The tournament formerly known as FFW

[death robotics]

Hullo AJ, this is getting all too frequent

Im gonna use set-up No.1 today, take him to the house robots and pit him

Good Luck AJ

[Zarte]

Welcome to Round 2 of Heat A of the ZFC and today we have another 2 excellent battles coming your way.

First up we have our first sighting of last years runner-up, but number 1 seed, Mornington Crescent.

Steve's machine which has taken over from the Whirligig dynasty, and is armed with 2 spinning rings, one on top of the other, which spin counter rotationally for additional balance. It's also fairly deft across the arena, however it has been known to spill out of control, and the wheeks can be exposed to certain weapons.

Previous History - Series 5 came 2nd, series 4 got to the round of 16, series 3 came 2nd (33.75 points)

And back from Round 1 is Eye of Ran II.

Let's switch over to the arena, where Shunt and Matilda have taken their place.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

For the second match running, Joey appears to be uncertain as to whether he should be letting his own weapon spin up or whether to attempt to prevent his opponent. In the end he decides that the luxury of his spin up time speed means he can afford a cautious but fairly deliberate move towards Mornington Crescent.Steve is still spinning his counter-rotational rings up when Joey turns around to bear his weapon and hits into Mornington Crescent. Sparks fly and the noise of metal on metal is excuricating. The blow allows the number 1 seed an immediate revebge attack on the spinning Eye of Ran II who only has to show the side for a brief second, before there is a thud and another impact, this time from Mornington Crescent's fully up to speed top disc. The impact does barely more than scratch Eye of Ran II, as both robots spin away from the contact to resume their encounter.

Eye of Ran II has already managed to spin up his weapon whilst being flung away though, and once again launches an almighty thrust into the low flat body of Mornington Crescent. Again there's little damage to the ring of Mornington Crescent and once again it just allows Steve to attack the slowed down Team Picus machine with the top ring. He hits the same side as before, just above the skirt, but this time the five millimetre polycarbonate top layer has been cracked a little. First superficial points of the match go to Steve, but there's still a long way to go yet.

Mornington Crescent decides to try something different at this point and runs away whilst spinning up and goes to hit the pit release button. The sirens in the arena breakout and the most damage yet is done to the switchm as it's had a big chunk taken out of the side of it and is rolling limply away down the side wall. Joey decides to pursue the equally speeded machine and slams into him once again with the bar. There's again a shower of sparks but little more as both machines seem unsure as to how to any real grat damage to their opponent. Joey spins away and stops agonisingly close to the pit. Steve comes towards him and tries to give him a nudge into the abyss, but the contact from the shell only serves to throw him away, although one of Joey's skirts is now looking curled up at the edge from the bottom ring which finally plays its first part in the fight.

Joey seems unnerved by this double impact and flies straight back in for his own next attack, and finally it pays off, albrit only superficially as a small hole is torn out right the way through 3.25mm Hardox. The impact flings Mornington Crescent away backwards and dangerously towards the CPZ. Steve tries to traverse away but Eye of Ran II is straight back on his case, again sending him spinning away and straight into thw flywheel of Matilda. The contact is made square with with the top ring and the force throws Mornington up against the wall, propped up on an angle grinder. Steve tries to get the rings back spinning again to haul him off, but before he can Eye of Ran II slams into the top panel that is angled towards him. It not only puts another gash into the Team Braveheart machine, but it also slices clean into one of the tyres.

The impact frees Mornington Crescent from the side wall but as Steve tries to run away he realises that the tyre has been split as he tries to spin up both rings once more. The result is just that in some kind of crazed dance, Mornington Crescent throws itself onto its back, just like Volcano did in Eye of Ran II's previous fight. This time however, Joey's oppenent is invertible and Steve thinks quickly too, and decides only to spin up the top ring, and makes an unexpected movement towards the already slightly hurt side of Eye of Ran II and makes another large crack into the top polycarbonate layer, with a small bit flying off. The impact again sends Mornington Crescent flying away though the air though, and by the time he's balanced himself against the floor again, Eye of Ran II is there with another mighty blow from its blade. This is one of the most telling superficial hits yet, as it tears one of the teeth off the still wobbling Team Braveheart entrant.

Steve knows he can't afford to keep wobbling to the extent he is, so gradually tries to spin up the top ring again, easing it slowly. He reaches a point where it starts to begin to wobble violently and so cranks it back down a bit. I could be wrong but it appears to me to only be travelling at about half speed, so it remains to be seen, what, if any damage, Mornington Crescent can do now. Joey moves towards the stabler but still alarmingly unbalanced ring spinner and tries to slam into him but the off-centre of gravity of Mornington Crescent means the bar only scrapes the bottom underneath and fails to do much damage. He backs out to speed it up, but this gives Mornington Crescent the chance to test his ring out at half-speed. It makes barely no mark on the surface, but there's sill a pretty albeit smaller display of sparks, and it does still send Eye of Ran II spining away. The lower speed means Steve can come straight back in on the attackand he hits him again. Once more, the amount of damage, superficial or otherwise is limited, but Mornington Crescent continues just to hit in the gently pirouetting robot at low speed and eventually he ends up on the flame pit. The grill stops Joey's robot spinning, but immediately it becomes evident that for some reason he can't move. The flame cam has a look and it seems that one of Eye of Ran II's castors has got stuck and it's unable to free itself. Steve comes in for another blow and manages to use the angle to make contact with another one of Eye of Ran II's skirts, bending the flimsy aluminium.

This impact however seems to have helped Joey out though as he's able to move off the grill. Joey seems to have decided that payback is required and so he spins the weapon up almost immediately and hares back towards Mornington Crescent. Steve seems content with this until the impact comes and knocks him away, this time his machine being the one to go dangerously close to the pit. He manages to move away cautiously, but stealthily, but not before Eye of Ran II is on his case once more. Another slam comes in and another little hole appears in the rings of Mornington Crescent, who is still trying to get his top ring to balance itself out. He tries to move to the side, limping where his tyre has been split, but it's Eye of Ran II once more who gets the next blow in, making Mornington Crescent wobble even more, but just briefly.

Both robots look a little bit tired and rundown at this point, with each having some superficial marks and both looking a little low on battery power. Steve seems content to limp away and let the clock countdown on the Refbot's chest.

10,9,8... And that's the last hit of the match, a half-hearted one from Eye of Ran II which gently sends his opponent away to sit comfortably whilst the audience countdown the remaining 7 digits to...

CEASE!

And so we have our first judges decision of the series. Points will be split between the 2 robots out of 10, and multiplied in order of importance, in the order of damage, aggression, control and style.

Damage -
Mornington Crescent - 3 x 4 = 12
Eye of Ran II - 7 x 4 = 28

The 2 were fairly even on damage caused superficially, however the attack on the wheels swung it.

Aggression -
Mornington Crescent - 6 x 3 = 18
Eye of Ran II - 4 x 3 = 12

It always felt as though Mornington Crescent wanted to be attacking more, even when it couldn't

Control -
Mornington Crescent - 6 x 2 = 12
Eye of Ran II - 4 x 2 = 8

Both had their moments of good and bad control. However using an unbalanced machine to get Eye of Ran II onto the flame pit made the favour swing slightly towards them.

Style -
Mornington Crescent - 4 x 1 = 4
Eye of Ran II - 6 x 1 = 6

Eye of Ran II's stability made it appear slightly more stylish over the course of the fight.

Totals -
Mornington Crescent - 46
Eye of Ran II - 54

So there was have it! Mornington Crescent just doesn't have a clue. The number 1 seed is out in round 2. Eye of Ran can see the semis on the horizon!




And now for our other 2nd round match-up between ZFC oldtimer Exertion 2 up against our 2nd battle winner from yesterday, Sauron.

Exertion 2 is the 13th seed, AJ's first entry into the championship and is essentially the little rammer that can. It's a very small, very low box wedge with an excellent drive train and a small lifting wedge on the front. The wheels can be gotten at however.

Previous History - Reached the heat final in the last series. Reached the round of 16 in series 4, but only reached round 2 on it's seriess 3 debut.

Sauron today will be using the static hardox scoop. Let's go over to the arena.

Your house robots today will be Mr. Psycho and Growler

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

And fighting for the honour to be the second robot is the first heat final under the FFW's new monichre are two very similarly matched robots. Exertion 2 is the quicker out of the blocks, but Sauron immediately seems the more manouvreable, appearing steady across the arena as opposed to the slight hesitation that appears to be being shown by AJ's machine. The 2 machines eventually come together head-on for the first timw in the battle and the intensely low ground clearance keeps them both grinding against one another. The 2 robots have such similar drivetrains that the 2 of them trying to push against one another is producing very little apart from smoke from wheelspin. The crowd already are beginning to jeer as nothing much really appears to be happening.

Suaron is the first to move away but Exertion 2 comes straight back at him, and manages to get some force behind his slam. Sauron can't find any torque and finds himself being shunted back the wall and up onto Exertion's lifting wedge which is holding him there. AJ manouvres slowly and shoves him towards the open mouth of Growler in the CPZ. Growler gets him in his jaw and begins to clamp down whilst Mr. Psycho trudges across to survey the scene. Growler rams his new chew toy into the wall to test its durability and sees that it holds up relatively well, with only a couple of bite marks. Growler lets go and Sauron tries to escape the CPZ, and does so, but only narrowly missing Sauron with his sledgehammer.

Exertion comes towards his newly freed foe and attempts to repeat the same manouvre, however this time Sauron is wiser to it, moving around the side and sliding underneath the high side ground clearance. He shoves him backwards, right the way down the length of the arena, slamming him into the pit release button, which for the 2nd time is thrown off the wall by the force of the impact. The impact also throws Exertion, who appears tiny by comparison, off Sauron's front wedge, and who is also attempting to ram backwards into the sides of Lian's competitor using the rear spikes. This plan backfires as Sauron is just able to turn and get underneath the back, but a possible lack of confidence as well as some quick thinking from AJ, means that he ends up driving off the wedge, but unfortunately his only place to go is around the side of Sauron and his speed drives himself straight underneath one of the arena angle grinders.

AJ spins his wheels furiously in all directions, trying to get some purchase to get away but can't seem to as there is nothing. Refbot is just about to have a look and consider counting him out when from nowhere Mr. Psycho trundles in and brings his sledgehammer down on top of the trapped rammer. AJ looks furious as does the Refbot, who immediately issues the house robot with a yellow card. AJ on the other hand goes from disgust to pleasure almost straight away as whilst he's just felt the force of Mr. Psycho's stupdendously oversized blunt instrument, it also appears to have freed him. Sauron drives back towars him seemingly attempting to repeat the manouvre, but AJ traverses cleverly out of the way leading Sauron to smack into the angle grinder himself. He gets out himself no problem but is forced to run away from the advancing Exertion who ends up pinning him into the CPZ as he couldn't turn for fear of driving into the pit. Mr Psycho turns and brings the hammer round, slamming in into the lid of Sauron.

Exertion 2 manages to escape around the arm of Mr. Psycho, when just as Sauron thought it couldn't get worse, Growler sprints into his side slamming him into Mr. Psycho. This just appears to make Mr. Psycho angry again and he slams once more down with the hammer, whilse Growler tries, without luck, to get his jaw underneath Sauron again to give him a nibble. Eventually Growler has to back off and Sauron takes his moment to escape, however as he runs out the side, Exertion who has been waiting, reverses into Sauron, getting some purchase on the sides with the stripes and pushing him back down into the gaping pit,

CEASE!

Sauron's going home to call his Mummy. Exertion goes through to the Heat A Final.


And so the Heat A final shall be:

Eye of Ran II v Exertion 2 (13)

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Chicken Pie?

[joey_picus]

Eye of Ran II vs. Exertion II: Um...hiya Andy ^^ Tactics here will be to start in reverse to buy some time to spin up, spin up, and hit Exertion a lot until I end up in the pit. Good luck Andy

[kodster]

Hurrah, 3/3 so far this heat. (4/4, if you count me predicting myself to go out :P)

Eye of Ran II vs. Exertion II (13)

10mm Ti/V? Is EoR2 even going to get through that? Regardless, the seed is very compact...since the chainsaw engine helps EoR2 spin its blade up fast, I'll give this one to EoR2 via a KO through shock damage.

Well written, Zarte.

[andrewj]

Eye of Ran II vs. Exertion II

I'm glad Joey has decided to start in reverse, as that is exactly the area I would like to attack. I think that if I can get round the back and get under the rear skirt with my wedge, I can tilt Eye of Ran II upwards from the rear end, effectively forcing its spinning bar to eat the arena floor and stall. At that moment I can keep on top of it, and like the previous battle, push it into the house robots and the other hazards, preferably the pit. If it does manage to spin up at any point, I am confident that my armour and the lifting wedge can take the impacts. I also think that in the (admittedly unlikely) event I can turn it over, Eye of Ran's bar will not be able to hit Exertion II - something worth trying, perhaps... Just generally stay aggressive and try to get it down the pit.

Good luck, Joey.

[Zarte]

Welcome to the first heat final of the fully re-branded Zarte Fiction Championship! Already we've seen 4 fights and 6 robots striving to become the next big thing, but now the only 2 left are back to decide who goes through beyond the perils of Heat A

So far we've seen Eye of Ran have to fight his way past the noxious Volcano and the formidable former number 1 seed, Mornington Crescent to get here.

On the other hand, Exertion 2 has had just one battle up until now, managing to justify his seeind of 13th when getting past Sauron.

Let's cross over to the arena to see how this battle pans out. Your house robots tonight will be Sgt. Bash and Sir Killalot.

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Right from the get go, it appears obvious who the more frantic in this fight is going to be, as Eye of Ran II moves gently out of the blocks, reversing at a snails pace, whilst Exertion 2, previously of the tribe of Forcepower, blasts out of its blocks and immediately tries to land a head to tail impact on the unseeded machine. Joey's skirt is in no mood to broach protocol though and stays hard against the floor. The wedge of Exertion 2 can not be said to have done the same thing though as the impact sends him straight up and over his foe, leaving the back facing the now spun up weapon. Joey tries to capitalise on this, manouvreing his machine at the rear of Exertion 2, only for AJ to react quickly enough to turn his machine round. The weapon of Eye of Ran II meets the turning wedge of Exertion 2 and orchestrats a cacophany of metallic shrieks and a shower of sparks that even the BBC proms would be proud of!

Both robots spin off in different directions, and Exertion 2 tries to regain its bearings, but whilst it does so, Eye of Ran II has got itself right back up to speed and is now trying to keep the front facing the inquisitive opponent. Exertion 2 tries a burst of its superior speed to get down the side of the t-shaped Eye of Ran II but there's nothing doing as Joey manages to flick the ery base of the rear, causing more sparks as well as Exertion 2 being flicked slightly off course. This time though it gives Aj a perfect chance at the rear, into which he speeds, and this time manages to render the skirt ineffective and slide right underneath Eye of Ran II. He tries to use his lifter to force the weapon of Eye of Ran II into the floor, however he'd gotten too far underneath the Team Picus machine in the first instance and instead is just lifting him up on top of him. Noticing this, he immediately tries to rectify this by lowering the wedge back down a bit, and hurtling as fast as he can towards the CPZ. The resultant collision is between a 200kg lump of 2 robots against Sgt. Bash. The Sergeant is stunned when the bar of Eye of Ran is forced into his stripey wheelguards, nigh on exploding it on contact. The impact throws Exertion 2 backwards, whilst Eye of Ran II has ended up on his back trapped in the CPZ. Sgt Bash immediately clamps onto his rear skirt, putting a nice slice into it, before with the forewarning of a jet of flame, Sir Killalot comes in to make things worse for Joey's machine.

Joey frantically tries to slam the robot into reverse... or forwards... left, right... anywhere at all, but Killalot is on him too quickly. The jaw comes down and immediately finds its way around the bar. As it closes, Joey winces, but it seems to hold up pretty well to the attack. Possibly the minutest of flexing within the material, but noting catastrophic as of yet. But Killalot's not had his fun yet. As Sgt Bash finally lets go of his tooth sharpener, taking a chunk of skirt with him, Sir Killalot raises his captured prey in the claw and begins to do his best impression of a waltzer, spinning as fast as his tracks will allow before eventually opening the claw and hurling Eye of Ran II across the arena. The good news for Joey and his robot is that the throw has put him back the right way up. The bad news is that the disorientation has allowed AJ to get right back on their case and he slams them into the Pit Release button, clearly feeling he can end this fight soon. The impact throws Eye of Ran II off the wedge once more and allows him to attempt to get his sense of direction back again.

Joey immediately makes a break for the gap in between the pit and the CPZ, knowing that AJ won't want to burst down there in fear of falling into the pit himself, as had previously happened to him in a past series. Joey sits there for a second and begins to spin up the weapon. There's the most miniscule of wobbles but even as he tries riding forward it's barely noticeable, even with just a matter of millimetres between the bar and the floor. AJ comes round the other way to try and meet him head on but Joey just tries to switch slightly more over to one side. The bar meets the opponent and a loud crack is heard. The impact nearly backfires on Joey as it is in fact him that goes nearer to the pit whilst AJ is flung into one of the 2 abandoned CPZ's. Joey takes the opportunity, sensibly one feels, to move away from the pit and into the centre of the arena.

AJ feels he may be the next to be due some unwelcome attention from the house robots and as Sgt Bash comes haring across with his front pincers open, AJ circles his way around him, with a clever piece of driving from the man from Bourne. ...or was it such clever driving? Because he can't seem to do anything else. We see a replay of the last impact between Eye of Ran II and Exertion 2 and what we can see is that the bar got just under the high ground clearance at the side of Exertion 2 and caught the tyre, splitting it and getting it jammed in the gap. One side of the robot is spinning freely whilst the other can't get it moving properly in a straight line any more. Sgt Bash seems to take pity on the semi-mobile machine and lets him out of the CPZ, whilst Joey seemingly can't believe his luck, as it looks like he'll have beaten 2 seeded robots by attacking their mobility in the same heat, barring a catastrophe here.

Joey gets the bar fully spun up, ready to meet his waddling compatriot. AJ is trying to keep the front facing even now, but it's proving a near impossible challenge, as Joey slams into him with the bar once more and pings him away to within inches of the pit. AJ has a quick fiddle with the controls, before leaving well alone, knowing he has to rely on a miracle from Eye of Ran II's bar to still go through. Joey comes in with the bar still spinning to finish him off, however in a moment of sheer torment and showboating, turns his robot around at the last second to give AJ's machine its final nudge with just the rear alone. The smoke comes cascading out and we have our first semi-finalist. And isn't he a contender now surely?

CEASE!

Exertion needs to take a nice long lie down and put his batteries up for a while. Eye of Ran II sprints into the series semi-finals!

And so next up we will have Heat B for you, and to jog your memory that looks like this:

Heat B

Round 1

Terrorhurtz v Pain
Equinox v SOTAR

Round 2

Gehenna 2 (3) v ???
Flick of the Wrist (15) v ???

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, Cigarettes?

[kodster]

woo, a perfectly predicted heat! Though not how I'd have predicted EoR2 to win :P amazing battle nonetheless, Zarte

predictions for Heat B posted earlier

[Zarte]

Welcome to the round 1 elimination stage of Heat B in the ZFC where today we're guaranteed to see one realie and one vapout get through to round 2. Let's start with the realies.

First in is Terrorhurtz. Steve McGregor has added John Reid's classic machine into Team Braveheart for this competition and what a good choice that could prove to be! The axe is one of the most powerful ever seen and for the most part it's a really reliable machine however the polycarbonate armour has proved vulnerable on more than one occasions in the past

Previous History - Defeated in round 2 in series 4, and in the first round in series 3. (0.75points)


He's followed in by Pain, another realie from the murky depths of series 2 who'll be representing Team Picus today. Being from series 2, it's light at only 81kg and it's pneumatic spike weapon is not only bordering on illegal, but it's pretty pants as well. It also has weak armour and no srimech.

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

Let's cross over to the arena, where today your House Robots are Matilda and Shunt

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

Well first things first, we have just received confirmation that Pain's weapon WAS deemed illegal just before the battle, and so will be operating with it as a static spike as opposed pneumatically. Given how pants a robot it is in the first place however, I can't see Terrorhurtz being greatly affected by this news either way. Anyway, I've talked over the first 10 seconds of the fight, and nothing has happened really, Terrorhurtz barely moved, possibly presuming that Pain was going to fail to move yet again, whilst Pain, who miraculously HAS moved, is operating at a snails pace in the pursuit of the UKRW6 grand finalist. Terrorhurtz still isn't moving overly quickly and seems more interested in lining up an attack on Pain and lo and behold, when Pain finally reaches him, there's a massive smash as the axe comes down and Terrorhurtz cleaves a massive gash into the top of Pain. Something hasflown off the top as well, no idea what that was, possibly just some nuts and bolts as the shell began tp pop.

All power to Pain though as he still seems to be carrying on so he may be a little more robust than we first though. He tries darting in the loosest possible sense of the word down to one side of Terrorhurtz who turns slightly and fires the axe again, only for him to actually miss. He remains stuck there for a second with the axe embedded in the floor, but eventually he manages to wiggle free. Pain seems to know about Terrorhurtz's older brothers love affair with the pit, and has set his co-ordinates towards the release button. When Steve manages to free his borrowed machine, he makes a beeline to intercept his rather cumbersome foe, but by the time he catches him, all he can do is push him into the pit release button from behind. This does however give him the chance to fir the axe down again and this attack leaves the top panel barely attached. When he brings the axe away, Pain tries to escape along the sidewall but Terrorhurtz attacks him again and this time the axe shatters what remained of the lid and is right inside the robot.

There's some sparks and a tiny lick of flame, before smoke begins to rise out of the archaic machine. Terrorhurtz decides he's going to try and finish the job ofd and begins to slowly edge Pain towards the CPZ and the tusks of Matilda. They reach the edge of the CPZ when CRACK! Matilda's hit both of them! Oh goodness me! Matilda turned around at the last second and hit BOTH of them with her flywheel. Pain is upside down with it's side panel completely mashed, whilst Terrorhurtz has a side panel missing and is seeminly unable to self-right. Shunt comes down from the other end, and both the Refbot and the house robots survey the scene. The Refbot goes over to count out Pain and while he does it... what's this? Shunt has put Terrorhurtz in the pit! The Pain boys and Joey think they're through. They were never counted out and technically Terrorhurtz have gone down first. Matilda doesn't care and waits for the Refbot to finish counting Pain out before slamming him into the pit with her disc, meaning another shower of metal and both robots in the pit.

CEASE!

Well well well, there appears to be some controversy here. Both teams think that the other was immobilised before them, and technically, although the judges suspect that Pain was immobilised already, they can't prove that, however Shunt shouldn't have pushed Terrorhurtz into the pit before he'd been counted out either. So they've decided that the only fair course of action in their opinion is to judge the fight up until Shunt pushed Terrorhurtz down the pit.

Here are the judges scores:

Damage -
Terrorhurtz - 9 x 4 = 36
Pain - 1 x 4 = 4

Terrorhurtz did most of the damage within the fight, indeed the only damage done to him was by Matilda, however this is why Pain doesn't lose 10-0

Aggression -
Terrorhurtz - 5 x 3 = 15
Pain - 5 x 3 = 15

Terrorhurtz made itself look more aggressive with its active weapon and speed, however although cumbersome usually was the one trying to take the fight to Terrorhurtz head on.

Control -
Terrorhurrtz - 3 x 2 = 6
Pain - 7 x 2 = 14

Pain was actually better controlled than Terrorhurtz. He managed to get the pit open, whikst Terrorhurtz not only got his axe stuck in the floor, but also put himself at risk from Matilda when there was really no need to

Style -
Terrorhurtz - 10 x 1 = 10
Pain - 0 x 1 = 0

There was absolutely nothing stylish about Pain whatsoever.

Totals -
Terrorhurtz - 67
Pain - 33

So there we have it. Pain are gutted but they got closer than we ever imagined they would. Terrorhurtz have a LOT of work to do before round 2 but they ARE through.


So now let's go over to our 2nd battle for today where 2 rookie vapourbots face their first battle under the ZFC banner.

First in we have Equnox. Equinox is an incredibly low to the ground machine with a pair of lifting forks along a front scoop and a low clamping arm. However the armour could be succeptible to a powerful machine

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

Next in is SOTAR. This a deadly ring spinner with 4WD with massive potential for destruction. However should an axe or crusher get near the top, the 7mm aluminium will be vulnerable.

Previous History - New Entry (0 points)

Let's head over to the arena, where your house robots today are Dead Metal and Mr. Psycho!

3...
2...
1...
Activate!

And we're away quickly, with both robots thinking they must be well placed to score themselves the battle with the lower ranked seed after what happened in the last fight. Equinox makes the quicker getaway charging over to try and stop the spinner, but as Tracy reverses, the extra split second she buys herself gets the phenomenally powerful ring up to a speed where she can use the ring to just bash Equinox away. Lewis comes back in again trying to slide the wedge underneath but again there's a crash as Equinox gets thrown away once again. Now there is no doubt that if Tracy can just keep her robot in the centre of the arena and away from the obstacles that there should be no way of Equinox getting anywhere near her.

Tracy chooses not to follow this advice though, and as Lewis drives his machine towards the end of the arena to hit the pit release button, presumably in the aim of at least making it slightly more difficult for the Team Alt machine, Tracy follows and slams into the back of Equnix ripping a large chunk of the rear skirt clean off. The hinge holds strong, but there's a large cut out of the bottom right corner of it. Phenomenal display of power from SOTAR. She backs away to draw Equinox into another attack, who duly follows her, albeit pensively, trying to keep the front wedge perfectly lined up. Eventually Lewis goes in with a thrust and there's an ungodly noise in the arena as one of the forks is ripped clean away from it's pivot point, it's now hanging loose from inside the machine.

Tracy is loving every minute of this and she looks for another opportunity to pull apart her counterpart. Lewis is still trying to use the front wedge as his point of impact, but he soon realise that's another bad idea as he gets thrown across the arena, SOTAR making contact with the bent fork once again and tearing it off COMPLETELY. Lewis seems to be getting increasingly frustrated as Tracy still hasn't made an attack that's done anything at at all to the internals, she just seems to be pulling it apart from the outside in.. and another smash! This time it's the side skirt which loses a massive piece out of it as Tracy slams SOTAR into the side. Yet another! And all that remains of the skirt is it's hinge which is still bolted down.

Tracy backs away after this run of attacks and leaves a somewhat sluggish looking Equinox to regorup and plan its next attack. It has a 15mph top speed but I can guarantee you it's NOT doing that at the moment.Tracy has the deadly outer ring revved up to full speed again, sending a piercing wail resonating through the arena. She moves towards Equinox's side again, Lewis tries to turn but isn't quick enough and with a massive crunch, the teeth tear a crevice through the 6mm armourment on Equinox and visibly warping the frame. He tries to move away, but it's clearly done something to his drive as he can't drive in a perfectly straight line any more and leaves the rear exposed to another vicious attack, which this time takes off more of the skirt at the back, as well as pinging him straight into Mr. Psycho's CPZ.

Lewis tries to get out but can't get his robot to co-ordinate himself directionally, meaning Mr. Psycho gets a free shot, straight on top with the hammer, again visibly denting it inwards. Another attack misses the still fidgeting Mechanical Menagerie machine before another one lands clean on the lid once more. And has it stopped Equinox clean dead? And... YES! There's smoke! There's smoke coming up from Equinox. The drive issues appeared to come from the attack by SOTAR pushing smething into the wheels on one side. Whilst the smoke at the end is coming from a short circuit where 2 very neighbourly parts were forced to start rubbing by Mr. Psycho knocking the lid in.

CEASE!

Equinox must have found that soul-stice destroying... SOTAR doesn't sit on her laurels and is through to round 2!

And there's absolutely no doubt that SOTAR was the better performer from our first round winners meaning that the draw will look like this:

Round 2

Gehenna (3) v Terrorhurtz
Flick of the Wrist (15) v SOTAR

Thoughts, Tactics, Predictions, D'you want fries with that?

[kodster]

Gehenna 2 (3) vs. Terrorhurtz

Pretty sure the seed can deal with the axe blows of Terrorhurtz. One OOTA, please!

Flick of the Wrist (15) vs. S.O.T.A.R.

This is going to be very close. The key things here, I think, are Flick of the Wrist's forks, SOTAR's RPM, and SOTAR's low blade height. If Flick of the Wrist can manage to keep the forks working and flip SOTAR, I think Martijn can control the match easily since SOTAR's blades probably won't do much inverted. The thing is, 1000rpm tells me SOTAR can spin up very damn fast, so Flick has like around a full second to get in there before SOTAR hits the forks. If the forks go, Tracy's probably got this.

From that speculation, I'll go with SOTAR taking Flick's forks out of commission if not ripping them out, and doing some good damage to the wheels. Tracy to win.

Loving this tournament so far, Zarte!