posted Nov 22nd, 2017 - The NSL News concludes the review of the FAI/IPC 2016 nations rankings with 4-way VFS.

As in 8-way, 12 nations have attended the FAI/IPC world meets and world cups between 2013 and 2016. The results at the events of the past four years determine the rankings at the end of the most recent year.

The situation in 4-way VFS is not much different compared to the other events, where the winning teams at the most recent world meets or world cups are not necessarily mirroring the same nation's position in the world rankings. Only the 4-way Open Class rankings are identical from all angles, at least for the top team and nation in the world, as the first story of this series on 16 November 2017 explained.

NMP PCH HayaBusa was the undisputed 4-way champion of the world at the end of the 2016 season, and Belgium is in the top spot of the FAI/IPC world rankings at the same point in time. In fact, HayaBusa was the reigning indoor and outdoor 4-way world champion at the end of the 2016 season, and the situation is still the same a year later, after new gold medals at the FAI outdoor world cup and indoor world meet this year. Belgium will once again be in 1st place as soon as the next FAI/IPC rankings will be published.

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	21	19	19	20	30	18	22	168	21.0
2	Evolution	CA	17	15	23	18	14	29	17	18	151	18.9
3	Transfert	FR	19	14	21	16	18	29	13	18	148	18.5
4	Vertical Flystation	RU	12	11	12	11	13	19	13	17	108	13.5
5	Element	BE	12	10	16	11	12	21	8	16	106	13.3
5	Focus	AU	11	8	15	10	14	24	10	14	106	13.3
7	Blue Pelican	NO	12	9	19	12	12	22	7	12	105	13.1
8	Omni 99	UK	7	5	9	9	8	15	4	12	69	8.6

4-way VFS 2016 world rankings of the FAI - Federation Aeronautique Internationale

The situation in 4-way VFS is far from being as unified as in 4-way Open and more similar to the other two Formation Skydiving events, 4-way Women and 8-way, even though France in 1st place just won another set of gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017.

The U.S. delegation did not have a 4-way VFS team at the world cups in 2013 and 2015 and did not collect any ranking points, even though SDC Core had already posted the world's highest scores in 2015.

The new VFS top team won the gold medals for the U.S.A. at the FAI Mondial 2016 without any troubles and confirmed the top spot at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2017. The second U.S. team in Saarlouis was actually Core's only serious competition.

However, Arizona Arsenal's 2nd place at the FAI World Meet 2014 and the U.S. gold medals in 2016 were not enough to take the top spot in the FAI/IPC 2016 rankings. France was the only nation with a team at each of the four FAI/IPC events between 2013 and 2016 and is comfortably in 1st place.

Russia, Norway and Great Britain are also ahead of the U.S.A. while their teams finished in 4th (Russia), 7th (Norway) and 8th (Great Britain) at the FAI Mondial 2016.

FAI World Cup 2017			1	2	3	4	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	US	23	16	20	17	76	19.0
2	Golden Knights	US	15	20	24	14	73	18.3
3	Vertical Flystation	RU	17	19	18	15	69	17.3
4	Arizona X-Force	US	13	16	13	12	54	13.5
5	Blue Pelican	NO	16	10	15	11	52	13.0
6	Kwansta Kwattro	SE	8	8	10	7	33	8.3

France had ended up in 3rd place at the last world championships at Skydive Chicago, as Canada's hybrid 4-way team Evolution won the silver medals behind SDC Core. The 744 ranking points for the 3rd place were still plenty more than enough to secure the top position in the 2016 nations rankings.

The next FAI/IPC world rankings at the end of the 2017 season will probably have a new leader.

France did not have a team at the FAI World Cup 2017, and Russia will be the only nation collecting ranking points from all four events between 2014 and 2017. It will be the first time for Russia on the top of any of the FAI/IPC rankings.

The U.S.A. will climb up in the rankings and probably even pass France to take the 2nd place after the gold medals in Saarlouis.

France could end up in 3rd place, which would contradict the situation at the end of the 2017 season.

The new French national team just won the gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 and upset the 2016 world champions from the U.S.A. It seems like a new VFS duel between France and U.S.A. is in the makings...

FAI Indoor World Meet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		8,17,F	9,A,16	18,G,12	21,O,N,K	P,13,B,C	2,E,22	3,H,14	6,J,Q,7	1,15,20	D,M,10,19	Total	Avg
1	VFS 4	FR	38	31	30	28	25	53	32	31	24	23	315	31.5
2	SDC Core	US	32	34	22	32	29	56	31	26	24	23	309	30.9
3	Flyspot Definition	PL	28	26	21	25	24	43	20	22	19	17	245	24.5
4	Team Toronto	CA	27	19	19	16	16	36	21	19	19	16	208	20.8
5	Kwansta Kwattro	SE	16	16	13	19	13	23	18	16	14	13	161	16.1
6	Siriusly, Wait for It	FI	14	14	10	8	13	26	11	13	9	11	129	12.9