Sceetles 2 has come and gone with a Top 8 finish for PMXL!
This time, the arena was increased in size to 3x2, and the floor was now made of wood. This made for an interesting time, as spinners had a bit more time to spin up, and forks would start to get caught in divots made by spinners as the day progressed.
First up was Chucky. We met in the middle and entered a stalemate, with neither of us gaining the upper hand, with us both missing attacks on each other. We then locked horns, and I got some swings in with the axe but that let Chuky get under me and push me against the call to flip me over, which I self-righted from.We then spent about 20 seconds jockeying for position, until he got under me again and inverted me. This time, the weapon wasn’t self-righting me for some reason, but I had just enough contact with my rear wheel to prevent being counted out. Chucky just pushed me over to the pit and dropped it.
When I was preparing for this event, I had swapped out the weapon module from Brawl with the backup one while I repaired it, but it turns out I never loctited the spare! So the gear on the motor shaft started freespinning after the first few uses of the axe.
Now with a freshly loctited weapon module, I fought Fission, a svert with some lifting arms. I had more weapon problems this time, as after the first swing (which looked like it landed close to his link), I lost all power to the weapon. My forks however were wining the ground game consistently, getting under his skirts, but I couldn’t capitalise on the control with a dead weapon extended in front of me. Furthermore, I was starting to get caught up on some divots in the floor. Eventually, he managed to get round to my back and popped me over, knocking me out.
Back at the pit table, it looked like the motor had completely disconnected from the output shaft. It turns out, when I took it apart at home after the event, that the pinion gear had come loose from the shaft. Back at the event, I swapped to my remaining weapon module.
The thrid fight night fight was against Adder, a brick of a 2WD wedge bot. I attached the cleaver for this, as his link was exposed on the top of this bot and I wanted to snipe it. Because he didn’t run forks, I was able to consistently get under him, push him to a wall (I think I was lifting his wheels off somewhat when I got under him) and unleash the axe. The axe finally started to work properly, and continued to work throughout the fight. I couldn’t hit the link, or push him down the pit, so the fight went to the judges which I won.
Due to it being a top 16 backet, I had a chance for the last place in that bracket alongside Oh Neil?, Meenie Mouse and Big L&D. I went with a split config for this fight, as it involved both a vert and a horizontal. However, Meenie Mouse had suffered critical damage in its last fight and so was running as a pusher. I wanted to box-rush Big L&D but got caught up on the floor. After freeing myself, I took a few swings at Oh Neil? before backing off again. Big L&D went flying across the arena, and I pursued as he was spun down now. Upside down, he has a hole in the baseplate that I managed to hook my cleaver into and dragged him around for a bit. After the release, he got back up to speed and I managed to lead with my anti-hroizontal side, and I think the ricochet caused him to land on a minibot and explode it. After a pause to remove the dead minibot, I managed to pin Meenie Mouse and swing the axe several times during the pin. I then repeated the process with Oh Neil? in the centre of the arena. As the clock ran down, Oh Neil? got under me, but I managed to wiggle off with my axe and hit him once or twice before the end.
Big L&D got very close to hitting my wheel in that exchange. I suspect that if the wheel had been hit, I would have lost the following split judge’s decision. That meant I was in the top 16, fighting against Ultraviolence. For the first time in this competition, I afixed the drum forks. We were both having trouble with the floor condition at this point, but I managed to keep every engagement forks first, which worked at keeping his eggbeater away from the rest of the bot. About halfway through the fight, he began to encounter spin-up issues, and the fight came over to the corner where I was standing, giving a good view of the bots as I got behind him and started swinging the axe at his link. After several blows, I managed to sever one of the wires, knocking him out!
Now in the top 8, I fought against Qry About It, a 2WD vert with a minibot. I immedaitely oversteered, giving Qry a solid hit on the TPU skirt which sent me flying, but I landed on my wheels. My forks won the next few exchanges but didn’t set me up for an attack. Qry hit my side again, popping me over, but I managed to self-right fine. I then took a few swings as they got onto my forks, aiming for the belt in between the disks, but missed. One last pop flipped me over with the cleaver caught on the other side of the kick plate. I managed to self-right but the cleaver was properly wedged in there and I was counted out, suspended off the floor!
Overall, a great day out if a bit of a rough start. I’m happy that the bot has been performing well over the past few events if not necessarily doing well, now it’s just a matter of getting more driving practice in. April Dojo is next for PMXL.
