BotFest 2 (23rd March 2019)

Hey Everyone!

After a bit of a wait (apologies :P), I am pleased to announce BotFest will be making a return for 2019!

Following on from the pilot, we are sticking with the Church so this event will be running on the 23rd of March at the following location from 11:00 - 17:00.

St. Lukes Church
Poulton
Wallasey
CH44 3BD

The church is easily accessible via the M53, by train there is a walk of about 10-15 minutes and there are also local bus routes as well. Refreshments are available from the attached cafe to the church or from the local vicinity (easily within a 10 minute walk).

Like last time, we'll be running a set of 4 heats, quarter finals, semi finals and a grand final. We'll also be having a all robot rumble at the end and if folks want to organise a whiteboard whilst there, there will be one available plus a couple of games if we get time.

This is an Antweight event but if you wish to do a static display your heavier class robots, please feel free to bring them with cradles. As before, we are running a slightly modified variant of the AWS ruleset (http://robotwars101.org/ants/rules.htm), those being:

2.a: Weight limits have a 2% variance, so the maximum permitted weight for a Antweight roller is 153g and for a Antweight walker is 229.5g. Robots that exceed the AWS weight limit but are within the variance will have a note applied to the technical check sheet but pass in this instance.

2.b: Size limits have a 5% variance, so the maximum size for a particular dimension for a Antweight is 106.68mm. Robots that exceed the AWS size limit but are within variance will have a note applied to the technical check sheet but pass in this instance.

5.g A team is permitted to enter up to 3 robots of either a roller or walker.

Signup is available on Antlog: http://antlog.garya.org.uk/event/17

Hope to see you there!

A small update, turns out the cafe downstairs will be closed on the day of the event. We'll have a kettle with some basic tea and coffee on standby.

A few things for this event:

- Parking: There is some parking available on the roads around the church. There is a small car park as well but be aware, it is quite rough. As you come up from the docks, at the crossroads (where the church is in the NW position), turn left, follow the wall around and then you'll see a entry point (just after a shipping container I seem to recall). Be aware, it is quite a sharp turn in.

- Soldering: For those who weren't there last time, we had issues with the alarms going off in the church and I think part of that was because we had soldering happen right underneath a fire alarm. If you are going to solder, I might recommend doing it in the central area of the church where the vaulted ceiling is less likely to set it off but if it does go off again, we may have to say soldering can only be done outside (which I know, is a royal pain).

- Length of fights: We have double the competitors from the pilot, so to get through the heat fights with time to spare for whiteboards/side events, they will be a maximum of 2 minutes. All other fights and side events (unless stipulated), is 3 minutes. By my reckoning, if everyone passes tech check, with the league system used here, you'll likely end up fighting 6 or 7 times. Like last time, the all robot rumble at the end is a time unlimited fight.

Looking forward to it :)

Bad Wolf

Are you a bit lighter this time Bad Wolf? ;)

As for soldering (again, Sorry!) If anyone needs to go outside, I'll have a gas iron with me that they can use.

Quote:

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As for soldering (again, Sorry!) If anyone needs to go outside, I'll have a gas iron with me that they can use.

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No worries, we all live and learn! :D

Hahaha you know my style, make it the size of a heavy weight and then work my way backwards chopping everything off haha!

Bad Wolf

Ahh gutted to miss this. It's been bedlam lately on PhD matters, so robot building has been a distant dream...

Count me in for the next one hopefully. The pilot was really fun. Good luck to all competing.

Thanks a lot Ovracoke for organising this event! Loved it! Great turn out and a good atmosphere! Can’t wait for the next one!

Bad Wolf

Excellent event, great turnout and some really good fights!

Fermented Melon v Bodacious thingy was a standout for me.

Theo's valiant effort deserves a mention too!

And we can't forget the fiery axe of doom!

A massive thanks from me to everyone who attended today, we ended up with nearly double the number of competitors from the pilot! Despite the issues we were having with the arena floor (clearly, the masking tape over the join between the floor boards was the overall winner of the event :P), we had spectacular fights and a range of fun and interesting designs. Special mention to the Stolen Concept vs Voodette fight for being so memorable!

I mentioned this briefly but we are looking to run BotFest 3 on the 14th of September this year - there is a community centre about 10 minutes up the road which have expressed an interest in having BotFest there so I'll be taking with them next week to see what they would be happy with (it may end up being a BW non-spinner and AW event, we'll have to see). I'll be looking into building a new arena as well to address the issues that cropped up with this one - I'll be moving offices soon so probably end up using the existing arena as a testing arena.

Keep an eye out for the next event!

Thanks for the kind words both of you!

It was a fantastic event!! Everyone was so lovely, but I think the best part was the amount of fights we all got; 7 + whiteboards/melees is nothing short of fantastic, especially considering the amount of robots signed up! Great as usual, I'll mark the next one in my diary :)

Thanks Michael

Thanks a lot for hosting Lucy, enjoyed this a lot & hopefully I'll be able to attend the next one & go one better.

Sorry, Lucy :p

The forum's being a little tricky to edit posts on.

Just to add my 2 cents a bit late,

Great event and well done to Oracoke for keeping it running so smooth with so many fights to do :)

Was a great fun day all round and awesome to meet everyone, shouts to Theo and Paul for the spectacle that was Voodette vs Stolen Concept, and well done to everyone who took part!

Will definetly be returning for BotFest 3, and it would be excellent to have Beetle stuff as well!

Many thanks, congratulations for the overall win!

Heres the Video from the event, thanks to everyone who let us use some of their footage. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/06lKJhS17dg

Bad Wolf

great to see those fights again, love the Rocky theme on Theo's valiant effort :D

watching my fight against Fermented Melon again was great as well, such a close, intense and downright fun fight to be part of

What that lot said ^^^ :)

Especially the fight between Melon and Bodacious. I was gonna scrap Melon as a bad idea until that fight. I mean.. it's still a bad idea, but it was so much fun! :D