ANTWEIGHTS ROUND ONE
Dead Meat vs. MicroForce 3.0 vs. Flamberge vs. Wedge 3mm

Joey: So...for those of you who dont know, this tournament also gives a spotlight to some of the weight classes of robot other than the one hundred kilo heavyweights. These are the antweights, they have to weigh no more than one hundred and fifty grams if they have wheels, they are allowed seventy five more if they have legs though, and fit inside a four inch square cube prior to battle. Theyre also subject to limits on armour and most of the same restrictions as the larger machines, but thats a subject for another time....lets meet todays competitors!
This is DEAD MEAT, with the Orr family team here...its a four wheel drive pusher with four motors, and the armour is made of this unique composite of polycarbonate, cardboard and military grade black sellotape. Next we have MICROFORCE 3, which is very similar to Dead Meat except theres less tape *Andy laughs* and it runs on servos rather than motors, nice titanium front wedge there for ramming opponents around.
All the way from Scotlandland is Steves WEDGE 3MM, which is the smallest ant here at just eight centimetres long, and yet it still fits a Lego Technic 100psi pneumatics set in powering the front flipping arm, which apparently can throw another ant quite some way into the air. Finally, last but by no means least, we have FLAMBERGE...its got two wheels, two 10mm gearmotors, titanium body panels, and it does this:
*Kody picks up his transmitter from the bench, flips the top right switch, and the front blade very quickly becomes a blur*
...quite nasty.

*cuts to arena*

ROBOTEERS, STAND BY

*MicroForce 3.0 twitches slightly, Flamberges blade rotates twice before snapping back to a standstill*

Top left corner: Jack Orr
Top right corner: Andrew Jackson
Bottom left corner: Steve McGregor
Bottom right corner: Kody Kunz

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ACTIVATE

The immediate focus as the fight starts is on Flamberge, down in the corner, which almost instantly gets its blade spinning at terrifying speeds, the jet engine whine of the brushless motor filling the arena as it edges out of its starting position. Dead Meat though is by far the fastest in the arena, already having reached the middle and turning towards the bottom of the arena, where Wedge 3mm is coming out, keeping the front facing towards the other machines. Dead Meat pauses briefly in the centre of the arena, Jack wondering exactly what to do, before being rear-ended by a run from MicroForce, causing Dead Meat to slam into reverse, avoiding the approach of Flamberge, and pushing MicroForce back up towards the dropoff edge...Andy looks worried, the servo drive of his machine doesnt seem to have the torque to bite back against the four gearmotors of Dead Meat, and it finds itself slammed against the edge of the short end wall, turned by the continuing push, and both of the tyres going over the edge and causing the machine to topple over into the abyss!
Andy shakes his head, smiling a little as he retracts his transmitter aerial, while Dead Meat quickly moves forward, dodging the approach of Flamberge, and finds itself barreling straight into the front of Wedge 3mm, which has made its way out to the centre of the arena, and Steve sees his chance to test the flipper pneumatics!
FLIP! Dead Meat is somersaulted over onto its back, but there didnt seem to have been enough contact with the opposing robot to put all of the 100psi flipping force to good use - Wedges flipper reaches the limit of its travel and pulls the rest of the ant over with it, leaving Wedge stranded! The ram slowly retracts, as Dead Meats wheels spin in the air, and Steve prepares to self right his ant, but Flamberge, for so long in this fight unable to get any attacks in on the other machines, sees its chance, and Kody charges into the fray, keen to make no mistakes, and catches the rear of Wedge 3mms polycarbonate armour!

BANG!

...well...what precisely happened there could probably only be summed up in slow motion, but both machines are now absent from the arena floor, Flamberge having left an ugly white scar on the transparent wall of the arenas enclosure where it flung itself against the wall with the blade still going, and a great gouge has been torn out of the arena paintwork where the end of Wedge 3mms ram scratched into the surface as it was tossed towards the top end of the arena, barely having slowed before tumbling down into the abyss. Dead Meat stands alone in the arena, a slightly stunned Jack Orr behind the controls, still trying to make sense of what exactly has happened, but as the last ant left, Dead Meat is the winner!

CEASE

MicroForce pushed off the arena floor by Dead Meat
Wedge 3mm tossed out of the arena by Flamberge
Flamberge executing itself with the equal and opposite reaction to its attack on Wedge 3mm
Dead Meat goes through to the antweight final!

...hope that was to all your satisfactions, antweight physics are by the nature of the beasts a little strange