posted Mar 27th, 2020 - The NSL News paid full attention to VEGA XP after the team had won the AA/Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2017. The story on 25 October 2017 provided an overview of the team career and included an online interview with the complete 2017 lineup.

An update a year later, on 1 October 2018, introduced the new team member, Brandon Kashani, who had just won his own AA/Intermediate Class gold medal with TSC Cadence at the USPA Nationals 2018. Vega XP had competed in the AAA/Advanced Class competition at the same event.

The next and latest update featured VEGA XP's first outdoor competition with the new lineup at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic.

The team's first year with the current lineup has gone by, and VEGA XP continued with the same impressive progression that the team has shown since it was founded by the three original members in 2015: Nicholas Walker, Annie and Ian Drennan. VEGA XP with Brandon Kashani added two average points in outdoor competition (13.1 - 15.1) and lifted the indoor average from 16.2 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018 to 20.9 at this year's event.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	21,15,10	7,5,G	13,L,11	3,K,B,6	19,8,9	M,P,14,C	N,A,17,1	20,16,Q	F,22,D,H	0,2,4	Total	Avg
1	Vega XP	15	22	19	21	20	28	21	17	27	19	209	20.9
2	Flying Spaghetti Monsters	16	24	19	19	19	26	22	16	22	17	200	20.0
3	Lucky Chris	15	19	17	19	18	22	19	15	21	17	182	18.2
4	Platinum XP	13	18	15	16	19	23	19	13	20	13	169	16.9
5	Dramatic Pause	13	16	16	17	16	21	15	14	21	17	166	16.6

VEGA XP and VegaSpeed FSM8 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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The indoor competition at Paraclete XP may have indicated what seems to be inevitable. It was the first time that the event offered a separate AAA/Advanced Class competition, which is the category that VEGA XP competed in for the second time at last year's USPA Nationals, and they won their first Advanced Class gold medals at Paraclete XP.

After winning USPA Intermediate Class gold in 2017, VEGA XP had to move up and competed in the AAA/Advanced Class a year later. The 13.1 average placed the team 8th at Chicagoland Skydiving Center.

The new VEGA XP lineup improved the 14.1 average at the first outdoor meet with Brandon Kashani to 15.1 at the USPA Nationals 2019, where the team was already in Advanced Class medal contention and finished only five points behind the bronze medal position in 5th place.

The consistent progression seems to guarantee that VEGA XP will win one of the three USPA sets of Advanced Class medals this year, and possibly the U.S. outdoor title in this category, as well.

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VEGA XP scoring progression between 2015 and 2020

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Vega XP would follow in the footsteps of Ranch 2nd Generation and Skydive Midwest NEXT, who both won USPA's Advanced Class gold medals in 2016 and 2017 with self-made lineups. The best medal-winning teams in 2018 and 2019 (Savage XP, Redline XP, Elsinore Elevate) had former 4-way world champions as player-coaches in their lineups.

However, even the 17+ winning averages of the Advanced Class winners in 2018 and 2019 don't seem to be out of reach for VEGA XP. The same outdoor progression that the current lineup has shown within a year (13.1 - 15.1) would be enough to arrive at the 17+ average level. In fact, Skydive Midwest NEXT won with a 16.9 average in 2016, followed by Ranch 2nd Generation's 16.4 a year later.

VEGA XP finished with a 20.9 average at this year's Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, which indicates that the team is already close to the 17-average level. They are also experienced 4-way competitors by now, as the battle with the Flying Spaghetti Monsters was showing. VEGA XP did not get too excited when they found themselves three points behind after three rounds. As usual, they calmly continued with their own performance and finished nine points ahead after Round 10.

The biggest obstacle on the way to USPA Advanced Class medals this year is probably the corona virus situation. However, all teams in the United States are in the same situation and have to wait for drop zones and wind tunnels to re-open...