posted Sep 28th, 2013 - The aftermath of the USPA Nationals 2013 now offers a very special treat for the Sun Path Products NSL News audience.

USPA's national championships are traditionally the qualification event for the next World Championship of Formation Skydiving. The best US teams in the four different Formation Skydiving categories (4way Open, 4way Women, 4way VFS, 8way) are usually being selected right after the completion of the events during the award ceremony.

The VFS 4way competition was completed on Friday, September 13th, and the award ceremony took place next day, while the winners of the traditional FS events were honored in the middle of the following week. The USA have a new national team in VFS 4way where Arizona Arsenal won the USPA gold medals behind guest teams Dubai Nexus and Team4speed from France.
Click on the score for a round with a link to see the teams' videos

USPA Nationals 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open	G,9,C,P	F,5,15	1,E,8	4,M,7	H,N,B,O,3	14,20,L	Q,K,12,17	11,16,19	10,A,18	2,22,D	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	38	28	22	26	33(-1)	23	25	20(-1)	19(-1)	21	255	25.5
4	Golden Knights	26(-1)	22	17	22	28	15(-1)	21	17	16	17	201	20.1
Rank	8way Open	22,2,21	19,A,5	N,E,H,B,Q	O,G,1,J	9,F,3	20,K,15	M,D,P,11	17,16,14	6,10,7	C,4,13	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	17(-2)	18	27	25	26	26	22(-1)	20(-1)	19	23	223	22.3

The special leaderboard includes links to the videos of all competition jumps, except for the Golden Knights' meet opener in 8way.

The selection of the US national team in the female 4way category is a part of USPA's Open Class competition. The best female lineup will automatically become the national team, and the Golden Knights had as little competition for their qualification as the US Army's 8way lineup.

There were actually two other all-female lineups in the 4way Open Class competition. However, both were guest teams as the national lineups from Canada (Fuzion) and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai Asaar Women). There was no domestic competition for the Golden Knights.

Fuzion and Dubai Asaar will meet the Golden Knights again at the latest at the World Meet 2014 in Prostejov, and Dubai Asaar Black, another guest team in the 4way Open Class at the USPA Nationals, will compete with Arizona Airspeed again next year. The US qualification was also just a formality for Airspeed.

The four US national teams now have to focus on their positioning in the international competition world. Airspeed has to deal with the biggest challenge from Belgium where NMP-PCH Hayabusa comes back with the same lineup in 2014.

Arizona Arsenal is still far behind Team4speed and Dubai Nexus and will try to get closer to the world's two top teams. The Golden Knights are looking at the Aerodyne French Girls whose new lineup had a great start at the World Cup 2013. Only the US Army's 8way team seems to be in a comfortable position at the moment...