Advancement, the Championship, and the Hall of Fame

The path to the top

The Impact Award is contested at every level of FRC, and winning it is one of the strongest paths to the FIRST Championship. How you advance depends on whether you compete in the Regional or District model.

Regional model advancement

In the Regional model, winning the Impact Award at a Regional is a major achievement that helps qualify your team for the Championship. FIRST also provides a safety net: a team that wins the FIRST Impact Award at a Regional event but does not qualify for the FIRST Championship via a direct slot or from the Regional Pool will be offered a remote interview to be eligible to win at the Championship. Teams that win and qualify by other means must still attend the event in order to receive an interview at the Championship.

District model advancement

In the District model, the Impact Award is decided at District Championships , and the District Championship Impact Award winner earns merit-based advancement to the FIRST Championship. District qualifying events recognize Impact submissions too, but the headline advancement comes at the District Championship.

At the FIRST Championship

At the Championship, a panel of judges interviews the advancing Regional and District Championship Impact Award recipients from around the world. From these, the judges select 6 FIRST Impact Award Finalists and, from those, 1 winning FIRST Impact Award recipient. Winning at the Championship is the pinnacle of FRC recognition.

The FIRST Hall of Fame

The Championship Impact Award winner is inducted into the FIRST Hall of Fame , which celebrates past FIRST Championship Impact Award winners — teams of “sustained excellence and impact.” Hall of Fame benefits include recognition banners at the Championship and dedicated booth space to interact with other teams. Recent Championship Impact Award winners include Team 6352 (LAUNCH TEAM, Surprise, AZ — 2026), Team 5985 (Project Bucephalus, 2025), Team 2486 (CocoNuts, 2024), and Team 321 (RoboLancers, 2023).

The pre-qualification benefit

The most concrete competitive perk: Hall of Fame teams that earned their Championship FIRST Impact Award in the last 8 years are pre-qualified teams for the FIRST Championship. In other words, a recent Hall of Fame induction earns your team an automatic Championship slot for several years afterward — a powerful reward for sustained excellence. (Note the flip side: a Championship winner cannot resubmit for the Championship Impact Award for 5 years.)

Learn from the winners

The best preparation is studying real winning submissions. FIRST publishes past winners’ executive summaries, essays, and videos on the FIA Winners and Submitted Awards pages, and The Blue Alliance archives Impact (and historical Chairman’s) Award winners by event and year. Read several recent Championship-winning essays, note their themes, structure, and use of data, and reverse-engineer what made them stand out — then build your own program and submission to that standard.

Key takeaways

• In the Regional model, winning the Impact Award (with a remote-interview safety net for non-qualifiers) helps reach the Championship; in the District model it advances at District Championships.
• At the FIRST Championship, judges name 6 Finalists and 1 overall Impact Award winner, who is inducted into the Hall of Fame.
• Hall of Fame teams from the last 8 years are pre-qualified for the Championship (and cannot resubmit for the Championship award for 5 years); study published past winners to calibrate your own submission.

This lesson was adapted from learnfrc.com.