posted Jul 4th, 2020 - The NSL News has covered the exciting 4-way duel behind the Pro Team in Finland on a regular basis. Just4Fun and Blue Steel are trying to close the gap between the world-class national team and themselves at their regular indoor battles, and they have brought 4-way indoor competition in Finland to new popularity by joining the World Tunnel League with regular meets of the Finnish Tunnel League.

The most recent June competition took place at the Fööni windtunnel in Helsinki, while most countries were still dealing with the corona virus crisis. Finland implemented tight restrictions as soon as the outbreak became known, and the situation in the Scandinavian country is now almost back to the living conditions as they were before the pandemic.

Blue Steel member Mathew Iles said that there is not a single patient in intensive care at the time of the new NSL Live Talk on Friday, and a total of 20 patients are in Finland's hospitals. Fifty new infections without symptoms were detected this week in the whole country. There was no reason any longer for the same tight restrictions, and Just4Fun member Vesa Vuorenkoski is expecting great participation at the next FTL meet in September and the indoor nationals in October.

The previous NSL Live Talk with Mathew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski on April 8th had provided an overview of the situation in the middle of the corona virus crisis and a preview of the June showdown between their teams. Their coaches David Grauwels (Just4Fun) and Pete Allum (Blue Steel) then added their feedback to the preview on June 3rd.

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NSL Live Talk with David Grauwels, Mathew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski on 3 July 2020

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The NSL News followed up with the scores and videos on June 19th. Just4Fun won the 4th duel between the two teams by three points. Mathew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski were back for a new NSL Live Talk on Friday this week for a review of the event. This time, coaches David Grauwels and Pete Allum both were planning to join the online conversation together. Plans changed for Pete Allum shortly before the meeting, and only NMP PCH HayaBusa member David Grauwels provided his evaluation of the Just4Fun performance.

Both teams finished with their highest meet averages of the four duels that they have completed together. Both teams also have higher 22.4 averages in their records that they posted at different meets with different competition draws in January. Mathew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski discussed with David Grauwels on Friday how they will be able to get to the next and higher scoring level.

Just4Fun is now ahead by one single point (824 - 823) after the four meets that both teams attended together. This account of only the 2-team duel is including the first meet in June 2019 where Blue Steel were missing a team member, and Just4Fun's Vesa Vuorenkoski was helping out in the point slot.

Mathew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski were team mates with the Finnish national 4-way teams in the late 90's and they came back together with indoor team Blackjack, as the NSL News reported on 2 April 2017.

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Finnish Tunnel League June 2020		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,11,B,16		21,6,P		A,13,18		5,J,O,M		14,N,3		17,Q,1		22,H,L,G		C,D,19,15		8,F,7		2,12,10		Total	Avg
1	Just4Fun	22		21		20	-1	30	-3	18	-1	24		22	-1	23		23	-1	16	-1	219	21.9
2	Blue Steel	21		21		21		30		19		23		23		20		22		16		216	21.6
Finnish Tunnel League March 2020		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	C,15,N,17		6,F,18		9,K,11		H,J,21,3		7,D,16		14,P,5		8,10,G		L,4,B,12		E,22,M,20		2,19,13		Total	Avg
1	Just4Fun	21	-1	22	-1	24		21	-2	23	-1	18	-3	17		19		20		16	-1	201	20.1
2	Blue Steel	21		21	-1	22		21		23		21		16		18	-1	19		18		200	20.0
Finnish Tunnel League November 2019		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,13,E,17		11,C,1		N,M,16,6		14,9,B		Q,D,3,7		21,18,L		8,10,G		4,H,O,F		J,A,22,5		12,15,P		Total	Avg
1	Just4Fun	21		21		22		22	-2	20	-1	17	-1	16		27	-1	17	-4	18		201	20.1
2	Blue Steel	21		17		21		22		21		18		16		23	-3	19	-1	16		194	19.4
Finnish Tunnel League June 2019		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,18,A,16		H,L,C,5		B,17,3		7,M,9		11,Q,13		1,21,6		20,E,G,12		N,4,2		O,22,D,J		14,F,15		Total	Avg
1	Blue Steel	19		29		22		31		17		18		18		17		22		20		213	21.3
2	Just4Fun	18		26		19		31		17		17		16		18		22		19		203	20.3

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Just4Fun and Blue Steel at the June Meet of the Finnish Tunnel League

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The former team mates and Just4Fun coach David Grauwels pointed out that both teams performed in significantly different ways. Blue Steel completed the ten rounds without a single infringement and no point deductions. Mathew Iles said that it is quite obvious that his team was not taking any chances by going faster.

It was a very different approach for Just4Fun who were challenging their own boundaries and ended up with a total of seven point deductions. Just4Fun still won the meet by three points.

This pattern has been the same throughout the previous duels, where Blue Steel always had the cleaner shoresheets. The evaluation by the Finnish judges was actually confirmed when Blue Steel visited Spain for the Wind Games in January this year. The high-profile event had an international judging panel, including FAI Judge Pekka Salmela from Finland, and Blue Steel finished with only three point deductions.

Vesa Vuorenkoski and his coach David Grauwels agreed that infringements and other Just4Fun inefficiencies are caused by grip management issues, and the NSL Live Talk conversation turned to this topic. Grip management is a significant part of 4-way training and competition, and 3-time world champion David Grauwels explained why. Vesa Vuorenkoski said that his team has not taken on this part seriously enough yet, after focusing mostly on block techniques this year. Just4Fun has enough time to work on the new challenge until September, while Blue Steel probably think about a safe way how to pick up the pace...