posted Nov 6th, 2017 - The NSL News had covered the history of USPA's Intermediate Class competition with the story on 18 October 2017, which gave credit to the 14.0 average posted by this year's winner, Vega XP.

The Advanced Class category has its own history and began a few years later. Frost was the first USPA gold medalist in 1999, after the Advanced Class had turned into the same one as it is today.

There had been an Advanced Class competition at the USPA Nationals 1998, as well, which actually applied the Intermediate Class rules by then.

The Intermediate Class still got some adjustments later on before it settled with the current rules, which are identical with the AA Class, while the Advanced Class has not changed since 1999. There was still a cut after Round 8 and Round 9 in the first year, which was eliminated in 2000, and the eligibility rules had a few adjustments over the years, as well.

However, dive pool and sequences of Open Class and Advanced Class have been identical since 1999.

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USPA Advanced Class history between 1999 and 2017

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USPA's Intermediate and Advanced Class have the same rules for the lineups: "No team in the Advanced or Intermediate 4-Way Formation Skydiving classes may be composed of more than one quarter of members who have won a gold medal in that class at the five previous U.S. National Skydiving Championships or won a medal in a higher class at the five previous U.S. National Skydiving Championships or in the same event at an FAI First Category Event; the videographer shall not be considered when applying this rule."

The earlier Intermediate Class story introduced several teams and competitors who moved up into the Advanced Class after winning USPA Intermediate Class gold medals, and the NSL News has pointed out regularly the Advanced Class winners who moved up to the Open Class competition.

This year's Open Class leaderboard included once again several former Advanced Class gold medalists, and the history chart is showing which teams won this USPA category.

Arizona Airspeed's current lineup actually includes an Advanced Class winner, as well. Mikhail Markine trained and competed with Vibe in 2012 and finished in 1st place on the Advanced Class leaderboard with a 16.7 average.

He was not eligible for USPA medals at that time, and Vibe had to compete as a guest team. Air Force Paradigm won the gold medals with a 15.1 average.

His current team mates Ari Perelman and Thiago Gomes did not compete in the Advanced Class when they were Sebastian Tempest team mates in 2008.

They posted a 17.1 average in the Open Class, which would have won the Advanced Class gold medals. It was the same event where SDC Rhythm XP won with the 16.9 average, which is still the highest one in the history of the Advanced Class.

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USPA Nationals 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,4,9	G,21,A,H	N,D,J,14	L,16,12	K,19,6	E,2,10	P,11,15	17,3,22	F,7,1	Q,5,M,20	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	31	33	28	23	25	23	23	22	31	31	270	27.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	32	29	22	24	22	21	23	29	29	258	25.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29	31	28	23	22	20	23	19	28	29	252	25.2
4	Golden Knights	US	24	26	28	22	18	19	20	19	24	23	223	22.3
5	Airspeed Odyssey	US	25	23	27	19	22	19	19	17	23	23	217	21.7
6	Defiance	US	24	24	26	18	19	17	19	16	24	22	209	20.9
7	GKBC	US	24	19	24	15	17	17	18	16	23	20	193	19.3
8	Dallas 350	US	18	23	24	16	16	16	16	11	22	19	181	18.1
9	ISR FireFlash	BE	21	22	19	14	17	16	14	16	20	19	178	17.8
10	SDMW NEXT XP	US	15	25	17	17	15	16	16	15	23	14	173	17.3
11	Spaceland Lite	US	19	22	19	12	17	14	13	8	19	17	160	16.0
12	Phoenix XP	US	16	18	19	13	13	13	14	14	15	17	152	15.2
13	Long Shot	US	16	14	15	13	13	14	12	12	16	17	142	14.2
14	Arizona Alpha	US	17	17	11	12	14	13	12	13	17	12	138	13.8
15	Perris Quicksilver	US	15	17	12	11	11	13	12	10	16	13	130	13.0

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Thiago Gomes and Mikhail Markine eventually both joined SDC Rhythm XP, although they never trained and competed together in the same lineup. Mikhail Markine took the Rhythm tail slot when Thiago Gomes left and joined Arizona Airspeed. Now they have formed Airspeed's rear piece and will try to win FAI gold medals for the U.S.A. next year in Australia, together with Ari Perelman in the point slot.

SDC Rhythm XP's original members JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz, Advanced Class champions of 2008, eventually teamed up with two other USPA gold medalists in the same category. In fact, Doug Barron and Andrew Happick first won USPA Intermediate Class gold medals in 2009 with VTSD and followed up with Advanced Class gold a year later.

All four former Advanced Class champions are now in the current Rhythm lineup, together with videographer Adam Elkin, Advanced Class champion of 2016 with Skydive Midwest NEXT, and they try to take the U.S. 4-way top spot away from Arizona Airspeed.

However, the longest standing Advanced Class champion team is still Mass Defiance. Two original team members (Ben Liston, Brian Stephens) won USPA gold in 2005 and are still in the current lineup that posted the 20.9 average at this year's national championships. They had once again James "Bu" Klinge in the lineup, who is actually the longest standing Advanced Class gold medalist. He won with Spaceland Inferno in 2003. Original Mass Defiance member Jim Rees missed the USPA Nationals due to Chief Judge duties, after competing with his team at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2017. He had won his Advanced Class medal with Identity Crisis in 2001...