The contest was organized by Dr. Scott Craver of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Binghamton University (New York State). The contest was initially inspired by Daniel Horn's Obfuscated V contest in the fall of 2004. For the 2005 to 2008 contests, the prize was a $100 gift certificate to ThinkGeek. The 2009 contest had its prize increased to $200 due to the very late announcement of winners, and the prize for the 2013 contest is also a $200 gift certificate.