Decode (FIRST)
| Season Information | |
|---|---|
| Year | 2025–2026 |
| Championship location | George R. Brown Convention Center |
| Awards | |
| Inspire Award winner | 17792 Amigos Droids |
| Champions | 30030 Exodus 21087 Velocity |
← Into the Deep Biobuzz → | |
Decode, stylized as DECODE, or officially referred to as DECODE presented by RTX is the First Tech Challenge game for the 2025–2026 season. The Decode season kickoff was on September 6th, 2025 and was broadcast through YouTube and occurred at many local kickoff events.[1][2][3][4]
Field
[edit]In Decode, two alliances of two teams each compete on a 12 foot by 12 foot arena made up of 36 interlocking tiles by scoring green and purple balls called artifacts into their alliance-specific goal, create patterns, and park at the end of the match.[5] At opposite sides of the Decode field, in the front corners, there are two goals that artifacts are scored into—one for each alliance. There are white tape lines called launch lines that are parallel to the front face of each goal and additional launch lines that go perpendicularly from each goal to meet in the center of the field. There are also two more launch lines at the rear-end of the field, forming a triangle shape, starting from one tile from the middle on each side and meeting one tile from the edge. [6]
Scoring
[edit]There are three parts in an FTC Decode Game: Autonomous, TeleOp, and End Game.[6]
Advancement
[edit]Advancement points are used to rank FTC teams for advancing to the next level of play. Teams with the highest rank not already advanced will move up. The table below indicates how advancement points are awarded.
| Type | Advancement Points Earned | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualification Matches | A normal distribution of 2 to 16 points are awarded based on the rankings of teams at the completion of qualification matches with the highest ranking team getting 16 points and the lowest ranking team getting 2 points.[6] | |||||||||||||||||
| Playoff Alliance | 21-α advancement points are given to each team on the playoff alliance where α is the alliance number.[6] | |||||||||||||||||
| Playoff Rankings | Points are awarded based on overall playoff alliance ranking.[6]
| |||||||||||||||||
| Judged Awards | Points are awarded based on award placement.[6]
|
World Championship
[edit]The FTC World Championship occurred form April 29th, 2026 to May 2nd, 2026, bringing 338 together teams from around the world.[7][8] The overall awards from the FTC World Championship are listed below.
| Award Name | Team or Person Name | Team Number | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inspire Award | Amigos Droids | 17792 | Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| Winning Alliance Captain | Exodus | 30030 | Austin, Texas, USA |
| Winning Alliance 1st Pick | Velocity | 21087 | Brǎila, Brǎila, Romania |
| Winning Alliance 2nd Pick | OverClucked Bots | 11228 | Zeeland, Michigan, USA |
| Finalist Alliance Captain | RoboPlayers | 18270 | Irving, Texas, USA |
| Finalist Alliance 1st Pick | Heart of RoBots | 20265 | Buzău, Buzău, Romania |
| Finalist Alliance 2nd Pick | Technical Difficulties | 7172 | Plano, Texas, USA |
| Compass Award | Burçin Gündüz | 25171 | İzmir, Turkey |
| FIRST Leadership Award | Arjun Dasari | 252 | Providence, Rhode Island, USA |
| Anya Arun | 21351 | Charlotte, North Carolina, USA | |
| Kuek Kuek | 16010 | Omaha, Nebraska, USA | |
| Karime Lopez | 5470 | El Paso, Texas, USA | |
| Ananya Purohit | 25742 | Folsom, California, USA | |
| Chris Zheng | 23280 | San Diego, California, USA | |
| Arnav Gaddamanugu | 16290 | Sanford, Florida, USA | |
| Arhaan Jafri | 20240 | Austin, Texas, USA | |
| Sofia Lana | 17792 | Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil | |
| Abigail Fenrick | 22526 | Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA |
Premier Events
[edit]Following a regional championship, teams may advance to a premier event or in some premier events can separately apply. There were 12 premier events in the FTC Decode season. Information about each one is listed in the table below.[9]
| Premier Event | Location | Dates | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| New England Premier Event | West Springfield, Massachusetts | Apr 17 - Apr 18 | |
| Run for the Robots Premier Event | Lexington, Kentucky | May 28 - May 30 | |
| Western Edge Premier Event | Long Beach, California | May 28 - May 31 | |
| Cowtown Invitational Premier Event | Fort Worth, Texas | Jun 9 - Jun 10 | |
| Canada Cup - Niagara Premier Event | St. Catharines, Ontario | Jun 13 - Jun 16 | |
| European Premier Event | Eindhoven, Netherlands | Jun 17 - Jun 20 | |
| Michiana Premier Event Presented by GEARS | South Bend, Indiana | Jun 18 - Jun 21 | |
| İstanbul Premier Event | Istanbul, Turkey | Jun 26 - Jun 28 | |
| Mexico Premier Event | Mexico City, Mexico | Jul 23 - Jul 25 | |
| Canadian Rockies Premier Event @ K Days | Edmonton, Alberta | Jul 24 - Jul 26 | |
| Chicago Robotics Invitational Premier Event | Chicago, Illinois | Jul 24 - Jul 26 | Modified game featuring a larger field, 3 team alliances, new game pieces, new ways to score, and more.[10][11][12] |
| Carolinas Premier Event | Winston-Salem, North Carolina | Jul 25 - Jul 26 |
References
[edit]- ↑ Liu, Rose. "MSET FTC prepares for competitions after season kickoff". The Saratoga Falcon. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- ↑ FIRST Tech Challenge (2025-09-06). 2025-2026 DECODE presented by RTX Kickoff Broadcast. Retrieved 2026-08-28 – via YouTube.
- ↑ Park, Anisa. "DECODE: Inside BCA's 2025 FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Season". Academy Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- ↑ Haynes, Blake (2026-06-03). "Austin Teens Make Robotics History: Inside Team 30030 Exodus' World Championship Win". KXAN. Retrieved 2026-08-27.
- ↑ "P.K. Yonge Steel Eels robotics team qualifies for FTC Florida Championships". 2026-02-25. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "2025-2026 FIRST Tech Challenge Competition Manual DECODE Presented by RTX". firstinspires.org. Retrieved 2026-08-27.
- ↑ "FIRST Championship | firstchampionship.org". www.firstinspires.org. Archived from the original on 2026-08-21. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- ↑ "FTCCMP1 FTC Event Web : Event Information". ftc-events.firstinspires.org. Retrieved 2026-08-29.
- ↑ "Premier Events | FIRST Tech Challenge". www.firstinspires.org. Archived from the original on 2026-07-07. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- ↑ "Din Pitești, pe scena mondială a roboticii! Echipa ARRA participă la Chicago Robotics Invitational 2026 - Ziarul Ancheta Online" (in Romanian). 2026-05-28. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- ↑ Snyder, Melanie (2026-08-12). "Mechanicville high schoolers rise to new robotics heights". Gazette News Group, Inc. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
- ↑ "2026 Game Modifications". Chicago Robotics Invitational. Retrieved 2026-08-29.