THE ROBOT GAMES
ROBOTICON Tampa Bay Games
ROBOTICON is a celebratory showcase of competitive youth STEM programs, mostly terrestrial robots but also some aerial drones. It features FIRST and REC Foundation robotics scrimmages and qualifying competitions, demonstration events, lightweight combat robotics, and more, and ROBOTICON is the only place where you can see all these different youth competition opportunities in one place!
This year, all competitive events will be held in the new HCPS-FCDI STEM Center at Adams Middle School, which houses the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation’s big FIRST Robotics Competition field, as well as FIRST Tech Challenge, and REC Foundation Aerial Drone Competition fields.
Read on to learn more about 2026 games!
Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation
The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation series of events include VEX competitions for K-12, as well as the Aerial Drone Competition, and VEX U for collegiate level game play. REC supports more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 tournaments worldwide. Here’s the 2024-25 games that will be played at ROBOTICON – most of which are full scale qualifying events for the new season.
For more information about upcoming RECF ROBOTICON events soon, and visit the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation website to learn more about different types of RECF competitions.
REC Aerial Drone Competition
The Aerial Drone Competition offers an exciting educational drone sporting event that focuses on hands-on, student-centered learning.
Teams learn about drones, flight principles, programming, documentation and communication skills while expanding their understanding and building interest for Drone-related workforce and career opportunities.
Teams at ROBOTICON will explore the new season game.
FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through several inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 (PreK-12) that can be
facilitated in school or in structured afterschool programs. These include FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge which are showcased at ROBOTICON each year.
Boosted by a global support system of volunteers, educators, and sponsors that include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, teams operate under a signature set of FIRST Core Values to conduct research, fundraise, design, build, and showcase their achievements during annual challenges.
Each year, FIRST programs center on a unifying theme, and for the 2026-27 season, the theme is Bio-Diversity! Visit FIRSTInspires.org to learn more about FIRST and find contacts in your area, and check out the videos below to see the different games teams at ROBOTICON will be playing.
The 2026-27 FIRST Tech Challenge game “BioBuzz” drops Sept 12!
Scrimmage Date: October 10, 2026
FIRST Tech Challenge – BioBuzz
FIRST Tech Challenge, for youth in 7th to 12th grade, challenges teams to design, build, program, and operate robust small scale robots in an alliance format. 
FIRST Tech Challenge robots use an Android operating system in an accessible, real-world engineering experience that’s guided by adult Coaches and Mentors. Students also keep an engineering portfolio to document their build processes.
The 2026-27 game is called BioBuzz. The new game will be revealed on September 12, after which we’ll post the game video here. The ROBOTICON FIRST Tech Challenge event will be a scrimmage, because it’s early in the program’s season.
Visit the FIRST Tech Challenge website to learn more and find the right contact in your area.
October 17 & 18, 2026
FIRST Robotic Competition Off-Season
FIRST Robotics Competition teams get one more chance to enjoy their 2026 engineering challenge, Rebuilt! In this game, two competing alliances are invited to score fuel, cross obstacles, and climb the tower before time runs out. Alliances earn additional rewards for meeting specific scoring thresholds. Check out game rules here. The ROBOTICON FIRST Robotics Competition off-season event serves as a way for teams to give new team members a realistic but lower stress competition experience, and to introduce the public to this robust high energy STEM competition.