New England FIRST Robotics teams uncover success at the highest level: FIRST Championship 2026
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
To close out a FIRST season filled with surprising discoveries and blasts from the past, thousands of students, mentors, volunteers, sponsors and friends traveled to Houston, Texas for the FIRST Championship presented by BAE Systems. FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST LEGO League Challenge and Explore teams from all over the world dug deep to make their way to the final matches and award ceremonies at all program levels.
FIRST hosted the culminating World Championship for the FIRST AGE presented by Qualcomm season, bringing 19,000 students from 1,142 teams and 59 countries together in one incredible venue. The George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston featured eight FIRST Robotics Competition REBUILT fields in a row (always named for inspiring famous STEM experts!) between two large pit areas for all FRC teams on the first floor, with the Innovation Faire on the second floor and the full FLL and FTC competitions on the third floor.
New England teams (and volunteers!) showed their regional pride with WE ARE NE banners, badge ribbons and flags for their match introductions! We brought as many of them together as we could for a Thursday evening all-New England photo in the stands. Mentors and sponsors were also invited to a social evening at local fixture Truck Yard to celebrate all of the season’s successes! It was great to see so many familiar faces helping all over the event. Special thanks to our photographer, FIRST alum Mike Mullinax, for all of the amazing photos in this post!
Click below to see all 55 FIRST teams that represented New England in Houston:
Competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, 32 teams qualified to represent New England in the finale to the REBUILT season. FRC teams made it through 125 qualification matches before the end of Friday evening and woke up bright and early Saturday for alliance selection.
We loved seeing match ups and mash ups of our teams, where they played on the same or opposing alliances in the same match. We even had an ALL NE Alliance in Q44 on Curie! (and yes, they won!)
New England had 6 alliance captains, 20 teams in the playoffs rounds, 6 teams that advanced through double-elimination brackets to final matches, and FIVE that made it all the way to Einstein (with two of the teams on the same alliance!). Great job to the following teams for representing NE on the world stage:
Archimedes Division Winner: FRC 7407, Wired Boars from Wallingford, CT
Hopper Division Winner: FRC 6329, The Bucks' Wrath from Bucksport, ME
Johnson Division Winner: FRC 6324, The Blue Devils from Salem, NH
Johnson Division Winner: FRC 2877, LigerBots from Newtonville, MA
Milstein Division Winner: FRC 4905, Andromeda One from Ayer, MA
Competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship, 15 teams from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont qualified to represent New England in the finale to the DECODE season. One team even made it to the da Vinci playoff matches: Congratulations to FTC 3565, Ghost Robotics from Westford, MA!
Special shoutout to our New England FIRST Leadership Award winner, representing Rhode Island in the FIRST Tech Challenge, Arjun Dasari from FTC 252!
And joining teams from all over the world to celebrate FIRST LEGO League, 7 FLL Challenge teams from all six states qualified to represent New England in the finale to the UNEARTHED season, as well as 1 FLL Explore team from New Hampshire. You all made us proud!
We can't wait to be back next year for FIRST CANOPY! Congratulations to ALL of the FIRST Championship Award winners from New England:
FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION
FRC Archimedes Division
FIRST Championship Division Winner: FRC 7407, Wired Boars from Wallingford, CT
FIRST Championship Team Spirit Award: FRC 131, CHAOS from Manchester, NH
FRC Curie Division
FIRST Championship Division Finalist: FRC 166, Chop Shop from Merrimack, NH
FRC Daly Division
FIRST Championship Autonomous Award sponsored by Google.org: FRC 176, Aces High from Windsor Locks, CT
FRC Galileo Division
FIRST Championship Autonomous Award sponsored by Google.org: FRC 1768, Nashoba Robotics from Bolton, MA
FRC Hopper Division
FIRST Championship Division Winner: FRC 6329, The Bucks' Wrath from Bucksport, ME
FIRST Championship Gracious Professionalism Award: FRC 3467, Windham Windup from Windham, NH
FIRST Championship Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation: FRC 5000, Hammerheads from Hingham, MA
FRC Johnson Division
FIRST Championship Division Winner: FRC 6324, The Blue Devils from Salem, NH
FIRST Championship Division Winner: FRC 2877, LigerBots from Newtonville, MA
FIRST Championship Rookie All-Star Award: FRC 11269, Batteries Not Included from South Burlington, VT
FIRST Championship Quality Award: FRC 1073, The Force Team from Hollis, NH
FRC Milstein Division
FIRST Championship Division Winner: FRC 4905, Andromeda One from Ayer, MA
FRC Newton Division
FIRST Championship Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation: FRC 2713, Red Hawk Robotics from Melrose, MA
FIRST TECH CHALLENGE
FIRST Leadership Award
FIRST Tech Challenge Winner: Arjun Dasari, from FTC 252, Electric Quahogs from Providence, RI
FTC Goodall Division
FIRST Championship Division Innovate Award sponsored by RTX: FTC 15534, VERTEX from Exeter, NH
FIRST Championship Division Connect Award 3rd Place: FTC 16008, Armored Artemises from Glastonbury, CT
FTC Jackson Division
FIRST Championship Division Inspire Award 2nd Place: FTC 4410, ARC Lightning from Andover, MA
FIRST Championship Division Control Award 2nd Place: FTC 19411, Tech Tigers from Sharon, MA
FIRST Championship Division Control Award 3rd Place: FTC 23286, Lazer Robotics from Newton Center, MA
FTC Ross Division
FIRST Championship Division Winner: FTC 3565, Ghost Robotics from Westford, MA
FIRST Championship Division Think Award 2nd Place: FTC 24018, Avant-Garde from Nashua, NH
FIRST Championship Division Connect Award 3rd Place: FTC 16169, Banana Box from Windham, NH
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE EXPLORE
FIRST Championship Coding Award: FLL-E 35642 Team NESA from Nashua, NH
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