The tournament formerly known as FFW

Fan-effing-tastic :)

Seeds will be up tonight or tomorrow, draw will follow soon after :)

Thanks Lian :)

Wait, I forgot I'm still waiting on Tracy's. Can't do seedings until I at least have her realie.

It's ok, you are about to get it! (for better or worse, orz) XD Sorry for taking so long, by the by.

Vaporbot that needs to be inserted, or so I've been told, will be my new one that I literally JUST finished, Macha, and she will be found in the same place as the others.

Realie will be Mighty Mouse, if that's ok. XD

Here is your seeds and your draw in 1, you lucky people.

If anybody notices any problems, please notify me ASAP

1) Mornington Crescent
2) Wedga Ennea
3) Gehenna 2
4) Tornado
5) Back To Rock III
6) Corona
7) Wedge Devolution
8) Nitro-Gene 5.0
9) Storm 2
10) Axe To Fall
11) E Clawdius Unum
12) Tough As Nails
13) Exertion 2
14) Wedginator X
15) Flick of the Wrist
16) Gravity
17) Spin Dash Unleashed
18) Psychosis
19) Liar 2
20) Seung Mina
21) Intriguality
22) Axeon 4.0
23) Behemoth
24) Biohazard

Heat A

Round 1

Volcano v Eye of Ran
Wharthog v Sauron

Round 2

Mornington Crescent (1) v ???
Exertion 2 (13) v ???


Heat B

Round 1

Terrorhurtz v Pain
Equinox v SOTAR

Round 2

Gehenna 2 (3) v ???
Flick of the Wrist (15) v ???


Heat C

Round 1

Traffic Warden v Compression
Super Gore Eahta v Nurse Pain

Round 2

Back To Rock III (5) v ???
Spin Dash Unleashed (17) v ???


Heat D

Round 1

Chaos 2 v Knyfe
Slicer v Armageddon

Round 2

Wedge Devolution (7) v ???
Liar 2 (19) v ???


Heat E

Round 1

Under Pressure v Bloody Frigid
The Servants Assistant v Flirty Skirty

Round 2

Storm 2 (9) v ???
Intriguality (21) v ???


Heat F

Round 1

Overkill v Druid 2.0
Harraz v No Consequences

Round 2

E Clawdius Unum (11) v ???
Behemoth (23) v ???


Heat G

Round 1

Nemesis v Mobile Failure 2.5
Tsunami v Gabriel V

Round 2

Tough As Nails (12) v ???
Biohazard (24) v ???


Heat H

Round 1

Exotherm v Mighty Mouse
Cassius v Venus Fly Trap 2

Round 2

Axe To Fall (10) v ???
Axeon 4.0 (22) v ???


Heat I

Round 1

V for Vendetta v Metallic Doom
Steg-o-Saw-Us v Nidhogg

Round 2

Nitro-Gene 5.0 (8) v ???
Seung Mina (20) v ???


Heat J

Round 1

Mega Hurts LT v Macha
Haardvark v Supersonic

Round 2

Corona (6) v ???
Psychosis (18) v ???


Heat K

Round 1

Fissure v Tira VI
V'ger v Empty Inside

Round 2

Tornado (4) v ???
Biohazard (16) v ???


Heat L

Round 1

Sheer Heart Attack 2 v Lime-y
Blast v Vertigo

Round 2

Wedga Ennea (2) v ???
Wedginator X (14) v ???



So, thoughts, tactics, predictions?

Tactics, predictions? Gladly. :) Only will do the first round though. :P

Heat A

Volcano v Eye of Ran II

Think Joey can manage this one.

Wharthog v Sauron

:proud: Well since I have to give viable tactics, uh...drive straight at Sauron, hit it, and stop moving due to utter failure? :P

Heat B

Terrorhurtz v Pain

Erm, obviously Terrorhurtz.

Equinox v SOTAR

Depends on what set-up Lewis uses, but I'll say SOTAR anyway.

Heat C

Traffic Warden v Compression

Traffic Warden has this, I think.

Super Gore Eahta v Nurse Pain

Nurse Pain is over the limit for shufflers. :P Regardless, just ram into it, push it down the pit. Doesn't worry me much, it'll take a while to get up to speed.

Heat D

Chaos 2 v Knyfe

Chaos 2 may be getting on in years, but it's still one of the better flippers. I think Paul may be in for a rough shock as Chaos 2 gets another OOTA.

Slicer v Armageddon

Having been shown a video of Slicer (by Joey), I think Lewis can take him on.

Heat E

Under Pressure v Bloody Frigid

Under Pressure needs to act very quickly and get those claws under the sides of Frigid, before Tracy gets under Martijn's front. There's a very good chance of that happening, so Tracy should win.

The Servant's Assistant v Flirty Skirty

...sorry Joey. XD Lian should win.

Heat F

Overkill v Druid 2.0

...lift 800kg and flip 500kg? :P Err...well anyway it looks like Overkill may actually win this one. So I say he will.

Harraz v No Consequences

I think Paul could win this one. NC can spin, but it needs time to get to full speed...and when Joey stops spinning, he'll have to re-orient the lifting arm, if he wants to use it. Ample time for Harraz to come in and shove it somewhere unpleasant.

Heat G

Nemesis v Mobile Failure 2.5

Um...drive over the flame pit, melt into a puddle of burnt fur, oil, and liquid metal, and celebrate Tracy's win with some Bacardi afterwards? :rofl:

Tsunami v Gabriel V

I always thought Gabriel was one of the oddest vapourbots you could fight. It's hard to attack, but at the same time it's hard for it to effectively attack you with those nose spikes and ears, and those skirts won't protect the rat forever. :P Regardless, it'll be close, but I pick Tsunami.

Heat H

Exotherm v Mighty Mouse

Tracy! Invoke the power of Trevor Wright and...drive around the arena hoping Exotherm doesn't catch you! :lol:

Cassius v Venus Fly Trap 2

Is it that bad that I actually see Cassius winning? :rofl:

Heat I

V for Vendetta v Metallic Doom

V for Vendetta, for me.

Steg-O-Saw-Us v Nidhogg Cubed

Obviously Nidhogg.

Heat J

Mega Hurts LT v Macha

Macha's first outing looks quite good, but Mega Hurts LT looks quite different in Series 7 than the version I remember (Series 6, I think :lol:)...but nah, polycarb armour means you're screwed, buddy.

Haardvark v Supersonic

I'm trying to remember what Supersonic is...I think it's one of Paul's machines. But I don't see Haardvark making it very far in this fight, anyway.

Heat K

Fissure v Tira VII

Wait, what?! WHERE'S WEDGA?!? ;n;

Erm, ignore that.

I am going to try and damage the 4mm Hardox lifting arm so it doesn't work anymore, then toss him over so he can't self-right. Or at the very least, keep hitting him so he can't set up an attack. Tira VII's awkward shape would be hard for him to control, and my spin-up time is almost instantaneous anyway. I'll keep the disc locked at 1000rpm, though (0.3 second spin-up time!!!), so I don't kill myself...69kJ injected into a compact robot like that would really mess him up good, and I don't see any shockproofing in the stats...

V'Ger v Empty Inside

Right, uh...barring the fact that Lian needs to know how to stat pneumatic rams correctly :P I think he can take Tracy out. 6mm titanium won't last long against that disc, though.

Heat L

Sheer Heart Attack 2 v Lime-y

Nah, Martijn has this in spades, methinks.

Blast v Vertigo

Lewis should be able to handle this.

Good luck one and all =D

I'll give tactics as and when fights come up...for my realies, I shall do whatever the real robot would have done, and for Pain, I invite you to make your own judgement Zarte ;P

Eye of Ran II vs. Volcano: It's Paul again! Hiya! *waves*

*looks at Volcano's stats, notes the shockproofing hasn't changed, and reaches for gas mask in case of combustion of polyurethane foam*

Eye of Ran has a longer blade reach (~40cm in front of the robot), its blade is lower than Volcano's teeth are by about 20mm, and some previous investigations on the RW101 forums show that spinners of that type are inherently unstable and prone to flipping themselves over. Nonetheless, it does have a Large Spinny Thing (tm), so I shall try and avoid hitting that. Spin up, and always present the front of the spinning weapon to Volcano, don't let it get an edge of any sort on the main body, and basically just keep hitting it below where the teeth on its own weapon reach. Something will happen at some point, I think the better shape and lighter weight of EoR's bar will let me spin up again between hits better than Volcano, and the clutch on the weapon should prevent it taking that much damage.

Good luck Paul, and good luck Zarte ^^

Welcome to the tournament that was formerly known as the Fowler Fic Wars but has now been rebranded as The ZFC! The Zarte Fiction Championship. I'm pleased to share with you the first 2 fights of the series. In a minute we'll see Wharthog v Sauron but for now we'll see our first match-up between Eye of Ran II and Volcano.

Volcano is Paul Cuomo's first entrant into the tournament and has an angled horizontal spinning disc, as well as tough armourment. However it has no srimech and this could be crucial

Robot History - New Entrant (0 points)


Eye of Ran II is Joey's dangerous machine, also with a horizontal spinning weapon, only this one is designed to be as close to the floor as possible. He too is also well armoured. However could his lack of pace across the arena be his downfall?

Robot History - New Entrant (0 points)

In the RW arena tonight, we have house robots in the form of Sir Killalot and Matilda.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Both robots begin running straight off the bat, but it's Volcano who appears to make the quicker move and makes his way over towards Eye Of Ran II who has the front facing away from his opponent. The 2 robots make contact, but despite his speedier start, it's Volcano who comes out of it worse. The blades of Eye of Ran II have the longer reach and it shows as Joey's machine catches the very bottom of the base of the side panel of Volcano. The power isn't enough to do any great damage to the 6mm weldox, howevera dent does appear, so it can definitely bend his opponent, even if he can't break him.

Paul's response is to back off and try and get a better hit on with a more spun up weapon, however while he's attempting to do that Joey comes in once again with his triangular spinner. He manages to hit around the same spot again and it leaves him with a far more evident dent than the one from the first attack. Joey can't show how impressed he is with this, as for this battle he's chosen to hide behind a gas mask, but you can't imagine his expression being anything less than pleasure right now.

Paul backs off again, this time further away from Eye of Ran II and begins getting his weapon up to the deadly speeds it's capable of. The downside to this is that Eye of Ran II has time to get his weapon up to speed as well and Joey decides he's just going to sit and wait for Volcano to comes towards him. Paul begins driving intelligently and moves towards him with an assortment of speed, slowing down and changes in direction. When he gets closer, he speeds up and sells Joey a dummy that Mothercare would be proud of, making Joey turn one way, while he alters his course and slams into the side of Eye of Ran II. The force of the impact is immense, doing very little damage in terms of holes or dents, but taking the skirt straight off, proving the old adage that your armour is only as strong as what holds it to your machine. And you could say Joey's chances are getting a little... unhinged, maybe?

Joey seems to be moving his controls a little more frantically now as its clear that this maybe isn't the foregone conclusion that was expected after the first couple of minute. The only bad side for Paul is that Joey's weapon is still fully sped up. Paul tries to get towards the same side panel and makes the slam, causing a loud crash in the arena but very little visible damage. As he bounces away, Eye of Ran II smashes its own weapon into Volcano, hitting the underbelly with the low weapon as Volcano wobbles away from its own attack. Volcano is thrown into some weird gyroscopic frenzy, eventually landing on his back over the flame pit. Fumes begin to engulf the arena, and it's quite clear that something is on fire inside Volcano.

Joey sees this as his chance to do something with the fight and he rams Volcano towards the CPZ of Matilda, whilst the arena continues to fill up with these strangely-coloured fumes. Matilda comes towards Volcano with her flywheel facing and there's a loud thwack as she bends the disc but in the process throws it back over. Volcano moves forwards for a few seconds before just grinding to a halt. A quick glance up to the control booths and Paul is... wait... where is he?!?! A few more camera angles and it's discovered that he seems to have fallen asleep in his control booth. This is most unusual so the Refbot does a particularly quick count and then the magic word is called.

CEASE!

It transpires that the fumes were coming from part of Paul's shockproofing, which turns very toxic when ignited. Joey knew this and so prepped himself with a gas mask, whereas Paul didn't and so passed out when the fumes reached him.

Fire cause the Volcano to lose... how ironic. Eye of Ran II runs to round 2!



Next up it's Wharthog up against Sauron.

Wharthog, entered by Kody is a 24.4kg middleweight yellow robot with absolutely no discernible strengths, other than the fact that it might be too small for any of the heavyweights to get to.

Robot History - New Entrant (0 points)


And his opponent is Sauron entered by Lian. A robot with 7 different weapon systems to provide best chance of beating any given opponent. The problem is however, the more setups, the more chances of having something go wrong...

Robot History - New Entrant (0 points)


For this battle, we have Shunt and Dead Metal in the war zone.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Lian will be using the spinning bar today and immediately he gets it up to speed, whilst the positively miniscule Wharthog head towards him. He appears to be trying to dodge the weapon but there's a huuge smash and... well I've never seen that before. Everything above the bar has been cut clean off. That's the chassis and the armour pulled off as if it was nothing more than a hat. Unfortunately for Wharthog though that included the aerial as well though. Lian goes over to open the pit release button before running back down towards the carcass of Wharthog, and shunting it down the pit, presumably out of pity so the house robots don't get to it. As it topples onto it's back in the pit, things fall out from inside the robot and now surely, no-one will be stupid enough to try entering a middleweight into ZFC ever again.

CEASE!

Whart-hogged the limelight... but for all the wrong reasons. Sauron rings up to book a place in round 2.

As I explained at the very startm the robot I deem to be more impressive will get the nicer draw for round 2. Unfortunately for Joey, despite performing well, cannon fodder or not, Sauron did get the job done with fewer issues. So that means the draw for round 2 looks like this.


Mornington Crescent (1) v Eye of Ran II
Exertion 2 (13) v Sauron

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Sleeping Pills?

poor Wharthog :(

Mornington Crescent (1) v Eye of Ran II

If Eye of Ran hits the lower ring and stops it, Mornington Crescent will pull a Mauler...Mornington Crescent will be very unstable with the upper ring, which will probably be useless the entire fight. Not liking the champ's chances at all.

Exertion II (13) v Sauron

Rambot ftw! I see the seed triumphing over the Dark Lord.

w00ty fights :proud:

I'm not at all sure about ranking robots based on who did better, the entire system gets skewed to a potentially very unfair extent when Wharthog and its ilk are involved ;P but meh, it's happening, and I work with what I have...

Eye of Ran II vs. Mornington Crescent: ...and Kody has made a good point, although I don't know about the 'Mauler' side of things; Mornington Crescent does rely on two rings for stability and if I can take one out, it'll be a bit tougher to control...it's a huge if though so I won't be relying too much on it, hehe. What I am relying on is that EoR's blade weighs about three times more than one of MC's rings and should pack far more of a punch, and hopefully the sheer power in the chainsaw engine will cause spinup time to be of minimal concern (if you've ever seen The Executioner mk. 2, it's kind of like that ;P)

I shall be using the end bits of the robot to keep MC at bay while spinning up, but when that is done immediately and indiscriminately hit it until something happens. And avoid any of the house robots or hazards. Hopefully that should work, or result in painful defeat. :)

Good luck Steve, and great fights Zarte :)

Good to have you writing battles again. :)

Exertion II vs. Sauron

We are both quite evenly matched, so this should be interesting. What I do have on my side is a bit more speed, traction, and durability, and I will try to use those qualities to my advantage. I think I am going to try and make use of the house robots in this battle - that 4mm Titanium armour on Sauron can be damaged if I use the arena hazards effectively. Try and get it down the pit before it does the same to me.

Good luck, Lian.

Hullo AJ, this is getting all too frequent :proud:

Im gonna use set-up No.1 today, take him to the house robots and pit him

Good Luck AJ

Welcome to Round 2 of Heat A of the ZFC and today we have another 2 excellent battles coming your way.

First up we have our first sighting of last years runner-up, but number 1 seed, Mornington Crescent.

Steve's machine which has taken over from the Whirligig dynasty, and is armed with 2 spinning rings, one on top of the other, which spin counter rotationally for additional balance. It's also fairly deft across the arena, however it has been known to spill out of control, and the wheeks can be exposed to certain weapons.

Previous History - Series 5 came 2nd, series 4 got to the round of 16, series 3 came 2nd (33.75 points)

And back from Round 1 is Eye of Ran II.

Let's switch over to the arena, where Shunt and Matilda have taken their place.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

For the second match running, Joey appears to be uncertain as to whether he should be letting his own weapon spin up or whether to attempt to prevent his opponent. In the end he decides that the luxury of his spin up time speed means he can afford a cautious but fairly deliberate move towards Mornington Crescent.Steve is still spinning his counter-rotational rings up when Joey turns around to bear his weapon and hits into Mornington Crescent. Sparks fly and the noise of metal on metal is excuricating. The blow allows the number 1 seed an immediate revebge attack on the spinning Eye of Ran II who only has to show the side for a brief second, before there is a thud and another impact, this time from Mornington Crescent's fully up to speed top disc. The impact does barely more than scratch Eye of Ran II, as both robots spin away from the contact to resume their encounter.

Eye of Ran II has already managed to spin up his weapon whilst being flung away though, and once again launches an almighty thrust into the low flat body of Mornington Crescent. Again there's little damage to the ring of Mornington Crescent and once again it just allows Steve to attack the slowed down Team Picus machine with the top ring. He hits the same side as before, just above the skirt, but this time the five millimetre polycarbonate top layer has been cracked a little. First superficial points of the match go to Steve, but there's still a long way to go yet.

Mornington Crescent decides to try something different at this point and runs away whilst spinning up and goes to hit the pit release button. The sirens in the arena breakout and the most damage yet is done to the switchm as it's had a big chunk taken out of the side of it and is rolling limply away down the side wall. Joey decides to pursue the equally speeded machine and slams into him once again with the bar. There's again a shower of sparks but little more as both machines seem unsure as to how to any real grat damage to their opponent. Joey spins away and stops agonisingly close to the pit. Steve comes towards him and tries to give him a nudge into the abyss, but the contact from the shell only serves to throw him away, although one of Joey's skirts is now looking curled up at the edge from the bottom ring which finally plays its first part in the fight.

Joey seems unnerved by this double impact and flies straight back in for his own next attack, and finally it pays off, albrit only superficially as a small hole is torn out right the way through 3.25mm Hardox. The impact flings Mornington Crescent away backwards and dangerously towards the CPZ. Steve tries to traverse away but Eye of Ran II is straight back on his case, again sending him spinning away and straight into thw flywheel of Matilda. The contact is made square with with the top ring and the force throws Mornington up against the wall, propped up on an angle grinder. Steve tries to get the rings back spinning again to haul him off, but before he can Eye of Ran II slams into the top panel that is angled towards him. It not only puts another gash into the Team Braveheart machine, but it also slices clean into one of the tyres.

The impact frees Mornington Crescent from the side wall but as Steve tries to run away he realises that the tyre has been split as he tries to spin up both rings once more. The result is just that in some kind of crazed dance, Mornington Crescent throws itself onto its back, just like Volcano did in Eye of Ran II's previous fight. This time however, Joey's oppenent is invertible and Steve thinks quickly too, and decides only to spin up the top ring, and makes an unexpected movement towards the already slightly hurt side of Eye of Ran II and makes another large crack into the top polycarbonate layer, with a small bit flying off. The impact again sends Mornington Crescent flying away though the air though, and by the time he's balanced himself against the floor again, Eye of Ran II is there with another mighty blow from its blade. This is one of the most telling superficial hits yet, as it tears one of the teeth off the still wobbling Team Braveheart entrant.

Steve knows he can't afford to keep wobbling to the extent he is, so gradually tries to spin up the top ring again, easing it slowly. He reaches a point where it starts to begin to wobble violently and so cranks it back down a bit. I could be wrong but it appears to me to only be travelling at about half speed, so it remains to be seen, what, if any damage, Mornington Crescent can do now. Joey moves towards the stabler but still alarmingly unbalanced ring spinner and tries to slam into him but the off-centre of gravity of Mornington Crescent means the bar only scrapes the bottom underneath and fails to do much damage. He backs out to speed it up, but this gives Mornington Crescent the chance to test his ring out at half-speed. It makes barely no mark on the surface, but there's sill a pretty albeit smaller display of sparks, and it does still send Eye of Ran II spining away. The lower speed means Steve can come straight back in on the attackand he hits him again. Once more, the amount of damage, superficial or otherwise is limited, but Mornington Crescent continues just to hit in the gently pirouetting robot at low speed and eventually he ends up on the flame pit. The grill stops Joey's robot spinning, but immediately it becomes evident that for some reason he can't move. The flame cam has a look and it seems that one of Eye of Ran II's castors has got stuck and it's unable to free itself. Steve comes in for another blow and manages to use the angle to make contact with another one of Eye of Ran II's skirts, bending the flimsy aluminium.

This impact however seems to have helped Joey out though as he's able to move off the grill. Joey seems to have decided that payback is required and so he spins the weapon up almost immediately and hares back towards Mornington Crescent. Steve seems content with this until the impact comes and knocks him away, this time his machine being the one to go dangerously close to the pit. He manages to move away cautiously, but stealthily, but not before Eye of Ran II is on his case once more. Another slam comes in and another little hole appears in the rings of Mornington Crescent, who is still trying to get his top ring to balance itself out. He tries to move to the side, limping where his tyre has been split, but it's Eye of Ran II once more who gets the next blow in, making Mornington Crescent wobble even more, but just briefly.

Both robots look a little bit tired and rundown at this point, with each having some superficial marks and both looking a little low on battery power. Steve seems content to limp away and let the clock countdown on the Refbot's chest.

10,9,8... And that's the last hit of the match, a half-hearted one from Eye of Ran II which gently sends his opponent away to sit comfortably whilst the audience countdown the remaining 7 digits to...

CEASE!

And so we have our first judges decision of the series. Points will be split between the 2 robots out of 10, and multiplied in order of importance, in the order of damage, aggression, control and style.

Damage -
Mornington Crescent - 3 x 4 = 12
Eye of Ran II - 7 x 4 = 28

The 2 were fairly even on damage caused superficially, however the attack on the wheels swung it.

Aggression -
Mornington Crescent - 6 x 3 = 18
Eye of Ran II - 4 x 3 = 12

It always felt as though Mornington Crescent wanted to be attacking more, even when it couldn't

Control -
Mornington Crescent - 6 x 2 = 12
Eye of Ran II - 4 x 2 = 8

Both had their moments of good and bad control. However using an unbalanced machine to get Eye of Ran II onto the flame pit made the favour swing slightly towards them.

Style -
Mornington Crescent - 4 x 1 = 4
Eye of Ran II - 6 x 1 = 6

Eye of Ran II's stability made it appear slightly more stylish over the course of the fight.

Totals -
Mornington Crescent - 46
Eye of Ran II - 54

So there was have it! Mornington Crescent just doesn't have a clue. The number 1 seed is out in round 2. Eye of Ran can see the semis on the horizon!




And now for our other 2nd round match-up between ZFC oldtimer Exertion 2 up against our 2nd battle winner from yesterday, Sauron.

Exertion 2 is the 13th seed, AJ's first entry into the championship and is essentially the little rammer that can. It's a very small, very low box wedge with an excellent drive train and a small lifting wedge on the front. The wheels can be gotten at however.

Previous History - Reached the heat final in the last series. Reached the round of 16 in series 4, but only reached round 2 on it's seriess 3 debut.

Sauron today will be using the static hardox scoop. Let's go over to the arena.

Your house robots today will be Mr. Psycho and Growler

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

And fighting for the honour to be the second robot is the first heat final under the FFW's new monichre are two very similarly matched robots. Exertion 2 is the quicker out of the blocks, but Sauron immediately seems the more manouvreable, appearing steady across the arena as opposed to the slight hesitation that appears to be being shown by AJ's machine. The 2 machines eventually come together head-on for the first timw in the battle and the intensely low ground clearance keeps them both grinding against one another. The 2 robots have such similar drivetrains that the 2 of them trying to push against one another is producing very little apart from smoke from wheelspin. The crowd already are beginning to jeer as nothing much really appears to be happening.

Suaron is the first to move away but Exertion 2 comes straight back at him, and manages to get some force behind his slam. Sauron can't find any torque and finds himself being shunted back the wall and up onto Exertion's lifting wedge which is holding him there. AJ manouvres slowly and shoves him towards the open mouth of Growler in the CPZ. Growler gets him in his jaw and begins to clamp down whilst Mr. Psycho trudges across to survey the scene. Growler rams his new chew toy into the wall to test its durability and sees that it holds up relatively well, with only a couple of bite marks. Growler lets go and Sauron tries to escape the CPZ, and does so, but only narrowly missing Sauron with his sledgehammer.

Exertion comes towards his newly freed foe and attempts to repeat the same manouvre, however this time Sauron is wiser to it, moving around the side and sliding underneath the high side ground clearance. He shoves him backwards, right the way down the length of the arena, slamming him into the pit release button, which for the 2nd time is thrown off the wall by the force of the impact. The impact also throws Exertion, who appears tiny by comparison, off Sauron's front wedge, and who is also attempting to ram backwards into the sides of Lian's competitor using the rear spikes. This plan backfires as Sauron is just able to turn and get underneath the back, but a possible lack of confidence as well as some quick thinking from AJ, means that he ends up driving off the wedge, but unfortunately his only place to go is around the side of Sauron and his speed drives himself straight underneath one of the arena angle grinders.

AJ spins his wheels furiously in all directions, trying to get some purchase to get away but can't seem to as there is nothing. Refbot is just about to have a look and consider counting him out when from nowhere Mr. Psycho trundles in and brings his sledgehammer down on top of the trapped rammer. AJ looks furious as does the Refbot, who immediately issues the house robot with a yellow card. AJ on the other hand goes from disgust to pleasure almost straight away as whilst he's just felt the force of Mr. Psycho's stupdendously oversized blunt instrument, it also appears to have freed him. Sauron drives back towars him seemingly attempting to repeat the manouvre, but AJ traverses cleverly out of the way leading Sauron to smack into the angle grinder himself. He gets out himself no problem but is forced to run away from the advancing Exertion who ends up pinning him into the CPZ as he couldn't turn for fear of driving into the pit. Mr Psycho turns and brings the hammer round, slamming in into the lid of Sauron.

Exertion 2 manages to escape around the arm of Mr. Psycho, when just as Sauron thought it couldn't get worse, Growler sprints into his side slamming him into Mr. Psycho. This just appears to make Mr. Psycho angry again and he slams once more down with the hammer, whilse Growler tries, without luck, to get his jaw underneath Sauron again to give him a nibble. Eventually Growler has to back off and Sauron takes his moment to escape, however as he runs out the side, Exertion who has been waiting, reverses into Sauron, getting some purchase on the sides with the stripes and pushing him back down into the gaping pit,

CEASE!

Sauron's going home to call his Mummy. Exertion goes through to the Heat A Final.


And so the Heat A final shall be:

Eye of Ran II v Exertion 2 (13)

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Chicken Pie?

Eye of Ran II vs. Exertion II: Um...hiya Andy ^^ Tactics here will be to start in reverse to buy some time to spin up, spin up, and hit Exertion a lot until I end up in the pit. Good luck Andy :)

Hurrah, 3/3 so far this heat. :proud: (4/4, if you count me predicting myself to go out :P)

Eye of Ran II vs. Exertion II (13)

10mm Ti/V? Is EoR2 even going to get through that? Regardless, the seed is very compact...since the chainsaw engine helps EoR2 spin its blade up fast, I'll give this one to EoR2 via a KO through shock damage. :)

Well written, Zarte. :)

Eye of Ran II vs. Exertion II

I'm glad Joey has decided to start in reverse, as that is exactly the area I would like to attack. :kiss: I think that if I can get round the back and get under the rear skirt with my wedge, I can tilt Eye of Ran II upwards from the rear end, effectively forcing its spinning bar to eat the arena floor and stall. At that moment I can keep on top of it, and like the previous battle, push it into the house robots and the other hazards, preferably the pit. If it does manage to spin up at any point, I am confident that my armour and the lifting wedge can take the impacts. I also think that in the (admittedly unlikely) event I can turn it over, Eye of Ran's bar will not be able to hit Exertion II - something worth trying, perhaps... Just generally stay aggressive and try to get it down the pit.

Good luck, Joey.

Welcome to the first heat final of the fully re-branded Zarte Fiction Championship! Already we've seen 4 fights and 6 robots striving to become the next big thing, but now the only 2 left are back to decide who goes through beyond the perils of Heat A

So far we've seen Eye of Ran have to fight his way past the noxious Volcano and the formidable former number 1 seed, Mornington Crescent to get here.

On the other hand, Exertion 2 has had just one battle up until now, managing to justify his seeind of 13th when getting past Sauron.

Let's cross over to the arena to see how this battle pans out. Your house robots tonight will be Sgt. Bash and Sir Killalot.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Right from the get go, it appears obvious who the more frantic in this fight is going to be, as Eye of Ran II moves gently out of the blocks, reversing at a snails pace, whilst Exertion 2, previously of the tribe of Forcepower, blasts out of its blocks and immediately tries to land a head to tail impact on the unseeded machine. Joey's skirt is in no mood to broach protocol though and stays hard against the floor. The wedge of Exertion 2 can not be said to have done the same thing though as the impact sends him straight up and over his foe, leaving the back facing the now spun up weapon. Joey tries to capitalise on this, manouvreing his machine at the rear of Exertion 2, only for AJ to react quickly enough to turn his machine round. The weapon of Eye of Ran II meets the turning wedge of Exertion 2 and orchestrats a cacophany of metallic shrieks and a shower of sparks that even the BBC proms would be proud of!

Both robots spin off in different directions, and Exertion 2 tries to regain its bearings, but whilst it does so, Eye of Ran II has got itself right back up to speed and is now trying to keep the front facing the inquisitive opponent. Exertion 2 tries a burst of its superior speed to get down the side of the t-shaped Eye of Ran II but there's nothing doing as Joey manages to flick the ery base of the rear, causing more sparks as well as Exertion 2 being flicked slightly off course. This time though it gives Aj a perfect chance at the rear, into which he speeds, and this time manages to render the skirt ineffective and slide right underneath Eye of Ran II. He tries to use his lifter to force the weapon of Eye of Ran II into the floor, however he'd gotten too far underneath the Team Picus machine in the first instance and instead is just lifting him up on top of him. Noticing this, he immediately tries to rectify this by lowering the wedge back down a bit, and hurtling as fast as he can towards the CPZ. The resultant collision is between a 200kg lump of 2 robots against Sgt. Bash. The Sergeant is stunned when the bar of Eye of Ran is forced into his stripey wheelguards, nigh on exploding it on contact. The impact throws Exertion 2 backwards, whilst Eye of Ran II has ended up on his back trapped in the CPZ. Sgt Bash immediately clamps onto his rear skirt, putting a nice slice into it, before with the forewarning of a jet of flame, Sir Killalot comes in to make things worse for Joey's machine.

Joey frantically tries to slam the robot into reverse... or forwards... left, right... anywhere at all, but Killalot is on him too quickly. The jaw comes down and immediately finds its way around the bar. As it closes, Joey winces, but it seems to hold up pretty well to the attack. Possibly the minutest of flexing within the material, but noting catastrophic as of yet. But Killalot's not had his fun yet. As Sgt Bash finally lets go of his tooth sharpener, taking a chunk of skirt with him, Sir Killalot raises his captured prey in the claw and begins to do his best impression of a waltzer, spinning as fast as his tracks will allow before eventually opening the claw and hurling Eye of Ran II across the arena. The good news for Joey and his robot is that the throw has put him back the right way up. The bad news is that the disorientation has allowed AJ to get right back on their case and he slams them into the Pit Release button, clearly feeling he can end this fight soon. The impact throws Eye of Ran II off the wedge once more and allows him to attempt to get his sense of direction back again.

Joey immediately makes a break for the gap in between the pit and the CPZ, knowing that AJ won't want to burst down there in fear of falling into the pit himself, as had previously happened to him in a past series. Joey sits there for a second and begins to spin up the weapon. There's the most miniscule of wobbles but even as he tries riding forward it's barely noticeable, even with just a matter of millimetres between the bar and the floor. AJ comes round the other way to try and meet him head on but Joey just tries to switch slightly more over to one side. The bar meets the opponent and a loud crack is heard. The impact nearly backfires on Joey as it is in fact him that goes nearer to the pit whilst AJ is flung into one of the 2 abandoned CPZ's. Joey takes the opportunity, sensibly one feels, to move away from the pit and into the centre of the arena.

AJ feels he may be the next to be due some unwelcome attention from the house robots and as Sgt Bash comes haring across with his front pincers open, AJ circles his way around him, with a clever piece of driving from the man from Bourne. ...or was it such clever driving? Because he can't seem to do anything else. We see a replay of the last impact between Eye of Ran II and Exertion 2 and what we can see is that the bar got just under the high ground clearance at the side of Exertion 2 and caught the tyre, splitting it and getting it jammed in the gap. One side of the robot is spinning freely whilst the other can't get it moving properly in a straight line any more. Sgt Bash seems to take pity on the semi-mobile machine and lets him out of the CPZ, whilst Joey seemingly can't believe his luck, as it looks like he'll have beaten 2 seeded robots by attacking their mobility in the same heat, barring a catastrophe here.

Joey gets the bar fully spun up, ready to meet his waddling compatriot. AJ is trying to keep the front facing even now, but it's proving a near impossible challenge, as Joey slams into him with the bar once more and pings him away to within inches of the pit. AJ has a quick fiddle with the controls, before leaving well alone, knowing he has to rely on a miracle from Eye of Ran II's bar to still go through. Joey comes in with the bar still spinning to finish him off, however in a moment of sheer torment and showboating, turns his robot around at the last second to give AJ's machine its final nudge with just the rear alone. The smoke comes cascading out and we have our first semi-finalist. And isn't he a contender now surely?

CEASE!

Exertion needs to take a nice long lie down and put his batteries up for a while. Eye of Ran II sprints into the series semi-finals!

And so next up we will have Heat B for you, and to jog your memory that looks like this:

Heat B

Round 1

Terrorhurtz v Pain
Equinox v SOTAR

Round 2

Gehenna 2 (3) v ???
Flick of the Wrist (15) v ???

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Cigarettes?

Will post tactics for all if I have chance, I'm home a week today so hopefully won't miss too much :)

Ugh, SOTAR :( box rush, lift clamp and pit ASAP. All I can do really :/ maybe open the pit first, there's no way I'll get there fast enough to stop it spinning. Good luck Tracey! :)

woo, a perfectly predicted heat! Though not how I'd have predicted EoR2 to win :P amazing battle nonetheless, Zarte :D

predictions for Heat B posted earlier

Welcome to the round 1 elimination stage of Heat B in the ZFC where today we're guaranteed to see one realie and one vapout get through to round 2. Let's start with the realies.

First in is Terrorhurtz. Steve McGregor has added John Reid's classic machine into Team Braveheart for this competition and what a good choice that could prove to be! The axe is one of the most powerful ever seen and for the most part it's a really reliable machine however the polycarbonate armour has proved vulnerable on more than one occasions in the past

Previous History - Defeated in round 2 in series 4, and in the first round in series 3. (0.75points)


He's followed in by Pain, another realie from the murky depths of series 2 who'll be representing Team Picus today. Being from series 2, it's light at only 81kg and it's pneumatic spike weapon is not only bordering on illegal, but it's pretty pants as well. It also has weak armour and no srimech.

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

Let's cross over to the arena, where today your House Robots are Matilda and Shunt

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Well first things first, we have just received confirmation that Pain's weapon WAS deemed illegal just before the battle, and so will be operating with it as a static spike as opposed pneumatically. Given how pants a robot it is in the first place however, I can't see Terrorhurtz being greatly affected by this news either way. Anyway, I've talked over the first 10 seconds of the fight, and nothing has happened really, Terrorhurtz barely moved, possibly presuming that Pain was going to fail to move yet again, whilst Pain, who miraculously HAS moved, is operating at a snails pace in the pursuit of the UKRW6 grand finalist. Terrorhurtz still isn't moving overly quickly and seems more interested in lining up an attack on Pain and lo and behold, when Pain finally reaches him, there's a massive smash as the axe comes down and Terrorhurtz cleaves a massive gash into the top of Pain. Something hasflown off the top as well, no idea what that was, possibly just some nuts and bolts as the shell began tp pop.

All power to Pain though as he still seems to be carrying on so he may be a little more robust than we first though. He tries darting in the loosest possible sense of the word down to one side of Terrorhurtz who turns slightly and fires the axe again, only for him to actually miss. He remains stuck there for a second with the axe embedded in the floor, but eventually he manages to wiggle free. Pain seems to know about Terrorhurtz's older brothers love affair with the pit, and has set his co-ordinates towards the release button. When Steve manages to free his borrowed machine, he makes a beeline to intercept his rather cumbersome foe, but by the time he catches him, all he can do is push him into the pit release button from behind. This does however give him the chance to fir the axe down again and this attack leaves the top panel barely attached. When he brings the axe away, Pain tries to escape along the sidewall but Terrorhurtz attacks him again and this time the axe shatters what remained of the lid and is right inside the robot.

There's some sparks and a tiny lick of flame, before smoke begins to rise out of the archaic machine. Terrorhurtz decides he's going to try and finish the job ofd and begins to slowly edge Pain towards the CPZ and the tusks of Matilda. They reach the edge of the CPZ when CRACK! Matilda's hit both of them! Oh goodness me! Matilda turned around at the last second and hit BOTH of them with her flywheel. Pain is upside down with it's side panel completely mashed, whilst Terrorhurtz has a side panel missing and is seeminly unable to self-right. Shunt comes down from the other end, and both the Refbot and the house robots survey the scene. The Refbot goes over to count out Pain and while he does it... what's this? Shunt has put Terrorhurtz in the pit! The Pain boys and Joey think they're through. They were never counted out and technically Terrorhurtz have gone down first. Matilda doesn't care and waits for the Refbot to finish counting Pain out before slamming him into the pit with her disc, meaning another shower of metal and both robots in the pit.

CEASE!

Well well well, there appears to be some controversy here. Both teams think that the other was immobilised before them, and technically, although the judges suspect that Pain was immobilised already, they can't prove that, however Shunt shouldn't have pushed Terrorhurtz into the pit before he'd been counted out either. So they've decided that the only fair course of action in their opinion is to judge the fight up until Shunt pushed Terrorhurtz down the pit.

Here are the judges scores:

Damage -
Terrorhurtz - 9 x 4 = 36
Pain - 1 x 4 = 4

Terrorhurtz did most of the damage within the fight, indeed the only damage done to him was by Matilda, however this is why Pain doesn't lose 10-0

Aggression -
Terrorhurtz - 5 x 3 = 15
Pain - 5 x 3 = 15

Terrorhurtz made itself look more aggressive with its active weapon and speed, however although cumbersome usually was the one trying to take the fight to Terrorhurtz head on.

Control -
Terrorhurrtz - 3 x 2 = 6
Pain - 7 x 2 = 14

Pain was actually better controlled than Terrorhurtz. He managed to get the pit open, whikst Terrorhurtz not only got his axe stuck in the floor, but also put himself at risk from Matilda when there was really no need to

Style -
Terrorhurtz - 10 x 1 = 10
Pain - 0 x 1 = 0

There was absolutely nothing stylish about Pain whatsoever.

Totals -
Terrorhurtz - 67
Pain - 33

So there we have it. Pain are gutted but they got closer than we ever imagined they would. Terrorhurtz have a LOT of work to do before round 2 but they ARE through.


So now let's go over to our 2nd battle for today where 2 rookie vapourbots face their first battle under the ZFC banner.

First in we have Equnox. Equinox is an incredibly low to the ground machine with a pair of lifting forks along a front scoop and a low clamping arm. However the armour could be succeptible to a powerful machine

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

Next in is SOTAR. This a deadly ring spinner with 4WD with massive potential for destruction. However should an axe or crusher get near the top, the 7mm aluminium will be vulnerable.

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

Let's head over to the arena, where your house robots today are Dead Metal and Mr. Psycho!

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

And we're away quickly, with both robots thinking they must be well placed to score themselves the battle with the lower ranked seed after what happened in the last fight. Equinox makes the quicker getaway charging over to try and stop the spinner, but as Tracy reverses, the extra split second she buys herself gets the phenomenally powerful ring up to a speed where she can use the ring to just bash Equinox away. Lewis comes back in again trying to slide the wedge underneath but again there's a crash as Equinox gets thrown away once again. Now there is no doubt that if Tracy can just keep her robot in the centre of the arena and away from the obstacles that there should be no way of Equinox getting anywhere near her.

Tracy chooses not to follow this advice though, and as Lewis drives his machine towards the end of the arena to hit the pit release button, presumably in the aim of at least making it slightly more difficult for the Team Alt machine, Tracy follows and slams into the back of Equnix ripping a large chunk of the rear skirt clean off. The hinge holds strong, but there's a large cut out of the bottom right corner of it. Phenomenal display of power from SOTAR. She backs away to draw Equinox into another attack, who duly follows her, albeit pensively, trying to keep the front wedge perfectly lined up. Eventually Lewis goes in with a thrust and there's an ungodly noise in the arena as one of the forks is ripped clean away from it's pivot point, it's now hanging loose from inside the machine.

Tracy is loving every minute of this and she looks for another opportunity to pull apart her counterpart. Lewis is still trying to use the front wedge as his point of impact, but he soon realise that's another bad idea as he gets thrown across the arena, SOTAR making contact with the bent fork once again and tearing it off COMPLETELY. Lewis seems to be getting increasingly frustrated as Tracy still hasn't made an attack that's done anything at at all to the internals, she just seems to be pulling it apart from the outside in.. and another smash! This time it's the side skirt which loses a massive piece out of it as Tracy slams SOTAR into the side. Yet another! And all that remains of the skirt is it's hinge which is still bolted down.

Tracy backs away after this run of attacks and leaves a somewhat sluggish looking Equinox to regorup and plan its next attack. It has a 15mph top speed but I can guarantee you it's NOT doing that at the moment.Tracy has the deadly outer ring revved up to full speed again, sending a piercing wail resonating through the arena. She moves towards Equinox's side again, Lewis tries to turn but isn't quick enough and with a massive crunch, the teeth tear a crevice through the 6mm armourment on Equinox and visibly warping the frame. He tries to move away, but it's clearly done something to his drive as he can't drive in a perfectly straight line any more and leaves the rear exposed to another vicious attack, which this time takes off more of the skirt at the back, as well as pinging him straight into Mr. Psycho's CPZ.

Lewis tries to get out but can't get his robot to co-ordinate himself directionally, meaning Mr. Psycho gets a free shot, straight on top with the hammer, again visibly denting it inwards. Another attack misses the still fidgeting Mechanical Menagerie machine before another one lands clean on the lid once more. And has it stopped Equinox clean dead? And... YES! There's smoke! There's smoke coming up from Equinox. The drive issues appeared to come from the attack by SOTAR pushing smething into the wheels on one side. Whilst the smoke at the end is coming from a short circuit where 2 very neighbourly parts were forced to start rubbing by Mr. Psycho knocking the lid in.

CEASE!

Equinox must have found that soul-stice destroying... SOTAR doesn't sit on her laurels and is through to round 2!

And there's absolutely no doubt that SOTAR was the better performer from our first round winners meaning that the draw will look like this:

Round 2

Gehenna (3) v Terrorhurtz
Flick of the Wrist (15) v SOTAR

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, D'you want fries with that?

Gehenna 2 (3) vs. Terrorhurtz

Pretty sure the seed can deal with the axe blows of Terrorhurtz. One OOTA, please!

Flick of the Wrist (15) vs. S.O.T.A.R.

This is going to be very close. The key things here, I think, are Flick of the Wrist's forks, SOTAR's RPM, and SOTAR's low blade height. If Flick of the Wrist can manage to keep the forks working and flip SOTAR, I think Martijn can control the match easily since SOTAR's blades probably won't do much inverted. The thing is, 1000rpm tells me SOTAR can spin up very damn fast, so Flick has like around a full second to get in there before SOTAR hits the forks. If the forks go, Tracy's probably got this.

From that speculation, I'll go with SOTAR taking Flick's forks out of commission if not ripping them out, and doing some good damage to the wheels. Tracy to win.

Loving this tournament so far, Zarte! :D

Gehenna 2 vs. Terrorhurtz

The first thing to do is to see if I can cause any damage to the polycarbonate with my drum. Then it's just a case of pushing it round with my superior power into the house robots and/or the pit. Tornado achieved that very easily in the Extreme 2 Challenge Belt, so I am confident that I can do the same here.

SOTAR!

As often with FBS's, rush at it as quick as I can, and ram it before it fully spun up... at this point I SHOULD be able to slide under and hopefully flip it agains the wall!

Those would be my tactics if this were utopia (my utopia that is, not Tracy's, sorry ;)). If things dont go quite THAT smooth, keep my pressure on SOTAR at all times, ramming, lifting, flipping, and pretty much NOT let it spin up. And through it all use the hazards to my advantage.

good luck tracy!

Welcome to round 2 of Heat B of the ZFC, where today we see our 2 seeds for this heat, try and win against our 2 first round winners.

First up, we see Terrorhurtz who came through round 1 on a judges decision, take on the immensely experience number 3 seeds Gehenna 2.

Gehenna is low wedge with sloped sides and a rear which carries, as its main weapon, a very fast and powerful low pressure front-hinged flipper. At the rear it also has a defensive weapon in the form of a small spinning drum to bat opponents away. It's nippy across the arena as well but the monocoque CAN be broken and it can also be outpushed.

Previous History - Came 4th in series 5, but only made it through to round 2 in series 4 (13 points)

Let's cross over to the arena where your house robots today are Sgt Bash and Shunt

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

And here we go then for a place in the heat final, and first away from the blocks is Gehenna 2, starting off in reverse and moving towards Terrorhurtz who is clearly supporting some new armour after its last fight, and it's obvious to see as there's still one or 2 pieces of gaffa tape holding something on though what that is I'm not exactly sure. Gehenna immediately sets to work at the side of Terrorhurtz trying to get the drum into action. It can only flick at the skirts on the sloped sides though and whilst catching them, it can do little more than leave a flail-like set of scratches. AJ attempty to keep harrassing the former grand finalist, keeping inside close quarters to the sides, but realising he can't do any damage to them, he attempts to move closer to the front to have a go at the flatter and weaker polcarbonate. Terrorhurtz turns though and slams the axe down, landing on the top of the angle of the wedgeand leaving a small slice as a token of their affection.

AJ already seems a little worried by the resistance being shown by Terrorhurtz, who many had just expected to roll over and die very quickly here and so designs on a change of tact. He turns the robot around and tries to get back to the sides, only this time trying to negate the skirts with the ultra-low ground cleaeance with the front wedge. He tries to slide underneath but he juust grinds out against them. He tries to push forward but the angular sides make it difficult to push against even with the skirting, and it makes it very easy for Terrorhurtz to turn around and fire the axe again, this time clubbing forcefully on the flipper panel. There's no signs at all of a perforation, however there's clearly been a bend either in the plate itself or in support for the flipper. AJ backs away and fires the flipper, seemingly to test that it's still functional, and whatever has caused it, it is as the flipper opens and closes again with no problems at all.

Terrorhurtz decides it can be more aggressive now and moves forwards, looking to hit Gehenna staight on again but AJ makes Gehenna put in a quick burst of speed, sliding underneath Terrohurtz at the front, and the reflexive firing of the axe by Steve at the Terrorhurtz controls only serves to get Terrorhurtz in an even better position. AJ seems a little unsure as to where to take Terrorhurtz so just drives in a straight line towards the side wall to try and get a good line to flip him out of the arena. He fails in his efforts but does manage to get Terrorhurtz on his side against the wall. Gehenna backs away to try and get the momentum for another go but Terrorhurtz uses his axe against the wall to roll it back over onto its wheels, leading AJ to slam straight into the wall. Terrorhurtz tries to get its balance back quickly and does so, trapping a slightly jaded Gehenna up against the wall and slamming down four, five, six times in a row on the top. He's dented the lid and actually cleaved a slice into it in one place.

AJ manages to get his bearings back and get all 4 wheels touching the ground and gets a huge amount of traction, using the rear to push Terrorhurtz away and eventually after grinding into the polycarbonate, turning Terrorhurtz back over once more. Terrorhurtz fires the axe trying to self-right but Gehenna continues to nag at the bottom of him and is making little snips in the base panel, the drum seemingly not for big damage but capable of doing some accumulatively. Gehenna slams Terrorhurtz into the side wall once again and sparks fly as the angle grinders meet the axe head. Gehenna has to back off and only then is it that Terrorhurtz can right himself once more, wobbling slightly before going the correct way up, but Gehenna had backed away and turned around and comes back in with the flipper again, getting a good flip in this time, but the circulaw saw dock prevents him from getting what looks like it would have been a clean out of the arena shot.

Terrorhurtz gets back on it's wheels yet AGAIN, but still AJ will not let Gehenna relent for a second, getting back underneath Terrorhurtz and driving him down to the far end where Sgt Bash sits in his corner patrol zone. Gehenna fires the flipper but Steve pre-emptively fires the axe which takes out the sergeant's flamethrower! Gehenna flips again now that Terrohurtz's axe is intertwined with the house robots maimed weapon and once again, completely unintentionally, this causes Sgt Bash great harm, as the axe head pulls him over as Terrorhurtz is toppled. Terrorhurtz self-rights almost immediately, only for Shunt to muddy the situation by flying down from the other end of the arena and slamming into Gehenna who hits the wall and is axed by Shunt. It's totally fair as Gehenna WAS sat in the CPZ, but it lets Terrorhurtz out, while Gehenna gets swiped ineffectually by Shunt. Terrorhurtz seems to take it upon himself to ram the dead frame of Sergeant Bash back over, presumably thinking that he would help to do some more damage to Gehenna, but he soon realised that this plan is not going to work and leaves for the middle of the arena to plan his next attack for when Gehenna makes his probable escape.

Gehenna manages to swivel his way around in the CPZ and as Shunt's axe comes down, making barely a mark in the titanium and vanadium alloy armour, for the last time, Gehenna slides underneath him and throws him over. Both the house robots are dead at the hands of the house robots. Gehenna begins to start driving up towards the top of the arena but Terrorhurtz comes across attempting to intercept, and slamming down the axe, only for him to miss. This allows Gehenna to pick up a burst of speed which he uses to run up to the top of the arena and hit the pit release but as the floor descendes and the chorus of air raid sirens wail out, Terrorhurtz has managed to catch him again and slams the axe down, another 2 blows leave another small dent, and enlarge one of the little slices. Gehenna slams into reverse again, scratching up the front panels once more with the drum, but Terrorhurtz tries to veer out the way, succeeds and Gehenna nearly flies down into the pit he just opened himself!

He turns around, only to see Terrorhurtz coming towards him trying to shove him in, but he drives forwards and gets the wedge underneath, driving him over towards the wall again and flipping. Once more he doesn't quite get the angle right, but this time he just spins on a sixpence and slams into Terrorhurtz with the drum, the first couple of impacts scratching the sides before putting a slight bend in the corner of one of the skirts with the next attack. Terrorhurtz self-rights once again in this fight and looks to get an angle to bring the axe down once again only to see the Refbot's counter timing down for the end of the fight. As Terrorhurtz tries to get one last sneaky axe blow in, the voice from above shouts his last command.

CEASE!

Well that was a truly epic battle, let's see how the judges scored the match.

Damage -
Gehenna - 4 x 4 = 16
Terrorhurtz - 6 x 4 = 24

Terrorhurtz caused slightly more damage with the small slices into the top of Gehenna, than Gehenna did with the scratching with the drum.

Aggression -
Gehenna - 6 x 3 = 18
Terrorhurtz - 4 x 3 = 12

Gehenna's attacks were slightly more brutal in their consistency as opposed to Terrorhurtz's slightly more opportunistic ones

Control -
Gehenna - 6x 2 = 12
Terrorhurtz - 4x 2 =8

Gehenna although making a couple of mistakes, would quite often rectify that by foiling Terrorhurtz's advances, which although Terrorhurtz did as well, the frequency makes the judges lean slightly towards Gehenna

Style -
Gehenna - 5 x 1 = 5
Terrorhurtz - 5 x 1 = 5

Both robots made stylish manouvres in different ways, Terrorhurtz with the jumping attacks and the self-righting, Gehenna with its more sleak and smooth flipping style.

Totals -
Gehenna - 51
Terrorhurtz - 49

Well it could not get ANY closer. The number 3 seeds are through by the skin of their teeth, while Terrorhurtz must feel truly gutted to go home here.


And after that great match, the show must go on as SOTAR, who we saw so beat Equinox so violently and impressively, take on the number 17 seeds, Flick of the Wrist.

In shape, Flick of the Wrist is a Tornado clone, but don't let that fool you as he's so much more. a 2WD machine with 6 wheels for added grip, Flick of the Wrist is armed with 2 fully invertible hardox lifting spikes. The 7mm armour is useful as well. It has no damaging weaponry however and the high top speed can make it tricky to control.

Previous History - Only made it to round 2 of the last wars, but gets its seeding based on good past performances, getting to the heat final of series 3 and the last 8 of series 4.

Let's switch over to the arena, where your house robots for this fight are Sir Killalot and Growler.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Before anyone even has time to blink Flick of the Wrist is right on Tracy's case, attempting to stop SOTAR spinning up with the forks fully out in the air, seemingly being used as some kind of battering ram. It stops the ring from spinning and Tracy clearly wasn't expecting that as she hammers frantically at the controls trying to give herself the space she needs to spin up SOTAR's immensely powerful spinning ring. Martijn isn't about to give her that opportunity though if he can help it and so slams back into SOTAR, this time with the forks down, trying to get underneath the barely spinning shell as one of the slow moving teeth just knocks him away gently. The shell still isn't up to speed though, and this is exactly what Martijn needs if he's going to take Flick of the Wrist to a 3rd heat final and into an all-seeded final at that.

There's one problem though. Although Martijn is doing everything in the book and more in these early stages, the shape of SOTAR, as well as the low teeth moving, however slowly, means it's very difficult to get a hold of and so all Martijn can do is to attempt to manouvre SOTAR towards something through a series of constant forward and reverse manouvres. He's accepting that for now though and once again slams into SOTAR, knocking her slightly further back towards the near end of the arena where BOTH house robots are currently choosing to sit. The same process and again SOTAR is knocked further back, this hit even knocking the Team Alt creation slightly off balance but only for a split second.

Marrtijn continues his onslaught but this time for whatever reason, Tracy just manages to move enough to get out of the way and Martijn slightly overruns his charge. Tracy begins moving away far enough to make some headway, and Martijn has to turn and then come in for another charge. He keeps the forks to the ground on the off-chance that they may find their way underneath but as he charges at SOTAR, Tracy has got her ring going right up towards its peak speed. As Martijn's forks make contact with the teeth of SOTAR, both robots are spun away, but Flick of the Wrist's forks are clearly up to the job as they seem to have taken little to no damage from that attack. The number 15 seeds are clearly extolling the virtues of Hardox weaponry.

Flick of the Wrist finds himself with the rear pointing towards SOTAR and so rather than waste time turning around to use the fork, he accelerates backwards and slams once more into SOTAR. Again both robots seem completely fine, though upon expection of the replacy it becomes obvious that SOTAR has put a big dent in the bottom part of the rear pointed body shell. Martijn knows that he can't take too many more of these hits, but SOTAR has other ideas and as Flick of the Wrist comes in again she glides to the side and the teeth make a clean contact with the side of Flick of the Wrist, using its near top speed to scythe through the 7mm titanium shell, showing us once again just how good this spinner is. Martijn comes in yet again, this time with the forks again, and once again they're up to the challenge, sending both spinning away scathe-free, only SOTAR it seems has spun dangerously close to Growler's CPZ!

Tracy again is seen hammering maniacally attempting to find a way to get her combatant out of trouble but Flick of the Wrist is on her like a shot, this time using the rear of the robot again. Another slice later, Flick of the Wrist is knocked away from the CPZ, whilst SOTAR is knocked right back into it. Flick of the Wrist sees this as his chance to peg it down the end of the arena to hit the pit release button, but as he streaks across the arena floor, SOTAR escapes almost immediately from the near jaws of doom. Martijn has no choice but to commit to hitting the button, but as the sirens screech, they're nearly drowned out by the sound made by SOTAR at what, if not full speed, must be terrifyingly near to it. Martijn knows his forks and actuator could be vulnerable at that speed and so tries to reverse into SOTAR, which impacts against the angle again, sending bits of metal flying.

The hit has sent Flick of the Wrist slamming into the side wall, forks first, and presents SOTAR with the perfect opportunity to slam into Flick of the Wrist again. She does so, and angle or no angle, what was left of the panel underneath the rear point is flung across the arena, and Martijn is slammed from close quarters into the wall, this time with the wall protecting his now exposed rear. The impact has also flung SOTAR into the angle grinder though, with no room to spin! Martijn sees his opportunity and uses the forks to slam into SOTAR slamming Tracy's slowed aggressor into the angle grinder again, and for the first time in the fight, managing to get underneath it.

Flick of the Wrist slowly lifts it's prongs and edges slowly forward whilst turning. Martijn gradually sets himself up for an attack on the pit and with several slow adjustments manage to get himself perfectly lined up. He struggles to control the speed of his machine and so jerkily sets about getting the Canadian opposition towards the pit. He's nearly there when he puts his proverbial foot down slightly too much and rolls SOTAR over. Both roboteers have a brief panic, one trying to escape, one in trying to win, but try as Tracy might, it's too late as with one last speedy shunt, Flick of the Wrist prongs his way into his opponent, as well as into the heat final, while Tracy finds it's a long way to fall into oblivion.

CEASE

Flick of the Wrist isn't arthritic yet. A valiant effort from SOTAR, but she's out. Flick of the Wrist go through to the heat final.

And what a heat final it promises to be:

Gehenna 2 (3) v Flick of the Wrist (15)

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Ergonomic keyboard?

bugger, there goes my prediction streak...well written though!

I don't think Gehenna can do much to Flick, I'll reluctantly say Flick of the Wrist will win.

Gehenna 2 vs. Flick of the Wrist

I don't know whether it will work or not, but my aim will be to try and stack Flick of the Wrist up against the arena wall. I will use my maneuverability advantage to keep my wedge facing Flick of the Wrist, so that when it tries to push me, it should just ride straight up the wedge, and then I can push it around myself.

Good luck, Marti.

Remember that pak choi I gave you, Zarte...

Marti sez: (for it is he, he cannot log in from his present computer): okay, keep on facing his sides and rear corners with my forks... the rear corners should be safe since the reach of that spinner isnt awefully big, lift, push, use the hazards :P if he wedges me, I have my design such that my rear wheels will keep contact with the ground a la Tornado, so drive off ASAP, good luck Andy!

Well that was painful but expected :P well done Tracey and great fights Zarte :)

Against Traffic Warden I think I stand more of a chance. It has a 10mm ground clearance all around - against my hinged wedge. I'll act more as a simple rammer - open the pit and push him in ASAP. it doesn't matter about the clamps or his better drive if he has no traction on the floor. The width of that machine doesn't make it easy for him either. Good luck Steve! :)

Welcome, welcome and welcome again to the Heat B final of ZFC where you join us for what promises to be a fantastic heat final here today.

Our number 3 seeds, Gehenna 2 are first in the arena, and in their only fight so far, they got past Terrorhurtz in the narrowest possible judges decision.

Their opponents, are the number 15 seeds, Flick of the Wrist, whose invertible design and lifting forks got them past SOTAR in a fantastic battle.

Your house robots today will be Mr. Psycho and once again, Growler.

Here we go.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

It's Flick of the Wrist who gets out of the blocks in the quicker fashion, but Gehenna isn't out much slower and the 2 meet almost immediately straight away and in a bizarre meeting of metal minds, Flick of the Wrist drives straight over the top. That was incredbinly reminiscent of Panic Attack v Cassius, and you could even see that these 2 are the modern day enhancements of those 2 machines. Gehenna slams into reverse and begins shoving Flick of the Wrist backwards, but unlike against Terrorhurtz, where the drum helped AJ hold on when shoving, the angles of Flick of the Wrist give very little assistance to Gehenna's attempt to get a hold on this fight, and so Flick of the Wrist soon manages to use his speed to get out of the way. He tries to turn into the side of Gehenna 2 , but whilst Flick of the Wrist has the speed, Gehenna has the manouvreability, and AJ just turns on a dime and has the wedge facing Flick of the Wrist.

Martijn tries to turn away but AJ manages to get underneath the forks and slides underneath him. Flick of the Wrist tries to reverse, but AJ sees this coming and fires the flipper for the first time in the fight. Flick of the Wrist is turned over, but although he's invertible, it gives AJ a chance to get underneath him again from the back. This also gives AJ the advantage of preventing Flick of the Wrist being able to reverse away, or so AJ thinks. Gehenna tries to go into forward drive but whether through luck or by Martijn's design, Flick of the Wrist's spikes are grinding against the wooden floor, and making it nigh on impossible for Gehenna to make any sort of advance whatsoever. AJ fires the flipper again in this instance, and once more Flick of the Wrist just gracefully rolls over. Martijn slams straight into forward gear, and this time he has somehow managed to find his way underneath the wedge, and tries shoving him forwards, whilst using the forks to lift him up in the aim of keeping him under his control. This fails however, as the slight elevation and the speed going forwards just sends Gehenna 2 rolling onto his back, Gehenna 2 fires the flipper almost immediately, and with a bit of a leap, lands almost perfectly on his wheels first time. No sooner has he landed though, but Flick of the Wrist is straight back on him.

This time he finds himself trying to slam into the back of Gehenna 2 with his prongs, but as his prongs are still slightly raised, they just meet the spinning drum, scattering the arena with sparks. It also lifts the prongs slightly further, but even so, Gehenna 2 cannot deny the immense power of Flick of the Wrist's magmotors and finds himself being rammed wedge-first into the wall. He tries to push back but can't, allowing Flick of the Wrist a chance to manouvre in at the side. Gehenna tries to reverse, but can't escape the lifting forks, and with a slight shove forwards into the angle grinders that are sticking out from the wall, he lifts Gehenna up and gently over. AJ tries to self-right straight away but the base just hits the wall. He fires 2 or 3 times in a row, but seems to be stuck in between the gap between the arena wall and the angle grinders and can't quite seem to wobble free.

Martijn knows that this fight is now his to lose, and decided to stay back rather than trying to go in for the kill and ppossibly surrendering his advantage. AJ is still firing the flipper continuously, but it seems to be showing a decline in power, and the look etched on his face is one that accepts his imminent defeat. The Refbot comes in, and as the countdown begins, Flick of the Wrist begins doing a little victory dance, before, as the count reaches 10, raising his forks in the air victoriously. But it doesn't end there, oh no, not for Gehenna. Mr. Psycho comes over and begins bashing it with the hammer, doing nothing more than leaving a great dent, but humiliating Gehenna even further. He then scoops him up in the claw, and hoists him up into the air, parading him around the outside of the arena to the audience, seemingly as a reminder to what happens to robots who try and attack the house robots as Gehenna did to Shunt in round 2. Finally, he lowers the arm to outside of the arena and lets him go, just to remind AJ of the out of the arena he failed to achieve in this series.

CEASE!

Gehenna's seeding is reduced to psyhotic mockery. Flick of the Wrist extends 2 fingers to the number 3 seed, and takes his number 15 self into the semi-finals.

And so the heat C line-up, with a slight change due to a clash.

Bloody Frigid v Compression
Super Gore Eahta v Nurse Pain

Round 2

Back To Rock III (5) v ???
Spin Dash Unleashed (17) v ???

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Paper Bags?

woohoo! is my prediction streak going to start up again?!? :P

er, already given tactics and predictions, good luck everybody and well done so far Zarte :)

EDIT: ooh...I never noticed the switch :| err...

Bloody Frigid vs. Compression

Again, depends on who gets under who. Frigid seems to put more weight at the front so I'll go with Tracy I guess. :|

Sorry Lewis, you hadn't posted when I had to change the draw. I only just noticed Traffic Warden and Spin Dash in the same heat.

Welcome to the first round of Heat C of the ZFC where we have 2 more battles waiting for you.

First off, an apology. Due to me not noticing Steve would've had 2 robots in this heat, Traffic Warden has been replaced by Bloody Frigid. Apologies to Lewis who has posted tactics for the previous draw.

Anyway, after that, let's kick off with battle 1!

First in is the aforementioned Bloody Frigid. With it's wedge shape, crushing arm and srimech that comes from the side of the arm, it seems to me a little bit like a Razer clone, but who better to clone than a twice world champion! However it's vulnerable to attacks from the rear.

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

The opposition for Tracy today, comes in the form of Compression, another crushing robot only this time horizontal. 2 claws with 4.5 tonnes at the tip and a barbed hinged wedge form the weapons synergy, and a top speed of 25mph makes it tough to catch. But the drive isn't strongest, and like its nemesis, the rear is vulnerable.

Let's cross over to the arena, where your house robots for this battle are Shunt and Matilda.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

And we're under way, and immediately two very different plans of attack in this one. Both machines know that one attack could give this fight its result very quickly, but they appear to have interpreted that differently. Lewis appears to be the more cautious, starting slowly and purposefully, looking to stalk his prey, whilst Tracy has flown out of the gates on a crash course straight for Lewis. Tracy hits Lewis at the front but only manages to get underneath the claw, wobbling Lewis, but not putting either Compression or herself at risk. Bloody Frigid and Compression both find themselves facing back to back, but both turn almost in synchronicity, giving the fight a brief feeling of being comparative to an old Western movie. Tracy begins trying to circle Compression, but to no avail as Lewis just keeps the front of Compression facing Bloody Frigid, as if to offer her the vicious bear hug he has to offer.

Tracy keeps the wedge facing but begins to reverse, seemingly trying to get a long enough run up to try and get the speed required to get underneath Compression. Lewis is wise to this though, and follows Tracy slowly, until Tracy finds herself in such a position where she can go back no further, and couldn't get enough speed up to get underneath Compression successfully. To make matters even more difficult she finds herself with the CPZ of Shunt to her right. She begins to turn to her only free path, but as she does so Compression puts on a burst of speef, having spied his opportunity to get the KO blow in. Tracy isn't about to fall for that trick though and turns at the last moment, leading Compression to drive straight up the wedge.

Tracy sees her opportunity and so immediately brings the claw down but a combination of the shape and how high up the wedge Compression has driven, means Bloody Frigid just can't get a proper hold on the situation, or her opponent for that matter. The underneath of the claw puts a little bit of an impression into Compression but nothing more, and even that would be barely be noticeable if we weren't aware it was there. Tracy curses her luck and tries very delicately to reverse as far as she can to get Compression further down the front, but this just allows Compression to make some contact on a flat surface with his wheels and reverse quickly to safety. Tracy tries to come in for another attack straight away, but Lewis is once more pre-empting this, and spins around the side as she comes. She hits the inside of Compression's claw and now it's Lewis who has the opportunity to put the squeeze on Bloody Frigid.

He has to close the jaws without trapping Bloody Frigid on the barbs and as they shut, he finds that the wedge shape just leads to a couple of small dents as he can't get a good hold from the side. He tries to move forwards to get underneath further, but has to open the claws to do so, leaving all the gap that Bloody Frigid needs to get the hell out of there. On getting out she immediately swings around the side of Compression, and adjusting her line, whilst Compression goes back to keeping the front facing eternally, she slams into reverse and into the pit release button. Compression tries following her, but as he hits her head-on, the 2 wedges just find themselves going straight against one another. Compression closes his jaws, but they can't get a grip on the small surface area available to them, just scratching the black paintwork on the 8mm titanium monocoque. At the same time, Bloody Frigid tries to use her superior pushing power to push Compression backwards, but Lewis makes his machine put in an extra burst of speed to easily outrun the Razer-esque machine.

The crowd seem distinctly unimpressed by this fight and a chorus of boos ring out throughout the arena, clearly disgruntled that two machines with potential to cause much devastation are merely playing a game of cat and mouse, in which both are trying to be the cat, but both aren't very good at it. Even the house robots seem unimpressed and Shunt begins advancing from his CPZ, however Refbot just begins driving towards him and it's enough to send him back where he belongs. No need for any yellow cards here, Ref. Meanwhile back in the centre, both robots are gradually circling each other once more, engaged in what a particular old-fashioned singer would describe as a masochism tango, both moving closely around the arena, hoping for the slip up which will see the being provided with the opportune moment to strike.

Even Tracy and Lewis are beginning to look slightly embarassed now, but neither of them are willing to do anything that could risk their place in round 2, even though one of them will be eliminated on a judges decision even if this fight goes the distance. The boos from the crowd have been replaced by the chant of Try and bloody hit to the rhythm of Put them in the pit but still neither roboteer will back down, especially not after having been quite so careful for quite so long. Compression momentarily comes forward as if to make an advance, but Bloody Frigid holds her ground before Compression appears to change his mind. Bloody Frigid swerves a surprisingly long way in terms of this fight and drives towards the side of the arena, near the angle grinders and Compression begins to go forwards on the attack but Bloody Frigid moves out of the way, the intention clearly having been to lead Lewis on, and he spots this early enough, stopping well short and backing out of trouble.

Tracy seems to feel that she at least tried to do something to change the course of the fight, but it felt more like passive aggression to me, so I have no idea how the judges would look upon that, and it seems to me like a forgone conclusion that they will have to, with very little time of this fight remaining. The crowd are still getting steadily more and more enraged by this display, indeed a group of fans appear to be doing an impersonation of synchronised swimming, whilst another is quite graphically miming hanging himself near the front. The 2 robots carry on circling each other, occasionally making the occasional alteration to their angle and direction, trying to tempt to the other into a haphazard charge or ill-thought through attack but both drivers are holding firm.

The Refbot surveys all around him, and finally seems to decide that enough is enough. As the clock hits 10 on his LED display, the boos ring out louder than ever, in appreciation of what may be the most uneventful fight in the tournaments history.

CEASE!

Well I don't know how they're going to call it, but we have to hand over to the judges on this one.

Damage -
Bloody Frigid - 4 x 4 = 16
Compression - 6 x 4 = 24

The superficial damage done by Compression was slightly more noticeable than that done by Bloody Frigid.

Aggression -
Bloody Frigid - 6 x 3 = 18
Compression - 4 x 3 = 12

The judges said that whilst passive aggression would not normally be looked upon favourably, in this instance they had no other choice.

Control -
Bloody Frigid - 4 x 2 = 8
Compression - 6 x 2 = 12

Again, the judges said the difference was negligible, but Compression's control in managing to keep up his defence and not fall into the few traps laid by Bloody Frigid was slightly superior

Style -
Bloody Frigid - 5 x 1 = 5
Compression - 5 x 1 = 5

The judges refused to class anything in the fight as stylish and so had to split the points evenly.

Totals -
Bloody Frigid - 47
Compression - 53

Well, the slow handclaps round the arena say it all really. Compression goes through to round 2!



OK, so let's hope the 2nd fight of round 1 is more entertaining than that one. First into the arena is Super Gore Eahta. This tracked robot is our third crusher in the heat armed with interchangeable horizontal pairs. The weapon and drive are both strong, however the tracks could be vulnerable.

Previous History - Got to round 2 in its only previous appearance (0.5 points)

His opponent today is Nurse Pain. Nurse Pain would be a very Son of Whyachi inspired machine, however due to coming in very over the weight limit for shufflers, he's just a box with very thin armour with a lot of holes in, and it might not have enough batteries to last until the end.

Previous History - New Entry

Your house robots today will be Dead Metal and Mr. Psycho. And now! To the Warzone!

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Both machines come straight out of the blocks, with Super Gore Eahta having the slightly superior acceleration over Nurse Pain, who looks fantastically underwhelming without any weaponry and all the weight-reducing holes in the armour. It is Lian's robot though who does actually get the first attack in, as Kody turns Super Gore Eahta slightly too slowly and bumps into the side of him, though that will hardly give Kody any sleepless nights at all. Kody turns and retaliates, closing the jaws round whilst ramming him into the arena side walls. A huge crumpling occurs in the side panel on both sides of Nurse Pain whilst sparks fly as the angle grinders try and slice into the flimsy armour on the back.

Super Gore Eahta lets Nurse Pain escape to the near end of the arena, but is soon back on her case again, getting a hold on in almost an identical place and widening the already gaping chasms. He slams him into the wall and the arena shakes under the impact. Of all the crushers in the heat, Super Gore Eahta would've been the least expected to cause damage, but the crowd is in raptures at the destruction, probably made even more pertinent by the fight they had to watch before. You can hear the claws doing unspeakable things to the shuffling pads inside the robot, and indeed as Super Gore Eahta lets go again, Nurse Pain seems to be walking with somewhat of a limp.

Kody seems to be toying with Nurse Pain now, letting her hobble away at depleting speeds, before catching up with her and getting a grip again. This time he embraces her from the side, Nurse Pain fitting perfectly in Super Gore Eahta's arm span without the hammers on. The thin titanium seems to pop as it closes round, in what must seem an eternity for Lian but in terms of crusher speeds, with great speed, but not to mention precision. Kody once again backs off, but this time as he does so, Nurse Pain doesn't run away. It appears that that last attack got Nurse Pain's receiver and now there is no life left whatsoever.

Dead Metal and Mr. Psycho hover around the body like flies as Refbot's counter counts up to ten. As the last count is clocked, Mr. Psycho releases the sledgehammer straight on top of Nurse Pain, denting the top right in. Dead Metal then takes a hold, and sparks flying from his saw while he does so, pushes Nurse Pain onto the drop zone. The crowd chant for the load to be dropped and they get their wish. And it's... it's a Mini! They've dropped a Mini on Nurse Pain. He looks somewhat flatter than he did previously and as Dead Metal drags her from the rubble, Super Gore Eahta releases the pit. Dead Metal takes the hint, and with little effort drops her into the pit

CEASE!

Nurse Pain must have been the one woman not to be keeping an eye on her weight! Super Gore Eahta, ate her! Kody gets his bot through to round 2.


And so the round 2 draw:

First off, as a precursor, I just want to say that battle 1 was in no way a reflection of my opinion on the 2 machines. I just felt that with 2 similar robots in many respects, and with it likely to come down to one clear opportunity, a defensive attitude was the most likely to be taken.

Anyway, the board looks like this.

Back To Rock III (5) v Compression
Spin Dash Unleashed (17) v Super Gore Eahta

Thoughs, Tactics, Predictions, Sour Skittles for me?

Back to Rock III up against Compression...

those huge massive hugging arms... what can a man do? his front is lethal and his front is WIDE, however his design is also such that when I sneak up behind him, behind such arm, he can do little, very little... his shape prevents him from quickly turning around... or even turning around at all since such arm will hit me and he cant exactly do much from there...
whereas I, where he attacks me from, can always turn around and do... something

get under is what I wanna do, from behind those claws preferably, get under, lift, do damage, use hazards, that's what

Kody brought up the nice point of weight on the wedge (thank you Kody!), and even though it didnt help Tracy much, my whole lifting arm is bound to have more mass pushing it to the floor than Compression's mere skirt...

last but not least, if Compression manages to grab me, if I still have the slightest bit of traction left...
... PUSH BACK!

best of luck Lewis

Erm, woo! :P

Back to Rock III (5) vs. Compression

yeah, not seeing too much Lewis can do

Spin Dash Unleashed (17) vs. Super Gore Eahta

Pointed/wedge claws, please. I'm going to take off the speed limiter for the gearbox to make SGE run at the top 20mph speed. Anyway, his 75cm width makes him nice and easy to fit within my claws, so I'm going to go right at him aggressively. His side skirts actually provide me with a very good opportunity of damage. If my claws don't slide underneath the skirts, they'll ride up the skirts and pierce his sides, or breaking a skirt hinge, or at the very least clamp on hard to the 4mm Hardox, while my tracks stay on the ground and outdo his 6WD. From there I'll push him into a house robot or hazard. If I get under the skirts, I'll lift him up and slam him into a house robot or the open pit, or just a wall if neither are available. Because of his 6WD, he'll find it a bit hard to get to my sides, and with a small saw like that against my titanium tracks it might not even matter much. The central pivot of my claws are pretty much shielded by the claws themselves, and he'll be hard pressed to damage their 5mm Hardox either.

I am going to be on his case all match. Do not let up for even a single moment. Ultimately I want him down the pit.

G'luck Steve m'boy!

No worries about the draw Zarte, especially seen as I won :P well written fight too, unlucky Tracey. I suppose most uneventful fight is an accolade of sorts :P

In the next round I'll try and pull off a kind of Crushtacean/Behemoth type fight. Hopefully my wedge will fit between his front lifting plates so I can get underneath and take control with my claws and pit him ASAP. I'll reverse into the release button at the start to defend my rear ( :P ) and keep my front facing him. I'll use my speed to do that at all times. Good luck Martijn :D