posted Apr 21st, 2018 - The NSL News recently featured the indoor competition between three Germans teams who are eligible for FAI/IPC's 4-way Women event and posted their scores on two different leaderboards on the "German World Challenge weekend".

The same article mentioned that not much changed on the top level of German 4-way competition, where Airbus FSZ Saar and AtomiX-YUU have been distancing themselves from the rest of the field of 4-way teams in the past years. However, this duel always offers exciting competition and enough drama to catch regular attention by the NSL News.

The Airbus-AtomiX duel in Germany began when AtomiX was formed in 2013 and began the uphill travel towards the German top level that different Airbus teams and members have been representing for many years. The chart with the scores of both teams at the same events since 2013 is showing how the challenger has been getting closer year by year and became a serious opponent in 2017.

However, the last direct confrontation at the German Indoor Nationals did not change the scoring relationship between both teams, as the NSL News mentioned briefly, even though the difference of the total number of points was higher compared to the last meet that both teams attended, the German Outdoor Nationals 2017.

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
German Outdoor Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	P,D,3,16	13,14,9	F,11,N,2	J,7,5	17,4,M	B,8,18	22,Q,O,20	K,10,15	E,1,G,6	A,L,19,21	Total	Avg
1	Airbus FSZ Saar	19	16	20	22	20	17	17	15	18	20	184	18.4
2	AtomiX YUU Skydive	18	15	18	22	18	16	17	15	18	19	176	17.6
FAI World Cup 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
6	Airbus	27	21	17	15	-	-	-	-	-	-	80	20.0
12	AtomiX YUU	19	19	13	15	-	-	-	-	-	-	66	16.5

Scoring relationship and history between Airbus FSZ Saar and AtomiX-YUU since 2013

Both teams had different lineups when they started the duel of the coming years in 2013, and they both had their latest personnel changes at the beginning of the 2017 season.

Thomas Mack and Goeran Meyer joined forces with two German 4-way champions of 2013, Markus Bastuck and Joern Thiele, while Andreas Troegele continued on camera for Airbus.

Mark Zimmermann joined original AtomiX members Andrea Kleinschmidt, Peter Ingenhaag, Holger Sass and Lars Naeve (camera) at the same time.

The distance first increased at the FAI World Cup 2017 in Saarlouis, as Mark Zimmermann came from a significantly lower scoring level, while the new Airbus members stepped in for their new team as highly experienced German top performers on their home turf.

However, the 2017 situation was already completely different just three weeks later at the German national championships, where AtomiX reduced the distance like never before, benefiting from a weaker performance of the German national 4-way team, who still qualified for the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

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	-1	33		27	-3	18	-1	22	-1	240	24.0
2	AtomiX-YUU Skydive	26		18	-1	19	-1	26		23	-1	20		25	-3	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

Eight months later, not much has changed between both teams, as the difference of eleven points at the indoor competition in April proportionally equals the 8-point difference at last year's national outdoor championship.

Airbus had attended one indoor competition, the Belgian Indoor Nationals 2017, before competing at the first German national indoor championship, while AtomiX posted the team's first indoor scores in Bottrop after three hours of wind tunnel training. AtomiX had the complete lineup available only late this year, as one team member had to leave the country earlier for work reasons.

Both teams will focus on outdoor competition for the remainder of the 2018 season. First they will both prepare for the national championships, where AtomiX will try again to take the top position in Germany. Then they will go different directions, as only one national 4-way team represents each country at the FAI World Championship.

Airbus will compete for Germany in Australia, while AtomiX plans to collect scoring points for the German 4-way delegation at the annual ESL Championship, which will be hosted once again on Airbus home turf in Saarlouis. AtomiX is the defending ESL AAA Class champion.