FSC Remscheid was ready, too, as the scores of the German Nationals last week clearly show. In fact, the challenger made it as difficult for the defending champions as it can get. EADS developed an early lead and was able to bring a 5-point lead into round eight when FSC Remscheid began to fight back. The 5-point lead was reduced to a 1-point advantage in rounds eight and nine, and the challenger seemed to have the momentum on his side going into round ten.

However, the EADS veterans pulled it back together in the probably most important jump in team history and won round ten by one point. FSC Remscheid finished with a very impressive 18.0 average, but EADS will represent Germany once again as the national 4-way team in 2006.

The race for the German bronze medals was even closer. The first half of the German 8-way team, X-Ray Remscheid, won the third place by one single point over team Südwest with a 14.2 average. The German 8-way team "Remscheid 8er" won the 8-way competition without much resistance and a 13.1 average.

Another FSC Remscheid team was successful last week. The all-female line-up of Remscheid won the 4-way competition of the Women's Class (10.8 - 10.3) over the Chicas and takes over the responsibility as the national team after several years of Chicas dominance in Germany.

German Nationals 2005		Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Rd6	Rd7	Rd8	Rd9	Rd10	Total	Avg
Rank	Team	10-12-11	8-5-C	Q-A-M-18	L-7-H-13	21-K-O-3	1-4-B	E-22-J-6	19-16-F	2-20-G	15-14-P	Total	Avg
1	FSC Remscheid	10	11	14	11	12	9	11	12	10	8	108	10.8
2	Chicas	10	9	14	14	7	7	11	12	10	9	103	10.3