posted Sep 26th, 2026 - USPA's 4-way Advanced Class is one of the three 4-way categories that use the same complete AAA Class dive pool, as the NSL News explained on September 24th (4-way Open - 4-way Women - 4-way Advanced). That same update introduced Qatar's guest team, Vortex, which will compete in the 4-way Open Class at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026 next month at Skydive Arizona.

Vortex's performance was recognized by the host as the strongest of the 4-way Advanced Class competition during the Advanced Class award ceremony. However, the Qatar team was not eligible for USPA medals, as guest teams from other countries cannot receive medals at the U.S. national championships.

Two 4-way teams from the Air Force Academy captured the USPA gold and silver medals behind Qatar Vortex at the top of the leaderboard, while CSC Constellation once again finished with the bronze medals. The final 4-way Advanced Class rankings were very similar to those at the USPA Nationals 2025, where two Air Force teams, 9 Ball and Voodoo, won the gold and silver medals, respectively, and CSC Constellation finished in 3rd place. Two new Air Force teams, Riptide and Barnyard, competed at this year's national outdoor championship and reproduced the same medal outcome as last year's event.

USPA Nationals 2026		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	A,9,B,D	5,C,L,15	F,7,8	E,H,13,N	16,P,M,20	Q,G,11,21	4,12,17	22,O,2	19,6,J	18,1,K	Total	Avg
1	Air Force Riptide	27	15	16	17	15	14	12	15	16	13	160	16.0
2	Air Force Barnyard	28	16	14	19	16	11	11	11	15	10	151	15.1
3	CSC Constellation XP	21	11	16	18	13	13	10	12	13	11	138	13.8
4	SDD Intravenous XP	21	14	15	16	12	13	9	11	14	11	136	13.6
4	SDC QuadRhivium	22	12	13	17	13	11	11	11	15	11	136	13.6
6	Platinum XP	21	12	14	15	13	10	9	10	13	8	125	12.5
7	Perris Livin'	13	8	13	13	11	10	9	9	11	10	107	10.7
7	Perris Airflow	16	11	10	14	10	11	9	8	11	7	107	10.7
9	Introversion	7	13	14	15	11	7	7	12	14	6	106	10.6
10	SDMW Pause	11	8	10	13	5	7	7	9	10	8	88	8.8
11	Proudly Perris	10	8	11	9	9	9	3	9	9	7	84	8.4
12	Tequila Brothers	13	9	10	12	9	7	8	5	6	4	83	8.3
G	Qatar Vortex	25	17	16	23	17	14	12	12	15	15	166	16.6

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Air Force Riptide - Air Force Barnyard - CSC Constellation at the USPA Nationals 2026

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CSC Constellation gracefully accepted another set of Advanced Class bronze medals, even though the new lineup had improved its meet average from 12.9 at the USPA Nationals 2025 to 13.8 last week, making significant progress during the short year they had to prepare for the national outdoor championship. Team founders Natalie Rodriguez and Russell Bayuk had good reason to hope that the increased performance level would also translate into a higher ranking and gold or silver medals this year.

This year's 13.8 average would have earned the Advanced Class silver medals last year, but it was not enough to outscore the Air Force teams. Riptide and Barnyard were out of reach for the other U.S. teams, while only Qatar Vortex, with salaries and full coverage of training and competition expenses, were able to keep pace with and stay ahead of the Air Force teams. It was reasonable to expect the Air Force teams to be even stronger this year, as they had been working intensively with coach Niklas Hemlin, who also supervised their overall performance during the Advanced Class competition at the USPA Nationals.

The performance and scoring levels of Riptide and Barnyard turned out to be significantly higher than those shown by 9 Ball and Voodoo last year. The CSC Constellation situation was not much different for U.S. team SDC QuadRhivium, which finished in 4th place last year, behind the same two Air Force teams and CSC Constellation. The same lineup, with new videographer Patrick Kessler, also increased its meet average by exactly one point, from 12.6 to 13.6, in Perris—an average that would have been good enough for the silver medal position a year ago.

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USPA Nationals 2025		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	O,4,5	21,12,22	6,J,H,G	N,2,20	L,13,A,F	7,19,M	1,14,18	9,10,15	17,E,8	C,3,P,K	Total	Avg
1	Air Force 9 Ball	15	11	20	13	18	17	11	12	14	13	144	14.4
2	Air Force Voodoo	14	9	18	13	18	14	10	10	13	14	133	13.3
3	CSC Constellation XP	12	9	16	13	17	14	12	11	12	13	129	12.9
4	SDC QuadRhivium	12	10	17	13	16	14	8	10	14	12	126	12.6
5	Platinum XP	13	9	15	12	17	13	10	11	13	12	125	12.5
6	Air Force Fortune	9	6	14	11	20	15	11	12	13	12	123	12.3
7	Salty Buzzards	8	9	15	11	17	12	8	9	11	12	112	11.2
8	Very Very Serious	10	9	14	8	15	12	7	9	10	10	104	10.4
9	AnkhR	10	8	15	11	16	10	7	9	5	9	100	10.0
10	Off the Juice	10	7	12	5	13	11	8	9	10	10	95	9.5
11	4Action	9	7	13	9	8	11	7	9	9	11	93	9.3
12	Perris Parabellum	5	8	9	9	14	10	8	8	9	9	89	8.9
13	Perris Prism	8	6	12	5	11	11	8	8	6	10	85	8.5
14	Its All Gorkas Fault	8	7	11	9	9	1	5	7	10	8	75	7.5

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Air Force 9 Ball - Air Force Vodoo - CSC Constellation at the USPA Nationals 2025

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Especially CSC Constellation's Natalie Rodriguez and Russell Bayuk have been passionate role models for experiencing and advancing 4-way competition in the United States. They started CSC Constellation in the A Class competition of the Midwest Skydiving League in 2021, which was introduced as the 4-way Beginner Class at the USPA Nationals 2021. Two Air Force teams kept CSC Constellation from winning USPA medals in their first year.

Natalie Rodriguez and Russell Bayuk moved up to AA/Intermediate Class competition in 2022 and finished in 11th place at Skydive Chicago, then tied for 4th place a year later at Skydive Paraclete XP. Their third year in the AA/Intermediate Class was finally rewarded with USPA gold medals at Skydive Chicago 2024. As required by USPA rules—and driven by their own desire to progress—Natalie Rodriguez and Russell Bayuk moved up to AAA/Advanced Class competition and immediately finished in 3rd place behind the two Air Force teams. This year's repeat of last year's outcome would move CSC Constellation into its third year of USPA Advanced Class competition.

This was the amount of time they needed to win USPA Intermediate Class gold, unless they voluntarily enter the 4-way Open Class. It is unlikely that they will have to face the same Air Force cadets, who rarely remain in or return to the formation skydiving competition community after their time at the Air Force Academy. With or without the Air Force opposition, Natalie Rodriguez and Russell Bayuk will probably continue the CSC Constellation team project. Year by year, they have integrated new teammates into their 4-way training and competition program and introduced many new skydivers to the 4-way world, both indoors with the Indoor Cloud League Midwest team and outdoors at Chicagoland Skydiving.

USPA Nationals 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Beginner	G,9		D,A,Q		19,H		6,K		B,2		J,O,P		7,M		Total	Avg
1	Air Force Zorro	11		12		6	-2	7		9		13		-		58	9.7
2	Anion Flux	8		10		10		7		7		12		-		54	9.0
3	Air Force Night Fury	10		10	-1	7	-3	6	-2	8		10		13		51	8.5
4	CSC Constellation	6	-2	11		7		7		9		11		9		51	8.5
5	D.a.Danielson	7	-1	7		4	-1	7		6		10		-		41	6.8
6	Perris Chutists	8		11	-1	2	-2	8		8		-		-		37	7.4
7	Altitude Junkies	5	-1	6	-1	5	-1	6	-1	5		7		-		34	5.7
8	Toxic LED	3	-3	6	-1	4	-4	7		5		6		-		31	5.2
9	Unicorn Riders 2.0	4	-2	5		6		3	-1	5		2		-		25	4.2
10	Gold Diggers	4		1	-2	2	-1	3	-2	3		6		-		19	3.2

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Air Force Zero - Air Force Night Fury - CSC Constellation at the USPA Nationals 2021

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