in operation since no later than July 14, 2018, and remain so until the 2019 U.S. Open Cup Final. A team that started its first season of competition in an existing league must have started its new league's schedule no later than July 14, 2018. Starting in 2019, the winner of the previous year's National Amateur Cup automatically qualifies for the U.S. Open Cup. The cup winner enters the tournament proper in the first round with the other Open Division clubs. National leagues may elect to use the results of their previous year's seasons to determine which of their teams qualify for the U.S. Open Cup in lieu of having their teams play local qualifying matches. If a national league so elects, its teams are not eligible to participate in local qualifying. To qualify as a national league, the league must Have a minimum of 50 active U.S.-based teams in good standing, Have a common championship each season that is only available to league teams and is compulsory, Use a league format with a standings table as opposed to a single-elimination (knockout) format, Have teams in at least three U.S. time zones among Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific, with the three time zones containing the most teams each having at least 15% of the member teams, Have two time zones represented by at least three different U.S. states or the District of Columbia and a third time zone represented by at least two different U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Have teams in at least 10 different U.S. states or the District of Columbia, Have played for at least three years meeting the above criteria and Timely pay the team-based Open Cup entry fee for all teams in the league. Both leagues which currently qualify as national leagues, the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and USL League Two (formerly the Premier Development League, or PDL), elected to use the results of their 2018 seasons to determine their qualifying teams for the 2019 U.S. Open Cup. National leagues determine their own procedures for ranking teams based on 2018 results for the purposes of 2019 U.S. Open Cup qualification. Eligible Open Division clubs that did not win the National Amateur Cup and are not members of national leagues must have submitted an application to enter local qualifying by August 13, 2018. Once applications for local qualifying are approved, U.S. Soccer estimates