posted Jan 4th, 2019 - The Indoor Cloud League competition between Hurricane Factory and Paraclete XP was a thriller throughout the whole 2018 season, which even came to its peak in December, as the NSL News reported on January 1st.

Earlier ICL updates had also pointed out the battle for the 3rd place behind the two 4-way powerhouses, which has been featuring the two teams of the Florida and the Northwest Skydiving League for several years. In fact, the Indoor Cloud League began with a duel between Florida and Northwest in July 2012.

The iFLY Seattle team won the first ICL competition (110 - 84) and the first year was already a close race after the first five months of Indoor Cloud League competition (523 - 511). The Florida team was still performing at SkyVenture Orlando's old 12-foot chamber and won the first year by only 12 points.

Six years later, both indoor teams attended all 12 monthly 2018 events and ended up closer then ever before, with a 5-point advantage (1262 - 1257) for iFLY Seattle at the end of December.

Indoor Cloud League 2012			Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
Flying Chamber: 12+ Feet
1	iFLY Orlando	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	84	105	128	123	83	-	523
2	iFLY Seattle	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	110	88	-	112	95	106	511
Indoor Cloud League 2018			Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
Flying Chamber: 14+ Feet
1	Hurricane Factory	CZ	128	120	139	144	143	124	60	76	116	127	139	145	1461
2	Paraclete XP	US	128	125	148	126	116	90	93	133	115	109	127	149	1459
3	iFLY Seattle	US	114	89	115	111	104	113	124	84	101	107	105	95	1262
4	iFLY Tampa	US	83	107	121	111	108	95	106	114	81	98	122	111	1257
5	iFLY Dallas	US	98	82	44	88	64	89	-	-	-	-	-	-	465
6	Flybox	IL	78	72	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	150
4	Vega XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	20

In fact, the 5-point difference between iFLY Seattle and iFLY Tampa at the end of the 2018 season is the closest finish in the whole history of the Florida - Northwest history. Both teams have never been closer to each other than Florida's 12-point advantage at the very beginning in 2014.

Both ICL teams missed each other only in 2016, when the a second leaderboard was added. The Florida team continued in Orlando's 12-foot chamber, while the Northwest team could join the other teams with a larger flying chamber and a larger dive pool.

They were back together on the same leaderboard when iFLY Tampa was ready for operation, and the Florida team began posting scores on both leaderboards in 2017, after different monthly events in Orlando and Tampa. The Northwest team at iFLY Seattle easily won the first new 14+ duel at the end of Florida's first year on the 14+ leaderboard (1345 - 1178).

The latest 14+ competition in December 2018 now created the closest 2-point finish between Hurricane Factory and Paraclete XP on the top of the leaderboard and the 5-point difference between Northwest and Florida for the 3rd place. It was a very dramatic situation at the end of the year. The iFLY Tampa team almost turned the outcome and finished just a few points short, like Paraclete XP did for the top spot.

Indoor Cloud League 2018			AAA		AA		A		RRR		RR		R		Total
Rank	December 14+		O,11,H,17		Q,9,11		E,N,7		D,O,H		M,E,N		M,Q		Total
1	Paraclete XP	US	26		28	-1	23		24		23		25		149
2	Hurricane Factory	CZ	26		29		22	-1	22	-1	21		25		145
3	iFLY Tampa	US	14		19		16	-1	22		25		15	-12	111
4	iFLY Seattle	US	14		14		16		17		14		20		95
5	Vega XP	US	20		-		-		-		-		-		20

The iFLY Tampa team won the December competition over iFLY Seattle, which was needed to make up the 21-point difference that the NSL News had reported on December 4th after the November competition. Florida's 16-point advantage in December (111 - 95) was still not quite enough to turn the competition at the last minute.

However, the iFLY Tampa team was extremely close to make it happen and leave iFLY Seattle behind, after winning three of the six ICL December sequences and tying two more. It was the R Class sequence that created the dramatic finish in December.

The iFLY Tampa R/RR lineup (Amer Kassas, Suzette Hechst, Tristan Smith, Benjamin Turner) posted the maximum score of 25 points for the RR sequence and was on the way to do the same in the R Class. In fact, the same lineup completed 27 points within the 35 seconds of working time after breaking the Star (M).

They used the more challenging round shape for the Phalanx (Q) for higher scoring results. It did not work out, as 12 of the Phalanxes did not match the required judging standards, especially for the round Phalanx, with more challenging leg grip connections and potentially overlapping arms and hands. The 12-point damage was significant and costly, as Florida's iFLY Tampa team needed only five more points to tie iFLY Seattle and six points to win...

iFLY Seattle - December 14+	AAA	AA	A	RRR	RR	R	Total
Teams	O,11,H,17	Q,9,11	E,N,7	D,O,H	M,E,N	M,Q	Total
Jeramy Eggum, Monica Aikins and Samantha D'Andrea, Deb Corriea	14	14	-	-	-	-	28
Kurt Ferstl, Nat Mote, Randy Barbee, Djordje Mandaric	-	-	16	-	-	-	16
Erik Byng, Gary Dutton, Slavko Pesic, Dave Correia	-	-	-	17	-	-	17
Katie Grabb, Art Nepute, Steve Platt, Bill Seilg	-	-	-	-	14	20	34
iFLY Seattle - Best of December	14	14	16	17	14	20	95

Indoor Cloud League 14+ December 2018 teams at iFLY Tampa and iFLY Seattle

iFLY Tampa - December 14+	AAA	AA	A	RRR	RR	R	Total
	O,11,H,17	Q,9,11	E,N,7	D,O,H	M,E,N	M,Q	Total
Paul Bertorelli, Amer Kassas, Sally Hathaway, Mike Talerico	14	15	-	-	-	-	14
Kanishka Perera, Sebastian Jimenez, Bob Byrne, Sally Hathaway	-	19	21	-	-	-	19
Kim Lewis, Adam Himel, Amer Kassas, Bob Byrne	-	-	16(-1)	22	-	-	38
Amer Kassas, Suzette Hechst, Tristan Smith, Benjamin Turner	-	-	-	25	25	15(-12)	40
iFLY Tampa - Best of December	14	19	16	22	25	15	111