posted Oct 21st, 2017 - The second half of the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 is in full swing on Saturday, and the 4-way Open Class battle between NMP PCH HayaBusa and the Weembi High Rollers is as exciting as it was promising after the first five rounds.

Weembi was standing with the back to the wall this morning and had nothing else in mind than moving forward, which turned out to be very successful in Round 6. The stage was set for today's four rounds, and the pressure was on the Belgian indoor and outdoor world champions.

However, they are on the top of the world for a reason and had the right answer after the 2-point loss in Round 6. The NSL News will go back to the 4-way Open Class leaderboard later.

The competition in 4-way Women is not really as exciting as it was hoped for. The French Weembi Girls were back to full strength after an unfortunate ending of the 2016 season with Sophia Pecout's dislocated shoulder at the FAI Mondial 2016 and a slow start into the 2017 season due to the injury.

FAI Indoor World Meet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		16,P,12	2,8,H	22,20,3	15,D,4	A,J,6,L	7,M,19	5,Q,21	18,B,17	G,14,C,N	K,E,10,11	F,O,9,E	Total	Avg
1	French Weembi Girls	FR	28(-1)	26	23	27	38	34	-	-	-	-	-	176	29.3
2	Volition	UK	22(-2)	22	18(-1)	23(-1)	32(-4)	29	-	-	-	-	-	146	24.3
3	Team X	SE	24	20(-1)	18(-1)	22(-1)	30	26	-	-	-	-	-	140	23.3
4	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	20	20(-1)	19	21	31	27(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	138	23.0
5	HF Chicks	CZ	22	18(-4)	16(-2)	19(-1)	32(-1)	25(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	132	22.0
6	No Mercy	PL	24	18	18	19	23(-5)	26	-	-	-	-	-	128	21.3
7	Texas Crush	US	18	14(-3)	13(-2)	14(-1)	21(-2)	24	-	-	-	-	-	104	17.3
8	China 4-way Red	CN	11(-6)	15(-4)	13(-2)	15	20(-5)	20(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	94	15.7
9	Not Your March	HU	14(-1)	15	8(-3)	14	18(-1)	18(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	87	14.5

However, the 30.3 average at the World Challenge 2017 indicated that the French Weembi Girls had left the 2016 season behind and were ready to pursue the next goals.

The 2017 goals included the gold medals in 4-way Women at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2017, which was more or less a walk in the park without much competition in Saarlouis.

A tougher and more challenging task was expected in Montreal, as the British indoor experts of Volition planned to continue with the very strong UK tradition in 4-way Women competition.

Volition was still far behind the French Weembi Girls in April this year (24.9 - 30.3) and were planning to focus on their indoor training to move closer to the French team.

The first half of the indoor world meet was then showing that both teams were still separated by the same distance.

The French Weembi Girls came to Montreal with the same strength as in Bedford, while Volition was also on the same performance level as in April.

The French Girls are back to the situation that they were facing before the Golden Knights gave them a very hard time in 4-way Women and eventually took the gold medals away at the Mondial 2016. Again they have to look at the 4-way Open Class leaderboard to find serious competition.

Volition on the other side has to watch out for unexpected competition in 4-way Women. The Swedish Team X has shown an even more impressive progression in the past two years (14.8 - 16.6 - 17.4 - 19.7) than their Swedish delegation partners of Echochamber, and they are now challenging Volition on a 23+ level in Montreal.

Canada's team in 4-way Women, Parachute Montreal Fuzion, was expected as the top contender for the bronze medals and a potential challenger for Volition.

Unfortunately, Fuzion had a late personnel change this year. Stephanie Longchamps replaced Valerie Bisson two months ago, and Fuzion is rebuilding the team. The first scores of the second day confirmed the situation after Round 5.