posted Mar 25th, 2011 - The videos of Round 2 at the Shamrock Showdown 2011 have been uploaded and feature once again all teams. The scores of the second round confirmed the results of Round 1 on the top of the leaderboard and copied also almost exactly the final rankings across the whole leaderboard.

Only a few exceptions stood out, and the 15-pointer of Fast Air from Ireland was the most significant one. Fast Air finished in 17th place, however, the score for Round 2 was good enough for the 12th place of all teams. Fast Air was now ahead of Bodyflight Atlas and SDC Furies at this point in time.

The NSL News took a closer look at the Shamrock teams, which will also compete at the World Challenge 2011 in less than two weeks. Fast Air is one of them. The NSL News mentioned earlier that there would be ten teams making the trip from DeLand to Bedford. There will be only nine since ISB Air will most likely not compete at the indoor competition after Sarah Hajooze's recent injury.

Shamrock Showdown 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	N,H,3,1	J,4,C,13	7,17,19	B,20,15	12,22,M	F,18,2	E,16,9	G,8,21	P,A,11,14	10,Q,D,L	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	25	25	25	24	20	25	30	22	24	29	249	24.9
2	Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge	23	24	23	24	19	23	29	23	24	24	236	23.6
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	21	23	22	23	19	21	28	20	22	29	228	22.8
6	SDC Rhythm XP	18	19	20	21	15	18	24	19	20	23	197	19.7
7	Aerodyne Cypres	18	18	19	19	13	18	22	19	21	23	190	19.0
10	Bodyflight Voluntas	16	17	14	13	12	14	21	13	16	17	153	15.3
11	SonicNutz	15	17	14	15	13	16	18	15	16	13	152	15.2
16	Bodyflight Atlas	12	11	13	11	11	12	14	11	12	11	118	11.8
17	Fast Air	10	15	10	8	12	10	15	12	14	11	117	11.7

Both teams from Denmark, Bodyflight Voluntas and Bodyflight Atlas, will compete at the World Challenge, and both teams will meet the same teams that they battled with neck to neck at the Shamrock Showdown.

Atlas, Denmark's national B-Team, carried a 1-point advantage over Fast Air past the finish line. Atlas was up by three points by the end of the first day and added two more points to the lead on Saturday morning before Fast Air began to catch up. Fast Air will be looking forward to the re-match in Bedford.

Denmark's national 4-way team, Bodyflight Voluntas, added another 1-point victory to the Danish account. SonicNutz was the direct opponent in the race for the 10th place, which was also joined by Boogie Nights and Teiwaz Falcon. Voluntas won the 10th place with the 17-pointer in the last round. SonicNutz also has the opportunity for a re-match at the World Challenge.

SDC Rhythm XP and the new lineup of the French national 4-way team in the female category, Aerodyne Cypres, the Deep Blue Defenders, were in a similar situation further up on the leaderboard. The French team was eight points behind Rhythm through Round 7 and won back a point in the last three rounds.

Both teams know each other from last year's World Challenge. Rhythm had no chance to keep up with the well trained female Deep Blue world champions of 2010 by then (272 - 253) and finished quite far behind (10th). France had to re-build the team and has two new members, while Rhythm came back with the same lineup this year and was able to turn the table in DeLand last weekend. The Deep Blue Defenders have the re-match opportunity in Bedford.

The three teams on the very top of the leaderboard have their own reasons to look forward to the World Challenge and will once again have their eyes on each other. However, there is always an additional factor when it comes to the tunnel meet in Bedford. The factor is called XL, and the NSL News will follow up later.