Winning Regional... then what...

[nxtscholar]

so my kids won 1st place at the regional at NJIT Bridge Building B

are they entitled for the state or is there another qualifying criteria in order for them to be eligible to enter state?

I'm quoting this post rather than your most recent one to save space while notifying you.

This should really be posted in the NJ forum, but anyways:

In recent years, NJSO has become increasingly desperate in finding volunteers to run events. I understand that the way NJIT ran some events was poor, but having run the event myself at UCC, I can empathize with the coordinators. As mentioned previously, at the very least all competitors had to deal with the same poor conditions and ultimately, I hold the opinion that running the event poorly is better than not running it at all.

With regards to how the 50% is calculated, do note that "50%" is really an approximate estimate. For the past few years, states has only hosted 26 teams EACH from division B and division C. The general distribution is 9 schools from one region, 9 schools from another, and 8 schools from the third (which would have the least number of teams competing).

It's almost certain that NJIT will be allocated 9 schools to move on. So I'll break it down for you here:

Montgomery Upper MS got 1st, so they're def moving on.
Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter had two teams, but while one of them got 20th, the other got 2nd. So they get to send a team to states.
Rising Star Academy, Hammarskjold MS, Roosevelt IS, Hillsborough MS got 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively. They move on.
Glenridge MS #1 got 7th, so Glenridge MS can send 1 team to states.
Mt. Hebron got 8th, so they can also send a team to states.
Now, Glenridge MS #2 got 9th, but their MS already is sending a team to states, so we move on to the next best school in standing. Al-Ghazaly MS got 10th, so they qualify.

At this point, we've reached 9 MS teams from NJIT. Generally, these will be the teams extended invitations to go to states and they usually will accept them. However, if any one of them declines, then we go on to the next best team in standings and move on from there.

As noted by Chalker and other users, it is certainly advantageous in terms of qualifying to the next level to field more teams, or at the very least, have enough team members to adequately compete in all events. Most competitors indeed compete in 2-3 events.

[Unome]

I see from the scoresheet that your middle school got a lot of 21s in events - I assume you didn't bring a full team then to compete in those events? You usually only get a number larger than the number of teams competing in an event if you got disqualified or didn't even compete. In which case, if that is what you were getting at, all I can say is find more interested people!

my kids go to a very small school... 11 or 12 students per class...
i was surprised that the science teacher was able to get so many kids interested in this.
but prior to the competition, it seems some contests were taken off and some kids were told that they will not be doing that contest... due to lack of participation?

Seeing as nxtscholar has already responded to the rest of your post: I notice that NJIT regionals only runs 14 events out of the 23 (maybe this is what you're talking about with some being taken off?). Looking at the schedule, if you really push it, you can probably fill every event with 7 or 8 people total doing 4-5 events each; if you can get this many people interested, start preparing early, and go to some invitationals for practice (if I remember correctly, Rustin (Philadelphia) and Yale are the two closest Div B invites to northern New Jersey) you should be able to qualify for State next year.

[SPP SciO]

One other thing to note, for the original poster: don't let the motivation fizzle out when the competition season comes to a conclusion! If you've got a couple of superstar bridge builders on an average team (keep in mind: "average" teams typically compete in only one regional tournament; only "elite" teams typically advance), look into other bridge-related competitions - there are many!

When I was in high school, there was a big let down after spending dozens, possibly hundreds, of hours working on our Mission Possible - all for one glorious minute at competition, and then, that was it. Fortunately, our coach found info about a local Rube Goldberg competition later in the spring, and that totally revitalized the school year for my friend and I. Sometimes, we don't like to admit it, but - there is more to life than Science Olympiad

[NamG]

I can sympathize with your kids, kinghong, when I was a competitor in that exact situation. One thing that helped me keep interest and keep learning, and provide a sense of satisfaction is to stay up to date with the results of higher competitions, such as the state or national level. I could compare my scores and see how well I would have done. This wasn't anywhere the same as being there, but it helped. Some scores are posted on a different thread on this site.

SPP SciO had some great points.

There is an international bridge building contest with various regional competitions:
http://bridgecontest.phys.iit.edu/

Engineering Encounters does a virtual contest (previously known as West Point Bridge Designer Contest)
https://bridgecontest.org/

I am sure there are other opportunities as well.

[kinghong1970]

thank you all for your kind replies.

i was in middle of my business trip, just landed in my destination only after hours of redirected flight after another, then a 1 hour bus ride... it was an exhausting day... and to hear of this... i guess it just got to me.

explained to the kids how they have achieved a lot...
they are still quite proud of having done this and have won 1st place at regionals.

they are still anxious to get involved next year... perhaps in more than one field since this was something to get them acquainted with.

again, want to thank everyone for taking time to explain and for your kind words.

Sincerely,

Al