[EricH]

I would say this:

If any team, for any reason, declines an award or to compete in the eliminations, that is their call. This does include the reason being that the event is their third district event. As long as they choose that as a team, and make it known to the appropriate parties (judges, refs, MC possibly), I don't think anybody would have a problem with that. (And it has happened before. I can think of two separate cases.) The team could even promote another team for the award, if they wanted.

However, I do not think that it should be required for any team to do so, regardless of number of events played. Doing that, as noted, creates a huge issue with points advantages.