posted Aug 3rd, 2023 - The NSL News reported on June 27th that Aurora will represent Sweden in 4-way Open at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023. The national team of the past years, Echochamber Oceanside, were not able to include the event in the team's schedule, and they will miss the opportunity to compete for a set of bronze medals on the leaderboard of the embedded European Outdoor Championship.

In fact, Echochamber would probably be the top contender for the European bronze medals and for the 5th place on the World Cup leaderboard, especially after posting a 19.5 average at Sweden's national outdoor championship last week. It was the team's third highest 10-round average in the Echochamber history since 2016, even though it was boosted by a Super Sequence of the 2nd Grade (C,9,H,O) in Round 3.

However, the advantage of the fast sequence in Round 3 was compensated for by the fact that the other nine sequences started with blocks. Thus the scores for the ten rounds turned out to reflect roughly the results after an average draw, and the team was very satisfied with the performance. It was also a special event for Echochamber, as Johan "Smögen" Edvall has returned to outdoor training and competition. Echochamber's current lineup had five days of training with 22 jumps before traveling to Skydive Skåne for three more at the competition site of the national outdoor championship.

The three training jumps were still very valuable, as team speaker Ulf Liljenbäck told the NSL News: "We needed mostly to get used to the Caravan which, besides being a Caravan and not a Twin Otter, has an air-deflecting spoiler placed inside, right where Mattias usually stands as inside center. With that sorted we were ready for the competition."

Sweden Outdoor Nationals 2023		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,11,N	15,E,17	C,9,H,O	3,M,P,G	12,L,18	8,7,K	13,J,20	4,B,6	22,Q,14	5,16,1	Total	Avg
1	Echochamber Oceanside	16	19	30	24	16	18	18	20	15	19	195	19.5
2	CaZanovas	7	6	12	9	7	7	8	8	8	8	80	8.0
3	Aurora	12	14	16	19	6	-	-	-	-	-	67	13.4
Rank	Rookie Class	H,O,C	J,P,K	F,N,Q	B,M,E	G,D,L	A,C,N	F,J,K	L,E,O	D,P,Q	H,B,M	Total	Avg
1	Tvärvind	9	6	5	11	4	10	11	10	6	12	84	8.4
2	Eclipse	9	6	11	8	6	7	8	8	6	12	81	8.1
3	Förbundet	3	3	5	5	3	5	4	4	4	1	37	3.7

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Echochamber Oceanside - Aurora - CaZanovas at the Swedish Outdoor Nationals 2023

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The lineup with Johan Edvall (Ulf Liljenbäck, Mattias Nord, Rikard Rodensjö) is the same one that finished in 6th place at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023. Only the German indoor experts of the Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource in 5th place separated the world's Top 4 and the Swedish team.

Echochamber would be facing the national teams of the same countries at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 that were in contention for the 5th place in Slovakia, even though Germany (Airbus Illertissen Oceanside) and Italy (Amnesya) have different outdoor teams.

It was almost three years ago at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019 when the same Echochamber lineup competed together at an outdoor event. Johan Edvall had stepped back from outdoor competition at the end of the 2021 season after a back injury.

Echochamber was now missing two of the original team members (Martin Bäcklin, Johan Edvall, Ulf Liljenbäck, Rikard Rodensjö) for outdoor training and competition. Martin Bäcklin had decided at the end of the 2018 indoor season to continue only with indoor action in the future.

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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Echochamber Oceanside at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023

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Eventually he took a break for the remainder of the whole 2018 season, and coach Mattias Nord stepped in for Echochamber. The original lineup was back together for the indoor activities in 2019, while Mattias Nord continued outdoors. Ulf Liljenbäck, Mattias Nord and Rikard Rodensjö then spent the 2022 season with Ann-Marie Jarzebowski before Martin Bäcklin checked back in after the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022.

The original lineup of 2016 was back together for Sweden's national indoor championship in November 2022. Johan Edvall reported back for indoor and outdoor action both this year, and Martin Bäcklin stepped back again. Mattias Nord has taken the same slot as before and continues with Echochamber in both environments whenever he is needed, as he has been doing it since 2018.

Echochamber have not missed any FAI events since they became Sweden's national team in 4-way Open in 2016, except for the compromised FAI Tanay Mondial in August 2021.

Aurora, who are planning to represent Sweden at the FAI Outdoor World Cup in Voss, have to deal with their own injury situation. They had to withdraw after Round 5 when the team's point, Zoltan Hubsch, could not continue with a stretched hamstring. There is hopefully enough healing time before Round 1 at the outdoor world cup in three weeks.

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	NSL Power Rankings 4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	France 4-way Open	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
(5)	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Amnesya	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Skydive Midwest NEXT	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Agera	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Lightspeed XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Qatar Lions	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Aurora	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Chaotic Motion	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Sequenz	DK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Whitefish	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Lux	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Deep n Filthy	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	4Reigners	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	4igami	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-