I asked this very same question my second year :) Here's the short answer-
James Madison University hosts the VA state competitions, runs the event as
part of a class project for their business majors, and generally sponsors
the event due the amount of time, effort and space given to FIRST *so* the
state match takes place at the end of fall semester each year- early
December.   Of course, FIRST volunteers like Karen and Steve do a great
deal and are to be commended for all their time and effort as well, but JMU
allows it to happen, there so it's on their time frame :)
 But VA state winners get an extra long time to work out the kinks before
going to World :)
(Unofficial answer)
Brandy


On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 7:59 PM, Jayakumar Dwarakadas <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I second that.
> On Oct 23, 2013 7:51 PM, "Fredrik Nyman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> It seems that VA-DC schedules the regional qualifiers awfully early.
>> Maryland does theirs in Dec/Jan.
>>
>> The later start seems like a better idea considering that
>> school-based rookie teams usually start in mid-September, a few weeks after
>> school starts.
>>
>> I am curious why Virginia's qualifiers run so early and wondering if it
>> would be possible/desirable to run future qualifiers later in the years so
>> teams get more time to practice?
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