In order to compete at one of the 2022 FIRST^® Championships, a 2022 registered FIRST^® Robotics Competition team must compete at the Regional level or qualify via the District State Championship/District Region Championship Event.

Teams are eligible to register for the FIRST Championships if:

• They are a "Pre-Qualifying" Team;
• Become a Merit-Based Qualifier during the 2022 Season;
• Register for the FIRST Championship waitlist during the open enrollment phase.

2022 Rookie and Veteran Teams

2022 rookie and veteran teams are eligible to register for the FIRST Championship via open waitlist registration. They may also qualify to attend per the Merit-Based criteria set forth in the chart below.

Pre-Qualifying Teams

Pre-Qualified teams can register for the FIRST Championships beginning Thursday, 10/21 at Noon Eastern Time (ET).

The following teams are considered Pre-Qualified:

• FIRST Championship Chairman’s Award winners in prior years (Hall of Fame teams)
• Original and sustaining teams from 1992 on

See the chart below 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 below for full details on what constitutes Merit-Based Qualification for 2022. You can learn more about the Merit-Based Awards (and all our other awards) in the 2022 FIRST Robotics Competition Manual.

Championship Waitlist

Teams may join the Championship Waitlist to fill any remaining FIRST Championship slots not consumed by qualifying Regional or District teams. Teams who sign up for the Waitlist will be randomly selected at various points throughout the season to give teams as much time to make travel plans as possible while ensuring we do not exceed FIRST Championship capacity. 

New This Year: Rookies are eligible to sign up for the Waitlist, along with veteran teams. 

Teams may sign up for the Waitlist through the Dashboard. To do so, a team’s Lead Mentor 1 or Lead Mentor 2 must log in to the Dashboard, in the Team Events section, click the “Event Options” drop-down menu, and select View Team Events.  Next click the Find An Event button, locate the FIRST Championship Event in the event list, and lastly click the Waitlist button. Teams will receive the number of “entries” to get selected from the Waitlist equal to 2023 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); i.e.: a 2022 rookie team will get one entry in each waitlist drawing, a team that attended in 2019 will get four entries in each, a team that has never attended but has been continuously active since 2012 will get eleven in each. 

Wild Card Slots for the 2022 Championship

Teams can earn a Wild Card slot at their Regional Event. All Regional events have a minimum of one (1) Wild Card slot. Additional Wild Cards are generated as follows: 

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, a spot is earned 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. 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 backfilled or replaced.