User:CrashBash/2017 Prediction Ranks

Since it seems nearly everyone is doing it, I thought I'd make another prediction thread for the upcoming 2017 series. In order to do this properly, I paired up all the robots against each other, one on one, and tried to figure out who I'd have as the overall winner.

Heat 1

 * 8 - Jellyfish
 * Wins against: Nobody
 * Loses to: Everyone

Jellyfish is one of those robots that, well, I really have no idea what it even is, to be honest. When I first saw it, I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it was meant to be, and even now knowing it's basically a heavyweight Huggy-Bear, I still don't really know what to make of it. And to be honest, I really don't have too much hope for it in the long run. It's lightweight, has plastic armour and just generally ineffective weaponry. However, it's extremely commendable for being built on a specific set of rules and it looks fun. I'm not the kind of guy who'll dismiss a robot simply for being fun.


 * 7 - TMHWK
 * Wins against: Jellyfish
 * Loses to: Aftershock, Crank-E, Nuts 2, Rapid, Sabretooth, Terrorhurtz

Do you still pronounce this robot's name as "Tomahawk"? Well, either way, I think the axe looks sorta decent enough. The problem is, we never really saw how effective it could be, because last time it competed, it broke down instantly after one hard hit. Can it survive this time? Well, if what I've heard about its performances in live events is anything to go by, probably not. It's still as unreliable as ever it seems.


 * 6 - Crank-E
 * Wins against: Jellyfish, TMHWK
 * Loses to: Aftershock, Nuts 2, Rapid, Sabretooth, Terrorhurtz

Well, it's great to see we've still got a competitor from all the way back in Series 1 still competing. I wasn't too impressed with Kill-E-Crank-E's overall design last year, and I do think Crank-E is an improvement. However, there's two things that bother me. For one, its big blocky sides look like it'd be very easy for another robot to get at, even with the shield-like design. For another, I don't really trust how effective that spinner will be.


 * 5 - Nuts 2
 * Wins against: Crank-E, Jellyfish, TMHWK
 * Loses to: Aftershock, Rapid, Sabretooth, Terrorhurtz

Lets be honest here - Nuts was the surprise package of the previous series. Not only did it advance over Razer, but it managed to hold its own over both Behemoth and Terrorhurtz, the latter whilst in pieces, and ultimately changed the course of the series by preventing Terrorhurtz from escaping the heats. It makes me wonder if that's the reason why Nuts and Terrorhurtz are in the same heat again, but I'll get to that as and when. My major concern here is that what I feel to be the four most capable robots are equally split between the two battles, which doesn't really bode well for Nuts' success.


 * 4 - Sabretooth
 * Wins against: Crank-E, Jellyfish, Nuts 2, TMHWK
 * Loses to: Aftershock, Rapid, Terrorhurtz

Here is where I stand with Sabretooth - I frankly think it gets way too much attention and everyone seems to hype up its weapon whilst ignoring the fact that every other part is just really really bad. I am willing to give it one more chance...just one more chance to prove itself, and if it doesn't get past Round 1 this time, I give up on the thing and nothing aside getting through to the Final will convince me it's even remotely good. The only reason I'm ranking this incarnation of Sabretooth up so high is because it actually looks pretty promising for once.


 * 3 - Aftershock
 * Wins against: Crank-E, Jellyfish, Nuts 2, Sabretooth, TMHWK
 * Loses to: Rapid, Terrorhurtz

Aftershock looks really cool. I have to give credit where credit is rightly due. Its sleek, has a really nasty spinning disc, doesn't really look like there's much to hit, and it's overall just a very cool looking robot, that I think could handle nearly all of the robots in its heat. I think it could win, if not for the last two robots that I fear could exploit its weaknesses.


 * 2 - Rapid
 * Wins against: - Aftershock, Crank-E, Jellyfish, Nuts 2, Sabretooth, TMHWK
 * Loses to: - Terrorhurtz

It seems pretty clear to me that Robot Wars, at the moment, desperately wants to move away from flippers. Evidently, they can see some massive potential in Rapid, though. I can get behind that. From what I hear about its flipper, it looks pretty promising. I certainly think it could beat Aftershock, because I'm not set on how effective a spinning disc will be as a srimech in the long term. So, yeah, provided it works properly, Rapid could be money well spent. But there's just one thing that's stopping me ranking it at number 1....


 * 1 - Terrorhurtz
 * Wins against: Everyone
 * Loses to: Nobody (Rapid may cause problems)

...and that one thing is Terrorhurtz. Ever since that clip from the first battle came out, I think people are being way too critical about it. Does it really matter if Terrorhurtz isn't using its axe much? John Reid is extremely experienced, I'm positive he knows what he's doing. We saw it deflect and defeat Carbide last year, so I'm pretty sure it can tank any of the robots in its heat, even Aftershock. What about Rapid? Well, what it boils down to its Terrorhurtz's history with flippers - it's pretty much positive. Terrorhurtz has beaten flippers far more times than it has lost to them, so I'm reasonably confident that it can beat Rapid. Besides, I think we all want Terrorhurtz to do well again considering its last two attempts just went so poorly.