Competition: NMRC New Year Revolution 2024
Overview
This was the first event held by New Mexico Robotic Combat. I competed in Sportsman Beetles, a modified ruleset for 3lb robots, and Plastic Antweights. Piano was untouched from ARC, including still using my spare PLA+ chassis.
Goober was running the new version 3 chassis, with the center of mass redistributed to give me more traction and pushing power.
Piano Fights
Piano vs Flip Off
This fight is profoundly silly. I was fighting Flip Off, a spring flipper. However, on the first lift, a problem I had forgotten to address reared its head again. Piano had unplugged itself from its power yet again. However, Flip Off also had some issues that caused it to be unresponsive. After the unstick, Piano’s power connector plugged itself back in. But when I went to lift again, it unplugged itself, resulting in a double knock out.
Piano won by judges decision. I made sure to hot glue, and tape the connector into place for future fights.
Piano Vs MRCN Tachi
This fight was a perfect Piano fight. In the first fight I had some drive issues with one of the wheels not being well enough constrained. With some extra spacers, bolts, and washers, was able to prevent this from happening in my next fight.
With the drive fixed, and Piano’s power connector safely secured, I was able to get many pin and generally control the fight. This was also the first event I was running without any of Piano’s chassis forks. Without the chassis forks, Piano was not easily stuck in the kickplates of the arena. I was able to do so many lifts that the front pivot of Piano’s arm cracked off.
Piano Vs Wegisteel
This fight was more difficult. Piano’s arm forks are not ground scraping. As a result, Piano was more likely to ramp up the wedge of Wegisteel rather than getting under it. However, once I was able to get under the wedge, I could not get out. Piano’s forks easily got caught in Wegisteel’s wedge mount, which gave me control, but made it difficult to release.
This close fight went to the judges and was decided for Wegisteel.
Piano Vs MCRN Tachi the squeekuel
Due to the small bracket, Piano fought MCRN Tachi again. MCRN Tachi’s driver had developed a plan for our fight this time. He was able to get a lot of pins of Piano and well as jam up the side of drive that I had shimmed.
Finally, the intense driving had brought back another of Piano’s age old enemies: the drive motors started to smoke. This didn’t cause any damage to them, the motors I use are prone to overheating but it certainly looked bad to the judges.
MCRN Tachi won this fight by judges decision after a round of great driving.
Goober Fights
Goober vs Sucker Punch
Sucker Punch is made by a father and son team competing for the first time. I had been talking with them in the pits and they were very excited. They were still learning to drive their robot, so I let them get their bearings to start out with. After and while I start attempting some light attacks. I wasn’t sure exactly what Goober V3 could do, but I was pleased with the light testing I had done prior to the event.
Goober’s weapon is nearly ground scrapping, so I was able to hit under their weapon and strike their bottom plate. Goober was able to do more damage than it ever has before. After a while I spun down the weapon and switched to Goober’s “control mode,” where I drive with the wedge facing forward. Goober’s weapon has broken itself in the past and I didn’t want to lose the fight due to self-inflicted damage.
Unfortunately, Sucker Punch stopped at the forty second mark. They were counted out and the fight was awarded to Goober.
Goober Vs Smurf Beater
Next up, I fought Smurf Beater. They had debuted at ARC RoboRumble December 2023, which I attended, but we never had the chance to fight. Smurf Beater’s builder had done some major overhauls to the design for this event.
When the fight started, Goober’s weapon tool a moment to spin up. The weapon motor was still having issues. I suspect that there was enamel on the wire that I resolded. I was able to flip Smurf Beater on its head, but the hit also cracked Goober’s top plate.
I swapped to “control mode” again. Goober V3 could win pushing matches. I was able to get a decent number of pins. When Smurf Beater attempted to use the wall to self right, the entire weapon broke off and its uprights crumpled. After that was stuck on its head and I was able to control much easier. This fight ended in a judges decision for Goober.
Goober and Kchumbawumbaphobia
This fight was intense. Brandon was all over me with aggression and pins. He was able to push Goober’s weapon into the wall dozens of times. He couldn’t spin his weapon up to full speed because it would break the arm. As a result he could not effectively do much damage. But he was definitely getting a lot of control and aggression. I was struggling to get spun up the entire fight as one of the phases seemed to be dying in Goober’s weapon motor. This fight was difficult and certainly decided by control. It concluded in a win for Brandon and his robot with the unpronounceable name.
Goober Vs Shuffle
Shuffle Go Brr vs Goober is yet another tale as old as time. I was really practicing my strategic driving in the match, trying to get around to the sides of Shuffle Go Brr, where the shuffle pod axles are. I also realized that Goober’s tip speed was higher than shuffle go Brr, meaning I would win most weapon on weapon hits. I focused on using Goober’s higher speed to keep control over the fight. I swapped back and forth between control and damage strategies throughout the fight. This fight went well, however, it also cracked my final top plate.
Goober vs Bazooka
To win this fight, I knew I would need to come up with something to repair Goober’s top plate. The lid had cracked at the countersinks for the screws. I settled on using a mix of superglue and a soldering iron. I allowed superglue to soak down into the cracks to secure the inside of the damage. Then I melted all the exposed surfaces with a soldering iron. I careful put the screws back into Goober, making sure not to over tighten them.
I was very nervous about this fight. Bazooka is a full body spinner with a wild amount of energy behind it. Bazooka had been dealing huge amounts of damage to robots all day. It had even torn the weapon off of Axolotl Questions, the 4th ranked robot in the country. Worried about my limited number of spares, I decided to lead with my wedge, which is 10mm of solid plastic, and try to break Bazooka’s fist with my face.
I kept my weapon spun down for the first half of the fight, but at a certain point I realized the strategy was not going to work. So I did a full 180 and decided to go with my weapon at full speed with high weapon on weapon engagements. A big hit through both robots across the arena and Bazooka was stuff in a corner. I went for another hit and it gently flipped Bazooka over. Bazooka did not have a way to self right. As the count out began, I melted. I fully had expected to lose and was just hoping for an exciting and flashy final match.
With this win I prepared for a rematch with Brandon’s hammer saw with an unpronounceable name.
Goob Vs KTubThumperPhobia
For this match I decided to run Goober upside down. In this configuration, Goober’s weapon would protect most of its silhouette from the hammer saw of Brandon’s robot. By the time I was able to spin up, Brandon was already winning the box rush and scooping Goober up. I was then flipped back over, somewhat nullifying my strategy. Goober’s weapon phase was still struggling making it very hard to spin up when pinned. At about 2 minutes into the match, I was able to get a hit on the arm of the hammer saw and snap the entire weapon off. Brandon still had great control throughout the fight, but without the hammer saw, Goober was able to get itself out of some of the pins. In the last 30 seconds, I was able to take off a wheel guard and jam that drive side.
This fight was incredibly close and both robots limped into the judge’s decision. Brandon won this fight by Judge’s decision securing him second for his hammer saw and first for Axolotl Questions.
Chaos Rumble
For this chaos rumble I threw Piano in the box. I was able to scoop up Bazooka almost immediately. Please enjoy the silly nonsense that ensued.
Awards!
Closing this competition out with two 3rd places felt very good. I have been working on both of these robots for nearly a year and to see them finally do well at and event was a relief. I had a great time at NMRC and I am excited to see their club grow.