posted Oct 9th, 2012 - There have actually been three different phases in what the NSL News has been calling the "modern history" of Formation Skydiving competition, which is defined by the introduction of the current dive pool system with blocks and random formations. It was the World Meet 1985 in Yugoslavia where this system was applied for the first time.

4way and 8way competition were the only categories in Formation Skydiving at that time, and it continued like that until the World Meet 1999 in Australia. The next phase began with the introduction of the female 4way category at the World Meet 2001 in Spain, and it added between eight and twelve teams to each World Championship of Formation Skydiving ever since - until Mondial 2012 with 14 teams registered for Dubai.

The currently last phase began at the World Meet 2010 in Russia with the introduction of Vertical Formation Skydiving in a 4way competition format.

Rank	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Average
1	France	26	16	36	19	22	35	19	31	204	25.50
2	U.S.A.	21	17	34	22	23	33	20	27	197	24.63
3	U.K.	16	9	20	10	11	15	9	13	103	12.88
4	Germany	13	5	8	8	4	12	7	14	71	8.88
5	Belgium	9	3	6	6	6	12	6	8	56	7.00
6	Russia	6	1	9	4	2	6	4	7	39	4.88

Dubai 2012 will set a new participation record in the new age event, as well. It wasn't that difficult to beat the 2010 number of six teams in Menzelinsk. However, there has not been a VFS 4way competition yet in the young history of the event that attracted a total of nine teams, as it will be in Dubai.

The competition in this category was also mostly an internal affair between France and USA so far, more specifically recently between the French Team4Speed and SDC Standard XP. Team4Speed, with 4way world champion of 1987, 1989, 1991, 1994, Philippe "Professor" Schorno coaching the team, has dominated VFS 4way competition so far and won the gold medals at the first World Championship in 2010.

However, the situation begins to change.

Teams from other nations, such as Germany, and now also from the host nation, the United Arabian Emirates and its Dubai home team, are slowly catching up, or are at least getting closer to the two top contenders.

Dubai's VFS 4way team member Jason Russell is also managing the DZ affairs and plays a major role in hosting the Mondial 2012. He has Earl David, Rob Jones, Timothy McMaster and Stephanie Strange in his home team lineup, which competed for Dubai for the first time at the World Cup 2012.

Dubai has a home team in each Formation Skydiving category. The Dubai Asaar 8way team and the two 4way lineups, Asaar Red and Gold, will also compete at the USPA Nationals 2012 before they will try to defend their home turf. The NSL News will once again pay some extra attention to the teams with the longest travel distance to Eloy.