Dreadfully Wicked Robots
Motorama 2007
EVENT REPORT


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Motorama 2007
February 16-18, 2007
Harrisburg, PA

Motorama Robot Conflict is one of the largest combat robot events held in the Eastern US each year. It is held at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg during the motorsports convention simply referred to as "Motorama".

This was the second time I have participated in the event, but the first time as Dreadfully Wicked Robots. My first independent robot, Upchuck, competed in the 12 pound weight class.

The following is a short synapsis of the event...

 Sean and I left Friday around 2pm for Harrisburg. My parents had to work Friday, so they didn't drive down till Saturday. Traffic was crazy and we ended up arriving around 5pm. We got our pit area all set up, watched some fairy & ant fights and got Upchuck inspected. Everything went well, Upchuck weighed in at 11.5lbs and failsafed perfectly in the testing arena. Fights were scheduled to begin Saturday around 11.

Congratulations to Friday's winners: Team Cosmos' Deimos winning the fairy weight class and Team Sawzall's Switchblade winning the ant weight class!

After the conclusion of Saturday's preliminary fights, Upchuck is one of four hobbyweights that is UNDEFEATED!!! We had three tough fights, and won all three by knockout! Another cool thing we found out is that Upchuck has gyros when it turns at full speed. We got our drum balanced near perfect and it spun up pretty fast in every match.

First round Upchuck fought pneumatic flipper Vapor Trail and ripped his armor up and broke his drive motors in just two hits. To add excitment, Vapor Trail started spewing high pressure air which really got the audience on their feet. Vapor Trail was built by Wayne Molnar, the builder of War Drums.

2nd round I fought a very well build lifter bot named Mephit. This was a great fight and produced lots of sparks. Mephit is a solid brick of titanium and steel. About 1 minute into the match I ripped off Mephit's left side, flipped him, and he tapped out. Mephit was built by Jim, the builder of the incredible beetleweight bot Enemy.

3rd round I was paired against Igoo, a very good wedge and vertical spinner that is ranked very high. I won it on aggression, spinning the drum and just continuing to hit him until he flipped over. In one amazing shot Upchuck tossed Igoo completely across the arena. Once he was flipped Upchuck just pushed him around with its wedge for a while. Near the end of the match I decided to take a couple more drum shots causing him to surrender. Igoo was built by Alan Young, the builder of the highly feared hobbyweight named Truncation.

The only damage we encountered Saturday was some dents and dings on the drum's steel bars. They are holding up well and the drum is still very well balanced. Now the future match news: there are only 4 bots left in the winners bracket. Sunday, in the semi-finals Upchuck will battle former Motorama champion robot Solaris. This is a match that people are already talking about! The winner will then go on to face either DarkBlade or Surgical Strike in the finals.

In the winners bracket semi-final match against Solaris, I had the upper hand in the beginning of the match damaging Solaris' left wedge and flipping him upside down. After a few more good hits Solaris got back on all 4 wheels and laid a mean smack to Upchuck's front left corner flipping me and breaking the carbon fiber bottom resulting in Upchuck having to tap out.

The loss to Solaris sent Upchuck to the loser bracket where it would face #1 ranked Rants Pants. The match started with Upchuck dishing several hits on RP's wedge causing it to bend. Upchuck damaged RP's wedge so much that at one point the two robots became stuck together. The match went on with Upchuck pushing RP around with my rear wedge and then hitting RP with the drum when necessary. RP got under Upchuck a few times, but not as many times as Upchuck did. The match went the whole 3 minutes and to a judges decision. The judges chose the winner as Rants Pants. According to the audience members and other professional robot fighters/builders, this was a very bad judges decision. The choice of Rants Pants winning resulted in boos from the large crowd of spectators. It was a good match, but I still believe I clearly had it. Oh well... nothing I can do about it now, except perhaps take Yanks on in a grudge match at the next event :)

Rants Pants went on to lose to Darkblade in the final of the loser bracket. Darkblade then got beat by Solaris in the tournament final. Congratulations to Pete (Solaris) and Justin (Darkblade) on their great performances. They are both great drivers and awesome robots and 100% worthy being in the finals.

I am totally satisfied with the way Upchuck performed this weekend. It tossed several good bots around, made some sparks, got many people's attention, and was the only robot other than Darkblade that really gave Pete a run for his money! To come out of this tournament with a winning AND working robot is a task to be proud of. It was definitely one of the most fierce line-ups of hobbyweights ever assembled.

Motorama ended and even though Upchuck didn't win the tournament, we still unleashed a lot of destruction, had some great matches, and made many friends. All in all we had an awesome time at Motorama '07 and Upchuck made an incredible debut going 3-2 with all three of it's wins by destructive knockout. After a few design modifications we should be all ready for House of Slackers and House of NERC.

Thanks to the entire Northeast Robotics Club for putting on such a great event. Everything ran smooth and we really put on an awesome show for the fans. Thanks to my entire crew: mom, dad, and Sean for helping out. Thanks to Mr. Marshall for his help at the shop in getting Upchuck machined. Thanks to our sponsor Mainville Garage for their financial support. Thanks also to the dozens of great people I met at the event who keep the sport of robot combat so competitive. Keep in mind that Upchuck WILL be back and be even better!

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