The end of robot combat in the US?

[psychostorm]

Personally my money's on a change in personal circumstances.

[grant_ploughbot]

I wish we could buy the arena and run HW full combat Gary. It costs us thousands to put the event on at Gadget Show Live, and our budgets couldn't stretch to buying a HW arena, shipping it over and running it! Must take a fair few lorries to haul it around....

[razerdave]

I saw a picture of it in it's transit state, takes up an artic lorry (18 wheeler type) just for the arena, never mind any PA or sound equip.

[Ellis]

Real shame. Pretty big blow to things, Robogames/Combots being the big-gun events in this sport. Hopefully something can slot into their place. The arena can't just disappear, unless scrapped for parts, so there's a shimmer of hope that it'll resurface in time.

[teamstorm]

Definitive answer, simply taking too much time and money, not seeing a return - I heard about this a few weeks ago, but was only just announced.

The arena takes considerable time to build btw, it takes days (literally) to set the thing up, it's a by-product of the robots that fight in them (full on heavy spinners), because we have taken a step back from all-out combat the shows are more frequent, meaning more revenue and the arenas lighter-weight so less venue/crew costs in setting them up and taking them down. One reason that we did that with XFM was around ensuring we can run frequent profitable shows.

Sadly that's not what a one-off event once a year like RoboGames had become and it was taking it's toll.

I can assure people it's not Plotniki doing anything, and it will certainly be interesting to see if anything fills the void, it's like Robots Live and Robot Roaming Wars both giving up at the same time......

Very sad for our US friends

Ed

[leorcc]

The arena takes considerable time to build btw, it takes days (literally) to set the thing up, it's a by-product of the robots that fight in them (full on heavy spinners)

That is exactly why we don't have many DRG heavyweight events in Europe either, the cost of setup alone is higher than whatever we get back from it. Our arena is 2 lorries full of material and takes days with the aid of a forklift to be put in place.

Very sad for our US friends

Ed

Very sad indeed, and I want to thank the RoboGames organisation for doing an excellent job for all those years. Their events have given us much entertainment over the years with many awesome and brutal fights.

[typhoon_driver]

Feathers are the future of this hobby

[PJ-27]

Feathers are the future of this hobby

Here you there. What ever happened to BWs?

[typhoon_driver]

No arena and the initial interest seems to have died off

[razerdave]

If Kenny had bought the arena to events then the interest would have maintained and grown. I dare say Ants have become more popular since my arena was a regular feature.

I do agree with Gary that feathers are the future

A quick question about HW spinner arenas; what ever happed to 'The Vault' ? Only arena I have heard of in the UK that could demo Typhoon and Hypno disc..