posted Nov 10th, 2022 - The American continent, south of Canada and the United States, has not had very consistent presence in 4-way Open at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985. Nine of the 20 world meets in this time period took place without any teams from this part of the world.

Teams from eight different countries (Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay) competed randomly at the other 11 world meets. Brazil was represented more than all other countries of the same region and attended nine events. Argentina was in 2nd place with three visits at world meets, Chile, Colombia and Mexico 3rd with two. Venezuela and Ecuador had 4-way teams once at a world meet.

Brazil's current national team in 4-way Open, INIT-Y, once again represented the country at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 and finished in the highest ranking position of the same group of countries. Paraguay tied Argentina's attendance record of three meets with the Adventure Flyers at their second consecutive world meet. A different lineup from Paraguay had competed in Australia 2018.

The third team from the same region south of Canada and the United States came from Guatemala. La Playa was the first team from Guatemala at a world championship, and the NSL News introduced the team with NSL Live Talk on October 20th. Three teams from this region is the highest number of teams at the same world meet after four in Brazil 1987 and Dubai 2012. Three teams also competed in Spain 2001 (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia).

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	-1	28		27		27		31		23		21		20		32		31		261	26.1
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	20	-1	25	-2	21		23		28		20	-2	19		17		29		26		228	22.8
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	19	-2	23	-1	22	-1	21	-1	26		18		17	-1	17		28		28		219	21.9
4	France 4-way Open	FR	19		23	-1	22		23		27		20	-1	18		15	-1	20	-5	27	-1	214	21.4
5	Chimera	UK	16		21	-2	19		19	-1	18	-5	18	-1	16		14	-1	23	-1	24		188	18.8
6	Papea Masculino	ES	17	-1	20	-1	18	-1	21		21	-2	18		15		15		21	-1	20	-3	186	18.6
7	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	14	-1	21		19		19		20	-1	17		16		15		24	-1	20	-1	185	18.5
8	Airbus Oceanside Illertissen	DE	16		18	-2	19		16	-1	20	-1	13	-3	15		14		19	-2	22	-1	172	17.2
9	Agera FS 2022	NO	16		16	-2	17	-1	17		18	-1	15		15		13	-1	18	-3	21		166	16.6
9	4Astrophe	CA	15	-1	20		19		15	-2	21		15		15	-2	14		16	-3	16	-2	166	16.6
11	Out of the Blue	NL	16		16	-3	17		17		14	-2	17		12	-1	13	-1	21	-1	18		161	16.1
12	Ripper	AU	14	-1	16	-1	18		16	-1	21		15		12		10	-3	19	-1	19	-1	160	16.0
13	Sky4Four	PL	13	-1	14	-3	14		16		16	-2	12	-1	12		13		21		18	-1	149	14.9
14	HF Flying Circus	CZ	13		10	-7	16		15	-1	18	-2	12	-1	13		11	-3	16	-5	17	-1	141	14.1
15	Sequenz	DK	10	-2	16		15		14	-1	17	-1	12	-1	12		11	-1	17	-1	11	-3	135	13.5
16	INIT-Y	BR	12	-2	14	-1	14	-1	13	-4	16		11	-2	10	-3	12		17	-1	15	-3	134	13.4
17	HSV Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	10	-2	16		14		15		15	-1	8	-3	9	-2	10	-1	15	-1	13	-1	125	12.5
18	Adventure Flyers	PY	9	-1	13		12	-1	11		16		11		10		9		14		14	-1	119	11.9
19	Equinox	LT	10	-1	12	-2	12		12	-1	13	-1	10		10		9	-1	12	-4	14	-1	114	11.4
20	Tina & The Dinosaurs	NZ	5		8	-1	4		9		9	-1	8		5		4	-2	10		8		70	7.0
21	La Playa	GT	2	-1	7	-2	5	-1	3	-3	7		5		3	-1	5		-		-		37	4.6

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INIT-Y - Adventure Flyers - La Playa at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 - Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC and OmniSkore!HD

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Paraguay is on the way to break all records of the country's previous participation, with teams at three consecutive world meets. In fact, it will be a new record for this complete group of teams. Even Brazil, with the most consistent participation of the same eight countries, cannot look back at more than two consecutive world meets, although the pandemic break made it difficult for any country to travel to Russia last year.

Paraguay's Adventure Flyers may even continue the streak and the progression of the country's national teams in 4-way Open. They finished with a new team record average for a 10-round meet in Eloy, despite a late change in the lineup and a slow competition draw, and they still are not done yet.

The Adventure Flyers may even begin to look at the Brazilian teams as a target nearby. They competed as a guest team at the Brazil's Outdoor Nationals in August and finished in Eloy with only one team between themselves and INIT-Y.

Paraguay's current national team in 4-way Open is also collecting plenty of competition experiences, including their second trip to an outdoor world meet, and the next meet performance could bring the team even closer to Brazil.

INIT-Y (Brazil) - Adventure Flyers (Paraguay) - La Playa members at Skydive Arizona

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Participation of Brazilian 4-way teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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Brazil's national 4-way team, first CTR Optimum, turned into INIT-Y this year and had too many changes in the lineup to come to a consistent performance. This allowed Paraguay's Adventure Flyers to finish much closer to their South American neighbors than the Brazilians would like to see it.

More distance was not the desire of all the teams from this specific part of the American continent when the daily work at the world meet was done. The NSL News found INIT-Y, Adventure Flyers and La Playa members together at the end of a competition day in front of the Bent Prop restaurant/bar.

There was no language barrier, even though the Brazilian team's first language is Portuguese, while the Adventure Flyers communicate in Spanish with the La Playa members. Paraguay and Brazil are direct neighbors and are used to communicate with each other.

Brazil hosted the world meet in 1987, right at the border of three South American countries, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, and in visual sight of the Iguazu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world. The geography of the hosting sight in 1987 generated the record number of four South American teams (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela) posting 4-way Open Class scores on the same leaderboard. By then, Paraguay was still 31 years away from the country's first team's trip to a world meet in 2018. The Adventure Flyers alone may attend their third consecutive world meet in two years...