Well it came back in one piece but a very unwell robot.

First fight was between Kaizen, Backflip and Gaston and it did OK but ended up getting beached on Backflip's front flipper and we both ended up in the pit. I also had tried setting an exponential setting on the axe but I had set it the wrong way around so it's return was really quick but firing it was pretty slow. I also noticed the axe kept on getting jammed in the guides.

I thought that'd be it for me as I was only expecting to be in the competition melee but managed to get into a 2v2 matchas well for the second show. It was Kaizen and Two Headed Death Flamingo vs Beast and Backflip in the end. I had tested it earlier and seemed to be OK but powered it up in the pen, got it to the door, the announcer announced the robot and... the ESC kept on cutting out as it went into the arena. How embarrassing. :S

It got into position and ultimately had as good a fight as you can expect, even managing to shunt Beast (a robot 3 times Kaizen's weight as you'll recall) a little bit. The axe worked for longer this time but again got jammed. It ended in the pit again.

So yeah, no idea what is going on with the ESC. I can only assume it is current limiting but what was causing it, I don't know. I do know that at the end, the motors smelt like they had burned out. Least the axe worked properly this time but it was rather like a tickling stick.

2019 is a new build, probably going to get 2 more of the axe motors, getting the existing and a spare axe motor and making those the drive motors. That however means a new inner body so effectively a full rebuild. I'll be ordering the motors tonight.