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As promised, it is the All Stars Rankdown! Signups are now active! Signups will commence until we have 10 people including myself, or until the 14th of June.

Please note, you need to include your vote-in for your signup to be counted.

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

This will continue until 17 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:

  • Insulate it to the series in question, or the reboot. We are strictly judging robots by their peak performance, or is multiple, then each peak separately.
  • 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.

Spreadsheet[]

Here's a list of all the robots that have been deemed All-stars of a season. I have deliberately left of their placements from the rankdowns in order to keep perspectives fresh. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yHMQioSaSI1o1lQG6nY-NS3ZlYkXJJhhkhmB0ZcKSOY/edit?usp=sharing

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.
    • New Addition: You can also use Rogue House Robot to cut one of your own nominees. If you do it this way, you pick a replacement, so the pool keeps the same number of robots
  • 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 - Fog of War (Round 7)
  • NJGW - Rogue House Robot (Round 7)
  • O Raz3r O
  • HV Lobsta
  • CrashBash - Rogue House Robot (Round 11)
  • Toon Ganondorf - Pit (Round 3)
  • Adster
  • GarrodGang

Versioning resolution[]

Below is an exhaustive list of the robots with multiple versions kept:

  • Atomic: 5 & 7
  • Behemoth: 3 & Reboot
  • Big Nipper: 7 & Reboot
  • Diotior: 3 & 5
  • Firestorm: 3 & 6
  • Mortis: 2 & 4
  • Panic Attack: 2 & 4
  • Pussycat: 4 & 7
  • Spawn Again: 6 & 7
  • Supernova: 7 & 9
  • Terrorhurtz: 6 & Reboot
  • Tornado: 4 & 6
  • Wild Thing: 4 & 5 & 6
  • X-Terminator: 3 & 4 & 7

I also made the choice to overrule the rankdown results on Killerhurtz and keep the Series 4 version. Its being statistically "worse" is down to Series 3 having a large excess of robots.

My signup[]

If you wish to play, just do as I've done here and declare your bottom 10. Keep in mind that your spot will NOT be locked in unless you write out your bottom-10 list.

  • 10. Barry. I'm going to try not to make this a rankdown of who could beat whom in a fight, and I encourage others to do the same, and keep in mind the intent to measure them as relative to their era. That being said, Barry lost in the gauntlet, and never appeared again. Plus, any theoretical advantages in battle can be attributed to their weight bonus, and that hardly seems fair. Definitely the least worthy of being called an all-star, so I'm giving them 10 votes into the pool.
  • 9. Corporal Punishment. Thanks to the Shuntposting watch parties, I got a chance to review these bots, and Corporal Punishment was slower and less potent than I remeber. They never had their drive well sorted and ultimately were done in by their poor design - forks bent so badly after ramming that the Corporal couldn't even go forward without impaling itself.
  • 8. Spikasaurus. Their successful attacks were awfully opportunistic. Static spikes in Series 4 is already a disadvantage, and when faced with Dominator, they showed how much trouble they had with being directly confronted with no other bots to distract. I also can't ignore their pinball performance and what it says about driving skill. Plus, all their really good attacks involved them being unable to separate, which is a negative IMO.
  • 7. Blade. Quite fortuitous to not meet Razer. Weapon did scratches at best and was just so-so at pushing. In my opinion it was weak even by Series 3 standards.
  • 6. Concussion. Accuse me of having an agenda but this bot was sluggish and really struggled against the stars, the fact of the matter is they won a very weak heat and were lucky in the heat final that Thor had to ration its axe power. Just constantly appearing to be struggling or limping.
  • 5. Pulsar. Like Concussion, a struggler that seemed to have something wrong in every battle. Its good moments were better than Concussion though.
  • 4. Splinter (Only the Series 5 version made the all stars btw). Weaponry was a bit too low-impact by Series 5 standards, and the only bot they beat with no help was VIPER 01.
  • 3. Crusader 2. A good pusher, but is it an all star? They were well and truly dominated by Mortis, and people say Mortis's axe is rubbish, well it went through Crusader's armour like paper.
  • 2. Chaos. While it did cocoon into a legend, Chaos itself was pretty prone to tipping over and the lifting arm was more about pushing robots away, didn't have the leverage to flip a robot lower than Wheelosaurus
  • 1. St. Agro. A very innovative robot, but for the most part, just an passable flip-overer. And fragile.

Players[]

Please specify if you have a positional preference, if not I will assign you one randomly.

  1. RA2
  2. NJGW
  3. O Raz3r O
  4. HV Lobsta
  5. CrashBash
  6. Toon Ganondorf
  7. Adster
  8. GarrodGang


Rankdown[]

Round 1[]

And the All Stars Rankdown is officially open! You all voted, and the robots voted into the pool are... Barry (unanimously 10th), Blade, Chaos, Corporal Punishment (unanimously 9th), Cruella, Crusader 2, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, and Robo Doc. But one of these is about to go.

118. Barry (RA2)[]

Hey now, you're not an All Star: Barry. Everyone thought it was the worst here, including me so natch this is going to be first out. My system for determining who's an all star dragged in a whole third of Series 1 (A lot aren't on the Google Doc because of redundancy reduction). Barry was a very good looking robot, but we can't ignore the fact that they didn't constrain themselves to any weight class like the other robots did, and their advantage, had they gone further, would largely lean on that. Compound that with the real elephant in the room, that Barry did nothing but lose the Gauntlet, and this cut couldn't be cleaner.

Nominating: Spikasaurus. As well as placing 11th in the vote-in, it's my top pick that's not currently in here. Spikasaurus was a perfectly serviceable robot, but Series 4 called for weapons, it was too late to depend on spikes. And I can't ignore what happened in their pinball run and their 1v1 with Dominator, a concerning picture of how Spikasaurus performs when it doesn't have another robot to hide behind.

Pool: Blade, Chaos, Corporal Punishment, Cruella, Crusader 2, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Robo Doc, Spikasaurus.

117. Cruella (NJGW)[]

cut: Cruella - a lack of pushing power despite being wedge shaped, and the standard builds seen in Series 1-2 compound things.

pool: Berserk 2

the pool: Berserk 2, Blade, Chaos, Corporal Punishment, Crusader 2, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Robo Doc, Spikasaurus.

116.Corporal Punishment (O Raz3r O)[]

Demoted to Private: Corporal Punishment was pretty slow, the weapon was poor and its driving was questionable.

Pooled: Spawn Again (S6/E2) may have improved for Extreme 2, but had a lot of issues throughout its Series 6 campaign that other opponents should have capitalised on, but didn't

Pool: Berserk 2, Blade, Chaos, Crusader 2, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Robo Doc, Spawn Again, Spikasaurus

115. Robo Doc (HV Lobsta)[]

The Doctor is Out: Robo Doc, looking at its performance, very much seemed to be more suited to the non-combative parts of Series 2 than actual combat, as it performed quite well at Joust and The Gauntlet. It was, however, completely out-classed in its only fight. It had good engineering behind it though, seeing as it helped to make 101 a reality.

Pooled: Cunning Plan. Completely outclassed in the first Grand Final because of its featherweight status.

114. Chaos (CrashBash)[]

Not there yet: Chaos. Its time would come, but it feels like the opposite to Chaos 2 in every way - weak flipper, very high ground clearance, no control at all....

It's crushing Mortis under its own weight!: Recyclopse. Beyond overturning Matilda and Scrapper, its weapon was sadly ineffective...and worse of all, it just had several reliability issues

Pool: Berserk 2, Blade, Crusader 2, Cunning Plan, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Spawn Again, Spikasaurus

113. Blade (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Blade. Revisiting the fight with Agent Orange made me realise how close Blade game to being a round 2 dropout.

Pool: X-Terminator 2 (4) - The pitiful axe aside, its lifter does not give me confidence in the same series that included Hypno-Disc, Pussycat, Chaos 2, Razer and Dominator 2 all being the best of all time with their respective weapons.

Pool: Berserk 2, Crusader 2, Cunning Plan, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Recyclopse, Spawn Again 6, Spikasaurus, X-Terminator 2

112. Crusader 2(Adster)[]

Sailing away: Crusader II - Crusader had a tiny little lifter, and it was in the weight limit, which could have been more of a panel, and therefore could have been much more effective against Mortis or Steg II.

Pool: The Big Cheese - next robot on my vote-in list

111. Cunning Plan (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Cunning Plan. Certainly an effective featherweight, by all means... and yet it was an effective featherweight TRANSPLANTED into what was a heavyweight competition. Against most competent heavyweights this machine would be ineffective, even in series one, and as such I cannot give it credit for beating RC cars with plastic shells on top.

Pooled: Nemesis. A competent run at the trials aside, it did little against Roadblock and I can't seriously think it was in with much of a chance of winning.

Pool: Berserk 2, Concussion, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, X-Terminator 2, Nemesis

Round 2[]

The doom Dial is now active, so if any of you think my move is too offensive, well the pit became available just in time.

110. Spawn Again (Series 6/Extreme 2) (RA2)[]

Spawned for the last time: Spawn Again (Series 6/Extreme 2). Logically I can't believe that all the top robots from the latter half of classic RW were infallible. In my opinion a fast & maneuverable bot in Series 2 is era-relative better than Spawn Again in Series 6. While this Spawn Again was a better choice than the Extreme/S5 version, it still was a constant under-performer; got lucky against Supernova and almost lost to Spam. SPAM!!! Our own page on Series 6 Spawn Again is one big merciless roast, and the good moments that bolster it only looked good because of how far apart they were.

Everyone has a headache from me complaining about: Concussion. I had a lot of gripes in Discord about Pulsar possibly beating Concussion out, and maybe I swayed someone, maybe not. Here's your chance to right what I feel to be a possible wrong.

Berserk 2, Concussion, Haardvark, Nemesis, Onslaught, Pulsar, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, X-Terminator 2

109. Nemesis (NJGW)[]

Cut: Nemesis - some good outside-battle action, but still gets outdone by those on show here which either match it in trials or better it in the arena.

Pool: Raging Knightmare

The pool: Berserk 2, Concussion, Haardvark, Onslaught, Pulsar, Raging Knightmare Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, X-Terminator 2

108. Onslaught (O Raz3r O)[]

Cut: Onslaught performed well in the trials, but ultimately ended up beating an immobile robot in its first fight, and being immobile itself in its second.

Not a terror yet: Killerhurtz

Pool: Berserk 2, Concussion, Haardvark, Killerhurtz, Pulsar, Raging Knightmare, Recylcopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, X-Terminator 2

107. Haardvark (HV Lobsta)[]

Cut: Haardvark to get as far as it did had luck on its side, the good (having an easy heat, with its first battle ending after a single shove and the next being decided by the House Robots) balancing out the bad (controls burning out on multiple occasions). I think it's had its run.

Pooled: Facet. Won its first battle in a single flip, lost its next (and last) in a single flip.

Pool: Berserk 2, Concussion, Facet, Killerhurtz, Pulsar, Raging Knightmare, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, X-Terminator 2.

106. Berserk 2 (CrashBash)[]

Going Crazy: Berserk 2. Whilst it may be better than what it become, Berserk 2 feels like more of a one-trick pony, being remembered for being the first to stand up to Hypno-Disc and subsequently hindered by not being the only one. Decent weapons it may have, but it still feels the weakest of these robots even within its own series.

Stuck: T.R.A.C.I.E. The fact it barely made it through the Trial speaks for itself - one legit competitor extra and T.R.A.C.I.E. would have been out.

Pool: Concussion, Facet, Killerhurtz, Pulsar, Raging Knightmare, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, T.R.A.C.I.E., X-Terminator 2.

105. Pulsar (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Pulsar. I’ve given it some goood leeway and it was certainly potent, but it doesn’t stop the fact it was close to loosing almost every battle in its career. If we are pooling Series 1 Grand Finalists, Series 8 is just as vulnerable.

Pool: Splinter 5. Ive never been as impressed by its Annihilator as I was apalled at it practically losing to Killertron and Aggrobot, not to mention its pretty pitiful Series 5.

Pool: Concussion, Facet, Killerhurtz, Raging Knightmare, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, Splinter 5, The Big Cheese, T.R.A.C.I.E., X-Terminator 2

104. Splinter (Adster)[]

Cut: Splinter - In a 50/50 decision (between this and Raging Knightmare), I'll opt to cut Splinter, as TG said when he pooled it, it's Annihilator performance wasn't spectacular, and it was supremely outclassed by Bigger Brother in the Heat Semi-Final

Pool: The Grim Reaper - Last machine from my vote-in list.

103. Facet (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Facet. Sure, it could have potentially gone on to extensive success in the series with a better draw - you could make an argument for it beating most of the semi-finalists in series 3. Using that logic you would have to propel a round 2 loser way further than it deserves, which I don't intend on doing.

Pool: Cassius II. Similar logic really, you could push it far on potential (on potential it's arguably a top 3 bot in that series), but it's actual record saw some pretty reckless driving and, as we now know, enforced issues leaving it with only one flip in the tank.

Pool: Concussion, Killerhurtz, Raging Knightmare, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, T.R.A.C.I.E., X-Terminator 2, The Grim Reaper, Cassius II

Round 3[]

102. Raging Knightmare (RA2)[]

The end of a dream: Raging Knightmare. The second weakest heat winner, behind St. Agro, but St. Agro isn't here. Grim Reaper's heat was dreadfully boring, but the Reaper itself was very steady and dominant, not like RK who constantly flipped itself. Looking back, they had luck at just about every stage - no gas in Round 1 but Executioner killed Topbot and then itself, ROTS was giving it a real run for its money before its gas line burst, and Spawn Again did Spawn Again things. And in the Annihilator Round 2, they looked completely lost. To their credit they beat Ewe 2 by having a better design that couldn't be side stranded, but to their discredit, their unassisted achievements were minimal.

The Saint Comes Marching In: St. Agro. I gave it one vote and I'm sticking to it. Credit for them to the innovative design, and this is by no means an expression of dislike, but their combat prowess was minimal, and I feel they got highly optimal draws in two consecutive flipper-bots that couldn't themselves self-right very easily.

Pool: Cassius 2, Concussion, Killerhurtz, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, St. Agro, T.R.A.C.I.E., The Big Cheese, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator 2

101. St. Agro (NJGW)[]

Cut: St. Agro - was hardly exceptional in its melee and broke its weapon, got dominated by Scraptosaur before the KO, nearly lost and suffered damage against a one-side drive Ceros, and mullered in the Semis.

Pool: Prizephita Mach 2. Its Round 1 and 2 victories are battles it only won due to incredibly unaware opposition drivers. Prizephita's drive was done in both fights.

The pool: Cassius II, Concussion, Prizephita Mach 2, Killerhurtz, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, T.R.A.C.I.E., The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator 2.

100. Prizephita Mach 2 (O Raz3r O)[]

Mayday: Prizephita Mach 2, as Nick correctly pointed out, lost drive on one side against both Thermidor 2 and The Alien, and while it had a good barrage of attacks on Wild Thing in the heat final, you’d have to wonder why less than 3 of the 5 minutes of the fight was shown. I get the feeling it was the latter stages of the fight where Prizephita was already considerably slowing down and had a broken flipper; of course they’ll focus on the more visually impressive Prizephita attacks on TV.

Shouldn’t outrun The Reaper: With The Grim Reaper pooled, Big Nipper (7) should be too. Sure, the heat final decision was questionable, but it was very close, far closer than their round 1 clash, which The Grim Reaper dominated.

Big Nipper (Series 7), Cassius 2, Concussion, Killerhurtz, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, T.R.A.C.I.E., The Big Cheese, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator 2

99. Cassius II (HV Lobsta)[]

Cut: Cassius II. Team Cassius’ performance in Series 3 is nothing to write home about, compared to previous campaigns. While it did manage to win a rematch with Team Loco, its all too intimate relationship with the pit spelled disaster for the team against Pussycat, a robot it was defeating up until that point, I’d argue. Other than Grand Final bots simply not competing in the subsequent series, this was perhaps the longest fall of any bot between seasons, although I’ve probably forgotten one or two more extreme cases. (The fact that they were disallowed to use their C02 flipper more than once a fight and their spike at all thanks to similar pneumatic systems being behind Series 3’s incident in the pits didn’t really affect them much, seeing as they fired the flipper off multiple times during the battle with Dundee, and again with Pussycat.) Still, the front hinge flipper seemed to struggle in actually flipping bots over in Series 3, taking many shots to get Dundee up and over. Cassius went out with a whimper, rather than a bang.

Pooled: X-Terminator (Series 3). I think X-Terminator’s performance in Series 3 is around the same quality as in Series 4, so having both in the pool feels ok to me.

Pool: Big Nipper (7), Concussion, Killerhurtz, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Big Cheese, T.R.A.C.I.E, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2.

PIT The Big Cheese (CrashBash)[]

Grated: The Big Cheese. It's really the only one I feel I can eliminate at this stage that I haven't nominated. Its slow speed and sluggish lifter leaves it perhaps a bit too vulnerable to other robots of its era.

TG: PIT: Big Cheese. A quick glance reveals that X Terminator and bloody Diotoir are still in Series 3’s contributions, and I’ve felt that this was a premature add for some time.

Hammered: Bodyhammer A strong performance in Series 1 let down by a poor Heat Final and the fact that it was rendered weaponless.

Pool: Big Nipper (7), Bodyhammer, Concussion, Killerhurtz, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, T.R.A.C.I.E, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2.

98. Big Nipper (Series 7) (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Big Nipper 7. A heat Finalist who really cannot count upon much and I am sure is largely potential based.

Pool: hydra 6. Potent, but couldn’t self right against Bulldog breed and was armoured in cheese

Pool: Bodyhammer, Concussion, Hydra, Killerhurtz, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, T.R.A.C.I.E, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2.

97. Killerhurtz (Adster)[]

Killed off: Killerhurtz - A tricky one this between Killerhurtz and Spikasaurus. Both had good and negative points throughout the Series. Spikasaurus had the Annihilator win ("defeating" Killerhurtz in the process), but lost a close R1 decision, Killerhurtz won an easy decision, but aced the Pinball, where Spiksaurus failed. I'm leaning towards getting rid of Killerhurtz because whilst Killerhurtz had some good attacks on Spiksaurus, Spikasaurus had a good go in taking down Killerhurtz.

Pooled: Raging Reality - After that essay, another tussle between Beast of Bodmin and Raging Knightmare, I'm going to pool Raging Reality. It may have toppled Tetanus and Typhoon II, but it was then mauled by the other four in Round 2.

96. Bodyhammer (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Bodyhammer. Was close between this and TRACIE due to TRACIE's breakdowns in the gauntlet and trials, but with not much to its credit (every other bot still in contention I can think of at least one solid performance against a bot either better or of an equal level to it) but a lucky escape against REALI-T and being slightly too low for Roadblock to knock over, Bodyhammer had the least to recommend it.

Pooled: Panzer Mk 2. Unfortunately, Panzer can't call upon its strong extreme warriors record here, and as such only has the 2WC melee to its name, and while it put up a good showing against Tornado it was nevertheless killed off with a single flip, and a 0-1 record ain't all-star material.

The Pool: Concussion, Hydra, Raging Reality, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, T.R.A.C.I.E, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2, Panzer Mk. 2.

Round 4[]

95. Hydra (RA2)[]

Heads won't be growing back: Hydra. Very plucky robot, but as TG said, they had rather weak armour, I don't think I've ever seen Dominator do that much damage. And they were really listless towards the end of that fight. As for the tag team terror, I think they would've had a real struggle if they had to 1v1 X-Terminator, on the basis of the way their clash was going. Can't cut my own without using up my Doom Dial, and I feel I might need it with this anti-early series agenda.

Pooling: Diotior (Series 5). In series 3 not every bot had a recoruse for getting flipped so I cna't single out that Diotior for that. But by Series 5 standards they don't measure up. And that win on Tornado was largely aided by their fur negating Tornado's weapon, and Tornado inexplicably driving up their wedge all the time (the team's diary doesn't really explain why they did that).


The Pool: Concussion, Diotior (Series 5), Raging Reality, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, T.R.A.C.I.E, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2, Panzer Mk. 2.

94. T.R.A.C.I.E (NJGW)[]

Cut: T.R.A.C.I.E. - amazed it got to even this stage. It died in the Gauntlet, killed itself in the Trial, and should've lost against Prince of Darkness after dying on the grille too. At its best, it was a joy to watch, but that happened in one fight.

Pool: All Torque

The Pool: All Torque, Concussion, Diotior (Series 5), Raging Reality, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2, Panzer Mk. 2.

93. Raging Reality (O Raz3r O)[]

Reality sets in: Raging Reality had an incredibly easy round 1 draw, was struggling badly against Tetanus 2 in Round 2 until its mobility issues kicked in, and had no chance against Razer. Also had a very questionable breakdown in Round 2 of Extreme 2's Annihilator.

Pooled: Supernova (9) often rated highly based on potential, but what we actually saw of it in Series 9 against Pulsar and Ironside 3 should catch up to it sooner rather than later in a ranking like this. Frostbite is hardly the most impressive robot to completely beat up either.

The Pool: All Torque, Concussion, Diotior (Series 5), Panzer Mk. 2, Recyclopse, Spikasaurus, Supernova (9), The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2

92. Panzer Mk. 2 (HV Lobsta)[]

A Short Campaign: Panzer Mk. 2. If Philliper didn't get that lucky flip, if Tornado hadn't already destroyed Panzer's scrimech, we probably wouldn't have cut Panzer at this stage. All things considered, it kind of went under my radar till it was pooled, me thinking that Extreme Warriors would be considered in the ranking. Oh well.

Pooled: Crustacean. Has a couple very memorable victories, but even Ian Vissler himself considered Crustacean's win against Behemoth in S5 as "More luck than anything else." It also had control problems throughout Series 5 and 6, managing to defeat itself against Chaos 2 when it opened the pit then fell down itself because it lost control. Had an easy first round draw in Series 6, Mr Nasty being perfect for Crustacean's claws to snip the former's aerial, and the fact that it lost to Behemoth the second time they met in the arena shows that Crustacean's most famous victory was maybe a bit of a fluke. Always ended up being beaten by stronger All-Stars.

Pool: All Torque, Concussion, Crustacean, Diotóir (S5/X1), Recylopse, Spikasaurus, Supernova (S9), The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3), X-Terminator 2.

91. X-Terminator 2 (CrashBash)[]

The sequel is never as good as the original: X-Terminator 2. The fact the team didn't like it is not a good start, but even outside that, it just didn't feel as commanding as the original X-Terminator.

Box in the pool: Robot the Bruce. It's just a box. Nothing more to say.

Pool: All Torque, Concussion, Crustacean, Diotóir (S5/X1), Recylopse, Robot the Bruce, Spikasaurus, Supernova (S9), The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3)

90. Spikasaurus (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Extinct: Spikasaurus. I could chuck The Grim Reaper but it really has to be up for this machine who has come so far on an Annihilator alone.

Pool: Mortis (4). The weapons jammed against Steg 2, and it just felt past it’s prime compared to the emerging Dominator and Firestorm machines in the heat on either side

Pool: All Torque, Concussion, Crushtacean, Diotior (Series 5), Mortis (Series 4), Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Supernova (Series 9), The Grim Reaper, X-erminator (Series 3)

89. Supernova (Series 9) (Adster)[]

Turned into a black hole: Supernova Supernova might have had some good wins in Series 9, but it was pretty much outclassed by Ironside3 and Pulsar in the Head-to-Heads.

Pooled: I don't want to do this, but Wild Thing II. A bit of a step down from Wild Thing, and the disc could have been a bit better

The Pool: All Torque, Concussion, Crustacean, Diotóir (S5/X1), Mortis (4), Recylopse, Robot the Bruce, The Grim Reaper, Wild Thing II, X-Terminator (Series 3)

88. All Torque (GarrodGang)[]

No Trousers: All Torque. Credit for being a reliably pushy bot, but only scalp it can claim is Prometheus and King B dispatched them rather quickly.

3.6 Roentgens? Not great but not terrible...: Atomic (Extreme 1/Series 5) Very unfortunate to have been so thoroughly savaged by Hypno-Disc, could have pushed itself even higher if it'd been able to contest its annihilator.

The Pool: Concussion, Crustacean, Diotóir (S5/X1), Mortis (4), Recylopse, Robot the Bruce, The Grim Reaper, Wild Thing II, X-Terminator (Series 3), Atomic (E1/S5)

Round 5[]

87. Mortis (Series 4) (RA2)[]

Rigor Mortis sets in: Mortis (Series 4): Scratched up a couple of robots, but the wins were minimally impressive - close and oft-disputed JD to Panic Attack being the highlight. Said before that Crusader's armour was like paper, and it couldn't seem to leave a mark on anyone else. Loss by lifter jamming is going to hurt them too. Wild Thing, Atomic, X-Terminator, and Crushtacean in the Commonwealth were taken out by high-tier robots compared to Steg 2 beating Mortis.

Into the gravity well: Black Hole: I have no excuses for their loss to Philipper, and who did they beat of comparable quality to Philipper - was the old version of Tsnuami that good?

The Pool: Atomic (S5/X1), Black Hole, Concussion, Crustacean, Diotóir (S5/X1), Recylopse, Robot the Bruce, The Grim Reaper, Wild Thing II, X-Terminator (Series 3)

86. Beast of Bodmin (NJGW)[]

Cut: Wild Thing 2 - it's not a bad machine, but Wild Thing 2 struggled offensively despite its strong reliability.

Pool: Beast of Bodmin

The Pool: Atomic (S5/X1), Beast of Bodmin, Black Hole, Concussion, Crustacean, Diotóir (S5/X1), Recylopse, Robot the Bruce, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3)

85. Beast of Bodmin (O Raz3r O)[]

Hardly a Beast of a performance: Beast of Bodmin. May have reached the Top 8 of Series 3, but boy did it struggle to get there. It was badly losing to Crusher before its track slipped, Onslaught worries it until its own poor control failed it and left it overturned, and even Invertebrat threatened it in the heat final for a while. Blade was perhaps the weakest semi finalist of Series 3, and once it finally faced a good competitor, Beast of Bodmin was outclassed.

Respawned: Spawn of Scutter

The Pool: Atomic (S5/E1), Black Hole, Concussion, Crushtacean, Diotoir (S5/E1), Recylcopse, Root the Bruce, Spawn of Scutter, The Grim Reaper, X-Terminator (Series 3)

84. The Grim Reaper (HV Lobsta)[]

Does it fear itself?: The Grim Reaper. All of its battles ended in judges decisions. Which is a distinction that none of the others in the pool have. One could also argue that even the JDs it did win were close all but once, and even then, Gyrobot did a good bit of damage. Never got close to an OOTA either. The flipper was weak by Series 7 standards. Didn't get a single attack in against Storm 2 and of course had a very close JD against Big Nipper. Most of the other S7 semi-finalists would have made short work of it, I think.

Pooled: Tsunami. Had very easy opponents in its group battle and the second round and in the heat final managed to claw defeat from the jaws of victory

83. Black Hole (CrashBash)[]

Chance, chance...UPSET!: Black Hole. It may be the German champion, fair enough, but I feel it has too many vulnerabilities to make it stand up to a good chunk of the robots from the cocurrently filmed Series 6.

Guess who's back: The Big Cheese. Maybe it was initially eliminated a little earlier than it should, but it still has vulnerabilities of its own and needs considering.

82. Diotior (Series 5) (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Diotoir. I wanted to cut Crushtacean or Spawn of Scutter, but s4 SMIDSY is still not even pooled and that’s unacceptable, so I’ll cut a different heat finalist and hope SMIDSY goes shortly after.


Pool: SMIDSY 4 - really needs to go soon

81. Atomic (S5/E1) (Adster)[]

Gone into meltdown: Atomic (S5/E1) - a solid Mayhem performance, kinda got lucky against Kan-Opener due to the srimech, then ripped apart by Hypno-Disc.

Pooled: Supernova (S7) - I'm really struggling now, and I don't expect Supernova to be cut until the remaining 9 are cut, it was a Round 1 dropout (albeit getting damaging Killalot, with a bit of help), and whilst it had two good battles in the Top 4 of the 3WC, it had a bit of trouble in the first round.

The Pool: Concussion, Crushtacean, Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Spawn of Scutter, Supernova (Series 7) The Big Cheese, Tsunami, X-Terminator (Series 3).

80. S.M.I.D.S.Y. (GarrodGang)[]

Sorry Mate I Voted You: Weird to think that series 4 was SMIDSY's best season performance wise (god knows they coulda done better in 6 and perhaps 7) but it was. Full credit for beating out Aggrobot and bamboozling Panic Attack for a time.

Silenced: Mute

Round 6[]

79. Crushtacean (RA2)[]

Feeling crabby: Crushtacean. They had a very impressive defeat of Corkscrew, but other than that, all low-tier robots. And it must be said that they threw away a win against Chaos 2, and on paper wouldn't beat any of the Series 6 semifinalists.

Waited long enough: Terrorhurtz (Reboot). Keep in mind, this ONLY counts the reboot version. The series 6 version has much higher to fly, but fast forwarding 13 years, it was very dated and tired and only brought anti-horizontal armour to the table, it was absolutely lost against flippers and vertical spinners, ie 90% of the bots with championship potential. They just didn't make the magic happen.

Pool: Concussion, Mute (Extreme 2), Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Spawn of Scutter, Supernova (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Tsunami, X-Terminator (Series 3)

78. Spawn of Scutter (NJGW)[]

Cut: Spawn of Scutter - a good performance against Vercingetorix, but nothing too much to boast about otherwise.

Pool: IG-88

Pool: Concussion, IG-88, Mute (Extreme 2), Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Supernova (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Tsunami, X-Terminator (Series 3)

77. Mute (Extreme 2) (O Raz3r O)[]

Nothing left to say: Mute (Extreme 2) may have reached the New Blood Final, and possibly should have won it, but the journey there wasn’t always smooth. Poor control in Round 1 was saved by a Terror Turtle elimination, it couldn’t finish Mr Nasty off, ran out of gas very early against Roobarb and ended on the flames, then had a weird breakdown against Cedric Slammer.

Walking into the pool Anarchy

Pool: Anarchy, Concussion, IG-88, Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Supernova (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Tsunami, X-Terminator (Series 3)

76. IG-88 (HV Lobsta)[]

Bounty on its head: IG-88. Consider the main weaknesses of this not, thin armour, no scrimech and easy to get under to flip, then consider the semifinalist lineup of Series 7. It had opponents that were perfect for its axe to spin into and destroy (a tracked bot and two thinly armoured bots with well-exposed wheels, The Stag and King B), but put against any decently armoured flipper or lifter and a flip of doom would save the judges a decision, as Dantomkia spectacularly showed.

Pooled: Fluffy. While its wins were spectacular, so were its losses. Too unreliable to reach the heights of success later bar spinner designs reached.

75. Fluffy (CrashBash)[]

You had ONE job!: Fluffy. Maybe the odd breakdown here and there is sorta acceptable. Throwing away each and every one of your performances is not, especially in two fights you were winning!

Pool: Sabretooth (9/10) Aside from an admittedly great fight against Terrorhurtz, what else did Sabretooth really have? Know that I considered GBH...yet I felt it overall performed more consistently.

Pool: Anarchy, Concussion, Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Sabretooth. Supernova (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Tsunami, X-Terminator (Series 3).

74. Anarchy (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Outlawed: Anarchy. Gone as far as I can on potential alone.

Pooled: Behemoth 3. The fact that it couldn’t self right has to come into play and hold it back based on Series 3, as it’s the reason it’s Uk Championship performance doesn’t match the World Championship

73. Sabretooth (Series 9/10)(Adster)[]

Cut: Sabretooth (9/10) - It had that good battle against Terrorhurtz, and did alright against other machines in S10, but when taking each machine in consideration for it's time, I feel like Sabretooth is just edged out about by the others to be cut.

Pooled: Mace II - As I said last time, this is going to get trickier every time. However, I think Mace II should be pooled, as it was kinda chance that Stinger deflected to the pit, and it got outclassed by Chaos II in the Top 8.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Concussion, Mace II, Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Supernova (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Tsunami, X-Terminator (Series 3).

72. X-Terminator (S3) (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: X-Terminator (S3). Had a strong performance against PA and perhaps could've gone further in a more forgiving heat - for a promising heat finalist this is a good enough ranking.

Pool: Spawn Again (Series 7). Could legitimately have been a top contender for series 7 - a strongly armoured, powerful flipper? However I simply can't overlook the ram issue - it's pretty clear this was an inevitability and such a debilitating timebomb within the bot has to severely diminish its ranking.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Concussion, Mace II, Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Spawn Again (Series 7) Supernova (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Tsunami

Round 7[]

FOG OF WAR (RA2)[]

Put on your hi-vis vests and reduce speed, because we're rolling in the FOG OF WAR.

I cannot in good conscience cut any robot here besides my own. And a Rogue House Robot on Concussion will not be sufficient to satisfy my concerns. So, time for a more drastic course of action. The following are being removed: Tsunami, Robot The Bruce, Supernova (Series 7), and Mace 2.

And the following are being added: Pussycat (Series 7), Storm2 (Reboot) , Shockwave, and Diotior Series 3.

Meaning the pool now is: Behemoth (Series 3), Concussion, Diotior (Series 3), Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Shockwave, Spawn Again (Series 7), Storm2 (Reboot), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese

71. Plunderbird 2 (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (NJGW)[]

Rogue House Robot: Plunderbird 2 - this robot has caused enough damage on the Wiki already, lmao. It was a decent wedge against awfully, awfully slow machines. It's still slow and not nimble.

The pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Concussion, Diotior (Series 3), Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Shockwave, Spawn Again (Series 7), Storm2 (Reboot), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese

70. Diotior (Series 3) (O Raz3r O)[]

Die-otoir: I can’t believe Diotoir (3) slipped my mind, and somehow outlasted X-Terminator (3), nor was it pooled before Behemoth (3). I wasn’t paying enough attention earlier and thought this version had been cut instead of the S5 version, but alas, it’s far too late now. I don’t think Diotoir’s performances in the FWC outweigh its accomplishments in the Tag Team Terror, and this version is lucky to be as high as it is.

Put it back on a leash: Pitbull

The pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Concussion, Pitbull, Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Shockwave, Spawn Again (Series 7), Storm 2 (Reboot), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese

69. Concussion (HV Lobsta)[]

Starring Will Smith: Concussion. This seems like a good time to cut this machine. It had reliability problems throughout Series 9, even if it did win most of its battles, and was soundly defeated by two quality bar spinners in the forms of Ironside 3 and Carbide. Series 10 was more lackluster, having been beaten in its group battle through the efforts of Nuts damaging a wheel and Androne 4000 sniping the removable link, defeating a weaponless, scrimechless wedge, then having the idea of protecting the wheels of the bot come back to bite them in the rematch against Nuts 2. Also didn't really do much in the 10 Bot Rumble. It was outclassed by all the other finalists, in both series that it appeared in.

Pooled: Thermidor 2 (Series 4).

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Pitbull, Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Shockwave, Spawn Again (Series 7), Storm 2 (Reboot), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Thermidor 2 (Series 4).

68. Storm 2 (Reboot) (CrashBash)[]

What the Hellbent happened to: Storm 2? I've asked this question before and it still upsets me to see just how much charm Storm 2 lost between the original and reboot series. The main reason, however, I am choosing to cut it now is that unlike every other entry (that I haven't already nominated), Storm 2 didn't have anything flashy to show for itself in Series 8. It was outshined by Eruption in its melee, was basically just a doorstop against Eruption and PP3D in its battles and then got thrown out by Apollo. I'm not strictly saying Storm 2 would have done better if it was anything like it had been in Series 7, but it certainly would have performed better.

Pooled: Robot the Bruce. Back again.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Pitbull, Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Shockwave, Spawn Again (Series 7), Terrorhurtz (Reboot), The Big Cheese, Thermidor 2 (Series 4).

67. Terrorhurtz (Reboot) (Toon Ganondorf)[]

It doesn’t hurt: Terrorhurtz (reboot): a big defensive wedge was great for the show because of a legitimate trump to carbide, but two failures to reach the heat final and a very cruisy opportunity heat which it lost quite easily. Never felt on par with Thor, the obvious comparison.

Pool: Thing 2

66. The Big Cheese (Adster)[]

Hopes grated: The Big Cheese - TBC was a good robot for its time, but ultimately, I think it was just too slow, and the lack of srimech cost it.

Pooled: Supernova (S7) - same reasons as last time

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Pitbull, Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Shockwave, Spawn Again (Series 7), The Big Cheese, Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II

65. Shockwave (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Shockwave - I originally opted for Robot the Bruce, but have decided to amend it - though I do not think Bruce should advance much further than this. Shockwave had probably the least impressive path to a final placing in the reboot, and I'm honestly rather surprised it's outplaced Concussion. A decent melee performance followed by a pretty definitive defeat by Thor and wins over two of the least impressive opponents possible, that they managed to leave the heat at all was a stroke of luck on their part and of bad luck on Thor's. A good machine but probably the least impressive of all three Team Shock heavyweights.

Pool: Tsunami. A potentially top-tier run ruined by overconfidence.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Pitbull, Pussycat (Series 7), Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Spawn Again (Series 7), Supernova (7) Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami

Round 8[]

64. Pussycat (Series 7) (RA2)[]

Say me-OW: Pussycat (Series 7). Well aren’t you guys so kind, cleaning out all the ones I brought in with Fog Of War. We’re at the stage where scalps aren’t good enough, they have to be good scalps. Pussycat was in real danger of going out in Round 1 if not for Twister's blade randomly dying, and then were beaten by M2, who’s a good candidate to be the next Series 7 cut. King B and Kat 3 were legit kills but on so so bots, and I don’t know what happened with Dantomkia, but it seemed flukey. Armour quality had evolved and Pussycat had not.

Going undergroud: Gravedigger. Mortis is a good scalp, but the robot had a worrying amount of difficulty just pointing the wedge at the opponent and driving forward. Of all Series 3 bots remaining, the weakest performance.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Gravedigger, Pitbull, Recyclopse, Robot the Bruce, Spawn Again (Series 7), Supernova (7) Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami

63. Robot The Bruce (NJGW)[]

Cut: Robot the Bruce - a nice quick KO in the Heat Final was good, but that was on a terribly light machine, and the Cruella fight was such a non-event, followed by a Grand Final suicide.

Pool: Bulldog Breed RA2's note: This is the Series 7 version, and the only version of Bulldog Breed included in this Rankdown.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Bulldog Breed, Gravedigger, Pitbull, Recyclopse, Spawn Again (Series 7), Supernova (7) Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami.

62. Spawn Again (Series 7) (O Raz3r O)[]

Out of respawns: Spawn Again (Series 7) had an impressive round 1, but while I found its fight against ROCS very enjoyable personally, Spawn Again really should have finished it off faster than it did, and the explosion in the heat final, while severely unlucky, cannot be ignored.

Big fish in a small pool: Kan-Opener (Series 6/E2) performed well in its Annihilator, but fell very easily in its Series 6 Melee.

The pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Bulldog Breed, Gravedigger, Kan-Opener (S6/E2), Pitbull, Recyclopse, Supernova (Series 7), Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami

61. Gravedigger (HV Lobsta)[]

Six Feet Under: Gravedigger. Of the pooled bots, I think it struggled against its opponents the most, as it always found it difficult to flip over any of them, and seemed sluggish at some points in its Series 3 campaign. Had a lucky win against Mortis thanks to a slipped track and found it difficult to flip three wedgeless, weaponless robots (I’m not counting Darke Destroyer’s wagglers as weapons). All and all, an easy cut.

Pooled: M2. All its battles save the first were either a close won thing or a loss.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Bulldog Breed, Kan Opener (S6/E2), M2, Pitbull, Recyclopse, Supernova (Series 7), Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami.

60. Supernova (Series 7) (CrashBash)[]

Imploded again: Supernova. It had a few strong performances in the Third World Championship, but it was hindered by a poor showing in the main competition and several dubious issues in the 3WC itself.

What may have been...: Disc-O-Inferno. Feels like the right place to nominate it. It won an annihilator, so that's always a good thing, but we're purely judging the X1 version, which leaves a few unanswered questions as to how competent it really would have been, considering the strongest robot it directly defeated was the about-average Spirit of Knightmare - considering the latter was the one who KO'ed Steel Avenger and Panic Attack had to withdraw due to sustained damage rather than direct.

59. Disc-O-Inferno (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Disc-O-Inferno (X1). Feels appropriate that it should be back to back with Supernova. It comes down to this or Pitbull, and Pitbull was in less danger in the same amount of fights

Pool: Ironside 3. Robots being unable to self right really need to be cleared out before the top tier.

58. Recyclopse (Adster)[]

Recycled: Recyclopse - I'm cutting Recyclopse. Despite it having a good weapon with the flipper and toppling Matilda, the chains and what should have been a draw with Mortis do have to hold it back a bit.

Pool: Drillzilla - got through after Firestorm got rid of both opponents before then outpushing Firestorm itself. It had to really wait for Manta to kill its own power off, before being smothered by Razer.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, Ironside3, Kan Opener (S6/E2), M2, Pitbull, Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami.

57. Pitbull (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Pitbull

Pool: Big Nipper (Reboot)

Round 9[]

56. Kan-Opener (RA2)[]

KO’d: Kan-Opener. Any trophy win carries a good deal of merit, but the Annihilator can be won by playing a largely passive role. Kan-Opener relied on the flipper bots tiring each other out for a lot of the annihilator. Their defeat of Thermidor is legit, and Typhoon, maybe they could repeat that piercing in a 1 v 1, but that’s all they can take sole ownership of. And that’s not even touching on the Achilles heels laid bare in the main competition - thin armour, and difficulty shaking themselves loose. I bet people are tired of me saying this, but Kan Opener’s record begs the question of if they could win a fight where more than one robot is to be eliminated. And that’s a good reason to cut them.

Nominate: Behemoth (Reboot). One heat win out of 3, checkered with a lot of bots outclassing it.

Behemoth (Series 3), Behemoth (Reboot), Big Nipper (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, Ironside3, M2, Thermidor 2 (Series 4), Thing II, Tsunami.

55. Thing 2 (NJGW)[]

Cut: Thing 2 - some good performances in there for sure, but Thing 2 reared up constantly, and I think it would've been exposed against a large portion of the Series 3's higher finishers.

Pool: GBH

54. Thermidor 2 (O Raz3r O)[]

Broiled: Thermidor 2 (Series 4) had a deceptively weak run to the semi finals of Series 4 I think. It was struggling in the round one melee, with Kronic the Wedgehog arguably outperforming it until Thermidor 2 side stranded the weaponless Gravedigger. Then it was against Dreadnaut XP-1, a robot which couldn’t self right. Meanwhile, Thermidor 2 was really struggling against Kronic the Wedgehog in the heat final until the flipper broke off, and even then it couldn’t finish Kronic off itself, with Kronic seemingly breaking down by itself. Valiant against Pussycat, but ran out of steam and was outclassed in the second half of the battle.

Pooled: Ripper’s poor armour and disappointing defeat against Kan-Opener combined with being thoroughly outclassed by Firestorm 5 means it wasn’t going to evade the pool much longer.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Behemoth (Reboot), Big Nipper (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, GBH, Ironside3, M2, Ripper, Tsunami

53. Big Nipper (Reboot) (HV Lobsta)[]

Cut: Big Nipper (Reboot). Has six wins from two seasons, and no heat finals. Except for Aftershock however, all those wins were against mediocre bots, like King B Remix and Terror Turtle (not saying they're on the same level). Had difficulty against almost every flipper it fought , which I found strange, considering the fact it has two FRA Championships under its belt. It obviously lost something in between stages, or did the others gain...?

Pooled: Tough As Nails. Since Bulldog Breed is here already, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to pool a robot it beat in the same episode it exited.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, GBH, Ironside3, M2, Ripper, Tough as Nails, Tsunami.

52. GBH (CrashBash)[]

Insert put here :GBH. Had a pretty decent showing for its time, but it inspires the least amount of confidence for me.

Blown Back: Tornado (4). A very strong performance, but three of its four fights ended with it immobile for one reason or another, and two were breakdowns.

Pool: Behemoth (Series 3), Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, Ironside3, M2, Ripper, Tornado (4) Tsunami.

51. Ripper (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Shredded: Ripper. The fact that it could be so easily immobilised by being back stranded holds it back from greatness.

Pooled: Wheely Big Cheese

50. Tornado (Series 4) (Adster)[]

Blown Away: Tornado (4) Crash summed it up well, and considering, as he said, that it had two breakdowns, shouldn't allow it to be carried top much further. It almost wasn't a Semi-finalist either if that spike hadn't have been there or Gemini 1 had gotten 2 off, Gemini would have gone through. It was that close.

Pooled: Thor (Reboot) - If Ironside3 is in the pool, then Thor needs going in. Thor failed to a heat in 3 attempts, Ironside3 won a heat in 2 attempts, and could have done better in S10 had it been selected.

49. Tsunami (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Tsunami. There's no bot here I think has a weaker record than Tsunami, and I'd hate to see them outperform Bulldog or M2.

Pool: Rapid. If Thor and Ironside are up for contention now, think its only fair Rapid is. It boasted a pretty explosive flipper and it made Terrorhurtz look like a chump - however, its other opposition in the heat was poor and it showed itself up pretty badly in the grand final melee.

Round 10[]

48. Behemoth (Series 3) (RA2)[]

Cut: Behemoth (Series 3): Suffers from a lack of good scalps, and not good stamina; had to end matches very quickly; the thwo that went long were its undoing. They were cheated by the floor spike, yes, but were getting owned by Pitbull up until the flip.


Pooling: King Buxton. Just a box like Robot the Bruce, and struggled in Joust and Pinball. Plus, the builder’s account makes it sound like the motors could’ve gone anytime.

The Pool: Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, Ironside 3, King Buxton, M2, Rapid, Thor (Reboot), Wheely Big Cheese

47. King Buxton (NJGW)[]

Cut: King Buxton - a good machine especially for back in the day, but the machine was always under stress and a burnout was inevitable.

Pool: 101

The Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Drillzilla, Ironside 3, M2, Rapid, Thor (Reboot), Wheely Big Cheese.

46. Drillzilla (O Raz3r O)[]

Cut: Drillzilla had a decent showing against Firestorm 3 in round 1 of the SWC, despite not scoring any KOs like the flipper did, but it seemed to be struggling early on against Manta until it died, being outpushed several times. Was also utterly helpless against Razer in the final.

Pooled: Mace 2 returns to the pool after being thrown out by Fog of War a little while back.

Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Ironside3, M2, Mace 2, Rapid, Thor (Reboot), Tough as Nails (somehow none of us until now have realised it was pooled and yet not listed) Wheely Big Cheese

45. Rapid (HV Lobsta)[]

Cut: Rapid. For what looked to be a well-armoured flipper, it didn't handle spinners well at all, and when put against a good flipper, it struggled to do much of anything except lie on its face with its flipper hanging out after a few flips.

Pooled: Gravity.

Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Gravity, Ironside3, M2, Mace 2, Thor (Reboot), Tough As Nails, Wheely Big Cheese

44. Wheely Big Cheese (CrashBash)[]

Cheesed off: Wheely Big Cheese. So, what do the robots currently in the pool have in common? Well, for the most part, they're all reliable - except for Wheely Big Cheese. There is literally no reason as to why it broke down against Dominator 2, a fight it was winning comfortably, and at this stage, that's inexcusable. One super awesome flip does not a Robot Wars god make. Also, since this is the S5 & X1 version, we need to consider a terrible run in Extreme where its only victory was against Diotoir.

At risk of losing the chips: 13 Black. Well, if Gravity is in there, then 13 Black should be, even if this is the "superior" version.

43. M2 (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: M2. Narrowed down to this or Mace 2, one is more indisputably top tier within its own series.

Pool: Mortis (2). Surprisingly unpooled before now and pretty clearly less ahead of the pack than Series 1, relying on an opportunity heat and Napalm controversy.

Pool: 101, 13 Black, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Gravity, Ironside3, Mace 2, Mortis (2), Thor (Reboot), Tough As Nails

42. 13 Black (Adster)[]

The numbers up: 13BLACK (S6/E2) - may have helped to take out Chaos II, but had a really close battle with Dominator II, and was shown up in the Semi-Finals (apart from the Losers' Melee dance). Might have had a good heat run, but so did all the other robots in the pool.

Pooled: Killertron - I'm now struggling to pool robots. I suppose Killertron had an OHKO against in the Grand Final, and we are getting to the close of this, and Killertron stands out for this reason alone.

Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Gravity, Ironside3, Killertron (2), Mace 2, Mortis (2), Thor (Reboot), Tough As Nails

41. Mortis (Series 2) (GarrodGang)[]

Stretched Out: Mortis (S2). Faced reasonable but not spectacular opposition en route to the semi finals, and the unfortunate pinball fiasco led to them basically throwing the fight against Panic Attack. If they'd entered with Rob at the helm fully motivated, they could well have beat PA and scored far, far higher - as it is, their campaign was simply good, rather than great.

Trying desperately to think of another Troggs song to reference giving up and saying "Pool": Wild Thing (E1/S5). I'm no fan of this design, but I will acknowledge it performed pretty well, with a close win over D2 and coming oh-so-close to dethroning the champion, balanced out by losses to bots like Arnold and weirdly shaky performances against bots like Prizephita who it really shouldn't be struggling with. A pretty solid campaign, at a point in the list where we're weeding out the solid for the spectacular.

The Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Gravity, Ironside3, Killertron, Mace 2, Thor (Reboot), Tough As Nails, Wild Thing (E1/S5)

Round 11[]

40. Thor (Reboot) (RA2)[]

Cutting: Thor (Reboot). This was a tough one, but zero heat wins in three attempts, plus their many struggles with the remaining reboot robots cuts them here. I was really hoping that their Series 8 dominance on MR Speed Squared would be their baseline amount of damage against other bots, but they couldn't make that lighting strike agian, and overall underperformed.

Left in the bag of trail mix in favour of the chocolate pieces: Nuts 2 One good season is not enough for them to outrank the remaining Reboot bots (Behemoth can go first but that's out of my hands). Their heat was, well to be frank, the entropy from putting Aftershock, Carbide, and Eruption together in a different heat. Their win over Carbide is legit and impressive, but that's severely dampened by the fact that such a small modification could negate it.

Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Gravity, Ironside 3, Killertron, Mace 2, Nuts 2, Tough As Nails, Wild Thing (E1/S5).

39. Tough as Nails (NJGW)[]

Cut: Tough as Nails - a great Gravity win is a big plus, but Tough as Nails isn't well-rounded enough to be a dominant machine against the majority of the better machines in its series. Robochicken was improved for Series 7, but no serious competitor should struggle against it. The loss against Bulldog Breed also showed limitations.

Pool: Wild Thing (S4)

The pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Bulldog Breed, Gravity, Ironside 3, Killertron, Mace 2, Nuts 2, Wild Thing (S4), Wild Thing (E1/S5).

38. Bulldog Breed (O Raz3r O)[]

Put down: Bulldog Breed had a very easy heat and made a dog’s dinner out of it, being second best to Mantis in Round 1 and taking damage from Infernal Contraption it never fully fixed by the sounds of it, then pitifully failing to get any half decent flips against a dead Hard, and Kat 3 pushed it closer than it should have done in the heat final. Pulled off a great performance against Tough as Nails, and lasted longer than most would have done against X-Terminator given the circumstances, but the manner of the heat win has caught up to it.

Stings to do this: S3 (5), between this and Dantomkia S6, but S3 had a couple more difficulties in its heat, had a less convincing losers melee win and was beaten more easily by Razer.

Pool: 101, Behemoth (Reboot), Gravity, Ironside 3, Killertron, Mace 2, Nuts 2, S3 (Series 5), Wild Thing (Series 4), Wild Thing (E1/S5)

37. Wild Thing (Extreme 1/Series 5) (HV Lobsta)[]

Tamed Article: Wild Thing (X1/S5). Looking at each of its fights during the two series, this version of Wild Thing lost more battles than it won, and most of the battles it did win, it won closely. All except Dominator II in X1 and Napalm during the Fifth Wars. All its battles were enjoyable to watch though, making for one of my favouite campaigns of the classic era.

Pooled: Dantomkia (S6)

Pool: 101, Behemoth, Dantomkia, Gravity, Ironside3, Killertron, Mace 2, Nuts 2, S3 (Series 5), Wild Thing (Series 4).

36. Nuts 2 (CrashBash)[]

Sent to insane asylum: Nuts 2. A solid performance in Series 10 can't save the fact it crashed out very poorly in Series 9.

Ringed: Cassius. A solid heat victory can't save the fact that it was extremely lucky to win its semi-final and final eliminator battle the way it did...especially the semi-final

35. Wild Thing (4) (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Wild Thing (4). Best performing but shouldn’t be miles ahead of series 3 or 5, both of whom I’d back to beat the equivalent Steel Avenger and X Terminator, nor would I have given Series 4 Wild Thing a chance against equivalent Chaos 2 or Panic Attack

Pool: Atomic. Everyone’s favourite “could’ve been” but it had a fairly big opportunity heat and the self-immobilisation against Typhoon 2 is something that Bulldog Breed, M2 and Mute never had.

Pool: 101, Atomic (7), Behemoth (Reboot), Cassius, Dantomkia, Gravity, Ironside 3, Killertron, Mace 2, S3 (Series 5)

34. Mace II (Adster)[]

Cut: Mace II - I cannot cut Killertron because I pooled it, so I'm going to cut Mace II. Looking at the others, they all had some sort of big stand-out moment - 101 stood up to Hypno, Atomic had an OOTA chain, etc. - and for me, Mace II just lacks that stand-out performance, which means I'm cutting Mace II.

Pool: Aftershock - All other reboot machines either had one solid performance or the way through, had multiple good heat performances, or are Champions. Aftershock, whilst it had a good Series 9, it suffered in Series 10 because it was in the same heat as the current top 2, and in theory, should have beaten Big Nipper to get to the 10 Robot Rumble.

33. 101 (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: 101. I was waiting for Mace II to go first before I cut 101, so this is perfect timing. 101 got itself to the top 8, but it did so with very few dominant performances. It struggled with Overkill until the latter seemingly perished randomly, was half-dead against a fully dead King Buxton and lost to a severely weakened Hypno-Disc. While it defeated Weld-Dor convincingly in the FWC, it only did so because Panic Attack made a driving error. It has outplaced every other series 3 semi-finalist now, which is fair enough, so it's only right that it fall now before it threatens to outplace any grand finalists.

Pool: Magnetar. A huge, huge step up from Pulsar, absolutely romping through its heat and not facing any threat in former grand finalist Thor, it showed it had the power to take down Behemoth and even the champion. But it's really hard to overlook a failure so basic as an inability to self right.

Pool: The Pool: Aftershock, Atomic (7), Behemoth (Reboot), Cassius, Dantomkia, Gravity, Ironside 3, Killertron, Magnetar, S3 (Series 5)

Round 11[]

Attention: This is the last round to use the Doom Dial UNLESS we find ourselves with 28 or more remaining at the end of this round

32. S3 (RA2)[]

Cutting: S3. A perfectly respectable ending placement for this design that just looked like a winner compared to the others in its heat. However, its progress is capped off by the beating it took in the semifinals. It lost to two very different robots, showing it doesn't have just one rock-paper-scissors weakness, and with those exposed wheels, I wouldn't back it against a spinner either. Just can't contend.

Adding: Panic Attack (Series 4). Compared to what's left, a very passive performance.

Pool: Aftershock, Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Cassius, Dantomkia, Gravity, Ironside3, Killertron, Magnetar, Panic Attack (Series 4)

31. Killertron (NJGW)[]

Cut: Killertron - Oh I love Killertron's Series 2 run, but those Grand Final displays hurt it so much.

Pool: Steg-O-Saw-Us

The Pool: Aftershock, Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Cassius, Dantomkia, Gravity, Ironside3, Magnetar, Panic Attack (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us

30. Dantomkia (O Raz3r O)[]

Goodbye old friend: Dantomkia has some great performances in Series 6 and Extreme 2, notably beating notable robots like Chaos 2, 13 Black, Wild Thing, Terrorhurtz once out of two fights, and Hypno-Disc along the way. It did have its struggles too though, breaking down a little too easily against S3 and Firestorm 4, and its relatively high ground clearance left it susceptible on occasion.

Pooled: Stinger (S4) has a great run in Series 4’s main competition, but let’s not forget its Annihilator struggles or how close it came to losing to Panic Attack.

Pool: Aftershock, Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Cassius, Gravity, Ironside3, Magnetar, Panic Attack (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us, Stinger (Series 4)

29. Aftershock (HV Lobsta)[]

Cut: Aftershock. While it romped through its S9 heat, found difficutly in the Grand Final of that series and Heat B of the next, only beating two bots in both episodes. It wasn't even the best vertical spinner in Series 10's heat of death, having been soundly beaten by Big Nipper, who's already been cut.

Pooled: Dominator 2.

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Cassius, Dominator 2, Gravity, Ironside3, Magnetar, Panic Attack (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us, Stinger (Series 4).

28. Cassius (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (CrashBash)[]

ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT: Cassius. I have to, really. Cutting anyone else just doesn't feel right. Like I said when I nominated it, Cassius may have had some great fights (I got a real appreciation for its heat final), but it really shouldn't have been a championship robot at all. It really shouldn't have won either of its fights against Haardvark or Roadblock, breaking down to the former and being dominated by the latter. It was only through House Robot interference and a sudden lapse of concentration respectively that it won.

Pool: Bigger Brother. Great performance in Series 5 mitigated by a terrible performance in Extreme, with a breakdown in the Flipper Frenzy and whatever the hell happened in the Tag Team Terror (still believe they were never meant to win).

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Bigger Brother, Dominator 2, Gravity, Ironside3, Magnetar, Panic Attack (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us, Stinger (Series 4).

27. Magnetar (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: Magnetar. I was really hoping someone would cut Ironside, but looks like Ironside is going to outperform both Ranglebots. Two losses (same as the already cut Rapid), an unreliable srimech and the weakest heat in the entire reboot hold back a really huge player in the reboot.

Pool: X Terminator (7)

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Bigger Brother, Dominator 2, Gravity, Ironside 3, Panic Attack (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us, Stinger (Series 4), X-Terminator (7)

26. Stinger (Series 4) (Adster)[]

Cut: Stinger (Series 4) - For some reason, whenever Stinger (4) went to a JD, it always had a chance of going out - Round 1 any robot could have gone, then in Round 5, it won by a fine margin, and whilst it did well against Chaos II, it really struggled in the annihilator.

Pool: Hypno-Disc (Series 4) - We're getting to a point where we are struggling to find the weakest of the best. I'm not saying Hypno-Disc was the weakest (by any stretch of the imagination), however, I'm loathed to put any of the third placers in, because they were all good for their era, so it's between Hypno-Disc (4) and Terrorhurtz (6). Both were good, but I'm pooling Hypno because in a direct comparison, up to and including Round 5, Terrorhurtz practically mullered anything that crossed it's path, and whilst that is true of Hypno-Disc up to SFR1, Wild Thing kept challenging, whereas Bigger Brother succumbed to the axe blows.

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Bigger Brother, Dominator 2, Gravity, Hypno-Disc, Ironside 3, Panic Attack (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us, X-Terminator (7)

25. Panic Attack (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Panic Attack (Series 4). Probably the platonic ideal of Panic Attack as it's most commonly known (side-skirts, self-righting bars, pronounced forks - sans all these the series 2 bot almost feels like a different machine), this iterations performance is the most calm, cool and competent we saw from Kim Davies, with stylish, decisive KO's on SMIDSY and Spawn of Scutter. I wouldn't personally back them against any of the series 4 grand finalists, but it certainly felt like the last time they could have made a serious run at the top 4. However, they struggled with more unconventional, less boxy bots - it's fair enough losing to (the cut!) Stinger, who brought Chaos 2 perilously close to losing the championship, but failing twice to beat (the also cut!) Mortis raises eyebrows.

Pool: Fire Storm (Series 3). Really getting to the cream of the crop now, the only real blemishes on Fire Storm's run are an almost immediate death in their grand final bout with Chaos 2 and the trouble they had with Pitbull.

Pool: Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Bigger Brother, Dominator 2, Fire Storm (Series 3), Gravity, Hypno-Disc, Ironside 3, Steg-O-Saw-Us, X-Terminator (7)

Round 12[]

The Doom Dial is now off. This is the last round of cuts before the Final Rankdown.

24. Ironside3 (RA2)[]

Ironed out: Ironside 3. As we move into this final round, I feel it more important than ever to cut the robots with the lowest chance of obtaining the title. Atomic was a close second, but Ironside3 ultimately got it because they only had a few threatening opponents amongst their wins, and they were very much walked over in the grand final. Plus their srimech was constantly letting them down.

Pooling: Terrorhurtz (Series 6). I would gladly see this bot in the final rankdown, but there’s no question on whom to nominate. Thz has numerous losses in Series 6 and Extreme 2, making it hard to imagine their path to the championship.

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Bigger Brother, Dominator 2, Fire Storm (Series 3), Gravity, Hypno-Disc, Steg-O-Saw-Us, Terrorhurtz (Series 6), X-Terminator (7)

23. Fire Storm (NJGW)[]

Cut: Fire Storm (Series 3) - Fire Storm was a great first entry for the team's front-hinge flipper line, but at the same time, it had some interesting things about it. It was lightweight, was troubled by Facet and Pitbull, and lost very quickly to Chaos 2. The performance against Panic Attack was good, but Series 3 Panic Attack swerved so much that Fire Storm not winning that battle easily would've been a surprise.

pool: TR2 - there's basically nothing to pick anymore, so TR2, mainly for being outclassed by Apollo, and for its win over Carbide being a show of an inability to KO rather than it being a spinner killer.

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Behemoth (Reboot), Bigger Brother, Dominator 2, Gravity, Hypno-Disc, Steg-O-Saw-Us, Terrorhurtz (Series 6), TR2, X-Terminator (7)

22. Behemoth (Reboot) (O Raz3r O)[]

Cut: Behemoth (Reboot) has been on my radar a while, and now it’s time to get rid of it. It had flaws in every series: I don’t think it would have beaten a fully functioning Terrorhurtz in Series 8, poor decision making with weaponry cost it a heat final in Series 9, and it honestly should have lost against Sabretooth in Round 1 of Series 10. Sure, it got the brilliant win on Apollo, but its Series 10 campaign still saw it struggle several times; the melee against Sabretooth, it didn’t look like the anti spinner device was going to last much longer against Carbide in their S10 melee, and it lost drive on one side against Magnetar, and showed no progress against Eruption from their previous encounter. Some good wins in here, but coupled with some weak performances too.

Pooled: Firestorm 4, like Behemoth, was given a lucky break against Terrorhurtz. Had its most comfortable run to a grand final yet, but was briefly threatened at times in the All-Stars, and was comfortably beaten by Tornado in the S6 Grand Final as well. Its commonwealth carnage title was handed to it on a platter, so that’s not really much to go on.

Pool: Atomic (Series 7), Bigger Brother (S5/E1), Dominator 2 (Series 4), Firestorm 4, Gravity, Hypno-Disc (Series 4), Steg-O-Saw-Us, Terrorhurtz (S6/E2), TR2, X-Terminator (7)

21. X-Terminator (Series 7) (HV Lobsta)[]

Cut: X-Terminator (Series 7). I was contemplating cutting Gravity Dominator 2, Terrorhurtz or Atomic before I settled on this machine. Just goes to show how tight the ranking is becoming. While it made mincemeat of its opponents in its heat and semifinal, Marlon Pritchard’s bot almost lost to a bot on paper it would’ve soundly beaten, also being beaten to fourth palace in the Grand Final. The extra difficulty it had against Tsunami is what, for me, pulls it just outside the final rankdown spots.

Pooled: Apollo. While it did win the championship in Series 8, even in that series cracks were showing. Breaking down against Eruption, being beaten by Carbide and only edging a JD to win the trophy at the end. Then, in Series 9 it lost to Carbide twice, and somehow struggled in the opening seconds of its battle with Crackers ‘n’ Smash. It getting a wildcard didn’t help them very much, being immobilised by Aftershock quickly after the arena was repaired and the group battle restarted. It losing in its heat final of S10 seals the deal for me.

20. Atomic (Series 7) (CrashBash)[]

Suffering a Meltdown: Atomic. Despite a very strong performance, I have to eliminate Atomic for one reason and one reason alone - the terrible way it went out. None of the other robots went out on a blatant self-suicide after otherwise dominating their foe.

Just made it: Panic Attack (2). For just a centimetre, it would not have won.

19. TR2 (Toon Ganondorf)[]

Cut: TR2. Only a single series and I strongly suspect that it would have taken the same tumble as Apollo and aftershock did in their follow up series.

Pool: Storm 2. Because there’s only two spots left in the pool and screw you Ed

Pool: Apollo, Bigger Brother (X1/S5), Dominator 2 (Series 4), Firestorm 4, Gravity, Hypno-Disc (Series 4), Panic Attack (2), Steg-O-Saw-Us, Storm 2 (Series 7) Terrorhurtz, (S6/X2).

18. Bigger Brother (Adster)[]

Cut: Bigger Brother - In a tight run between itself, Dominator II and Gravity, I'm cutting Bigger Brother. It did finish second, but the Tag Team Terror performances and Flipper Frenzy mean I'm getting rid of Bigger Brother.

Not that it (really) matters: Tornado (S6/E2) - Small things now, and simply because it had that loss to Bigger Brother, and it did technically lose to Razer in the European Championship.

17. Gravity (GarrodGang)[]

Cut: Gravity. The last non-grand finalist in the pool (Dominator 2 aside, who has the near-win in the annihilator to bolster their credentials), its definitely time for Gravity to bow out

Final Rankdown[]

Note: since #2 and #1 are fairly guessable, I'm starting with those.

16. Steg-O-Saw-Us[]

  • a fantastic campaign it had, albeit against rather modest opposition comparatively, and a rather mild Semi-Final performance. Still, great slams for its time and putting up a good fight against Hypno-Disc are solid points. -NJGW, 16
  • Stunning that Steg made it to the final rankdown over Firestorm, but it gets no further for having qualified against the weakest Top 8 machine, almost lost to Gravedigger, and having no answer to Chaos 2 or Hypno Disc. -TG, 16
  • Another great debut, which may never have happened if not for a, in this case, lucky pre-battle breakdown of the other dinosaur themed bot competing that series. While it did make it to the Grand Final, it wasn’t without its slippery escapes. Gravedigger, for instance, could’ve flipped over the rambot with a lifter if it was actually able to flip anything, and Steg didn’t fight any other flipper in its sole campaign. Hypno-Disc also completely crippled it, so considering that it most likely would’ve been turned over quickly by either Firestorm or Chaos 2, having it as fourth of its series would make sense, but ranking it above, say Terrorhurtz wouldn’t really, as at least it was on par with Firestorm. -HV Lobsta, 15
  • Steg, for me, is one of the most underrated robots of all time. Steg was absolutely brutal, having a brilliant pitting on ORAC's Revenge, beating Henry and current Semi-Finalist Napalm, before having a good tussle with Gravedigger and the beating Beast of Bodmin, and not giving up easy against Hypno-Disc either. Saying that, it was almost an OFAD Semi-Finalist, and doesn't have the best W-L ratio. -Adster, 15
  • Truly one of Robot Wars greatest over-achievers, Steg-O-Saw-Us smashed their way out of reservedom into a well-earned spot in the series 3 grand finals, a true odd man out in a lineup otherwise made out of future all-time idols. They made mincemeat out of mainstays like Napalm and Bodmin Community College along the way and fought valiantly despite being massively outgunned against Hypno-Disc. One of the most impressive one-and-done campaigns the show ever saw. -GrarrodGang, 14
  • Definitely the most unnoticed survivor, its power in Series 3 was consistent and quietly dominant. This, however is as far as they go, because they couldn't shake off the same beating that others could, and were nearly dead in the water against Gravedigger. -RA2, 14

15. Dominator 2 (Series 4)[]

  • Our only remaining non-grand finalist and quite a surprising one. Dominator 2 had one of the greatest debut campaigns a bot ever saw, killing an opponent off within seconds of entering the arena and peppering the experienced favourite in 101, before edging out former grand finalist Firestorm and putting up a valiant challenge against the other great runaway success story of series 4 Pussycat. What’s edged them over the line where fellow semi-finalists such as Atomic and Gravity have failed is no doubt the annihilator, where they entered a disgustingly stacked lineup, helped kill-off the champion and other great axebot of the time Killerhurtz, and came desperately close to victory before an absolute freak breakdown against the cockroach-like Spikasaurus. It’s weapon was one of the most formidable of its time and while its non-finalist status almost mandates that it be placed here, reaching this stage is praise enough. -GarrodGang, 16
  • As GarrodGang said, Dominator 2 had on of the best debuts of any bot on Robot Wars, making both the Semifinals and an Annihilator final, netting the record for fastest immobilisation, hammering three seeds on its way to the second round of the semis and proving once and for all it was the best Robot Wars axebot of the time when it beat Killerhurtz in the Annihilator. It was humiliated in a similar way it defaced and defeated Shadow of Napalm, when Pussycat and the “plasma nitride” coated machine fought, with a decloaking of the machine, and Spikeasaurus’ career ended on a high when Dominator 2 simply stopped working a minute or so into their Annihilator duel. I agree with GarrodGang in that the last semifinalist left should be the first of these bots to be cut, so to speak. -HV Lobsta, 16
  • Dominator 2 was strong here, and took out both the champion and a Grand Finalist. It wasn't perfect however, it suffered against Firestorm 2 despite the win, and did lose to Pussycat despite a good effort. This is still a high finish, mind. -NJGW, 14
  • A shame to have Dominator II down in 14 for me at least, but it's 80% W-L ratio doesn't really help it, and it lost to Pussycat (on a close decision, mind) but it also ended up losing the Annihilator, where it broke down. It's small things like that can cost robots, as it has done here. -Adster, 14
  • Just short of god-tier, they had a tremendous run in Series 4, and if we pretend they never came back for the purposes of this activity, they for sure would've been a legend. The very close call against Firestorm, and the-shelling from Pussycat that could've happened against a lot of other opponents, are the weaknesses that just keep it short of Valhalla. -RA2, 13
  • right on the heels of a champion is a potential champion and champion killer. I have said in the past that Dominator 2 could have won Series 4 in some turn of events, and it has spectacular showings. -TG, 12

14. Terrorhurtz (Series 6)[]

  • I nominated it, and I'll stick to my word and put it last. Terrorhurtz had the most struggles out of any bot here, some incredible KOs like SMIDSY and Dantomkia, but also 4 losses, including a highly disappointing one to Firestorm. -RA2, 16
  • Easily the most damaging non-spinner we ever saw, Terrorhurtz fights in this era were always an absolute delight. The bot seemed almost gleeful as it smashed legends like Panic Attack and Spawn Again into submission, and its complete domination of Bigger Brother where it outwedged and axed them so hard their flipper arm was left crooked was one of the most brutal ends to a top-tier bots run we ever saw. Falls below Firestorm only due to their breakdown in the third place bout and the relative ease with which Razer and Tornado defeated them in contrast to Firestorm’s losses to the same machines. -GarrodGang, 13
  • Terrorhurtz came into Series 6 with such a wonderful whack, and it’s frustrating Grand Final presence does hold it back. -TG, 13
  • In terms of Terrorhurtz’s career, this was a peak before the real peaks of double FRA Championships, being able to dominate most of the competition, but only be humiliated by the top two and end up just below third. Both Tornado and Razer had no real competition other than one another, and Terrorhurtz found an almost equal in the form of… -HV Lobsta, 14
  • Terrorhurtz around this era was notable in power and made statements. It beat Dantomkia and Bigger Brother and crippled Firestorm, but was still easily beaten by Tornado and Razer, sadly. -NJGW, 15
  • Terrorhurtz has the worst W-L ratio at 66.67%, but in those 8 wins, it did some miraculous stuff, it creamed Panic Attack, Spawn Again and Bigger Brother, trounced its Challenge Belt melee, mullered S.M.I.D.S.Y., before hammering Dantomkia. Sadly though, it's losses to the Top 3, and a combined attack from Tornado and Dantomkia mean it does have to be limited to here. -Adster, 12


13. Panic Attack (Series 2)[]

  • Of all the champion runs, Panic Attacks is one of the strangest and bumpiest. Right from the start of the semi finals, their run was imperilled – for want of a few centimetres series 2 would have had another champion. Along the way they faced a demoralised Mortis driven by someone who had never touched the sticks before and a Killertron that died in a single blow before defeating Cassius. Series 2 Panic Attack didn’t boast the virtues for which its future iterations would be praised – it was no slow-n-steady grappler – it charged right in at opponents and overwhelmed them. A worthy start to an illustrious career, but definitely the least of the champions. -GarrodGang, 15
  • somewhat outrageous, but hard to deny for me. Panic Attacks title victory was always a run of incredibly lucky circumstances. I would have had it lose to Mortis, Killertron and Cassius on rematches in full working order, and it didn’t even have to encounter Roadblock. -TG, 15
  • a champion outside the Top 10! Does it feel low? Maybe. But there's an exceptional standard of machine from here on in. Panic Attack's win is iconic, but there are too many iffy moments for me to truly confirm at as a superior bot of Series 2. The Mortis fight was corrupted, Killertron died immediately, and even the Cassius fight is met with rumours of the fight being thrown - though I am still giving Panic Attack the utmost credit for that win here. Nevertheless, Panic Attack's overall win did feel a bit like Nuts 2 in Series 10, where things fell favourably in its favour at times. Immense credit to it anyway. -NJGW, 11
  • Can't ignore how lucky they were to survive the Series 2 gauntlet. Fair play on their ability to golf opponents into the pit, but I think this is a fair placement for their dependence on other things to end the fights for them. -RA2, 10
  • Luck was on its side against bots like Mortis and Killertron, I would agree with everyone else (although both did have reliability problems) and did suffer in the Semifinal Gauntlet but it earned its championship nonetheless. -HV Lobsta, 10
  • Panic Attack was a brilliant machine, it had (pretty much) good control, it was a good fighter and had two excellent trials, but it suffered in the Gauntlet. It also got lucky against both Mortis and Killertron for various reasons, even if it does have the joint best Win-Loss Ratio. -Adster, 9

12. Apollo[]

  • Mighty, mighty impressive flipper, and a Carbide KO is obviously a plus. But their sheer inability to make lightning strike twice, and their helplessness to the big boys in Series 9 and 10 means they have the next-least impressive record when adjusted for era. -RA2, 15
  • Now, this might be considered especially low, especially as it is a Champion. HOWEVER, in it's Championship series, it lost to Storm2 and Carbide, and whilst it did beat Carbide eventually in S8, it is one of two champions to have more than one loss in its champion series (I'm excluding Extremes, they're not "true" championships really), and then after Series 8, it kinda flopped, losing to Carbide, Behemoth, and being outdone in the 10 Robot Rumble, so an 80% W-L in its winning series, and 68.18% overall. -Adster, 13
  • It’s only fair that I place this bot lower on the list, since I did pool it. The fact that it lost more than one battle in the series it might say that maybe it was a little bit lucky to win hat title in the first place. The fact that it only has one win against Carbide in four fights, being one-shot by Aftershock, defeated by Behemoth, both bots who’ve already found their places in the rankdown, says to me that this champion should be put high, but maybe not so near the other champions of the Reboot. -HV Lobsta, 12
  • would never trade Series 8 for anything. Apollos flaws made it all the more fun to root for, but they certainly do exist and they are a fairly indisputable number 3 in ranking the reboot champions. -TG, 11
  • Apollo winning the very first reboot title was so perfect, and their identity being so typically Robot Wars made it even better. Apollo did have its flaws even in its winning campaign, and Carbide getting the clear better of it overall also doesn't help. Nevertheless, it beat TR2 and it beat Carbide, and those alone in their respective series were massive wins, and it also won the title overall, of course. -NJGW, 10
  • A very welcome champion of series 8, the bold brash and powerful flipper had a troubled road to the title and a rocky career thereafter. A near-immobilisation in the melee and a loss to Eruption in the heats was followed by an all-too easy win for Carbide in the finals themselves, before they were able to redeem themselves against a far more war-weary opponent in the title fight rematch. Series 9 and 10 saw them scrape by on a wildcard and fail altogether to join the top six, though in either cases they only went out to high-tier competition (few bots could have faced the monster that is series 9 Carbide twice in a row and be expected to then compete against Aftershock and Eruption). Couldn’t quite establish themselves as the #3 to the reboots top two, but certainly the top candidate for such a title. -GarrodGang, 10

11. Firestorm 4[]

  • I’ll give Terrorhurtz the benefit of the doubt against Firestorm, and the reason Firestorm ranks this low is its complete lack of answer to Razer or Tornado. -TG, 14
  • Some standard Firestorm displays in here, with pace and precision, but it still didn't register any wins I didn't expect. Dantomkia and Bigger Brother were obviously top scalps, but it still got dominated by Tornado, Razer again, and got crippled by Terrorhurtz. Firestorm and Terrorhurtz are pretty interchangable. -NJGW, 14
  • Robot combat’s most famous front-hinged flipper places above Terrorhurtz in my eyes mostly due to the fights it had against the top two of the time being less one sided than Terrorhurtz’s. Series 6 was very much blessed with quality in its upper ranks. -HV Lobsta, 13
  • Of the three times Firestorm made it to #3, their third shot was the best. Fully optimised by this time, we saw a Firestorm which could, and whenever possible would, dispose of opponents quickly and efficiently. Their main series run saw them make quick work of bots like X-Terminator and S3, while in extreme they romped the Commonwealth Carnage and disposed of Bigger Brother and Dantomkia. Only lost to the very best in Razer and Tornado. -GarrodGang, 12
  • A perfect duality of dominance against most robots, but folding to the kings & queens. SHould have lots to Terrorhurtz as well and been clean-swept by the Series 6 Grand Finalists. -RA2, 12
  • Yes I am using both Roman Numerals and the double capitalisation. It lost to the top two of Series 6, but had so many better wins. In E2, it had a nice flip on Panic Attack, Crushtacean and two good OOTAs on Bondi and Weld-Dor. It had a good Series 6 and All-Stars campaign as well, but unfortunately, it was beaten by Series 6's best two machines. -Adster, 5

10. Pussycat (Series 4)[]

  • sniping an incredibly powerful Hypno-Disc machine, beating Razer, damaging Chaos 2. Pussycat did exceptionally well. Just a shame Chaos 2 itself did beat it decently in the end. -NJGW, 12
  • Considering the fact that it took down Razer, Thermidor 2, Dominator 2 and Hypno-Disc to reach the Grand Final, Pussycat’s run in Series 4 is definitely a spectacular one. Some of the bots mentioned may have been able to win in rematches however, especially Hypno-Disc, and the fact that Chaos 2 beat it quite soundly, even though the flipper was in theory rich pickings for the spinner thanks to much of the robot being armoured in polycarb, makes me think this spot is good for it. -HV Lobsta, 11
  • Pussycat’s run in series 4 is truly insane. Within just the heats they had beaten Razer, already one of the most feared bots in the UK, and from there they took out the insurgent Thermidor 2 and Dominator 2, before scoring possibly the *greatest* hit in robot combat history against Hypno-Disc (I’d argue the only competition in this regard is Chomp’s chain snipe against Bite Force in season 2). Rated below Hypno-Disc only due to the fact that I’d back Hypno in a rematch and their relatively flat defeat to Chaos 2. -GarrodGang, 11
  • it had one of the best campaigns of all time, carving up the 3rd and 2nd seeds and some other emerging giants, but it never truly contended in the grand final title fight. -TG, 9
  • The only negative about Pussycat (4) is that it lost to Chaos II that close. An above average Sumo run, sniping Reptirron, not giving Robochicken a chance, sniping Razer, giving neither Thermidor or Dominator a chance, before sniping Hypno-Disc's wheel, then giving Chaos II one of the best battles it possibly could have had. As above though, the loss is what costs it here. -Adster, 7
  • I suppose I've flip flopped, I originally had Hypnodisc higher. But Pussycat had the most challenging run out of the four grand finalists, and it still turned in one of the most dominant performances. They're falling short for the droplet of luck that they needed to beat Hypno-Disc, and that from the raw fight against Chaos 2, we know it was a real walkover. -RA2, 5

9. Hypno-Disc (Series 4)[]

  • H-D at 16 surprised me, however, it struggled in the last two fights, as Wild Thing (which has now been gone a while) and Pussycat (still active), and then the GF was over so quickly. It's run in the pinball also wasn't the best. -Adster, 16
  • a none-title winner here, but Hypno-Disc really was that good in Series 4. It felt like a Pussycat snip was the only way it could only be stopped. The power of its spinner was almost unfair in the 80kg weight era, and I'm very confident it would've absolutely mullered Chaos 2 in a rematch. If it had won the title in reality, it could've even been number 1 overall here. And although I am still giving it immense credit to outrank a couple of champions, I do still need to restrain myself somewhat. -NJGW, 9
  • Hypno-Disc (Series 4) Obscenely powerful for the pre-weight increase era, Hypno-Disc could easily have been the series 4 champion – if they had met Chaos 2 for the re-match as expected it would’ve been a brutish, bloody affair and I have no doubts HD would be the winner. -GarrodGang, 7
  • An ironed-out Hypno-Disc against 80kg robots hardly seemed fair. With the most destruction in the entire classic run, Hypno-Disc's mere presence caused roboteers to recoil. -RA2, 6
  • If it weren’t for Pusscat’s accurate sniping, it would’ve won Series 4, no trouble. -HV Lobsta, 6
  • I put Hypno-Disc on par with Chaos 2, and even though it’s biggest scalp was a judges win over Wild Thing, I chalk that up to the draw. Hypno Disc would’ve scalped Series 4 versions of Dominator, Firestorm and Wheely Big Cheese, and would have easily beaten s4 Tornado, Chaos 2, and even Pussycat on most head to head rematches. -TG, 5

8. Typhoon 2[]

  • it certainly has the grand final going for it, and it’s campaign is truly impressive, but it had almost lost in round 1. -TG, 10
  • Probably the most successful campaign by a full-body spinner in robot combat history, Typhoon 2 significantly upped the ante for spinner power, in a way that made the former glory of Hypno-Disc look almost quaint. It ranks below Storm 2 here due to the closeness of their bout, its non-competition in the third world championships and how close it came to defeat in its melee and Atomic. -GarrodGang, 9
  • If you exclude its Group Battle and title fight, every fight this bot had was a complete domination, and even then, it won those fights as well, even if it was very very lucky to have not been flipped earlier. Considering the near thing that was its bout against Storm 2, I’m ranking it below Team Storm's machine. -HV Lobsta, 8
  • While I fully support the judges' decision that gave them the win, Gary himself admits that the petrol engine stopped, which, like King Buxton, is a thing that could have happened at any time. Plus their being dead-to-rights in Round 1, I think there's a group of robots that didn't come that close to death in their championship run. -RA2, 7
  • Typhoon 2 was on a power level almost unthinkable in the UK at the time, and largely dominated. As stated, I'm happy with the title fight judges call, and Typhoon 2's charge to glory does get immense credit with its finishing position here. Still, it was fortunate against Atomic, and could've easily gone out in Round 1, so like Storm 2 - almost perfect, but still some flaws. -NJGW, 6
  • Typhoon II had a 100% Win Loss record, but was easily flipped in its first round. It was also put against flippers in 5 out of 7 rounds, and was threatened pretty much in every round from 5 onwards, and got lucky - one different draw (i.e. swapping Firestorm II for Atomic), and history could have been changed. -Adster, 4

6. Roadblock (Series 1)[]

  • I expect this to be controversial, but I believe I've paid Roadblock its dues with the robots I've ranked below it. Two bid decisive factors, however, prevent me from allowing Roadblock to pass by its fellow champion, the world champions, and the triple-grand-finalists. Number one is the tournament size. Say what you want about anything, but their grand final was ONE battle, and in this sport, where running out of stamina can kill a promising career, I have to give credit to the ones that overcame fatigue - both the metal AND mental varieties. Number two is the weight limit. At conception, the creators of Robot Wars believed they had come up with a judging criteria that didn't discriminate by weight, and that a heavyweight and a featherweight would have an equal chance of winning. Now that may be, and I certainly understand their attempts not to paint it as a foregone conclusion that the heavyweight would win, but the physics simply don't make for a level playing field. Plus their design lacked innovation or anything that would set the world on fire, I ranked Recyclopse #1 in the original rankdown because Rex tried something really out there an era where he didn't have to. -RA2, 11
  • RA2 makes very good points concerning the gap there were in Series 1 with other series, so although it never really faced much opposition from anything in any of its fights, it lands here in ninth place overall. -HV Lobsta, 9
  • One of the most dominant bots of a series, Roadblock faced down the top contenders of 1997 and immobilised them all at once. It falls slightly short here only because the same can be said about all of the bots above, who all hail from more developed eras in robot combat history, but the first champions accomplishments are still highly impressive. -GarrodGang, 6
  • Roadblock was incredibly dominant in Series 1, and took out higher tier machines with relative ease. I do think it would lost to Mortis on damage - though Roadblock's overall reliability still puts it clear - and it was also easier for Roadblock to stand out at such an infancy of the UK scene, so I don't want to put it higher, but Top 5 campaigns ever, built in the very first series? Still incredible. -NJGW, 5
  • In at 3 for me, Roadblock and the Bodmin Community College Team. Roadblock was brilliant, in the Gauntlet and Trial (even if it did KO itself), then did well against Nemesis and had Killertron beaten, regardless of whether Dead Metal knocked it off or not. It almost singlehandedly knocked out the Grand Final cast, apart from the double death. I reckon it could have beaten Bodyhammer had it had a bit longer. -Adster, 3
  • No other robot has a claim to such dominance, except maybe Roadblock. Granted it has less fights, but the way Roadblock just humiliated the other Series 1 grand finalists is indicative that they win the trophy 99 times out of 100. Only Mortis stands even a slight chance of being on Roadblocks level. Add in shock dominance in Series 2 and you make a real case. -TG, 2

6. Tornado (Series 6/Extreme 2)[]

  • Note: 6th place was an unresolvable tie
  • This is unexpectedly low, but despite the fact, it was the Series 6 and Challenge Belt Champion, it was beaten fairly well by Bigger Brother, and the robot that it beat to win Series 6, in the European Championship, and that was when Tornado was over-hauled and Razer just added a small hook. -Adster, 11
  • Tornado was on superb form here. Dominating Firestorm, Terrorhurtz and Hypno-Disc. The title win takes immense credit and was legit, but Razer still got to grips with it even with such a sizeable advantage for Tornado on paper, and Tornado did also lose to Bigger Brother. -NJGW, 8
  • as with Eruption, Tornado was a pretty clear #2 to Razer and needed the cage to contend. -TG, 8
  • As stated before, both Tornado and Razer were way ahead of everyone else circa 2002, but because Tornado had to create a whole new attachment and weapon to even win a JD against Razer, Tornado remains firmly behind the crusher. -HV Lobsta, 5


  • Apart from that freak loss to Bigger Brother, they looked pretty much undefeatable. It's not as easy as it looks to run into Hypno-Disc until it dies. Torndao just shrugged off so many attacks, and while they will cede to Razer for the lengths they had to go to beat it, they had no business being so maneuverable while wielding the cage. -RA2, 4
  • The moment Tornado discovered the scoop it was over for these hoes. They racked up a sizeable number of victories – Dominator 2, Firestorm, Terrorhurtz – but there’s two in particular that stick out. One was of course the two victories over Razer – close-run things, requiring significant modifications along the way, but nevertheless wins – and Hypno-Disc. Hypno-Disc had been the scariest bot on the block since it debuted, and while it had incurred losses they were usually strokes of luck (Bigger Brother, Pussycat) or losses where it wasn’t at 100% (see, all of Extreme 1). However, we’d never seen a healthy Hypno-Disc made to look so helpless as we did in Series 6. Wedgenado was one of the most brutally efficient bots of its time. -GarrodGang, 3


5. Eruption[]

  • Maybe they got shafted by having three series concatenated, but that's just the way it is. They had a rough Series 8, a loss to PP3D is a real oof. And while their tactic to win the 10-way was the correct one, I'm not obligated to boost them up for it. The biggest damper though, is the real stretch they had to do to defeat Carbide, I 100% don't think that's repeatable. Present day, they're a legend standing above all. Adjusted for era, they stand side-by-side. -RA2, 8
  • seems low for a champion, but Eruption is pretty clearly #2 to Carbide to me, and it’s pathetic heat final and lucky break against Magnetar, hold it below the above machines. -TG, 7
  • I've taken both it's Championship run and it's entire reboot performance. A 2nd and 1st definitely help it, but repeated losses to Carbide, and it only managed to avenge 1. Also, the Series 8 campaign needed taking into consideration, and that just holds it back. -Adster, 6
  • Top two two years in a row is a feat few can manage, but Eruption can boast it. Throughout series 9 and 10 Eruption was only beaten by one bot, Carbide, and along the way claimed victories over bots like Aftershock, Ironside and Behemoth, who have all placed high in this rankdown. Even in their off-series, they still beat out *the would-be champion!*. None of their campaigns was an easy-ride, with scares against bots like Magnetar, but nevertheless they proved themselves one of the most impressive bots of the modern era. -GarrodGang, 5
  • - Eruption's main flaws come with its defeats in Series 8, and even there, it probably should've got the win over Storm2, and it beat Apollo, so it could've easily made a Heat Final and beaten Apollo twice in that series, who knows! What we do know is how fantastic it was past this point, only ever losing to Carbide past Series 8! Those multiple defeats hurt Eruption, but thankfully it did end up beating Carbide to claim a title itself, hence a Top 4 finish here. -NJGW, 4
  • Series 8 wasn’t the greatest start for the Oates’ machine, not being able to contend with the spinner of PP3D and losing to Storm 2, but it being able to climb out of that and end up in the final bouts of the next two series is a pretty good achievement. Only Carbide was able to beat it during Series 9 and 10. -HV Lobsta, 2

4. Storm 2[]

  • So, Storm II, it has a 90% win record, losing just once to Typhoon II. I think what holds it back, is the fact that it probably should have beat Typhoon II, it had the lifter, and all it had to do was get underneath and lift it, but not near a sidewall, which is where both ended up going. -Adster, 8
  • A testament to how brute strength and durability is a bot bests friend. Beat high-quality opposition in Supernova (2X) and Firestorm, and made the former champ Tornado immediately redundant. For reasons above I am happy to put them above Typhoon 2. -GarrodGang, 8
  • Storm 2 truly was relentless in Series 7. It dominated everything to some degree. The OotA on Steel Avenger, KO'ing Supernova comfortably (once anyway), dominating Firestorm 5 and Tornado, and giving an incredible machine in Typhoon 2 such a fantastic battle are all high points. Still, I am of the opinion that the Series 7 title winner was fair, and Storm 2 was also immobilised by Supernova off screen in the Third World Championship final, so it wasn't truly infallible. -NJGW, 7
  • Speaking of, there really wasn’t much separating the two, considering they both had one battle where they did very poorly (Storm 2’s was against Supernova, Typhoon’s I mentioned above) and everywhere else they dominated. Storm 2 is higher since it had more fights to show its dominance in. -HV Lobsta, 7
  • boring as it was, it was fairly ahead of the curve and could only lose to Typhoon and Supernova - the heaviest of heavy spinners) -TG, 6
  • This rankdown isn't about my irrelevant feelings for the humans involved. Storm 2 in Series 7 is the most dominant performance you will ever see. Even though it's not a champion, very few robots here are truly undefeated in the series in question. No one could get under Storm, no one could out-drive Storm, and the fact of the matter is that the first and second seeds were completely helpless against it. Storm was also the only robot to survive Typhoon 2 when its spinner was working at full power, and walk away with just a panel knocked off to boot. I do disagree with the decision to let Typhoon spin up after breaking the wall - that weakness ought to just be accepted as coming with the territory. But that aside, Storm 2 showed the least weaknesses, and yes I'm aware of the Supernova thing, but that doesn't count, they were inverted because they let Shunt do it, and no inverted wedge would hold up to a spinner. In conclusion, a more dominant performance you will not find, and that is why Storm 2 is the ultimate all star -RA2, 1

3. Chaos 2 (Series 3)[]

  • Whilst it did win, it had a severe loss to Razer where it just pitted itself, and was hardly in trouble at all throughout it's Series 3 campaign, whether this was due to it being good (which it was), or the quality of other robots - I mean 6 out of 7 machines didn't have a srimech, so it had little struggle - only FireStorm did, and that had a battery knocked loose. -Adster, 10
  • . This was a tough one to call, because all these robots put up a legendary performance. In the end, they have to come up short, because Series 3 includes the World Championship, which was overall painful, and because their self righting was always flawed, it just didn't get shown till later. I'm not saying I'm penalizing it for future obsolescence, but I am saying that in a different universe, a Series 3 robot flips it after its gas supply is spent. -RA2, 9
  • completely stomped on some of the best of the emerging Era- Roger Plant, Graham Bone and the Rose boys. Only a loss to Razer takes it down from being one of the top 3 I listed above. -TG, 4
  • With two televised titles to its name, George Francis’s flipper is legendary for a reason. But considering the sheer power of Hypno-Disc in Series 4 and the fact that Chaos 2 wasn’t able to have a better season after 4, its first battle against Tornado in Extreme showing the problem that would stick with it for the rest of its career: low C02 capacity. It’s still one of the greatest Robot Wars robots ever though. -HV Lobsta, 3
  • complete dominance from Chaos 2 here for a majority of the time. A convincing defeat to Razer holds it back at this stage, mind. Not to discredit just how easily it won the UK Championship though, beating so many good machines so, so easily. -NGJW, 3
  • There’s so little to say about Chaos 2 – its virtues are so well known. Immediately changed the British robot combat game forever, and ever, amen. -GarrodGang, 2

2. Razer (Series 6/Extreme 2)[]

  • This period of time is what I like to call Razer’s “Imperial phase” – all the doubts and troubles of the past had faded away and Razer was solidly on the top of the totem pole, pulling off effortless victory after effortless victory against bots like Dantomkia, Firestorm and Terrorhurtz. Every aspect of the machine was dialled in, and a fully dialled in Razer was nigh on unbeatable. If we were ranking bots on their whole careers Razer would be a dead cert for the top two – as it is, they fall slightly short, in favour of the bot who beat them twice -GarrdodGang, 4
  • unsurprisingly it’s the most famous robot on the show. In series 6, it could only lose to cage Tornado, and the amount of hype that could be given to even a scare (13 Black shearing a wing, Cyrax executing a flip) show how dominant it was. -TG, 3
  • I've always said that Tornado is queen of 5 & 6 and Razer is the king. Almost every Series 6 semifinalist got their chance to beat Razer, and none of them could, without special modifications. Razer even reasserted dominance at the end, yes they should have lost that match, because they should have unhooked the two and resumed the fight, but Razer clearly established that they'd figured out how to grapple the frame and guarantee themselves a win on a judges' decision. -RA2, 3
  • When bots begin to design weapons specifically to counter you, you know you’ve made it as a combat robot, and make it Razer did. Creating a whole class of fight robot, being feared by any and every opponent you faced, and being basically the poster child for Robot Wars for as long as you’ve competed really shows Razer’s All-Star status, even if it only won one championship. It's Achilles heel, reliability, is what holds it back. -HV Lobsta, 2
  • Razer didn't even win the UK Championship in this period, yet I can't ignore just how easily it beat virtually everything. The only machine that worried it was Tornado. A greatly modified Tornado, that it still got to grips with when it faced it. Razer really was that ridiculously good. -NJGW, 2
  • Razer was virtually unstoppable in Series 6/Extreme 2. The one robot that had beat it by knockout didn't enter, and the one robot that went on to beat had to completely redo, in a phrase, I think NJGW said "mega-evolve itself". Razer then went on to beat this design later that same year. It had commanding wins in its first 6 rounds and put Tornado in danger after being on the back foot in the first part. A commanding All-Stars run, good victories in S6 and the European Championship make Razer my number 1. -Adster, 1
  • Carbide looked nigh on unbeatable for Series 9 and a lot of Series 10, but Razer at this point in time was practically invincible full-stop in a 1v1. Wild Thing, Dantomkia, Terrorhurtz, Chaos 2, Spawn Again, 13 Black, Firestorm 4, Dutch champion PulverizeR, none of these robots had an answer to this machine. Attacks from Cyrax and 13 Black had to be majorly hyped up, ones which would barely raise an eyebrow against any other machine. You could say 13 Black was on top in their All-Stars heat final against Razer until it made a mistake. My answer is, you don't make mistakes against Razer. Make a mistake like that against Razer, and the fight is over. Only an extremely modified Tornado stood even a 50-50 chance against Razer. Razer still beat Tornado in the European Championships anyway, and was inches and seconds away from victory in the Series 6 title fight too. Put it this way, without Tornado's cage (which I do approve of by the way, we got a great title fight out of it), Razer would undoubtedly have been the Series 6 Champion, the All-Stars Champion AND the European Champion. At this time, it would still be the reigning double World Champion too. And it probably would have gone on to win Series 7 too, unless it fought Typhoon 2. Oh, and the Third World Championship too. You could play the perfect fight, and still not beat Razer. I think some people forget just how well driven Razer was, and it had the perfect setup to win, it just felt unstoppable at this stage of its career. Carbide was a monster for most of its career, but Razer was always a monster in Series 6 and Extreme 2. Reliable. Ruthless. Relentless. Razer. -Raz3R, 1 

1. Carbide[]

  • When a robot wins so much that you start to worry the show is "ruined forever" you have to raise that robot high. They did rack up a fair number of losses, some down to their own mechanics failing them, and I have to fall back on the one big word that determines who wins, and that word is: Invincible. -RA2, 2
  • For me, Carbide just slips to 2. Despite it having a 100% win record for its Championship series (the only reboot Champion to do so), it was a reboot rankown, and so like Apollo and Eruption, I must take it into account, and it was by far and away the best reboot machine. Saying that, losses to Terrorhurtz in S8, Nuts 2 and Eruption in S10 also spring to mind, in comparison to my number 1, which is... -Adster, 2
  • was super tight in the Top 3, but I'll give Carbide the overall top spot. Despite losses to Terrorhurtz, Apollo, TR2 and Eruption, Carbide was a Top 2 machine every single series it competed. And despite title fight losses, it still easily beat the two machines it lost titles to in 3 other battles it faced both of those machines in. To beat Carbide you virtually always had to be at your best or hoped it had a rare issue. In reality, Carbide was feared from the very first to the very last episode of the reboot, and it so very easily could've won every series it competed in. -NJGW, 1
  • Carbide The number one choice goes to the only bot this side of the Atlantic in a televised competition compete in multiple series and reach the title fight every single series it entered. Carbide was undeniably the most dangerous bot in every series it entered. In series 8, plagued by reliability issues and considerably less powerful than in future iterations, it fought the eventual champion twice – and in their first fight almost immediately immobilised them. Series 9 Carbide was simply ruthless, the most dominant performance by any bot this side of Roadblock, and all of this in a series boasting powerful flippers, horizontal spinners and vertical spinners. Even in series 10, when they gave up the crown, their two losses were to a bot almost tailor-made for defeating them (who was fully neutralised by a few minutes welding a bit of scrap metal in front of Carbide’s weapon chain) and to a bot it had previously defeated three times. Simply no other machine can boast a performance this impressive across so many series. -GarrodGang, 1
  • seemed so completely unbeatable that it tainted Series 9 and almost ruined Series 10. Stupidly reliable and ridiculously powerful, it curb stomped every all star of the reboot except the Ranglebots, including both other champions on multiple occasions. No other robot has a claim to such dominance. -TG, 1
  • No surprises here. When practically every robot that you face in a series has a weapon specifically to counter you and you defeat them all with little trouble, as Carbide almost did in Series 10, then how could you not be feared? While Carbide does have a few blemishes, all of them were situational; the Chomp-style sniping of the weapon chain, the weapon motor malfunctioning at the worst of times, they don’t matter in the end, because Carbide proved that, at its best, it could beat anything that was thrown at it,ending up in the title fight in every season it fought in. -HV Lobsta, 1
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