What the Impact Award Is and Why It Matters

The most prestigious award in FRC

The FIRST Impact Award is the highest honor a team can earn in the FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST calls it "the most prestigious award" in the program, given to "the team that best reflects the mission of FIRST" and serves as a model for other teams to emulate. Unlike awards that recognize robot design or on-field performance, the Impact Award recognizes a team's impact on its community and on the FIRST mission itself. It is also the only way an FRC team enters the FIRST Hall of Fame.

A name change, not a mission change

The award was created in 1992 as the Chairman's Award, named to reflect that it represented the FIRST chairman's vision for what the program is really about. FIRST announced in 2022 that, beginning with the 2023 season, the award would be renamed the FIRST Impact Award to make its purpose clearer to newcomers: it honors impact, not just internal recognition. The Chairman's Award name was used from 1992 through the 2022 season; the FIRST Impact Award name took effect in 2023. The criteria and prestige carried over unchanged. You will still hear veterans call it "Chairman's," and older winning submissions on The Blue Alliance are labeled that way.

What it actually recognizes

FIRST states the award exists to "keep the central focus of FIRST Robotics Competition on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture" so that more young people pursue science and technology. In practice, judges look for a team that:

• Spreads the FIRST mission by starting and mentoring other teams, volunteering, and reaching people unfamiliar with FIRST.
• Has impact on the FIRST community by hosting events, publishing resources, and running workshops.
• Inspires the STEM future by changing participants' lives, building curriculum, advocating for STEM policy, and supporting non-FIRST STEM programs.

These are the three columns of the official Judging the FIRST Impact Award document.

It is a whole-team award

The FIRST Impact Award Definitions document opens with a key reminder: "The spirit of the FIRST Impact Award celebrates the efforts of an entire team, and as such, we encourage submissions to focus on activities as a team, rather than the efforts of a single individual." Judges want to see a culture, not a hero. A submission that revolves around one charismatic captain is weaker than one showing dozens of students sustaining programs.

Sustained excellence over years

The word sustained is everywhere in the award's language. FIRST describes the Hall of Fame as recognizing teams of "sustained excellence and impact." The judging guidelines instruct judges that "team success stories should be within the past 2-3 years" and to "evaluate the sustainability of each outreach activity." This is why a first-year team cannot win: there is no track record yet.

Why it is worth pursuing

Winning matters beyond the trophy. The Championship Impact Award winner is inducted into the FIRST Hall of Fame, and Hall of Fame teams that earned their Championship Impact Award in the last eight years are pre-qualified for the next Championship. Pursuing the award also forces a team to become organized, measure its outreach, and build programs that outlast any single class of students. Even teams that never win become dramatically stronger by competing for it.