posted Nov 16th, 2023 - The recent NSL News update after the completion of the British Indoor Nationals 2023 featured the NFTO reunion, which concluded with the successful defense of the British 4-way Open Class championship title. NFTO's toughest opponent on the AAA Class leaderboard was actually a guest team, and the NSL News pointed out that the competition at iFLY Manchester was also a rematch between the same two teams.

The Weembi Unicorns are limited to participating in 4-way competitions that are not national championship events, or they have to sign up as a guest team with the hope that the host of the respective national championship will accept teams on the leaderboard who cannot win any medals. The team members of the colorful roster are of several different nationalities, last time from Italy (Alessandra De Rango, Federico Angelotti) and France (Julien Degen, Mathieu Quizy).

It's the 4th consecutive competition that the same Weembi Unicorns have attended together, which is very unusual for the team. It happened only once before that the same lineup would be back for the next 4-way competition. Alessandra De Rango had Clementine Le Bohec, Julien Degen and Michele Silvi in her lineup at the World Challenge 2019 and a month later at the Weembi Cup.

Julien Degen, French 4-way and 8-way world champion in 2006, 2008 and 2010, co-owner of the Weembi Lille windtunnel, missed only the first two of the 17 events that Alessandra De Rango has attended with her different lineups.

World Challenge 2019 - Top 10			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		P,H,Q,5	19,16,E	L,3,2	B,A,22,D	J,14,8	11,M,G,1	15,21,18	7,O,4	C,N,K,13	20,6,F	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	52	32	28	39	29	32	28	34	42	31	347	34.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	48	30	27	37	27	31	25	33	36	28	322	32.2
3	IFS-Moscow	RU	44	29	26	33	27	29	23	33	34	31	309	30.9
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	44	29	26	35	24	29	24	31	32	31	305	30.5
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	46	28	24	32	25	29	24	31	35	27	301	30.1
6	Airheads	CH	44	28	22	36	24	27	19	29	33	26	288	28.8
7	Weembi Unicorns	FR	43	28	23	32	23	28	19	28	33	26	283	28.3
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	40	26	24	33	24	25	19	25	28	26	270	27.0
9	NFTO	UK	35	25	24	29	24	25	20	27	30	24	263	26.3
10	Odin Parachute Systems	FR	35	28	21	29	22	25	20	25	29	25	259	25.9
10	Chimera	UK	36	24	21	27	23	27	21	25	29	26	259	25.9

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Weembi Unicorns at the World Challenge 2019

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The Weembi Unicorns story actually began with the Weembi Legion at the Weembinamic 2017, the first time that Alessandra De Rango, together with Samir Nasser, recruited an international lineup of top competitors. Weembi Legion, with Bruno Perin and Pietro Scabardi, finished in 3rd place with a 21.3 average.

Julien Degen joined his former 8-way world champion team mate and Weembi partner Bruno Perin just a few months later for the French Indoor Nationals 2018, and he has continued as Alessandra De Rango's regular team mate ever since.

Weembi Legion turned into Weembi Unicorns when Michele Silvi joined the lineup for the World Challenge 2019. That's when Alessandra De Rango, Clementine Le Bohec, Julien Degen and Michele Silvi posted the still standing 28.3 team record average for a regular 10-round draw.

Several other 4-way and 8-way world champions and world-class competitors have been competing in Alessandra De Rango's lineups over the years (Chiara Brunetti, Clementine Le Bohec, Sophia Pecout, Roy Janssen, Aurélien Lemaire, Livio Piccolo, Marco Rossi). Two of her current team mates, Federico Angelotti and Mathieu Quizy, are national champions in their countries (Italy, France) and have to train with their national teams, as well.

Weembinamic 2022			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		19,1,16	4,D,5	22,Q,G,A	8,14,13	2,21,18	11,A,3	N,H,O,K,9	15,B,10	6,20,L	P,M,J,E,F	Total	Avg
1	Unicorns	FR	22	26	25	21	21	22	44	23	23	65	292	29.2
2	FCUK	UK	20	24	26	17	22	22	42	20	22	68	283	28.3
3	Les Chat-toyants	FR	20	23	24	19	21	21	38	20	23	67	276	27.6
4	SpongeBob	UK	21	25	21	19	18	24	37	21	20	62	268	26.8
5	Nice Odin	FR	22	20	26	19	19	21	39	21	21	59	267	26.7
6	Apex Weembi	FR	19	23	23	18	15	20	35	21	20	70	264	26.4
7	4G Weembi	FR	20	22	27	18	21	23	41	21	24	44	261	26.1
8	La DH Monégasque	MC	21	20	25	19	16	19	40	18	21	58	257	25.7
9	Monaco Mike Air	FR	16	16	22	17	15	16	30	16	16	59	223	22.3
10	Vedett Weembi	FR	19	17	21	17	15	15	26	16	16	56	218	21.8
11	Oblivion	FR	16	18	18	14	15	14	25	15	17	45	197	19.7
12	Les Inconnus	FR	10	12	13	10	11	11	15	10	10	28	130	13.0
13	Engrenages	FR	11	11	13	8	10	10	15	11	11	26	126	12.6

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Weembi Unicorns at the Weembinamic 2022

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It is not easy to recruit the colorful lineups of Weembi Unicorns, and it works only successfully when the team members have no other obligations at the same time. Chiara Brunetti was and is a member of Italy's national outdoor team Amnesya, Clementine Le Bohec and Sophia Pecout competed for the French world champions in 4-way Women.

Roy Janssen (Belgium/France), Aurélien Lemaire (France), Livio Piccolo (Italy), Marco Rossi (Italy) had other obligations, as well. Even Julien Degen was still competing for France with the Weembi High Rollers (Christine Malnis, Sophia Pecout, Roy Janssen) at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019 when he attended five other meets with Weembi Unicorns in the same year.

The challenging task of coordinating the training and competition agenda between Alessandra De Rango and the other three Weembi Unicorns turned out successfully at four consecutive recent events since April 2022 (Weembi Cup 2022 - Weembinamic 2022 - Weembi Cup 2023 - British Indoor Nationals 2023), and the Weembinamic 2023 offers the next opportunity later this week. The main question is probably whether Federico Angelotti (FLY X) and Mathieu Quizy (France 4-way Open) will be available for Weembi Unicorns. However, there might be other world-class substitutes ready to step in...

Lineups of Weembi Legion and Weembi Unicorns since 2017, including the outdoor competition at the ESL Championship 2019

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