Piloting Regional Event Changes in 2025

FIRST^® Robotics Competition is piloting two changes to Regional Events for the 2025 season. We are piloting these changes to evaluate ways to offer more regional event capacity while maintaining event costs and decreasing team costs. In the end, we want to deliver high-quality FIRST^® events that are less expensive for partners to deliver and teams to attend.

Ultimately, our goal is to be able to have enough event capacity for every team to play twice. In 2024, there were 3,088 event slots available for 1,822 Regional teams. In North America, there were 2,726 slots for 1,499 teams. There were around 200 teams on waitlists for Regional Events. (I also recognize that simply getting to the point of “2 * number of teams” does not mean that every team has access to two events, as where and when the events happen are equally important factors in a team’s ability to attend.)

The first change we are piloting is ending practice day earlier at all 3.5-day Regional Events. This season, the pits will close at the end of Practice Matches. Closing the pits when Practice Matches are finished allows events to save on things like catering and labor costs associated with staying open later, gives teams the opportunity to eat dinner at more cost-effective places, and opens the opportunity for team socials after Practice Day.

The second change we are piloting is a Regional Event operating on a shorter event schedule, similar to what is used at District Events. The events piloting this new schedule are the San Francisco Regional, the Greater Kansas City Regional, and a new Regional in Wisconsin. There may be more events that shift to this schedule, and we’ll make sure all Regional Events using the shorter event format are appropriately noted. A shorter event allows savings in the cost to deliver the event (venue fees, catering, labor, etc.). We’ve also heard feedback that some teams and volunteers are interested in shorter events due to fewer days away from school and work, fewer nights in hotels, etc. There will not be a registration fee reduction for the shorter event.

We will use data collected from these events (survey responses and anecdotal feedback from participants, volunteers, and event leadership) to evaluate these pilots and determine if we will continue them beyond 2025. If the shorter event pilot receives positive feedback, additional events may adopt the shorter schedule in 2026. At this point, I don’t anticipate all regional events shifting to this schedule for 2026.

Thank you to the partners who have agreed to pilot these changes this season!