Sorry long post, but a few points to address:

I am glad you won with just one drive wheel, but again I don't think you would disagree with me the rules should not be shaped around the occasional fluke!
I don’t think there should be a rule, period. I get the rule about the figure of eight, but it relates to demonstrating movement AFTER a fight, where damage may have been sustained, in order to help the judges decide on a winner when the fight has been closely contested.
I don’t believe there should be a rule created that a robot must demonstrate full movement/figure of eight before a fight in order to be considered a valid contender for that fight. That is something I am 100% sure of and will continue to support.

Reasons:

- In the UK featherweight championship, you get 1 point just for entering the arena in the group stages. That 1 point can be the difference between making it straight through and having to compete in a play-off (or between a play-off and elimination from the competition). This is especially helpful if you take an absolute battering in a fight and have limited repair time, and it’s beneficial to all competitors, not just those with a particular design/weapon type.

- Why should a robot get points just for entering the arena if they’re not fully working, you might ask? Well why should fully working robots get maximum points without doing anything, just because their opponent has only one working drive wheel? (different story if the opponent fails to make it to the arena or has no form of mobility)
In the name of fairness, the fight should be fought. If the fully working robot wins (as will happen in most instances) then that robot has fairly won and its opponent has fairly lost. If the opposite happens then the fully working robot has fairly lost (if it can’t dispatch a partially disabled robot, then that is not the fault of said disabled robot) and the opponent has fairly won. Fluke or not, everything’s fair.

- If a 10-year-old kid has spent all his weekends building a robot, travelled hundreds of miles to be at an event, then been denied the chance to fight his next fight because of one inoperative wheel, then he will be crushed. When I was competing in my younger years, every opportunity to get in the arena was valued and exciting, regardless of the state of the robot. When you’ve come a long way and don’t often get much arena time, each fight is important. And regardless of whether it’s a good robot or not, if you’ve paid money to compete, then I think you should be allowed to start each fight, even on one wheel. Sure the robot might get thrown out or beaten up, but that 10-year-old will be ecstatic that he got his machine into another battle.

In my opinion, if you thought that you had not been given enough time you should have asked for more (which we would have supported), rather than expect special treatment from the judges as a result of this.
The time available was nothing that could have been influenced by asking you to postpone the fight or by asking for more time (both of which I know you wouldn’t have objected to). It was determined by the need to keep the show and competition flowing. Our fight had already been pushed back to the third loser’s melee and the competition couldn’t progress until we fought. Considering there were still other battles to be fought and 20-25 minutes of show time left to fill, it wasn't possible to postpone the fight any longer. I also, on no occasion, expected special treatment from the judges and believe our fight was judged fairly and according to the competition rules in place. The situation also differed from the 720 v Wedgie fight, which is where a lot of people were getting confused and claiming that the judging was inconsistent, however that is a different matter.

The repair time issue centres around the first seven one-on-one fights from the UK champs being in the first show (10am-10.45am), the last two being in the second show (12pm-12.15pm), and the losers’ melees also being in the second show (~12.30pm-12.40pm). Therefore any losing robots in the first seven one-on-ones had from 10.45–12.15 (1.5hrs minimum) to repair any damage, whereas the two losers from the last two one-on-ones only had 15-25 minutes to effect repairs. As I stated, all measures that could be taken to offer more time were taken (rearranging the melees depending on the readiness of competitors) but there comes a time when the fights have to be fought regardless. This is not a dig at the Coopers or the judges for the format, however I have left feedback relating to the issue in the event thread.

So, based on that, the only way I can see a fully-mobile-before-the-fight rule being fairly implemented is to set a fixed minimum repair time (~45m) or to have all fights, such as the ones mentioned, take place in the same show. However I still don't see the need for a rule to be created stipulating this.

I would argue it is reasonable the robot chassis can actually move at the beginning of the fight.
And again I would disagree, considering the limited pit time that can be available at events, and the variable degrees of damage that can be sustained. The only way it could work is universal/equal repair time as mentioned above.

My stance isn’t going to change on the issue, so I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one Craig