BEST Games from the Past:
1993 PVC Insanity - Take a short piece of PVC pipe from the edges of the playing field and place it on a goal in the center of the field. Scoring was determined by the placement of the pieces on the goal.
1994 Bumble Rumble - Gather bumble balls and place them into a scoring area. Each team had a high and low scoring area. The high scoring area was elevated and slanted so that if bumble balls were left unattended, they would bumble out.
1995 TOTALly aweSUM - Gather long, tubular, foam noodles and place them in the positive area or in the opponents negative scoring area. The team with the most positive scores was the winner.
1996 Block-N-Load - Score points by capturing squares on the playing field. A square was captured by placing game pieces in it.
1997 Dynamite Duel - Remove sticks of dynamite from an abandoned mine field by placing them into an explosive-proof bucket at the top of the mine. The amount of dynamite was measured by mass and not by the number of sticks.
1998 Toxic Troubles - Pick up garbage and place it in or below a collection containment vessel. Points were also scored by returning the special game piece to the spotter who then placed it on the machine.
1999 Alien Escape - Help aliens escape from a dying planet. Robots captured and moved alien pods (fuzzy balls) or multiplier game pieces onto the field rocket or other scoring locations on the floor.
2000 Pandemonium in the Smithsonian - Enter the Smithsonian to retrieve technical artifacts, reset fire alarm switches, and return to a safe location. Drivers had to rely on their spotters to see the game floor.
2001 RAD to the Core - Save an overheating Nuclear Power Plant by removing fuel rods from the reactor.
2002 Warp X - In celebration of BEST's 10th anniversary. Build a robot that will traverse the rotating black hole and rescue game pieces from all the previous 10 years of BEST games.
2003 Transfusion Confusion - Safely transport as many blood cells as possible into your Cell Saver used for blood transfusions. Eliminating the diseased cells is a plus.
2004 BEST Fever - Squeaky has the genetic disorder "BEST Fever". Your robot (Polymerizing Enzyme) is to enter his cells, denature the DNA and use the Primers to resequence his DNA.
2005 Mission to Hubble - The Hubble space telescope is an invaluable tool for astronomical research, yet the challenges with the shuttle program causes NASA to seek robotic solutions to performing routine maintenance. Robots are flown into place by the shuttle arm where they extract old batteries and gyros and insert new ones.
2006 Laundry Quandary - Address an age old domestic challenge of automating laundry chores. It's time for a hi-tech solution to retrieve dry laundry from clotheslines and place wet laundry on clotheslines within the 3-minute time limit. Keep the laundry clean and be a good neighbor.
2007 2021: A Robot Odyssey - Maneuver across the Martian terrain to the Automated Supply Vehicles and unload their cargo for storage back the Martian base in preparation for the arrival of astronauts.
2008 Just Plane Crazy - Automate the aircraft manufacturing process. Transport aircraft subassemblies from the Warehouse to the Assembly Area, assemble the aircraft and place at one of the three Flight Levels.