Crazy Hats and Congratulations

First off, congrats to advancing teams to the Affiliate Tournament! I was very impressed by all the Rising Star teams. They all worked very hard and produced some amazing structures and stories!

So while at the Roanoke Regional, we saw some very cool Crazy hats!

We’ll be heading up to Crozet in two weeks to check out the Affilliate Tournament.

We want to hear from you! Tell us your team’s story. There are so many amazing things that have happened this year and want to hear it. Email Abbey at hoekzema@vt.edu about your team. Photos and video are welcome!

Congratulations SW Highlands!

We want to congratulate all the teams that performed today! You all did an amazing job! Good luck to the teams advancing to States!

We really enjoyed watching all the teams in Marion and meeting all the wonderful volunteers, parents and teams.

Congratulations and a job well done to all the Appraisers, score runners, volunteers and parents. Without you, DI would not be possible!

The Roanoke, Southside  and the North West tournaments will round out Regionals.  We will be at the Roanoke Regional and will finish with the Affilliate Tournament in Crozet. Also, if your team has a funny or interesting photo or clip, consider submitting them! Or tell us your story!

Fantastic job teams!

SW Highlands, Here we come!

We would like to wish all the teams competing in DI tomorrow good luck! Especially the teams competing at the SW Highlands Regional. We really wish we could be at both places on Saturday.

One thing I’m really excited about tomorrow is getting to meet a University Level team, competing in Challenge C: “You’re Gonna Flip!” University teams can be really hard to come by unless you are from Texas or attend James Madison University. If you have the time at SW Highlands, go check them out!

Another thing, I’m thrilled about is watching all the performances. For the first time ever, I understand what each Challenge is about!

We are working on a short video about the Tidwater tournament, which will be posted very soon!

Good Luck!

Congratulations Tidewater DI!

I was so exited to see all the DI teams at the Tidewater Regional today! The costumes, props, puppets, and machines were amazing! I want to congratulate everyone who competed, you all had to overcome so much just to get there!

I will be posting a recap video in a week or two to the blog. This upcoming weekend, we will be heading down to the Southwest Highlands Regional tournament in Marion.

Congrats to the advancing teams from the Tidewater and Jefferson Regions and good luck to all those competing next weekend!

Tidewater Regional!

Tomorrow, Tidewater will open the competition season. We are in the process of loading the car with the equipment and driving up to Virignia Beach. During the day tomorrow feel free to say hello! After the compeition, we will be posting some photos here.

We want to wish everyone the best of luck tomorrow. You have all worked so hard! May the Duct Tape never run out or the creativity fade!

Instant Challenge Tips!

Only five days until the Tidewater Regional! As teams polish their work, we’re putting together our gear. We just want to wish everyone good luck!  You’ve all worked so hard!

Here are a few tips for preparing for Instant Challenge.

1. Practice…Practice…practice. With only a few days or weeks left practice IC’s that your team might be weak at.

2. Teamwork. Remember, you’ve all worked together to create long term challenges. The IC is no different.

3. Read the Directions! Make sure during the read through and completing the challenge that you stay aware of what the challenge is asking for.

4. HAVE FUN!!!!!!

Getting Ready for Regionals? Here’s six tips…

Here’s a six tips for the big day!

1. Get there early! You want to leave enough time to check in, find the challenge site and unload props!

2. Make sure your team has completed all the paperwork and has the required amount of copies!

3. Bring a bag of tools for props, costumes or set pieces that might need some touching up after traveling. You might pack: duct tape, hot glue gun, hot glue, hammer, screw driver, first aide kit, etc..You never know what could happen!

4. Be prepared for delays! Sometimes performances can get behind schedule! This just means the Appraisers are working really hard and want consider each team equally.

5. Need to pass the time between Instant Challenge, Central Challenge and awards? Watch other team’s performances! You’ve spent all year working on your challenge solution and I bet you are proud to show off your stuff, and so does everyone else! When you have the chance, go watch another challenges and age groups. You’ll be amazed at what everyone else came up with!

Also, depending on the Tournament, there might be other fun activities to check out too! You might be able to pick up some really cool DI gear!

6. Smile and have fun!!! Even if everything goes wrong, you still made it to competition! You stretched your imagination, hung out with some really cool people and learned new skills. Enjoy the day!

Hopefully these are helpful for you!
Good luck and have fun!!!!

Regional Competitions

We will be visiting three of the Regional Tournaments! As it gets closer to the tournaments we will be posting more information about our work there. We can’t wait to see all the creativity and teamwork!

We will also be heading up to the Affiliate Tournament as well.  If we are not at your Regional Tournament, hopefully we’ll see you there!

Tournaments we’ll be at:

Tidewater Regional
February 27th

Southwest Highlands Regional
March 6th

Roanoke Regional
March 13th

Affiliate Tournament
March 27th

Good Luck!