Storm 2

"Storm {noun} pl Storms 1. a violent weather system 2. a metaphoric reference suggesting violence and destruction. 3. to storm {verb} to carry out an act with great speed 4. Your worst nightmare in the arena"

- Storm 2 website

Storm2 (officially known as Storm II between Extreme 2 and Series 7) is a robot that competes in the British television game show Robot Wars. "Your robot is so pristine...most beautiful robot I've ever seen..."

- Jayne Middlemiss

Originally, Storm 2 was a small invertible box-shaped robot with a wedge on the front and spring-loaded side skirts to negate any flipper attacks and designed to win in a simple and effective way, be reliable, very strong and very sturdy. The robot was originally built with no weapons but the team was asked to add an active weapon in order to take part in the seventh series, so the team came up with a built-in four-bar lifting arm However, it was not the weapon but the immense speed of 23mph and 18HP drive of the robot that did the most damage to its opponents from two 8.8HP motors, the most powerful ever seen on a competitor robot at the time, and managing to throw The Steel Avenger Out of the Arena in its Series 7 heat final. The robot competed in the seventh series of Robot Wars, winning The Third World Championship at the end of the series, having won the 16th seed into the competition by being victorious in the New Blood Championship of Extreme 2. In 2016, Storm2 returned to compete in the 2016 series of Robot Wars, featuring its new name, and interchangeable weaponry, including the four-bar lifting arm, and a new vertical spinning disc. Its top speed was reduced from 23mph to 18mph, offering greater control, and its total build costs exceeded £25,000.

Storm 2 was actually built for Season 6.0 of Comedy Central's BattleBots but was entered into the New Blood after BattleBots was cancelled.

The team also planned to enter the Series 7 Featherweight Championship with Storm Vortex, but withdrew due to "technical problems".

Storm 2 was created by Ed Hoppitt, previous member of Team Thermonuclear Warfare. He was joined by Tim Bence and Andrew Rayner. Hoppitt and Bence would alternate driving during the wars. Not long after the filming of New Blood, Andrew Rayner got married, moved house and began a family, so his place on the team was filled by Bence's fiance, Meral Kolac. Tim and Meral are now married and have a baby girl.

One of the main reasons Storm 2 is well known is because it is the most prominent robot never to lose a battle through KO, only losing one battle on a controversial judges' decision, despite not being fully tested and hard to control at times.

Extreme 2
Storm 2 made an alliance with Revolution 2, and proved its power straight away in the first round of the New Blood Championship against Direct Action, pushing it near Mr. Psycho. Storm 2 took a blow from Mr. Psycho, but managed to avoid serious action. A blow from the large blades of Revolution 2 did not cause much visible damage. Storm 2 drove into a CPZ but charged out, skidding into the arena side wall. The sheer force of Storm's attacks immobilised Direct Action on one side, leaving it spinning around in circles, and it was easily dispatched of in the pit, after a brilliant move from Storm 2, when it drove onto the edge to lure Direct Action in. "There was one hairy moment where all the audience gasped as Storm II traveled a little too close to the pit, however everything was under control and soon Direct Action vanished into the pit"

- Storm 2 website

The following two fights were equally straightforward. In the second round, Storm 2 was placed up against Chopper, and was completely unaffected by Chopper's weak spinning blade, and all Storm 2 had to do was drive under it with the wedge and slam it against the wall, the force flipping Chopper over, and it was not capable of self-righting, immobilsing it and putting Storm 2 through. In the Heat Final against ICU, the two robots charged at each other, with ICU sharply riding over the top of Storm 2, but this impact tore the aerial from ICU, leaving it unable to move (only firing its axe and srimech), this left Storm 2 to simply nudge ICU onto the arena floor flipper to be counted out by the Refbot, putting Storm 2 through to the Grand Final. "We described the robot originally as a "full body hammer" because literally the power of it, it is its own weapon, the same way that a full body spinner is its own weapon."

- Andrew Rayner on Storm 2's lack of weapons after the Heat Final

In the Grand Final eliminator against Thor, both started by circling and dodging each other. Thor brought its hammer down, missing. Storm 2 bumped Thor into Mr. Psycho. Storm 2 got underneath Thor and hit the pit release tyre. The rear end of Thor hovered over the pit when Storm 2 tried to get it down, but it escaped. The attacks of Storm 2 took its toll on the opponent as Thor's CO2 powered hammer stopped working. Storm 2 guided Thor towards the pit once again, but Thor got away again. One of Storm 2's wheels started smoking shortly before cease was called, but Storm 2 won the judges decision anyway, allowing it to contest the New Blood Championship Grand Final with Mute. The competitors spent the opening stages buffeting each other's attacks until Mute drove Storm 2 against the arena wall, unable to flip it. Storm almost pushed Mute into Dead Metal, but Mute got away, leaving Storm 2 needing to drive out of the CPZ itself. Storm 2 looked relatively slow compared to its earlier rounds and again drove into Dead Metal, almost getting flipped by Mute while reversing out of Dead Metal's clutches. Mute got underneath Storm 2 again and flipped it across the arena onto the wall with its weaponry. Cease was called, and the judges went for Storm 2, giving the team automatic entry to the Seventh Wars.

Series 7
"What a fairy story it would be, if these, the New Blood Champions could make it all the way..."

- Jonathan Pearce's prophecy

Placed in the universally named Heat of Doom, high expectations were of Storm 2, as it was the seeded machine in that heat. However, changes since the addition of the weapon were still new, and the newest model of Storm 2 had not been fully tested. Storm 2 faced Rhino, Mayhem and Supernova in its first round battle. "It was a very sombre car that returned from Nottingham back to Ipswich after qualifying, mulling over the news of who we were going to fight. Shredder we felt we could deal with, but Supernova was an unknown quantity - just how much damage could that disk dish out, and just how much could Storm II take ? We simply didn't know!"

- Ed Hoppitt on the Storm 2 website

It began by slamming Rhino across the arena but then being flipped by the other machine. Once again, Storm 2 slammed Rhino into an arena wall, before pushing it into Matilda's CPZ. The house robot sent part of the arena wall flying away with her flywheel. Rhino escaped and lifted Storm 2 again. Storm 2 then shoved Supernova into Sir Killalot, snapping the house robot's treads. It also shoved the Sri Lankan robot across the arena into a CPZ and Matilda tapped it with her flywheel, immobilising it. Supernova was counted out, putting through Storm 2 and Rhino. Storm 2 pushed Trax around a lot in Round 2, a result of Trax being equipped with tracks that could not grip the floor. The two briefly circled each other in the centre of the arena, after which Storm 2 was able to slam Trax into the arena wall twice. After a short bit of manoeuvring from the two robots, Storm 2 got good leverage at the rear of Trax and gave it another almighty shove into the arena wall. Trax was trapped against the arena wall by Storm 2, which used its lifting arm to lever Trax into the air, edging it towards the arena spike on the wall. Trax was released, and Storm 2 followed it closely as it escaped across the arena. Storm 2 slammed in to the pit release button which fell off, and the pit descended. Trax was once again out-manoeuvred and rammed into the arena wall, this time successfully on to a spike, causing damage to the rear of Trax. Trax loosely sailed across the arena floor before wandering too close to the CPZ of Mr. Psycho and taking a blow from Mr. Psycho's hammer on its front left side. Storm 2 nudged Trax in again, which barely escaped the hammer. Storm 2 and Trax moved across the arena again and steered around each other before Storm 2 managed to slip in behind Trax and edge it close to the pit. Trax quickly escaped around the pit, daring Storm 2 to attack. "We did have one moment to put Trax in the pit, but given the way they were sliding we decided they were being so unpredictable in the arena we would play safe - after all we believed that we'd done enough to get through."

- Ed Hoppitt on the Storm 2 website

Shortly after, time ran out. The battle went to a judges' decision, where Storm 2 was declared the winner, soundly defeating another opponent. The heat final would be against The Steel Avenger.

"We knew that this was going to be the robot's last Wars...we didn’t want it going home in too many pieces, we didn’t have the heart to, really..."

- Meral Kolac on the Storm 2 website

The Steel Avenger attempted to hit it with its axe but got the axe stuck in the arena floor. Storm 2 pushed it across the arena into the wall. It hit it so hard that The Steel Avenger bounced out of the arena, the first time a robot had been thrown out of the arena without the use of weapons. "...accomplished something no-one else had ever done, delivered enough kinetic energy with our robot to another robot through speed alone to launch them out of the arena!"

- Ed Hoppit on the Storm 2 website

In the Semi-Final, Storm 2 was drawn up against The Grim Reaper and to fight the flipper-equipped robot, was fitted with side skirts to reduce the ground clearance of Storm 2. This worked very well as The Grim Reaper struggled to get its flipper underneath Storm 2 and it pushed and flipped The Grim Reaper around repeatedly. Even though The Grim Reaper looked promising equipped with a wide-opening flipper. Roughly five seconds in to the match The Grim Reaper was slammed in to the arena wall by Storm 2, and then trapped and levered up by Storm 2. After being released, the two very quickly danced around each other at a great speed. The Grim Reaper was shunted in to a vacant CPZ before being pushed and lifted up, crashing in to the pit release button at speed. Storm 2 chased The Grim Reaper around the arena, The Grim Reaper spinning around to try and evade Storm 2. Storm 2 nudged it into Shunt, who artfully marked the top of the flipper on The Grim Reaper with his axe. Shunt's second shot missed both robots completely. Storm 2 chased The Grim Reaper again as before, this time forcing it to meet with Sergeant Bash's crushing jaw, which gripped and dragged it back in to the CPZ before letting it go. The Grim Reaper was bumped towards the now open pit, but was not pitted. The Grim Reaper was chased by Storm 2, being slammed again and again in to the wall and Shunt's CPZ, before being rolled onto its back panel. Shunt, unsuccessfully attacking it, accidentally knocked off its own exhaust. Storm 2 carefully nudged The Grim Reaper backwards as it was trying to self-right, causing it to stay on its back. After a few more tries, The Grim Reaper successfully flipped itself back onto its wheels. The countdown timer ran out as The Grim Reaper was rammed in to the wall, stopping on the flame jet. Storm 2, finishing underneath The Grim Reaper in the dying seconds, was chosen as the winner by the judges.



In Round 2 it managed to prevent Firestorm 5 getting under it by bending the front blade upwards. Exploiting Firestorm 5's weakness (its low pushing power), Storm 2 entered a pushing match, easily winning and pushing Firestorm 5 into the pit. The New Blood Champion was through to the Grand Final, despite the controversy.

"A turn up for the books, the 16th seed beats the 2nd seed, Storm 2 through to the Grand Final!!!!"

- Craig Charles on Storm 2's impressive victory

Storm 2 faced the defending champions Tornado for a place in the Grand Final of The Seventh Wars. Storm 2 and Tornado circled each other and collided in the middle of the arena, Storm 2 getting leverage under the side of Tornado. Tornado managed to escape being rammed in to the arena wall, and the two robots' scoops met again in the middle of the arena. Tornado had more traction than Storm 2, who was easily pushed back across the arena and in to the wall. Tornado had barely escaped being stuck after bouncing on to Storm 2 from the impact. Storm 2 and Tornado battled closely again, during which Storm 2 managed to lift Tornado up and over. Being invertible, Tornado was not beaten yet. Tornado was, however, powerfully slammed in to the wall after Storm 2 found leverage at the rear of Tornado. This happened on several more occasions, including one situation where Tornado was rammed in to the wall, nearly being propped up against it. Storm 2 and Tornado collided with each other in a battle of pushing strength, this time Storm 2 managing to out-push Tornado. Tornado was chased around the arena, finally being caught and pushed along the arena floor. Refbot pushed the pit release button, and Tornado was trapped in a dangerous position after being pushed across the pit as it was being lowered, barely managing to escape. Shortly after, time ran out, and the judges gave the victory to Storm 2.

It fought bravely against Typhoon 2, the armour was strong enough to withstand Typhoon's attacks, and it attempted to flip Typhoon on several occasions, basically the first time it used the lifting arm. Eventually Typhoon 2 destroyed the arena wall so the bout was stopped. When it was restarted Storm 2 continued pushing Typhoon 2 around until they both got caught on the Pit panel. Storm 2 appeared to slow down after this, and when it slammed Typhoon into the Arena Wall again a large piece of armour from the front wedge flew off, moments before the battle ended. The judges said that Storm 2 won on Control and Aggression, and Typhoon 2 won on Style and Damage, so because Damage carries the most weight Typhoon 2 was declared the new Champion. Many argue that Storm 2 would have won had the panel not fallen off.

Storm 2 then had the chance to make amends for this Series 7 loss, in the Third World Championship. Ansgar 3 of Germany and Grand Finalists Tornado were the opponents in the first round. Ansgar's progress was very quickly stymied, as the two English rammers put the German walker on the flame pit, where it was immobilized. Once Ansgar got off the flame pit, Storm 2 and Tornado teamed up to dump Ansgar 3 in the pit of oblivion. Tornado used its wedge shape to get in underneath Storm 2 and ram it against the side wall, but once again, the extra power and speed gave Storm 2 the edge over Tornado, slamming it into a CPZ. A well controlled drive from Tornado put Storm 2 in the clutches of Dead Metal, although it escaped with just a few bruises. Storm 2 fought back though, using its lifting arm to flip over Tornado. This was deemed enough by the judges to put Team Storm through.



Series Semi Finalist Tough as Nails met Storm 2 in the World Championship Semi Final, and Tough as Nails immediately got a grip on Storm 2. Tough as Nails' usual tactics did not work however, as Storm 2 ferociously charged Tough as Nails into the arena wall, allowing the Dutch entry to be hammered by Mr. Psycho. It was becoming evident that Tough as Nails was being outclassed, and another ram by Storm 2 caused a tyre to fall off the Dutch robot. Tough as Nails who was still fully mobile went for the pit release button, but inevitably it was Tough as Nails that fell down, despite holding onto Storm 2 with its pincers. Storm 2 added insult to injury by nudging the tyre debris into the pit.

Storm 2 faced its Heat I opponents Supernova, representing Sri Lanka in the final. The pair started tentatively, dodging the other machine's potential attacks. Supernova got a glancing blow on Storm 2, sending the Sri Lankan machine spinning. Storm 2 pushed Supernova into the arena wall, where Supernova's disc made it spin on contact with the wall. Miraculously, they bumped into each other and Supernova flipped itself over onto the wall, where its disc dug deep into the arena floor. Storm 2 however, came under attack from Shunt, who lifted it onto the arena wall. The Refbot freed Supernova and Shunt freed Storm 2, so they could continue fighting. The two rammed each other around before cease was called. The judges awarded the World Championship to Storm 2.

2016 series
Storm2's participation in the 2016 series was first confirmed through a teaser trailer released on June 25th, 2016. In it, Team Storm admire their machine to the theme of Joe Cocker's You Are so Beautiful, displaying the robot's new spinning disc, before playing clips of the robot in the arena.

In its first round battle, Storm2 was drawn against veterans Terror Turtle and Sabretooth, and newcomer Eruption.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 14
 * Losses: 1

Series Record

 * Series 1-6: Did not enter
 * Series 7: Runner-up
 * 2016 Series: Entered

Outside Robot Wars
The original Storm was a box-shaped robot with 4 wheels and a crusher/lifter in the front, similar in design to Extreme 1 Competitor Draven, but it was never seen in Robot Wars. Instead, it competed in various robot combat events across the UK and the Dutch Robot Games. Like its successor, it was a small robot, just 75cm long, 65cm wide and 20cm tall.

Storm 2 has since competed several times in the Roaming Robots circuit, notably coming second in the UK Championship to Turbulence in 2006. However, Storm 2 has had less fortune in recent years, most recently it has competed in the 2011 UK Championships where it lost in the first round, and competed in the 2011 Annihilator in which it finished sixth, and the International Championship where it lost to Tough as Nails. Team Storm also bought Tiberius 4, which they renamed simply to Tiberius, continuing to fight with it competitively, but with their main focus being the evolution of Storm2. Its weapon can be switched from lifter mode to front hinged self righter mode.

Like many other robots, Storm 2 also competed in Techno Games 2003 as Ickle Toaster in the Football and Sumo events. It fought Storm Chaser in the Sumo and won but broke the wall off the dojo and sent itself off in the slam that won it the match, leading to Storm Chaser winning. It worked with Savage Toaster in the Football but its speed sent a ball into the audience and team withdrew. Both matches went unaired but Team Storm received and uploaded the video of Ickle Toaster beating Storm Chaser.

The team also had two featherweights, one being Storm Vortex, which withdrew from the Robot Wars Featherweight Championship, and Force 10, the first featherweight to use Bosch 35w motors and with a claw powered by the type of linear actuators that the likes of Suicidal Tendencies used, both of which competed outside of Robot Wars.

Storm 2 also competed at the 2008 Robogames event in San Fransisco, California. They managed to defeat Eugene by immobilisation in the first round but lost to Sewer Snake in the second and was forced to forfeit its next match due to a broken gearbox. The team are now due to compete in the 2016 Robogames event with Tiberius, as Storm 2 withdrew.

Team Storm, alongside Andrew Marchant and Alan Young, competed in the 2016 series of BattleBots, using a rebuilt version of Tiberius, now named Photon Storm. In the first round, it fought well against Brazilian entry Minotaur, crushing the top of the robot, but was eventually immobilised by a strong blow from the drum spinner. Photon Storm was damaged significantly, and was not given a wildcard, eliminating it from the tournament.

Trivia

 * Team Storm was the only team to have their robot seeded in their début series.
 * They were also one of only three teams to be seeded despite having never won a battle in the main series, the others being Killerhurtz and Stinger in Series 4.
 * Storm 2's combined attack with Supernova on Sir Killalot led to the most expensive repairs for a house robot ever.