Every year, the international non-profit For the Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology runs the FIRST Robotics Competition, a high school robotics competition, and as the oldest FRC in Iowa, Iowa City Robotics celebrated the 2026 season kickoff on Saturday, Jan. 10.

In FRC, the game and objectives that the robots play are uniquely designed and themed every year, and the 2026 season’s game is “Rebuilt,” an archeology-themed game. The game was revealed on a livestream presented by staff from FIRST and sponsors of the FRC program, with an animation explaining the game at the end of the livestream.

This season, the game is a three-versus-three match that involves a large number of balls, called fuel, being shot into a goal called the hub. During the first 20 seconds of the match, robots are fully autonomous with no human input, but the rest of the match is driver-controlled. After a 10-second transition shift, whichever team scored more fuel into their hub during autonomous gets their hub disabled for a 25-second shift. There are four shifts in total, with each shift switching which alliance has their hub enabled and which has their hub disabled. During the last 30 seconds of the match, both hubs are enabled, and robots can climb onto metal rungs in a tower for extra points.

Iowa City Robotics will compete as Team 167 Children of the Corn at the Minnesota Bluff County Regional in Winona from March 4 to March 7 and at the Iowa Regional in Cedar Falls from March 26 to March 28.