Here's how the competition works. Early on a Saturday morning in January, teams of high school students from all across the country watch a Webcast from Manchester, New Hampshire to find out what game they'll have to design, build and program a robot for. After that Webcast, they have six weeks to work long hours to come up with a robot that will be able to do well in the competition. After the last day of build season, the teams get a couple weeks off, followed by six weeks of regional competition that takes place all across the globe.

The regionals are free events, and open to the public, which gives you a chance to go see the fruits of the students' labors, and watch them compete. (Did I mention they're free?) It's an awesome way to spend a Friday or Saturday. Of course, just showing up at a regional is possible, but it'll help to have a working understanding of the game.

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Here's the basic gist of the game: There are two alliances, colored red and blue, made up of three robots each. They're controlled by humans on opposite sides of a 27 by 54 foot playing field. Each match lasts for two minutes and fifteen seconds, and is broken up into three periods: the opening 15-second autonomous period, and then drivers gain control of their robots for a 100-second main period, followed by a 20-second endgame. The goal of the game is to earn more points than the other alliance to win the match.