Interesting, it's good to see more rocket engineering competitions around.
Seems very similar to IREC though, what are the distinctions?
I do most of my motor testing and launching at the FAR site. Over the past ten or more years I've helped many university teams doing both the NASA SL and the IREC competitions with experimental motor and flight testing. For the NASA teams, the goal is launching to 5,280' using commercial motors only (NSL is a NAR run launch) and the IREC competitions to 10,000' and 30,000' with 8.8 pound payloads. For the NASA teams that spend the year designing, building, and launching their rocket at the Huntsville Alabama event in April, it gives them another competition opportunity to fly their rocket using an even larger motor commercial or experimental. For the IREC teams, it gives them an pre-IREC opportunity to flight test their vehicle for the IREC competition at the New Mexico Spaceport (I've been a judge and safety inspector for IREC and have found some teams their have never previously launched there rockets prior to the competition.
For this years FAR-1030 (Saturday, June 1st 2019), the payload requirement is 1 kg (2.2 pounds) and any mass required for stability must be water, preferably ejected safety at apogee. Complete requirements can be found at the FAR website
https://friendsofamateurrocketry.org/ under launch contests (we offer three different ones). The water requirement is for safety; over the years I have seen people use from lead weight for stability (once 45 pounds in a nose cone) to a 6 pound container of 1/2" steel nuts and bolts). How safe is that should an anomaly occur?
Also, registration for the FAR-1030 is $25 vs $700 for IREC. I have some teams enter the FAR-1030 simply because of the IREC expense, registration, transport, lodging, etc.