posted Feb 11th, 2022 - The NSL News resumes the review of the USPA Advanced Class history with an extraordinary event in 2012, which is still perfectly in order with the previous coverage. The USPA Advanced Class champions of 2011, Spaceland Lite, were featured on 15 October 2021, and the story on 17 October 2021 followed up with 2011 guest team Perris Air Rush. The USPA Nationals 2012 would be next in order, and the event happens to have several other connections to current events.

The number of guest teams alone was extraordinary. Three teams from Dubai and two U.S. teams were not eligible for USPA medals and posted their scores on the Advanced Class leaderboard with USPA permission. The winner of the USPA gold medals, Air Force Paradigm, actually finished in 3rd place, one point ahead of the next guest team, Dubai Asaar Gold, and after a jump-off round with the second Air Force team Legacy.

The team on the top of the leaderboard, Vibe, finished only two points short of USPA's Advanced Class record average at that time, as the NSL News reported on 7 November 2012. One team member is connecting Vibe of 2012 with current events, as Arizona Airspeed member Mikhail Markine was probably the reason why Vibe could not win USPA medals at that time.

However, he surely made up for the missed gold medal in 2012, as he has won many USPA medals ever since. He is a reigning 8-way world champion now, and Arizona Airspeed will try to win the FAI 4-way gold medals this year, as well.

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USPA Nationals 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced		3,B,K,H	F,7,22	O,4,D,13	A,M,11,8	N,P,G,19	L,20,1	5,16,J	6,21,12	18,17,10	E,C,Q,15	9,14,2	Total	Avg
G	Vibe	US	21	17	16	17	18	15	17	14	13	19	-	167	16.7
G	Dubai Asaar Red	AE	17	17	16	16	20	14	19	14	11	18	-	162	16.2
1	Air Force Paradigm	US	21	14	17	16	17	10	15	11	11	19	15	151	15.1
2	Air Force Legacy	US	20	14	13	13	17	14	17	12	13	18	13	151	15.1
G	Dubai Asaar Gold	AE	17	17	15	14	16	13	16	14	11	17	-	150	15.0
3	ZeBone	US	15	14	14	16	18	12	15	12	8	15	-	139	13.9
4	Fugitives	US	15	13	13	15	14	10	14	11	11	16	-	132	13.2
5	Perris Unimpressed	US	14	14	11	14	16	10	14	11	11	15	-	130	13.0
6	Elsinore Zygosis	US	16	11	14	15	14	10	13	10	9	18	-	130	13.0
7	Dallas En Fuego	US	12	16	14	14	16	12	11	11	10	13	-	129	12.9
8	Dallas Khaos XP	US	12	13	13	15	16	13	12	11	7	14	-	126	12.6
9	Collective	US	17	12	14	12	14	12	13	10	6	15	-	125	12.5
10	Perris SMach 4	US	13	13	11	11	14	9	11	9	8	12	-	111	11.1
11	Arizona Frenzy	US	15	11	12	10	14	8	9	10	9	11	-	109	10.9
G	Dubai Asaar Ladies	AE	14	10	7	11	14	9	11	9	9	13	-	107	10.7
G	Old Greg	US	10	11	10	11	12	8	11	8	10	10	-	101	10.1
12	Fastrax Tenacity	US	12	11	10	8	12	8	11	7	8	10	-	97	9.7
13	Perris Not 4 Prime	US	10	10	10	9	10	6	8	7	8	11	-	89	8.9
14	Mugz	US	10	10	11	11	10	5	6	9	6	10	-	88	8.8

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Vibe at the USPA Nationals 2012 - NSL Live Talk with Dubai Asaar Ladies

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Vibe was only a 1-year project, not only for Mikhail Markine, who was recruited by SDC Rhythm XP the year after his 2012 team ended up two points short of Rhythm's 16.9 record average in the USPA Advanced Class. He trained and competed with Rhythm for three years (2013 - 2015) before joining Arizona Airspeed in 2016.

It was a 1-year project for the Air Force teams in the first two places of the USPA leaderboard, as well, which is nothing unusual. The team members of the Air Force Academy lineups enjoy a year of intensive and state-sponsored 4-way training and usually do not continue with their teams. The 1-year project is actually a calender year of 12 months, as the Air Force competition agenda also includes the USPA Collegiates.

Only the USPA bronze medalists in the Advanced Class of 2012 were back in the same category a year later. ZeBone launched their player-coaching 4-way project, with Arizona Airspeed member and future Air Force Academy head coach Andy Honigbaum in the lineup, at the USPA Nationals 2012.

ZeBone founders Sabrina Graham and Kurt Disser began preparing their progression to USPA's Advanced Class medal level in 2005, as the NSL News reported on 4 October 2013. The bronze medals at the USPA Nationals 2012 were just one step on the way to gold a year later.

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Dubai Asaar Red - Dubai Asaar Gold at the Shamrock Showdown 2012

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The other connections to most current events can be found in the lineups of the guest teams. The NSL News posted just last week that Craig Girard is completing the XP8 lineup.

Craig Girard is not only a former 4-way and 8-way world champion with Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed. He is also one of the most experienced Formation Skydiving coaches and organizers in the world. The NSL News covered his 4-way and 8-way expedition to Dubai comprehensively, as well, where he and his wife Eliana Rodriguez were hired to build a solid Formation Skydiving foundation.

They started from scratch, and it did not take too long until they had created 4-way and 8-way teams who competed at events across the planet and at FAI world cups and world meets. Their teams visited USPA Nationals for the first time in 2011, and they were back a year later - with Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard both in the active lineups.

Even that is not enough for connections between 2012 and now. Dubai also had a team in 4-way Women, which was created, supervised and coached by Alena Chistova, who is reigning FAI world champion in 4-way Women with the Russian Bubbles. The USPA Nationals 2012 was the first competition for Dubai Asaar Ladies, and Alena Chistova will try to defend her current world champion title this year in Eloy - after possibly adding the FAI indoor title with Bubbles in April...