Regional Advancement Task Force Update
September 25, 2024
12/16/24 at 1:30pm ET: NE FIRST and Ontario's Dean's List numbers have been corrected.
12/16/24 at 3:50pm ET: FMA's FIRST Impact Award number was corrected.
We have finalized advancement to the 2025 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 2025 FIRST® Championship. Those slots are allocated into three groups: Pre-Qualified Teams, District Teams, and Regional Teams.
There are 32 FIRST Robotics Competition teams that are pre-qualified for the 2025 FIRST Championship.
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 as of three weeks after initial season payment was due (this year, that was December 2, 2024).
As of that date, Districts represented 1670 of 3522 registered and secured teams and are allocated 276 slots. Allocations per District are below.
The remaining 292 slots are allocated to teams in the Regional model.
Advancement from Regional Events
As detailed in this blog post, advancement from Regional Events was expected to change this season. We’re excited to share that the volunteers helping with implementation of this new model were able to get everything completed in time so we will be making the changes for the 2025 season! The only change from our original plan for 2025 is that we plan to release slots from the Regional Advancement Pool on a weekly basis beginning after Week 2. We think that releasing slots weekly, instead of every two weeks, will help with the new hotel program. Huge thank you to the volunteers who helped us with implementing this new system!
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. For example, 47 of 69 (~68%) Regional Events will be completed after Week 4, and we plan to have approximately the same percentage of Regional slots filled by that point as well.
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 Winners (the judges can decide if they present this award or not)
- Winning Alliance members
- as many teams in District-points total order to fill the allocated FIRST Championship slots granted per the table below.
|
District
|
Secured Teams as of 12/2
|
FIRST Championship Slots
|
FIRST Impact Award Winners
|
Dean’s List Award Finalists
|
Engineering Inspiration Award Winners
|
Rookie All-Star Award Winners
|
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award Winners
|
|
FIRST Chesapeake
|
105
|
17
|
2
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|
FIRST in Michigan
|
490
|
80
|
4
|
13
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
FIRST in Texas
|
170
|
28
|
2
|
5
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
|
FIRST Indiana Robotics
|
70
|
12
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
FIRST Israel
|
61
|
10
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
FIRST Mid-Atlantic
|
137
|
23
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|
FIRST North Carolina
|
85
|
14
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
|
FIRST South Carolina*
|
28
|
5
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
NE FIRST
|
186
|
31
|
3
|
5
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|
Ontario
|
132
|
22
|
2
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Pacific Northwest
|
132
|
22
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
|
Peachtree
|
74
|
12
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
*Due to its size, FIRST South Carolina does not have enough Championship slots for this method to work. The following teams will receive automatic invitations to the 2025 FIRST Championship from the FIRST South Carolina State Championship:
- Winning Alliance Captain
- Winning Alliance First Pick
- FIRST Impact Award Winner
- Engineering Inspiration Award Winner
- Next highest District Points
District Points are used to fill any additional open slots (due to duplicate automatic qualifying teams or teams who decline their invitation).