posted Mar 28th, 2018 - The NSL News mentioned during the aftermath of the French Indoor Nationals 2018 that the Weembi Elder 8 team did not have a place on the podium of the award ceremony, despite the highest 8-way average and the fact that all team members are French competitors.

It is normal operation at national championships in France that the selected and government-supported national teams are not eligible for the medals, which are meant to go to all the other French teams who attend. The situation at the French Indoor Nationals was different though, as the French Elder 8 members are not competing for the French delegation any longer. In fact, France does not have a national 8-way team any longer, as the NSL News reported on 20 March 2018.

Other former French national team members and champions are eligible for placing on the French leaderboard, such as Jeff Ronzevalle and Franck Vazille who train and compete with the Monaco Skydream Team these days. The same counts for the official 8-way silver medalists of Vair8maxxxx, Nicolas David and Martial Ferre, who both competed for France in 8-way at their times.

Weembi Elder 8 members Julien Degen and Thomas Perrin actually won bronze medals with Insomniaques Weembi, as well as Martial Ferre won silver with Vair8maxxxx. There was no issue with French 8-way gold medals for 4-way Women national team members Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis. Team mate Clementine LeBohec had to settle without an 8-way medal on the Open Class leaderboard.

French Indoor Nationals 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Nationals		11,9,8	13,2,M	12,4,A	3,P,C,10	H,N,Q,1	5,16,B	19,L,J,21	E,15,18	G,7,D,17	O,6,K,F	Total	Avg
1	Weembi Girls	FR	21	21	31	27	34	28	24	25	27	30	268	26.8
2	Vair8maxxxx	FR	16	16	25	18	27	22	16	21	19	22	202	20.2
3	Insomniaques Weembi	FR	15	15	22	22	22	21	17	20	18	23	195	19.5
4	After 8	FR	15	15	21	19	24	20	17	20	19	20	190	19.0
5	Shamapasl'air Clermont	FR	12	15	22	22	21	20	16	20	17	22	187	18.7
6	Monaco SkyDream Team	MC	11	12	22	16	18	17	12	18	16	18	160	16.0
7	WitBiz	FR	12	12	19	14	21	15	12	14	16	17	152	15.2
8	Lazy Functors Corbas St Flo Nord	FR	11	11	12	13	16	14	9	14	14	15	129	12.9

The French federation provided clarification, at least for the final rankings, on the official website .

Eight French teams competed for the national championship title, and six other teams were listed on the Open Class leaderboard. One of the reasons for the separation was related to double duties. The participants who were in more than one lineup had apparently to decide which team would have priority for the French national championship ranking. The second lineup might be listed on the Open Class leaderboard.

The official French 8-way leaderboard does not show any names in two different lineups. Even an 8-way team with only French competitors (PCP Coyotes JCM) could not be listed on the French leaderboard, as Martial Ferre was also competing with Vair8maxxxx and two other teams (Weembi Elder 8, Veloce QRF).

The official ranking for the 8-way Open Class finally credits Weembi Elder 8 with the 1st place, even if the team had to stay away from the podium during the award ceremony, where the Qatar Falcons celebrated their team record performance.

French Indoor Nationals 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		11,9,8	13,2,M	12,4,A	3,P,C,10	H,N,Q,1	5,16,B	19,L,J,21	E,15,18	G,7,D,17	O,6,K,F	Total	Avg
1	Weembi Elder 8	FR	23	19	34	32	37	29	21	28	26	28	277	27.7
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	17	21	32	30	35	30	23	26	25	30	269	26.9
3	Veloce QRF	IN	17	18	29	24	33	23	18	26	20	23	231	23.1
4	Fan8ics	IT	17	17	26	20	30	21	17	20	16	22	206	20.6
5	PCP Coyotes JCM	FR	14	12	20	19	19	16	13	19	17	16	165	16.5
6	Project Ride the Dragon	UK	15	13	17	18	17	20	13	18	16	17	164	16.4

The 26.9 average of the Qatar Falcons is significantly higher compared to the previous indoor performance at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018. The Weembi Girls improved their own scoring level of 2017 even more (24.5 - 26.8) and still ended up one point behind the Falcons.

Weembi Elder 8 had to pull out all the tricks they remembered from their last indoor competition together, which was the Clash of Champions 2015. They had finished with a 27.9 average in Dubai two and a half years ago, and the 27.7 last weekend fended off the Qatar Falcons who were still far behind (22.1) in 2015.

Six of the 2015 members (Julien Degen, Julien Olek, Thomas Perrin, Bruno Perin, Clement Martin Saint Leon, Emmanuel Sarrazin) were back in the lineup, with Martial Ferre and Clementine LeBohec filling the two open slots.

The same six Weembi Elder 8 members had also competed for France at the FAI Mondial 2016 and won 8-way outdoor silver medals. It seems like it would still be possible for France to send a strong 8-way team to Australia and win a set of medals, even though the Qatar Falcons get stronger and stronger...