Scouting is organised note-taking about what other robots can do, and match strategy is deciding how to use those notes alongside your own robot's strengths. A rookie FIRST Tech Challenge team does not need a fifty-column spreadsheet or a dedicated analytics laptop. You need a one-page sheet, the habit of watching matches, and a short conversation with each alliance partner. Here is a simple system you can run with two or three people.

What scouting is, and what it is not

Scouting means watching matches and writing down a few plain facts about each robot: what it scores, roughly how much, whether its autonomous runs, and whether it survives the match. It is not judging teams, and it is not trying to predict the whole tournament. There are two kinds. Match scouting is watching qualification matches and recording what you see. Pit scouting is walking the pits and asking teams what their robot does. If your team is small, start with match scouting only and add pit scouting once the habit sticks.

Build a scouting sheet your team will actually use

The best scouting sheet is the one that still gets filled in during the sixth match of a long Saturday. Keep it to a single screen or a single printed page, with one row per robot:

• Team number and a one-line description of the robot
• What it scores, and roughly how many per match
• Autonomous: does it run, and what does it do
• Endgame: does it climb, park, or nothing
• Reliability: did it break, tip over, or sit dead
• One free-text note for a standout strength or weakness

Assign one or two people to scout every match on a rotation so nobody misses their own build or repair time. Consistent, boring data beats a clever sheet that only gets filled in for half the matches.

Brief your alliance partner before every match

In qualification matches your alliance partner is usually random, so a two-minute conversation before each match is one of the highest-value things you can do. Agree who takes which scoring area, where each robot runs its autonomous so you do not collide, who handles the endgame first, and what the fallback is if one robot fails. Settle on two or three simple callouts you will use during the match. Sixty seconds of planning prevents most of the mid-match chaos that costs points.

Play to your robot's strengths

Score where you are fast and reliable, not where the game's headline points sit. A robot that quietly does the simple thing every single match will out-score one that attempts the hard thing and fails half the time. Decide on your robot's primary job and a backup job before the event, and let your scouting data tell you when to switch. If the field is full of robots all fighting over the same goal, being the reliable one somewhere else is often worth more.

When defence is worth playing

Defence is only worth it when the points you can deny are greater than the points you would have scored yourself in the same time. If your robot is slow at scoring but sturdy, parking in front of a strong opponent can swing a close match. If you are a strong scorer, keep scoring and let your partner disrupt. Whatever you do, never play defence that risks a penalty, because a foul usually hands back more points than the defence saved.

Getting match-ready

Scouting and strategy improve with repetition, and that comes from building confident young engineers long before anyone reaches the competition field. Teams that start with solid fundamentals in sensors, motors, timing loops and clean code make faster strategic decisions on the day. Our Cape Town academy runs weekly classes and school-holiday workshops where students practise exactly those skills, and beginners can prototype logic on the sheenbot∞ board before moving to a full competition build. For more competition and classroom guides, browse the rest of our articles. Start simple, review your sheet after every event, and get as many match reps as you can.