posted Apr 6th, 2024 - The NSL News update on April 2nd covered mainly the competition on the top of the AAA Class leaderboard at the BENELUX Indoor Championship 2024, which includes the national indoor championships of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

ISR FireFlash won the Belgian indoor championship title in the absence of NMP PCH HayaBusa, who were actually the defending champions of 2022. The former 4-way indoor and outdoor world champions had managed to fend off the challenging ISR FireFlash by three points (284 - 281) with their 2022/2023 lineup (Dennis Praet Jeroen Nollet, Michele Silvi, Neal Willems).

Dennis Praet, Neal Willems and newest member Ray Lodens had explained the current situation of their own team a few days earlier, and they had neither plans for their national indoor championship nor for the upcoming indoor world cup in China.

However, three of the current team members were present at the BENELUX Indoor Championship, together with original team member Sven Ibens, who won his first Belgian indoor championship title with ISR FireFlash. Dennis Praet was coaching his indoor successors on the top of the leaderboard, as well as the new lineup of Out Of The Blue in 3rd place. Neal Willems substituted for Ayro, Ray Lodens for Hybris, with his brother Ryan Lodens in the lineup.

BENELUX Indoor 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		6,2,C	J,L,21,O	N,D,17,Q	A,9,B,19	3,F,H,22	P,14,16	E,M,4,1	15,12,20	10,18,5	11,13,K	Total	Avg
1	ISR Fireflash	BE	24	32	36	34	23	21	26	20	19	23	258	25.8
2	Agera	NO	24	29	35	29	23	21	20	18	19	23	241	24.1
3	Out Of The Blue	NL	24	30	30	29	22	20	25	14	17	21	232	23.2
4	AYRO	BE	22	26	27	23	20	19	23	15	18	17	210	21.0
5	Garudas	BE	19	25	24	23	18	16	23	13	15	16	192	19.2
6	Full Flow	BE	16	24	24	22	17	16	20	13	15	16	183	18.3

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Ayro at the BENELUX Indoor Championship 2024

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Ayro needed a substitute when original team member Kevin Bruyninckx said that he would not continue this year. The current lineup has been training and competing together since 2017 when they started with a 10.2 outdoor average in the A Class. They moved up to AA after four meets in 2017 and followed up with six meets on AA Class leaderboards in 2018.

Ayro's original lineup has been competing in the AAA Class since April 2019, and it was sad news for all team members when Kevin Bruyninckx could not continue. However, they were fortunate that NMP PCH HayaBusa did not attend the indoor championship, as Neal Willems was available and ready to step in as the player-coach for the meet.

The three original Ayro members gained confidence with Neal Willems' calm performance, and they ended up with a new 21.0 team record average.

They placed 2nd behind ISR FirFlash on the Belgian leaderboard of the national championship, and the meet experience with HayaBusa member Neal Willems motivated and encouraged the returning Ayro 3-way to continue and look for a new team member. The Ayro team story will continue with three original members, and one open slot will have to filled soon, as Neal Willems was only a temporary solution.

BENELUX Indoor 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		6,C,2	J,L,21	N,D,Q,O	A,9,B	F,H,22	P,14,19	E,M,4	15,20	Total	Avg
1	Hybris	BE	8	17	25	25	19	12	20	13	139	17.4
2	Les Bones Nancy	FR	12	15	18	21	17	14	15	10	122	15.3
3	V-Power	NL	12	13	17	20	13	9	16	8	108	13.5
4	Lift Off	FR	10	10	20	16	14	11	15	10	106	13.3
5	KO's Lux Edition	DE	10	12	14	14	15	8	13	9	95	11.9
6	The Loop	NL	8	10	16	12	12	9	14	9	90	11.3

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Hybris at the BENELUX Indoor Championship 2024

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The 4th HayaBusa member, Ray Lodens, helped his brother's (Ryan Lodens) team to a new team record average, as well. Hybris had started in the indoor Rookie Class of 2022 and stepped up to the A Class at the national outdoor championship the same year. They won the A Class competition at the ISR Grand Prix 2023 with the current lineup and started with AA Class training and competition a month later with a 15.1 average.

The new Hybris lineup with substitute Ray Lodens for the meet had a very weak start into the competition with the lowest score of all six AA Class teams on a very international leaderboard. In fact, Hybris had the national championship title secured even after the 8-pointer in Round 1, as there were no other Belgian teams in the AA Class competition. Teams from four different nations created the most colorful leaderboard in this category.

Hybris with HayaBusa member Ray Lodens for injured Bram Langmans, did not need much time to climb up to the top of the AA Class leaderboard and won by 17 points and a new team record average after eight rounds.

Belgian teams won all four categories of the open championship, and they will turn to outdoor training and competition now. Out Of The Blue (AAA) and V-Power (AA) are the Dutch indoor champions, and The Lobsters (RRR) represented the hosting country Luxembourg.