FTC PA 2025-26 Season Blast #19 – Season Qualifiers and Advancement Updates

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To all our participating Team, Volunteers and surrounding FIRST Programs,

Before presenting season statistics and updates to Advancement for teams, we again implore and encourage our teams, current and past volunteers, to assist us with committing to or, alternatively, recruiting additional VOLUNTEERs for the remaining PA FTC Qualifiers detailed below. Specifically, there is a great need for many volunteers, especially Judges as well as other roles

 Saturday Feb 14th – Eastern Pennsylvania Qualifier (Coatesville). Urgent need for Judges and Referees for adults and Queuers and Field Reset and most other roles for students.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/eastern-pennsylvania-qualifier

Sunday Feb 15th – Red Raiders Qualifier. Not accepting applications at this time as we are adequately staffed. Please consider volunteering at one of the other 3 Qualifiers instead.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/red-raiders-qualifier

 Saturday Feb. 21st – Southwestern Pennsylvania Qualifier (Upper St. Clair) Need for all roles, Judges and Referees for adults and Queuers and Field Reset and most other roles for students.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/southwestern-pennsylvania-qualifier

Sunday Feb. 22nd Panther Power Qualifier (Upper St. Clair) Urgent need for Judges and Referees for adults and Queuers and Field Reset and most other roles for students.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/panther-power-qualifier

 We need to fulfil all the rules and especially the ones cited above, or we jeopardize being able to hold these qualifiers. For more information on Volunteering please see our website for general instructions, roles and Youth Protection

https://www.ftcpenn.org/volunteer

Advanced Teams:

Congratulations to the 22 teams already Advancing to the Pennsylvania FTC Championship March 14th and 15th at Saucon Valley Middle School, Hellertown, PA. Full results including awards can be found on each individual EVENT webpage

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season

Lancaster Area Qualifier held Dec. 6th, 2025

  1. 20153 Silver Wolves – Kennett Square, PA
  2. 18603 TeraBridges – Pittsburgh, PA
  3. 21364 First Try – York, PA

Blue Streak Qualifier held Dec. 7th, 2025

  1. 8393 The Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team – Baden, PA
  2. 25650 One Small Step for an Axolotl – Lititz, PA
  3. 7244 OUT of the BOX Robotics – Thorndale, PA

Seneca Valley Qualifier held Jan 10th, 2026

  1. 13474 MARS: Curiosity? – Mars, PA
  2. 17895 The Prodigiously Hemicephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team – Baden, PA

Raiders Qualifier held Jan 11th, 2026

  1. 26446 ROGO Rose – Upper St Clair, PA
  2. 22312 The Brobdingnagian Tritocephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team – Baden, PA

 South Central Pennsylvania Qualifier held Jan 17th, 2026

  1. 16468 Green Lemons – West Chester, PA
  2.  14423 RoboCorns – Exton, PA

Greyhound Sprint Qualifier held Jan 18th, 2026

  1. 21324 Hackin Hounds – York, PA
  2. 9791 Divide by Zero – Lansdale, PA

Southeastern Pennsylvania Qualifier held Jan 31st, 2026

  1. 24483 Failure Management – King of Prussia, PA
  2. 26566 Teletubbies – Kennett Square, PA
  3. 7423 Flaming Phoenix – Kennett Square, PA Advanced #3
  4. 14738 Theoretically Correct – Philadelphia, PA

Bensalem Area Qualifier held Feb 1st, 2026

  1. 25795 Architechs – Mechanicsburg, PA
  2. 10098 2 Eyed Illuminati – Chadds Ford, PA
  3. 14133 Lansdale Catholic Cyber Crusaders – Lansdale, PA
  4. 10333 TechSpark – York, PA

Another 14 slots will be filled from our remaining 4 qualifiers and then 4 additional invitations will be sent to teams that have not yet advanced based on the team’s Average Point Ranking performance at the Qualifiers

FTC Championship, Houston, TX – Allocation for PA update

Great News from FIRST HQ today; The Pennsylvania Region has been graced with an additional slot to the FTC Championship. We are now allocated 6 slots to the Championship and an additional 9 slots to Premier Events of the team’s choice for a total of 15 advancement opportunities.

 FIRST® Premier Event Preferencing Second Round Approaching Soon

 All teams should receive a Blog post from FIRST regarding this subject either today or tomorrow. Please look ot for it and other important FTC Team blogs you may have received this season. The FIRST® Premier Event and FIRST® Championship Advancement process this year have been updated and is now built into the FIRST® Tech Challenge management portal of FTC Scoring. A link will be provided in the Blog post with much more detailed information.

That’s it for now. Please continue to have a safe, fun and rewarding season.

All the best,

Tom Zawislak, Dave Hackett and Lena Kang

Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org

Website: www.FTCPenn.org