posted Mar 3rd, 2020 - The Paraclete XP Indoor Championship was the first competition of the new Airspeed XP8 lineup that the NSL News has covered with several updates, the first one on 14 November 2019.

The final changes and the creation of the new lineup had just been published, with Airspeed 2019 members Niklas Hemlin, Mikhail Markine and Matt Davidson committing to the three open slots. XP8 and SDC Rhythm XP both had made efforts to avoid double-duties at the FAI World Meet 2020 and focus on their prime events to increase their chances of winning gold medals in Tanay, Russia.

The first competition of the new lineup was the indoor event last weekend, and the new Airspeed XP8 lineup has arrived at almost exactly the same scoring level (31.6) that was necessary to win the gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 at Weembi Lille in April last year.

The 2019 lineup followed up with outdoor training and won the U.S. outdoor qualification at the USPA Nationals 2019 over the Golden Knights, while the Russian 8-way team from Tanay took the 1st place as a guest team at Skydive Paraclete in Raeford. XP8 finished again behind Russia at the FAI World Cup 2019, and France outscored the U.S. national 8-way team for 2020, as well.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		10,1,J	13,11,6	5,19,2	L,D,E,22	O,8,15	K,H,12,17	18,M,C,4	F,A,G,B,P	Q,3,9	21,16,7	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	US	32	30	23	35	27	30	34	40	34	28	313	31.3
2	Golden Knights	US	27	23	21	30	23	23	30	33	24	25	259	25.9
3	Veloce QRF	IN	20	17	18	25	18	19	24	21	21	21	204	20.4
4	Rhythm	US	21	14	17	25	19	18	21	26	20	19	200	20.0
5	Veloce QRF BK	IN	18	15	14	20	16	17	19	21	20	17	177	17.7
6	Veloce QRF Jeana	US	14	16	15	18	16	15	20	18	21	15	168	16.8
7	Avia8trixx	US	15	13	14	13	14	15	19	20	18	17	158	15.8
8	VegaSpeed FSM8	US	15	11	11	17	17	14	19	17	19	14	154	15.4
9	Veloce QRF Kirk	IN	13	13	11	10	14	9	15	17	18	15	135	13.5
10	Blocksmiths After Dark	US	14	12	10	11	12	14	15	12	12	13	125	12.5

Airspeed XP8 and Golden Knights at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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The changes of the lineup and the new team name were showing how serious team leaders Kirk Verner, John D'Annunzio and Brian Krause took the Russian and the French challenge after the outdoor world cup last year. The new lineup has been training intensively ever since, and the first competition performance was showing the results.

The Golden Knights were still within striking distance at the USPA Nationals 2019 (197 - 189), while 54 points separated the U.S. Army team from Airspeed XP8 last weekend after the ten indoor rounds.

The difference will be smaller when both teams meet again in three weeks at the Shamrock Showdown outdoor competition. However, Airspeed XP8's main focus will not be on the domestic 8-way competition with the Golden Knights at Skydive City. The French national 8-way team arrives this week in Florida for a training camp in DeLand, followed by the 8-way outdoor thriller in Zephyrhills.

France won by four points (202 - 198) over XP8 in Eloy and have been focusing just as much on 8-way outdoor training as Airspeed XP8 has since the world cup in October last year. Golden Knights and Qatar Falcons will give the Shamrock Showdown the atmosphere of a world meet, while the Russian Tanay team canceled the trip to Florida after Andrey Barabash broke his leg during a training camp.

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Round 2 of the 8-way Open Class competition at the Paraclete XP Championship 2020

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