Servo - January 2014

well because Piranha wasn't able to get a good bite into the curved rear armor. He did put some sizeable dings into the front armor, but because he was in the pan he wasn't able to flip Angry.

This fight went back and forth. Cayden got in a couple of good clamps. Piranha had a couple of hits, but nothing that really did any significant damage. This fight also went to the audience decision and Cayden won again in a close ruling. Angry Bot: 2-0.

Fight 4: Scary vs. Piranha

The downside of having a three and a half year old for a robot driver is they still need naps. Ethan was zonked at the start of his second match, but luckily my friend Katy came by to check out the robots, so I let her drive Scary. This would be Katy's first time driving a robot ... ever, so I knew she would represent Ethan's driving very well. In fact, she did a fantastic job in her first time out.

The low wedge of Scary did well to get under Piranha. Piranha got in a couple of hits on the wheels and back armor, while Katy got the hang of driving. A few times Piranha was up on the wedge, but she just couldn't get him into the pit.

After about a minute and half, Katy got the hang of driving and was able to get him in the pit. Scary: 1-1.

Fight 5: Scary vs. Caribou

Ethan was still asleep, so Cayden took over the driving duties for Ethan. He did a good job, and fought for the entire three minutes. This was another good back and forth battle. Scary has a very low wedge that was able to get under Caribou. Caribou was incredibly fast and well driven, and was able to push Scary around the arena when he got him from the side or the back.

Cayden was able to avoid the pit and hang on for the win. Scary: 2-1.

Fight 6: Angry Bot vs. One Night

One Night and Angry Bot engaged in another close battle. Cayden wasn't able to get One Night into the wedge as much as he was with Cheese Wedge, but he also didn't get stuck on his back. One Night did a good job of driving Angry Bot around the arena, and staying away from the grabbing arm. One Night ultimately won in a close audience decision. Angry Bot: 2-1.

Fight 7: Angry Bot vs. HooDoo

HooDoo was driven by an audience driver. The bot was a four-wheel drive wedge that was big enough that he didn't fit in the dustpan very well. They pushed each other around pretty consistently with both drivers struggling to make contact. Both robots were pretty quick, with HooDoo being the faster of the two, so neither driver was really controlling the fight. Cayden lost focus for just a second and drove straight into the pit. It was an unfortunate way to end his day. Angry Bot finished 2-2.

Fight 8: Scary vs. HooDoo Wedge

Ethan was still out (he must having been getting some rest for daddy, too). Cayden stepped in to get his revenge against HooDoo. Cayden used to own a variation of Scary — which he called Speedy — so those two united and it was good. This time, the match with HooDoo ended much differently as Cayden was able to get HooDoo up onto the wedge and drive him in the pit. It was one of the better pieces of actual intentional driving that he had all weekend and it put his brother into the finals. Scary: 3-1.

Ethan was supposed to have another fight with One Night, but One Night was in rough shape after its previous fight with Calamity, so Scary got the bye into the finals.

Fight 9: The Finals: Scary vs. Calamity

Calamity is a very tough little drum bot driven by Sam McAmis. Sam is a top-shelf driver. He finished either first or second in every class at this event, so I knew this would be a tough fight. Ethan woke up about five minutes before this fight started, so he grabbed some grapes and the controls, and went in to fight in the finals (What a baller!).

The fight started out pretty good. Ethan was using his now patented random stick mashing controls which got under Calamity a few times, but Calamity got a couple good shots on him. About a minute into the fight, Calamity went under Scary and I saw wires and the power switch come out, and more wires wrapped around the drum of Calamity.

I immediately tapped out and went in to make certain we didn't start a battery fire. Luckily, it pulled the plugs apart at the battery and broke the switch. There was no really significant damage, but the match was over. Scary: 3-2.

Fight 10: The Rumble

In the rumble, Cayden put Angry Bot in; unfortunately, Scary was a little too beat up after his fight with Calamity (kind of a reoccurring trend with bots that fought Calamity that weekend). There ended up being eight robots in the arena for this rumble, so it was total anarchy.

Bots piled up around the pit, but everyone stayed out until over four minutes into the rumble. Unlike most other events, this one went with the “fight til Li-Pos ignite” approach. The fights raged on.