posted Oct 13th, 2017 - The International Parachuting Commission (IPC) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI - World Air Sports Federation) decided years ago to become involved with indoor competition and hosted the first world championship event in 2015 at the Hurricane Factory in Prague, Czech Republic.

NMP PCH HayaBusa became the first 4-way Open Class indoor world champions and have maintained the top spot ever since, together with the top spot in outdoor competition that they took in Prostejov 2014.

The 2-year cycle for FAI indoor events is identical with outdoor competition, while it is scheduled the other way around: FAI indoor world meets take place in the same year of an FAI outdoor world cup, and outdoor world meets come along with indoor world cups.

This year, the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2017 was held in August in Saarlouis, Germany, and the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 is coming up next week at SkyVenture Montreal in Canada. The NSL News will provide live coverage of the high-profile event that brings together the best 4-way teams in the world for ten indoor rounds.

FAI Indoor World Meet 2015			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		22,F,20	16,B,14	3,H,4	L,K,7,C	10,D,6	15,A,Q,M	5,8,P	O,21,11	18,G,2	12,9,N	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	29	30	30	43	28	36	30	26	29	30	311	31.1
2	Black Cat	RU	21	26	27	34	23	39	28	27	26	30	281	28.1
3	FLY-IN	FR	24	26	21	37	23	35	24	23	23	26	262	26.2
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	23	24	25	33	23	35	28	23	21	25	260	26.0
5	Gryttjom Volo	SE	20	21	22	32	21	32	23	22	21	22	236	23.6
6	Bad Boys	CZ	19	20	23	32	21	31	23	23	20	22	234	23.4
7	Voodoo	UK	21	21	20	32	20	31	19	22	20	-	206	22.9
7	Dubai Asaar Black	AE	22	23	20	26	21	31	21	21	21	-	206	22.9
9	Tigers	FI	21	21	19	27	18	27	19	19	17	-	188	20.9
10	Jazz Republic	ZA	20	19	18	28	19	26	18	18	16	-	182	20.2
11	VAF Warriors	DK	19	17	18	25	16	28	20	20	-	-	163	20.4
12	Sky Dragons	SI	20	18	17	26	18	27	16	17	-	-	159	19.9
13	Magic 4	LT	19	17	15	26	17	25	18	19	-	-	156	19.5
14	Lupus	EE	15	19	18	26	17	27	15	15	-	-	152	19.0
15	Aladeen	HU	16	16	14	23	15	20	14	12	-	-	130	16.3
16	Murphy Mania	NL	13	9	12	17	11	18	12	12	-	-	104	13.0
17	HF Junior Zeleny	CZ	11	10	7	11	6	12	7	7	-	-	71	8.9
18	HF Junior Zluti	CZ	10	8	6	9	7	9	2	9	-	-	60	7.5

The participation is almost identical between Prague 2015 and Montreal 2017. A total of 15 teams are registered for the 4-way Open Class competition in Montreal, which is only one team short of the 16 teams that competed in Prague 2015. Two 4-way Junior teams had competed in the 4-way Open Class two years ago, and they have their own leaderboard now.

The 4-way Junior event applies the AA Class dive pool and sequences this time, which was not the case at the first indoor world championships.

The quality of the 4-way Open Class field is significantly higher than it was in 2015, and the event features the final and ultimate 2017 showdown between NMP PCH HayaBusa and the French challenger, the Weembi High Rollers.

France has two different national 4-way teams. RealFly-Sion competes for France at outdoor events, and Weembi qualified as the national indoor team by placing ahead of all other French 4-way Open Class teams at the French Indoor Nationals 2017. Weembi has been challenging HayaBusa to the limits at three indoor meets this year, and the Belgians were able to fend off the Weembi attack successfully so far. This time, both teams will compete officially for the indoor world championship title and the FAI gold medals.

FAI Indoor World Meeet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open - Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Black Cat	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Satori XL	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Amnesya Fly-In	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	HF Bad Boys	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Inlaws	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Papea Spain	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Flyspot Sky4Four	PL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Monaco	MC	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	China 4-way Gold	CN	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Bahrain	BH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The strength of the 4-way Open Class field in Montreal is not only supported by the two top teams. This time, the field of the indoor world championship includes all other top contenders in the world, as well. In fact, the Top 7 nations at the last outdoor world meet, the FAI Mondial 2016, have sent their indoor national teams to Canada, as well.

However, only NMP PCH HayaBusa and the Qatar Tigers have the same lineups in Montreal that won the FAI outdoor gold medals (HayaBusa) and placed 5th (Tigers) at Skydive Chicago last year. The Weembi High Rollers are also competing with their unchanged 2017 signature lineup. Arizona Airspeed has the new lineup in Montreal that just won the USPA Nationals 2017.

Black Cat is still missing Evgeny Stashchenko due to injury, and Vladimir Pavlenko is once again filling the slot.

Satori XL is competing with the team's indoor lineup in Montreal, as the NSL News reported on 12 January 2017. Katie Woods will be back at the place where she spent a lot of time with the Canadian national 4-way team in 2014, when Evolution won the 4-way Open Class bronze medals for Canada at the FAI World Meet in Prostejov. Italy's team in Montreal, Amnesya Fly-In, will help to lift the quality of the field to a very high level, as well. Round 1 of the meet is scheduled for Friday morning next week.