First, you have to find a tournament that hasnt been filled up. Unfortunately, there arent any at the moment, but if you want to enter what we call vapourbots instead of real robots, you can use the time to design some good vapourbots. Come up with a design, post it in the Help me improve thread, and more experienced vapourboteers will point out where you could go better.

Vapourbots are machines that dont exist in the real world. You design them like you might design a role-playing character. Typically, youll need the following stats:

Name
Shape
Weapon
Armour
Drive
Srimech

^ Those are the absolute bare minimum.

Good choices of armour include:

Aluminium - Very lightweight, not very strong. Generally should only be used in areas not likely to be attacked, such as the base plate. The lightness will allow you to use additional weight elsewhere.

Titanium - Think of it as a heavier, but stronger version of Aluminium. This is good enough to use in areas that will likely be attacked, but heavy spinners can get through it.

Hardox - A type of steel. Very strong, but also very heavy. The good news is, you wont need very thick hardox to protect very well against spinners, however it doesnt come any thinner than around 3.5 mm.

Polycarbonate/Polypropelene - Lightweight bulletproof plastics. Not recommended as your entire armour, but you can put a layer on top of better armour to give a little more protection.

Some decent driver motors are:

MagMoters - Most commonly used are S28-150 or S28-400. Theyre light, reliable and reasonably powerful on 24 volts.

Lem 130s - As seen on Storm 2, these give you powerful pushing and fast acceleration. Personally, I also like to use them in spinners to provide a fast spin up time.

Eteks - Very heavy, and according to the builder of Tanto not recommended for drive as youll never get the best out of them. They may have some good uses though, I personally never use them.

Weapon power methods are as follows:

Passive - No power, only used for well armoured wedges.

Electric - Either using motors or linear actuators, electric power is best used for spinners, lifters, axes, gripping mechanisms and srimechs.

Pnumatic - Best used in axes and flippers. Systems can use Co2 or nitrogen. Nitrogen gives more power, but expires more quickly and soon loses power. Its a toss up between longevity and a weapon that could end a fight quickly.

Hydraulic - Gives more power than any other system, but also weighs a lot more. Best suited for crushers and lifters.

Hope this lot helps you get started