posted Nov 22nd, 2018 - International FAI/IPC events include three different 4-way Formation Skydiving events, Open - Women - VFS. The NSL News usually features a combined leaderboard of 4-way Open and 4-way Women, where the teams use identical competition draws. The combined leaderboard of the FAI World Meet 2018 was posted with the story on 24 October 2018.

The combined leaderboard is showing additional battles between more teams who are closer to each other in the same competition with the same competition draws. Most of the teams in both events compare their scores with the numbers on the other leaderboard anyway, and the French world champions in 4-way Women, Aerodyne Weembi, have been the most prominent example for this situation.

In fact, Aerodyne Weembi have never left a doubt that their main target are the top teams on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard, where only two teams scored higher at the recent world championship in Australia, NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed.

There are still two more unofficial categories that do not have a separate leaderboard. The Open Class field itself is a combination of teams with only male team members and others with mixed genders. Neither find official recognition at award ceremonies or in the rankings. The NSL News present all teams in their gender constellation with today's featured leaderboard.

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

Grey = male lineups; magenta = female lineups; yellow = mixed gender lineups

The numbers of teams in these three unofficial categories are similar, with 11 male, 8 female and 7 mixed lineups. The two male lineups of NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed dominate 4-way outdoor competition, even though the currently best indoor team in the world, Weembi Mix, has an evenly balanced gender lineup.

The two female Weembi Mix members, Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, are in 3rd place on the featured leaderboard with their 4-way Women team, Aerodyne Weembi, followed by the mixed gender lineup of the French national team in 4-way Open, Aerodyne Realfly. All three unofficial categories have a well balanced presence in the Top 10 rankings.

Laurence Fugen is the only female member in the French national Open Class team. She won FAI gold medals in 4-way Women for France in Prostejov 2014 and was then selected for the 4-way Open Class team. She met her former 4-way Women team mates Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis in Australia in a different category.

Italy's national team in 4-way Open, Amnesya, is the second Top 10 team with a mixed lineup. Chiara Brunetti has been training and competing with the team since 2016. Amnesya eventually became the best Italian 4-way team and attended the team's first world championship in Australia.

The whole combined 4-way leaderboard features a colorful mix of different gender lineups. The group of four male lineups around the last Top 10 spot is followed by Tanay Wolves from Russia and Australia's Rotor Out.

Alena Chistova joined the Tanay Wolves this year, together with player coach Oleg Shalamyhin. Both added a wealth of experience and skills to the team, and the Tanay Wolves turned the 15.8 average at the FAI World Cup 2017 in Saarlouis into 18.5 last month in Australia. Before joining Tanay Wolves Alena Chistova had guided Bubble Trouble, Russia's national team in 4-way Women, to the FAI silver medals at the same world cup in Saarlouis.

Australia's home team Rotor Out competed with Tanya Cale, who was in Australia's 8-way lineup, as well. Brazil's CTR Optimum, with multi-talented Juliana Sé in the current lineup, ended up surrounded by five all-female lineups after battling for the 15th place on the combined leaderboard.

The Dutch national team Out of the Blue, representing the Dutch 20+ Project in Australia, has a 2-2 combination, with Mandy Feijen and Mechie Voermans in the lineup, and finished with a new team record average. Meraki from South Africa consists of two married couples, as the NSL News reported on 5 October 2018. Last and not least, the 4-way team from Cyprus has Liza Yianni in a mixed lineup.