posted Oct 25th, 2018 - The participating teams at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018 are in their starting blocks after a round of air speed testing and the competition draw on Thursday.

Round 1 is scheduled for Friday morning at 8.00 AM local time in Bahrain. Live streaming of the event is available, and a screen is embedded on the event pages.

The NSL Power Rankings provide an overview of the field in three of the 4-way events. The expected battle for the 1st place between the reigning indoor and outdoor world champions, NMP PCH HayaBusa, and the Weembi lineup in Bahrain has been covered well enough with previous previews by the NSL News, while there are other interesting situations, as well.

There are very good chances that the competition for the FAI bronze medals could be just as exciting as the showdown between the two best 4-way indoor teams in the world. The NSL News is expecting four teams with realistic chances for a run at the 3rd place. Echochamber from Sweden and Amnesya from Italy went neck-to-neck earlier this month at the FAI World Meet 2018. The Swedes won in Australia and at previous meets between the two teams. However, Amnesya is a strong indoor team and will be eager to turn the table in Bahrain.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Power Rankings		K,17,J,21	4,H,F,11	18,L,16	5,M,O,C	N,8,P,19	6,9,10	D,12,15	Q,B,G,22	20,E,14	7,3,2	A,19,12	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Weembi Mix MF	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	ACM Weembi	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Amnesya	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	IFS-Moscow	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	France Odins	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Russian Thunder	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	HF Flying Circus	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Papea Masculino	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Monaco	MC	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Eros	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	China	CN	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Jazz Republic	ZA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	No Limits	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	Equinox	LT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Sky....	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
21	Bahrain 1	BH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
22	Bahrain 2	BH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

ACM Weembi from the United Kingdom has dedicated the 2018 season to indoor competition and is well prepared for the upcoming competition. The same counts for IFS-Moscow who posted a 29.5 average at the World Challenge 2018. The Russian team might in fact be the strongest contender for the bronze medals.

Two more teams competed in Australia, as well, Papea for Spain and Out of the Blue for the Netherlands. The five teams who competed in Australia and are back in wind tunnel air in Bahrain have to switch back to indoor mode and did not have much time for that.

British team Eros, who finished in 4th place at the UK Nationals 2018, has an interesting personnel change for the FAI Indoor World Cup.

Team member Catherine Leather is competing with Satori's lineup in 4-way Women, which also features the comeback of original Satori member Julia Swallow. Joey Jones is filling Catherine Leather's slot for Eros. He is also coaching the Weembi Mix lineup at the same time.

Joey Jones was coaching NMP PCH HayaBusa when Roy Janssen was flying the tail slot for the Belgians and before Gary Smith took over the guidance for the world champions. Now he will try to help the Weembi Mix to defeat HayaBusa for the first time since the Weembi project started in 2015.

InTime owners Claire King and Dirk Venter are also back in the air for their Jazz Republic. Claire King was judging in Australia, while Dirk Venter was maintaining the InTime operation for the world meet. Their judging system will be used once again in Bahrain.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women Power Rankings		K,17,J,21	4,H,F,11	18,L,16	5,M,O,C	N,8,P,19	6,9,10	D,12,15	Q,B,G,22	20,E,14	7,3,2	A,19,12	Total	Avg
1	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Team X	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Satori	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	France	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	HF Chicks	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Zero-G	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Zephyrus	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	China	CN	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The silver and bronze medal winners in 4-way Women at the FAI World Meet 2018 can probably be expected to take the top indoor spots in Bahrain, as well.

However, NFTO is competing without Catherine Anderson, and Kate Lindsley, who was already NFTO alternate in Australia, is filling the slot.

Julia Swallow has a very strong Satori lineup for her comeback, and the young French indoor B-Team could be able to challenge the two outdoor medal winners at the indoor competition, as well.

The situation in 4-way Junior is probably wide open. The Air Devils from Canada won the FAI Indoor World Cup in 2016, and the French Aerokart Ak'demie team took the gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Meet last year. The all-female lineup of the Czech HF Cubs were far behind France and Canada at both events. However, a whole year has gone by, and the Cubs have practiced AAA and AA sequences regularly.

Eight 4-way Junior teams had competed at the FAI World Cup 2016, and three of them are back with almost exactly the same lineups two years later.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Junior Power Rankings		20,4	14,11	H,2,8	22,P,6	A,15,Q	N,E,M,F	G,K,O,J	19,9	B,18,7	Total	Avg
1	France Aerokart	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Air Devils	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	HF Cubs	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	France Aerokart B	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-