FRC Quick Start guide
DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ROBOTICS? START HERE!
What is FIRST?
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a robotics company founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen. Every year, they host three different robotics-related competitions: the First Lego League (FLL), the First Tech Competition (FTC), and most importantly, the First Robotics Competition (FRC), which is what NRG competes in. Each of these events has a specific game each year based off of an overarching theme between all three.
TLDR: The people who run the robotics competitions.
What is the first robotics competition?
The First Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition in which teams work to build a robot that can compete with other robots to complete various tasks based on the current year's game.
The competition season consists of a 6-week build period, followed by locally-organized competitions all over the world. The season ends with the world championship in Houston.
TLDR: What we spend all year working on.
What are these "games"?
Each year, a new game is created for the First Robotics Competition based on the year's overarching theme.
While the method of scoring and main goal of the game changes every year, some things stay constant. Each match is played 3v3 (a red alliance vs a blue alliance), and the alliance that scores the highest collectively wins the match, no matter how each individual robot played.
In 2023, the game was called Charged Up (based on the overall theme of Energize), and the main goals of the game were placing cubes and cones on a 9x3 grid and balancing robots on a tilting "charge station".
TLDR: What we design our robot to do; changes every year.
what competitions do we go to?
Each year, we are guaranteed to attend 2 local competitions. If we place top 50 in district points (points earned for how well we do in each district competition) in the PNW region, we will advance to the District Championship (DCMP), which encompasses robotics teams in the entire PNW region. If we do well enough at the District Championship, we will advance to the World Championship in Houston.
We also attend 3 offseason competitions, but those competitions are played just for fun and have no overall effect on the season.
TLDR: Definitely 2, probably 3, maybe 4.
Want to learn more?
Chief Delphi
What was once the website for FRC team 47 is now a forum for all things FIRST. This website is the biggest repository of FIRST robotics information on the internet, and is a great way to keep up with what's going on in the wider robotics world. Chief Delphi is a great way to connect with the FIRST commuinty and to answer any specific questions you may have about robotics.
the blue ALLIAnce
The Blue Alliance is a website that gives you real-time data about FRC teams and events. It's especially useful to the strategy team, as it contains matchups, scores, and (usually) videos of every match played at every event for every single year. If you want to know how team 148 played at the 2005 Lone Star Regional in qualification match 39, The Blue Alliance has got you covered. Or, more practically, if you're at a competition and want to know the names of the teams on the field, The Blue Alliance can help you with that, too.
Want to connect with the community?
The Bellevue Alliance - an alliance of 7 teams in the Bellevue area that all help each other out. It consists of teams 492, 948, 949, 1899, 2412, 7461, and 9036. We also host events together such as Mock Kickoff during training season.
Open Alliance - A group of teams (including NRG) that all share their robot designs and progress with each other.
FirstUpdatesNow - A Youtube/Twitch Channel that covers all things FRC.
