2025-2026: DECODE

Join us as we investigate the power of artifacts and unlock mysteries!!! This season we are exploring archaeololgy in the 2025-2026 FTC game #DECODE presented by RTX.

8/7/2025 – Team REV Applications are now OPEN

We love #TeamREV

Each season REV Robotics selects over 70 FIRST teams from around the world and awards $100,000 in sponsorships. We are fortunate to have been selected for Team REV for the last 2 seasons and loved it all. The Team REV community is open, supportive, encouraging and fun!

Apply Now

8/3/2025 – Save the date! Kickoff!

NW Montana 2025-2026 DECODE Season Kickoff

Date: Saturday 9/6/2025

Time: 9:00am – 1:00pm, breakfast and lunch provided

Where: Lincoln County High School, Eureka, Montana

Hosted By: Team Eureka Robotics (E-Hackers, Lazer Sharks in Space, Couch Potatoes) and RoboScout Squad 18240

Please RSVP to ehackers8271@gmail.com

8/2/2025 – Competition Manual v0 Released

Here is the link to the DECODE Competition Manual. Version 0 has been released.

Same as last season, the single Competition Manual was released this week. This contains general robot build rules, “evergreen rules” (rules that don’t generally change from year to year), advancement and awards. Game specific rules and field parameters will be added to the document at kickoff, there are placeholders present.

Important rule changes that stuck out in v0:

R105: Expansion limit.

Last season a horizontal expansion limit was introduced. This season, the rule has been updated to “Expansion Limit” and shows 2 place holder boxes for diagrams. We’ll know more at Kickoff.

R401, R402, R403 – Robot Sign Rules

The license plates have changed. Team number now has to be 2.25″ tall. That’s a bummer for those of us that made reusable plates. There must be at least a 1/4″ alliance specific background (border) around the numbers. Which means at minimum your height is 2.75″. Length is still at least 6.5″

R502 & R503 – Servo restrictions

We are now limited to 10 total servos. Unless that’s a typo, we are losing 2 servos.

Also remember if your servo isn’t listed on the chart, be sure to have documentation.

R505 – Lots of Servo Power Modules approved this season

R609 – New Power Switch options

6.3 – Awards — New Awards

Portfolio required for Inspire, Think and Control Awards

Motivate Award is gone

Control Award is slightly revised

New Awards: Reach (outreach) and Sustain (business / team sustainability)

Note: The rules and screenshots shown above are subject to change and may not be updated here, please always check the manual for the most recent information.

7/31/2025 – Advancement Changes

FTC Advancement will now be decided by a points system. Please see the FTC Blog post for the details.

We did a review of our previous seasons to see if this point system were in place, would we still have advanced. Yes, all 3 times. That being said, the Montana 2019 season, the Winning Alliance Captain would not have advanced because they didn’t receive a 1st place award. Winning Alliance Captain or 1st Inspire is no longer a mathematical certainty for advancement. You need one or the other and a 1st place award in most cases. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

6/25/2025 – CNC fabrication coming soon!

We have acquired a used Inventables X-Carve with a 500x500mm cutting area. We are so excited to learn and be able to do our own prototyping and cuts in wood and plastics. Also shown here with Coco and Lillie are 3 of our new rookies, Essence, Lacey and Aubrey.

5/23/2025 – Pre-Orders for Game Sets

Pre-orders from AndyMark are now open. Game sets usually ship the week after kickoff. Here are the links to purchase the new products and our thoughts:

The difference in price between the partial and full set is almost half, we think it’s likely that the partial will half a field, including 1 alliance specific color of elements and either a full or half set of neutral elements. If that’s the case, it is also likely the field structure(s) consist of smaller structures for each alliance. Additionally it costs exactly twice as much in shipping charges for the full set compared to the partial set.

There are definitely more tools in this year’s tool kit which leads us to believe it will be at least a little more complex than the last 2-3 seasons.

What are your thoughts on the season? Any guesses about the game itself?

Partial Game Set – $250 – choice of red or blue, looks like it will be exactly half of a field worth of structure and game elements – “comes with all game specific items needed to practice DECODE”

Full Game Set – $485 – everything you need for a full competition match, all structures and game elements

Field Assembly Tool Kit – $52 – all the tools needed to assemble this year’s field – note, you can get these tools cheaper at the hardware store / Amazon.

Tapes – $46 – 165 ft each of red, blue and white 1″ gaffing tapes for marking the field – note, you can get rolls on Amazon for about $10 each

5/6/2025 – We are getting ready for next season! Interested in joining us? Please plan to come to our open houses later this month or fill out our interest form and we’ll get back to you. https://forms.gle/eatfPouZW8BnMyjB7