posted Sep 10th, 2015 - The three rounds of 4-way competition have been completed at the FAI World Cup 2015, and the 8-way teams are getting ready for their turn on Thursday afternoon.

The qualified teams for the 4-way semifinals and finals have been announced officially, and there will be a total of 13 teams who will add Round 9 to their meet experience. The Top 10 teams after Round 8 on the World Cup leaderboard include the three teams from Russia (Black Cat, XO Team, Barguzin) and the two teams from France (VR4 France, Artemis Saumur), as up to four teams can officially compete for each nation.

Three more teams have made their way into the semifinals of the European Championships, where only the national teams can qualify for semifinals and finals. Netherlands (M4trix), Denmark (VAF Warriors) and Poland (Sky 4 Four) will have their national teams in the semifinals, as well.

FAI World Cup 2015			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class		1,4,D	E,3,L,G	C,16,N,9	13,J,11	Q,2,A,14	K,7,8	P,18,21	15,12,F	B,22,O,10	20,5,M	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	22	32	32	24	23	24	24	22	-	-	203	25.4
2	Black Cat	RU	21	26	27	18	23	24	21	19	-	-	179	22.4
3	VR4 France	FR	20	26	25	19	23	20	22	18	-	-	173	21.6
4	Artemis Saumur Espoir	FR	18	23	21	18	21	21	19	17	-	-	158	19.8
5	4mula	UK	16	23	23	16	18	15	17	16	-	-	144	18.0
6	Final Fire	AT	15	19	21	15	17	19	16	16	-	-	138	17.3
7	Barguzin	RU	15	21	18	14	19	14	18	16	-	-	135	16.9
8	XO Team	RU	17	20	12	14	17	17	16	13	-	-	126	15.8
9	AtomiX YUU-Skydive	DE	13	17	17	13	16	16	17	15	-	-	124	15.5
10	eX3mo	IT	12	19	19	15	15	14	15	14	-	-	123	15.4

Only six teams will make it to the finals after that, and there will be a serious battle for the Round 10 slots on both leaderboards.

Final Fire from Austria is currently in 6th place after Round 8. However, there is only a 3-point difference between Final Fire and Russia's second team Barguzin. Three points seem to be a comfortable cushion for a sequence with two slow blocks (B,22,O,10) in Round 9.

However, the scores between Final Fire and Barguzin are showing that a 3-point difference in one round has not been unusual in this duel. Both teams had several rounds where they outscored each other by two points or more. There is no doubt that Barguzin, with former Barkli members Sergey Shenin and Vladimir Pavlenko, will try everything possible in Round 9.

European Championship 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		1,4,D	E,3,L,G	C,16,N,9	13,J,11	Q,2,A,14	K,7,8	P,18,21	15,12,F	B,22,O,10	20,5,M	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	22	32	32	24	23	24	24	22	-	-	203	25.4
2	Black Cat	RU	21	26	27	18	23	24	21	19	-	-	179	22.4
3	VR4 France	FR	20	26	25	19	23	20	22	18	-	-	173	21.6
4	4mula	UK	16	23	23	16	18	15	17	16	-	-	144	18.0
5	Final Fire	AT	15	19	21	15	17	19	16	16	-	-	138	17.3
6	AtomiX YUU-Skydive	DE	13	17	17	13	16	16	17	15	-	-	124	15.5
7	eX3mo	IT	12	19	19	15	15	14	15	14	-	-	123	15.4
8	M4trix	NL	15	17	17	14	14	13	16	14	-	-	120	15.0
9	VAF Warriors	DK	16	19	13	15	17	14	13	11	-	-	118	14.8
10	Sky 4 Four	PL	12	9	13	11	12	11	11	9	-	-	88	11.0

The situation is still even closer on the European leaderboard, even though it has been reduced to a duel between AtomiX YUU from Germany and Ex3mo from Italy. Either team will have the honor to join the best six teams on the World Cup leaderboard for the last slot in the finals and Round 10.

Ex3mo and AtomiX YUU both started on the bottom of the contenders for the semifinals/finals and eventually left VAF Warriors (Denmark) and M4trix (Netherlands) behind. However, there is only a 1-point difference between the national teams from Italy and Germany after Round 8.

The scores between the two contenders for the slot in the finals are showing that the momentum is on the German side after winning the last four rounds. Dutch team M4trix only has a chance if Ex3mo and AtomiX are both melting down in Round 9...