4th October - Roaming Robots - Portsmouth

**widow_twanky** · 5th October 2009, 22:28

By the way, I really really like the new arena. Well done to the Roaming Robots crew. I was a bit aprehensive about what to expect with the new arena but I for one thought it was fantastic.

Andy

**joey_picus** · 5th October 2009, 22:29

If we're voting, I give my unbiased opinion that Envy won it :P

(...Shane didn't ask me to do this at all. Honest. Totally. Although he kind of did but asked for and got a honest unbiased opinion :P)

**swanaldo** · 5th October 2009, 22:33

Just to add Joey i also didnt ask you to ask your friends to vote either.

**widow_twanky** · 5th October 2009, 22:40

Originally Posted by joeychevron

(...Shane didn't ask me to do this at all. Honest. Totally. Although he kind of did but asked for and got a honest unbiased opinion :P)

**gravity** · 6th October 2009, 11:28

was just a little tactical error I think... Hydra WAS disabled, as was tilly evo, the both got stacked up against eachother and buth were unable to move. At that point Shane should have got the win, and then carried on fighting for the last minute to entertain the crowd.
Next time, look at the jury with a look at me, I've won! expression on your face, and you're done

Oh right, and the new arena does look good Jonno, and loadingthe robots into it is very easy, and also the polycarbonate facing the crowd stays nice and clean. Great event, and got me back onto the right track again! So see you guys in 2010

**craig_colliass** · 6th October 2009, 16:20

Final fight

**robotwars** · 6th October 2009, 17:21

Finally back on planet earth... what a weekend. I think now Iâ‚¬â„¢m 30, my body cant take it anymore !! LOL.

Well Portsmouth is now known as a stressful event, every year I make changes and cant test build it and have to keep my fingers crossed it all fits together.

Few issues but it went together quite smoothly, considering we had to drill holes and finish bits off. There has been some good comments about the changes, done purely for logistical reasons, it now means if we want we can get it built in less than 6 hours.

Well done to the winners, thanks for everyone who took part, another two successful shows done south, and rebooked for next year. The fights will be on You Tube later this week.

There has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes, Everyone knows how close I was to giving up, but after going back to basics and cutting unnecessary costs, have turned things around. Ok so numbers were down, but with the changes meant it was actually a profitable event. !!
So one last event before the finals, Iâ‚¬â„¢ll be putting a closing deadline of 31st October 2009 for HW entries for the final at Wigan. We need to know who is and isnâ‚¬â„¢t coming.

6 weeks until Maidstone and a lot of work to do to get the tickets sold once again.

John
www.RoamingRobots.co.uk

**RogueTwoRobots** · 6th October 2009, 23:17

What were the main changes to the arena? Can't quite tell fully from the vids but it looks like there's no exclusion zone anymore?

Congrats on making it a profitable event Jonno - you've taken losses from events so often previously, you deserve a break

**robotwars** · 7th October 2009, 08:17

hiya,

yeah to the untrained eye.. especially from an audience point of view there isnt that much difference.

However, after the introduction of the cages, I felt that our polycarb exclusion zone was a waste of time, as there was no way any robots would ever be flipped into it, and was just a walk way around the arena.

So the polycarb is now attached to the cages, which means when we build the arena it is so much shorter in time, heavier work, but less of it. We used to have 22 polycarb sheets, we now have 12 cage/polycarb to fit which just slot into the barriers, and 5 big front poly panels for the audience to see through.

We still have the exclusion zone at the front, but originally it was only 1m, then we extended it with our flip out / drive back in to 1.5m, and now its 2m, which gives an easier walkway through with robots, and if a robot gets flipped out, it isnâ‚¬â„¢t going to hit the polycarb, much safer.

There were some other slight changes, behind the scenes which no one would know, but the basics, are going back 5 years, back to basics like the old hexagon arena, people come to see the robots fighting in the arena, and donâ‚¬â„¢t necessarily care about the other stuff.

One addition also was the antweights, they were extremely popular, and hopefully they will be with us again. They were out by the merchandise which was a great idea, who ever decided that !!!
The arena has now been put into secure storage which is another cost saving, find a manager who loves robot wars, tell him you want to put major damage and an arena in his place, and make it available for any pr work, and negotiating a good deal is easyâ‚¬Â¦ a clear Â£250 saving each month. !! Just got to move out of my unit by Friday. Big task !!
It all helps.