Team Razer

"Remember, we're the guys with the original 9 tonne hydraulic crusher, and if you think you've got a robot tough enough, then come and find us in the Robot Wars arena!"

- Simon Scott at the end of Ultimate Warrior Collection - Razer

Team Razer is a team of roboteers that entered the world-famous Razer in Series 2 through 6 and both Extremes of Robot Wars, returning for the rebooted series.

Despite performing poorly in its first three main series appearances, Razer excelled in the side events, and racked up numerous trophies, most notably winning two World Championships, as well as three Best Design Awards. In Series 5, Razer finally hit its stride and won the domestic title. It followed that up with another strong performance in Series 6, finishing as runner-up. The team returned in 2016, with new team members Gillie Lewis and Darcie Lewis in place of Vincent Blood.

Ian Lewis also entered Razzler in the Antweight competition in Extreme 1.

Team Razer holds the rare honour of having two different robots mentioned in the Combat Robot Hall of Fame. Currently, the only other UK team with this achievement is Team Hurtz.

The Team
Ian Lewis and Simon Scott were industrial designers who had gone to school together. After seeing the first series of Robot Wars, they were inspired to make their own robot. "Me and Simon, we watched a fantastic show called Robot Wars that came onto BBC Two ... just from the advert that we saw, it was Rob Knight up there with Mortis, whacking away with this great axe, and we imagined "That would be really simple, it's a nice little machine, a bit like a radio controlled car with a little axe on top, would be really easy to build. Perhaps we can give Rob Knight a bit of a sorting out!"

- Ian Lewis on entering Robot Wars.

They experimented with several different types of weapons before ultimately deciding on the hydraulic crusher. Thus, Razer was born. Interestingly, across the series, Scott and Lewis shared captain roles. In Series 3, the team was joined by the brother of Ian's fiancee, Vincent Blood. Blood was primarily responsible for constructing and maintaining the team's website, but he helped out on the robot as well. "I was so delighted that my friends had built this new machine to go in and have a go at Robot Wars, and I made them get me audience tickets, and I was actually there not part of the team for Series 2 but part of the audience, and right after I had seen it, I was just so impressed and enthused I joined the team and did their website for them."

- Vincent Blood on joining Team Razer

Contrary to popular belief, Widow's Revenge was not built by Team Razer. Jonathan Pearce incorrectly stated that the "Robot Widows" were the wives of Team Razer, and that Team Razer had helped build the machine, whilst the Widow's Revenge team all pretended to be the wives of the Razer team, but this is not entirely true. Of the original team members, Team Captain Gillie Blood was the fiancee of Ian Lewis (they have since married, and Gillie is now known as Gillie Blood Lewis), and the sister of Vinnie Blood. The other two team members were not linked to Team Razer, but Emily Cathcart, the girlfriend of Vinnie Blood, joined the team when Jenny Smith fell ill, and their anti-male statements were directed towards all married roboteers, not just Ian, Simon, and Vincent.

In Extreme 2, Razer fought Tornado (armed with its anti-crusher web) in the semi-final of the European Championship. During the match, Razer picked up Tornado, and began smoking; its motors had burned out. The two robots remained hooked together for well over the 30-second holding limit, before cease was called. The judges ruled in favour of Razer, however Simon and Vincent believed the decision to be unfair, as Razer was clearly immobile, and Tornado should have been freed by the Refbot. Ian refused to go along with the decision, believing competitors did not have the right to overturn judges' decisions, and when his teammates tried to explain that they were 2-1 in favour of conceding the match, Ian told Vincent that his vote didn't count, as he didn't help build the machine. Ian eventually relented and apologized for his out-of-line remark, but he still refused to be on camera when the team handed over the victory to Tornado.

"When competing at a very high level we all need a few absolutes in place. A good set of fair rules. Good, fair judges, with integrity. These are just a couple, start questioning these at your peril, the competitors cannot become the judges, where would you stop ? ... we had many questionable decisions, for and against us, that I kept to myself, for the sake of competing at that level."

- Ian Lewis

Over the months prior, Vincent had been indecisive about remaining on the Razer team, and Ian's behaviour towards this matter was the last straw. He announced his resignation soon afterwards, precipitating in Razer's retirement from Robot Wars, with the team not entering Series 7.

When the team returned to Robot Wars in 2016, Gillian Lewis joined husband Ian on the team, as well as their daughter, Darcie Lewis, who is a model, alongside Simon Scott.

Robogeddon
In 2002, Ian Lewis and Simon Scott, what remained of Team Razer, came together with Andrew Cotterell of Team Ming to fom a robot building/hiring company called Robogeddon. The company manufactured a fleet of robot kits (known by them as RCVs). When fully constructed, each of these RCVs are 80 kg box-wedge shaped with four-wheel drive and a full body bumper to absorb shocks, it is also armed with a flipping arm. These robot kits cost £1825, but the company can also organise events for people, setting up a temporary arena with shelter and bringing some pre-built Robogeddon units for people to control. Cotterell chose to take two pre-built units, modify them and enter them for the seventh series of Robot Wars (Ming Dienasty and Zorro) to publicise the company.

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 41
 * Losses: 7

Series Record

 * Series 1: Did not enter
 * Series 2: Heat, Arena Semi-Final with Razer
 * Series 3: Heat, Round 2 with Razer
 * Series 4: Heat Final with Razer
 * Extreme 1: All-Stars Champion and World Champion with Razer and Antweight Melee with Razzler
 * Series 5: Grand Champion with Razer
 * Series 6: Runner-up with Razer
 * Extreme 2: All-Stars Champion with Razer
 * Series 7: Did not enter
 * 2016 Series: Entered with Razer

Outside Robot Wars
The team also entered several seasons of BattleBots. They entered the untelevised 1999 event and the pay-per-view 2000 event with Razer, winning the Gigabot/Heavyweight Rumble in the latter. They also entered Season 5.0 (originally intended for Season 3.0 and 4.0) with Warhead, a silver scorpion-like design with a petrol-driven anglable spinning dome for a weapon, hydraulic arms for self-righting, and a movable scorpion tail at the back. This separate robot had a good degree of success, defeating five opponents including the favoured Nightmare and [The Matador, before ultimately losing out on a Judges' decision to OverKill.

Team Razer returned, this time with Gillie Blood Lewis as a team member, with an upgraded Warhead for the 2015 BattleBots reboot on ABC, losing their first match to Bite Force on a unanimous Judges' Decision. Warhead was given a wild card entry to the last 16, but lost again to Stinger: The Killer Bee on another Judges' decision after getting flipped over. However, on account of its unique design and engineering, it was voted for the Best Design Award by its fellow competitors, which it won.

Warhead returned for the 2016 series, now sporting an interchangeable dinosaur head jaw weapon, interchangeable with the disc, and dual flamethrowers. Warhead used its jaw to crush Rob Knight's humanoid robot [Obwalden Overlord, before setting it on fire. Warhead faced BattleBots veterans [Complete Control in the second round, and switched to its spinning disc. Warhead won in spectacular fashion, tearing a huge gash in Complete Control, setting the entire robot on fire through another impact, and dealt the finishing blow by moving on its head through the gyroscopic forces of its disc. In the Round of 16, Warhead faced promising newcomer [Minotaur.

Although the team did not enter the spin-off show Techno Games, Simon Scott worked on the show as a pit reporter in the 2002 and 2003 series, where he was referred to as a "Pit Pundit". Simon would take a close look at robots, describing their components and how the robots worked. He praised the designs or workings he thought were best, and enthusiastically commented on his favourites for each event, predicting who he thought would win and why.

A Featherweight version of Razer called Venom, created by Team Robo Challenge, still competes today.