posted Nov 13th, 2018 - Some of the best 4-way teams in the world cannot compete at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving when another team in the same country is better and won the qualification or selection. Only one team can represent each country at this specific event.

These teams still have the opportunity to compete at a high-profile international event as the FAI World Cup, which takes place every other year in turns with the FAI World Meet. In fact, five of the Top 10 teams at the last FAI World Cup in Saarlouis 2017 would not be eligible for the next world meet in Australia.

Both FAI events still allow the mixture of professional and amateur teams, as there is no official definition for a distinction between the two or more different ways how to conduct Formation Skydiving training and competition.

The other five Top 10 teams in Saarlouis last year continued as their countries' national 4-way teams, with the exception of Black Cat, and competed at the world meet in Australia last month. Russia was represented by the Tanay Wolves, and the Black Cat members competed only in Tanay's 8-way lineup.

FAI World Cup 2017			1	2	3	4	(5)	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open - Top 10		L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	(5,E,21)	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	35	26	21	20	(28)	102	25.5
2	RealFly-Sion	FR	35	26	20	20	(23)	101	25.3
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33	24	20	16	(-)	93	23.3
4	Black Cat	RU	26	24	17	18	(24)	85	21.3
5	bUSA Defiance	US	26	22	16	17	(19)	81	20.3
6	Airbus	DE	27	21	17	15	(19)	80	20.0
7	Espoir Saumur Weembi	FR	25	19	16	18	(16)	78	19.5
8	Papea Masculino	ES	26	19	12	14	(18)	71	17.8
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	24	18	14	15	(19)	71	17.8
8	Barguzin	RU	24	15	17	15	(19)	71	17.8

SDC Rhythm XP and ISR FireFlash have once again taken their positions in the Top 10 of the best 4-way teams in the world this year, the Belgian team by entering the 20+ scoring level. FireFlash increased the 2017 scoring average of 18.0 (17.8 - 18.3 - 17.8) to 20.8 this year.

Rank	Team		Meets	Average
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	27.6 - 27.9	27.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26.4 - 25.4 - 25.5 - 27.7	26.5
3	France 4-way Open	FR	24.5 - 25.7 - 22.1 - 23.5 - 25.1	25.1
4	France Women	FR	23.5 - 24.0 - 22.3 - 23.5 - 25.7	24.4
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	24.8 - 22.3	23.6
6	Qatar Tigers	QA	22.9 - 23.4	23.2
7	Echochamber	SE	21.1 - 21.1 - 21.5	21.2
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	20.8	20.8
9	Airspeed Odyssey	US	20.6	20.6
10	NFTO	UK	15.0 - 20.3 - 20.6 - 20.2	20.4

SDC Rhythm XP, bronze medal winner in Saarlouis last year, and ISR FireFlash have in common that the two best outdoor teams in the world are their countries' national teams and compete at the world championships.

NMP PCH HayaBusa have been competing for Belgium and Arizona Airspeed for the Unites States for many years, and it does not seem at the moment that they could be overcome easily.

The 20.8 average and the 8th place in the NSL World Rankings 2018, including the 4-way Women teams, sets FireFlash in 2nd place of the best unofficial amateur teams behind Echochamber from Sweden.

Echochamber has now taken the unofficial title of the best amateur team from Mass Defiance, not counting the former 4-way world champions of Airspeed Odyssey. Unfortunately, SDC Rhythm XP and ISR FireFlash have a bad recent experience in common, as well.

Rhythm member Doug Barron was injured earlier this year in a skydiving accident, and FireFlash's tail Glenn Straeluyc became the victim of a work accident shortly after the Belgian national championships.

The L1 vertebra of his back was broken when he fell through a roof, and he had to undergo surgery twice. However, his team mates are confident that he will recover and be back as soon as possible.

FireFlash will still attend the last scheduled meet, the ISR Grand Prix 2018 in Roosendaal, with an alternate and then wait and see.

FireFlash want to continue with the same lineup, and they will take the time to let Glenn Straeluyc recover well, as team captain Sven Ibens made clear:

"We will still compete at the ISR Grand Prix at the end of November, with an alternate, but further ahead than this, we cannot plan anything. What we do know and can say is that we are committed to keep our team intact, as Glenn is an indispensable member of it!!"