Welcome to the first round 2 battle in heat 4 of FFW5 and today we see 7th seeds Axe To Fall up against UKRW veterans Kan Opener for a place in the heat final, we€™re off to the arena.

3€¦
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Activate!

Immediately both machines come out of their respective starting positions and slide across the arena. Axe To Fall appears to be the quickest but Kan Opener appears to be the smoother moving and starts snaking across the arena trying to stay away from the front of Axe To Fall and the vicious axe that has won him so many fights. It is Axe To Fall who gets the first attack in, but it€™s more a scraping blow on the roof of Kan Opener with nothing more than a scratch on the paintwork of the Grade 5 titanium coated machine.

Kan Opener traverses away from this attack and immediately finds himself at the back corner of Axe To Fall and quickly, or as quickly as you can with hydraulics, shuts the jaws around the 15mm polycarbonate shell, going through it was if it was butter that had been left out of the fridge for a week. Evidently it has done no damage to the internal workings of Martijns€™ machine however, as immediately he moves away as if nothing has happened, spins his machine around, and slams down the axe again, leaving a small dent, with possibly a tiny perforation on the lid of Kan Opener.

Kan Opener doesn€™t like this and decides to attack imminently, coming in with his claws to get around the front titanium wedge and immediately trying to crumple the armour on the side of Axe To Fall. It appears to be a little sturdier than the rear corner however, and both sides just flex in slightly before seemingly becoming damage resistant, from that angle at least. Martijn uses the opportunity to repeatedly slam the axe down on the lid of Kan Opener though, and the teams apparent complacency that their armour would hold up to such treatment seems partially justified as although tiny perforations appear to be making the machine look a little like a pepper pot it can€™t possibly be damaging enough to be causing any more than superficial damage.

They decide however that anything that could swing the points in Axe To Falls favour is not worth going through though, and soon open the claws further popping the polycarbonate armour as he pulls out his very own weapons of mass destruction. He immediately slides away at this point, and tries to spin his way around the rear, but as he closes the claws again Axe To Fall moves away and spins around, sliding the wedge at the front under the closed claws and slamming him into the sidewall with the 2 machines actually moving away from the centre of the arena for the first time throughout their scupple.

Kan Opener tries to push away but Axe To Fall keeps the wheels spinning forward and traps him due to his more powerful motors and decides to slam the axe down repeatedly, again leaving little pepper pot like perforations on the top. Kan Opener however realises he can still attack and having managed to open his claws now closes in again and pierces another point on either side, with the same vigour as he did previously, making holes in the side and crumpling repeatedly as he opens and closes the claws repeatedly.

Axe To Fall realises how dangerous this situation is and backs off, to be immediately followed by Kan Opener who flies towards his front before traversing at the last possible moment. Axe To Fall has already slammed the axe down though, which has immediately dug into the arena floor, and appears to leave him stuck. Martijn seems to be wiggling his switches in order to get the axe out of the ground, but by the time he€™s managed it, Kan Opener has got round to the back and begun to crumble through both side panels from the rear, which appears to be weaker despite being the same thickness as he perforates with such ease that it really showcases the power of the claws.

He lets go when he feels he€™s done with damaging the Dutch machine for this moment in time. Martijn immediately spins his combatant around and tries to hammer, but again Kan Opener has moved before the axe makes contact and the axe just slams into the floor again, though this time it doesn€™t appear to get stuck in the ground and immediately comes back up allowing Martijn to pursue his enemy once more in what is turning out to be a fantastic battle. He chases over to the UKRW real robot and immediately shunts him out of the way of the pit release button, only to follow through himself and knock it. The pit descends in the midst of its usual angelic chorus, and both robots immediately seem to move to the opposite side of the arena, making you wonder why it was released in the first place.

Kan Opener gets round the side again and closes the claws, which does very little damage as they stop once the right hand claw meets the 8mm titanium wedge, which it€™s unable to do anything more than dent slightly. He has a grip however, and immediately begins trying to use it, shunting him towards the CPZ of Matilda. Realising this Axe To Fall also tries to get into forward gear and the 2 immediately just end up going in circles performing a deadly robotic foxtrot. Eventually 30 seconds is up and Kan Opener is forced to unpin him, but by this point he€™s got Axe To Fall in between a rock and a hard place as he leaves him right on the edge of Matilda€™s CPZ. Martijn manoeuvres his machine wonderfully though and pulls himself out of a tricky spot.

The referee in the centre of the arena suddenly catches everyone€™s attention though as his weird countdown noises appears and the audience suddenly realise that they€™re watching the final seconds of the fight, and as Axe To Fall launches himself at Kan Opener for one final attack, slamming his axe and leaving another small perforation, the voiceover sounds!

CEASE

And for the first time in a while we€™re gonna have to go to a judges decision.

Damage - Kan Opener caused the more serious damage, while Axe To Fall did constant minor damage

Kan Opener - 6/10 * 5 = 30
Axe To Fall - 4/10 * 5 = 20

Aggression - Both machines were pretty aggressive however Axe To Fall seemed to be trying to get his axe down more often than Kan Opener tried to crush

Kan Opener - 4/10 * 4 = 16
Axe To Fall - 6/10 * 4 = 24

Style - Both robots seemed to be equally stylish

Kan Opener - 5/10 * 3 = 15
Axe To Fall - 5/10 * 3 = 15

Control - Kan Opener had far better control overall though Axe To Fall had a couple of excellent moments

Kan Opener - 6/10 * 2 = 12
Axe To Fall - 4/10 * 2 = 8

Dominance - Kan Opener always seemed to be slightly more in control of the fight.

Kan Opener - 7/10 * 1 = 7
Axe To Fall - 3/10 * 1 = 3


Totals - Kan Opener - 80
Axe To Fall - 70

And there you have it, possibly our first huge upset of the series! Axe To Fall is eliminated by a robot never to have won a battle in UKRW, Kan Opener go through to the heat final!