User blog comment:Drop Zone mk2/My rant about qualifying robots/@comment-4700688-20160404111722

How uncanny that you planned to write this BEFORE Robot Wars announced that their newest selection process would be "no qualifiers at all, we'll just pick from a set of application forms" - certainly in 2016's case, we've the right to complain about PulverizeR, Diotoir etc being missing.

I do completely agree with your points - by Series 7, most robots were pretty strong, BOD and Metalis were the closest we were going to get to cannon fodder. I think there's still the odd case where there's confusion - Cobra seemed a little well armoured and boring in design to even make good fodder, Colossus never won a qualifier, yet it was never put up against something destructive - did the producers genuinely see potential?

It's different though in the case of an Audited War. I myself have never claimed that a robot that got into the main series or the opposite was a bad decision, though when it's our own audits, we naturally should choose the robots that provide the best entertainment for our voters.

Ultimately though, the process of Series 6 and 7 was the most fair. You win, you're in, fill the rest with cannon fodder and unlucky robots. Captain of Team Typhoon said that after his poor Series 7 qualifier, the only reason Typhoon 2 could have qualified for the series was simply to provide cannon fodder. It makes you wonder if Mentorn ever saw their own champion coming...