Texas BEST

Texas BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology), originally NT (North Texas) BEST, is an annual robotics competition similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition. BEST began in 1993 when Texas Instruments engineers noticed student's interest in a video of Woodie Flower's 2.70 class at a company engineering day. TI held the first competition to determine which school it would sponsor in the 1994 FIRST Robotics Competition.

Some older BEST content is included in the FRC Archive under the BEST tag.

1993

The 1993 NT BEST game was PVC Insanity. The contest was held by Texas Instruments' Sherman site and 13 schools and over 200 students from as far away as San Antonio competed. Robots had to fit inside a 24 inch cube and weigh no more than 24 pounds. In three minute matches teams aimed to collect their color of PVC ring from the perimeter of the field and score them on a central "cake" with seven posts. Any ring that ends the match on or over the cake but not inside a machine scores one point. Additional points are awarded for scoring the PVC rings on a post that matches the team's color, with the taller central pole being open to score for all teams.

• 

  The PVC Insanity logo [1]

• 

  Gunter High's 1993 NT BEST robot "Eightball." [2]

A presentation about the 1993 competition was given at the 1994 kickoff event. The winning team from Denison High School was sponsored by Texas Instruments to compete in the 1994 FIRST Robotics Competition as team -105. The finalist team from Sherman High School was sponsored by GTE to compete as team 129 after seeing them compete in NT BEST, and Texas Instruments staff also assisted the Sherman High team in 1994.

1994

In 1994 the competition was called Bumble Rumble. The goal was to collect "bumble ball" dog toys and put them in goals or platforms on the side of the field. Four teams played at once on the 12 foot by 24 foot field in two minute matches in a double-elimination tournament. Two humps towards the ends of the field kept the 24 bumble balls in the center of the field unless picked up and scored. Teams earned one point per ball in their home base or three points per ball on the platform. One tie-breaking "Bumble Buddy" was worth double the points. Machines could push, capture, and steal balls from other machines or scoring areas, block opponents from scoring, upset other machines, or do anything else that didn't damage the playing field or another machine.

San Antonio BEST was also formed as the second "hub" of competition in 1994.

• 

  Gunter High's 1994 NT BEST robot "Thundersprags." [3]

• 

  A 1994 NT BEST Bumble Rumble button [4]

• 

  1994 BEST robots during a match [5]

1995

The competition for 1995 was named "TOTALly AweSUM." The game was played on a 24 foot octagon, with each of four teams having both a positive and negative scoring area on opposite ends of the field. Teams collected long, foam "noodles" and placed them in their positive scoring area while trying to clear the noodles from the negative area. A large goose egg in the middle of the field could be scored in a positive scoring zone to make the noodles worth negative points or in a negative goal to make the noodles within positive. Robots could pick up and steal noodles and the goose egg from other teams, block other teams from scoring, and anything else that did not damage the field or other robots.

Collin County BEST in Frisco, West Texas BEST in Lubbock, and Chicago BEST hubs all began in 1995. In 1995 BEST expanded to include a state-level competition which was called Texas BEST. The top six teams from the NT BEST competition were sent to compete with teams from four other "hubs." Approximately 85 teams competed overall.

• 

  Texas BEST logo [6]

• 

  Gunter High students show Jerry Junkins, Texas Instruments CEO and president, their winning 1995 BEST robot "Terminoodles." Gunter would be sponsored by Texas Instruments in 1996 to compete in FIRST as team -112 [7]

• 

  A 1995 NT BEST Totally Awesum button [8]

1996

The 1996 BEST game was Block 'N Load and involved capturing territory on the 24-foot diamond playing field. The field is divided up into sections using PVC pipe and a section is "captured" by the team with the most small blocks of their color in a given section. Blocks had to be touching the carpet at the end of the match, blocks on top of other blocks or inside machines did not count. If two teams were tied in scored blocks, no team was consitered ot have captured it. Four teams play at once to score their 12 colored blocks into different positions on the field. Robots began inside a starting "gate" where a human player team member would load it full with as many blocks as desired. Once any part of the machine or any blocks entered the playing field, the loader had to stop loading blocks onto the machine. Time taken to load the robot was included in the two-minute match timer. Some sections of the field were worth more points than others, with blue PVC pipe forming a "square" in the middle of the field and several smaller red areas around the field (including one inside the blue section). Points are awarded once to whatever team owns the section at the end of the match, not based on how many or what other colors of blocks are in a section. Unmarked sections were worth one point each, sections inside the blue square worth two points, and the red sections were worth four points outside the blue square or eight points for the central section inside the blue square .

Teams could move or pick up opponent blocks as well as block out other machines and defend territory.

• 

  A 1996 NT BEST Block 'N Load button [9]

• 

  Robots playing Block 'N Load [10]

1997

Dynamite Dual was the name of the 1997 competition.

In 1997 the "educational theme" of the game was also formally introduced. The theme this year was explosive recovery and disposal.

In 1997 BEST became a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in Texas as BEST Robotics, Inc. (BRI).

• 

  A 1997 Brazos BEST Dynamite Dual button [11]