Strongest Invitationals?

[jkang]

Having competed in the first and proctored for the next two, I'd definitely say MIT is one of the top invitationals, both in terms of the competitors and the administrators. High quality selection of test-writers (most are either national proctors or competed/won nationally), test revisions, etc. These high standards of course draw in many of the nationally competitive teams, such as Troy, Solon, LASA, etc. In terms of Hovercraft, the reason they had nice tracks is because the national supervisor volunteered for the event and brought his own tracks.

[Fanglin]

Gray's lake invitational is pretty strong, they usually have 3 national teams compete there (Daniel Wright, Marie Murphy, and Hamilton)
Also Solon Invitational is big... no need to explain

[sandvinsd]

I'm just going to list them in tiers, since sometimes it's really hard to distinguish.

Div B:
1. Wright State (has been top pretty consistently in B)
2. Mira Loma (this and the next two because NorCal B teams are really strong right now)
3. Mountain House, Mesa-Wilson, Churchill, Mentor, Westlake, Kenston, probably one or two IL tournaments (but again, I don't know much about that area)
4. Probably Rustin (would have been tier 3 if not for snow), Boyceville, Cornell, a few IL and MI tourneys that I don't know about, Dodgen, Chattahoochee (though hopefully we'll be higher next year )
5. no idea

I would add the Kraemer B invitational to the list with the high number of schools attending from the competitive SoCal state. With the exception of Mesa Verde, last year's #3 team, it had all the top teams from the SoCal elite (remember no Muscatel this year so one of these is likely going to Nationals). Any of those top 5 on this list would be top 20 National favorites if they could ever attend.

Attending with placing in last year state tournament:
#2 Kraemer - 4 teams
#4 CVMS (2 teams, just won SD regional and if both teams were schools, both would have qualified for state)
#5 Mesa Robles (2 teams)
#6 Jeffrey Trail (2 teams)
#7 Oak Valley MS (2 teams, just finished second in SD regional and like CVMS both would have qualified for state)
#9 Chaparral (2 teams)
#11 Suzanne (2 teams)
#12 Ladera Vista (2 teams)
#13 Ocean Air (4 teams)
#15 Serra Vista

Also Kennedy, the #2 from NorCal was there with two teams.

[Unome]

I'm just going to list them in tiers, since sometimes it's really hard to distinguish.

Div B:
1. Wright State (has been top pretty consistently in B)
2. Mira Loma (this and the next two because NorCal B teams are really strong right now)
3. Mountain House, Mesa-Wilson, Churchill, Mentor, Westlake, Kenston, probably one or two IL tournaments (but again, I don't know much about that area)
4. Probably Rustin (would have been tier 3 if not for snow), Boyceville, Cornell, a few IL and MI tourneys that I don't know about, Dodgen, Chattahoochee (though hopefully we'll be higher next year )
5. no idea

I would add the Kraemer B invitational to the list with the high number of schools attending from the competitive SoCal state. With the exception of Mesa Verde, last year's #3 team, it had all the top teams from the SoCal elite (remember no Muscatel this year so one of these is likely going to Nationals). Any of those top 5 on this list would be top 20 National favorites if they could ever attend.

Attending with placing in last year state tournament:
#2 Kraemer - 4 teams
#4 CVMS (2 teams, just won SD regional and if both teams were schools, both would have qualified for state)
#5 Mesa Robles (2 teams)
#6 Jeffrey Trail (2 teams)
#7 Oak Valley MS (2 teams, just finished second in SD regional and like CVMS both would have qualified for state)
#9 Chaparral (2 teams)
#11 Suzanne (2 teams)
#12 Ladera Vista (2 teams)
#13 Ocean Air (4 teams)
#15 Serra Vista

Also Kennedy, the #2 from NorCal was there with two teams.

Agreed, I forgot about Kraemer. I'd put them in #4.

[sandvinsd]

Kraemer and JT teams finished 1-2-3-4 in OC that were at the regional. The San Diego schools who attended the Kraemer invite were CVMS was 1,6,7, Oak Valley 2,8 and Black Mountain 3,5, so they represented 7 of the top 8 teams!

[EastStroudsburg13]

I would add the Kraemer B invitational to the list with the high number of schools attending from the competitive SoCal state. With the exception of Mesa Verde, last year's #3 team, it had all the top teams from the SoCal elite (remember no Muscatel this year so one of these is likely going to Nationals). Any of those top 5 on this list would be top 20 National favorites if they could ever attend.

Attending with placing in last year state tournament:
#2 Kraemer - 4 teams
#4 CVMS (2 teams, just won SD regional and if both teams were schools, both would have qualified for state)
#5 Mesa Robles (2 teams)
#6 Jeffrey Trail (2 teams)
#7 Oak Valley MS (2 teams, just finished second in SD regional and like CVMS both would have qualified for state)

I'm not sure about any of the top five. Jeffrey Trail and Kraemer would definitely be favorites for top 20 in my mind. However, I am not entirely convinced about the others. In my mind, Carmel Valley is right around the borderline and could go either way. Mesa Robles and Oak Valley are good teams, but I think they'd probably be underdogs for top 20. Top 30 would be more reasonable.

[SOPomo]

Also Kennedy, the #2 from NorCal was there with two teams.

Kennedy wasn't at Kraemer, because Mira Loma was the same weekend up north, and they won that one. Unless they have four teams.

They did make Mesa Robles / Wilson though, at the end of the month.

[Luo]

I would also add that since they pay for event supervisors' costs (last I heard, not sure if this is still true but seems likely), this allows them to bring in basically anyone who's willing (which they can find a lot of by going through their members' networks).

yes, this is still the case

[awesome90220]

I'm just going to list them in tiers, since sometimes it's really hard to distinguish.

Div C:
1. MIT (by a lot)
2. Wright State (they wouldn't have been here last year, MIT stole their thunder), Golden Gate
3. Mira Loma, Westlake, Mentor, Troy, Cornell
4. UPenn, Solon, Princeton, Rice (though the TX teams were very split), Valley Forge
5. idk maybe Boyceville, depends how the area's teams are doing. Possibly Kenston and WL-S too. A few IL and MI tournaments could be put here, but I don't know enough about those areas.

If you hadn't already heard, Twin Tiers is basically dead.

Div B:
1. Wright State (has been top pretty consistently in B)
2. Mira Loma (this and the next two because NorCal B teams are really strong right now)
3. Mountain House, Mesa-Wilson, Churchill, Mentor, Westlake, Kenston, probably one or two IL tournaments (but again, I don't know much about that area)
4. Probably Rustin (would have been tier 3 if not for snow), Boyceville, Cornell, a few IL and MI tourneys that I don't know about, Dodgen, Chattahoochee (though hopefully we'll be higher next year )
5. no idea

Edit: Agree with mostly everything East says above

Unome what can you say about the Brookwood invitationals in its relation to the top 5 invites?

[Unome]

I'm just going to list them in tiers, since sometimes it's really hard to distinguish.

Div C:
1. MIT (by a lot)
2. Wright State (they wouldn't have been here last year, MIT stole their thunder), Golden Gate
3. Mira Loma, Westlake, Mentor, Troy, Cornell
4. UPenn, Solon, Princeton, Rice (though the TX teams were very split), Valley Forge
5. idk maybe Boyceville, depends how the area's teams are doing. Possibly Kenston and WL-S too. A few IL and MI tournaments could be put here, but I don't know enough about those areas.

If you hadn't already heard, Twin Tiers is basically dead.

Div B:
1. Wright State (has been top pretty consistently in B)
2. Mira Loma (this and the next two because NorCal B teams are really strong right now)
3. Mountain House, Mesa-Wilson, Churchill, Mentor, Westlake, Kenston, probably one or two IL tournaments (but again, I don't know much about that area)
4. Probably Rustin (would have been tier 3 if not for snow), Boyceville, Cornell, a few IL and MI tourneys that I don't know about, Dodgen, Chattahoochee (though hopefully we'll be higher next year )
5. no idea

Edit: Agree with mostly everything East says above

Unome what can you say about the Brookwood invitationals in its relation to the top 5 invites?

Brookwood is certainly not near 5th tier. Maybe 7th tier or so, with the very top MI invites (West Ottawa?) at 6th. Consider the level of the tournaments on 5th (minus MI invites which none are really quite competitive enough). All of the invites listed have at least one top ten nationals team in attendance - Mounds View at Boyceville, Solon at Kenston, Solon and (maybe?) Northville at WL-S, New Trier and Stevenson at the top IL invites, etc.

Anecdotal evidence - I won three gold medals at Brookwood when I was a sophomore (despite only one of my partners being, at the time, as good as I was at the event). I was certainly not good enough that this was solely a product of skill - I definitely couldn't have done that at, say, Boyceville or Kenston (though I think I could have managed to be like top 6 in all of them).