The Rookie’s Guide to FTC

The Rookie’s Guide to FTC

For rookies who know quite literally nothing about FTC/robotics.

A reference/FAQ of sorts.

Disclaimer: A lot of this is general, dumbed-down information. Read the manual or ask one of your team members for more detailed information.

General Questions

Q: What is the answer to all questions?

A: READ THE MANUAL 

Q: What do y’all do?

A: We build robots that compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), a robotics competition.

Q: What is FTC?

A: FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is an international robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 (ages 12–18, normally ~18x18 in bots).

Q: What is FIRST?

A: FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization dedicated to bringing hands-on STEM to kids everywhere. It emphasizes not only the robotics aspect of competition, but also community impact through outreaches. FIRST emphasizes Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition, among other values. FIRST has two other robotics programs besides FTC, FIRST Lego League (4-14yo, small, table-top robots built with Legos) and FIRST Robotics Competition (14-18yo, large, industrial sized robots). 

Q: What is “decode”?

A: Decode is the name of the game for the 2025-2026 FTC Season. This year, the FIRST competitions are archeology themed (FIRST AGE– Uncover the Future). 

Q: What are the numbers on the bot?

A: Our team number, every team has one and you need to have it on the bot so the referees know what team you are - our number is 23312.

Q: What’s the orange bot for/what does it do?

A: That’s the control bot (“troll” bot). We use it for driver practice (all it can do is drive around)

Gameplay + Scoring

Q: What is the bot supposed to do?

A: The game this year is to shoot purple and green balls (aka “artifacts”) into goals in a certain pattern. Then, the bots park in a marked-off square for extra points. There’s a bunch of rules about where you can or can’t shoot/go/touch the other team but that’s the gist of it. 

Q: What is auto/teleop?

A: During the first 30 seconds of the game, the bot does everything by itself based on code written -  that’s called auto. Teleop means teleoperated – you operate the bot using video game controllers for the last 2 minutes of the game. The entire game is 2.5 minutes.

Q: How does match scoring work?A1: For this season, you get points for each ball your bot scores in the goal. You get extra points if the balls are in the order indicated by the obelisk (plastic triangular thing). You get points for parking at the end in a small square. That’s basically it-for a detailed point breakdown, read section 10.5 of the manual, Scoring 

A2: a bunch of refs watch the match and document fouls, points earned, etc. 

Q: What is an alliance?

A: Matches are played 2v2. Two teams will be on the blue alliance, two teams will be on the red alliance. In league meets, these alliances are random. Each match, you will get a different team for your alliance. From league tournaments onwards, you can choose your own alliance. 

Q: What are ranking points?

A: Ranking points determine where you start (your ranking/seed) in the league tournament. You earn ranking points at league meets. 

Q: How do you get ranking points? 

A: You get ranking points for doing specific things well in the game (earning a . In this season for example, if you earn a certain amount of pattern points, you are awarded the pattern RP. 

Non-Robot Stuff

Q: What’s a portfolio?

A: a magazine documenting our team’s journey so judges can give us cool awards

Q: What league are we in?

A: FTC has different regions and different leagues within the region. We are in the FIRST in Texas-Central region (FiT-Central). There are several leagues in FiT-Central (SWAT, HSI Lobos, NERD, HOT, etc.) and we’re in the GEMS league. GEMS is divided into its cHiLd leagues, Emerald and Diamond (yes, super creative names). Teams are randomized each league meet (we can be in either emerald or diamond).

Q: What are league meets and what’s the difference between league meets and league tournaments?

A: At league meets, you earn ranking points by playing matches(see Gameplay + Scoring: Ranking Points for more details). These points determine your ranking in the league tournament. The league tournaments determine if you go to state championship/regionals, worlds, etc. League meets are shorter (8:00 AM - 3:00 PM) but league tournaments are full-day things (12 hours)

Q: What to expect at league meets?

A: You’ll be told to get there at 8:00 AM, but for two and a half hours you’re just admiring your bot, talking, networking, and testing. By 10:30-ish they’ll have practice matches and then a driver’s meeting. At this point the match schedule will come out, which will tell you which matches you are competing in. It’ll give specific times for each match, and you play them, or if you’re not driving, you watch.

time	stuff	Who needs to be there	What happens	How long does it take
8-10	Robot inspection	3 team members	Robot inspector asks if your bot has any illegal stuff and makes sure it fits in 18x18	5-10 minutes
9-10	Practice matches	Drive team (first come first serve)	Conducted the same as a real match except no refs/scoring	Depends how many practice matches we are in (3 minutes per match)
10-10:30	Driver meeting	Drive team and anyone else who wants to	Head ref updates everyone on rule updates/clarifications, also q&a session	~half an hour (important but very boring)
10:30-11	Schedule generated	team	Go around and meet your alliance partners and discuss strat
11-12:30	matches	Drive team and rest of team from stands	Play matches watch other teams and take notes	2-3 minutes per match but get to the field while the match before you is going to set up
12:30-1	Lunch break		FOOD
1-3	matches	Drive team and rest of team from stands	Play matches watch other teams and take notes	2-3 minutes per match but get to the field while the match before you is going to set up

Q: What’s a driver meeting?

A: Happens at every competition. The head ref updates everyone on rule updates, clarifications, etc. Also a Q&A session. 

Q: What’s the kickoff thing?

A: We go to a school and they tell us what the game is for this season and you get to go play around with the field and measure stuff

Q: What’s the difference between a Qualifier and a League Tournament?

A: League Tournaments occur later in the season, although all teams are still eligible to compete. They tend to last longer because they include judged presentations and pit judging, as well as alliance picks and playoff matches. At the end of the competition, teams receive awards and recognitions, which enable them to move forward to the next level of competition.

Q: How do you get to Regionals/Worlds?

A: By performing well at your League Tournament and winning either a judged award, which depends more on your presentation and portfolio, or by placing highly in the rankings, which reflects your robot's skills and performance.

Hardware/CAD

Q: what is gobilda and why do we have to read this 1700 page manual

A: Gobilda is a company that manufactures stuff for robotics (bootwheels, wheels, motors, servos, useful metal sticks, etc). The manual contains every single product that they sell as well as suggestions for how to use it on your bot; it’ll probably take you a year or two to read it. 

Q: What is REV?

A: A company that makes stuff for robotics (notably, the driver hub, expansion hub, and control hub) 

Q: What is a control hub?

A: The black and orange rectangular device on the bot that controls all the bot’s movements

Q: What is an expansion hub?

A: Basically an extension of a control hub.

Q: What’s a driver hub?

A: It’s a touchscreen device that drivers use to communicate with the control hub and expansion hub, thereby controlling the bot.

Q: What’s a u-channel?

A: These metal things

Q: What’s the difference between socket head and button head screws?

A: Socket head screws have cylindrical tops and button heads have rounded, dome-shamed tops.

Q: What’s a motor?

A: It powers things (like the wheels) and mostly provides power for stuff (big workhorse dinosaur)

Q: What’s a servo?

A: Basically a mini motor but it doesnt spin 360; more precise movements - used for things that need less power and more precision. (like our sorter) (smol fast dinosaur)

Q: What’s an axon?

A: A brand of servo.

Q: What’s a bootwheel?

A: A rubber star shaped thing that is often used for intake

Q: What’s an allen key?

A: It’s an L-shaped thing you use to tighten and loosen screws (also called a hex key).

Q: What’s a chassis?

A: Main part of the bot that helps you move around the field

Q: What are omniwheels/tank drive/mecanum wheels/swerve drive?

A: A tank drive is for sad, cheap teams. Don’t worry about it.  Omniwheels are these and mecanum wheels are these . Swerve drive is for cool teams who have lots of money. Don’t worry about it. 

Q: What’s a deadwheel?

A: A mini omniwheel that doesn’t drive, it just tracks the position of the bot. There are two of these on the bot, one for tracking left-right and one for tracking forwards/backwards movements. Also called odometry pods.

Q: What’s a spacer?

A: literally just cylinders to keep things apart (In this year’s bot, the blue things on the intake bars)

Q: What’s a standoff?

A: spacer but with threading on the inside so you can screw it in (used between the panels of the bot)

Q: What’s Onshape?

A: Onshape is a software that helps you CAD (design a 3D thing in your computer) - https://www.onshape.com/en/

Q: What’s Carbide Create?

A: Carbide Create is a software that helps you design 2D stuff to cut using CNC machines like Shapeoko (we use it to cut our panels for the robot, etc.) - https://carbide3d.com/carbidecreate/

Q: What’s a Limelight?

A: speshal camera designed for robots 

Software

Q: What language is the bot coded in?A: Mostly java, but there are a bunch of FTC libraries that we import to code with - so it’s not pure java, but the core is java.

Q: What is Github?

A: Github is a way to store all your code in one place and easily track changes made by people across the team. We use it to store all of our code for the season. 

Q: What is Android Studio? 

A: The code editor where you edit code and then push changes to the github for the whole team to see. (see Github for more)

Q: What’s an AprilTag?

A: QR code for the bot to see