Storm Vortex

Storm Vortex was a featherweight robot that qualified to compete in the Seventh Wars Featherweight Championship, but withdrew. Built in March 2003, Storm Vortex was armoured in 10mm 2014 aluminium, armed with a 3kg EN36 steel disk, spinning at 4500rpm, powered by a S28-150 Magmotor. The robot was similar in shape and weaponry to the at-the-time reigning featherweight champion, Argh!

The design concept of Storm Vortex was to dedicate as much of the given weight possible to the weapon and its motors, making the rest of the robot as light as possible. Indeed, should Storm Vortex have competed in Robot Wars, it likely would have been the most damaging weapon in the history of the featherweight division.

"Storm Vortex was built by Team Storm as a proof of concept to show what we believed could be done in the Featherweight class. Little did we know just how effective that 'idea' would be. Conceived in CAD and then turned into reality when Storm Vortex was first produced it was most powerful featherweight spinner ever built and once it got hold of you, it never let go"

- Team Storm website

Storm Vortex withdrew from the Featherweight Championship, the officially stated reason being 'technical difficulties'. In actual fact, Storm Vortex was withdrawn from the competition, as Team Storm were well aware that the producers intended to destroy most of the featherweight competitors by attacking them with the house robots, to create more entertainment for the audience. Indeed, in the televised battles, robots including Micro-Mute and Mini Maul were totally destroyed by the house robots, while other robots such as Rip were attacked even in spite of winning the battle, or would sacrifice their chances to avoid the house robots.

"We pulled Storm Vortex out of this following a tip-off from the House Roboteers that as Mentorn were worried the footage might not be great, the HR's were under instruction to go for it. Suffice to say a sudden 'technical problem' caused us to withdraw... ...do remember Micro-Mute, which was beautifully built being virtually destroyed by Matilda, so we felt vindicated for our choice"

- Ed Hoppitt on Storm Vortex's withdrawal

Storm Vortex was built by Team Storm, the team who would finish as runners-up in the main competition, and become World Champions, with Storm 2.

Series Record

 * Series 1-6: Did not enter
 * Series 7: Entered with Storm 2

Outside Robot Wars
Storm Vortex fought at live events prior to the ban on spinning weapons. An example of its fights can be seen here, where it defeats Rip.