posted Feb 11th, 2018 - The registration process for the World Challenge 2018 is now in full swing. The leaderboards begin to take shape, and it is time for the first power ranklings.

The AAA/Open Class leaderboard is traditionally the busiest one and receives the first attention. Almost all of the AAA Class teams have a scoring history. Only one of the 18 teams that are on the current NSL Power Ranking of the event has not competed yet at a previous indoor competition.

It is not very difficult to determine the expected leader, as NMP PCH HayaBusa are the reigning indoor and outdoor world champions and easily won the first major 2018 indoor competition at the Wind Games 2018. The Belgians have also been undefeated at the World Challenge since 2011 and have never missed the event since it was launched in 2006.

Arizona Airspeed's Odyssey lineup (Eliana Rodriguez, Andy Delk, Craig Girard, Mark Kirkby) won the first four World Challenges (2006 - 2009) and finished 4th in 2010 when the French national team (Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett, Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier) won first in Bedford and then the FAI outdoor gold medals in Menzelinsk. Then the HayaBusa era began at the World Challenge 2011.

World Challenge 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	IFS-Moscow	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	ISR FireFlash	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Odin Parachute System	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Tenanine	MR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Alakran	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Jazz Republic	ZA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Antimatter	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Falco	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Aladeen	HU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Eros	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Barak	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Le 4 Cretins	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Telakka	FI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Blackjack	FI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	Nova	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	White Squall	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Airspeed's new lineup (Thomas Hughes, Niklas Hemlin, Mark Kirkby, Josh Hall) visited Bedford in 2011 and lost to HayaBusa. They still came back to Bedford a year later and finished once again behind HayaBusa's new lineup with Dennis Praet. Airspeed then won the FAI outdoor gold medals in Dubai 2012.

Arizona Airspeed has not visited Bedford ever since, even though three of the four team members have competed at World Challenges before. Niklas Hemlin was Airspeed's inside center in the 2011/2012 lineup and has not won in Bedford yet.

Thiago Gomes made his first trip to the World Challenge when SDC Rhythm XP joined Arizona Airspeed on the leaderboard in 2010, and the same Rhythm lineup came back a year later.

Still with Rhythm, he watched Airspeed finishing once again behind HayaBusa in 2012 and eventually joined Airspeed at the end of the 2012 season. He has not been in Bedford ever since and until the current Airspeed decided to compete at the World Challenge 2018 and take on NMP PCH HayaBusa for the second time this year.

World Challenge 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		D,Q,9,10	17,P,11	2,21,7	14,J,O,M	A,L,18,16	N,H,20,G	C,E,19,22	1,8,4	K,6,3	12,F,5	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	34	33	25	36	28	35	30	25	28	30	304	30.4
2	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	31	31	25	37	28	33	26	23	27	30	291	29.1
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	34	29	24	34	28	34	29	22	26	30	290	29.0
4	XL	UK	30	27	24	32	26	31	27	21	24	26	268	26.8
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29	23	22	29	21	30	26	21	23	23	247	24.7
5	Aerokart Maubeuge	FR	29	27	23	34	19	26	22	19	23	25	247	24.7
7	Thunder ISR	BE	29	25	23	31	16	23	26	21	24	23	241	24.1
8	Satori	UK	27	24	21	32	22	27	20	19	23	23	238	23.8
9	Rabbit Restraint	US	24	19	19	31	19	25	23	17	20	23	220	22.0
10	eX3MO	IT	26	23	19	25	17	24	21	16	22	19	212	21.2

Mikhail Markine had his first World Challenge experience with the pickup team Rabbit Restraint (Don Burnette, Mikhail Markine, Uli Steuwe, Andre Van Heerden) in 2012, the last event for Thiago Gomes with SDC Rhythm in Bedford. A year later, he was back at the same place in Thiago Gomes' former tail slot.

He was still in Rhythm's tail slot when the only U.S. team at the World Challenge 2015 placed 2nd behind the new outdoor world champions, NMP PCH HayaBusa. This April, he will try to challenge the Belgians even harder than in 2015 and with a new team.

The World Challenge is only completely new to the latest Airspeed member, Ari Perelman, who also competed for the first time at the Wind Games 2018.

The situation for HayaBusa and Airspeed in Bedford this year is similar to the World Challenges in 2010 and 2012 where the event brought together the top contenders for the FAI outdoor medals later the same year.

France won in Bedford in 2010 and then in Menzelinsk. HayaBusa won in Bedford in 2012 and then lost in Dubai by one single point behind Airspeed.

HayaBusa won in Bedford and at the world meets in 2014 and 2016 without Airspeed competing in Bedford. Airspeed will try to get closer to HayaBusa in April this year and then try to copy what the 2012 lineup did later in Dubai...