User blog comment:Nweston8/Robot Wars Missions - Entry 1: Finding machines that are genuinely overrated/@comment-9751413-20180113212253

Gabriel

I have seen Gabriel winning a lot of battles in The Arena and people's tournaments against better robots. Battles against robots like Eruption, Concussion, Tough as Nails, and many other robots on the priviso that "They can't do anything to Gabriel". OK, that might be relevant if it weren't for the fact that Gabriel also cannot do anything.

Let's have a look at the battles it has "won". Firstly, we have a melee where Beast dominated, Crazy Coupe 88 was taken out by a House Robot, and - what should be number 1 on this list - Infernal Contraption which fell down the pit. The next win was against a limping Chompalot which was only just working anyway. After that, we have a battle with Beast, which had malfunctioned before the battle.

The other televised win was against Cobra and TMHWK, where it won because Apollo did all the work, and another robot fell down the pit again, said robot having beaten Gabriel through the fight.

Gabriel wins battles by surviving damage and outlasting opponents. What happened when it faced spinners? It lasted until a judges decision, but lost every time because even if you're tanking hits, you have to do something back, which it never does. This thing lost to Rabid M8, and quite rightly so. When given a chance to dominate a battle, it proved that it can't. Gabriel is the Kan-Opener of the reboot. It is perfect for Annihilators, and about nothing else.

I can understand it beating preboot robots, which didn't have as great armour, but modern stuff like Apollo and Eruption? 100% not. They didn't tire, and aren't going to break down because of a few glances by a blade. Just because they can't flip Gabriel doesn't mean they can't do other things, such as push the wheels or show general aggression. Keep moving and the missed hits will rack up, only adding to your score. Anyway, one flip on a wheel and Gabriel goes a long way, as the floor flipper showed. It cannot win battles unless the opponent is either really weak or will break down before it. It's a great concept, but hasn't proved itself in the Robot Wars arena.