Virginia 2024

[smayya337]

Two weeks in and still no Virginia thread? Tragic. Guess I'll do it myself again.

This information is incomplete; I'll try to add more as I learn about it, but I admit I'm not as plugged-in as I once was, so I might be a bit slow.

Events
These events are only run at states:

• Detector Building C

• Experimental Design B

• Experimental Design C

• Meteorology B

• Microbe Mission B

• Microbe Mission C

Flight in both divisions may be run at some regionals but not all.

VASO is also starting a YouTube series with basic "getting started" information, particularly for builds. If that sounds interesting to you, you should subscribe to them on YouTube.

Invitationals

• 12/9: Lake Braddock B (Burke)

• 1/6: Fairfax C (Fairfax)

• 1/27: Virginia Tech C (Blacksburg)

Regionals
VASO is planning three Division B tournaments and four Division C tournaments (all in-person!) These are the announced ones:

• 2/17: Mary Washington B/C (Fredericksburg)

• 2/17: Virginia Tech C (Blacksburg)

This is just speculation, but I'd guess one B/C will be in NoVA and the other in Charlottesville again. They'll both be in February, a bit later than in the past.

States
No official announcement for states yet, but expect it to be early- to mid-April at UVA in Charlottesville. This is later than the past few years, when it was in late-March.

One very big detail: VASO has now changed their model so that any school that gets first place in an event at regionals is automatically invited to states for that specific event, even if the school did not qualify overall. They cannot switch out the members of that event team. My understanding is that these teams are judged as exhibition teams at states, so they'll get medals but won't be considered for nationals. This is the same model used in some other states (the example VASO gave was Michigan). Note that if your school qualified for states overall, this is irrelevant -- everything is the exact same as previous years for you.