posted Apr 27th, 2010 - The NSL News story on 24 April 2010 mentioned that the top contenders at the World Challenge 2010 needed help from Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge. It seemed after Round 8 as if the French national team was settling safely in 1st place.

Round 9 then brought the drama that makes 4-way competition in the year 2010 probably more exciting than ever before. One bad round can be costly and change the whole situation. The competition is so tight that everything seems to be possible.

It does not even take a real bad round, which can bring desaster. Arizona Airspeed, for example, was never able to recover from a real bad round. Just a few flaws or hesitations are enough to cause enough damage and give other teams the chance to catch up or move ahead. France had its turn in Round 9.

The second fastest sequence of the meet included memory and slot switchers, which might be the reason for more penalties and flaws in Round 9 compared to other rounds. France lost two points and ended up with a 32-pointer. Seven other teams scored higher than the winner after ten rounds.

It was a wide open meet again, as the distance between 1st and 4th place had gone back to three points. XL's 37-pointer highscore for Round 9 moved the team into 2nd place for the first time, one single point behind France, and that after a 1-point point deduction.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa lost three points and still caught up with Perris Fury. The former leader lost one point in this round and now had to give up the 2nd place, as well. All Top 4 teams suffered point deductions and still maintained their positions on the top, in a different order, however.

World Challenge 2010 - Round 9 of the Top 11 in Final Ranking Order

The hunters behind the Top 4 all had clean rounds and reduced the distance to the Top 4, which are the cash spots at the World Challenge. Arizona Airspeed, Aerokart PCs, Aerokart Deep Blue, Paraclete XP4 and SDC Rhythm XP had no penalties in Round 9, while Satori lost three points and allowed XP4 to get very close. Kaktus Hunter lost an important point in the battle for the last Top 10 spot.

It was very impressive to see how the French Aerokart PCs 8-way experts were keeping up with the reigning 4-way world champions from Arizona. Airspeed had a good second day and was still not able to shake off the 4-way fans of the French national 8-way team.

By the way, Airspeed decided to put some efforts into fast sequences, as Craig Girard reported on the team's Facebook page: "Due to our recent ass whoopin', we have been to work on random jumps. Here's one to check out." He was talking about a recent outdoor 74-pointer that can be reviewed on the Airspeed page.