posted Feb 20th, 2016 - The preview of the World Challenge 2016 continues with the field of A Class teams that were registered at the end of January.

Only four teams are new in this category, while all other A Class teams have records of previous events in the SKYLEAGUE.COM database. The preview leaderboard has seeded the A Class teams in four different sections.

Two teams (Aerokart Ak'demie, Alate) competed in the same category last year, and both met at the same event, the Clash of Champions 2015. Ak'demie's A Class lineup is a part of Aerokart's long-term 4-way junior project, while Alate was actually only a pickup team for the event at Inflight Dubai. Three of the Alate members in Dubai obviously enjoyed the competition enough to continue with the team and attend the Bedford event with a new team member (Debbie Palmer).

World Challenge 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	Total	Avg
0	Aerokart Ak'demie	FR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Alate	AE	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Pro Team Extended	FI	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Falling Stones	BE	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	ChatterChaps	UK	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Alakran	ES	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Levitation	ZA	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Falling Stones	UK	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Skummulus Nimbus	NO	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Phoenix	CZ	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	Nova	SE	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
0	99 Problems	UK	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0

The next group consists of teams who competed in the Rookie Class last year or earlier and are stepping up into the category with the first set of eight blocks. There are two Rookie Class teams of 2015 with the same name, Falling Stones, one from Belgium and the other one from Great Britain. The Belgian Falling Stones won Rookie Class silver medals at the ISR Grand Prix 2014 and 2015.

The British Falling Stones competed at the UK Nationals 2015, which was an outdoor competition. Levitation from South Africa is the second team with Rookie Class scores from the national outdoor championships last year.

Then there is the Pro Team from Finland with the Extended family lineup. Father Kimmo and mother Outi Pohjala competed with their son Kalle in the Rookie Class competition of the World Challenge 2013 and won with a 39.1 average.

World Challenge 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie	O,B,M	Q,H,K	G,C,D	P,E,J	A,L,N	F,M,N	D,J,H	E,A,Q	K,O,C	F,P,B	Total	Avg
1	Pro Team Extended (FI)	46	38	30	39	30	48	42	35	33	50	391	39.1
2	Panik (IT)	34	21	15	23	18	27	13	15	13	22	201	20.1
3	Team Tetley (UK)	26	18	11	16	16	28	19	17	12	21	184	18.4

Former Pro Team member Eija Suvala was in the 2013 lineup. She is now competing with the Tigers, Finland's current national 4-way team, who are also registered for this year's World Challenge.

Juho Mikkola used to be the alternate for the Pro Team and is now in the active Extended lineup with 4-way junior Kalle Pohjola. There is no doubt that the Pohjola 4-way family brings son Kalle well prepared for the eight A Class blocks to Bedford.

Another team from Finland, the Heroes of the Arctic Circle, won the A Class competition in 2013, when Pro Team Extended competed in the Rookie Class. It would be no big surprise if the new Extended lineup would again take the top position in this category in April.