User blog comment:RA2/Series 7 Rankdown/@comment-24393094-20191206211639

18: Spawn Again. Great melee, pretty bad Round 2 performance, and horrid luck in the Heat Final. Everyone else in this rankdown outperformed it in some way.

17: Ripper. Ultimately, I am not really sure where the hype is coming regarding Ripper's Series 7 record. Yes, it is a great machine, but I do think some of its highlights are exaggerated. NJGW already mentioned the melee, but the Annihilator is where things completely go overboard. Yes, it defeated several machines... like a broken Robochicken, Flippa, and a machine that could be easily side-stranded in Ewe 2. Not really much to shout about. Then, we have the fact it was cleanly beaten by Kan-Opener, who is long gone from this Rankdown. Henceforth, it only places 17th in the top 18.

16: Bigger Brother. Still a great machine, the only one to defeat Typhoon 2, but crashed out too early on to warrant higher ranking, even if bad luck was to blame.

15: Pussycat. Great All-Stars performance, but its actual main competition record was pretty poor. Not only did it lose to M2 in only the Second Round, it also struggled in its melee. Henceforth, as a champion it outranks Ripper, but goes no further.

14: Tough as Nails. Controversial, maybe, but Tough as Nails, while an effective, unique design, often had opponents that troubled it, from Robochicken to Bulldog Breed. Ultimately, it could take out good robots like Disc-O-Inferno, and even challenge the great Series 7 machines, but ultimately a large majority of the All-Stars this series would outclass it. Storm 2 certainly did.

13: Bulldog Breed. Solid performances, and deserved to reach the semi-finals for the first time. Outranks Tough as Nails because it beat it, but ultimately it had a solid but not spectacular campaign.

12: Big Nipper. Putting both Heat B finalists together because they were really that close to each other. Both great, durable machines that can certainly trouble their opponents, but ultimately may be outclassed by better flippers and rammers to warrant any higher placing.

11: The Grim Reaper. It ouranks Big Nipper because it beat Big Nipper. Simple as that.

10: M2. Double out of the arena, edged out Pussycat, never gave up against Tiberius 3 and almost beating Atomic. Great machine, but its armour and loss to Atomic, another flipper, means it ends up only 10th.

9: Dantomkia. Certainly earned the "Princess of out of the arenas". And yes, Princess because Dantomkia is female, you know! Amazing heat, good All Stars performances, but an embarassing loss to Pussycat and being outclassed by a similar design in Gravity leaves it 9th.

8: Tsunami. The "what could have been" for the series, Tsunami just looked invincible in its campaign, even defeating X-Terminator. But that one mistake cost it everything, and so we can only speculate how well it would have ultimately done. Would it have beaten St. Agro? Bulldog Breed? Typhoon 2? Storm 2? Quite possibly.

7: Tornado. Here is the thing about Tornado: It had arguably the weakest heat in Series 7. Not to mention, it really started to show its age in this series, because it became far too easy to overturn. Look at Leveller 2 for example, who managed to overturn its opponent. While Tornado managed to beat Gravity, it was ultimately too vulnerable to the majority of flippers this season, not to mention Storm 2 and even Typhoon 2. Had Series 8 come calling, Tornado would require a redesign.

6: Gravity. There were so, so many machines that looked invincible this series, up until their defeats. Gravity was one such machine, tossing out Hydra, 13 Black and Dantomkia as if they were no names. Armour and ground clearance issues ultimately cost it, but it certainly would have beaten more opponents in this series than Tornado could.

5: X-Terminator. This machine had arguably one of the best designs to cope with an ever changing show. With flippers becoming better by the day, a spinner that was anti-flipper was vital for it to succeed. Capable of achieving out of the arenas, and defeating such flippers like Tsunami, St. Agro and Bulldog Breed, X-Terminator proved it was now part of the elite. Sadly, it just was not durable enough to withstand relentless hits from Typhoon 2 or Tornado, meaning it ranks outside the top 4.

4: Atomic. Yet another seemingly invincible flipper, and perhaps more so, because before its unfortunate demise, nothing, not even Typhoon 2 could seemingly stop it. I have to rank it here because I worry about how it would survive against flippers that could overturn it, and the overall durability of its flipper against spinners like X-Terminator.

3: Firestorm 5. The Firestorm series just got better and better to me. Like with a few flippers in this era, Firestorm 5 was just unstoppable, until something else more so was capable of beating it. Nothing up until Storm 2 could stand up to it, and I argue it would have won the All-Stars competition if it took it seriously.

2: Typhoon 2. Despite the lack of srimech, Typhoon 2 just could not be stopped by a robot with a flipper. As soon as a flipper closed it, it was deflected away, damaged and often left crippled after the first few hits. In a flipper-dominated series, Typhoon 2 was absolutely amazing in stopping whatever stood in its path. Even spinners like X-Terminator failed to hold a candle against it. Ultimately, I feel that the fact it theoretically could be disrupted and thus left vulnerable prevents it from topping the rankdown, but certainly, had Robot Wars continued soon after Series 7, it would have been a yardstick for any machine looking to become an elite for series to come.

1: Storm 2. Ultimately, Storm 2 wins this, not only for winning the World Championship (which Typhoon 2 withdrew from at the last moment), but it made machines like Firestorm 5 and Tornado look like alsorans. Only robots like Razer achieved this feat. Not to mention, Storm 2 was just perfectly designed to combat the rise of flippers, was durable enough to withstand Typhoon 2 and ultimately no one aside from Typhoon 2 had any idea on how to beat it. No wonder this machine was somewhat disliked by some during the Wiki's early years... was it even possible to beat it pre-Reboot with anyone other than Typhoon 2?