FRA UK Featherweight Championship 2014 hosted by RoboChallenge

[beast]

I wanted the ti side back on but will wanted more than 10 flips But im sure the Beautys will have a very hard time next year
all I say BRING IT ON !!!
it was the rubber mount that broke not really an issue in the bot running

[Garfie489]

Well done to everybody at the event, was a fantastic weekend and the best time of my life without doubt. Fantastically organised and great entertainment. Congratulations to Learo, your as good an engineer as you are bad a driver , and also to Jonno and Will showing why they are the tag team team leaders. I think Will, you should be very much proud of your flawless record till the final, but i guess the magic just ran out . My biggest cheer must go to Ellis however, talking to you the day before you leave and you was still considering Tormenta 2, i think Rango proved your faith in her - although id have loved to prove we can still do figure of 8s after our fight :P

3 new robots in the final, none may have won but it shows it can be done.

So i guess ill follow everyone else in talking about my robots.

Utopia:

It came, It saw, It got Conquered.

Defector:

A robot which was not designed for UK competition. A robot with an extremely weak drive (effectively drill motors), and armour that is often rated below par (and is certainly not meant for our spinners). Ontop of that, the first time i had ever driven it, was in the arena against LS4 and Tiny Toon. I saw everyones predictions before, and not a single win for Defector (was nearly right actually). So what happened.

Qualifiers were difficult. Very lucky to get through on 10 points. The flipper did not work in the first three fights, with no gas supply in the first 2, and a leak in the next. The best i could ever do was come 2nd, and thats what i done, with LS4 bending the flipper arm and not much else. In the last fight vs wedgie however (H4 vs H2), the flipper finally worked, and im so glad it did. In order to qualify, it needed a knockout. And thats exactly what it did, flipping it out of the arena. And after surviving the melee, i was into the top 18.

My aim before the event was to reach this stage, i told several people that it was my aim. And it sounded reasonable. Defector has scrapped through, but was through non the less. However now, it was a fully working machine. And suddenly, everyone realised why it has its name. As for the next three fights, every robot i faced Defected. Galactus and Satanix 1.666 both had control issues when upside down, and suddenly i found myself in the top 10.

The draw was 720, and i just wanted it to come out of the fight in reasonably sized - not to many pieces. Id seen what it could do, and i knew i could not win the 5 way losers melee. In order to progress i had to win this fight, i had to keep attacking 720 no matter what the damage, so i attached the knackered scoop from the LS4 fight and prayed. I dont think many people were optimistic for me before the fight, Jarvis (my best friend) said 20-80, and 720 had destroyed better armoured robots. But, i kept hitting it, kept trying to flip. And eventually it started to smoke, and broke down. It had defected against the Defector. Heres the fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nca_0eGATVo

720 had caused alot of damage to the right side however. In missing a flip i allowed it around my side and it took full advantage. By the end of the fight that left wheel was held in simply by the baseplate alone, and theres wasnt enough time to fix everything (especially after realising it very late on) and the next fight vs Beauty 8 was a forgone conclusion. It could outdrive me before the event, but now i was ready to just prepare for the losers melee. I just wanted to see what Will would do, to try and react to him if i would fight him again.

The losers melee, and i finally had Defector fully working. The motor was now held in by cable tie, and the armour held on by gaffa tape. You would look at it and seriously wonder how on earth it has made it to the top 6 like that. Had a nice new arm which i cannot thank Kane Aston enough for this fight. And it used it well. I had to focus on Little Hitter 3. I had watched it back off in melees before, and then thrash the 1v1. I had to get it whilst Drumroll was still a distraction, and once i had gotten used to the new "feel" of the drive, i showed just how good that flipper actually is. Pitting it from across the arena in an almighty flip, but great work by alan to get it out. Gave Drumroll a little flip to get it out of the way, then back onto Little Hitter. Another two flips and it was back in the pit, and this time the wrong way up. And soon Drumroll was eliminated, and with that Defector was in the top 4 - Held together simply with Cable tie and Duct tape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULNenmE__lw

With the drive now working i could give Beauty 8 a good fight. Ill admit i wasnt watching all its fights, but ive been told i was the first to ever flip it in competition, and the first to really put up a fight to it. 16 points and undefeated, i wasnt watching Will but i was told he was extremely nervous. It was a good fight, and i thought i had him at one point, but the excitement got to me in all honesty and i missed the crucial flip. Will would never let that go unpunished, and i swiftly went out of course. But it so nearly was.

The 3rd place playoff ill describe as one fight to far. Simply Ellis removed the last remaining piece of armour on the left side, and with that all the Duct tape collapsed. The baseplate was held in by one bolt, and that soon snapped. With Defector becoming beached on its own armour. Its sad in a way, as the second after being eliminated i managed to flip in back ontop of its baseplate and it was fully mobile once again. Ellis also told me Rango had lost its steering, so we became inactive at the same time, and a second was the difference between 3rd and 4th.

But i tell you what, i really dont care what place i came in that fight. I came there dreaming of a top 18 result, and i got that. Once i had achieved my aim, i just wanted to go round by round, not really caring that much if i win or lose. As long as it was in one piece i was happy with it. Ill admit i became terrified looking at the hub of my own wheel against 720, and it was the only fight i wanted to win, because if i accepted the loss i didnt know what state it would end up in. It would have been nice to have had something physical to take away, but what i did take away was the experience.

Again, thanks to robo challenge and the judges. But most of all thanks to Kane and Dave Weston. I couldnt have got 4th without Kane making me a new arm for the sunday, and i couldnt have got to the point of needing a new arm without Daves constant great work.

For now, neither Defector or Utopia will be entering any more live events until September. Utopia will get a new chassis, and a complete redesign and ill see how well it works. Defector will be back for next year, in my own colour scheme with a nice little number 4 ontop. Its going to be getting several upgrades, and this time it will be built specifically for the UK champs, so hopefully it can go all the way.

[teamshock]

Thanks everyone for a great weekend! Most fun I've had at a UK Champs in a long long time!

Thanks to John and Sue for letting me drive Beauty 8- it is easily the best featherweight I've ever driven and it performed flawlessly at its first event. Well done to Jonno for getting a 1-2 finish for us with Beauty 2- team orders for next year!

Huge well done to Ellis for 3rd with Rango- you really deserved it after all the hard work you've put into it! And to Gareth with Defector- no one would have predicted that after the qualifying rounds.

Also well done to Alex and Tiny Toon for the Annihilator win again and to Tom and Andy for the Gladiator win with Wedgie.

I can't wait to do it all again next year (no Inertia now as I have been recruited already)

[Team Invade]

Thanks to James, Grant and everyone else part of RoboChallenge for a great event. It was a really enjoyable four days and we're already looking forward to going again next year

Massive congratulations to John Lear for both Beauties' performances this year. Beauty 8 was by far the best robot this year and unlucky to come second, it's going to force us to up our game next year with Explosion. Well done to Jonno for becoming number 3 in the double UK champion's club, and also to Will for also doing very well only to fall unlucky yet again in the final. Also to Ellis for a very respectable 3rd place with a fantastic machine, especially considering all the trouble you had with it. Well done to Tiny Toon and Wedgie as well for their well deserved wins.

Explosion severely underperformed this year due to a combination of not being as good, bad luck and some close decisions. However, we have plans for next year and Explosion will return fighting to hopefully reclaim the trophy at some point in the future! We also had a lot of fun with Combustion this year, I must say I now understand the appeal of spinners and I might decide to enter it next year if we don't get Explosion ready.

We'll be missing the next few events due to my exams but we hope everything goes well for all three event organisers. The next event we're likely to be at is Guildford where Explosion will come back fighting to prove it's still at the top! Hopefully we'll see a lot of you there and the rest at least by the champs next year

Michael

[ChrisKazoo]

Massive thanks to the Coopers and everyone at Robochallenge for putting on such an amazing show. Talking to Nick from Australia made me realise how lucky we are in the UK to have three EOs who can put on amazing shows throughout the year. Congratulations to Learo, Jonno and Will for getting first and second, Ellis for getting Rango not only working but to third place as well was amazing. Also to Gareth for getting fourth with Defector, Alex for winning the Annihilator (I will get my revenge!) and Tom and Andy with Wedgie for the Gladiator.

I'm ecstatic with how far I got in the competition, being a newbie with a brand new machine that wouldn't drive in a straight line! I went there thinking if I won a fight I would be more than satisfied but to make it to the last 18 and come runner up in the annihilator is more than would ever have imagined. Loki stood up to the hits very well, the front is mangled and the weapon is bent and twisted but otherwise still works Bit dissapointed that I didn't get a chance to self right, took me ages to get it right!

Edit: I should also say thank you to everyone I borrowed tools from and offered their advice: Sam O and his Dad, Sam Hatchet, Clive, Adrian, Jarvis, Alex B, Grant, Dave W, Shane and Mark L (sorry if I've forgotten anyone!)

Looking forward to Yeovil tomorrow, can't wait!

[sam_smith]

What an event!

Many thanks go to the Coopers and everyone at Robo-challenge who made this happen. It was even better than last year with the extra day's battles, generous pit space and room for all competitors for the entire event. The competition atmosphere was as strong as ever.

Well done to team Beast. The Beauties were formidable this year and well worthy of the podium. A reminder that despite the increasing numbers of spinners, flippers are still the most successful weapon type in current competition as well as playing a key part in the variety of weapon types.

Well done also to the runners up and other event winners. There are great teams and machines ever improving.

NST didn't do too well this year, but that is entirely my fault as its replacement is around 3 years overdue!!
I will try harder to have Shard (aka FNST) ready next time which owt to be a far more competitive machine.

Look forward to catching up with everyone again next time.

Sam

[geeza]

Fantastic event as always from Grant, James, Nick et al. Thank you.

DB10, my first new competition machine for a couple of years. In general I am pleased, although there are one or two issues that full combat have revealed. I have already solved a few of them in my head. Think given better second round draws I could have gone a bit further in the competition, no shame in losing to NST & 720.

After promising myself a bit of a break, the ideas for improving DB10 for next year have already started to flow.

[Mouldy]

Looking forward to seeing our fight on film Ed if anyone got it?

[james...venom]

Finally back from 2 weeks of awesome robot carnage! It's fair to say the whole team are very tired but have enjoyed every bit of it.

Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to all the teams that competed and supported this event, we really appreciate everyone making the effort to be there to compete for the most prestigious trophy in the sport. In particular I would like to thank Nick from Australia, Guiliherme from Portugal, Ellis & Pete from Spain, Tim from Netherlands and Jamie & Mike who drive from Scotland. It really is appreciated thank you.

It would be great to get your feedback on the new format which ran over 4 days. We felt it worked really well with teams getting more arena time and opportunities to get through. The objective was to reduce luck playing a major role and to increase the engineering side in the pits with teams needing to get their machines ready for more battles.

This year the comerardiry in the pits was really awesome. There were many cases of machines which took serious damage but had to be ready quickly for the next round and so many roboteers/friends jumped in to do what ever was possible to get each other's machines working. 720, Drumroll & Killer Julie all spring to mind. I think this was the lasting message from this years champs so well done everyone.

Huge congratulations to team Beast for the 1-2 It's never been done before! Another first in the history of the sport, we have a TRIPLE UK Champion in Beauty 2! I don't think anyone will begrudge them for having such a success as they dominated the event, B8 especially. So a really big congratulations for team Beasts achievements, I thinks johns first task for next year is to nail down his 2 superb drivers in Jonno and Will.

Big well done to Ellis and Pete for finishing 3rd with a brand new machine. It's relatively unheard of to do so well with an untested machine. I really like what this team achieves with their out of the box creative problem solving, well done guys and thank you very much for all your help taking the arena down!

Congratulations to Alex and the team for the Annihilator win! I really though Explosion might get it but you managed to out drive all your opponents to win it for the 3rd time, really big well done!

Congratulations finally for the winners of our brand new competition the Gladiator Cup to Tom with Wedgie. The first half of the battle was absolutely epic! The second half required skillful driving to out do the opponents. I really enjoyed this new competition which will definitely be back next year!

Finally I would like to say a big thank you to the judges Kane, Pete and Ed for taking their time out to judge the championships over the 4 days and a big thank you to everyone who stopped and helped to take the arena down.

We are already planning for next year and trying to get the Robo Challenge Zone signed off quickly. It would be great to get your feedback on the new format, number of days etc. We will also be looking into clarifying/updating competition regulations as well as tightening up several other areas. So please do share your feedback.

Thank you all once again, next years champs will very quickly be just around the corner so get building!

[RogueTwoRobots]

Cracking event James, hope you guys get some time to recover now though!

Feedback;

The four-day format was fantastic. It meant we all got an extra battle and enough time in between qualifiers to fix the machines where necessary.
The biggest gripe in general that I was aware of leading up to the event was the short notice at which the event was announced, which obviously meant higher hotel prices for people who were waiting for confirmation and struggles to get days off. However I'm sure we all know that you can't properly announce anything until everything is signed, sealed and delivered and the speed of the response from other parties dictates when you can make these announcements. But you've already addressed that in your post so not much to add to that

Personally, there are just a couple of issues I can think of.
The first I had was with the overall structure this year came in the first round after the qualifiers. There were nine 1v1 battles, seven of which took place in the first show (10am) and two which took place in the second show (12pm). My match with Satanix was one of the ones in the second show.
Of the robots who fought in the first show, those who lost had until the losers meleés during the second show to repair any damage and get their robots ready (roughly 2 hours). Against Satanix, I lost drive on one side and bent the drum shaft, but I only had about 15-20 minutes to effect repairs which wasn't enough time to get both problems fixed, hence why I was running on one wheel against Gianto and Explosion. I got lucky when Explosion got itself stuck but it could have easily gone the other way.
So I reckon it would be better and more balanced if all nine 1v1 battles took place during the same show, allowing all losing robots roughly equal amounts of time to make repairs. There was enough time for a couple of whiteboard fights during the first show after the 1v1 battles so the remaining two comp fights could be fitted in easily enough.

Second issue was with watching the fights. Having 40-odd roboteers trying to watch the fights through the shortest side of the arena doesn't work, especially when that side is shared with judges and trophies sitting on flight cases and everyone is trying to get videos. I know it was detailed in the info pack that if we wanted to view the fights, we were to stand around the same fence areas as the audience, but when the audience have already filled up those areas 10 minutes before the show begins, it's difficult to get a good view of the fights. If you do get a good spot you then have to dash back to the pits five minutes later to get your robot ready, have a fight, then try and secure a vantage point back around the fences.
This is just my personal opinion and I don't know any particular details or stipulations of the stall regarding audience outreach, but I think it would be much better if two sides of the arena were allocated to judges/drivers and roboteer viewing (with priority given in that order and people being allowed to stand/watch behind the drivers and judges, so long as there is enough of a gap to let the drivers walk to their vantage points and give the judges some breathing space) and two sides allocated to audience viewing. It keeps the roboteers happy (and makes for better highlights videos/higher quality social media content to promote the sport) but still gives plenty of room for GSL visitors to watch the action too.

Other than that I really loved the extra day of funsies

P.S. The bigger pits area was a welcome addition too!

[overkill]

Hi James,

Thanks for putting on an amazing event! Here is my feedback:

The 4 day format allowed for plenty of matches without rushing repairs and recharging. There was plenty of set-up time at the beginning and all the pre-event documentation was clear and useful (particularly to someone like me, who was feeling a bit lost as soon as I was off the plane). It would be handy to have a list of the nearest hardware and electronics stores for us out-of-towners.

The pit area was spacious and well organised and while I didn't need it, the repair booth was handy, keeping the pit area cleaner & safer. Having the bin liner bags on the end of every table also helped keep the pits the cleanest of any event I can recall. The only pit area problem I had was the single power outlet per row of tables; I will bring a longer extension cord next time.

Like Jamie said, viewing the matches was a bit difficult at times, even for taller people. Would it be possible to have an elevated platform behind the judges area?

One suggestion would be to pre-allocate pit tables or to make a map of where each team is located on the day. I noticed that the marshals often had trouble finding & organising the bots for up-coming matches.

After going to RoboGames in the US and all the nationals events in Australia, I can say you are definitely running a world-class event!

Another idea is to sell some event merchandise like shirts of sew-on event patches.

[PJ-27]

Another great event and getting better every year.

Here's my feedback:

4 days of robots is awesome, additional competitions (the gladiator) more qualifiers and more time between fights are all very welcome.
But I will say, the format shift at such short notice was an issue, but I appreciate that RoboChallenge would have announced as soon as they could. Also 2 work days included in the event may be a future issue for team Bitza but that problem may be unique to us.

Extra pit space was very welcome, more of that please!

Announcements of the outcome of each fight would be nice, maybe the commentator could do it? "Walking away with the full 4 points..., coming 2nd with 2 points..." etc. Adds to the theater.

There was some confusion about when robots where being counted out, or immobile etc... I think the key factor there is that all robots must be seen as being aggressive. If you don't need to 2 working wheels to be the aggressor then that's some pretty awesome driving/design! But you still shouldn't be counted out.

We also need a Winter event! Robots once a year isn't enough

[Flag Captured]

The event was absolutely spectacular, I can't really comment on it in relation to other events since it was the first time I've ever been to one, but it was great to have plenty of space in the pits and more fights overall meant there was plenty of opportunity to get involved!

I would suggest having an announcement of winners, and perhaps a leaderboard somewhere so that people can see what points they've got - maybe have a whiteboard in the back of the pits area with each machine's name on, and the scores from each fight so there's a little less ambiguity, since I know that's something that's been mentioned. It'd also be nice to see where abouts everyone who didn't qualify came overall!
Either that, or a larger board with the fights on so it's a little more visible, and the outcomes written on there so people know how the points have been dished out as PJ says.

Other than that, I can't really think of anything wrong. As a newcomer, I fully expected to be figuring out things right up until the last day, but after day 1 I'd already been explained how things worked, all the safety precautions in practice such as tech checking and arming up (albeit, there was some confusion when it came to arming up my machine occasionally, mostly caused by me being a bit hard of hearing, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly.)

Maybe having confirmation a little earlier would be nicer, but that's really out of Robochallenge's hands - I guess they can only say what's happening after everything's been finalised and set in stone by GSL...

A thought I did have, much in the same way that Heavyweight events have Featherweight melees, perhaps if there's a few people with Beetleweights there could be a Beetleweight melee/gladiator fight during a break in the main competitions? Granted, there's not as many of them as there are featherweights, but it could be a cool little side event if there was enough interest. The arena's definitely the right size for having plenty of them in there.

Brilliant event, was great meeting everyone there and nice one to Robochallenge for putting on such a great show - can't wait till next year!

[Garfie489]

Only improvement i can think of, that has not been said (and its probably because its my first event) is making procedures such as arena marshaling and tech checking more consistent.

To give an example - Defector is of course a flipper and requires a locking bar.

When arming up, my personal procedure is to remove the cover, and await clearance. I then put the link in, shut the dump valve and reattach the cover. After re-checking clearance to gas up i then open the bottle.

When it comes to removing the locking bar, there seems to be a difference of opinion on how to do it, and i believe it should be firmly set out.

Some marshals (and the same when i attend heavyweight events with Dystopia), prefer me to deal with my own locking bar after arming up. This is the method i prefer, as it means that when i walk away from my robot, i am assured no one else will touch it until the arena is locked. So if say i fall over with the transmitter, no one should be near it.

Other marshals prefer to leave all the robots locked but armed, until they are the only person remaining in the arena. They then remove all locking bars at once. Personally i dont like this way, as its possible for me to intentionally injure that person whilst they are in possession of my robot, because the transmitter is no longer on the floor away from human contact. And if i can intentionally injure someone, its possible to mistakenly injure someone.

After several battles in a row under the first method, i got told off when the arena marshal preferred the second method, and i removed my own locking bar.

Its such a small concern, but of course these are very powerful machines, and i think it should be clarified for newcomers at future events. Personally, i believe you should only remove the locking bar if you have the transmitter on the floor right in front of you, because it gives a level of security. And thus i believe for that reason, the roboteers themselves should be the ones to remove it.

Exception to the rule is of course robots like Explosion, where you can stand a foot away from it and remove the locking bar, but not every robot has that luxury.

[overkill]

That worried me too. Perhaps the procedure should be changed so that you switch off your radio after putting in the link and checking the bot and before anyone removes the safety. Everyone then exits the arena and the drivers only switch on their transmitters shortly before the countdown.