Beetleweight Champs 2015

Loads to get through here, so I'll divide it up by individual robot. Just want to say beforehand though, a gigantic thank you to Stu, Aimee and Kevin, as well as Shane for helping host a remarkable event, loads of fun and very well organised! Also want to thank everyone there for being just generally awesome, particularly to Rory who brought Fhqwhgads back from the dead, Shakey who made Zodiac not wired like spaghetti, Ceri for loaning me escs and everyone else who helped in some way, sorry if I've forgotten anyone. All success that weekend was a great big team effort!

Right then, on with the fights...



Bananageddon

Pair of clusterbots with bananas atop them. Didn't really expect anything at all out of these apart from maybe being a fun way to make up numbers... which is basically what happened. They got a lot further than I thought they would though. Since I could only drive two robots, these were commandeered by Dave, Sam, Alex, Ian, Shakey and one of Matt Pearman's friends throughout the day. Basically, whoever was free and wanted a drive!

Fight 1: VS RPM/ Bonecrusher/ Incomplete Control



This one ended pretty quickly for Bananageddon. Sam's half of the cluster got quickly pushed into the pit by Bonecrusher after driving around for a bit, then Dave reversed into the pit since the entire machine was out at that point anyway. Shame about the rules regarding clusters...

Fight 2: Losers Melee vs Flatulence/Atom/Blackout



This time, things went a little better - Blackout was defeated by Flatulence (we've all been there) early on leaving the more damaging threat to the machine out of the way. Flatulence and Atom then paired up to take on a Bananageddon each, but Atom then appeared to conk out, somehow sending Bananageddon through to round 2! Miracles do happen.

Fight 3: (Round 2) RPM/ Rancid 3



This fight required a win to progress - with that in mind RPM went straight on the offensive, getting a slight hit on Bananageddon then going on the attack against Rancid. The bananas carried on doing what they do best (survive, despite all the odds) and took a few hits on the wheels from RPM which pulled them off but still both mobile. Which was more than could be said for RPM, which I'm told cut its wiring and immobilised itself, eliminating it from the fight. It was now a fight against Rancid, and the bananas just got bullied and pushed around - they have very little grip and pushing power so it was inevitable at that point. Still, another loser's melee and somehow the joke entry didn't get brutally slaughtered in the first 3 fights. Might actually make it through an event here...

Fight 4: Losers Melee vs Zodiac/Incomplete Control/Bar Fight
(win to progress)



Now, normally someone with two robots in a fight would make an unofficial allegiance to try and get one of them through at least. Not me however, I realised enough was enough and since Zodiac was struggling too due to issues I wouldn't be able to fix until after the championships, I'd send them both out in a blaze of glory. Bananageddon died.

Actually, not strictly true - just the wheels got turned into a thin paste across the whole arena, the rest of the machine was weirdly still functional other than that. Consider me impressed with your rover kits, Hobbyking...




Zodiac

Formerly Soundwave, Zodiac was just a repaired and refined version of the existing chassis, running on 4s instead of 3. Unfortunately, I later realised that running the disc that fast led to a pretty alarming lack of bite, so I think for the next iteration I'll drop the voltage or end disc speed. Other than that, it carried on running despite taking a bit of a beating!

Fight 1: Vs Ion/Blackout/Napalm Beach

The first fight I had at the champs, so the nerves were pretty high and I think that was rather obvious in my driving. Also fast robot is very twitchy... Not much to say really, landed a good few hits on Blackout, the former of which got hit upside down by Ion, who then got stuck on its side for a relatively quick victory! The hit on Ion's drum towards the end of the fight ended up bending the bulkheads of the machine, which naturally had repercussions through the rest of the tournament. Still spun though, impressively!

Fight 2: Vs Spinza/Ion



This one was a lot more drawn out. The initial hit from Spinza actually pulled a wheel off, leaving me technically immobile straight away. Thanks to spinners doing spinnery things though I was able to still navigate the arena, but the damage was relatively terminal still - I wasn't able to actually get any worthwhile hits other than one on Ion that took off a wheel towards the end, but other than that this was a relatively unimpressive fight for my machine. On the damage front you can very clearly see bits of the 3d printed pulleys get ejected out of the front of the machine from where the disc was tilted. Still ended up with second place however, but with a win needed to progress this put me in a loser's melee...

Fight 3: Loser's Melee vs Bananageddon/Incomplete Control/Bar Fight



Mutiny! As said before, I decided pretty early on that my only aim in this fight was to destroy Bananageddon, and Zodiac didn't disappoint - I nearly got all 6 wheels off the robots (Alex ruined my fun) before being pushed near the pit and losing one side of drive again. Unfortunately despite trying to gyro-steer my way around the pit I just ended up stuck on the edge before being pushed down by Incomplete Control. A 2nd place finish meant Zodiac was out of the competition in Round 2!

(going to write Fhqwhgads' up in a second post, brb lel)