posted Oct 21st, 2023 - Austrian team Final Fire were undefeated in their homeland at outdoor events between 2013 and 2019. They represented Austria at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2015 (6th - 17.1) and a year later at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016 (10th - 17.8) which was the end of the team's international 4-way presence.

Final Fire then continued with a variable lineup and without training, except for possibly a few warm-up jumps before any meet that they would attend. They told the NSL News at their last international event in 2016, that they were now waiting until a new Austrian team would beat them, while they enjoy the casual team atmosphere in the meantime.

It took four more years until it really happened. Final Fire still won the national 4-way outdoor titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Black Mantis had the honor of outscoring Final Fire eventually at the Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2020. Black Mantis defended the Austrian 4-way title successfully a year later, this time by eight points over Final Fire. Black Mantis also won the Austrian indoor title in 2022 and represented their country at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022.

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 were back as usual a year later, even though they had lost for the first time in 2020, then again in 2021. Black Mantis did not attend the next national outdoor championship, and Final Fire won their next Austrian 4-way title, the 8th one. It did not come easily as the new challenger, Red Bull AerodynamiX, engaged the fun-loving 4-way veterans in a 1-point battle over the eight completed rounds.

Final Fire had no plans for competing once again at a world championship, and AerodynamiX represented Austria in Eloy 2022. AerodynamiX copied exactly the meet average in Eloy, which they had finished with at the national outdoor championship six weeks earlier (12.5) which was the highest one in team history by then.

AerodynamiX followed up with their first Austrian indoor championship title in March 2023, where they defeated the defending indoor champions, Black Mantis. Final Fire have competed only once at an indoor competition and won the first Austrian national indoor championship title in February 2017.

The new Austrian indoor champions of AerodynamiX then represented Austria a month later at the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship in Slovakia, where they posted a new team indoor record average.

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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Red Bull AerodynamiX at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 and at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023- Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/Omniskore and FAI/InTime

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All three Austrian 4-way champions since 2013 (Final Fire, Black Mantis, AerodynamiX) have been on the same AAA Class leaderboard only once before. It happened at the national outdoor championship of 2021, where Black Mantis defended the 1st place of 2020 successfully over Final Fire.

It was the first national outdoor championship for AerodynamiX in 2021, and they finished in 5th place. They moved up to the 2nd place in 2022 and now won their first outdoor title earlier this month. As Black Mantis did in 2021/2022, AerodynamiX have now unified the 4-way indoor and outdoor championship titles in Austria.

The outdoor championship this month featured once again all three Austrian 4-way champions of the past years, this time at the Wiener Neustadt West Airport south of Vienna. AerodynamiX knew what it would take to leave Final Fire behind, who have been posting meet averages at the previous national outdoor championships between 12.6 and 13.3 in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

This month, they copied once again the 12.6 average of last year, and the AerodynamiX scoring level in October 2022 (12.5) would not have been enough. They finished with 13.5 and a new outdoor team record, which was enough to win by seven points. Black Mantis were back in action, as well, and ended up in 4th place.

Austrian Outdoor Nationals 2023		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,M,J,13		4,Q,H,E		18,15,3		C,16,7		O,G,12,N		10,P,K,1		5,11,L		2,B,9		Total	Avg
1	Red Bull AerodynamiX	17		18	-2	11		14	-1	13		11	-1	7	-1	17		108	13.5
2	Final Fire	14	-3	16		11	-1	13	-1	12	-1	12	-1	7	-2	16		101	12.6
3	Slow Motion	11		13		8		10		10		9		9		12		82	10.3
4	Black Mantis	10		10		6		9		9		9		7		8		68	8.5
5	Blue Whales Freistadt	6		8		6		6		5		7		4		10		52	6.5
6	Benjis Angles	6		5		4		5		5		5		3		4		37	4.6
7	OGC Skydive Team	0		1		2		1		2		1		1		3		11	1.4