posted Oct 2nd, 2025 - The dominating French performance of Aethers Lille at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025 was somehow almost taken for granted by teams, audience and media. The situation on the world's top level in horizontal 4-way competition reminds somehow on the time when Arizona Airspeed's previous lineup (Niklas Hemlin, Christopher Kuhlmann, Mikhail Markine, Joey Marshall) dominated between 2022 and 2024.

The distance to the team in 2nd place at Skydive Teuge, the Golden Knights, was still almost as large as it was two years earlier at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 in Norway, where Arizona Airspeed won by 21 points. Airspeed maintained the same distance exactly until the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024 to win their second set of gold medals.

Aethers Lille and their national coach Mathieu Bernier plan to maintain their currently significant lead over the national teams from the United States and Belgium the same way as Arizona Airspeed did it between 2023 and 2024. They had to expect that the two main opponents would reduce the distance significantly after the overwhelming performance at the Shamrock Showdown 2025. Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed both finished more than 30 points behind the French team at Skydive DeLand. It was reduced to the 17 points in September at Skydive Teuge. One of the main open questions is the difference that will separate the same three teams at the upcoming USPA Nationals.

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,Q,19,F		G,13,K,A		12,7,8		16,E,6		1,J,9		10,15,21		5,18,L		M,20,11		C,17,2		22,O,P,3		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Lille	FR	36	-2	36		20	-1	25		29		20		24	-1	24		24	-1	25		263	26.3
2	Golden Knights	US	33		31	-2	20		24	-1	27	-1	16	-2	23		24		24		24		246	24.6
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	33		28	-3	19		24		30		18	-1	19	-2	22		21	-1	23		237	23.7
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	27	-1	22	-5	17		22		21	-3	14	-2	20	-1	18	-1	20		19		200	20.0
5	U.S. Team	US	24	-2	21	-2	17		20		24		15	-1	18		19		21	-1	19		198	19.8
6	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	28		22	-2	16	-1	20		23		15	-1	18		18	-1	17	-2	19		196	19.6
7	Echochamber	SE	26		25		16	-1	20		24		12	-1	16	-1	19		18	-1	19		195	19.5
8	Agera	NO	27	-1	23	-1	17		18	-2	23	-1	16		17		17	-1	17	-2	19		194	19.4
9	RhEvolution XP	US	27		22		15		18	-1	21		15		13	-2	17		17		17		182	18.2
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	21	-2	22		13	-2	17		21		14		16		17	-1	17		17		175	17.5
11	AYRO	BE	24		22		13		18		21		12	-1	13	-2	17		17		15		172	17.2
12	Papea	ES	21	-3	22		17		18		18	-3	14		13	-1	15	-2	16	-2	16	-1	170	17.0
13	Chop Chop!	AU	18		16		11		12		16		9		10	-1	14		12	-1	13		131	13.1
14	Les Hermines	FR	17	-2	16	-1	10	-1	12		15		8	-1	10		14		13		13		128	12.8
15	British Army Volt4ge	UK	16		12		10		12		14	-2	11		9	-1	11	-1	10	-1	11		116	11.6
16	Axis	UK	13	-1	10	-2	10		10		14		9		8		11		10	-1	9	-2	104	10.4

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Aethers Lille at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025

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Mathieu Bernier confirmed earlier that he was planning to send his team once again to Florida in April next year, where Aethers Lille will meet at least the best U.S. teams. He and the team together are aware of the fact that the next U.S. national team in 4-way Open and NMP PCH HayaBusa will do everything they can to reduce the distance they had at this year's high-profile events and get close enough to have a chance to win FAI gold medals in Eloy next year.

The French national coach confirmed in Teuge that Aethers Lille will also travel to Arizona this month to attend the national outdoor championship in Eloy a year before they will compete at the same place for world championship gold medals. He is looking for the direct confrontation to keep this team on alert and check the distance regularly in direct competition under exactly the same conditions as the opponents.

The new team record average of Aethers Lille at the outdoor world cup happened almost under the radar, as the 4-way world seemed to be more focused on the performances of the two potential challengers next year, who both finished with their own team record averages, as well. The four rounds where Golden Knights and NMP PCH HayaBusa tied or outscored Aethers Lille received more attention than the scores of the nine rounds where the French team generated the dominating lead over their direct opponents. In fact, the five point deductions for Aethers Lille indicated that the winning team record average could grow higher at any time.

Shamrock Showdown 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		17,M,10		20,19,F		18,22,K		N,G,3,16		O,E,P,21		9,L,5		6,13,1		C,J,Q,4		D,8,A,H		12,11,14		Total	Avg
1	Aethers	FR	25		23		21		24		34		32		23		32		29		18		261	26.1
2	Golden Knights	US	19	-2	24		18	-2	24		28	-1	26	-2	20		27	-2	26	-1	15	-2	227	22.7
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	-1	21		18		22		27	-2	28	-1	18	-1	24	-4	26		17		224	22.4
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	20		17	-2	17		16	-2	24	-3	24	-1	19		18	-7	21	-1	15		191	19.1
5	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	17	-2	18		14		18	-2	24		19	-2	15	-1	24		21		12	-1	182	18.2
6	Airbus 4-way Illertissen	DE	15	-4	14	-2	13		16		19	-3	19		15		23		19		12		165	16.5
7	Jen and the Double D's	US	15		13	-1	13		13	-1	18	-1	13		13		18	-2	17		9	-2	142	14.2
8	4Action	US	9	-1	10	-1	8	-1	9		13	-1	10		9		11	-3	12		9		100	10.0

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Aethers Lille at the Shamrock Showdown 2025

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Golden Knights and NMP PCH HayaBusa both get additional high-profile competition practice when they will be facing each other at the military CISM World Championship in Qatar this November. The Golden Knights have the even more important USPA Nationals on the competition schedule before the CISM event. Mathieu Bernier and Aethers Lille made their plans for USPA Nationals and Shamrock Showdown to bridge the long break they would be facing in Europe..

The French performance later this month in Eloy will become the rematch with the Golden Knights, and Arizona Airspeed on home turf could also be the U.S. team at the world championship next year. Mathieu Bernier will have the opportunity to check out both potential opponents at the same time, while NMP PCH HayaBusa have to follow the competition from far away. The Belgians have scheduled a training camp in Florida later this month instead.

French national teams have attended the Shamrock Showdown at Skydive DeLand several times to launch the outdoor competition season. However, the participation at the USPA Nationals as a guest team is a new addition to the French competition schedule. Mathieu Bernier is very familiar with the highly valuable experience of meeting the direct opponents early. As an active competitor with the French national 4-way team he traveled to Florida five consecutive times between 2008 and 2012 to launch the outdoor competition season. He won two silver and one gold medal at outdoor world championships in this time period, including 4-way and 8-way gold both in Menzelinsk 2010. Aethers Lille made the same trip in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and met Arizona Airspeed at each of the events, the Golden Knights in 2024 and 2025, as well. The Shamrock Showdown 2026 is scheduled for April 17 - 19 and will be the 1st Bob Hallet Memorial at the same time.

Shamrock Showdown 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		12,2,B	E,K,M,H,11	L,3,22	C,4,18	13,D,J,1	20,16,17	Q,14,8	O,F,6,10	21,G,9	P,19,5	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	21	32	21	19	26	21	22	26	29	27	244	24.4
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	20	33	17	22	23	19	19	22	26	22	223	22.3
3	Perris Fury	US	19	30	16	19	21	18	21	18	27	19	208	20.8
4	Aerokart Deep Blue Maubeuge	FR	17	29	16	17	19	18	18	21	24	22	201	20.1
5	Paraclete XP4	US	18	29	16	17	20	16	17	22	20	22	197	19.7
6	Black Cat	RU	17	28	17	19	18	18	16	23	21	18	195	19.5
7	Genesis	US	18	27	17	15	20	17	15	21	22	17	189	18.9
8	Mass Defiance	US	17	23	16	17	18	16	15	16	21	20	179	17.9
9	SDC Rhythm XP	US	14	25	16	17	15	15	15	19	20	19	175	17.5
10	Spaceland Blue	US	15	22	15	15	17	15	17	20	20	11	167	16.7
11	Golden Knights Gold	US	12	24	13	14	17	15	16	16	15	17	159	15.9
12	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	11	21	15	14	16	13	11	17	20	16	154	15.4
13	Speedy Kids XP	US	12	22	14	13	16	14	13	15	17	16	152	15.2
14	Golden Knights Black	US	13	22	12	10	14	14	13	16	18	17	149	14.9
15	DeLand Shmeland XP	US	15	23	12	10	12	13	14	14	15	16	144	14.4
16	Teiwaz Falcon	US	12	17	12	12	14	11	12	15	16	13	134	13.4
17	Fallout	US	11	18	10	12	13	12	14	15	14	12	131	13.1
18	Carolina Turbo XP	US	9	20	10	10	12	12	15	14	16	12	130	13.0
19	Friday 13	RU	11	17	10	9	12	13	9	15	15	17	128	12.8
20	Kaizen	UK	10	17	12	9	9	11	12	14	16	11	121	12.1

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NSL TV Show of the Shamrock Showdown 2010

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