posted Jul 10th, 2020 - It was in February this year when Brazil's national 4-way team of the last 15 years, CTR Optimum, announced a new lineup for the next two years. The NSL News introduced new team member Alisson Vargas with the update on February 27th. Daiton Ribeiro, who was a CTR Optimum member for a decade, had stepped back and was glad to have a promising successor:

"We were lucky enough to have our long-time friend Alisson moving to the southern part of Brazil and looking for an opportunity to fly on a 4-way team here. He is young, talented and hungry! He has the right profile we needed to help us to continue our mission of developing Brazilian 4-way Formation Skydiving."

Alisson Vargas has been training with Juliana Sé, André Ferraz and George Narita ever since, and the new lineup has not had the opportunity yet to post some indoor or outdoor scores. Events of Brazil's World Tunnel League series were scheduled beginning in April 2020, followed by another indoor meet in June. The outdoor nationals were scheduled for the beginning of July, and the November competition at iFLY Sao Paulo was supposed to conclude the 4-way season in Brazil.

This all changed with the impact of the corona virus crisis in Brazil. The indoor events were canceled, and the national outdoor championship was rescheduled for the end of November. The indoor league will resume with the first event in September.

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FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		21		27	-2	24		22	-3	62	-2	22	-2	20	-1	27	-1	22		279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	-5	21		27	-1	24		24	-1	60	-1	26		22		27		20		277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	-1	19		24	-2	23		24		52	-3	20	-3	17	-3	24		19		251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-2	14	-1	24	-1	21		22		53	-4	21	-1	18		20		17		234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	-1	16		21	-1	17	-2	20	-1	48	-4	14	-3	18		21	-1	15	-1	215	21.5
6	Amnesya	IT	24	-2	14		20	-1	18		18	-1	48	-5	18		14	-2	21	-1	15		210	21.0
7	Satori XL	UK	21		14	-1	21		19		19		37	-3	19		17		18	-1	16	-1	201	20.1
7	Airheads	CH	22	-3	14	-2	19	-2	17	-1	18		44		16		16	-2	18	-1	17		201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	-1	13	-2	22		18	-1	15	-3	43	-2	15	-5	15	-2	19		15		196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	-1	14	-1	17	-5	17		16	-1	45	-1	15	-3	14	-1	18	-1	15		192	19.2
11	Tanay Wolves	RU	22		14		18	-1	17		16	-2	35	-3	17	-3	14	-1	18	-1	14		185	18.5
12	Rotor Out	AU	21	-1	13	-1	18	-2	14	-1	16	-1	32	-3	13	-7	13	-1	18		14		172	17.2
13	CTR Optimum	BR	19		10		17	-1	15		13	-1	31		14		14		18		13		164	16.4
14	Papea Masculino	ES	17	-1	13		18		13	-1	13		28	-3	14	-1	14	-1	13	-2	12		155	15.5
15	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	-1	11	-1	13	-3	14		15	-1	28	-2	15	-1	15		14	-2	12	-1	153	15.3
16	Meraki	ZA	14	-3	11		14		14		13		28	-1	12	-1	12		14		12		144	14.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	10	-4	9		12		11		10		21		7	-3	11		10	-1	11		112	11.2
18	Paraguay	PY	10	-1	8		10	-1	7	-2	9		17		7	-4	8	-1	10		8	-1	94	9.4
19	Cyprus	CY	13	-1	8		9	-2	8		7	-2	19	-1	7		8		9		5	-2	93	9.3

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CTR Optimum with Juliana Sé in Australia 2018

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CTR Optimum now had another personnel change before the new lineup could attend their first competition. Juliana Sé will not continue with outdoor training and competition any longer. She is still available for CTR Optimum's indoor activities, while André Ferraz, George Narita and Alisson Vargas will exit from jump planes with a new inside center.

Juliana Sé was the latest new team member who had joined CTR Optimum in 2018. She competed with Brazil's national 4-way Open Class team at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia and continued only at indoor events in 2019. Former CTR Optimum member Guillermo Gorg was filling her slot on a very short notice at last year's national championship, and Optimum defended the title successfully after a close battle with challenger Go Fly.

Jorge Neto is the new inside center for CTR Optimum. He is not as experienced as the returning team members with his total of 670 jumps, while he is bringing in a lot of talent and the desire to get to the highest performance level in Brazil.

He trained and competed with North Face in 2018 and 2019, where he met Alisson Vargas. North Face competed at the USPA Nationals 2018 and witnessed the battle between CTR Optimum and Go Fly at the national championships last year. Alisson Vargas then joined Optimum, and Jorge Neto now follows him.

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Brazilian Outdoor Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		P,N,B,O,5		M,15,10		1,H,4		F,L,21,17		22,11,7		13,9,G		20,K,8		Q,E,16,6		19,3,14		A,C,12,D		Total	Avg
1	CTR Optimum	BR	24		16		15	-1	19		13		17		12	-1	18		14		18		166	16.6
2	Go Fly	BR	21		14		16		17		12	-1	17		14		17		13		15		156	15.6
3	Paradocks	BR	14		12		14		14		7		12		9	-1	11	-1	12		12		117	11.7
4	Os Cometas	BR	14		10	-1	11		11		11		11		8		11		8	-1	12		107	10.7
5	North Force	BR	9	-1	9	-1	11		12		11		10		9		8		10		9		98	9.8
6	Adventure Flyers	PY	14		10		11		10		2	-2	9		8	-1	10	-1	9		10		93	9.3
7	Anima	BR	12		9		10		10		9		11		9		10		3	-1	5		88	8.8

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CTR Optimum with Guillermo Gorg at the Brazilian Nationals 2019

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Joining forces between the two teams for the new CTR Optimum lineup is not easy on the geographic side. The North Face and Optimum members could hardly be located any farther away from each other. The team name North Face was related to Brazil's geography. Jorge Neto needs a whole travel day to get from the state of Acre to Campinas near Sao Paulo, where CTR Optimum is training.

Team member George Narita explained that the flight time from Manaus at the Amazonas River, the next larger city from Acre, to Sao Paulo is longer than a flight from Manaus to Miami. It takes at least five hours for a commercial airliner to cover the distance, and there are no direct connections between Acre, Manaus and Sao Paulo.

However, Jorge Neto plans to make the trip every other week. Team goal is the highest meet average in Brazilian 4-way history, which is CTR Optimum's 17.2 average of 2012 (Fábio Diniz, André Ferraz, Guillermo Gorg, Daiton Ribeiro). The new lineup still plans for 150 jumps in 2020, despite the difficult corona crisis conditions. In fact, Optimum had plans to train this weekend at the skydiving center in Campinas, which was locked down before the training could begin.

The new lineup changed plans quickly, as iFLY Sao Paulo is still open. Now they will spend three hours in the 12-foot flying chamber, on top of the weekly indoor training. Juliana Sé will be back in the inside center slot at iFLY Sao Paulo at the times when Jorge Neto is in Manaus.