FIRST Regional

FIRST regionals are typically held one week, Thursday through Saturday. Practice matches are held the first day, qualification matches are held the second and into the third days, and the elimination matches are held the third and final day. Awards are given out both the second and third days typically.

The events are free of charge and open to the public. The events are often webcast for other people to watch online.

Competition events are, in the words of certain teams, “full of passion, excitement, joy, and sorrow…the thrill of success and the agony of defeat.”

Overview

1992 - 1999

Before 1999, there was a double elimination tournament with all teams participating.

1999 - 2004

In 2004, the FIRST Robotics Competition was comprised of twenty-six regional competitions. During each, many dozens of qualification matches are held which will determine each team’s seed. After all qualification matches, teams seeded 1st through 8th pick their alliance partners. Then, alliances compete against each other in elimination matches in the following fashion, where QF is the quarter finals, and SF is the semifinals.

  QF  SF  
1 -- 
     -- 
8 --   |
        --- Finalist 1
2 --   |
     -- 
7 -- 

  QF  SF  
3 -- 
     -- 
6 --   |
        --- Finalist 2
4 --   |
     -- 
5 -- 

Finalists 1 and 2 play against each other for the title of Regional Winner.

2004-Present

FIRST Regional elimination tournaments post-2004 are exciting and exclusive events. Around 60 teams attend each regional, however this number can fluctuate greatly depending on the event. As in the past, teams play a large number of qualifying matches during the day on Friday and the morning on Saturday. During lunch time, alliance pickings occur and the top 8 ranked teams are chosen as alliance captains. These alliance captains pick their partners in a serpentine system (ie. In first picking round, alliance captain 1 picks first, in the second picking round, alliance captain 8 picks first.)

After the alliance pickings go on, the tournament happens.

  QF  SF  
1 -- 
     -- 
8 --   |
        --- Finalist 1
4 --   |
     -- 
5 -- 

  QF  SF  
3 -- 
     -- 
6 --   |
        --- Finalist 2
2 --   |
     -- 
7 --