posted Aug 29th, 2008 - The national championship of the Netherlands went almost unnoticed, as well, due to the separate event date and competition draw. The scores have already been posted for a while, and the Dutch teams did well.

Paul Hofstee, the highest decorated 4-way veteran in the Netherlands, and his team Dynamic Fource (Paul Hofstee - Center Outside, Erwin van den Braak - Center Inside, Meüs van der Poel - Tail, Koen van der Venne - Point, Hans van Marrewijk - Camera) continued on the same performance level where the Dutch national team had just finished at the World Meet 2008 and won the Dutch AAA Class title of 2008 easily with an 18.1 average after ten rounds.

Dynamic Fource was one of the four "amateur teams" at the World Meet 2008 that had made it to the Semifinals in Maubeuge, together with the six top contenders (USA, France, Belgium, Russia, Norway, Canada). The Dutch team ended up two points behind the Italian Spin Team with an 18.4 average after seven rounds.

The Belgium Hayabusa Defence Beta lineup competed as a guest team at the Dutch Nationals 2008 and finished behind Dynamic Fource in 2nd place with a 16.7 average. Hayabusa Defence Beta is the "farm team" for the Belgian national 4-way team, and Beta member Waedong So will now get his chance with this year's 4-way bronze medal winners, Hayabusa Defence. He replaces Luc Verstrepen. Pulse and NRG won the Dutch AAA Class silver and bronze medals of the national championship.

Yottsu! won over Habanero (10.4 - 7.5) in the AA Class competition after finishing 2nd in the A Class last year. Serges Angels (Keetie Hobbel - Point, Sylvia Krijnen - Tail, Serge Tensen - Center Outside, Marion Weijman - Center Inside), last year's Dutch Rookie Class champion, dominated the 4-team field in the A Class and won with an 11.8 average. Creeps is the new Dutch Rookie Class champion.

This year's national championship of the Netherlands was almost more a run-up to the upcoming ESL Championship 2008. The Dutch delegation is the defending champion of the ESL Spirit, the trophy for the best overall delegation. The Netherlands are hosting the event for the first time this year, and the teams are eager to defend the title successfully on Texel.

Dutch organizer Mike Pennock has recruited 17 teams in the four competition classes for the ESL Championship 2008 (7 - 3 - 4 - 3), which is one more compared to the number of teams at the Dutch Nationals 2008. The scores of the best two teams in each competition class count for the overall category and the ESL Spirit. This means that the Netherlands have nine extra teams that will push each other to collect the points for their delegation.

However, it will still not be a walk in the park for the Dutch teams. Chris Hollis, organizer of the delegation from the United Kingdom, recently submitted his lineup of teams. The UK teams had already a very strong showing last year (154 - 202) and missed the ESL Spirit only because of the lack of any AAA Class teams in the UK delegation.

This will not happen again this year. Satori and Wingnutz have already confirmed their participation in the AAA Class, and both teams will easily combine for a total of at least the 50 points that were missing last year. Wingnutz won the ESL 2007 event in the AA Class, Sonic V collected UK points with the first place in the A Class, as did 4Play in the Rookie Class.

Phobia and Phantom will compete for the UK delegation in the AA Class this year, Strangers and Unagi in the A Class, Innuendo and Zero Degrees in the Rookie Class. The Dutch delegation will have to work very hard to keep the ESL Spirit in the Netherlands, while the UK delegation is eager to have both the ESL sword and the Fun Flag on British soil. Yes, the Fun Flag is indeed in UK possession, and NSL News will follow up very soon with a new update.