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The Ohio Robotics Club hosts a combat robot event for small robots twice a year, named HORD (House of Robotic Destruction). It was held this spring at Hobbytown USA in Strongsville, OH.
After hearing about this event, I decided to take along Aggravator and see if it could do as well as it did at UNYRB-5. The results were not quite as spectacular, but still good. Aggravator lived up to it's name once again by aggravating other robots. It ended up making it to the loser bracket semi finals before being eliminated.
The following is a short synapsis of the event...
*What I say in my event reports is simply my own opinions and personal observations of an event. If you see any inaccuracies or wish to dispute and/or argue any of the following, please feel free to send me and e-mail at jr1189@jlink.net*
My mom, dad, and I left home early Friday morning, a day before the event. We spent the whole day just touring the city of Cleveland. We visited the Great Lakes Science Center, played some mini-golf, and other stuff. We stayed at the Motel 6 which is only about 1.5 miles from the event.
Saturday morning we arrived at the event about 8am. The arena was still being assembled, the pit area was not set up, and we had no power. After an uneventful few hours we finally got safety inspected and fights began about 11am.
First round I was paired against a robot names "Can O Nuns". CON is a dustpan robot with a clamper and was the beetle winner at Motorama 07. It was a battle of two undefeated robots, and probably the one ONLY robot that I didn't want to face early in the bracket. CON is a simple, effective, and well driven robot. The match was good, we both did a fair share of pushing each other. At one point CON became stuck in the arena wall, but freed himself just before being counted out. At the end of the match when the pits opened, CON clamped me and I ended up going into the pit. This was Aggravator's first ever loss. CON was built by team Hockey Runner Robotics hailing all the way from Tennessee.
Second round I was supposed to battle "Bluefire". I'm not sure what the reasoning was, but I belive their team was a no show. Aggravator was awarded a match win by forfeit.
Third round I had the unfortunate luck of fighting a beetle named "D2". D2 has a real mean heavy spinning drum. This was a very exciting match. D2's drum was very fast, and got several good smacks to the front of Aggravator, but Aggravator kept on ramming D2 repeatedly. I kept close so he couldn't spin up his drum and simply pushed him around and contined to ram his drum. Aggravator walked away with some serious damage, including a sideplate almost torn off, carbon fiber really ripped up, and both drive motors coming very loose. Aggravator's aggression and strength resulted in being awarded the win. D2 was built by team D2 of Brookpark, OH.
Fourth round I fought the flipper bot named "Revenge of Dr. Superbrain". RoDS has two lifting arms on the front of its robot. The match went on with Aggravator pushing RoDS around and eventually one of RoDS's drive motors came loose and actually came out of the robot. At that point, RoDS was pretty much immobile, at the end of the match when the pits opened Aggravator simply pushed RoDS into the pit and won the match by pitfall knockout.
In the loser bracket semi-final Aggravator battled the wedge bot named "Triple B". This was a great pushing match, until suddenly I began having control issues with Aggravator. The bot was acting very erratic and difficult to drive. Aggravator ended up being pinned up against the wall backwards and being immobile. Then Triple B pushed us into the pit at the end of the match. Triple B was built also by Hockey Runner Robotics from Tennessee.
I'm not 100% sure what was causing the radio interference with Aggravator. It's a problem I've never ever had before. After the match was over, it worked fine.
I had a good time with my family this weekend. I got to meet a lot of people and make some new friends. As far as how the event was run... well it eventually worked out, but there was some confusion with everything from brackets, matches, "ghost robots" appearing in the bracket, rules, and "special weight bonuses". On a positive note, there was a nice big lunch provided by the ORC. Thanks to ALL the competitors who came and made it through this event.
Events like this make me remember why I love Motorama and other quality-run NERC events!
We will attend the House of Slackers II (HOS2) event next month in New Jersey. I will probably take Upchuck, Aggravator, and possibly build a fairyweight. I'll keep you posted!
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