📌About the Event

FIRST Tech Challenge India 2026–27 is a national-level robotics competition where school and community-based teams design, build, and program robots to compete in alliance-format matches. The 2026–27 season is themed BIOBUZZ™, part of the global FIRST® CANOPY™ season, and focuses on engineering, coding, teamwork, strategy, innovation, and STEM learning. The India season includes regional qualifiers across the country and a National Championship in Pune, with top teams getting a chance to move toward the FIRST World Championship.

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ℹ️ Event Details

• Season theme: BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX
• Mode of conduct:
  • Online team registration
  • In-person regional qualifier tournaments across India
  • In-person National Championship in Pune, Maharashtra
• Competition format: Team-based robotics challenge in alliance format
• Team size: 15–20 students per team
• Coaches required: Minimum 2 coaches per team
• Robot match format: 30-second autonomous mode followed by 2-minute driver-controlled mode
• Tournament structure: 6 regional qualifying tournaments across India, followed by 1 National Championship
• Who can participate: School-based or community-based teams
• Time commitment: Around 3 hours per week, as listed in the program snapshot.

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📅 Important Dates

• Registrations open: July 2026
• Season kickoff / game reveal: 12 September 2026
• Team preparation phase: September 2026 onwards
• Regional qualifier tournaments:
  • Ahmedabad: 8–10 January 2027
  • Hyderabad: 8–10 January 2027
  • Mumbai: 15–17 January 2027
  • Delhi NCR: 22–24 January 2027
  • Bengaluru: 29–31 January 2027
  • Pune: 29–31 January 2027
• Tournament season: January–February 2027
• India National Championship: February 2027, Pune, Maharashtra
• FIRST World Championship: 28 April 2027
• FIRST Tech Challenge Leadership Award nominations:
  • Opens: 14 September 2026
  • Closes: 15 December 2026

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🎯 Eligibility & Rules

• Eligibility:
  • Open to students aged 12–18 years
  • Suitable for students in grades 7–12
  • Teams can be formed through schools, communities, robotics clubs, or similar groups
  • Each team must have 15–20 students
  • Each team must have at least 2 coaches or mentors
• Registration requirements:
  • Teams must first create or log in to the official FIRST dashboard
  • Teams must obtain a valid 6-digit International FIRST Team Number
  • FTC India registration cannot be completed without a valid FIRST Team Number
  • After payment, teams must submit the team information form with team name, school/organization, location, coach details, contact details, and team member information

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🏆 Benefits for the Participants

• Top-performing teams can qualify from regional tournaments to the India National Championship.
• National-level winners/top teams get the opportunity to represent India at the FIRST World Championship.
• Teams can win prestigious FIRST awards for robot performance, innovation, design, outreach, leadership, engineering documentation, and teamwork.
• Participants gain hands-on experience in robotics, coding, engineering, problem-solving, communication, and project management.