It’s less than 3 weeks until the MDDI State Tournament at UMBC. Can you feel the excitement in the air? We are looking forward to seeing the creative solutions that teams are preparing in these final weeks. For those teams that place the highest in each challenge and each level (Elementary, Middle, and Secondary) they will then have the opportunity to advance Global Finals in Kansas City, MO and compete with the top teams from around the world. While last year Global Finals was open to all teams, this year we are getting back to pre-pandemic team counts so Global Finals will be invite only to the top teams. So which teams will advance? Great question. We’ll lay all that out in this post.
In addition to our Maryland teams we have teams from DC participating in our tournament. From a DIHQ perspective the DC teams advance separately so there are slightly different rules for each. First we’ll cover Maryland teams and then DC teams.
For Maryland teams, this year the top THREE teams from each challenge and each level will be able to advance to Global Finals EXCEPT with for Flip the Script (Fine Arts) and Thrill Ride (Engineering). Due to the popularity of Flip the Script and Thrill Ride with elementary teams, we will have multiple challenge sites. Flip the Script will have two sites for Elementary. Thrill Ride will have three sites for Elementary! Each of these sites will advance teams independently. So how many of these elementary teams will have the opportunity to go to Globals? For the Flip the Script, the top THREE teams from each site will advance. This will give a total of SIX elementary Flip the script teams. For Thrill ride, the top TWO teams from each site will advance. So this will give a total of SIX elementary Thrill Ride teams.
For our DC teams, the top DC team in each challenge and each level will advance to Global Finals. The DC teams will still compete in the same sites along with other teams, but the advancement will happen independently.
As always the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be announced at our awards ceremony. All teams eligible for advancing to Global Finals will receive information detailed information necessary to register and attend Global Finals. Good luck to all the team and we can’t wait to see you at UMBC on April 1st!
From, The Maryland Team