Rennuh

Well maybe next time then I've had fun building, so I got something out of it regardless.

Thanks to everyone who voted for me, I'm very happy with my third place! And of course congratulations to the winners and the rest of the contestants for their great entries! Finally, thanks to the organizers for their effort, I enjoyed this competition tremendously!

It was a tough decision but I have my final list. First of all I would like to say the scoring system is very unfortunate, since the first three I picked should be much closer than the scores would suggest. For those first three I looked for power of the weapon combined with survivability in the arena, the two things I things are the most important in the arena and ultimately this competition is to determine which bot would win there. For the final three I looked more at build quality, design, ingenuity, technical complexity and their potential when the limitations of Lego would have been left out of the equation. The score: 18: 10 15: 6 9: 4 22: 3 5: 2 29: 1 Good luck to all the contestants! There are many bots that were close to my top 6, but unfortunately I had to make a choice.

Voting is still open as well so who knows what the final score will be, and at least everyone had fun building their bot!

Two of those have exposed batteryboxes and could be easily switched off by a hit meaning they would lose, so just being powerful is not everything. Also I didn't take your comment like that, no problem, there are definitely some votes for bots I wouldn't have even near my top 6 so there you go Like I said everyone could have a different opinion on what is better, and even in the real battlebots/robot wars the most powerful bots often hurt themselves the most or lose to something small or unfortunate.

I think people are more likely to vote for something that looks good or is technically interesting over something that is powerful but perhaps not as good looking. It's even like this in the list of voting criteria in the first post of this topic: Good looking Properly working signature move Likeliness to win the battle (These criteria are not in the first post of the voting topic by the way, maybe they should be added?) Also, people's opinion on what is the most powerful bot can vary wildly of course. I read an idea from someone (I'm sorry I forgot where and who) who suggested we make a competition with brackets to determine a winner that way. It didn't end up in this contest but you could still set it up outside of here. It would however probably require quite some time and multiple voting rounds, but I think it could be fun to discuss which bot would win out of specific matchups. You could even use the result of this contest as a way for seeding those matchups.

Definitely! And even if someone were to 'surprise' me from the back, it still has pretty good armor that's build to take a hit. Unfortunately we'll probably never see any of these bots actually fight to see how they would hold up against each other.

Thx! Yeah it certainly isn't the fastest but since it's two wheeled it can turn really fast so attacking from the back will be hard. Especially since most other bots seem to use 4 wheels which has way more friction when turning.

20. Powerspin Cat A: sBrick Signature move: Spin of Destruction (a.k.a. Please don't hit my Lego with those metal hooks!?!?!) Size: 44x39x13 Weight: 2.055 kg Drive: 2 XL motors for driving, buggy motor for the disc When I saw the competition I knew I had to make something and the first thing that came to mind was a spinner. In the real Robot Wars/Battlebots they are the most powerful (along with some flippers) and it translates well to Lego with the buggy motor. Initially I had Tombstone in mind but with the size constraints and thus the positioning of the weels in the initial prototype, it ended up looking more like Carbide (or Cobalt). So for the finished look I took my inspiration from that. At the front is the spinning disc with the dreaded metal hooks, that can spin both ways, either for blunt force with the round end or for a ripping effect with the sharp end. At the back is a wedge that sits nearly flush with the ground meaning it is very hard to get under and it can also be used to push the other bot around or deflect and stop the blade of an opposing spinner. At both sides there is a protruding single beam so it will always fall back on its wheels should it be flipped, which is very hard considering the weight of more than 2kg. [Large Image] [Large Image] [Large Image] Fits within the 45 by 45 box, height should be clearly below 45 (please let me know if I'm required to show a comparison nonetheless). Let me know if you like my bot in the Discussion Topic!

It's finished! Below is all the information and pictures, video is uploading now and I'll add it here when that is done and copy this to the entry topic. Powerspin Cat A: sBrick Signature move: Spin of Destruction (a.k.a. Please don't hit my Lego with those metal hooks!?!?!) Size: 44x39x13 Weight: 2.055 kg Drive: 2 XL motors for driving, buggy motor for the disc When I saw the competition I knew I had to make something and the first thing that came to mind was a spinner. In the real Robot Wars/Battlebots they are the most powerful (along with some flippers) and it translates well to Lego with the buggy motor. Initially I had Tombstone in mind but with the size constraints and thus the positioning of the weels in the initial prototype, it ended up looking more like Carbide (or Cobalt). So for the finished look I took my inspiration from that. At the front is the spinning disc with the dreaded metal hooks, that can spin both ways, either for blunt force with the round end or for a ripping effect with the sharp end. At the back is a wedge that sits nearly flush with the ground meaning it is very hard to get under and it can also be used to push the other bot around or deflect and stop the blade of an opposing spinner. At both sides there is a protruding single beam so it will always fall back on its wheels should it be flipped, which is very hard considering the weight of more than 2kg. [Large Image] [Large Image] [Large Image] [Large Image] Panels open easily by putting an angled beam in the hole and levering it. Battery Box slides right out after removing 2 pieces. [Large Image] Fits within the 45 by 45 box, height should be clearly below 45 (please let me know if I'm required to show a comparison nonetheless).

This is looking really nice! Compact yet powerful, maybe not enough armor but it's fast so it could outmaneuver the opponent. And of course we want to see it self right

I think I'm going back to black, it just works better with the grey than the yellow. The metal hooks are quite dangerous, but since there won't be actual fights I will keep them on as they are so potentially damaging. If there ever are actual fights I agree that they should maybe not be allowed. But then you could say something similar for batteryboxes in hammers or spinners. For now I'm just using anything at my disposal to make it as damaging as possible

While I'm waiting for some grey parts for the side I changed the armor a bit making it more 'simple', and also yellow stripes along the edge. But I'm thinking black was better actually, what do you guys think, keep it yellow or back to black?

Thank you for the clarification Milan! Sorry, I thought you were giving that example as a counter to my example about a large flipper against a small one (in lego).

Please read my posts before you misrepresent my words again and then try to respond in a normal way. For the flipper, I don't recall having ever seen any actual lego hydraulics though so that's really a non-argument here. I'd rather not continue arguing like this when you are the only one who can be right, so unless you keep putting words in my mouth I won't.

Yes this whole time its been about what Erik Leppen 'is on about'. It's plain mathematics, thus there is no other logical explanation, but I'll not repeat it again. You can keep trying to avoid this by saying the rule is the rule but that's not the discussion. Please stop insinuating that I or anyone else is asking for a larger size or that bringing up an issue with the rules is spoiling any fun. And about the size thing, I never said that in the real competition size is important (it is to some degree), I said weight. Since there is no weight limit here but a size limit, yes size does matter. Some examples: A large flipper against a flipper half the size, the large one is going to win simply because the small one won't be able to flip the large one. Same with spinners, like I said before, the longer blade is going to hit before the shorter one gets close. Longer hammer or blade equals a higher tip speed with the same rotational speed, so more 'damage'. We're likely never going to find out for sure though since there won't be actual fights so let's agree to disagree. Edit: Just saw Erik Leppen's post above after posting, I agree, let's stop this discussion here. It's going nowhere and there clearly isn't going to be a clarification of the ruling.

As pointed out several times now, it's not the ruling that is upsetting people it's the conflicting of the ruling with another rule. This 'rule' isn't mentioned anywhere? But please correct me if it was. As to 'the desire to push limits', I don't think it's very surprising in a contest for battle bots to look for the limits considering that in the real battlebots/robotwars all competitors are practically at exactly the weight limit. Since this has a size limit instead of weight, naturally people are going to use whatever room they have at their disposal.

I think this discussion keeps on going on because there has been no answer to the seemingly arbitrary rulings on the size limit as pointed out by msk6003 above you. Everytime the answer just deflects from the actual problem making it about people looking for the limits or people trying to cheat. Which is not happening at all, nobody asks for a larger size limit, nobody's saying it's not fair, nobody has made a bot that doesn't fit the 45x45x45 limit and nobody is purposely trying to cheat. This 'discussion' has been going on now for a couple of pages not because people complain or try to irritate you, but because there is some legitimate concern about the rules, which even with this answer hasn't been handled. It seems that you don't want to backtrack on the decision that was made on page two about diagonals but it's not helping to make things clearer (explained in detail by Erik Leppen post above and numerous times previously). I would like to add a fourth option to your list: 4. Stop holding on to small mistakes or oversights in the rules and handle them properly, append or change them if necessary I'm having a lot of fun building and this is a great contest. And again I haven't seen any bot that doesn't fit the rules, unless you take into account the 45 between any two points, because in that case half of the bots in the entry topic would be disqualified. Also I'm very sorry to have dared to ask a question about the rules here... Finally I would like to say thank you for organizing these contests, I know a lot of effort must go into it and stuff like this can take away the fun in that. But please don't see this as critique on that effort, I don't think anyone is trying to do that and in the end everyone just want to build something great (and have fun while doing that).

Which is all fine, but it still leaves the unclarity and for someone building to just have to hope it's within the rules when they first present it, is not what you want I think. Anyway as you said yourself discussing this any further is kind of pointless as long as there is no ruling from the judges.

But that is just the thing, why is it not allowed? It certainly isn't in the rules as stated at the beginning, in fact they conflict with each other and haven't been appended or changed to reflect these additions. The thing I want is just for it to be explained, because as it stands it's not clear at all. However many times you say the rules are simple or say the rules are the rules are not going to clear that up. So if Jim or Milan could please explain for my example above why one is allowed and the other isn't, it would all be fine. (My bot wouldn't have this issue anyway so it's fine for me regardless but still ) Again, I think any length you can gain with a blade for example is going to help you. If you have two spinners against each other and one has a blade that is 2 studs larger than the other one, it's going to have the advantage. Either way, judging bots for how they could have been designed differently is something everyone can take into consideration for their vote if they want to. I don't think it should matter in ruling of the size limits of an entry really (as long as it's within the rules of course).

Why is positioning stuff diagonally cheating? This does not make any sense at all, especially considering the following sentence from the rules which comes right after the size limitation: "This is the size when the robot is in idle/storage mode. When the robot is in battle mode elements can be outside of the bounding box." If it is so simple, then please explain to me how a blade or hammer or whatever moving part of a bot cannot be longer than 45 (even if it fits inside the 45x45x45 box) while a diagonally placed beam inside the structure of a bot can be longer than 45 no problem. Let me give an example: Let's say the blue square is my bot, fits perfectly within the boundaries right? Now the red line are just some beams I have fixed to the top to give it a nice colored stripe, and are a total length of 60, but it's fixed to my bot so no problem there right? Now let's say that the grey circle is a motor and the red beam is attached to it so it can spin. Now all of a sudden this is an issue because it's longer than 45? To be clear, I am not against the rules as they are, they are fine and shouldn't be changed that's not what anyone is asking. Implementing them in an inconsistent way though is what's bothering people I think. I think making use of the available size is quite important actually, even though they will not actually fight like you say, a bots size does factor in to it's effectiveness.

The rule seems simple but there have now been two instances where it was said that a bot that did fit inside the box but had a diagonal longer than 45 would not be allowed. Here: and here: Both bots fit the 45x45x45 yet apparantly are not allowed? I think it's a pretty straightforward rule as well, but as you can see it's been explained differently, hence the confusion and discussion.

Thanks everyone! It will probably be Sbrick yes, there is not much room for IR receivers anywhere so that it would still function upside down unfortunately. Just have to find a way to control it and film at the same time now. Originally I wanted to make it all black with yellow accents around the edges, but I only have grey panels so I'll see what works best.

Update on the build: It's not finished yet but you can see where it is going. I'm probably going to change out the black stripe on the side out for grey as well, and furthermore finish the other side in the same way and the bottom is still open as well.

Right that would have been ideal in the first setup, unfortunately I don't think they would be long enough though. Anyway it's not needed now anymore but thanks for the suggestions!