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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