User blog comment:RA2/Series 7 Rankdown/@comment-27162079-20191206203604

18: Spawn Again - Spawn Again had some promising parts from Series 7. It moved smoothly, and its Round 1 performance was fantastic. However, the blowup in the Heat Final is an issue that was just always going to happen no matter what, and that docks a lot of points. Not to mention that its Round 2 battle is very strange. It got dragged by R.O.C.S. at one point, but even aside from that it just looked laboured an unconvincing. Its flipper struggled to height and explosiveness, and it moved much slower. It reminds me of Thermidor 2 vs. The Kraken with how laboured its OotA attempts looked.

17: Bulldog Breed - It seems opinion on Series 7 Bulldog Breed has dropped in recent times, and I do agree. It was great to see it make a step further, and visually it looked more spinner-proof, robust after consistent - making strides from its strong EX2 performance. But the reality is that it wasn't overly convincing. It didn't get ahead of steam in its melee, and the performance against Kat 3 was fine without being a truly dominant flipper performance - it never threatened an OotA and just flipped around mostly in the arena centre. The performance against Tough as Nails was good, but it was still a close fight, and that closes off Bulldog Breed's campaign rather unconvincingly as a whole.

16: The Grim Reaper - The Grim Reaper is always considered one of the 'weaker' Series 7 Semi-Finalists, and I understand why. Its not a visually-good battler, with a lack of KO potential and generally modest flipper power. But it's still a good, consistent performer. You know what you'll get from it, and it proved very durable against Storm 2 despite being dominated. I think the way it paces itself during fights would help it get the better of the faulty Spawn Again, and an inconsistent Bulldog Breed.

15: Pussycat - Pussycat had a strange Series 7. A very good overall record, but its biggest win was a flat one, and even in defeat it actually threatened M2 with a KO attack! But overall Pussycat was much more timid. It's a design that will always stay in a fight, but its weapon was by this stage very situational and largely limited for effectiveness. A good campaign numbers wise.

14: Ripper - Ripper is a proper interesting case. It had dominant battles, but also incompetent performances. Its first round melee is also one of the most overglorified performances in Robot Wars. People remember the big flip on Aggrobot and think that Ripper dominated the melee. It didn't. It completed four flips, its flipper stop working after just over a minute, and it spent well over half the battle driving nowhere near its opponents, and doing nothing. Ripper's boisterous attitude and visually-appealing flips look great and are great fun, but it promotes Ripper to a status that it isn't quite capable of consistently IMO. Still a very good machine, hence a Top 15 finish. But it has flaws.

13: Big Nipper - no apologies. One of my favourite machines, and I'm rating it high here. It was in its live event format here, and should've been a Semi-Finalist as far as I'm concerned. It not reaching that stage sadly limits its battle count, but it did beat Ripper in this form, and I'd back it against all of the other machines I've put it above.

12: M2 - good displays, has a certain ceiling, but can perform to that level consistently.

11: Tough as Nails - its design is a positive and negative. It ensures it has to work too hard against a machine like Robochicken, but it's also capable of smothering Gravity of all things. Edges it over the last couple, but its design isn't consistent enough to worry higher up.

10: Dantomkia - I used to be super critical of Dantomkia back when I felt I had to dislike some machines to fit in. But I've come around on it, and it's Series 7 fights especially are so much fun and super convincing in places. Unfortunately, Dantomkia's inconsistent design for flipper on flipper fights, wheelie problems and reliability hinder it pushing further up though.

9: Gravity - this feels disgusting. I was fully going into this Rankdown when it was first announced hoping to push Gravity into the Top 5, but instead it goes lower than it finished IRL! I don't like that I've done this, but poor armour, wheelie issues, and a general lack of versatility compared to others this high up limits it to 9th.

8: X-Terminator - and just as disgusting is this! But again, I think it'd lose handily to Bigger Brother, it should've lost to Tsunami, Firestorm 5 would show up its manoeuvrability, Tornado beat it once and would even if X-Terminator was at full health same goes for Storm 2, Atomic would either outskid it to victory or just generally has a higher ceiling against the other top robots, and it got beat comfortably by Typhoon 2. Sorry, but as much as I love X-Terminator, it still did have big flaws, and it got a pretty kind Semi-Final draw.

7: Tsunami - explosiveness, compactness, and only denied a Grand Final spot because of one split second of a mistake. I have no doubts it would've easily bested St. Agro and Bulldog Breed. Tsunami was virtually an updated Chaos 2, with better armour, a reliable srimech and a better design. It's a fantastic machine, but despite thinking it could threaten them, I'm not as confident it'd beat Typhoon 2 or threaten Storm 2 as the machine I've placed directly above it.

6: Bigger Brother - I'm going to forgive a situational OotA defeat and throwaway fun at the end of the series. Bigger Brother is still a fantastic, versatile machine, and is one of the only machines that could beat Typhoon 2 which gives it big points. It'd give Storm 2 a good fight, would beat X-Terminator, and Tornado again too.

5: Tornado - consistent performances, beat X-Terminator, put in a solid second display against Storm 2.

4: Firestorm 5 - only lost to Storm 2 and a throwaway All-Stars defeat. Big points for me personally believing it could beat Typhoon 2.

3: Atomic - my draft had Atomic at like 9th, but it's ended up here. I just can't deny that it should've beaten Typhoon 2 handily, and its skid steering and plough setup would threaten Storm 2 too. It has a very high ceiling.

2: Typhoon 2 - great power, very good displays, but it isn't quite as invulnerable as Storm 2 comparatively feels.

1: Storm 2 - the most well-rounded, most-grounded machine. I can only speculate on what could beat it, whereas I feel more confident and very confident only a couple that could beat Typhoon 2. Fully deserved number 1 machine.