Every September, FIRST® Tech Challenge reveals a brand-new game, and more than 109,000 students on thousands of teams around the world start the same climb: build a robot, learn it, drive it, and earn your way, event by event, toward the season's biggest stages.

So how does a team from Portugal get from a bench in Oeiras to a world championship floor? The answer is the same for every FTC team on Earth: the road runs through events.

Where the road runs

  • Scrimmages: unofficial events where teams shake down their robots and rookies drive their first matches. No rankings, all learning.
  • Qualifying Tournaments: the first official rung, with qualification matches, judged awards, and the results that decide who advances.
  • Championships: regional finals like the Benelux Championship, where a season's work either ends or keeps going.
  • The FIRST® Championship: the world stage in Houston every spring, alongside invitational Premier Events for top teams across the globe.
The blue alliance goal of the DECODE field at the Lisbon Scrimmage, with artifacts in the chute
This season's game is DECODE. A new challenge lands every September, and every team on the road plays the same one.

Portugal doesn't have a league of its own yet, so our road runs through the Benelux league: Qualifying Tournaments in the Netherlands, and the Benelux Championship beyond them.

In our first season, that road took us further than anyone expected: a working robot built in sixty minutes on the eve of The Hague qualifier, a tournament win in Helmond six weeks later, a Benelux Championship final, three design awards, and the European Premier Event in Eindhoven, as the only Portuguese team in the room.

The match floor at the Lisbon Scrimmage: the DECODE field, a referee, and teams watching
The Lisbon Scrimmage, July 2026: the first FTC event ever held in Portugal. Photo: Mayumi Miazaki

Bringing the road home

A road you can only drive abroad isn't good enough. So in July we built the missing first rung ourselves: the Lisbon Scrimmage, the first FTC event ever held in Portugal. Twelve teams from six countries came to Oeiras, more than 300 people filled the room, and 800 more were watching the livestream at its peak.

National flags hung along the wall of the Lisbon Scrimmage venue
The flags of the teams that travelled to Oeiras. Photo: Mayumi Miazaki

And it doesn't stop there. We helped start Heroes of the Sea #34200, the team that lined up beside us on that field. There should be fifty teams in this country, and we intend to be the reason there are: leagues, qualifiers, and one day a championship of our own.

Making it happen

Competing internationally takes dedication, teamwork, and resources. Help put Portuguese teams on the world's biggest robotics stages. Students: join Team Thunderstrike. Mentors and sponsors: get in touch, or come find us at the next event.