posted Mar 21st, 2020 - The Austrian Indoor Nationals were one of the few events that took place before the restrictions and implications of the corona virus impacted on indoor and outdoor skydiving.

The event was scheduled for the same weekend when the Fly Challenge in Munich, Germany, and the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship generated some of the latest scores and videos. Six AAA Class teams and two Rookie Class teams completed ten and eight meet rounds before indoor and outdoor skydiving came to a temporary halt in Austria, as well.

The Windabona wind tunnel in Vienna is closed by now, and Austria is dealing with the situation the same way as most countries in the world do. Vienna is the country's capital city, and reports from Austria describe it as a "dead city" by now. Austrians have to stay at home and wait for new developments.

The winning team, Windabona Black Mantis, were excited about competing for Austria for the first time at an FAI indoor competition, as the NSL News reported on February 17th. Unfortunately, the FAI Indoor World Cup was canceled for the same reason, and the new Austrian indoor champions will have to wait for the next FAI event.

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Austrian Indoor Nationals 2020			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		11,8,13	F,22,16	21,3,1	10,D,15	L,M,C,9	12,2,G	J,O,Q,A,14	18,6,N	P,B,7,H	17,20,K	Total	Avg
1	Windabona Black Mantis	AT	18	22	17	21	42	18	29	18	34	21	240	24.0
2	Lucky Boys	HU	15	20	17	17	32	17	29	19	22	18	206	20.6
3	SkyRaiders	AT	13	20	17	16	35	9	29	21	27	15	202	20.2
4	HSV Red Bull AerodynamiX	AT	10	16	13	14	19	13	23	13	14	14	149	14.9
5	UPCS Team Restmüll	AT	12	12	9	15	19	11	22	15	20	11	146	14.6
6	UPCS Fliegende Fetzen	AT	5	8	8	4	11	7	10	5	7	7	72	7.2

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The Black Mantis story began for the NSL News on 3 October 2019, after the Austrian team had placed 2nd behind Final Fire at the Austrian outdoor nationals the same year.

Black Mantis were already in the team's third year with the same lineup by then and had quietly moved up in the national rankings and increased their scoring level consistently year by year.

The national indoor title was the first step to replace Final Fire on the top of Austrian 4-way leaderboards, which is the defined Black Mantis goal, and Black Mantis won it the second time this year. Final Fire had won their first and last indoor title in 2017, while they have been undefeated in Austria for many years in outdoor competition.

The 21.4 average of February 2017 would not be enough any longer to fend off the Black Mantis challenge, who have now arrived at the 24.0 average level, after the 22.0 at the Wind Games in January.

The 24.0 at the national indoor championship was boosted by two fast sequences in Round 5 and Round 9. However, the 42-pointer is a new Austrian indoor record for a single round, and the 24.0 is a new record average. Final Fire is left with only the outdoor titles and records.

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Wind Games 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		Q,F,6,14		1,13,4		8,J,15		O,9,D,5		21,A,P,H		N,C,20,12		7,G,K,19		10,16,22		17,E,11		M,B,3,L		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	-1	29		28	-1	44	-3	45		29		35		25		34		47		348	34.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	34		24	-1	29		45	-2	41		29		34	-1	23		34		39	-1	332	33.2
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33		25		27	-1	44	-1	41		26		30	-3	23		30	-2	41	-2	320	32.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	27	-3	20	-3	25	-2	45	-2	36	-1	25	-1	30	-1	23		29	-2	33	-5	293	29.3
5	ISR FireFlash	BE	30		23		26		39		36		22	-1	27	-2	20		29		29	-4	281	28.1
6	Weembi Unicorns	IT	28		23		26		42		36		23		29		20		22	-4	26	-3	275	27.5
7	NFTO	UK	28		21		22		38		36		21		27	-1	18		24	-3	32	-1	267	26.7
8	Echochamber	SE	28		21		22		37		35		21	-1	23	-2	19		26		29	-4	261	26.1
9	Nephtys Weembi	FR	26		19	-1	20	-1	35		32		22		26	-1	19		22	-2	32	-1	253	25.3
10	Oceanside AtomiX	DE	25	-2	21		19	-2	31	-1	31		19		27		17	-1	22	-1	31		243	24.3
11	Out of the Blue	NL	25		19		21		31	-2	29	-1	18		25		17	-1	24		16	-7	225	22.5
12	Blue Steel	FI	24		18		20		29		26	-1	20		24		15	-1	21		27	-1	224	22.4
13	Windobona Black Mantis	AT	27		18	-1	21		27	-3	27		19	-1	24		17		21		19	-5	220	22.0
14	Papea	ES	22		19		21		29	-1	27	-2	19		21	-2	17		22		19	-5	216	21.6
15	Lucky Boys	HU	20	-2	18	-1	20		28	-1	27		18		23		17	-3	18	-3	24		213	21.3
16	Voss Vind Girls	NO	22	-1	19	-1	21		28	-1	27		16	-1	14	-3	17	-1	21		22	-3	207	20.7
17	3 Boys 1 Girl	FR	21		16		18		27		26		17		19		15	-1	19	-2	24		202	20.2
18	Realfly Fire	CH	23		16	-3	18	-2	25	-1	28	-1	13	-2	23		17		19		19	-4	201	20.1
19	Windobona Angels	ES	21		16	-1	17	-2	26		26	-1	17		21		15		17	-1	20	-4	196	19.6
20	Standby	IT	20		13	-3	16		22		24		12	-1	19	-2	12	-1	15	-1	23	-1	176	17.6
21	Equinox	LT	22		17		15	-1	20	-2	21	-3	16		17	-2	13		12	-2	16	-3	169	16.9

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A guest team from Austria's neighboring country Hungary joined the competition in Vienna, and both teams knew each other from a previous encounter at this year's Wind Games.

The Lucky Boys like to visit other countries to attend 4-way meets. They have competed at four different meets in four different countries since their first scores were posted on an NSL leaderboard in November last year. The team's 4-way journey began at the Flyspot Polish Open, followed by the Czech Open Indoor Championship at the Hurricane Factory in Prague.

A few weeks later the Lucky Boys (Jozsef Kiss, Janos Sallai), with two girls in the lineup (Aniko Bodnar, Szonja Vingender), traveled to Spain for the Wind Games, where they shared the AAA Class leaderboard with Windabona Black Mantis and posted their highest meet average on the international 4-way journey.

Lucky Boys did not take advantage of the faster competition draw at the final stop in Austria. However, they still tied their own record score for a single sequence (32) in Round 5. The other 32-pointer was posted for an even faster sequence (B,C,F,G,L) in Round 4 of the Flyspot Polish Open. Lucky Boys placed 2nd behind Black Mantis after a 10-round battle with Austrian team SkyRaiders.