posted May 26th, 2011 - The NSL News mentioned the Brazilian national 4-way team of the last seven years, CTR Optimum, the last time on 1 March 2011.

Two teams from Brazil, X-Dogs and Fenix, had competed at the Valentine's Meet 2011, and CTR member André Ferraz was coaching them.

His own team has not attended any international meets since the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, France. The NSL News has still covered developments in Brazil, including the CTR personnel change in 2009.

The new CTR Optimum lineup (Ziara Abud, André Ferraz, Daiton Ribeiro, Renato Acerbi) won the national title in 2009 with a 14.3 average and then again in 2010 with a 14.0 average.

There has not really been serious competition for the national team in the past years. In fact, former CTR members and friends were in 2nd place at last year's national championships, still far behind the winners.

Brazilian Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,18,19	6,3,16	P,11,A,D	14,8,4	N,F,E,12	L,1,C,21	7,Q,13	9,M,B,5	G,H,20,17	O,15,K,J	Total	Avg
1	CTR Optimum	11	13	17	11	16	14	15	20	13	16	146	14.6
2	Optimum Friends	10	9	14	10	14	11	15	17	11	11	122	12.2
3	Amazonas Hight Speed XP	8	9	13	9	9	11	10	16	0	13	98	9.8
4	Energy	5	7	8	5	10	8	6	10	7	7	73	7.3
5	DNA	4	7	7	7	5	7	8	10	5	5	65	6.5

This situation may change in 2011. CTR Optimum could be forced to work harder to win the gold medals at Brazil's national championships, as the X-Dogs posted scores at the Valentine's Meet 2011 that impressed coach André Ferraz more than he might have expected.

The 13.4 average is promising and not that far away from the performance and scoring level where CTR Optimum was in 2009 and 2010. The reigning 4-way champions also went through another personnel change at the end of the 2010 season.

André Ferraz reported that former Airspeed member Craig Girard helped to put together the lineup for the 2011 season. André Ferraz and Daiton Ribeiro continue with CTR, while former CTR members Fabio Diniz and Guillermo Gorg replace Ziara Abud and Renato Acerbi. Kalley Ferreira is on the CTR camera this year.

Valentine's Meet 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	18,N,9	20,6,5	11,O,7	15,13,P	21,L,D,C	G,F,M,K,4	A,3,22	10,19,H	14,2,B	1,E,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	25	23	27	23	30	36	23	21	21	21	250	25.0
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	26	19	26	21	27	35	24	19	18	19	234	23.4
3	Russia Black Cat	17	14	16	12	21	20	13	16	15	14	158	15.8
4	Brazil X-Dogs	15	11	16	11	17	16	14	13	9	12	134	13.4
5	Teiwaz West	15	10	15	9	12	16	10	10	-	-	97	12.1

The new lineup had the first training camp in April. Mark Kirkby was coaching the Brazilian team, and André Ferraz was impressed with the results of the training. Mark Kirkby will visit Brazil next month for another 5-day camp. CTR Optimum plans one more training camp with Arizona Airspeed's Tail in August in Arizona.

CTR Optimum has to be ready for the national championships and the potential X-Dogs charge after the August camp. The Brazilian Nationals 2011 are scheduled for September 3-7. Brazilian teams also have the opportunity to test their competition skills at another meet at the beginning of July.

The Optimum project has grown and now includes a second 4-way lineup and an 8-way team. Three members of previous national 4-way lineups (Ziara Abud, Pedro Ushizima, Renato Acerbi) and former Zossers member George Narita continue with the "farm team" and join forces to train and compete in 8-way, as well. Rodrigo is on this camera. André Ferraz said that both 4-way teams are training hard. As the X-Dogs coach he knows the strength of the Army team and embraces the challenge: "We will have awesome meets this year in Brazil."