Mechanical Maelstrom Season 2.0:
Semi-Final 1

Ladies and Gentlemen... Holepunch 2.0
Holepunch made it to this stage of the competition by crushing through Tira V, Black Panther, Hot Sauce and now ex-champion Sheer Heart Attack 2. He€™s proved his worth by taking out the top ranked machine, and his original pneumatic crusher makes him a favourite for the title.

Presenting... Hypertension MK3
Although arguably less impressive than its opponent in this round, Hypertension is a famously successful line of robots that has thrown robots far and wide so far this season. It was the only robot well armoured enough to even stand a chance against The Zodiac, and it€™s powerful pneumatic flipper has so far tossed 3 of its 4 opponents clean out of the arena with the 2000kg of flipping force!

3...
2...
1...
ACTIVATE!

Both robots move off as soon as the match begins, with Holepunch being the immediate aggressor and coming out of the box speedily to dodge the front flipper of Hypo and turn to attack the side, but Will turns to counter the attack and Leo is forced to reverse away for fear of being thrown out of the arena by this powerful flipper. Will goes on the attack, pushing against the front of the slow Holepunch 2.0, but neither can get under the other robot. Holepunch reverses away and drives back on the attack, the extra speed allowing Leo to get under the front of Hypertension MK3 and the pneumatic crusher quickly snaps down onto the hardox armouring of Hypertension MK3, but the wedge shape means it can€™t really get a good grip on the robot and the thick armour isn€™t depressed too much by the attack.

Hypertension slips out of Holepunch€™s grasp as a result of this and reverses away from its boxy Razer-esque opponent before driving back on the attack and this time Will gets underneath the front of Holepunch 2.0, now driving towards the arena side wall to put Leo out of the arena, but Holepunch starts to drive up the wedge and Will realises he€™s not going to make it to the wall with Holepunch 2.0 on board and so is forced to fire the flipper in order to put a few points on the board, throwing Holepunch 2.0 over its head to go smashing down onto its nose behind Hypertension! Leo€™s machine balances on the point of its crusher for a split second before crashing down onto the self-righting hoop and rolling onto its wheels.

Leo drives at the rear of Hypertension MK3 now, as he was put there by the previous flip and this could prove to be a turning point as Leo gets underneath the rear of the wedge and crushes down with the powerful pneumatic crusher, making a slight dent in the top of the flipper, but the key point here is that Holepunch 2.0 now has control of Hypertension MK3! Matty fires the flipper in an attempt to free himself, but 2000kg versus 11 tonnes of force isn€™t much of a fight and the flipper barely seems to move, with Holepunch holding it down and now reversing across the arena and into the pit release button!

The siren wails and the chasm descends, but Matty fired the flipper again just as Holepunch collided with the pit release button, and since the grip wasn€™t so great the wedge shaped robot just managed to wriggle free of his powerful opponent€™s grip and drives away, turning to meet the oncoming onslaught from Holepunch 2.0, driving on and dodging the front wedge, using its superior speed to turn and get underneath the side of Holepunch and charging towards the pit with Holepunch on board, but there€™s nothing to keep robots on the wedge and Holepunch drives off the side of the wedge. Cursing, Matty turns to get underneath Holepunch 2.0 and fires his flipper again, tossing the crushing robot high into the air a second time!

The wheelchair motor powered beast lands on top of Hypertension itself, resetting the flipper for another attack as Hypertension goes running across the arena and firing the flipper again, this time sending Holepunch 2.0 soaring up into the air and it somersaults as it comes crashing back down on its head, slamming onto the rails at the side of the arena and teetering their precariously for a moment before falling back into the arena. Hypertension is rushing across the arena again to finish the match, but Leo€™s own wedge is under one of the spikes on the spike strip, so that when Matty fires his flipper having gotten underneath Holepunch 2.0 again it doesn€™t go very high and merely turns over away from Hypo, managing to escape back to the safety in the centre of the arena and Leo turns to face yet another oncoming assault from the relentless Hypertension MK3.

He powers forward to meet the attack and this time gets underneath, bringing down his crusher and building upon his earlier attack, this time managing to put a decent sized dent in the flipper and holding on tight to this slightly flatter surface, driving Hypertension MK3 back across the arena and towards the open pit! They get to the side of the chasm, but Hypertension MK3 really doesn€™t want to go down the pit and one of his rear wheels remains on the ground due to the shape of the dent in his front wedge, so Matty revs said wheel in any direction he can to stay away from the pit, with Leo trying to do the opposite and dump his aggressive opponent into the pit! Leo seems to be winning the fight with two wheels on the ground, and finally with mere seconds remaining in the match a winner is determined as Holepunch 2.0 turns sideways and retracts its crusher, dumping Hypertension MK3 into the pit to disappear in a puff of smoke!

CEASE!

Hypertension MK3 is tense no longer; Holepunch 2.0 lives to punch another day!