posted Jun 5th, 2020 - The cancellation and rescheduling of the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020 to August 2021, caused by the corona virus crisis, had a massive impact on the Formation Skydiving competition world. The NSL News covered the implications from as many angles as possible, from top to bottom, and from host and FAI/ISC officials to teams and competitors.

The same situation also had an impact on the annual Shamrock Showdown, the first major outdoor competition of the year, which was supposed to be hosted by Skydive City and take place in Zephyrhills in Florida this year.

The field of teams was extremely promising for the 2020 event and would have resembled the top rankings at a world championship, in 4-way and in 8-way competition both. In fact, the field of teams would have gone even beyond a world meet, where only the national teams compete for their respective countries.

The Shamrock Showdown has no limitations for participating teams, and the 2020 event would have brought Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP both together with the other top teams from other countries. The same situation was also anticipated in 8-way where Airspeed XP8 and Golden Knights both were ready to measure up with Russia's Tanay 8-way team, France and Qatar Falcons.

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Shamrock Showdown 2020			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Aerodyne Cypres	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Aérodyne Hauts de France	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Elsinore Elevate	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	SCZ ZEUS	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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The Shamrock Showdown used to be an annual event until the international indoor schedule began to take its toll. The best teams in the world began to change their competition schedule to accommodate at least the newly invented indoor world championship of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

It was already difficult enough to balance Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, Shamrock Showdown and World Challenge properly. Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, Shamrock Showdown and Paraclete XP Summer Classic still combine for a good meet package without interferences in either direction in the United States, while U.S. teams had to go back to indoor mode if they were planning to travel to Bedford at the beginning of April.

It became even more complicated when FAI/ISC decided to schedule their indoor world meets and world cups right around the time of the World Challenge. The Shamrock Showdown was now followed by two major indoor events.

Teams used the Shamrock Showdown to have a starting point for the outdoor season. They scheduled winter training camps accordingly and then had sufficient data after the outdoor competition to create an efficient outdoor training plan for the year before their national championships and the major international events. The situation in 2020 was a perfect example, and the top teams were ready to post their first scores at Skydive City. Then the corona virus crisis changed everything.

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Shamrock Showdown 2020			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open - NSL Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	Aerodyne Cypres Hauts de France	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	Airspeed XP8	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Golden Knights	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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However, the cancellation and rescheduling of the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020 for August 2021 did not only result in the cancellation of the Shamrock Showdown 2020. There were no plans to continue the event on an annual basis for the above reasons, while it would still take place every other year, and only in the years with an FAI/ISC Outdoor World Championship.

This changed when FAI/ISC announced that the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020 would now be held in August 2021.

All of a sudden, a Shamrock Showdown made sense again for the outdoor world meet season next year, as the new international schedule is almost identical with 2020. Most of the events were pushed back by a year, and the qualification requirements for national teams have been set in most countries, as well.

It did not require much consideration by National Skydiving League and new Shamrock Showdown host Skydive City, who still plan to run the USPA Nationals 2020 in November. Dropzone and staff will be ready to follow up with a new high-profile international event in March 2021, which will then be the starting point for the next outdoor world meet season. The Shamrock Showdown 2021 is scheduled for March 19 - 21.