posted Nov 8th, 2018 - The competition for the 4-way Open Class bronze medals at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018 was not only a 1-point duel between the Italian national team Amnesya and IFS-Moscow from Russia.

Echochamber from Sweden has been climbing up the international rankings year by year and eventually won a set of bronze medals at the FAI European Indoor Championship 2018 in April. It was naturally a smaller field without any teams from other continents, and even NMP PCH HayaBusa did not attend the meet in Norway.

Echochamber fended off the Swiss Airheads and Amnesya to win the bronze medals in April. Russia was represented by Black Cat in Norway and placed 2nd behind Aerodyne Realfly.

It was a 1-point battle for the European bronze medals between Echochamber and Airheads, and another 1-point battle for the next set of FAI bronze medals followed half a year later in Bahrain. Echochamber was once again in the heat of the battle for the 3rd place, while the 1-point difference was between Amnesya and IFS-Moscow for Russia this time.

FAI European Indoor Championship 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total		Avg
Rank	AAA Class		G,12,20		F,16,22		N,E,D,21		17,L,4		18,14,O		19,2,5		7,15,Q		6,B,M,P		K,11,9		8,H,J,C		Total		Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	25		29		39		31		26		26		32		45		33		38		324		32.4
2	Black Cat	RU	23		31		36		32		25		26		32		46		30		35		316		31.6
3	Echochamber	SE	21	-1	26		34		27		23		23	-1	29	-2	38	-1	27	-2	35	-1	283	-8	28.3
4	Airheads	CH	21	-2	26		35		26	-1	22	-2	23		29		40	-1	28	-2	32	-4	282	-12	28.2
5	Amnesya	IT	21	-1	28		29	-2	22	-3	24		22		29	-1	39	-2	27	-2	38	-3	279	-14	27.9
6	ACM Weembi	UK	19		24		29		24		20		22		29		35		25		28		255		25.5
7	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	16		18		20		19		17		16		21		25		21		20		193		19.3
8	Skydive University Slovakia	SK	14		18		21		17		15		14		19		27		21		25		191		19.1
9	Norway	NO	13		14		19		13		14		15		16		26		19		15		164		16.4
10	HF Bad Boys	CZ	16		22		22		21		-		-		-		-		-		-		81		20.3

Echochamber ended up in 5th place and nine points behind the bronze medal position in Bahrain. However, the breakdown of the highscores per round is showing that the Swedish team was actually on eye level with Amnesya and IFS-Moscow throughout the whole meet.

It was only in one round that Echochamber could not keep up, which happened to be the one with the fastest sequence of the meet. It was Round 4 where Echochamber lost exactly the nine points that made the difference to the bronze medal position at the end.

It was the same round where NMP PCH HayaBusa lost their own ten points and the whole meet to Weembi Mix by falling hopelessly behind. HayaBusa and Echochamber both recovered and matched their opponents' scoring level in the remaining rounds. However, a weak performance in a round with a fast sequence is creating heavy damage that is difficult to make up for against strong opponents, even in a 10-round meet.

Amnesya and IFS-Moscow both are well trained and experienced 4-way indoor teams, and it was unlikely that both teams would give up enough points to allow Echochamber a comeback after Round 4. All three teams completed the remaining six rounds within five points (156 - 152 - 151) and without any serious crises.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		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	-3	35		31		57		33	-2	31		30		39		29	-2	26	-2	345	34.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	35		35		27	-1	47	-3	33	-1	31		31		38	-1	28	-2	28	-1	333	33.3
3	Amnesya	IT	30		28	-1	24	-1	46		26		27		21	-2	30		24		24		280	28.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	28	-3	29		21	-3	45		26	-1	27		21	-3	33		24		25	-1	279	27.9
5	Echochamber	SE	30		30		23	-1	37	-3	27	-1	25		22	-2	32		22	-2	23		271	27.1

Echochamber is now going back to the original lineup after the two main events of the 2018 season. Coach Mattias Nord has filled the slot since the FAI European Indoor Championship 2018 where original member Martin Bäcklin helped to win the European bronze medals.

He could not commit to the whole and very busy 2018 schedule, and Echochamber decided to ask their coach to step in. It was very difficult for Martin Bäcklin to follow his team's performances this year from the desk, and he is excited to move back into the active lineup with "very charged batteries".

Martin Bäcklin has been competing with Swedish teams for 20 years, and he started with Mattias Nord and Arizona Airspeed's Niklas Hemlin in his first national team's Velox lineup. Both competed in Australia last month, and 20 years later, while Martin Bäcklin had to sit out.

However, he is now eager to get back into action with his team. Starting in November Echochamber will begin with the preparations for the FAI Indoor World Meet at Weembi in France...