The Season Timeline at a Glance

The Annual Cycle#

An FRC season follows a predictable rhythm:

1. Kickoff (early January) — FIRST reveals the new game. Teams worldwide watch the game animation, read the new Game Manual, and start strategizing the same day.
2. Build season (~6 weeks) — teams design, prototype, fabricate, wire, program, and test their robot.
3. Competition season (roughly late February through April) — district or regional events, then district and FIRST Championships.
4. Off-season (summer and fall) — training, recruiting, off-season events, sponsor cultivation, and preparing systems for next year.

What "Build Season" Means#

Build season is the roughly six-week window from Kickoff to a team's first competition. Immediately after Kickoff, teams prioritize which parts of the game challenge to tackle, then move into design, prototyping, building, wiring, programming, and testing in overlapping phases.

A Major Rule Change: No More Bag Day#

For years, teams had a hard "Stop Build Day" when the robot had to be bagged and sealed ("bag and tag") until competition. FIRST retired Stop Build Day and robot bagging starting in the 2020 season. Teams are no longer forced to stop work on a fixed February date and no longer bag their robots. This is a critical fact for planning: you can keep iterating right up to your event.

The trade-off is a rule about robot access at events: for years teams also faced a rule (R304) barring robot work outside posted pit hours during an event, with narrow exceptions for software and battery charging — but FIRST removed that rule starting with the 2026 season, so teams may generally keep working on the robot at the venue outside pit hours (a separate rule, E401, still limits what can be done off-site after load-in closes). So the season-long crunch is softer, but event discipline still matters. Always check the current year's Game Manual for the exact wording.

Why the Timeline Still Feels Tight#

Even without bag day, build season is intense because:

• The game is unknown until Kickoff, so you cannot pre-design the robot.
• Mechanisms must be designed, built, and debugged before your first match.
• Driving practice and reliability testing eat time most rookies underestimate.

Customizing Your Plan#

Veteran teams stress that timelines must be tailored to your years of experience, number of students and mentors, machining resources, and the actual number of days between Kickoff and your first event. A team with a CNC mill and 40 members plans very differently from a five-person rookie team with hand tools.

The Business Sub-Team During Build#

Business does not pause during build. While engineers iterate, business is finalizing the Impact Award submission (due February 12, 2026 for the 2026 season), confirming travel and registration, ordering team apparel, posting build updates to social media, and keeping sponsors informed. The Impact Award deadline famously lands in the middle of build season, so business runs its own parallel sprint.