MANCHESTER, N.H. – Manchester is the birthplace of the U.S. FIRST Robotics competition and at last week’s FIRST World Championships in Houston, the Queen City’s public high schools sent two teams to compete alongside 600 other teams from across the globe.
Team 131 CHAOS, hosted out of Manchester Central High School and 4-H, finished 46th in the Archimedes Division and was the winner of the Team Spirit Award in their division, which is given to the team that best exemplifies enthusiasm and teamwork.
The Team Spirit Award was a familiar sight for CHAOS, having won the FIRST Impact Award at the 2026 New England FIRST District Championship for their exemplary representation of FIRST in the community, working at 16 public service events, 46 engineering demonstrations and other initiatives over the past year.
2026 marked the sixth time to the World Championships for CHAOS since its establishment in 1992 and its first since 2024. At the New England FIRST District Championship, it became one of only four teams to enter the New England Division FIRST Hall of Fame.
CHAOS was joined at the World Championships by Team 238 Crusaders, Manchester Memorial High School’s FIRST Club. Team 238 finished 12th in the Hopper Division; that result earned them the captaincy for Alliance 8, a four-team coalition that participated in the playoffs of the Hopper Division finals.
Memorial has been to the World Championships five times, most recently in 2018. This year marked the first time that both teams reached the event since 2017.
Each year, FIRST gives teams a new challenge and this season it was a game called “Rebuilt”, where robots race to climb ladders and throw balls into a large cylinder.
CHAOS coach Matt Bisson said that the team looked at elements from games in previous years that could be reused in the current game as well as examining the nuances of the current game’s rules.
As the season went on, Bisson added most teams de-prioritized the climbing aspect of the game and focused on putting balls in the cylinder and his team decided that it would maximize their chances if their robots focused on shooting as many balls as possible rather than focusing on accuracy. A VR headset designed by the students also helped the efficiency of their robots.
“This year, we broke it down to two primary robot paths: one that could shoot many balls at a time. The other competing idea was one with a turret, but was more accurate,” he said. “As we went along, there was a lot more hidden complexity (with the turret), so the whole team came together to go with the other idea.”
Memorial seniors Shyla Sorenson and Brady Nguyen say that Team 238 sought to build the biggest robot possible under the rules, which allowed it to score massive chunks of points while also hoarding balls away from opponents. This strategy gave Team 238 the 11th best scoring in New England and 116th in the world out of over 3,500 teams.
“The simplicity that we aimed for at the beginning of the season ended up being our biggest strength, as our 2026 robot was one of the most consistent and resilient robots our team has competed with in a long time,” they said. “This allowed us to show up every match and have an impact in one of the most robot-damaging games FIRST has ever created.”
While the competitive season is now over for the FIRST teams, they will remain busy until the next one begins in January with a variety of community events and other work as well as fundraising activities for hopeful future trips.
“We’ve had a couple of seasons where things have gone well, the community has been so supportive,” said Bisson. “We’re trying to make that more predictable; we’re trying to grow the impact we have at Central and throughout Manchester and one way to do that is by making sure our funding becomes more stable.”
More information on Team 131 and 238’s seasons, including videos of their competitions can be seen here and here, respectively. More information Team 131 and 238’s histories and how to contact them on social media can be seen here and here, respectively