RoboDojo event write-up

 I promised a full event report, so here it is!

Upon arriving at Dojo, we unpacked our stuff and got the robot set up in its heaviest configuration. This weighed at 1.496 kg, a whole 4g underweight! Good start!

Before the final fight list was drawn, Baby Dead Bod was forced to drop out of the competition due to a broken weapon motor, meaning we wouldn't have to fight it for once! 

Exposure's first fight was against Boom Zoom, a well-driven and aggressive lifter. As it was my first time fighting with the new version, I was nervous about fighting such a well-controlled robot. At the start of the fight, I span up and spent some time trying to get a good angle and also avoid being pinned or flipped over. I managed to hit his forks, inverting him, and after he self-righted I got round the back and pushed him into the wall, which caused him to be launched over the divider wall! I wasn't expecting anything like that to happen! (Thanks to Thomas Yau for sending us this footage early)

Exposures second fight was against B-Ash. At the beginning I was unable to get my forks under him, and was pushed into the corner. Unfortunately, this was the corner that I couldn't really see, so I couldn't get out too easily. I managed one good hit, bending up the tip on one of his forks (which I now have!) but then got tipped over and, unable to stop myself, bounced OOTA on the weapon.

The third fight was against Bulbaroar, which sounded terrifying in its previous fights. I put on the new TPU anti-drum forks, and planned to focus on winning weapon-to-weapon engagements. As the fight started, we both span up, then I attempted to get a hit but got popped up into the air. Exposure quickly self-righted, and then smacked Bulbaroar to the other side of the arena where he landed upside down. I attempted to get a long run up and hit him, but drifted slightly to the side and was forced to reverse away and try again. And it worked. Bulbaroar was launched probably around 5 - 5.5 feet in the air, and I somehow landed a perfect backflip! His weapon seemed to be stuck for a second, so I tried to get another hit but drifted again. However I moved back a bit and managed to punt him out of the arena, hitting the wall very close to my dad's face!

Fight four was against Nightcall. Because Mow Problems and Sniper had just lost their round four fights, and knockout win against Nightcall would put me in the final against Shuv-it 2! Nightfall had taken a lot of damage in round three, and it was its last fight before retirement so I was quietly confident going into this fight. Very early on, I found myself with my side right in the path of Nightcall's massive blade, and was only just able to dodge. I got round to his side and bounced him into the wall, where he seemed to stop moving. However, he started moving again so I went in for one more and got the KO I needed. No major damage had been caused so far, but the aluminium lid had been bent up a little so we hammered it back into shape and got prepared for the final!

The final was against Shuv-it 2, an SSP kit. The fight started off very even, until he flipped me onto my weapon and the bouncing caused the battery to unplug. Afterwards, I realised I had forgotten to put the cable tie that holds the connector together on. Such an unfortunate way to lose!

Overall though, I am amazed that we got this far into a competition, especially considering that this was only meant to be a test event for the new version. I now know what I need to do to prepare for Battle in the Burgh next month.

Antweights

Fallout's first fight of the day was against Dennis, a pusher. The new wheels that I got for Fallout made it so much more controllable, and I was able to dish out some good hits before pitting Dennis.

The second fight was against Mamba. This was a very similar fight, I got some good hits and then something failed inside Mamba and it stopped driving. This was a huge improvement from last time.

Fallout's third fight was against the chaotic horizontal spinner of Mini Dead Bod. Nothing to say here really, he bounced off me and landed in the pit. But a win is a win!

My fourth round fight was against Taipan, an angled horizontal. From the start, Fallout felt very sluggish and slow, and the weapon motor was only activating on 100% throttle, making spin ups very difficult. Eventually it just stopped working, and I realised I forgot to charge its battery before the fight, which explains the issue.

My number of points meant that I was now going to be in the 6th place rumble, alongside 7 other robots. I was having weapon issues again, which led to me launching myself into the pit.

Repulsion's first fight was against Taipan. Dad was hoping to flip Taipan at least once, but unfortunately this didn't happen. The fight stopped rather abruptly when Taipan managed to knock Repulsions switch into the off position.

In the second round Repulsion was against Wet Dog. A quick shove from Repulsion and Wet Dog was in the pit, a win for Repulsion!

Third round was against the fearsome Dissector which lived up to its name quickly. While Repulsion went in for an early flip, Dissector quickly pinned Repulsion into a corner. The defending weapon quickly cut through the TPU lid, many of the wires and the Malenki before Repulsions lights went out.

Due to the damage from Dissector, Repulsion couldn't complete in the fourth round.