User blog:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Series 4

It's time for Robot Wars Rankdown Series 4. For those who missed the last blog post, this is a game where all the robots of Series 4 get ranked. Players take turns placing robots, starting at the bottom, and finishing at the top.

In each round, the leader will nominate a pool of robots (2 x # of players not counting him/herself), and then the rest of the players will, in order, choose one to cut. They will write a brief summary on why they're cutting that robot, and they will finish by choosing one robot to save (no need to explain your save decision). The cut robot is ranked at whatever is the lowest vacant position - so the first robot cut ends up in last place, then the next in second-to-last place...etc. The saved robot is safe from elimination, and cannot be nominated next round. After each player has had a turn, the last player nominates a new pool of robots, and the next round begins. This will continue until a pre-determined number of rounds has elapsed. Then, all participants rank the remaining robots (with explanations), and send me their ballots. The averages determine final ranking, up to and including number one. Here's a bullet-list of the game flow, in order. The example has 5 players, our game may have more or fewer.


 * Player 1: Nominates 8 robots that he/she believes should be cut. Does not make a cut or save this round
 * Player 2: Cuts one of the 8 robots, explains why, saves another one of the 8 robots.
 * Player 3: 6 choices remain. Cuts one of the 6 robots, explains why, saves another one of the 6 robots.
 * Player 4: 4 choices remain. Cuts one of the 4 robots, explains why, saves another one of the 4 robots.
 * Player 5: 2 choices remain. Cuts one of the robots, explains why, saves the other.  Nominates 8 new robots, cannot nominate one of the 4 bots saved this round.
 * Round ends. Everybody shifts down one position, and Player 5 becomes Player 1.

We'll carry on like this until there aren't enough robots left to make a pool (some players may be the leader more than once). After the final round of cuts, the aforementioned balloting occurs, where players rank all surviving robots.

I'll be pretty open about the criteria you use to make your cuts, just a few rule & guidelines:
 * Try to insulate it to the series in question - we're strictly ranking the Series 2 incarnations of robots
 * No discussing how it was received by the fandom - you can call a robot overrated or underrated, complain about fanboys, etc, as long as that is not your only reason for cutting
 * No troll-moves. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but if I see a move that's clearly intended to get a rise out of people or an individual, you will be booted.  Slots are very limited, do not take one unless you plan on taking this seriously.
 * No gaming the system. Do not nominate good robots with the intent of getting them immunity via a save.  Again, everyone's entitled to their opinions of what robots are good, but the list you make should be comprised entirely of robots that you'd like to see at the bottom - don't try to tell me you sincerely think something like a champion should be cut in Round 1.
 * You must have watched & be familiar with all episodes of the series in question, even the obscure ones - it won't do to have a bad robot slip under the radar because people forget to nominate it. The series is on YouTube if you need to refresh your memory, and I will post a spreadsheet in Google Docs, listing all robots in the game, and their status in the rankdown.
 * Please be punctual and check in often. The game only works if each person takes their turn in good order.
 * This will now be enforced, in order to keep the game moving. If a player does not take their turn within 36 hours of the last player, the player will receive a strike, and the turn may be taken by anyone not participating in the rankdown.  If a player gets 3 strikes, a replacement will be sought.  I'm sorry to have to do this, but it is not fair to the other players to keep them waiting an indeterminate amount of time.  If you don't have time to write out a summary, I'll accept just the robots names, and you can post the writeups later.
 * Most importantly, have fun, and don't take it personally if a robot you like gets cut sooner than you want it to.

Doom Dial
For those not familiar, the Doom Dial is a feature that allows you a one-use special power of your choosing. Here are the Doom Dial options - it's not random, you choose the one you want


 * Pit: This is played as a reply to someone else's turn. Negate any cut that has happened so far in this round (in other words, it doesn't have to be the single most recent cut, it just has to be one from the current round).  The robot gets immunity as if it were Saved.  This doesn’t count as taking a turn.


 * Rogue House Robot: On your turn (if you're not the leader), you may cut a robot that’s not in the pool. Make a save as you would normally.  You may not cut any robot that has immunity.  This cut cannot be negated by the Pit.

There is no Fog of War in this format. The Doom Dial will be available from Rounds 2-10. You are not obligated to use the Doom Dial. To reiterate, you each get one button press, NOT one of each power.

Signups & size
There will be 9 players - that means 8 open spots plus myself, and 10 rounds of regular play followed by one free-for-all round. For the 24 hours, this will be open only to people who did not play in Series 3. After that, anyone can join. Mind the timestamp, I am not going to relax it for even a minute too early. Also keep in mind that players in this rankdown will have the restriction for the Extreme 1 Rankdown.

Please comment if you'd like to play, and your desired spot. If you don't have a preference, that's fine I'll give you a random one, and I'm taking #3 for myself. Slot #1 should be someone who feels strongly they understand the game, as they have the first move.

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3) RA2

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Spreadsheet
For your reference, here is a list of all the robots that competed in Series 4. I will try to keep this updated with the cut/saved bots as often as I can. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NI4L2VmaJdpecX_ip8hpjEuw1CNofGkND5kWh5qUbX4/edit?usp=sharing

Rankdown
When the game starts, Whoever is first player will kick off the game by nominating 16 robots that he/she believes are the bottom 16 in Series 4.