On Saturday students from around the UK (and Europe!) attended our Kickstart event - some in person, some watched live - marking the start of the SR2026 competition year. Our teams of 16-19 year olds learnt about the kit provided to them, the support we can offer them, and most excitingly about this years game, The Neutral Zone.
In The Neutral Zone, teams are tasked with sorting out some mixed up chemicals. Their mission is to collect and catalogue samples, being careful which ones they collect. But when working with strong chemicals, care must be taken. If teams get acidic and basic samples too close together, they’ll react and neutralise each other, making them worthless. Feel free to check out our rulebook for the exact details.
With just five months until the Competition, provisionally taking place on 11th and 12th April 2026, our teams have their work cut out for them! Alongside building, programming, and testing their robots we’ve set some extra Challenges for teams, which can earn them additional league points. These challenges encourage teams to work on their robots from day one, helping them to learn to iterate and test early and often.
This may seem like a mammoth undertaking, and it is, but the teams don’t have to go it alone! Our Discord provides teams with easy access to our volunteer Blueshirts and the wealth of knowledge they hold. Teams will soon be able to ask for a Mentor, who will attend their regular meetings and provide guidance and advice throughout the year. We also host [Challenge Days][challenge-days] (formally known as “Tech Days”), dedicated days where teams can work on submitting a challenge with in-person guidance from our Blueshirts, as well as spend a day hacking on their robots and meeting other teams.
If you weren’t able to attend Kickstart this year, or would like a recap, you can:
- watch our livestream where we explain the game and how this year’s competition will work.
- take a look at our simulator activities if you haven’t already
- download the microgames which are small tasks designed to let you become familiar with the kit.
- If you’re a competitor, be sure to check out our Kickstarted, now what? guide for some next steps.
- If you’re a team supervisor, be sure to check out our guide on running a team for suggestions on how best to support your team.
We can’t wait to see what amazing creations our teams will build, and look forward to sharing their progress with you over the next five months!