Screaming fans, loud music and noisy drums echoed through the Student Activities Center Saturday for the annual War Eagle BEST competition.
Middle school and high school students from across Alabama traveled to Auburn to compete in an intense robotics competition.
Twenty-four teams participated in the event, which lasted nearly seven hours.
Robby Ingenloff, a freshman at East Memorial Christian Academy, said this was his first BEST competition. Ingenloff was the spotter for the team and gave directions to the driver operating the robot.
Ingenloff said BEST is offered as a class for all students at East Memorial Christian, and the team meets every day to work on the robot.
"It only took two days to build our robot, but it ended up taking a few months because we had to do changes," Ingenloff said.
The preliminary round of the competition began at 11 a.m. and lasted until 3:30 p.m.
During this round, teams competed in a series of three-minute, round-robin matches.
The robots moved inflatable globes, tennis balls , aluminum cans and raquet balls to designated areas in order to earn points.
Competitors were given a chance to make changes to their robots after each match. They were provided a tool kit and set of game rules by which to follow.
The semi-finals and the championship rounds followed the preliminary round.
At approximately 5 p.m., awards were presented to Lee-Scott Academy that came in first place, Stanhope Elmore High School in second, Auburn High School in third and Episcopal Day School in fourth. Teams that placed in the top four were the robotics game winners for the day.
The BEST Award was presented to the team which best embodied the concept of Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.
Wetumpka High School, Episcopal Day School and Stanhope Elmore High were awarded the BEST awards.
A variety of other awards were presented including Best Spirit and Sportsmanship and Best Table Display and Interview.
Jordan Hollis, a sophomore at Auburn Montgomery, attended the competition.
Hollis said he is the alumni mentor for Stanhope Elmore High School, and he was part of the BEST club at Stanhope Elmore when he attended school there.
He said he gives ideas and hints to the students from previous experience. Hollis said he enjoys helping out and loves seeing the kids excited about the competitions.
"Seeing the creativity each year and the new robots is really fun," Hollis said.
War Eagle BEST is one of 39 BEST Robotics Competitions in the U.S. It is held annually on Auburn University's campus.
Auburn signed up as a hub, or a local competition site, in 2001.
BEST is a non-profit organization based in Dallas.
Its mission is to "inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology through participation in a sports-like science and engineering-based robotics competition."
According to BEST's official Web site, more than 750 middle and high schools and more than 11,000 students participate in the competitions.
Katy Prince, a senior in biomedical sciences at Auburn, volunteered at the War Eagle BEST competition. She said she enjoyed the competition because of the loud environment.
"It's fun because everybody's excited," Prince said. "The schools bring bands and do cheers and it's just a great experience for the kids."
Wetumpka High School, Episcopal Day School, Stanhope Elmore High School, Lee-Scott High School and Auburn High School will return again in December for the South's BEST Championship, also held on Auburn's campus.
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