posted Oct 23rd, 2016 - The 8-way lineup of the Golden Knights is not the only U.S. team in complete control of their event at this point in time. VFS team SDC Core has shown the same dominance this year, and the latest victory was completed yesterday at the USPA Nationals.

This time, the U.S. teams tried to interfere with the defending VFS champion. The same four teams who took on SDC Core at last year's national championships were back on Friday to challenge the currently best indoor and outdoor team in the world.

They had even less of a chance than a year ago, and the distance between 1st and 2nd (Arizona Arsenal) grew from 19 to 40 points. Arsenal was able to outscore Core twice at the USPA Nationals 2015 and did not win a round at this year's event. Core posted all highscores of the 8-round meet. Other than that, the same four U.S. teams behind SDC Core also finished in exactly the same order as in Eloy last year.

USPA Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS	H,14,4	16,G,6	B,L,A,E,15	12,13,J	9,D,2	11,F,5	I,7,M,K	3,1,10	Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	19	20	24	29	19	18	17	22	168	21.0
2	Arizona Arsenal	15	14	21	26	12	12	11	17	128	16.0
3	Arizona X Force	13	12	17	14	12	12	13	18	111	13.9
4	Golden Knights	10	13	6	28	10	13	14	15	109	13.6
5	Skydive California Super Serious	11	10	16	21	12	12	11	15	108	13.5
6	Drive Dysnutz	8	6	5	13	8	8	5	13	66	8.3

The U.S. teams don't have to feel bad about this hopeless situation, as they are in the same boat, together with all other VFS teams in the world. SDC Core recently won the outdoor gold medals at the FAI Mondial and then the indoor world title at Flyspot in Poland.

SDC Core allowed only Evolution to win a round at the Mondial, and this was only caused by an ominous loss of seven points in Round 3.

The U.S. team then posted seven of the eight highscores at the FAI Indoor World Cup and allowed Golden Knights and Fly Definition to tie the 23-pointer in Round 8, which was also caused by two penalties. The other U.S. teams in Eloy were not able to keep up with Core in any of the eight rounds.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		L,15,7	6,D,3	16,B,8	K,G,12,I	N,14,E,M	J,2,1	H,10,F,17	C,A,11,13	Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	US	19(-1)	21(-1)	19(-7)	19(-1)	20	30	18	22	168	21.0
2	Evolution	CA	17(-2)	15(-1)	23	18	14(-3)	29(-1)	17	18(-3)	151	18.9
3	Transfert	FR	19	14(-1)	21(-1)	16	18(-1)	29	13(-1)	18(-2)	148	18.5
4	Vertical Flystation	RU	12(-2)	11(-1)	12(-8)	11(-1)	13(-1)	19(-2)	13(-1)	17	108	13.5
5	Element	BE	12	10	16	11(-1)	12	21(-1)	8	16	106	13.3
5	Focus	AU	11(-3)	8(-2)	15(-3)	10	14(-1)	24	10(-1)	14	106	13.3
7	Blue Pelican	NO	12	9(-1)	19(-1)	12(-1)	12(-1)	22	7(-1)	12	105	13.1
8	Omni 99	UK	7(-1)	5(-2)	9(-4)	9	8(-2)	15	4(-1)	12	69	8.6

SDC Core was 17 points ahead of Evolution (Canada) at the Mondial and 27 points ahead of Flystation (Russia) at the FAI Indoor World Cup, then 40 points ahead of Arizona Arsenal yesterday. There has not been much serious competition for the U.S. world champions ever since the French Team4speed retired after Prostejov 2014.

SDC Core never met Team4speed in a competition, as the U.S. team was launched when Jason Russell and Stephanie Strange left Dubai Nexus after the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2013. They had just outscored the French team for the third time, with Timothy McMaster, Derek Cox and Earl David on camera for the Dubai team.

Golden Knights and SDC Core were the only U.S. teams in the Formation Skydiving events at the FAI Indoor World Cup where they won gold and bronze. The Golden Knights now ended up without a USPA medal in 4th place, while SDC Core defended the gold medals successfully.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		13,14,7	A,B,8,M	L,11,G,F	1,K,H,17	10,4,15	12,3,6	16,E,I,N	D,C,9,5	Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	US	33	38	34	27	23	35	26	23	239	29.9
2	Flystation	RU	29	34	33	25	20	26	23	22	212	26.5
3	Golden Knights	US	28	33	29	24	22	27	24	23	210	26.3
4	Flyspot Definition	PL	29	36	29	22	16	22	24	23	201	25.1
5	TEEM iFLY Toronto	CA	24	27	24	19	15	19	18	16	162	20.3
6	Element	BE	23	25	21	16	16	21	18	16	156	19.5
7	Skyriders Speedfly	PL	20	22	18	15	14	23	16	14	142	17.8
8	team aVFSome	PL	19	20	18	16	13	21	12	14	133	16.6
9	Wait For It	FI	12	13	8	6	7	9	9	7	71	8.9