League assignments are posted!

You can find your league assignment on the FIRST Washington website here: https://firstwa.org/ftc-competition-info/ below the event listings. This list is sorted both by team and by league for your convenience.  

You will notice that a lot has changed this season! Importantly, Washington is down to 12 leagues and 6 league tournaments this year. This means that league pairings for the league tournaments have shifted; take a close look at your league assignment to make sure you know where you will be competing. Every league tournament will advance some teams to the wildcard tournament and some teams to the state championship, so be sure to plan for those competitions as well!  

Here is a table of the new league pairings for league tournaments: 

Does your assigned league or league tournament not work for your team? You can fill out this form to opt out of your assigned league and share your preferences.  

If you choose this option, here are a few things to note:  

• Leagues pair with league tournaments.  If you move to a different league, you may also move to a different league tournament. Check all the dates carefully when you are entering preferences. 

• If you have multiple teams and would like to change leagues, it may be harder to accommodate your request. Please submit the form for all your teams in one go along with your preferences (the more leagues you can request the better). If we are unable to move all your teams in a block, we will reach out to you (at the email provided) and see what we can work out. Teams will not be split up without prior discussion and approval.  

Event preferencing will close at 5pm on Wednesday, September 30th.  Any requests submitted late will not be considered.  

Why did the leagues change in Washington? 

Hi there! I am MacKenzie, the Event Manager at FIRST Washington, and I want to talk a little bit about the changes to FTC in Washington this year. We made the difficult decision to reduce our number of leagues for a variety of reasons, and I believe that these changes will result in a more positive team experience in Washington.  

Washington grew to 14 leagues and 7 league tournaments to accommodate higher team registration numbers and allow for continued growth. Compared to last year, fewer teams registered for FTC this year, leaving some areas more sparsely populated than before. We decided to make some changes in the leagues to improve experiences at both league meets and league tournaments.  

One of our goals is to avoid leagues of fewer than 10 teams whenever possible. While smaller league meets can be fun and relaxing, they can also be stressful due to back-to-back matches limiting build and repair time. Besides more work time, larger events offer more opportunities to build community, assess different designs, and compete with a variety of teams. This helped us make the decision to reduce the total number of leagues. 

The main reason we decided to change the number of leagues has to do with awards at league tournaments. Events with fewer teams offer a different number of awards than larger events. With 14 smaller leagues, some league tournaments may not have reached the same size thresholds, resulting in unequal award opportunities for teams and fewer ways to recognize the amazing work all of you do. 

We hope that FTC will grow next year so that we can increase the number of events again. I love working with all our amazing event hosts, and I appreciate their willingness to plan fantastic events just as much as I thank them for their gracious flexibility. 

FIRST Washington Grant closes Monday, October 5 at 5:00 pm 

FIRST Washington Grant is open.  You can find past communications regarding funding and the link to the grant application here:  https://firstwa.org/firstwa-grant/   

Remember: 

• You will have to fill out a grant application to be considered for any funding that FIRST Washington manages 

• The grant form will need to be filled out for each team you would like to be considered for funding 

• Grants will no longer be deducted from your FIRST Washington registration, they will be issued separately based on the info you submit in the grant application as well as your school requirements (if you are a school based team) 

Rookie Rumble 

This year we are excited to host the Rookie Rumble at Innovation High School in Bothell Washington! This event will give teams the chance to experience their first event of the season with low pressure to prepare for their first event in the following weeks. This event will feature a mock inspection to ensure you are ready or your event, practice matches, and help desks for coding and hardware problems. While the event is called Rookie Rumble, all teams are able to attend but if we get towards capacity, we will focus on Rookie or Newly established teams as priorities. We look forward to playing this year’s game with all of the teams! As a reminder – even if you don’t feel ready, still feel free to attend. You may learn from other teams while there, get some practice in, and make some new connections! 

The event will be held from 8:00am to 3:00pm at Innovation Lab High School in Bothell, WA on October 17th. Exact details and schedule will be shared with teams who sign up.  

https://forms.gle/kKjS4fjtEjM8df238 – Link to sign up for the Rookie Rumble   

Questions?  Reach out to Tim Swartz tswartz@nsd.org 

Important Dates

Make sure you are registered with both FIRST and FIRST Washington by Friday!

To get your league assignment, you must be registered with both FIRST and FIRST Washington. 

To register with FIRST:   

• Log into your dashboard on firstinspires.org 

• Register and pay your $350 registration fee on the FIRST storefront 

To register with FIRST Washington: 

• Go to the registration page here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/ 

• Fill out the registration form 

• FIRST Washington will send an invoice to the contact listed in early October (you do not need to pay a registration fee now 

Not sure if you are registered?  You can find out here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/  This list is updated manually once a day. 

League Assignments and Preferencing

Home League assignments will be posted here by the end of the day Monday, 9-28. 

The preferencing form link will also be posted on the page (linked above) by the end of the day Monday, 9-28.  The form will open by 8:00 am Tuesday, 9-29.  Remember: 

• If you have multiple teams, your teams are not guaranteed to be moved together when you preference to be in another league 

• Preferences are considered on a first come, first served basis 

• Make sure to pick multiple preferences in case your first choice is not available 

• The preferencing window closes, 10-1 (yes, it is only 3 days this year so we can get final league assignments posted earlier) 

Final League assignments will be posted by the end of the day Friday, 10-2 

Important Dates

Last Week’s Coaches Chat is posted 

If you missed last Tuesday’s coaches chat, it is posted here

Grant Opportunities for Teams

FIRST Washington Grant 

FIRST Washington Grant is open.  You can find past communications regarding funding and the link to the grant application here:  https://firstwa.org/firstwa-grant/   

Remember: 

• You will have to fill out a grant application to be considered for any funding that FIRST Washington manages 

• The grant form will need to be filled out for each team you would like to be considered for funding 

• Grants will no longer be deducted from your FIRST Washington registration, they will be issued separately based on the info you submit in the grant application as well as your school requirements (if you are a school based team) 

Online Metals 

Applications Open: September 1, 2026 

The wait is over! Applications for the 2026–2027 Online Metals Sponsorship Program are officially open!

Eligible high school and college/university and affiliated robotics teams competing in official competitions across the U.S. and Canada are invited to apply for sponsorship support. Tell them about your team, your competition goals, and how Online Metals can help you bring your robot to life.

Don’t miss your chance to be considered for the upcoming season! Submit your application during the open window.  We met with the local team from Online Metals last week and they are excited to expand their support in the PNW! 

Sponsorships | OnlineMetals.com® 

AIAA School Grants 

AIAA School Grants are open until Sept 30th- I don’t know much about these but it seems worth checking out! 

Classroom Grants | AIAA 

The AIAA Foundation believes that one of the most significant means to inspire and advance the future of Aerospace is to fund grants to meet the unmet and unfunded educational need of students. Each school year, AIAA awards grants of up to $500 to worthy projects that significantly influence student learning. 

Make sure you are registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington 

 We are a little over a week away from placing teams in leagues and as of this morning we have 71 teams registered with FIRST Washington and 84 teams registered with FIRST.  I want to remind everyone that You must be registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington by 9-25 to be placed into a league. Please don’t wait do both right now. 

To be considered registered with FIRST, you need to log into your dashboard to register and pay your registration fee. 

To be considered registered with FIRST Washington, you need to go to the registration page here and fill out the form:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/   You will be sent an invoice to pay from in early October. 

Not sure if you have registered?  You can check here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/  This is updated manually once a day. 

League dates and venue info is posted on firstwa.org 

I know you are all anxiously awaiting your league assignments (make sure to get registered so you are included in those assignments) but since all of our league event dates and the majority of the locations are secured, we wanted to share that info with you now.  You can find that information here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-competition-info/  

After home league assignments are posted, there will be a small window where you can choose to preference into a different league if the league you are in doesn’t work for you.  More information will come regarding the preferencing process when league assignments are posted.

Important Dates