Congratulations to our 2026 Championship Award Winners!

 Updated 5/18/2026 at ~12:15pm ET: added FIRST Impact Award Video and Essay Submissions.  

It’s been a little over a week since we wrapped the 2026 FIRST^® Championship presented by BAE Systems and the REBUILT^SM presented by Haas season, and I feel like I’m still running on adrenaline from the event. The FIRST Championship is a massive undertaking each year that would not be possible without the nearly 1400 volunteers and students, coaches, and mentors from 598 teams. Thank you all for all that you do to make this event a life-changing experience every season!

Congratulations to our FIRST Impact Award winning team, Team 6352 LAUNCH TEAM from Surprise, Arizona, USA! You can click these links to view their video submission and essay. 

Congratulations also to our 5 other FIRST Impact Award Finalists:

• Team 1880 Warriors of East Harlem from New York, New York, USA: ESSAY 
• Team 9277 Sparkans from Calgary, Alberta, Canada: VIDEO ESSAY 
• Team 8393 The Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team from Baden, Pennsylvania, USA: ESSAY 
• Team 359 Hawaiian Kids from Waialua, Hawaii, USA: VIDEO ESSAY 
• Team 9545 Caracal Robotics from Sariyer, Istanbul, Türkiye: ESSAY  

I’d also like to congratulate Debbie English from team 4499 The Highlanders of Fort Collins, Colorado, USA for winning the 2026 Woodie Flowers Award and James Cerar for being recognized as the FIRST^® Robotics Competition Volunteer of the Year!

A big congratulations to our FIRST Robotics Competition Leadership Award winners:

• Anish P, Team 10553, Oregon, Wisconsin, USA
• Ben Z, Team 179, Riviera Beach, Florida, USA
• Camila C, Team 3794, Metepec, Mexico
• Celeste R, Team 2415, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Emma L, Team 868, Carmel, Indiana, USA
• Gabriel D, Team 687, Carson, California, USA
• Julia F, Team 6753, Midland, Michigan, USA
• Kate R, Team 2704, Naperville, Illinois, USA
• Max W, Team 4096, Champaign, Illinois, USA
• Vrishab M, Team 503, Novi, Michigan, USA
  

Finally, congratulations to our 2026 FIRST Championship Winning Alliance!

• Team 4414, High Tide, Ventura, California, USA
• Team 1323, MadTown Robotics, Madera, California, USA
• Team 4065, Nerds of Prey, Minneola, Florida, USA
• Team 1538, The Holy Cows, San Diego, California, USA

I wish you all a safe and happy summer!  Only 243 days until we kick off BIOCORE^TM presented by Haas!

This blog has been updated to link directly to the essays and video submissions for the FIRST Impact Award winning and finalist teams. Thank you to Chief Delphi user Drakxii for the idea!