2023-2024 Florida FIRST Tech Challenge Season
Welcome to the 2023-2024 season for Florida FIRST Tech Challenge! This season game is CENTERSTAGE sponsored by RTX.
The Kickoff for this season is Saturday Sep 9th. While the Kickoff can be watched via the FIRSTINSPIRES website, it is recommended that Florida view the kickoff through the FIRST In Florida YouTube Channel.
State Video Contest - Teams Helping Teams
The Florida FIRST Tech Challenge video competition is to celebrate Teams Helping Teams. The deadline to submit (Video Submission- Chose Season Competition as Video Type) a video Midnight (Eastern) on November 30th. The submitter will need to have the team passcode and the URL that is accessible to see the video. The video must be less than 1 minute and sufficient quality to be displayed on a large screen projection system. Teams must have permission from the copyright owners for music used in the video and indicate this in their video. The links for all submitted videos will be accessible on the website on December 2nd. You can submit multiple times but only the last submission will be available to be judged.
Florida Championship T-shirt Design Contest
This is your opportunity to get a guaranteed invitation to the Florida Championship on March 1-2, 2024. All Florida FTC teams are eligible to submit a volunteer t-shirt design no later than November 30, 2023 and the winner will be announced on by December 30, 2022. The following are the detailed requirements for the t-shirt design:
- Design must be emailed to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than midnight November 30, 2023. - The design must be a high-resolution JPG file
- The JPG logo design file must be a single color
- The t-shirt must include the following: “Florida Championship 2024”
- The t-shirt design should include the official CENTERSTAGESM presented by RTX game logo.
The winner of the Florida Championship volunteer t-shirt design content will receive an automatic invitation to the Florida Championship (if your team also received an invitation from your league championship than the team will receive a $200 credit to cover the registration fee).
Florida Championship Advancement Criteria
In early December, 2023 we will announce how many teams will advance from each League Tournament to the Florida Championship. The approach we follow is similar to how FIRST determines how many teams advance to the World Championship from each region. All leagues will receive a minimum of 2 advancement slots and the specific number of advancement slots is based on the Relative Size of each league. This means that larger leagues will receive a larger number of advancement slots. Last season, the smallest Florida leagues received 3 team advancement slots and our largest league had 11 advancement slots. Team’s can receive an advancement invitation by winning a Judge award or being a part of a winning robot alliance. Please review chapter 6.0 for the details of the Advancement Criteria.
About Florida FIRST
The Florida FIRST Tech Challenge season starts in September and runs through February. Student teams develop robots that can perform the tasks defined in the Challenge, then compete with, and against, other teams in their League Meets. The League Meets are relatively local to a group of teams with approximately one scrimmage and two to four meets. This followed by a League Championship usually in the late January time frame. The top teams from each League advance to the State Championship usually held in February. The top teams from state then qualify for the World Championship which is usually held in February.
The purpose of FIRST Tech Challenge is to give high school and middle school age students an opportunity to experience the fun and excitement of complex problem solving in a positive and supportive team environment.
Florida teams have had a long history of success at the highest levels. Florida has 6 World Champions. If you are interested in starting a team or questions about the Florida FIRST Tech Challenge program, send an e-mail to