National teams consisting of high school students from nearly 190 countries participated in the competition held on October 7–10. This year's contests were dedicated to the theme "Igniting Innovation".
Participants competed in designing and operating robots intended to perform tasks related to preventing forest fires, mitigating their consequences, and post-fire recovery. During the competition, teams worked jointly within international alliances.
In the final matches, the alliance formed by the teams of Venezuela, El Salvador, Uzbekistan, and Moldova emerged victorious, securing the gold medal. The alliance comprising the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg won silver, while the alliance consisting of China, Turkmenistan, the Cayman Islands, and Turkey was awarded the bronze medal.
Furthermore, the Uzbekistan national team won the FIRST Global Grand Challenge Award, the main prize of the competition. This award is presented to the team that collects the highest number of points throughout the tournament. China earned the silver medal, and Mexico took the bronze.
Winners were also determined in other categories. In particular, Mexico won the Albert Einstein Award, given for the highest overall performance in the FIRST Global International program. Romania was awarded silver, and Turkey took the bronze medal.
Additionally, within the framework of the Igniting Innovation New Technology Experience program aimed at developing new technologies and innovative solutions for the forest fire problem, the Cayman Islands won gold, Moldova took silver, and Slovakia earned the bronze medal.
Along with testing young people's knowledge in robotics and engineering, the FIRST Global Challenge competition provides an opportunity for international cooperation and knowledge exchange among students from various countries.
At the conclusion of the event, it was announced that the 2027 FIRST Global Challenge competition will be held in Madrid, Spain.
