posted Dec 14th, 2017 - The Czech teams opened up once again the new leaderboard for the ten rounds of the World Tunnel League's December competition.

It was the second meet of the Czech indoor winter season at the Hurricane Factory, and it offered some interesting developments. HF Flying Circus has been chasing the HF Chicks ever since they entered the AAA Class competition in November 2016. The Czech national indoor team in 4-way Women has competed in the AAA Class since September 2014.

HF Flying Circus won the very first meet when both teams met each other in the AAA Class in November 2016. The HF Chicks were in the transition phase from the AA Class lineup of 2015 to their new AAA Class lineup, and they had Mišo Armai filling the open slot until they would find another female 4-way competitor for the 4-way Women team.

Mišo Armai competed for the HF Chicks at four meets, and the November 2016 competition was the last one before Klára Eliášová, Jitka Mancikova, Eva Turkova and Hanka Uriková continued together and distanced the HF Chicks from HF Flying Circus.

World Tunnel League December 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	A,6,J,3	18,16,11	9,K,Q,H	M,15,7	14,O,5	F,17,E,21	2,12,22	13,19,10	D,4,1	L,B,C,8	Total	Avg
1	HF Flying Circus	20	12	32	23	16	20	13	15	16	23	190	19.0
2	HF Chicks	18	15	30	24	15	21	13	13	16	24	189	18.9
3	Skydive University Slovakia	18	13	28	22	16	21	13	13	15	21	180	18.0
4	Accord	14	8	20	16	12	12	9	5	8	14	118	11.8
Rank	AA Class	A,6,15	18,11	9,K,Q	M,J,7	14,O,B	F,E,21	2,22	13,19	D,4,1	L,C,8	Total	Avg
1	HF Junior Cubs	19	14	23	31	21	23	11	11	13	20	186	18.6
2	M Team	9	9	21	22	14	19	9	7	10	11	131	13.1
3	Mimozemky	11	7	14	20	13	19	10	7	9	11	121	12.1
Rank	A Class	A,J,6	Q,P,C	9,K	M,7	O,B,G	F,E,21	2,H	19,N	D,4	L,8	Total	Avg
1	Elements	16	27	16	24	21	14	14	13	11	18	174	17.4
2	HF Flying Rebels	9	10	9	11	9	10	8	7	7	8	88	8.8
3	HF Junior Chameleons	6	6	6	9	4	9	7	7	3	5	62	6.2
Rank	Rookie	F,Q,D	H,C,E	K,N,A	M,D,J	O,B,G	F,E,L	H,K,Q	N,M,G	D,B,J	L,O,C	Total	Avg
1	HF Dragonflies	7	6	6	8	8	10	7	9	3	5	69	6.9

HF Flying Circus on the other side learned the AAA Class dive pool and improved the team's meet averages consistently in the highest category with the complete dive pool between November 2016 and December 2017.

The HF Chicks are now in a new transition phase for a new lineup. The NSL News reported on 5 December 2017 that the HF Junior Cubs are also supposed to become the "farm team" for the Czech national indoor team in 4-way Women.

The transition of the HF Chicks into a new lineup materialized at the Czech WTL December meet this week when one of the 4-way Junior bronze medalists at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 competed for the HF Chicks at the Hurricane Factory.

Karolina Henkova is the HF Junior Cub who is flying all four slots for the team. The HF Cubs have a lineup of five team members who are rotating in training and in competition. Coach Jan Klapka explained that they are picking their lineups according to the upcoming sequence in a competition and use specific strengths and weaknesses for the selection of each round's lineup. Karolina Henkova is trained in all slots and fills in wherever it becomes beneficial.

World Tunnel League December 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	A,6,J,3	18,16,11	9,K,Q,H	M,15,7	14,O,5	F,17,E,21	2,12,22	13,19,10	D,4,1	L,B,C,8	Total	Avg
2	HF Chicks	18	15	30	24	15	21	13	13	16	24	189	18.9
Rank	AA Class	A,6,15	18,11	9,K,Q	M,J,7	14,O,B	F,E,21	2,22	13,19	D,4,1	L,C,8	Total	Avg
1	HF Junior Cubs	19	14	23	31	21	23	11	11	13	20	186	18.6

He added that the two oldest HF Junior Cubs (Adela Vesela, Tereza Zívalová) will join the HF Chicks next year after the European Indoor Championships 2018. 4-way junior Karolina Henkova was now filling the open inside center slot for the HF Chicks this week, as Jitka Mancikova was not available.

The meet average was naturally slightly lower than usual, and HF Flying Circus could take advantage of the opportunity. Karolina Henkova still drove the HF Chicks engine through a 1-point battle over the ten meet rounds, and HF Flying Circus will have to expect more tough competition at the upcoming meets.

The collaboration between HF Chicks and HF Junior Cubs produces results that are obvious and promising, and both teams are already quite close to each other. AAA and AA scores cannot be compared directly with each other. However, the manipulated NSL draws, where the AAA Class sequences are randomly drawn and then trickle down into the lower categories, allow an indirect comparison and indicate performance levels between neighboring categories.

Sometimes the sequences are even identical between different categories, as it happened in Round 9 of the World Tunnel League December draw. There are also occasions where a AAA sequence is faster than the AA one. The same WTL draw had a few of these situations, as well.

By the way: the Slovakian Skydive University team is also moving up to the performance level of HF Flying Circus and HF Chicks after entering the AAA Class world this year. The 18.0 average this week was a new team record and increased the scoring level significantly.