User blog comment:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Series 4/@comment-4700688-20180601150736


 * 18 - S.M.I.D.S.Y. Although it never did badly, it wasn't exceptional, and would win very few heats. After some shocking breakdowns in Series 3 and Extreme 1, I don't want to consider it 100% reliable either.
 * 17 - Crusader 2. It dominated Steg 2, but Steg 2 is gone. It lost to Mortis, and Mortis is still here.
 * 16 - Spikasaurus. I would feel very strange if this significantly outranked Bulldog Breed 2, who really should be higher than it in the rankdown. A strong Annihilator performance puts Spikasaurus this high, but it's still going t be outranked by all of the other entries in that Annihilator bar Suicidal Tendencies.
 * 15 - Mortis. Starting to get a little old, and the track breaking remains an issue. Some good wins over Crusader 2 (now ranked below it), frenZy (ranked below it) and Panic Attack (very controversial pair of wins), but it will never truly be reliable.
 * 14 - Killerhurtz. Same applies for Killerhurtz, which was still somewhat privy to a technical error (against Splinter), but it boasts a much better axe than Mortis, and stronger fundamentals overall.
 * 13 - Panic Attack. I guess this counts as my controversial placing, but Panic Attack's gameplan was hindered significantly in Series 4, as it couldn't rely on the pit for most of the match, and its lack of finishing power was evident against Stinger and Mortis. All of the robots that Panic Attack beat in Series 4 are already ranked below it, I have to be critical of Panic Attack.
 * 12 - Thermidor II. A great robot that probably performed as well as it deserved to, by reaching Round 4 in Series 4, and 12th in the rankdown. Great flipper, but poor armour and wheels, and the claws served only as a hindrance. Needed to perform better against Kronic the Wedgehog.
 * 11 - X-Terminator 2. A robot with very strong fundamentals, but lost the battle of fundamentals to Wild Thing. And 101 & King B3, for that matter. Poor axe weapon goes without saying.
 * 10 - Stinger. At this point, every robot that Stinger defeated in Series 4 has already finished its rankdown campaign on my list. Essentially this placement is a direct result of me placing Panic Attack so low. Stinger did very well in Series 4, but performed very poorly in the Annihilator, but I can't offer huge credit for beating Hammer & Tong, Bulldog Breed, Mousetrap, and barely scraping past Panic Attack. Chaos 2 vs Stinger never felt that close to me.
 * 9 - Bigger Brother. I'm already seeing comments about how this robot needs to be detached from its Series 5 version. So I did. And it still finishes 9th. Let's talk about Bigger Brother's losses first. Bulldog Breed 2 beat it in the main competition, and we all know that gas leak was somewhat of a fluke that wouldn't happen again. What isn't generally pointed out is the fact that Bigger Brother was winning the fight before it was flipped. The other loss was to Firestorm II and Scorpion, and this only serves to benefit Bigger Brother's case. It KO'ed Scorpion on several occasions, and then dominated one of the all-time Robot Wars greats, with the battle only concluding in a mystifying loss that can only be blamed on Plunderbird 4. Then you can look at the positives, and Bigger Brother dominated its melee, and collected a fair win over X-Terminator 2 and Inverterbrat. The flipper weapon provided finishing power which other machines in this Top 18 lacked, it was well-driven even at this early stage, the very same version of Bigger Brother was good in BattleBots, of course it's a Top 10 machine!
 * 8 - Wild Thing. We're straight back to finishing power again, and Wild Thing was a very, very good robot, but the lack of a KO on Reactor slightly stings.
 * 7 - Dominator II. Truly a marvellous robot, I don't need to state the positives. As to why it falls slightly short, Dominator II is the only robot left that essentially collected three losses, against Pussycat, Spikasaurus, and near enough Firestorm II. The weapon relied on accuracy, which the drivers had, but it's still a hard thing to rely on.
 * 6 - Tornado. The Best Newcomer for a reason, there is very little I can say to criticise Tornado. It just needed the wedge that hadn't been created for it yet. Tornado also broke down in its Heat Final against Gemini despite winning.
 * 5 - Firestorm II. I understand this is higher than everyone else, and I accept that Firestorm did have a rough breakdown in the Tag Team final, but everyone out of Dominator II (vs Spikasaurus), Tornado (vs Gemini), Wild Thing (vs Diotoir), and Bigger Brother (kinda vs Bulldog Breed 2) also had random breakdowns. That's everyone in my Top 10 so far apart from Stinger. Firestorm also deserved to lose to Bigger Brother, but 1) it didn't, and 2) it deserved to WIN against Dominator II. Its campaign wasn't the most impressive, but through and through, this is a Firestorm machine, and we know how good those are. Unworthy of the criticism it received. Wow, it failed to make a Grand Final, how dare it!
 * 4 - Pussycat. This is the placement I'm most unsure about, because it DID beat Hypno-Disc and Razer. However, to put it above Chaos 2, it needed to show to me that it could win that fight, and it fell pretty short. I also don't think it could beat Hypno-Disc twice.
 * 3 - Chaos 2. The reigning champion who convincingly beat Pussycat, and again proved that it could only be threatened by the top two seeds. Of course, I placed those two seeds higher because both would probably beat Chaos 2, even if they admittedly wouldn't beat Pussycat.
 * 2 - Hypno-Disc. What an improvement. Masterful machine for its time. Completely forgivable loss. There's only one robot better in Series 4.
 * 1 - Razer. Once again, I couldn't deny it. Razer was a force in Series 4, winning all of its battles without even being troubled, even taking on four-five robots at once in the Annihilator, and it STILL came out on top. The reliability issues are gone, and its only loss was at the hands of Pussycat, a robot which also beat the other contender for the top, Hypno-Disc. Razer was nigh-on unbeatable, and I can't place it any lower.

I'm looking forward to the next rankdown, although I do have some concerns about the way it's currently been planned. It's probably easier for me to go into detail on the actual setup page, but the short version is "I think Extreme 1 and Series 5 should be merged"