National Qualifier Division - Entries & Structure

Hello all, Thank you for your patience while I finalized our entries, seeding, and qualifier structure. There are some important changes to this year's qualifier that affect all entries in the qualifier division. Please read below for details:

Qualifier Division - First Round Admissions

To allow for more schools to be represented in the Qualifier Division, the top team from each school that applied was admitted. These First Round teams were then ranked based on their total performance so far this season. This seeding has determinedtheir places in the new bracket structure. Standings Calculator:You can see the stats and how they were calculated here. Unweighted Rankings: I've listed all applicants by raw ranking here.

1. Port of Los Angeles HS | Kwon & Lopez [48.75]
2. Elizabeth LC | Perez & Ramos [23.67]
3. Downtown Magnets HS | Martinez & Sultana [22.5]
4. Harbor Teacher Prep | Mandia & Tobias [19.08]
5. Humanities & Arts | Harvey & Upston [18.75]
6. Huntington Park HS | Delgadillo & Medina [18.33]
7. Bravo Medical Magnet HS | Gardiner & Job [12.75]
8. Lake Balboa College Prep | Papazyan & Stepanyan [7.63]

Qualifier Division - Second Round Admissions

The following teams are alternates for the Qualifier Division if any of the invited First Round teams drop:

1. Elizabeth LC | Dominguez & Escobar [21.67]
2. Huntington Park HS | Gonzalez & Vasquez [18]
3. Downtown Magnets HS | Chen & Nicho [12]
4. Harbor Teacher Prep | Laganis & Santos [11.83]

Qualifier Division: Double Elimination Bracket

In order to accommodate an eight team structure, I've chosen to change the Qualifier from a Round Robin to a Double Elimination Bracket. The team rankings were used to place teams in this bracket. This is the bracket structure.

For those of you unfamiliar with this structure, I will provide a summary: A double elimination bracket is a format in which teams must lose twice to be eliminated. There are no preliminary debates - all debates are elimination rounds. Double elimination brackets are broken up into a winners bracket and a losers bracket. All teams start in the Winner's bracket with an undefeated record. Losers of matches in the winners bracket dropdown into a spot and play another loser to see who advances in the loser’s bracket. Losers of later rounds in the winners bracket feed into later rounds of the losers bracket, so it is an advantage to continue winning as long as possible in the winners bracket, as losers have more debates. The top team in each bracket will be our UDNC Qualifiers.