posted Feb 2nd, 2018 - It's difficult to see progress if your are ten points behind the leader at half-time, who has also claimed or tied the highscores for all rounds.

That's the situation of Arizona Airspeed behind NMP PCH HayaBusa after Round 5 at the Wind Games 2018. However, a closer look at the history between the two teams makes it look better for the U.S. team than it first appears to be.

The distance is exactly the same as it was after Round 5 at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017, where the last showdown between the two top contenders took place. There is still a difference, which is not only the fact that Airspeed is now in 2nd place after the 3rd place in Montreal.

Airspeed did not win or tie a round in October last year, while they were able to keep up with the Belgians in Round 2 and Round 3 in Empuriabrava yesterday. HayaBusa is steadily moving towards a new 33+ finishing average, and Airspeed still has to be ready to accept a significant distance at this point in time. Nevertheless, Airspeed will yet cut the distance after ten rounds to under 20 points, compared to 25 in Montreal.

FAI World Meet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		16,P,12	2,8,H	22,20,3	15,D,4	A,J,6,L	7,M,19	5,Q,21	18,B,17	G,14,C,N	K,E,10,11	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	30	29	25	30	47	33	34	34	37	28	327	32.7
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	30	29	26	30	41	35	32	32	37	28	320	32.0
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	29	28	24	29	41	32	27	31	35	26	302	30.2
4	Black Cat	RU	30	27	24	30	39	34	32	28	33	25	302	30.2
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	28	21	24	27	36	31	23	27	29	26	272	27.2
6	Satori XL	UK	23	23	21	21	38	29	25	26	32	23	261	26.1
6	Echochamber	SE	24	24	22	25	34	28	27	28	28	21	261	26.1
8	Amnesya Fly-In	IT	25	21	18	23	29	28	24	22	31	20	241	24.1
9	Papea Spain	ES	24	20	18	21	29	26	23	21	26	20	228	22.8
10	Inlaws	CA	23	22	17	21	31	28	20	20	22	18	222	22.2
11	HF Bad Boys	CZ	21	20	17	20	32	21	22	21	23	22	219	21.9
12	China 4-way Gold	CN	19	18	16	18	26	22	19	18	22	20	198	19.8
13	Monaco	MC	17	15	14	15	22	21	19	15	21	17	176	17.6
14	Bahrain	BH	10	13	11	11	17	19	12	8	16	12	129	12.9

The French outdoor experts of Realfly Sion will probably be happy with the first four rounds, where they had only a 1-point deficit to Airspeed and tied the highscore in Round 3. Only the weak Round 5 put the French national 4-way team too far behind Airspeed.

The French Weembi Girls present one of the most impressive performances of the meet so far. They maintain the expected 4th place according to the NSL Power Rankings, even though the team's outside center, Pamela Lissajoux, is missing the meet due to an illness.

Gaelle Giesen, French B-Team member of Espoir Weembi Saumur, replaces Pamela Lissajoux at the Wind Games, and the team is performing almost exactly on the same level so far.

The French team selection is meant to get new top performers ready to step in for the national teams when necessary, and Gaelle Giesen's performance in Empuriabrava is a convincing example for the success of the French system.

Wind Games 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		K,5,4	12,8,M	19,2,17	P,C,F,16	D,B,9,N	22,21,13	3,14,11	G,L,E,Q,10	6,20,H	A,O,18,1	15,7,J	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	31(-2)	26	27	46(-1)	54(-2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	184	36.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	29(-1)	26	27	41	51(-2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	174	34.8
3	Realfly Sion	FR	29(-2)	24	27	42(-2)	45(-3)	-	-	-	-	-	-	167	33.4
4	French Weembi Girls	FR	27	23	25	39	47(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	161	32.2
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	27(-1)	25	25	42(-2)	41(-3)	-	-	-	-	-	-	160	32.0
6	Airheads	CH	26(-1)	22(-1)	24	37(-2)	47	-	-	-	-	-	-	156	31.2
7	Echochamber	SE	28	22(-1)	23	40	41(-2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	154	30.8
8	IFS-Moscow	RU	25(-3)	22(-2)	23(-2)	39(-2)	44(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	153	30.6
9	Gavroche Weembi	FR	25(-2)	21	24(-1)	40	42(-2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	152	30.4
10	Amnesya	IT	24(-2)	22	20	40	40(-2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	146	29.2
11	XL	UK	23	20(-1)	22	35(-1)	37(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	137	27.4
12	NFTO	UK	20(-2)	20	21	34	40	-	-	-	-	-	-	135	27.0
13	Odin Parachute System	FR	23(-1)	14(-7)	22	33(-1)	40	-	-	-	-	-	-	132	26.4
14	Weembi Legion	FR	21	18	19(-1)	32(-1)	34(-4)	-	-	-	-	-	-	124	24.8
15	Papea Masculino	ES	19(-1)	18(-1)	21	31(-2)	34(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	123	24.6
16	Tenanine	MR	21(-1)	19	20	29(-4)	29(-4)	-	-	-	-	-	-	118	23.6
17	JETMAX	BE	18(-1)	18	16(-1)	29	31(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	112	22.4
18	Monaco Indoor Skydive Team	MC	20	19	17(-2)	19(-1)	31	-	-	-	-	-	-	106	21.2
18	Le 4 Crétins	FR	17(-1)	14(-1)	16	29	30(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	106	21.2
20	Los Puristos	FR	18	15	15	28	28	-	-	-	-	-	-	104	20.8
21	Aerokart Ak'demie 2	FR	18(-1)	20	15(-3)	30	19(-7)	-	-	-	-	-	-	102	20.4
22	Airbivores Annecy Pamiers	FR	17(-2)	15(-1)	15	23(-1)	27	-	-	-	-	-	-	97	19.4
23	Barak	ES	15(-2)	16	17	24	22(-2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	94	18.8
24	Papea Mixto	ES	13(-1)	14	13	24	22(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	86	17.2
25	Be Air Force	FR	13(-1)	14	14	21(-3)	23(-1)	-	-	-	-	-	-	85	17.0
26	Pajama Pumas	UK	14(-1)	14(-1)	11(-2)	17(-4)	24	-	-	-	-	-	-	80	16.0
27	Voss Vind Girls	NO	7(-3)	12	13	21	23	-	-	-	-	-	-	76	15.2

The current teams of the meet though are coming from Sweden and Switzerland. Echochamber is in the expected 7th place after Round 5 with another convincing performance on the way up to ever-increasing Swedish scoring levels.

The biggest surprise is coming from Switzerland. The Airheads are way up compared to their 22.7 performance level at last year's Wind Games. The scoring average will drop in the second half of the meet; however, the final numbers will be significantly above previous Airheads results. The placing could beat last year's 7th place, as well, depending on the second half of the Swedish opponent.

The most dramatic part of the first five rounds was probably the father-son battle between the Monaco Indoor Skydive Team (Stephane Mattoni) and Aerokart Ak'demie 2 (Tom Mattoni).

The 4-way juniors kept up with the seniors throughout the first three rounds and then took advantage of a weak Monaco Round 4 that they won by 11 points (30 - 19).

However, the next round turned it around right away when the juniors lost their composure in the fastest sequence of the meet and gave away the advantage almost exactly the same way (19 - 31).

There was so much confusion within the working time that the judges eventually assigned a very rare 3-point penalty for an omission. Both teams are back in close proximity after Round 5...