2022-2023 Illinois DI Tournament Timeline

Regional Tournaments will be held in person this year! All teams participating in DI in Illinois will be expected to attend a Regional Tournament.

Your team has been assigned a Regional Tournament to attend based historically on the number of teams participating in the state and the geographical location of the school, organization or individuals purchasing the program materials and team numbers. Both Competitive Teams and the non-Competitive Early Learning teams are invited to present at your assigned Regional tournament. The basic tournament fee was paid at time of your Program materials and team number purchase. 

Region 1 teams are based in Lake and McHenry Counties. Tournament location Gurnee.

Region 2 teams are based in Chicago, Cook County west and south of O’Hare -(use Rt 83 as a N/S line for northern Cook county), DuPage, Kane, DeKalb, Kendall, and Will Counties. Tournament location Glen Ellyn.

Region 3 teams are based in central, northwestern, and southern Illinois and all other locations not listed in Illinois DI Regions 1, 2, and 4. Tournament location Pekin.

Region 4 teams are based in northern Cook County, north of the City of Chicago and east of Route 83, up to  Lake/Cook Road. Tournament location Wilmette.

Teams that are unsure of their assigned Region, or wish to participate in a Region where they are not located, please contact the Affiliate Directors, Jan Darnell or Diana Dignan.

For 2022 – 2023, Illinois DI has made participation in a Regional Tournament easier by collecting the Regional Tournament Fee at the time of your Team Number purchase! As long as your team registers by the deadline for your regional and provides the mandatory additional adult volunteer to be an Official at the Regional Tournament, there will be no additional cost to participate at the Regional. Regional Registration deadlines and forms will be available to all teams by November 1, 2022 at the latest.

Competitive teams placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in each level of each Team Challenge at their Regional will receive medals and trophies. Special Awards will also be presented. Early Learning, non-competitive team members all receive participation medals for presenting at their Regional. Competitive teams scoring the highest three places at their Regional will be invited to participate in-person at the Affiliate Final Tournament to be held at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb on March 25, 2023. If any Challenge and level has a much higher participation than other Challenges at any Regional, additional places may be invited to participate at the Affiliate Tournament from that Region.  For instance, if there are 15 Elementary teams in a Challenge at a Regional, we will be inviting the top five places to the Affiliate. 

The Fee to participate in the Affiliate Final will be $100.00 per team membership number. Registration for this tournament closes March 15, 2023 and teams qualifying for this honor will receive information on registration and fee payment at the Regional Award Ceremony. 

At the Affiliate Final, competitive teams placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in each level of each Team Challenge will receive medals and trophies. In addition, the team receiving the highest score in Instant Challenge for each level of each Challenge when there is more than one team participating in that level will receive a medal for that accomplishment. Special Awards will also be awarded.

This season, Illinois DI teams placing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the Affiliate Final Tournament, will be invited to participate in Global Finals, May 20-23, 2023 in Kansas City, Mo. Competition will take place May 21-23. Participation at Global Finals is a wonderful experience, and many teams who have attended before, would do it again if they qualified. Additional teams may be invited to Global Finals as space in the Challenges and Levels allow.

The ability to attend Global Finals is not a requirement to participate with ILDI at the local tournaments.

2022-2023 ILDI Timeline

September 1, 2022 – Challenge Materials released and available to teams after purchase and background check clears.

January 31, 2023 –  Team Clarification Deadline for Competitive teams to ask questions they may have about their Challenge. Please read the Published Clarification and info on Team Clarifications on the main DI Website. https://www.destinationimagination.org/challenge-program/clarifications/

February  – various dates – Registration Deadline for Regional Tournaments.

Late fee of $50.00 per team will be charged if not registered by your team’s specific Regional deadline. This date varies from Region to Region and this information will be provided to the Team Managers and Coordinators well in advance of the deadline.   An additional Fee of $250.00 per team will be required if the team does not provide one adult (over 18 and NOT the Team Manager) Volunteer to act as an Official at the Tournament. Mandatory training for this volunteer will be provided closer to the tournament date and will involve in-person and online components. 

February 25, 2023 –  Region 4 Tournament in Wilmette

March 4, 2023 – Region 1 Tournament in Gurnee

March 11, 2023 – Region 2 Tournament in Glen Ellyn

TBA – Region 3 Tournament in Pekin

March 25, 2023 – Illinois Destination Imagination Affiliate Final Tournament, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb Campus.  Tournament from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM  In Person Award Ceremony to follow. Approximately  5:30 PM – 6:30PM The Fee to participate in the Affiliate Final will be $100.00 per team membership number. Registration for this tournament closes March 15, 2023 and teams qualifying for this honor will receive information at the Regional Award Ceremony.

May 20 – 23, 2022 – Destination Imagination Global Finals – Kansas City, Mo.  For more information about Global Finals;   http://Globalfinals.org