Robot Battles 2017
Photo: T-Boner vs Hypnus
Dragon Con Robot Battles 64 is over and we had a good time as always. We did not win any championships but came close with T-Boner making it to the final. In every case we lost to the bot that eventually won. Due to the large number of entries, this years event was single elimination and matches without a clear winner were decided by a three judge panel. The event went smoothly and there was even time for multiple rumbles.
I entered three bots this year , 12# T-boner, 30# Pushy Grabber and 3# Noodles. T-Boner has an automatic flywheel powered flipper, auto-pilot and a self-righter mechanism. Pushy Grabber has a pair of rotary grabber-lifters and runs upright or inverted. Noodles was improved this year with better wheel attachments and a completely new front end consisting of 3 pointy rods.
On Sunday the ant and beetle weight (1&3#) bots fought in completely enclosed arenas. It was single elimination. Noodles won fights against Purple Beater and Demon Spawn. In both cases they ripped a tire off Noodles which got stuck in their weapon. Purple Beater was pushed out and Demon Spawn lost mobility. Then we had to fight the powerful horizontal spinner Margin of Safety. We lost after he ripped off both left tires leaving Noodles with little mobility. Judges correctly decided for Margin of Safety who eventually went on to win the Robot Battles 64 beetle championship. There is now some talk of banning latex coated pool noodle tires because they jam most rotary weapons. I say let Darwin sort it out. We'll see.
Monday the 12 and 30 pounders fought on the open stage sumo style. Once again due the the large number of bots we had single elimination. First up was T-Boner vs Lift Lord vs camera-bot. T-Boner flipped Lift Lord over camera-bot leaving him stuck on the stage edge with two wheels dangling in space. When I tried to go around camera-bot to finish off Lift Lord the T-Boner auto-pilot locked onto camera bot instead. It did not go well for poor camera bot. T-Boner progressed through the brackets nicely fighting Florida Pool Noodle Massacre, Curtis, Hypnus and finally losing to Tuskin' Raider in the final. I later discovered a gear had come loose and the flywheel was not connected the the flipper during the last few seconds of the final with Tuskin' Raider. Once again mechanical failure caused T-Boner to lose. The flywheel gear has now been fixed in a way that it will not fail again.
Pushy Grabber got a bye and only had 2 matches. The first was against I can't believe it's not Overhaul by Charles Guan. It's a 30# version of his 250# Battlebots entry and a lifter bot. Pushy Grabber does not do well with lifters. We lost the first round but got lucky and won the next two. Next we were up against Nyx by Mike Jeffries, an excellent lifter bot that has an impressive record of wins. The winner would go to the final against Beaver of Terror. Although MC Kelly said he didn't want me to win I think he secretly wanted to announce "Pushy Grabber vs Beaver of Terror" for the final. Sadly it was not to be. I managed to push Nyx off once but after a bunch of draws Nyx finally prevailed and went on to fight Beaver of Terror. Nyx won the 30# championship.
Robot Battles 64 highlights
I've also updated the pages of T-Boner and Pushy Grabber with changes made after this event.
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