BBB Beetle Champs 2024:

Generally I like to do these event reports in chronological order, however Robot Rebellion is an awkward event to talk about, both because I actually don’t have all of the fights filmed on me, and the event is filmed as part of a web series online. While there’s nothing like an NDA for the event, I do appreciate the work that goes into the extra editing job, so I’ve decided to postpone that event report until all of my fights have been released (which should hopefully be at least before June 2025, fingers crossed). I will however say that I did decide to alter my design somewhat for Babróg leading up to the champs as a result of lessons learnt from Robot Rebellion.


Babróg ready to compete with its new front end setup.

The main change made to Babróg for this event was to the fork setup at the front. The metal forks I had been using up until now were good at scraping the ground, but in the current BW meta they were just too short for far too many opponents, and if I got any kind of a hit which bent the baseplate or the front piece, I would be in a situation where it was even harder to get an opponent up onto the front. I was also very impressed by the performance the TPU wedge had in some fights even where it was up against verts, and so decided to bolt long TPU forks straight onto the front of the robot. This came with a few advantages:


  • I could have as many spare parts as I would bother to print.
  • I could change the angle of the fork exactly so that they would press and scrape into the ground while also allowing me to keep four wheels on the ground as well.
  • I could mount thinner TPU wedgelets in between the forks to stop any other forks from getting under the front of the bot that way, and these could be moved up and down depending on what I saw fit.
  • Because I no longer had the weakening slots in the front piece, I could actually fit longer lifter forks into the design, giving me a few more centimetres of reach.


Outside of one final reprint of a TPU wedge (much thicker and sturdier than the first attempt), I was ready to fly over!


Babróg getting funky with it.


All fights can be found in this video, timestamps are included alongside each fight.

Fight 1 Vs. C.D.G., Demon Spirit MKII:

Fight starts at 6:04.


Babróg attempting to wrangle C.D.G. Special shout out to Mike Brazier for all the mid-fight photos you'll see in this diary!

This first match was a perfect time for me to try out my new horizontal config against a pretty nasty undercutter in C.D.G., while also seeing if the setup could stay competitive against a control bot like Demon Spirit MKII. Ultimately Demon Spirit suffered from control issues throughout, and didn’t end up being much of a threat in this fight at least. C.D.G. meanwhile was landing some very decent hits on Babróg, and although I managed to flip them over, a direct hit from there on could have done some nasty damage to the lifter. Fortunately for myself C.D.G. struggled with mobility while upside down, and midway through the battle they seemed to lose their weapon. I was unable to land any grabs on either opponent due to my static arm config, but I was able to control my opponents enough to take a win via judges decision. Outside of two nice hits from C.D.G. onto the side and wedge, I had taken no critical damage, and so could take it easy enough while waiting for my round of 32 fight.




Damage from the first fight. The new TPU wedge held up rather well, and you can see from the one rear shot that C.D.G. hits quite hard when everything engages in the right way.

Fight 2 Vs. Amethyst:

Fight starts at 59:01.


Me and Amethyst pre-match.

My round of 32 match had me up against Amethyst, another undercutter style robot. This robot was one of my picks to make a deep run into this tournament owing to the nasty spinner on it, as well as the successful runs this team had made in previous tournaments with the EVA robots. Unfortunately Amethyst suffered weapon problems in its first two fights, and was never able to get its weapon up to spinning speed. This left me with a setup choice to make; I could run forks to counter the solid drive base and forks that were still working on Amethyst, or I could run the horizontal wedge to counter the spinner should it be working. Ultimately I elected to run the forks, which ended up being the right call.

Even without a working weapon, Amethyst proved to be a very effective control bot to face, getting under Babróg multiple times and threatening to dump me into the pit once or twice. I was very happy with how the new front end was working in this match, and at one point I managed to get under Amethyst in a head to head charge, something that likely would not have worked with the original Babróg. I managed two very nice lifts, one getting agonisingly close to giving me the suplex out of the arena I have been chasing for so long, but ultimately I lacked both the reach and momentum to pull it off. Eventually I managed a slightly lucky charge on Amethyst next to the pit, and some careful shoving landed me a spot in the round of 16!




Some lifts. Plenty of good shots from this one!