FIRST STEAMWORKS is played by two competing alliances on a  8 ft. 9¾ inch by 23 ft. 1½ inch flat field. Each Alliance consists of three robots, and they compete to make their “Airship”, “Take Flight”. The Alliances score points by shooting 5 inch balls (“Fuel”) into a high basket (“Boiler”). Also the robots need to pin a yellow “Gears” on a spring (“Lift”).

During the final 30 seconds of the game a human player (“Pilot”) drops “Ropes” on which the robots have to climb.

At the end of the game the Alliance with the most points wins. Winning a match in a game gives each team in the Alliance two ranking points, as well as 12 “Gears” wich gives an extra ranking point or scoring a 120 balls (“Fuel”). The more ranking points a team have, the better chances they have reaching the playoff matches.