Eruption

Eruption is a heavyweight robot, armed with a full-pressure flipper, which competed in the 2016 series of Robot Wars, entered by the father-and-son Oates team.

Prior to its appearance on television, Eruption has seen much success at Robot Wars Live Events, and other live robotic events, twice earning the title of Fighting Robots Association UK champion. The rendition of Eruption that competed on the TV series sees many changes from the live event competing Eruption, equipped with its overhead claw, new decals, and the robot's logo painted on the side.

Eruption's participation in the 2016 series was first revealed through two teaser trailers released on June 25th, where Eruption can be seen flipping Sabretooth and Storm2.

Design
Eruption uses a wedge with a steep back end to allow the robot to recoil backwards when flipping, and also allow for ease of self-righting. Flyers line the back for stability when flipping, and red anti-spinner plates are welded onto the sides.

Above the flipper is a claw, which can pin opponents onto the flipper, keeping robots on top of the wedge as Eruption drives towards an arena trench or the pit. The team call this combination a 'flipper and gripper'. "Fun fact: The claw actually has a whole second pneumatics system at 150psi, so it would actually be able to grab hold of another robot given the opportunity. Obviously we all know it's not the most effective weapons choice, but as long as it adds something interesting to the show then it's a success as far as we're concerned!"

- Michael Oates on the Unofficial Robot Wars Facebook Group

The robot's armour consists of 4mm HARDOX wear-resistant steel shell, with 10mm high-density polyethylene impact absorbers on top, and an extra layer of 3mm wear-resistant steel on its front. Eruption uses a custom built control circuit to fire the flipper. This allows the team to alter the amount of CO2 they use for each flip, in the hope that they will never run out of CO2 mid-battle.

2016 series
In the first round, Eruption was drawn against veterans Storm2, Sabretooth and Terror Turtle. Eruption dominated the battle, avoiding the drum spinner of Sabretooth, before flipping it. Sabretooth landed on its wheels, but Eruption's second flip overturned the robot, which had broken its srimech. Eruption then pushed Terror Turtle into a CPZ and held it there with assistance from Storm2, also immobilising its clusterbot The Hatchling by wedging it onto the arena wall. After bringing Terror Turtle towards the arena trench, Eruption launched it out of the arena, becoming the first robot in the 2016 arena to do so.

Eruption and Storm2 had both qualified for the next round, and then fought head-to-head in the second round.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 2
 * Losses: 2

Robot Wars Live Events
Eruption has been a regular competitor at Robot Wars live events, winning several shows, throwing many competitors out of the arena. In 2013, Eruption became a Robot Wars champion, beating out Behemoth in the final, and followed this up in 2014 by beating out Beast to become champions again. Eruption finished in second place in 2015, losing out to TR2.

In the same year, Eruption also fought at the Robot Wars World Championships, held in Colchester. Eruption performed well in the first round, where Tomahawk broke down, allowing Eruption to throw Behemoth out of the arena. Eruption qualified alongside Cherub, which Eruption also flipped out of the arena in the same battle. In the second round, Eruption faced TR2 and Thor. Eruption immobilised TR2, flipping it over while it was low on gas, so could not self-right. Despite this, Eruption lost the Judges’ decision to Thor, having sustained too many axe blows. Eruption was given a second chance to qualify, through a battle against Tiberius and Tough as Nails. Eruption immobilised Tiberius in the opening seconds, stranding it on the arena wall. Eruption then fought Tough as Nails head-to-head, with Tough as Nails gaining the upper hand, grabbing Eruption from behind while it was self-righting. Later into the battle, Eruption pitted Tough as Nails, although the Dutch robot was able to drive back out. Surprisingly, the defeated Tiberius proved to be Eruption’s undoing, as once Tiberius was freed, it gained revenge by pushing Eruption into the pit, eliminating it.

Outside Robot Wars
Prior to Roaming Robots' acquisition of the Robot Wars brand, Eruption participated in the 2012 Winter Roaming Robots tour, where it placed 2nd overall, behind Ripper. In 2013, the same year where Eruption won the Robot Wars live title, Eruption also won the FRA UK Championship, defeating Manta in the final.

Aside from Robot Wars, Eruption also makes regular appearances at Robots Live!, where it most recently defeated Manta in a battle for the Challenge Nut. Team Eruption have also competed in live events with several featherweights. They have fought with Explosion, which has enjoyed similar success to its heavyweight counterpart. It became the FRA Featherweight Champion in 2013. Explosion went on to win the 2015 Featherweight World Championship, and most recently won the 2016 Featherweight International Championship, defeating Django in the final. They have also fought with two rambots, their first one being called Invasion, which was built in 2006, and later, Annihilation. The team also have a 2-wheeled driven featherweight named Combustion, which is armed with a vertical spinning disc.

Trivia

 * Eruption was the first competitor robot in the 2016 series to flip another competitor out of the arena, doing so on Terror Turtle in its first round battle. While King B Remix had been flipped out in a previous heat, it was done so by Matilda.
 * Eruption one of only two robots to throw a robot out of the arena, and not reach a Heat Final, the other being General Carnage 2.

Series Record

 * Series 1-7: Did not enter
 * 2016 Series: 3rd Place in Episode