posted Sep 12th, 2019 - MicroClim8, the British 8-way team, has won the national championship in this category consecutively since 2010, with one exception. The Ex-Presidents outscored MicroClim8 once in 2015 and then allowed them to take back the 8-way title a year later.

MicroClim8 has also represented Great Britain at all FAI world meets ever since the team was founded in 2011, with another exception. The Brit Chicks competed at the FAI Mondial in Dubai 2012, even though MicroClim8 had won the qualifying UK Nationals in 2011.

The 2018 lineup was the strongest one in the history of the British 8-way team. MicroClim8 posted a new record average (15.0) at the national championship and followed up with 15.2 at the FAI World Meet 2018. Once again, MicroClim8 left all other national 8-way amateur teams behind and finished right behind the 8-way powerhouses from the United States, Russia and Qatar.

Original members Andy Pook and Martin Soulsby were back with a completely different lineup last month and won their next 8-way title with a significantly lower meet average after a total of three training jumps. However, it was Andy Pook's 20th national gold medal, and MicroClim8 qualified once again for the next world meet in Tanay 2020.

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UK Nationals 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	5,4,13	P,3,1	Q,10,9	20,K,17	16,E,8	B,12,G,14	2,7,15	M,11,H,N	22,D,O,J	F,6,18	Total	Avg
1	Microclim8	11	11	9	10	12	7	9	11	9	13	102	10.2
2	Groomed	9	11	9	9	9	9	7	7	6	12	88	8.8
3	Skywars: The FInal Menace	7	12	9	7	5	7	6	9	8	10	80	8.0
4	Tardy	5	5	2	0	3	1	0	0	2	0	18	1.8
Rank	A Class	4,13	P,1	K,B,G	14,M	N,J,F	6,18	18,21	G,N,18	M,19		Total	Avg
1	Blame 8 on the Bootie	4	4	4	4	0	3	2	3	-	-	24	3.0

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Despite the very new lineup and more opposition than possibly expected, MicroClim8 still won by 14 points over Groomed, who won a round and tied another one. MicroClim8 have no plans to compete at the FAI Outdoor World Cup in Eloy next month, while Groomed will represent the UK delegation in the 8-way event.

The two original team members, Andy Pook and Martin Soulsby, and Ane Brentford (2017 - 2019) had five new team mates this year. Phil Hartree was filming MicroClim8 in 2017 and 2018 after competing in the active lineup before. He moved back to a slot in front of the camera when 2018 member Rosalind Ayling was not available. Simon Brentford replaced him on camera for the meet.

Elliott Brown trained and competed with Project Ride the Dragon and won British 8-way silver medals in 2017 and 2018. Henry Chow was a member of 4-way team Antimatter who did not come back in 2019 after six years of 4-way training and competition. Original Pajama Pumas member Matt Cumming competed in both events and travels to Eloy with his 4-way team.

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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

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Eros member Travis Wood completed the MicroClim8 lineup and competed together with some team mates who were his opponents at the FAI World Meet 2016. He was a member of the Australian 8-way team JYR8 in 2016 who finished behind MicroClim8 and Airbus at Skydive Chicago.

Andy Pook, Martin Soulsby and Phil Hartree were fending off Germany's Airbus 8-way team and Australia in 2016 behind United States, France, Russia and Qatar. Now they won the UK Nationals together with Travis Wood and qualified for the next world meet in the same team.

MicroClim8's scoring numbers at the UK Nationals could be misleading. The team usually puts more training efforts into the world meet year. In fact, MicroClim8's different lineups at the world meets in 2014, 2016 and 2018 have always won the right battles at the right time against the same and closest 8-way opponents from Netherlands (2014), Germany (2016), Australia (2018).

Once again, United States, Russia, France and Qatar will most likely be out of reach in 2020. However, other opponents for the battle behind the four top teams will be back, at least Germany's Airbus 8-way team, who already have a plan for the next year...