posted Apr 18th, 2018 - The NSL News mentioned during the recent coverage of the World Challenge 2018 that Germany held the first national indoor championships exactly on the weekend of the biggest 4-way competition in the world in Bedford, and that one German 4-way team still made the trip to England despite the scheduling conflict.

The AAA Class competition in Germany did not offer any surprises. Airbus and AtomiX maintained approximately the same distance that they were separated by at the outdoor championships last year, considering the difference between indoor and outdoor averages. Both teams were separated by eight points at the outdoor nationals last year (184 - 176), and eleven points was the indoor difference in Bottrop this month (240 - 229).

The three other teams on the AAA Class leaderboard were clearly separated from each other, as well.

However, the situation in Germany is still interesting, even though the most recent leaderboard does not show any serious battles at the moment. The duel between Airbus and AtomiX for the AAA Class top spot in the country will surely continue and have its 2018 showdown at the national outdoor championships. Airbus may have the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia as the main 2018 goal though.

German Indoor Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	4,D,M,K	18,15,17	N,2,10	B,Q,12,O	J,5,F,22	3,20,L	9,7,C	H,A,E,16	11,8,21	P,G,14,19	Total	Avg
1	AIRBUS FSZ SAAR	31	19	20	26	24	20	33	27	18	22	240	24.0
2	AtomiX-YUU Skydive	26	18	19	26	23	20	25	30	19	23	229	22.9
3	SKYNAMITE	25	14	19	20	19	18	27	28	17	11	198	19.8
4	Chilly Pink Tigers	22	14	14	21	19	11	22	24	15	18	180	18.0
5	4 xmpl FSZ Kassel	16	10	12	11	16	13	21	19	11	13	142	14.2
World Challenge 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,H,F,13	20,6,22	12,1,11	4,M,G,J	9,B,P,A	N,C,8,3	K,7,L,D	18,19,14	5,Q,21	15,16,O	Total	Avg
20	Chicas Recycled	17	15	14	23	28	18	27	14	-	-	156	19.5

The situation behind the two AAA Class top teams is just as interesting. Skynamite and Pink Chilly Tigers both have all-female lineups and competed for the slot as the German national team in this category for the 2018 season.

Skynamite is also the national outdoor team who won the German 4-way Women title at last year's national championships with an unexpected win over Skyfall, who were troubled by injuries and substitutions.

In fact, one of the Chicas members, Marion Thomas, stepped in for Skyfall in the last minute and could not help much.

Skynamite was back with the same lineup as in 2017 and added the German indoor title in 4-way Women to the outdoor title. Skyfall did not compete again at the indoor championships, while two members (Sarah Mertes, Stephanie Meyer) showed up with the Chilly Pink Tigers in Bottrop.

It was the second indoor competition for Skynamite after an earlier meet this year in Munich, while it was the first 4-way competition at all for the new Chilly Pink Tigers.

The German World Challenge weekend brought all three 4-way Women teams together on two different leaderboards with 18 different sequences, as last year's Skyfall substitute and original Chicas member Marion Thomas competed with her team in Bedford.

Some of the sequences were quite similar, such as the one in Round 1 in Bottrop (4,D,M,K) and Round 4 in Bedford (4,M,G,J). The scores on both leaderboards indicate that the Chicas would probably be quite competitive in the current German 4-way Women community - ten years after their last competition together.

The Chicas meet average is only slightly behind Skynamite, and the last two rounds in Bedford did not change the numbers much for most of the teams who received their scores for Round 9 and Round 10.

The Chicas did not talk much about their plans for the future when they were on World Challenge TV with the NSL News. They may start thinking about an outdoor reunion, as well, which would probably create a competitive situation in 4-way Women at the German Nationals 2018. Their last competition in 2008 was an outdoor meet, while the World Challenge is "only" an indoor competition...