The job
BEST Robotics is opening a restaurant. Your team is the vendor that pitched a robot to run it, and Game Day is the demo. Everything on this page comes from the official v3.2 rulebook released 2 September 2026.
The field is the Byte to Bite Restaurant: four mirrored quadrants around a shared central dining room. Each quadrant belongs to one team, colored yellow, blue, red or green. The two quadrants on a half of the field share their gardens and compete for the ingredients in them. The two quadrants on opposite halves share a Balance Buffet and have to cooperate to score on it.
Across three minutes your robot has to do five things:
- Gather ingredients and build meals on a plate
- Carry meals safely to one of the scoring areas
- Spin the water valve to irrigate your garden
- Twist a handle to send the crop-tending drone across the garden
- Enter the dining room under its own control and place a meal on a table
Meanwhile a second student — the spotter — can build meals by hand from whatever the robot ferries back to the start area. It's a two-person game.
How a match works
Four robots, one field, three minutes. Points are counted at the end, not as you go.
Harvest
Pull ingredients from the five garden stations. Every ingredient has a hole in the middle — that hole is how meals get built.
Plate
Thread ingredients down the stem of your team-colored plate. What you stack, and in what order, decides whether it's a salad, a pizza or a sandwich.
Deliver
Warming shelf, balance buffet, dining room table, quality check area, or just hold it. Each spot is worth a different bonus.
Tend
Open the irrigation valve, run the drone down its rope, and empty every station for the harvest bonuses.
Ingredients score nothing on their own. A pile of eight vegetables on your robot at the buzzer is worth zero. Only completed meals, filled drinks and field tasks put points on the card.
Where the points are
Two ways to score a meal, and they pay differently. The robot route is worth roughly double the spotter route — but the spotter can work while the robot is still out on the field.
| Meal | What it takes | Robot / in field | Quality Check Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salad | Any 2 different ingredient types, any order | 10 | 5 |
| Pizza | Grain on the bottom, then 3+ different other types above | 30 | 15 |
| Sandwich | Grain top and bottom, 4 different types in between | 50 | 25 |
| Drink | Cup, upright, with at least one water ball in it | 4 | 2 |
| Drink on a meal | Matching-color cup resting on the meal's plate | +12 | +6 |
Location bonuses stack on top of the robot/in-field value: +5 warming shelf, +15 balance buffet, +50 autonomous dining room. Full table and a live calculator are in Meals & Scoring.
The season
Eight weeks from kickoff to Game Day. Two of these events are required; the rest depend on your hub.
Kickoff
Kits are handed out, the game is revealed, and the eight-week clock starts. No robot part may be built before this day, and no parts may be reused from a previous season.
Preliminary Design Review
A two-way conversation with hub mentors once you've digested the requirements, brainstormed, drafted a schedule and picked your subsystems. Check whether your hub offers it.
Critical Design Review
Mandatory for hubs to offer. An overview of the design so far, focused on risks, alternatives and opportunities while there's still time to recover. Worth 5 points on the engineering notebook scoresheet.
Practice Day
Time on the actual physical field you'll compete on. Hubs set the requirements and may exempt a team.
Game Day
One or two days of head-to-head competition, judging, presentations and exhibition.
The engineering notebook is due one week before the game competition — miss it and the team is ineligible to compete. The digital marketing video is due at least seven days before Game Day. Every student on the roster must also complete the Student Participation Survey, which is verified at the robot compliance check.
Where rules come from
Four sources, in a fixed order of authority.
Section 1
General rules — safety, robot constraints, drivers and spotters, penalties, competition protocol.
Section 2
Official game kits. Returnable and consumable lists define exactly what may go on the machine.
Section 3
Game-specific rules for Byte to Bite. These may supersede the general rules.
Online Q&A
Answers posted at game.bestrobotics.org/qna are an extension of the rules and go to every team.
Where the rules and a Q&A answer contradict each other, the rules win. Game-specific rules and Q&A answers may supersede the general rules. A Q&A answer can trigger a rule revision, which gets published within three days.
Walk the restaurant
Spin the model, or pick a station below it. Every area on the field belongs to a rule — this shows you which one.
Pick a part to see it on its own. Each station is modelled on its figure in the rulebook — but for exact sizes, fiducial IDs and placements, work from the official Byte to Bite Field Drawings.
The Byte to Bite field
Four quadrants mirrored around a central dining room. Each half of the field is shared by two neighbouring teams who compete for the same garden ingredients. Teams in opposite halves share a Balance Buffet and only score it if both sides cooperate.
The garden, station by station
The field splits into two halves along the line running through the warming shelves and balance buffets. Each half has one Garden Area, running along a dining room wall and divided into two mirrored halves — one designated to each of that half’s two teams. A garden half holds 44 game pieces; the whole Garden Area holds 88, and every one of them is fair game for either team on that half of the field, regardless of colour.
Vegetable Tray
A slanted hydroponic flood tray holding green disks, loaded vertically in three rows of two. Release them with the button at the bottom of the tray, or just pull them straight out — both count.
6 per garden half · 24 per field · harvest bonus 4 pts
Fruit Vines
Red balls hung on three velcro vines strung across a PVC frame. Three start in a row low on the vines, one starts higher on the centre vine, and two start on the floor in front, touching tape markers.
6 per garden half · 24 per field · harvest bonus 4 pts
Cold Food Storage Fridge
Dairy — yellow square slabs — sit in two stacks of three on the lower shelf, on the handle side. Protein — brown round disks — sit in two stacks of three on the upper shelf, on the hinge side. Open the door, then pull them out.
That combines two descriptions the rulebook gives differently — 3.3.2.1.C puts both ingredients on both shelves. See Open Questions.
6 dairy + 6 protein per garden half · harvest bonus 8 pts for clearing both
Breadbox
White bread-shaped grain squares, stored along the dining room wall at the outer end of the garden. Two slices start on top of the box. Grain resting on the breadbox does not score, and the harvest bonus needs those top slices gone too.
12 per garden half · 48 per field · harvest bonus 8 pts
Water Station
Eight blue tennis balls sit in an angled track above the fruit vines. Rotate the T-handle a quarter turn — either direction, horizontal to vertical — and the water rolls out the front. Reaching into the station or the irrigation pipe to grab water is a disqualification.
8 per garden half · valve release 4 pts to the owning team
Crop-Tending Drone
Rotate the T-handle on the drone post — either direction — to drag the drone along its support rope. It scores once the front edge of the wooden body crosses the line marked on top of the garden wall. Touching the drone, the support rope or the pull rope directly is not allowed.
1 per team · 8 pts, the biggest single field task
The drone, the irrigation valve and all four harvest bonuses score for the team that owns that field structure — the one whose Robot Start Area is closest — no matter which of the two robots on that half actually does the work. Your neighbour can empty the breadbox and hand you 8 points, and you can do the same for them.
The dining room is the only autonomous zone
Nine tables in a 3×3 array behind four pinwheeled walls, with a doorway at each corner and a strict rule about who’s driving.
The four walls are offset in a pinwheel so the way in is at each corner of the room. Two of those four doorways lead to your half of the field, and those are the only two you may leave through. A robot may only enter the dining room under autonomous control while the driver is hands-free — meaning the V5 Controller is out of the driver's hands and they have no manual control of the machine. Every scoring task inside the room has to be done autonomously. Placing a meal on a table under remote control is a disqualification.
To help, printed fiducials from the AprilTag Circle21h7 family are placed on the unpainted dining room walls and on the table tops. The V5 AI Vision Sensor can read them, and each unique pattern of black and white modules encodes a different numeric ID so the robot knows which one it's looking at.
A meal counts as scored the moment the autonomous robot has placed the dish and is no longer touching it. The plate must completely cover the centre 4¼″ white square of the table's fiducial. One meal per table — a second meal on an occupied table earns a 20-second penalty and scores nothing.
Four ways to end an autonomous run
- Place the meal, back off, and drive out manually once you're clear
- Abandon the attempt at any time and drive out manually
- Exit through one of the two doorways leading to your half of the field — the other two are a DQ
- Leave it there. Nothing forces you to retrieve the robot
Never touch what's already served
Robots may not remove, dislodge or control any game piece in the dining room. Pieces that were in a scoring position before a violation still count as scored — but nothing on the field is ever reset mid-match, and each game piece can score only once.
The Balance Buffet
The one scoring area you cannot win alone. Drag the slider to see what the referee is looking at.
The Balance Buffet sits between the Warming Shelf and the dining room, straddling the wall that splits the field into halves. Each buffet is shared with one team from the opposite half, and each of you may only touch your own colour-designated side.
It's balanced when the 1×4 dividing wall of the rotating platform falls fully between the two tape indicators on the support post. If that divider crosses the inner edge of either tape line, the buffet is out of balance and nothing on it scores — for either of you.
That's 15 points per meal, up to three meals, and it only pays if your counterpart on the far side of the field loads their side to match. Interacting with your own designated shelf is never treated as de-scoring their dish, so you can add weight; touching their shelf is a disqualification.
Outside the boundary: the human areas
Four zones sit outside the field wall at each quadrant, and the traffic between them is tightly regulated.
Driver Box
One student, feet inside the box for the whole match. Leaving it costs 20 seconds. The driver may not touch the field, a game piece, or the robot — that's a DQ.
Spotter Box
One student, free to move within the area, with access to the Robot Start Area. Any spotter from the team may take the role — unlike the driver, there's no rotation.
Robot Start Area
Taped box, measured from the outside edge of the tape. The robot starts fully inside it in its starting configuration. It doubles as the handoff point where the spotter collects pieces.
Quality Check Area
Taped area on the floor beside the spotter box. Meals the spotter assembles are placed here. Plates may not overlap or cross the outside of the tape lines.
The robot drops ingredients and dishware into the RSA. The spotter may only reach in when the robot is completely outside the RSA, the driver is hands-free, or both — the rulebook words this condition three different ways, so build for the strict reading and see Open Questions. Anything the spotter touches must end up in the Quality Check Area — it can't be left in the RSA and it can't go back onto the field. Meals in the QCA can be taken apart and rebuilt, but nothing ever returns to play. Loose ingredients left in the QCA at the end of the match score nothing, and neither does water outside a cup.
Build a meal
Stack ingredients onto the plate stem and watch what the referee would call it. The rules are all about types and where the grain sits.
Ingredients
Click to thread one onto the stem. Click a piece on the plate to pull it off.
Two of the same ingredient count as one type. Order only matters for grain.
The three meals
Every ingredient has a hole through the middle. For a piece to count, the plate's stem must pass through that hole — an ingredient merely resting on the plate is not part of the meal.
Salad · 10 pts
Any two different types of ingredient, stacked in any order. The cheapest meal to make and the fastest — a vegetable and a fruit is a legal salad.
Pizza · 30 pts
Grain on the bottom, then at least three different ingredient types above it. Only the grain's position matters; the toppings can go on in any order.
Sandwich · 50 pts
Grain on the bottom and grain on top, with four different ingredient types in between. Grain is the only ingredient whose position matters.
The count that decides a meal is the number of types of ingredient, not how many pieces there are. Two dairy slices on a plate count together as one type. Since there are only five types — grain, dairy, protein, vegetable, fruit — a sandwich needs grain plus all four of the others.
Drinks
A cup with at least one water ball in it. An empty cup scores nothing, and a loose water ball scores nothing.
A drink scores on its own if it's upright with the base of the cup flat on the floor or a shelf, or held upright by the robot. It can't score on its own in the dining room.
Added to a meal it's worth far more. Place the cup upright on the plate, base in contact with and fully supported by the plate — before or after the plate reaches its scoring area, either works. The cup colour and plate colour must match, and at most one drink per meal scores.
Drink values
Full scoring table
Straight from Scoring Table 3.7. Location bonuses are added to the robot-carried value of the meal, drink, or meal-plus-drink combination.
| Task | Condition at the end of the match | Points each | Max per team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salad, robot-carried or in field | Completed salad resting on the robot or within the field borders | 10 | 8 |
| Pizza, robot-carried or in field | Completed pizza resting on the robot or within the field borders | 30 | 8 |
| Sandwich, robot-carried or in field | Completed sandwich resting on the robot or within the field borders | 50 | 8 |
| Warming Shelf | Completed meal resting on the flat surface of your designated shelf | +5 | 7 |
| Balance Buffet | Completed meal on your designated side, with the buffet in balance | +15 | 3 |
| Autonomous Dining Room | Placed autonomously on a table, fully covering the fiducial's centre 4¼″ white square | +50 | 8 |
| Filled drink, on robot or in field | Cup upright, containing water, on the robot or within the field | 4 | 8 |
| Drink added to a meal in the field | Matching-colour cup resting on the plate of a scoring meal | 12 | 8 |
| Quality Check salad | Spotter stacked and placed the salad in the QCA | 5 | 8 |
| Quality Check pizza | Spotter stacked and placed the pizza in the QCA | 15 | 8 |
| Quality Check sandwich | Spotter stacked and placed the sandwich in the QCA | 25 | 8 |
| Quality Check drink | Filled cup placed upright on the floor inside the QCA | 2 | 8 |
| Drink added to a meal in the QCA | Matching-colour cup resting on the plate of a scoring meal | 6 | 8 |
| Crop-Tending Drone deployed | Drone at least partially across the line marked on top of the garden wall | 8 | 1 |
| Water Irrigation Valve released | Handle rotated so that at least one water ball left the irrigation pipe | 4 | 1 |
| Harvest vegetables | All vegetables removed from the flood tray, by button or by hand | 4 | 1 |
| Harvest fruit | All fruit picked off the vine | 4 | 1 |
| Harvest cold ingredients | All protein and dairy removed from the Cold Food Storage Fridge | 8 | 1 |
| Harvest grain | All grain removed from the Breadbox, including the slices on top | 8 | 1 |
Score a whole match
Set the counts and see where a strategy lands. Caps from the scoring table are enforced.
Meals the robot scores
Spotter and field tasks
What's on the field at the buzzer
Counts per designated area and across the whole field, from Table E.2.
| Game piece | Per area | Per field | Starting location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fruit — red balls with a velcro loop | 6 | 24 | Fruit vines and the floor in front of them |
| Vegetable — green disks | 6 | 24 | Vegetable flood tray |
| Dairy — yellow square slabs | 6 | 24 | Fridge, lower shelf, two stacks of three |
| Protein — brown round disks | 6 | 24 | Fridge, upper shelf, two stacks of three |
| Grain — white bread-shaped squares | 12 | 48 | Breadbox, with 2 slices on top |
| Water — blue tennis balls | 8 | 32 | Slanted rail above the garden area |
| Crop-Tending Drone | 1 | 4 | Above the water station, T-handle horizontal |
| Water Irrigation Valve | 1 | 4 | T-valve horizontal (closed) |
| Plates — grey, team-coloured PVC stem | 8 | 32 | Dish Starting Area, two rows of four |
| Cups — 18 oz grey tumblers, team-coloured tape inside | 8 | 32 | Upright in a row of 8 along the field boundary |
Ingredients are 3-D printed, each with a centre hole sized for the plate stem. Plates are grey 10.5″ plastic plates with a PVC stem, fittings and glue; cups are 18-ounce grey plastic tumblers. Ingredient colour has nothing to do with ownership — any robot may collect any ingredient. Plates, cups, drones and irrigation valves are the only team-owned pieces.
The two students on the floor
One driver, one spotter, and a rulebook that spends more words on their interaction than on almost anything else.
Driver
Only one student per match may operate the V5 Controller. Adult coaches and teachers are not allowed in the driver or spotter area during matches, and students may not stand on platforms of their own construction — or on each other — to get a better view. Hubs can make provisions for special-needs drivers case by case.
At registration each team receives up to eight wristbands numbered 1 to 8. Coaches fill out a driver roster on competition day naming which student wears which number, and the bands are not transferable.
Driver 1 drives match one, driver 2 drives match two, and so on until the numbers run out and the rotation restarts at 1. If a student can't compete in a round their number is skipped and they rejoin in their numbered position later. The rotation carries across phases — seeding into semi-finals into finals — picking up where the last phase left off. If organisers cancel a match, the driver scheduled for it drives the next one.
Spotter
Any student on the team may spot; there is no rotation. The spotter moves freely inside the spotter box and has access to the Robot Start Area.
Before the robot leaves the RSA for the first time, the spotter may touch the robot to fix power, software or radio problems. The permitted actions are exactly four:
- Plug or unplug the VEX V5 battery
- Turn the V5 brain off or on
- Plug or unplug the V5 radio
- Use the brain's touch screen to change software settings or the running program
After that first exit, the spotter may not touch the robot at all. Specifically, they may not move parts or reposition components to help unload game pieces.
| Students present at the competition | Minimum in rotation | Maximum in rotation |
|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 to 6 | 2 | 6 |
| 7 to 8 | 3 | 8 |
| 9 or more | 4 | 8 |
During a match, drivers and spotters may not communicate with anyone through electronic devices or any signalling aid that isn't part of the human body — no signs, sticks or marked gloves. Earbuds are banned on the game floor unless a medical need has been cleared in advance with the head referee, team advocate, pit boss or hub personnel. Spotters and drivers may not handle game pieces before a match.
Match protocol
What happens in the two minutes before the buzzer and the minute after it.
Before
- At least five referees work each match: the head referee keeps time, four watch one team each.
- Teams learn their field and position assignment at least two minutes before the match and must be in staging by the end of the previous match.
- Wait in staging until the setup period is signalled, then place the robot in the assigned start position.
- You may set the robot down and power it on once you reach your quadrant. The spotter or driver may enter the field to place and prepare it; extra team members may help but must leave before the start.
- Temporary alignment marks on the field are not permitted.
- Miss the setup deadline and the head referee may let you keep placing it, with a 20-second penalty applied at the start of the match.
After
- The driver and spotter stay in their designated areas until referees finish scoring and say robots may be removed.
- The referee reviews the scored items with the driver, who signs the scorecard to confirm agreement.
- A team-provided translator — an adult or a team member — may join that conversation.
- Referees have ultimate authority and no protests are allowed. Questions go to a Team Advocate, never to referees, scorekeepers or other officials.
A referee may untangle machines caught on the field or each other for more than 10 seconds, or where the entanglement looks likely to damage the field, and may tell a driver to stop trying to free their machine. Being high-centred on a field element or a game piece is not entanglement. Neither is being tipped over.
Four phases of Game Day
The same structure at hubs and at championships.
Where the game rules don't name a tiebreaker, the default order is: robot performance game score, then engineering notebook score, then digital marketing video score.
Match scheduling tries to give every team a turn on each quadrant and to limit back-to-back matches. Any schedule change has to be communicated to the teams.
Who plays where, match by match
Seeding pairings are drawn by the scoring software, but every match after that runs on a fixed rotation published in the rulebook. Find your seed and you know your quadrant before you arrive.
| Match | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seed 4 | Seed 6 | Seed 3 | Seed 2 |
| 2 | Seed 7 | Seed 1 | Seed 5 | Seed 8 |
| 3 | Seed 3 | Seed 7 | Seed 8 | Seed 4 |
| 4 | Seed 6 | Seed 5 | Seed 2 | Seed 1 |
| 5 | Seed 5 | Seed 3 | Seed 4 | Seed 7 |
| 6 | Seed 8 | Seed 2 | Seed 1 | Seed 6 |
| Match | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SF 1 | SF 2 | SF 3 | SF 4 |
| 2 | SF 4 | SF 3 | SF 2 | SF 1 |
| 3 | SF 3 | SF 1 | SF 4 | SF 2 |
| 4 | SF 2 | SF 4 | SF 1 | SF 3 |
In the finals, “SF n” means the team that finished nth in the semi-final phase. Each of the four teams plays every quadrant exactly once.
| Match | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seed 4 | Seed 13 | Seed 1 | Seed 16 |
| 2 | Seed 5 | Seed 10 | Seed 3 | Seed 15 |
| 3 | Seed 6 | Seed 9 | Seed 8 | Seed 11 |
| 4 | Seed 16 | Seed 4 | Seed 2 | Seed 14 |
| 5 | Seed 8 | Seed 5 | Seed 6 | Seed 12 |
| 6 | Seed 7 | Seed 11 | Seed 9 | Seed 10 |
| 7 | Seed 3 | Seed 14 | Seed 13 | Seed 2 |
| 8 | Seed 10 | Seed 12 | Seed 5 | Seed 1 |
| 9 | Seed 15 | Seed 6 | Seed 16 | Seed 7 |
| 10 | Seed 14 | Seed 8 | Seed 11 | Seed 13 |
| 11 | Seed 1 | Seed 7 | Seed 4 | Seed 3 |
| 12 | Seed 2 | Seed 15 | Seed 12 | Seed 9 |
Resetting the field between matches
Worth knowing because it tells you exactly what "start of match" looks like.
Garden stations
- Vegetable tray: slide the button/row stop to line the stops up with the slots, then reload the disks into the frame.
- Fruit vines: four fruit rehung at the marked spots, two placed on the tape below the station.
- Fridge: dairy restacked on the bottom shelf in two stacks of three, protein on the top shelf in two stacks of three, door closed.
- Breadbox: grain restacked with the flat edge of the slice toward the front, two slices on top, handle closed.
- Water station: dispenser emptied, valve back to horizontal, 8 blue tennis balls loaded into the track above the fruit vines.
- Drone: returned to the side above the water dispenser, rope and handle reset to horizontal.
Scoring areas and dishware
- Dining room: tables cleared so the fiducials are visible, fiducials checked for damage, tables checked for position.
- Warming shelves: meals removed.
- Balance buffet: meals removed, buffet set to neutral.
- Dishware: collected from the field and sorted back by colour. Plates in two rows of four, not overlapping, not past the outer edge of the taped area. Cups upright in a single row of eight along the field boundary, bases touching the tape line.
Penalties and disqualifications
Two consequences exist. Filter by which one you're worried about.
Disqualification
No points are awarded for that match and the match cannot be re-run. Referees will DQ a team for a major breach of the rules, and their decisions are final.
20-second penalty
The driver hands the V5 Controller to a referee for 20 seconds, then gets it back and play continues. Assessed once per occurrence — repeat the infraction and you pay again.
Not every mistake is a penalty. Under rule 3.6.2.A, any game piece that touches the floor outside the field boundary — or that is placed in, or falls into, the spotter box — is simply considered out of play and is removed by the referee. It costs you no points and no time, but that piece is gone for the rest of the match. The one exception is the game pieces, completed meals and drinks the spotter deliberately places into the Quality Check Area, which stay in play for scoring.
Playing alongside three other robots
The point of the design is that four machines share limited game pieces and limited scoring spots. These rules keep that competitive rather than destructive.
Strategies aimed purely at destruction, damage, over-turning or entangling an opponent's machine are outside the spirit of the competition and are not allowed. Turning an opponent over may or may not draw a penalty, at the referees' discretion.
Machines must operate by reacting only against the surfaces of the playing field — including PVC pipes and ramps — and the air. Clamping to anything in the field is allowed; clamping to another machine is not.
Gaining traction or gripping game pieces with adhesives, or by abrading or breaking the field surface, is not allowed. The friction tape from the consumable kit is not treated as an adhesive and is specifically intended for gripping. Spiked wheels are legal only if the part touching the field is more than ¼″ in width or depth.
Detachable components
A component counts as detached once no kit part connects it, directly or indirectly, to the set of parts that includes the battery. Detached parts may be used to capture, contain or manipulate game pieces, and to block another machine.
They may not be launched at, deliberately attached to, or used to entangle another machine. Incidental contact between a machine and a deployed detachable part earns nobody a penalty, and detached components don't count as "part of the machine" unless a rule says so.
Projectiles
Anything launched through the air, free-flying or tethered, must have a frontal area greater than 10 square inches. Parts that fall off and stay on the playing surface are not projectiles.
Safety
Not negotiable, and enforced in the pit as well as on the field.
Tools in the pit
No power tools, including battery-operated ones, with two exceptions: a power drill/driver and an electrically powered soldering iron or gun. Common hand tools are fine.
The drill/driver may be used for drilling and for inserting or removing hardware — not for grinding, sawing or routing. Allowed power tools may only be run in the pit area or a hub-designated workstation. Illegal tools may be confiscated for the day.
Your pit space
- Each team gets its own workspace in the pit. If the hub doesn't provide a table, you may bring one with a surface area no greater than 2,400 square inches.
- One electrical plug per team for battery charging. Exact specifications and location vary by hub.
- You may bring a toolbox of basic hand tools, subject to the safety constraints above.
- Break a part you can't repair with what you have, and the sponsoring BEST organisation will make its best effort to help you replace it from local shops or spare material.
- At least one Practice Day or Mall Day runs before Game Day. Tables and electricity are shared, teams bring their own tools, and the same safety rules apply.
On the machine and around it
- Batteries, chargers and other BEST Control System Kit components may not be tampered with or altered in any way.
- Anyone working on the machine in the pit wears safety gear appropriate to the task — safety glasses for soldering or drilling, for instance.
- Referees and compliance officials will disqualify any machine that looks like a hazard to the field, other robots or people. The robot itself should be safe to handle.
- Everyone on the gym floor wears shoes appropriate to the surface, as determined by the sponsoring BEST organisation.
Definitions that decide calls
Section 3.2.1. Worth reading before you argue with a referee — which, incidentally, you may not do.
Resting on
Touching such that the entire weight of the object is supported by what it rests on.
Inside
Within the imaginary infinite planes defined by the innermost sides of a container or area, or the outer edge of a tape line. Planes run normal to the bottom of the area.
Covered
The object cannot be seen without moving something else.
Control
Pulling, dragging, lifting or carrying a game piece. Pushing it does not count as control.
Hands-free
The V5 Controller is not in the driver's hands and the driver has no remote control of the robot.
Remote control
The driver has manual control of the robot via the V5 Controller. The opposite of hands-free — and the state the dining room forbids.
Designated
The field structure closest to a coloured Robot Start Area is owned by that team.
Drive / climb on
The robot is using part of the field structure to gain leverage or advantageous positioning.
Field structure
Any physical part of the field built to stabilise the field, the game elements or the border.
Balance
Identifiers on the balance buffets mark the range that counts as "in balance".
Hard limits
Four numbers that get checked before you're allowed to compete.
Once the match begins the machine may unfold and change size under its own power, and there is no size requirement at the end — it doesn't have to fold back up.
Where energy may come from
Four sources, and nothing else.
The battery
Electrical energy from the single onboard BEST-supplied battery pack. It is the only allowed source of electrical power for every functional component.
Springs
Energy stored by deforming springs from the kit, or springs made under the Team Custom Part rules.
Gravity
A change in the altitude of the centre of gravity of any part of the machine.
Stretch
Inner tube, rubber bands, shock cord or a TCP — provided the part is attached so it won't fly off if it breaks.
Connect the battery to the brain only through the supplied V5 Power Cable, and only to the battery connector. A locking tab holds it in place and must be depressed before removing the cable or the V5 brain may be damaged. On Game Day you must play every match on the BEST-supplied 12.8 V batteries; team-owned batteries and team-owned chargers for them are banned from the field and pit that day, though they're allowed at other BEST activities. Replacement batteries are issued only on proof of failure, on an exchange basis.
What you may and may not modify
The returnable kit goes back to the hub at the end of the season in the condition you received it. The consumable kit is yours to cut up.
Returnable kit — hands off
- No modification, with three exceptions: belt stock may be cut and punched (the pre-made loop belt may not), servo horns may be modified as desired, and the BEST IR Sensor Kit may be assembled.
- Motors and servos may never be opened — no re-gearing, no re-winding.
- Pulleys, bearings and the shoulder screw may not be modified, glued or taped.
- No tape, adhesive or glue on any returnable item unless a rule specifically allows it. The adhesive side of the hook-and-loop fastener may not go on the battery or any returnable item.
- No paint on any returnable item.
- The V5 Controller, servos, brain, AI Vision Sensor, batteries and chargers may not be tampered with, modified or adjusted. Only exception: the brain and AI sensor may be programmed freely.
- No labels or rubber bands on the V5 Controller.
- No soldering to the brain or to any interfacing cable.
- Residue-free painters tape from the consumable kit may go on returnable items — except the V5 Controller.
All VEX licensed products — brain, battery, AI sensor and the rest — must be secured to the robot with #8-32 machine screws. A different thread count can damage the part. Lengths may vary.
Consumable kit — go ahead
- Modify as you like within these rules.
- Replacements you buy yourself must match the kit part's material, treatment or grade, and dimensions. A 1×4 can't become a 2×4 of the same volume.
- Only the provided wire, snap-plug terminals and optional quick-disconnect terminals may conduct electricity — plus solder at the connections. The one exception: any provided metallic material may be part of a sensor circuit.
- Team-supplied pennies may not be altered.
- No packaging materials, such as the film covering the adhesive on a hook-and-loop strip.
- Thread locker may be used on consumable kit fasteners.
Limited replacements may be available from your hub on a justified request.
Fabrication rules
What you can do to material, and what crosses the line.
Allowed
- Any tools or machines may be used to make parts — but students are expected to be taught to use them and to be the ones operating them.
- Metal, rubber and plastic may be heated and reformed.
- Lubricants, for lubrication only. Contaminating the field or an opponent with lubricant is not allowed.
- Solder your own wire connections, except where connectors are provided — those must be used without soldering to the connector. Solder is fine on consumable-kit bullet or quick-disconnect connectors.
- Strings and the outer sheath of shock cord may be singed to stop fraying.
- Markers, paint and printouts for visual information that doesn't help perform game tasks — labelling parts, taping a copy of the V5 port schematic to the machine.
Not allowed
- No welding, brazing or structural soldering.
- Metal, rubber and plastic may not be melted and re-cast.
- Materials may not be changed chemically (Team Custom Parts are exempt from this one).
- Nothing built before kickoff, and no parts reused from previous competitions. BEST personnel may permanently mark parts — scribing, drilling — to prevent reuse.
- Paint or finish may not change the mechanical properties of what it's applied to. Its optical properties — colour and reflectivity — may be used functionally.
- No strobe lights. Other lights are fine.
Decorations and cameras
Non-functional decorations are permitted only if they don't help the machine perform game tasks. The test: if you can remove it or cover it and the machine behaves the same, it's non-functional — and you may be asked to prove it. Decorations may use a separate power source such as a 9 V battery.
Video capture devices like a GoPro or phone are allowed under the decoration rules plus: display no larger than 6″ diagonal, screen off or covered, no transmitting or streaming, non-kit mounting hardware counts as part of the device, and BEST officials may ask for it to be removed at any time for any reason. Protect it yourself — BEST isn't responsible for damage.
Team Custom Parts
- Four allowed, each fitting a 2″ × 4″ × 4″ cuboid.
- Any uniform, homogeneous team-supplied material. Surface treatment on metals or magnets is fine — anodising on aluminium, nickel coating on a neodymium magnet.
- Each part must be a single continuous piece of material in its operational state.
- Start from basic raw stock: rectangular or cylindrical, if the final part keeps any of that original shape. Starting shape is irrelevant if the material was liquid during forming, or if the part is carved entirely from a solid block.
- No kit parts inserted or embedded in a TCP. Kit screws or zip ties to attach it are fine.
- No hazardous materials, no welding. Chemical change is allowed here.
Compliance
Every machine is inspected before the competition, and may be re-inspected at any point during it.
- Random re-checks happen through the day at the referees' discretion. A non-compliant machine can't continue until it's fixed, and may be disqualified from matches it already played.
- Machines may not leave the competition site between the compliance check and the start of the competition without approval.
- Machines may be modified between matches, but must still meet every regulation afterwards and the compliance official must approve the changes before the next match.
- No substitute machines.
- Teams advancing to a championship may repair and functionally improve their machine, then get re-checked before that competition.
Multiple configurations
A machine may have several configurations — swappable arms, for instance. Each configuration must independently meet the size and weight limits and pass a compliance check.
The catch: the sum of all parts across all configurations can't exceed the quantities on the returnable and consumable kit lists, and the robot still can't exceed 24 pounds.
Every student on the Game Day roster must complete the Student Participation Survey — verified at the compliance check — and every team member including teachers and mentors must be registered individually in the BEST National Registry. A compliant engineering notebook must be submitted a week before the competition. Pass compliance and you're guaranteed at least 25 robot performance points; fail and you get 0 and are ineligible for robot awards or advancement.
The compliance checklist, item by item
This is the sheet an inspector actually works through, from Appendix A. Several lines on it are not stated anywhere in the written rules — run your own robot against it before Game Day.
General
- Weight less than 24 lb, with battery and detachable parts
- Size less than a 24″ cube, unconstrained; it may be powered during the check
- Team number visible
- Multiple configurations — each one is checked separately
Control system
V5 Controller: no labels, no rubber bands, no tape of any kind.
V5 Robot Brain: mounted; no solder (use returnable-kit cables); on/off switch must be accessible; battery secured in a holder or mount.
General parts check
- No paint, adhesives or tape on returnable parts — painters tape is the one exception, and never on the V5 Controller
- No modified returnable parts, except servo horns and the 3′ belt
- Only allowable parts, materials and quantities — kit lists plus Section 1.3.2.3
- Detachable parts are weighed and measured with the robot
- All sharp points and edges under the robot are covered with tape so it is safe to handle
Team Custom Parts — 4 allowed
- Each part could fit within a 2″ × 4″ × 4″ cuboid
- Each part is made from a uniform material
- Raw stock shape is rectangular or cylindrical, where that applies
At check-in an inspector determines four things for your TCPs: number of parts, size, uniform material, and stock shape.
The brain's on/off switch has to stay accessible and the battery has to be secured in a holder or mount — neither appears in Section 1.3. Nor does the requirement that sharp points and edges underneath the robot be taped over, which is a handling-safety check rather than a design rule. And detachable parts are not free weight: they go on the scale and into the cube with the machine.
What counts as a legal Team Custom Part
Section 1.3.2.4 gives you nine lines. The Team Custom Part Inspection Guide in Appendix A gives you the reasoning and a set of worked examples — this is what the inspector is going by.
“Uniform” is judged by eye
The threshold is deliberately low: if it looks uniform to the naked eye, it counts as uniform. Fibre-reinforced plastic passes, because the micro fibres are not visible. Foam rubber passes — aeration does not make a material non-uniform. Two-part epoxy mixed, poured and set passes, because it becomes one material.
Composite materials do not pass. The example given is fibre and glue — carbon or glass fibre with epoxy. The one exception is a surface treatment on metal or a magnet: anodising, or the nickel coating on a neodymium magnet.
Each part may use a different material
Nothing requires your four parts to match. Magnets, silicone, expanded foam, granite and wood are all fair game alongside the usual plastic and metal.
How it may be made
- Carved from a solid block, or melted and reformed — so a 3-D printer is explicitly allowed for a plastic part
- Metal may be cast; melted plastic may be injected into a mould
- A machined “hog-out” from solid metal or plastic is fine
- Melting is allowed. Welding is not. Chemical change is allowed here, unlike everywhere else on the robot
- An existing CAD/STEP file may be used, student-created or publicly available — but coaches, teachers and mentors may not make those files for students, and the part itself must be fabricated during this season
Fitting the cuboid
You may be asked to take the part off the robot to measure it. A flexible part may be temporarily folded, coiled or knotted to fit for verification — it may flex, but it may not be reformed to meet the limit. “Single continuous piece” is strict: a normal hinge counts as three parts, and an item with thin ligaments that snap into several pieces in use is not allowed.
| Verdict | Part | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| No | A length of inner tube | Tubular, which is neither rectangular nor cylindrical stock |
| No | A piece of cloth | Made from many individual threads, so not a uniform material |
| No | Anything formed from glass | Glass is treated as a hazardous material |
| No | A purchased horse-shoe magnet | Neither rectangular nor cylindrical, and the team did not form it |
| Yes | A flat piece of rubber cut from an inner tube | Cut to a rectangular shape — a compliant start can be made from a non-compliant one |
| Yes | A length of monofilament fishing line | Cylindrical stock; being flexible is not a problem |
| Yes | Two-part epoxy mixed, poured and set | It becomes a uniform material |
| Yes | Foam rubber | Air cells do not make the material non-uniform |
| Yes | A magnet | Allowed, but must be rectangular or cylindrical if bought and used as is |
No kit part may be embedded in a TCP, for a practical reason: inspectors must be able to see every part to confirm it is legal, and embedding one hides it.
Other machine rules
- Machines must prominently display their team number, at least 2″ in size.
- During a match the machine may only be controlled through normal operation of the robot network. Touching the robot outside the game-specific exceptions means a penalty or disqualification.
- No external devices may be connected to the V5 Controller during match play unless BEST competition personnel provide them — an auxiliary power supply or a channel-shifting dongle, for example.
- Powered tandem devices are permitted and may use an umbilical between them. The umbilical is part of the machine and faces the same constraints.
- All hubs and regional championships use the VEX V5 system. No other control system is allowed.
- After the competition every returnable kit item goes back to the hub. The rest of the machine stays with the school.
Everything you get, and everything you'd have to buy
Three lists in one place. The machine may only be built from materials on these lists — quantity, type and grade — with the exceptions covered under fabrication rules.
Returnable kit
Given by the hub. Goes back at the end of the season, boxes and packing included, in the condition you got it.
Consumable kit
Given by the hub. Cut it, drill it, keep it. Replacements must match material, grade and dimensions.
Team-provided
Not supplied — buy or source these yourself if you want them. Optional, and used in addition to the kits.
All quantities listed are the maximum allowed for compliance. Hubs may put higher quantities in the annual kits, but teams must pass compliance using only the allowed limits. Teams are responsible for checking their kits against the lists — excess parts may not be used. Optional returnable-kit items may be bought by the team even if the hub doesn't supply them, and machine screws may be substituted with shorter screws of the same type in either zinc-plated steel or stainless.
Notes attached to the kit lists
Fine print from Appendix B that changes what's legal.
Returnable kit notes
- Only one battery may be on the robot at any given time.
- Battery chargers and the USB A-Micro cable cannot be used on the robot.
- Teams may use returnable kit optional items even if their hub doesn't supply them.
- Any shroud protecting the male pins must be removed so it can plug into components — applies to servos, sensors and the IR sensor.
- Standard servo: 40×20×36 mm, 44.4 oz-in, 0.23 sec/60° at 4.8 V, 25-tooth 6 mm spline, plastic gears, digital PWM.
- All DC motors must have at least 8 inches of tinned red/black lead, heat shrink over the solder junction, and wires zip-tied to the motor body.
- The battery power cable is typically 180 mm; a longer VEX V5 power cable may replace it if damaged or lost.
- Brain mounting flanges may be 3-D printed as replacements if damaged or lost — CAD models are on the VEX product page.
Team-provided notes
- These items are used in addition to what the hub supplies. Ask your hub about material availability first.
- PET or PETE containers are identified by a number 1 recycling symbol; 2 litre maximum.
- Pennies cannot be altered, though bank wrappers are allowed.
- Cardboard sheet: ¼″ maximum thickness, and not preformed.
- Wire management clips, ties and wraps may only be used on wiring.
- Team Custom Parts have their own rules — see the Team Custom Part Guide and the robot limits section.
The BEST Award is worth 1,000 points
Robot performance is a quarter of it. The rest is documentation, presentation and marketing — which is the point.
Every team must complete an engineering notebook and compete in the Robot Performance competition on Game Day. Everything else is optional — but failing either required component disqualifies you from the competition and from all other awards. To compete for the BEST Award specifically, all five components are required.
Engineering notebook · 300 points
Its purpose is to document the process you used to design, build and test the robot. It has to stand on its own — anything behind an external link isn't considered.
Minimum requirements for a compliant submission
- Title page identifying school, team name, teacher contact and team number
- Table of contents and page numbers
- Team overview and organisation chart
- 8½″ × 11″, double-spaced, 1″ margins, Times New Roman preferred or a similar business font no smaller than 12 pt. Single spacing is fine in tables and outlines
- Delivered electronically as a single PDF
A completed compliant notebook adds
- Headings, sub-headings and internal bookmarks to the appendix
- Minimal extraneous material — promotion, spirit, team building
- 35 pages or fewer in the main section; the title page and table of contents don't count
- An optional appendix of no more than 40 pages: drawings, photos, org charts, meeting minutes, test results. It must support the process described in the main document
| Section | Weight |
|---|---|
| Ask, Define and Plan | 50 |
| Research Paper | 40 |
| Hardware Create Process | 40 |
| Software Create Process | 40 |
| Overall Quality and Completeness | 35 |
| Support Documentation | 35 |
| Integration, Test and Revision | 25 |
| Safety | 25 |
| Simulink Modeling | 10 |
Within Overall Quality, 5 of the 35 points come simply from participating in your hub's CDR mentoring session — the hub checks that box.
Late and non-compliant
Up to 6 days late costs 10% of the notebook score. Seven days or later, or failing the minimum requirements, makes it non-compliant.
At the hub's discretion a non-compliant notebook means seeding phase only, no eligibility for awards or advancement, and possibly disqualification. Teams that don't submit a compliant notebook one week before the game competition are ineligible to compete at all.
Using AI
AI agents may not write the notebook, or large segments or entire sections of it. They may be used to research, provide references or supporting documentation, or to offer clues about approach and best practice.
AI use must be disclosed and referenced like any other non-student source. On references generally: leaning heavily on a single source is considered inferior to drawing on several. References support an argument — they aren't the work itself.
The three presentation components
In all three, judges play the client shopping for a robot, and your team plays the company that builds them.
Customer Marketing Presentation · 250
BEST Robotics has issued an RFP for a machine that solves the problems in the game. You're a vendor who responded.
4 to 8 students, each with an active role. 30-minute sign-up block; the meeting runs no more than 25 minutes including setup and breakdown. Judges may start asking questions after 10 minutes of uninterrupted presentation, and you can invite conversation earlier if you want.
Scored on Company Overview (75), Product Features (70), Clear Business Offer (50), Business Professionalism (55).
Poster Display and Interview · 100
A trifold poster promoting your team's business, your product and BEST Robotics, presented in person on Game Day.
1 to 3 students. Everything — easel, poster and presenters — must fit in a 48″ × 48″ space. The poster itself may be no larger than 36″ × 48″, supported by a provided 63″ foldable easel or 48″ of table. The interview runs no more than 15 minutes.
Scored on elevator speeches, robot features and operations, 3D isometric/CAD drawings or other artwork, product differentiation, and the company business plan.
Digital Marketing Video · 100
A written abstract of 150–300 words plus a video of 90–120 seconds, submitted as a PDF with an unlisted-but-viewable video link embedded, at least 7 days before Game Day.
All footage must be original student work, not stock. Logos for BEST Robotics, your team, hub, regional championship and sponsors go in the video, along with acknowledgements and credits. Make sure the link works outside your school's domain.
The abstract covers integration of school and workplace skills, advocacy, workforce development, and collaboration with other schools.
| Component | Section | Line items | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Marketing Presentation 250 points |
Company Overview | Organization 10 · mission statement 10 · brand promise 10 · marketing and sales strategies / market analysis 15 · public image 10 · budget 10 · company sustainability 10 | 75 |
| Product Features | Task knowledge 20 · meeting requirements 20 · differentiation 20 · visual aids 10 | 70 | |
| Clear Business Offer | Sales price 20 · aftermarket support 20 · formal offer 10 | 50 | |
| Business Professionalism | Mechanics 10 · endorsements 10 · professionalism 15 · creativity 20 | 55 | |
| Poster Display and Interview 100 points |
Elevator Speech | Speech 1, a self introduction and personal goals, about a minute, 30 · speech 2, a company introduction, objective and branding, 30 | 60 |
| Specifications and Differentiation | Robot feature and operation 10 · 3D isometric/CAD rendering or artwork 10 · product differentiation 10 · company business plan 10 | 40 | |
| Digital Marketing Video 100 points |
Written Abstract | School and workplace skills 10 · advocacy 10 · workforce development 10 · collaboration with other schools and teams 10 | 40 |
| The Video | Content and specifications 20 · branding 10 · creativity 15 · quality and technical detail 15 | 60 |
Every scoresheet also bands the total: for a 100-point component, Superlative is 90–100, Excellent 70–89, Meets 30–69 and Needs Revision 0–29. The notebook uses the same percentages on its 300-point scale — Superlative 270–300, Excellent 210–269, Meets 90–209, Needs Revision 0–89.
Appendix I shows three example layouts, captioned “concept, not the requirement” — so treat these as a menu rather than a checklist. Across the three, the panels used are: the problem being addressed and the game theme; robot specification, description and unique features; a 3D isometric CAD rendering or other artwork; an explanatory schematic; a simulation still; a prototype photo; product differentiation; a specification and trade matrix; statistical or raw data and a data collage; a prose paragraph; and the company business plan — broken out as cost (unit #1 versus #100), training (availability and price) and warranty (terms and cost).
Only students may participate, including setting up and taking down. The only materials you may give judges are a printed brochure and business cards — no gifts. Robots and models may be used in the Customer Marketing Presentation for demonstration. Teams provide their own equipment, and should bring the presentation on a USB drive as a backup. Check in 10 minutes before your slot. If a spectator coaches or disrupts a presentation, the lead judge evicts them immediately and the team isn't penalised.
How judging works
- Judges come from private and public sectors with technical and non-technical expertise, and serve on a rotation.
- Notebook judging teams have 2 to 4 scorers who read notebooks in their entirety, no more than 5 notebooks per team of judges.
- A component's score is the average of the individual judges' scores. Where a component has 3 or more judges, the hub may drop the lowest.
- Teams get a copy of their score sheets within 3 days of their local competition, and within 10 days of the last regional championship date.
- Scores among many teams frequently differ by fractions of a point.
- Teams advancing to a championship may use judges' comments to improve, subject to the championship's own deadlines.
Robot performance points are awarded by final rank in the seeding phase, from 1 down to N. Unique points are awarded at each ranking level, up to a maximum of 250. Pass compliance and you receive no fewer than 25.
The awards
Standard awards are required at every hub and regional championship. Choice awards are picked by the host.
BEST Award
First through third place to the teams completing every BEST Award component. Trophies and student medals.
Game Award
First through fourth place to the highest game-scoring teams.
Founders Award
Named for founders Steve Marum and Ted Mahler. For a competitive advantage or enhanced functionality from a unique or disruptive approach — hardware, software or both. Judges look for a genuinely different way of performing a game task that has merit, backed by a competitive score. Not about the paint job.
Most Robust
About being well built and functioning reliably. Judges watch for breakdowns, repairs needed, and the ability to recover from a difficult situation during play.
Most Photogenic Robot
For unique or creative parts that may not function well, thoughtful looks, clear display of the team number, and the best use of optional kit items.
Top Gun and Spotter
To the driver and spotter behind the highest robot performance score recorded during the seeding rounds.
Blood, Sweat and Duct Tape
For perseverance through the seeding rounds — repairs, modifications and changed strategies to keep the robot performing.
Sportsmanship
For helping other teams, respecting team members, adults and referees, fair and ethical play, and grace when things go wrong.
Fan Favourite Video
Voted from the digital marketing videos shared publicly during regional championship game days.
Simulink Design Award
One team per regional championship, selected by a judging panel with national sponsor Simulink, for a MATLAB software design entry.
Prusa 3-D Challenge
One team per regional championship, selected with award sponsor Prusa for a 3-D design entry.
Choice skills challenges
Highly recommended optional categories: Engineering/CAD Drawings, Website Design, and T-Shirt Design.
National-level award winners receive nationally recognised trophies, student medals and/or 7″×9″ plaques. Choice award winners receive a 5″×7″ plaque or a framed certificate. Hubs offering choice awards must publish an Awards and Judging Logistics document in the National Registry before kickoff.
Using the BEST brand
Teams aren't required to build a website or design shirts, but if you do:
- Include the BEST Robotics national logo on all digital and printed materials.
- A team website's homepage should carry the national logo and a link to the national site, plus student storytelling and testimonials from a community leader — video, or quotes with pictures.
- T-shirts should carry the national logo, set apart from other sponsors or positioned above them.
- Social posts about outreach should use #BESTRobotics and tag @BESTRobotics.
Getting to a championship
BEST Robotics decides which championship each hub feeds. The championship decides how many teams that hub may send, and how many of them are eligible for the BEST Award there — announced no later than two days before the hub's game day.
Teams advance in one of three categories: as a BEST Award team, as a Robot Performance team, or as a Rookie Bowl team where the championship chooses to run one. A hub may send fewer teams than allotted but must tell the championship immediately.
Order of advancement
Alternating down the two rankings, skipping any team that has already advanced.
- BEST Award 1st place
- Robot Performance 1st place
- BEST Award 2nd place
- Robot Performance 2nd place
- BEST Award 3rd place
- Robot Performance 3rd place
- BEST Award 4th place
- Robot Performance 4th place
- BEST Award 5th, 6th, 7th, and onward
Working the list
- List your hub's teams in the rank order above.
- Move each team to the advancing list unless it's already there, keeping its finishing place attached.
- Trim the advancing list to the number of slots the championship allotted.
- From the top of that final list, mark the highest-ranking BEST Award winners equal to the number of BEST Award slots. Those teams compete for the BEST Award.
Everyone else competes at the championship but doesn't enter the Poster Display and Interview, Customer Marketing Presentation or Digital Marketing Video categories. Robot Performance teams advance on the total of their highest engineering notebook score and highest game score totals.
The Rookie Bowl
A separate competition for first- and second-year teams that wouldn't otherwise reach a championship. Held only at the championship's discretion.
A rookie team is a first- or second-year team that either hasn't competed in BEST before, or hasn't done so in any of the past four consecutive years. Each hub may advance one rookie team that doesn't otherwise qualify.
Rookie teams compete their robot only, against other rookie teams, in a format similar to the game-only portion of the BEST or UIL competition. The number of rounds is up to the championship.
What the champion wins
A single Rookie Bowl Champion is named on cumulative points across the rounds — the championship may count all rounds or drop some. The award itself is at their discretion.
The champion may then be advanced into the seeding rounds of the main championship robot competition and competes there on equal terms. Rookie Bowl participants and the champion aren't eligible for the BEST or UIL awards, since they didn't compete in the other categories.
Texas UIL teams
Any approved UIL team must compete in all BEST Award components at the hub, and advances to a championship based only on their BEST Award scores. UIL teams are ranked by division at both the hub and the championship: small school (1A–2A), medium school (3A–4A), large school (5A–6A), and unified school. Points accumulated determine the rank within the division for both the Robot Performance competition and the BEST Award, and the number of teams advancing from each division may differ.
What changed in v3.2
Released 2 September 2026, on top of the initial team release in August.
| Revision | Date | Impact | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.2 | 2 Sep 2026 | High | Better definition of 3.7.1.e.c; 1.3.2.4 now references the correct appendix section; returnable and consumable kit lists updated to include the IGUS parts shipped to hubs |
| 3.1 | 26 Aug 2026 | High | Changes to general rules for driver and spotter interactions, and to penalties |
| 3.0 | Aug 2026 | High | Initial release to teams; Head-to-Head renamed Robot Performance; BEST Award elements revised; standard and choice awards revised; scoresheets revised |
| 2.0 | Jul 2026 | High | Revisions, images, formatting |
| 1.0 | Apr 2026 | High | Initial release |
Where the rulebook leaves room
Fourteen places in v3.2 where two sections disagree, a rule carries no stated consequence, or a literal reading buys you something. Every one is quoted with its section number so you can check it yourself.
These are readings of the text, not decisions. Referees have ultimate authority and no protests are allowed (1.4.1.A), so nothing here is worth arguing on Game Day. The place to settle any of it is the Q&A at game.bestrobotics.org/qna during the eight-week build. Posted answers are an extension of the rules and go out to every team — and where an answer and the rules contradict each other, the rules still win. An answer can also trigger a rule revision, published within three days.
The list
Filter by kind, or search for a section number.
Asking a question that actually gets answered
The Q&A is the only sanctioned way to close any of these, and it runs during the build phase only — not on Game Day.
Read first
The rulebook's own advice is blunt: most questions are answered by reading the rules thoroughly. A question that quotes the section it is about, and says which two readings are in play, is far more likely to get a usable answer than “can we do X?”
Quote the conflict
Where two sections disagree, name both. “3.3.1.3.B says or, 3.6.2.I says and — which governs?” is a question the committee can answer in one line. It also tells them a revision may be needed.
Design for the strict reading
Until an answer is posted, build for whichever interpretation is harsher. A robot that scores under the strict reading also scores under the generous one; the reverse is how teams lose points at a compliance check or a scorecard signature.
Each item below was found by reading v3.2 end to end against itself — Section 1 against Section 3, the prose against Scoring Table 3.7, and both against Appendices D and E. Several cluster around driver and spotter interaction, which is unsurprising: that is precisely what v3.1 changed and what v3.2 went back to redefine in 3.7.1.e.c.
How much of this should you trust?
This page was built by reading the official rulebook end to end and checking every number on it against the source. That process has limits, and they are worth knowing before you rely on any of it.
What was checked mechanically
Not read-and-nodded — compared value by value against the rulebook, and cross-checked between the places each fact appears on this page.
| What | Against | Items |
|---|---|---|
| Every scoring value and cap | Scoring Table 3.7 | 19 rows |
| Point values cross-checked between the prose, the 3D station data, the summary table, the meal builder and the match calculator | each other | 42 values |
| Game piece counts and starting locations | Table E.2 | 10 rows |
| Kit line items, quantities, sources and part numbers | Appendix B | 142 items |
| Penalties and disqualifications | 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 1.4.4 | 31 rules |
| Field position rotations | Tables 1.4.6.3.a, 1.4.6.3.b, 1.4.6.4 | 22 rows |
| Notebook, presentation, poster and video scoring weights | Appendix F scoresheets | 17 weights |
| Quoted passages in Open Questions | the rulebook text | 28 quotes |
| Meal classification logic in the builder | 3.7.1.E and Appendix D | 12 cases |
Where this page and the rulebook disagreed, the rulebook won and this page was changed. Four errors in its own scoring logic and wording were found that way, along with a longer list of things it had simply left out.
What was not verified
Four honest gaps. None of them is hidden anywhere else on this site.
The field drawings were never opened
The rulebook repeatedly defers to a separate document, the Byte to Bite Field Drawings, for exact sizes, fiducial placement and fiducial ID values. That document was not consulted in building this page.
So treat every dimension here as indicative. If you are machining to a measurement, get it from the drawings.
Only 2 of 18 figures were examined
The rulebook carries 18 numbered figures. Two were opened and read: the field overview and the dining room. The station drawings — vegetable tray, fruit vines, fridge, breadbox, water station, drone, warming shelf, balance buffet, dish starting area — were not.
Anything shown only in a drawing, and never written in the prose, will be missing from this page.
The kit lists were read by eye
Appendix B is four image-only pages, so the 142 line items were transcribed by reading the rendered pages rather than extracting text. Group totals were confirmed against the source — 38 returnable, 82 consumable, 22 team-provided — and items were spot-checked.
But no character-by-character comparison was possible. Check a part number against the real kit list before you order anything.
Open Questions are readings, not rulings
The 14 items on that tab are interpretations of ambiguous text. They are quoted and cited so you can judge them, but several could be resolved the other way by a referee or a Q&A answer — in which case the answer governs and this page is wrong.
Do not build a strategy on one without asking the Q&A first.
The thirteen pages with no text layer
Worth explaining, because it caused the one real gap in this guide.
Thirteen of the rulebook's 89 pages are scanned images rather than text: pages 36, 53–62, 65 and 89. Automated checking cannot see them at all. Early drafts of this page were checked against extracted text, so those pages reported clean while actually being invisible — and the whole of Appendix A, the compliance checklist and the Team Custom Part inspection guide, was simply missing from this site.
All thirteen have since been opened and read as images. Appendix A is now in Robot Limits and Appendix I in Awards & Judging. It is flagged here because it is exactly the kind of gap that a confident-looking verification process can hide.
Every claim carries its section number. Open the rulebook to that section and read it — that is faster than trusting anyone's summary, this one included. For anything in an appendix, look at the page rather than searching the PDF, because search will not find text that is part of an image.
What this page does not replace
Five documents this guide summarises, references or simply does not contain.
The rulebook itself
2026 BEST Robotics Classic Competition Rules v3.2. The authority for everything here. Later revisions supersede both it and this page.
Byte to Bite Field Drawings
Exact dimensions, fiducial sizes, placements and ID values. Not summarised here at all.
The Team Custom Part Guide
A separate document with fuller explanation and examples. Appendix A's inspection guide is summarised here; the standalone guide is not.
Your hub's Awards and Judging Logistics
Published in the National Registry. It sets your judging criteria, deadlines, formats and which choice awards are offered. Nothing here substitutes for it.
The online Q&A
Answers at game.bestrobotics.org/qna are an extension of the rules and go to every team. They can change what is correct after this page was written.
A referee
On Game Day, referees have ultimate authority and no protests are allowed (1.4.1.A). Questions go to a Team Advocate, never to a referee or scorekeeper.
The referee's call on the day, then the rulebook and any posted Q&A answers, then your hub's own documents — and this page a long way after all of them. It is a study aid written by readers of the rulebook, not by BEST Robotics, and it has no standing in a match.