What is FRC?
FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition where teams design, build, and program robots to compete in an alliance format. The 2025 game, REEFSCAPE℠, challenges teams with an underwater coral reef theme.
2025 Season Highlights
The 2025 season brings major rule changes including revised pre-kickoff work rules (R302), allowing teams to reuse swerve modules and custom parts. New technologies include the REV NEO Vortex motor, WPILib 2025 with Java 17 support, and the new Elastic dashboard.
Getting Started
Learn the basics of forming a team, understanding the game, and preparing for your first season. With updated 2025 resources and tools, rookie teams have more opportunities than ever.
💰 Real Cost of FRC (They Don't Tell You!)
Most rookie teams are shocked by the actual costs. Here's the REAL budget breakdown:
- Registration Fee: $6,000 (mandatory)
- Robot Parts & Materials: $4,000-8,000 (drivetrain, mechanisms, electronics)
- Batteries: $1,200-1,600 (6-8 batteries @ $150-200 each) - CRITICAL!
- Tools & Equipment: $2,000-5,000 (if starting from scratch)
- Competition Travel: $2,000-5,000+ (hotel, food, transportation)
- TOTAL FIRST YEAR: $15,000-25,000 minimum
⚠️ ROOKIE GRANT: Apply for rookie team grants! Can get $5,000-10,000 in first year support.
🏆 Competition Day Survival Guide
These tips will save your competition day - learned from veteran teams' mistakes:
- ⏰ Arrive 2+ hours early - setup takes longer than you think!
- 🔋 Fresh battery EVERY match - brownouts lose matches!
- 🧰 Organize your pit - tools labeled, parts sorted. Judges notice!
- 📋 Pre-match checklist - Connect DS → Fresh battery → Redeploy code → Test motors
- 👥 Someone ALWAYS at pit - judges come randomly to ask questions!
- 💬 Talk to other teams - FRC community is super friendly and helpful!
- 📸 Document everything - take notes after each match for improvement
- 🎯 Simple > Complex - working basic robot beats broken advanced robot!
🌱 Team Sustainability (The #1 Rookie Challenge)
The hardest part isn't building the robot - it's keeping the team running year after year:
- 💰 Money: Fundraising is CONSTANT, not just at registration. Start early!
- 👥 Members: Recruit early, retain members, train new students every year
- 🏫 School Support: Get administration buy-in and workspace commitments
- 👨🏫 Mentors: Find adult mentors - engineers, teachers, parents with skills
- 📚 Knowledge Transfer: Document everything! Seniors graduate - preserve knowledge
- 🤝 Community Outreach: Do demos, volunteer - builds support and sponsors
💡 REMEMBER: It doesn't matter if you win competitions if you can't survive to year 2. Focus on sustainability!