The Open is BACK, and here are your 2018 competitors!



Congratulations to all of the groups accepted to the 2018 Open! We are so thrilled to have these talented groups joining us on stage this summer as we enter the second season of the best new a cappella competition in the world! The 2018 Open Finals will take place on Saturday, September 22, 2018 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Semifinal events will take place in June and July 2018. The highest scoring group at Finals will be named the the Champion of The Open and will receive a $25,000 prize, which comes with no strings attached (a cappella pun intended!), but we hope you’ll use it to support and advance your professional a cappella career!

In our second season, we’ve adjusted the format to allow the best of our applicants to compete. This year across North America we will have 5 regional Semifinals: West, Midwest, New England, Northeast, and a Virtual Region. The winner of each of these five semifinals will be named Champion of their region and will advance to The Open Finals. As in the ICCA and ICHSA, groups that place second and third at semifinals are entered into our Wild Card round, a virtual round evaluated by some of our top Varsity Vocals judges — and the top two Wild Card Champions also advance to The Open Finals. We have also already named our International Champion and qualifier for Finals based solely on the application round. The stage for The Open Finals, then, will feature our six regional champions, the top two Wild Card champions, and of course our 2018 ICCA and ICHSA champions. The final scores of the groups that place at any event will be made public. The scores of the eliminated groups will remain confidential.

Unfortunately, we were not able to accommodate all the groups who applied. If you don’t see your group’s name on the list, we hope you’ll consider applying again next season. We also hope you’ll attend an Open event — they’ll be a great experience from the audience, too!

Tickets for our regional Open events will go on sale on May 15 with The Open Finals going on sale in July. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for a reminder, or better yet, join our mailing list. Please remember that many Varsity Vocals events sell out in advance, so we recommend picking up tickets as early as possible.

Congratulations to our accepted groups, and welcome to the 2nd season of the International Championship of A Cappella Open!

2018 International Championship of A Cappella Open Lineup

Northeast Region

6/30/2018 – New York City, NY

Concrete

Ember

Euphonic

Euphonism

In Full Colour

Round Midnight

Satellite Lane

Stiletta

The Unknown Element

West Region

7/14/2018 – Los Angeles, CA

118°WEST

Aca-word

B-Side Book Club

Business Casual

COLLAB

Collide Vocals

HIVE

Honey Whiskey Trio

Side Note

Midwest Region

7/21/2018 – Columbus, OH

From The Top A Cappella

Impromptu

Inside Voices

LUXE

Michigan State Spartones

Note-ably Strange

ResonEight

Square One

Zero to Sixty

New England Region

7/21/2018 – Boston, MA

908 A cappella

Blacklight Vocals

Echo A Cappella

Iris

Martini Glass A Cappella

Reverb NYC

TONEWALL

V

Virtual Region

7/21/2018 – Video Submission

CONNECT

Counterpoint

Due North

Forecast

Lyra

Millennial Vibe

REMIX

RISE

Spectrum Vocals

International Regional Champion

VoCollective

2018 ICHSA Champion

Legacy

2018 ICCA Champion

The SoCal VoCals

*A Note about the Virtual Semifinal: Given that many of our competitors are part of professional a cappella groups, or are professionals themselves, we understand that traveling can be time and cost prohibitive. Therefore, we will be holding a Video Semifinal round for qualifying groups who are unable to attend an in-person event due to physical location (+15 hours to the closest event) or due to conflicts listed in their application. Just like our typical regional Semifinal events, only the top placing group will be named Champion of this region and advance directly to Finals. The groups placing 2nd and 3rd will be eligible for the Wild Card round.