posted Apr 4th, 2024 - 4-way teams from Finland visited the ISG Fööni wind tunnel in Helsinki for the Fööni Open 2024. The NSL News had reported the opening of the wind tunnel and the initiation of the Finnish Tunnel League with the event coverage on 29 September 2018.

It was a strong beginning, and the momentum continued until the corona virus crisis silenced the operation and the meet series as it did all across the planet. After two small 2-team competitions in 2021 no event of the Finnish Tunnel League at all took place at Fööni Helsinki between December 2021 and last month.

National indoor championships were still held at ISG Fööni, and AAA Class team 4K attended all events in the same time period, while lineups of the other teams on the newest leaderboard have changed. In fact, 4K are now Finland's longest standing 4-way team, and the current lineup have competed together since they started in the Rookie Class of 2016. 4K spent two years in the A Class and three years in the AA Class before joining the best Finnish 4-way teams on the AAA Class leaderboards since December 2021. They were back for the recent competition with the same lineup, the Fööni Open 2024 last month, which attracted five teams with the best participation since October 2021.

Fööni Open 2024		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	A,7,15	3,5,22	18,C,O,17	11,D,L,M	4,21,10	16,19,B	2,J,F,8	1,H,E,13	12,6,P	Q,G,9,N	Total	Avg
1	Hot Grips	18	13	12	20	14	18	17	18	14	26	170	17.0
2	Nääslätsi	15	12	13	19	10	16	14	18	12	23	152	15.2
3	4K	13	9	8	10	8	11	7	10	7	10	93	9.3
Rank	AA Class	A,7,15	22,8	18,C,O	11,D,L	4,21	19,B,M	2,J,F	1,H,E	13,6,P	Q,G,9	Total	Avg
1	Sirkus	13	7	7	6	8	9	9	9	9	12	89	8.9
Rank	A Class	A,7	8,M	C,O,F	D,L,K	4,21	19,B	2,J	H,E,N	6,P	Q,G,9	Total	Avg
1	Patinat	10	7	15	5	8	8	8	14	10	11	96	9.6

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Hot Grips - Nääslätsi at the Fööni Open 2024

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The top positions on the AAA Class leaderboard were taken by a lineup of very experienced Finnish 4-way competitors and a new team with promising potential. Hot Grips was actually a new variation of Blue Steel, who were one part of the continuation of the Blackjack reunion that the NSL News reported on 2 April 2017.

Matthew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski, who represented Finland with Max 4 at the FAI World Championship1997 in Turkey, came back together for indoor training and competition with Blackjack in 2017. They continued together and eventually split up into different teams, Matthew Iles with Blue Steel, Vesa Vuorenkoski with Just4Fun.

Matthew Iles joined Finland's strongest 4-way team in history, Pro Team, in 2021 and continued with Pro Team members Emilia Sormunen and Eija Suvala for Purple Maze and another year, together with his current Hot Grips team mate Nadja Lönnroth.

Purple Maze made the Top 10 at the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship 2023 in Slovakia and did not continue after that.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		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
11	Out of the Blue	NL	22		23	-2	27	-2	21	-1	21		26	-1	26	-1	22	-1	21		22		231	23.1
12	Agera	NO	22		24		29		19	-1	23		25	-2	26	-2	23		19	-2	19	-3	229	22.9
13	Meraki	UK	17	-4	24		26	-3	22		19	-2	27		28		22	-1	23		18	-5	226	22.6
14	INIT-Y	BR	19	-2	20	-3	29		15	-4	19	-1	27		27		23	-1	23		20	-2	222	22.2
15	Realfly Fire	CH	20	-1	21	-2	26	-1	17	-2	20		27		24	-2	23		20	-1	19	-3	217	21.7
16	Bronteroc	HU	20	-1	22	-1	24	-3	18	-1	20	-1	26	-1	25	-1	19	-1	21		18	-2	213	21.3
17	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	21		21	-1	24	-3	16	-2	21		27		25		17	-6	20	-1	20	-1	212	21.2
18	Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	20	-1	21	-2	21	-3	16	-2	23		26	-1	25	-1	16	-3	20	-1	20	-1	208	20.8
19	Magic 4	LT	17	-1	19	-2	23		15	-4	20		27		25	-1	18	-3	19		18	-2	201	20.1

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Purple Maze at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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Nadja Lonnroth and Matthew Iles were back with a new Blue Steel lineup last month, with original member Jorma Lofgren and new member Tony Nyholm, and they took the current top spot in Finland that his former 1997 team mate Vesa Vuorenkoski had last with Just4Fun in 2020.

Vesa Vuorenkoski was filling a slot for new Finnish team Naaslatsi, as inside center Sari Ala-Uotila was not available. The team mates of 1997, Matthew Iles and Vesa Vuorenkoski, met each other again in competition, and again in two different teams, after Blue Steel versus Just 4Fun in 2020.

Naaslatsi, with original member Sari Ala-Uotila usually in the inside center slot, competed first time in the AAA Class. They started in the Rookie Class of 2020 and moved up into the next category at each following competition. Experienced inside center Vesa Vuorenkoski could help the team in their first AAA Class experience. Vesa Vuorenkoski could even win a round over his former team mates's Blue Steel lineup with Tony Nyholm, and Naaslatsi also tied the 18-pointer in Round 8. Chief judge Jukka Olkkonen pointed out that Naaslatsi's outside center Simo Leminen is also a multiple Finnish champion in Canopy Formation, and he has been represented Finland for over ten years at world championships and world cups.