I see in the qualifying criteria that there needs to be a minimum of 10 teams in each grade division (ms and hs) in order to have separate excellence awards given to middle school and high school. How hard and fast is this rule? For example, if at the regional competition to qualify for worlds, there will only be a middle school excellence award winner going to worlds and the event is a blended event, does that mean the region needs to reserve at least 10 spots for middle school teams so they can give out the excellence award to a middle school team?
On a related note, if a region has 11 high school worlds spots and 1 middle school worlds spot and they are having a blended tournament, what happens if 1 middle school team is a tournament champion, another is tournament finalist, and a 3rd team is the middle school excellence award winner? Do the teams that actually won in the competition take 2 of the high school spots or are their on the field accomplishments disregarded?
If they take high school allocated spots, would they compete in the high school division at worlds or would they compete in the middle school division?
Thanks in advance for helping give clarity.