Advancement to the 2025 FIRST Championship
December 16, 2024
Updated 12/19/2025 at ~10:30am ET: edited FIRST In Texas FIRST Championship Allocations and FIRST Wisconsin Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in the table below.
We have finalized advancement to the 2026 FIRST® Championship presented by BAE Systems and are excited to share it with you! This information can also be found on the Championship Eligibility page.
There are 600 slots available for FIRST® Robotics Competition teams at the 2026 FIRST Championship. Those slots are allocated into three groups: Pre-Qualified Teams, District Teams, and Regional Teams.
There are 10 FIRST Robotics Competition teams that are pre-qualified for the 2026 FIRST Championship. One of those teams is not participating in 2026, so that slot goes back into the Regional Pool.
Districts receive the percentage of 'available slots' at FIRST Championship, rounded up to the nearest whole slot, equal to the percentage of teams they have in their District compared to the total of all FIRST Robotics Competition teams. 'Available slots' are calculated by taking the total number of slots at FIRST Championship and subtracting the number of pre-qualified teams. This overall calculation uses a ‘snapshot’ of teams that have registered and secured a few weeks after initial season payment was due (this year, that snapshot was December 15, 2025).
As of that date, Districts represented 2095 of 3696 registered and secured teams and are allocated 342 slots. Allocations per District are below.
The remaining 249 slots are allocated to teams in the Regional model.
Advancement from Regional Events
As detailed in this blog post, advancement from Regional Events is changing this season. We plan to release slots from the Regional Advancement Pool on a weekly basis beginning after Week 2.
Our goal is to release enough slots each week so that the same proportion of Championship slots have been filled as events have been completed.
Advancement from District Championships
The following teams competing in the District model earn a Merit-Based Qualifying slot:
- District Championship
- FIRST Impact Award Winners
- Engineering Inspiration Award Winners
- Rookie All-Star Award Winners (Judges have the option of not presenting this award if they feel no rookie team competing meets the criteria)
- Winning Alliance members
- as many teams in District-points total order to fill the allocated FIRST Championship slots granted per the table below.
|
District |
FIRST Championship Allocation |
FIRST Impact Award |
Dean’s List Award |
Engineering Inspiration Award |
Rookie All Star Award |
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award |
||
|
FIRST California - Northern |
46 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
||
|
FIRST California - Southern |
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
FIRST Chesapeake |
19 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
FIRST in Michigan |
83 |
5 |
14 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
||
|
FIRST in Texas |
28 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
||
|
FIRST Indiana |
12 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
||
|
FIRST Israel |
12 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
||
|
FIRST Mid-Atlantic |
23 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
FIRST North Carolina |
15 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
||
|
FIRST South Carolina |
7 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
||
|
FIRST Wisconsin |
12 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
||
|
NE FIRST |
32 |
4 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
Ontario |
19 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
Pacific Northwest |
21 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
Peachtree |
13 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
||
District Points are used to fill any additional open slots (due to duplicate automatic qualifying teams or teams who decline their invitation).