posted Mar 17th, 2019 - Joey Jones mentioned in the most recent NSL Live Talk that he is expecting a good battle for the British indoor top spot at the World Challenge, which includes the British national indoor championships.

He mentioned three teams that will be involved in the internal British race: ACM Weembi, Chimera and NFTO. Joey Jones' own team, Eros, will probably not be within striking distance of the three highly experienced and well trained teams.

NFTO is in a safe position regarding the qualification for the FAI Indoor World Meet, after holding the outdoor top spot in British 4-way Women competition since 2015 and claiming the indoor slot since 2018. The situation in 4-way Open has been much more competitive. ACM Weembi and Chimera have been in contention for the indoor top spot in 4-way Open.

Great Britain is split in 4-way Open Class competition. ACM Weembi has been training and competing exclusively for indoor competition since 2016 and represented the country at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2016. Satori XL won the British 4-way competition at the World Challenge 2016 and competed as the British national indoor team at the FAI World Meet 2017. They did not compete in Bedford last year, and ACM Weembi took the indoor top spot and the British slot for the FAI Indoor World Meet in April. In fact, the Wind Games 2018 was the last indoor competition for Satori XL after the 6th place in Montreal 2017.

World Challenge 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		10,H,F,13	20,6,22	12,1,11	4,M,G,J	9,B,P,A	N,C,8,3	K,7,L,D	18,19,14	5,Q,21	15,16,O	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	31	25	25	38	62	32	47	26	31	32	349	34.9
2	Weembi Mix MF	FR	29	25	24	40	59	33	45	27	32	31	345	34.5
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	29	24	23	35	59	26	43	24	33	28	324	32.4
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	26	21	23	33	50	26	40	23	29	24	295	29.5
5	ACM Weembi	UK	24	21	21	29	48	21	36	21	25	23	269	26.9
6	Gavroche Weembi	FR	23	17	17	31	46	25	35	21	26	26	267	26.7
7	ISR FireFlash	BE	23	17	20	28	45	27	35	21	25	24	265	26.5
8	Chimera	UK	23	21	20	26	44	24	31	21	24	24	258	25.8
9	NFTO	UK	21	19	19	29	42	23	31	19	22	19	244	24.4
World Challenge 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	IFS-Moscow	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Weembi Unicorns	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Airheads	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	ACM Weembi	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Odin Parachute Systems	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Gavroche Weembi	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Chimera	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Satori XL and Chimera both competed at indoor and outdoor meets, while ACM Weembi focused only on indoor training and competition. Satori XL won the UK Nationals 2017 and represented Great Britain at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018, as well.

However, the team's long-standing tradition as the British national team is now coming to an end, as they did not attend the World Challenge 2018, where ACM Weembi finished as the best British 4-way team and will compete for the British delegation at the indoor world meet in Lille.

Chimera have been working their way up on indoor and outdoor leaderboards both over the years and ended up only 11 points behind the ACM Weembi indoor experts at the World Challenge 2018. Then they finished in the British outdoor bronze medal position for the second time in August last year.

Even though it is becoming increasingly difficult for teams to be on the top level in indoor and outdoor 4-way competition, Chimera is trying to qualify as the British national 4-way Open Class team in both events.

Wind Games 2019			6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		13,20,G	4,N,J,M	11,17,Q	3,O,K,E	A,12,2	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26	46	34	39	27	172	34.4
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	28	44	32	34	29	167	33.4
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	25	37	30	31	26	149	29.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	26	37	27	35	24	149	29.8
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	39	29	32	24	148	29.6
6	Echochamber	SE	23	35	28	31	26	143	28.6
7	Nephtys Weembi	FR	21	35	25	31	20	132	26.4
8	NFTO	UK	19	33	24	30	21	127	25.4
9	Chimera	UK	18	28	26	27	20	119	23.8
10	Papea Masculino	ES	21	31	20	28	18	118	23.6
11	Team X	SE	16	32	22	26	21	117	23.4
12	Voss Vind Girls	NO	18	27	20	24	19	108	21.6
13	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	17	28	21	23	15	104	20.8
14	Alakran	ES	16	30	19	22	14	101	20.2
15	Só Pressão	BR	12	25	16	21	17	91	18.2
16	Windobona Angels	ES	14	27	17	18	13	89	17.8
17	Barak	ES	13	23	17	19	16	88	17.6
18	Are We There Yet?	HU	16	22	14	21	14	87	17.4
18	Les Affranchis	FR	15	20	15	20	17	87	17.4
20	Papea 1	ES	16	25	12	19	14	86	17.2

As Satori XL did in 2016 (World Challenge - Indoor) and 2017 (UK Nationals - Outdoor), the British 4-way Women team NFTO has accomplished the same mission. They competed for Great Britain in Australia 2018 and will be the national indoor team next month at Weembi Lille, together with ACM Weembi in 4-way Open.

Chimera would qualify as the British national indoor team in 4-way Open by winning the World Challenge 2019, and they are also aiming at the top spot at the UK Nationals this year, which is the qualification event for the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2020 in Tanay. Satori XL is the only British team so far winning the indoor and outdoor qualification events both in the same year (2016).

Chimera's 10-round average at the team's first competition this year (11.9) does not look too promising by the numbers. However, Joey Jones explained during the NSL Live Talk that Chimera had missed the first five rounds due to a scheduling error. The team arrived too late for the scheduled team rotation on Thursday, which was the starting day of the Wind Games for the first time.

The host allowed Chimera to squeeze in the first five rounds in an improvised way at the end of the day, and then join the competition officially on Friday morning, beginning with Round 6. The scores for the first five rounds could not be posted, and the NSL News created a leaderboard that is showing the scores and Chimera's standing only for the second half of the meet...