posted Mar 6th, 2018 - The Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018 also included a very special competition between two national 4-way teams who will both represent their countries at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

Parachute Montreal Fuzion has been competing for Canada at the last two world meets in Prostejov 2014 and Ottawa 2016 and finished in 4th place at both events. Phoenix XP is the new U.S. team in 4-way Women and has not competed yet at World Championships of Formation Skydiving. The Golden Knights won the gold medals for the U.S. delegation at the FAI Mondial 2016.

It will be very difficult for Phoenix XP to defend the U.S. gold medals in the team's second year, as the French Weembi Girls have continued with the same 2016 lineup, and NFTO, British bronze medal winners of 2016, are eager to go after a different set of medals in Australia.

Then there is Parachute Montreal Fuzion with their new lineup, who placed 4th two times and are due for FAI medals, especially without the Golden Knights and with a new U.S. team. The Paraclete indoor competition brought the two teams together who will be the toughest opponents at the world meet later this year.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		6,P,O,9	N,1,21	D,J,E,K,14	8,Q,L,5	10,12,F	3,19,22	17,B,20	11,13,7	C,16,18	H,M,A,G,15	4,2,6	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	40	26	45	33	27	21	33	25	26	39	-	315	31.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	37	27	40	28	24	22	26	22	25	37	-	288	28.8
3	Golden Knights Gold	US	36	24	35	27	22	22	25	23	23	35	-	272	27.2
4	Ranch 2nd Generation	US	34	22	30	24	21	20	29	23	20	34	-	257	25.7
5	Golden Knights	US	29	21	28	24	20	16	22	19	17	23	-	219	21.9
6	Dallas 350	US	26	18	25	23	20	18	23	19	16	27	-	215	21.5
7	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	30	19	22	21	15	18	22	18	18	29	17	212	21.2
8	Phoenix XP	US	28	20	29	20	15	17	21	18	16	28	15	212	21.2
9	Fast4ward XP	US	26	19	25	20	16	16	23	16	14	25	-	200	20.0
10	Savage XP	US	24	17	25	18	17	16	21	18	16	27	-	199	19.9
11	Golden Knights Black	US	26	18	24	19	17	14	20	17	15	27	-	197	19.7
12	4Shadow	US	25	18	21	16	14	13	19	15	14	22	-	177	17.7
13	SCZ ZEUS	US	22	17	21	15	14	12	17	14	14	23	-	169	16.9
14	AZ Defiance	US	21	16	19	17	16	14	15	14	12	24	-	168	16.8
15	Vega XP	US	21	15	17	16	13	12	16	14	13	25	-	162	16.2
16	Fantasticate	US	18	14	22	12	14	14	16	13	13	23	-	159	15.9
17	CB4	US	16	16	21	16	13	10	16	13	10	21	-	152	15.2
18	Pandemonium	US	19	15	15	15	13	13	12	12	14	21	-	149	14.9
19	CoNEXTion XP	US	16	15	18	18	15	7	9	13	10	23	-	144	14.4
20	Harpia	BR	18	13	17	13	12	13	14	12	13	16	-	141	14.1
21	Can't Wait	US	15	12	20	12	10	10	12	11	11	16	-	129	12.9

Phoenix and Fuzion provided a preview of the upcoming battle for medals at the world meet that was even more than expected and included an extra round.

Phoenix offered the Canadian team strong opposition from the beginning of the meet and were not too impressed after a strong Round 1 by Fuzion.

In fact, the strong start was followed by a weak Round 3, and the Canadians found themselves six points behind Phoenix going into Round 4.

The U.S. team did not show any weaknesses throughout the meet, and Fuzion had to work hard to win back point by point, round by round.

Fuzion never gave away another round after the 7-point loss in Round 3 and eliminated the remaining 1-point deficit after Round 9 just in time to force an extra round.

Both teams and Paraclete agreed to go back into the flying chamber, and Fuzion won Round 11 by two points.

Paraclete XP - February 2018	AAA	AA	A	RRR	RR	R	Total
Teams	D,1,K,12	D,1,18	D,K,7	P,B,O	M,D,K	M,D	Total
Phoenix XP	23	22	-	-	-	-	45
ShawnaRae Mililani, Brandon Kashani, Amie Begg, Chris Halsan	-	-	21	-	-	-	21
Dee Caminiti, Greg Bush, Sam Lecrone, Lauren Byrd	-	-	-	25(-1)	-	-	25
Steve Brockhausen, Geoff Bloomer, Chris Halsan, Matt Accord	-	-	-	-	17	-	17
Charlie McGeeand, Terry McCray, Morgan Womble, Matt Accord	-	-	-	-	-	17	17
Paraclete XP's Best of February 2018	23	22	21	25	17	17	125

Parachute Montreal Fuzion won the 4-way Women battle at Paraclete; however, Phoenix XP have all reason to feel like winners, too. The 21.2 average compares to the 16.5 average a year ago at the same event when Phoenix had just launched the team project before qualifying as the U.S. national team in 4-way Women at the USPA Nationals 2017.

It is not only the 21.2 average at Paraclete that sends a message to the 4-way Women world. The complete Phoenix XP lineup also posted scores for Paraclete on the February leaderboard of the Indoor Cloud League. Team members have participated and managed the ICL events at Paraclete on a regular basis. It was still the first time that the complete lineup posted ICL scores.

The two scores for the two Open Class sequences (AAA - AA) are even more impressive than the 21.2 average at the Paraclete meet.

Both sequences were technically challenging, and both scores (23 - 22) beat the 10-round average at the indoor competition. There seems to be much more to come from the new U.S. national team in 4-way Women...