posted Nov 28th, 2023 - ISR FireFlash and Out Of The Blue did not have a real battle in their competition for the 1st place at the ISR Grand Prix 2023, as the NSL News reported on Sunday. Even OOTB's new indoor team record average (26.6) was not enough to threaten ISR FireFlash who came to Roosendaal with fresh competition experiences from the Weembinamic 2023. The Belgians won seven of the eight rounds and allowed the Dutch team only to tie one highscore in Round 6.

However, there was a very close battle between Echochamber from Sweden and NMP PCH HayaBusa for the 3rd place that ended with a 1-point difference. It was a surprising appearance of both teams in Roosendaal with a very unusual finish. Echochamber had never outscored NMP PCH HayaBusa in the team history, and the Belgians have not missed a podium position at any 4-way indoor or outdoor competition since the 4th place at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2010, 23 years ago.

The new and youngest lineup in the team history was surely aware of the current situation, as they explained in the last NSL Live Talk on November 3rd. In fact, they had not even planned to compete at the ISR Grand Prix, as new team member Ray Lodens is currently in military training and not available for training and competition. David Grauwels was scheduled to fill the open slot at the upcoming Belgian national indoor championship.

They decided on a short call that the opportunity of a 1-day competition nearby would be a helpful experience for the new lineup of the near future and traveled to Roosendaal. There they met ISR FireFlash and Out Of The Blue out of reach, while Echochamber was an unexpected opponent on the current HayaBusa level.

ISR Grand Prix 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		F,E,17,D	O,14,1	5,B,L,16	18,N,H,7	22,10,G	6,C,P,M	A,13,Q,21	12,2,11	Total	Avg
1	ISR Fireflash	BE	41	24	30	28	19	36	25	20	223	27.9
2	Out Of The Blue	NL	39	23	29	26	17	36	24	19	213	26.6
3	Echochamber Stars	SE	32	22	27	25	18	34	22	17	197	24.6
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	36	24	25	21	17	32	24	17	196	24.5
5	Magic 4	LT	31	21	23	22	18	30	23	17	185	23.1
6	Realfly Fire	CH	31	19	23	24	16	31	19	16	179	22.4
7	Phoenix	BE	24	22	22	22	14	28	19	15	166	20.8
8	Phinergy	IT	29	17	17	19	14	26	16	15	153	19.1
9	Garudas	BE	16	16	22	17	13	27	23	14	148	18.5
10	Trance Ition	NL	25	17	19	18	13	22	19	13	146	18.3
10	FSH2	BE	23	15	17	19	13	26	19	14	146	18.3
12	Full Power	IT	27	18	20	17	12	22	16	13	145	18.1
13	Lux	NL	21	17	17	18	14	22	18	14	141	17.6
14	Aquila	NL	19	17	18	19	14	21	16	13	137	17.1
15	Atomic	NL	17	16	15	17	13	20	16	13	127	15.9
16	Pneuma	BE	16	13	14	16	13	21	14	11	118	14.8
17	Shinobi	NL	16	10	13	12	10	15	14	10	100	12.5
18	Patchwork	NL	13	10	11	6	8	12	11	6	77	9.6

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Echochamber Stars - NMP PCH HayaBusa at the ISR Grand Prix 2023 - Video Footage Courtesy of Indoor Skydive Roosendaal

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HayaBusa members Dennis Praet and Jeroen Nollet had actually plans for the ISR Grand Prix. Dennis Praet has been coaching Out Of The Blue to the team's current top level, and Jeroen Nollet had committed to a player-coaching position with Belgian team Phoenix. Neal Willems and Ray Lodens both became available, and HayaBusa decided to take on the the new team member's first eight competition rounds.

OOTB and Phoenix both finished with new peak performances, while NMP PCH HayaBusa collected meet experiences for their new team mate in a very competitive environment.

ISR FireFlash had already shown at the Weembinamic that they had integrated their own new team member, Lena Clynhens, carefully and successfully. The Dutch national indoor and outdoor champions competed with their current lineup, who have attended 17 events together since December 2018.

HayaBusa's surprising additional opponent came with Sweden's Echochamber who have never been in real contention with the two world champions of 2016, 2018 and 2021 (Dennis Praet, Jeroen Nollet). In fact, even the previous lineup with 2021 world champion Michele Silvi and new member Neal Willems easily outscored Echochamber at the last outdoor world championship in Eloy 2022. Two members of Echochamber's 2022 lineup (Ulf Liljenbäck, Mattias Nord) now traveled from Sweden to Roosendaal for the ISR Grand Prix. They had Echochamber indoor expert Johan Edvall in their lineup and a new team member, as well.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		15,11,6	7,2,A	J,B,18,5	E,19,Q,3	8,P,21	12,L,O,C	G,20,F,16	10,D,22	N,9,K,4	14,M,17	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	25	32	33	31	24	31	32	26	41	31	306	30.6
2	Weembi	FR	24	30	33	33	25	33	31	26	36	31	302	30.2
3	France 4-way Open	FR	20	27	29	29	26	30	29	23	35	31	279	27.9
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	22	27	27	29	25	28	24	21	36	27	266	26.6
5	Gryttjom Volo	SE	23	24	24	26	24	27	26	20	29	25	248	24.8
6	Echochamber	SE	20	27	27	22	20	26	25	18	29	24	238	23.8
7	XOTeam	RU	19	24	26	25	18	24	22	19	28	25	230	23.0
8	Sky Dragons	SI	18	24	23	26	21	20	23	18	27	20	220	22.0
9	ACM	UK	19	22	21	22	19	22	23	15	26	22	211	21.1
10	Bad Boys	CZ	19	23	19	22	21	19	22	17	26	21	209	20.9
11	Chimera	UK	19	22	22	24	17	19	21	18	24	22	208	20.8
12	Energy	IT	17	21	20	23	18	21	23	16	23	21	203	20.3
13	Jazz Republic	ZA	17	20	17	23	19	21	19	18	25	22	201	20.1
14	Qatar Falcons A	QA	18	22	18	21	19	21	22	14	22	21	198	19.8
15	VAF Warriors	DK	17	20	18	22	18	20	20	18	21	18	192	19.2
16	Qatar Falcons B	QA	18	20	17	21	20	21	17	15	25	15	189	18.9
17	Monaco	MC	15	21	18	20	14	21	18	15	23	19	184	18.4
18	Sky4four	PL	19	19	15	22	19	19	17	10	24	16	180	18.0
19	Aladeen	HU	17	20	16	21	16	20	14	12	20	21	177	17.7
20	HF Michels Chicks	CZ	18	21	18	19	18	17	19	15	9	18	172	17.2
21	Phoenix	UK	14	19	14	13	17	18	18	13	20	16	162	16.2
22	Equinox	LT	13	18	7	15	16	16	17	12	19	17	150	15.0

Kenneth Eriksson is not really a new team member for Echochamber though, at least not for Mattias Nord. Kenneth Eriksson and Mattias Nord trained and competed together for Volo, who dominated 4-way competition in Sweden before Echochamber was formed. Volo defeated Echochamber three times in 2016, the last year for the team. Mattias Nord then joined Echochamber, first as the coach, finally as a full member. Echochamber have worked their way up to the world's top level behind the medal positions ever since, and they had former Volo opponent Kenneth Eriksson in their lineup for a comeback and a reunion with Mattias Nord.

The lineup for the ISR Grand Prix had 30 minutes of indoor training time with Kenneth Eriksson. Echochamber's Ulf Liljenbäck had more details after the competition in Roosendaal:

"With only 30 min of training with Kenneth, who hasn't competed since 2016 in Warsaw, we are superhappy. He is a rockstar! After round 8 we were heading to the bar. We were one point up in the battle for the 3rd place. Then Anders came and said that he counted our jump to a 17, maybe 18, and HayaBusa to a 19 with at least one bust. We did the math and started to prepare for a jump-off, as did HayaBusa. Then a pretty long wait for the results started, and with that the rising nervousness. We couldn't see the judging, so there was a whole lot of updating on the webpage where the scores were posted. We got 17, a little disappointing. Then Dennis was the first to see their score, 19 down to 17, and we won 3rd place with one point. WOW! To the bar we went and it became a typical competition party..."