User blog:ToastUltimatum/Ragnabot 3 Competitors Ranked

Another Ragnabot blog to throw into the pile! The idea is a simple one here - take all of the robots which made it to Round 2 of their heat in Ragnabot 3, and rate them from my perceived best-to-worst order. This will allow us to see whether (in my opinion) the four best robots ended up making it out of the heat, and how many of the overall Top 8 reached the Heat Final.

Of course, it's entirely possible that one of the best robots in the heat fell in Round 1 (e.g. Stinger, Destructive Criticism), but for brevity, I haven't included these robots in the blog. Nobody really needs to separate the quality of robot when we get down to the 26-32 region, after all.

Robots that actually made it out of the heat are listed in bold. I'll also be rating their hopes of further progression in captions beneath their images.

These rankings are all entirely my opinion, and if you disagree, please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts!

Heat A

 * 1) Magnetar - Generally it will be extremely rare that my perceived 'best' robot in the heat doesn't make it out, but this one was actually a close call...
 * 2) Aftershock - Because it's also a rarity that you'll see the 'second-best' robot fall within the heat! I firmly agree with Magnetar beating Aftershock, it was even proven at an Extreme Robots event after this heat took place, but I still had to decide whether Aftershock was superior to Magnetar in general, outside of the direct head-to-head. Ultimately Magnetar did progress further in Series 10, has the superior wedge, and its primary flaw is something that also affected Aftershock against Big Nipper, so I'll give Magnetar the edge.
 * 3) Concussion - Revisiting this heat, I forgot just how stacked it was. I firmly remembered Magnetar and Aftershock clashing, but Concussion is right behind them in quality.
 * 4) Firestorm V - And only in fourth place do we get Firestorm! A candidate for the Top 4 of Ragnabot 1 (altogether) is now resigned to fourth in a heat, yikes.
 * 5) Atomic - And even worse, Atomic DID get fourth place in Ragnabot 2, but doesn't reach the Top 4 of this heat!!
 * 6) M2 - Sadness out in force, my favourite robot M2 made an appearance in the Top 32 of both previous Ragnabots, but now it's not even a Top 5 machine inside the opening heat. Dark times.
 * 7) X-Terminator (S6) - The next three robots are highly interchangeable, and probably beat each other within a triangle. X-Terminator pushes ahead slightly due to its comparative lack of a weakness.
 * 8) Raging Knightmare - In the middle of the triangle is Raging Knightmare. Winning a Series 7 heat and getting third in an Annihilator is only just enough to slot you into the Top 8 here!
 * 9) Scraptosaur - And just missing out on the Top 8 is Scraptosaur. Whilst I think it could beat X-Terminator in a head-to-head, the lack of a srimech is large enough of a weakness to exclude it from the Top 8.
 * 10) Tetanus - This might be a slightly controversial pick, as Tetanus did become immobilised under little pressure in both of its fights, but Tetanus on form is a very capable machine and one I rate quite highly.
 * 11) Dragbot - The perfect chance to remind everyone that this order is based on my opinion! Dragbot was knocked out of this heat by Spawn of Scutter in Round 2, but I was one of the four voters who picked Dragbot to win that encounter, so I'm comfortable ranking it higher here.
 * 12) Spawn of Scutter - And only now does the fourth heat winner make its appearance! In, uh, the bottom five. Perspective, man.
 * 13) Comengetorix - This feels almost insulting to Comengetorix as the Series 6 version was a definite step up from its Extreme predecessor, but it was completely out of its depth in this heat.
 * 14) Raizer Blade - Even though Raizer Blade is third from the bottom here, I did actually vote for it to beat Spawn of Scutter and escape the heat! Unfortunately I was alone on that one.
 * 15) Corporal Punishment - Poor Corporal Punishment, far from a bad machine, but in a heat like this, Round 2 was far enough.
 * 16) Steel Sandwich - And the first wooden spoon goes to Steel Sandwich. We'll be seeing far, far worse machines in 16th place over the coming entries though, so no disrespect is meant to Steel Sandwich here!