posted Jan 6th, 2018 - The NSL News had introduced the two current French B-teams with the story on 23 July 2017. At that time, Espoir Weembi Saumur and Espoir Weembi Maubeuge had launched the 2017 season at the French Indoor Nationals 2017 and then attended the second Coupe de France competition in July. The more experienced Saumur lineup was also in Bedford for the World Challenge 2017 before the NSL News story was published.

After the NSL News introduction of the teams they both traveled to Saarlouis in Germany for the FAI World Cup 2017, where they joined the French national team in 4-way Open, RealFly-Sion, on the Open Class leaderboard.

The Saumur lineup is used to place within the Top 10 at the bigger events, and the team members have to be ready for slots in the lineups of the national teams, as the history has shown many times. The members of the Maubeuge lineup have usually one more step ahead, such as Gaéélle Giesen took last year when she joined the Saumur team.

The three French 4-way Open Class teams in Saarlouis made their delegation the most successful one, compared to the placements of all other delegations with three teams on the same leaderboard.

FAI World Cup 2017			1	2	3	4	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	35	26	21	20	102	25.5
2	RealFly-Sion	FR	35	26	20	20	101	25.3
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33	24	20	16	93	23.3
4	Black Cat	RU	26	24	17	18	85	21.3
5	bUSA Defiance	US	26	22	16	17	81	20.3
6	Airbus	DE	27	21	17	15	80	20.0
7	Espoir Saumur Weembi	FR	25	19	16	18	78	19.5
8	Papea Masculino	ES	26	19	12	14	71	17.8
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	24	18	14	15	71	17.8
8	Barguzin	RU	24	15	17	15	71	17.8
11	Airheads Realfly	CH	24	20	13	13	70	17.5
12	Ex3mo	IT	23	17	12	14	66	16.5
12	Espoir Maubeuge Weembi	FR	24	17	12	13	66	16.5
12	AtomiX YUU	DE	19	19	13	15	66	16.5
15	Chimera	UK	21	16	14	13	64	16.0
15	Kinetix	AU	22	17	13	12	64	16.0
17	Tanay Wolves	RU	22	16	14	11	63	15.8
18	Antimatter	UK	19	14	13	13	59	14.8
19	NeVa	DE	20	15	11	11	57	14.3
20	Out of the Blue	NL	18	14	12	12	56	14.0
21	Team C4	SE	17	14	12	11	54	13.5
22	Flyspot Sky4four	PL	18	14	9	11	52	13.0
22	Eros	UK	16	14	11	11	52	13.0
24	Aurora	SE	15	11	11	11	48	12.0
25	Airvengers	AT	16	12	10	9	47	11.8
26	Tyanno4us Rex	UK	11	11	8	10	40	10.0
26	Atmosfera G4	PT	12	10	9	9	40	10.0
28	Yingyang	UA	10	12	9	6	37	9.3
28	TNT	RO	13	11	6	7	37	9.3
30	Tulpar	TR	8	8	9	7	32	8.0
30	Cyprus	CY	12	9	6	5	32	8.0

Espoir Weembi Saumur has not competed since the FAI World Cup 2017 in Saarlouis, while the second B-team attended the Weembinamic competition on home turf last month.

The Maubeuge team had already improved the outdoor performance level significantly (13.2 - 16.5) between the Coupe de France in July and the FAI World Cup in August. It was probably to be expected that it would be similar with the indoor performance.

Espoir Weembi Maubeuge finished at the French Indoor Nationals 2017 with an 18.2 average and posted 24.1 for the ten rounds at the Weembinamic in December.

The Super Sequence in Round 10 (G,H,E,K,F) surely boosted the average heavily, and the missing slot-switching blocks made the AAA Class draw easier, too. However, the 22.2 average after nine rounds and without the Super Sequence is still a very strong statement.

National coach Mathieu Bernier will be pleased to see that his second B-team is moving closer to the scoring and performance level of the Espoir Weembi Saumur lineup.

Weembinamic 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way AAA Class	F,C,Q,8	B,J,P,20	6,2,D	7,O,11	L,19,1	15,18,H	21,4,N	A,14,13	M,9,22	G,H,E,K,F	Total	Avg
1	Brits On 4	31	29	19	26	18	17	21	20	27	44	252	25.2
2	Espoir Weembi	28	29	21	24	18	19	18	18	25	41	241	24.1
3	Weembi Legion	28	26	18	21	16	17	18	17	22	30	213	21.3
4	Les Coyotes Jcm	24	20	15	18	17	15	17	12	20	32	190	19.0
5	Ak'Demi	22	16	16	19	17	14	16	15	18	29	182	18.2
6	Hemera	18	18	15	19	16	13	13	13	19	26	170	17.0
7	Weembiver	17	17	14	15	14	12	14	12	15	22	152	15.2
8	Les Rookies	16	14	12	14	12	10	13	12	13	22	138	13.8
9	Whatura	16	14	11	16	11	11	10	6	16	17	128	12.8
10	Canop En Boite Pcp	14	14	9	12	12	9	11	8	15	17	121	12.1
11	Weembi By Fretois	8	8	4	6	2	1	5	5	9	7	55	5.5

The winner at Weembi was actually a British pickup team, with members of four different teams. Kate Lindsley trained and competed with Volition in 4-way Women last year, and Will Cooke was a Team 4mula member of 2017. Sam Widdowsen was the third British 4-way competitor, and Weembinamic organizer Julien Degen completed the lineup.

Julien Degen said that the event format was different, even though the teams completed ten rounds. The rankings are according to the 10-round averages, even though the teams battled directly against each other in a knock-out elimination format.

He also applied live judging, and Jeremie Rollett and Mathieu Bernier were sitting in tennis judges chairs for a better viewing position.

Britson4 won with the highest average and also after winning the final 2-round match against Espoir Weembi Maubeuge.

However, Les Coyotes Jcm created an upset by winning over pickup team Weembi Legion in the final match and finishing in the bronze medal position after tying the better placed team in the last two rounds (52 - 52) and winning the tie-breaker.