User blog comment:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Series 2/@comment-6023653-20180308202247

14 - Behemoth - After looking back at Behemoth’s run in Series 2, it wasn’t actually that impressive. Good power, but slow, cumbersome, and the scoop didn’t do an awful lot. Steady rather than spectacular. ‘’’13’’’ - Robo Doc - Decent machine, and could have been a semi-finalist in a kinder heat. Pretty nippy for a tracked machine, fair power, but not much in the way of offence. ‘’’12’’’ - Chaos - Very powerful and fast with it, but there’s not a lot here I think it’d actually beat, not easily anyway. Again, not much offensive capability. ‘’’11’’’ - Mace - Sturdy machine without a whole lot wrong with it. Good power, and given that it returned in the following series with the same design and performed better… Didn’t see a whole lot of the weapons though, and I don’t think it’d realistically have got a lot further if it had beaten Panic Attack in the play-off. ‘’’10’’’ - GBH - Better version of this series’ Behemoth really. A little less cumbersome, and the scoop actually performed well. The pretty slow speed means it’d struggle against some of the more agile machines here though. ‘’’9’’’ - All Torque - Incredible speed and power, loved seeing it absolutely muller Matilda in the Joust, but it did seem to lose power fairly quickly. Look at the fight with Prometheus: it delivered a really strong first hit, and then was a little more ponderous until Prometheus almost pitted itself. Also didn’t have a lot of protection for the sides. ‘’’8’’’ - King Buxton - Can’t realistically place King Buxton a lot higher than All Torque, given that they were very similar designs. I nearly placed All Torque higher, but King Buxton is ultimately the more well-rounded machine. ‘’’7’’’ - Killerhurtz - Didn’t really perform in Series 2- although there’s no shame in going out to the reigning champion- but given the Battlebots performances it deserves a high ranking. That initial charge in the Trial shows just how much power it had. ‘’’6’’’ - Killertron - One of the best weapons of the series, and a decently manoeuvrable machine. The high ground clearance meant it was a little bit vulnerable to being controlled by opponents though. ‘’’5’’’ - Panic Attack - Controversial? Well… There’s no getting away from the fact that Panic Attack was ultimately just a box. A brilliantly controlled, fast, powerful box that few opponents could live with, but a box nevertheless- and we’re at the stage where the opponents that could live with it are left in. ‘’’4’’’ - Razer - I honestly believe that Razer could beat any opponent in Series 2- well, perhaps not Mortis, although that’d be a great fight. It had an incredible weapon at a time when a lot of opponents thought saws or spikes were sufficient, was agile, powerful… But just plain unreliable, and I can’t justify placing Razer as the best machine of the series when it died under no pressure. ‘’’3’’’ - Roadblock - The reigning champion was still exceptional a series later, and there’s very little that could beat it. ‘’’2’’’ - Mortis - Again, one of the best weapons of the series- maybe not in terms of damage, but the aggression couldn’t be matched. Fast, aggressive, was a bit of a toss-up between this and Roadblock, but Mortis’ heat performance was just so dominant that it goes higher. ‘’’1’’’ - Cassius - Cassius was just so dominant until the final. Quick, (mostly) well-controlled, really aggressive, plus an extra point or so for the legend of Rex Garrod. There’s a reason why it was the machine that the roboteers considered the favourite.