The BIOBUZZ™ season
BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX is this year's FIRST® Tech Challenge game, and our first season. We play it at qualifiers, where teams earn places at the state championship.
The season on a match clock
A match opens with 30 seconds of auto, when the robots run on their own code, then an 8-second transition and two minutes of teleop, when students drive. Count one second for each day since the game came out on September 12, and this is where our season stands.
0:52
Teleop
Day 52 since the game came out
- 0:00Sep 12
- 0:30Oct 12
- 0:38Oct 20
- 2:38Feb 17
- 1:32WNEU Qualifier 1, Dec 13
- 2:13Coastal Current Clash, Jan 23
The clock runs out at 2:38, which falls on February 17. That is the end of the scale, not an event.
The events
The events on our calendar, each with its venue, address and page on FTC Events, the official listing kept by FIRST. Results and photos go up after each one.
- Date
- Sunday, December 13, 2026
- Venue
- Western New England University, Alumni Healthy Living Center
- Address
- 1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA
- Event code
- USMASPQ1
- Result
- Posted after the event
FTC Events page (opens in a new tab)Directions (opens in a new tab)
- Full name
- Coastal Current Clash Qualifier
- Date
- Saturday, January 23, 2027
- Venue
- Dartmouth High School
- Address
- 555 Bakerville Road, Dartmouth, MA
- Event code
- USMADAQ
- Result
- Posted after the event
FTC Events page (opens in a new tab)Directions (opens in a new tab)
- Date and venue
- Not announced yet
- Result
- Posted after the event
How BIOBUZZ works
Two alliances of two teams each score balls into their HIVE, into FLOWERS on the walls and into their GARDEN. Everything here is from the FIRST Tech Challenge Competition Manual, version TU07.
The match
- Alliances
- Two teams on red, two on blue. The alliance with more points wins.
- Timing
- 30 seconds of auto, when robots run on their own code, an 8-second transition, then two minutes of teleop, when students drive.
- Robots
- Each starts inside an 18-inch cube, touching the 4 POLLEN it is given, and may control at most 4 balls at a time.
- Balls
- POLLEN are yellow, about 2.8 inches across. NECTAR are larger, about 3.6 inches, in red or blue, and a robot may not control the other alliance's NECTAR.
The field
- Size
- About 144 inches square, laid in 24-inch tiles. The red alliance stands on the left as the audience sees it.
- HIVE
- A frame in the middle holds a red HIVE and a blue HIVE, each a seesaw with a CELL at either end. Launch enough balls into the upward CELL and the HIVE tips, which scores and makes more NECTAR available.
- FLOWERS
- Four, on the walls, each holding 4 POLLEN at the start. Robots may take POLLEN out of the bottom at any time, auto included. Scoring into a FLOWER opens with one minute left, and NECTAR may not go in before then. The alliance whose NECTAR sits on top owns the FLOWER and scores every ball in it.
- GARDEN
- A strip in each alliance's corner. Balls in it at the end score for that alliance, whoever put them there.
Auto points
- 3LEAVE: clear of the field wall
- 5PARK: partly in the LOADING ZONE
- 20Each HIVE tip
Teleop points
- 20Each HIVE tip
- 2Each ball left in an upward CELL
- 2Each ball in a FLOWER the alliance owns
- 5Lowest NECTAR in a FLOWER
- 1Each ball in the alliance GARDEN
- 5PARK at the end
Ranking points At qualifiers.
- 3A win
- 1A tie
- 1SWARM: 16 or more LEAVE and PARK points
- 1POLLINATOR 1: 4 HIVE tips
- 1POLLINATOR 2: 7 HIVE tips
Preload, launch, park
The default auto plan in our drivetrain optimizer, drawn to scale on the BIOBUZZ field. Positions are in inches from the field's bottom-left corner, the way the Pedro Pathing path library counts them.
Start
(56, 9), facing 90°
Against the south wall, holding the four POLLEN every robot starts with.
Leg 1, a line
to (59.25, 38), facing 90°
About 29 inches north to the launch station, stopping 5.5 inches short of the HIVE frame.
Leg 2, a curve
to (14, 108), turning to 180°
Out toward the left wall and up the field, turning a quarter turn on the way.
Park
(14, 108), facing 180°
Five inches off the wall and six into the red LOADING ZONE. That earns LEAVE and PARK, 8 points, if the whole run finishes inside the 30 seconds of auto.
- Time it in the optimizer