posted Aug 3rd, 2020 - New scores and videos came once again from the Czech Republic, where 4-way teams are back in action, even if the number of participating teams is significantly lower compared to events in the past. The corona virus crisis is still having its impact on Formation Skydiving competition, even in countries that seem to have mastered it well enough.

The latest scores are coming from the Czech national outdoor championship, and the NSL News will soon follow up with more details.

In the meantime, Jan Klapka was also able to perform the July sequences of the Indoor Cloud League at the Hurricane Factory. He also had a lower number of teams available for the indoor events. Only six teams performed the July sequences, after 11 teams had competed for the six highscores on the Czech ICL June leaderboard.

Six junior teams had performed the June sequences, and only three of them were back in July. It is once again summer vacation time for the families in the Czech Republic, and the young 4-way competitors spend time with their families. It is even more challenging to coordinate training and family vacation in the times of the corona virus crisis.

Indoor Cloud League July 2020 - Hurricane Factory	AAA	AA	A	RRR	RR	R	Total
Teams	D,20,P,17	E,20,9	O,P,8	O,P,D	M,D,P	M,E	Total
HF Flying Circus	26	30	-	-	-	-	56
HF Cubs	21	27	-	-	-	-	-
M Team	17	17	19	-	-	-	19
HF Chameleons	-	16	18	-	-	-	-
HF Juniors Invisible	-	-	-	21	25	-	14
Smart Fish	-	-	-	-	9	12	21
Hurricane Factory's Best of June	26	30	19	21	9	12	117

HF Flying Circus have apparently picked up the pace for the AAA/AA sequences, after the Czech national indoor and outdoor team in 4-way Open was pushed hard by the former 4-way juniors, HF Cubs. In fact, the HF Cubs had taken the AAA/AA top spot this year in the Czech Republic before the corona virus crisis changed everything.

This internal Czech AAA/AA indoor duel between HF Flying Circus and HF Cubs had the young all-female lineup ahead in all four sequences of January and February. The HF Cubs did not perform the March sequences, and the Hurricane Factory was closed in April.

The HF Cubs had already caught up with HF Flying Circus on the ICL leaderboards in 2019 and eventually won the Czech Open Indoor Championship in January 2020 with a 26.5 team record average.

It became more challenging for the HF Cubs when they decided to launch a team outdoor career, as well. All team members have been in outdoor training this year, as the NSL News reported on July 6th. The additional challenge of the outdoor training may have taken away some of the indoor focus, which was exclusive in the past.

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Hurricane Factory's Indoor Cloud League highscores in July

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HF Flying Circus has been used to both training and competition environments for many years. The wind tunnel has always been a training tool, as it is for most other 4-way teams in the sport. It has not been unusual at all to attend indoor competitions while preparing for outdoor events at the same time.

There are still significant differences between indoor and outdoor 4-way training and competition, and there is an increasing number of teams who focus only on indoor competition. However, most of them have outdoor backgrounds and histories of the team members, who may have come to the end of their outdoor careers.

It is a very different situation if a 4-way competitor grows up in a flying chamber and then adds outdoor skydiving later on. All HF Cubs members are in this specific situation, even as a team. The reigning FAI 4-way Junior indoor world champions are currently giving most of their attention to outdoor training as individuals. Thus it is actually not very surprising that HF Flying Circus have the advantage when switching back and forth between the two environments.

However, the pressure by the HF Cubs has probably helped the Czech national outdoor team to pick up the pace, and HF Flying Circus had again the upper indoor hand in May (45 - 42), June (42 - 41) and July (56 - 48).