posted Sep 21st, 2022 - The latest 4-way thriller took place in Austria, where Final Fire was back for their next reunion. The NSL News had provided a team profile on 3 October 2019, after they had defended their national 4-way title once again, this time for the 6th consecutive time since 2014.

The update in 2019 introduced a new domestic challenger at the same time, Black Mantis, who came closer to the Austrian 4-way veterans than any other team since 2014. Black Mantis launched their team in 2017 (7th - 10.9) and needed two years to be ready for a serious run at the top spot.

The ultimate success happened finally in 2020 when Black Mantis dethroned Final Fire by four points (137 - 133). Black Mantis extended the difference a year later (141 - 133) as Final Fire copied their meet average exactly. The new Austrian top team then won the Austrian Indoor Nationals this year in March, while they did not come back for the national outdoor championships earlier this month.

Final Fire prefer outdoor competition and had a new reunion for this year's event. The absence of Black Mantis allowed Final Fire to take back the national 4-way title with the 12.6 average that was barely enough to fend off a new challenger.

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Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2022		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	8,22,B	10,Q,11	H,16,A,M	3,12,F	20,21,7	O,13,18	17,4,P	N,9,15	Total	Avg
1	Final Fire	12	8	19	13	10	12	12	15	101	12.6
2	Red Bull Aerodynamix	12	10	17	12	13	12	12	12	100	12.5
3	Slow Motion	10	9	12	11	6	11	11	10	80	10.0
4	Blue Wombats	7	8	10	3	5	8	7	6	54	6.8
5	Airvolution	3	6	7	5	6	9	6	7	49	6.1
6	Familyair	5	6	7	3	7	6	5	4	43	5.4
7	Benjis Angles	2	4	2	3	4	5	5	5	30	3.8
8	Skyjumpers Winzer Domain Pöttelsdorf	3	2	2	5	5	5	2	3	27	3.4

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The NSL News introduced the new Austrian challenger on 12 February 2021. HSV Red Bull AerodynamiX are the Austrian CISM team at the same time, as the team story explained. As NMP PCH HayaBusa, Qatar Tigers and Papea from Spain, they compete at CISM and FAI/ISC events both.

The team name appeared on a civilian Austrian leaderboard first time at the national indoor championships of 2020, where Black Mantis still received most of the attention. It was the same a year later, when Black Mantis defended the Austrian outdoor title successfully. AerodynamiX finished in 5th place (10.0) at the same event.

Final Fire and AerodynamiX both did not compete at the Austrian Indoor Nationals 2022, and they were back for competition at the outdoor championships earlier this month, where Black Mantis did not show up to defend their outdoor title of 2020 and 2021.

The situation generated a 1-point battle over the eight completed rounds that Final Fire literally won in Round 8. AerodynamiX were on their way to the Austrian gold medals with a 2-point lead after Round 7, and Final Fire pulled all tricks in Round 8 to turn the table just at the right time.

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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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Final Fire had no plans for competing at the upcoming FAI Outdoor World Meet, which did not change when it became known that Black Mantis would not travel to Skydive Arizona next month. Final Fire attended their last world meet in Ottawa 2016, where they finished in 10th place with a 17.8 average.

Austria then had neither a team in Australia 2018 nor at the FAI Tanay Mondial last year. This will change next month, as AerodynamiX is registered for the event and will compete for Austria.

The current lineup has increased the indoor (14,9 - 19.1) and outdoor (10.0 - 12.5) performance level significantly in the last year. The recent outdoor performance was even enough to surprise Final Fire and put serious pressure on the highly experienced 4-way competitors.

The team's 12.5 record average is even more meaningful, as the training of the FAI/ISC dive pool this year was interrupted several times. However, AerodynamiX are ready to show their best in Eloy, as the team's Tail, Michael Hribernik mentioned: "We are honored to compete for Austria in Eloy, and we are highly motivated to learn and to fight."