RULES AND REGULATIONS

The TXGA Texas Challenge (known as “The Challenge”) began as a friendly competition between the major geographic regions of Texas. Each year a Texas Region is designated to host the The Challenge under the guidance of the Texas Geocaching Association. Geocachers of all skill and athletic levels are invited to participate.

LIABILITY

Geocaching is an individual adventure sport, as such it is important for each participant to know their own physical capabilities. While participating in the Challenge each person will be responsible for any damage caused by themselves and any person(s) under their supervision, including but not limited to children, elderly, mentally or physically handicapped individuals. This includes injury to self, others and damage to any vehicle(s) or property. The entity and members of TXGA, the host city, venue facilities will not be held accountable for participants.

REGIONAL PARTICIPATION

There are eight regional teams from Texas competing in the The Challenge; Central, East, North, Northeast, South, Southeast and West. Regional teams are comprised of geocachers from across the state, not just geocachers from within that particular region. It is up to the participant, not the team, to pick the region with which they will be competing. Remember, The Challenge is a fun and “open” competition for geocachers of all skill levels and teams must accept any geocacher that chooses to play for them.

Geocachers from outside the State of Texas are welcome to attend and participate in the The Challenge. If more than ten Out of State participants are from a specific geographical location, they are welcome to participate as a designated team representing their geographical location. If there is not a minimum of ten Out of State participants from a specific region, then all Out of State participants will participate as the Out of State team. If there is less than ten Out of State participants in total, then the Out of State participants must join a Texas regional team in order to compete.

A minimum of ten participants are required to form a team.

TEAM CAPTAINS

All teams must name a Team Captain to be their representative before the The Challenge. Team Captains will have knowledge of registrants for their teams through the Registration page. Captains are entitled and encouraged to contact registrants for team specific strategy. The Regional Representative is responsible for assigning a Team Captain if one is not elected beforehand.

HOST TEAM PARTICIPATION

Host region participation is allowed, though individuals assisting in the planning of the The Challenge competition will not be allowed to participate with or assist their region’s team. These individuals include anyone with inside knowledge that could benefit their team, specifically anyone involved in the hiding of Challenge caches and the planning of the Challenge portion of the event. If proof is found of inside information of any region with members of the planning team, the competitors will be disqualified and their team ineligible from winning.

DISQUALIFICATION

Any person(s) found carrying multiple scorecards during the competition will have all scorecards in their possession repossessed and disqualified. Any person(s) found tampering with caches will be disqualified. Any participants found breaking local or state laws to obtain caches will be disqualified.

DISQUALIFICATION (continued)

(Rules are subject to change – please review frequently)

• Every participant must handle their own score card at all times.
• Any person(s) found carrying multiple scorecards during the competition will have all scorecards in their possession repossessed and that team could be disqualified.
• Any person(s) found tampering with caches (including moving to a different location) will be disqualified.
• Any participants found breaking local or state laws to obtain caches will be disqualified.
• Every participant will receive their own scorecard at the beginning of The Challenge these scorecards must always be in the possession of the player with their name on the scorecard. If the scorecards are not received by cutoff time that player will receive a 0.
• All scorecards in possession of teams at the start time will be considered ‘in play’
• All participants must obtain punches from at least three (3) Activity Caches.
• All Puzzle Caches will require some amount of field work.
• Every participant must have their scorecard in their hand to be punched – if the cache requires crawling on your hands and knees to get to a cache or climbing a tree to get that punch – you must complete that activity – you cannot “bring the punch” to the team or have one person complete the task with other’s cards.
• If a punch cannot be found after the competition or has been relocated – that punch will be eliminated from ALL scoring.
• Point value of each cache will be hidden from participants. D/T ratings will be available.
• The bottom 20% of each team will not be included in the final score averages.
• Scorecards must be turned in at one of the checkpoints provided in the coordinates before the designated turn in time. Anyone late in turning in their scorecard will receive a 0.
• You are allowed to have support teams help your team during the Challenge with activities such as transportation, communication, puzzle solving. These team members without score cards cannot actively search for any specific caches. If these team members are found actively assisting in locating a cache, the entire team will face DISQUALIFICATION.

FIELD OPERATORS

Field Operators are people who will be observing various areas to ensure fun and fair game-play. They will be identifiable by a specific badge. Should one see foul play, they have the power to confiscate scorecards and disqualify players. Decisions made by the Field Operators is final and may only be appealed to the Challenge Chairperson AFTER the competition. Field Operators are allowed to use cameras and/or video equipment. Any electronic evidence will be kept private to Challenge officials and not distributed for any reason. Any violation caught on film or video will result in immediate disqualification of the person(s) involved