Time for a write up on the BBB event hosted by the GROCS crew on the 20th of June. This will be a short one as its 2am, I’m doing this on my phone and I’m tired as hell, enjoy!
Timestamps to all fights are in the comments of the GROCS coverage of the event, would recommend turning your volume up to max as it’s rather quiet.
This write up will only cover Vanquish’s journey starting off, as my sister ran FlintKnock and she should hopefully be doing her own little write up for it.
2 of my most destructive bots were fielded for this event, me running my flagship giant vert spinner Vanquish (right) and my sister running a much larger giant horizontal spinner in FlintKnock (the other right).
Run up to the event was a rush job to say the least, Vanquish was in dire need of a new blade, its obsession with metal floors had completely removed about half a gram of material from the tooth and made it unsharpenable, while FlintKnock lay as a pile of parts that weren’t even printed 12 hours before competition. After that mess though Vanquish was outfitted with a fresh blade and motor and FlintKnock was assembled into a rough but could fight status.
ROUND 1
On with the fights, first up for Vanquish was Dill With It, built by Hollis.
Dill With It is a good, wide weaponed titanium vert with some low scoop like forks backed with good driving, enough to take it to 2nd place at GROCS. Theoretically a good matchup for the reach centric Vanquish, but those forks and lack of gyro would make getting any kind of good hit quite difficult.
Fight starts with a box rush from DWI, catching one of my forks and sending me careening across the box under my own steam.
After turning off my weapon to hopefully not plop down the pit DWI hits the underside of Vanquish and pops it back onto its wheels. Few seconds later Vanquish lines up a hit on the front left of DWI and removes part of the top plate on the left hand side, ramming its fork yet again into the weapon of DWI causing it to go on another tangent.
After simmering down we have about 15 seconds of pushing, with DWI’s forks keeping my weapon at bay. Another hit to my forks by DWI near the pit causes Vanquish to backflip, hit the floor hard enough to leave a crater that could be seen from the ISS, and swiftly go into the pit after hitting the roof, leaving only a wheel rolling around the box.
(Note how in only 1 of these pics Vanquish has at least 1 wheel on the floor, this is a common trend)
Overall despite it being a loss it was an excellent fight, lived up to the hype and while most definitely being the least destructive of my 4 fight night matches it was great fun, would love to fight it again.
ROUND 2
Next up is Birdemic, Joe’s spicy grabber.
Another well built bot, and a rematch from GROCS 5, its a fast actuating crusher/grabber and some crazy speed and mind boggling gyro correction behind it. A bot fit to best any driving match. Against me, who actually averages nearly as much flight time than fight time in the majority of my matches. Needless to say my steering opposing gyro was much less helpful than his steering correcting gyro.
Fight starts with a missed box rush from Birdemic, now up to speed Vanquish gets shoved into the side and rushes away to take centre stage to try and line up a shot on the little black blur. Trying to bait a clear hit I blast my weapon up to full and gyro across the box, ending up pretty close to the pit, with a good shot lined up a good hit on Birdemic followed.
Roofing us both, Vanquish removed a wheel with a belt and twisted the crushing beak along with some pretty heavy shrapnel from various plastic bits on Birdemic. Still somehow perfectly functional Birdemic takes a few more shots, removing another tyre and belt, and nearly manages to push me out even with his hampered drive!
More hits in the corner later and Birdemic is shedding shrapnel across the box but still not out of it yet, after yet another tyre was removed I backed off giving him the space to tap out, giving Vanquish the win.
Yet another amazing match, this time coming up my way! Massive credit to Joe, as even after all of that I believe the crusher and at least 1 drive side were working so massive props for that. Vanquish was on top form, big hits and keeping them going was a really good change from the 1 hit explosive OOTA’s I’m used to. One of the few times the power of the spinner felt truely justified in a competitive scenario, as I would not have liked my chances otherwise with a smaller one, crippling a bot as fast and well driven as that from the get-go was really important to having a prayer of winning. So that’s me 1 and 1 against Birdemic, up for a rematch in GROCS 7?
ROUND 3
Next up was Klaes, a powerfull undercutter who I had not yet seen.
Though I hadn’t seen much of it, looked to be a tough opponent. Soft finned tpu armour the whole way around and a pretty big undercutting hardox blade, with my 2mm at best armour between that spinner and my 3s lipo I wasnt feeling the best odds. I could not have predicted what had actually happened however.
Fight starts with a box rush from myself, trying to stop that blade from catching speed and digging it’s way through my front end. Exposing their backside to my spinner, I gave it a whack sending it a good few inches off the ground and more importantly removing a wheel.
After this I lined up another shot on Klaes, going weapon to weapon and sending us both flying.
This hit would bend their weapon into a bottle opener and firmly jam it to the frame, while my wheel desperately attempted to not get damaged and in turn left the postcode and detached from the bot. After the sparks cleared and the tinnitus left our ears we were greeted by a double knockout, Vanquish had found the pit and Klaes had been rendered immobile by unknown means, meaning we have to do that madness AGAIN after some swift repairs.
REMATCH
After the wheel was glued back on Vanquish, and a new weapon and wheel was procured for Klaes, it was showtime one again. Already had it in my head I was going to box rush them and bend that new blade, a once in a lifetime shot always comes in pairs right?
Match starts, I move forward, I go into pit at light speed. Interestingly what happened in the pit was far more destructive than what had happened outside of it. Vanquish had punctured quite deep into the aluminium box section frame of the door, going around 8mm deep and being really quite stuck. No pics of it yet unfortunately but there will be some in another event video I’m sure.
These 2 fights were seriously some of the biggest energy dispersal I’ve ever seen between 2 wheeled robots, bending 3mm hardox to a 35 degree angle and trying to dig it’s way through the door is certainly very impressive for a little 150g boy. A loss for Vanquish but another good one, Klaes took the hits somewhat well but it was quite impressive with how fast they pieced it back together, had a robot just as potent as 10 minutes earlier with several new parts on it.
ROUND 4
My opponent for the final round of fight night is a bot I’ve seen once or twice in FlintKnock.
Wait…
Yep it was my turn to be the little guy for once, FlintKnock, built by myself not 12 hours prior was my next challenger. It handles a monsterous 125mm 38g 3mm hardox aysm blade (not pictured) while still having no weight bonus and not being a stick with a weapon glued to it. Fun fact, these 2 are what I would consider the most destructive bots in the comp, and I pay for them both. Yay…
Fight start and I boxrush. My thought process was if I destroy FlintKnock before it spins up I only have to fork out the money for 1 rebuild. I was incredibly wrong however. I missed, FlintKnock spun up pretty damn hard, and now a high speed weapon to weapon collision is inevitable. The collision is as follows.
Now to list out the damages, because this was the most violent impact I have ever seen from 2 wheeled robots. Period. Even though the hit looked bad the energy transferred was so much bigger than that hit could display.
Right so my motor bell got ripped in half, split like an egg and you can see the magnets clinging to the stator coils. The hardox blade on FlintKnock is so bent it jammed to the frame and also has quite a good twist on it. Vanquish launched FlintKnock so goddamn hard into the protected camera that it messed up the focus for the rest if the recording (sorry), and FlintKnock in its hasty turn to face me took out a gauge from the polycarb kickplate that would make the mariana trench jealous.
Unfortunately clinging on to dear life FlintKnock just dodged the pit enough to secure the win, booting me from the playoff rumble to the semi finals. I should have cut her weapon wires in the pit while I had the chance.
CONCLUSION
Best event I’ve had yet, end of. 1-3 is an awful record but it was impressive in all of them, and I cannot wait for some potential rematches at GROCS 7. Cant wait to see you guys there, and I hope you enjoyed reading!
side note its half 4 now and I want to die
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