Inspired by the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster,[1] the award was announced on July 29, 2010, and the official one-year competition began on August 1, 2010.

Of the over 350 teams that preregistered to participate in the challenge by January 2011, 37 officially registered the following month.

By the time of the official testing in May 2011, the field of challengers had been narrowed to ten teams.

The first-place finisher and winner of the $1 million prize was the team of Elastec/American Marine using a forward advancing grooved disc skimmer.

No other team met all of the challenge's goals, so the planned third place prize was not awarded.