User blog:RA2/Robot Wars Rankdown: Series 2

IT's time for Robot Wars Rankdown Series 2. For those who missed the last blog post, this is a game where all the robots of Series 1 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.
 * Most importantly, have fun, and don't take it personally if a robot you like gets cut sooner than you want it to.

Signups & size
There will be 7 players - that means 6 open spots plus myself, and 9 rounds of regular play followed by one free-for-all round. This'll be first come first serve, so to keep things fair, signups are only open to people who did not take part in Series 1 Rankdown. If we can't fill this in a reasonable amount of time, I'll open it up to past players.

Please comment if you'd like to play, and your desired spot. When you make your choice, keep in mind that Player 1 should be the most knowledgeable about the obscure robots, Player 7 should be the second-most knowledgeable, then Player 6, etc. All players should be knowledgeable to a degree. I've given myself position 5, as I'm in the middle of the road on Series 2.

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5) RA2

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Spreadsheet
For your reference, here is a list of all the robots that competed in Series 2. I will try to keep this updated with the cut/saved bots as best I can. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VM07WAzqPx9taEJ_GemYbJZb6bVejZzgnLq2kLeNgZo/edit?usp=sharing

Robots Included
This rankdown will include all heavyweight robots from Series 2, including those of the Reserve Rumble. Pain and The Parthian Shot will be automatically ranked last for not making it into the arena, which means that the actual pool size is 75.