posted Nov 16th, 2015 - The competition for the unofficial US amateur title in the AAA/Open Class competition has been taking place right behind the Top 4 teams at the USPA Nationals in the past years.

The story of the amateur title began at the USPA Nationals 2007 when Mass Defiance (Ben Liston, Brian Stephens, Jim Rees, John Silva, Steve "Scuba" Feldman on camera) posted the impressive 19.3 average in the AAA/Open Class, which would last for several years as the unofficial amateur record average.

DNR (James "Malibu" Klinge, Ben Liston, Brian Stephens, Steve Johnson, Pat Walker on camera) eventually shattered this number and re-wrote the US amateur story at the USPA Nationals 2012 with a 20.7 average, which is still standing as the record number for a recreational 4-way team.

USPA Nationals 2015		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	J,H,2,8	6,D,18	F,9,L,O	1,17,E	K,19,N,P	3,7,5	4,A,B,12	11,16,M	15,Q,22	20,14,10	Total	Avg
5	HG XP	15	18	30	18	22	19	18	15	14	12	181	18.1
6	Prestige Worldwide	18	16	27	15	16	16	14	16	14	13	165	16.5
7	EOS	17	14	26	16	15	15	15	17	13	13	161	16.1
8	Dallas 350	16	16	23	15	17	17	15	16	14	11	160	16.0
9	Verve XP	15	13	27	14	17	16	16	16	13	12	159	15.9
10	Spaceland Lite	16	14	23	13	17	13	13	13	14	10	146	14.6
11	Camdak.is	14	11	21	12	12	13	12	8	10	8	121	12.1

DNR came back a year later with original Mass Defiance member John Silva for Steve Johnson and finished behind Arizona Prime (Shannon Pilcher, Nick Grillet, Ari Perelman, Don Burnette). The DNR lineup of 2012 was back in 2014 and took the next unofficial amateur title with a 19.6 average in 5th place behind Carolina Turbo XP.

This year's 5th place and unofficial US amateur title went to a new lineup with only one DNR member of the past. James "Malibu" Klinge had Rodney Cruce, Gilles Dutrisac and Laurent Beaudouin in his Hg XP lineup and finished far ahead of the other amateur teams in the Open Class field with an 18.1 average.

Bu's 2015 team mates have not been in the top amateur teams in the country so far, however, they are all highly experienced 4-way competitors. Rodney Cruce had posted an 18.1 average with James Klinge (Sally Hathaway, Ari Perelman) at the USPA Nationals 2010 with DeLand Shmeland.

Gilles Dutrisac trained and competed with Sebastian Tempest and team mate Thiago Gomes, currently Arizona Airspeed member, and tried out for a Rhythm slot after a year with Fastrax.

Laurent Beaudouin was in the Rhythm lineup in 2008 and won USPA's Advanced Class gold medal with a 16.9 average. He continued for another year with Rhythm in the Open Class, and SDC Rhythm XP posted an 18.1 average at the USPA Nationals 2009. Thiago Gomes took his slot in 2010. Laurent Beaudouin took a break and now came back with Hg XP for the same 18.1 average as in 2009.

Mass Defiance members Ben Liston and Brian Stephens, who were James Klinge's former DNR team mates, tried to keep up with Hg XP at this year's national championships. They had Ron Hill and Sally Hathaway in their Prestige Worldwide lineup and outscored Hg XP two times - in the first and in the last round of the USPA Nationals 2015.

USPA Nationals 2015		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	N,E,D,16	G,F,Q,C,13	8,B,A,3	L,10,1	22,J,K,14	21,9,M	18,O,12	4,7,11	20,19,2	H,6,15	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	32	25	22	27	23	21	21	23	17	26	237	23.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	21	18	18	18	17	16	17	19	14	19	177	17.7
Guest	Qatar Falcons	18	15	13	12	14	11	12	15	10	11	131	13.1
3	Amphibious Attack Tigers	13	14	13	13	12	11	11	10	13	13	123	12.3
4	Perris Moxie	13	13	8	13	8	8	10	11	8	12	104	10.4

James Klinge said that his team name was actually Mercury XP: "We thought it would be cute to spell it Hg since that is the symbol for the element mercury in the periodic table." USPA officials and the audience liked the name, as well, and Hg XP won the second place in the "Coolest Team Name" awards, which was announced during the 4-way and 8-way awards ceremony: "Somebody appreciated our nerdiness", Bu added.

Hg XP made a total of 98 practice jumps and added approx. 10 hours of tunnel time at Paraclete. James Klinge said that his team was very grateful to John D'Annunzio and Kirk Verner for the training opportunity: "We wouldn’t have had a team without them."

The 4-way competition with Prestige Worldwide was history when the members of both teams came back together for the ten 8-way rounds with the Amphibious Attack Tigers. Three Prestige Worldwide and two HG XP members joined forces with Dallas 360 member Scott Latinis and Ari Perelman for the annual battle with Perris Moxie. AAT won the 8-way bronze medals behind Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed.