Itsa and MeltyB(eetle).
12’ allowing plenty of room for the
robots to maneuver and for fans to
watch the action. Teams from
California, Oregon, Washington, and
British Colombia attended the event.
The core of the competition was in
the 3 lb (beetle weight) and 12 lb
(hobby weight) classes with a few
1 lb and 30 lb robots rounding out
the show.
Heavy hitters in the 3 lb class
included WAR’s returning champ,
“Hurty Gurty” by Team Death by
Monkeys, the always dangerous
“Altitude” by Team Velocity, and
“Itsa,” a home-plate shaped robot
with a giant titanium blade created
by Mike Daniels of Team Bad Bot
and driven by Greg Schwartz of
team LNW. In its first competition,
Rich Olson’s one-wheeled robot
MeltyB(eetle) was sporting its
unique drive system that
allows it to use 100% of its
mass in its spinning body, giving it
the potential of hitting harder than
any of the other bots at the event.
Early in the competition, Melty
B(eetle) fought Hurty Gurty. As the
robots came together, Hurty Gurty
was thrown to the ceiling as Melty
B(eetle) bounced off the walls.
MeltyB(eetle) appeared to be
getting the best of Hurty Gurty but
started to smoke and was knocked
out. Hurty Gurty won the fight but
was effectively knocked out of
the competition with its 1/4” thick
aluminum sides being badly bent,
disabling the weapon.
After moving up the losers
bracket, MeltyB(eetle) went up
against the under-cutter Itsa. Bright
white sparks shot from the front
Mission Control lifts an opponent.
end of Itsa as its titanium blade
skidded across the steel floor. Like a
boxer with a long reach, Itsa kept
MeltyB(eetle) from getting close
enough to deliver a knockout blow.
Itsa chipped away at MeltyB(eetle)’s
one wheel for the knock-out win.
In the beetle weight final, Itsa
was matched up against Altitude.
The two bots fought earlier with
Altitude getting the win. Altitude
has a large vertical spinning disk
with its sides made of heavy
aluminum and titanium. Again, Itsa
used its long reach to an advantage.
Itsa took out the support skids
holding Altitude’s weapon off the
ground. With no way to keep the
weapon off the floor, Altitude threw
itself around the arena until time
expired in the match. With a
unanimous judge’s decision, Itsa
took home 1st place.
The returning champs from the
Canadian team DMZ brought two
robots in the 12 lb class. Their
powerful wedge Death Dealer
driven by Amir Marvasti went up
against the always destructive
horizontal spinner Fiasco driven by
Kevin Barker. Death Dealer used an
effective anti-spinner attachment on
the front of its wedge. The composite spring steel and rubber material
damped Fiascos blows enough to
give the wedge the victory.
Shag, a plow-bot driven by Rob
Purdy of Team Guasswave pushed
its previous opponents around like
toys with the aid of a powerful
magnet to increase its pushing
power. Shag’s opponent Raven has
a wide wedge with a
powerful vertical
spinning disk. In Raven’s
previous fight against
the titanium wedge
Bubba, driven by
Joe Murawski of Team
X-Bots, it had some
spectacular hits as its
spinning disk tore up
Bubba’s armor. Shag
dominated Raven early
on but a strong hit by
Raven’s weapon knocked
Raven tosses Bubba.
24 SERVO 05.2008