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The future of roboting
This thread is being set up so anyone who runs a robot at events can say how things are and how they see them changing in the future. I know in a recession it is easy to be all doom and gloom but try and keep the posts here as optimistic as you can. Remember there will always be changes to this sport/hobby so lets try and predict how things will be in say 1 2 & 4 years time. :D
The £5.00 prize for getting Seraphim OOTA will still be unclaimed. :lol:
Iron Awe 8 will be flipping all comers OOTA
Stagefright will still refuse to fight
Green Flag will have refused to renew my membership
No OOTA for The Mighty Seraphim!!! Clive that€™s a future I can live with!! :D :D
For me I can see there being less robot specific events like Swindon or Reading as the number of people who will want to pay to see them will dwindle and more combined events with technology shows like The Space Centre or Air Shows were we would be part of a bigger event will be a way forward.
I think some shows will have arenas that will be smaller because of cost of transport and setup times. So Heavies may well become less popular for roboteers as there are less shows for them to fight in, and so these machines may end up as static exhibits in some cases.
On the plus side I think there will be a move towards Light and middleweight machines. Cheaper to build and run and will fit better into the smaller arena shows.
I can see featherweight shows doing well in the next few years. As some organisers may have trailer type arenas that folds out like a trailer tent. For smaller venues were they could be set up in less than 2 hours and with costs lower a crowd of only 150 people means they break even. They may even be able to run spinners in the featherweight class and none spinner in the light or middleweight classes.
So for me I think the future is good, but I can see it different to what it is now.
What do you think. :uhoh: :uhoh:
Craig,
Your post is quite well timed actually, as I am in the process of deciding on what the future is, both for Roaming Robots and John Findlay.
We are all aware that we are in a credit crunch, and some say we havent hit rock bottom yet. Its no suprize that tickets sales are down compared to 2008, we have to remember that its been 5 years since RW was on TV. So I would agree that robot events are about to change, RR events anyway,
The problem with feather weights, light and possibly middle weights is that they will never replace Heavy Weights, the size and power of HWs is the entertainment factor we need for large shows.
It has been a year since I changed the arena and added the cages and flip out zone, It was a 1 year experient and now its over its time to try something new again. I now have another plan for a twist, so Portsmouth 2009, maybe even RIAT you will all see what I have planned. However where as the flipout / cages were for roboteers and the show... the new arena concept will be for commercial reasons in the current climate and nothing else.
Some may have noticed that there are no future events on the forum, or tickets on sale for the rest of 2009, that is becuase everything is currently on hold, until I make my decisions for the future.
Luckily for me, My work doesnt just involve events, I am as people know pushing hard in the educational sector, and my projects i put onto schools now dont just involve the robots.
Over the next month there are going to be some decisions made which are going to affect everyone, unfortunately for RR to survive there will be changes made, some will understand, others might not like it, but one thing is for sure, After being head hunted and offered a full time job, only to turn it down just last night after agonising over the pro's and cons, I am still motivated to keep RR alive one way or another.
Without the support of roboteers and my crew the events wouldn't carry on, so while I'm rambling... Thank You.
John
Roaming Robots
Technology wise the featherweights are the main driving force. The power of the current generation of featherweights coming out is insane, something that most heavyweights could only dream about during the first 5 or so series of robot wars. The reason is simple, cost. Its far easier to build a crazy powerful featherweight and have somewhere to run it than do the same with a heavyweight.
There will always be a place for heavyweights. As Jonno rightly said, you need the size of them to entertain a large crowd but I sometimes feel that there isn't the same driving force to keep pushing boundaries as there is with the feathers.
Hi Craig
Rebel Robots has at least 2 more events lined up for this year, next year I hope to have a more definative plan for events and a longer running championship, I'd like to introduce some new sub catagories of robots and use them to encourage diversity in robots, planning a walker division for example
As Jonno says the events are going to have to change we're looking into one way of cutting costs one being using a high pressure compressor rather than CO2 to refill pneumatics, Our Arena has been rebuilt to a smaller (and much stronger) size which is the arena we will be using in our next championship likely to be in August in Gloucestershire
A new Championship style and new trophy
5 years? for me its just getting through this year and on to the next time will tell what will happen, I'm going into educational stuff too
Hi Craig
Walking robots sound fun :proud: , I'm with you on that every robot is an invention we are inventors (of a kind) so we should be able to invent some entertaining robots for the public to look at and interact with. I€™m looking forward to hearing more about your new events when you are ready to present them to us lot. :shock:
Thanks for your input.
Craig
just need robots live. And robo challenge for their plans and we know where we're going. :-)
I hope they will in their time contribute as much or as little as they want to the discussion, which is what forum is all about.
But also it is for the lowly roboteer to put forward where he or she sees the future for the robot movement, input from everyone all good bad and just crazy is what we need.
And let€™s face it were all a little crazy! :crazy:
Oh and Jonno I know I speak for the silent majority when I say thanks to you and your team for what you have done for the movement, still that€™s enough sucking up for now. :|
I havent been on the forum for ages.... nothing much to read,
But I will be reading with interest of where people see things !!
John
forums dead, need something good to happen
Jonno i would look after number 1. Numer uno. Its your business and if you need to make changes and cut back in this time of resession then so be it. You will have Teambuds support and we will adapt to the changing climate. Not just you of course that goes for robots live and robo challenge. The future of our sport will remain with us roboteers attending events and entertaining crowds that come to see our machines. Guildford seemed to be an entertaining event what with Envy and Thor playing with MD, Thz chasing a tv around the arena, Iron Awe flipping itself out of the pit 3 times in 1 fight and of course the ultimate in entertainment.............Envy ootaing Iron Awe. The shows will go on and we will carry on going enjoying boys toys and getting away for the day for good company and good playtime.
Then there is the dutch event and the irish event and of course riat. All worth building a robot for alone.
There are somenew teams coming through the ranks too with new and old robots. There is an Fra meeting soon i hope and there will be discusson on what to do and where to go with the Fra.
the future looks bright
the future looks teambud
Agree whole heartedly Swanny. It's in all our interests that the event organisers survive difficult times. It's been absolutely clear to me that revenues haven't been as good as they were last year. One comment I've made regularly over the last year is that I can stay in bed and earn no money so if it's not commercially viable something has to give to make it so.Quote:
Originally Posted by swanaldo
The reality is that some things will affect roboteers and mean that we have less of the perks you were able to provide last year. If that means you save a few quid by not doing sandwiches then we'll bring our own. If that means we have events in a field rather than a nice warm sports hall we'll bring a coat. If that means we have to pay an entry fee we'll moan like hell but we'll pay it cos we know what's driving it.
Whilst I'm speaking for our team obviously I'm sure most will understand that businesses have to make a profit.
Andy
AMEN To them posts ...
Swanny's and Andy's....
TeamTilly
not that i go to hardly any events, but it wouldnt bother me if their was no prize just a homemade trophy for the winner/runners up.
And it wouldnt bother me to pay £20 to attend a event, its a family day out for £20!
if eo's said pay £20 to attend or we would be forced to shut, people would pay (otherwise what else would we do with our robots).
i cant get over why middleweights arnt more popular, alot of you probably think like me i would build one if others did, most with a hw has the parts to build a mw.
i think they would only be interesting if full combat? but then you might as well build a full combat arena for hw's?
i got my hw crusher still not finished but tbh i have stopped building it for now as all i keep thinking is (its a pain to transport and its gonna be blimmin expensive to fix!) and all someone has to do is stick a fat peice of hardox on the top and that will be a end to that.
featherweights are good, and even more so when its full combat, anyone can build one, but from an audiance point of view i think their boring after a while without spinners. i dont even bother watching fw videos on youtube of fw comps, wedges,spinners and flippers are all good to watch but when their all together, i find watching a flipper on flipper fight or a wedge vs wedge fight good at first but soon gets boring when its repetitive, even though its exciting for us driving, i think its boring for the audiance. (especially after they just watched a hw show)
people wont agree with me, but listen to the audiance when spinners are fighting (compare fights with spinners involved on youtube) you can clearly here the difference, you can almost feel the tension when spinners are about to fight at an event.
hw's you always need, what i like, is to see the old robot wars machines such as thor, killerhurtz, smidsy,iron awe, bigbro as these are the robots i and other people remember, also the kids that come to watch your events probably sit at home watching rw repeats and i think its special for them to see these known robots up close.
but i think if mw's got as good as fw's would hw's be missed as much (i dont know).
dont know why the forum is sooo dead, i spend more time on the bmw forum with my car than here, i click on here once a day to read any interesting posts, then go..
something needs to change though i think, i wouldnt say its on a downward spiral but its certainly not as good as it was.
havent got any answers just putting in my 2pence worth as usual :lol:
an opinion I can fully understand after Guildford :angry:Quote:
Originally Posted by ady
The thing with roboteering is that its an obsessive hobby. Spending all that money on something just to put it in an arena to get trashed, hell, there has to be an element of obsession there. And we'd all do it even if we had to meet in a disused car park somewhere to fight. We all have so much respect and gratitude for the event organisers that we will happily suffer some cut backs or choices in times of recession, as long as we can keep fighting! From ants to heavys, and with talk of expanding middleweights, there is a weight class level for pretty much anyone who still wants to get involved in this hobby, without age or cost restraints. So yeah, I can see the future maybe being a less glamarous place to play in, but as long as we get to play, I don't think any of us mind that one bit.
Can't wait to get my heavyweight going. Had the dream of watching my own machine roll into battle since I was 10 years old and nothing's gunna stop me achieving it now I have all the bits.
id like to see more events like riat, good social and less stressful day then a normal event! dont know what events are around like this but im sure there is a few
Good point John
There are other Air Shows around the UK and also perhaps trade shows at The NEC, or other similar events.
It is not for me as a Roboteer to approach these people, but if anyone reading this have contacts that could be useful, perhaps they could pass this information to EO€™s so they could investigate this further, as it may be a more secure way to fund the shows!
The Car show at the NEC would be nice. :proud:
Thats exactly where our events are heading, we have to approach festivals and expos but its then paying for floor space, from our point of view we would be going to these events but the cost of the floor space would restrict the number of entries we could take
thats our perspective, its something i'd like us to go to as a sport but people would have to understand the entries would be tight
Your not taling about things which havent been tried before.
RR, XFM and RL all have done these shows before.... as Craig says the only way to get to shows these days is to pay for floor space.
RIAT is a lucky example, as we are the only attraction which is paid to attend,,,, the rest of the show entries are there because they pay for the space, and the space is at a premium.
So as i see .....
RR pledged to continue but with changes and new plans in place.
Rebel has some shows planned and is pushing to continue in the Fw devision.
RL very quiet, maybe you could send them an email to ask them to join the conversation, or maybe they dont plan on carrying on.
Roboteers are very quiet...... maybe they dont go on the forum anymore, maybe they dont want to discuss it, maybe they dont care, maybe they just expect events to happen at whatever cost.
I think the FRA should be reading this thread, and actually get of their A*SE and do something, contact event organisors and find out whats happening, contact roboteers instead of sitting silently, It shouldnt be craig who is hosting this discussion it should be the FRA. If i was president of FRA things would certainly be different.
There is coming a point in time where I see event organisors giving up, 2009 has been the hardest year ever, you dont know how close i was just a few days ago from walking away from the whole thing, and then what !!! It will come, be warned.
Its time to do something together, and not rely on EO's to save our hobby as im getting fed up of saving it and getting nothing in return.
I'm sorry but Andy Kane, you are missed, and the new committee have so far done nothing, unless you come here and tell us what you have achieved.
This is a bit of a rant, but hopefully someone will read it and get more people involved..
John
Roaming Robots
I think ANYONE who has a point to make on this topic should post it, however small. At the moment it seems a bit formal and official and people might think they have no place posting here, but we need to hear more from both the officials and, of course, the ground troops, us roboteers.
As for the officials, there have been a number of occasions I have asked on the forum for a comment or confirmation from one and got nothing in reply. Seems they are a bit AWOL at the moment...
John, I do think most of us roboteers just expect the events to keep on going, but I think thats just because we aren't involved in the running of any of them and so just think they will go on as they always have done. Maybe more volunteers to help with event organising would help? I'm guessing there are a fair few forum members who would be happy and eagar to give something back to the organisations that have done so much for us, particularly RR.
I'm not sure what Jonno's plans are and nor do i need to know, I know Jonno will push forward with what he thinks is best and as he has proved in the past Jonno knows best, Jonno what ever you do and where ever you go I wish u the best as an EO, a roboteer and more importantly as a friend.
We're (Rebel) are more focused at present on the lighterweights antweights to middleweights this is not to rule out a heavyweight event in the future but for now for my own piece of mind its best to push on with the featherweight and middleweight titles.
Technical brackets such as a walker division, and the return of some technogames competitions such as rope climbers long jump etc with the possiblity of including some power tool drag racers.
I know there hasn't been alot from Rebel since the event but we've worked hard since Feb running smaller events antweight world series and a science festival, the arena has changed and there are more changes to come.
As for Jonno's comments about the lack luster FRA committee at present, I couldn't agree more as an EO i've not heard from the FRA at all since Feb, seems to be a lack of commitment from them or at least being more passive than before, I would recommend the FRA read the front page of the website taking note of the FRA's aims
Its the responsability of the FRA to save the sport not Jonno or the rest of the EO's if the FRA are not prepared to work for our much beloved sport I'm prepared to go it alone
I don't have the finances to attend many events in the UK this year. Our team will be at RIAT, but that is about it for us this year I'm afraid. Unless the economic situation improves.
I haven't quite got a robot yet (trying to get one or two built over the summer) but here's my two penn'orth...entry fees seem to be the way to go, I'd have no objection at all to helping the event organisers put on an event in whatever way I could, be that a 10 or 20 pound entry fee or helping out for free the day before or anything else. :) (to be honest I'm surprised there isn't one already, it makes economic and other kinds of sense to have one)
Dave is very correct when he says it's an obsessive hobby, I can't imagine it ever dying out (look at the antweights, they've had far less TV exposure than the other classes and yet they soldier on and on and on...) but a few other people have raised the point of people just expecting events to happen, which in my view is the wrong way to look at it as you should be prepared to contribute a bit to making the event happen yourself.
One thing that might be good would be to have a few more roboteer get togethers with some gentle ramming in a pub car park? There seem to be not enough of them nowadays and people should look at getting the regional socials going again - not with regional reps but more with anyone who's willing and able to host it.
Shane - if the events carry on and the organisers can keep going, I can fully agree with your post :talker:
I totally agree with the general consensus of opinion that the EO's need more input from the FRA and the roboteering community in general.Yes lets have an entry fee per team at each event, where else can we go and play if all of the EO's pull out.How else can we help, how about turning up to an event earlier and pitch in and help setting up or staying back and taking down ( if possible). Promoting the events with the EO's, surely we can afford a weekend or 2 to get off our backsides and go to the area of the event to hand out flyers etc.Lets see how we can reduce costs for the EO's and help sell tickets, or all we will have is vapour bot battles on the forum.
I decided to get more involved and stand for the FRA Governing body so that Alex and the other kids would have a place to still fight their robots when they are older, am i doing enough, NO.
Can I do more, I have to or there is no future.
We the governing body have been asked to give dates that we are available for a meeting at the end of the month. This must be number 1 priority on the agenda,what else is more important than this issue, what is the point debating other issues if we have no events.
Whatever the EO's decide, whether it is to pull out, or continue in a reduced format or go in a totally different direction, thanks for what you have done for us.I have really enjoyed the last 2 years and hopefully if we ALL work together,will continue to do so for many years to come.
Clive
Craig, Jonno, Clive and everyone else thank you for your comments on this subject. Jonno your rants are always welcome here. :)
Firstly I would like to say if the other EO€™s want to add to this discussion I for one would very much welcome this, but if they prefer not to then I would respect this as well.
As for the FRA committee I think they may feel that if they said anything they may be seen as biased to one or other EO.
Perhaps if the EO€™s had some questions directed to the FRA on this matter that they could answer directly on this thread that may get over this hurdle.
I know most of them well, and know they have concerns for the future of the movement too, so I don€™t think they can€™t be bothered to respond to this thread but want to be even handed and considered in their response.
I would ask anyone who can contribute to this discussion please do. I feel that there should be concerted effort by us from the grass roots upwards to concentrate efforts to secure the future of the robot scene in the UK.
Free speech is a gift given to this country at great cost lets use it.
Thank you for reading this
Craig
Doing an event with Roboteers, FW robots and an arena isn€™t very hard.
It€™s the costs and responsibility that come with having HW€™s, spectators and high-impact-weapons that kills us. This means: transporting many materials, using a lot of time to set up, needing a crew to control and inform spectators and some dedicated people to search venues and do the wheeling and dealing. A lot of efforts.
And the result is not guaranteed; enough robots and entertainment, enough tickets sold, getting your money afterwards.
Although HW€™s rule, the workable way would be an easy-fold-and-set-up-arena for FW€™s, maybe with spinners. Maybe middleweights are a good compromise.
What will DRG do coming year? Probably only FW events, few of them with spectators. We are almost bankrupted by the Zandvoort event.
well i have been in this sport for about 4.5 years now and i am really enjoying it
first id like to thank Jonno for helping me get started as he has done for many people, and also thank him and every other EOs event i have attended
now that i have more cash i would be happy to pay an entry fee to an event if it helps to cover peoples costs
and tbh i feel maybe smaller arenas and a higher amount of events in various places eg normal shows, expos, air shows etc would be great -more suited to the fws :proud:
i would be very happy to help out when i can it's only fair i think, unfortunatly at the last home event i was ill and unable to help but i wanted to
alot of roboteers may under estimate what goes into a show for the eos and everyone that helps
since i started i feel i have come along way from a zeobot kit and a AA operated TX, and i think the same can be said for the events i have attended more and more of them and they have improved and been refined to an event i would love to watch or be part of
don't know if this helps but i had a view and people have asked to hear everyones
Well done everyone
the cost of running an event is mad, i didnt know it cost so much til jonno told me!
if we had an entry fee it would have to be closer to £100 a team, then £20 - if theres 20 teams at an event (do we get that many?) all paying £20 thats only £400, seems alot but its not much to cover the costs of the shows. and how many teams can afford nearer to £100? plus petrol at £30+/time off work etc it all adds up. we would be up for paying it but sadly not everyone would be able to afford it which means people wont attend events and will feel left out etc although any fee would help EO's but im not sure how much they would need but i would guess there sadly losing closer to 1000s then 100s
dont know whats going to happen! shane swan needs to come and save the day and im sure this will be the topic at riat
if i was losing £0000's i would knock it on the head tbh. i wouldn't face severe financial loss for the fra or roboteers, sorry.
their must have been good times otherwise rr etc... would have knocked it on the head ages ago.
without it coming back on tv (which is never going to happen) I cant see how you can regenerate interest. or wait till we get out of these hard £££ times.
i guess the problem is ticket sales??
Has anyone got any ideas of what is wrong at events? or what ideas people have to regenerate interest?
the only problems i can think of
it isnt full combat (but you need alot of £££ for the arena to be up to spec, and increased transporting costs)
and we need more well known robots from the tv days, that people remember and still watch now on repeats (but cant see that happening either), i know! widow twanky needs to buy more and bring them out of retirement :lol:
i would like to see the uk champs or a world champs event run as one massive event, all eo's clubbing together, that would be a awesome event.. but unrealistic i know.
As a roboteer
As a relatively experienced roboteer in terms of how long I have been doing this (9 years). I have seen rooboteering go from one RW event per year and one live circuit full combat event a year to the stage we are at now.
The variety of events I can go to has greatly expanded. There are several different EOs which are providing many different types of event such as, full combat, long run championship and play or whiteboard events. Personally, I like the sociable events such as RIAT, which has always been my favourite event out of the calendar possibly with the exception of last year. This is good. Diversity wins.
In the future I see less events like this and more of what RR are doing at the moment in terms of the long-term championship, however, I do not complain. I love this sport and never see me stopping with out a really really good reason. Taking a couple of months off for my exams has quite frankly sucked and I cant wait to get out there and see all you guys again whilst pounding your robots! For the survival of robots, credit has to be given to EOs and especially Jonno because he was there from the beginning helping us but the roboteers who have stayed strong should not be forgotten.
As a governing body member
I wanted to hold this position within the FRA because I think I€™m old enough and have had enough experience in this game to start getting increasingly involved and this was my opportunity. It doesn€™t seem like much has changed since the new governing body has moved in but I€™m sure you can remember how long it took for the FRA to make a difference when it was first set up. We are all in new roles and have had 1 meeting and are therefore just settling in.
We need a figurehead and I€™m sure this will be sorted out at the next meeting.
We can do more and we will do more!
I think the forum activity has been hit because of the new forum being different and possibly confusing for some people. I must admit, I found it annoying at first, not being familiar with a phpBB forum but I believe it to have been a good move so thanks again Kane for all the hard work you put in!
I see the future being prosperous and full of robotic activity although possibly not in the same form we see it now
Thanks
Tom
We will be back on TV at some point soon to say we never will is an insult to those who are still trying. Even minimal exposure is better than nothing
Anything we get on tv will need to be different to what has been on before, i'm not just talking about full combat, it has to be more accessable to people, and we need to demonstrate that its accessable within the show, the format has to change and adapt to what is required, it has to be low cost but not look cheap
Tv will be more interested once we find in ourselves the new format and style.
I still prefer the old forum was much easier to follow
The FRA is facing crunch time, their facing a point where there will be less to no arena's or events, the next meeting should include the EO's
A large family orientated event with age old attractions such as a circus, clowns, donkey rides ect. has been running yearly in my local town for a number of years and the independent organiser has enjoyed good attendance. However this year despite ideal weather conditions numbers were drastically down and financially it was not successful.
I don€™t expect the organisers are overly concerned as they will put this down to the current economic situation. They may well tighten their belts in the mean time but they will be safe in the knowledge that things will pickup and return to normal sooner or later.
The problem in roboteering is that there has always been an expectation that public interest will decrease as the tv shows get forgotten and there has always been a feeling that it can€™t last forever. The fact that attendance numbers are down now make people draw the conclusion that this could be the beginning of the end.
I think the reality is that the options for family days out are pretty limited and the robot shows make a novel change and people enjoy it, not necessarily because they recognise robots they have seen on tv. The event organisers have shown that with dedication the sport can float without tv.
In short, we should stop talking as if the sport is on its last legs and instead get behind the EO€™s in the efforts to entertain the paying public.
Positive suggestions:
Where ever possible promote the sport. I don€™t think I have ever spoken to someone who was not actually at a robot show who knows they go on, this shows the hard task the EO€™s face to sell tickets. The more that people promote the sport with web diary€™s, you tube videos the better.
In my opinion quick change-overs between fights is essential to keep the show momentum. My experience from sitting in the crowd and mingling outside is that the audience don€™t like the long periods between fights but thoroughly enjoy the rest of it. All us roboteers are responsible for occasional problems arming up, we could try and keep this to a minimum by refining our design and knowing our procedure.
Hi All,
It€™s great to see such a debate and that the roboteers are noticing the issues affecting all Eos. Were now in our third year running our arena, and like most have seen the audience numbers falling, for example Burgess Hill this year saw less than half the numbers that it did a couple of years ago. Yes we are in the middle of a credit crunch and people don€™t have as much expendable income, but people will still seem to pay for entertainment (cinema sales have gone up over the last couple of years).
The fact the Robot Wars etc isn€™t on the mainstream channels anymore is a big factor in the drop in audiences, when it was shown on Sky 1 and Jetix it actually started to reach a new audience. Will it ever be on TV again? I€™m certain that it will, whether it be a different format or rules, I€™m sure we€™ll see fighting robots back on the TV, maybe soon, maybe not for another 10 years. TV exec€™s are running out of ideas and it seems to be almost in style at the moment to bring back shows e.g. Gladiators, Red Dwarf, Dr Who, Krypton Factor etc. The best chance is for fans/roboteers to write to channels asking to show repeats or even Battlebots/Robotica.
Should the FRA be stepping in? In a nutshell, yes. At the end of the day without events for roboteers to go to there€™s not a lot of point in it existing. What should it be doing? That ones up for discussion at the end of the day it€™s your association, you decide, maybe a good brainstorming session is in order I€™m sure we can come up with some good ideas between us. Hopefully with a new committee in place we can see the politics pushed aside and get back to the FRA€™s main objectives.
As for us, we€™ve got Reading on the calendar in October, this will be our last major event of the year and we€™re aiming to put as much as we can into it and making it a success. We€™ve tried hard to diversify our shows over the years with the inclusion of; Daleks, Mechanoids, Boxers and now Skeletron. You have to remember as well that were in a different position to other EO€™s in that this isn€™t our living and we€™ve all have full time jobs to fit it in around, which makes it more difficult for us to put in the leg work.
As you maybe aware we run at several expos/exhibitions throughout the year here we run a small arena and put on demo fights throughout the day, although these types of event are rare, the space we occupy could be sold to exhibiters for thousands of pounds so organisers much prefer to sell the space rather than paying for us to fill it. The good news for next year is we€™re already looking at dates/venues for the start of the year.
Where€™s the future of the sport going; we have seen over the years that the heavyweights are the main driving force, although the FWs are becoming more advance, when put next to the heavyweights they just don€™t pack the same punch, of course some will disagree. Middleweights may be another option but give it a few years they€™ll be at the same level as the feathers, so they would still require similar arenas to heavys. So the costs wouldn€™t be much less.
As John said, for entry fees to be make any sort of impact on the expenses of running an event you would be talking a lot of money per robot/team. We appreciate the work and expenses teams cover, the least we can do at the moment is give you an arena to play in and abit of food.
People are still interested in the sport it€™s just getting harder to find them!
I believe that the main if not only reason that combat still takes place is down to the EO's and the remaining dedicated bot builders. The contribution from the FRA is not obvious to myself and I maintain has done little to encourage new blood. It preferred instead to focus on the international side and harmonisation before putting its own teritory on a sound footing first. Apart from a forum which let's be honest could equally have been hosted by any number of willing organisations. The FRA has I'm sure been of benefit to some EO's in staging events as the FRA could be perceived as being a creditable authority for sanctioning events / arenas but is that enough?
I have seen at first hand over the last 5 years the decline in builders buying parts, I used to ship 20-30 Bosch 750's a month, now I have discontinued them due to a lack of demand. The same goes for many other parts I used to stock for combat robot builders.
I still desire to get back to the arena, just hope there is somewhere to play once I pull my finger out.
For me, it was the technical challenge of building a bot + the social side. I have never been a fan of the camp that out sources the building, that's not to say its wrong, it's just not for me. I have to agree that the current format has probably had its day and needs a new direction or even a completely fresh start. If that fresh start provided for a fresh technical challenge then all the better for those garage builders like myself.
I really wanted to attend Rebel's full combat event, shame it was cancelled and nothing since has really got me enticed to the same degree. I just wanted to fight spinners!
In conclusion, I would want to see full combat staged again but fully understand the practicalities of why this is so difficult, not just for regulars on the circuit but for the EO's as well. I fail to see how feathers can provide the same impact for the audience as heavies but there again, I haven't been to a show in ages. Maybe Jonno will invite me to help build the arena at Portsmouth?
alan that was sum really sensible reading. Hopefully notes will be taken.
Craig if we are back on mainstream tv in the next 3 years i will eat my robot. :lol:
i'll get u some ketchup Ady
prefer brown sauce please. :lol:
i'd love to see it back as much as the next person, just cant see it happening. Even the old repeats would do me!!