User blog:NJGW/Judge NJGW

Hello, and welcome to a 'trial' of a new series here on the NJGW's blogs. As we know, there's always going to be dodgy moments on a show that runs for multiple series, and in Robot Wars'  case that means Judges' decisions. People have their opinions on the more interesting ones in the show's history, and I thought it'd be good to go over multiple fights and coming on a conclusion as to who I think won the fight. However, instead of just saying "that machine won", I will be properly pulling the fight apart piece by piece and coming out with point totals for each machine. You guys can decide what the next fights to analyse will be, but without further ado - let's go with our first entry:


 * The bracket score after each score out of 5 is awarded, relates to the overall total thanks to the multiplier of that category. For example, if I award Tornado 3/5 points for damage, the bracket score of (12) next to it means that Tornado's overall score for that category is 12. This is due to Damage being multiplied by 4, and then so on for the other categories.

Fight 1: Fluffy vs. Das Gepaeck
The idea of this blog was started from this fight - with mystrsyko2 reviewing the UK vs. Germany episode yesterday. So, there's no real place to start other than with this fight itself.

General Notes: Fluffy damages Das Gepaeck's guiding cone. Fluffy damages the lower part of Das Gepaeck's shell which protects its tyres. Fluffy's weapon stops working. Das Gepaeck forces Fluffy in towards Sergeant Bash's CPZ.

DAMAGE ''DEFINITION: Damage refers to the amount of damage inflicted on the other robot as a result of one robot's actions. Notable examples of this include Wild Thing vs Hypno-Disc from Series 4, Firestorm 3 vs Razer from Series 5 and Dominator 2 vs 101, again from Series 4. Until Series 8, damage was considered to be the most important factor in a judges' decision, and could outweigh aggression in the event of a closely-fought battle.'' Fluffy - Fluffy manages multiple attacks on Das Gepaeck during the opening period. Fluffy slashes away at the lower part of Das Gepaeck's shell which protects its tyres - causing clear visual damage. Fluffy also knocks loose one of Das Gepaeck's guiding cones.

Das Gepaeck - Das Gepaeck largely fails in this category for obvious reasons. Fluffy's weapon does end up breaking, and does grind down to a stop after a Das Gepaeck slam though. However, Fluffy's weapon was already about to come to a stop, as it had drove over the Flame Pit seconds early. Thus, although it carried out the final slam needed to fully stop the weapon, Das Gepaeck cannot take more than minor credit for the weapon inactivity from Fluffy for the rest of the fight. Das Gepaeck does also cause a sole dent with one of its guiding cones, but this isn't penetrative, so means that Das Gepaeck fails to break into the 3/5 region.

'''Damage Summary - If Fluffy only loosened up the guiding cone of Das Gepaeck, then its Damage score would've been lower, but the removal of most of Das Gepaeck's skirts cannot be ignored. The only reason it would be ignored is that it's quite hard to see this lower section of Das Gepaeck's armour in the arena lighting - but once you do see it, the damage is evident. Fluffy's clear damage edges out the final shunt from Das Gepaeck which stopped Fluffy's weapon slowing for good.

FLUFFY: 3/5 (12); DAS GEPAECK: 2/5 (8)'''

AGGRESSION: ''DEFINITION: Aggression refers to how aggressive the robot was deemed to be during the battle, not necessarily causing damage. The best example of this is Storm 2 vs The Grim Reaper from Series 7, where although Storm 2 did not damage The Grim Reaper sufficiently enough to immobilise it, it was continuously on the offensive throughout the entire battle. Prior to Series 8, aggression could only be outweighed by damage.'' Fluffy - Fluffy consistently comes on the attack during the opening minute. After Fluffy's weapon breaks, Fluffy's attack style varies. There is one instance where Fluffy backs away, but it only backs away in order to line up a aggressive drive straight afterwards, so Fluffy cannot be penalised for this specific instance. One occasion where Fluffy can be criticised in the Aggression category is here though - as it visibly runs away for a few seconds without attempting to lining up an attack itself. This happens once more during the last five seconds which allows Das Gepaeck to come in with a push. Despite this, Fluffy still only occasionally plays defensively even after its weapon breaks - even managing to push Das Gepaeck itself backwards here. Apart from these moments, Fluffy is simply attempting to drive towards Das Gepaeck's sides - and its opening period holds a lot of weight towards its overall Aggression score.

Das Gepaeck - Das Gepaeck is deceptively pensive and holdbackish during Fluffy dominant period. This isn't Das Gepaeck grinding Fluffy's weapon down by tanking hits - instead, it visibly keeps its distance for large periods during the opening 50 seconds. After this, Das Gepaeck consistently takes the fight to Fluffy. Minor potential for loss of aggression points come as it backs away a considerable amount to activate the Pit, and here when it gives up on being aggressive for a few seconds by attempting to draw Fluffy in towards the Pit. However, activating the Pit is an attempt to benefit its own gameplan, and Das Gepaeck only arched around the Pit as apposed to remaining stationary next to it for a long time, so it cannot be penalised for this. Like Fluffy, it had a period of the fight where it carried out pensive actions during the opening minute, but it also was on the offensive for the end period, too.

'''Aggression summary - both machines have their periods of the fight where they are taking the battle to the opponent. During this periods, the opposition machine has moments of fear or defensive actions. However, both machines carry out enough attacks/drives to both score well in this area.

FLUFFY: 3/5 (9); DAS GEPAECK 3/5 (9)'''

CONTROL: ''DEFINITION: Control refers to how well the robot was driven during the battle. It also gives weight to how much control the robot had over the flow of the battle. Ways to lose points for control include getting pushed around, and poor avoidance of arena hazards. Control is the third most important factor in a judges' decision.'' Fluffy - Fluffy is competently controlled for large periods of the fight. It consistently gets its bar up to speed which allows it to complete multiple attacks, and also takes advantage whenever Das Gepaeck opened itself up - with this being one of a couple of examples of expert driving from Team Fluffy, where they saw an opportunity to attack and complete that attack in a very-swift fashion. For the remainder of the fight, Fluffy's control has clear examples of competent driving, and clear examples of poor driving - as it largely bats aside Das Gepaeck's attempts to push Fluffy around the arena, but also puts itself over the Flame Pit on two occasions. 3/5.

Das Gepaeck - Das Gepaeck is decently controlled throughout, without really excelling, either. A blotch on Das Gepaeck's control comes as it poorly opens its side up to a big Fluffy hit, while a clear plus point is the drive in towards Sergeant Bash. 3/5.

'''Control Summary: Das Gepaeck's positives are less obvious than Fluffy's, but it makes less visual errors too. An large inability to push around a weaponless machine is a big negative though.

FLUFFY: 3/5 (6); DAS GEPAECK 3/5 (6)'''

STYLE: ''DEFINITION: Style refers to how well the robot entertained the viewers and demonstrated its capabilities during the battle. Best examples of this include Razer's or Mute's fancy ways of self-righting. One would lose points for style if it did nothing entertaining during the battle. Style is judged to be the least important of the criteria.'' Fluffy - Fluffy is naturally stylish and has the only entertaining period of the fight out of the two machines, as its bar connects with multiple hits. However, its weapon breaking and the couple of defensive actions it carries out are not entertaining at all.

Das Gepaeck - Das Gepaeck is a very vanilla machine to watch. Its entertainment value is little to the general viewing audience, but it didn't try to be boring either.

'''Style Summary: The least important category is another tie. Fluffy would have clearly won this category if it caused damage for a slightly longer period, but its weapon breaking is a clear flaw on the entertainment of the fight and cancels out its early Style points. Das Gepaeck naturally struggles to excel in this area.

FLUFFY: 2/5 (2); DAS GEPAECK: 2/5 (2)'''

OVERALL SCORE: FLUFFY - 29 DAS GEPAECK - 25