User:O Raz3r O/Series 9 Predictions

I really enjoyed CrashBash's in-depth analysis for Series 8, and now I've decided to make my own predictions for this series, as I've seen a couple of people do already. Just to be clear, unlike for the last series, I know absolutely NOTHING about any of the results, so my predictions will almost certainly be off in some way. I will give my analysis on every robot, no matter how good or bad (or ugly) and place them in a definitive order based on how likely they are to win the heat.

Heat 1
8 - Jellyfish I'm expecting nothing from Jellyfish, but then I expected nothing of Nuts last year either. Fantastic design, and lucky to escape the majority of the big spinners, but I simply don't see it escaping round one with the ground clearance, lightness compared to other machines and the fact that it is clearly a joke-bot who is there for good fun. Isn't that what Robot Wars is all about?

7 - Nuts 2 I hope I am defied yet again by this team, but its weapons aren't effective enough for me, even with the upgrades. Resilient, great fun and surprisingly aggressive, you know you're in for a laugh with this team, even if the results won't go their way. Not to mention the wheels could still be exposed if the rim was ripped off again...

6 - Crank-E I have to say, I was surprised on hearing of this team's return after last year. The new machine looks more promising than its predecessor though, but I'm still not sure about the potency of its weapon, and it looks fairly exposed at the back, with the weakness being stated as exposed wheels. There could be a lot of those this year...

5 - TMHWK TMHWK is a bit of an unknown quantity, despite the fact it's a returning team. Footage of it has been a bit mixed for me; I question how accurate and damage its weapon will actually be; all I've seen of it is the destruction of a TV after a few attempts. Moreover, 2-wheel drive won't help much with pushing, and I've heard it isn't the most reliable of machines.

4 - Sabretooth After a lot of build-up last year, Sabretooth was a bit of a disappointment, even if it didn't have the kindest of draws or the best luck. This year I think it has a good chance of reaching at least the second round; it's not in the Heat of Death and its exposed tyres will only give it trouble against a couple of opponents. However, it isn't as quick as most of its competitors, which is a worry. My opinion of its potential for future wars will dive bomb if it fails to deliver again here, but its drum does look very powerful and it may cause an upset.

3 - Aftershock Eyebrows may be raised at this being only at three but hear me out. First of all, Team Shock stated their weakness was the armour, which poses a problem against axe weapons like TMHWK and Terrorhurtz, and may also be an issue against spinners. Furthermore, will its weapon be able to act as a srimech properly, or will it fail to flip it back over? I'm not entirely sure. On a more positive note, the weapon looks absolutely devastating, and seeing how I don't trust the weapon of TMHWK yet and there's only one flipper in the heat, Aftershock should still do well here.

2 - Rapid Can Rapid walk the walk? It can certainly talk the talk going by the supposed power of the flipper. If it delivers, it could be mesmerising. Seven tonnes of force cannot be ignored, and when it comes to costs this appears to be the most expensive machine since Mortis. Could be a serious dark horse, or it may simply be all talk and crash out in round 1, but it's one of the very few flippers to get into the series, so the producers must have seen something in it. We'll have to wait and see.

1 - Terrorhurtz Forget the heat, this is Terrorhurtz's series to lose in my mind. The majority of its opponents are spinners or weaker versions of itself, its axe will be as powerful as ever, and even if it doesn't work it proved last series how effective it was at simply pushing and ramming its opponents around the arena. It's very damaging, very aggressive, well driven and well prepared for the spinner onslaught. I see only Rapid and Aftershock posing any potential problems in this heat, but even then that's only a possibility. Hasn't actually won a tournament on TV yet, but will it change this year?