posted Jan 30th, 2021 - The NSL News has followed the progression of the USPA Intermediate Class champions of 2017, Vega XP, since the team appeared on 4-way leaderboards in the United States. Vega XP is not one of the teams who were recently featured by winning USPA's Intermediate and Advanced Class gold medals consecutively at national championships. However, team founders Annie and Ian Drennan are still working on their goal to follow up with the next set of USPA gold medals.

The lineup has changed over the years, and only the Drennans are back in 2021, with two new team members. The NSL News update on 11 September 2020 introduced the new team members and the new lineup.

The NSL News tried a few times to follow up with the complete lineup in training or competition, which has not materialized yet, for many different reasons. However, at least the NSL Live Talk online conversation on 18 September 2020 featured the complete new lineup on the same Zoom screen.

Vega XP has been in training on a regular basis at Paraclete XP, just not with the complete lineup yet. Coach Niklas Hemlin has been a full team member so far, as he has been filling each open slot at the indoor training camps.

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Vega XP training at Paraclete XP on January 23rd

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New member Andre van Heerden was not available for the December camp when the NSL News visited the indoor training site, and Niklas Hemlin filled in for the missing tail. He was back in action this month for the next Vega XP indoor training camp.

Andre van Heerden was in Raeford this time, while James Hall could not make it, and Niklas Hemlin had the next opportunity to study the team from the inside perspective. James Hall is the new outside center for the team, and Annie Drennan could share front piece experiences with the coach.

Annie and Ian Drennan have attended all training camps together with Niklas Hemlin, and they have one more training scheduled before this year's Paraclete XP Indoor Championship at the end of February.

They are hoping that the complete lineup will be available for the first time, so Vega XP will eventually have their own experiences, without Niklas Hemlin going through all slots as the player-coach.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	21,15,10	7,5,G	13,L,11	3,K,B,6	19,8,9	M,P,14,C	N,A,17,1	20,16,Q	F,22,D,H	0,2,4	Total	Avg
1	Vega XP	15	22	19	21	20	28	21	17	27	19	209	20.9
2	Flying Spaghetti Monsters	16	24	19	19	19	26	22	16	22	17	200	20.0
3	Lucky Chris	15	19	17	19	18	22	19	15	21	17	182	18.2
4	Platinum XP	13	18	15	16	19	23	19	13	20	13	169	16.9
5	Dramatic Pause	13	16	16	17	16	21	15	14	21	17	166	16.6

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Vega XP vs. Flying Spaghetti Monsters at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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The Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2021 will bring the team members together in different ways. Andre van Heerden was an opponent last year, when the Flying Spaghetti Monsters battled with the Vega XP 2020 lineup for the 1st place on the Advanced Class leaderboard.

Andre van Heerden was also in the Befokte Dose lineup on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard, while James Hall did not compete in Bedford last year. He had competed with Great Expectations at the 2019 event.

Annie and Ian Drennan still had Brandon Kashani and Nicholas Walker in their lineup when they won last year's gold medals in the Advanced Class. They cannot be back in the same category and will get their first experiences in the 4-way Open Class field of teams.

Andre van Heerden is a seasoned Open Class competitor and has even attended world meets for South Africa. The other three members of the current Vega XP lineup will have their names on a 4-way Open Class leaderboard for the first time.