Wednesday 6 October

I just posted some photos from last night's SSL awards-slash-4-way finals HERE.

0800
I love it -- we have two 8-way Open teams from North Carolina, Team Paraclete and the Golden Knights. Throw in Deguello, Airspeed, Majik Eyes, Perris Vengeance, and Dallas Thunder, and we should see some fabulous 8-way today. Airplanes are taking off right now.

I got a lot of email last night regarding the disqualifications of Exceed and Carolina ICE. The feedback is about evenly split between "that is way too harsh" and "they should be forever banished from competition." The former tends to come from people who just want to jump and have fun, and the latter tends to come from people who take competition very seriously. I personally think that the meet director -- Scott Smith -- did the right thing. Rules are rules, whether you break them intentionally or not. We all hate to see this stuff happen, but it does happen at every nationals, and everybody who is here next year should be thinking remember what happened to team xxx last year - we need to make sure our paperwork is in order and we know the rules.  

1000
After round 1 of 8-way Intermediate it's a log-jammed leader-board with 4 teams tied at 7...ooh, Deguello looks good and posts a 10 to start the Open judging...the weather here has been just beautiful: calm and cool at sunrise, glorious and sunny mornings, breezy afternoons...the Golden Knights are doing 8-way without any practice jumps, and dang if they didn't just crank out a 15 on their round 1, very impressive...either the judges were just very kind to Majik Eyes or Doctor Joel needs to take another look at mine ;-)...I think they got away with one at the end and they get a 9...my DZTV assistant (Mary Beth) is back to working registration, so I'm spending more time running DZTV and less on tidbits...but I get to see more jumps...here's Airspeed now...reigning world champions...they almost funneled the exit trying to launch a compress part of the Iroquois, and they get a 14...they are jumping with 7 of the 8 from Croatia, with Mark Kirkby back in his old slot that was filled in Croatia by Chris Talbert, who is jumping with Paraclete...

...it is so nice outside, and everybody is jumping and having fun, and I'm stuck in this hole running DZTV and chatting to the unseen OmniMinions, but that's okay, because Mom is making some of her famous FRIED CHICKEN FOR LUNCH! Yeeeehaaaah!

...while I'm enjoying this here yard bird, it looks to me like the Knights had their Wheaties for breakfast, posting a 16 on round 2, and that's not a fast dive...Deguello looked strong again and posted another 10...uh oh...I think the judges smelled the food and the stampede is on...

1200
*BURP* smack smack, Mom has done it again. She has been cooking fried chicken at the nationals ever since I started going, back in 1986, and she just keeps getting better and better.

(Ryan sneaks in to say "Great fried chicken, Grandma!")

Airspeed 8 steps to the plate, and they look much sharper this time around...a 17, if it's clean...and it is...Perris Vengeance posts a clean 12, and after 2 rounds we have Airspeed and the Knights tied at 31, with Vengeance sitting strong in the bronze slot...keep an eye on Majik Eyes, if they do like they did last year, they're going to spend 5 rounds figuring out Scott's fall rate, then pick up speed on the last 5...Intermediate is a logjam after 2 rounds....

Moving on now, 8-way is half way through round 3...the Knights put up another strong jump, a 16...here's Airspeed now...looks like they've worked out the kinks for sure...18! Sweet...now it looks like Perris Vengeance is gaining a stronghold on the bronze position...top 4 score totals are 49 to 47 to 36 to 30...big question I can see now is will Majik Eyes continue to pick up the pace and give PV a run for it? Three more rounds today, I think is the plan, we shall see...

1430
These emails seem to come in sudden spurts:

Great work you guys are putting for all of us poor souls that can´t take part of such a big party. Please, add lots of 8 way streaming videos PLEEEEAAASSSEEEE!!!!!!!!

As my brother would say, PLEEEEAAASSSEEEE is a nice word, but you can't drink it. Oh, what the heck. I'll post some steamy 8-way videos later today.

YIPPEE the Astros have taken the lead over the Braves! Oops, am I on? Sorry about that. Grew up in Texas watching the 'Stros. Named my kid after Nolan Ryan. OKAY OKAY, on with round 4...Deguello busted their first set of Tees and take a 8...the Knights are next and they seem to like 16...check that, it's a 17, but barely...

...I am imagining this email coming from our web hosting service:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for posting all those large streaming videos on your site. Your bandwidth consumption is most extraordinary. To wit, we will be constructing a new parking garage with the excess bandwidth fees generated by them and hereby ask if we may name the building after you. Thank you.

There will be nearly 100 MB of streaming videos posted by the end of the day...

...okay, while I was waiting for another 15 MB worth of steaming videos to upload, Airspeed 8 ripped up on round 4 with a 19, and by the end of the jump I felt like jumping up out of my chair and giving them a high five right through the TV. THAT was NICE. Streaming video at 1100. If the gallery behaves.

It's photo caption contest time, for the picture to the left. Golden Knight team leader John Hoover and his boys. Click on it and send me your caption.

A computer geek asks what I'm running on my PC for all this. I have open right now FrontPage 2002, Adobe Photoshop 6, Mozilla Firefox, Outlook, Adobe Premiere, ACDSee, and three explorer windows. Hope that helps. Don't even ask how many lines of software code T1 has running on the other side of the wall...round 4 is in the can, and right now it's Airspeed, Golden Knights, and Vengeance running away from the pack.

8-way steaming videos have been posted over at the main page. Enjoy. More later. I'm ducking out for some fresh Otter exhaust fumes...

1615
Round 5, the Knights looked good again, and just missed a 16 outside the freeze frame...

...while I was outside doing a TV interview I missed the rest of round 5, it's in the can and round 6 is being judged...okay, let's keep those photo captions coming in, I've got a new page started to show them all later today or tomorrow...

At the conclusion of 4-way, an issue was raised regarding how ties are reflected in the final standings. For example, teams 301 and 310 in 4-way Advanced finished tied at 122, but team 310 is shown in 5th place and 301 is shown in 6th place. USPA wants them both to show as tied for 5th with the next placement being 7th, e.g., just like golf. I raised the topic with OmniSkore inventor extraordinaire Ted "T1" Wagner, and this was his reply: It was brought to my attention that the final standings in 4-Way Advanced to do not reflect ties for teams with identical point totals. The reasons for this are: In general, OmniSkore implements FAI/IPC rules, not USPA. Under the current international rules, there is no such thing as a tie; if all scores are equal, the team that did its last formation in working time the fastest on the last completed round is the higher ranked team (that's the last of several tie-breaking rules). OmniSkore implements specific USPA competition rules where reasonable and feasible. However, I am aware of no rule which specifies how tied cumulative scores are to be reflected in the standings. In fact, if I read the rules very literally, there are no standings after the top three, the official purpose of the competition being to determine the top three (and only the top three). So, for purposes of "official standings", what happens below the top three is, believe it or not, ambiguous and (gasp!) irrelevant. We don't accept that at face value, of course, but rules are rules, and they can really get in the way sometimes! So, unless and until USPA explicitly defines how tied cumulative scores are to be reflected in the standings, the default behavior of the system will be its implementation of the international rules.  -T1

1545
A long day of 8-way draws to an end...teams are drinking beer watching DZTV outside, round 6 being judged...4-way awards banquet is tonight...the Knights are nothing if not consistent, every jump has been a 15, 16, or 17...the last jump of the day is being judged, it's Airspeed posting a 15 -- nope, check that, they got busted to a 13, and they will go into the final 4 jumps with a 2 point lead. That says quite a lot about the Golden Knights' performance today. Sure, Airspeed hasn't been as sharp as usual, but the Knights' first jump together was round one. To be only 2 behind after 6 rounds is amazing.

4-Way FS awards tonight, will try to post pictures first thing in the morning. I've just been told there are horse doovers in the judges' room, so I'm going to punch out of here now and say thanks for hanging around and see you tomorrow! - T2

UPDATE - I've just been handed a CD of freefall photos from the camera of some guy named "Michael McGowan." Special treat coming tomorrow!

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Ted "T1" Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim "T2" Wagner, Webmaster