Last week, thousands of students, coaches, volunteers, sponsors, and STEM supporters came together in Houston, TX, USA to celebrate the 2026 FIRST® Championship. The week was filled with friendly competition, exciting innovation, and lots of Gracious Professionalism® as we commemorated the conclusion of the 2025-2026 archaeology-inspired robotics season FIRST® AGE™ presented by Qualcomm.
The FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival at the FIRST Championship hosted 160 FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge teams and 40 FIRST® LEGO® League Explore teams from around the world. This year has been about uncovering clues from the past to build the future together.
Here is the complete 2026 FIRST LEGO League Challenge World Festival Awards List:
Champion’s Award Winner:
- ROBOTECH from Barcelona, Spain
Champion’s Award Finalists:
- mindfactory from Aargau, Switzerland
- SCRAPS by FutureLab from Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece
- SESI SENAI SC - Pipeline Surfer's from Itajaí, Brazil
- Tolebi Daryn from Lenger, Kazakhstan
- Robot Rampage from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Volunteer of the Year:
-
Brenda Ronnebaum from Ohio
Innovation Project Winner:
- Masterminds from Moscow, Idaho
Innovation Project Finalists:
- The Unearthed Dinos from Sammamish, Washington
- Turbo GatorBots from Gainesville, Florida - Northeast
- Next Level from Charlottesville, Virginia/DC
- FLLintstone Explorers from Timberlea, Nova Scotia
- S-TEAM from Miskolc, Hungary
Robot Design Winner:
- Ctrl+Alt+Elite from Yorba Linda, California- Southern
Robot Design Finalists:
- Solvers of X & Y from Aurora, Ontario
- Team Alpha Geek from Brookfield , Wisconsin
- 3A Robotics from Calgary, Alberta
- The Inventors from Attica, Greece
- Giraffes #3388 from Shoham, Israel
Robot Performance Winner:
- RZ81 from Beijing, China
Robot Performance Rank:
- X-RIVER from Hefei, China
- X-FREE from Hefei, China
- Sabik from Sabinov, Slovakia
- The potter by the stream from Taichung, Chinese Taipei
- ROBOTECH from Barcelona, Spain
Core Values Winner:
- Diggabots from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Core Values Finalists:
- DYCI Blue Ocean from Bocaue, Philippines
- Robo Rovers from Montvale, New Jersey - North
- STARBOTS from Gómez Palacio, Mexico
- Titans from Buffalo Grove, Illinois
- Eagles Tech from Asuncion, Paraguay
Breakthrough Award Winners:
- Artifact Alliance from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania - East
- Bit Kids 101 from Croatia
- Where’s Chicken? From Madison, Alabama
Engineering Excellence Award Winners:
- Team Turtlebots from Cumming, Georgia
- THE FLINTSTONES from Izmir, Türkiye
- Pynauts from Plano, Texas - FIT
Rising All-Star Award Winners:
- Nebula Horizon from Herndon, Virginia/DC
- ALBATROID from Brasillia, Brazil
- Iron Pegasus from Chandler, Arizona
Motivate Award Winners:
- Advanced Robotics Team from Woodstock, Maryland
- NUCLEOLICOS from Toluca, Mexico
- Innov8 from Mason, Ohio
Gracious Professionalism® Award Winners:
- Team Core X Rwanda from Kigali, Rwanda
- FIZTEX from Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Nothing BOT Robotics! from Austin, Texas - FIT
Coopertition Award Winners:
- Lego League Ladies from Martinsburg, West Virginia
- New Zealand Indiana Drones from Central Dunedin, New Zealand
- Forest Force from Kaunas, Lithuania
Peer Award Winner:
- Komodo Dragons from Dededo, Guam
Coach/Mentor Awards:
- John Seet, Unitrix from Singapore
- Melissa Madsen, Code Crusader from Utah
- Robert Doppler, TEAMRemint from Austria
- Min Lu, Iron Pegasus from Arizona
- Davy Goorts, LEGO Warriors from Belgium
- Padmaja Kandisetty, Innov8 from Ohio
Here is the complete 2025 FIRST LEGO League Explore World Festival Awards List:
Core Values Award:
- #5 Team Diamonds from Farmington, Michigan
- Alem Innovators from Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Astro-ologists from Madison, Alabama
- Maremoto from Itajai, Brazil
- The Dig Gig from Pozos, Santa Ana, Costa Rica
- WINNING WIZARDS JR from Palatine, Illinois
Team Poster Award:
- MINATO LEGEND JAPAN from Ichihara, Japan
- PANKIT from Rayong, Thailand
- Quantic Bulls from Escobedo, Mexico
- The Code of RAA from Tanta, Egypt
- The Cookie Crunchers from Grayslake, Illinois
Team Model Award:
- Artifact Pack from Rogers, Minnesota
- Astro-ologists 2 from Madison, Alabama
- BDA Bots from Cypress, Texas
- Deep Seekers from Astana, Kazakhstan
- Fossil Bots – Green from Edmond, Oklahoma
- Future Archaeologists from China
- Kylin & Kiwi from China
- Longnecks Awesomenecks from Kapolei, Hawaii
- Micro Manatees from Benton, Arkansas
- SSA-East Eaglets from Tucson, Arizona
- Stranger Archaeology from Asan-si, South Korea
- Tech Tigers from Marietta, Georgia
- The Brick-ology Hunters from THESSALONIKI, Greece
- The Roman Capybaras from Jura from Develier, Switzerland
- Van Houston Academy from Houston, Texas
Coding Award:
- 705 CN Pickering from Pickering, Ontario
- BCKLAS from Hong Kong
- Fossil Finders from West Vancouver, British Columbia
- LegoMasterBuilder from Katy, Texas
- ROBOCEL from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Team NESA from Nashua, New Hampshire
- Wize Wizards from Parker, Colorado
Challenge Solution Award:
- A.K.V.A Bots from Sunnyvale, California
- Fossil Finders from Morgantown, West Virginia
- KC - TEAM THUTMOSE TOMB TRACKERS from Singapore
- Lego Land from Bucharest, Romania
- Overpowered Spicy Robot Jr. from Syosset, New York
- Super Mechanical Foxes from Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico
- X Plus from Herriman, Utah
Congratulations to all the teams who attended the 2026 World Festival! We hope to have you back next year as we find new ways to strengthen the connections that protect our shared home in the biodiversity-inspired FIRST® CANOPY season.
Check out a sneak peek of the 2026-2027 FIRST LEGO League BIOGLOWTM, kicking off on August 4, 2026:
What do you think about the upcoming season? Let us know by using #BIOGLOW on social media and tagging @firstlegoleague!