What is the Hardest State to Compete in?

[Arcturus]

I think Ohio is because there are a lot of hard teams from my state. There are probably 6 teams that compete each year to go to nationals. Anyone of them could go and place highly. What do you think about your own state or other states that you've heard of?

[starpug]

I would say NY

[Arcturus]

New York and other states do have a lot of teams.

[sweetcoop]

Colorado just cause

[sk8lynne]

I think New York too...we have sooo many regions. In the two regions in Long Island there are like 40 teams each in Eastern and Western LI. LI has more teams than some states!!!!

[Arcturus]

States with more teams are almost always going to be harder and mor competitive.

[dickyjones]

I consider hardest to compete in to mean something similar to hardest to get to nats in.

Ohio, almost without a doubt. They've had three teams in C that could each get top 10 no matter which is picked, and their B division is similar. A close second would be Pennsylvania, though they seem a little more top heavy. Michigan is usually up there too. And California's obviously good (especially south, I believe). New York is good too, but last year there was quite a gap between their teams at nationals. I don't really know how to rank the next ones though. New Jersey would be difficult because they send only one team to nats and they have top 10 teams in both division B and C. Indiana had teams that got 10th and 11th respectively at nats last year in division C and only sent 1 team this year, which would definitely make it seem to be a difficult competition. Also, the winning middle school has historically been a top 10 team.

[Phenylethylamine]

Ohio is definitely one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, but New York- with 561 teams, how could it be anything but difficult to get to Nats? (Admittedly, that is between both divisions, but still- we have more teams than any other state.)

[wlsguy]

I think Ohio historically has had the most consistant finishes at Nats. We find that many of the invitationals in Ohio tend to be worse than the State Competition. This year, almost every invitational had the 2008 National 1st and 3rd place B- finishers and the 2nd the 3rd place C- finishers. When it's this hard to win, you study harder to get better. This being said, getting to State is not as difficult unless you end up in a region with one of these powerhouse teams. It's getting to Nats that is the real challenge (unless you go to Solon or Centerville)

[eyeball138]

Ohio is certainly the most difficult. Every year, Ohio could probably send the top 3 or 4 teams from each division, and they would all get top 10 at nationals. You could be an excellent team, a team capable of getting top 15 at nationals, and you may not even have a very good chance of going. Really, I don't think there's another state that comes close. I would put PA 2nd and I guess NY 3rd, but NY is a little bit different. New York has the most teams, yes, but they don't have the teams that do fantastic at nationals. It really depends on how I look at this question. If I look at the state that produces the best teams, I would drop them down a little bit. However, if I look at it like how difficult it would be to do well in the state, NY would be number one.