Welcome to another round 2 fight, this time between two seeds! In the heat, fourth seeds The Deer managed to get PRP down the moat in a short fight, but then suffered damage against the dangerous Hefty Kick in the Balls. V€™Ger toppled Circuit Breaker in a very quick fight, but had a somewhat tougher opponent in GeForce, but still managing to immobilise it. We move to the Roulette arena for this fight.

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V€™Ger has a slow start, backing off to get the spinner running, but Martyn doesn€™t want his machine taking any more damage, and The Deer goes straight for V€™Ger, rounding one of the pits as it does so. This manoeuvring gives Nick time to get away from the box rush, and with the flywheel spinning, goes to attack The Deer! The Deer evades the flywheel however, by nipping the sides of V€™Ger and denting the armour enough so that V€™Ger can€™t push through!

With The Deer gripping onto V€™Ger for all it€™s worth, a pushing match begins. However with both machines using the exact same drive, it stalemates, with both machines edging around in circles as neither can gain any advantage! At one point, V€™Ger is edged over a pit, which doesn€™t open. Still V€™ger is locked in The Deer€™s grip though, and as V€™Ger is still mobile and thus not being pinned, Martyn isn€™t under any obligation to let go.

Still, as both machines are pushing and pulling in opposite directions as the drivers fight for control, neither can be said to actually have any, with The Deer drifting over the pit V€™Ger failed to drop down earlier. Like V€™Ger, The Deer survives and the fight continues, with V€™Ger spinning into the CPZ, and straight onto the flipper of Flipup! The flipper fires, and V€™Ger isn€™t launched into the air so much as suplexed over The Deer, which is also flipped over due to its grip on V€™Ger!

The result is terrible for both machines. V€™Ger is upside down, and unable to self right as The Deer has landed on top of it. The Deer has let go, but can€™t get off V€™Ger, who can€™t self right because of the added weight! Both machines are immobile, and both counted out. We go to an unexpected judges decision.

Control: Bluntly, neither had much as for just about all the fight they were locked together and interfering with each others movement.

Aggression: Both were aggressive at the start, and that€™s pretty much it.

Damage: Neither seemed too affected by the launch from Flipup, and the only real damage that could be found were the dents on V€™Ger from The Deer€™s crusher.

As it is, there€™s not enough of a fight to judge, so the judges have called for the match to be restarted! Both machines are not to be recharged or repaired, and the match is restarted with four minutes left on the clock.

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The Deer starts off in exactly the same way, driving around the pit in front of it and trying to get at V€™Ger before it can get its flywheel spun up. This time instead of reversing away from The Deer, V€™Ger turns and runs past The Deer, who also turns to try and get V€™Ger back in the claws, but instead gets lifted up by the lifter! V€™Ger reverses with The Deer and pushes it over a pit, but there€™s not to be a quick end to this rematch as the pit stays shut!

V€™Ger turns around, causing The Deer to fall off the lifter, and strikes it on the side, causing a large crack in the polycarb and spinning The Deer off the pit! V€™Ger drives around the pit to attack again, but The Deer drives towards it and almost gets it locked in the pinchers! Nick hurriedly reverses V€™Ger to avoid what happened before, going over the pit behind him in his haste, but getting away with it.

The Deer follows V€™Ger, carefully driving around the pit and managing to catch hold of it! Nick groans and another dance begins, with V€™Ger almost immediately drifting over the nearby pit, failing to drop down, followed with The Deer being pulled over the same pit moments later, and the deadlock continues as The Deer is equally as lucky! Then V€™Ger somehow manages to break itself free of The Deer€™s grip, probably because The Deer was gripping at an angle rather than full on this time.

Whatever, V€™Ger is free and repays Martyn by spinning around and connecting on one of the claws with the flywheel, spinning The Deer over the pit, and still the fourth seed lives on as a different pit opens! The Deer quickly turns and rams straight into the flywheel to stop it spinning back up, and the claws start to close, with V€™Ger once more reversing hurriedly away and going into the PPZ, where it has a close encounter with Uncle Tomahawk and nearly gets hit by the axe before driving back out of the PPZ, only to be rammed straight back in by The Deer!

Once more, V€™Ger escapes the PPZ after suffering no house robot attacks, But The Deer keeps on the pressure, trying to get the claws around V€™Ger, and almost managing, giving V€™Ger a nasty scratch it the armour as V€™Ger gets free just in the Nick of time Unfortunately, Nick is more concerned with avoiding a repeat of the dreaded deadlock than where V€™Ger is going, and it goes straight over a pit, and not straight down it!

The Deer turns and gives chases, but Martyn doesn€™t want to push his luck by going over the pit, and so goes around it instead, once more being caught on the rear lifter and being propped up and being pushed backwards over the pit anyway! Like last time however, it€™s another pit that opens momentarily, and The Deer is again dropped off the lifter by V€™Ger turning around to attack with the flywheel in a repeat of the last exchange of attacks!

Time is ticking down now, and The Deer gets its claws back around V€™Ger, but once more V€™Ger manages to escape with not much more than a scratch down its armour thanks to the angle, but spins straight into the PPZ again, and worse straight into the flywheel of The Militant, which bounces it flywheel first into the arena wall! Part of the wall is smashed off, but not enough to justify stopping the fight again, and as V€™Ger reverses out of the PPZ, The Deer catches it and tries to keep it in the PPZ!

The fight looks deadlocked again to the casual observer, but The Deer has just managed to catch one of V€™Gers partially exposed wheels! The claw has gone through the wheel, stopping it turning and thus giving The Deer an edge in the pushing battle for the first time in the fight! The Deer tries to line V€™Ger up over a pit, but V€™Ger still has the other wheel running and so Nick manages to spin V€™Ger away from its course, almost spinning The Deer over the pit!

Nick has some dictation over where the locked robots go, but Martyn has more control in this exchange, and so V€™Ger ends up in the PPZ once more, being pushed right under the axe of Uncle Tomahawk! The Deer reverses out of the PPZ, and V€™Ger, hobbling somewhat, beats a hasty retreat! Uncle Tomahawk tries to block V€™Ger in, but is lifted up by V€™Ger causing it to fall out of the way! The Deer comes in as time is running down and just avoids getting lifted up again! Still, V€™Ger is able to get out of the claws in time, and CEASE is called!

Well, a frustrating time for both combatants, neither controlling the match as they would have liked. We head into what is possibly the first ever second judges decision for one fight.

Aggression: The Deer did most of the chasing, with V€™Ger mostly getting in defensive attacks. The Deer: 3. V€™Ger: 2

Damage: The Deer took some flywheel blows, and has two large cracks and a small piece of armour missing, plus a dent in a claw. V€™Ger has some dents and scratches from the claws, and a somewhat larger dent from The Militant. Uncle Tomahawk€™s blows couldn€™t be found. More tellingly, it has a damaged wheel. The Deer looks more beat up, but as it caused a little damage to V€™Gers manoeuvrability, making this area closer than it otherwise might have been. The Deer: 2. V€™Ger: 3.

Control: The Deer just about has an edge here. Not taking the deadlocked areas into account, V€™Ger was occasionally driving itself over pits or into the PPZ, albeit to escape another deadlock. Therefore, The Deer had better control. The Deer: 3. V€™Ger: 2.

Final result: The Deer: 8. V€™Ger: 7.

I think this deposes Hell Machine vs Star 69 as hardest fight to judge. V€™Ger dared to be the 13th seed in an arena that involves luck, and look what happened The Deer moves through to the quarter finals!