one pound Insect class bots. Hosted by Western
Allied Robotics (WAR), the event included seven
teams with 12 bots from the Pacific Northwest.
Western Allied Robotics has been hosting
robotic combat events in the Pacific Northwest for
over 10 years; their first event was held outdoors in
Seattle’s Gasworks Park. (Happy 10th anniversary,
WAR!) Some members of WAR have competed in
BattleBots and Robot Wars, and several have
medaled at RoboGames and COMBOTS.
The Seattle Center Armory (a.k.a., the Center
House) is a great venue for a robotic combat event.
Newly remodeled, there is plenty of space for the
arena, builder pits, and spectator seating. Cafes,
shops, and diverse entertainment are all under one
roof. Sharing the grounds are the Space Needle,
Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project,
and Key Arena.
This year’s Bot Brawl included a good mix of
newcomers and seasoned veteran builders. Several
new bots were introduced at the event. Pugly
(Figure 2) is a Beetleweight egg beater bot built by
Matt Hall of Team Dawg; it’s his first robot. Pugly
held its own in several rounds of stiff competition.
Matt also built an Antweight wedge bot Chewtoy
(Figure 3).
Chewtoy lived up to its name as saw-blade
equipped opponent Velociraptor gnawed on the
wedge and armor, but Chewtoy kept on going.
Matt made a fine showing for his first event. WAR
is always looking for more Antweight robots locally,
as it is a much underused class here.
Joshua Beavers of Team Beavers Bots built
Whitebox (Figure 4), a new Beetleweight wedge
reminiscent of Raptor 2. 2. At one point in the fight
tree, the two bots squared off and it was difficult
to tell them apart.
Allosaurus (Figure 5) is a new Beetleweight
drum spinner built by Doug Brown and Dawson
Brown of Team DinoBots. Allosaurus was a
scramble build from parts salvaged from retired bot
T-Rex 2.0. Despite the short build time, Allosaurus
performed well and placed third. Rob Purdy of
Gausswave built a new robot called Scram — a
Beetleweight four-wheel drive wedge bot.
The wheels were really flying in a fight
between veteran builders Kevin Barker and Rob
Purdy, with their respective robots Debacle and
Wobble Wopper. At first, Debacle had his
opponent on the run, tearing into his foam tires
and throwing sparks off of his titanium wedge.
About halfway through the match though,
Debacle’s belt broke and became tangled around
the shaft of Wobble Wopper’s drive. It was a close
match, but after Debacle’s weapon failure Wobble
Wopper took the match by a judge’s decision.
FIGURE 2.
Beetleweight
bot Pugly.
FIGURE 3.
Antweight bot
Chewtoy.
FIGURE 4.
Beetleweight
bot Whitebox.
NQR — built by competitor Dylan of Team Evil
Squirrel — had some intense matches at the Bot Brawl,
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