posted Feb 26th, 2021 - It's the day before Round 1 on Saturday morning at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021. The leaderboards are ready to be filled with scores, even though registration is still open for last-minute sign-ups.

The stage is set for several interesting pairings on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard, and the duel between Airspeed XP8 and the Golden Knights will catch a lot attention, as well. The U.S. Army's 8-way team posted the last scores a year ago at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020, while Airspeed XP8 also participated in the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020.

There was a large gap between the two best U.S. 8-way teams in February 2020, and the Golden Knights will try to reduce it as much as possible. It is no secret that the U.S. Army team is aiming at winning the 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals 2021 and qualify for the next world meet.

It is an indoor competition this weekend, and Airspeed XP8 are very well prepared for the event and for challenging the 32.4 record average of the Golden Knights at the Clash of Champions in 2015. However, the results are still important for the Golden Knights, and they are the next step on the challenging road to defeating the U.S. national 8-way team and reigning indoor world champions of 2019. The Golden Knights are still the reigning outdoor world champions of 2018.

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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

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

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The Rhythm 8-way team has a 20-average in the records after last year's event, and the lineup for this weekend is almost identical. The complete Skydive Midwest NEXT lineup is once again teaming up with SDC Rhythm XP's Doug Barron and Andrew Happick, Matt Accord and Brian Ball are completing the 8-way lineup.

The implications of the corona virus pandemic did not only have an impact on the participation at Martial Ferre's traditional 8-way Hell Weak at Paraclete XP. The number of participating 8-way teams is significantly lower due to the lack of international visitors.

However, there is one French 8-way competitor at Paraclete XP. Sylvain Florand has attended many indoor and outdoor 4-way events in Southern California since 2014, and he has now joined the 8-way fans at Paraclete XP.

Unfortunately, the French Veloce QRF Hell Weak founders Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin have to watch this year's event from the distance and only on the internet.

Their U.S. partners at Paraclete XP, Kirk Verner and Brian "BK" Krause, still named the three Hell Weak 8-way teams after the Veloce QRF project, the Quick Reaction Force.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open Power Rankings	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Golden Knights	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Rhythm 8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	QRF 1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Jhabberlution	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Rank	8-way Intermediate	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
-	QRF 3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	QRF 2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	Carolina Gr8ness Fest RhEvolution	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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NSL TV Unfiltered on February 26th at Paraclete XP

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Arizona Airspeed completed their last training sessions on Friday morning. Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine still had 8-way duties later on, while Chris Kuhlmann and Joey Marshall had some extra time to spend with their original Ranch 2nd Generation team mate Brenn Richards, who is now in the tail slot for XPG4.

It was interesting to see that the currently two best U.S. 4-way teams spent almost exactly the same amount of time on the creepers for their preparations.

Unfortunately, R2G videographer Kamuran "Sonic" Bayrasli is missing the reunion at Paraclete XP. However, he is surely watching every second of video coverage, and his presence is still and literally very real, even if it is only a figure taking his seat on the bleachers and in other situations.

Air Force Academy coach Andy Honigbaum provided a short introduction of his lineup just before entering the flying chamber. He also explained the meaning behind the team name OBYC, which has something to do with old bulls and young calves...