posted Sep 14th, 2026 - The NSL News has discussed the in/famous Round 1 many times with experts in formation skydiving competition, in 8-way as much as in 4-way. The world's best teams, competitors, and coaches have never denied that the mental challenge of the first round of a competition is on a level that is out of proportion compared to the following rounds.

Round 1 of the USPA Nationals 2026 in 4-way Open and 4-way Advanced brought the fastest sequence of all ten rounds to the 29 teams competing in these two classes. The combination of the mental pressure of Round 1 and a very fast sequence can be devastating, and that happened to the Golden Knights this morning.

The slower the sequence, the lower the impact of the scores on the total number of points and the positions on the leaderboard. The faster the sequence, the more damage it can cause, and the Golden Knights ended up nine points behind Arizona Airspeed after Round 1. The U.S. national 4-way Open team for the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026 lost four points in the judging room, on top of the lower performance level compared to Arizona Airspeed.

The challenger is still nine points ahead, even after the Golden Knights seemed to fight back following their devastating start. They won Round 2 by two points, indicating that the team was ready to leave the first round behind and begin working on reducing the nine-point difference round by round.

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NSL TV Unfiltered: USPA Nationals with Round 1 on Monday MorningRoun

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It did not happen, as the world-class performance by Arizona Airspeed's new lineup is already better trained and prepared than their opponents and the audience might have expected. The gap is still the same nine points after Round 4 as it was after Round 1. The Golden Knights have only six rounds left to at least reduce the deficit and catch up.

Airspeed's performance does not indicate that the Golden Knights can expect any help from their strongest U.S. challenger. Newest member Michelle Karamon has performed her point slot as if she had been an Airspeed member for as long as her teammates, even though she joined the team only in January this year, as the NSL News reported on January 3rd.

It took the current Airspeed lineup little more than half a year to catch up with the Golden Knights and even challenge them. The same new lineup had still finished twelve points behind the Golden Knights (249–261) at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2026 in June. There is a good side, though, for the Golden Knights. The USPA Nationals is not the main goal for the U.S. Army team. Instead, they can use the experience of a very bad round at this point in time, before they attempt to win the world championship title next month in Eloy. The Golden Knights will probably need a perfect 10-round performance to get close to the French Aethers Lille.

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Arizona Airspeed - Golden Knights in Round 1 of the USPA Nationals 2026

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