The Honey Badger - Rapture @ Chatham 2021
After a long drive down to Chatham on the Friday night (5.5 hours), I turned up to the event knowing full well who I was competing against, those being Super Snappy, K2 and Let the Good Times Roll. Suffice to say, I was definitely the underdog going into that. I rushed on a PTFE front scraper to get the front of the robot as low as possible in an attempt to get underneath the opponent, which ultimately didn't do very much.

The Honey Badger vs Super Snappy
Craig and Super Snappy are well known in the BW scene and this was definitely an interesting fight. During the fight, where we proceeded to dance for a bit before being pushed everywhere, I noticed the robot getting slower and slower. This turned out to be the battery having not been charged so I couldn't get a good speed up. Lost when a tyre came off a wheel on one side and the other was dangling over the pit.

The Honey Badger vs K2
Having already seen K2 in previous events, I knew how hard this was going to be. It was practically a blink and you'll miss it affair after K2 rammed my right wheel (the wheel guards were in the wrong position) so hard, that wheel stopped working. Then with a final hit to the rear, that disabled the Badger completely as the link was ripped out.

After that fight, it was discovered that one gearbox was poorly and the other was completely non-functional as a stage had fallen out of its mount. With some creative work, I managed to get it partially working in so much as it would reverse but not go forwards.

The Honey Badger vs Let the Good Times Roll
By this stage, having had about four hours of sleep prior to the event, I was worn out but I wasn't willing to simply call a forfeit on this. Ultimately, this fight was a walk in the park for Let the Good Times Roll but there were a few occasions where they very nearly went up the front of the robot. Even the flipping arm managed to see some good action however a flip from the drum spinner put the robot on its back panel and didn't have enough leverage against the arena wall to put it back on its wheels.

0-3 for The Honey Badger 4.1. I'll admit, a bit disheartening given that I spent a fair bit of time and effort putting this together but there are things that can be done to improve this so all isn't lost. Had I been in a different heat, I might have done better but that is how these things go. It'll be back as a 4.2.

I'll be working on a YT video over this week for this and then work on the BotFest arena.