A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

[pcbore]

So. Not only do we have four robots in this annihilator instead of 6, the entire line up has been changed as well for some reason, and in fact the annihilator line up strongly resembles the final line up instead. Strange.

Storm 2 vs Tornado

Fairly even at first, with both robots edging around and shoving. It looked like Tornado had the lower scoop for one thing. However Storm got one lift in, turned the champ over and that was that. There was some running around but Tornado just couldnt do anything useful and was slammed all over the arena. No offense to the Tornado boys but I found it quite funny to see Tornado get a taste of its own medicine Great fight.

Dodgy editing watch

Refbot opened the pit, which Tornado was dumped on as it lowered. The camera cut away for a second, and the next thing we saw the pit was in its fully raised position allowing Tornado to drive off.

Winner: Storm 2

Typhoon vs X-Terminator

X-Terminator just wasnt quick enough to attack Typhoon before it got away and spun up. As i thought, Typhoon had the longer reach so X-Terminator couldnt attack it without taking damage. So like Tornado before it, X-Terminator got a bit of its own medicine. Although it wasnt as funny. Another great fight, and the arena getting destroyed was a bonus

Winner: Typhoon 2

Tornado vs X-Terminator

X-Terminator was moving and spinning but I dont think theyd gotten all the damage fixed, and were still ailing for most of the fight before they broke down. The Matilda came in and did some more damage. Nice one. This was the only fight I felt was below par, because I dont think X-Terminator was runnign at 100%.

Winner: tornado

Storm 2 vs Typhoon 2

I thought Storm 2 would suceed where everyone else failed, and reach Typhoon before it spun up. however they didnt, and for what seemed like quite a while Storm 2 couldnt get near Typhoon without taking a wallop or three. Then they got the lifter under and things got very tense. Would Typhoon be rolled over? But the answer was no as Storm 2 couldnt seem to dislodge Typhoon! When they managed, it fell back on its wheels but didnt spin up for a while! Then it started and again for a while Storm 2 couldnt get near although Typhoon nearly bounced into the pit twice. Then storm 2 was on top for the rest of the fight, but didnt suceed in finishing off Typhoon and it went to the judges! Fight of the night, and we finally find out how the judges mark. Better late than never I guess. Muchos congratulations to team Typhoon, muchos comiserations to team Storm, and the ultimate proof that armour is only as good as what holds it in place

Winner: Typhoon 2

Typhoon 2 vs Arena

The arena didnt stand a chance! It may be bullet proof, but it needs to be Typhoon proof.
Incidentally Gary, it looked like the second smashing was done on purpose. Was it?

[dazzy]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

lol great review frank and yes typhoon desreved to win it even though storm 2 should of won but the damage at the end put them out of it What a wooty good review :P

[dazzy]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

Another point about the arena wall i dont think they did it on purpose maybe losted control and went a different direction instead of the other or maybe having some fun :P

[jamieb]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

I bet the Tech Crew must love Typhoon, Two arena smashes in two fights, what a powerful robot that is

[team_penetrator]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

congratulations to gary and the Typhoon 2 team for winning robot wars

[Guest]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

My reviews:

Storm 2 V Tornado

At last, its the fight everyone was dying to see. Unsurprisingly, it ground down to a pushing match. Unsurprisingly, Storm 2 won. Unsurprising really. Tornado looked good at first as they looked lower than Storm at the front giving them the edge, but unfortunately for them some deft manouvering by the new blood champs but the champs well out of it from then on. It was cool to see Tornado being pushed about for once. What i didnt like about this fight was the malfunctioning pit, at one point Tronado were down!! Oh well, maybe it was raised to make it more exciting. A good fight all round.

Typhoon 2 V X-Terminator

Just like i predicted, over before it began, really. Typhoon twice as fast and a bazilion times more deadly. They got beaten up very badly by the impressive Typhoon 2. Altogether fairly entertaining, especially the whooping of the arena!!

Play off

Tornado V X-Terminator

X-T was never really working properly and so was at a distinct disadvanatge. To their credit, they kept going at, just like they did against Typhoon. Well done guys, but only one in it really. Tornado through to the world champs.

The Final

Storm 2 V Typhoon 2

Two robots i really admire going at in what promised to be a most fantastic fight. It has it all, smashes, lifts, collsions and even stops. The arena once again pasted by the awesome Typhoon weaponry, although it failed to do the same to Storm 2 for most of the fight. Storm was very confident going in, maybe too confident. Hugely cotroversial result, Storm 2 were all over Typhoon for the vast majority of the fights(s). Only one moment in a CPZ when Typhoon (matilda?) done the only noticable damage of the entire fight. Damage, Typhoon wins. Control, definately Storm. Aggression, deifinately Storm again. But style?? how do they judge this??? All i saw was backing away from Storm 2, aggression from Storm 2 and some damage to the arena caused by Typhoon retreating. Damage must outweigh everything else by so many points on the judges cards, thats the only explanation i have. But nevertheless, good to see a damaging robot carry the title off, and one with no srimech against so many flippers!!
Dont get me wrong, i have no problem with the outcome, and i really like Typhoon 2, perhaps more so than Storm, i just feel the judges got it wrong, and were inconsistent in how they judged the results. Perhaps it was revenge for the Storm/Mute result in new bloods which i also badly felt should have gone the other way.


Nevertheless, a great end to a truly great tournament, the best yet. And robot wars is always best served controversial. From myself, a huge congratulations to all the teams and their lovingly crafted scrap metal chunks. Hope to see you all back on five soon!!!

[tom_b]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

NOOO!! Storm 2 got beaten, ah well, congratulations to the Air Cadets & Typhoon 2.

[darkguru]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

I watched that last fight and when Gary slammed into the arena he didnt look to be under pressure...

Honestly, and i hate saying this but i do believe this, the wrong robot won. To me, it looked like Storm 2 were on top most of the fight and they were unlucky to lose due to one panel coming off.

Seems to me, the judging is flawed if a robot could choose to just spin round on the spot (no i know Typhoon didnt so this, that was what Spin Doctor did in series 2 i believe) and cause damage even if the other robots driving was better.

Sorry Gary, but i honestly think the decision went the wrong way, thats just my opinion.

[Guest]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

wots more unlucly is that Typhoon were more damaged than storm 2. Im sure I saw what looked like a chain come off and typhoons weapon had stopped working. i dont understand how when a robot takes damage that stopis its weapon working and bits like chains were coming off anyone was pretending that there was no damage. dont know you gary but i think you should have handed the trophy over if the win was given coz you had no damage expected more honor than that from the raf

[fluppet]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

Hmm. Well, Im a great fan of Typhoon, and Gary has presented himself on this forum as an admirable and impeccable member of the roboteering community, but I cant help but be a bit dissatisfied by the finals.

*Let the rant begin*

Im flummoxed as to why a robot which has stopped its own weapon by driving itself into the wall should be allowed to spin up again before the fight is restarted. X-Terminator, while losing badly, had Typhoon lined up to be shoved into a CPZ and its weapon stopped after the first wall damage.

Id always felt that pinging Typhoon into a wall was a valid strategy (you get hit once, and then a slide across the arena; T2 gets one impact off you and another off the wall). If T2 is allowed to spin up again, so much for that theory (or shoving it into a wall without stopping the spinner, for that matter).

As for the pit - it did seem to be slightly lowered when Tornado climbed out - I presumed theyd just left it in a hurry and it had lowered behind them. Their ramp was the right way round to let them ride out over a bump. As for what RefBot was doing lowering the pit in the first place I dont know (although I did think Ed should have done it himself).

The final itself; first, what exactly happened to Storm? It looked as though one of T2s hits dinged the edge of the panel which came loose, and presumably weakened the bolts(?) holding it in place. Always felt that corners and spinners dont mix - Im surprised that Storm isnt more rounded at the edges, although thats hard to do. I did think uh-oh when that happened, though - good driving by Gary/bad driving by Ed to let it happen. If that was the instigator, blaming the quality of welding seems a bit harsh.

After that it looked like it was either T2 getting stuck on the edge of the pit while Storm rammed it, or Storm hitting the wall in the CPZ, which actually caused the panel to give. Didnt look like a spike got it, at least.

Ed - thats just a spectators viewpoint; can you add detail with more knowledge of the failed components, or tell me Im talking nonsense?

Im still a bit dubious that T2 was allowed to spin up after giving itself a time-out from ramming the wall, but it didnt seem to make much difference. Im more incensed that the director had clearly told the house robots not to get involved, again. This policy has left Razer wedged under an angle grinder while being attacked by Tornado, Tornado suspended so Razer wouldnt take damage, and now Matilda running away where Storm was clearly expecting some help either in the form of a flywheel or some flipping tusks. Not getting involved even when there are robots in the CPZ seems a bit much, and clearly someone is aware that the house robots are unfairly influencing fights - if theyre not allowed to be involved, they shouldnt be in the arena.

I think Ed was a bit unwise to concentrate on ramming a shock-mounted steel ring in the hope of breaking something inside. Once it was clear T2 wasnt going to get flipped or OOTAd and the house robots werent going to help, Id have thought hed concentrate solely on getting T2 in the pit. Storm was clearly ahead on points. Beyond that, though, I think Ed did a sterling job with every attack mechanism available to him.

Gary - how intact *was* T2 at the end of that fight? Were the battery problems keeping you out of the world championships anything to do with the fight? Was the weapon fully working (belts stretched? seemed slow to spin up) or just hot/you were conserving fuel?

Im also curious in what precise manner Typhoon was judged to be ahead on style, but each to their own.

Anyway, well done Gary for building a machine so capable of withstanding damage (although the remit to stick a big lump of steel round the outside probably helps...) and, especially in the Atomic fight, for most definitely having the luck needed to become champion! And well done Ed for a most impressive performance.

Mentorn, on the other hand, remain in my bad books. (And what *is* the point of showing that Jayne is actually interested in whats going on, rather than showing the fight?)

Still, it gives us something to talk about!

--
Fluppet

[fluppet]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

Meant to ask - weve been told Typhoon didnt enter the World Championships; did it enter anything else, or have we seen the last of it this year? (I dont recall seeing it listed for anything else, but I just wondered).

Whatever, good performance for a robot which couldve been toppled by Bigger Brother in the first round!

--
Fluppet

[typhoon_driver]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

well im not going to contradict any comments, those are yours to make and feel free to say we didnt deserve the win.

we didnt enter the world champ because we only had 2 sets of batteries and these were also in use in the middleweight because as i said on the show, we didnt expect to get far and so had no spares. Hense we decided to enter the middleweights. That was typhoon 2s last battle in series 7

the weapon was fully working at the end of the battle, the only problem was with the temperatures inside stalling the engine, but after some time to cool down it was fine.

the reason for the weapon spin up, as far as i can understand is that the director wanted to continue the battles as if nothing had happened, hense same positions in the arena etc.

[darkguru]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

Im not saying you didnt do a good job Gary, in fact in most Grand Finals i would have been happy with a Typhoon win, i just feel that Storm 2 did better. That is in no way saying that you didnt drive well.

Seeing how the robots have advanced is interesting, the final was between the 16th seed New Blood winner and an unseeded robot, that alone testifies the need of the current robots to constantly improve.

[Guest]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

sorry gary but i disagree what i posted was not a comment but fact! i have just watched the final again and you can see typhoon lose a drive chain and the weapons system wasnt working whatever the reason doesnt matter and the fact it was fine later on isnt the point. its odd that you havnt admitted in any of your posts that you lost one how could you guys take the trophy on the basis you took no damage when you must have known you took damage

[darkguru]

A review of a weird annihilator. Woot anyway.

The judges inspected the robots, i get the impression that the drivers didnt. If the *JUDGES* say there was no damage or that there was less damage then that is FACT