First Place Overall Winner Program

It is the goal of NCSO to encourage and recognize the most hard-working and talented science students in the state of North Carolina. To make sure every student and every school participating in NCSO is given the opportunity to be represented at the state level, the NCSO is allowing First Place Overall Event Winners to advance to the State Tournament. Rules for this program are below:

Note: Since most events require 2 or more competitors to compete together, it shall be inferred that ‘individuals,’ used throughout this document, refers to all students from a team competing in a particular event.

Schools that qualify for the State Tournament are not allowed to participate in the First Place Overall Winner Program. If a school’s Varsity team qualifies the school for the State Tournament, individuals from that school, whether on a Varsity or Junior Varsity team, are NOT eligible advance to the State Tournament as a First Place Overall Winner. In this case, the TEAM concept takes priority; it is the coach’s decision what individuals will be a part of the school’s Varsity team at the State Tournament.

Schools that do NOT qualify for the State Tournament are allowed to participate in the First Place Overall Winner Program. If a school’s Varsity team does NOT qualify the school for the State Tournament, individuals from that school, whether on a Varsity or Junior Varsity team, may advance to the State Tournament to compete ONLY in events the individuals were First Place Overall Event Winners at the regional competition. This means that on the “combined score sheet” for the Regional Competition, there is a “1” in the box for that event. This means that Varsity or Junior Varsity individuals receiving gold medals but were NOT First Place Overall Event Winners are NOT eligible to advance to the State Tournament. A Gold Medal is not a ticket to the State Tournament. Only First Place Overall Winners (FPOWS) in an event are invited to the State Tournament.

Only the SAME students who earned first place overall at Regionals will be allowed to advance to the State Tournament. NO SUBSTITUTIONS allowed.

Individuals who advance to the State Tournament under this program will not affect team standings regarding team placements or who qualify for Nationals. First Place Overall Winners are NOT eligible to move on to the National Competition. Individuals that advance to the State Tournament under this program will be included in the combined scoring for each individual event for purposes of awarding event medals. However, to determine the overall team standings, individuals under this program will be removed from the rankings for all events so that team standings are unaffected.