Every FRC Game by Year: REBUILT, REEFSCAPE, CRESCENDO, and How to Read a New One

Every FRC season gets a new name, but underneath it, the game is almost always doing one of a handful of familiar jobs: move a piece into a scoring zone, hit a threshold to unlock more value, finish with some kind of climb. Below is what REBUILT, REEFSCAPE, CRESCENDO, and the seasons before them actually scored, plus the patterns that repeat often enough to read a new game manual on kickoff morning instead of just reacting to it.

Recent seasons, at a glance

2021 reused the INFINITE RECHARGE field game, but most events were canceled for the pandemic and replaced with solo "At Home Challenges." That's why the game shows up twice.

REBUILT presented by Haas (2026): the alliance-shift game

REBUILT runs 2 minutes 40 seconds: 20 seconds of auto, then teleop split into a 10-second Transition Shift, four 25-second Alliance Shifts, and a 30-second End Game. FUEL (a 5.91-inch foam ball) scores 1 point every time it passes the sensor array atop your alliance's HUB, but only while that hub is active. Both hubs stay active during auto, the Transition Shift, and End Game. During the four Alliance Shifts, only one hub is live at a time. The alliance that scores more fuel in auto has its hub go inactive first, in Shifts 1 and 3, handing the alliance that fell behind first crack at scoring once the Alliance Shifts start (a tie is broken randomly); the hubs swap for Shifts 2 and 4. That's the hook: winning the auto fuel race costs you the opening shift, not just handing you points.

The tower climb pays 15 points per robot at Level 1 in auto (capped at 2 robots), then 20 at Level 2 or 30 at Level 3 in teleop, one level per robot. On top of 3 RP for a win and 1 for a tie, REBUILT adds three qualification RPs, ENERGIZED, SUPERCHARGED, and TRAVERSAL, tied to fuel and tower-point thresholds. Those thresholds differ by event level and shift through Team Updates over the season, so check the current manual rather than trust a number frozen here.

REEFSCAPE (2025): four levels, one reef

REEFSCAPE runs the more familiar 2:30 match: 15 seconds of auto, then 2:15 of teleop. CORAL scores on four reef levels, each paying more in auto than teleop: L1 is 3 auto or 2 teleop, L2 is 4 or 3, L3 is 6 or 4, L4 is 7 or 5. ALGAE pays a flat 6 points through the processor or 4 in the net, in either phase. Endgame is a cage climb: 2 points to park in the barge zone, 6 for a shallow cage, 12 for a deep one.

The Coral RP wants 5 coral on each of the 4 levels (7 at the FIRST Championship), dropping to 3 levels if both alliances hit the Coopertition bonus (2 algae delivered to each processor). The Auto RP needs every non-bypassed robot to leave its zone plus at least 1 coral scored in auto. The Barge RP needs 14 total barge points (16 at the FIRST Championship). Raw score and RP-optimized play aren't the same robot here: a team that only ever scores L4 can win matches and still miss the Coral RP.

CRESCENDO (2024): the steepest auto premium of the bunch

CRESCENDO also ran a 2:30 match, and its per-piece auto premium was actually the biggest of any recent game, not the smallest. NOTES paid more in auto than teleop just like most seasons: 2 points in the AMP during auto versus 1 in teleop, and 5 in the SPEAKER unamplified during auto versus 2 in teleop, or a flat 5 once amplified (2 notes in the amp let the human player trigger 10 seconds of amplified scoring; amplifying during auto's 15 seconds was essentially never practical). On top of that per-piece premium, CRESCENDO also paid a flat 2-point LEAVE bonus per robot clearing its zone in auto.

Endgame stacked several small actions: 1 point to park under the stage, 3 to climb ONSTAGE (4 if spotlit), 2 more per robot that harmonizes on the same chain, and 5 for a note in the TRAP. The Melody RP needed 18 combined amp-and-speaker notes (15 with Coopertition), and the Ensemble RP needed 10 stage points with at least 2 robots onstage.

The games before those

CHARGED UP (2023): cones and cubes on a 3-row grid, bottom 3 auto or 2 teleop, middle 4 or 3, top 6 or 5, with 3 adjacent pieces forming a Link worth 5 points. Docking on the charge station alone paid 8 auto or 6 teleop; docking level (engaged) bumped that to 12 or 10. Sustainability RP needed 6 Links (5 if both alliances qualified); Activation RP needed 26 combined charge-station points.

RAPID REACT (2022): a pure cycle game. Lower hub paid 2 auto or 1 teleop, upper hub 4 or 2, and leaving the tarmac in auto (Taxi) was worth 2 points alone. The hangar climb had four rungs worth 4, 6, 10, and 15 points. Cargo RP needed 20 total cargo (18 with a 5-cargo auto "Quintet"); Hangar RP needed 16 combined hangar points.

INFINITE RECHARGE (2020): power cells into three stacked ports, each exactly double in auto: bottom 2 or 1, outer 4 or 2, inner 6 or 3. Spinning the Control Panel unlocked 10 points for Rotation Control and 20 for Position Control, which also energized the shield generator. Hanging on the switch at endgame paid 25 points per robot, plus 15 if the alliance balanced it level.

Five patterns that repeat, and how to read them at kickoff

• Find the cycle, then find its bottleneck. Fuel, coral, notes, cones, cargo, power cells: every game has one repeatable piece-to-goal action, and score is roughly match time divided by cycle time. Sketch the full path, intake, index, aim, release, and find the slowest step before designing anything else.
• Check whether auto actually pays more per piece. REEFSCAPE, CRESCENDO, CHARGED UP, RAPID REACT, and INFINITE RECHARGE all pay more for the main piece in auto, anywhere from roughly double to CRESCENDO's 2.5x SPEAKER premium. REBUILT breaks that pattern: FUEL is worth a flat 1 point whether it's scored in auto or teleop, and the auto advantage shows up as control of the hub-active window instead. Don't assume last year's pattern carries over.
• Look for the conditional multiplier. Amplify, active or inactive hubs, the 3-stage Control Panel: these turn the "same" action into a very different point value depending on game state, and that layer is usually where the gap between top teams and everyone else shows up. A robot that can only do the base action never reaches the higher-value version.
• Weigh endgame against another cycle. A 30-point tower climb, a 12-point dock-and-engage, or a 25-point hang usually beats one more cycle in the same window of time. Decide whether your robot can do the endgame move before finalizing the intake, not after.
• Ranking points reward something narrower than total score. REEFSCAPE's Coral RP wants points spread across all four levels, RAPID REACT's Cargo RP wanted a specific total with an auto-quintet discount, CHARGED UP wanted a Link count. Ranking, not raw score, sets your seed, so figure out at kickoff which RP your robot's archetype can realistically hit. Our ranking points guide covers how RP turns into seeding.

Check early how much the field lets defense matter, too. Alliance-partitioned scoring, like REBUILT's separate hubs or REEFSCAPE's reef sections, limits how much a defender can physically block a cycle; an open-field cycle game like RAPID REACT lets a well-placed defender shut a scoring lane down entirely. Read the current year's contact rules first; our defense strategy guide covers what's legal and worth doing.

Heading into a kickoff soon? Our guide on what happens at FRC kickoff walks through the day itself, and how to read the FRC game manual is worth a skim before a 150-page PDF and a clock are both running at you. Want a head start on next season? See our breakdown of 2027's BIOCORE.