posted Oct 19th, 2020 - The most recent NSL News update of the Golden Knights on September 26th mentioned that 8-way videographer of 2019, Andy Sippl, had a new slot in the 4-way lineup with Jennifer Davidson, Andrew Starr and Jesse Stahler. There was an open 4-way slot when Jon Clavenger left the team not too long ago, and Andy Sippl moved from camera into the active lineup.

This is not an unusual move at all for the Golden Knights competition team. In fact, the current 8-way lineup includes already two active members who were filming the team before. Team captain Andrew Starr was on camera for the Golden Knights in 2010, 2011 and 2012 before he became the alternate and then a full member in front of the camera.

David Flynn followed the same pattern, even though he skipped the slot as the alternate. He was first on the Golden Knights camera in 2015 and 2016, stepped up into the active lineup in 2017, and has competed for the U.S. Army's 8-way team ever since. Andrew Starr and David Flynn have won two FAI 8-way gold medals together in the active lineups of 2016 and 2018.

Andrew Starr has Andy Sippl in the current Golden Knights Gold team, who is the third former videographer in the current 8-way lineup. David Flynn trains with Reese Pendleton, Rico Sifuentes and Nik Grimm in the Golden Knights Black team.

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USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,16,20		C,B,M,D,1		N,Q,17,D		5,L,E,21		P,15,12		14,4,22		10,O,9		F,19,8		11,7,18		2,6,A		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	20		23		23		19		26		21		17		16	-1	17	-1	19		201	20.1
2	XP8	US	19	-1	24		22		19		24		20		17		16	-1	17	-1	19		197	19.7
3	Golden Knights	US	18	-1	23		17	-5	18	-1	24		19	-1	16		17		18	-1	19		189	18.9
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	16	-2	21		21		17		18	-2	19	-1	16		15		15	-2	16		174	17.4
5	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	9		13		12		12		13		9	-1	10		11		8	-2	10		107	10.7
6	SDC Rhythm 9 XP	US	12		10	-2	9	-3	10	-1	11		12		10		9		11		10		104	10.4
7	Monster Mix	US	7	-4	10		9		9		9	-1	10	-1	9		9		8		9		89	8.9
8	Perris Riot!	US	9		7	-2	8		8		8	-1	9		9		9		9		7	-1	83	8.3
9	Fusion XP	US	7		8	-1	8	-1	9	-1	9		10		6	-1	7		7	-2	9		80	8.0
10	Lite 8	US	7		4	-2	6		6		4	-1	6	-1	6		4		5		7		55	5.5

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Golden Knights with Andy Sippl on camera at the USPA Nationals 2019 - Video Footage Courtesy of USPA/OmniSkore!HD

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The video slot of the Golden Knights is a promising step on the way into the active 8-way lineup, and Andy Sippl left no doubt that he is aiming at one of the eight slots. There were a few other Golden Knights who followed the same path much longer ago.

Chris Talbert was filming the Golden Knights 8-way team in 1998. He did not spend much time behind the camera though. A year later he was already in the active lineup that outscored Arizona Airspeed's 8-way world champions of 1999 at the USPA Nationals in Sebastian. He continued to train and compete in the active lineup when the Golden Knights switched their focus from 8-way to 4-way and won the USPA Nationals in 2002.

The Golden Knights continued with a new 4-way lineup in 2004 (John Hoover, Matt Davidson, Brooks Weiner, Brian Krause), which was the time when a new videographer started on the same path. Larry Miller was on camera for the Golden Knights 4-way and 8-way teams between 2004 and 2008.

New team captain Brian Krause then changed the focus back to 8-way training and competition, and he offered his former team videographer a slot in the new 8-way lineup of 2009. Larry Miller was now training and competing in 8-way, while he was still filming the Golden Knights Gold team in 4-way.

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USPA Nationals 2017			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		G,22,1		9,6,2		D,7,17		8,J,C,K		Q,B,14,20		19,15,4		A,10,13		12,M,N,P		H,O,3,16		5,21,11		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	22	-2	17	-1	16	-2	19		21		22		19		21		28		17		202	20.2
2	Fly-In Machine 44	BE	23		16		17		16		15	-1	21		16		20		26		15		185	18.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	12	-1	15		12	-1	15		16		13	-1	17	-1	20		13		149	14.9
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	17	-1	14		11	-2	15		15		17		14		13	-2	18		13		147	14.7
5	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	18		12	-1	13		10	-1	13		18		14		16		15		11	-1	140	14.0
6	SDC Rhythm XP8	US	12		11		12		13		11	-1	15		12		15		14		12		127	12.7
7	Paraclete XP8	US	13		11		10		11		12		14		12		11	-1	14	-1	10		118	11.8
8	Spaceland Gummies 8	US	11		11		8	-1	7	-1	10		12		9		10		10		9	-1	97	9.7
9	Perris Spider Pigs	US	5	-2	7		4	-2	5	-1	6	-1	5	-2	7		5		4	-1	7		55	5.5

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Golden Knights with Larry Miller, Andrew Starr, David Flynn at the USPA Nationals 2017 - Video Footage Courtesy of USPA/OmniSkore!HD

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Former videographer Larry Miller won his three consecutive 8-way gold medals in the active lineup at the FAI world meets in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Andrew Starr was filming Larry Miller's first gold-medal competition in Dubai 2012, and he was the alternate at Larry Miller's second 8-way victory with the Golden Knights in Prostejov 2014. Finally, Larry Miller and Andrew Starr became 8-way team mates in front of the camera in 2015 and won an FAI gold medal together in 2016.

David Flynn had taken the camera slot in the meantime and was filming the Golden Knights with Larry Miller and Andrew Starr to the gold medals in 2016. He was selected for the active lineup in 2017. The three former 8-way videographers (Larry Miller, Andrew Starr, David Flynn) then spent the 2017 season together in training and competition before Larry Miller stepped back.

Andrew Starr and David Flynn continued and won their next 8-way gold medal in Australia 2018. They are still in the current 8-way lineup that team captain Andrew Starr is re-building with a lot of 4-way training at the beginning.

They have now added their 2019 videographer Andy Sippl into the active lineup, and they are aiming at taking back the 8-way top spot, first in the United States and then again in the international 8-way world. Once again, the current 8-way lineup would have three former Golden Knights videographers turning points while pursuing gold medals.