posted Jan 20th, 2013 - The AAA Class showdown between Shmeland and Minimal Compliance at the SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Fest 2013 had a dramatic finish as it can usually be seen only at major events.

The NSL News mentioned earlier that teams have to be prepared for two sequences when they enter the antechamber. Meet Director Ben Liston, who was also competing for Minimal Compliance, had put the whole meet on a hold after Round 8. He wanted the judges to catch up, so the teams would know their scores before entering the chamber for the last two rounds.

Shmeland and Minimal Compliance were tied in 1st place after Round 7 and knew that they were separated by three points after Round 8. Shmeland had the 3-point advantage before the last two rounds.

New Hampshire Indoor 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,A,11,M	P,6,G,C	O,14,Q,H	22,E,5	16,10,J	15,N,21	17,F,D,18	B,K,9,7	3,C,15	17,K,22	Total	Avg
1	Shmeland (US)	27	27	23	19	18	18	23	32	17	19	223	22.3
2	Minimal Compliance (US)	23	24	27	18	21	19	23	29	18	19	221	22.1

The new video shows what happened in Round 9 and Round 10. Minimal Compliance had to attack, and they tried to. They managed to win Round 9, but one point was not enough. Shmeland had actually completed 19 points in working time and then lost two points for a 17-pointer on the scoreboard.

Minimal Compliance tried even harder in Round 10 and had the better round. In fact, Ben Liston's team squeezed the two desperately needed two points into the working time and could have won the round and tied the meet with the 21-pointer. However, Jim Rees and his judging panel deducted two precious points, and Shmeland won.

Ben Liston will have to try again next year to win his own meet, as he mentioned during the award ceremony.

New Hampshire Indoor 2010		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	14,O,5	J,22,15	L,10,C,F	N,7,21	17,K,P,M	G,A,6,D	H,16,9	B,E,11,Q	3,7,A	17,J,O,G	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Shmeland XP	20	18	20	20	28	27	22	20	16	22	213	21.3
2	Defiance	21	18	22	19	24	15	21	23	20	28	211	21.1

It was not the first time that the battle between the same two teams was so close at the same place. The SkyVenture New Hampshire Indoor Fest in 2010 had exactly the same outcome of a 2-point difference. The lineups were slightly different though.

James "Malibu" Klinge, Ari Perelman and Sally Hathaway had to replace Rodney Cruce, and Scott Latinis filled the slot. Ben Liston, Brian Stephens and John Silva were competing with former Arizona Airspeed member Dennis Rook in 2010.

The meet was a rollercoaster on both sides with Defiance winning two more rounds than Shmeland. It was still not enough since the 18-point damage during the four rounds in the middle of the meet was too much to compensate for. This weekend's competition was much tighter throughout the whole meet, except the first two rounds.