posted Feb 17th, 2012 - The NSL News reported on 27 January 2012 that the teams, competitors and audience of the World Challenge 2012 would have the opportunity to decide whether the famous Super Sequence of the annual indoor competition at Bodyflight Bedford should be continued or not.

The NSL Poll of the Super Sequence ran parallel with the question whether the IPC judging rules should include slower motion reviews in the future. The NSL News audience made a very clear statement in favor of slower motion, and the IPC Meeting approved the new rules a few weeks later in Argentine. The story on 12 February 2012 broke the IPC news.

The results of the Super Sequence poll were not as clear as the vote for the slower motion judging option. However, it was still a vast majority (58% - 42%) that prefers following the IPC rules for the competition draw.

World Challenge 2010		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	5,4,12	J,M,E,D,L	20,17,8	15,18,7	22,A,F,K	21,C,G,6	9,19,16	B,13,14	H,P,O,3	N,2,10	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	22	63	23	26	31	28	29	28	32	23	305	30.5
2	XL	21	57	24	25	35	29	28	25	37	23	304	30.4
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	22	57	23	25	36	28	28	26	34	22	301	30.1
4	Perris Fury	21	66	23	24	33	27	26	26	33	19	298	29.8
5	Arizona Airspeed	23	55	23	25	30	29	26	27	36	22	296	29.6
6	Aerokart PCs	20	62	22	24	30	25	27	26	36	22	294	29.4
7	Aerokart Deep Blue	21	59	20	21	27	24	24	23	33	20	272	27.2
8	Paraclete XP4	21	37	21	21	29	25	26	27	34	23	264	26.4
9	Satori	19	57	19	21	26	25	25	24	28	19	263	26.3
10	SDC Rhythm XP	18	53	18	20	26	23	23	22	30	20	253	25.3

The NSL News story mentioned that host Paul Mayer would leave the final decision up to the teams and competitors and asked the NSL News to provide input by letting the audience vote for or against the Super Sequence. The poll has been past the deadline for a while, and Paul Mayer now followed up with his decision: "Majority rules - no forced random round."

This brings the series of forced random rounds at the World Challenge to an end, which have brought quite some shake ups to the leaderboards in the past. The most infamous one came probably with the Round 2 sequence (J,M,E,D,L) at the World Challenge 2010. Arizona Airspeed melted and was out of the race for the money after only two rounds.

Airspeed had scored the sole highscore in Round 1 and was in the mix in all other rounds, as well. However, Round 2 had caused enough damage for Airspeed to finish in 5th place after ten rounds. It became enough reason for Airspeed to put more efforts in training sequences with only Random Formations.

World Challenge 2010: Round 2 Top View - World Challenge 2010: Round 2 Level View

It was actually not always a sequence of only Random Formations that created the Super Scores for one round at the World Challenge. The fastest sequence of the 2008 event included Block 9 (Cat - Accordean). This is the fastest block in the IPC dive pool, but it is still not as fast as a Random Formation. The Super Sequence in 2008 (P,9,A,J) had a 45-pointer as the highest score - posted by Arizona Airspeed and Sky Panthers Barkli.

Paul Mayer's decision does not mean that there will be no Super Sequence at the World Challenge 2012. The IPC rules for the competition draw offer this possibility at any time, only the chances for extremely high scores in one round are reduced.

The results of a Super Sequence often separate the teams more than other sequences do. This means that it becomes more likely that all teams, including the ones on the top of the leaderboard, will be closer together. The difference of one point could decide over a few thousand dollars more or less. That is exciting, too...