2026 Season Award Updates

As we start to get closer to the season, we wanted to share some award updates for the 2026 season so teams can start preparing.  

General Updates 

FIRST and our Global Judge Advisors spent some time this summer reviewing all of the award guidelines and descriptions with the help of a few Judge Advisors and Judges. Thank you to those who helped provide feedback on these changes! The goal of this review was to make the guidelines clearer and more succinct and to ensure that similar wording was used from award to award. For instance, the phrase, "A team must be able to describe..." was added to several of the awards to place emphasis on the interview process as opposed to judges having to discover award attributes on their own. Emphasis was also placed to help differentiate the technical awards more. You can see the full descriptions and guidelines on the Team Attribute Awards & Machine Attribute Awards webpages.  

We’re also thrilled to share that Littelfuse has agreed to be the sponsor of the Excellence in Engineering Award. Thank you to Littelfuse for their generous support! 

Additional Resources 

We also spent some time revamping and updating some of the resources for teams 

• Award Workbook: This resource contains the award descriptions and guidelines as well as suggested questions that judges may use during pit interviews. This document has been updated to align with new award guidelines. 

• Inside Look at Judging Process: This document covers how the judging process works at events. This document was updated to show the revamped judging methods that may be used at events, so teams know what to expect.  

• Best Practices for FIRST Robotics Competition Judged Awards: This resource includes tips for talking with judges in the pits as well as tips for the FIRST Impact Award and Dean's List Award. Minor changes were made to simplify and make it easier to understand. 

• Technical Judge Tips: This resource was created to help technical judges know what to look for with respect to the machine, creativity, and innovation awards. Minor updates were made to align with the new award guidelines. 

• Dean’s List Award Guide: This guide assists team in preparing for the submission and for participating in the Dean’s List Award interview. It contains information on the Dean's List Award, best practices for writing the submission and preparing for the interview, and more! Minor changes were made to simplify and make it easier to understand.  

• Updated versions of the Dean’s List & FIRST Impact Award Judging Guidelines and the 2026 Judge Manual will be made available in the coming months on the Awards webpage.  

Finally as a reminder, teams are able to purchase additional banners and additional awards as needed. 

FIRST^® Impact Award Updates 

The biggest change to the FIRST^® Impact Award for this season is that the FIRST Impact Award Definitions have been updated based on feedback from the Hall of Fame teams, some of our FIRST Impact Award judges, our Global Judge Advisors, and the FIRST Tech Challenge Global Judge Advisors. The focus of this update was to ensure that the defined terms were needed, making wording clearer, and capturing what we wanted to highlight. You’ll also notice that FIRST Tech Challenge is using the same terms in their updated “Award Terms and Definitions”.  

Another change with the FIRST Impact Award is that we have moved the optional Documentation Form from something teams bring to the event to something that is entered with the submission. This season, the only way to submit a documentation form is through this portal as part of the submission (similar to the video). Teams cannot edit the URL after it has been submitted but may continue to update the file as long as the URL does not change. Teams are encouraged to have the file finalized a week before each event to allow judges time to review prior to the event. Any edits that teams make to the file after that may not be reviewed by the judges. Access the FIRST Impact Award Documentation Form (word version - automatically downloads) and start adding your documentation!

Additionally, we wanted to share a few other updates & reminders on the FIRST Impact Award: 

• Language has been added to the webpage to remind teams that they should be reviewing the submission as a team and recognize that judges may look to verify claims. 

• We have also added language to the video section to encourage teams to add closed captions to the video.   

• If Sibling Teams plan to submit for the FIRST Impact Award, they should choose one of the following options: 

• • Only one of the teams submits for the FIRST Impact Award, or 

• • Each team can submit and should have different submissions and presentations 

• Please review all updates on the Submitted Award Webpage prior to drafting your submission. The submission portal opens on October 30th at 12pm ET.