UNEARTHED is the FIRST LEGO League theme for the 2025-26 Season
FIRST LEGO League Discover is for children in PreK to 1st grade and provides a playful introductory STEM program ignites their natural curiosity and builds their habits of learning with hands-on activities in the classroom and at home using LEGO® DUPLO® bricks.
In FIRST LEGO League Explore, teams of students in grades 2 through 4 focus on the fundamentals of engineering as they explore real-world problems, learn to design, and code and create unique solutions made with LEGO bricks and powered by LEGO® Education SPIKE Essential or WeDo 2.0.
Explore teams that register with ORTOP can participate in a fun Showcase in the Spring.
Friendly competition is at the heart of FIRST LEGO League Challenge, as teams of students in grades 4 through 8 engage in research, problem-solving, coding, and engineering – building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game.
The FIRST LEGO League Challenge season begins in August when the new game theme is revealed. Teams showcase their work at events beginning in December. Teams that do particularly well at these tournaments are invited to the Oregon State Championship in January.
National registration opens in May each year for the following season. Teams must register with FIRST. To participate in events in Oregon they should also register with ORTOP / FIRST Oregon in October.
Information from FIRST on FIRST LEGO League Future Edition
ORTOP’s 2026-27 FLL Season
For the 2026–2027 season, ORTOP will operate FIRST LEGO League Founders Edition and Futures Edition, based on team registration.
Tournament Structure – Founders Edition (2026–2027)
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Robot Equipment used is SPIKE Prime, EV3 or NXT.
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Qualifying Tournaments: Similar to prior seasons, held across two weekends in December 2026 (12/5, 12/6, 12/12 & 12/13)
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Championship Tournament: Jan 16, 2027 and possibly Jan 17, 2027, depending on number of teams
Additional details about tournament dates, locations, and registration timelines will be shared as they are finalized over the summer.
FIRST LEGO League Future Edition
In addition to FLL Founders Edition, ORTOP plans to support separate tournament(s) for FIRST LEGO League Future Edition, depending on:
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The number of teams registered by a specific date, and
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The geographic distribution of those registered teams
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This program will utilize the new LEGO Education Computer Science & AI kits.
We are excited about the new possibilities that FIRST LEGO League Future Edition brings and look forward to exploring how it can best serve teams in our region!
Looking Ahead
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We will be holding informational meetings in March and April to walk through plans, answer questions, and help teams prepare for the upcoming season.
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More details about these meetings will be shared soon.
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If possible, we will hold in-person meetings or remote webinars to showcase the FLL Future Edition equipment.
SPIKE Prime
We also want to note that the FIRST LEGO League Founders Edition robot equipment, including the SPIKE Prime and EV3 robot kits, may be used through the 2027–2028 season.
2027-28 FLL Season
The structure for ORTOP’s 2027–2028 season will be determined in early 2027, once additional guidance is available from FIRST and we have a clearer picture of team participation.
