Barróg - Featherweight Lifter Build Diary

[Shooty]

FIGHT 5: TOP 20

My opponent for this round was DB12, a compact vertical spinner that had landed some pretty nasty hits earlier in the competition. This would be my first proper 1v1 against a spinner, and I was excited to see how it would go.



Some observations from this fight:

• The plastic wedges were certainly effective at the start, but as time wore on they could only really get underneath DB12's rear. Still though, I do prefer them over the previous metal wedge, as with these pieces you would need multiple well placed hits to render them all ineffective.
• The other thing I start to notice is that while I'm taking a lot of hits to the front and side, I'm not actually flying with them or losing too many parts. I have some theories about this, but I'll save them for later in the post.
• It's at this point that I realize I'm suffering from a problem concerning my driving; I'm over-steering a lot, and this causes me to lose a lot of good oppurtunities throughout the fight.
• Several times throughout the fight I ended up getting stuck on top of DB12. An unusual situation, but at least I'm not taking any more hits than necessary, and am able to run down the clock all the more.
• After roughly a minute DB12 seems to lose drive. It's still able to use its weapon, but from here on out I'm able to remain the aggressor.
• My favourite moment of the fight comes two minutes in, when I'm able to shove DB12 against the wall and put a pretty sizeable dent in the bars. I apologized for it though at the time, so it should be all right.
• Eventually I seem to get DB12's one working side of drive beached, and with seconds left in the fight I seem to be awarded the knockout. It probably should've gone to the judges, but with the way the fight was going it doesn't seem like it would have made any large difference.

POST-FIGHT:

Safe to say this was an upset win for Barróg, and I was pretty happy to have gotten my first major 1v1 win! I was guaranteed a top 12 finish, and even though I would only have a short turnaround, the damage taken that fight wasn't that severe. All that was needed was to straighten the remaining wedgelets I had into something useable, replace the side bars to prevent beaching, and recharge the batteries.


A shot of Barróg after the fight. Notice how the front only seemed to get nibbled instead of ripped off, or the machine being sent flying.


FIGHT 6: TOP 12

So with the way the bracket works, I was due to fight the winner of the second top 20 losers melee, and of the five bots, DB12 would come out on top, and so we were due our rematch. Despite the previous win DB12 was still seen as the favourite, and I knew that I couldn't rely on the drive failing on them again.



Some observations from this fight:

• I was wary of DB12's weapon this time round, so I decided to go for the pit ASAP. I knew I had the better drive when push came to shove, and I wanted to use that wherever possible.
• DB12 was definitely keeping closer to me this time round, and this made it a hell of a lot harder to get any openings. The wedgelets in particular were looking quite a bit flimsier this time round as well.
• At roughly 40 seconds in I get my first great shove in on DB12, and have him right where I want him, but unfortunately some oversteering on my part loses him on me. Definitely an issue to address.
• Ar around 1:10 DB12 gets his biggest hit on me yet, ripping off a considerable piece of the front wedge. I believe that this was due to him getting some speed with his attack, a fact I think Ed definitely noticed. Also at this point I seem to lose all signal for two seconds; not what you want happening to you after taking your largest hit yet.
• It is at this point that another miracle happens. Through sheer magic, I get into a position where I can push DB12 from the rear, and I'm able to capitalize on this just enough to get him near the pit and somehow remain out of it myself. Still amazed how I did this, but hey, sometimes you gotta know how to play with the hand you're dealt!

POST-FIGHT:

So after another great upset win I was ecstatic. This was my first proper FW competition, and I had managed to reach top 8 in one of the strongest featherweight scenes in the world! This fight was not without its cost though. The front wedge had to be written off and replaced with the original one from the BFT Remix fight, and many more improvements would be done on the final day before my top 8 match. Before that though, I'd like to discuss a part of my bots design.


Barróg after the fight. That front has seen better days.


A shot of the side walls at this point. These have been the same walls from day one, so this is all accumulated damage.

So at this point in the competition Barróg has taken a lot of hits, front, back, and sides. Yet despite all of the vertical mayhem, the machine has remained surprisingly functional and in one piece, where other machines have been disemboweled or ejected out of the arena by such beasts. I have a few theories as to how the machine has survived up until this point:

1. Barrel nut construction. These things have been incredibly sturdy, and while threaded inserts have came out of a few bots throughout the competition, I have not lost a single bolt, nut, or connection with these. Highly recommended.
2. Front wedge is brittle plastic. The HDPE chopping boards I've been using for the front of the bot seem not to be as flexible as the stuff from Direct Plastics, but that seems to have had the knock-on effect of simply chipping away instead of carrying the entire bot with it when in contact with a spinner. The only way it seems to take off more is to get some speed in before your charge, but this just means that I can never let a vertical get too far away from me, which is a touch better of a situation than the usual technique of "never let them touch you or you're dead".
3. Tall sides. This seems to be the key reason why I could just keep getting hit on the sides and just shrug it off. Most verticals are designed to be optimized against wedges, and use their oponents wedges against them to get the largest bites possible. With the tall boxy design however, I was always connecting with the vert at the point furthest away from the bot, and so I would only ever get a small gouge taken out of the side, and would be pushed lightly away, out of harms way and in a position to strike again.

Again, all of these are just theories, but if any of it holds any ground, then the design that was built out of necessity for my weapon seems to have been my greatest asset rather than my greatest liability, as while it isn't perfect, it certainly seems to give vertical spinners more trouble then they're used to, and given that they are a huge part of the robot combat meta right now, that makes me excited.


My highly technical drawing explaining my theory that I definitely didn't do in 5 minutes. Avert your eyes all those without engineering degrees.