Tuesday
After work on Tuesday night we packed up the car and headed down to Wicksteed Park in
Kettering. We arrived just after 8.30pm set our tents and chatted away to many who had already
arrived until we went to bed ready for our heat on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday
We arrived at the pits for 8am ready for a briefing at 8.30am. We got a bench and put
Turbulence on charge and filled the gas bottle. Although we knew that we were fighting Kronic,
Spike and Iron Awe 3 we had no idea in which order. The briefing told us the rules and that
we were up against Spike first. Spike, a dutch robot has a full pressure axe which when working
properly is capable of doing damage. However they didn't have much chance to prove that, eiter
they were waiting for the opertune moment or their axe wasn't working properly, but we flipped
them out after only 48 seconds. In the other fight in our heat Kronic beat Iron Awe 3.
In the second show we were to fight Iron Awe 3 again this fight we had some luck as their
flipper wasn't working however they did get it working in the next fight. Again Iron Awe
ended up flipped OOTA, two for two so far. Kronic also beat Spike in the afternoon session,
with only one from each heat going on to te next round it set up a decider between Turbulence
and Kronic.
We knew exactly how dangerous Kronic is, winning last years Winter Tour beating Terrorhurtz
in the final. It had to be delt with quickly, we knew we could flip them out if we got them near the
edge, but they can flip anyone out from anywhere in the arena. Dave driving Kronic didn't get
off to a flying start, Dave driving Turbulence did, we were accross the arena in a couple of
seconds, got under them and turned them over. Then came a bit of luck, as they tried to selfright
we got under them, the combined flip carried them out of the arena. This meant that along with
Storm II, Terrorhurtz and Tough as Nails (TAN) we were through to the second round.
Thursday
Thursday saw the turn of Secret Weapon to enter the arena. The featherweight competition
consisted of an opening melee in the first round then another in the second to get through to
the semi final. Secret Weapon scraped through the first fight on a judge's decision, it became
imobilised on the floor at the very start of the fight, after about a minute it struggled free
and continued the fight trying to make up for lost time. It just worked and went through to the
second round in the next in the last show of the day. In this fight SW was again very lucky
as it ended up in the pit although other robots had been imobilised before SW was. So it was
through to the semi final on Saturday.
Friday
Friday saw a day off for us but an eventful day nontheless. The Big Nipper vs Scorpian
fight was spectacular, Big Nipper won but only thanks to their 12mm titanium scoop. Sparks
flew everywhere an both robots took damage. Also on Friday we were all interview by the police
after a body was removed from the lake near where we were camping. Later it was revealed to be
a suicide.
Saturday - Quarter Finals Day
Turbulence's first fight was against TAN, which is a very difficult robot flip especially from the
front. Our plan was to get into the jaws and aim the flipper at the back of the robot. However
Dave pressed the flipper a little early and Tan grabbed us with the arm right open. (aparently the hole
arm flexed during their crush, which is credit to them as it is one heavy arm). As soon as they
released us we flew off did an about turn and got in and flipped them over. Soon after they were out of
the arena. This meant we were through to the quarters against Ripper. Ripper is still a good robot, but
Turbulence is faster and quicker to turn, this along with their flipper not working properly, meant
Turbulence flipped them out as well. We were through to the semi final on Sunday with Big Nipper.
Sunday - Finals Day
At this point we were quite nervous, people were saying we had it in the bag. We had
beaten Big Nipper one month before at RIAT. But they had been on fire this week and not put a foot
wrong, and are always good in championships as they prep the robot well in advance. However they have high
ground clearence which meant we always have a good chance against them. At one point we thought
we were doomed as they lifted us up and it looked like we were going in the pit. But we got free
and Big Nipper soon joined all the rest out of the arena. We were in the final along with the World
Champions Storm II. Before this fight we had never fought storm, apart from a melee in the Winter Tour
last year, but we didn't fight each other much. The fight went well, Turb could keep up with the pace of Storm
and almost out turn it. We got them over and at this point they were ours for the taking, all we had to do was
get them near the side of the arena and they would be out. As it happened Storm had miss fired at the start
of the fight so as we stacked them up on the side we were told not to flip them out. But we had won anyway.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us in various ways, sponsors, family, friends and roboteers. Also thanks
to Roaming Robots for a great event. Will be back next year to defend the title, would be good to emulate
Chaos 2.
Have lots more photos, email me if you would one of your robot, think I got
most of the heavies and a lot of the feathers.
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