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Fight 3 Vs. Antithesis:
Fight starts at 1:14:30.
https://i.imgur.com/ZKkSJx8.jpeg
Me and Antithesis pre-fight.
My next match was up against arguably the standout performer of the tournament, Antithesis. This crusher had gone through numerous iterations leading up to this tournament, but the builder Jed really seemed to find the sweet spot this time round between drive power, an effective front end, and a nasty crusher capable of piercing top armour, as it had done in both of its prior fights.
https://i.imgur.com/sTwKrxX.jpeg
Antithesis with a forceful grab on me (compare this to some of the images above to see where the main lifter bolt should be).
Within seconds of the fight starting, Antithesis managed to hook onto the bolt of the lifter mechanism, and crushed the entire bulkhead right down deep into the robot (it turns out hollowing out your bulkheads can be a negative in this one particular instance). Antithesis had to let go after the 20 seconds were up, and somehow the lifter mechanism seemed to spring back into place. Afterwards we continued to have our tête-à-tête’s, but while we both had similar drive power, my TPU fork setup seemed to come out the loser against the steel forks of my opponent, and eventually Antithesis managed to hook onto the front end of my wedgelet setup, and skilfully manoeuvred me into the pit, knocking me out at the round of 16 stage of a competition once more. Fortunately I had no lasting damage from the excruciating attack from Antithesis, but if I had a nickel for everytime I lost to a crusher in the BW scene via pitting and surviving with minimal damage, despite a grab that got into the innards of the bot, then I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
https://i.imgur.com/pOtrhQD.jpeg
The more gentle bite that would ultimately take me out of the competition.
Fight 4 Vs. Bob Toss, Fatal Deviation, Siren:
Fight starts at 1:43:06.
Normally once I get eliminated from a tournament around the top 32/16 stage (read: everytime), I like to throw Babróg into a spinner melee to test the robots durability, but since I already had a good idea of how durable this iteration of the robot was, and I was going to be going to another tournament in a short time anyway (Battle in the Burgh 4), I decided instead to enter a non-spinner whiteboard. However, I did find another way to spice up this match. Throughout the day I had been providing commentary for many of the fights throughout the tournament, and there was a group decision that I would provide live commentary for the fight that I was currently competing in.
https://i.imgur.com/yIUk9yM.jpeg
The chaos of the start of the fight.
The other competitors in this whiteboard were all lifters, including the bricky Fatal Deviation, the angular Siren, and the artistic Bob Toss along with its minibot Beat the Devil. This match was pretty hectic even without trying to provide my own commentary, with each machine managing some decent shoves of their own. I failed a few times to get an effective suplex on my opponents, though I was generally able to shove opponents around. The fight started to favour me once the pit button was pressed, and a fortunate shove on Bob Toss eliminated one of my opponents. Shortly after, I managed to flip both Siren and Fatal Deviation with a single flip, something which I reckon would have been impossible with the old setup. Siren was shoved into the pit shortly after, and in what may have been my favourite move in the tournament so far, I managed to suplex Fatal Deviation straight into the pit itself. I finally attempted to suplex Beat the Devil out of the arena, but failing that and running low on time, I elected instead to shove my final opponent into the pit.
Conclusion:
This was another really fun event for me, and provided me with further info at what this new Babróg is good and bad at. The positives to take away were ones I had previously established at Robot Rebellion, but could be confirmed once again. The new lifter has been a direct upgrade from the original machine, with stalling and slipping as issues being removed entirely. The additional length of the lifter forks has been a small upgrade, but it does seem to have made scoring a grab as opposed to a lift slightly more consistent. The new TPU parts have also performed very well, with the new front end capable of actually matching some modern day forked front ends, and the TPU wedge looks to straddle a decent balance between taking hits while remaining viable against fork-heavy designs.
Some design limitations do remain however; the horizontal config continues to struggle at hooking onto and lifting opponents, my drive platform continues to lose effectiveness fast once an opponent gets under me (though the cutouts at the rear do grant me a small amount of additional control), and I can still get out-wedged by control bots in head on scenarios. Many of these issues are hard to solve due to my design goals, since Babróg has always been designed to counter spinning weapons over control-based designs, and this tankiness comes at the cost of recessed internals that limit the angles at which I can effectively drive. This competition ultimately didn’t give me too many opportunities to face spinners, though the fact I performed as well as I did against so many control bots does give me some confidence regarding this platform going forward.
And that was the BBB Beetle Champs 2024. Once again, my thanks to all the folks who do all of the behind the scenes work, and to all of the competitors who put on a hell of a show. Special congrats to Antithesis for the remarkable run the robot had this time round, Impulse for its great performances as a control bot against some nasty spinners, and Frenzy for its entertaining run to the championship! I look forward to updating you all on how I performed in Burgh, probably my most anticipated competition of the entire year!
https://i.imgur.com/A4f2cDo.jpeg
The crushed bulkhead the day after the tournament. No visible signs of damage at all, it's mad how the elastic properties of HDPE play out sometime.
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Battle In The Burgh 4:
My final event for 2024 was one that had been on my bucket list for a long time, Battle In The Burgh. Any excuse to go to Scotland was always appreciated (helps to have family in Edinburgh to stay with!), and the idea of a multi-day event always appeals to me. Unfortunately this iteration of the competition had to be shortened down to a single day, but the field still seemed like a super interesting one, with a lot of heavy hitters and robots you usually don’t see as often in English events. Babróg went over almost literally untouched from BBB Champs, save for a quick once-over of everything to replace any cracked prints, clean out any pulleys, and to tighten or replace any screws needing attention.
The format for BITB 4 (or “Burgh”, as the cool kids would call it. Allegedly. Possibly.) was a fight night format, where every robot would compete in three 1v1 matches, drawn at random at the start of the day. Points were awarded for wins, and victories via judges decisions were worth less than KO’s. From there, the top 16 scorers would move on to a single-elimination bracket until a winner was crowned. There would also be a tag-team competition available for those who were knocked out before the top 8, so based on previous pedigree I was a shoe in for taking part in that.
https://i.imgur.com/KnkvnwX.jpg
Babróg ready for its first fight!
Fight 1 Vs. 3 Robots In A Trench Coat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh5vomIzIu4
Fight starts at 00:00.
My first match was against my pit neighbour, 3 Robots In A Trench Coat, a modular design capable of swapping its internal components between three different armour and weapon configurations. I was actually asked by the builder Alys which config she should run, and I answered honestly that the wide TPU config would be the most effective in getting underneath and beaching me. This would also be a solid test for my new TPU wedgelets config in how effectively I could get underneath such a squirrely opponent, even when I may not have the reach advantage.
https://i.imgur.com/O93FOzU.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/Yhgc297.jpeg
Some pretty intense back and forth between the two of us in this fight. Full credit to Reese from RBS Media for the fantastic fight photos!
This was a fight of sweaty palms for both of us I reckon. 3 Robots had an advantage in raw drive power, but this left the robot to wheelie quite a lot, even with a large magnet embedded in the central wedge. My main goal was to keep my front end pointed at 3 Robots at all times, as if they got around me, I could get pushed into the pit very quickly. Getting a solid lift on 3 Robots proved remarkably tricky due to its shape, as well as how often a wheel tended to be on the ground. This was one of my more boring drives, but control was the aim for me, and I felt like that was the major factor that pushed the fight in my favour. 3 Robots did manage some very nice slams on Babróg, and both of us danced around the pit numerous times, but ultimately it ended up going to the judges, and Babróg managed to start the competition off with a win.
Fight 2 Vs. Dearc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZgJs0tsRXw
Fight starts at 9:21.
My second match was against another control bot in Dearc, run by Chris Thompson, and designed by Ari Callister. Given that Ari’s other robot, Frenzy, had won the last competition I was at, I knew that Dearc would be a solid bot, and it’s a credit to Chris that he got the bot working as well as he did going into this fight after surviving a full distance fight against the nasty horizontal spinner Just a Wee Slice. Dearc would run its long forks in this match, so this would be another major test as to how well Babróg could perform against metal forks.
https://i.imgur.com/87exnKG.jpg
Me and Dearc coming together.
The start of the fight proved pretty cagey, I seemed to have a small advantage in the ground game, but I was unable to get a decent grab on Dearc, while they managed a single good grab on me, but were unable to convert it to anything major. I felt like I was starting to build some momentum in my favour, but unfortunately I seemed to lose a side of drive a little over halfway into the fight. All I could do at this stage was to keep my front facing Dearc at all costs, and this led to the one and only suplex I would achieve in the match. The fight ultimately went to the judges once more, and by a split decision, I had done just about enough to secure my second win.
After the fight, I was left with the time-consuming process of dismantling the broken drive side and to see what was the issue. I finally discovered that the failure was that the metal teeth on the pinion gear had been completely stripped, removing the connection from the motor to the gearbox. On one hand, I was happy that the failure was not in the same manner as previous failures such as plastic gears failing or the pinion coming loose from the shaft, but this did have me wondering how much I could use each drive setup before they needed to be replaced. I do also suspect that the gearbox may not have been entirely centered on the motor, and that may have been a cause of the increased wear, but I feel like I would need to get some more data before jumping too early to conclusions.
https://i.imgur.com/GSCPwJb.jpg
The completely rounded out pinion. Trust me, getting this out was a pain.
Fight 3 Vs. Medusa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EUD6U_19iA
"Fight" starts at 00:42.
My final fight night match was meant to be against Medusa, a very solidly built horizontal spinner. I saw this as a perfect time to test out my new TPU horizontal setup, although with all of the repairs I needed to do with the motor replacement, I was slightly concerned that I would run out of time to make it to the match. The repairs were eventually completed however, and I was ready to complete. Unfortunately, Medusa has sustained too much damage to its electronics in its previous matches, and so with my proof of functionality, I took a third win via technicality. Not the cleanest run of fights I have ever had, but I was happy to have made it in a very healthy state to the round of 16!
Fight 4 Vs. Daisy (the Cow):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5CxL9sKMY
Fight starts at 00:00.
My top 16 match was against Daisy (the Cow), another lifter bot which interestingly ran a shuffler mechanism for drive, allowing the robot to be heavier than standard designs. From previous matches, I had noticed that while Daisy was invertible, it couldn’t use its lifter to self-right, so once I secured the first lift, I wasn’t going to go for another unless I knew I could take full advantage of it. I had one scary moment near the pit where my fork nearly got stuck on one of the lips of it, but I managed to free myself. Eventually I got another nice lift, went for the pit button, but instead managed to suplex Daisy out of the arena, scoring my first suplex OotA and making it past the top 16 for the first time in one move!
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Fight 5 Vs. Just a Wee Slice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5CxL9sKMY
Fight starts at 7:59.
My quarter-final matchup would finally put me up against a spinner for the first time this tournament, and it was a nasty one in Just a Wee Slice. This horizontal spinner had put basically all of its weight possible into its weapon setup, and had landed some nasty blows against other competitors, including fellow control bot Bubblegum Lift which it had beaten in its round of 16 draw. I was originally going to run the new TPU wedge against him, but after a short conversation with Thomas Weatherley of Baby Dead Bod fame, I decided to run my (slightly worn at this point) titanium wedge, a decision I reckon in hindsight was critical to my performance in this battle.
https://i.imgur.com/sBaP7eA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/AIWxjKX.jpg
A lot of dynamic shots from this fight!
Right off the bat, I noticed that Just a Wee Slice was bouncing off the titanium wedge as opposed to the plastic, which was a major confidence boost for myself. While dangerous, at certain speeds, I could almost “dribble” Just a Wee Slice around into the arena wall to slow it down, and the more dramatic hits it would score against me wouldn’t do any lasting damage. The static grabber arm was taking the hits just like it should, although I was certainly taking more and more damage to the lifter forks, and even the lifter gear as Just a Wee Slice kept ricocheting into the taller parts of the robot. Eventually, my lifter mechanism was actually disabled, though I was still able to corral my opponent thanks to the static arm, and I started to get better at keeping Just a Wee Slice under pressure while it tried to get up to speed again. Once the pit went down, my chances of success went up dramatically, and after a few close calls, I finally managed to hook onto the rear of Just a Wee Slice, and with some careful driving, got them into the pit, securing a round in the top 4 in triumphant fashion!
https://i.imgur.com/sTKLF9E.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/juvzpPX.jpg
Babróg finally getting Just a Wee Slice into a vulnerable postion.
The damage in this fight was certainly significant, but most of it was exclusive to the horizontal config. There were plenty of slices into the top and side panels, but nothing some light carving with a box cutter couldn’t fix. The main lifter gear had actually cracked across some of the teeth, but none of the teeth engaged during a standard lift in that orientation, and I had a spare I could swap to anyway. The lifter forks had taken a proper beating, and the reason I lost the ability to lift was because one of the lifter forks had been bent underneath the front panel. This may have been an asset however; normally this config does not allow any grabbing motion, but because the lifting fork was stuck in place, I was able to bend the threaded bar connecting the grabbing arm to the forks just enough to bring the grabbing arm down on Just a Wee Slice, which is likely what made the difference in securing the win!
https://i.imgur.com/ETaEHVB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hnGNaVB.jpg
Some decent damage from the match, mainly against the front and top plates, the lifter forks, and the lifter gear.
Fight 6 Vs. Ray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5CxL9sKMY
Fight starts at 16:04.
My semi-final match was against fellow control bot Ray, whose builder Pip was also having their own dream run in the competition. This would actually be a rematch from BBB Brawl 2022, where I managed to take the win via an early flipping, and controlling the match from there. Me and Pip have been friends for years, and I reckon we were both happy to have made it so far, and would both want to see whoever made it through to win. However, I regret to say that at this stage of the competition, once I flipped Ray, I had no intention of righting him, and so was able to control the match rather anticlimactically from there. Without a self-righter, Ray was unable to use that wedge to any effect, and after an OK lift I rather clumsily “suggested” Ray out of the arena. Probably one of the lamer fights in my career, but it was wonderful that we both made it as far as we had, and I tried to take that positive momentum into the final match of the tournament!
https://i.imgur.com/yHFiGAm.jpg
Potentially my lamest win, but flipping a wedge-y opponent after having a win all but assured has cost me a grand final position before, with Barróg Doom at the 2019 UK Featherweight Champs!
Fight 7 Vs. Prototype:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5CxL9sKMY
Fight starts at 19:51.
Typical to the rest of the tournament, my final match was against another control bot, this being the front-hinged flipper of Prototype. Designed to be a beetleweight version of Team Immersion’s design seen in other weight classes, this bot had been skillfully driven and maintained by Will Owen throughout the day, and was on the verge of taking a tournament victory at the first time of asking. From previous experience I knew these robots tended to have an incredibly effective ground game (just ask any of the wooden floors these bots compete at), so this would be the ultimate test to see if my new TPU forks could keep up with the best.
https://i.imgur.com/8Bzhsep.jpg
Two control bots duking it out.
The fight started relatively evenly, with Prototype likely having a small edge in head to head engagements, though we were both quick enough to avoid any major shoves from the other. Eventually I get a nice suplex on Prototype and am able to pin them while upside down for 10 seconds to buy me some time and secure some points from the judges. Things seemed to be going well for me, but then unfortunately I end up getting a fork stuck under the pit, and Prototype immediately goes for the pit button as a result. I was trying everything I could to try and free myself as the siren was going down, but fortunately, the half-second where the latch under the pit releases and the flap falls was just enough to drive away, despite Prototype’s best efforts. I’m then able to get a suplex off of Prototype and guide them bit by bit into the pit, securing the victory and taking my first overall event win in the beetleweight category as a result!
https://i.imgur.com/nGGuYLW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3KFgBPl.jpg
Potentially "the money shots" of the tournament, certainly for Babróg at least!
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Fight 8/Gladiator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnzzovMZAiA
I was already ecstatic from taking the win, but as soon as we were unloaded from the arena they were already packing the arena for the final fight of the event, a gladiator where the last robot moving would take the win. Eager to see how well the standard config would fare against horizontal spinners, and to see where the limits are of the smaller battery, I decided to throw Babróg back into the arena with no modifications from the last fight, not even a battery swap.
So much happened in this fight that it was honestly hard to keep track of it all. Babróg managed to get several suplexes on opponents, and took some direct shots from horizontals with minimal damage outside of some bent bolts. I was trying to drive conservatively to save the battery, but whenever an opportunity presented itself I seemed to have enough pushing power throughout the match. Eventually the fight came down to a three way battle between myself, Just a Wee Slice, and 3 Robots, and despite a few direct hits, I was eventually able to get Just a Wee Slice stuck in a position where it couldn’t drive back down. Unfortunately after some back and forth shoving with 3 Robots, they managed to shove me down into the pit and take the win. Would have been nice to have won to complete the clean sweep, but I was just amazed that Babróg had made it as far as it had on only a 380mAh 4S battery!
https://i.imgur.com/jMqsjKp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/I5LRa5Z.jpg
Babróg post-gladiator. No photos of the bot in between the final and the gladiator, but no damage was suffered in the grand final, so a comparison would be pointless.
Conclusion:
Battle In The Burgh 4 went about as well as it could have for me, and I was just absolutely delighted to finally have a decent result under my belt, and be able to justify so many of the design decisions I have made over the past few years, particularly with the new Babróg. The lifter continued to work wonders, often able to lift two opponents simultaneously, and although the 37mm brushed motor would likely be the first place to look if I wanted to save weight, I’m happy to stick with it given its power and reliability, at least until the brushless equivalents become as dependable. The TPU wedgelets perform exactly to my needs as of right now; they scraped the ground without impacting mobility too much, were durable even when taking hits from horizontal spinners, and could compete with a range of both metal and other TPU forks, wedges, and wedgelets, and all without having needed one replacement over the past two events. The drive also continues to provide sufficient control while remaining competitive in pushing matches, which is especially impressive given how many of my opponents were using more powerful drive systems such as Ranglebox Mars’ or Repeat Max’s, so I don’t have to worry about the headache that would be fitting these larger assemblies into Babróg just yet.
There are definitely some design considerations to keep in mind for myself going forward however. The only mechanical failure I suffered during this event was one side of drive going during the Dearc fight, which had been the first drive failure I had since I believe Brawl 2023. For the first time, the failure point didn’t seem to be down to plastic gears or an insufficient shaft, but rather a metal component wearing itself down (although there is still a small possibility that the gearbox may not have been perfectly concentric on the motor, causing excessive wear). There really isn’t a lot that I can do to strengthen the motor further beyond replacing the shafts after a few events, though I am unsure exactly how many events this drive setup participated in. A more frustrating matter was in how long it took to fix the issue: Babróg’s motor mounting has always been more for weight and durability over easy access, but removing the wheel, motor, and ESC’s took basically all of the time I had between my second and third fights, and this may not be time I would have had if this failure occurred later on in the bracket, much less having any time left for other repairs. Weight will be the main issue in redesigning this mounting system to be more modular, but this may be necessary to prevent an embarrassing loss in the future. I also have to acknowledge that in the past two events, Babróg has only really faced horizontal spinners, and while it has performed admirably against them, it’s performance is still a pretty glaring unknown given how much verts make up the metagame nowadays. My performances against control bots should be a decent indication that my ground game should be competitive against verts given the design similarities, but once again, more data is needed.
And that concludes this rather long event report! Once again, it has been such an amazing feeling to finally have a win under my belt, and I intend to keep iterating on Babróg to suplex my way through to more victories. It has also been really cool to see many of the design tricks I have been using in this weight class appearing in other builds, such as the increased amount of grab-and-lifters and front-mounted TPU wedgelets, though I can by no means take total credit for these changes. I’m just happy to see control bots finally seem to retake their place in the meta after so many years of near-total spinner dominance, and look forward to more of these designs achieving success. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend BBB Brawl 2024 due to flights being too expensive as a result of a Six Nations match, but I hope to be able to compete at a multi-day event within the next few months, and have an entirely new design planned for later this year, using a design I’ve never tried before. Special thanks once again to all of the crew who made BITB possible, including the organisers, marshalls, and commentators. Also special shout outs to Ray and 3 Robots for their remarkable runs, Percussive Maintenance XL for continuing to develop beetleweight axes way past what a lot of us believed to be possible, and Sabretooth for designing a melty-brain twin horizontal and (mostly) getting it functional!
https://i.imgur.com/nPeMUNj.jpg
Babróg finally victorious at a beetleweight event!
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Robot Rebellion 2024:
So this build log has been slightly delayed for a couple of different reasons, but there is a lot to cover, so hopefully this one will be worth the wait! Like previous years, this event had us running a Babróg and a Schnake, except this time both robots were totally new and untested going into this weekend, with this being Babróg’s second iteration and Schnake’s third. I’ve already gone into detail with the changes made to both designs in previous posts (basically the only change to Babróg from here and future events was the fork arrangement), but suffice to say I was quietly confident the changes should hopefully allow one of our robots to get back into the top 16.
https://i.imgur.com/X9CBxK9.jpeg
Our pit table this year, in a somewhat organised state.
Babróg: Fight 1 Vs. Yomi
https://youtu.be/vfW5VVRXKPA?si=jr7585XIl2TqenSi&t=510
Fight starts at 8:30.
My first match allowed me to try out my new horizontal config against Yomi, a French horizontal spinner. I did still have the titanium wedge at my disposal, but I had seen others do well with TPU wedges in the years since, and this wedge design would scrape the ground much more efficiently, which could be handy in fights where both horizontals and verts were present. I was pretty happy with how the machine worked in this first match; the robot drove as well as it had before, and the lifter was noticeably faster, though because of the horizontal config I had no motion in the arm with which to grab. The TPU withstood the early whacks from Yomi quite nicely, and I was able to keep the pressure on pretty consistently, preventing him from spinning up until his weapon seemed to lose some power and a wheel fell off. From there all that was left to do was to open the pit, and finish the fight. Not Babróg at its absolute best, but a win from fight 1 is always welcome, and it was a far better performance than Babróg 1’s first outing!
https://i.imgur.com/SxN5RQ0.jpg
Babróg post-Yomi. pleasantly surprised at how well the TPU wedge held out, even if Yomi only really ever managed to land a few key hits.
Babróg: Fight 2 Vs. Schism
https://youtu.be/vfW5VVRXKPA?si=0rMwNNuPAKFQACS6&t=818
Fight starts at 13:38.
My second match would be the long awaited fight between me and Jack Tweedy himself, as he was competing this year with the hammersaw Schism. Schism’s weapon wasn’t too scary for me to face against since I had 10mm of HDPE on the front and back of the robot, but Schism also had an excellent ground game with long forks and a strong drive, and Babróg was still somewhat susceptible to being beached even with some of the new changes.
This match was an exciting one. Things remained pretty calm in the first half, although once Schism got their forks under me, especially from the side, I was basically stuck, which meant that Schism could land some blows that, while not damaging, were certainly scoring some points. Babróg did get some grabs in this match, but due to Schism’s awkward shape, it was able to wriggle itself out freely no problem, and the extra minibot Schism had only made things even trickier. Once the halfway point of the match came I figured a pitting was the only way I could take a win, and while there were some close calls from us both, the fight ultimately went the distance, and the judges called the fight quite rightly for Schism.
https://i.imgur.com/QvMx0lo.jpeg
Babróg after fighting Schism. The whacks definitely had some energy, but 10mm was always gonna be super hard for a hammersaw to tear through. Having such a thick top plate does strengthen the rest of the robot greatly at least.
Babróg: Fight 3 Vs. Digestive
https://youtu.be/vfW5VVRXKPA?si=vkyGODJqHA773Nx8&t=1591
Fight starts at 26:31.
My final fight would be against Digestive, a nasty vertical spinner. If you’ll remember from the 2023 Champs, Babróg V1’s fight against Digestive was the primary motivator for many of the changes I would make, so this fight had the potential to give me a direct like-for-like comparison on how both robots would do, and if my upgrades would truly make a difference.
The fight almost started in disaster, with Babróg getting knocked on its front with the lifter all the way extended. This was a known issue, and it can technically right itself from this position, but I was definitely in panic mode here trying to avoid a count-out. Fortunately, Rob was a massive sport here, and actually helped to get me back on my wheels without using the disc, which I did massively appreciate. From here, the fight seemed to get absolutely mental; I finally started to get under Digestive more often, and even ended up tossing it a few times thanks to its own weapon’s energy, while Digestive started to land some massive hits of its own on the front of Babróg. Ultimately, after a few good exchanges, Babróg got a fork stuck under the arena wall for a second, which was just enough time for Digestive to land a final hit, knocking Babróg out of the arena for good.
This cracker of a fight was the first time the main body of Babróg took damage, and I’d argue it took it rather well. The back and sides took some impact, and while there was some tearing of plastic all of the internals were just fine. The forks had done a decent job, although you could definitely see how warped they became once knocked, though I was ultimately happy with how they held up. Ground game wise though it was still clear that I only had a small chance of getting under Digestive in a head on engagement, and I could see how much of an advantage it was for Digestive to have such a reach in comparison. This was the fight that would affirm my decision to move to TPU forks for Babróg at Burgh 4 and beyond.
https://i.imgur.com/CVKpbwl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qsPfsrB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JO9cDdT.jpg
Babróg post-Digestive. The front held together decently well. The main frame is slightly bent, but still super solid, and you can really see how the energy from some hits gets transmitted through the forks.
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Babróg: Fight 4 Vs. Toucan, KOS-MOS V2, The Barber Surgeon
https://youtu.be/Cf9Lkf764Xc?si=BY-oM8tFXR5kv9jJ&t=330
Fight starts at 5:30.
Babróg would get its own control fight rumble against a lifter, an axebot, and a wedge in Toucan, KOS-MOS V2, and The Barber Surgeon respectively. I was able to start this match off with a nice suplex on Toucan, the first in a fight for the new machine! I spent a lot of this match trying to right The Barber Surgeon, but unfortunately its geometry didn’t make that easy for me to do. This left me and Toucan to tussle it out, which was a lot of fun, and Babróg finally felt like it was working like a good control bot should, but unfortunately a misjudgement on my behalf ended up with me half driving, half getting shoved into the pit. Bit of a shame, but it was only a whiteboard, and it was great to get some decent fight time in.
Babróg: Fight 5 Vs. Unstoppable Force, Ice Breaker, Freak
https://youtu.be/Cf9Lkf764Xc?si=BPyE4gIst79FBZD9&t=959
Fight starts at 15:59.
Before the event was over, I really wanted to see if this new Babróg possessed the same durability as the original one, and this whiteboard match was the perfect excuse, going against a collection of incredibly hard hitting spinners of all shapes and sizes. Babróg started this one out strongly, the TPU wedge able to get in under everyone, landing a suplex, and taking hits from Freak head on. After a few good shoves Ice Breaked landed several monstrous hit on me, but to my delight Babróg seemed unfazed by the impacts. Fortunately I managed to recover quick enough, and while Ice Breaker was pre-occupied with finishing Freak off, I managed to get a lucky shove in and toss Ice Breaker out as well, taking a surprise win!
https://i.imgur.com/D4Pr2te.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TKtyG0E.jpg
Some fantastic images from this fight courtesy of Stuart Camp!
This was a great match to see what worked and what didn’t with Babróg, and in this one I flipped, self-righted, got under things, and could take the hits when necessary. The wedge held up remarkably well all things considered, and despite several nasty hits to the back, the battery remained safe, and even with some light twisting, the machine performed like nothing was ever wrong with it. I’m very glad I took part in this fight, especially given how much of a gamble it was, since Babróg’s next fight basically took place right afterwards, and was one I really needed to take part in.
https://i.imgur.com/P0dXTPu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gnla12H.jpg
Babróg after the match. The front took the hits pretty well, with the rear still holding out decently.
Babróg: Fight 6 Vs. Data Breach, Sniper, Monterey Jack
https://youtu.be/KKap96w-FP4?si=C4ZzKwZOyh5p6CvS&t=649
Fight starts at 10:49.
So as part of Robot Rebellion 2024, the main side event taking place this year was a homage to the greatest robot combat show to come from China, This is Fighting Robots, and due to my ahem eclectic personality, I was made one of the team captains. There is so much I could talk about regarding this entire competition, but basically the only thing you need to know was that what you saw in the final edit was only about half of the shenanigans I got up to. Regardless, I did end up in an actual fight as part of this event, and this put me up against the two control bots of Data Breach and Monterey Jack, and the horizontal undercutter of Sniper.
https://i.imgur.com/12rEt6F.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lq3igMZ.jpg
The key moment of the match, and me taking the loss in a respecable and dignified manner.
I was already slightly at a disadvantage since my wedge no longer sat flush with the floor thanks to Ice Breaker’s fine work, but Babróg still drove well, and I think I may have suplexed Data Breach, though it’s not too clear in the edited video. This soon became a fight between me and Sniper, whose spinner was finally tearing genuine chunks out of my TPU wedge. Eventually I managed to outlast Sniper’s weapon, but even then Sniper had a very respectable drive system, and managed a great shove on me, sending me into the pit and taking the win. As can be seen, Sniper’s spinner was perfectly positioned to peel away at the side panels, and while the robot still could drive in a straight line, it’s pretty clear this frame would be retired after this event.
https://i.imgur.com/crgLCxI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0iO45u5.jpg
The damage to the sides and rear of Babróg. These areas could be bulked up, but weight is always paramount with these competitions, and nothing has failed catastrophically yet, so I'll likely keep this armour arrangement going for now.
Conclusion:
Robot Rebellion was once again a very busy, frenetic, and fun event, and left us with a lot to ponder about for the future. Tournament wise, we basically ended up matching our results from last year, each finishing our heats in third place, but I’d argue that these beetleweights were significant improvements from their predecessors.
The new Babróg may not have gotten the ultimate results, but I was happy with all of the upgrades I had made. The new lifter motor was far more consistent at tossing opponents than the old servo, and while some self-righting woes did remain, this was still a bot that got stuck far less often. The durability of the design remained through the reworking, and the robot remains a machine I have no problems throwing into any battle. The TPU wedge was also a very effective generalist option against spinners, and while arguably no match for the titanium against a straight horizontal, I do intend to bring them to events going forward. The drive system continues to have the beans to remain competitive, and even the smaller battery posed no issues for me. The one change I would make with this design going forward however was the fork system. The forks were still a decent option at getting underneath an opponent, but it became clear at this event how weak it could be against the longer metal forks used by others. Due to the recessed lifter design, I can only have fork so long before they hinder my ability to grab an opponent, so I would need a more novel approach to solve this issue (which you can see in by Battle in the Burgh 4 event report!).
And that’s it, finally done! This one took far longer than it should, mostly on my end being busy with a ton of other personal issues, but even if I’m taking a break from building for the next few months, I can at least use this time to get through the gigantic backlog that was robot combat for me in 2025. A massive shout out to all of the people running Robot Rebellion, and to Jevan and all his crew for the mammoth task of getting the web series edited, it was definitely worth the wait!
https://i.imgur.com/Cfy6DF9.jpg
Babróg looking forward to a relaxing few months without fighting in its future!
