My son is a senior and the past few years we haven't seen anything close to the best of the best in the high school division at kids state. We don't know where they all went or if we could've beat them. We signed up for the Throw down before high school state and planned on going no matter what happened at high school state. We went to the battle of the bad and did good. Most aren't looking for a way out ,just looking for competition. Win or lose , my kid just loves competing!