posted Aug 19th, 2026 - The run-up to the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026 began for the NSL News on May 7th, when the first NSL Power Rankings were created based on the previous FAI outdoor competition, the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2025 at Skydive Teuge in the Netherlands. The NSL News filtered out the national 4-way teams that competed at the event to create an event-specific leaderboard.

The same ten national teams were then ranked alongside other 4-way Open Class teams that were registered or expected to compete at Skydive Arizona in Eloy this October. The result was the first set of “speculative predictions” and the NSL Power Rankings leaderboard published in May.

The first adjustment followed on Jul 9th, when the Qatar Tigers were added. The Tigers had competed at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024, while the Qatar Lions had participated in the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025. There was no Qatari 4-way team in Teuge, while the Qatar Falcons had won the 8-way competition a year ago. Given the recent participation of Qatar’s delegation at FAI/ISC events, it was too early to disregard the country’s national teams as potential participants in the upcoming outdoor world championship.

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NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith on 18 August 2026

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The later version of the NSL Power Rankings, published on August 8th, matched the first version without a 4-way team from Qatar and incorporated fresh scores posted by several teams at their respective events. The NSL Power Rankings were now also based on the latest available hard data, while the ranking positions themselves remained unchanged.

NMP PCH HayaBusa coach Gary Smith finally provided his expert insights during NSL Live Talk on August 18th, while the Belgian national team was battling the Golden Knights at the CISM World Championship in Slovakia. Neither Gary Smith nor Golden Knights coach Niklas Hemlin traveled to the military facilities in Lucenec, where the slow progress of the 4-way event currently has NMP PCH HayaBusa holding a 3-point lead after Round 5. Gary Smith offered significant and more detailed suggestions for adjusting the NSL Power Rankings. In particular, he divided the group of eight contenders for 4th/5th place into four duels, each representing a different level of contention.

Nothing has changed in the medal positions, with NMP PCH HayaBusa now ranked in the higher position after Round 5 at the CISM World Championship. At the moment, Gary Smith does not expect either HayaBusa or Golden Knights to threaten the French Aethers at the top of the rankings.

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FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026			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	Aethers	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Golden Knights	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	SOAR	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Skywalkers Most	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Airbus 4-way Illertissen	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Agera Oceanside	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Out Of The Blue	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Amnesya	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Savolo	ZA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Netunos	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Flyspot Sky4Four	PL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Havoc	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Indonesia	ID	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

He still sees Skywalkers Most as the main challenger in the pursuit of the unofficial amateur world championship title, even though British 4-way team SOAR has a significant advantage in competition experience at a very high performance level. This duel will bring together the world’s youngest and most talented team with the wealth of British 4-way experience, promising an exciting battle.

At the same time, the next two strongest teams, Airbus 4-way Illertissen (DE) and Echochamber (SE), would be competing for 6th place, with Gary Smith giving the Germans the better chances. Agera Oceanside (NO) and Out Of The Blue (NL) will chase Airbus and Echochamber, while both appear to be safely within the Top 10.

Last but not least, Amnesya FLY X (IT) and Papea (ES) would battle for the final ranking position within the Top 10. However, Savolo (ZA) and Netunos (BR) have already posted meet averages at a level that at least matches those of Amnesya and Papea. The final Top 10 position could therefore become the most fiercely contested battle in Eloy.

Gary Smith also shared his views on indoor versus outdoor competition and the related annual event schedules. He believes the indoor season is unnecessarily long, which comes at the expense of outdoor training and competition. He also encouraged the NSL News audience to support live journalistic event coverage and regular news updates. The latest GoFundMe campaign has been launched specifically to support NSL News coverage of the USPA Nationals 2026 and the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026.

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