The Vapourbot Awards 2011

[andrewj]

The Vapourbot Awards 2011

Rules

Please vote in as many categories as you can
Try to vote just once per category
However, you may choose to vote for up to two nominations per category, with each receiving half a point
Please do not vote more than twice per category
Please do vote for three different vapourbots in the Vapourbot Hall of Fame category - each will receive one point
You cannot vote for yourself or your own vapourbots
However, you can vote for the Best Battle award even if one of your vapourbots was involved
Voting closes on Friday 23rd December 2011 at 11:00am UK time

Categories

Most Original Design
Best Design
Most Original Designer
Best Designer
Best Sportsman
Best Clusterbot
Best Interchangeable Vapourbot
Best Walker
Best Shuffler
Best Tracked Vapourbot
Best Otherweight
Best Rammer
Best Flipper
Best Axe
Best Vertical Spinner
Best Horizontal Spinner
Best Full Body Spinner (Shell Spinners, Ring Spinners & Translational Spinners)
Best Crusher
Best Other Weapon
Best Minor Tournament (< 36 robots)
Best Major Tournament (> 36 robots)
Best Battle
Best Writer
Best New Vapourbot
Best Team
Best Vapourbot of 2011
Best Vapourboteer of 2011
Vapourbot Hall of Fame (Current Inductees: Wedge Devolution, Son of Ripper, Achilles, Mass Disctruction Ultimate, The Crashing Bore, The Disc, Darkestar and N³)
Vapourboteer Hall of Fame (Current Inductees: Frank Goacher, Steven McGregor, Alex Holt, Andrew Jackson, Aaron Knight, Martijn Benschop, Kody Kunz and Joey McConnell)

Have fun and good luck!

[kodster]

So the major tournament award's gone down from 48 to 36 robots, eh? Appropriate...

I'll get voting soon.

[kodster]

Most Original Design
The Plothole (Zarte Siempre) - It's...out there...

Best Design
Gabriel V (Joey McConnell) - It may not do well against most other wedges, but it sure damn well takes advantage of that wedge point at the front. It's fast, powerful, yellow, black, looks like a rat, effective...need I say more?

Most Original Designer
Zarte Siempre...moving on...

Best Designer
Joey McConnell. He knows what he's doing. Next.

Best Sportsman
Lian Walsh.

Best Clusterbot
Ummm...what clusterbots are out there, really? And...well...I can't vote for myself. So, pass.

Best Interchangeable Vapourbot
Slammer VI (Alex Holt), even if it's not competing at the moment.

Best Walker
Alex Rodriguez. Oh wait, this is a serious vote? :P Erm, Walkies. (Jordan Brown)

Best Shuffler
Well there really isn't anything else out there, even from me. :P Metallic Doom (Lian Walsh)

Best Tracked Vapourbot
Magnitude (Joey McConnell)

Best Otherweight
Innis (Tracy Farber)

Best Rammer
Exertion II (Andrew Jackson)

Best Flipper
The Servant's Assistant (Lian Walsh)

Best Axe
Mobile Failure 2.5 (Tracy Farber)

Best Vertical Spinner
Delirium Tremors (Zarte Siempre)

Best Horizontal Spinner
Eye of Ran II (Joey McConnell)

Best FBS
SOTAR (Tracy Farber)

Best Crusher
Nidhogg³ (Joey McConnell)

Best Other Weapon
Traffic Warden (Steven McGregor)

Best Minor Tournament (< 36)
The Vapourbot Grand Prix 2010 (Steven McGregor)

Best Major Tournament (> 36)
Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0 (Lewis Matthews)

Best Battle
Traffic Warden vs. Wedginator X in the MM3.0 (Lewis Matthews) I particularly enjoyed that one, heh.

Best Writer
Steven McGregor. Lewis came a VERY close second, but the King still has it.

Best New Vapourbot
BIACS By Popular Demand (Zarte Siempre) [are we allowed to vote in redesigns?]

Best Team
Team Picus (Joey McConnell) - there's a reason these bots get voted in every year.

Best Vapourbot of 2011
Mobile Failure 2.5 (Tracy Farber) for its absolutely stunning newbie run in MM3.0, annihilating the champ in the very first round, and several seeds afterward. That wasn't just luck, well done.

Best Vapourboteer of 2011
Joey McConnell

Vapourbot Hall of Fame
The Business Ends
Tengu
Gabriel

Vapourboteer Hall of Fame
Daniel Stickler. He did a lot for the Fanfic community while he was here, god bless.

[joey_picus]

Most Original Design: BIACS-BPD by Eternal President Esforzarte Siempre
Best Design: Wedga Ennea by Great Leader Andrew Jackson
Most Original Designer: Comrade Jordan Brown
Best Designer: Great Leader Andrew Jackson
Best Sportsman: Generalissimo Martijn Benschop

Best Interchangable Vapourbot: Macduff The Sixth by Hero Of The Revolution Kody Kunz
Best Tracked: Darkestar by General Secretary Alex Holt
Best Otherweight: The Unnamed Feeling by Great Leader Andrew Jackson
Best Rammer: Flick of the Wrist by Generalissimo Martijn Benschop
Best Flipper: Wedga Ennea by Great Leader Andrew Jackson
Best Axe: Axeon 4.0 by Great Leader Andrew Jackson
Best Vertical Spinner: Delirium Tremors by Eternal President Esforzarte Siempre
Best Horizontal Spinner: Troubloon 8 by Hero Of The Revolution Kody Kunz
Best Full Body Spinner: Psychosis by Great Leader Andrew Jackson/S.O.T.A.R. by General Tracy Farber
Best Crusher: Killobite Sigma by Hero Of The Revolution Kody Kunz
Best €œOther€ Weapon: Cobalt by filthy capitalist Frank Goacher

Best Minor Tournament: The Vapourbot Grand Prix by Premier Steven McGregor
Best Major Tournament: Mechanical Maelstrom 3.0 by Chairman Lewis Matthews
Best Battle: Auto-ism 4.0 vs. The Servant's Assistant, written by Chairman Lewis Matthews
Best Writer: Chairman Lewis Matthews

Best New Vapourbot: Wedga Ennea by Great Leader Andrew Jackson
Best Team: Team Varying Every Day by Generalissimo Martijn Benschop
Best Vapourbot: Flick Of The Wrist by Generalissimo Martijn Benschop
Best Vapourboteer: Great Leader Andrew Jackson

Hall Of Fame Nominations: [redacted for later transmission]

May The Peoples' Republic Of Fanfic Last For Ten Thousand Years
Supreme Leader Joey McConn-Il

[andrewj]

Thanks for the votes so far.

At the request of others, I have extended the deadline a further 24 hours until 11:00am (GMT) tomorrow (Saturday 24th December 2011).

Here are my votes for this year:

Most Original Design: I'm going to give this one to The Plothole - it's a clever and unique design.
Best Design: For all the thought and research that went into its design, N³.
Most Original Designer: Zarte Siempre, for his creative and effective designs.
Best Designer: Joey McConnell, for such well-polished designs as N³ and Gabriel V.
Best Sportsman: Martijn M. Benschop, because he is Martijn M. Benschop!
Best Clusterbot: Due to the simple fact that I couldn't think of anything else, my vote does to The Alexandra Sisters: Judgement. :P
Best Interchangeable Vapourbot: For its recent performances in the Eye of the Robot - Extreme Edition Challenge Belt, Macduff the 5th.
Best Walker: I don't think that it has fought yet, but Absolution 2.0 looks promising.
Best Shuffler: The Eye of the Robot - Extreme Edition Annihilator winner - Metallic Doom.
Best Tracked Vapourbot: Due to its appearance in the final four of The Crash & Burn Tournament 4, Sheer Drunk Attack 2.
Best Otherweight: The Crash & Burn Tournament - Ants! Ants! Ants! winner - Skeith.
Best Rammer: For its good form in The Vapourbot Grand Prix 2010, Flick of the Wrist.
Best Flipper: The Servant's Assistant, for its impressive run to the semi-finals of Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0.
Best Axe: Mobile Failure 2.5 - looks great and performs great.
Best Vertical Spinner: Delirium Tremors, for destructive performances in Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0 and The Vapourbot Grand Prix 2010.
Best Horizontal Spinner: Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0 finalist Eye of Ran II.
Best Full Body Spinner: For its third place finish in The Crash & Burn Mini-Tournament of Death 4, S.O.T.A.R.
Best Crusher: N³, for its excellent run all the way to the final battle of Mechanical Maelstrom: Annihilation.
Best Other Weapon: The king of the other weapon category, The Crashing Bore 2, for making the final eight of The Crash & Burn Tournament 4.
Best Minor Tournament: The Crash & Burn Mini-Tournament of Death 4, for its cool format and great battles.
Best Major Tournament: This was a tough category, but I am going to have to give this one to Mechanical Maelstrom: Annihilation. Anyone that has ever attempted an annihilator knows how difficult they are to write, and Lewis pulled off seven of the highest quality in one tournament.
Best Battle: In addition to the above, after such a demanding tournament, I felt that the final battle was always going to be special, and the fact that I was a part of it made it even more exciting. So my vote goes to N³ vs. PsycloniZer in Mechanical Maelstrom: Annihilation - it was a great battle and really could have gone either way.
Best Writer: Based on my above three votes, I am going to have to split a vote between Lewis Matthews and Kody Kunz. Both are fantastic writers, and without the hard work they put in to run tournaments for us, none of this would be possible. That goes for all the other writers too - thanks guys!
Best New Vapourbot: I'm going for the unique design of BIACS By Popular Demand.
Best Team: He's not going to like me for this, but I am voting for Joey McConnell's Team Picus. Gabriel IV reached the last eight in The Crash & Burn Tournament 4, Eye of Ran II is in the final of Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0, Still Hurting got to the annihilator final in Mechanical Maelstrom: Annihilation, and N³ was the runner up in the same tournament. Team Picus' creative flagship designs have had some good results this year, so they get my vote.
Best Vapourbot of 2011: It's more than just my Best Axe vote... my nomination for Vapourbot of the Year is Mobile Failure. Not only does Mobile Failure 2.5 look great, but it also fought its way to the quarter-finals of Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0, while Mobile Failure has gone all the way to the final of The Crash & Burn Tournament 4.
Best Vapourboteer of 2011: It has to be the complete all-rounder - Mr. Kody Kunz. As ever, Kody has produced some really good designs this year, and they always do the business in the arena - the highlight for Team Zlayerz this year was probably Wedginator X's journey to the final of Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0. On top of that, he has written some great battles in The Crash & Burn Tournament 4 and The Crash & Burn Mini-Tournament of Death 4.
Vapourbot Hall of Fame: For general good performances both in tournaments and the awards over the years, my votes go to Killotine: EVO, Tengu and Gabriel V.
Vapourboteer Hall of Fame: My nomination this year goes to Zarte Siempre. Zarte has always thought outside the box when it comes to fanfic, from innovative designs, ambitious tournament structures and such legendary concepts as Team Hampshire Devil's Code and The FRA Fanfic Council. I feel that he is underrated as a designer and a writer, despite being an important member of the vapourbot community for many years.

[majinb]

Most Original Design The Plothole by Zarte
Best Design N to the power of 3 by Joey
Most Original Designer Steven McGregor, still largely based on Traffic Warden and Venus Fly Trap that caught me off guard back then
Best Designer gonna say Kody Kunz for this one
Best Sportsman erm, Lewis M I think
Best Clusterbot The Alexandra Sisters by Kody arent just the only clusterbot, they are also.. a good clusterbot!
Best Interchangeable Vapourbot Slammer's current version by Alex
Best Walker Absolution (is it 2.0 already? xD) by Kody is proper walkbot territory!
Best Shuffler Metallic Doom is cool! (and by Lian)
Best Tracked Vapourbot It narrowly lost out on my best interchangeable vote, but the current Macduff by Kody does get this vote!
Best Otherweight I know it's only Falling Down by Joey, but I like it
Best Rammer Macduff by Kody once again
Best Flipper Ge5orce by Andy
Best Axe Mobile Failure by Tracy
Best Vertical Spinner BIACS-By Popular Demand by Zarte, I know I was demanding it!
Best Horizontal Spinner IJ of Ran by Joey
Best Full Body Spinner (Shell Spinners, Ring Spinners & Translational Spinners) Alex' Tengu because I feel like being old school here :P
Best Crusher N to the power of 3 by Joey
Best Other Weapon The effing Plothole Zarte!
Best Minor Tournament (< 36 robots) Steve's Grand Prix
Best Major Tournament (> 36 robots) Lewis' Mechanical Mealstrom
Best Battle A relatively recent battle that I remember well is Delirium Tremors vs Eye of Ran II as was written by Lewis in the mealstrom that was mechanical
Best Writer I have to applaud Lewis here
Best New Vapourbot BIACS-BPD by Zarte, God knows I like it
Best Team Joey's! (Picus)
Best Vapourbot of 2011 N to the power of 3
Best Vapourboteer of 2011 Joey
Vapourbot Hall of Fame (Current Inductees: Wedge Devolution, Son of Ripper, Achilles, Mass Disctruction Ultimate, The Crashing Bore, The Disc, Darkestar and N³) I want WEDGINATOR by Kody, THE TEAM THAT WASNT THERE by Hector, and TENGU by Alex
Vapourboteer Hall of Fame (Current Inductees: Frank Goacher, Steven McGregor, Alex Holt, Andrew Jackson, Aaron Knight, Martijn Benschop, Kody Kunz and Joey McConnell) I simply find the suggestion of Zarte a good one, gonna tag along with that

(coming up with some text to go with each vote does get boring after a while! xD)

[shadowflare]

Ready for my yearly short list? Good, I wasn't either. :P Things need to stop getting between me and stuff-I-ought-to-be-doing-like-voting-or-writing-a-thing-I-promised-I-would-write. Anyway, I digress, here you are.

Best Design: Can I say Gabriel? Please? Seriously. It's awsome. And I got to turn it into a little moe girl for my and Joey's sheer amusement. She was fun to draw because of the design, to be honest.
Best Designer: Neh, Joey does design some awsome stuffs.
Best Sportsman: Martijn! Eternal nice guy.
Best Clusterbot: The Alexandra Sisters.
Best Interchangeable Vapourbot: Macduff-man, man~!
Best Rammer: Flick of the Wrist
Best Flipper: I'm going to be a special snowflake and pick May Tracks Has You. : )
Best Axe: I'll go.... Axeon, I think.
Best Vertical Spinner: Going with BASICs here. ^^;
Best Horizontal Spinner: Gonna go Eye of Ran, neh.
Best Crusher: N3. It crushes RED team babies. ;p
Best Other Weapon: Crashing Bore!
Best Writer: Mr. Kunz, of course!
Best Team: Team, uhm, Team.... ZlayersPicusEveryDay??? *warghfaic here* Team not mine? Er. Uh. >_>; Naaaaah, I'll go Team Picus. Joey did a good job this year.

Time to go put up with family members coming from long distances. ;p Happy holidays if I don't catch the bunch of you before then!

[joey_picus]

NOTICE

Alterations to the votes of Joey McConn-Il (deceased, etc.) are being made as follows:

Best Axe: Axeon 4.0 by Great Leader Andrew Jackson will have half of its vote assigned to honour General Tracy Farber's Mobile Failure, as, in the immortal and righteous voice of the supreme leader, I kind of forgot about it due to being out of the loop till Andy posted his votes - sorry Tracy XD.

Hall Of Fame Nominations: [redacted for later transmission]: After security clearance, these are now revealed as follows:

Proletariat Idol Daniel Stickler

Sheer Heart Attack by Generalissimo Martijn Benschop
Wedginator by Hero Of The Revolution Kody Kunz
Fairground Killride by [Bimothy Bames Billery - Uncle Joe Stalin]

YOU HAVE FOUND THIS INFORMATIVE

[andrewj]

Voting is now closed - I will reveal the winners later on!

[andrewj]

Here are the winners!

Most Original Design: This year the award goes to The Plothole for its unique portable pit design.
Best Design: There are two winners here - Gabriel V and N³, both designed by Joey McConnell.
Most Original Designer: For innovative designs such as The Plothole, Assegain and BIACS By Popular Demand, the winner is Zarte Siempre.
Best Designer: It's fitting that the double winner of the Best Design category picks up the Best Designer award too - it's Joey McConnell.
Best Sportsman: He may have lost out on the sports club award, but Martijn Benschop is our sportsman of the year!
Best Clusterbot: Kody Kunz's clusterbot The Alexandra Sisters: Judgement pick up their first award.
Best Interchangeable Vapourbot: Kody's Macduff series claim this year's award.
Best Walker: The walking monster Absolution 2.0 continues the dominance of full body spinners in this category.
Best Shuffler: The Eye of the Robot - Extreme Edition Annihilator winner Metallic Doom wins again.
Best Tracked Vapourbot: This year it's a tie between four great tracked vapourbots - Magnitude, Darkestar, Sheer Heart Attack 2 and Macduff the 5th.
Best Otherweight: It's another four-way tie here between featherweight Innis, middleweight The Unnamed Feeling, antweight Skeith and lightweight Falling Down.
Best Rammer: Martijn's Flick of the Wrist picks up its fourth award in this category.
Best Flipper: The Servant's Assistant collects the award for Best Flipper following its impressive run to the semi-finals of Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0.
Best Axe: The winner is Tracy Farber's excellent Mobile Failure 2.5.
Best Vertical Spinner: Zarte Siempre picks up another award for Delirium Tremors after decent performances in The Vapourbot Grand Prix 2010 and Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0.
Best Horizontal Spinner: Joey McConnell picks up another award for Eye of Ran II after decent performances in The Vapourbot Grand Prix 2010 and Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0.
Best Full Body Spinner: Tracy's spinning sensation S.O.T.A.R. safely spins to success.
Best Crusher: N³ comfortably defends its title as the best vapourbot crusher.
Best Other Weapon: Frank Goacher picks up his fifth award for creative weaponry with The Crashing Bore 2.
Best Minor Tournament: The fantastic concept that is The Vapourbot Grand Prix 2010 picks up the award.
Best Major Tournament: Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0 wins for its high quality battles and rapid updates.
Best Battle: Take a bow Lewis Matthews, it's a tie between four of your battles! Traffic Warden vs. Wedginator X, Autoism 4.0 vs. The Servant's Assistant and Delirium Tremors vs. Eye of Ran II, all from Mechanical Maelstrom Season 3.0, and N³ vs. PsycloniZer from Mechanical Maelstrom: Annihilation.
Best Writer: In addition to that, Lewis Matthews is also our writer of the year.
Best New Vapourbot: This year the winner is the weird and wonderful BIACS By Popular Demand.
Best Team: Joey McConnell's stable of robots are creative, well designed and successful in the arena. His numerous successes with various different robots this year shows the strength of his team as a whole - the winner is Team Picus.
Best Vapourbot of 2011: I doubt many would have predicted this at the start of the year, but Mobile Failure 2.5 has really made a name for itself in 2011. The simple but effective Canadian axe robot is a worthy winner for it and its predecessor's performances this year.
Best Vapourboteer of 2011: He has already picked up awards for Best Otherweight, Best Tracked Vapourbot, Best Horizontal Spinner, Best Crusher, Best Design, Best Designer and Best Team, and now Joey McConnell can add Best Vapourboteer of 2011 to his trophy cabinet. His group of excellently designed vapourbots keep succeeding and that's why he's the best of 2011.
Vapourbot Hall of Fame: Just one vapourbot is being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, but it is one that thoroughly deserves its place there. Alex Holt's Tengu series have been feared for many years, and the now seven time Vapourbot Award winner gets the recognition it deserves. Alex was one of the first to be successful with the full body spinner concept, and Tengu later developed into a ring spinner, with an innovative concept designed to reduce the impacts of other spinning weapons on itself. Its destructive ability led it to success, and now it's a Hall of Fame inductee.
Vapourboteer Hall of Fame: There are two inductees this year who have both made great contributions to the community. The first inductee is Daniel Stickler. Dan initially found success in FRW, before transferring his designs to the style used on the Robot Wars forum. Throughout his time designing vapourbots, Dan has come up with a lot of creative ideas and produced such familiar names as the Supreme Glory, Dervish and Pure Evil series. Dan was perhaps underrated as a writer, although 2008's Vapourbot Vengeance series proved popular. It is in the arena that Dan has left his mark, with his often innovative designs getting better and better over the years. The second inductee is Zarte Siempre. As I mentioned in my own personal nominations, Zarte always thinks outside the box when it comes to vapourbots. While everyone else thought that it had all been done before, his creative approach to design has seen him produce several innovative concepts. This is perhaps the first year that he has been recognised for that. Zarte even has a unique approach to writing, as shown in this year's ZFC with its interesting format. Beyond designing and writing, Zarte set out to revolutionise vapourbot combat early in the FRA era with ideas such as a fanfic council and a system for selling vapourbot designs. Both are worthy and welcome members of the class of 2011.

Awards Per Vapourboteer

Joey McConnell [9]
Lewis Matthews [6]
Tracy Farber [5]
Zarte Siempre [5]
Kody Kunz [4]
Martijn Benschop [3]
Alex Holt [2]
Lian Walsh [2]
Andrew Jackson [1]
Daniel Stickler [1]
Frank Goacher [1]
Steven McGregor [1]

As always, thank you to everyone that voted, and congratulations to all of the winners. Merry Christmas!