The FIRST® Impact is the most prestigious award at FIRST. As such, we are implementing a change to make the FIRST Impact Award the first award presented. We are also making slight changes to when other awards are announced and the playoff bracket timing. We think these changes will help provide an improved experience for all teams at the event and a different and better way to celebrate the FIRST Impact Award winners.
Background:
Our first goal was to consider making a change such that all award winners were announced prior to the end of the playoffs, and that after finals, all that needed to be announced was the finalists and winners.
In starting to look at this, we also reviewed the feedback that we had heard over the years including:
- A request to move the FIRST Impact Award earlier, as there were times at some events where the event was running late and there were very few teams left in the audience when it was announced.
- We also have heard from teams that are going for the FIRST Impact Award that sometimes their students have put in so much effort that when they win a different award, the students are disappointed that they didn’t win the FIRST Impact Award. Feedback also included that if there was a way to move the FIRST Impact Award up earlier, then mentors would have the time to help their students understand they were not chosen for the FIRST Impact Award and to help the students get into a better headspace for the rest of the playoffs and for the possibility of winning a different award.
- Presenting the FIRST Impact Award last has an implied prestige to it, and the community has expressed that it’s important to maintain that prestige when making a change. While every decision has tradeoffs, we think we’re able to keep a similar level of importance by adjusting the playoff timing while also gaining other benefits. Ultimately, we can all play a role in ensuring the FIRST Impact Award and all FIRST Impact Award recipients are celebrated with the energy and prestige they deserve!
- A separate but related piece of feedback that we heard from teams was that the current playoff schedule was hard for the teams in the lower bracket due to the quick pace of the matches and that we should consider adding another break between rounds 2 & 3.
After looking at the various feedback we have received over the years, we also took the time to look at some data on event timing.
- On average, our events were ~1hr behind the scheduled time.
- The most amount of time is lost between Match 13 and Finals 1. We think this is likely due to the handshake process. At this time, we do not want to make changes to this process.
- The next most time lost was before Match 1 with about 7 minutes lost on average. This means that events were putting the scheduled match time to start but the match did not actually begin until after. Looking into the why this was occurring, we believe there are a few factors that affect this such as:
- An event running behind in the morning and trying to catch up by scheduling their playoffs to begin on time, but volunteers and teams needing a little bit of extra time.
- The more likely culprit is due to the scripting process we have in place currently where we ask Emcees to say some intro information (including playing a video) before we begin a match.
- There is some additional time lost between Match 8 & 9 which supports the suggestion that it would be helpful to add a little extra time and add a break there.
What is the change?
Taking all of the above into account, we created a proposal for changes and socialized that with various stakeholders. After concluding this review, we are excited to share that for the 2027 season, we are implementing the following changes to the playoffs and award order:
- Moving FIRST Impact Award to be the first team award presented. The FIRST Impact Award will be presented at the start of the playoffs.
- Scheduling matches to start ~15 minutes after the start of playoffs to allow time for the FIRST Impact Award to be announced, celebrated, and the winning team’s video shown (if available), as well as time for the Emcee to introduce and set up for playoff matches.
- For example, if playoffs are scheduled to begin at 1:30pm, the first match would begin at 1:45pm.
- Adding a 5-minute break between rounds 2 & 3 to provide slightly more time for participating alliances.
- Changing the break between rounds 3 & 4 to be 10 minutes (increased from 6 minutes) and moving a few awards to be presented during this break.
- Changing the award schedule such that no awards are given after Finals 2 except for the Event Winners & Event Finalist Award presentation.
Overall, we’re excited about this change, and we think that this will provide an overall improved experience for FIRST Impact Award winners and all teams attending events. We will continue to take feedback from the community and data from events to consider additional changes in future seasons.
