User blog comment:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Series 3/@comment-4700688-20180413000034


 * 15 - The Big Cheese. This robot had an excellent weapon, but at this stage of the contest, that's not enough to save it. The Big Cheese was exceptionally slow, and I'd have it lose to every remaining robot purely on the grounds of evasion. Well, actually, there might be one robot slow enough to get caught...


 * 14 - Gravedigger. I'm stunned to see this robot doing so well in everybody's rankings! Gravedigger was painfully slow at 5mph, and its ground clearance on the wedge was comically high. It should have beaten Steg-O-Saw-Us by knockout, but it was only able to achieve its two flips with assistance from Sir Killalot, and from Steg closing its own weapon on the surface of Gravedigger's wedge. A second instance of a good weapon failing to save a fundamentally weak machine.


 * 13 - Mace II. I've seen a few people criticising Thing II for its wedge constantly kicking back. OK, let's use that criticism against Mace II then, because it had the exact same problem! Mace was also cripplingly slow at 6mph. Its fundamentals and reasonable wins put it ahead of the previous two, but no further.


 * 12 - X-Terminator. Now we have the complete opposite of the first three, a robot with plenty of fundamentals, but a pitiful weapon. Credit to X-Terminator for being good enough to get this far, and it's incredibly worthy that they actually featured a srimech, but almost all of the remaining robots either had a better weapon, or somehow did the fundamentals even better.


 * 11 - Steg-O-Saw-Us. There's very little separating the two pushing boxes of Steg-O-Saw-Us and 101, but despite having greater success in the main competition, Steg's armour was worse than 101's, and it also performed worse against Hypno-Disc. Not hugely impressive against Gravedigger, and anyone could've won that fight against Beast of Bodmin.


 * 10 - 101. Logically then, 101 follows. Solid machine that a lot of robots had no answer to, but a complete absence of useful weaponry, and indeed a wedge, stop the run there.


 * 9 - Facet. I'd certainly call it an unexpected surprise to see Facet in the Top 10, but I can't really argue against it, Facet did have one of the best weapons in Series 3, backed up by its incredible speed, and wedge shape. However, that armour looked truly poor, the flipper looked like it was going to fold in on itself while it was firing!


 * 8 - Panic Attack. Panic Attack as a build is good enough to reach the Top 5 of this list, but it had a crippling weakness. This was what we nowadays call a 'control-bot'... and Kim Davies couldn't drive it. An overly touchy drive system noticeably put this great machine on the back foot against opponents that it should have comfortably beaten.


 * 7 - Thing II. Such as this one! Indeed, if I hadn't been informed of Thing's issues with rearing up, this machine would comfortably sit in the Top 5, maybe even 4! That and its lack of a srimech are the only issues with Thing II - otherwise we have a quick, dominant machine with an optimal wedge shape that could have carried it to a Grand Final under different circumstances.


 * 6 - Pitbull. This is a shock even for me, but Pitbull climbs to the Top 6! Ultimately I compared Pitbull against every machine prior, and decided it was better than all of them based on its speed, control, low wedge, and effective weaponry. Its lack of a srimech is absolutely the only issue with this otherwise superb Series 3 entry.


 * 5 - Behemoth. The weaknesses of Behemoth are clear, it lacks a srimech, and has a slow top speed. In spite of this, Behemoth fought three robots with lifting weapons, as well as several robots faster than it, and still came out on top. Behemoth's only losses in Series 3 were to the sixth-best and ???-best robots in the whole series, and it arguably defeated both of them. Also the robot on this list capable of the quickest wins, bar only Chaos 2.


 * 4 - Hypno-Disc. I'm going to be the third person to rank Hypno-Disc outside of the Top 3, but I think it's perfectly logical. Against robots with weak armour, Hypno-Disc could ruthlessly defeat them. Against durable robots, Hypno-Disc almost came unstuck at the hands of Berserk 2 and 101, even Steg-O-Saw-Us in the early stages. The fact it still won those matches means that Hypno-Disc is worthy of the Top 5, but it doesn't inspire me with the confidence I would need to put it any higher. The anti-climactic final against Chaos 2 undeniably happened, showing gearbox issues and a lack of a srimech (which all of the top four have), and Hypno-Disc absolutely would lose to the three robots above it (and probably the one below it).


 * 3 - Fire Storm. Almost the most consistent placer in this rankdown, if not for one vote which criticised Fire Storm's 67kg weight. OK, so that means Chaos 2 can throw it out of the arena, that's the only downside of its lower weight which also makes the robot faster by default - and a weaker showing against Pitbull only served to boost my ranking of the dog. Fire Storm was quick, it had an effective weapon, a srimech, and most importantly, a solid wedge. Think about it, Thing II is consistently reaching Top 10's in this rankdown just by being a wedge, but it's easy to forget that Fire Storm also had a high quality wedge because it also had a weapon on top of it. It's that low profile wedge which would help it beat Hypno-Disc, which had yet to peak. I'm a little spooked by Fire Storm's lack of movement against Chaos 2, but by beating Facet, Panic Attack and Pitbull, Fire Storm has three wins within the top ten alone.


 * 2 - Chaos 2. There are no words to express how far ahead of the competition Chaos 2 was. It was several steps in front of every robot remaining in the competition from the moment it debuted. Unfortunately, the real best robot of Series 3 had already vanished by that point...


 * 1 - Razer. It broke down against Aggrobot - we know. One breakdown against nine victories (including the Pinball) is entirely forgivable, especially when I bring in something which nobody has even considered yet, so credit to Drop Zone mk2 for highlighting this in his MAJOR expansion. Razer's breakdown was the result of the crusher's apex being so high that its tail suspended Razer from the floor - an intentional decision made by the team to stop Razer from taking damage while self-righting. Team Razer saw their mistake after it cost them the match, and FIXED it on-site, so that such an issue would never happen again. And it didn't - Razer then went on to defeat the only other contender for Number 1 in its World Championship win, and never had a fluke breakdown again in its entire career. The Razer that wouldn't suspend itself on its tail DID take part in Series 3, and as such, it was the best robot in Series 3.