Welcome To REBUILT!

The 2025-2026 FIRST^® Robotics Competition Season, REBUILT™ presented by Haas, is officially open for registration! As of this morning, there are already 42 rookie teams registered. We have also updated the Sibling Team Guidelines to help make clearer how they should register as well as answer other common questions we are asked.

Here are some key dates to be aware of for the upcoming season. All of these dates, and more, can be found on the FIRST Robotics Competition season calendar.

• Veteran teams can begin opting out of the Drive Base and Black Tote now through the FIRST Dashboard. That option closes at noon eastern time on September 23, 2025.
• At noon eastern time on September 25, 2025, teams can select where they want to receive their Kickoff Kit and submit their initial event preferences. Round 1 of Event Preferencing closes on October 2. Kit and Kickoff selection closes November 18. Round 2 of Event Preferencing is open from October 16 to October 24.
• The submission portals for the FIRST Impact Award, Woodie Flowers Award, and Dean's List Award open on October 30.
• Payment for initial season registration is due by November 18, 2025.
• Kickoff for REBUILT is Saturday, January 10, 2026 at noon eastern! (That’s only 234 days away!) Week 1 events will start March 4, 2026. There will be seven weeks of events this season. The 2026 FIRST Championship is April 29 through May 2, 2026.
• FIRST Choice will operate in a single round opening at 1:00 eastern on Saturday, January 10^th after the Kickoff broadcast. *

*We are making this change to FIRST Choice to align more directly with community feedback we have heard over the years and results from our Kit of Parts survey where ~41% of respondents indicated that the FIRST Choice experience would be better with one round and ~35% indicated that this change would not impact their experience with FIRST Choice. We believe this change will give teams more information to make more informed decisions about how to utilize their FIRST Choice credits.

I can't wait to DIG IN to the entire FIRST AGE presented by Qualcomm season and the REBUILT game!