User blog comment:Jimlaad43/Ranking every Side-Competition in UK Robot Wars/@comment-4700688-20181222012939

I’ve read your Series 7 All-Stars write-up. I disagree entirely.

People feel forced to knock points off the opening melee because it was part of a serious competition, but where’s the fun in that? I don’t care about the context, the fight was absolutely amazing, and it shouldn’t matter where it took place. There shouldn’t be a penalty for this.

You also claim that Firestorm V and Bigger Brother qualifying out of the melee in place of Panic Attack and Kat 3 would have benefitted the tournament overall, but I couldn’t think of anything worse than Firestorm qualifying! Imagine the line-up; your semi-finalists are Firestorm V, Bigger Brother, Dantomkia and Pussycat. What do these three opponents have in common? That’s right, they have all fought Firestorm before! Graham Bone’s machine winning its melee would have been disastrous.

Dantomkia’s loss was limp, I will admit that easily, but to call it a breakdown isn’t really true. Maybe I am mistaken, but I’m fairly sure Pussycat sliced through Dantomkia’s aerial, which would be fair play to them.

And then to top it all off... Pussycat vs Kat 3 was a “thrilling back and forth”? Have you SEEN this fight? It was dreadful! If not for Bulldog Breed vs Hard, it would be the worst fight of the whole series!