posted May 8th, 2020 - Martial Ferre's international 8-way project, with the Veloce QRF signature team, went into its 6th year with the visit at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship in February.

The project began even earlier though. Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin began to bring mostly French skydivers to Paraclete XP the year after they won 8-way gold medals together for France at the FAI Mondial 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia. They were in the 8-way lineup together with current national coach Mathieu Bernier who made history in Russia by winning two FAI gold medals at the same world championship event.

Mathieu Bernier continued as an active competitor for a few more years before taking the position of the French national coach from his former team mate Jeremie Rollett, while Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin launched their Veloce 8-way project.

Paraclete XP was the first windtunnel offering 8-way competition in the 16-foot flying chamber, and Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin were still passionate about their prime event, 8-way competition. It was a perfect fit, and the two Frenchmen brought two 8-way lineups to Raeford on their first trip to the 8-way competition at Paraclete XP. They both competed as player-coaches in both teams, as there are no lineup restrictions at the Paraclete events.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2011			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		4,K,16	Q,C,D,8	N,15,6	7,H,21	18,F,L,P	G,E,2,B	22,M,10	12,O,13	3,J,1	19,9,A	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	38	27	34	23	30	27	24	19	39	20	281	28.1
2	Paraclete XP8	US	30	22	28	19	26	23	17	18	38	18	239	23.9
3	Roguish Fury	US	25	18	21	13	20	12	19	17	25	14	184	18.4
4	Buttard 8	US	17	16	17	14	16	14	17	10	17	12	150	15.0
5	Monster	US	22	14	8	12	13	12	11	11	19	9	131	13.1
6	French Connection	FR	18	14	13	12	14	9	11	4	13	10	118	11.8
7	SDC8XP	US	14	14	12	11	10	8	13	8	14	10	114	11.4
7	Infinity 8	FR	15	14	9	12	12	12	11	8	12	9	114	11.4
9	8 Loko	US	7	7	3	1	6	4	5	6	7	6	52	5.2

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The Veloce 8-way project eventually produced the QRF signature lineup in 2015, when highly experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors followed Martial Ferre's calling for some 8-way training and indoor competition at the annual Paraclete XP event. This year's event at the end of February was the 6th time that the QRF (Quick Reaction Force) signature lineup attended the 8-way competition after another intensive training week at Paraclete XP.

Veloce QRF usually compete for the top spots behind the best 8-way teams in the world. Paraclete XP8 lineups and Golden Knights have their homes in Raeford, and the Qatar Falcons have visited a few times, as well. This year, there was a new competitor for the 3rd place.

SDC Rhythm XP has been including 8-way training and competition for a few years in their coaching portfolio, as well, and they have their own signature lineup now, guided by Doug Barron and Andrew Happick. The 2020 event was the third time that Rhythm 8 appeared on the 8-way leaderboard at Paraclete XP, and result was a 4-point battle with Veloce QRF for the 3rd place.

Doug Barron and Andrew Happick brought a lineup with some of the team members who had also competed with Rhythm 8 at the USPA Nationals 2019, while Veloce QRF had one of the most experienced lineups this year.

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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

Veloce QRF and SDC Rhythm XP8 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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Martial Ferre started with the QRF lineup in 2015, and three of the original members (Martial Ferre, Paul Hofstee, Uwe Soppa) have not missed a trip to Raeford ever since. Uwe Soppa is an experienced and well trained German 4-way and 8-way competitor, and Paul Hofstee is now training and competing with the German national team in 4-way Open, Oceanside AtomiX.

Petra Baerenfaenger and Henning Stumpp, a married couple from Germany, have missed only one of the QRF visits at Paraclete XP. Henning Stumpp is also the president of the German skydiving federation (DFV). Jerome Héritier from Switzerland competed four times in Raeford, and Kjetil Nordin from Norway joined QRF in 2018.

Kjetil Nordin brought another Norwegian to this year's event who was the QRF rookie at his first visit for the Paraclete XP 8-way competition. Pal Kolbenstvedt is everything but a Formation Skydiving rookie, with three FAI bronze medals in his belt as a member of the DeLand Norgies. The NSL News also reported on 5 November 2019 how the DeLand Norgies had an 8-way comeback. Kjetil Nordin and Paul Hofstee enjoyed this special reunion together with Pal Kolbenstvedt and the other three DeLand Norgies (Lise Aune-Nansen, Carl-Erik Tuv, Torstein Valen). Veloce QRF fended off SDC Rhythm XP's 8-way charge by four points, and it will be no surprise if both teams will be back for a new battle next year...