posted Mar 10th, 2025 - The recent change in the FAI/ISC 4-way dive pool is not only requiring teams and competitors to learn and train a new block technique. The NSL News covered the impact of any rule change comprehensively on January 20th and followed up with a few more related articles.

The update on February 16th added an explanation how old Block 20 (Piver - Viper) and new Block 20 (Zipper - Zipper) had different expiration and beginning dates: "FAI/ISC decided that the old Block 20 version, Piver-Viper, will still be used at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 at Paraclete XP in April. The new version of Block 20 will replace Piver-Viper officially beginning on May 1st. However, they also decided that there is no need to discourage teams and organizers from applying the new Zipper-Zipper version earlier in training and competition. Block 20's old version (Piver-Viper) comes to an end for outdoor competition at the end of the month. February 28th is the official deadline, literally. Zipper-Zipper will be required as the new maneuver for Block 20 on March 1st at outdoor competition, and the Shamrock Showdown 2025 could become the first outdoor event for AAA Class teams to apply the new version - if Block 20 will be drawn."

The different dates have its own impact, this time only on the best teams in each participating country. The NSL News story on January 20th had covered the situation for the vast majority of recreational teams and competitors, while the deadlines for indoor/outdoor expiration and beginning dates has an additional special aspect for the top teams.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	NSL Power Rankings 4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Aethers Medjay	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	-
4	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Fly X Amnesya	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Lions	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The first NSL Power Rankings for the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 are showing the expected Top 8 positions. The closer look at the leaderboard is showing that all of the teams are still participating in outdoor events as well. That's where the situation becomes interesting, and it is different between the countries.

Aethers Medjay could be in the best situation of all the top teams, as the national team does not have to qualify for the next world championship. The national coach, currently Mathieu Bernier, is responsible for the selection of the best lineups, and the national federation follows his suggestions.

The opposite situation happens to be in the United States, even though it was more complicated this year. The winner of the national indoor championship, the Golden Knights 4-way team, is not competing for the U.S. delegation at the indoor world championship. It means that the U.S. Army team could drop any training of the old Block 20 right after Round 10 of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025 and train the new version for upcoming outdoor competition instead. That's not the case for Arizona Airspeed, who will represent the United States at the upcoming indoor world championship. They cannot afford not to be on top of their best performance level for each part of the dive pool if they want to finish in a medal position at Paraclete XP. They can drop the old version of Block 20 only more than two months later than their toughest opponents this year, the Golden Knights, and the same counts for other domestic opponents, such as SDC Rhythm XP.

Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		10,O,F,7		21,20,3		Q,G,2,5		B,19,P,1		H,9,11		16,14,6		K,E,A,22		J,15,8		4,C,12		17,N,D,M		Total	Avg
G	Aethers Medjay	FR	33	-1	22	-1	32	-1	32		36		27		35		23	-1	27		45	-1	312	31.2
1	Golden Knights	US	31		21	-1	27	-2	31	-1	34		23	-1	30		24		23	-3	40	-1	284	28.4
2	Tunnel Vision	US	30	-1	20	-1	27	-2	27	-1	32		24		31		24		24		38		277	27.7
G	Arizona Airspeed	US	29		21	-1	24	-3	26		32		23		29		24		22	-1	41		271	27.1
G	Qatar Lions	QA	27	-2	20	-1	23	-3	27	-1	27	-2	20	-1	26	-3	20	-2	22		37	-1	249	24.9
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	26	-3	17	-3	23	-3	26	-1	26	-4	18	-3	29		20	-2	22		37	-1	244	24.4
G	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	25		17	-2	24		24	-1	28		21		29		20	-2	20	-2	35	-1	243	24.3
4	Killers of Hopes and Dreams	US	23	-2	17	-2	24		23	-1	27		19		27	-1	20	-1	22		31	-1	233	23.3
5	XPerimental	US	25		15	-1	23		22		24		18		21	-2	19		19		28	-1	214	21.4
6	Buc-ee's and Boot-ee's	US	22	-2	15		19	-1	22		22	-1	18		22	-1	16	-2	19		22	-3	197	19.7
7	GPTNT	US	18	-1	15	-1	20		19	-1	21	-1	15		19		17		14		20	-1	178	17.8
8	Kirk and the Double D's	US	15	-4	12	-1	20		22		18	-1	15		19		15	-2	14	-2	27		177	17.7

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Golden Knights - Arizona Airspeed - SDC Rhythm XP at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025

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It is not only an imaginary option that a competition could be so close that a single point more or less might make the difference between 1st and 2nd place. It was only five years ago when Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP were tied in 1st place after Round 10 and had to go into a jump-off extra round. A better performance and faster time for the new maneuver of Block 20 could make that difference.

Arizona Airspeed could make up for the two lost months by putting more efforts into the training of the new block technique. That would take some training away from other blocks though.

NMP PCH HayaBusa is in a similar situation as the French national team. They don't have to worry too much about winning the national championship in Belgium to qualify for the next outdoor world championship. They have almost a reverse situation, as they have been practicing the new Block 20 outdoors and have to go back to the old version for the indoor world championship. Skywalkers Junior (Czech Republic), Echochamber (Sweden) and Papea (Spain) are also not facing serious competition in their respective countries. The Qatar Lions are the new national team in FAI/ISC 4-way Open Class competition. They would have the Tigers as serious opponents for the country's top spot. However, the Tigers represent Qatar only at military CISM World Championships, and the selection of the national teams is managed by the federation, after consultation with coaches Andy Grauwels, Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen. Arizona Airspeed seems to be under more pressure than anybody else, and they transition from old Block 20 to the new version during the road trip from Paraclete XP to Skydive DeLand for the Shamrock Showdown 2025.