Servo - March 2010

PHOTO 4. One of the crowd favorites of the show was the area with big bots on display. Here some audience members are taking a closer look at the internal parts of Vlad the Impaler 2.

know it’s an expensive sport, so we offer a chunk of prize money to help offset the cost and make the event more fun for competitors. We have been very encouraged since the start of the ComBots Cup to see so many competitors coming out of the woodwork for some events, and we’re always excited to see more. A lot of what we do with the trading cards and builder meet and greets is inspire more kids and adults to build something themselves. They can always find out how to get involved at Combots.net and Robogames.net after they come home from an event.” As evidenced by the overall quality of competition in this weight class, plus the new heavyweight machines that have entered over the last few years, it’s obvious that the ComBots Cup has indeed had an impact on the heavyweight class.

The very first Combots Cup was held in November 2005 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, CA. This event included most of the active heavyweights of the time plus a few new machines, and also marked the return to combat of some veterans that hadn’t competed in many years (such as the infamous Biohazard). The action was furious and intense, but in the end Matt Maxham’s creation Sewer Snake took home the Cup in the inaugural event, narrowly beating out Donald Hutson’s machine Karkas 2 in the finals. Matt’s renowned driving skill proved to be the deciding factor in winning the event.

The second ComBots Cup was

PHOTO 5. One of the more brutal matches of the event was the tough wedge of Sewer Snake against the big spinning bar of Last Rites.

held May 2007, in conjunction with the Maker’s Faire at the San Mateo, CA County Expo Center. Paul Ventimiglia’s overhead bar spinner, Brutality, took home the Cup that year beating out Gary Gin with his tough wedge, Original Sin, in the finals. Brutality had taken some major damage in this event, breaking his spinning bar during a match against the big offset spinning bar of Last Rites. Paul showed his ability to adapt by shortening his weapon bar to balance out the damage, and by outdriving his opponents throughout the tournament to secure the victory.

In May 2008, the event was held again in conjunction with the Maker’s Faire. It was run as a round robin tournament which resulted in some intense matches as each entrant had to face off with every other opponent in the class. I am proud to say that my creation, the offset spinning bar machine Last Rites, ended up taking home the 2008 Cup. I would love to say that my great driving skill was the deciding factor, but truthfully it was

PHOTO 7. Here we see Michael “Fuzzy” Mauldin signing trading cards for some enthusiastic fans.

PHOTO 6. Combat events always involve frantic repairs between matches. Here, Matt Maxham does double duty, repairing Sewer Snake while being interviewed on camera.

more a matter of luck. That and the pure determination it took to keep my machine running in the face of such high quality opponents.

Last year’s ComBots Cup was held in December 2009, at the San Mateo County Expo Center. The field at this year’s event was a little smaller than in the past, but the quality of the machines was top notch including all three previous ComBots Cup winners. The tournament was once again run as a round robin event, and given the overall quality of the machines competing, it was no surprise that the action was as intense as ever. At stake was a prize purse of $5,000 and, of course, the bragging rights of being the ComBots Cup champion. In the end, the extremely tough wedge Original Sin — expertly driven by Gary Gin — took home the 2009 Cup. Gary went undefeated, toppling all previous ComBots Cup champions to earn his place in history.