User blog:RA2/Extreme Warriors 2 & Nickelodeon Rankdown

Welcome to the Extreme Warriors 2 & Nickelodeon Rankdown! Since everyone who's expressed interest is pretty familiar with this, I'm truncating the explanation, but if anyone has any questions, please let me know. The game is on!!

List of all robots
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mGxgkPRq18OKCOq1gA9leZ_IF3C9csAiWiJuasaR-pA/edit?usp=sharing

The Doom Dial
To make things more interesting, I’m introducing the Doom Dial, your choice of a special power. Each player may press the Doom Dial once to access one of the following effects:


 * Pit: Negate the most recent cut and remove the robot in question from the pool. The robot gets immunity for one full cycle (ie cannot be nominated until after the player you interrupted finishes his/her next turn).  It’s on you to play this in time to catch the robot you want, if it’s not the most recent, it can’t be Pitted.


 * Rogue House Robot: on your turn, you may cut a robot that’s not in the pool. You will not nominate on the round you use this. You may not cut any robot that has immunity.  This cut cannot be negated by the Pit.


 * Fog Of War: On your turn, instead of cutting/nominating, replace the entire pool with a new set. You may not pick any robot that has immunity.  In subsequent rounds, you can cut robots that you brought in with Fog of War.

The Doom Dial will be available in all rounds except the first and last. You are not obligated to use the Doom Dial. To reiterate, you each get one button press, NOT one of each power.

Usages

 * RA2
 * CrashBash
 * HV Lobsta
 * Toast
 * NJGW

Instructions
In order to even out the cutting power, I've decided to establish a pool before Round 1. This means in Round 1, there will immediately be a pool available. When you sign up, you'll be voting robots in by making a list of the 10 worst - 10 being the very wort, 1 being the least-worst. Please format your signup like I do, order matters because the robot at #10 will count as 10 votes, the robot at #8 will count as 10 votes... etc. The robots† who collect the most votes will comprise the initial pool. No need to explain your vote-ins though you are free to explain if you wish.

The robots that get "voted in" to the initial pool can be cut by anyone.


 * †Pool size will be equal to the number of players if we get 6 or more, or 2*the number of players if we have 5 or less.

My signup
If you wish to sign up, please write out a bottom 10 like I have. No need to explain.


 * 10. Phantasm. 56kg's overweight is much more than a simple oversight.  They were left with a robot that would struggle to beat even the Piecemaker, so I'm giving them 10 votes into the pool


 * 9. Techno Trousers. I like their innovation, but they lost drive without provocation, and the weapon shafts could bend under a small gust of wind.


 * 8. Thor's Hammer. Hammer looked to be just a bit of sheet metal, and like Piecemaker, way too light to contend


 * 7. Hoot. Completely rubbish spinner


 * 6. Humdrum. See above


 * 5. Wowot. Their one off appearance was just them getting decimated, and while I loved the creativity, I don't see them beating the decent Extreme Warriors bots


 * 4. Joker. The losingest robot in all of classic Robot Wars, and it's no accident, those flails just did nothing.


 * 3. Run Away. Too fragile for its own good.


 * 2. The Piecemaker. Not designed to fight heavyweights I'll grant, but looked pretty pedestrian for its own class with its Colson wheels and ineffective saws


 * 1. Paul Bunyan. A weapon so poor that they favoured the spike over it.  The least offensive of the bots here so I only give it one vote.

Players
I have randomly arranged everyone who signed up


 * 1. RA2


 * 2. CrashBash


 * 3. HV Lobsta


 * 4. ToastUltimatum


 * 5. NJGW

Rankdown
We will go until a round ends with 10 robots or fewer still alive. That's 15 rounds, possibly 16 if the Doom Dial affects things.

With 4 players, that means a pool size of 8. We voted, and the 8 robots that received the most votes were Techno Trousers, Phantasm, Hoot, Thor's Hammer, The Piecemaker, Joker, Squirmin Vermin, and Bang. And as I have the first go, one of them is about to be cut right now.

70. Phantasm (RA2)
56 reasons to cut: Phantasm. It was pretty unlikely that I'd be talked out of this. While Techno Trousers may have been pants, at least they, and every other participant for that matter, showed up with a regulations-compliant robot. This was a complete misunderstanding of the rules that I can only attribute to a fundamental misunderstanding of the conversion from Imperial to Metric. Stripped down to nothing, the robot was quite lost in its battles, and appeared to smoke out just from moving around too fast. I can't see anything here that could beat out this level of unpreparedness.

Nominating: Humdrum. Same robot as last year's Joker, only this time they don't even have the lucky win to their name.

Pool: Bang, Hoot, Humdrum, Joker, Squirmin Vermin, Techno Trousers, The Piecemaker, Thor's Hammer

69. Techno Trousers (CrashBash)
Given a severe wedgie: Techno Trousers. Most of the robots currently on the list have a lot of issues, but at least they all showed decent mobility. This is something even Techno Trousers couldn't get right. Every one of its four fights across the two series, its felt laboured and barely got going. Add on a useless weapon that only ever seemed to fire once and you've got yourself a disaster.

Go back to Robotica!: Run Away. I'm sorry, but it's just not made for Robot Wars.

Pool: Bang, Hoot, Humdrum, Joker, Run Away, Squirmin Vermin, The Piecemaker, Thor's Hammer

68. Hoot (HV Lobsta)
I don't give a: Hoot. As I stated before, this bot manages to be the worst overhead flail/bar spinner, other than maybe W70, but everything about Hoot was useless in its only battle against a bot that was designed to be a bit, at least weapon-wise. Hoot's just broke off after a ill-fated charge into Bunny Attack. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know, what will?

Pooled: Paul Bunyan. A legend, this bot was named after, but that's not a trait a competitor with a 230RPM spinner can boast of. Another robot humiliated by Bunny Attack, when it lost its basically useless weapon in both of its battles, it had to rely on a about-as useless rear spike. I can't recall any moment where this bot was the aggressor.

Pool: Bang, Humdrum, Joker, Paul Bunyan, Run Away, Squirmin Vermin, The Piecemaker, Thor's Hammer.

67. The Piecemaker (ToastUltimatum)
Needs a few roast dinners: The Piecemaker. All the other robots in the pool had the potential to at least do SOMETHING offensive, but The Piecemaker could do nothing other than survive. Ironically it did that quite well, but I wouldn’t pick it to beat anything else in the pool.

Fossilised: Trilobyte. I just typed out a vote for why I’m cutting Trilobyte, but apparently it’s not even in the pool yet! Don’t know how that was missed, I genuinely would’ve used an instant Rogue House Robot I’d that were within the rules.

The Pool: Bang, Humdrum, Joker, Paul Bunyan, Run Away, Squirmin Vermin, Thor’s Hammer, Trilobyte