The 2019 USL League Two regular-season standings tiebreaker system is invoked when needed. Due to the tournament starting in late March 2020, two teams that would have qualified for the tournament opted to decline their invitations. The 2019 National Finalist Reading United AC and the National Champion Flint City Bucks both announced they would not take part in the Open Cup. Reading's decline breaks the club's record streak of consecutive U.S. Open Cup appearances at 12. Additionally, Mid-South Division champion Brazos Valley Cavalry FC also declined its invitation while Colorado Pride Switchbacks U23, the Mountain Division champion, folded following the season. The rankings of the USL League Two teams for 2020 U.S. Open Cup qualification are shown in the table below. U.S. Soccer originally announced that 89 teams would participate in local qualifying, however this number was reduced to 88 before the start of round one. The teams represented 18 different states and the District of Columbia (21 different state associations) and featured teams from 26 different leagues. For the fifth year in a row, the most represented league was the United Premier Soccer League which entered 33 teams, which was two fewer than the 35 they entered in the previous year's competition, and six fewer than the 39 that participated in the 2018 qualifying tournament. Of the 88 teams, 53 had competed in the Open Division tournament before, leaving 35 new teams. The draw for the first qualifying round took place on August 26 with 42 matches originally being scheduled and five teams receiving byes into round two. However, due to one team being disqualified from the competition, three additional teams were given byes and the total number of matches was decreased to 40 on September 11. Most of the games were played on September 21 and 22. One game was postponed due to inclement weather and was later played on September 28. Received bye to second round of qualification:  Notes: Received bye to second round of qualification:  The draw for the second qualifying round took place on September 23. Most of the games were played on October 19 and 20. One game was postponed due to inclement weather and was played on November 2. Notes:  The draw for the third qualifying round took place on October 21. The games were played on November 23 and 24. It was originally stated that a fourth qualifying round may be necessary on the weekend of December 21–22, however U.S. Soccer announced in late November that the twelve winners from this round will advance to the first round proper. Source