User blog:Drop Zone mk2/My rant about qualifying robots

This is something I've wanted to talk about for a while, but I had put off before now, due to the announcement of the new series. However, I do feel it is still worth posting.

When I say this is a "rant about qualifying robots", I'm not going to be ranting about robots that were left out and the robots that were put on the show. Instead, I'm going to be ranting about people who rant about robots that were left out and the robots that were put on the show.

What do I mean by this? Well, we all look at some of the weaker-performing robots on the show and wonder if there might have been a better robot to take their place. And with the amount we have found about robots that failed to qualify, thanks to the roboteers websites, we can pick and choose our ideal line-ups for the series, and imagine how well they might have done.

Whilst this is not a problem in itself, I feel that many people (no names mentioned) have been taking it too far. It seems like people are constantly complaining about many robots that got a place on the series and those that got left out, and many of them are making the same points over and over again, beating a dead horse. Cobra, Juggernot 2 and Doctor Fist are the most common targets for these comments, but there are many others; Fat Boy Tin, B.O.D., Twn Trwn, Humphrey and many more. Not to mention all the robots that missed out on a place that people complain about.

Worse still, many people are making unfair comments about the producers, comments such as "What were the producers thinking?" and "The qualifiers are an absolute joke!". Now, I am not entirely innocent of this, I have been making some complaints about qualifying robots, like in my blog about Mighty Mouse, but I felt I should write this blog to help people understand the reasons why robots qualify, to give people a little bit of persepective.

The first thing to remember is that the show is not just about getting "the best" robots together. Consider the following quote from Noel Poncelot of The Hassocks Hog; "You mustn’t forget that the show is primarily about being entertainment, not necessarily about putting the best robots forward. I think the organisers will try to put forward robots that they think will be the most entertaining, whether that is because they are very tough robots, or canon fodder for others."

- Noel Poncelot, in an email to Toon Ganondorf

He's correct. Robots aren't just picked because they are very strong in terms of weapons and armour, many of them were picked as "cannon fodder" and because they had particularly fun or unique designs, even if they weren't all that effective in battle. As Mat Irvine said; "We had robots in there, with the best will in the world, that weren't neccesarily the best robots, but the teams were good, the robot looked interesting, it may frankly not have been, but then you've also set up a competition - there's no point in ending up with 12 robots which are all equal, frankly it's like Forumula 1. Only the slightest thing is going to make it different. We're making a television show first and foremost, we weren't making a sport! Some roboteers unfortunately thought "Oh, its a contest!". No, unfortunately, it's a television programme first - entertainment first, then it's a sport."

- Mat Irvine, in this interview

Let's look at the "cannon fodder" aspect. We all love the destruction in the show, but if the producers only let on the strongest robots, we wouldn't get that destruction, especially in the later years of the show. I personally think that many of the weakest robots in the later years of the show were included as cannon fodder - I mean, in Series 7 we had a robot armoured in plastic, and a robot whose armour "may a well have been cardboard".

As for the robots with fun or unique designs, here is a quote from Simon Rafferty of the Barber-Ous team, about why their first entry, Rotraktor, failed to qualify. "A producer explained to us that while it was good from an engineering point of view - it looked boring! They wanted robots that looked exciting or unique - like the Irish robot that always caught fire - it was for TV after all!"

- Simon Rafferty in an email to Toon Ganondorf

Just because a comedy robot is very poor at fighting, it dosen't mean it dosen't deserve to be on the show. They can be very entertaining just by appearing, and seeing them destroyed can be even more fun. It annoys me a little when people say things like "How did The Tartan Terror qualify?" and "Granny's Revenge was nowhere near good enough to be let on!". Ok, if you didn't find them funny, or wanted a good fighter in their place, fair enough, but I can't help but feel these people are missing the point of these robots. Some teams entered deliberately weak robots, such as Blue, just for the fun of it. True, some novelty entries were actually good fighters, such as Diotoir and Robochicken, but my point still stands.

To give an example, before I started thinking about this blog, I was going to write a list about "Top 10 robots that should have qualified". I decided not to bother with this list because I felt enough had been said about these robots, but I was going to put Direct Action at number one. This may seem like a strange choice, but the reason I was going to put it at number one was because I felt it had everything the producers were looking for, despite not being a very strong robot. It looked different in shape, the artwork really stood out, the team were fun with their hats and "Mad in England" catchphrase, the robot was fast and had a powerful spinning disc, and even if the robot did poorly, the fact it was armoured in 6mm Nylon meant there was a good chance of destruction. Imagine if it had fought Supernova or Typhoon 2.

Another thing to consider is the results of the qualifiers. Many robots that did poorly on the show were actually pretty impressive at the qualifiers. For example, Obsidian was thrashed in its only appearance, but convincingly beat Hammer & Tong and Storm Force at the qualifiers.

On the opposite side of this "coin", many robots that failed to qualify didn't put up a good display at the qualifiers, so it is understandable they failed to qualify. Take for example, V-Max. Oh boy, V-Max. V-Max is a perfect example of why I decided to write this blog. Across this wiki and across the comments section of its battles on YouTube, you will find comment after comment of people saying "How did V-Max fail to qualify?", "I'll never understand why it was a reserve!", "It was so much better than Fat Boy Tin/The Predator/Humphrey/The Creature!" etc. Now, I don't think V-Max is a bad robot, but there is a very good reason they failed to qualify, which everyone seems to just ignore. At the qualifiers, they lost TWO of their three battles! And on top of that, it is a very simple wedge shape with a small flipping arm, not the kind of unique looking or visually striking robot the producers were looking for. Bearing that in mind, no matter how good it was in the arena, people should not be complaining about its failure to qualify, it is not a "disgrace" as some people think it is.

There are many similar examples like this. I would have liked to have seen Typhoon 2 in Series 6, but they were flipped over pretty quickly in their qualifier. As there is a good reason for it, I don't complain about it. I would have liked to have seen Six Pac in the main competion of Series 3, not just the Pinball, but they had radio reception issues at the audition, and kept stopping and starting. As there is a good reason for it, I don't complain about it. I would have liked to have seen PulveriseR in the main competion of Series 7, but they couldn't get their disc to work, so couldn't put up a good battle at the qualifiers. As there is a good reason for it, I don't complain about it.

Also, some robots that people complain about for not qualifying were unfortunate to come up against very strong robots at the qualifiers, and that can explain why they didn't qualify. For example, I would have liked to have seen Splinter] in Series 6, but they lost to 259 at the qualifiers, so I don't complain about it. I would have liked to have seen Mini Morg in Series 6, but they were thrashed by Supernova at the qualifiers, so I don't complain about it. I would have liked to have seen Lightning in Series 5 and 6, but they lost to Razer and Barbaric Response respectively.

Of course, there is so much we don't know about the qualifiers, but I'm sure whatever the reasons were that the producers made the choices they did, there was a good reason for all of them. I would have liked to have seen Mutant Mousetrap in Series 6, and whether or not we ever find out the reason it failed to qualify, I'm sure there is a good reason for it. I would have liked to have seen Haardervark in Series 5 and 6, and whether or not we ever find out the reason it failed to qualify, I'm sure there is a good reason for it.

So, there you have it. I'm not saying all the robots on the show were fantastic, or that we must never have Audited series or think about which robots we would have liked to have seen on the show, I just want people to consider these points rather than everyone making the same old points about "How on Earth did Cobra qualify?" over and over again! Drop Zone mk2 (talk) 09:22, April 4, 2016 (UTC)