posted Nov 16th, 2022 - The recent NSL News updates of the Flyspot Open 2022 connected mostly the home teams from Poland with the visiting teams from the Czech Republic. There is still additional information related to the same topics that will be covered later, as well.

However, the NSL News makes a short geographical turn to other teams on the AAA Class leaderboard, which may not have been expected at Flyspot Katowice in Poland. The Czech teams from the eastern part of the country don't have to drive much to visit the Flyspot windtunnel in Katowice, while the road trip from the Prague area in the Czech Republic is much longer.

There was still a group of four teams who needed air travel to make it to the Flyspot Open, and they came from Italy. In fact, the official Polish national indoor championships served also as Italy's indoor nationals, including the qualification for the FAI indoor world championships next year in Slovakia.

Michele Silvi, NMP PCH HayaBusa's 4-way world champion of 2021 and current Outside Center, explained during this morning's NSL Live Talk conversation that it was mainly a financial decision to move the national indoor championships to Poland. The Italian top teams of the past years, Amnesya and eX3MO, did not travel to Poland, and the new FLY-X lineup had no Italian opposition for the top spot.

Flyspot Open 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		21,N,18		10,B,19		3,22,E		5,20,16		D,8,6		12,14,A		F,4,15		H,C,Q,J,P		2,9,M		17,O,G,L		Total	Avg
1	FLY X	IT	23		23		23		23		20	-4	19	-2	23	-2	38	-8	29	-2	31		252	25.2
2	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	20	-1	16	-5	19		20		22		18	-1	22		30	-6	26	-1	25		218	21.8
3	Magic 4	LT	21		19		19		15		19		17		21		28		24		25		208	20.8
4	Flyspot Omega	PL	17		18		16		16		16		15		18		38		24		21		199	19.9
5	HF Flying Rebels	CZ	15	-4	21		16	-2	15		20	-1	16		19	-1	28	-6	23	-3	24	-2	197	19.7
6	HF Chameleons	CZ	13	-5	17	-3	16		17	-1	21		17	-1	17	-1	30	-4	24	-4	20	-7	192	19.2
7	MAD Team	PL	14		19		15		17		17		6		21		32		24		20		185	18.5
8	Crazy Donut	PL	11		14		12		15		18		12		16		26		21		15		160	16.0
9	Bandits	IT	14	-1	14		11	-2	10	-2	16		11	-1	14		26	-1	17	-2	17		150	15.0
10	Fire Phoenix	IT	10	-4	14		13	-2	10	-4	12	-2	13		13	-1	21	-7	18	-2	14		138	13.8
11	Panik	IT	14		13		10	-2	9	-1	12		10	-3	12	-2	24	-3	16	-2	16	-1	136	13.6

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FLY-X - Fire Phoenix at the Flyspot Open 2022

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FLY-X also finished 34 points (252 - 218) ahead of Poland's national 4-way team, Flyspot Sky4Four, and will meet them again in April next year. Italy did not have a team at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022, which Amnesya was qualified for as the reigning national champions of 2021.

FLY-X have plans to compete for Italy in Slovakia, and the 25.2 average for a competition draw with a Super Sequence in Round 8 (H,C,Q,J,P) is still a strong starting point for the new team. Fire Phoenix would be qualified for the 4-way Women competition.

It's the second time that the new FLY-X team project was launched. Original Amnesya member Giuseppe Cossu did not continue with the Amnesya FLY-X lineup of 2019 (Chiara Brunetti, Livio Piccolo, Ivan Quadrio) after winning the Italian Indoor Nationals. The Amnesya lineup then changed a few times and won the Italian outdoor nationals again in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. However, neither Amnesya nor any other Italian 4-way team represented the country in Eloy last month.

Giuseppe Cossu's new lineup is a combination of former national champions and highly experienced 4-way competitors. One of the FLY-X team members, Arianna de Benedetti, was even in the lineup of the Italian national 4-way team who won FAI bronze medals in Gera 2006 (Sinapsi PD). Amnesya members Livio Piccolo and Luca Marchioro were her team mates in 2006.

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NSL Live Talk with NMP PCH HayaBusa member Michele Silvi

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New FLY-X member Marco Arrigo was Arianna de Benedetti's team mate in Sinapsi PD's tail slot between 2000 and the end of the 2005 season. Federico Angelotti trained and competed with eX3MO until last year. He and Marco Arrigo were eX3MO team mates in 2018.

The 25.2 starting point is obviously not a big surprise, as the team members are very familiar with this performance level. There is still enough time to possibly increase it and reach the level of medal contention at the indoor world meet. Italy also missed the previous event in Weembi Lille 2019 where a 25.2 average would have barely made the Top 10.

Michele Silvi was observing the FLY-X performance carefully at Flyspot Katowice where he was coaching the other Italian teams. He is skeptical of the new lineup with the four highly experienced competitors, even though he was especially impressed with Arianna de Benedetti's comeback performance. He has watched Arizona Airspeed's development and progression with the current lineup, which was a 50 - 50 combination of experienced competitors and young talent.

He also went through the same progression with his youngest HayaBusa team mate Neal Willems, while Dennis Praet, David and Andy Grauwels shared their experiences with the two young and new members. Michele Silvi thinks that it is time for similar combinations in Italy, as well, and he was not shy of sharing his view openly with the NSL News...