posted Mar 25th, 2021 - The Shamrock Showdown 2021 went by without any conclusion in the Skins Game, while a winner of any Formation Skydiving competition is declared after at least one round. The teams at Skydive City completed four rounds, and Arizona Airspeed, as the winner of this year's event, remain undefeated since 2007.

Only once, in 2002, an Airspeed lineup did not win the Shamrock Showdown, which was not running under the same title by then. It was the March meet of the Florida Skydiving League that was renamed to Shamrock Showdown a year later.

The Shamrock Showdown had been established as an international outdoor season opener on the east coast, including prize money and the popular Skins Game, when Arizona Airspeed returned to Florida with the Odyssey lineup. That's when the still running winning streak began.

Airspeed missed the event only once in 2010 when the French national 4-way team won the Shamrock Showdown in March and followed up with FAI/IPC gold medals at the world championships in Menzelinsk, Russia. Last weekend's 1st place was the 12th consecutive time that Airspeed lineups won the event. Niklas Hemlin alone has now collected seven Shamrock Showdown gold medals, along with some cash and other prizes.

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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 - Shamrock Showdown competition rounds

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$1,000 of the prize money is always assigned to the winners of each round in the second half of the 10-round meet, $200 per round. The handicap is calculated by the scoring average that the teams have after Round 5.

Encouraged by participants, the $1,000 cash of the prize money that was not spent for the Skins Game will now be carried over to the Shamrock Showdown 2022 and invested into the 8-way competition. This way, both events will have a jackpot for the Skins Game with the same rules. This year's winner before handicap, Arizona Airspeed, take home the $700 that were available beyond the Skins Game.

The traditional part of the Shamrock Showdown, live at Skydive City this year, was over after four rounds. However, the event included the optional cloud participation for the teams that could not travel to Florida this year, due to the pandemic. Several international top teams were prepared to complete their own Shamrock rounds anywhere else until Sunday, March 28th, and submit the videos to the same judging panel. As it was planned and executed for the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020, all teams would end up on the same leaderboard.

The time-line has now been extended until April 21st, as the U.S. teams at Skydive City were not able to complete all ten rounds. The same teams, and additional new ones, have the opportunity under the special circumstances to join the Shamrock Showdown Cloud with a complete 10/11-round leaderboard.

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Arizona Airspeed's Super Sequences in October 2018 - November 2020 - March 2021

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The four completed rounds at Skydive City included the Super Sequence in Round 2. Arizona Airspeed's Niklas Hemlin explained in the NSL Live Talk with the complete lineup that his team got the most out of the visit in Florida, despite the bad weather. It was another Round 1 experience for the current lineup, as well as for AZXP8, and the successful execution of a Super Sequence is always a great challenge.

For several years, Arizona Airspeed have been aware of the fact that their main opponent in the world, NMP PCH HayaBusa, have been ahead with taking advantage of fast sequences. The scoring difference just for one fast round can be significantly higher if a team has a weaker or a very strong performance.

Airspeed's current lineup had their first Super Sequence experience at the 4-Way FS Skydiving Championships in November last year, after the last one at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 with the previous lineup.

Both Super Sequences in October 2018 and November 2020 had an easier flow compared to last weekend's Round 2. Airspeed's efforts to become better and stronger with fast sequences paid back with the delivery of a flawless performance at the Shamrock Showdown.