A friend just pointed me to this site: BEST Robotics.
Is this associated with FIRST?? It’s the exact same thing… even the name… Is that even legal if they’re not associated? Lol this is hillarious imo. What do you guys think of this?
I guess I’ll have to field this one.
BEST is a completely independent robotics competition. It is not a copy of FIRST, it is not even based on FIRST. It has absolutely nothing to do with FIRST aside from the fact that they are both robotics programs with the goal of inspiring students to pursue careers in engineering math and science.
BEST is a fine robotics program in its own right. The robots are smaller scaled and currently are only RC controlled (DSP based programmable controllers are slowly being rolled out and will be standard in a few years). Thus it is somewhat simpler than FIRST in that regard. On the other hand, you only have a limited number of motors to work with and a limited kit of parts that you can use. There are no outside suppliers allowed like FIRST has moved to. So it is also somewhat harder than FIRST in that respect. Philosophically, BEST mandates that only students work on the robot except when there is a safety issue. Mentors are only allowed to guide and advise students.
BEST has a BEST Award that is similar to the Chairman’s award. BEST possibly focuses more on this award than FIRST does. Having a good BEST award makes it more likely that you will advance to the championship competition strictly on that basis. New this year is a “wildcard” round where the 4 best BEST award teams compete in a single round for a wildcard slot in the semi-finals.
BEST is also free to teams. A small deposit is required that is refunded to teams upon return of the control system and motors. All fund raising is done at the hub level, so teams mostly concentrate on participating.
Organizationally, BEST has no central office. It has a steering committee of hub directors that make decisions on the directions that BEST will head and who will design the game for the year. There is no paid BEST staff. There are local hubs spread around the country that hold competitions for teams near the hub. Winning at the hub level allows you to advance to the regional championships, for free. Some hubs even fundraise a travel scholarship for less well off teams to help them attend the championships.
Many BEST teams also compete in FIRST, and vice versa. My team started out in BEST and added FIRST when we could afford it. BEST happens in the fall and FIRST in the spring, so the two are easily compatible.
Finally, BEST currently reaches over 900 high school teams, which makes it comparable to FIRST in size. FIRST has more reach, as there are not BEST hubs in every state yet, but BEST is expanding at a similar rate to FIRST, as hey started at about the same time.
Finally, I’m personally hurt that for some reason you find it hilarious that there is a robotics competition with similar size and goals as FIRST. They are both wonderful, inspiring programs supported by many hard working individuals who spend large amounts of time putting on a program to inspire kids. I fail to see what’s humorous about it.
For more information about the BEST Competition see www.bestinc.org PM me or email me at ksevcikATaol.com
I think it’s really cool. This is news to me, I’ve never heard of any other high school/middle school/educational Robotics competitions.
***The Game’s Objective
The objective of this game is to separate the PCR Primers from the DNA deoxyribonucleotides. ***
That game sounds really interesting 
Also I don’t think BEST has any Canadian teams at the moment seems to be all US. Correct me if I’m wrong
BEST also appeared on /. today and it had some of the same questions (rip-off of FIRST). Kevin did a great job of describing the competition. While I thought originally that it was ironic that there was another acronym based robotics competition that tries to inspire kids, but after a bit of searching, I found out that the program was started differently and separately from FIRST.
This is true, although I found it interesting (as someone in the other thread pointed out) that both FIRST and BEST can trace their lineage back to Woodie Flowers. No wonder folks like this guy so much!
We compete in BEST as well … do any other FIRST teams do the same??
I saw 547 FEAR does. It was on their website.
Is BEST strictly down south?
A rundown of states with BEST hubs: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania.
BEST is always looking to expand to new states and cities by starting new hubs. A 24 team hub costs $28,000 to start up, though year to year costs are somewhat less since a decent portion of that goes towards buying “returnables.” These are motors and RC controllers that are returned every year, so they’re mostly a one-time cost. If any team is interested in starting up a BEST hub, you can find contact info at BEST inc FAQ or contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the right folks.
It just seems redundant to me! Why don’t FIRST and BEST merge somehow? They have the exact same goal…
PS: Oh, and they sure aren’t BEST 
FIRST and BEST are too different philosophically and organizationally to merge, really. Like I said, BEST is all about no-cost to teams, which is good for getting teams, but necessarily limits the scope of the competition. BEST also is much less centralized than FIRST and mostly works better that way. They both do their jobs quite well, and I don’t really see the need to merge them. Nobody like monopolies, right?
108 competes in BEST. If anyone wants to see a short video of our arm for this year, IM me @ specialagentjim, its 3 megs, ill send it to you.
I am going to mentor a team from Kankakee JrHS. Hopefully if i ever have time.
I’m the BEST lead for Wheeler. I’d just like to say that it’s a great oppurtunity for any FIRST team. If you have kids that are interested in FIRST, but simply don’t have the experience required, stick them on a BEST team. It’s a great way to teach them about robotics, and get them prepared for FIRST. As was stated before, it has a lot of differences from FIRST, and is harder in many regards. An in all, it’s just a great way to learn about problem solving, machining, robotics, etc. BTW, we placed second in competition and second in BEST award at the Georgia hub, so we’re going to the Auburn regionals/finals thing.