FIRST Championship

FIRST Championship Event
FrequencyAnnual
VenueGeorge R. Brown Convention Center
Discovery Green
Location(s)Houston, Texas, United States
Inaugurated1992 (1992)
FounderDean Kamen
Participants~30 nations
Large presence by the United States, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Israel, Australia, and China[1]
Organised byFIRST
Websitewww.firstchampionship.org
Both 2020 championships cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The FIRST LEGO League World Championship was held as a virtual competition on April 18 and 19, 2020 and hosted by FLL Share and Learn.

The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri in 2011, where it remained through 2017. In 2017, the Championship was split into two events, being additionally held at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. In 2018 and 2019, the Championship was held in Houston and Detroit, Michigan at the TCF Center and Ford Field. The event comprises four competitions; the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship, the FIRST Lego League World Festival, and the FIRST Lego League Junior World Expo.[3]

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a ten-week program in which high-school students build 125-pound (54 kg) robots designed to compete in a game that changes each year. Students are given sets of parts to use, but they can also use off-the-shelf or custom-made parts. The FIRST Tech Challenge is a mid-level competition program for middle school and high school aged students with a more accessible and affordable robotics kit. FIRST LEGO League is a competition program for elementary and middle school students using LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits. Teams for each program compete in tournaments at a state and regional level. The winning teams from each of these tournaments join the global competition at the FIRST Championship.

The FIRST Championship was formally held in conjunction with the FIRST Robotics Conference, which covers a wide variety of topics in science, technology, engineering, and robotics fields.[4]

The 2011 championship was also host to the Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration, a pilot collegiate FIRST program.

In 2015, to expand, it was announced that the FIRST Championship would be divided into multiple venues. The new Innovation Faire featuring displays and demonstrations from FIRST Sponsors, Partners and Suppliers took place at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel, The FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship and the Junior FIRST Lego League World Festival took place at Union Station (St. Louis), and the FIRST LEGO League World Festival as well as the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship took place at the Edward Jones Dome and America's Center. The new arrangement was designed to give an "Olympic Village" feel and allow for more space to expand each individual program.[5] In 2017, the Championship was split into 2 championships, one occurring in Houston and the other a week later in St. Louis. The second Championship was moved to Detroit for 2018 and 2019. In 2020, FIRST decided to move the closing ceremonies for all programs from Minute Maid Park and Ford Field to the convention centers in Houston and Detroit respectively.[6]

The 2020 FIRST season was suspended on March 12, 2020, resulting in the cancellation of the Championship events in Houston and Detroit, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The FIRST LEGO League World Championship was held as a virtual competition on April 18 and 19, 2020 and hosted by FLL Share and Learn.

The 2021 FIRST Championship in Houston and Detroit were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] The events were replaced by a virtual ceremony at the 2021 FIRST Global Innovation Awards on June 28–30, 2021.

Despite originally announcing dates for both Detroit and Houston for 2022, the 2022 FIRST Championship was later scheduled solely for Houston and was held from April 20 to April 23, 2022.

  1. ^ "FIRST Robotics Competition 2019 Season Facts" (PDF). www.firstinspires.org. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Cohen, Larry (March 12, 2020). "COVID-19 Impact on FIRST Events (Updated March 12, 2020)". FIRST. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  3. ^ FIRST Championship Archived April 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, FIRST - accessed May 23, 2009
  4. ^ 2009 FIRST Robotics Conference[permanent dead link‍], FIRST - accessed May 23, 2009
  5. ^ "FIRST Championship | USFIRST.org". Archived from the original on June 26, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  6. ^ "Championship Closing Schedule Updates". FIRST Championship. FIRST. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  7. ^ "2021 FIRST Championship Update". FIRST. March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2021.