Blue Ocean 2027: Build the Evidence Before You Film

Blue Ocean 2027 is open to high school students worldwide, including students in the United States and Canada. Your first decision is not what the video should look like. It is whether your team can complete the required course, tools and evidence before filming.

Confirm eligibility and team ownership

You must be enrolled in high school or an equivalent pre‑university program when you register. Homeschooled students may enter if they are 14 to 18 years old. Entry is free, and the competition is fully virtual.

You may compete alone or with up to four teammates, including students from other schools or countries. Every teammate must register individually, but a team submits one shared pitch. A teacher is optional, not required.

Decide the final team before submission. The names on the submission form determine whether the entry is treated as solo or team work.

Preserve the participant‑local deadline

The competition page says pitches are due February 21, 2027 at midnight in the time zone where the student is located. The submission page separately displays February 21 at 23:59 local time. Do not convert either wording into Eastern, Pacific or one national timezone.

Use 23:59 in the participant's local timezone as the conservative operational cutoff and finish earlier. The official pages do not state which local timezone controls a cross‑country team, so confirm that detail before submission.

Assemble the required submission

Register first and complete the free Blue Ocean Mini‑Course. The pitch must be original, in English and use Blue Ocean tools, including the Strategy Canvas, Three Tiers of Noncustomers and the Eliminate‑Reduce‑Raise‑Create Grid.

Submit both a working YouTube link with #blueoceancompetition and the video file. The video must be 3 to 5 minutes at normal playback speed. Shorter or longer videos can be disqualified.

The file must be under 1 GB, named after the product or idea, and use an accepted format such as MP4, QT, WEBM, MOV, WMV or FLV. One team submits one entry and lists every teammate on that form.

Keep the core thinking student‑owned

The current official FAQ allows AI use without a declaration. It specifically permits uses such as coding, app design, visuals, research and tidying a script.

The same FAQ says the idea and the reasoning behind the problem and approach must be the student's own. A useful boundary is to keep an evidence log with the source checked, any AI‑assisted task and the final student decision. This log is HAEA preparation advice, not an organizer requirement.

Before recording, make one row for each required Blue Ocean tool: the claim, the evidence supporting it and the visual that will explain it. Film only after every row has a student‑owned decision and a source you can defend.