posted Nov 11th, 2013 - The historic 4way battle between DeLand Fire and Golden Knights in 2005, which was featured with yesterday's story, enjoyed great interest by the Sun Path Products NSL News audience.

The research of the story and the journey into the NSL-TV archives brought more interesting stories and videos to the surface, and today's topic is a very similar one of the same time period. Starting point is once again the Shamrock Showdown 2005 where the whole story began with ZeBone on 5 November 2013.

There were several other national teams in DeLand competing next to DeLand Fire and Golden Knights in preparation for making it to the World Meet 2006 in Germany. The Golden Knights were not the only team being knocked out on the way to the 2006 goal. The German team FSC Remscheid, recently competing under Paratec-Saar, won over German rival EADS at the Shamrock Showdown 2005 but lost the battle at the national championships later the same year. EADS competed for Germany on home turf in 2006.

Shamrock Showdown 2005		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	11-16-J	15-17-H	F-20-9	P-L-5-6	7-Q-21	E-3-K-4	19-14-G	22-2-1	12-18-A	13-B-D-8	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire (US)	21	22	24	23	23	20	20	15	16	23	207	20.7
3	Sinapsi PD (IT)	19	20	25	22	23	18	18	15	15	20	195	19.5
6	Spa Hayabusa (BE)	18	17	22	20	19	20	17	16	15	18	182	18.2
7	Arcteryx (NO)	16	16	19	20	18	16	15	14	14	17	165	16.5
9	EADS (DE)	17	16	19	16	17	16	15	13	13	14	156	15.6
10	42 (SE)	10	11	16	14	16	16	13	12	8	11	127	12.7
12	Monkey Circus (AU)	13	11	17	15	14	12	13	11	11	4	121	12.1

Sinapsi PD	Spa Hayabusa

Monkey Circus from Austria did not have their direct competition in DeLand. However, FILA outscored Monkey Circus later in 2005 and competed for Austria in 2006. Sinapsi PD (Italy), Spa Hayabusa (Belgium), Arcteryx (Norway) and Team 42 (Sweden) won their national qualifications and competed in Germany 2006 a year later.

The ranking order at the World Meet 2006 was almost exactly the same as it was at the Shamrock Showdown 2005. There was only one change between Spa Hayabusa and Arcteryx who switched the neighboring positions at both events. Arcteryx had a great progression between March 2005 and August 2006.

The new NSL-TV videos feature Sinapsi PD and Spa Hayabusa at the Shamrock Showdown 2005. Sinapsi came back in 2005 with a new lineup. Pete Allum, XL member for the United Kingdom at the World Meet 2003, had moved to Italy and would be eligible for the national team at the World Meet 2006. He replaced Marco Arrigo in the Sinapsi lineup and helped to win the bronze medals for Italy.

World Meet 2006		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open Class	N-20-16	K-J-C-G-3	D-19-B-6	L-14-10	F-17-M-2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire (US)	20	27	25	17	28	117	23.4
2	Gap Nice Icarius Autrement (FR)	17	25	23	21	25	111	22.2
3	Sinapsi PD (IT)	19	26	22	19	24	110	22.0
4	Sky Panthers Barkli (RU)	21	23	23	17	25	109	21.8
5	Arcteryx (NO)	18	25	21	17	24	105	21.0
6	Spa Hayabusa (BE)	19	25	18	17	23	102	20.4
7	EADS (DE)	17	23	20	16	18	94	18.8
8	DaneZ (DK)	15	22	15	17	21	90	18.0
9	Spain (ES)	16	18	17	14	19	84	16.8
9	Evolution (CA)	15	14	19	14	22	84	16.8
11	British Army (UK)	14	21	16	12	18	81	16.2
11	42 (SE)	13	20	17	14	17	81	16.2
13	Voodoo (SA)	15	20	15	12	18	80	16.0
14	Punky Fish (NL)	16	13	17	14	19	79	15.8
15	Airtite (AU)	12	17	17	13	17	76	15.2
16	FILA (AT)	13	16	16	12	17	74	14.8

Spa Hayabusa's lineup of 2005 and 2006 was the original one with Sven Ibens, Roy Janssen and the Grauwels brothers Andy and David. Hayabusa had taken away the slot of Belgium's national 4way team from NMVP, who competed for Belgium last time at the World Meet 2003 in France. Hayabusa represented Belgium in Croatia 2004 and has not missed a world meet ever since.

The new Hayabusa video of March 2005 is showing the team with Center Inside Sven Ibens who stepped back when the other three members decided to join the Belgian Army and go full time to pursue their goal of becoming 4way world champions. Sven Ibens continued as an amateur competitor and has been a Thunder member for several years.

Roy Janssen, Andy and David Grauwels have been getting closer to their goal year by year and missed it by only one single point at the Mondial Dubai 2012. Hayabusa finished with an 18.2 average in March 2005 and was at 27.8 at the end of last year. Unofficial amateur world champion Thunder with Sven Ibens posted a 21.6 average at the ESL Championship 2013.