posted Mar 12th, 2017 - The first World Tunnel League at the new iFLY Tampa wind tunnel attracted eight teams to the 14+ chamber, while 12 teams took on the same competition draw at the Hurricane Factory in Prague, Czech Republic.

Most of the participants in Florida have been regulars at the monthly Indoor Cloud League events and were eager to learn more about 4-way competition and perform the complete dive pool after learning parts of it in steps month by month.

None of the three teams in the AAA Class had a complete lineup with previous AAA experience. Winner Blue Steel had two team members (Erica Gorski, Sebastian Jimenez) who completed their first 10-round meet in this category. Erica Gorski's Z-Hills PreciZion team mate Jimmy Xu, who won last year's USPA gold medals together in the AA/Intermediate Class, had just made his first AAA experiences at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2017 with 3 Men and a Babe Jeana and a 17.0 average. Two weeks later, he posted the 19.4 average in Tampa.

Only Christine Freiherr has been familiar with the complete AAA/FAI/IPC dive pool for several years. She has a 21.6 indoor average in her records with Verve XP at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2015.

World Tunnel League - March 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	11,9,14	D,22,5	P,Q,19,12	M,15,16	18,6,B	L,A,N,21	10,O,G,F	2,E,K,4	7,8,H	C,20,J,17	Total	Avg
1	Blue Steel	18	15	19	19	18	24	21	19	21	20	194	19.4
2	Team Kaputt	18	17	20	18	17	22	21	16	16	19	184	18.4
3	ZEUS 3.01	14	14	15	14	12	19	16	12	17	14	147	14.7
Rank	AA Class	11,9	D,22,14	P,Q,19	M,15,J	18,B,H	L,A,N,21	O,G,F,2	E,K,4	7,8	C,6,20	Total	Avg
1	Simba	16	12	15	18	13	16	19	16	14	12	151	15.1
2	HAKS	10	9	12	18	11	14	17	13	10	9	123	12.3
3	SCZ ZEUS	9	8	11	8	8	12	11	11	11	7	96	9.6
Rank	Rookie	C,O,E	D,G,K	P,Q,F	M,J,H	B,C,P	L,A,N	O,G,F	E,K,J	C,Q,M	B,D,K	Total	Avg
1	Becca's Boys	16	10	14	16	15	12	15	15	15	14	142	14.2
2	Jon's Girls	9	8	12	11	8	9	11	9	11	9	97	9.7

Team Kaputt in 2nd place was in a similar situation. Three team members (Yvonne Saa, James Hall, Kurt Gaebel) had competed together in the AA/Intermediate Class of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2015 where they won with an 18.0 average. Former Airspeed member Brian Johnson completed the lineup as the second player coach.

James Hall had stepped up into the AAA Class and his first experiences with the complete dive pool with DeLand Momentum the same year. He used the 2016 season to get more familiar with the AAA Class at the FSL Tunnel Kickers, where he often performed AAA Class sequences with Blue Steel member Sebastian Jimenez and Jimmy Xu. Then he joined DeLand Fast4ward, as the Sun Path Products NSL News reported on 16 January 2017.

Yvonne Saa was completely new to the AAA Class dive pool until the meet week of the World Tunnel League competition. Team Kaputt and new player coach member Sally Hathaway had 45 minutes of training time on Wednesday before the meet to get the complete lineup ready for the first AAA Class competition.

ZEUS 3.1 had a third combination of new AAA Class competitors and player coaches. Amer Kassas' own team SCZ ZEUS trained and competed in the AA Class last year, after the 2015 season in the A Class, and the new lineup with player coach Robert Chromy will continue in the same category.

However, Amer Kassas was still eager to learn and apply the complete dive pool. He invited Sally Hathaway, Bob Byrne and James Hall to form a second lineup and compete in the AAA Class at the same event. Result was the ZEUS 3.1 average of 14.7 at his first AAA experience.

Player coach Robert Chromy also guided his Simba lineup through the team's first AA Class experience. It was the first 10-round meet experience for team sponsor Naila Novaronti who had only competed in the A Class before. The team's 15.1 average won the 1st place at iFLY Tampa over pickup team HAKS and SCZ ZEUS. Simba will also compete at the Shamrock Showdown 2017 next week.