posted Dec 25th, 2023 - The recent NSL News updates that covered the world's best 4-way teams, and their history included the development of the lineups over the years. Arizona Airspeed's 30-year anniversary followed the review of the NMP PCH HayaBusa history on December 11th.

Both teams follow the same strategy and recruit their own team members, even though the Belgian national team is limited by the restrictions that the military commitment brings along. However, at least the strong desire of a very passionate competitor, like Michele Silvi from Italy, may allow a HayaBusa candidate to make it into the lineup coming from outside of the military environment.

France has a different selection system, where the national coach has the authority to recruit candidates for the teams. The three currently dominating nations in the world, in the absence of the banned Russian delegation, have reached their power positions with consistency and continuity of their lineups.

The world's current 4-way leader, Arizona Airspeed, are going into the 5th year with the same lineup since 2020, which is equal with the number of years that NMP PCH HayaBusa's signature lineup of 2015 - 2019 spent together to win two world championship title (2016, 2018). The current Airspeed lineup will probably add their own 2nd set of gold medals to the Airspeed collection in 2024.

Dubai Championship 2011			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		P,17,18	M,N,F,3	H,A,6,B	Q,1,C,14	4,10,15	16,O,J,22	K,2,E,11	G,9,8	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	24	34	30	23	19	22	24	28	204	25.5
2	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	24	33	33	20	18	25	23	24	200	25.0
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	33	31	23	19	23	22	25	199	24.9
4	Gradient Alpha	RU	19	29	28	20	11	21	20	23	171	21.4
5	Black Cat	RU	20	22	25	18	16	19	20	21	161	20.1
6	FS3	RU	14	18	22	14	11	15	15	11	120	15.0
7	Monaco Rebootizer Aerial	MC	10	19	16	14	11	17	15	13	115	14.4
7	French Air Force	FR	10	18	18	14	11	14	15	15	115	14.4
9	Qatar Tigers	QA	13	14	17	12	10	14	15	13	108	13.5
10	Qatar Falcons	QA	9	14	13	11	9	12	11	13	92	11.5
11	U.A.E.	AE	9	11	13	8	9	12	11	12	85	10.6
12	South Africa	ZA	9	14	12	9	8	9	11	11	83	10.4
13	Black Moon	DE	8	8	11	8	9	10	7	12	73	9.1
14	Connatural	DE	5	10	9	6	6	11	10	12	69	8.6
15	Brazil	BR	5	5	9	5	1	5	4	5	39	4.9
16	Slovakia	SK	0	7	7	4	5	3	3	8	37	4.6
17	Malaysia	MY	3	4	6	3	3	4	2	3	28	3.5
18	Bahrain Military	BH	3	2	3	2	1	4	1	2	18	2.3
19	Saudi Arabia A	SA	1	2	0	0	2	1	2	1	9	1.1
20	Saudi Arabia B	SA	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0.1

FAI 4-way Open Class medals since 1985 - Scoring progression of Qatar Tigers between 2011 and 2023

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According to the number of years together with the same lineup, there is actually another full-time top team that leaves France, Arizona Airspeed and NMP PCH HayaBusa far behind, the Qatar Tigers. The current lineup started as a 4-way team in 2011, after their AFF training together at Skydive DeLand.

The time period of 13 years between their first competition at the Dubai Championship 2011 and the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving in Norway this year may lead to the assumption that the Qatar Tigers should have won world championship titles by now.

However, the development of a 4-way team from Qatar to medal positions in the world's Formation Skydiving competition had to be very different compared to the other four powerhouses, including Russia. There had never been a team from Qatar at any FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving until the Tigers appeared for the first time at the FAI Dubai Mondial 2012.

United States, France, Russia and Belgium had never missed a placing on the 4-way leaderboards of world championships since 1985. They generated top team after top team from their different communities of Formation Skydiving competitors. The future members of Qatar's first 4-way team completed their AFF training in 2009 when the other top nations had 25 years of 4-way and 8-way competition behind them.

FAI Dubai Mondial 2012			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		5,12,E		6,D,B,K		O,8,7		N,13,18		10,21,M		19,H,11		C,G,1,A		20,9,15		16,F,P,Q		2,J,4		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		34		27	-1	22		23		23	-2	32		25		40		26		279	27.9
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	25	-1	34	-2	27	-1	21	-1	23		24	-1	32	-1	27		40		25	-1	278	27.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	26		30	-2	27		21		23		25		29	-1	23	-2	37		24		265	26.5
4	Evolution	CA	22		31		24		17	-1	19	-1	21		28		22		30	-2	22		236	23.6
5	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	-2	29	-1	22	-1	21		21		18	-2	28		20	-2	35		20	-1	233	23.3
6	Satori	UK	18		26		21		17		15	-3	18	-1	23		17		27		18		200	20.0
7	eX3MO	IT	17	-1	24	-2	20		14		17		19		22		18	-1	28	-1	-		179	19.9
8	Paratec-Saar	DE	18		26		21		13		14	-2	16	-1	21	-3	18		30	-1	-		177	19.7
9	Rotor Out	AU	14	-2	25	-1	18	-1	15		17		18		22	-1	17		28		-		174	19.3
10	Bardagi	SE	17		26		20		14		16		15	-2	23		17	-2	24	-2	-		172	19.1
11	Voodoo	ZA	16		24		19		13		15		16		23		17		-		-		143	17.9
12	Ravens	AT	18		23		17		15		17		13		22		16		-		-		141	17.6
13	Qatar Tigers	QA	15		21		19		14		15		17		19		16		-		-		136	17.0
14	VIVA 4	CH	14		21		19		11		17		14		20		14		-		-		130	16.3
15	CTR Optimum	BR	17		19		16		13		15		14		19		16		-		-		129	16.1
16	Dubai Asaar Red	AE	16		20		16		12		15		16		18		13		-		-		126	15.8
17	China	CN	7		21		15		14		14		15		21		16		-		-		123	15.4
18	Spain	ES	16		21		16		13		9		13		21		10		-		-		119	14.9
18	Lize	CZ	13		21		17		12		17		11		17		11		-		-		119	14.9
20	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	15		21		17		10		13		11		18		12		-		-		117	14.6
21	Rebootizer Aerial	MC	15		14		16		11		16		13		17		13		-		-		115	14.4
22	Silver Knights	FI	13		18		16		10		13		14		18		12		-		-		114	14.3
23	Magic 4	LT	14		17		15		11		14		14		14		13		-		-		112	14.0
24	Whooops	NL	10		18		17		10		13		14		16		11		-		-		109	13.6
25	Singapore	SG	14		21		16		12		13		9		14		9		-		-		108	13.5
26	Fast Air	IE	11		17		12		8		12		11		14		12		-		-		97	12.1
27	Ukraine	UA	11		15		11		10		11		10		14		10		-		-		92	11.5
27	Atmosfera G4	PT	12		15		12		10		8		10		13		12		-		-		92	11.5
29	Lupus	EE	10		14		12		9		11		10		14		11		-		-		91	11.4
30	Sky Dragons	SI	12		11		13		9		11		10		12		10		-		-		88	11.0
31	Kazakhstan	KZ	10		11		11		9		6		9		8		8		-		-		72	9.0
32	Argentina	AR	8		13		7		7		8		7		10		9		-		-		69	8.6
33	Cyprus	CY	7		6		10		7		6		7		10		7		-		-		60	7.5
34	Colombia	CO	6		9		9		5		8		6		8		6		-		-		57	7.1
35	Oman	OM	5		8		10		8		6		5		6		6		-		-		54	6.8
36	Turkey	TR	0		6		8		4		6		6		5		7		-		-		42	5.3
37	Thailand	TH	3		7		7		4		5		0		6		2		-		-		34	4.3
38	Ecuador	EC	0		0		2		2		2		3		3		3		-		-		15	1.9

The Qatar Tigers had a very long way to go, and they also did not have a large group of Formation Skydiving competitors to select their lineups from. The current team members went from Rookie status to world-class performance and FAI medals at world championships in the same 13 years that they have spent together.

The country had enough resources to support a Formation Skydiving delegation, and they did not hesitate to use them after the decision was made that Qatar would enter the skydiving world and try to win medals in all events. However, they still had to create the environment and lineups with enough potential to accomplish the new mission.

The Qatar Tigers spent probably half of their time together with studying and learning the competition environment and culture before they were familiar enough to focus mainly on the athletic part of the sport. However, they progressed slowly and consistently with the help of highly experienced coaches, and Gary Smith guided them finally to the first FAI medals in Formation Skydiving competition at the FAI Tanay Mondial, a decade after their first meet. The Qatar Tigers repeated the bronze medal performance with Gary Smith at the 25th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships 2022 in Eloy. In the meantime, the Falcons also won FAI bronze and silver medals in 8-way for Qatar, while Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen are preparing a new generation of Formation Skydiving competitors for their turn. The Qatar Tigers still don't have enough of 4-way competition and are now working on their next goals with 4-time world champion Andy Grauwels, even though there is very strong competition in 4-way.