What The Blue Alliance is#
The Blue Alliance (TBA) is the community-run hub where the FRC world scouts teams, watches matches, and relives events. Nearly everyone in FRC - scouts deciding alliance picks, judges doing research, and fans - looks teams up here. Your TBA profile is part of your public footprint whether you manage it or not.
Claiming and managing your profile#
- Profiles are claimed and managed by verified team members through TBA's account system (you request team admin access and verify via your FIRST/team affiliation).
- Once claimed, you can add a team description, links to your website and social accounts, and team branding.
- A complete profile with links and a description looks far more professional than a blank one and funnels visitors to your owned channels.
Contributing media#
TBA relies on the community to keep its archive complete. You can:
- Submit missing match videos via the "Add Video" links.
- Submit missing webcasts and team/robot photos.
- Upload your robot and team photos so they show on your profile.
This is a quick, high-impact task: every video and photo you contribute improves your visibility and helps the whole community.
Why scouting and analytics matter to media#
TBA and sister sites surface analytics like OPR (Offensive Power Rating) and community metrics (e.g., EPA, Expected Points Added, popularized by Statbotics). You don't have to be a stats expert, but knowing these exist helps you write accurate, credible recaps ("we ranked Xth of Y") and gives scouting subteams data to share on your channels during events.
The wider ecosystem#
- Statbotics (statbotics.io) - widely used FRC analytics (EPA and more); another place to pull credible numbers for recaps.
- FIRST Dashboard - the official portal where you register, submit awards (including the Impact Award), and manage team data. Keep your official team info accurate here.
- Your own site and socials - TBA should link out to these; treat owned channels as the destination.
A maintenance habit#
Once per season:
- Confirm your TBA profile is claimed and the description, website, and social links are current.
- Upload your new team photo and best robot photo.
- After each event, check that your match videos are present; submit any that are missing.
Five minutes of upkeep keeps your most-viewed public profile sharp.
the part worth keeping
Key takeaways
- Claim your Blue Alliance profile and fill in your description, website, social links, and branding
- Contribute missing match videos, webcasts, and photos; it boosts your visibility and helps the community
- Keep TBA, Statbotics, and the FIRST Dashboard current, and treat your owned site/socials as the destination they link to
Media, Branding & OutreachDigital Presence: Social Media & Websitelesson 3 of 3
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where this came from
Sources and corrections
This lesson 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, in public, in the corrections log.
sources and further reading
- thebluealliance.comThe Blue Alliance
- statbotics.ioStatbotics (FRC analytics, EPA)
clipped to this lesson
Articles that go further on this
The lesson gets you through the topic. These go wider on it, and they read in one sitting.
- 18 min readThe Blue Alliance (TBA): How to Use FRC's Match & Team DatabaseThe Blue Alliance (TBA) is FRC's free match and team database. Navigate team, event, and match pages, set up myTBA notifications, and use its read API./blogread it
- 20 min readBuilding an FRC Scouting App: Data Model, TBA/Statbotics APIs, and PicklistsBuild an FRC scouting app: match and pit scouting, a simple data model, pulling schedules and EPA from the TBA and Statbotics APIs, and building a picklist./blogread it
- 19 min readWhat Is Statbotics? FRC EPA (Expected Points Added) ExplainedStatbotics explained: what EPA (Expected Points Added) means in FRC, how it's calculated, how EPA compares to OPR, and how to use it for scouting./blogread it
answer sheet
Lesson quiz
All 3 right completes the lesson. Miss one and only that question comes back, anything you already answered correctly stays banked.
0 of 3 answered
01What best describes The Blue Alliance (TBA)?
02On The Blue Alliance, what does the statistic 'OPR' stand for?
03How does Statbotics relate to The Blue Alliance?
Answer every question to submit.
All 29 lessons in Media, Branding & Outreachopenclose
01 / prerequisites
02 / team-brand-identity
03 / content-creation
04 / digital-presence
05 / outreach-awards-sponsorship
06 / worked-examples-mini-projects
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 1: A Repeatable Match-Day Photo Workflow
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 2: A 60-Second Highlight Reel in DaVinci Resolve (Free)
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 3: A CAD-to-Render Robot Reveal
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 4: A One-Page Press Release for Your Local Paper
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 5: Auto-Pull Match Results from The Blue Alliance API
07 / common-mistakes-troubleshooting
08 / advanced-techniques-case-studies