Seeding

During the original UK series of Robot Wars, the producers awarded seedings to robots. A seed is a preliminary ranking that can be used in arranging a sports tournament. It is called a seed because of the analogy with plants where the seed might grow into a top rank at the end of that tournament, or the seed might instead wither away. Seeded machines are 'planted' into the bracket in a manner that is typically intended so that the best don't meet until later in the competition. Therefore, the first and second seed are always intended to meet in the Grand Final, although this never happened in Robot Wars. Seedings were not used in the eighth and ninth series.

Benefits
Seeded robots automatically qualified for the Series, and did not have to go through the qualifiers. However, some of the seeds in Series 5 were decided after the qualifiers, due to the reduction of seeds from 32 to 24.

Seeds were predominantly expected to be the favourites to win each heat. In Series 4 and 5, where two seeds were placed in each heat, the higher seed was considered the favourite, whilst the lower seed was considered the second favourite.

The seeds were nearly always kept apart so that they could only meet in the Heat Final – although this only happened five times due to one or the other or even both being knocked out of the competition before hand. The only exception was in the Fifth Wars when Hypno-Disc and Atomic 2 met in the second round of Heat B despite both being seeded.

Regular seeds
Because of their pedigree or popularity, certain UK Series Competitors were seeded in numerous series. However, no robot or team was ever seeded on all five occasions of seeds being granted.

Hypno-Disc and Razer are the only two competitors never to have been seeded outside the top four.

Four occasions

 * Cold Fusion Team
 * Firestorm
 * Panic Attack
 * Team Chaos
 * Team Scutterbots

Three occasions

 * Behemoth
 * Bigger Brother
 * Hypno-Disc
 * Razer
 * Stinger
 * Tornado
 * Wild Thing
 * X-Terminator

Robot Wars: The Second Wars
Seeds were first introduced in Series 2, with only six robots being seeded. As a result of this, seeds were only placed in half of the heats.

The Second Wars featured seeded robots based on performance in the previous series. It was intended that the six Grand Finalists from the first series would be seeded, but as Cunning Plan and T.R.A.C.I.E. (or even reincarnations of these robots) did not initially return for the second series, seedings were given to Mortis and Killertron instead.

1. Roadblock 2. Mortis 3. Bodyhammer 4. Killertron 5. Cassius 6. Chaos

Controversy
The Second Wars seeding has been the subject of some controversy.
 * Griffon, the heavyweight successor to Cunning Plan, was ignored in the seeding selections. It has been speculated that it was rejected due to the producers not being impressed with it, although Griffon was eventually chosen as a reserve and competed when Reckless Endangerment pulled out at the last minute.
 * Mortis was given the second seed, despite falling at the Heat Final stage. Bodyhammer (the only remaining robot besides Roadblock), Chaos and Cassius (from the team to defeat Mortis) were given lower seeds.
 * Similarly, but to a lesser extent, Killertron, a Heat finalist in the previous war, was seeded higher than both Cassius and Chaos.
 * A possible reason suggested for Cassius and Chaos receiving lower seeds is that while they were entered by experienced teams, both robots themselves were new, and entering their debut series.

Success rate

 * In the Second Wars, four seeded robots made it to the Semi-Finals. Bodyhammer was the first seeded robot to lose in Round 1, after being eliminated at the Gauntlet stage, and Chaos lost at the Heat Final stage.
 * Killertron became the first seeded robot to finish in its predicted position, finishing fourth overall.
 * Despite three seeds making the Grand Final, the winner of the Series was an unseeded newcomer.

Robot Wars: The Third Wars
Due to the change in the format of the UK Championship, there were no seeds in Series 3, however normal expectations of certain returning robots and teams naturally still stood.

It should also be noted that despite the organised seeding bracket, the winner and runner up Panic Attack and Cassius 2 could not have fought before the final match of the Wars. Similarly, Beast of Bodmin could only have encountered Cassius in the eliminator (where Hypno-Disc fought Steg-O-Saw-Us).

Robot Wars: The Fourth Wars
"This year, just like Wimbledon, we've seeded our top 32 teams based primarily on past battle performance."

- Craig Charles in the opening of Heat A

Series 4 featured thirty-two seeded robots, the most in any series of Robot Wars to date. Each heat featured two seeds, with a gap of sixteen in between; for example, Heat A featured the first and seventeenth seeds. The format of the heats would be that all of the odd-numbered seeds would be placed in the first eight heats, and then, starting from 16 and 32, the even-numbered seeds would be placed in heats until the second and eighteenth seeds were placed in the final heat.

The Fourth Wars featured seeded robots based on performance in the previous series. Robots such as Razer and Behemoth were given high seedings due to their success in The First World Championship, despite not reaching the Semi-Finals in Series 3. Some of the lower seeds were given to robots who had success outside of the most recent series, despite performing poorly in the Third Wars itself. For example, Mortis and Plunderbird 4 were seeded as a result of them being former Semi-Finalists (in addition to Mortis being a former Heat Finalist and Award winner, and the Plunderbird machines being crowd favourites), and Killerhurtz was presumably seeded in recognition of its success in BattleBots. Other robots were seeded based on their popularity, such as Stinger and Sir Chromalot.

All the Semi-Finalists from the third series (except Pitbull and Beast of Bodmin, whose teams had not expressed intent of returning) were seeded, but when both Trident and Blade's Big Bruva pulled out at the last minute, Centurion and Suicidal Tendencies were both given seedings.

1. Chaos 2

2. Hypno-Disc

3. Razer

4. Panic Attack

5. Firestorm 2

6. Behemoth

7. Steg 2

8. Gemini

9. 101

10. Spawn of Scutter

11. Wild Thing

12. Evil Weevil 2

13. Gravedigger

14. Bigger Brother

15. Wheely Big Cheese

16. Killerhurtz

17. King B3

18. Cerberus

19. Pussycat

20. Aggrobot 2

21. Diotoir

22. X-Terminator 2

23. Mortis

24. Berserk 2

25. Shadow of Napalm

26. Plunderbird 4

27. Sir Chromalot

28. Weld-Dor 2

29. Dreadnaut XP-1

30. Stinger

31. Centurion

32. Suicidal Tendencies

Controversy
The Fourth Wars seeds proved to be the most controversial in Robot Wars history:
 * Razer and Behemoth’s places in the top six have been perceived as unfair by some. Despite their success in the First World Championship, they both performed comparatively poorly in Series 3 itself, reaching the second round and Heat Final stages respectively.
 * Despite its predecessor finishing joint third in Series 3, Steg 2 was only seeded seventh, the lowest seed given to any Grand Finalist in Robot Wars history.
 * The number of seeds granted in Series 4 has been seen as unnecessary, with so many robots seeded, numerous roboteers felt that the seeds had lost their meaning.
 * Despite the high number of seeds, two Heat Finalists (Invertabrat and Darke Destroyer 2) missed out on seedings to robots that lost in the first two rounds. Suicidal Tendencies was also missed out until its last minute inclusion.
 * However, commentary by Jonathan Pearce leads some fans to believe that Darke Destroyer 2 specifically requested to be in Gravedigger's Heat in an attempt to earn vengeance over said robot, and thusly entered that Heat unseeded.
 * Despite its failure to win any of its four UK battles at that stage, Killerhurtz was seeded higher than King B3, Pussycat, Mortis and Diotoir, all of whom had been previous UK Championship or World Championship Semi-Finalists. Many suspect that Killerhurtz’s popularity and pedigree in the US show BattleBots may have contributed to it being seeded so highly.
 * In distributing the seeds, two Heats deviated from the gap of sixteen formula. Heat H featured a gap of seventeen, whilst Heat I featured a gap of fifteen.
 * Suicidal Tendencies is mistakenly announced as the thirty-first seed in the Northern Annihilator. If this was its true seed, then the aforementioned heats would have followed the gap of sixteen formula.
 * In addition, the seeds that should have been in Heat F (Wild Thing (11) and Sir Chromalot (27)) were swapped with those in Heat M (Gemini (8) and Berserk 2 (24)). It is possible that this change was intentionally made in order for Gemini to meet Chaos 2 in the second round of the Semi-Final, rehashing the rivalry between the two teams, rather than in the last match of the series.

Success rate
Of the top sixteen seeds, eight made the Series Semi-Finals. This was added to the three bottom sixteen seeds that made the final, to give eleven seeded Semi-Finalists.
 * Series 4 was also the only time that the Grand Final comprised of four seeded machines and no unseeded machines.
 * Chaos 2 became the first and only reigning champion and number one seed to defend its title. This made it the second robot in series history to finish in its predicted position.

However, in addition to this, Series 4 saw several poor cases of seed performances.
 * Series 4 saw the most seeds lose in Round 1 – Evil Weevil 2 (12th), Gravedigger(13th), Cerberus (18th), Diotoir (21st), Weld-Dor 2 (28th) and Centurion (31st), with Diotoir becoming the first to do so in battle.
 * Behemoth was the highest seeded robot ever to lose a judges' decision in the Heats, in its Heat Final against X-Terminator 2.
 * Every Heat was set up so that the two seeds would not meet until the Heat Final. Among the 16 heats, this only occurred four times, and only twice did the higher seed win.

Robot Wars: The Fifth Wars
Due to the change in the structure of the UK Championship, the Heats still featured two seeds, but there were only twenty-four seeds. All sixteen Semi-Finalists from the previous series were seeded, with the four Grand Finalists and the reigning World Champion amongst the top five.

However, the seeds were certainly not chosen based purely on the Fourth Wars – the Third Wars still had influence on where seeds were designated. For example, 3 Stegs to Heaven and Firestorm 3, both of whom had lost in the first round of the Semi-Finals of Series 4, were seeded higher than Tornado, Dominator 2 and Wild Thing, the three who reached the second round of the Semi-Finals. This was likely because of their previous incarnations reaching the Grand Final in the Third Wars. But the biggest Series 3 influence was with Hypno-Disc being seeded one place higher than where it finished, due to it being the runner-up in that series. Conversely, despite coming third in Series 4 and technically finishing above Hypno-Disc, Stinger was only given the fifth seed.

Due to the reduction of seeds from thirty-two to twenty-four, and Series 5 featuring twelve heats instead of sixteen, only the sixteen Semi-Finalists from the previous series were given automatic places in the Series. The eight remaining seeds were chosen after the qualifiers.

1. Chaos 2 2. Pussycat 3. Hypno-Disc 4. Razer 5. Stinger 6. Panic Attack 7. Firestorm 3 8. 3 Stegs to Heaven 9. Wild Thing 10. Wheely Big Cheese 11. Dominator 2 12. Tornado

13. Spawn Again 14. X-Terminator 15. Behemoth 16. Thermidor 2 17. Splinter 18. Gemini 19. Mini Morg 20. Mousetrap 2 21. Suicidal Tendencies 22. Atomic 2 23. 101 24. S.M.I.D.S.Y.

Controversy

 * Mini Morg was seeded nineteenth, outranking one Semi-Finalist and three Heat finalists with more pedigree than it.
 * Mousetrap, a Semi-Finalist in the previous war, was seeded twentieth, below four Heat Finalists.
 * This was the lowest seed ever given to a returning Semi-Finalist.
 * For some reason, Hypno-Disc (3) and Atomic 2 (22) were drawn against each other in the second round rather than in the Heat Final. The reason behind this is unclear.

Success rate

 * Of the top twelve seeds, nine made the Semi-Finals, and only Tornado failed to reach the Heat Final stage.
 * Of the lower twelve seeds, only Spawn Again reached the Semi-Finals, resulting in a full ten of twelve Semi-Finalists being seeded. From the rest of the lower twelve seeds, S.M.I.D.S.Y. was the only one to reach the Heat Final.
 * Like the Fourth Wars, the seeding process was designed so that the seeds would meet in the Heat Final (with one exception in Heat B). Only Chaos 2 and S.M.I.D.S.Y. met in the Heat Final, with one of the seeds losing in the first two rounds in every other heat, Hypno-Disc and Atomic 2 met in their Heat as well, but they fought each other in the second round, not the Heat Final.
 * In Series 5, only three seeds (101, Mini Morg and Thermidor 2) lost in Round 1. However, an additional seven lost in the second round. Suicidal Tendencies also became the first seed to retire due to mechanical failures.
 * 101 became the first seeded robot in series history to lose via a judges' decision in the first round, when it was beaten by Fluffy.

Robot Wars: The Sixth Wars
The Sixth Wars featured seeded robots based on performance in the previous series. The UK Championship format remained the same, but the Heats changed their format. Now only one seed was placed in each heat, resulting in a number of unseeded famous faces being placed across the heats.

The twelve seeded places were intended for the twelve Semi-Finalists from Series 5, with the four Grand Finalists getting the first four places. This series marked the only time this occurred in series history, due to Razer finally being seeded for its UK Championship performance alone. However, as Pussycat and Wheely Big Cheese did not compete in Series 6, the final two seedings were given to Stinger and Tornado instead. This was most likely due to their performance in the Fourth Wars, having finished in the top eight.

1. Razer 2. Bigger Brother 3. Firestorm 4 4. Hypno-Disc 5. Chaos 2 6. Dominator 2

7. S3 8. Panic Attack 9. Wild Thing 10. Spawn Again 11. Stinger 12. Tornado

Success rate

 * Series 6 was the only series where no seeded robots fell in Round 1. Every seed made at least the Heat Final, with nine of the twelve making the semi-finals.
 * Series 6 was the only series in which Chaos 2 did not reach the Semi-Finals, and the first of two which Panic Attack failed to do so.
 * Firestorm 4 became the third robot in series history, after Killertron in Series 2 and Chaos 2 in Series 4, to finish in its predicted position, coming in third place. Additionally, it was also the first and only occasion where the third-place finisher from the previous series was seeded third.

Robot Wars: The Seventh Wars
The Seventh Wars featured seeded robots based on performance in previous series. The seedings were no longer awarded exclusively to the Semi-Finalists of the previous series; not only because the number of Heats had been raised from twelve to sixteen, but also as many of the Semi-Finalists from Series 6 did not return for Series 7. Only seven of these twelve returned, as Wild Thing retired after Series 6, and Razer, Hypno-Disc and S3 did not return following the second series of Robot Wars Extreme. According to the second run of the Robot Wars Magazine, had all of the Series 6 Semi-Finalists returned, Razer would have been seeded second, Dominator 2 fifth, S3 eighth, Hypno-Disc ninth and Wild Thing tenth. According to John Denny, 13 Black was originally seeded ninth at the time of filming, but was placed higher up due to other robots pulling out. Tornado, Firestorm 5 and Terrorhurtz were seeded as the remaining Series 6 Grand Finalists, with Bigger Brother, Dantomkia, Spawn Again and 13 Black being the remaining Semi-Finalists that returned. To make up the seeds, nearly every returning robot that had reached a Semi-Final at some point was seeded, including Pussycat, Panic Attack, Behemoth, X-Terminator and Thermidor 2, despite some losing in the first and second round of Series 6 or, in Pussycat's case, not competing at all. Robots with four series' worth of experience and that reached at least two Heat Finals were given seeds as well (Bulldog Breed and S.M.I.D.S.Y., though Bulldog Breed's Tag Team Terror championship may have also been a contributing factor towards its seeding).

Dominator 2 was originally seeded for Series 7, but was forced to withdraw due to mechanical problems, so Ming Dienasty, another long-time competitor, was seeded in its place.The final seeding was given to Storm 2, which won automatic entry into Series 7 through winning the New Blood Championship in the second series of Robot Wars Extreme.

This series marked the only occasion were a robot was seeded despite not entering the previous series, as Pussycat and Storm 2 did not enter The Sixth Wars.

1. Tornado 2. Firestorm 5 3. Terrorhurtz 4. Bigger Brother 5. Dantomkia 6. Spawn Again 7. 13 Black 8. Panic Attack

9. Pussycat 10. Behemoth 11. X-Terminator 12. Bulldog Breed 13. S.M.I.D.S.Y. 14. Thermidor 2 15. Ming Dienasty 16. Storm 2

Controversy

 * Ming Dienasty's seeding, as a replacement for Dominator 2, has been seen as one of the most controversial, because of its very poor success rate in the UK Series. Series 6 Heat-Finalist and Extreme 1 Annihilator winner Disc-O-Inferno was initially rumoured to have been given the fifteenth seed in Dominator 2's place.

Success rate

 * The seeds suffered enormously in Series 7 – of the sixteen seeds, only seven reached the Semi-Finals. From those seven, only three were Semi-Finalists from the previous year.
 * Ming Dienasty became the second seed in history to lose via a judges' decision in the first round.
 * Terrorhurtz became the first seed in history to be barred from competing entirely, as it arrived at the studio in an unfinished state.
 * Five seeds lost in the second round, including Bigger Brother, which became the highest ever seed to be flipped out of the arena.
 * For the second series in a row, the lowest-ranked seed became the best-performing seed (Storm 2), finishing runner-up and beating the first seed along the way. This was also the third consecutive series in which the top and bottom seed fought each other.
 * Despite the lower success rate, three seeds did make the Grand Final, including the reigning champion. However, for the first time since Series 2, an unseeded machine won the series, beating the lowest-numbered and highest-performing seed in the Grand Final.

Robot Wars: Series 8
With a 12 year gap between the previous series and the reboot, seeding was deemed inappropriate for Series 8. Despite this, each episode contained a single heat winner team from Series 7; Bonk, Tough as Nails, Dantomkia, Storm 2 and Thermidor 2. The pilot also contained Reaper.

Robot Wars: Series 9
Despite a high number of returning robots, there were no seedings given out for Series 9. The draw was not split evenly in terms of returning finalists, emphasised by the final heat, which contained the defending champion, and runner-up. The reason for this is currently unknown, though many fans speculate that the draws were set up to reignite rivalries between various teams.

Trivia

 * In the four series where the eighth seed existed, the robot seeded eighth never reached the Semi-Finals, and became the only top-16 seed to suffer this. This has been widely known by the community as "The Eighth Seed Curse":
 * Gemini lost in the Heat Final to Tornado in Series 4.
 * 3 Stegs to Heaven lost in the Heat Final to Bigger Brother in Series 5.
 * Panic Attack lost in the Heat Final to Terrorhurtz in Series 6, and lost in Round 2 to Tough As Nails in Series 7.
 * Series 9's lack of a seeding system notably saw the previous year's champion and runner-up Apollo and Carbide compete in the same qualifying episode, while third place TR2 was not given a space in the series.