posted Oct 31st, 2018 - The NSL News aftermath of the FAI World Meet 2018 included as usual the combined leaderboard of the 4-way events that use the identical competition draw, 4-way Open and 4-way Women.

It was published with the story on 24 October and pointed out that "the three 4-way Women teams who eventually finished with only a 2-point difference between each other (Team X, Sweden - Phoenix XP, United States - Boomerang Betty, Australia) were also glued to each other on the combined leaderboard."

It was the battle for the bronze medals in 4-way Women that the three teams were fighting throughout the ten rounds in Australia, while they finished in 15th and 16th place on the combined leaderboard.

Two teams, Aerodyne Weembi Girls and NFTO, had made it into the Top 10 of all 4-way teams at the world meet, and the other five all-female teams ended up in the bottom half of the field with a total of 26 teams.

NFTO and Team X then followed up at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018. The British silver medalist in Australia won gold in 4-way Women in Bahrain and copied the finish on the combined leaderboard with an 8th place.

FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/Women Combined		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	21	27	24	22	62	22	20	27	22	279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	21	27	24	24	60	26	22	27	20	277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	29	20	24	22	25	56	23	18	22	18	257	25.7
4	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	19	24	23	24	52	20	17	24	19	251	25.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	14	24	21	22	53	21	18	20	17	234	23.4
6	Echochamber	SE	25	16	21	17	20	48	14	18	21	15	215	21.5
7	Amnesya	IT	24	14	20	18	18	48	18	14	21	15	210	21.0
8	NFTO	UK	20	15	22	19	18	38	18	17	19	16	202	20.2
9	Satori XL	UK	21	14	21	19	19	37	19	17	18	16	201	20.1
9	Airheads	CH	22	14	19	17	18	44	16	16	18	17	201	20.1
11	Evolution	CA	21	13	22	18	15	43	15	15	19	15	196	19.6
12	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	14	17	17	16	45	15	14	18	15	192	19.2
13	Tanay Wolves	RU	22	14	18	17	16	35	17	14	18	14	185	18.5
14	Rotor Out	AU	21	13	18	14	16	32	13	13	18	14	172	17.2
15	Team X	SE	17	10	18	16	14	36	15	13	18	12	169	16.9
16	Phoenix XP	US	17	12	17	14	15	37	16	12	14	13	167	16.7
16	Boomerang Betty	AU	19	11	18	14	15	32	15	13	17	13	167	16.7
18	CTR Optimum	BR	19	10	17	15	13	31	14	14	18	13	164	16.4
19	Fuzion Voltige	CA	17	9	18	14	15	34	14	13	14	13	161	16.1
20	Papea Masculino	ES	17	13	18	13	13	28	14	14	13	12	155	15.5
21	Skynamite	DE	19	12	16	14	14	27	13	12	15	12	154	15.4
22	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	11	13	14	15	28	15	15	14	12	153	15.3
23	Meraki	ZA	14	11	14	14	13	28	12	12	14	12	144	14.4
24	New Zealand	NZ	10	9	12	11	10	21	7	11	10	11	112	11.2
25	Paraguay	PY	10	8	10	7	9	17	7	8	10	8	94	9.4
26	Cyprus	CY	13	8	9	8	7	19	7	8	9	5	93	9.3

NFTO was alone in the Top 10 in Bahrain since the Aerodyne Weembi Girls did not compete for France, except for Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis with Weembi Mix.

Sweden's Team X was once again a part of a group of all-female teams who were glued together in a similar way as in Australia.

Team X, the French national indoor team in 4-way Women, China and HF Chicks from the Czech Republic were all in contention for silver medals in their separate 4-way Women event, and they were so close to each other that they placed 11th to 15th on the combined leaderboard.

This time though, this group of the best all-female teams behind NFTO finished together in the top half of the thirty 4-way teams in Bahrain. Only the other four of the nine all-female teams ended up in the bottom half.

NFTO collected sets of gold (Bahrain) and silver medals (Australia) for the British delegation at the two FAI events, and France did the same, only with two different teams. Aerodyne Weembi Girls won gold in Australia, and the French indoor B-Team surprised the opponents with the silver medal performance in Bahrain. Team X was consistent at both events and won two sets of bronze medals in 4-way Women for Sweden.

It was interesting to see that the teams who had to transition from outdoor to indoor competition between Australia and Bahrain mastered the challenge quite well. Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis won two sets of gold medals for France. NFTO and Team X won medals at both events, as well.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/Women Combined		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	Total	Avg
1	Weembi Mix MF	FR	34	35	31	57	33	31	30	39	29	26	345	34.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	35	35	27	47	33	31	31	38	28	28	333	33.3
3	Amnesya	IT	30	28	24	46	26	27	21	30	24	24	280	28.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	28	29	21	45	26	27	21	33	24	25	279	27.9
5	Echochamber	SE	30	30	23	37	27	25	22	32	22	23	271	27.1
6	France Odins	FR	29	26	21	37	28	25	19	27	24	23	259	25.9
7	ACM Weembi	UK	26	26	23	36	27	25	23	28	20	21	255	25.5
8	NFTO	UK	27	26	20	37	25	23	22	29	22	23	254	25.4
9	China	CN	27	23	22	32	25	22	20	29	24	23	247	24.7
10	Russian Thunder	RU	24	22	20	36	23	24	22	28	21	22	242	24.2
11	Papea Masculino	ES	25	24	14	35	23	22	17	29	21	20	230	23.0
11	France	FR	26	23	20	36	24	19	19	26	17	20	230	23.0
13	Team X	SE	24	26	18	31	22	21	16	27	20	19	224	22.4
14	China	CN	22	20	20	28	23	22	18	24	20	21	218	21.8
15	HF Chicks	CZ	25	23	15	26	23	21	17	24	21	21	216	21.6
16	Monaco	MC	22	23	16	27	22	22	19	25	18	18	212	21.2
17	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	23	25	16	27	22	20	17	23	19	18	210	21.0
18	Satori	UK	24	19	18	31	18	20	18	23	18	19	208	20.8
19	HF Flying Circus	CZ	21	23	19	28	20	19	17	22	17	18	204	20.4
19	Eros	UK	22	23	17	25	19	19	19	24	18	18	204	20.4
21	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	24	19	18	30	20	18	15	23	17	18	202	20.2
21	Zero-G	RU	22	22	17	27	20	20	16	22	16	20	202	20.2
23	Jazz Republic	ZA	19	23	16	28	20	19	17	24	15	17	198	19.8
24	No Limits	RU	22	20	18	28	20	20	12	22	17	17	196	19.6
25	Bahrain 1	BH	17	23	15	25	14	17	15	23	18	15	182	18.2
26	Equinox	LT	17	15	14	20	17	16	12	17	17	17	162	16.2
27	Papea	ES	19	18	12	17	17	14	15	19	10	14	155	15.5
28	Sky....	CZ	15	18	10	16	16	16	14	19	16	13	153	15.3
29	Bahrain 2	BH	13	14	12	18	14	15	14	17	15	16	148	14.8
30	Zephyrus	UK	12	12	10	16	13	12	10	17	11	13	126	12.6

Echochamber from Sweden finished twice in 5th place, copying identical finishing positions as Team X did. Out of the Blue from the Netherlands finished twice in 15th place, and Italy's national champions of Amnesya even stepped up and turned the 6th place in Australia into a bronze medal finish in Bahrain.

The Spanish team Papea Masculino did even better and moved from 14th place in 4-way Open in Australia to 10th place in Bahrain.

It is obviously easier to switch from 4-way outdoor to indoor competition than vice versa. Only NMP PCH HayaBusa actually dropped in the rankings between Australia and Bahrain, despite a 33.3 average at the indoor event. The reasons for this situation have been discussed in length, and without Weembi Mix the Belgians would have taken the 1st place once again.

However, indoor and outdoor competition will probably become even more specific and different in the future. Outdoor teams will still always perform well in a wind tunnel that they use for regular practice anyway. Indoor teams never have to perform exits and the sub-terminal pages and may not even jump from planes. The best all-round 4-way team will be the one that competes and wins in both events. Check out the NSL Ultimate 4-way Championship...