User blog:RA2/Series 6 and Extreme 2 Rankdown

Welcome to the Series 6 and Extreme 2 rankdown. Since there's so much overlap, we're doing the two serieses together. The game is now underway!

Format
We’ll be using the “Pick-n-Mix” format. In this game, we'll be setting up a pool of robots, and take turns eliminating one robot from the pool, the adding a new one

On your turn, you will eliminate one robot in the pool and explain why (Note: You may not cut your own nominees, unless your nominees comprise more than half the pool) then nominate one other robot, whom you believe should get cut ASAP, to go into the pool. You can’t cut or nom a robot that’s already been cut or nommed. Here’s an example of the flow. The example has 5 players, our game may have more:


 * Player 1: Cuts any one robot and explains why, nominates one other robot for the pool (no explanation needed for the nomination). Lists out all the nominated robots for the benefit of the next player
 * Player 2: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet
 * Player 3: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet
 * Player 4: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet
 * Player 5: Same, with any robots not cut or nominated yet.

This will continue until 16 or fewer robots remain. After that, players will rank the surviving robots, and the averages will determine final rankings.

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 Extreme 1 & Series 5 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.
 * You can make backroom deals with other players, but keep in mind, there is no recourse if someone breaks the deal.
 * 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. Since Extreme is part of this, you'll have to remember all the different appearances that each robot made.  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.  If comments are not working for whatever reason, you may use my Talk page.
 * Most importantly, have fun, and don't take it personally if a robot you like gets cut sooner than you want it to.

The Doom Dial
To make things more interesting, I’m introducing the Doom Dial, your choice of a special power. Each player may press the Doom Dial once to access one of the following effects:


 * Pit: Negate the most recent cut and remove the robot in question from the pool. The robot gets immunity for one full cycle (ie cannot be nominated until after the player you interrupted finishes his/her next turn).  It’s on you to play this in time to catch the robot you want, if it’s not the most recent, it can’t be Pitted.


 * Rogue House Robot: on your turn, you may cut a robot that’s not in the pool. You will not nominate on the round you use this. You may not cut any robot that has immunity.  This cut cannot be negated by the Pit.


 * Fog Of War: On your turn, instead of cutting/nominating, replace the entire pool with a new set. You may not pick any robot that has immunity.  In subsequent rounds, you can cut robots that you brought in with Fog of War.

The Doom Dial will be available in all rounds except the first and last. You are not obligated to use the Doom Dial. To reiterate, you each get one button press, NOT one of each power.

Usages

 * RA2
 * SpaceManiac888
 * Jimlaad
 * Harry Stormer
 * ToastUltimatum
 * NJGW
 * O Raz3r O
 * CrashBash - Pit, Round 2
 * Toon Ganondorf

Spreadsheet
List of all robots in the rankdown https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13_BClJww-FCkLOcoSwBmTLJ1EziZ6GYLVHNQyMRYmK0/edit#gid=0

Instructions
In order to even out the cutting power, I've decided to establish a pool before Round 1. This means in Round 1, there will immediately be a pool available. When you sign up, you'll be voting robots in by making a list of the 9 worst - nine being the very wort, 1 being the least-worst. Please format your signup like I do, order matters because the robot at #9 will count as 9 votes, the robot at #8 will count as 8 votes... etc. The robots† who collect the most votes will comprise the initial pool. No need to explain your vote-ins though you are free to explain if you wish.

The robots that get "voted in" to the initial pool can be cut by anyone.


 * †Pool size will be equal to the number of players.

My signup
If you wish to play, just do as I've done here and declare your bottom 9. Keep in mind that your spot will NOT be locked in unless you write out your bottom-9 list.


 * 9. Niterider. Not a solid design really, that weapon had no hope of working, let alone winning.  I believe this robot is the worst in S6/Extreme, so I'm putting it at 9th place, giving it 9 votes into the pool.


 * 8. Night Raider. A more practical bot, but not moving means I feel it has to be made vulnerable right away


 * 7. RT-81. I like what they tried to do, but it wasn't much more mobile than


 * 6. W.A.S.P.


 * 5. Doctor Fist


 * 4. Rawbot. We're out of the territory of bots that died right away, this is marginally above that.


 * 3. Short Circuit


 * 2. Delldog.  I don't care that they technically won one battle, they had no fighting ability with that spinner, let alone without.


 * 1. Tridentate. I'd certainly not mind seeing this one cut right away, but since there are 8 robots worse than it, I'm only giving it one vote.

Players
I forgot to ask - If anyone has a spot preference, please let me know. Otherwise, they will be assigned randomly.


 * 1. RA2


 * 2. SpaceManiac888


 * 3. Jimlaad


 * 4. Harry Stormer


 * 5. ToastUltimatum


 * 6. NJGW


 * 7. O Raz3r O


 * 8. CrashBash


 * 9. Toon Ganondorf

Round 1
The ballots have been tallied, and here are the nine robots that received the most votes: Doctor Fist, Niterider, Night Raider, W.A.S.P, RT81, Dynamite, 4x4, Hot Pants, and Reptirron the Second.

136. W.A.S.P. (RA2)
Buzzing off: W.A.S.P.. In my initial ballot, I didn't rate WASP at the lowest, but the mob's arguments have swayed me. WASP is a robot designed by a committee to lose to Razer - it's got a huge footprint but still fits into Razer's claw, it's got armour so thin that even Killalot's drill could penetrate, its weapons have no great threat, and in America, W.A.S.P.s are old rich people who look down on everyone, so I can enjoy watching it getting wrecked. Doctor Fist at least had a small footprint to match ts small weapon.

From one green animal to another: Terror Turtle; another one that the mob has swayed me on including. This means, when the pool comes around to me again, I can cut any robot in it except Terror Turtle, because I nominated it.

Pool: 4x4, Doctor Fist, Dynamite, Hot Pants, Night Raider, Niterider, Reptirron the Second, RT81, Terror Turtle

135. Doctor Fist (SpaceManiac888)
Punched out: Doctor Fist. Now, Night Raider and Niterider could have been selected, as neither displayed full movement. But here is the thing: Doctor Fist failed to move decently in two televised battles instead of just one. The fact that it suffered mobility issues in Series 6 is bad, but hey, it was not the first machine to experience this disgrace. However, I would expect the team to fix Doctor Fist for the New Blood. They did not, and pretty much wasted a spot in the tournament.

Speaking of doctors: Spin Doctor. Multiple problems with the machine, but in my opinion its weapon is actually its biggest. If it was decent, perhaps its unreliability and lack of srimech would be less exploited by other robots. But there was hardly any "spin" in Spin Doctor, resulting in it being cannon fodder in its first two battles.

Pool: 4x4, Dynamite, Hot Pants, Night Raider, Niterider, Reptirron the Second, RT81, Spin Doctor, Terror Turtle

134. RT81 (Jimlaad)
Unable to perambulate out: RT81. A poor Walking robot for Extreme 2 standards. Anarchy showed that walkers are a viable option with both good mobility and weapons. RT81 had neither, and crashes out now.

Adding: Riptilion. If I'm honest, I screwed up my Bottom 9 and ordered them back to front. Riptilion is the robot next on that list that hasn't been pooled yet.

Pool: 4x4, Dynamite, Hot Pants, Night Raider, Niterider, Reptirron the Second, Riptilion, Spin Doctor, Terror Turtle

133. Dynamite (Harry Stormer)
OOTA: Dynamite Like Jimlaad it screwed mine 9 picks up dynamite is unreliable and very weak armour.

Pooled somehow: Brutus Maximus Very weak

132. Niterider (ToastUltimatum)
Disembowled: Niterider. Somebody had to be the first to pick on one of the two robots which never moved, and I'm happy to fill that role. Between Niterider and Night Raider, this one moved even less, and had lower promise as a design. TBH both have already done too well imo.

Over 60 and Looking for Cheap Life Insurance: Granny's Revenge II.

Pool: 4x4, Brutus Maximus, Granny's Revenge II, Hot Pants, Night Raider, Reptirron the Second, Riptilion, Spindoctor, Terror Turtle

131. Granny's Revenge 2 (NJGW)
Granny's Revenge 2 - it was a close-run thing between this machine and another one, but I'm picking the granny. Past the early KO on it, Granny's Revenge even at its 'best' has no attacking potential itself.

Pooled: Axe-C-Dent 2.

130. Night Raider (O Raz3r O)
Night-mare: Night Raider - there were a couple that came close, but ultimate Night Raider never really got going in its fight, nor did it showcase its weaponry at any point, unlike, say, Hot Pants.

Prehistoric: Velocirippa

129. Terror Turtle (CrashBash)
No adolescent genetically-altered shinobi terrapin: Terror Turtle - The highest ranking robot left on my "cut" list. No matter which way you look at it, Terror Turtle is a bad machine. One only needs to look at its overall battle-history of seven losses to zero wins to see that. However, I honestly feel that Extreme 2 was where it was at its absolute blandest. Maybe it was the really awkward and frankly useless spinning blade on its top, but somehow it completely lacked the personality that it would have in all its future appearances. It wasn't this comical, hopelessly fragile turtle thing, it was just....a thing. This perhaps matters way too much to me, but that blade didn't do Terror Turtle any favours in regards to....well, anything.

In the pigpen: The Hassock's Hog. Even the team weren't too happy with the Series 6 version and somehow this robot ended up nearly winning a fight.

Pool: 4x4, Axe-C-Dent 2, Brutus Maximus, Hot Pants, Reptirron the Second, Riptilion, Spin Doctor, The Hassock's Hog, Velocirippa.

128. Riptilion (Toon Ganondorf)
Cut Riptilion: A design that seems a pale comparison of Spin Doctor who debuted four years earlier. Weak armour and an inoffensive design makes it well past it’s welcome.

Pool: Sabretooth.

PIT Brutus Maximus (RA2)
Et tu: Brutus Maximus. It’s a wooden robot with highly ineffective weapons, and bicycle wheels that any competent weapon could destroy. Who from Series 6 could they beat?

Returned to IKEA: Rawbot

CrashBash: PIT: Brutus Maximus. As Toast and NJGW have both already said, whilst it may have been weak, it is still fairly more competent than has been given credit for. Also, I feel a good chunk of the weakness was at least partially intentional, and an intentionally bad robot is still better than a bad robot that was MEANT to be good.

Brutus Maximus is now safe from being nominated until after my next turn.

Pool: 4x4, Axe-C-Dent II, Hot Pants, Rawbot, Reptirron the Second, Sabretooth, Spin Doctor, The Hassocks Hog, Velocirippa

127. 4x4 (SpaceManiac888)
No cloth will save it: 4x4. To be honest, at least Granny's Revenge 2 seemed mobile before Barber-Ous 2 hit it. 4x4 seemed unstable and hardly did anything before being taken out by the demon barber.

Outlasted by Chopper: Mad Dog. Reliability issues cost it against Chopper, who seemed determined to kill itself.

126. Spin Doctor (Jimlaad)
How TF is it still in?: Spin Doctor. It appeared twice in this time and failed to do anything. Already underweight, the dull truck wheel rim must have proven something in the qualifiers to get two attempts at the show (in this rankdown), but it flopped massively on the show. Nothing to prove for itself and one of the most disappointing robots in the show.

Falling apart: Saw Point. Can someone explain what it was supposed to do?

125. Hot Pants (Harry Stormer)
Cooled down: HOT PANTS it lost to Ming 3 by KO

On the flight back home: BONDI TITCH puny hammer with not very good armour

Axe-C-Dent II, Bondi Titch, Mad Dog, Rawbot, Reptirron the Second, Sabretooth, Saw Point, The Hassocks Hog, Velocirippa

124. Mad Dog (ToastUltimatum)
Let’s go out there and do even worse than their very very worst: Mad Dog. With Hot Pants cut just prior to my turn, that means I can vote for the other robot which really needs to be gone - Mad Dog is in one of my favourite fights of all time and I enjoyed how dreadful it was, but it really just didn’t work.

Might lose to the Series 2 Armadillo: Armadrillo.

Pool: Armadrillo, Axe-C-Dent II, Bondi Titch, Rawbot, Reptirron the Second, Sabretooth, Saw Point, The Hassocks Hog, Velocirippa

123. Reptirron The Second (NJGW)
Cut: Reptirron The Second - Based on what we saw it truly did offer the least. It's a shame, but it broke immediately.

Pooled: Bash Gordon.

122. Axe-C-Dent 2 (O Raz3r O)
Waiting to happen: Axe-C-Dent 2. Flipped over almost immediately in its single fight. Axe-C-Dent 2 then showed how badly the weapon was put together after coming apart from being chucked by the floor flipper.

Pool of fire: Diotoir, because, like Axe-C-Dent 2, it was flipped over immediately in its single fight.

Pool: Armadrillo, Bash Gordon, Bondi Titch, Diotoir, Rawbot, Sabretooth, Saw Point, The Hassocks Hog, Velocirippa.