posted May 1st, 2023 - The NSL News pointed out on April 28th that Finland's national team in 4-way Open, Purple Maze, finished in the most improved ranking position at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, compared to the last NSL Power Rankings before Round 1 at the Hurricane Factory Tatralandia in Slovakia.

Papea improved the Spanish ranking position on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard the most, between the previous indoor world championship at Weembi Lille 2019 and the recent results in Slovakia (14th to 9th), followed by Dutch 4-way team Out Of The Blue (13th to 9th). Gary Smith gave OOTB special credit for the accomplishment during the NSL Live Talk on April 29th.

Purple Maze did not only exceed the expectations of 4-way experts Gary Smith and Kirk Verner after the last preview with NSL Power Rankings. They also improved the ranking for Finland from 11th (Pro Team in 2019) to 9th place. HF Flying Circus also moved up by two ranking positions from 10th to 8th for the Czech Republic.

It becomes naturally more difficult to move up the leaderboard when it gets to the higher ranking positions, and Sweden's Echochamber still moved up by one slot (7th to 6th). The well documented changes in the medal positions happened on the very top of the leaderboard, where Arizona Airspeed turned the bronze medals of 2019 into gold in Slovakia.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		35		39		27	-2	31		38		38		29		28	-1	31		323	32.3
2	France 4-way Open	FR	27		33		38		26	-2	28		33	-3	35		28		30		30		308	30.8
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26	-1	30		33	-3	26	-3	28		37	-1	37		28		29		30	-1	304	30.4
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24		29	-1	32	-1	26		25	-3	32		30	-2	26		25	-1	26	-1	275	27.5
5	Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource	DE	22	-2	28	-1	33		22		25		30	-2	31		24		24	-1	25	-1	264	26.4
6	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	22		26	-1	30		17	-5	24		28	-3	27	-2	23		24		25	-1	246	24.6
7	FLY X	IT	19	-4	27		30	-1	20	-1	21	-1	29	-2	30	-1	23	-1	22	-2	24	-1	245	24.5
8	HF Flying Circus	CZ	20	-2	23	-1	29	-1	22		20	-2	30	-2	29		24		20	-3	25		242	24.2
9	Purple Maze	FI	22		26		29		19	-3	21		29		27		25		21	-3	21	-2	240	24.0
9	Papea	ES	23	-1	24	-2	29	-2	19	-5	21	-2	28	-2	28		25		21	-1	22	-2	240	24.0

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Qatar Tigers - Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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Germany's Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource were expected to be a top contender for the 5th place, according to the NSL Power Rankings on April 11th, and the current lineup followed up even more impressively than expected.

The previous Airfource lineup had finished in 9th place at Weembi Lille in 2019 and almost copied Papea's most improved ranking position for Spain with the 5th place in Slovakia. None of the other expected contenders for the 5th place, behind the four medal contenders, could keep up with the Germans, who eventually claimed the 5th place 18 points ahead of Echochamber.

In fact, it did not take too long until the German Airfource began to keep their eyes more on the Qatar Tigers ahead of them, instead on the Top 10 traffic behind them. They were only two points behind the bronze medalists of the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 after Round 3, and the difference was caused by the 2-point deduction in Round 1.

There was already a 5-point difference to Echochamber at that time, which would grow to 18 points after Round 10. The Airfource finished closer to the Qatar Tigers in 4th place (11 points), compared to the 18-point distance to Echochamber, behind the Germans in 6th place.

FAI World Meet 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		M,K,D,14	Q,4,5	P,E,9,15	3,N,G,2	6,1,8	F,12,11	13,22,J	H,L,B,18	O,20,A,17	21,7,19	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	39	36	42	35	27	32	29	42	38	31	351	35.1
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	38	33	44	32	27	29	26	47	37	31	344	34.4
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	39	33	40	30	27	29	24	39	33	27	321	32.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	34	30	36	29	22	27	28	36	32	28	302	30.2
5	Airheads	CH	35	28	33	29	25	27	24	36	30	25	292	29.2
6	Black Cat	RU	34	29	39	29	25	22	25	36	26	22	287	28.7
7	Echochamber	SE	34	27	35	26	22	25	20	35	26	24	274	27.4
8	ACM Weembi	UK	32	28	32	26	20	24	19	35	26	25	267	26.7
9	Airfource	DE	33	22	33	25	22	23	20	35	25	24	262	26.2
10	HF Flying Circus	CZ	31	26	28	23	24	22	18	33	19	23	247	24.7

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Qatar Tigers - Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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Airfource had caught not only the German attention when they outscored the national 4-way outdoor team Airbus at the national indoor championships and represented Germany first time at Weembi Lille 2019.

Former Airbus member Christian Schafer trained and competed first with a different lineup of German Bundeswehr CISM competitors. Stefan Wiesner was Christian Kautzmann's and Elischa Weber's CISM team mate in 2019, and Robin Griesheimer replaced him for the current lineup, who won the national indoor championship again in 2022 and 2023.

Christian Kautzmann, Elischa Weber and Robin Griesheimer have been competing together against the Qatar Tigers at military CISM world championships. The Airfource of 2019, with Christian Schafer as the 4th member, were still far behind the Tigers at Weembi Lille in 2019 (262 - 302), and the complete military lineup was not any closer at the CISM world championship last year.

The current lineup, with Christian Schafer and new team member Robin Griesheimer, then moved much closer to the Qatar team, won two rounds and tied another one in Slovakia to finish only 11 points behind in 5th place. The Airfource are again qualified as Germany's national indoor team, after winning the German Indoor Nationals in March.

CISM Military 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Male - Top 5		M,A,19,G		M,22,C,H		M,N,21,R		M,10,E,D		M,B,4,O		M,F,14,Q		M,L,11,K		M,J,17,P		Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	33		31	1	28	3	31	1	37	1	34		32	1	38	1	264	33.0
2	Qatar Tigers	QA	32	1	28		28	2	26	1	33		29	1	28		39		243	30.4
3	Germany	DE	28		24	1	23		22	1	28		28		24		31		208	26.0
4	Turkey	TR	25		19	3	22	1	26		28		24	2	23		33		200	25.0
5	Papea Masculino	ES	20	1	19	3	25	1	24	1	30		26	2	23	5	29		196	24.5