posted Nov 19th, 2018 - The NSL News update on 13 November 2018 covered the unfortunate situation of the Belgian 4-way team ISR FireFlash after team member Glenn Straeluyc's work accident. The FireFlash story connected to a familiar topic that the NSL News has brought to the attention of the audience on a regular basis, the unofficial world ranking of the "amateur teams" in the sport.

The same story pointed out that Echochamber, the Swedish national 4-way team, and ISR FireFlash from Belgium are currently the best amateur teams in the world.

There is no official definition of professional and amateur teams in Formation Skydiving competition, and the sport mixes up teams of all kind of different life situations on all leaderboards. Even the best teams in the world and their individual team members are still not training, competing and working under the same conditions.

Despite the difficulties of a decent definition and distinction, the NSL News still directs attention to the teams that are not financially supported in any way and pay for their participation in the sport mostly with their own income from regular work outside of the sport. These teams are mentioned as the "amateur teams" when the NSL News covers the topic.

Belgian Nationals 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		8,H,E,1		19,3,4		N,11,G,10		A,17,14		B,D,7,5		21,15,9		12,F,L,M		6,C,J,O		P,2,Q,22		K,20,16		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26		25		23	-1	24		37		25		32		34	-2	26	-1	24	-1	276	27.6
2	Echochamber	SE	23		18		19		17	-3	26	-1	20	-1	24	-2	27	-3	19	-4	18		211	21.1
3	ISR FireFlash	BE	18	-2	17		19		20		27		18	-1	25		25	-2	20		19		208	20.8

Mass Defiance (United States), ISR Thunder (Belgium/Netherlands) and SportLoto (Russia) are some of the team who have posted world class scores right behind the international medal rankings in the past and have caught the attention of NSL News and audience.

The names have changed to Echochamber and ISR FireFlash on the top of the current list of the best "amateur teams", as the NSL News mentioned recently. Only the "amateur teams" who are also a country's national team at the same time compete at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving, and at FAI World Cups together with the maximum of three other teams from the same country.

The "amateur teams" who are not national teams have to make different plans and meet schedules, usually with the national championships as the main goal, while the national teams target their efforts naturally at the FAI events. That's the main reason why the best amateur teams don't get many opportunities to face off with other top teams in this unofficial category.

The NSL leaderboards and rankings provide at least opportunities to compare all teams indirectly with each other, even though competition draws, judging and meet conditions are different.

French Indoor Nationals 2017			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		10,12,O		21,E,9		M,J,22,G		15,6,Q		4,N,14		19,2,F		18,A,16		D,20,3		B,17,8		P,13,K,1		Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	26		36		37		33		29		32		29		30	-2	29	-1	32		313	31.3
2	Weembi Lille	FR	26		34		35	-1	33		29		31		28		28	-1	27	-4	29		300	30.0
3	French Weembi Girls	FR	26		32		33		29		25		29		27		25		29		28		283	28.3
4	RealFly-Sion	FR	22		32		33		27		24		28		26		27		29		26		274	27.4
5	Gavroche Weembi	FR	21		28		32		25		24		27		23		22		24		24		250	25.0
6	Espoir Saumur Weembi	FR	21		30		29		23		21		28		24		22		24		25		247	24.7
7	Echochamber	SE	21		31		28		21		23		26		24		22		24		23		243	24.3
8	Tenanine	MR	19		29		26		23		22		23		18		22		22		22		226	22.6
9	Wom'in PCP Bouloc	FR	18		26		28		24		19		22		19		20		22		21		219	21.9
10	Amnesya Fly-In	IT	17		25		27		25		21		20		20		20		22		20		217	21.7
11	ISR FireFlash	BE	18		26		22		23		21		22		20		22		21		21		216	21.6

Echochamber and ISR FireFlash are two good examples for this situation. Both teams attended several indoor and outdoor meets in 2017 and 2018 (Echochamber - 11, FireFlash - 9) and still met each other directly only two times. However, the last 4-way competition that they both attended together, the Belgian Outdoor Nationals 2018, served as a true showdown between the currently two best "amateur teams" in the world.

Echochamber traveled from Sweden to Belgium for the last competition test before the FAI World Meet 2018, the team's main target of the year. On the Belgian FireFlash side, the national championships were probably the main event for the best Belgian team behind NMP PCH HayaBusa.

The "amateur showdown" in Belgium was in fact the most exciting part of the competition, even though the reigning 4-way world champions posted the current lineup's highest meet average. Echochamber and ISR FireFlash went through a 10-round battle that ended with a 3-point advantage for the Swedish team.

There was only one other meet where both teams competed together, the French Indoor Nationals 2017, which happened to be the very first competition for the newly formed ISR FireFlash team. Echochamber finished 27 points ahead of FireFlash in March 2017. A year and a few months later, the outdoor difference was down to three points in Belgium, and before Echochamber posted the 21.5 average in Australia. More scores of both teams at the same events will hopefully follow in the near future...