posted Oct 3rd, 2019 - One of the longest lasting and nationally dominating 4-way teams in the world is from Austria. Final Fire has been the team name since 2010, which was the year when some of the current team members joined forces after several years in different teams. The complete current lineup, including video and alternate slots, started posting Final Fire scores in 2013.

The dominating history of the team members in Austria began much earlier though. Thomas Haber, Patrick Kosmus, Horst Scheiber, Kurt Seinitzer, Andreas Schalk and Horst Richter (camera) have won each Austrian 4-way championship title since 2004 in different lineups, and most of the 8-way titles, as well.

Patrick Kosmos, Kurt Seinitzer and Horst Richter (camera) started the winning steak with Team FILA in 2004. Thomas Haber joined Horst Scheiber and Kurt Seinitzer with Monkey Circus, before Patrick Kosmus, Andreas Schalk and Kurt Seinitzer connected with the Ravens. Final Fire was the last step and brought together the current lineup, still with Horst Richter in the camera slot.

Final Fire is not training any longer, except for a few warm-up jumps before any meet that they attend. They told the NSL News at their last international event, the FAI Mondial 2016, that they are now waiting until a new Austrian team will beat them and enjoy the casual team atmosphere in the meantime.

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Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	14,Q,17	20,19,22	J,10,G,C	F,7,16	12,5,3	1,9,4	L,B,A,8	2,13,O	M,E,18,15	11,H,P,K	Total	Avg
1	Final Fire	13	12	16	19	12	16	19	15	13	19	154	15.4
2	Black Mantis	12	12	15	16	11	13	16	14	15	16	140	14.0
3	Skyraiders	13	13	15	16	11	12	17	12	13	13	135	13.5
4	SlowMotion	10	11	14	16	10	13	14	13	-	-	101	12.6
5	cAIRberus	6	6	5	12	8	11	11	10	9	11	89	8.9
6	Skydive Hohenems	6	7	8	8	4	4	7	8	6	9	67	6.7
7	Airdrops	2	6	5	9	6	6	6	4	-	-	44	5.5
8	Nachos Picantes	3	2	3	4	2	5	5	5	-	-	29	3.6

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This year, it became close for the first time in the Final Fire history. Original member Patrick Kosmos was not available for the national championship, and alternate Andreas Schalk had to step up and take the slot in the active lineup.

He was a member of the Ravens, where he trained and competed together with Patrick Kosmos and Kurt Seinitzer. The Ravens competed for Austria at the FAI Mondial Dubai 2012. He has been on the bench for Final Fire until this year's national championship.

The original Final Fire lineup did not need much training after years of more intensive efforts and hundreds of jumps together. The situation was different when alternate Andreas Schalk had to step in, even though he is a very experienced 4-way competitor, as well.

Final Fire found themselves tied in 1st place with two other Austrian teams, Black Mantis and Skyraiders, after Round 3.

The first three rounds had to serve as the warm-up time for the different lineup, and the wealth of 4-way competition experience paid back as soon as they began to become familiar with each other. The following seven rounds generated a final 14-point difference to Black Mantis in 2nd place.

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Final Fire at the FAI World Cup 2015 and the FAI World Meet 2016

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Final Fire member Andreas Schalk said that his team expected the situation as it presented itself this year. Black Mantis is a new Austrian team that is training hard and has ambitious goals.

The Black Mantis members have known each other since 2014 when they decided to jump together, beginning with an average total number of 100 jumps each. The next lineup included Martin Pedot who replaced original member Martin Lehmann. The current lineup eventually came together in 2017 and started with a lot of ground training on creepers and in the classroom.

The efforts paid back well. Two years later, the 4-way beginners of 2014 were able to threaten the Austrian 4-way champions of the last 15 years, at least for three rounds.

Final Fire appreciate the challenge. In fact, team members have supported Black Mantis as much as possible with advice and coaching. Black Mantis have been working with high-profile coaches, as well, such as HayaBusa members David Grauwels and Dennis Praet, also with Roy Janssen. Final Fire survived the first Black Mantis challenge this year. However, it seems like the 4-way competition for the Austrian 4-way title will become very exciting in the near future...