posted Sep 25th, 2019 - The ESL Championship 2019 took place while the Formation Skydiving competition of the USPA Nationals was slowly coming to its end last week. Organizer Mike Pennock reported record participation from Spa in Belgium, with more teams from different countries.

Belgium had naturally the highest number of participating teams as the hosting nation, while NMP PCH HayaBusa competed at Skydive Paraclete XP in North Carolina the same week. However, the Belgian ESL delegation was not able to defend the ESL Spirit successfully that they had won last year by one point over Germany.

Belgium ended up in 2nd place on home turf, with a total of 21 points, collected by AAA Class team Falco (5), AA Class team Aeropotam's (6), High Voltage (6) and Huayra (4) both for their A Class placings.

The British delegation finished far ahead of all other countries with 34 points, even though only one team had competed earlier this year with the same lineup.

British Army team Volt4ge won the A Class competition at the UK Nationals and added 8 ESL points to the British account last weekend. Two other British teams took the top spots in the AA Class (10 - 8), and Rookie Class team TMNS (8) completed the British victory with a total of 34 ESL points.

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ESL Championship 2019				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		ESL	F,E,A,4	12,J,13	18,M,8	2,9,3	20,Q,6	21,N,14	15,L,P,1	17,11,19	B,G,16,C	Total	Avg
1	Weembi Unicorns	IT	10	25	15	18	18	16	16	19	14	22	163	18.1
2	Mria	UA	8	20	13	13	13	13	13	13	10	16	124	13.8
3	Alis Team	UA	6	17	13	13	14	14	11	12	11	18	123	13.7
4	HF Flying Circus	CZ	5	18	9	13	14	14	12	13	11	17	121	13.4
4	Falco	BE	5	18	11	13	15	11	11	11	12	19	121	13.4
6	Dark Energy	DE	3	19	11	13	13	11	11	11	11	16	116	12.9
7	Ayro	BE	2	18	9	14	12	10	12	12	11	15	113	12.6
8	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	1	16	8	11	12	14	11	12	10	14	108	12.0
9	Stardust	BE	1	17	9	11	11	11	8	11	9	14	101	11.2
10	FS2020Agera	NO	1	18	9	8	9	10	11	13	9	11	98	10.9
11	Horschd	DE	1	15	10	9	7	10	11	7	11	13	93	10.3
12	JETMAX	BE	1	11	8	10	10	11	11	11	8	9	89	9.9
13	Shinobi	NL	1	13	7	9	9	9	6	9	8	8	78	8.7
14	M Team	CZ	1	13	6	9	7	8	8	7	5	9	72	8.0
Rank	AA Class			F,E,A,4	J,13,1	18,M,8	2,9	20,Q,6	21,N,14	15,L,P	11,19	B,G,C,22	Total	Avg
1	Do or Dive	UK	10	9	8	7	8	5	8	6	7	-	58	7.3
2	Vortex	UK	8	9	6	5	7	6	6	5	9	-	53	6.6
3	Aeropotam's	BE	6	7	6	8	7	7	6	6	5	-	52	6.5
Rank	A Class			F,E,A	J,4	M,8	2,9	Q,6	21,N	L,P,7	19,O	B,G,C	Total	Avg
1	Lions	QA	n/a	13	7	11	7	11	9	11	10	-	79	9.9
2	Falcons	QA	n/a	18	9	11	8	9	9	8	6	-	78	9.8
3	Cheetas	QA	n/a	17	7	7	9	8	8	11	10	-	77	9.6
4	High Five	CZ	10	13	6	11	7	9	8	12	10	-	76	9.5
5	British Army Volt4ge	UK	8	19	9	7	7	7	7	9	6	-	71	8.9
6	High Voltage	BE	6	12	10	8	9	8	8	8	6	-	69	8.6
6	Funky Falcon	NL	6	12	7	11	8	8	7	8	8	-	69	8.6
8	Huayra	BE	4	12	8	8	7	8	7	6	9	-	65	8.1
9	Black Devils	BE	3	11	7	4	7	6	3	7	8	-	53	6.6
10	Oljakoda	BE	2	9	4	5	3	6	5	5	6	-	43	5.4
Rank	Rookie			F,E,A	J,O,M	Q,N,L	P,M,J	L,A,C	P,D,O	E,Q,N	G,F,P	B,G,C	Total	Avg
1	Gravity Monkeys	DE	10	5	9	7	11	4	8	6	7	-	57	7.1
2	TMNS	UK	8	7	9	2	5	5	6	7	6	-	47	5.9
3	Jackal	UK	6	5	7	6	6	3	4	5	7	-	43	5.4

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The A Class competition was dominated by three teams from Qatar, who are in the process of becoming the new generation of 4-way world class competitors after the Qatar Tigers.

All three Asian teams could not win ESL points, and Czech A Class team High Five won the European championship with a new team record average.

High Five had won the Rookie Class competition at the ESL Championship 2018 and came back to Spa in Belgium a year later to win the ESL part of the A Class competition.

High Five also gave the three teams from Qatar a great battle before ending up in 4th place on the A Class leaderboard.

Last year's runner-up, the German ESL delegation, had only three teams in Spa, while four teams can collect ESL points. Gravity Monkeys won the Rookie Class, but the total of 14 ESL points for Germany was not enough to win the ESL Spirit.

Oceanside AtomiX, AAA Class winner last year and new German 4-way champion and national 4-way team, did not not try to defend the AAA Class title.

However, AtomiX tail Peter Ingenhaag and team videographer Lars Naeve joined Dark Energy for the AAA Class competition and helped to collect a few ESL points for the German delegation.

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Weembi Unicorns at the ESL Championship 2019 and at the World Challenge 2019

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Italy won the their first ESL points with the 1st place on the AAA Class leaderboard, even though only two team members are Italian competitors. Weembi Unicorns, also known as Weembi Legion, have mostly been a combination of Italian and French top competitors, with team founder Alessandra De Rango always in the lineups since 2017.

Weembi Legion/Unicorns were originally an indoor project, and the ESL Championship was the first outdoor competition that the team attended.

Once again, it was a very colorful high-profile lineup in Spa, who ran away from all other AAA Class teams, and it was a new 2-2 combination of Italian and French team members. Alessandra De Rango, Julien Degen and Livio Piccolo have competed together for Weembi Unicorns at previous indoor meets. Weembi High Rollers member Roy Janssen, NMP PCH HayaBusa 4-way world champion of 2014, gave his debut for the Unicorns this time.

Julien Degen and Roy Janssen are both 4-way world champions and team mates with the Weembi High Rollers. Livio Piccolo, who won his FAI bronze medal with Sinapsi PD in 2006, currently trains and competes with the new Amnesya lineup. Amnesya won the Italian Outdoor Nationals this year and will compete for Italy next year at the FAI Outdoor World Meet in Tanay. Weembi Unicorns will probably switch back to indoor competition very soon...