Everything you need to start a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team — costs, registration, mentors, space, timeline, and grants that cover your first event.
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Starting a FIRST Robotics Competition team feels huge — a robot that can weigh over 100 pounds, a six-week build season, thousands of dollars. But thousands of teams started exactly where you are. Here's the honest, practical path from "we want a team" to your first match.
FRC is the flagship high-school program of FIRST. Each January, every team worldwide gets the same game at Kickoff, then has about six weeks to design, build, and program a robot to play it. Teams compete at Regional or District events in the spring, with the season culminating at the FIRST Championship in Houston.
It is not just engineering: a strong team needs people doing mechanical, CAD, programming, electrical, scouting, strategy, business, fundraising, and outreach. That breadth is good news — there's a role for almost anyone.
You need three things before anything else:
Budget honestly up front. For the current season, the core fees are:
The number scares people, so here's the part nobody tells rookies: you rarely pay full freight your first year. Rookie teams are eligible for substantial grants — most notably the NASA FRC Sponsorship Grant, which can cover your first event's registration entirely. Check the FIRST Team Grant Opportunities page early; deadlines cluster in the fall.
Register your team at firstinspires.org. New teams get a rookie Kit of Parts with a control system, motors, and a drivetrain option to get you moving. Get your adult leads' Youth Protection screening done early — it's a common bottleneck.
You need a room you can leave a half-built robot in, plus power and a few feet of open floor to drive on. Tool-wise, start minimal: drill, hand tools, a way to cut aluminum, and a soldering/crimping kit for electrical. You can borrow CNC or machining time from a veteran team or a sponsor's shop.
This is where most rookie teams stumble — they spend the first two weeks of build season learning the basics instead of building. Use the fall and early winter to get members comfortable with the fundamentals of each department: drivetrains, wiring that passes inspection, the programming control system, and basic strategy. (That's exactly what we built LearnFRC for — free, structured lessons across every department. Start with the Getting Started guide.)
A few rules that save rookie teams:
Your first season's goal is not to win — it's to finish a robot, compete, and build a team that comes back next year. Lean on the community: Chief Delphi, your regional veterans, and Open Alliance teams are remarkably generous. Ask questions early and often.
Ready to train your team? Browse the free department guides on LearnFRC — built by an FRC student, for new teams.
This article is AI-assisted: drafted from primary sources, then reviewed and edited by hand. Errors still get through. When one is reported we fix it and write down what changed — publicly, in the corrections log.
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