Anyone have thoughts or insights about why Lego is ending the partnership with FIRST? Thirty years is a long enough track record that it doesn't seem like an overnight decision...
The Lego Mindstorm robotics kit that powered the whole thing was discontinued in 2022. Since they're no longer making the robotics kits they have nothing to donate to the competition (or run the competition on).
The LEGO Education version of MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor, SPIKE Prime, is still available and a new robot kit, Computer Science and AI, is being released this year. After next season, LEGO will be continuing on with their own K-8 robotics program (as will FIRST).
LEGO is releasing a new robot kit, Computer Science and AI, later this year. It isn't able to run autonomously so it is essentially incompatible with the way FIRST LEGO League has worked for the last 28 years.
Earlier this year, FIRST and LEGO announced that FIRST LEGO League would split into two editions--Founders Edition and Future Edition. Both editions would run concurrently for the next two seasons. Founders Edition would continue the current autonomous format and teams could use any of the previous robot kits (RCX, NXT, EV3, SPIKE). Future Edition would be a new remote control format using the new robot kit. After the two transition seasons, Founders Edition would be discontinued and Future Edition would become the one and only format and ending the use of all previous robot kits.
Now that LEGO has announced they are ending their relationship with FIRST after next season, a lot of that is up in the air. Next season will proceed as previously announced, with both Founders Edition and Future Edition. After that, both FIRST and LEGO are each continuing on with their own, separate K-8 robotics programs.
Future Edition requires teams have two of the $530 Computer Science and AI kits. One for their robot and one for the interactive mission models. That's a huge investment for a lot of teams.
LEGO has said they will support SPIKE through the next three seasons but they have not said how that will work or if older robot kits (RCX, NTX, EV3) will also be supported.
FIRST has not announced anything about how their program will work after next season.
The robot kit can be kept and used again each season. Only the challenge kit (mat and mission models) change each season. The current robot kit is $540 vs just $95 for the challenge kit.
Earlier this year, FIRST and LEGO announced that FIRST LEGO League would split into two editions--Founders Edition and Future Edition. Both editions would run concurrently for the next two seasons. Founders Edition would continue the current autonomous format and teams could use any of the previous robot kits (RCX, NXT, EV3, SPIKE). Future Edition would be a new remote control format using the new robot kit. After the two transition seasons, Founders Edition would be discontinued and Future Edition would become the one and only format and ending the use of all previous robot kits.
Now that LEGO has announced they are ending their relationship with FIRST after next season, a lot of that is up in the air. Next season will proceed as previously announced, with both Founders Edition and Future Edition. After that, both FIRST and LEGO are each continuing on with their own, separate K-8 robotics programs.
Future Edition requires teams have two of the $530 Computer Science and AI kits. One for their robot and one for the interactive mission models. That's a huge investment for a lot of teams.
LEGO has said they will support SPIKE through the next three seasons but they have not said how that will work or if older robot kits (RCX, NTX, EV3) will also be supported.
FIRST has not announced anything about how their program will work after next season.
Schools may have Lego kits, but there’s not a lot of stuff that would be carried over from season to season.(1)
I think the roughest part of the transition will be the software, but that has always been a relatively small part of the whole FLL “game”.
(1) Massive exception for schools that are all-in on a Lego+FLL program, but I think that is a tiny minority.