How Robot Wars is Ruining Itself

This is a post that I didn't want to write. I didn't want to write it because it's a tarnish on something I really love and it's a threat to the biggest robot combat company in Britain - Robot Wars.

A little more than a month ago, I went to see Robot Wars Live! at Gloucester. I had mixed hopes, since I know how exciting these can be but I the last time I went, 2 years ago, there were times when the little kiddies in the audience were chanting or being asked what they'd build by the presenter. The arena floor had been torn up and needed to be worked on so I assumed this was a quick fix and even gave them credit for thinking on their feet. As it turns out, this was actually normal and things have gotten far worse since.

So I was back for another show, with mixed hopes but cautiously optimistic. It turns out my caution was more than justified. I was willing to put up with the invitation of excited screaming from children in the audience a few times before each battle. I didn't really mind the chanting of the famous phrase '3, 2, 1... activate!'. What pushed it over the edge was the poorly done, cheesy and highly cringe-worthy use of a radio-controlled, full-scale R2-D2 to encourage social networking and Robot Wars' new shudder-inducing (for all of the wrong reasons) house robot.

Because Apparently Fighting Robots Aren't Enough

Let's start with the audience participation. In the US, if given any reason at all the whole crowd will shout and cheer. In the UK though, most adults will hold back and leave the children to yell excitedly. The fact is that in Britain this sort of audience participation is only used in the belief that without it, the younger members of the audience will get bored. It just seems so unnecessary here though. It just gets them hyper and drives everyone else nuts. I wouldn't mind too much but there are 100kg machines throwing each other around the arena so surely the show is exciting and engaging enough. Nothing is gained from getting young kids to scream and shout. It also turns out that the 'quick fix' I mentioned from two years ago is a permanent, reoccurring feature. The first time it was a little endearing to hear a 6-year-old describe how his robot would have death missiles and chainsaws. This second time around it just seemed lazy and it became more and more apparent that this was yet another attempt to grab children's interest and burn time. It really isn't necessary. As the presenter went around the stands from person to person, I cared less and less. Having little kids describe a robot on the spot really doesn't add anything. The whole show felt targeted at children. I didn't just feel disappointed, I felt like I didn't belong. I felt as if I stuck out like a sore thumb. I felt very self-concious and rejected by something I cared so much for.

Is this not exciting enough?

Source: http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk/comp-two-family-passes-to-robot-wars-live-up-for-grabs/

What Did I Just Watch? Why Did that Happen?

Then they drove out that R2-D2 model. Let's breeze over the fact that R2-D2 has absolutely nothing to do with Robot Wars or robot combat generally. This segment involved the presenter 'listening' to R2's warbles, 'translating' and telling the audience to like Robot Wars on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a few other places. It felt horribly forced and low-effort. The presenter kept up his enthusiasm, so good on him, but that didn't make up for the fact that no audience anywhere wants to spend 10 minutes of a paid-for show watching a man telling them to scour the internet for his company and adding a scale-model sci-fi character fails so hard to help that it's embarrassing. For all of Robot Wars' (needless) efforts to keep the audience engaged, this was a complete contrast and utterly disinteresting.

Now we come to the greatest tarnish to the world of robot combat since the producers fixed the Seventh Wars final. Whilst I don't personally like house robots anyway, Robot Wars' latest addition to the arsenal, dubbed Oll-E as a pun on the Disney robot Wall-E (a point they tried to milk at the event), comes with so many new issues. It is a paintball cannon with googly eyes and a silly voice. Think about that. I have no clue whatsoever what convinced the minds behind Robot Wars Live to invest in building this thing. It offers no combative threat at all. It couldn't hit a featherweight sitting right in front of it and even if it could, a paintball would do sod all to a modern feather anyway. It doesn't look impressive, which is much of the point of the house robots. And they gave it a voice. They decided the presenter needed to be able to pretend to talk to this thing. What is the point of that? What is that meant to add?

Shown here in the arena at a previous event.

It looks depressed by its own existence. So it should be.

Source: http://roamingrobots.wikia.com/wiki/Olly_the_paintball_bot?file=Olly_the_paint.png

The absolute pincher, though, is that Oll-E isn't even used in the arena any more. They built a house robot so completely incapable of being a house robot that it couldn't hold its own against the featherweights for which it was built. The only joy I've had from this house robot was from watching small bots topple it and seeing it's big googly eyes hit the arena floor. Oh joy! It's down! It's dead! But no, we can't even have that now. Instead, they bring Oll-E around in front of the arena and chat with it. Remember, though, that there is a soundman crouching in his booth talking through a synthesiser. There is nothing on show here. It is hopelessly pointless. I was close to walking out when a little girl was invited to the front to have a 'spinning competition' with the robot. They cut it short, seemingly realising this was a huge... mistake isn't a strong enough word... I mean, I know this stuff is made up as they go but come on! Why would excluding the entire audience and drawing all attention to a small child spinning on the spot be a good idea, even for 20 seconds? There's fucking giant robots duelling to the death. What the hell did I just watch? Why did that happen?

This all happens in something which tries to present itself as some kind of a competition. All that this acting does is give the impression that everything there is fake and that the whole competition is synthetic. Like I said, most of the events are only friendly anyway, but the teams are still making some effort to win their battles. Interjecting these with horribly-written fakery tarnishes the entire experience, every bit of it. It's interesting to note that Oll-E has been around for about 9 months (though it was mute for the first month) but Robot Wars still don't acknowledge its existence on their website.

The whole show was so disappointing that even the usual "Let's get this show back on TV!" was met by a fairly muted and scattered response. If a television reboot was similar to this, I honestly would not watch it.

Rated Ages 12-

It has become blatantly obvious that I am not part of the target audience for Robot Wars. In fact, no one over the age of 12 is part of the target audience for Robot Wars, which is confusing. The thing is, 12 years ago Robot Wars was coming to an end and those who were alive back then won't remember it. However, people like myself who have either followed robot combat since or are nostalgic for the program are given this mess. True, parents who enjoyed the show as children may want to show it to their own kids but that can be done without all of the 'performance'. Please, if you are looking to go to one of these live shows, don't go to a Robot Wars show unless you have young children, and even then know that you're only doing it for them, not for yourself. Feel free to enjoy watching the battles with the horrible presentation cut out (I can recommend the YouTube channels MicroGravity100 and Team Panoramic) because they themselves are still pretty good but, for your own sake, stay away from the shows.

Instead, hold out for one of the few large annual competition-focused and engaging Robots Live events. Even then, make sure you are definitely going to see one of their main shows, as many of them are walk-by attractions on the side of a larger event, will have a very small arena and will only feature a few robots.

It's no wonder why Robots Live always hosts the FRA heavyweight championships

Source: http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/manchester/attractions/robots-live/

I'll leave you with the hope that maybe, with BattleBots returning, some program producer will find Robot Wars and completely rework it into something much better. Until that happens, I'm afraid I just can't recommend them to anyone on the far side of puberty.

Robot Combat Hall of Fame Entrants 2015

I feel it's about time I made a post about this. It's about time I made a post about anything really... so sorry for that. I'm just sort of making posts on a whim for now.

The Robot Combat Hall of Fame, for those who don't know, immortalises the greatest fighting robots of all time. Set up and moderated by Mark Joeger of Team Run Amok - the mind behind the first Robotica champion - the hall of fame takes on new robots voted for by the roboteering community around the world every 2 years, with full induction given to robots mentioned on at least 50% of ballots and honourable mentions given to those mentioned in at least 25% of ballots. Since its creation in 2003, the hall has come to include such names as La Machine, Nightmare and Razer in the inaugural class, with other great names like Last Rites, Explosion and The Judge being inducted later. To be fully inducted is the highest award in the world of robot combat (higher even than victory in a televised competition, even if it won't make you as famous) and to earn an honourable mention is absolutely no mean feat. Since 2015 is an odd year, a vote took place and a new collection of the finest robots has been added to the list, so who are they?

This year has seen five new robots included in the hall of fame. Two of these have been granted full induction.

Full Induction: Original Sin

This is an American robot which has stormed the annual RoboGames and Combots competitions. It might appear simple, with four wheels and a plain wedge, but it is no pushover - in fact it will usually be doing the pushing, and some more besides.

Here it is in 2012, the year they took their fourth RoboGames gold for combat.
It even looks aggressive just sitting there.
Source: http://combots.net/cup/cup-2012.php

Original Sin's angle is not one of damage. It is not fitted with a great spinning disc or bar. Nor is it built like a tank. After all, its wheels are exposed and it has flat, fairly unprotected sides. What Original Sin instead brings to the table is tenacity paired with near-suicidal aggression. Team Late Night Racing don't let off, no matter what they're up against. They just take it to the face and come back for more. Lost a wheel? It's fine, they have 3 more. Tossed high into the air? As long as they land they don't mind. This is all allowed by builder and driver Gary Gin's skill to make Original Sin incredibly reliable. It will take knocks. It will sometimes lose parts. But even if the tires are gone and the wheels aren't touching the ground, you can trust me when I say they'll still be spinning.

Full Induction: Rust In Peace

The second bot to earn full induction is one I know little about, I'm sorry to admit, so I probably won't do it justice. Rust In Peace, RIP for short, is an Indian robot and the first from its nation to be included in the hall. The honour is well deserved.

Rust In Peace (left) throwing Vikings into the air.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/riprobot/photos_stream?tab=photos_stream

Not only is Rust In Peace one of the finest built robots on the Indian circuit, it is also the most successful with a 45/2 record. To put that in perspective, winning as many battles as you lose is a sign of a solid bot Winning twice as many battles as you lose is the sign of a very good bot. Winning over 22 times as many battles as you lose is ridiculous! The first 41 of these wins were on the trot, without a single loss in between. That is totally and completely unheard of anywhere else. What's more, the team has helped make great leaps in the sport there, with the arena now far more solid, roofed and able to contain the ferocity of Rust In Peace and others like it.

Honourable Mention: Triggo / Tetanus

On to the honourable mentions and some more brilliant teams and robots. Let's start with Triggo, a black, stealthy-looking robot known better to some by its old alias of Tetanus. This is a rare thing - a solidly-build full body spinner. Often, FBSs are all-or-nothing bots, hitting but taking hits in the process. They tend to be glass cannons. Not Tetanus. It could both deal out hits and take them. The robot's five major competition titles show that.

Triggo as Tetanus, a little battle-scarred but still fully mobile after its final at Motorama 2014
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5S46N3PO7U

But with a new shell, internal upgrades and the new name Triggo, Team Brain Damage's bot is tougher and more deadly than ever, having already racked up two more championship wins this year!

Honourable Mention: Touro Maximus

Also given an honourable mention is Touro Maximus, the pride and joy of Brazil. I'm especially pleased by this because I voted for another of the team's robots, the modern middleweight version named just Touro. The creators of both these bots, Team RioBotz, takes a mathematically cold and logical approach to their builds. Each detail is looked at, tweaked and improved. The design is as compact as possible to reduce surface area and therefore the amount of weight needed for armour. They are also experts in scaling, using their original winning design and reproducing it in other weight classes. As such the Touro family includes a heavyweight, two middleweights ('Classic' and modern), a lightweight, a featherwight, a beetleweight, an American antweight and a fairyweight (British antweight), all slightly different but with similar overall designs (i.e. compact, central wheels and a big spinning death drum up front) .

Here's the big one, Touro Maximus, in the pits.
That bull insignia is adorned on all of the Touro robots and strikes fear in the hearts of many.

The mascot, on the other hand, does not.

Source for both: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13755322

In competition, though, the team is transformed into a group of passionate, excitable team players, as anyone can see (and hear). Whenever one of the many iterations of Touro (or one of the many other robots run by the team) scores a good hit, great cheers go up, along with claps, laughs and celebratory back-pats. If all this weren't enough, Team RioBotz go to great lengths to encourage new people to build their own bots. Not only have they written a book, they also make extremely comprehensive free guides and run the RoboCore events.

Honourable Mention: Weta, God of Ugly Things

Last but not least, Weta, God of Ugly Things earns a mention. Though it's named after a relative of the cricket, this is a beetleweight (only the second to make it into the hall) and another drum spinner. The reason Team Rolling Thunder's Weta has been so influential (other than its impressive, although not mind-blowing, performance) is because its design has been used for kits.

This is Weta. No it isn't, I lied. This is Play N Krazy, a kit.
But then the Kitbots logo probably gave that away.

Here's the actual, original Weta, a very familiar design to a lot of people.

Source for first: http://www.buildersdb.com/botdetails.asp?eventid=395&BotID=8266
Source for second: http://www.teamrollingthunder.com/Kitbots/3lb_Kits/Weta1/body_weta1.html

 If you follow the American beetleweight circuit, you may often hear someone call their bot a Weta. The design has become widespread and these kits have found a good deal of success. If ever there was a competition using a common, standard design, it would probably use Weta kits.

Congratulations to all of the winners! I look forward to 2017, when the best of the best of a new generation of bots will be honoured and immortalised like those here.

BattleBots 2015 - The Aftermath

The BattleBots reboot series has now come to an end, with an excellent last set of fights. The final was a judges' decision, in case you didn't see it, and boy was it close. A real forward-and-back fight, with both robots getting their turn on top of the battle. Ultimately I think the win was well-deserved, but then I think a win for either team would have been.

Before I keep going, there are going to be spoilers. Big spoilers. So go watch the series from start to finish now.

In fact, I'm starting with the biggest spoiler of the lot

Congratulations

...to Team Aptyx and Bite Force! They were underdogs going in for me, with a weapon that looked suspectly ineffective against the rammer-lifters, powerful flippers and monstrous spinners in the tournament. From their very first battle against Warhead, though, they've shown what they're made of! Able to hold off deadly spinners like Tombstone (I'll get to them in a second) and beat a fellow clamp-lifter design in Overhaul. It's a solid bot that has shown tracks don't always spell trouble, except for their opponent!

Team Aptyx captain Paul Ventimiglia lifts the nut
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l74gy_H8ww

Congrats to Team Hardcore Robotics and Ray Billings too, taking second place with the deadly and already-infamous Tombstone. It's an old design but the team has improved upon it over the years and kept it deadly, inspiring similar designs in just about every weight class in nearly every roboteering country. This year they showed us why they were given an honourable mention in the Robot Combat Hall of Fame way back in 2005, with the lighter version Last Rites given full membership in 2009.

Joint third place goes to Team Inertia Labs, showing us that they can still build flippers to pack a punch with Bronco, and Team Raptor who's ingenuity and MacGyver-ing skill carried Ghost Raptor far in the tournament despite its weapon snapping in half in the first fight!

Series 2?

This does deserve a question mark, since there's been no official talk of a second series. Lets face it though, with 4.6 million viewers tuning in each week, bringing ABC out top its the highly-competitive Sunday night time slot twice, it would be a big surprise if the reboot didn't get a second series. Hell, even its producers say "all signs point to yes" and they're already busy thinking of what changes should be made.

Perhaps the biggest change planned is to revert to the traditional open tournament style. This really requires more episodes and more time which the audience isn't going to want to spend waiting an hour between fights (yes, that was actually happening). But with more competitors and more battles to fit in, hopefully there'll be less time for thumb-twiddling! More competitors also means a more interesting competition, since every team has more to compete with and there should be more variety. The worse entries will probably get less focus as well, if any. Hopefully, interesting designs (even if they aren't too competitive) will still get some TV time though.

Changes are also going to be made to the arena. Quite what isn't entirely clear but chances are the hazards will be featured more. In the first series, a different hazard was introduced each round (something which wasn't exactly made clear on air) so we didn't get the chance to see some of them for most of the tournament. What has been said is that the changes should promote inventiveness and should be a challenge to overcome. From that I'm assuming the screws, which some people want nerf'd, will remain as dangerous as they were in this series.

In terms of the televisual experience, there is going to be more focus on the technical aspects of the robots. I am all for this, as is most of the robot combat/roboteering community. It was always missing from the original BattleBots shows but in Robot Wars the quick tour of the complex-looking inner workings of the machines gave the show a more rustic, garage, almost steampunky vibe. It also gives a more meaningful background to the robots and the competitors, rather than the dramatised 'reality' TV fakeness that plagues most shows theses days.

The insides of Radioactive as shown in a Tested video
On the program, we only got a brief look courtesy of Tombstone
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnACo3zgI5k

Beyond the Box

The reboot of BattleBots hasn't just been something to watch on a Sunday night. This was the biggest promotion of the sport for a decade and has shown countless people (alright, 4.6 million really) that roboteering is still going strong. It's also given many a reason to get involved with engineering by building their own bot. Already I have heard someone saying they want to built an autonomous cluster bot, with one half a drone to identify the target and direct the other half, a full-body spinner. This seems needlessly complicated, and it is, but I love the out-of-the-box thinking and ingenuity behind it - something I hope to see even more of in BattleBots and elsewhere.

BattleBots' focus on heavyweights (or 'heavierweights' if you like, since they're just a bit over the standard weight limit) will perhaps also help preserve the use of heavier weight classes. When RoboGames missed a year due to a lack of funding in 2014, it was looking like heavyweights might fall out of use and the sport was going to 'shrink'. Of course, people searched their pockets and gave to bring RoboGames back from the brink and now that BattleBots has been focused entirely on the heavy class, it's looking like it won't go the same way superheavies have - and good thing, since heavyweights are one of the most spectacular weight classes in use.

Heavyweights Gruff and Whoops! getting separated during a battle at RoboGames 2015
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-8kzYdKfOc

With some luck, now that people have been reminded of robotic combat and shown that it is still around, people will start looking for, or at least noticing more, live events and local competitions. Hopefully its going to get a good boost from BattleBots coming back to TV.

Battlebots 2015 - Half-Time

We're now half way through the new reboot series of Battlebots and already the series has brought a wave of new fans to the sport. So far I have been impressed but many people have raised questions about rules and strategies. I think it's only right to answer them.

1. Why not make a huge robot with guns or massive, heavy weapons?

Pretty much all robot combat competitions divide the competition into weight classes to keep the competition more even. Each class has a different weight limit (as well as a few other rules in some cases but I won't go into detail here). The weight limit set for this Battlebots competition was 250 pounds, around 113 kilograms. There are a lot of things needed on a robot and each item adds more weight so a decision needs to be made about putting more weight into a big weapon, thick armour or beefy drive motors.

Untethered projectiles (e.g. bullets) are disallowed for safety reasons. If a hammer accidentally goes off in the pits, you better hope your hand isn't underneath it. If a gun goes off, chances are someone will get hit, even if they're on the other side of the pits.

On a similar note, sometimes people expect big humanoid robots. You only have to watch the entries to this year's DARPA Robotics Challenge stumble and collapse to see why this isn't an option. True, they did have humanoid robots on Robot Combat League but these were held up by big metal rods coming out of the floor.

"Sir, you appear to have a big metal rod up your ass."

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/tv-radio/2013/03/23/Reality-Check-CMU-student-her-partner-fall-in-Robot-Combat/stories/201303230142

2. Why are minibots allowed? What are the rules regarding them?

This is the most common question that I've seen. Minibots are small robots which help a larger, main robot. This setup, with multiple robots fighting as one, is called a clusterbot or multibot. 

The most important thing to bear in mind here is that the robot as a whole (all parts of the cluster - the main bot and the mini bots) still has to meet the weight limit. These limits divide the competition into separate weight classes to keep the competition more even. This year, Battlebots' own ruleset put the weight limit at 250 pounds (~113 kg), which is a unique and slightly odd weight limit that doesn't quite fit into any normal weight class. The closest one is the heavyweight class, quite a common class with a limit of 100 kg, or 220 pounds. I have no idea why they decided to ignore this and invent their own weight class.

What this means is that a robot built specifically for Battlebots' weight limit is too heavy to use elsewhere. As a result, some people have opted to build normal heavyweight-class robots that they can use at other events. This leaves around 30 pounds, or 13 kilos, of spare weight. Might as well make a smaller robot or two to fill that gap. Incidentally, 30 pounds is actually the weight limit for another popular weight class, the featherweight class, so the minibots could be used as standalone robots at other events.

Having many robots which can all attack at the same time might seem like an advantage but that's often not true. Since the robot as a whole (main robot + minibots) still has to fit below the weight limit, each individual unit of the robot has a weight disadvantage. The minibots will weigh a tenth or less than the opponent and there is only so much they can do offensively, which is why they are mainly used as an annoyance to get in the way.

This is the moment when one of Warrior Clan's minibots was eviscerated by Nightmare.
Such a small bot was never going to survive a shot from that massive blade.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s7V7igh5QQ

Some teams prefer to spread the weight more evenly between robots. Gemini of Robot Wars fame consisted of two flipper-bots each weighing around 50 kilograms. They did reasonably well but it was all too easy for an opponent, weighing twice as much as each individual Gemini bot, to pick a target and beat it.

3. Why was Wrecks so rubbish?

I don't much like this question. The problem is that I actually quite liked Wrecks. Yes, it was slow and it could barely turn, but it was a really unique and interesting design. An antweight robot built by the same team named Gyrobot uses the same system for mobility and it's actually quite good. It even has an honourable mention in the Combat Robot Hall of Fame, a prestigious award indeed.

Gyrobot (foreground), seen here fighting Warpig in 2010, will from now on
be known as Tiny Wrecks

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxmJXRlsksY

Why was Wrecks so much slower to turn? Probably something complicated to do with power-to-weight ratios. Wrecks turns using the momentum of its spinning blade, something called precession. If you scale down a weapon, you basically end up with a bigger power-to-weight ratio (don't ask me to explain why). The antweight version therefore has a more powerful blade for its weight so the momentum is enough to make it turn quite quickly. Scale the antweight up to something 1000 times its size and you don't have as much power, for the weight, to use.

Why even try then? Because it's a unique, interesting design. I'm really glad I got to see a big robot able to turn and move just using the power of its weapon. Besides, watching a big hunk of metal waddle around on those two flat feet was quite funny.

I'm hoping that next year Battlebots will re-instate weight advantage rules. In most competitions, walking robots get double the weight allowance (or 150% weight allowance, depending on who's organising the event). This is because walkers tend to be slower, less agile and more complicated but are still entertaining. Shuffling, driving small legs using cams instead of wheels, only earns a smaller weight advantage, or none at all.

Waddle you crazy robot dino, you

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apixM-HXpGY

4. What's happening with the killsaws? Why aren't the hazards being used?

For those who don't know, a hazard is an obstacle or weapon built into the arena, like the killsaws or the screws.

We've already seen plenty of the screws and they look to be more effective than they've ever been! Back in the old series they were little more than decoration but this year we've seen robots picked up with pieces torn off them. Some have said that they are a little too deadly, picking robots up and carrying them off the arena and out of the competition. Perhaps they're right, though others argue this new danger encourages drivers to be a little more careful and strategic. These were underused at first because they used to be quite weak, almost decorative really, but teams are finding them to be more effective and are now making better use of them.

The pulverisers are now controlled by the teams (the coloured circle corresponds to the team), which is an interesting new feature. I'd like to see more of this in the future, since at least an upset caused by a hazard will still be down to the teams, not the producers. Obviously a team isn't going to use a pulveriser on their own robot, so we've been seeing less of these.

We've also seen a little bit from the new hazard, the pinball-style flippers. A similar, far weaker thing was used in the original Robot Wars competitions way back in the mid '90s. The modern flippers are a lot shorter, sturdier and probably more powerful but we haven't seen much of them. Look for the diagonal panels next to the screws and you might catch a glimpse of one flicking a robot away. It has to be said that they don't seem to do much but they ought to stop robots getting caught in the arena corners like they used to.

Now, about everyone's favourite hazard, the killsaws. I'm honestly not sure what's happened there. All I can see is that it appears most of the saws are broken. Some are working, as we've seen, but only some. I can't say whether they'll have been fixed for later episodes but no one from the live audience has said anything encouraging.

Here they are before the event. Shame we've barely seen them.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/battlebots

5. Do flamethrowers actually do anything?

This depends on the flamethrower itself and the opponent. A quick lick of flame is unlikely to do anything. Even a long roasting won't really effect robots' outer armour. The trick is to use a large-enough flame, or aim it right, to get through gaps and reach the opponent's innards. Solder melts, batteries blow, motors overheat. Yes, flame can work if used well.

Getting in close enough for long enough with a flamethrower is the tricky part, so they are usually not too useful. Still, they look great and help win favour with the committee selecting robots for the competition.

6. Can anything beat Tombstone?

Yes. Stinger has beaten Tombstone a number of times at other events while both went under their usual aliases of Sewer Snake and Last Rites respectively. Stinger is designed to take on spinners. It can lose wheels and keep on trucking. The huge, thick wedge is great at deflecting blows whilst 6-wheel-drive provide traction enough to shove robots around the arena. Team Plumb Crazy's usual strategy of using the opponent's weapon against them ("break his fist with my face" as Matt Maxham, team captain, once put it) takes advantage of the force spinners have to take from their own weapons.

Sewer Snake spits flame at a smoking and beaten Last Rites in 2011

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXHnvCNGjqQ

Many think Bronco could do enough as well. The weapon is powerful, the team is experienced. But the same could be said for Last Rites. Flippers are less useful for shoving an opponent around than lifters, too. Still, Bronco looks quite tough (though I don't know what those wheel guards can stand up to) and it may be able to take the punishment. Flipping Tombstone alone may do little but getting Tombstone caught on the screws is a possibility.

Bite Force is often overlooked here but we have seen that it can stand up to spinners. The wedge deflected Warhead's attacks nicely, throwing it into the air. Tombstone's weapon is heavier and spins faster but Biteforce might have a chance. Still, they will be on the defensive and would struggle to win a judges' decision here.

Finally there is ICEwave. This is the big spinner-versus-spinner battle we all want to see. As good a robot as ICEwave is though, I can't see it beating Tombstone. Its spinner is shorter, with less reach, so the main body of ICEwave would be hit before Tombstone's. Tombstone may even be able to reach that petrol motor an that would be catastrophic. Yes, the back of Tombstone is exposed, a problem ICEwave doesn't face, but the former can turn quickly and has a big enough weapon to not be left vulnerable.