How To Participate
The Sports Track of the DECA VBC encourages DECA members to test their skills at managing a football franchise individually or as a team. This competition is a free event for dues paying DECA members. Participating members utilize a competition version of the Virtual Business - Sports classroom software, which is currently being used in over 5,000 classrooms across the United States and Canada.
HOW DO I COMPETE
- Register a Team (more)
- Download Software (more)
- Compete in a Challenge (more)
- Upload Your Score (more)
1) Register a Team
REGISTER NOW
IMPORTANT, A team will not become active until the chapter advisor activates the team by visiting the advisor area. Chapter advisors must register for a new password each school year. Passwords from previous years are no longer valid.
In order to participate in the VBC, DECA members must first register for a team. Teams may consist of 1-3 members. There is no limit on the amount of teams that may register from one chapter. A DECA member may be registered on no more than one team from the Retailing track, one team from the Sports track and one team from the H&R Block Dollars & Sense competition and may participate in all three tracks simultaneously.
Teams may register starting at 10AM EST on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 and may continue registering throughout the last day of the Challenge (Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5PM EST). Once DECA members register for their teams, the team's chapter advisor must log in to the advisor area in order to approve the team. Once the team has been approved, the team and the advisor will receive an email which contains the team code. The same team code may be used for both the first and the second qualifying round; students should not register for a new team for each round.
The team code is used to identify teams when scores are uploaded. The team code does not identify the team when competition software or files are downloaded. You will need a valid email address to register a team. The email address you enter will be used to email you the team code as well as for any correspondence that may take place during the competition including critical updates.
After participants register for teams and their advisor approves the team, the next step is to determine software needs for the competition. If a school does not own licensing to the Virtual Business - Sports software, a free competition version will be made available. However, this software will not be made available until the first day of team registration (Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 10AM EST).
2) Download Software
DOWNLOAD NOW
In order to participate in the DECA VBC, students utilize the Virtual Business - Sports simulation software. Schools that already own the school edition version of the software must have Version 1.0.5 of Virtual Business - Sports installed in order to use the software to participate in the event. If you are not currently running Version 1.0.5, please visit our Support page to download and install the new version. After you complete the download, please proceed to Step 3.
Schools that do not own the full version of the software must download a limited function version of the DECA VBC competition software. You may download this software on as many computers as you wish (at school and at home). If you are downloading this software at home, please answer "NO" when asked if your school owns licensing to Virtual Business - Sports. To download the free competition software, please click on the "DOWNLOAD NOW" link listed above, directly under the "Download Software" heading. The software will not be available for download until Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 10AM EST.
Please see the system requirements for the software product by clicking on our Products link. Because of the wide variation in computer systems, Knowledge Matters assumes no responsibility for the installation of the software on participants' computers.
3) Compete in a Challenge
DOWNLOAD THE CHALLENGE
The DECA VBC contains two qualifying rounds called Challenge 1 (October 24, 2011 at 10AM EST - November 18, 2011 at 5PM EST) and Challenge 2 (January 2, 2012 at 10AM EST - January 27, 2012 at 5PM EST). During Challenge 1, students will be able to manage Media Planning, Ticket Pricing and Stadium Staffing. During Challenge 2, students will be able to manage Parking Lot Staffing, Satellite Parking and Promotions. For each Challenge there is a different competition file. The competition file may be run on the school edition version of the software (if you own licensing to the program) or on the competition version (which you can download in Step 2) of the software.
NOTE: The file for Challenge 1 will not be available on the Knowledge Matters website until 10AM EST on Monday, October 24, 2011. It will remain available on the site until 5PM EST on Friday, November 18, 2011. The file for Challenge 2 will not be available on the Knowledge Matters website until 10AM EST on Monday, January 2, 2012. It will remain available on the site until 5PM EST on Friday, January 27, 2012.
Each Challenge requires you to manage a different aspect of a football franchise. You will only be able to control the functions being covered during the given Challenge; everything else will be controlled adequately for you automatically.
NOTE: All of the actions found under the Actions menu will be intentionally grayed out except for the actions that you are focusing on in that particular Challenge.
Each Challenge has an assignment to view before beginning the competition. Please read the assignment carefully before starting. You may reopen and run the current Challenge file as many time as you wish within the Challenge period.
4) Upload your Score
The current Challenge file will run for one virtual football season and will then stop automatically. You will then be prompted to upload your score from within the program. A message window will walk you through the process and you will need your team code in order to upload your score. Teams will be ranked based on their franchise's total profit at the conclusion of one virtual football season. The total profit may be found by looking at your Financials report.
You must be connected to the Internet in order to upload your score. If you are working on a computer that does not have an Internet connection, you may save your file and open it at a later time. If you have to open your file at a later time, click the "Go" button within the program so that the upload window will reappear. If you have trouble uploading your score, we do provide an alternate email method which will also be described in the upload window.
You may upload scores as often as you would like during the Challenge because the website will always rank you based on your best score. After uploading your score, you may visit our ranking page to see how you rank nationally, regionally and by state.
Scores will be accepted starting at 10AM EST on the first day of a qualifying round and will be accepted until 5PM EST on the last day of the qualifying round. No score submissions will be accepted after 5PM EST on the last day of a qualifying round.
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