posted Dec 4th, 2024 - Weembi Lille has been using a different competition format when they introduced the annual Weembinamic 4-way and 8-way indoor event in December 2016. It was only an 8-way competition by then, before it was quickly extended to 4-way a year later.

Julien Degen, former French 4-way and 8-way world champion, and his staff at Weembi Lille created a combination of traditional Formation Skydiving competition and an elimination format, where teams continued with duels through the next rounds and into the final battle for the official winning position.

All participating teams still complete ten rounds using the same sequences, and the NSL leaderboards provide the same or a different outcome after applying the traditional FAI/ISC format. The different format has been offering surprises on the podiums of the past years, as the NSL News reported after this year's 4-way competition. This year's 8-way leaderboard did not have any serious upsets in the Top 8 positions. However, there was once again a difference in the format, which Gaelle Giesen, member of the French national 4-way Women and 8-way teams between 2018 and 2022, pointed out and explained for the NSL News. She competed in 8-way at the Weembinamic 2024 and took the 1st place with her team No Name.

Weembinamic 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		16,A,18	19,7,13	K,2,G,F	21,E,M,H	O,L,J,C,P	9,14,12	N,6,D,17	20,11,22	B,10,15	4,1,3	8,1,Q	Total	Avg
1	No Name	FR	29	20	24	19	33	21	27	24	27	40	24	264	26.4
2	Nova	FR	29	20	25	26	29	20	22	25	22	38	23	256	25.6
3	QRF XONR8	FR	29	18	22	21	29	18	25	21	23	39	-	245	24.5
4	Infinite Octane	US	26	16	20	22	26	20	28	20	20	39	-	237	23.7
5	QRF3	FR	19	14	15	16	14	13	17	17	16	23	-	164	16.4
6	Quiet Chaos	FR	17	11	15	14	17	14	18	15	11	24	-	156	15.6
7	Les Sans Noms	FR	10	11	9	13	11	13	16	13	12	20	-	128	12.8
7	ACCUR8	UK	12	9	12	10	15	12	16	11	12	19	-	128	12.8
9	Team 42	IT	14	11	10	13	12	11	12	9	11	18	-	121	12.1
10	Banter Panthers	UK	15	8	11	10	14	9	13	10	9	15	-	114	11.4
11	The Afterfall Collective	SE	9	10	13	11	13	10	14	9	10	14	-	113	11.3

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No Name - Nova at the Weembinamic 2024

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All 8-way teams completed their ten rounds, after four rounds with the traditional format and six more rounds woith 2-round elimination duels. Two 8-way teams tied their total number of points in 7th place, and the finishing order was identical between 1st and 7th with the rankings on the traditional leaderboard.

Winner No Name and Nova were separated by 8 points after all ten rounds on the traditional leaderboard, and No Name had also won the battle for the 1st place with the higher total for Rounds 9 and 10 (67 - 60). However, both teams still had a score and a video for an 11th round on the original Weembinamic leaderboard, and there was no obvious reason for an extra round - until Gaelle Giesen explained the situation.

Round 10 has been traditionally a hand-picked sequence that is published for a certain time period before the competition begins. Participating teams have the opportunity to practice the sequence as much as desired, and the outcome of the last duel for the winning position surely has the potential for serious surprises. Only the draw of the sequence for Round 10 is knowingly manipulated, while the other nine sequences are drawn as in any other Formation Skydiving competitions.

Weembinamic 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		16,A,18	19,7,13	K,2,G,F	21,E,M,H	O,L,J,C,P	9,14,12	N,6,D,17	20,11,22	B,10,15	8,1,Q	Total	Avg
1	No Name	FR	29	20	24	19	33	21	27	24	27	24	248	24.8
2	Nova	FR	29	20	25	26	29	20	22	25	22	23	241	24.1

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Round 11 of No Name and Nova at the Weembinamic 2024

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The special occasion for this year's Round 11 was not the need for an additional tie-breaking round. There was an important meaning behind the sequence of Round 11. In fact, it was not only Round 11 alone with a special meaning. The whole 8-way competition at the Weembinamic was the qualification for the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 at Paraclete XP at the same time.

The participating French 8-way teams had agreed to replace the manipulated 8-way Super Sequence of Round 10 (4,1,3) with a randomly drawn sequence, as the scores of the Super Sequence could have its own heavy impact on the outcome of the qualification for the indoor world championship.

Only No Name and Nova performed the additional Round 11 sequence, which then replaced the Super Sequence of Round 10 between the two teams. The outcome was eventually the same for all three scenarios anyway, as No Name won the Weembinamic format, finished in 1st place on the traditional leaderboard and won the Super Sequence round and the additional replacement Round 11. Gaelle Giesen will be back in world championship action in April next year. She still owns the indoor world record for a single round that the French national 8-way team posted at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019 at Weembi Lille, together with her No Name team mate Martial Ferre. In the meantime, she has also set a very different world record. She was going 222 meters deep down into the ocean waters for a woman's deepest dive. Congratulations, Gaelle.

FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		L,17,4	A,F,3,13	15,18,6	D,8,O,N	P,E,11,9	M,Q,J,16	C,K,19,22	10,1,7	5,G,B,2	H,21,12	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	38	34	33	27	29	43	29	27	28	28	316	31.6
2	France	FR	37	33	29	27	27	44	26	30	27	29	309	30.9
3	Tanay	RU	31	32	29	27	29	42	27	28	25	27	297	29.7
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	32	31	29	27	30	40	24	25	25	24	287	28.7
5	MicroClim8	UK	25	19	22	19	20	31	19	20	19	18	212	21.2
6	Why Not?	PL	23	21	21	21	21	26	18	19	19	18	207	20.7