User blog:CrashBash/Random Musings 4 - What if NS1 had been more conventional?

''Hello everyone. My name is Crash, and I'm here today to go over some random thingamajig that's stuck in my head and won't come out. And no, this isn't an excuse for me to not finish my latest list. Honest.''

With Series 10, or New Season 3, of Robot Wars seemingly coming up thick and fast, possibly even as early as next month, there's no doubt a lot of questions and rumours flying around. That's not surprising, it was very much like that back with New Season 2 - I even made reference to some of them back when I made my "Top 10 Good Robots with Bad Declines". And one of these was pondering if the Round Robin format, introduced in the reboot, could really work in the long run. It's this Round Robin format I want to talk about today...or rather, ignore completely.

Now, here are my thoughts - for New Season 1, I thought the Round Robin format, for the most part, worked. We got to see lots of fights, there were some big surprises, and it wasn't always entirely obvious who would go through...plus, it did give a spot of jeopardy. For New Season 2, however, I think it didn't work as well. A lot of the robots started getting some really destructive weapons, so it soon became clear that certain robots would not be fighting at their absolute best. Carbide almost certainly would have won that series anyway, but the Round Robin, wearing down all its competitors, pretty much made that a formality rather than anything else.

Here's the thing, though...whilst I was roughly aware of the competitors competing in New Season 1, I wasn't aware of the Round Robin format. I just initially thought it would be a standard knockout tournament, akin to the original series. And then I looked back, and it occured to me....if that was the case, Carbide would have been knocked out BEFORE the heat final! And not just that...nearly everything would have been very different. But how different, I wondered?

So, for this little list, I'm going to be taking a look at each heat of New Season 1, and imagine them as if they were just a pure knockout competition, with no Round-Robin. To do this, I will be looking purely at the first "possible" match up each robot had. By that, I mean the first one that was aired on TV that didn't involve the two robots from the same melee fighting. So, lets see what may or may not have changed.

Heat 1
The first acceptable fights are Terrorhurtz vs Carbide and Nuts vs Behemoth. The battles we saw here were quite clear. And this is partly what got me thinking about this in the first place. Carbide, the eventual runner-up and future champion, would have legitimately been knocked out in Round 2. Minds blown, yet? And I've stated this several times before, but I honestly don't see Terrorhurtz's victory as a fluke, if anything it was hindered without its axe. This would leave the heat final as Terrorhurtz vs Behemoth...and, well, who's to say Terrorhurtz would get their axe fixed? Well, given what we know, probably not. I have to go with what we actually saw, and in that case, Terrorhurtz was still axeless, meaning all it needs is that one flip.

Heat Winner: Behemoth

Heat 2
The first acceptable fights are Thor vs M.R. Speed Squared and Shockwave vs Foxic. Nothing to discuss here, and at least we'd be denied a certain travesty of the fight. But what of Thor vs Shockwave? Simple - the first one takes priority. Shockwave entered with its normal lifter in the second fight because they knew the first one didn't work. Without that knowledge, Thor would win.

Heat Winner: Thor

Heat 3
The first acceptable fights are Dantomkia vs TR2 and King B Remix vs Big Nipper. The first one is clear, but not so the second one. Yes, Big Nipper beat King B, but with its disc. You have to remember that after its group battle, the disc broke down, forcing it to use its pincers. This leads to a very interesting battle and a question that'd need asking...how would a battle between Big Nipper (with claws) and King B go? I'm kinda tempted to say King B would win, because it was holding off Big Nipper quite considerably. Although in the end, it doesn't really matter, because whoever wins, TR2 would beat them anyway. In my scenario, I'll take TR2 vs King B Remix unless someone really doubts my thoughts.

Heat Winner: TR2

Heat 4
The first acceptable fights are Apollo vs Storm 2 and PP3D vs Eruption. Sadly, I couldn't get rid of ALL the dud battles. Doesn't seem like a lot would change, Eruption still loses early, and we'd have Apollo vs PP3D as the heat final...and we all know how that went.

Heat Winner: Apollo

Heat 5
The first acceptable fights are Chompalot vs Gabriel and Ironside3 vs Beast. And the harsh reality sets in that, as a knockout tournament, Pulsar would not be reinstated. Thus, the heat final is Gabriel vs Ironside3, and once again, we know what happened.

Heat Winner: Ironside3

Conclusion
And that's pretty much how the heats would go, based on what we know. But how would the final go? Who would even get the wildcard? Especially since they can't base it on performance in the Round Robin. I feel this could indeed be worthy of further discussion, and something I'd be happy to discuss with out if need be. Could Apollo still win? It's possible, but nothing is certain....