posted Jul 20th, 2018 - 4-way teams from Brazil have represented their country seven times at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving, out of the 17 events since 1985. Brazil missed the last two world meets in 2014 and 2016 and will now be back for the next one in October in Australia.

It will be the same team that has dominated 4-way competition in Brazil since 2005, even though the current lineup includes only one original member, outside center André Ferraz. He and his team mate Fábio Diniz launched the CTR Optimum project in 2005, along with a Brazilian version of the National Skydiving League, with the goal of increasing participation and lifting the performance level in their country.

A year later, CTR Optimum competed for Brazil at the FAI World Meet 2006 in Germany and finished with a 14.0 average, significantly higher compared to the previous appearance of a team from Brazil (10.3) in Spain 2001.

Thiago Gomes, Arizona Airspeed's current inside center, had competed for Brazil in Spain 2001, together with Pedro Ushizima who became a member of the original CTR Optimum lineup four years later.

Brazilian Nationals 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		O,N,9,G		19,B,7		3,F,13		5,M,22		20,14,8		P,16,4		K,1,D,2		10,6,A		21,11,18		E,L,12,Q		Total	Avg
1	CTR Optimum	BR	23		17		15		15		13		17		17		16		14		17		164	16.4
2	Go Fly	BR	23	-1	16		14		12	-1	11		9		14		11		11		13	-1	134	13.4
3	Cometas	BR	21		15	-1	11		13		11		12	-2	13	-1	12		11		14		133	13.3
4	Paradocks	BR	17		14		9		10		9		10		11		10		9		13		112	11.2
5	Adventure Flyers	PY	16		13		10		10		9		12		10		10		9		12		111	11.1
6	Cometas Women	BR	15		10	-1	10		9		8		9	-1	5	-4	8		7		8		89	8.9
7	Anima	BR	13		10	-1	5	-1	9		6		7		7	-1	6		7		8		78	7.8

4-way participation and progression of Brazilian teams at FAI World Meets since 1985

The original lineup continued and represented Brazil again two years later in Maubeuge 2008 and then missed the FAI World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia.

A new lineup, still with André Ferraz and Fábio Diniz, became even more committed to the preparations for and the performance at the FAI Mondial 2012 in Dubai after missing the 2010 world meet.

CTR Optimum 2012 attended three meets that year before lifting the Brazilian record average at a world meet to 16.1 in Dubai.

The 2012 world meet season began at the Shamrock Showdown, together with a second team from Brazil, Anima, who still competed this month at the national championships, as well. Two meets in Brazil followed before the trip to Dubai at the end of the year and the new world meet record average.

No teams from Brazil attended the next two world meets (Prostejov 2014, Chicago 2016) before the latest lineup made plans for Australia 2018.

FAI Mondial 2012 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	22	23	23	32	25	40	26	279	27.9
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	25	34	27	21	23	24	32	27	40	25	278	27.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	26	30	27	21	23	25	29	23	37	24	265	26.5
4	Evolution	CA	22	31	24	17	19	21	28	22	30	22	236	23.6
5	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	29	22	21	21	18	28	20	35	20	233	23.3
6	Satori	UK	18	26	21	17	15	18	23	17	27	18	200	20.0
7	eX3MO	IT	17	24	20	14	17	19	22	18	28	-	179	19.9
8	Paratec-Saar	DE	18	26	21	13	14	16	21	18	30	-	177	19.7
9	Rotor Out	AU	14	25	18	15	17	18	22	17	28	-	174	19.3
10	Bardagi	SE	17	26	20	14	16	15	23	17	24	-	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

Original member and team co-founder André Ferraz now has George Narita (Tail), Daiton Ribeiro (Point) and Juliana Sé (Inside Center) in his current lineup, with Rick Neves on camera, and CTR Optimum 2018 are on their way to lift the Brazilian world meet record average once again to the next level, as this month's 16.4 average at the national championships indicates.

CTR Optimum were not the only team at the Brazilian Nationals who will travel to Australia in October. There was another national team that used the meet to collect more competition experiences.

The Adventure Flyers are from Brazil's neighbor country Paraguay. The team has traveled to the United States four times to compete, starting with the Shamrock Showdown 2017, and the trip to the Brazilian Nationals 2018 was much shorter compared to the previous distances.

Brazil will be back with a team at a world meet this year, and the Adventure Flyers will represent Paraguay for the first time in 4-way history...