posted Apr 8th, 2021 - The team name QRF actually stands for "Quick Response Force" and relates to "Veloce", which is the skydiving school and services that Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin have established for many years at the skydiving center in Gap-Tallard, France.

They run their business at the same place where France was hosting the FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving in 1995 and 2003. Martial Ferre competed for France in 8-way on home turf at the world meet in 2003 and won bronze medals. He was back for the French 8-way team in Menzelinsk 2010 and turned bronze into gold.

Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin were 8-way team mates when they won the gold medals in Russia 2010, and they soon began to run their skydiving business together, as well. One of the latest projects that they launched was the QRF 8-way teams and the 8-way Hell Week at Paraclete XP, where the Veloce QRF project teams competed regularly and year by year at the indoor championships.

The 8-way indoor project, with the annual trip to Paraclete XP's 16-foot flying chamber and the only 8-way competition in the world at the time as the highlight of Hell Week, began to attract more than only French participants. Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin eventually recruited international lineups for the 8-way teams.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	D,B,22,E		K,17,11		C,3,P,5		4,Q,18		16,9,A		2,7,8		G,15,1		F,21,N,H		6,J,12		19,M,13		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	36	-1	30		35	-1	37	-1	33		22		39	-3	30	-1	29	-1	24		315	31.5
2	Golden Knights	28		26		33		33		27	-1	21		33	-1	27		28	-1	24		280	28.0
3	Rhythm 8	19	-2	18		22	-1	26		18		14		23	-2	19		17		14		190	19.0
4	QRF 1	18		16		23		24		17		14		23		18		17		12		182	18.2
5	Token Male	14	-2	17		19		18	-3	16		13		21		18		16	-1	14		166	16.6
6	Jhabberlution	13		14		16		18		15		11		16		10		15		11		139	13.9

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QRF 1 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021

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Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin developed a very close relationship with Paraclete XP, and they began to organize their 8-way teams and the indoor training of Hell Week together with Brian Krause and Kirk Verner.

Brian Krause had been their 8-way opponent with the Golden Knights in Menzelinsk 2010.

The first Veloce QRF teams traveled to North Carolina in February 2011, less than a year after Martial Ferre and Damien Sorlin battled with Brian Krause and the Golden Knights for the gold medals at the world meet in Russia. They have come back to Paraclete XP every February ever since.

Four international Veloce QRF lineups still attended the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020, just before the implications of the corona virus crisis brought travel restrictions and other limitations to the world. Most other international indoor and outdoor competitions were canceled afterward.

Unfortunate result of the pandemic was the fact that this year's event at Paraclete did not include any international visitors from overseas.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Intermediate	8,A,16		P,O,B,G		N,10,K		M,F,18		5,E,17		13,D,3		L,21,Q		6,C,1		7,J,H		19,4		Total	Avg
1	Lightspeed 8	9	-4	18	-1	13	-2	17	-1	13	-1	17		18		16	-2	18	-1	17		156	15.6
2	Carolina Gr8ness Fest	15		18		14		17		14		14		15		16		15		14		152	15.2
3	QRF 2	13		14		13		14		13		12		15		10		12		12		128	12.8
4	Beastly Dynasty	12		13		11		18		8		11		12		13		13		12		123	12.3
5	QRF 3	12		14		13		11		10		11		13		14		11		13		122	12.2

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QRF 2 and 3 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021

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Brian Krause and Kirk Verner still offered the 8-way Hell Week before the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021, and they even continued to name the participating teams after their original organizers. Three Veloce QRF teams posted scores on this year's 8-way leaderboards, for the first time with neither Martial Ferre nor Damien Sorlin in the lineups.

AZXP8 and XPG4 member Jeana Billings was player-coaching her all-female QRF 1 lineup through Hell Week and the 8-way meet, where she also competed with her own teams and an additional 4-way team. QRF 1 turned out to finish as the strongest of the three teams this year.

The other two QRF teams posted their scores on the 8-way Intermediate Class leaderboard. Kirk Verner and Brian Krause had their own internal player-coaching duel with their QRF lineups. Kirk Verner had the upper hand, six points ahead of Brian Krause after the ten rounds.

The three QRF 8-way player-coaches won the event with their own team, AZXP8, and outscored the Golden Knights for the U.S. indoor title. Then they traveled to Florida a few weeks later to take on the rest of the world at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021. There they are in 2nd place after Round 4 with six more outdoor rounds to come, behind France with a very new and very young lineup and without Martial Ferre or Damien Sorlin...