posted Aug 26th, 2024 - The current 8-way Power Rankings for the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2024 are not as complicated as they were in 4-way Open. The 8-way field has currently exactly the same number of teams compared to the 8-way participation in Eloy 2022.

Five teams competed for the three sets of FAI medals two years ago, and five teams are currently registered for the event at Crystal Coast in October. The leaderboard with the NSL Power Rankings is showing a total of six teams, as it includes the two German 8-way teams who still have to qualify for the world championship.

Airbus Oceanside Illertissen competed for Germany in Eloy 2022 and won the first FAI medals for a German 4-way or 8-way team in the history since 1985 with the 3rd place. Operation Adler are the reigning German 8-way champions of 2023, who have agreed to accept a challenge by Airbus and select the better 8-way team for the world championship after Germany's national outdoor championship at GoJump in Gransee in less than two weeks. The winning team will have four weeks of time to get ready for the trip to Crystal Coast in North Carolina. The winner of the event near Berlin at the beginning of September has very good chances to defend Germany's FAI bronze medals of Eloy 2022 successfully.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			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	GKXP8	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Operation Adler	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Airbus Oceanside Illertissen	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Ap8thy	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Netunos	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The other two expected 8-way medal winners are the same ones as in Eloy, with GKXP8 in 1st and Qatar Falcons in 2nd place of the NSL Power Rankings. Both teams are not facing any challenge for their positions, and their main goal is to show progression after the results in Eloy 2022 and Norway 2023.

In fact, GKXP8 are still on the hunt of the highest 8-way performance and scoring level in the history of the sport. They were facing serious competition last time only at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August 2021, where the French 8-way team almost interrupted the running U.S. 8-way streak of six consecutive gold medals since Menzelinsk 2010. The event in Russia was the last time that a different country won 8-way gold medals.

The different Paraclete XP 8-way lineups have their highest meet average in the records with the 23.7 in Tanay 2021 after seven rounds, which held off the French 8-way team by one single point. The highest XP8 10-round average is the 22.8 at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 in Norway a year ago. The Golden Knights still own the highest 8-way average for a 10-round meet with the 23.9 at the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2016. Current GKXP8 members Matthew Davidson, Jeshua Stahler and Andrew Starr were in the U.S. Army lineup of 2016.

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-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	Paraclete XP8	US	25	-1	20		20	-1	18	-1	18		19	-1	23		26	-1	16	-2	20	-2	205	20.5
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	21	-1	14	-2	16	-1	17		16		15	-1	19	-1	20	-1	14	-1	12	-4	164	16.4
3	Airbus	DE	18		14		14		13		4	-1	12	-2	16		16		12		14		133	13.3
4	MicroClim8	UK	16		9	-2	12		10		11	-1	7	-3	15		16		11		12	-1	119	11.9
5	Mojo Annecy-Clermont	FR	15		10		11		10		11		10	-1	8	-5	13		9		10		107	10.7

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Paraclete XP8 - Qatar Falcons at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 - Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC and OmniSkore!HD

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The Qatar Falcons are in a similar situation as GKXP8. They have no opposition to take home the next set of FAI silver medals that they won in Eloy 2022. The Falcons with coach Gary Smith won the first FAI medals ever for Qatar in Australia 2018 when France did not have an 8-way team in the delegation.

They could not defend the medal position successfully with new 8-way coach Jeremie Rollett when France came back with a very strong lineup for Tanay in August 2021, even though the Qatar Falcons posted 18.0 averages twice in 2018. France and Russia both then did not have medal contenders in Eloy 2022, and the Qatar Falcons could even step up to the 2nd place that they have owned ever since.

However, the Falcons have not been back to the 18+ level of 2018, and coach Jeremie Rollett is ready to set a new team record average with the well trained current lineup. The Falcons have their final test as a guest team at the German Outdoor Nationals next week. The only battle on the 8-way leaderboard will probably take place behind right the medal positions, where British 8-way team Ap8thy could be challenged by Brazil's 8-way lineup of the Netunos, who won 4-way and 8-way both at the national outdoor championship last week.

23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		3,G,N,19		11,17,L		13,7,C		2,D,O,8		14,K,J,12		9,M,P,H		5,4,18		15,1,10		16,21,E		F,20,6		Total	Avg
1	GKXP8	US	27		22		19		19		20		24		24	-1	25	-1	23		25		228	22.8
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	18		18		16		13		16		20		16	-3	20		20		20		177	17.7
3	Prison 9	US	16		14		12	-1	11		12		13	-1	15		16		13		15		137	13.7
4	Mojo Annecy-Clermont	FR	15		11	-1	12		8	-1	10	-1	14		12		13	-1	13		13	-1	121	12.1
5	Ap8thy	UK	11		9		10		7	-1	10		10		10	-1	11		10		11		99	9.9
6	Bra Nok XP	US	12	-3	6	-2	10		7	-2	9		10	-1	11	-2	11	-1	13		6	-4	95	9.5
7	Deton8	UK	4		2		4		0		0		3		3	-1	2		3		3		24	2.4

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GKXP8 - Qatar Falcons at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving - Video footage courtesy of InTime/FAI/ISC

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