User blog:Toon Ganondorf/Who Was Supposed to Win Series 4?

The seeding system highlights the "favourites" of each series, and as we know particularly with Series 4, the show took liberties to plan rematches on the assumption that these favourites would win their heat. Whilst shopping for groceries and messaging Toast about idle thoughts, we discovered the lineups - some staggeringly unbalanced, some remarkably flat.

Only twice in Series 4 did the intended semi-finalists fight each other - Steg 2 v Chaos 2, and Panic Attack v Spawn of Scutter. This write up shows the intended pairings, before lower seeds, unseeded robots, breakdowns and malfunctions took out the other fifteen favourites of the competition.

What was meant to happen: This phrase will be used throughout, and it basically means what the producers hypothetically saw as the outcome of these two meeting in the heat final. It does not mean I believe they'd have won in actuality.


 * Heat Finals
 * Chaos 2 v King B3: I'm starting with Heat Finals, because even those we saw so rarely. With Trident and Blade's Big Bruva intended to fight, Chaos 2 was most likely destined to fight Wheely Big Cheese in a rematch, and King B3 was intended to be Razer's legitimate opponent who actually posted no threat. That's not for certain (we don't necessarily know Trident and Blade were 15-16 and the issue gets even more clouded when we realised WBC and Chaos 2 were destined to fight a rematch in Round 2 of the semi-finals if they defeated Gemini). What is for certain is that King B3, who managed to lose against a toothless Atomic, wasn't getting further than the heat final once more.
 * Razer v Pussycat: Was Razer meant to win this one? You bet. But the debunking (debunkation?) of that presumption is written into Robot Wars legend twice.
 * Firestorm 2 v Diotoir: A rematch was fully expected to put Firestorm 2 in the finals.
 * Steg 2 v Mortis: We saw what was meant to happen.
 * 101 v Shadow of Napalm: Its hard to deny that this was an opportunity heat for Dominator 2, who just screams "I belong in the A-tier", but between the seeds there is little room for comparison.
 * Gemini v Berserk 2: Unlike Dominator 2, I doubt the producers knew what they were getting with Tornado, or they wouldn't have wasted the robot they were desperate to maximise screentime for. Berserk 2, who was more than a bit slow and rolly-polly, would've been cannon fodder for Gemini.
 * Gravedigger v Dreadnaut XP-1: No comparison really. A front-hinged flipping arm vs a robot with no srimech and a huge ground clearance?
 * Wheely Big Cheese v Suicidal Tendencies 2: This one really gives me pause. Wheely Big Cheese needed quite a bit of help to get through its Series 4 heat, including winning this very matchup. Both this, and the likelihood of Wheely Big Cheese being destined for a Chaos 2 rematch in Heat A, give me doubt as to whether it was really intended to be a heat winner at all. Let's also not forget that these two deviated by 17, not 16 as intended. Wheely Big Cheese v Centurion would've certainly indicated more faith, but the more prominent theory is that Centurion was meant to be 32 and ST2 31.
 * Killerhurtz v Centurion: This heat was weak in general, but I can't help but feel that ST2 fits the bill better for a heat designed to give Killerhurtz the win. I'm not saying that all heats were rigged to help them win, but that doesn't mean that challenges are deliberately thrown into their paths unless its an opportunity heat. Hard to discuss this one, but Killerhurtz would beat Centurion no problems. Read further down, however.
 * Bigger Brother v Stinger: I'm of the opinion that Stinger wasn't meant to be that good - it was a funny, cute looking robot that flailed around and fell into the pit for our amusement. Bigger Brother was meant to control it with its weapon, which fits right between Stinger's wheels.
 * Evil Weevil 2 v Weld-Dor 2: Evil Weevil's forks were sufficient to sneak in and carry Weld-Dor around.
 * Spawn of Scutter v Plunderbird 4: No real discussion here.
 * Wild Thing v Sir Chromalot: Or here.
 * Behemoth v X-Terminator: What was meant to happen here was what was happening until Behemoth started moving sluggishly.
 * Panic Attack v Aggrobot 2: A nice, easy win for a former champion.
 * Hypno-Disc v Cerberus: Here's another odd one. When picking Hypno-Disc opponents, you pick robots with flimsy armour who look good being torn to shreds. Cerberus doesn't really feel right for this description. I'm of the opinion Cerberus, like King B3, got a promotion when Trident and Blade dropped out. Sure, I can see the show making a big point out of the beautiful Cerberus being scarred, but Cerberus' armour was pretty thick. You know who isn't? Killerhurtz. Was Killerhurtz meant to be Hypno-Disc's victim? That doesn't feel right either. None of it does.

Now that we're out of the finals and have the 16 "intended" finalists, I'm not automatically picking the higher seed. The producers can control who meets in Round 1, but after that there's too many possibilities to track.


 * Semi-Final A:
 * Chaos 2 v Steg 2: We saw what was meant to happen.
 * Razer v Gravedigger: Imagine the fight with Firestorm 3, but a year earlier.
 * Gemini v Wheely Big Cheese: This one is a nightmare to figure out. Toast favoured Gemini, I favoured Wheely Big Cheese. I think the producers would've used the logic of Toast and had Gemini pegged as the favourites.
 * Firestorm 2 v 101: 101 may be good, but not working upside down.


 * Chaos 2 v Gemini: Either way, Chaos 2 was fighting a rival (unless they both lost to another robot, but what are the chances of that?) This is the rematch we wanted - a rivalry that will forever stand at 1-1 in the Robot Wars archives. I don't think Chaos 2 would've had any trouble with Gemini, and in this alternate universe I think the answer to partial OOTAs would have been settled in 2010.
 * Razer v Firestorm 2: Imagine the fight with Firestorm 3, but a year earlier. Wait...


 * Semi-Final B:
 * Bigger Brother v Evil Weevil 2: Good lord. What a dud pairing. Who was meant to win this one? No idea. I'll go Evil Weevil 2 because it looked slightly more potent.
 * Spawn of Scutter v Panic Attack:
 * Hypno-Disc v Killerhurtz: Well seeded 18th or seeded 16th, Killerhurtz was destined to fight Hypno-Disc. Imagine the Fluffy/Terrorhurtz fight, but a year earlier.
 * Behemoth v Wild Thing: This is a really, really tough one. I'm favouring Behemoth because it was easier to shovel Wild Thing around than for Wild Thing to tip Behemoth.


 * Evil Weevil 2 v Panic Attack: There you have it. There was a path in the top 8 where Panic Attack and Evil Weevil would have fought. No doubts whatsoever to the outcome.
 * Hypno-Disc v Behemoth: This is hard because Behemoth win this match in Extreme, but a) that was pre-weight gain and b) Hypno-Disc hadn't shown any real weakness until that point, only losing to Chaos 2 in all history. Behemoth would have been knocked around.


 * Grand Final:
 * Hypno-Disc v Razer: Let's not get into this one. We'll never ever know and I'm pretty happy with that. But if any robot could stop Razer on paper, it was Hypno-Disc. I'm convinced that in Series 4, this would've been the outcome. Series 6, definitely Razer. Series 3 and 5, any man's game.
 * Panic Attack v Chaos 2: George Francis had never been given a chance to battle a former UK Champion (Firestorm stealing this opportunity in Series 3, and the possibility of rematching Bodmin Community College not possible until the Grand Finals of either Series 2 or 3). I think the fight between two current heavyweights (Bodmin having faded noticeably in the Series 3 boost) would have been quite a conversation.


 * Hypno-Disc v Chaos 2: More than Chaos 2/Firestorm, this is the rematch we never got that I always wanted. The rematch I was positive we were getting until Pussycat hamstrung Hypno-Disc with that marvellous hit. Series 3's bout was neither robot at their best, but with Hypno-Disc in a whole new level of dangerous (remember Splinter), we were in for a battle and a half. I think that, like Series 9, we were going to end up with the runner-up taking the title back from the robot who swiped it from them. Look how many flipping/lifting robots Hypno-Disc defeated in Series 3-4 (Robogeddon, Stealth, Berserk 2, Evil Weevil, Raizer Blade, Predator, V-Max and Wild Thing). I envisage this rematch going the way of Atomic 2/Hypno-Disc, but Chaos 2's softer armour finally costing it in the end.

So my final theory is that Hypno-Disc was, on paper, the favourite to win Series 4. It was stopped by a worthy foe, and many other robots claimed the sixteen finals places, whether expected or not. But it's always interesting to look at who was "meant" to fight.

Is there any fight worse than Bigger Brother v Evil Weevil 2?