posted Dec 10th, 2024 - Arizona Airspeed is now in the middle of their first training camp with the new lineup that the NSL News has introduced comprehensively in the past weeks. The move of new team member Alisson De Vargas from Brazil to the United States was one of the major related topics and has been discussed by the most experienced competitors and coaches in the sport.

The conclusions included the fact that there is nothing unusual when competitors change their countries that they have been competing for, and the Arizona Airspeed lineups of the past themselves have been the best examples. The authorities in the sport are used to similar situations, and there are rules which regulate such transfer.

However, rules and regulations also change over the years, and the NSL News took a closer look at the current FAI Sporting Code terminology. The according rules and regulations are not a part of the actual competition rules that teams and competitors should always be aware of. The General Section of the FAI Sporting Code is the source for the relevant parts in Rights of Representation (3.5) at FAI World Championships and World Cups, the annual "First Category events". The current version regulates the "Change of Representation" in Paragraph 3.5.4.

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National Airsport Control (NAC) and Air Sport Commission (ASC) authorities control rules and eligibility in each country, while the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) and its International Skydiving Commission (ISC) are responsible for their world championships, world cups and other events.

The currently most important paragraph for Arizona Airspeed and Alisson de Vargas defines the time period between two First Category events as 12 months at least. Alisson de Vargas competed for Brazil at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 and skipped the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024, where Netunos competed in 4-way and 8-way at Crystal Coast Skydiving.

Brazil did not have a team at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023, and his eligibility for the next outdoor world cup in 2025 and outdoor world championship in 2026 is out of question. However, the time frame has become a little bit trickier since FAI/ISC included and sanctioned indoor events in their agenda. Alisson de Vargas competed with INIT-Y for Brazil at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 and with Netunos in April this year at the FAI Indoor World Cup. The current rules will not allow him to compete for Arizona Airspeed at Paraclete XP's indoor world championship in April 2025.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		8,C,7		K,G,12,B		6,4,H		20,1,5		15,10,A		F,O,P,21		19,M,9		J,13,E,22		16,3,N		L,Q,D,18		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	35		36	-2	32		29		29		44		39		29		31		39		343	34.3
2	Aethers	FR	32	-1	33		31		27		26		40	-2	36		28	-1	30		36	-1	319	31.9
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	29	-1	32	-1	25	-3	25		25	-1	41		35		28		27		33		300	30.0
4	Papea	ES	30		28		25		24	-1	23	-2	38	-1	33		25	-1	22	-1	26	-3	274	27.4
5	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	24	-2	30	-2	27		25		22	-1	37		29	-3	24		25		28	-1	271	27.1
6	China	CN	25		27		26		24		22		33	-4	29	-2	25	-1	20	-3	30		261	26.1
7	Fly X	IT	27	-1	26	-2	23	-2	22		22	-1	37	-2	30	-1	24		21	-3	27	-2	259	25.9
8	Qatar Lions	QA	23	-2	22	-5	26		21	-1	19	-2	35	-2	30		25		25		26	-3	252	25.2
9	Crazy Dragons	CZ	24	-1	24	-2	21	-2	20	-1	18	-3	34		30		23		21	-1	26	-2	241	24.1
10	Netunos	BR	19	-2	27		21	-2	18	-2	16	-2	30	-5	29	-1	23		21	-1	27	-1	231	23.1
11	Out Of The Blue	NL	23	-3	23		19	-2	19	-2	17	-1	34		27		21		22		22	-3	227	22.7
12	Indonesia	ID	23	-3	21	-6	15	-7	15	-4	16	-2	30	-3	24	-1	19	-2	18	-3	21	-3	202	20.2
13	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	21		19	-2	20	-1	19		13	-3	27	-2	25	-1	22		14	-4	19	-1	199	19.9
14	Só Pressão	BR	18	-2	22	-1	17	-1	18		13	-3	25	-5	22	-2	19	-1	19		23		196	19.6
15	Singapore	SG	19		13		19		13		15		26	-4	16	-5	17	-1	17	-1	18		173	17.3
16	South Korea	KR	14		18		18		10		14		22	-3	18		16		16		16		162	16.2
17	Thailand	TH	12		15		14		11		12		22		18		14		14		12		144	14.4
18	Indonesia 2	ID	12		11		13		13		11		20	-1	19		13		11		15		138	13.8
19	Singapore 2	SG	10		12		12		5		9		18	-5	18		13		13		11		121	12.1
20	Singapore 3	SG	6		10		13		8		9		10	-9	12		8		11		8		95	9.5
21	Malaysia	MY	2		2		1		3		3		7	-2	5		4		6		3		36	3.6

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Arizona Airspeed - Netunos at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

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Arizona Airspeed are aware of the rules situation and know that they need a substitute/alternate for the indoor world championship, even though Alisson de Vargas could take his outside center slot later next year at the outdoor world cup in Teuge, Netherlands, if USPA accepts him officially for the U.S. delegation. Otherwise, the new Airspeed lineup would only have a chance to get on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard as a guest team.

The USPA Nationals 2025 is probably the biggest challenge for the three reigning world champions, including videographer Alex Swindle, and their two new team mates. USPA is ruling and regulating the national outdoor championship and has separate conditions how to be eligible for USPA medals. USPA's Skydiver's Competition Manual (SCM) defines how a participant is eligible for medals.

Arizona Airspeed and Alisson de Vargas have ten months of time to obtain the documents that are required for his eligibility at USPA Nationals. He could still compete for the U.S. delegation at the next world championship in 2026, if he is not eligible at the time of the USPA Nationals 2025. Airspeed could use a substitute for the event and then go back to the complete current lineup.

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The challenge is the fact that Airspeed will be training with the new lineup and that only the winning team next year will compete for the United States in 2026. The USPA Nationals 2025 promise to be much more competitive than in the past years, and Airspeed with a substitute/alternate could be more in reach for the strong U.S. opponents.