posted Dec 17th, 2019 - Six teams who competed at the ISR Grand Prix in November had two weeks to get ready for the next Round 1 of a 4-way indoor competition. The new event was the Belgian Indoor Nationals, which was hosted once again by the Airspace 14-foot wind tunnel in Charleroi. Airspace is also the host of the FAI Indoor World Cup in April next year.

The recent NSL News update after the ISR Grand Prix had mentioned that it would probably be difficult for the teams in Roosendaal to maintain the scoring level at the next 10-round meet, which happened very soon to be the Belgian Indoor Nationals. The ISR Grand Prix is traditionally an 8-round competition on one day, and only 14 of the 22 blocks were draw this year, while 15 of the 16 random formations allowed the teams to post higher meet averages.

Only the Italian Synergy guests and Stardust managed to beat their November scores in Roosendaal, while the other four AAA Class teams finished with a lower average. It was not much different for the AAA Class winner, Weembi Unicorns, who finished below the team's previous 28+ averages at last year's Belgian Indoor Nationals and at the World Challenge 2019.

Synergy and Stardust both did not only score higher compared to the ISR Grand Prix. They also improved their ranking positions compared to the same teams who competed at the November event two weeks earlier in Roosendaal. Synergy was back to almost the same scoring level at the team's previous 10-round meets, and Stardust even posted the team's highest AAA Class average at Airspace.

Belgian Indoor Nationals 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		15,16,18	F,2,11	K,14,21	7,E,O,N	H,1,B,M	L,A,C,4	17,22,8	D,12,19	6,5,13	9,G,10	Total	Avg
1	Weembi Unicorns	FR	19	24	22	39	36	31	22	26	25	28	272	27.2
2	Out of the Blue	NL	17	22	18	31	32	25	17	17	20	22	221	22.1
3	Falco	BE	17	21	17	28	28	22	16	19	19	21	208	20.8
4	Synergy	IT	13	18	17	26	26	18	13	18	13	19	181	18.1
5	Ayro	BE	16	18	13	27	27	16	13	16	16	17	179	17.9
6	JETMAX	BE	15	16	16	23	27	20	10	14	17	18	176	17.6
7	Stardust	BE	11	15	15	22	22	19	12	14	13	17	160	16.0
8	Trance-Ition	NL	12	17	15	21	17	17	11	14	14	17	155	15.5
9	Black Devils	BE	11	14	10	19	18	13	10	12	14	11	132	13.2
10	Gravity Abuse	BE	10	14	12	19	17	12	8	13	10	15	130	13.0
11	Vortex	UK	10	10	12	16	19	13	10	10	12	12	124	12.4

This year's Belgian Indoor Nationals had smaller participation compared the 2018 event. It did not include other NSL categories, after an additional AA Class competition last year, and the number of AAA Class teams was smaller, too.

The two best Belgian teams, NMP PCH HayaBusa and ISR FireFlash, did not come back this year, and Ayro are actually the new Belgian 4-way indoor champions. Ayro finished in 5th place on the AAA Class leaderboard, and three of the four teams ahead of them were guest teams from other countries (France, Netherlands, Italy).

Falco was neither eligible for Belgian indoor medals, with Paul Hofstee in the lineup, who is Dutch and lives in Germany. Ayro now turned the AA Class gold medals of 2018 into the Belgian AAA Class championship title, despite a slightly lower meet average (18.3 - 17.9) last week in Roosendaal.

Five of the eleven AAA Class teams at this year's indoor championship had competed in Charleroi last year, as well. Only two of them (Jetmax, Gravity Abuse) were back and also eligible for Belgian indoor medals. The strongest Belgian opponents for returning AAA Class team Jetmax actually came from last year's AA Class competition, which was not a part of the 2019 event.

Belgian Indoor Nationals 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		16,G,K,Q	D,20,H,3	2,9,P	5,19,7	22,10,8	B,21,6	L,18,A,N	J,14,C,17	12,F,15	M,O,E,11	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	40	35	39	32	21	31	35	31	30	43	337	33.7
2	Weembi Legion	FR	36	25	31	27	19	24	30	29	24	35	280	28.0
3	ISR FireFlash	BE	34	25	31	24	18	26	30	26	22	36	272	27.2
4	Airfource	DE	32	17	28	24	18	26	25	27	21	38	256	25.6
5	Team X	SE	28	23	26	20	16	24	24	22	21	29	233	23.3
6	JETMAX	BE	23	21	22	21	15	22	23	21	20	28	216	21.6
7	Out of the Blue	NL	23	19	23	20	15	21	22	21	18	27	209	20.9
8	Voss Vind Girls	NO	21	20	21	19	15	19	20	19	17	29	200	20.0
9	Alakran	ES	19	19	22	19	15	16	21	19	17	30	197	19.7
10	Amnesya Academy	IT	17	15	19	19	14	16	20	19	20	28	187	18.7
11	Falco	BE	18	16	19	16	12	18	12	15	15	22	163	16.3
12	Crash Test Dummies	BE	21	11	16	13	10	17	15	14	15	24	156	15.6
13	Gravity Abuse	BE	13	13	16	14	10	14	15	14	14	17	140	14.0
Rank	AA Class		K,H,N,4	19,22	21,18	7,9	8,Q,F	M,J,11	6,L,A	20,2	G,D,P,14	B,D,C,15	Total	Avg
1	Ayro	BE	22	16	14	22	23	21	18	15	24	25	200	20.0
2	Synergy	IT	19	16	16	21	25	22	18	13	20	27	197	19.7
3	Stardust	BE	21	11	15	20	20	21	21	15	19	22	185	18.5
4	Phenix4Namure	BE	17	13	13	19	19	23	16	11	18	18	167	16.7
4	4Flux	BE	18	12	14	20	18	19	20	10	18	18	167	16.7
6	Aeropotam's	BE	18	12	11	21	19	18	19	12	15	16	161	16.1
7	One Hit Wonders	BE	16	10	8	15	15	17	15	10	16	14	136	13.6
8	Black Devils	BE	13	12	6	15	16	15	16	11	17	14	135	13.5

Weembi Unicorns, Out of the Blue and Falco were guest teams this year and finished in the same ranking order as in December 2018. Out of the Blue and Falco both were behind Jetmax a year ago and now placed ahead of the best returning Belgian AAA Class team.

The three Belgian AA Class teams of 2018 (Ayro, Stardust, Black Devils) finished in the same order as in 2018. However, Ayro and Stardust both challenged Jetmax at the end of their first year in the AAA Class, and Ayro even ended up as the new Belgian 4-way indoor champions. Black Devils almost matched their AA Class average (13.2 - 13.5) in the AAA Class a year later.

Synergy from Italy is also at the end of the team's first year in the AAA Class and outscored the other AA Class teams of 2018, including Ayro, the new Belgian 4-way champion.

Out of the Blue won the re-match with Falco clearly this time. The 22.1 average is the highest 10-round result for the Dutch national team in 4-way Open. Falco's 20.8 is also a new team record average for a 10-round meet, and the recruiting campaign for a new team member in Paul Hofstee's slot has already been successful. The NSL News will follow up soon...