Babróg: Fight 4 Vs. Toucan, KOS-MOS V2, The Barber Surgeon


Fight starts at 5:30.

Babróg would get its own control fight rumble against a lifter, an axebot, and a wedge in Toucan, KOS-MOS V2, and The Barber Surgeon respectively. I was able to start this match off with a nice suplex on Toucan, the first in a fight for the new machine! I spent a lot of this match trying to right The Barber Surgeon, but unfortunately its geometry didn’t make that easy for me to do. This left me and Toucan to tussle it out, which was a lot of fun, and Babróg finally felt like it was working like a good control bot should, but unfortunately a misjudgement on my behalf ended up with me half driving, half getting shoved into the pit. Bit of a shame, but it was only a whiteboard, and it was great to get some decent fight time in.

Babróg: Fight 5 Vs. Unstoppable Force, Ice Breaker, Freak


Fight starts at 15:59.

Before the event was over, I really wanted to see if this new Babróg possessed the same durability as the original one, and this whiteboard match was the perfect excuse, going against a collection of incredibly hard hitting spinners of all shapes and sizes. Babróg started this one out strongly, the TPU wedge able to get in under everyone, landing a suplex, and taking hits from Freak head on. After a few good shoves Ice Breaked landed several monstrous hit on me, but to my delight Babróg seemed unfazed by the impacts. Fortunately I managed to recover quick enough, and while Ice Breaker was pre-occupied with finishing Freak off, I managed to get a lucky shove in and toss Ice Breaker out as well, taking a surprise win!




Some fantastic images from this fight courtesy of Stuart Camp!

This was a great match to see what worked and what didn’t with Babróg, and in this one I flipped, self-righted, got under things, and could take the hits when necessary. The wedge held up remarkably well all things considered, and despite several nasty hits to the back, the battery remained safe, and even with some light twisting, the machine performed like nothing was ever wrong with it. I’m very glad I took part in this fight, especially given how much of a gamble it was, since Babróg’s next fight basically took place right afterwards, and was one I really needed to take part in.




Babróg after the match. The front took the hits pretty well, with the rear still holding out decently.

Babróg: Fight 6 Vs. Data Breach, Sniper, Monterey Jack


Fight starts at 10:49.

So as part of Robot Rebellion 2024, the main side event taking place this year was a homage to the greatest robot combat show to come from China, This is Fighting Robots, and due to my ahem eclectic personality, I was made one of the team captains. There is so much I could talk about regarding this entire competition, but basically the only thing you need to know was that what you saw in the final edit was only about half of the shenanigans I got up to. Regardless, I did end up in an actual fight as part of this event, and this put me up against the two control bots of Data Breach and Monterey Jack, and the horizontal undercutter of Sniper.




The key moment of the match, and me taking the loss in a respecable and dignified manner.

I was already slightly at a disadvantage since my wedge no longer sat flush with the floor thanks to Ice Breaker’s fine work, but Babróg still drove well, and I think I may have suplexed Data Breach, though it’s not too clear in the edited video. This soon became a fight between me and Sniper, whose spinner was finally tearing genuine chunks out of my TPU wedge. Eventually I managed to outlast Sniper’s weapon, but even then Sniper had a very respectable drive system, and managed a great shove on me, sending me into the pit and taking the win. As can be seen, Sniper’s spinner was perfectly positioned to peel away at the side panels, and while the robot still could drive in a straight line, it’s pretty clear this frame would be retired after this event.




The damage to the sides and rear of Babróg. These areas could be bulked up, but weight is always paramount with these competitions, and nothing has failed catastrophically yet, so I'll likely keep this armour arrangement going for now.

Conclusion:

Robot Rebellion was once again a very busy, frenetic, and fun event, and left us with a lot to ponder about for the future. Tournament wise, we basically ended up matching our results from last year, each finishing our heats in third place, but I’d argue that these beetleweights were significant improvements from their predecessors.

The new Babróg may not have gotten the ultimate results, but I was happy with all of the upgrades I had made. The new lifter motor was far more consistent at tossing opponents than the old servo, and while some self-righting woes did remain, this was still a bot that got stuck far less often. The durability of the design remained through the reworking, and the robot remains a machine I have no problems throwing into any battle. The TPU wedge was also a very effective generalist option against spinners, and while arguably no match for the titanium against a straight horizontal, I do intend to bring them to events going forward. The drive system continues to have the beans to remain competitive, and even the smaller battery posed no issues for me. The one change I would make with this design going forward however was the fork system. The forks were still a decent option at getting underneath an opponent, but it became clear at this event how weak it could be against the longer metal forks used by others. Due to the recessed lifter design, I can only have fork so long before they hinder my ability to grab an opponent, so I would need a more novel approach to solve this issue (which you can see in by Battle in the Burgh 4 event report!).

And that’s it, finally done! This one took far longer than it should, mostly on my end being busy with a ton of other personal issues, but even if I’m taking a break from building for the next few months, I can at least use this time to get through the gigantic backlog that was robot combat for me in 2025. A massive shout out to all of the people running Robot Rebellion, and to Jevan and all his crew for the mammoth task of getting the web series edited, it was definitely worth the wait!


Babróg looking forward to a relaxing few months without fighting in its future!