posted Jan 9th, 2017 - The Team World Rankings are much easier to define in 8-way.

At least most of the trained top teams are identical with the national teams of their respective countries.

The number of ranked teams is also proportionally lower compared to the participation in 4-way, and the number of attended meets is rarely more than one.

As in 4-way, the Top 3 spots are in the possession of the same teams who won the 8-way medals at the FAI Mondial 2016.

Seven of the nine 8-way teams in Ottawa are also in the Top 10 of the Team World Rankings, which is one more team compared to the rankings in 4-way Open.

Only Canada (16) and Brazil (17) did not make it to the Top 10.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31	25	26	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	20	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	20	15	7	10	13	16	15	15	146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14	16	14	11	13	13	14	13	17	140	14.0
6	Airbus	DE	16	15	17	11	11	13	12	14	12	15	136	13.6
7	Australia	AU	13	13	14	12	9	13	12	15	10	14	125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11	10	9	11	8	10	8	10	11	11	99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11	8	10	9	5	9	9	11	8	13	93	9.3

The "interference" by teams who cannot compete at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving begins at the same spot as in 4-way.

Golden Knights Gold were tied with Black Cat in 4th place, and Arizona Airspeed's 8-way lineup took the 4th place from the Qatar Tigers in the Team World Rankings.

Thunder ISR was the only 4-way Open Class team in the Top 10 not from the U.S.A. The 8-way rankings are even more in control of the Golden Knights homeland.

Three other U.S. 8-way teams (Arizona Airspeed, Amphibious Attack Tigers, SDC Rhythm XP8) and the Golden Knights left only six Top 10 spots available for the other six national teams who competed at the Mondial 2016.

USPA Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	D,21,C,22	2,4,A	16,5,E	F,7,M,13	11,P,18	3,1,L	H,Q,O,17	6,8,14	10,12,15	N,20,G,9	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	19	21	23	18	21	30	20	16	20	22	210	21.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	14	17	21	17	18	23	18	15	17	16	176	17.6
3	Amphibious Attack Tigers	10	11	12	14	11	14	11	12	13	14	122	12.2
4	SDC Rhythm XP	9	13	14	13	7	17	10	10	11	12	116	11.6
5	XP8	10	10	13	11	10	17	12	9	8	10	110	11.0
6	Motiv8XF	1	3	8	6	6	4	6	5	5	3	47	4.7

Two of the three additional U.S. teams had little (AAT) to no (Airspeed) 8-way training prior to their competition at the USPA Nationals. Rhythm's 8-way lineup is actually a trained team, guided by 4-way members Doug Barron and Andrew Happick and coached by Kirk Verner and John d'Annunzio.

Rank	Team		Meets	Av.
1	Golden Knights	US	23.9 - 21.0	22.5
2	France 8-way Open	FR	19.9	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	19.0 - 18.4	18.7
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	17.6	17.6
5	Qatar Falcons	QA	14.6	14.6
6	Microclim8	UK	13.5 - 14.0	13.8
7	Airbus	DE	12.9 - 13.6	13.3
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	12.2	12.2
8	Australia	AT	11.8 - 12.5	12.2
10	SDC Rhythm XP8	US	11.6	11.6

The Ex-Presidents from Great Britain missed the Top 10 in 11th place (11.2) and the next U.S. team (Paraclete XP - 11.0) is right behind. The German 8-way team Sudwest finished in 13th place of the world rankings with a 10.9 average.

The Sun Path Products NSL News will go back to the 4-way teams next and cover outdoor competition before comparing the outdoor scores with the indoor rankings. There are also the other NSL categories (AA - A - Rookie) that have their own rankings and will be featured soon.

The next indoor competition is coming up this week in the Czech Republic where the Hurricane Factory is hosting the January Sportflight competition of the European Tunnel League (ETL).