New England hosts the very first Premier Event competition format for FIRST Tech Challenge

Last weekend wasn't just the biggest FIRST Robotics Competition event in New England....it was the biggest FIRST Tech Challenge event too!!

As the only Premier Event scheduled before the FIRST Championship, New England had a unique opportunity to showcase our unity as a geographic region, celebrate our FIRST Tech Challenge Teams, give competing teams a taste of the FIRST Championship Experience potentially closer to home, and be a guiding light for the Premier Events to come.

Starting with a simpler concept in 2024, the original New England Invitational was an opportunity for the best teams across New England who did not advance to the FIRST Championship to come together to play with (and against) teams from outside their region.

When we heard about FIRST trying Premier Events as a new competition format in 2025, we realized we had a unique opportunity to have even more teams from all over the world join our celebration of success alongside the best of New England! NE FIRST was honored to host the very first one on April 4–5, 2025.

The inaugural New England Premier Event was hosted at the Eastern States Exposition, also known as The Big E, in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Every September, The Big E hosts essentially a state fair for all of New England—there is even a road of replica state capitol buildings on the fairgrounds. 

Very intentionally co-located with the FIRST Robotics Competition New England District Championship, the New England Premier Event helped create an environment where all of the FIRST Programs came together on one campus. In addition to FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition competitions, the NE FIRST Expo filled a building in the middle of the action, hosting FIRST Scholarship Providers, NE FIRST Sponsors, FIRST LEGO League Challenge and Explore, and more for a truly integrated STEM experience! 

Each division ran 10 qualification matches per team, had their own alliance selection and playoffs tournament, and crowned champions and other award winners. Though the high score of the event was 401 including penalties during the Finale on the INGENUITY Field, each division saw scores well above 300 points in both qualification matches and playoffs.

After lunch on Saturday, teams selected their alliances and competed for their Division Championship, and the right to face the other Division to claim the title of New England Premier Event Champions. Congratulations to the Anderson Division Champions who came out victorious!

FULL FTC EVENT PROGRAM + TEAM LIST

In this first-of-its-kind Premier Event, our dual-division event followed the tradition of the New England District Championship, which has featured fields named for inspiring STEM leaders in and from New England. This year, we were excited for teams to compete in the ANDERSON Division and the COURVILLE Division! 

The COURVILLE Division is named for Dr. Zoe Courville. Dr. Courville is a Research Mechanical Engineer for Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Dr. Courville has been on expeditions to Antarctica for polar field research, and has published many scientific papers on properties of snow and ice. She is also currently an adjunct professor of engineering at Dartmouth. 

The ANDERSON Division is named for Dr. Paul Anderson. Dr Anderson is the founder of Coral Reef Aquarium Fisheries Campaign, which aims to empower sustainable marine aquarium fisheries that support biodiversity, healthy coral reefs, and the livelihoods of fishers, traders, and others who depend on them across the global value chain. He also serves as an assistant professor at UCONN. Check out his blog about the event here!

Thank you to Dr. Courville and Dr. Anderson for speaking during the events opening ceremonies each day and inspiring us this season and beyond!

Outside of the INTO THE DEEP matches throughout Friday and Saturday, teams were able to participate in a variety of activities and projects. Whether they helped our community service project of making paracord lanyards to donate to Operation Gratitude for care packages for troops, or had fun with lawn games and LEGO, there was something for everyone!

Between robot matches in the Coliseum and the robot pits in the Young Building, the A Barn was full of colleges and universities in Scholarship Row, local companies sharing incredible technology in Sponsor Row, interactive art projects with Positive Street Art and even members of the 501st Legion. In the same building as the competing teams' pits, we also had our district Engineering Inspiration and Rookie All-Star teams who were competing for these awards without their robot at the event, ready to tell their stories to invited guests. 

It was hard to miss the presence of E.C.H.O. from the United States Space Force in the Young Building, a test of cognitive skills that are necessary for U.S.S.F. Guardians; or Hugo from Medtronic, a surgical robot demonstration! Special thanks to Northwest Designs for creating commemorative shirts for the occasion that anyone could customize and purchase: they are still available at https://nwd.ink/s/eventstore using our event dates!

We made sure to bring every FIRST program to The Big E fairgrounds:

• FIRST Robotics Competition NE District Championship: the culmination of REEFSCAPE matches in New England in the Coliseum

• FIRST Tech Challenge New England Premier Event: the first-of-its-kind advancement event took over the Mallary Complex with an international INTO THE DEEP competition hosting 54 teams

• FIRST LEGO League Challenge Scrimmage: teams from multiple states enjoyed SUBMERGED matches and judging on Saturday

• FIRST LEGO League Explore Expo: teams demonstrated their season model and knowledge gained this season

• FIRST LEGO League Parade: everyone attending could join our FRC mascots for a parade on the field between Alliance Selections and REEFSCAPE playoffs!

Special thanks to our event speakers, many of whom also represented NE FIRST sponsors, for joining us throughout the weekend's ceremonies:

• Chris Rake, Chief Operating Officer for FIRST

• Samantha Harkness, FIRST alum and military maintenance instructor for RTX 

• Dr. Zoe Courville, our inspiration for the COURVILLE Division and Research Mechanical Engineer for Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL)

• Dr. Paul Anderson, our inspiration for the ANDERSON Division, and Founder of Coral Reef Aquarium Fisheries Campaign

Thank you to the companies and organizations that joined us in the New England Expo, looking to inspire the next generation of employees with their support:

• BAE Systems

• RTX

• Medtronic

• Mathworks

• GE Aerospace

• Altair

• United States Space Force

• PTC

• Eversource

• MITRE

• Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI)

  • bringing together the University of Rhode Island, the University of New Hampshire, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the Ocean Exploration Trust

• Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL)

• Hack Club

And thank you to the colleges and universities, many of whom brought in FIRST alumni to chat with current students about next steps after high school:

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

• Western New England University

• Wentworth Institute of Technology

• University of Hartford

• University of Connecticut

• Merrimack College

Our weekend of FIRST robotics at The Big E would not have been possible without the efforts of nearly 300 incredible volunteers, whether they planned for months for a great team experience or they held field and pit roles to make everything run smoothly all weekend. They were led by a team of event planners from all over New England who worked behind the scenes to make the 2025 New England Premier Event a success!

• Rob Cormier, CT

• Tom Rishworth, RI

• Chris Deslandes, CT

• Jacob Janssens, MA

• Ken St. Hilaire, NH

• Liz Kenton, VT

• Linnea Carroll, CT

• Hoa Ton-That, CT

• Steve Goyette, NH

• Alexi Sarnevitz, MA

• Mike Daley, RI

• Robert Cullen, MA

• Joey Macary, CT

• Sam Spain, CT

Congratulations to our New England Premier Event Finale and Inspire Award Winners:

Anderson Division Inspire Award: FTC 5356, TARDIS from Corning, NY

Courville Division Inspire Award: FTC 7832, Gear Gurus from Romoland, CA

New England Premier Event Winners:

FTC 23248, Cosmic Loop from Longmeadow, MA

FTC 8863, Precision Cut-Ups from Tully, NY

New England Premier Event Finalists:

FTC 26532, Happy Haptic Doctors from Hanover, NH

FTC 25650, One Small Step for an Axolotl from Lititz, PA

Congratulations to all Anderson Division award winners:

Division Inspire Award: FTC 5356, TARDIS from Corning, NY

2nd Place: FTC 24864, Marian Mechanics from Newark, DE

3rd Place: FTC 16021, Techno Maniacs from Acton, MA

New England Premier Event Anderson Division Winners: 

FTC 23248, Cosmic Loop from Longmeadow, MA

FTC 8863, Precision Cut-Ups from Tully, NY

New England Premier Event Anderson Division Finalists: 

FTC 13093, Golden Fish from Punta Gorda, FL

FTC 5356, TARDIS from Corning, NY

Think Award: FTC 21393, BearBella from Scarborough, ON, Canada

2nd Place: FTC 0001, Team Unlimited from Sharon, MA

Connect Award: FTC 636, Occam’s Razor Clams from Providence, RI

Innovate Award Sponsored by RTX: FTC 26270, Astro Box from Windham, NH

Control Award: FTC 8863, Precision Cut-Ups from Tully, NY

2nd Place: FTC 15343, Blue VIII from Nashua, NH

Motivate Award: FTC 19498, Devolotics from Scarborough, ON, Canada

2nd Place: FTC 17628, Oak Grove Robotics from Fargo, ND

Judges’ Choice Award: FTC 19532, MechCat from Scarborough, ON, Canada

Congratulations to all Courville Division award winners:

Courville Division Inspire Award: FTC 7832, Gear Gurus from Romoland, CA

2nd Place: FTC 16008, Armored Artemises from Glastonbury, CT

3rd Place: FTC 6078, Cut the Red Wire from Apex, NC

New England Premier Event Courville Division Winners: 

FTC 26532, Happy Haptic Doctors from Hanover, NH

FTC 25650, One Small Step for an Axolotl from Lititz, PA

New England Premier Event Courville Division Finalists:

FTC 24256, ARC Sandstorm from Andover, MA

FTC 23286, LAZER Robotics from Newton Center, MA

Think Award: FTC 25650, One Small Step for an Axolotl from Lititz, PA

2nd Place: FTC 23286, LAZER Robotics from Newton Center, MA

Connect Award: FTC 22801, Bolt.m3 from Almaty, ALA, Kazakhstan

Innovate Award Sponsored by RTX: FTC 17700, Mechanical Vikings from New Ipswich, NH

2nd Place: FTC 22683 RoboHawks White from Hinesburg, VT

Control Award: FTC 26507, Geneton from Alpharetta, GA

Motivate Award: FTC 15403, Vision Robotics from Fort Collins, CO

Judges’ Choice Award: FTC 14251, Capital Robotics from Monpelier, VT