While the destination of gold was relatively clear from the early stages, the battle for the ‘minor medals’ was closely contested throughout the eight rounds of jumps.
Germany and Austria exchanged second place, before Slovenia put themselves as the ‘best of the rest’, 32.5 points behind Norway at the end of the opening round.
The field which began with 15 nations, was then cut to eight, with Japan, USA, Poland and Finland joining the top-four, but unlikely to challenge for a higher placing.
Austria had surprised many by failing to name men’s World Cup leader Daniel Tschofenig (AUT) in their starting line-up, although they did have a more than competent replacement in the form of three-time World gold medalist Stefan Kraft (AUT).
Germany too had delivered unexpected team-news ahead of the Mixed Team event with the out-of-form Katharina Schmid (GER) joining their line-up in place of Agnes Reisch (GER).
Both nations were still incredibly strong, but lacked a little of the consistency they typically display on the World Cup circuit, while Slovenia went from strength-to-strength in the second round.