The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is one of the largest STEM competitions in the world. With thousands of active teams competing each year from 30+ countries, winning it is a major achievement. If you’re into engineering, robotics, and a good challenge, this competition is for you. This guide covers everything from the competition structure to forming a team and competing.
FRC competition structure
There are two main paths to the FRC Championship, districts and regionals, depending on where your team is located.
District
If your team is in one of the locations in the table below, you compete as a district team. District teams compete twice at smaller events to earn District Points, awarded for winning qualifying and playoff matches, being part of alliances, and earning awards. Teams with enough points advance to the District Championship, where the top performers earn their spot in the FRC Championship.
| District Name | Locations Included |
| FIRST Chesapeake | Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. |
| FIRST in Michigan | Michigan |
| FIRST Indiana Robotics | Indiana |
| FIRST in Texas | Texas and New Mexico |
| FIRST Mid-Atlantic | Delaware, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania |
| FIRST North Carolina | North Carolina |
| NE FIRST | Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont |
| Peachtree | Georgia and South Carolina |
| Pacific Northwest | Washington and Oregon |
| Ontario | Ontario, Canada |
| FIRST Israel | Israel |
Regional
If your team isn’t part of a district, you compete as a regional team. Regional teams compete once for a spot in the FRC Championship. To earn a spot directly, a team must be the captain or first pick of the winning alliance. You can also earn a Wild Card spot: if a team earns two qualifying spots, you can claim one if you were part of the top four alliances in the playoffs.
Awards
Awards are a less common way to reach the FRC Championship. At each competition, judges recognize teams for gracious professionalism, team spirit, and perseverance, but only the most prestigious awards earn a trip to the Championship.
FIRST Impact Award: recognizes teams that go above and beyond through outreach and consistently helping their community. Recipients are models for other teams and earn a place in the FIRST Hall of Fame.
Engineering Inspiration Award: recognizes teams that have made a significant impact on STEM education and community involvement, celebrating advanced thinking, collaboration, and diversity through robotics.
Dean’s List Award: recognizes exceptional members of the FIRST community who embody its values, with dedication to creativity, teamwork, and promoting STEM.
Registering an FRC team
Interested in joining FRC and forming your own team? Here’s what you need.
Students: aim for around 10 high-school-age students who want to be part of the team. Not all of them need technical experience or have to work directly on the robot; there are other ways to contribute (more on that below).
Mentors: each FRC team needs at least two mentors to manage and motivate the team during the season. They can bring technical or non-technical expertise.
Sponsors: unless your team already has funding, you’ll need outside sponsors for tools, materials, transportation to and from competitions, and registration fees.
Registration fee: the fee is around $6,000 to participate in one FRC regional competition or two FRC district competitions (confirm the current fee).
Team structure
It’s tempting to start right away, but organization is vital to a successful team. Everyone should have an active role, technical or administrative. Here are some suggested subteams for a new robotics team.
Technical subteams
Build: works on the physical robot, such as the chassis, motors, and attachments, plus that season’s game elements (brackets to hang on, holes to shoot game pieces through, and so on).
Electronics: wires the robot so all components work together and communicate. Members typically have strong electrical engineering knowledge.
Programming: codes the robot’s core functions for movement, scoring, and autonomous sequences.
Non-technical subteams
Strategy: scouts opposing teams, analyzes historical data, and finds strategies for alliances to win key matches.
Business: manages outreach, sponsors, and fundraising (merchandise, bake sales, and more), along with social media.
Safety: reviews safety procedures and helps team members stay safe working on or around machinery.
Administration: oversees the other subteams, writes the team’s award submissions and does award interviews, and may run outreach projects like team websites.
FRC timeline
The FIRST Robotics Competition follows the same schedule every year. Here’s a rough timeline of the season and its major competitions.
Off-season (June-December): the period between the end of the FRC Championship and the next season. Teams host off-season events to promote FRC and STEM, and current members train newer ones as senior members graduate.
Build season (January-March): the new season kicks off when FIRST announces the game at the start of the year. From that moment, teams brainstorm and build their robots for the upcoming competitions.
Competition season (March-April): district and regional events run through March into early April. The top teams compete at the FRC Championship in mid-April, concluding the season.
Join the Discord to ask any questions about FRC
There’s no limit to what you can accomplish in FRC with hard work and dedication. If you have more questions about FRC or robotics in general, the Rishab Jain Discord server is full of experienced students and mentors who can help. Join the community there to get your questions answered.
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