Your Team advanced to World Finals, now what?

Updated for 2026

Congratulations!
Here is a summary of all the key tasks that you need to coordinate within the first 8 days.

New coaches and parents: Join us for a live WF briefing on Tuesday, March 31, 2026 from 7:30 PM 9:00 PM. We strongly recommend that you invite team parents to attend. No rsvp necessary. If you cannot make it yourself, we will share the slide deck and provide more information in the upcoming newsletters, to make sure you do not miss anything.

https://join.freeconferencecall.com/TXOM

We are in the process of updating all our web pages published under World Finals heading. Please beware of anything dated “2025”.

First week decisions

Celebrate with the team. They deserve this. It is a great honor to advance to World Finals.

Talk to the team parents. You need to make some decisions jointly fast. World Finals is a very unique experience and - like all large-scale events - it is also expensive because it sprawls across a college campus with several public OM events (Iowa State University).

Ballpark costs for budgeting purposes:

• $775 per person for 4 nights package (Wed to Sun) including campus housing and dining, as well as all events.

• $400-550 per person for travel by air and shuttle to campus. Possibly less by road.

• $350-450 per team for transportation/shipping of props that do not fit in suitcases.

• Optional cost of pins for trading and team/family shirts.

  Most teams engage in fundraising to help cover some of the costs. This comes later.

Once the decision is made, gather information to complete two tasks by April 11th, 2026, even if you do not have complete details:

1. Send us an email to wf@txodyssey.org by April 4th to confirm whether your team intends to attend WF this year, or considers to decline. This will allow us to prepare any runner up teams timely.

2. If the current head coach cannot attend, contact us to change the head coach BEFORE registration.

3. Prepare all team member information including arrival/departure dates/times, roommates, as well as ALL guest information. Guests are family members staying on campus. You can use placeholder names instead of family member names for a week or two. The deadline for team registration is April 11th.

The final commitment/full payment is not due until April 20th, 2026 but registering early will secure your inclusion in campus housing as well as scheduling requests.

WARNING: During WF registration, we are told that once the first payment is made OR when you click on Finalize Registration, you can no longer make changes to Team Registration or Housing.  So please prepare your materials carefully. This includes scheduling requests. Review, in the provided tutorial all the information, that you need on hand before you start.