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.
If you would like to be part of
the action — either in the audience
PHOTO 8. With its tough design and
Here, we see Gary with Original Sin and the
ComBots Cup trophy.
SERVO 03.2010 33