how the competition works?

[purplecatnip]

okay first of all, I would like to say this is my first time really looking at the site and it just took my nearly half an hour just to find how to start a thread so I feel slightly dumb already
so anyway here's my question:
if your alliance loses your very first round have you already lost, and will that be the only round you compete in? this will be the first FRC competetion we're attending so I'm kinda confused on how the elemination works.....