In order to compete at one of the 2018 FIRST^® Championships, a 2018 registered FIRST^® Robotics Competition team must either:

• Be a "Pre-Qualifying" Team;
• Become a Merit Based Qualifier during the 2018 Season;
• Have Veteran Team Status and register for the waitlist during the open enrollment phase, then be selected from the waitlist.

2018 Rookie Teams

2018 rookie teams are not eligible to register for the FIRST Championship Waitlists via open Registration, but must qualify to attend per the Merit Based criteria set forth in the chart.

Pre-Qualifying Teams

Pre-Qualified teams can register for the FIRST Championships beginning Thursday, October 5 at noon, Eastern Time.

The following teams are considered Pre-Qualified:

• FIRST Championship Chairman’s Award winners from prior years (Hall of Fame teams)
• Original and Sustaining teams
• 2017 FIRST Championship FIRST STEAMWORKS winners
• 2017 FIRST Championship FIRST STEAMWORKS Engineering Inspiration Award winners
• 2017 FIRST Championship Chairman's Award Finalists

See chart for additional details.

Merit Based Qualifying Teams

Merit Based Qualifying Teams are automatically given the opportunity to register for the Championship at the time of their win at either a Regional Event or at their District Championship.

See the chart for full details on what constitutes Merit Based Qualification for 2018. Learn more about the Merit Based Awards (and all our awards) here.

Championship Waitlist for Veteran Teams

Both FIRST Championship locations in 2018, Houston and Detroit, will have Waitlists. Teams may join the Championship Waitlists to fill any remaining FIRST Championship slots not filled by qualifying Regional or District teams. Teams may sign up for either their home or non-home Championship Waitlist. Teams who sign up for the Waitlists will be randomly selected as described below at various points throughout the competition season in an effort to give teams as much time to make travel plans as possible while ensuring we do not exceed FIRST Championship capacity.

Home teams on a FIRST Championship waitlist will always have priority over non-home teams on that waitlist. The list of home waitlist teams will be exhausted before we start inviting non-home teams. Because of this, there is an excellent chance, as a practical matter, non-home teams will never receive a waitlist invitation to Championship. Teams are still free to join their non-home Championship Waitlist, but should be aware the chances of their getting invited to that Championship location are very small.

Rookies are not eligible to sign up for the Waitlists.

Veteran teams may sign up for the Waitlists through the team registration site beginning Thursday, November 2, 2017 at Noon, Eastern Time. To do so, a team’s Lead Coach/Mentor 1 or 2 must log in to the team registration site, click on the “Event Options” button, choose “View Team Events”, click on the “Find An Event” button, then select the FIRST Championship Waitlist that the team would like to join.

Teams will receive a number of “entries” to get selected from the Waitlists equal to 2018 minus the last year they attended Championship (or their rookie year, or when they most recently returned as an active team, whichever year is the most recent). As examples, a team that attended in 2017 will get one entry in the waitlists drawing, a team that last attended in 2016 will get two, and a team that has never attended but has been continuously active since 2008 will get ten. This weighted randomization takes place just before every set of waitlist invitations goes out, to allow us to accommodate new teams joining the waitlist. 

Wild Card Slots for the 2018 Championship

Teams can earn a Wild Card slot at their Regional Event. Any team at a Regional who has already earned a FIRST Championship spot prior to the Regional and earns an additional spot at the Regional (by being on the Winning Alliance or being selected for one of the three qualifying awards) will generate a Wild Card slot. Additionally, any Team earning two qualifying spots at a single Regional (e.g. by being on the Winning Alliance and earning the Chairman’s Award) will generate a Wild Card slot.

A team who has already earned a spot at FIRST Championship prior to the Regional and earns two qualifying spots at the Regional will generate two Wild Card slots.

A Team is considered to have already earned a FIRST Championship spot prior to the Regional if they are a pre-qualified team, earned a spot at an earlier Regional by being selected for one of the three qualifying awards, are on the Winning Alliance, or earned a Wild Card slot. Non-qualified Teams who have been selected from the Waitlist to participate in the FIRST Championship do not generate Wild Cards.

The Wild Card slots are distributed to the Finalist Alliance, in the order of Team selection (Alliance Captain, 1st Pick, 2nd Pick, Back-Up team, if a Back-Up team participated), until either all Wild Card slots generated at that event are distributed or the Finalist Alliance is out of Teams, whichever comes first. If a member of the Finalist Alliance has already earned a spot at the FIRST Championship, they are passed over and the next member of the Alliance is given the available Wild Card slot. A team may decline a Wild Card slot they have been offered, but this does not pass the Wild Card slot down to the next team in line, instead, that Wild Card slot will go unused. Unused Wild Card slots will not be back filled or replaced.

All 2018 Regionals will automatically generate one Wild Card slot in addition to those that would normally have been generated. This Wild Card slot will be distributed in the same way that other Wild Spots are distributed.