Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a robot that will traverse the rotating black hole and rescue the game pieces from all of the previous BEST games. You have only six weeks to design, build and test your robot before sending it back in time to rescue the BEST game pieces.


Through our connections, we have discovered a secret underground group based in Nevada called SDA, (Society for Displaced Aliens) who has agreed to help us. Rumor has it that this group was started by a few aliens that fled their planet before it blew up, but we have been unable to confirm these outrageous claims.

Intelligence reports from this group have disclosed a secret communications network on which we believe we can piggyback a carrier wave to send signals to a robot at any point in space-time. We should be able to link to this network within five weeks. You will be able to use this network to control your robot at any point in space-time.

We have received additional SDA intelligence describing the retro BEST game pieces. It seems that most of the game pieces are still in the 3' by 16' by 1' containment vessel storage bins used in one of the past BEST games. The bins are holding aliens and sticks of dynamite. The rings. Are suspended in the black hole. However, sending the Bumble Balls back in time recharged their batteries and they are now bouncing around randomly through space-time.

SDA reports that micro worm holes have formed at the openings of each of the front two rows of tubes of the MTCVs left over from another BEST game. These wormholes can be used to transport the smaller game pieces back to the present. The larger game pieces must be brought back through the black hole by a robot. The back rows of the MTCVs are full of noodles used in yet another BEST game. These noodles must be removed from the MTCVs. Once removed, they should find their own way back to the present time.

This year's game is one of strategy, speed and agility. It is an aweSUM total of 10 years of BEST! Games are played with four teams per round. Scoring can be high if you can figure out how to achieve all of the objectives.


The outside boundary of the field is defined by two 12' by 24' sections with a 2-foot neutral zone spanned by the black hole. (This makes the actual surface coverage 26'.) See Figure 1. The field surface is covered with carpet. Driver locations (2' by 2' driver's boxes) are shown in Figure 1 on page 3. Spotter locations are on the spotter side of the floor diagonal to the driver's boxes.
A circular black hole (platform is 16.75" high disk, 6' in diameter and rotates clockwise at approximately 5 rpm) separates the two sides of the field. Two ramps provide access to the black hole on the driver side of the field and a ramp 5' wide provides access to the spotter side of the field. The platforms may or may not be painted. This will vary by hub. If painted, flat latex paint will be used.

The two sides of the field are separated by PVC pipe. Drivers cannot drive or reach over the divider. To reach game pieces on the spotter side of the field the robot must go up the ramp, across the black hole and down the opposite ramp.

Fog, which can obscure the spotters from the drivers, will appear occasionally between the two sides of the field. Fog may or may not be used at the hub level, but it will be used at Texas BEST.

The candles and bumble-ball grid are on the starting-side of the field.

Game pieces on the spotter side of the field, include dynamite sticks, aliens, rings, paddle switches and bumble balls.


The table below shows the scoring opportunities per team:

Scoring Opportunity	Points
Flipping Paddle	10 pts
Noodle Extraction	10 pts
Dynamite/Alien Insertion	10 pts
Rings 1st Level (bottom)	20 pts
Rings 2nd Level (middle)	30 pts
Rings 3rd Level (top)	40 pts
Bumble Ball	50 pts