thoughts ???

[robotwars]

Hi Guys,

After a great weekend in Dublin, I have heard a few grumbles about the robots, and full pressure flippers.

Those of you that have watched the last fight, which had the top 4 robots from the competition and we swapped drivers for a laugh, you will have seen the robots were on top form, they had done 19 shows, and were still working well and the crowd went mentle over the fight!!

Ive read a few comments on here, and youtube, and had a few conversations on this topic over the last few months.

Do people feel that there is an elite club forming of the top robots which compete, as in the high pressure flippers, and that it is putting people off joining the heavyweights, or even carrying on ? Im not so sure it is, but it was suggested to me today.

The conversation i had this morning with a roboteer was that they felt this was the case, the likes of Big Nipper, THZ dont come to events anymore, why is this, is this because they feel they cant compete, or have they got bored, or has normal life taken over for a while ?

Every one knows im competitive .. anything to beat the iron Awe's, thats my motivation, I feel like ive achieved this and Ripper is on a competitive and winning streak at the moment, thats not luck, thats because of a lot of hard work, and constant changing, rebuilding and practice.

Motivation led me to build a second heavyweight, Double Action, an AXE, I wanted to do something different, an entertaining robot but still potential to be competitive, it'll never be as good as ripper, but I'll have fun with it.

Ive noticed a few comments from craig, loosing his mojo, about there only being flippers at Dublin etc... along with others and I am wondering what people feel.

Are people thinking, whats the point of turning up to an event, I'm never going to win I dont have a FP flipper, or are they thinking, I need to make my robot better to get up there too.... or is this completely wrong, and people are thinking, dya know what my robot entertains and i enjoy coming along, im not bothered about winning ???

Please post your thoughts, as without them we ( event organisors ) dont know whats going on.

John
Roaming Robots

[swanaldo]

I am building Fill Tilt to be different. I am building it from stainless steel because the hardox route is what everyone seems to be using. I wont enter it into full on competitions.....not because i dont think its worthy, more because i dont feel competative anymore and i would rather entertain. I get a better buzz from being an entertainer/bad boy than a winner. Building from different materials is different. The likes of building a hardox wedge with a full pressure system benieth it just doesnt appeal to me at all. I do like to watch them and they do entertain me. If there were another UK Champs I would probably build up Envy and enter that because i know it would stand more of a chance of beating these full pressure flippers than full tilt would. I want to build robots....building Envy over and over just got boring. I want to be different there is nothing wrong with that...but If i went to an event and for arguements sake the enterants listed....

Ripper
IA5
IA6
Toxic
Kronic
Beast
Pressure
Big Brother
Full Tilt

Honestly......I probably wouldnt bother turning up knowing i would be cannon fodder.

On the other hand the line up was.....

Cherub
St Hammer
Big Nipper
Ripper
Kronic
IA5
Maelstrom
Merlin
UFO
Envy
THor
THZ
Scorpion
Wierd Malice

A much more attractive event for me to attend with a more viable chance for me to entertain.

There are lots of robots out there and it would be great for the lot of em to come to events but they dont for some reason another. There is a group of competative robots that want to be number one.....they all seem to be full pressure flippers. On an extreme case as above then i probably wouldnt bother with an event but most events have a varity of good entertaining robots anyway. I hope these elite robots dont put people off but i can see how they can.

[cliveb]

Last year Alex was in the I need a FP Flipper to be competetive camp. But after his fight against Ripper at Maidstone in the Team Bud Trophy fight (where he got absolutely spanked), he is now of the opinion that good tactics,good driving and luck play a huge part in winning,not just a mahoosive flip.So much so that plans for a new robot are on hold,for the time being, and the new machine will most probably not be a flipper,but he is only 11 so this will probably be out of date by the time I press post
Does he want to win? He is 11 to right he does.Does he want to have fun with his robot? Even more so.
I go to an event to have a good day out with my mates,to me winning is not as important as a good time. I don't feel that you must have a FP flipper to win.Last years UK Champs semi finalists were 2 x FP Flipers,1 x Axe and 1 x LP Flipper,and in my opinion it was a great event.
That being said the big flip FP brigade do seem to be making their machines more and more powerfull,so the other machines need to adapt their tactics to take them on, but it can be done.

Clive

[team_mute]

Have things really changed that much since we last came to an event.

We are finally getting Mute back to working order for a bit of fun at the weekends but if all the robots we used to enjoy having a laugh with don't go anymore, is it worth us spending the cash on batteries, chargers and speedo's?

We always prefered the longer fights than the one hit wonder ones, seems a pity to spend all the time getting a robot ready for a few secs of being bounced round an arena.

Does the white board still happen, they used to fun fights

Stainless Steel robots FTW

[robotwars]

Adam....

This is what your going to get

In my opinion, the only thing thats changed is that its now just like f1, its tight and very competitive at the top, ( i love that ) every show has a mixture of white boards and competitions, you choose what you enter.

However we dont build robots to drive around they are there to fight!!

My Personal opinion is the FP club at the top is not the case, Envy, Full Tilt, Big Nipper, Toon Raider, Scorpion, Thor, meggamouse Weired MAlice are all examples of other robots which on the right day can win and do !

Take iron awe team they've build something different too with preditor .. So there's 3 top teams with an extra robot that's different , me, ironawe, and alan!

Lets face it, if ANYONE wants to build a FP flipper they can if they want to, theres no secrets, if they dont, they choose not to.

Anyway.... Mute is a FP flipper anyway !!!

John

[Danjr1]

Why not change the scoring method so that flipping an opponent out the arena isn't an instant win? It could be changed to something akin to how gladiators were scored where the crowd decided who won, so the decision is based on how impressive the fight was so in theory I would be in the interest of the fp flippers in to dominate the others. People maybe more inclined then to make something different such as full tilt, Thor and double action.

[team_mute]

Nice, that's what were looking for, fun fights with different robots, ill go order the speedo now

Doh forgot Mute is FP flipper most of Mutes fights used to be in your old arena so no OOTA, just lots of bouncing of polycarb walls, fights used to last until robot broke or cease was called, fun fun fun

Mute has secrets :wink:

[swanaldo]

There is only 1 real flipout area in Jonnos arena. 1 solid wall and 2 with wires you can snag on. I much prefer it that way as everyone gets a good fight. Robots Live arena has 4 blank sides which the flippers prefer but still can have a good dingdong in there. I might get Envy up and running for some good scrapes with Mute.

[blazerbotics]

I would love to see more variety in the robots at the shows, but im as guilty as anyone with 3 flippers (although they are all as differnet as they can be) but ive been spurred on by Kronic performance last week to go and get the new Knightmare done (which will be an axe/hammer).

Adam, at our shows, theres normally 2-4 competition fights per show, the rest is whiteboards so you can go in and fight who and how you want. The competitions aren't serious and are there to give abit of structure to the shows and its always nice if go home with a trophy, we have had some suprise winners over the last year or so #cough# Weired Alice!

I think Mute would still be cometitive, not to forget the best Srimech!

Im glad to see new robots being built and old ones coming back, there was a time a year or so ago where we were on a downhill slope in terms of running heavies, but it seems like its going the other way.

Have you spoke to Ian Watts about a Mega Wotty for Mute?

[team_mute]

All sounds good, as we can't spend as much time with bots anymore we just want to have some fun fights and catch up with old friends, might change after a few events if the bug bites again

Mega Wotty, good name but havent got a clue about it, can you mail me a linky or some info if u have it as I dont want to take over Jonno's thread with Mutes bits and bobs