Robot Rebellion 2023:

Robot Rebellion 2023 would see both of us returning in a very similar manner to 2022, with minor upgrades to Babróg and the entirely new Schnake to test. This year the format of the competition was slightly different: each of the 12 heats would contain four robots in a round robin format, with the only rule to the order being that the winners in the first round would fight each other in the second. Points were no longer being used to score a heat by the method of winning or losing, merely if the fight was one or lost. The robot with the best record would go through in each heat, with the second place robot going to a three way playoff to determine the final entrants to the top 16. There was also the potential for “lockdown” melees to determine heat order should three robots have the same W:L record by the end. Finally, each heat would have a seeded robot competing, where Schnake had Bby Shrekt as its seeded opponent.


Here is the heat Schnake took part in, which has every fight it took part in except for the whiteboard rumble.

Schnake: Fight 1 Vs. Aggro Wobba: Smidders Edition

Schnake’s first match was actually against Babróg’s first opponent from last year, Aggro Wobba: Smidders Edition. This fight was definitely a match for teething issues: one of the teeth on the grabbing arm was getting caught on the plastic front, and prevented me from being able to use the grabber at all, meanwhile the new mixing I had done on Schnake made the robot less likely to be uncontrollable, but had the opposite issue for my dad in being too sluggish to handle, especially with turning. This left a fight where Schnake was never able to really get around Aggro Wobba, and when it could, it just didn’t seem to have the pushing power. Schnake was slowly making its way to the first loss of the competition, before a driving error from Aggro Wobba left it stuck in the arena wall, with Schnake literally too slow to free it, resulting in a rather undeserved KO to start things off. Nice to have a win, but definitely a lot to improve.

Schnake: Fight 2 Vs. Bby Shrekt

Schnake’s second fight was against Bby Shrekt, one of the favourites to win the competition, and a real test for the robots durability. Unfortunately there wasn’t too much to talk about with this match. Schnake drove straight into Bby Shrekt, before then reversing into it again. This combo of hits caused the robot to limp on one side, before another hit at the back knocked the link loose, leading to a nasty KO.
This match was a nasty loss. In the few seconds it lasted, Bby Shrekt managed to mangle a gearbox, the threaded support of the armour, killed a drive motor, and snapped the rear bulkhead of the robot, twisting the entire chassis in the process. A lot would be needed to fix the robot going forward, but this fight also revealed just how weak the structure of Schnake actually was without enough bracing at the rear of the robot.

Schnake: Fight 3 Vs. MOTHenator MKII: CODENAME LITHIUM

Schnake’s final fight was one that would, thanks to how the group had gone so far, determine if it would finish its heat 2nd, and secure a spot in a playoff rumble for the top 16. In its way was MOTHenator MKII: CODENAME LITHIUM, an undercutter that had lost its weapon, and was now reduced to a 2WD pushbot. This should have been the type of fight where Schnake could have gotten one good bite and won it, but unfortunately things didn’t go our way thanks to a few factors. The wedgelets at either side of MOTHenator were perfectly positioned to prevent the grabber from getting a hold, and MOTHenator was driven very well to make the most of this. The real kicker however was how this was Schnake’s first real demonstration of pushing power, and boy howdy was it a stinker. I had expected some drop in performance from switching back to brushed motors, but I had massively overestimated how strong a pusher with only two 22mm motors was. Without a useful weapon, pushing power, and a seeming drop in power near the end, Schnake was finally pitted, ending with a 1-2 record.

Heat G 2nd Place Playoff: Schnake Vs. MOTHenator MKII: CODENAME LITHIUM Vs. Aggro Wobba: Smidders Edition

Due to the format of the competition, each of our robots ended up in different rumbles to remain in contention. While Bby Shrekt strolled away with a comfortable 3-0 record, Schnake managed to score a second chance due to both of the other robots in the heat also having a 1-2 record. Unfortunately Aggro Wobba had to pull out of the fight due to transmitter issues, and so the fight basically ended up being a repeat of the last match. For whatever reason, using the grabber seemed to be playing havoc with the electronics, so after a near scare early in the fight I decided not to use it any more. The fight was a near copy of the previous fight: MOTHenator had better control, a design that negated Schnake’s weapon, and crucially electronics that didn’t seem to be iffy, resulting in a win late into the match, leaving Schnake 3rd in its heat, knocking out of the competition.


I really must apologise, but I took very few photos from this event, and if you can believe it, this is the only photo I have of Schnake while there.

Conclusion:

Robot Rebellion 2023 was certainly an event with a lot to teach us. Schnake’s redesign was a pretty big disappointment, and a lot of the errors with the design should have been spotted by myself way earlier. The most major issue was the drive power: I had expected some reduction in drive power by going from a brushless to a brushed drive system, but I did not expect the downturn in pushing power to be so dramatic. On top of that, the robot was just not as durable as I would have hoped it would be: I never really came to appreciate how well supported Babróg was until I noticed how little support Schnake had for the baseplate to flex outwards from the robot, and the machine payed the price as a result. I don’t believe that all the changes were bad, the weapon motor in particular seems to be a massive improvement. I can see this design being worth at least one more crack, though I’d like to take a break for a while before committing to anything major.
So that was Robot Rebellion 2023! Apologies for the delay in posting this, it’s just been a challenge to find the time to sit down and properly write all of this down. I am unsure how much time I will have in July 2024 for what I’m assuming will be Robot Rebellion 2024, but I definitely intend to have both me and my dad competing at a BW event together at some point in the following year. Stay tuned in the coming days for some more event reports!