Teams spend a significant amount of time designing, building, programming their robot, and learning what it takes to be part of a team. For many teams, competitions are the reward for all their hard work throughout the season. However, FIRST Tech Challenge is more than a robot competition; in addition to robot matches, teams are also eligible to win judged awards. Choosing award winners is a difficult task and judges take the responsibility very seriously. The judged awards represent a positive way to recognize teams who embody important values like Gracious Professionalism™, teamwork, creativity, innovation, and the value of the engineering design process.

Teams spend a significant amount of time designing, building, programming their robot, and learning what it takes to be part of a team. For many teams, competitions are the reward for all their hard work throughout the season.