User blog comment:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Extreme 1 & Series 5/@comment-24393094-20180720075829

11. Dominator 2. Still a robot to be feared, but in my opinion, this was its weakest series. Its heat win was not exactly impressive, it almost lost to Wheely Big Cheese and its wheel guards could not prevent terminal damage against Hypno-Disc. However, it would return next series, more powerful than ever...

10. Disc-O-Inferno. A spinner I feel could have beaten several of the opponents above, and of course, Dominator 2. However, seeing as it did not even want to appear in Series 5, as well as benefitting slightly due to misfortune of others, means I cannot really put any higher.

9. Wild Thing. Maybe it is just me, but I feel that Wild Thing's disc actually hindered it more than it helped. Indeed, without it, I believe it would have beaten Chaos 2. Plus, although it beat Dominator 2, it also lost to Arnold A. Terminegger.

8. S3. This monster did well in its heat, but there were some issues I need to point out. Firstly, yeah it lost to the champion and runners-up, but the problem is that it lost to both far too easily. In addition, S3 struggled against the rather average Mousetrap, and almost lost against Wild Thing too. So while it was deadly, I cannot place it any higher on this list.

7: Chaos 2. In fairness, Chaos 2 had an up and down year. It started off well enough in Extreme, especially in the All-Stars. I will forgive its losses in the World Championship and Flipper Frenzy, but not the Tornado battles, which started to showcase Chaos 2's issues with weight and over-flipping. Nonetheless, apart from an overflip against S.M.I.D.S.Y., Chaos 2 still did relatively well in Series 5, losing to Bigger Brother is nothing to be ashamed of.

6: Firestorm 3. Firestorm 3, like Series 5 Dominator 2, was having a few teething problems here and there. Although it was better than the previous two Firestorms, Firestorm 3 simply lacked the ground clearance, armour and reliability that its sequels had. And this caused it to generally have to work exceptionally harder to win its battles. While it won most of them, remember how a single blow from Hypno-Disc took it out (which, even if it was a fluke, would have taken Firestorm out of the tournament a series ago), how Razer actually dominated it in Extreme, and how Drillzilla came from behind to eliminate Firestorm 3 from the World Championship at the first stage. To make matters worse, I feel that Firestorm 3 would have lost to four of the five robots above it, meaning I cannot really place it any higher.

5: Pussycat. Still an excellent machine, while Pussycat could have lost its heat, I still think its reliability and expert control should not be underestimated, at all.

4: Bigger Brother. Solid year for this robot, Bigger Brother made S3 out to be like a round one dropout, while also outclassing Splinter and Chaos 2 on route to the Grand Final. What drops it in the ranking, however, is that Bigger Brother did not cleanly beat Hypno-Disc. If it did, it would be in the top two.

3: Drillzilla. Apart from Razer, Drillzilla was the only robot that made Firestorm 3 look like an alsoran. And considering how competitive the Firestorm series was, that is quite the accolade. Had it entered Series 5, it could have reached the Grand Final, I am sure it would have dominated machines such as S3, Hypno-Disc and even Chaos 2 on route to the final. Ultimately, however, exceptional rammers and crushers prevent it from taking the top spot.

2: Tornado. Considering it had the scoop in this era, I have to put it here. No doubt about it.

1: Razer. But not even Tornado could challenge Razer in this era. Sure, Razer may have lost to Pussycat, and almost lost to Firestorm 3, but apart from that, it was plain sailing for it, winning multiple tournaments along the way.