posted Apr 16th, 2011 - Back to the World Challenge 2011 and the Round 7 videos of the Top 10 teams.

Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge posted the second consecutive sole highscore on Sunday's second round, beat XL by three points and was now two points ahead in 3rd place. Arizona Airspeed and NMP-PCH Hayabusa both completed 28 points in time, and Airspeed lost a point in the judging room. Nothing exciting on the very top of the leaderboard, and that's the way it would be for the remainder of the competition.

It was still interesting to compare the style and the engineering of the top teams. There was hardly a round where all four top contenders had the identical engineering. The French teams and Hayabusa naturally rotate their pieces and individuals in the opposite direction compared to the teams that jump mostly from left-hand doors. However, the differences in engineering are there, disregarding the opposite turning directions.

World Challenge 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
R.	AAA Class	10,C,5	20,P,2	H,M,Q,K,A	L,J,16,12	E,7,15	O,11,22	14,B,17	6,13,9	4,3,21	1,G,8	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	27	25(-1)	65	29	33	23(-1)	28	28	22	25	305	30.5
2	Arizona Airspeed	26	24(-2)	60(-2)	27	34	24(-1)	27(-1)	28	23	25	298	29.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge	26	25	52	27	31(-1)	25	29	27	24	24	290	29.0
4	XL	25	24	58	24	32	24	26	25	21	23	282	28.2
5	SDC Rhythm XP	22	23	56	23	27(-2)	20(-1)	24	21	19	22	257	25.7
6	SportsLotto	21(-2)	23(-1)	49(-3)	23	29	20	25(-1)	23	21	21	255	25.5
7	NPC Aerokart Maubeuge	24	20(-1)	41(-4)	22	26(-1)	21	26	22	21	20	243	24.3
8	Satori	19	19(-1)	57	21	25	19(-1)	24	21	17	20	242	24.2
9	Aerodyne DB Defenders	21(-1)	21	44(-1)	20(-1)	27	19(-1)	25	21	19	19	236	23.6
10	Thunder	13(-4)	20(-1)	41(-2)	23	27	20	23(-1)	21	19	17	224	22.4

Even a quite simple sequence as the one for Round 7 (14-B-17) had the top teams engineer their sequences in different ways. All four top teams agreed that the outfacing positions at the second Bipole of Block 14 should be the wings of the following Stairstep Diamond.

Then the engineering changed dramatically. Hayabusa, Airspeed and XL had the infacing positions of the Stairstep Diamond build the center of the Danish T for Block 17. The French national team built the center of the Danish T with the wings of the Stairstep Diamond.

The transition from the Murphy (Block 17) to the first Bipole of Block 14 was different, as well. The same three teams decided to let each position make a turn to get to the first Bipole. Maubeuge had only one position, the hopper of Block 17, with a 180 turn, while the three others sat still. The French engineering won the round.

The French Aerodyne Deep Blue Defenders followed the same dive design by coach Marin Ferre, together with the third French top team, NPC Aerokart Maubeuge. The 8-way experts tied the XL 26-pointer in this round. Satori used a combination of both. The infacing positions of the Stairstep Diamond build the center of the Danish T, and then the hopper made the 180 turn, while the three others sat still. The French design won this match, as well, by one point.

Russia's new team SportsLotto came up with another different design. Only the hopper of Block 17 would sit still, while the three other positions built the Bipole. SDC Rhythm XP followed the Hayabusa, Airspeed and XL design and lost a point to the Russian team, even after a point deduction for SportsLotto.

That's not even the end of the engineering story. The technique for Block 17 (Danish T - Murphy) mixes the teams up in a completely different way, even within the French delegation. The French girls and the French B-Team apply the Hayabusa and XL technique where the piece cuts into the turn of the hopper. Airspeed, Maubeuge and Rhythm believe that a full 180 turn for the hopper is faster. There are obviously several different ways how to get to Rome...