FIRST Championship

FIRST Championship is a two-and-a-half-day robotics championship held annually in April. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but beginning in 2011, and at least through 2013, it will be held at the Edward Jones Dome, in St Louis, Missouri. The event comprises three competitions, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship, FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship, and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival. FIRST Championship is normally held in conjunction with FIRST Robotics Conference which covers a wide variety of topics in science, technology, engineering, and robotics fields.

FRC is a six-week competition program for high-school students to build 100 to 120 pounds (45 to 54 kg) robots that can complete a task that changes every year using standard set of parts. FTC is a mid-level competition program for high-school aged students with a more accessible and affordable robotics kit. FLL is a competition program for elementary and middle school students. Teams for each program compete in tournaments at state and regional level. The winning teams from those tournaments join the global competition at FIRST Championship.

The 2011 championship was also host to the Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration, a pilot collegiate FIRST program.