Questions From a Newbie

[Alicecream]

Hello, I'm super excited for this year's nationals, because it's my first
Anyway, people usually don't post blogs about SO, and so I have a few questions and such, as expected of a newbie.
So... Before I ask any of you veterans, I'd like to thank anyone who drops by to answer these.

--Here are my questions!--
-I watched the awards from last year, and everyone was wearing formal clothes.. Do we have to bring formal clothing?
-Why isn't everything on the same day? Why is it 19-20th?
-About how many people come to the competition? (I know it's obviously going to be 50 teams..)
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.
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That's about it for my questions now. I'm sure I'd have more to come if I just wonder in class about this..
So if anyone can answer these questions, I'd be really grateful

[John Richardsim]

-I watched the awards from last year, and everyone was wearing formal clothes.. Do we have to bring formal clothing?

Attire for the awards ceremony is formal. If someone on your team does not bring formal clothing, they will look silly (especially if they end up medaling in something).

-Why isn't everything on the same day? Why is it 19-20th?

The opening ceremony is held the night before. Often trial events are run the day before as well.

-About how many people come to the competition? (I know it's obviously going to be 50 teams..)

There's 120 teams between division B and C (121 if you count the ambassador team). Add in a few coaches, many parents...okay, I don't really have a very good estimate of this. Someone else probably can answer this better than I can.

[Alicecream]

-I watched the awards from last year, and everyone was wearing formal clothes.. Do we have to bring formal clothing?

Attire for the awards ceremony is formal. If someone on your team does not bring formal clothing, they will look silly (especially if they end up medaling in something).

-Why isn't everything on the same day? Why is it 19-20th?

The opening ceremony is held the night before. Often trial events are run the day before as well.

-About how many people come to the competition? (I know it's obviously going to be 50 teams..)

There's 120 teams between division B and C (121 if you count the ambassador team). Add in a few coaches, many parents...okay, I don't really have a very good estimate of this. Someone else probably can answer this better than I can.

Omg thank you! TuT

[Unome]

-I watched the awards from last year, and everyone was wearing formal clothes.. Do we have to bring formal clothing?

Attire for the awards ceremony is formal. If someone on your team does not bring formal clothing, they will look silly (especially if they end up medaling in something).

-Why isn't everything on the same day? Why is it 19-20th?

The opening ceremony is held the night before. Often trial events are run the day before as well.

-About how many people come to the competition? (I know it's obviously going to be 50 teams..)

There's 120 teams between division B and C (121 if you count the ambassador team). Add in a few coaches, many parents...okay, I don't really have a very good estimate of this. Someone else probably can answer this better than I can.

Omg thank you! TuT

Welcome to the forums! To answer the remaining questions:

- There are 60 teams per division, since some states get two bids - someone else can explain that or provide a link to an explanation - and some states (Vermont) don't have state organizations. Teams vary greatly in the amount of people (some teams will have barely 15 or even less, and some teams will bring coaches + parents + alternates for as many as 50 people), so it's hard to say. I'll go with 20 people per team for this estimate:

• 20 * 120 = 2400 for teams
• Probably like ~10 for the Japanese ambassador team
• Again, the nubmer of event supervisors and volunteers per event varies greatly; I'll go with 5, so 5 * 50 = 250
• Sponsors: probably around 100 people
• General VIPS: state directors and associated people, etc. probably comes out to around 150

So aroudn 3000 people or so. I assume that usually the quoted figures in news stories of ~4000-5000 include literally everyone onsite (such as university personnel).

- According to a post from chalker made last year, the plan for trial events this year was to run them on Saturday alongside the regular events; not sure if this is still the case.

[Alicecream]

Attire for the awards ceremony is formal. If someone on your team does not bring formal clothing, they will look silly (especially if they end up medaling in something).

The opening ceremony is held the night before. Often trial events are run the day before as well.

There's 120 teams between division B and C (121 if you count the ambassador team). Add in a few coaches, many parents...okay, I don't really have a very good estimate of this. Someone else probably can answer this better than I can.

Omg thank you! TuT

Welcome to the forums! To answer the remaining questions:

- There are 60 teams per division, since some states get two bids - someone else can explain that or provide a link to an explanation - and some states (Vermont) don't have state organizations. Teams vary greatly in the amount of people (some teams will have barely 15 or even less, and some teams will bring coaches + parents + alternates for as many as 50 people), so it's hard to say. I'll go with 20 people per team for this estimate:

• 20 * 120 = 2400 for teams
• Probably like ~10 for the Japanese ambassador team
• Again, the nubmer of event supervisors and volunteers per event varies greatly; I'll go with 5, so 5 * 50 = 250
• Sponsors: probably around 100 people
• General VIPS: state directors and associated people, etc. probably comes out to around 150

So aroudn 3000 people or so. I assume that usually the quoted figures in news stories of ~4000-5000 include literally everyone onsite (such as university personnel).

- According to a post from chalker made last year, the plan for trial events this year was to run them on Saturday alongside the regular events; not sure if this is still the case.

Thank you