Nemesis

"Haven't they got good taste? Red and black polka-dots, that ghastly grin, and red fur surely vulnerable to flame, I'd have thought."

- Jonathan Pearce's first impression of Nemesis

Nemesis was Team Nemesis's original entry for Robot Wars, and competed in the first two series. The robot was similar in shape and look to its more famous successor, Diotoir, but was more closely circular, with a 1000psi pneumatic ram and static steel spikes rather than a lifting arm. In Series 2, a front-mounted 'sword' (based on a Roman Gladius) blade and hooked cutting blades replaced the static spikes.

Nemesis did however have the red and black spotted fur, angry eyes and smile just like Diotoir, at one point being referred to as a "grinning red armchair" by Jonathan Pearce thanks to these features and its shape. Nemesis never failed to progress past the Gauntlet and the Trial, managing to defeat Shunt in the Sumo trial of the First Wars, but lost in the first arena battle in both series in which it competed.

Nemesis was retired after Series 2 to make way for Diotoir, but in the Third Wars, the robot was lent to the Australian Terror Australis team in order to compete with when their original robot broke down in the International League Championship, in which it had all its fur taken off and was partially painted yellow. In one battle, Nemesis actually fought its successor in battle, with Diotoir coming out on top after pitting its predecessor in this guise.

Series 1
Nemesis participated in Heat A of the First Wars, the first show in Robot Wars History. In the Gauntlet stage of the heat, Nemesis went straight for the first ramp, and went over it, before going over the second ramp and turning beyond Matilda to make it to the end zone and complete the course, putting it at the top of the leaderboard, easily putting it through to the trial stage of the heat, which for this heat was Sumo.

In The Sumo, Nemesis faced house robot Shunt, and drove away from the edge after being pushed back by Shunt, before amazingly reversing Shunt off the ring in just 27 seconds, putting Nemesis at the top of the leaderboard once again, easily putting it through to the Arena stage of the heat. In the heat Semi-Final, Nemesis was drawn up against the future champions Roadblock. Prior to the battle, Nemesis started having problems as its speed controller burned out, and with the team lacking a spare one, could only drive forwards during the battle. Nemesis was able to puncture Roadblock's side armour with its pneumatic spike, while bits of fur torn were off by the Cornish machine's blade. Roadblock drove into Matilda's CPZ and drove underneath Nemesis as soon as it escaped. Sergeant Bash set Nemesis alight and Matilda cut off one of its eyes with her chainsaw. Cease was called because there was no robot to put out the flames, and so a stagehand had to enter the arena and extinguish Nemesis (this incident resulted in every future series having a full team of firefighters present to deal with any such situation). "They're in the air! They're in the air! And they're on fire!"

- Jonathan Pearce as Nemesis is set ablaze

Despite still being technically mobile, Nemesis was automatically eliminated from the competition.

At the end of the series, Team Nemesis was presented by the judges with the Sportsmanship award for the series, this would be the first of many Sportsmanship awards won by Team Nemesis.

Series 2
"Well guys, you went out in a ball of flames in the last war, I would've thought that you'd have learned"

- Craig Charles after Nemesis' Gauntlet run

Nemesis returned for the Second Wars, freshly garbed in fur. In the Gauntlet stage of the heat, Nemesis took the ramrig route, and after briefly being held up by the ramrig, Nemesis managed to get through. However Sergeant Bash was waiting and immediately set Nemesis aflame and set upon by the House Robots, but after being damaged and almost all the fur had been burnt away, Nemesis just managed to cross the line and complete the course, putting it through to the trial stage of the heat, which for this heat was Skittles. In the Trial stage, Nemesis entered the arena heavily bandaged, after being set alight by Sergeant Bash in the Gauntlet. Nemesis managed to use its claws and spikes to score a good score of 38.

Nemesis was fully repaired and fully garbed in fur again when it entered the arena for its battle against Onslaught. Nemesis also had a kebab placed across it in case of Nemesis catching fire again. However, Nemesis didn't get a chance to catch fire as Onslaught, after some shoving around, pushed Nemesis into the pit of oblivion, eliminating Nemesis from the competition.

Nemesis, complete with a chef's hat and kebab, returned in the Grudge Matches special at the end of the series and featured in Inferno Insurrection match against Ramrombit and house robot Sergeant Bash. Both the competitor robot and the stock robot had been sprayed with paraffin and were set alight by Sergeant Bash's flamethrower and left to burn for the audience's entertainment. No winner was announced when cease was finally called, as this battle was just an exhibition battle. "For goodness sake don't try this at home any of you! These are trained roboteers would you believe."

- Jonathan Pearce as Nemesis and Ramrombit burn

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 0
 * Losses: 2

Series Record

 * Series 1: Heat, Arena Semi-Final
 * Series 2: Heat, Arena Semi-Final
 * Series 3-5: Entered with Diotoir
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter

Trivia

 * According to team captain Peter Redmond, Nemesis was designed with the idea of having a "personality" in mind. He chose to cover the robot in fur to reinforce this, after noting that flamethrowers were prohibited by competitors (although he did not realise that Sgt. Bash would have one).
 * Both of Nemesis' appearances were in the same heat as Roadblock.
 * Nemesis' loss against Roadblock in Series 1 makes it the first robot to lose a 1 on 1 battle.
 * Nemesis is one of 23 robots to have completed The Gauntlet, and, along with Dreadnaut, Mortis and Roadblock, is one of four robots to have completed it twice.
 * Nemesis was the first robot to be victorious in the Sumo, and therefore the first to defeat a House Robot in any way.
 * Nemesis, along with Razer and Corporal Punishment in Series 2, is one of three robots to finish the Gauntlet and Trial in first place, but then lose in the Arena Semi-Final. Robot the Bruce, Demolition Demon and All Torque were the other three to achieve this double victory.
 * Nemesis was nominated for the Sportsmanship Award in Series 2 after winning in Series 1, but lost to Plunderbird. Along with Mortis and Chaos 2, Nemesis is one of only three robots to be nominated for the award it held the previous year, and then lose it.
 * Fittingly, Nemesis was the first robot ever to catch fire in Robot Wars.