Seeding

During UK Robot Wars, the producers awarded seedings to robots. A seed is a preliminary ranking that can be used in arranging a sports tournament. It is called a seed because of the analogy with plants where the seed might grow into a top rank at the end of that tournament, or the seed might instead wither away. Seeded machines are 'planted' into the bracket in a manner that is typically intended so that the best don't meet until later in the competition. Therefore, the first and second seed are always intended to meet in the Grand Final, although this never happened in Robot Wars.

Seeds were predominantly expected to be the favourites to win each heat. In Series 4 and 5, where two seeds were placed in each heat, the higher seed was considered the favourite, whilst the lower was considered the second favourite. The seeds were always kept apart so that they could meet in the heat final – although this rarely happened.

The Second Wars
Seeds were first introduced in Series 2, but there were only six. As a result of this, seeds were only placed in half of the heats.

The Second Wars featured seeded robots based on performance in the previous series. It was intended that the six grand finalists from the first series would be seeded, but as Cunning Plan and T.R.A.C.I.E. did not return for the second series, seedings were given to Mortis and Killertron instead.

1. Roadblock 2. Mortis 3. Bodyhammer 4. Killertron 5. Cassius 6. Chaos

Controversy
The Second Wars seeding has been the subject of some controversy.
 * Griffon, the heavyweight successor to Cunning Plan, was ignored in the seeding selections.
 * Mortis was given the second seed, despite falling at the heat final stage. Bodyhammer (the only remaining robot besides Roadblock) and Cassius (from the team to defeat Mortis) were given controversially lower seeds.
 * Similarly, but to a lesser extent, Killertron was controversially seeded higher than Cassius and Chaos.

Success rate
In the Second Wars, four seeded robots made it to the semi-finals. Bodyhammer became the first seeded machine to lose in Round 1, and Chaos lost at the heat final stage. However, for the first time in history, the winner of the Series was an unseeded newcomer, despite three seeds making the Grand Final.

The Third Wars
Due to the change in the format of the UK Championship, there were no seeds in Series 3.

The Fourth Wars
Series 4 featured 32 seeded machines, the most in Robot Wars history. Each heat featured 2 seeds, with a gap of 16 in between. (For example, Heat A contained the 1st and 17th seed). The format of the heats would be that all of the odd numbered seeds would be placed in the first eight heats, and then, starting from 16 and 32, the even numbered seeds would be placed in heats until the 2nd and 18th seed were placed in the final heat.

The Fourth Wars featured seeded robots based on performance in the previous series. Robots such as Razer and Behemoth were given high placings due to their prowess in The First World Championship. Other robots were seeded based on popularity such as Stinger, Plunderbird 4 and Sir Chromalot. All the semi-finalists from the third series (except Pitbull, whose team had not expressed intent of returning) were seeded, but when Trident and Blade's Big Bruva pulled out at the last minute, Centurion and Suicidal Tendencies were both given seedings.

1. Chaos 2

2. Hypno-Disc

3. Razer

4. Panic Attack

5. Firestorm 2

6. Behemoth

7. Steg 2

8. Gemini

9. 101

10. Spawn of Scutter

11. Wild Thing

12. Evil Weevil

13. Gravedigger

14. Bigger Brother

15. Wheely Big Cheese

16. Killerhurtz

17. King B3

18. Cerberus

19. Pussycat

20. Aggrobot 2

21. Diotoir

22. X-Terminator 2

23. Mortis

24. Berserk 2

25. Shadow of Napalm

26. Plunderbird 4

27. Sir Chromalot

28. Weld-Dor 2

29. Dreadnaut XP-1

30. Stinger

31. Centurion

32. Suicidal Tendencies

Controversy
The most controversy in seeding has surrounded the Fourth Wars seeds.
 * Razer and Behemoth’s places in the top 6 have been seed as unfair, despite their prowess in the World Championship, they both performed poorly in the main competition, reaching the second and third rounds respectively.
 * The number of seeds granted in Series 4 has been seen as unnecessary, with so many robots seeded that numerous roboteers felt that the seeds had lost their meaning.
 * Despite the huge amount of seeds granted, several robots missed out.
 * Small Torque was not given a seeding, despite competing in both the World Championship and two previous series.
 * Invertabrat and Darke Destroyer 2 were also not seeded, despite reaching the heat finals of their respective heats in the previous series.
 * Killerhurtz’s placing at 16 has been one of the most controversial. Despite its failure to win any of its three UK battles, it was seeded higher than King B3, Pussycat, Berserk 2, Diotoir and X-Terminator, all of whom were heat finalists from the previous year with impressive records. Many suspect that Killerhurtz’s popularity and pedigree in the US tournament Battlebots may have contributed to it being seeded so high.
 * In distributing the seeds, two heats deviated from the “gap of sixteen” formula. Heat H featured a gap of 17, whilst heat I featured a gap of 15.
 * In addition, the seeds that should have been in Heat F (Wild Thing [11] and Sir Chromalot [27]) were swapped with those in Heat M (Gemini [8] and Berserk 2 [24]). Many people believe that this change was made so that Gemini and Chaos 2 would meet in the second round of the Semi-final, rehashing the rivalry between Team Chaos and Team Mace.

Success rate
Of the top sixteen seeds, eight made the Series Semi-Finals. This was added to the three bottom sixteen seeds that made the final, to give eleven seeded semi-finalists.
 * Series 4 was also the only time that the Grand Final comprised of four seeded machines.

However, in addition to this, Series 4 saw several poor cases of seed performances.
 * Series 4 saw the most seeds lose in Round 1 – Evil Weevil, Cerberus, Diotoir, Weld-Dor 2 and Centurion, with Diotoir becoming the first to do so in battle.
 * Behemoth became the only robot from the top six ever to lose a judge’s decision in the heats.
 * Every heat was set up so that the two seeds would not meet until the Heat Final. Among the 16 heats, this only occurred four times.