User blog:NJGW/Top 15 Favourite Heat Victories In Robot Wars

With any show, you'll always find things you like and dislike, and with shows you like you'll identify the things that make you enjoy the show as much as you do. That also applies for an entire series of Robot Wars. Heat after Heat can sometimes take its toll. Sometimes a Heat is just bad, sometimes there's a chain of bad Heats in a drawn out series, but sometimes a Heat can truly be worth the timeslot that you took to watch it and then some. Here, we're highlighting the episodes that truly were worth me taking time out of making my next Jonathan Pearce tribute video to watch, as we take a look at my personal favourite Heat victories in Robot Wars. That means, from 104 UK Series Heat wins (that's probably incorrect, but I'll double check when I've finished the list), I'm going to narrow it down to fifthteen. It's been a hard one, but one I've enjoyed whittling down - so here we go!

Criteria
Often, I'm not a fan of including criteria in lists - especially ones influenced by personal taste so much. If the categories are too specific, you often only succeed in limiting yourself most of the time. However, with a countdown as specific as this, I don't want only my words to be the visual decider as to why I prefer a Heat over another - as at the end of the day, I'm going to be praising every single Heat. Because of this, I've decided on three categories - all of which that will be tending towards my own personal meanings of the words. Here are the categories that will all be scored out of ten.

Memorability Simply put, Memorability will stand for how much I personally remember the Heats - or, if needed, precise moments that happened in the episode. Memorability does not mean how memorable the Heat is to the average viewer.

Rewatchability Rewatchability is a simple as it sounds - how likely am I to view the episode again and again? Does the placement of the Heat in the running order of the series deter me, is the Heat simply a guilty pleasure that I'm more likely to only view now and then? Any minor detail could make the difference.

Performance With most of my favourite Heat winners, I found that the higher the level of performance from the robot in question, the more I like it. Now, in this case, Performance doesn't necessarily mean sweeping a Heat. For example, Hypno-Disc dominated in Series 4 Heat, but it didn't need to reach a high height to do so.

This list be be updated bit by bit until we reach my favourite Heat victory in Robot Wars to date.

Number 15. Splinter - Series 4, Heat I
Were you ever not sure who to support in Robot Wars when you were first getting in to the show as a kid? Well, lucky you, because unless you're Australian and have to wait until the Commonwealth Carnage to see a robot even represent your country, then the likelihood is that you'll have a robot residing quite close to where you live. Well, lucky me, because Series 4 of Robot Wars saw two robots from Norwich qualify for the Semi-Final stage of the competition, in Thermidor 2 and Splinter.

Now, despite being the less impressive, both visually and in terms of weaponry, Splinter's Heat win is the one I enjoyed more, with a well controlled, aggressive driving performance throughout. This machine spun around delightfully in its melee, dominated the seeded Killerhurtz, and won a thoroughly entertaining Heat Final against the adored Eric. A nice Heat to watch as a bit of a 'change' from the big guns, and, hey - the team lives just 5 minutes away from me, too!


 * Memorability: /10 It's from Norwich, the robot itself came to my nursery, and it won a Heat of Robot Wars - of course I cherish this episode.
 * Rewatchability: /10 - A respectable score, and a Heat I obviously enjoy watching, but ask me to watch a Heat ten times in a row, and this may not be one I enthusiastically say yes to.
 * Peformance: /10 - Put under pressure in its melee before Centurion's breakdown and nearly being flipped by Eric were worries for Splinter, but the victory over Killerhurtz and an overall dominant Heat Final win sees Splinter score solidly in this category.