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Did You Know...

... that the Golden Knights upset Arizona Airspeed and DeLand Majiik both at the USPA Nationals 2002?

DeLand Majik and Airspeed Vertical at the Shamrock Showdown 2002
posted Dec 25th, 2017 - The Christmas holidays and the change of the year are usually slower times in Formation Skydiving competition, even despite the constantly increasing number of indoor events.

The NSL News has an opportunity to go deeper back into the archives and add events and stories of times before the current version of the SKYLEAGUE.COM website.

Yesterday's update with information of the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2002 related to a time when four U.S. top teams battled for the one top spot and the status of the U.S. national team in 4-way Open.

Three of the same four teams eventually won the USPA Nationals at a time, while Geneses/PD Blue never made it to the very top, even though Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo became 4-way world champions in 2006 with DeLand Fire.

Airspeed Vertical competed for the U.S. delegation in Spain 2001 and was dethroned by the Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals 2002 who competed for the U.S.A. in Gap 2003. DeLand Majik then won the national championships later the same year and FAI gold medals in Rijeka 2004.

Shamrock Showdown 2002
12345678910TotalAvg
RankAAA Class12,H,2J,L,G,D,P6,Q,C,BK,N,7,16F,A,14,M5,13,1518,3,109,19,1817,4,2211,O,21TotalAvg
1DeLand MajikUS1934312322201721182122622.6
2Airspeed VerticalUS1934282423191719192122322.3
3Sebastian XLUK1727222023161417171819119.1
4Sinapsi PDIT1427182121141417151717817.8
5Punky FishNL1424211617131114131315615.6
6PhenixSE141919171711136141414414.4
7Blue Eye MajikUS1123141914101114121414214.2
8Space Center TeiwazUS121818121013111491513213.2
9JetstreamUS1115151313101112111112212.2
10SuperflyUS11151211109101171110710.7
11TBDUS5149912841098888.8

The NSL Championship 2001 was a part of the transition from Airspeed's 4-way dominance to the most successful era of teams from Skydive DeLand. The event was the first competition for DeLand Majik, even though the complete lineup was not available. DeLand Norgies' Lise Aune filled in for Gary Smith.

Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals 2002
The Golden Knights ended up behind Majik at the new DeLand team's very promising start in November 2001. Majik followed up well at the Shamrock Showdown 2002 where they also outscored the reigning 4-way world champions of 2001, Arizona Airspeed Vertical.

However, neither the reigning world champions from Arizona nor the new DeLand Majik challenger were able to stop the Golden Knights from winning at the USPA Nationals 2002. The U.S. Army team then won FAI silver medals for the U.S. delegation in Gap 2003.

Yesterday's update included the 2001 meet videos of the NSL Championship, which featured the complete 4-way dive pool at that time. There were 24 blocks and 16 random formations, and even the eleven rounds at Fantasy of Flight were not enough to exhaust the 2001 dive pool. Some of the blocks were also different compared to the current dive pool.

The teams had different techniques how to deal with double slot switchers (Block 5, Block 17), and the two videos of DeLand Majik and Golden Knights demonstrate some examples. DeLand Majik mirror-imaged the sequences page by page and avoided A- and B-slots in both pieces that way. The Golden Knights switched slots within the pieces page by page, which is currently most popular.

Both ways obviously worked well. The Golden Knights won the USPA Nationals in 2002 with their new technique, and DeLand Majik became 4-way world champions two years later.

USPA Nationals 2002
12345678910TotalAvg
Rank4-way OpenB,12,2K,6,420,5,13D,Q,11,18N,3,9A,21,1622,H,L,JG,C,7,15E,19,1710,P,M,8TotalAvg
1Golden Knights1921192129222323221921821.8
2Arizona Airspeed1922182126222221232121521.5
3DeLand Majik1919202024222324221921221.2
4Golden Knights Black1517161720172020191617717.7
5Airspeed Zulu1718141722151817171617117.1
6Cross Keys Fluid1616131518161513151515215.2
7DeLand Frost1516121317151717141314914.9
8Ranch Tribe1414131317111610151313613.6
9Elsinore Adrenaline1313121316111513151313413.4
10Synchronicity1212101217131315121212812.8
11Untrained Eye121211131410119121111511.5
12Team Kruegeraand8865676785666.6
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