Game Manual Cheat Sheet

2026–2027 FIRST Tech Challenge — BIOBUZZ presented by RTX. Condensed from the official Competition Manual (V1).

The game in 60 seconds

• Two alliances of 2 teams each. Collect pollen (yellow) and nectar (red/blue), launch them into your hive, place them into flowers.
• Match = 30s auto → 8s transition → 2:00 teleop.
• Launching enough scoring elements into your upward-facing cell makes the hive tip — 20 points every time, in either period.
• Each tip also unlocks one nectar for your human player to enter. At 0:60 remaining, all remaining nectar unlocks at once.
• Flowers only matter at the end: nectar can't go into a flower until the last 60 seconds.
• Endgame: own flowers with your nectar, dump elements in your garden, park in your loading zone.

Match timing / audio cues

• The visual field timer is the authority, not the audio cue.

Field and elements

• Field is ~144 in. square, 36 soft foam tiles of ~24 in.
• Hive structure sits in the center: one frame, two hives (one per alliance), two cells per hive. Each hive is bi-stable — one cell up, one down — and pivots 43.95 in. above the tiles.
• Cell opening is ~20 in. wide × 14 in. tall × 12 in. deep. Each cell carries an AprilTag cluster (4 tags, 36h11 family, 3.25 in.) on its bottom face.
• 4 flowers on the perimeter wall. Opening ~4 in. across, ~21.5 in. above the tiles. In the top, out the bottom — and only pollen comes out the bottom.
• Pollen: 40 total, ~2.8 in. yellow balls. Nectar: 8 red + 8 blue, ~3.6 in.
• Balls are not perfectly spherical. Design intake tolerance for that.

Starting setup

• 4 pollen in each of the 4 flowers (16), 4 in each garden (8), 4 pre-loaded per robot (16).
• 3 nectar in each upward-facing cell (6); 5 nectar per alliance area (10).
• Robots must start contacting their 4 pre-loaded pollen — held on/in the robot or on the tiles touching it.
• Drive team = up to 4 people: 1 drive coach (may be an adult), up to 3 students split across driver / human player. Only one non-student total.

Point values

• Hive tips are the game. 20 points, repeatable, and each one unlocks nectar. Everything else is single digits.
• Flower owner = the alliance with the top-most nectar of its color in that flower. The owner scores 2 points for every element in it, no matter who put them there. So the last nectar in wins the flower.
• Bottom nectar bonus = 5 points for the bottom-most nectar of your color.
• Gardens are alliance-colored but not protected — either alliance can put things in or take things out, and it scores for the garden's color regardless.
• Leave just means no longer touching the perimeter wall. Assessed at the end of auto.

Ranking points (per qualification match)

• Championship and Regional Championship thresholds are TBA in Team Updates.

Rules that will actually cost you points

• G410 — no nectar in a flower before 0:60. Major foul (20 pts) per nectar. This is the easiest big penalty in the game.
• G426 — humans can't enter nectar early. One nectar per hive tip, then everything at 0:60. Minor foul per nectar.
• G427 — nectar enters via the loading zone only, by hand (no tools), by your own alliance, and it must touch a tile in the loading zone before touching a robot or field element.
• G407 — max 4 scoring elements controlled at once. Verbal warning; major foul + yellow card if referees judge it strategic. Design a hard stop into your intake.
• G417 — don't meddle with the hive. Launching into the upward-facing cell is the only legal way to cause a tip. No ramming the frame, no launching at the underside, no blocking an opponent's tip.
• G418 — don't meddle with flowers. In the top, pollen out the bottom. Nothing else.
• G409 — don't catch what a tipping hive spills. Elements must hit something else first. Don't park under the hive waiting.
• G408 — never control the opponent's nectar.
• G403 / G404 — be motionless during the 8-second transition and after 0:00.
• G421 — 3-second pin count. Break away 2 ft. for 3+ seconds to reset it.
• G402 — stay on your side during auto. Columns A/B/C are red's, D/E/F are blue's. Crossing over is a risky look.
• G405 — don't deliberately eject elements from the field. Major foul per element. Accidents during scoring attempts are fine.
• G411 — no hoarding. Corralling elements to deny the opponent is a major foul + yellow card.
• G425 — drive team, watch your reach. Don't touch the robot, a field element, or any element touching a robot or tile. Includes dangling wires and clothing.

Penalty scale

• Minor foul = 5 points to the opponent. Major foul = 20 points to the opponent.
• Yellow card = warning; a second one in the same tournament phase becomes a red card = disqualified for that match. Cards carry forward as a yellow.
• Referee vocabulary: momentary < ~3s, continuous > ~10s, repeated = more than once in a match. Strategic = done to gain an advantage, and it upgrades most penalties.
• The Head Referee's call is final, and no video is ever reviewed. Make your scoring obvious and unambiguous.

Robot limits worth memorizing

• R102 — starting configuration fits in an 18 in. cube, fully self-supporting, nothing moving. Pre-loaded pollen may stick out.
• R105 — expanded, you must stay inside 18 × 24 × 29 in. tall at all times, constrained mechanically, not by software. No deliberately detaching parts.
• R104 — no weight limit. Still think about tile damage and battery drain.
• R503 — 8 motors and 8 servos max, counting every configuration you bring to an event.
• R601 — exactly one 12V NiMH main battery, through one approved main power switch (R603).
• R607 — custom circuits max 5V regulated, except for powering LEDs.
• R202 — nothing on your robot may mimic 36h11 AprilTags.
• Mount electronics so a referee can see the fuses, wiring, and Robot Controller screen (R606).

Ranking and tournament

• Ranking Score = average ranking points per qualification match (surrogate matches excluded).
• Tiebreakers, in order: average match points minus fouls → average tips → average auto points → random.
• A disqualified match contributes 0 to every sort criterion.
• In playoffs, cards apply to the entire alliance, not just the offending team.

Quiz

25 questions from the sections above. Answer, then check.