Event Report for CJRC 2001 in Cherry Hill, NJ

TadPole is still the reigning antweight champion, and still undefeated:

• SOOLC: TadPole's first match was against Strung out on Lucky charms. SOOLC had a vertical Lexan plow blade for a weapon, and big grippy tires. TadPole's lifter couldn't get under the wedge very well, but could drive around to the side and back of SOOLC. I was able to flip him over once, and at the end I had SOOLC up on his blade with the his wheels of the ground. As time ran out, SOOLC was hanging with one wheel over the edge, but it was not a knockout. TadPole wins 34-11.

• Reflex: This was TadPole's first fight against the big walking ant, and was tougher than I expected. Reflex is TALL, and TadPole's lifting arm could only just scratch his belly. So I drove TadPole under Reflex from the side, and started flailing back and forth with the lifter. I was able to drive both robots through the door over the edge, and since Reflex hit the ground first, TadPole was awarded a KO.

• TinMan: although a technical marvel of Dremel-gineering, TM has one weakness: his cone has an uneven skirt. By swivelling the lifting arm on TadPole around to one side and then the other, I was able to find a small gap I could get under and pick TM up. From there it was an arduous push to get him through the door and over the edge. With over 1 pound pushing down on TadPole's nose, the wheels have very little pushing power, but by wiggling side to side, I was able to break TM's grip on the floor and push him off. Another KO for TadPole.

• Eddie's Hot Rod: once again TadPole meets Eddie. TadPole easily flipped Eddie on his side, but then a funny thing happened: Eddie was walking around on his side with the bent lifter, and with some strange kind of wrestling move, grabbed TadPole's wheel Eddie then righted himself using TadPole as handhold, and threatened to drag TadPole around, instead. But eventually TadPole got free and pushed Eddie off the arena for the win.

• Yoink: after watching Yoink have his way with SOOLC, I was worried about this fight. But Chooie suffered an unknown electrical failure that shorted out his brand new 9 volt battery, so he put Yoink into the box dead. I used TadPole's lifting arm to flip Yoink up and over the arena wall. It was not the way I wanted to win, but it gave TadPole the championship.

Mini-Mauler started out okay, but didn't fare as well:

• Triad 12: this was a forfeit, because Chooie's last minute weapon substitution wasn't ready.

  

• Gimp: Gimp was Rob Everhart's 24 pound walker (more like a hopper). Unfortunately for Rob, Gimp's enormously powerful spinning blade with flails was too high to hit Mini-Mauler. Since it was a slow walker, MM could spin up and hit at will. The weird part was that since Gimp weighed twice as much, when MM would hit, it would move back twice as far as Gimp was moved. Even though MM was doing all the hitting, Gimp appeared to just sit there and take it, at first. But then first one flail and then the other was knocked Gimp's spinning blade, and then one leg was immobilized and finally the other. MM was awarded a KO.

• 911: Danny had given 911 a quick wheel-ectomy in Chicago, so I was feeling pretty confident. Surprisingly, after after an initial sprint across the box to shove MM into the wall, Chris gave MM room to spin up. Several times we hit weapon to weapon, with spectacular results. 911 features a titanium blade, and MM sports new titanium bot-knockers. Weapon to weapon contact sprayed bright white sparks all over the little box. But after some great action, one prodigious hit knocked MM back into one wall, and still spinning it flew 90 degrees into the other wall and flipped over. Game set and match to 911.
   

   

   

  

• Ryobot: a spinner's worst nightmare, Ryobot is a fast, ultra-low two-wheeled wedge. MM was not even close to being up to speed when Ryobot came flying across the arena, and drove up under MM, bouncing off the wall. Still upright, MM got up to almost 2/3 speed, and got in one good hit on the back of Ryobot, but RB came back and drove up under MM, driving him around the arena, first into one wall, and then across the the far wall. This last hit flipped MM over on it's back, and the match was over. Ryobot got the knockout. I believe the 911 fight could have easily gone the other way in the larger arena, but more room wouldn't have helped against Ryobot...it's just the right shape to get under MM's weapons. Ouch.

Lastly, we report on a dangerous new antweight concept that was unveiled by Team Toad at CJRC: FurbyBot! Since Mini-Mauler was an alternate for CJRC, but not many people had seen it fight, we brought MM along to Cherry Hill for a demonstration match against Furby-Bot. But since MM entered the 12 pound competition brackets, that left FurbyBot missionless. Fortunately, between semifinal matches, there was an un-official antweight rumble, so Robert Everhart, son of Rob Everhart was invited to drive FurbyBot in that rumble. Robert actually toppled a couple of bots with the improvised zip-tie and angle aluminum spear, taking 4th place in the rumble.

This was the first step in an even more devious plan...now Robert wants his own antweight, so Rob will have to take precious time away from Team Halflife to build it. Muwahaha!