posted Apr 20th, 2020 - The NSL News update on April 17th pointed out that IFS-Moscow members Egor Gusev and Dmity Samokhval have a special relationship with ISR FireFlash's Sven Ibens and Wesley Claessens, after years of competing with and against each other with different teams.

The duels between their respective teams were internal ones, even though the Russian team has placed several times right behind the medal rankings, once at an FAI event, the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018. IFS-Moscow also placed 3rd at the World Challenge 2019.

The battles behind the full-time teams and competitors have their own goal, and the involved teams have been acknowledged by the NSL News with the unofficial title of the world's best "amateur teams". There is no official definition in the sport for a "full-time", a "pro" or an “amateur” team, as ISR FireFlash member Sven Ibens explained during the recent NSL Live Talk. Sven Ibens represented Belgium in the FAI Skydiving Commission (ISC) for years.

All teams compete in the 4-way Open Class at the FAI events, and they pick their own battles within the field. Only a few teams usually compete for the FAI medals on the top of the leaderboards and distance themselves clearly from the unofficial "amateur teams". The 4-way Women teams have their own FAI leaderboards, even though many female competitors compete with Open Class lineups. The 4-way juniors have their own category, as well, using the AA Class dive pool.

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Wind Games 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class - Top 10		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

IFS-Moscow - ISR FireFlash - Weembi Unicorns at the Wind Games 2020

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IFS-Moscow and ISR FireFlash are unofficial "amateur teams", as the team members still have a "normal" job. As most Formation Skydiving competitors, they spend as much time and money as possible to improve they performance and scoring level. Both teams have not represented their respective countries at indoor or outdoor world championships, where only one national team competes.

NMP PCH HayaBusa has been out of reach for any other Belgian teams, and Black Cat competed for Russia until last year at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019. The Tanay Wolves represented Russia at the FAI World Meet 2018.

There is another reason why a team would not be eligible for any FAI events. Neither world meets nor world cups, indoor and outdoor, allow teams with international lineups. However, there have always been competitors of different nationalities forming teams for other events.

Sven Ibens and Wesley Claessens have their own experiences with this situation, after their years with the Dutch/Belgian Thunder ISR combination. Eventually, they decided to create a lineup only with Belgian competitors, ISR FireFlash.

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World Challenge 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class - Top 10		P,H,Q,5	19,16,E	L,3,2	B,A,22,D	J,14,8	11,M,G,1	15,21,18	7,O,4	C,N,K,13	20,6,F	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	52	32	28	39	29	32	28	34	42	31	347	34.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	48	30	27	37	27	31	25	33	36	28	322	32.2
3	IFS-Moscow	RU	44	29	26	33	27	29	23	33	34	31	309	30.9
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	44	29	26	35	24	29	24	31	32	31	305	30.5
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	46	28	24	32	25	29	24	31	35	27	301	30.1
6	Airheads	CH	44	28	22	36	24	27	19	29	33	26	288	28.8
7	Weembi Unicorns	FR	43	28	23	32	23	28	19	28	33	26	283	28.3
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	40	26	24	33	24	25	19	25	28	26	270	27.0
9	NFTO	UK	35	25	24	29	24	25	20	27	30	24	263	26.3
10	Odin Parachute Systems	FR	35	28	21	29	22	25	20	25	29	25	259	25.9

IFS-Moscow - Weembi Unicorns - ISR FireFlash at the World Challenge 2019

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There is another team with an international lineup who compete at selected events, and who have been in very close range with the currently two best unofficial "amateur teams". The Weembi Unicorns have been picking their meets for a different reason though. Team founder Alessandra De Rango usually invites team mates who are training and competing with other national teams at the FAI events.

The NSL News had introduced the latest Unicorns lineup for the Wind Games with the preview on January 4th. Federico Angelotti competed with eX3MO for Italy at the FAI World Cup 2019. Julien Degen is a member of the French Weembi High Rollers, Clementine Le Bohec trains and competes with the French national 8-way team and is the defending indoor and outdoor world champion in 4-way Women.

The international Weembi Unicorns lineup have shared the leaderboard with the two best "amateur teams" before they met again at this year's Wind Games. It was the World Challenge 2019 where all three teams met last time, Weembi Unicorns with future NMP PCH HayaBusa member Michele Silvi in the lineup, IFS-Moscow with Alena Chistova.

The scores of the Wind Games 2020 are showing all three teams much closer together and in a slightly different ranking order, compared to the World Challenge 2019. Most likely, this year's World Challenge would have featured a similar tight competition. Then came the corona virus crisis...