posted Sep 21st, 2020 - The NSL News covered the Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2020 with the update on September 15th. The videos of the new 4-way champions, Black Mantis, were a part of the story, which pointed out that the battle between the two teams was actually even closer than the 4-point difference was showing.

Final Fire now provided the videos of the first nine rounds, and the audience has the opportunity to follow the 10-round battle from the beginning almost to the very end.

Final Fire had a very slow start into the competition and were six points behind after Round 2. The situation was yet not very surprising for the Austrian 4-way champions of the past years. They came to the competition site in Wels without any training, neither for the team, nor for the substituting videographer.

The highly experienced 4-way competitors knew that it might take a few rounds to warm up before they could start to challenge the challenger. The strategy began to work out when they won Round 3, before and after the two penalties for Black Mantis. In fact, Final Fire then won or tied six of the remaining seven rounds before penalties.

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Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2020		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/4-way Open Class	10,P,F,16		15,11,B		C,J,12,N		6,K,20		Q,22,L,9		H,3,19		1,7,13		M,18,O,8		17,5,21		A,14,D,2		Total	Avg
1	Black Mantis	17		13		14	-2	14		14		13		14		15		14		9	-3	137(-5)	13.7
2	Final Fire	14	-1	10		17		14	-1	13	-2	10	-4	13	-1	13	-1	17		12	-2	133(-12)	13.3
3	Slow Motion	11	-1	8	-1	12	-1	11	-1	12	-1	12		8	-1	12		12		11		109	10.9
4	cAIRberus	10	-1	8		10		10		9		10		9		8	-2	8	-1	10		92	9.2
5	Familyair	6		6		7		6		6		5	-1	7		4	-1	5		5		57	5.7
6	Blue Wombats	1	-1	1	-1	5		5		4		5		6		5		2	-2	1	-1	35	3.5
7	Airvolution	2	-1	1		3		5		2		2	-3	5		4	-1	2	-1	2	-1	28	2.8

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Black Mantis - Final Fire at the Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2020

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Black Mantis still won the championship title as the better trained team. Final Fire suffered a total of 12 point deductions, compared to five for Black Mantis.

It has been similar in the past years, even though Final Fire did not have a serious challenger at the national championships. They needed a few rounds to warm up before running away from the field. This time, there was no running away. Final Fire was in the chase, which was an unknown situation.

Final Fire kept trying hard after winning Round 3 and lost too many points. It was a 10-point difference after Round 8, even though both teams went almost exactly the same pace (116 - 114). Final Fire yet reduced the deficit to four points in the last two rounds, and Black Mantis barely carried the 4-point victory over the finish line.

Final Fire lost the meet in the first two rounds, and they will probably come back next year - with a few warmup jumps before the meet begins...