posted Jan 11th, 2018 - Black Cat could not be rewarded with the unofficial title of the Ultimate Formation Skydiving Competition Team of the Year, as the NSL News reported on 29 December 2017. NMP PCH HayaBusa claimed this special honor, as well. It still does not take away any of the impressive achievements that the Russian 4-way and 8-way competitors put together during the 2017 season.

Also, it is probably acceptable to end up only behind the reigning indoor and outdoor world champions from Belgium in the most challenging and accomplishing part of the world rankings.

The Black Cat members could have ended up in the top position if the rankings considered the complete history of the teams and competitors, not only the 2017 season. Four of the five Black Cat members have their own FAI gold medals in their collections, which they won in 8-way long ago. They have also won FAI bronze medals in 4-way.

The current Black Cat 4-way lineup consists of eight active members, which is also quite unusual for a world class 4-way team. Evgeny Stashchenko, Vasily Korotkov and Alexander Kvochur are the original members who founded the team together with Alexey Minaev and Vadim Niyazov on camera in 2005.

Malevsky Cup 2005			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		10,C,11	2,M,20	K,A,3,F	14,7,O	22,19,P	D,15,G,8	L,18,J,13	1,H,N,16	5,12,6	E,9,Q,17	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	US	19	20	26	22	18	20	20	22	17	32	216	21.6
2	Airspeed Odyssey	US	19	19	22	23	17	20	19	19	18	28	204	20.4
3	Sinapsi PD	IT	17	19	24	21	17	19	20	19	17	29	202	20.2
3	Airspeed Velocity	US	19	20	26	21	17	18	20	16	17	28	202	20.2
5	Fastrax	US	17	19	28	21	18	16	19	21	17	23	199	19.9
6	Black Cat	RU	18	19	23	20	18	16	19	19	18	25	195	19.5
7	Spa Hayabusa	BE	16	18	27	19	18	18	19	19	16	24	194	19.4
8	Extreme.RU	RU	18	19	25	21	17	16	19	19	16	22	192	19.2
9	SkyLight Barkli	RU	14	19	20	21	16	18	17	18	16	24	183	18.3
10	Kolomna Quikblu	RU	14	18	26	18	14	16	17	18	15	24	180	18.0
11	Arcteryx	NO	16	18	21	17	16	17	12	16	15	23	171	17.1
12	Punky Fish	NL	15	16	19	16	13	16	15	19	11	24	164	16.4
13	4Gatos Empuria Red Bull	ES	14	15	20	17	14	17	14	15	14	23	163	16.3
14	Synairgy	RU	14	16	20	15	10	14	11	13	11	20	144	14.4
14	X-Ray Remscheid	DE	13	15	17	15	10	14	13	14	13	20	144	14.4
16	FILA	AT	11	16	16	15	14	14	12	15	12	17	142	14.2
17	Sunny Heaven	RU	11	16	14	16	13	14	14	11	15	12	136	13.6
18	Stratosfear	CA	12	14	17	11	11	12	13	14	10	20	134	13.4
19	Mandelieu-Noene	FR	11	14	16	12	12	12	11	13	12	13	126	12.6
20	Blackbirds	DE	9	13	14	11	9	11	9	12	10	15	113	11.3
21	Paraskuf	UA	8	9	10	10	7	8	9	6	5	11	83	8.3
22	Gudzun	RU	9	11	9	12	7	11	10	11	-	-	80	10.0
23	Virton Sky	UA	6	9	11	8	8	5	0	8	-	-	55	6.9
24	Kazakhstan	KZ	4	6	9	7	6	5	7	6	-	-	50	6.3

Evgeny Stashchenko, Vasily Korotkov and Alexey Minaev had just won FAI 4-way bronze medals with the Sky Panthers and sponsor Michail Kuznetsov in the lineup in Croatia 2004.

Michail Kuznetsov and co-sponsor Leonid Kazinets then decided to continue together under the Barkli brand and with a different lineup (Oleg Shalamikhin, Sergej Shenin, Vladimir Pavlenko). That's when Evgeny Stashchenko, Vasily Korotkov and Alexey Minaev decided to start their own team project, Black Cat.

Valentin Ilin joined Black Cat in 2014, together with team sponsor Valeriy Gredasov, who he trained and competed with before in Sunny Wind. Valery Pripilyak was a Black Cat player sponsor in 2011. Alexander Golovkin is a 4-way and 8-way experienced alternate who steps in whenever he is needed.

Evgeny Stashchenko, Vasily Korotkov, Alexander Kvochur and Valentin Ilin, with Vadim Niyazov on camera, are the core lineup and have brought Black Cat to the world's top level since 2014. They train and compete with alternate and sponsor Valeriy Gredasov whenever there is some time for it.

Evgeny Stashchenko and Vasily Korotkov were in the Russian 8-way lineup that won FAI gold medals in 2001, together with their Black Cat team mates Alexey Minaev and Vladimir Pavlenko. Vasily Korotkov, Alexey Minaev and Vladimir Pavlenko defended their 8-way title successfully in 2003.

Then this 8-way team split, and R.T. Evolution Pro continued in 8-way for Russia with a new lineup. That's also the time when the 8-way world champion team mates switched to 4-way and continued with two different teams, Sky Panthers and Black Cat.

Russian Indoor Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	A,17,22	7,10,2	O,5,15	1,P,12	4,13,19	Q,21,K,3	N,B,C,L,14	G,18,11	F,J,M,9	D,20,H,8	Total	Avg
1	Black Cat	26	22	30	27	23	29	38	25	59	29	308	30.8
2	IFS-Moscow	29	25	29	26	22	27	40	26	51	27	302	30.2
3	Bubble Struggle	22	19	23	21	18	23	31	21	47	24	249	24.9
4	Naparniki	24	17	23	19	17	21	25	19	49	23	237	23.7
5	Altair	20	17	16	16	15	17	27	16	38	18	200	20.0
6	No Limits	19	16	16	16	15	18	25	12	33	15	185	18.5
7	Podel'niki	14	13	16	15	11	17	22	15	37	15	175	17.5
8	Noviy Povorot	16	14	14	15	11	14	22	13	34	14	167	16.7

Vladimir Pavlenko trained and competed with Sky Panthers, later with Barkli, and he won 4-way bronze in 2010, with two other former 8-way team mates in the lineup, Oleg Shalamikhin and Sergej Shenin. Michail Kuznetsov was the sponsor player, and Andrey Seliverstov was filming the team.

The Black Cat 2017 lineup then brought the former 8-way team mates and 4-way rivals back together. Evgeny Stashchenko hurt his knee during an early training camp and needed surgery. Alternate Alexander Golovkin stepped in for him at the first meet of the year, an indoor competition in Russia, before Vladimir Pavlenko took the open slot for the first time at the FAI World Cup 2017 in Saarlouis.

Vladimir Pavlenko had also joined the Tanay 8-way lineup in 2016, with Black Cat members Evgeny Stashchenko, Valentin Ilin, Vasily Korotkov and Alexander Kvochur in the lineup. It was no big surprise that Black Cat was asking Vladimir Pavlenko to step in when Evgeny Stashchenko had to take a break last year.

The 2017 lineup with Vladimir Pavlenko (Valentin Ilin, Vasily Korotkov, Alexander Kvochur, Vadim Niyazov on camera) was still the first time that the former 8-way team mates and Sky Panthers/Black Cat rivals were back together in the same 4-way team. It was a very successful 2017 season for Black Cat, and Vladimir Pavlenko filled Evgeny Stashchenko's slot more than adequately...