1051 Registered teams
190 Rookies
Several Regionals are light on attendance, however, if you just sum up all the pending (including overflow) there would only be about two dozen Regional slots open. (Discounting Israel since I think that is still closed to out-of-country registrations?)
Three times this total in Championship slots are being left on the table.
Even if you just add up all the un-requested Regional slots it's still less than the available Championship vacancies.
I ran into a team at Brunswick Eruption this past weekend who hadn't paid any attention to Championship, because they assumed being Tier 1 they wouldn't have a chance of getting in. I corrected that impression with one team, but there may be many others who assumed Championship would be impossible to get into, and just haven't noticed it's so empty.
Back to the topic...
California just squeaked by NY, so it's now:
- Michigan 97
- California 94
- New York 93
I'm flattened by the huge increase in Missouri rookies, especially, when you consider the 8 rookies in Kansas are in that same geographical area and part of the same growth spurred by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.