posted Mar 22nd, 2021 - The weather did not cooperate with the plans for the Shamrock Showdown 2021, even though it was a promising start on Friday. Round 4 could be completed in 4-way before the teams had to go on a weather hold that lasted until the end of the weekend.

Arizona Airspeed finished with the highest meet average in the history of Formation Skydiving competition, even higher than the recent 31.5 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021. Of course, it has only little meaning, as the fastest sequences of the eleven rounds, with eight consecutive random formations, were a part of the competition on the first day.

The teams had more than enough time to entertain themselves during the never-ending weather hold, and the complete Airspeed lineup took some of the time to meet with the NSL News for a new conversation after the four completed rounds.

Niklas Hemlin pointed out once again how important it was for his team to get another opportunity to collect more experiences with the first round of every competition. He added that it was even more important for Airspeed XP8, who will compete for the United States at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 this August.

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Shamrock Showdown 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way AAA	1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		N,17,A,6		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	24		53		32	-1	24		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		133	33.3
2	Skydive Midwest NEXT	16		25	-3	22		16		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		79	19.8
3	XPG4	16		25	-1	20		16		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		77	19.3
4	CPI Legacy	13	-1	19	-1	14	-2	12		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		58	14.5
5	Quiet Riot	12		19		14	-1	12		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		57	14.3

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NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed

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Arizona Airspeed had the last outdoor opportunity for the starting point of a competition at the 4-Way FS Skydiving Championships in November last year.

However, Airspeed's 4-way team do not need the competition experience as much as Airspeed XP8, who travel to Russia this year. SDC Rhythm XP compete for the U.S. delegation in 4-way Open.

There was no 8-way competition at the same event in November last year, and Airspeed XP8 exited last time from a jump plane for a Round 1 at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019. It was also not the same lineup on Airspeed home turf in Eloy.

Andrew Happick, Christopher Kuhlmann and Steve Lefkowitz still competed with AZXP8 at that time. The current lineup for the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 have not had a real competition experience yet, except for Round 1 of the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020 during a training camp at Skydive Arizona.

Niklas Hemlin said that the trip to Florida was worth it just for that reason alone, as the 8-way teams got their Round 1, and three additional rounds.

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Shamrock Showdown 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		N,17,A,6		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
2	Rhythm 8	14	-1	13	-1	14	-1	9		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		50	12.5
3	Sandbaggers	8		5		7		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7

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Airspeed XP8 at the Shamrock Showdown 2021

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Round 1 becomes even more important if fast sequences combine with the mental pressure of the opening round. The Airspeed 4-way members know well enough from their own experiences with their Belgian NMP PCH HayaBusa opponents how important the performance for fast sequences generally is.

The competition draw did not create the additional pressure for the 4-way teams, as the Super Sequence came in Round 2. The 8-way teams had their own Super Sequence with two fast blocks in Round 1, followed by the five random sequences in Round 2.

The 8-way Super Sequence at the Shamrock Showdown, drawn by 8-way world champions Kirk Verner, Matt Davidson and Brian Krause, became the first outdoor round at a live competition for the current Airspeed XP8 lineup, and it might be the only one before the next Round 1 at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August. Airspeed XP8 lost a total of five points in the first two rounds and now have the opportunity to work with the experiences. That was one of the reasons why Niklas Hemlin saw the great benefits of making the trip to Florida.

The time-frame for the online part of the Shamrock Showdown has now been extended into April, which gives the teams who traveled to Florida the opportunity to complete the draw at their home dz's, while additional teams can join the leaderboard.