Congratulations Typhoon

[fluppet]

Congratulations Typhoon

Eh? Typhoon *was* pushed around for the entire fight (except for the odd bit of running away). Full credit to them for surviving it, but they were most certainly pushed!

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Fluppet

[blazerbotics]

Congratulations Typhoon

having seen the fight live, i must say that i think the editing favored Storm 2. At the time i agreed with the judges, but if you just saw the edited version then i would say that Storm 2 had it. either way it was very close and well done to both robots.

[Guest]

Congratulations Typhoon

WELL DONE

jOHN hEATLIE

[razerdave]

Congratulations Typhoon

Nice one typhoon.

I think Eds comments about Typhoon and X-terminator before the final were unwarrented

[fluppet]

Congratulations Typhoon

Thanks for that, Alan. Ive disagreed with the judges on fights in the past when its been down to more than just editing, but there have been times when the editing has done a competitor a major disservice too. With so much footage Id presumed that wasnt the case here, but only because I had no evidence to the contrary.

Ill proceed on the understanding that the footage wasnt entirely representative!

And in keeping with this thread, and since I seem to be being very negative elsewhere, Ill add another well done, Gary to the list. :-)

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Fluppet

[jamesb]

Congratulations Typhoon

I was there on the day, and although I am a bigger fan of Typhoon than Storm 2, I have to say in my eyes, Storm had it, but what do I know?

As a bit of a giggle, Ill repeat some of the funnier conspiricy theories Ive heard about this final. None of these are my opinions, just stuff people have said within earshot of me.

1:
RAF base, cadets staying on base, RAF/cadet team didnt qualify but were allowed in anyway, RAF/cadet team win, it was fixed from the start. (please note, this is the most obserd of the theories Ive heard!)

2:
BAEsystems factory team (typhoon being built by BAE systems)used cadets as a means of promoting british military technology, now that robotwars is being aired in potential sales markets. The proof that this link exists is the governments recent commitment to promoting engineering, the MOD, doing the same, and team Typhoon being the same. lol.

3:
The deliberate time-out (I like this one)
with Typhoons weapon not working properly in the first part of the fight, it was a very clever decision of the driver to take out the wall, as it would stop the fight, as it did the day before. Knowing the continue as you left off policy, if the weapon failed to start (not hard to fake) then repairs could be justified. Like this one, more realistic of the thoeries, and hints that Gary is a tactical genius. Hes denied this though.

4:
Personal agenda. (again, I can see this one working)
Ed Hoppitt owned storm 2. Last year it had no weapon, and seemed to be such a focused machine weaponary would be almost impossible to integrate. The rule of compulsary active weapons arrived, and hit nobody harder than Storm. Why was this rule introduced? hummm.... maybe mentorn dont like Ed.
Then the final, it was clear that storm won, but mentorn pay the judges, so as they dont like Ed Hoppitt........
like that one, really smacks of US style corruption.

5:
Ed shot JFK

[kaideejee]

Congratulations Typhoon

No the real secret is that Ed IS Elvis, and Gary IS Richie from the Manic Street Preachers. The judges just werent into the old blue suede.

-- Kev

[fluppet]

Congratulations Typhoon

ROTFL. Now *thats* what this debate needed.

First fight judged from a grassy knoll?

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Fluppet

[steve_c]

Congratulations Typhoon

As a conspriacy theorist myself, heres my views:

If its true that Typhoon failed to qualify and were let in anyway, then it probably is because they were RAF/cadets, but that wouldve been done purely to have them representing in the arena, rather than to have them win it. (so 1 could be partially true, but not fully)

I cant see 2 working because the government made defence cutbacks recently. But of course it would be promoting big business if they were true (a goverment policy). However they couldnt rig all 7 fights as the other teams would refuse to play ball (and the house robots never tried to throw the fights either like theyve done in the past), but the closeness of the final provided an opportunity if they wanted it. But still an unlikely scenario though, as I bet hardly anyone knew about the BAE connection.

3 suggests a clever and tactical usage of the rules - not the first time its been used to win a final of course.

4 - I thought that the reason for the active weapon rule was because Mentorn didnt like Tornado for beating their beloved Razer (first reaching the final by using no active weapons on Hypnodisc/Dominator/Firestorm then adding defensive weaponry to win the war), hence trying to get them banned (but of course the Tornado guys are far too inventive for that to happen). And as Storm is a Tornado clone, it comes under the umbrella too (even though they fitted an effective weapon that didnt actually compromise the armour - maybe that pissed Mentorn off).

But if Mentorn did influence the judges it wouldve been more likely that they just wanted a spinner to win (which was also thought of as a reason for the active weapon rule).

5 - heh.

[julian]

Congratulations Typhoon

Typhoon were rather lucky, as indeed are any of the series winners. To get so far needs a little good fortune. There were certain robots which Typhoon would have had more trouble with but the draw meant that they didnt have to face them (Bigger Brothers flipper would have proved a problem). Storm would have won if titanium wasnt such a pig to weld (if they had weight to spare they could have perhaps used enough stainless steel instead).

Typhoon is very good at what it does but it is a one trick pony and that must be borne in mind. Having fought the middle Typhoon and hoping to do so again, I can see that there are ways to combat it. The easiest of these are spikes that will hit just above the cutters plus there are designs of flippers that have lips that can get under the cutters before the cutters hit the slope of the flipper.

Congrats to the Typhoon team, anyway, and hopefully I can have my revenge on them this time around with a new machine.

[big_nipper]

Congratulations Typhoon

Typhoons Quilifying match was between us, a flipper(EWE2 I think) and a massive fibreglass robot with a disc (sorry carnt remember its name). Fight started we headed stright for typhoon and hit it before it started to spin up (Lucky us). The disc stopped and typoon wasnt going anywhere fast so we left it and went for the other disc. It got pushed into the side and the disc came off. Typoon moved a few inches and the disc started to spin ever so slightly so we rammed it again. Tried to turn it over but every time we went under it we slid to one side. Gary said that the inside was spinning instead of the disc after the fight. We the drove to the other side of the arena where both back wheels jammed up (1st and only time since) and we came to a stop. The flipper then got under typhoon and turned it over and was the last one running.

All 4 robots got through to the wars.

Another interesting point is that the MASSIVE fibreglass robot was orginially not allowed to run as it was 5cm over the width limit. In the pits they got an hacksaw and cut it down to size .

Ian, Im sure you were the flipper. Only one to flip typhoon. Can you confirm this?

Oh and well done Typhoon and Storm II for one of the best finals Ive seen.

[typhoon_driver]

Congratulations Typhoon

raging reality has flipped us in the past and the fibre glass robot was called araknia

[fluppet]

Congratulations Typhoon

Julian - this is where Im back to my list of whacky how to beat Typhoon ideas. I think spikes are asking for trouble - even if youre not impacted by the teeth, Typhoon will have a lot of inertia; you may gash the shell but youd probably lose the teeth too. Not sure how thick the shell is above the ring, but Im guessing its sturdy enough that slicing it away isnt going to work. Something enormous, like Kan-Openers jaws, could disable it - but even then the jaws were damaged, and its not clear that T2 would have been unable to spin, given the chance.

Unfortunately, it appears that my suggestion of rolling along the outside of T2 and shoving them into a wall (or pit, or CPZ) isnt going to work if the director allows them to spin up again afterwards. :-(

As for an extended flipper - something like T-minuss extension for use against Hazard? Itd have to be extremely strong to lift a heavy as a cantilever, and since T2s teeth are so low to the ground its hard to avoid being clipped - although a bit of chamfering might help.

On the other hand, any wedge which *does* get under without sustaining too much damage has the benefit that as T2 tilts (not that it will, much, with the gyroscopic effect) its teeth will hit the arena floor and fling it sideways. A hard bash from above might be interesting from this point of view.

It does seem that the best approach is just to be built very solidly and never let them spin up, though (then pit them or feed them to the house robots, rather than trying to break them - theyve got unusually good armour even when stationary) - and thats hardly news when it comes to fighting spinners. Still not quite clear why Ed felt Storm could afford to pick its moment to attack and let T2 spin up - regardless of the solidity of the robots, this approach means T2s attack is concentrated by the teeth, which cant be a good thing (unless the idea was that T2 could put more energy into itself than Storm could). The panel which came off did get a ding on the corner from T2 (corners not good against spinners), which implies to me a problem with the strategy.

If team Storm ever manage to build a hydraulic crusher into *this* robots removable weapon bay, that would stand an interesting chance - stop the spin with the base, then chew (although its not really the shape for it). Doubt Razer would have stood a chance, though. If Storms lifter gets extended that would have made all the difference, so I suspect thats a more likely development route if Ed wants to be more sure of a win next time.

Gary should, of course, be complimented that Im spending all this time trying to find a way to defeat that particular robot (and class of robots). To be fair to Ed, Im almost as concerned about how to beat Storm 2, although a very low flipper with automated activation when somethings over it would seem a good start.

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Fluppet

[typhoon_driver]

Congratulations Typhoon

andrew i am very complemented that you are taking the time to come up with ideas to defeat little ol me. although just a small note, we doubled the titanium on the shell after the kan opener incident and even that didnt get through our second shell underneath. It would be interesting to see the ideas that you came up with if you were able to crawl around the inards of typhoon 2 so to speak. Im glad that there are new people who are starting to build and have so many ideas because if theres one thing that this sport can never have enough of, its people with gd imagination.

[mark_m]

Congratulations Typhoon

I think the way to beat Typhoon would be with an undercutter type spinner design. With the majority of robots in RW not having skirts this could be a very effective weapon, if not slightly dull. (chop bottom of wheels - robot stops moving - you win, obviously its never as simple as this though). Id be interested to know if Storm could fit in a weapon like this.

Mark