FIGURE 4. Pissed
Off Unicorn takes its
revenge against
I Kid during the
Fleaweight rumble.
FIGURE 5. Sam
McAmis shows the
damage to his team's
robot, Spare Parts, after
the Beetleweight match
against DeJa Voodoo.
took advantage and threw Thresh out of the drop-out
zone with a single hit from its eight-inch horizontal
blade.
Pissed Off Unicorn continued to fight inVertigo, but
inVertigo’s exposed wheels soon fell victim to the
powerful weapon, forcing inVertigo to fight its way
through the loser’s bracket to the semi-finals, placing
3rd overall. Matt Spurk’s Boom Stick surprised the
crowd as its horizontal spinning bar took flight and
came off his robot! Pissed Off Unicorn’s luck ran out in
the finals as Ram Robotics’ I Kid took the win for the
Fleaweight trophy.
The Beetleweight bracket got off to an exciting
start as Busted Nuts’ DeJa Voodoo flipped Spare Parts
high in the air early in the match. New members of the
team built Spare Parts based on RamVac’s design, and
managed to use their robot to get DeJa Voodoo up
against the drop-out zone. Just as DeJa Voodoo was
being pushed out, its drum finally got a hit on Spare
Parts and launched it across the arena.
After almost a full match of hit after hit, both
robots were simultaneously immobilized and the judges
declared DeJa Voodoo the winner. The next match
paired Voodoo Magic — also from Busted Nuts Robotics
— against TeamPyramid’s Box. These robots have faced
off in previous GCRS competitions, and Box tried to
keep its wedge pointed at Voodoo Magic’s disk. This
strategy kept Voodoo Magic’s vertical disk ineffective,
until a hit to Box’s side threw Box high in the air and
over the arena barrier.
DJ Spinny fought Walla Walla in the next match,
both with horizontal weapons. Although Walla Walla
had competed previously in GCRS, Paul Grata
redesigned the robot for this event: “I changed the
base design to be more of a frame than a solid piece
of metal, which resulted in a PVC top-plate. I switched
to Pololu’s for the drive and changed from a friction
based brushed weapon system to a belt based
brushless, with the weapon motor on top to maintain a
low frame profile.”
The finals of the Beetleweight division were the
highlight of the event, pairing Ram Robotics’ Steve
FIGURE 6. Robot
pile-up in the
Beetleweight
rumble!
FIGURE 7. Beetleweight match:
Walla Walla vs. DJ Spinny.
FIGURE 8.
DeJa Voodoo
gets lucky in
the first finals
match against
Steve, but
Steve fought
back in the
final match for
the title!
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