Robot" and "Best
Engineered" awards; a
multi-bot; and Gene
Burbeck's returning
2011 champion, the
undefeated wrecking
machine called One
Fierce Bush Wacker
(Figure 13).
After two rounds
of round-robin
competition, both
Threecoil and One
Fierce Bush Wacker were undefeated,
and Dead Metal and multi-bot Muttley
and Dick Dastardly were winless. In
the opening match of round three,
Chris Atwood drove Dead Metal to a
victory over the multi-bot securing a
third place finish. Chris also received
the "Best Driver" award.
The championship match pitted
the raw spinning power of One Fierce
Bush Wacker against the complex
flipper of Threecoil. One Fierce Bush
Wacker had already demonstrated
that destructive power on the multi-bots by ripping the wheels off of
Muttley and then seriously damaging
the weapon assembly of Dick
Dastardly (Figures 14 and 15).
After losing badly to Burbeck and
the Bush Wacker last year at BotBlast
with an innovative but ineffective
flipper bot named Reclipso that simply
failed to launch anything, O'Donnell
again found himself facing Burbeck
and the Bush Wacker in the final
match. This time, it was his
redesigned and renamed flipper bot
Threecoil that would answer the bell.
Changes to O'Donnell's bot
included the addition of a flywheel to
the flipper mechanism making it an
effective weapon that could
repeatedly fire. But could Threecoil
and its complex flipper mechanism
survive repeated massive hits from
Burbeck's proven killing machine?
The match started with the Bush
Wacker heading straight for
Threecoil, but the big spinning blade
was deflected by Threecoil's armor.
Then, Threecoil lifted the Bush
Wacker and moved it — didn't flip it,
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
TABLE 1. BOTBLAST WINNERS.
Fleaweight Antweight Beetleweight
Lolcat Little Box Ripto
John Parsons Richard Kelley Kyle Singer
Mantis
Three Coil
Zac O'Donnell
Tracked Terror
Chris Atwood
Gyroscopic One Fierce Lawn Boy
Sean McKeown Gene Burbeck
One Fierce Bush Wacker
Gene Burbeck
Baby V
Heath Hill
Szalor
Cody Bennett
D- 12
Rumble: Baby Box
Richard Kelley
Kyle's Cutter
Dave Graham
Coercion
John Parsons
Dead Metal
Chris Atwood
just lifted it and pushed it back a bit.
It was a scene that would be repeated
throughout the match — the Bush
Wacker unable to get a bite on
Threecoil, and Threecoil lifting the
Bush Wacker pretty much at will.
About halfway through the
match, it appeared the Bush Wacker
lost one of its drive wheels making
Threecoil’s job easier. You could sense
Gene Burbeck's frustration toward the
end of the match when the whine of
the Bush Wacker's blade increased as
Gene throttled it up.
The match went the distance and
the judges awarded a unanimous,
well-deserved decision to winner Zac
O'Donnell and his engineering marvel
— the 2012 BotBlast Mantis
champion, Threecoil.
A list of the winners is shown in
Table 1, and a list of the special
award winners as either voted on by
the competitors or selected by the
event organizer is shown in Table 2.
The winners shared a bounty of
prizes, including custom designed
sequenced starting lights for first
place, trophies and plaques for
second place, third place, rumble
winners, and special awards, and
tools and robot building components
donated by sponsors.
TABLE 2. SPECIAL AWARD WINNERS.
Longest Distance Traveled: Gene Burbeck and fiancée Cathi (Michigan)
Sportsmanship: Richard Kelley
Best Driver: Chris Atwood
Best Engineered: Threecoil
Coolest: Threecoil
Most Destructive: Ripto
SERVO 11.2012 33