posted Jan 25th, 2020 - The Top 10 indoor 4-way teams in the world competed almost as often last year (27) as the outdoor Top 10 did in 2018 (29). There is probably a very simple and logical reason for this fact. The World Championship of Formation Skydiving, outdoor and indoor, is still the most relevant event, and FAI/IPC ran their indoor competition in April 2019.

Eight of the Top 10 teams in the NSL World Rankings for indoor competition in 2019 were the national indoor teams and attended the event at Weembi Lille. All of them came well prepared to the event site with enough indoor training and after competing at two other events. Only Black Cat from Russia had no previous scores in the NSL database.

Interestingly, the second Russian 4-way team in the Top 10, IFS-Moscow, actually posted the higher average at the World Challenge in Bedford, shortly before Black Cat competed for Russia at the FAI Indoor World Meet.

Only the United States also placed two teams on the Top 10 indoor leaderboard, as Russia did. The second team in the Top 10 that did not compete at the indoor world meet was Amnesya from Italy. The new Amnesya lineup posted their 27.7 average at the national indoor championship in June last year.

---

World Rankings 2019 - Indoor			Meets	Average
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	35.4 - 34.7 - 35.1	35.1
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	33.3 - 31.0 - 34.4	32.9
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	31.4 - 31.7 - 32.2 - 32.1	32.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	30.9	30.9
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	30.0 - 30.5 - 30.2	30.2
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29.8 - 30.6 - 30.1	30.2
7	Black Cat	RU	28.7	28.7
8	Airheads Realfly	CH	27.6 - 28.8 - 29.2	28.5
9	Echochamber	SE	27.7 - 28.0 - 27.4	27.7
9	Amnesya	IT	27.7	27.7
Click here for complete rankings

NMP PCH HayaBusa is on top of the indoor rankings with a similar distance as in 4-way outdoor competition and proved that they are the ultimate 4-way champions of the world. However, Weembi High Rollers, who have not attended any outdoor meets, finished only seven points behind at the indoor world meet.

The Belgian performance consistency at meets is still uncontested. The three 2019 averages were posted at 10-round meets with a difference of seven points between the lowest (34.7) and the highest (35.4) average. Any potential challenger would have to come up with a 35+ average, and so far there is only one other team with a 34+ average in the records.

Arizona Airspeed in 2nd place of the ultimate combination of both Top 10 rankings posted the four indoor and two outdoor averages with different lineups. Ari Perelman was still in the point slot at the beginning of last year, when Airspeed attended all their four 2019 indoor meets within the first four months of the year.

Matt Davidson then took Ari Perelman's slot for the two outdoor meets. Airspeed will now continue with Christopher Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall for indoor and outdoor training and competition.

---

---

World Rankings 2019 - Outdoor			Meets	Average
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	28.9	28.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26.2 - 24.6	25.4
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	26.2 - 22.8	24.5
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24.4	24.4
5	Golden Knights Gold	US	21.2	21.2
6	France 4-way Women	FR	20.4 - 20.4 - 20.9	20.6
7	Tanay Wolves	RU	20.2	20.2
8	Mass Defiance	US	20.8 - 19.1	20.0
9	Joey Who ???	US	19.8	19.8
10	Amnesya RW4 Team	IT	19.7	19.7
Click here for complete rankings

The indoor data also supports what the NSL News has pointed out a few times. The duel for FAI medal positions between SDC Rhythm XP and Qatar Tigers is as close as can be, at least so far.

The U.S. team was very slightly ahead at outdoor competition, and both teams are tied after attending three indoor meets each. It could hardly be any closer than that. Disregarding the teams in both rankings who will not compete at the FAI World Meet 2020 in Tanay, it seems to be obvious that Rhythm and Tigers will be the top contenders for the position behind HayaBusa. The Belgian 4-way world champions are still so far ahead that it is difficult to imagine that somebody could catch up in the remaining six months.

There is still one open question. SDC Rhythm XP will compete with a different lineup this year, while the Qatar Tigers are with the same lineup that the NSL News featured on 23 December 2019. Andrew Starr is replacing JaNette Lefkowitz until the FAI World Meet, and he will take on the Qatar Tigers as the inside center.

Rhythm will post the first indoor scores of the new lineup next week at the Wind Games. Then they will follow up with the first outdoor competition at the Shamrock Showdown. That's when the Qatar Tigers will be at Skydive City, as well. There both teams will probably show what it will take to win FAI outdoor silver medals this year...