0.1 What is FTC

FTC is short for FIRST Tech Challenge, a competition run by an organization called FIRST. It is an international program where students form teams to design, build and program robots. With your team you develop a robot that can do the game's tasks, then you take your robot to a tournament and compete against other teams.

FIRST was founded in the United States in 1989. FIRST Tech Challenge started as a pilot program in 2005, and it has been held every season since then. In the 2024-25 season, more than 109,000 students from 81 countries competed on FTC teams. FIRST also runs other robotics competitions for different age groups, and FTC is the one for middle and high school age students. Students design and build the robot. An adult mentor guides the team.

In Türkiye the program is run by the Fikret Yüksel Foundation (Fikret Yüksel Vakfı, FYF). Around the world, students aged 12 to 18 take part, while in Türkiye the program is aimed at middle school students. Registration information, event dates and Turkish resources are published at ftcturkiye.org.

What robots do in the game

Every season has its own game. The game sets the tasks the robots do on the field and how many points each task is worth. The tasks change every season, but the idea stays the same. The more of the game's work the robot does, and the better it does it, the more points the team scores.

The game for the 2024-25 season was INTO THE DEEP. There were colored game pieces on the field. Robots scored points by picking these pieces up from the floor and dropping them into high baskets.

For a task like this, the robot had to drive up to the piece, pick it up, and lift it high enough to drop it into the basket. The wheels move the robot around the field, but grabbing and lifting the piece needs a separate setup. A robot is built from setups like these, each doing its own job. A part of the robot that takes on one specific job is called a subsystem.

A game usually has more than one task, and not every task is worth the same number of points. How many points each job earns is written in the rules, which are released together with the game. A team does not have to do all of these tasks. You decide as a team which tasks to go for and how your robot will do them.

The rules are the same for every team, but the robots do not have to be copies of each other. Teams can design different setups to pick up the same piece and drop it into the same basket. Two teams reading the same game can come up with very different robots.

How a match is played

Robots do not go onto the field one at a time. A match has four robots on the field, with two groups of two facing each other. One group is red, the other is blue. The group made of the two teams competing on the same side is called an alliance.

Points earned from tasks go to the alliance, not to each robot. Each team develops its own robot, but during the match it shares the work with its partner. The same team can be your partner in one match and your opponent in another.

When the match starts, the drivers do not give the robot live commands. The robot runs a program prepared in advance, and it can make decisions based on information from its sensors, the parts that sense its surroundings. This part of the match is called Autonomous.

After Autonomous ends, the drivers control the robot with a game controller (gamepad). This part, where the robot follows the drivers' commands, is called TeleOp.

In some games there are tasks set aside for the end of the match. Teams can score points from these tasks too. This last part of the match is called the endgame.

When the match ends, the points the two alliances scored are compared. The alliance with more points wins the match. At a tournament, the same team plays several matches through the day, and its partner changes from match to match.

Match results affect a team's ranking at the tournament.

A new game every season

Teams do not prepare for the same game every year. The game's theme and tasks change every season. The new game is revealed to the whole world at the same time in September. No team learns the game before the others. This event where the new game is revealed is called Kickoff.

The game for the 2026-27 season is BIOBUZZ. After Kickoff, teams study the tasks, develop their robots for those tasks, and a few months later meet at tournaments.

Teams work on the same game for the whole season. If something fell short at one tournament, they can improve it before the next one.

How many points each task earns and which rules the robot must follow are written in the official rule book. It is called the Competition Manual. FIRST publishes the full version of the book on Kickoff day, and it can add clarifications and changes during the season.

Event dates in Türkiye change every season and are announced at ftcturkiye.org.

Judging and the FIRST Championship

At a tournament, it is not only the matches on the field that count. Each team tells the judges what it did during the season and why. This conversation is called the judging interview.

A team can also describe this work in a short document. The document explains how the robot was designed, what was tried and what did not work. This document is called the portfolio. Some awards require a portfolio.

Most awards are decided through this evaluation. A team that loses on the field can be chosen by the judges as the best team of the season. We will look at preparing for the interview and the portfolio in the 0.11 From Kickoff to competition lesson.

In Türkiye the season starts with regional tournaments. Teams that qualify there go on to the Türkiye Championship. From the Türkiye Championship, teams go on to the world championship. How many can go depends on the number of slots FIRST sets aside for Türkiye.

The world championship is held in the United States and brings together teams from different parts of the world on the same field. This event is called the FIRST Championship.

Both field results and judged awards count when moving up from one tournament to the next. In the 0.2 Awards and the road to the world championship lesson, we will see how these results turn into points and which teams qualify to go on.

Extras

• FIRST Tech Challenge program
• FTC Türkiye season resources and announcements
• INTO THE DEEP Competition Manual
• FIRST Championship
• 0.11 From Kickoff to competition reading the game, choosing tasks, preparing the portfolio and the interview
• 0.14 Alliance selection, playoffs and advancement alliance selection and the tournament's playoff matches