Series 7 Rankdown

Welcome to Series 7 Rankdown! Signups are now active! Signups are now open to people who played last time!

Normal signups will commence until we have 10 people including myself, or until the 13th (whenever I get time). Please note, you need to include your vote-in for your singup 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

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

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

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

I'll be pretty open about the criteria you use to make your cuts, just a few rule & guidelines:

• Try to insulate it to the series in question - we're strictly ranking the Series 7 incarnations of robots
• No discussing how it was received by the fandom - you can call a robot overrated or underrated, complain about fanboys, etc, as long as that is not your only reason for cutting
• No troll-moves. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but if I see a move that's clearly intended to get a rise out of people or an individual, you will be booted. Slots are very limited, do not take one unless you plan on taking this seriously.
  • You can make backroom deals with other players, but keep in mind, there is no recourse if someone breaks the deal.
• You must have watched & be familiar with all episodes of the series in question, even the obscure ones - it won't do to have a bad robot slip under the radar because people forget to nominate it. Since Extreme is part of this, you'll have to remember all the different appearances that each robot made. The series is on YouTube if you need to refresh your memory, and I will post a spreadsheet in Google Docs, listing all robots in the game, and their status in the rankdown.
• Please be punctual and check in often. The game only works if each person takes their turn in good order.
  • This will now be enforced, in order to keep the game moving. If a player does not take their turn within 36 hours of the last player, the player will receive a strike, and the turn may be taken by anyone not participating in the rankdown. If a player gets 3 strikes, a replacement will be sought. I'm sorry to have to do this, but it is not fair to the other players to keep them waiting an indeterminate amount of time. If you don't have time to write out a summary, I'll accept just the robots names, and you can post the writeups later. If comments are not working for whatever reason, you may use my Talk page.
• Most importantly, have fun, and don't take it personally if a robot you like gets cut sooner than you want it to.

The Doom Dial

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

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

• Rogue House Robot: on your turn, you may cut a robot that’s not in the pool. You will not nominate on the round you use this. You may not cut any robot that has immunity. This cut cannot be negated by the Pit.
  • 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 - Rogue House Robot (Round 3)
• SpaceManiac888
• Jimlaad43 Pit (Round 12)
• ThatRedOtter Pit (Round 11)
• O Raz3r O - Pit (Round 8)
• Toon Ganondorf - Rogue House Robot (Round 12)
• NJGW
• ToastUltimatum - Rogue House Robot (Round 3)
• CrashBash - Rogue House Robot (Round 9)
• Adster1005

Spreadsheet

List of all robots in the rankdown https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t2F2iAW9iSfqEub-FUrHtOPlOgoWr_STdZ0iCclK7WQ/edit?usp=sharing

Instructions

In order to even out the cutting power, I've decided to establish a pool before Round 1. This means in Round 1, there will immediately be a pool available. When you sign up, you'll be voting robots in by making a list of the 10 worst - 10 being the very worst, 1 being the least-worst. Please format your signup like I do, order matters because the robot at #9 will count as 9 votes, the robot at #8 will count as 8 votes... etc. The robots† who collect the most votes will comprise the initial pool. No need to explain your vote-ins though you are free to explain if you wish.

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

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

My signup

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

• 10 Flippa. I'm giving Flippa 10 votes because I think people will give it a free pass for technically having a "win." But this robot just had everything go wrong, immobile in both fights, then dropping out of the Annihilator. I think even the 0-1 robots had a modicum of reliability.

• 9. T-Wrecks. They didn't have to spend weight on a motor for their spinner, and still ended up with worse blades than BOD or Spin Doctor. One of Kat 3, Velocirippa, or Hard managed to bend them out of shape.

• 8 BOD. Has about an inch of reach on those blades, and when they got a direct hit, it did nothing. So they had tough armour and a srimech to make up for that right? Wrong.

• 7. Cobra. Not a good robot even in theory. A jabbing spike with allegedly only 7 jabs

• 6. Spin Doctor. This was their 3rd fight, so whilst some of the robots like Corkscrew 2 can say they were still working out the kinks, this robot continued to suffer from the same problems of simply not damaging anything that touched it.

• 5. I Bot One Beta. Another spinner with inadequate reach. Visually, it looked to have potential, but it like the Doc, had multiple chances and didn't deliver.

• 4. Araknia. Underweight, with carbdoard armour and an ugly paintjob. Decent looking blade, but that's it.

• 3. Tartarus. Lasted 5 seconds, and that was no fluke, they didn't seem like they had any ability to defend themselves

• 2. Rawbot. Waepon's nothing to write home about, and not a great pusher to compensate.

• 1. U.R.O. I think they could've been decent if the spinner worked, but only decent. Their armour started to fall apart from a flipper.

Players

If anyone has a spot preference, please let me know. Otherwise, they will be assigned randomly.

• 1. RA2

• 2. SpaceManiac888

• 3. Jimlaad43

• 4. ThatRedOtter

• 5. O Raz3r O

• 6. Toon Ganondorf

• 7. NJGW

• 8. ToastUltimatum

• 9. CrashBash

• 10. Adster1005

Rankdown

Round 1

We are ready to start! Thankfully there were no ties, and we have a distinct bottom 10. They are: Araknia, BOD, Cobra, Flippa, I Bot One Beta, Rawbot, Shell Shock, Spin Doctor, Tartarus, Terror Turtle. One of them is about to go.

So here's my first cut, it's probably going to be unpopular, but I think you all would respect me less if I caved to peer pressure. My ballot was not intended to be a **ranked** list, it was meant to be a list of how much **assurance** I thought they each would need to get into the pool. Because I'm terrible at reading a room, I thought Flippa wouldn't be such a popular choice, let alone nearly unanimous. Anyway, I fully expect Flippa to have a short lifespan here, but it was a well built robot let down by a crappy receiver, one that I can see doing a lot better in an arena with less radio noise. The very bottom slot should go to a robot that I can't see doing well in any scenario

135. B.O.D. (RA2)

...And the robot I can't see winning under any circumstances is the one JP wrote off immediately. Those blades have a very poor reach to them, owing to blades being only a few centimeters longer than the chassis and very spindly. I believe the hit we saw on Robochicken was the blades moving at full speed. I don't know how they spent their 100kg if not on the weapon, because the body seemed to take a fair bit of damage just from getting grazed by Disk-O. For BOD takes the most extrapolation to imagine it winning, so it goes out in last.

Adding: T-Wrecks. Got no votes except my own, but I still strongly believe they're a bottom 10 robot, so I'm more than keen to offer the chance to make them ranked second-to-last.

Pool: Araknia, Cobra, Flippa, I Bot One Beta, Rawbot, Shell Shock, Spin Doctor, Tartarus, Terror Turtle, T-Wrecks

134. Flippa (SpaceManiac888)

Waste of space: Flippa. Very few machines I honestly would consider to be a waste of space in Robot Wars. Doctor Fist is one of them, and so is Flippa. Two matches, did about a few seconds of movement at best, and got defeated very easily in both. Should not have been placed in either battle.

Still slightly more exciting than Colossus: U.R.O.. Not a great spinner, died very easily in its only battle

133. Spin Doctor (Jimlaad43)

mpeached: Spin Doctor. A spinner which never worked, got brought back again to not work and even added a srimech which not only looked awful and awkward, also didn't work.

A bit sore: Sawpoint 2. Deliberate incompetence is still incompetence.

Pool: Araknia, Cobra, I Bot One Beta, Rawbot, Sawpoint 2, Shell Shock, Tartarus, Terror Turtle, T-Wrecks, U.R.O.

132. Cobra (ThatRedOtter)

Bitten: Cobra an unimaginitive design and very pathetic run in series 7 means that this robot shouldn't going any fuurther

And for the pool: Colossus There's no excuse for being like this after your debut series. When the flipper fails to work, which is the vital point of a flipper to even exist, there's really nothing you can do to salvage the robot, especially when it loses in the exact same position it lost before.

131. Tartarus (O Raz3r O)

Ta-ta, and don’t come back: Tartarus interesting looking design, but it was beaten in literally 3 or 4 seconds. Showed nothing, and probably would have delivered very little even if it had a chance.

Pork a la crême? Hardly: Hassocks Hog 2

130. Colossus (Toon Ganondorf)

Cockshot by Deadpool: Colossus. Box with a weak flipper whose roll bar seemed to actually hamper its non existant ability to self right.

Pool: Major Tom 3

Araknia, Hassocks Hog 2, I Bot One Beta, Major Tom 3, Rawbot, Sawpoint 2, Shell Shock, T-Wrecks, Terror Turtle, U.R.O.

129. Shell Shock (NJGW)

Cut: Shell Shock - I'm surprised this hadn't been cut yet. I'd put it below virtually everything already canned so far, where I could at least claim "that machine had okay pushing power", "that machine could've acted as a wedge" or "that weapon could've earned aggression points at the worst". But here we have such a laughably weak weapon, fibreglass armour, and self-righters which were too weak to self right. Awful.

Pooled: Demolition Man.

128. Rawbot (ToastUltimatum)

My Friend's Rawbot Fell Down an 'Ole: Rawbot. A robot designed purely to push, but had barely any speed to do so, and broke down under almost no pressure in its Series 7 fight. A complete failure to achieve its simple and only objective.

The Tragic Merry-Go-Round: Scarey-Go-Round.

127. Hassock's Hog 2(CrashBash)

Slaughtered: Hassock's Hog 2. Because Colossus has already been eliminated and virtually everything that has been said about it (see ThatRedOtter's post in particular) can also apply to Hassock's Hog 2.

Not a win pose: Mobot. It's just kinda eh?

126. Mobot (Adster1005)

No gold medal: Mobot - Mobot did no real damage with it's blade, a unique locomotion system which didn't work very well, and was OOTAed by Thermidor 2.

Pooled: Diabolus - It was mangled in it's only fight before being OOTAed.

Round 2

The Doom Dial is now on, and will be available until the penultimate round of cuts

125. U.R.O. (RA2)

U R Cut: U.R.O. Tough call between this and Araknia, so I decided it based on who could improve with the fewest changes. URO won out for being at the full weight limit whilst Araknia could've theoretically been better if they'd spent those 12kg on armour. URO's spinner never worked, and even if it had, the lack of reach would surely hamper it. We didn't see what exactly caused the bottom or the side panel to break off, but I doubt it was Typhoon - they surely would've shown footage of the to-be champ spinning if they had any. Also, why weren't the Men in Black Overalls wearing overalls?

Gone flat: Corkscrew 2. I know that this team's capable of building a deadly ring spinner, but this design is especially vulnerable when the weapon doesn't work.

124. Demolition Man (SpaceManiac888)

What makes him a bad Demoman?: Demolition Man. Certainly had potential, but we never saw it, because it broke down far too quickly.

Beaten: Black and Blue. Overall, a big step down from Mousetrap.

123. Major Tom 3 (Jimlaad43)

Removed from Ragnabot: Major Tom 3. Dreadfully slow and unable to actually do what it was supposed to, this "upgrade" was a complete disaster. That said, Sawpoint should really be gone here but I can't do that...

Flattened: Riptilion

122. Araknia (ThatRedOtter)

Squashed - Araknia It was very close between Araknia and Terror Turtle, but looking at their respective writeups, there was only one choice. I mean, at least Terror Turtle showed a minuscule amount of potential against Snake Bite, Araknia couldn't manage that against bloody Mean Streak! A weak elimination and not having anything to show in the fight itself other than why you should never use carbon-Fibre in the arena! Huh.. sounds like one of the Ragnabot 3 counters...

The last (letter of the alphabet) - Zorro Might be a weird pick but that's what this whole thing lives and breathes on. Yes it allegedly did amazingly in qualifiers but that's not what we're rating this on. On the show, Zorro was an overweight, disappointing Son of Whyachi clone that had to be stripped down to its bare essentials, debalancing itself and posibly unrelated, a srimech that didn't actually work. Wish it did work though, it's a design I love... but we're not rating things on that either huh.

121. Scarey-Go-Round (O Raz3r O)

Round we go back to me: Scarey-Go-Round Though not a serious competitor. it was still rubbish in terms of armour and weaponry, and showed very little in its fight, becoming half immobile almost as soon as it got going thanks to Fluffy.

Deserves the chop soon: Tomahawk

120. Riptillion (Toon Ganondorf)

Ript limb from limb: Riptillion: it’s basically Araknia but I would argue almost worse if that’s possible.

Pooled: devastator

119. I Bot One Beta (NJGW)

Cut: I Bot One Beta - two poor breakdowns is too much.

Pooled: Metalis.

118. Metalis (ToastUltimatum)

Who Would Lose to Team Death Anyway, Hahaha: Metalis. Ironic intro aside, it was down to Metalis and Terror Turtle, and the damage that Terror Turtle caused to Snake Bite suggests it would beat Metalis quite handily. With an easy loss on TV and the qualifiers, neither time without a weapon, I'm surprised Metalis got this far.

You Can Outrun: Reaper NP2.

Pool: Black and Blue, Corkscrew Two, Devastator, Diabolus, Reaper NP2, Sawpoint II, Terror Turtle, Tomahawk, T-Wrecks, Zorro

117. Tomahawk (CrashBash)

Scalped: Tomahawk. A sad case of a robot that in theory should have been decent, but in practise NEVER performed. It died in one hit, which doesn't help.

Insert Alien-Joke-Here: Xenomorph. I'm really not even sure what this robot could realistically even do.

116. Terror Turtle (Adster1005)

It wasn't "Turtle-Super" - Terror Turtle - it would probably lose to the rest of the current pool, and wasn't the best in combat

Pooled: Bamm Bamm - for a Dutch Semi-Finalist, a one flip and done says a lot.

Round 3

115. T-Wrecks (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (RA2)

I got a suggestion to expand the power of Rogue House Robot to cutting your own nominees. Well, I've got a real chip on my shoulder about one of my own nominees so here it goes.

Extinct: T-Wrecks. When you unburden yourself from the active weapon rule, there's a number of good designs you can make. T-Wrecks was not one of them. They had surplus weight of not having a mechanical device for a weapon, but the blades they depended on to cause damage were fragile sheet metal that curled up under pressure of Psycho. And they had no reach either, you need a single long pole, like say, the SnS T-Wrex from across the pond. Robots practically had to drive straight into T-Wrecks for it to connect. Their innards were solid as a brick shirthouse, but they'd still lose to a spinner, because the outer layer was so flimsy that it could buckle into a wheel, or down into the ground and high-centre it. No hope.

Pooling Brutus Maximus. Got defended last time for being deliberately bad, but we're entering the stage of robots with a semblance of a redeeming feature, so it's their time to join in.

Pool: Bamm Bamm, Black and Blue, Brutus Maximus, Corkscrew 2, Devastator, Diabolus, Reaper NP2, Sawpoint 2, Xenomorph, Zorro

114. Bamm Bamm (SpaceManiac888)

Only a cameo role: Bamm Bamm. Did well in the Dutch Series, but this run was so brief and unimpressive that I cannot rank it any higher. Flipped and was unable to self-right, Bamm Bamm is condemned to an early exit from the Countdown.

Also only a cameo role: Chip. Had high potential, but did not demostrate it because it got thrown out far too quickly.

Pool: Black and Blue, Brutus Maximus, Chip, Corkscrew 2, Devastator, Diabolus, Reaper NP2, Sawpoint 2, Xenomorph, Zorro

113. Xenomorph (Jimlaad43)

Wondering how TF Sawpoint 2 is still in: Xenomorph. Ragnabot 3 just reassured me that I have no clue what it was supposed to do or how it did anything.

Adding: Spartacus. It only won a battle because Flippa was so poor. Apart from that it was pathetic.

112. Sawpoint 2 (ThatRedOtter)

Honestly I think I would be lynched if I didn't say this: Saw Point 2 Not only does it create immense confusion on if it's a sequel to the series 4 machine or the Extreme 2 one in name only, but it's immensely shoddy build quality was clear to see to the point that even the team made merciless fun of it! Going out of the series without much fanfare, it saddens me beyond belief that Saw Point 2 is gonna be considered better than Bamm Bamm

Release it into the pool! - The Kraken Yes the weapon certainly had potential, but with a stupidly situational SriMech, being very easy to side strand, and even if the weapon seemed promising.. it couldn't get through Cobra. I think that says it all.

The pool: Black and Blue, Brutus Maximus, Chip, Corkscrew 2, Devastator, Diabolus, Reaper NP2, Spartacus, The Kraken, Zorro

111. Reaper NP2 (O Raz3r O)

Grim machine: Reaper NP2 beaten very easily, and the idea behind the design of the weaponry isn’t very convincing either. High ground clearance, poor weaponry, no showing.

Dark Fate awaits: Herbinator

110. Corkscrew Two (Toon Ganondorf)

Cork-screw you: Corkscrew Two. Try though I may, I cannot envisage a world where this robot damages anything. M.R. Speed Squared it is not. It was basically a 50 cent piece on wheels.

KaterKillered: Killerkat. I would probably back every single flipper, wedge or lifter in Series 7 against it just because of how ridiculously easy this thing would be to side-strand. Why even make it invertible if turning it upside down requires it to bypass a flat side that's bigger than its underside?

109. Brutus Maximus (NJGW)

Cut: Brutus Maximus - well this is emotional. But six of the remaining machines have spinners that could do damage to bail out their other issues, while I'm also on the boat that Herbinator isn't bad, and then Spartacus has better fundamentals than Brutus Maximus too. Sad day, but has to be done.

Pooled: Cygnus X-1.

108. Sub-Version 1.1 (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (ToastUltimatum)

Time to sink your battleship

ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT: Sub-Version 1.1

This brings me some dismay because I wanted to reserve my use of the Pit for Mayhem, DisConstructor or Ming Dienasty, but Sub-Version 1.1 is frankly worse than every single robot in the pool right now and I can't understand its absence.

107. Killerkat (CrashBash)

Toppled: Killerkat. Tried to be Pussycat, but ultimately failed. Pussycat ultimately worked BECAUSE its wheels were exposed, meaning it was able to wiggle back onto its wheels if it got flipped onto its side. Killerkat's wheels being protected meant it couldn't do it. It wasn't even flipped onto its side...it was sorta knocked over.

Scrap: The Scrapper. Was just kinda there.

Pool: Black and Blue, Chip, Cygnus X-1, Devastator, Diabolus, Herbinator, Spartacus, The Kraken, The Scrapper, Zorro.

106. Spartacus (Adster1005)

Cut: Spartacus - one win over Flippa, and would probably lose to every other machine in the pool.

Pool: Topbot

Round 4

105. Black and Blue (RA2)

Two for the price of Untz: Black & Blue. They just had no fight in them whatsoever. I kept watching the battle looking for a moment of strength, and it wasn’t there. I always like a good clusterbot, and they were way ahead of their time with the drumbot design, but they themselves did not wield it to any success.

Elvis has entered the building: PulverizeR. The weapon didn’t work this series, and their design is not one that can make do without it.

Pool: Chip, Cygnus X-1, Devastator, Diabolus, Herbinator, PulverizeR, The Kraken, The Scrapper, Topbot, Zorro.

104. The Scrapper (SpaceManiac888)

Bottom of the scrapheap: The Scrapper. Again, a promising spinner. But if one of its drives broke after one bump from Revolution 3, it does not have the durability factor needed to go far.

Sudden death: NEATer Machine. Not only another Round 1 dropout, NEATer Machine's loss in its melee was fairly embarrassing. After losing its axe head in an ill-fated attempt to axe Revenge of Trouble & Strife, NEATer Machine just... died. And the drum of its opponent was never known for causing that much damage. Weird breakdown to say the least.

Pool: Chip, Cygnus X-1, Devastator, Diabolus, Herbinator, NEATer Machine, PulverizeR, The Kraken, Topbot, Zorro.

103. Diabolus (Jimlaad43)

X-Terminated: Diabolus. Everyone else left did something that was more than "got torn apart instantly", even something like Zorro which was passive. The spinners lost out to a bigger spinner, which is surely a black mark against its power.

Finally: Infernal Contraption. I've relented as there are many robots Infernal Contraption is better than, but the pool of robots it was better than in Series 7 is very quickly drying up.

Pool: Chip, Cygnus X-1, Devastator, Herbinator, Infernal Contraption, NEATer Machine, PulverizeR, The Kraken, Topbot, Zorro.

102. PulverizeR (ThatRedOtter)

t pains me to the point I can't think of a pun but - PulveriseR Oh where did you go? What happened to you? Going from winning the Second Dutch Wars to this? I won't go into the reason they dropped out of the main series because transmitter issues are an arse and they do in no way reflect the robot itself.. but the performance in the TWC? I'm sorry but there's no excuse, barely affecting Crustacean before the weapon dies and then it just gets bullied by crushers. Maybe that's how Petunia came to be...

Speaking of Crushers - Pinser A strong weapon and good wedge is all well and good, but it's not just that which made Razer the beast that everyone respects, lacking speed, a decent SriMech, not being immbilised from dirving over the flame pit.. all these things add up and create a robot that, while having alot of potential, just wasn't able to live up to it.

101. Cygnus X-1 (O Raz3r O)

The stars didn't align for: Cygnus X-1 Armour looked decent, but the flipper wasn't able to right it, and it fell quickly in its melee. The one attack credited to it on its page was actually caused by S.M.I.D.S.Y. ramming Terror Turtle onto its side, not flipping it. Disappointing machine to say the least.

(Dark) Lord have mercy: Vader. Dominated by M2 in its melee, didn't get a hit in, died poorly.

100. The Kraken (Toon Ganondorf)

Speared: The Kraken. I wanted to cut Vader but in a straight head to head Id back Vader, so this is the next choice.

Put in the pool which is now safe swimming without the kraken: Revolution 3, built like Tornado but didn’t work.

99. Devastator (NJGW)

Cut: Devastator - spinner had a poor spinup, and it looked very slow and blocky.

Pooled: Jabber.

Pool: Chip, Devastator, Herbinator, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, NEATer Machine, Pinser, Revolution 3, Topbot, Vader, Zorro.

98. NEATer Machine (ToastUltimatum)

unTIDY Robot: NEATer Machine. This one absolutely kills me. I love the Neater series of robots, but I can't arrive at any other option. I originally wanted to cut Herbinator because it's just Cygnus X-1 but worse, but ultimately decided that Cygnus being cut too early doesn't mean Herbinator has to go prematurely itself. Vader gets a pass on previous success and a strong qualifier. Jabber would beat several robots in the pool, and Infernal Contraption in turn caused structural damage to Jabber while doing better in the fight overall. Revolution 3 KO'ed a robot using its drum and got a win to its name. Zorro had the basis of Ming Dienasty which has yet to be pooled, and theoretically had a better weapon. Topbot had reasonable power while Chip was essentially a better Jabber. So I'm forced to cut NEATer Machine based on its dodgy breakdown and likely inability to self-right.

Pooled: Velocirippa. Did you see the way T-Wrecks smacked it aside? T-Wrecks is long gone and Velocirippa honestly did worse in that fight, its decorative lid has to hold it back on this list when it would so clearly lose to the likes of Chip, Topbot, even the recently cut Devastator and NEATer Machine.

The Pool: Chip, Herbinator, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, Pinser, Revolution 3, Topbot, Vader, Velocirippa, Zorro

97. Pinser (CrashBash)

"Oooh, pretty fire!": Pinser. Many of the robots left in the pool may have had some pretty bad performances, but they generally only failed once. Pinser failed twice, both for the same reason - driving over the flame jets and breaking down. Once is excusable. Twice is not. And that's frustrating because it looked really potent otherwise...but I just can't trust it to beat anyone without it killing itself.

Pooled: Mechaniac. It just feels rather generic.

The Pool: Chip, Herbinator, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, Mechaniac, Revolution 3, Topbot, Vader, Velocirippa, Zorro

96. Herbinator (Adster1005)

I won't be back: Herbinator - Flipper didn't seem the best and it was effectively done-in in a one hit knockout.

Pooled: The Stag - Drove itself in the pit.

Pool: Chip, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, Mechaniac, Revolution 3, The Stag Topbot, Vader, Velocirippa, Zorro

Round 5

95. Velocirippa (RA2)

I swear I’m not a dinophobe: Velocirippa. Much like its brother robot, Velocirippa has done a great job of sneaking under the radar. But their ability to win a match with that tiny flipper is just so doubtful that they have to go here

Summoning: 8645T 2. That bum-axe was probably a necessity to get picked, but it meant they couldn’t self right from any position except on their back. This series was chock full of flippers, and there’s simply no way they’d get far on that Achilles heel. Also, their cO2 tank vented under minimal damage

Pool: 8645T 2, Chip, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, Mechaniac, Revolution 3, The Stag, Topbot, Vader, Zorro

8645T 2, Chip, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, Mechaniac, Revolution 3, The Stag, Topbot, Vader, Zorro

94. 8645T 2 (SpaceManiac888)

And straight back to Hell: 8645T 2. Series 7 robots with flippers that cannot self-right are not well regarded by me. They should be capable of righting five series after Cassius did it.

The other Barb: Barbaric Response: Barbaric Response was a decent enough flipper, but it broke down fairly early in its only Series 7 appearance. Not good enough at this stage.

93. Zorro (Jimlaad43)

Juan Sheet: Zorro. It's a toss up between Vader and Zorro here, but Vader has proved its worth before, which is about the only thin helping it here.

Disambiguation: Mayhem. Torn apart easily, and those exposed wheels are certainly a major weakness

Pool: Barbaric Response, Chip, Infernal Contraption, Jabber, Mayhem, Mechaniac, Revolution 3, The Stag, Topbot, Vader

92. Vader (ThatRedOtter)

Vading into the distance: Vader You were the chosen one going into Series 7 as a previous heat finalist, and I trusted you.. and dear god you betrayed me horrifically. Yes getting a gash in Shell Shock is all well and good, but well, it's Shell Shock. Then getting flipped twice and losing power, and getting flipped out of the arena in an OOTA that's only memorable for the battle it's in, not for the OOTA itself. Fall to your knees and scream no all you want, but Vader's run ends here.

Roadkill - Edge Hog Frankly I have no idea how it's not been mentioned at this point. That's all I have to say.

91. Jabber (O Raz3r O)

Immunised: Jabber had a pretty light and weak spinner by Series 7 standards, and showed very little in its Melee.

Better than Cobra, but still not good: Constrictor. May wel be the worst of the series 7 round 2 robots. Certainly I think it could and should have gone before The Kraken, but oh well.

Pool: Barbaric Response, Chip, Constrictor, Edge Hog, Infernal Contraption, Mayhem, Mechaniac, Revolution 3, The Stag, Topbot

90. Constrictor (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Constrictor. I know I cut The Kraken, but I'd be hard pressed to deny that this is the worst second-round robot in Series 7.

Pool: Mighty Mouse. Honestly, I know how funny it was to be a heat finalist, but we all know it wasn't because it was actually good.

89. Mighty Mouse (NJGW)

Cut: Mighty Mouse - toyed between Chip and Mayhem. Wasn't sure on either so I'll just get rid of the mouse instead. Credit to it for the fun it provided against all odds, but it's such a limited machine.

Pool: Killer Carrot 2 - I honestly think this version of Killer Carrot is naff. It flipped a lot of times during its melee, but successfully flipped over literally nothing. It could only lift up a crippled Scarey-Go-Round over and its driving was bad. Having a deadlock with the recently-cut Constrictor ain't exactly promising either. At least it looks cool.

Pool: Barbaric Response, Chip, Edge Hog, Infernal Contraption, Killer Carrot 2, Mayhem, Mechaniac, Mighty Mouse, Revolution 3, The Stag, Topbot

88. Revolution 3 (ToastUltimatum)

Boxed: REVOLUTION 3. How the team went from something so impractical and full of character to something modern and sensible, yet somehow made it even more unreliable than before, is beyond me.

Jimlaad isn’t allowed to cut the recently pooled: HAMMERHEAD 2. I keep having to involve robots I really like in all of my turns, but Hammerhead 2 has to be one of the lowest ranking heat semi-finalists as it didn’t really contribute anything to get there.

Pool: Barbaric Response, Chip, Edge Hog, Infernal Contraption, Killer Carrot 2, Mayhem, Mechaniac, The Stag, Topbot

87. Infernal Contraption (CrashBash)

Joining Internal Contraption, Eternal Contraption, Returnal Contraption, Infernal Damnation, Eternal Damnation and Gary: Infernal Contraption. For how manic it could be, it did virtually nothing memorable in either of its battles, it was largely just there. That's not a good start...plus it lost both its battles too, which doesn't help.

OH, INTO THE POOL GOES: DisConstructor. I mean, Chip is there, so why not?

Pool: Barbaric Response, Chip, DisConstructor, Edge Hog, Killer Carrot 2, Mayhem, Mechaniac, The Stag, Topbot

86. Chip (Adster1005)

Out of the frying pan into the fire: Chip - It struggled in the arena, before ultimately being thrown out.

Into the pool: Fluffy - Not the best version of the robot.

Pool: Barbaric Response, DisConstructor, Edge Hog, Fluffy, Killer Carrot 2, Mayhem, Mechaniac, The Stag, Topbot

Round 6

85. Mayhem (RA2)

Cut: Mayhem. Was it just me, or was Mayhem immobilized right off the bat? Right after activate is called, it appears to be spinning in circles as if one wheel is broken. The ground clearance is dangerously high, which, in a series heavily populated with flippers, just won't do. They claimed their strength to be strong armour, but that matters not when the wheels are more likely to get hit first and cause an effective immobilization.

Flying the nest: R.O.C.S. Really lucky to be a heat semifinalist - they had a melee against three compromised robots. And Pinser who's long gone, made R.O.C.S. its hen.

Pool: Barbaric Response, DisConstructor, Edge Hog, Fluffy, Hammerhead 2, Killer Carrot 2, Mechaniac, R.O.C.S., The Stag, Topbot

84. Mega Hurts LT (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (SpaceManiac888)

Well, one machine has progressed too far into the competition for my liking... henceforth, time for ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT!

BSoD: Mega Hurts LT. Do not get me wrong: I love the Mega Hurts series. But whereas the Series 6 version was somewhat decent, LT had clear reliability problems in its only televised battle. Pretty much, it was taken out after a slam or two from the already eliminated Revolution 3, and struggled to self-right after being flipped by St. Agro. It should never have outranked Revolution 3 in my opinion, thus why I feel LT needs to go now.

Pool: Barbaric Response, DisConstructor, Edge Hog, Fluffy, Hammerhead 2, Killer Carrot 2, Mechaniac, R.O.C.S., The Stag, Topbot

83. Mechaniac (Jimlaad43)

Frostbite'd: Mechaniac. Moving around a bit before getting destroyed by a robot that completely outclassed you only works so far in this ranking. Good fundamentals are fine, but we're at the part of the ranking where we needed to see it in action now.

Broke Down Twice: Barber-Ous 2'n a Bit. Had two chances to prove itself, was also placed in a battle with a withdrawing robot and still lost, despite being the best there. Not good.

Pool: Barbaric Response, Barber-Ous 2'n a Bit, DisConstructor, Edge Hog, Fluffy, Hammerhead 2, Killer Carrot 2, R.O.C.S., The Stag, Topbot

82. Topbot (ThatRedOtter)

More like Bot-tom - Topbot It was between this and Barber-Ous for me, but Barber-Ous has a bit more potential stored away in that pole while topbot has nothing to really show for itself apart from breaking the arena wall once. Shame really, I do like topbot and maybe with another series, it could have been a decent little scrapper. Oh well.

Being kicked out of Battlebots - Daisy Chopper

81. Fluffy (O Raz3r O)

Failed its last chance to shine - Fluffy was given a really easy melee, and it still had problems and lost. Seemed to lose drive on one side almost immediately, and then the weapon stopped later too.

Aggravating: Aggrobot

80. Killer Carrot 2 (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Killer Carrot 2. My third round 2 drop out in a row. It won a fight but barely contributed to the Robot Wars era bar being spun out of the arena. Edge hog won more fights, Daisy Cutter looked more dangerous, and I’m not allowed to cut the Stag.

Pool: Reptirron the Second

79. Edge Hog (NJGW)

Cut: Edge Hog - the only thing it ever proved it could penetrate was rubber tyres, and its armour and wedge setup aren't great.

Pool: The Executioner.

The pool: Aggrobot, Barbaric Response, Barber-Ous 2'n a Bit, Daisy Cutter, DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Reptirron the Second, R.O.C.S., The Executioner, The Stag.

78. Daisy-Cutter (ToastUltimatum)

Daisy-Cut: DAISY-CUTTER. We tend to give this robot a lot of relief as its spinner posed a reasonable threat, but top driving speeds that low without a srimech can only carry you so far, especially in Series 7.

Toast Pools or Cuts one of his Favourites Again: MEGA MORG. With Edge Hog gone, this can't last too much longer. Mediocre weaponry and its ability to team up with Panic Attack were its key strengths.

The Pool: Aggrobot, Barbaric Response, Barber-Ous II'n a Bit, DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Mega Morg, Reptirron the Second, R.O.C.S., The Executioner, The Stag

77. Barber-Ous 2'n A Bit (CrashBash)

Shaved: Barber-Ous 2'n A Bit. Whilst it certainly had amongst the most potent weaponry of any robot in the pool, it also had the poorest loss/performance. The fact it when lost again in Spin City didn't help.

Milked: Snake Bite. For what it's worth, it was extremely slow and sluggish, and as impressive as its crusher looked against Terror Turtle....well, it IS still JUST Terror Turtle.

76. The Executioner (Adster1005)

Given the chop: The Executioner - Had a good start, but broke down easily.

Landed in the pool: UFO

Pool: Aggrobot, Barbaric Response, DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Mega Morg, Reptirron the Second, R.O.C.S., Snake Bite, The Stag, UFO

Round 7

75. Barbaric Response (RA2)

Cutting: Barbaric Response. What happened to them was very unfortunate, but we’re at the stage now where most robots are “better than nothing.” BR was an OK robot last year, certainly OK, but still undaunting enough that Firestorm turned away from them mid-fight to flip the Refbot. Even without the Kan Opener circumstance, I don’t believe that it would’ve been able to turn the tides and eliminate Grim Reaper or Big Nipper instead of itself, so its potential to do better can’t sustain it any longer.

Pooling: Hodaf the Bad. And speaking of riding on just potential... Even with the early cease, this robot was in position to utilize its weapons many times, but never managed to. Similar to BR, I don’t think it could’ve staved off elimination against Thor and Gravity.

Pool: Aggrobot, DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Hodaf the Bad, Mega Morg, Reptirron the Second, R.O.C.S., Snake Bite, The Stag, UFO

74. The Stag (SpaceManiac888)

Hiding in the Pit: The Stag. There is only so much sympathy I can give The Stag for retreating against IG-88. Now that certain other machines are out, its time in this Rankdown is over.

Did a Barber-Ous: The Alien. Yes, Barber-Ous knocked itself out against Leveller 2... but apparently, The Alien did the exact same thing against a struggling 13 Black!

73. The Alien (Jimlaad43)

Had cheeks clapped on September 20th: The Alien. As Space said, it didn't do too much damage before killing itself pretty simply in a battle it should have been able to escape from.

Not very tough: Disc-O-Inferno. It's sum total of action in the series was being dragged effortlessly into the pit. That's not a good thing, especially as the damage it did on the way was more of an accident than anything...

72. Hodaf the Bad (ThatRedOtter)

Actually bad? You decide - Hodaf the Bad.' Let's face it, it's over performed in this rankdown. Failing to give anything to the melee, cut short or not, is not an admirable trait, especially when we're getting so close to the top half, dual weaponry is always nice sure, but when you're unable to use any of them to any real degree, it means almost nothing.

Speaking of mean weaponary... Mean Streak

71. Snake Bite (O Raz3r O)

No venom in this snake: Snake Bite Seemed to struggle badly with control and lining up attacks, only really getting a good attack in down to poor driving from Terror Turtle more than anything. Hell, Terror Turtle's weapon damaged Snake Bite's weak armour too, and it did nothing in the Third World Championship itself until well after it had already been counted out for not showing any movement.

Morty-fying: Rick

70. Disc-O-Inferno (Toon Ganondorf)

Not the 15th seed: 'Disc-O-Inferno. Good potential but a robot who achieved absolutely nothing in the whole series has to be cut, even if it was better in potential, I suspect we were saved some more flameouts like series 6.

Falling to heavy metal: Revenge of trouble n strife

69. Aggrobot (NJGW)

Cut: HARDOX Aggrobot - a shame, but HARDOX armour isn't the only thing. Aggrobot was still quite a passive attacker, and got beat one on one against another robot I consider weak in the pool.

Pool: Rhino.

Pool: DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Mean Streak, Mega Morg, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Rhino, Rick, R.O.C.S., UFO.

68. Rhino (ToastUltimatum)

True Combo: Rhino. Just entered the pool, but promptly and deservedly leaving.

The Fifteenth Seed, They Go Out: Ming Dienasty. Because it's my job to either pool or cut a robot that I really like in every turn. I guess.

Pool: DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Mean Streak, Mega Morg, Ming Dienasty, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Rick, R.O.C.S., UFO

67. Mean Streak (CrashBash)

Not so mean: Mean Streak. Can't vote out my obvious choice because I selected it and I don't want to use my Dial Doom JUST yet....and as tempting as getting rid of Ming is, Mean Streak's performance is largely quite forgettable.

Beheaded numerous times: Hydra. Yeah, it performed well, but we're getting to the stage where the fact it lost both its battles needs to be taken into consideration more than what-could-have-been.

Pool: DisConstructor, Hammerhead 2, Hydra, Mega Morg, Ming Dienasty, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Rick, R.O.C.S., UFO

66. DisConstructor (Adster1005)

Deconstructed: DisConstructor - in a toss up between this, Hydra and Ming, I'll boot DisConstructor on the account it drove into the pit under no pressure from anyone else. Ming survived to the Judges', and I've let Hydra slide (this time) as it was doing quite well in the axe attack until Refbot intervened.

Pooled: Scorpion - a good opener, but flicked out in Round 2.

Pool: Hammerhead 2, Hydra, Mega Morg, Ming Dienasty, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Rick, R.O.C.S., Scorpion, UFO

Round 8

65. Ming Dienasty (RA2)

The last of his name: Ming Dienasty. We are at the stage now where every remaining robot could harm an opponent in some way, shape, or form. Ming has a fast & reliable chassis, and eventually self rights, but that doesn’t change the fact that the drill is useless, and that what is believed to be dominance by Ming in the closing seconds, was probably just the other robots’ batteries and gas cans running low.

Flustered Custard: Roobarb. Did the least of any robot left, and Twister is described very favourably in its qualifier battle, so I think they just got unlucky in the heat.

(PIT) Hydra (SpaceManiac888)

Let's defeat: Hydra. If Barber-Ous gets slack for losing two battles, Hydra must leave too. Hydra was totally outclassed by Gravity, before having a weapons issue in Axe Attack and reversing into the pit! Hydra had more potential than Barber-Ous, but in this form, it never delivered.

PIT (O Raz3r O): Hydra may have been outclassed by Gravity, but it it was still, in my opinion, the second best robot in the whole heat, and showed good power against Hodaf the Bad. It has much better armour than before too, and it was easily the strongest robot in the Axe Attack, well on top against Iron-Awe 2.1 and overturning Shunt, and only ended up in the pit because Refbot activated the pit, a move that should never have happened in the first place.

Height issues: Jackson Wallop. Great at taking out Killerkat, but its spinner ultimately is well too high to tackle most Series 7 opponents effectively.

Pool: Hammerhead 2, Jackson Wallop, Mega Morg, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Rick, Roobarb, R.O.C.S., Scorpion, UFO

Hydra is now safe until after SpaceManiac888's next turn.

64. Rick (Jimlaad43)

It's Rick, Rick O'Shea (Richochet sound effect): Rick, the little flipper was completely outclassed in its round 1 battle. Everyone else in the list came through round 1 with just enough merit to beat Rick here.

Luck runs out: 13 Black. A robot I've wanted to join this list for a while and it's finally time for the disappointing upgrade to be chucked low on the ranking.

Pool: 13 Black, Hammerhead 2, Jackson Wallop, Mega Morg, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, R.O.C.S., Scorpion, UFO

63. Mega Morg (ThatRedOtter)

I had to recheck which name it was like 3 times - Mega Morg Between R.O.C.S and this, at a quick check, R.O.C.S gave a decent little showing against Spawn Again, and that was just to enough to save it. Morg on the other hand, while I'm not gonna say that it only won its melee due to the alliance with Panic Attack, I am gonna say that it's simply the weakest of a fast strengthening pool of robots. Sorry Morg.

Gone 2 feeeassst - Kronic the Wedgehog Yes it was very competently designed by this point, but so is pretty much every robot left now and that isn't enough, and let's not forget how it lost to Mighty Mouse's runaway tactics.

Current Pool: 13 Black, Hammerhead 2, Jackson Wallop, Kronic the Wedgehog, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, R.O.C.S., Scorpion, UFO

62. Hammerhead 2 (O Raz3r O)

Sharkbait: Hammerhead 2 Did little more than survive in its melee, and while it lasted a fair amount of time against Typhoon 2, it never came close to troubling it.

Sharkbait v2: Crushtacean World Championship semi-finalist sure, but it beat Topbot, who is long gone, a dead Snake Bite and a weaponless PulverizeR. Lost to a weaponless UFO and a robot that it beat previously in Behemoth. No improvements made across three series by this point.

Pool: 13 Black, Crushtacean, Jackson Wallop, Kronic the Wedgehog, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, R.O.C.S., Scorpion, UFO

61. R.O.C.S. (Toon Ganondorf)

And this must be little pebbles: ROCS. An improvement but still cumbersome and unable to capitalise.

Pool: no joke, Panic Attack. It has no srimech and has lost its biggest asset in its driver. This one doesn’t deserve to be on the level of Pussycat Behemoth and the other all stars who lost in round 2.

60. Jackson Wallop (NJGW)

Cut: Jackson Wallop - I rate the weapon a decent amount, but in longer fights against machines in and around this level, I think its weaknesses show more.

Pool: Gyrobot.

The Pool: 13Black, Crushtacean, Gyrobot, Kronic the Wedgehog, Panic Attack, Reptirron the Second, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, Scorpion, UFO.

59. Reptirron the Second (ToastUltimatum)

Not in Wikia Series 8 Here: REPTIRRON THE SECOND. This rankdown came down hard on Cygnus X-1 for being a tanky flipper that can’t self right, Reptirron is the exact same thing except it just so happens to have a win to its name because Ripper ignored it.

Lacking in Volcanicity: KING B “POWERWORKS”. I feel mean for pooling Simon Harrison’s machine, but it was very vulnerable to flippers and spinners, even axes to a degree. It’s 1-2 record for the series is hardly the worst losing record, but even the win was a split decision.

The Pool: 13BLACK, Crushtacean, Gyrobot, King B “Powerworks”, Kronic the Wedgehog, Panic Attack, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, Scorpion, UFO

58. Gyrobot (CrashBash)

There...and no longer here: Gyrobot. I feel mean for stating this as the reason, but it was largely the more forgettable of the machines in the pool. Everyone else pretty much did something. If it weren't for the BTS pictures, you'd never even know Gyrobot did anything to The Grim Reaper.

By default: Twister. Aside from the protected Hydra, it's the only robot left without a win to its name...I kinda had to.

Pool: 13 Black , Crushtacean, King B Powerworks, Kronic the Wedgehog, Panic Attack, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, Scorpion, Twister, UFO

57. Kronic the Wedgehog (Adster1005)

Cut: Kronic the Wedgehog - I feel it would lose to most, if not all of the machines left in the pool. This is the definitely hardest one to choose from (so far).

It's hard luck: Hard - 2-2 win record, one against Riptillon.

Pool: 13 Black, Crushtacean, Hard, King B Powerworks, Panic Attack, Revenge of Trouble & Strife, Roobarb, Scorpion, Twister, UFO

Round 9

56. Revenge of Trouble & Strife (RA2)

I hear wedding bells: Revenge of Trouble & Strife. All they really did was break off an axe. It’s a shame because ROTS is such an innovative design, but the spinner wasn’t really a threat to anything solidly built. They also failed to self right in both their battles.

Retiring to make room for Gen 2 Avengers: Thor. I certainly wouldn’t let my robot take a direct hit from that hammer, but it was just too easy to dodge, and vulnerable to wedges.

Pool: 13 Black, Crushtacean, Hard, King B Powerworks, Panic Attack, Roobarb, Scorpion, Thor, Twister, UFO

55. 13 Black (SpaceManiac888)

Very unlucky for some: 13 Black. Remember that this was not the Series 6 and Extreme 2 13 Black we all came to know (and possibly love?). This was a new design that sadly failed to showcase its true potential in two battles. Embarrassed by Lightning and outclassed by Gravity, its run ends here.

Levelling out: Leveller 2. Somewhat promising performance against Tornado is cancelled out by an awful Round 1 appearance.

Hydra's immunity has worn off.

54. Twister (Jimlaad43)

Right foot Blue: Twister. I wanted to eliminate Roobarb here, but seeing as Roobarb actually beat Twister in their fight, I can't really justify that.

Where's the Lamb SAUCE: Ewe 2. Disappointing in all its fights and a weak flipper both in power and construction, it's its time.

Snooker: Crushtacean, Ewe 2, Hard, King B Powerworks, Leveller 2, Panic Attack, Roobarb, Scorpion, Thor, UFO

53. Roobarb (ThatRedOtter)

All wrapped up with a cruel pick to go: Roobarb this jumped out at me the most, and now that Twister's gone, I think we can say goodbye.

Open the door, get on the floor, everybody do the Scraptosaur A Dutch grand finalist sure, but this sadly is not Dutch wars, and I cannot for the life of me remember it doing anything too special to warrant at least getting passed up by this point. I know Toast is gonna be mad but, sorry bud.

52. Ewe 2 (O Raz3r O)

Ewe need to go now: Ewe 2 Its weapon was boasted to be powerful, but it broke twice in two main series fights and had very little range on it. Had good pushing power, but had what seemed like pretty weak armour too.

Missing link from the pool: Shredder Evolution

Pool: Crushtacean, Hard, King B Powerworks, Leveller 2, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Shredder Evolution, Thor, UFO

51. Leveller 2 (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Leveller 2. Just hasn’t stood out, everything else here has something going for it in a notable battle or something similar. Leveller 2 is just so bland.

Pool: Ceros. It was just so unreliable in that heat final

50. Hard (NJGW)

Cut: Hard - good, aggressive machine. but those two breakdowns were really bad, and the flicking arm isn't a considerably useful weapon against better opponents.

Pool: Trax.

The Pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, King B Powerworks, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Shredder Evolution, Thor, Trax, UFO.

49. Thor (ToastUltimatum)

Didn’t do the Thor Thing: THOR. The hammer was powerful for sure, but that means very little if you can’t land shots. Completely schooled by Lightning which it ought to have beaten really.

Polycarbonate Avenger: STEEL AVENGER. Good on it for reaching the Heat Final and proving effective against Shredder and Rhino, but both will soon be out of the rankdown and such an outdated machine can’t go much further. If the draws were swapped and Trax got to fight Rhino instead of Steel Avenger, then Trax would be the Heat Finalist, I don’t want to see Steely’s heat finalist status push it too far.

The Pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, King B Powerworks, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Shredder Evolution, Steel Avenger, Trax, UFO

48. Hydra (ROUGE HOUSE ROBOT) (CrashBash)

ROUGE HOUSE ROBOT: Hydra. There is literally no longer an excuse. Every other robot that had no wins that series has already been soundly eliminated. Hydra was saved once because of "potential", but that really doesn't mean anything at this late stage - the fact remains, it lost both of its fights this series, and so it needs to go.

The Pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, King B Powerworks, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Shredder Evolution, Steel Avenger, Trax, UFO

47. Shredder Evolution (Adster1005)

Cut: Shredder Evolution - The penultimate Round 1 machine in the pool, other machines have something to say it's slightly better, but a win in the Spin City doesn't mean a lot, especially as Barber-Ous II'n A Bit was pitted by Mr Psycho.

Pooled: Ansgar 3 - Beat the easier machines in I Bot One Beta and Reaper NP2, before being thoroughly outclassed in its first round battle.

Pool: Ansgar 3, Ceros, Crushtacean, King B Powerworks, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Steel Avenger, Trax, UFO

Round 10

46. King B Powerworks (RA2)

Cutting: King B Powerworks It's with a heavy heart that I make this cut, after all I've met Simon personally, got a piece of King Buxton 20, got an autograph on my King B model. What this robot is is a conglomeration of good ideas, but, in Series 7, they have no kills to their name like most of the 45 who'll finish above them. Dantomkia could've absolutely chosen to eliminate them instead of Rick.

Drag him to hell: Hellbent. I regret not nominating this robot last round. It has a complete domination of a 4-way to its name, and a lot of robots don't, but I think its win potential is minimnal.

Pool: Ansgar 3, Ceros, Crushtacean, Hellbent, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Steel Avenger, Trax, UFO

45. Hellbent (SpaceManiac888)

Underrated? Overrated? Just rated? Who knows!: Hellbent. Suspect Jimlaad will be binning Hellbent anyway, so might as well get it out of the way. Hellbent is a good robot, we saw that in the melee. But as proven against Atomic, it is not a great machine. Since we have little else to go about, we have to assume that Hellbent is at worst average and at best above average. And at this stage, above average is not good enough to progress much further.

One of my favourites from the MCU: Mantis. Great concept, but its execution was more than a bit off, preventing it from scoring an out of the arena against Jabber and costing it against Kat 3.

Pool: Ansgar 3, Ceros, Crushtacean, Mantis, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Steel Avenger, Trax, UFO

44. UFO (Jimlaad43)

Sent back to Area 51: UFO. It survived a battle Behemoth won for them and then lost its next fight after its weapon broke. Top 45 is perhaps a stretch too high for it.

Disappointing Annihilator: Kan-Opener. Yes it won the Annihilator, but Ripper did all the work and Kan-Opener just capitalised when Ripper died at the end, even managing to do nothing after Ripper's death. Plus its death with Barbaric Response was bad.

Pool: Ansgar 3, Ceros, Crushtacean, Kan-Opener, Mantis, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Steel Avenger, Trax

43. The Steel Avenger (ThatRedOtter)

Not being avenged as I type this out for the third bloody time - The Steel Avenger Yeah, being middle of the road is what Steel Avenger does best and we're fast approaching the point where that just isn't enough. Toast made a great point that whoever reached the heat final was dependant on who fought Rhino, and Steel Avenger got the good draw. It may have gotten improvements, but it was still very much outdated, and it makes me glum that we never truly got to see SA2

Getting uh... Tetanus - Tetanus Booster

Pool: Ansgar 3, Ceros, Crushtacean, Kan-Opener, Mantis, Panic Attack, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Tetanus Booster, Trax

42. Panic Attack (O Raz3r O)

End of an era: Panic Attack. Series 7 simply showed that Panic Attack was outdated. Once a grand champion, now reduced to a round 2 defeat at the hands of a much newer machine in Tough as Nails, and the gulf in class between the fifth seed Dantomkia and the eighth seeds in the All-Stars fight was very apparent. Doubt Kim Davies would have been able to do anything against those two either, the machine just wouldn’t be able to handle a lot of robots in this series, and has stood still while others have improved.

Be seeing you in the pool: S.M.I.D.S.Y. Nearly picked Kat 3, but ultimately settled with the robot who performed worse in round 1 and the heat final, and beat much easier opposition in Round 2.

41. Trax (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Trax. Definitely time for this front hinged round 2 loser to go, especially since steel avenger has gone.

Pool: Robochicken. It’s Annihilator performance can be taken into account in putting it in for consideration.

40. Ansgar 3 (NJGW)

Cut: Ansgar 3 - its bar is okay. It KO'd a frail Reaper NP2, then didn't do any damage to I Bot One Beta. Very Hellbent-esque performance against weaker machines, before being easily dismissed after.

Pool: Kat 3.

The pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Mantis, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Scorpion, Scraptosaur, Tetanus Booster.

39. Mantis (ToastUltimatum)

Not Even a Prayer: Mantis. I was just about to cut Scraptosaur based on its difficulties with self-righting, but then realised that the same issues are present within Mantis, which is further exemplified by its intentionally poor armour.

Into the Boiling Pot: Thermidor II. We reach the stage of the rankdown where a heat winner joins the pool! Thermidor II may have achieved ninth place in Series 7, but every single robot from Heat J is long gone. Its heat win is somewhat diminished by a very poor calibre of opponents, and all of its weaknesses that hindered Thermidor II in previous rankdowns still apply here. The easy OHKO loss may have happened in the fourth round instead of the first round this series, but it was no less limp than usual.

The Pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Robochicken, Scorpion, Scraptosaur, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Tetanus Booster, Thermidor II

38. (CrashBash)

Sting removed, leading to death by constipation (that's a thing, BTW): Scorpion. It certainly had potential, but any potential it did show have was completely overshadowed in both its battles, largely getting in one attack in each before being completely dominated.

Court is in session for: Judge Shred 3. Fact remains, it ended up having a rather limp end to a fight it appeared to have been otherwise winning.

Pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Robochicken, Scraptosaur, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Tetanus Booster, Thermidor 2

37. Scraptosaur (Adster1005)

Extinct: Scraptosaur - A very close call here, but I'm cutting Scraptosaur. It ran out of CO2 in round 2, which was a shame, but we must also remember it's quick defeat at the hands of Tough as Nails in 15 seconds.

Pooled: Bigger Brother - Another very close call, but I've left Supernova because of it being the 3WC runner-up, Pussycat because it won the All-Stars, and I've chosen to pool Bigger Brother over Behemoth because Behemoth performed well in the House Robot Rebellion, compared to Bigger Brother pitting itself.

Pool: Bigger Brother, Ceros, Crushtacean, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Robochicken, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Tetanus Booster, Thermidor 2

Round 11

PIT Bigger Brother (RA2)

Oh, brother!: Bigger Brother. This robot is a changeling. I don’t know what happened to the runner up of Series 5, and the defeater of Tornado in Extreme 2, but that robot isn’t here. They’ve made it this far on what they could do, but really they’re in the same boat as Hellbent - only win to their name is domination against 3 defenseless robots. They threw away what should’ve been two easy wins, and while attacking the house bots is always fun, plenty of bots remain that KOd a house robot without sacrificing the battle win.

Pooling: Tiberius 3. All they did was get one bite apiece on M2 and Roobarb, no tactic if that wasn’t enough to kill them.

ThateRedOtter: Sorry hello, would like to use my Doom Dial to pit Bigger Brother thank you!

A domination against 3 defenseless robots isn't that impressive on paper no, but in a melee, KOing just about everyone, where you face attacks coming in on all sides, especially as the heat's seed, that is immensely impressive. Not to mention, yes it threw away two wins, but are we going to punish Firestorm for pit diving when Bigger Brother simply had a moment of losing control when it was already going for the pit, or bumping into a house robot who shouldn't have even been there at that point? Bigger Brother may end up at a higher ranking than usual, but it absolutely doesn't deserve to go out just yet.

Bigger Brother is now safe, and cannot be re-nominated until after RA2's next turn.

36. Tetanus Booster (SpaceManiac888)

Get the jab: Tetanus Booster. Great Round 1 performance, dominated by Tornado in the Heat Final, and had a very controversial victory over Ewe 2 inbetween. That is the thing; while there were some heat finalists that had easy Round 2 opponents, at least all of them capitalised on the opportunity. Tetanus Booster very nearly went out in Round 2, and at this stage, I have to bin it on that basis alone.

Speaking of Bigger Brother: Iron-Awe 2.1. I too am glad Bigger Brother was saved just now. OK, so it had a poor Series 7, losing in Round 2 to Iron-Awe 2.1... who achieved one of the luckiest flips of all-time. 9/10 times Bigger Brother would have beaten the yellow grinning machine. Not to mention, it also got lucky in Axe Attack, thanks to Hydra's misfortune. Finally, when it did win a battle entirely under its own merit, it was against an average machine in Hammerhead 2, a below average robot in Xenomorph, and a robot that pitted itself in DisConstructor. Not really good enough at this stage.

Pool: Ceros, Crushtacean, Iron-Awe 2.1, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Robochicken, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Thermidor 2, Tiberius 3

35. Crushtacean (Jimlaad43)

Boiled: Crushtacean. The crab was chucked out in the actual heat and only really defeated poor or hampered robots in the 3rdWC. It's losses were an OotA and a destruction from a spinner, so no further for a robot that was definitely Semi-Final quality with a better draw.

Sequel Trilogy: IG-88. Impressive spinner yes, but being flipped out so easily is unforgivable, something which Dantomkia will need to be penalised for in this ranking too.

Pool: Ceros, IG-88 Iron-Awe 2.1, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Robochicken, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Thermidor 2, Tiberius 3

34. Ceros (ThatRedOtter)

Stopped mid charge - Ceros We're at that sad point where I feel bad cutting anyone because I honestly believe that everyone left could have potentially been a semi finalist in one way or another, but that's besides the point. Ceros was a perfectly fine robot but it also felt like a round 2 robot that got lucky and got into the heat final... Alot like the other heat finalists that have been cut up until now, certainly one of the best of that subjective category and I'm glad it was a heat finalist, but this rhino ain't going further anymore.

More like Boohoomoth - Behemoth

Pool: Behemoth, IG-88 Iron-Awe 2.1, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Kat 3, Robochicken, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Thermidor 2, Tiberius 3

33. Kat 3 (O Raz3r O)

Run out of lives: Kat 3 had a terrible round 1 fight, fought well against Mantis, then had a pretty mediocre performance in the heat final. All-Stars has very little going for it.

Running out of lives: Pussycat

Pool: Behemoth, IG-88, Iron-Awe 2.1, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Pussycat, Robochicken, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Thermidor 2, Tiberius 3

32. Iron Awe 2.1 (Toon Ganondorf)

Cut: Iron Awe 2.1. Much as it’s Bigger Brother Win was one for the record books, it was functionally the same machine that got bullied against Chaos 2 and Dantomkia, and was well stomped in most of its other fights, including some it won.

Pool: Mute. History may have been kind to Mute but it still struggled to carry out an attack because of its theatrical self rights.

31. Robochicken (NJGW)

Cut: Robochicken - it may have been great to see Robochicken reach the Heat Final stage of the tournament, but the reality is that any Robochicken machine still has incredibly thin armour, self-righting problems, and pacing issues.

Pool: St. Agro.

The pool: Behemoth, IG-88, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Mute, Pussycat, S.M.I.D.S.Y., St. Agro, Thermidor 2, Tiberius 3.

30. Tiberius 3 (ToastUltimatum)

Defeated in one of the greatest battles of all time; TIBERIUS III. Self-righting was somewhat essential to winning the Seventh Wars. Unless your name is Typhoon 2, I guess. Narrow attack range and slow weaponry factors in to separate Tiberius and IG-88.

Now You Can’t Sit There All Day: SPAWN AGAIN. The pneumatic explosion was an inevitability after using the same ram year in year while constantly ramping up the pressure, I’d honestly have been tempted to Rogue Spawn if I could. Underperformed against ROCS too.

The Pool: Behemoth, IG-88, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Mute, Pussycat, S.M.I.D.S.Y., Spawn Again, St. Agro, Thermidor II

29. S.M.I.D.S.Y. (CrashBash)

Sorry Mate, I Eliminated You: S.M.I.D.S.Y.. A very lackluster first round where it ended up breaking down after repeated Atomic attacks pretty much showed that the writing was on the wall from there. When its only success was against the long-since-eliminated Mean Streak, that's not a lot to go on at this stage.

Imploding onto the Pool: Supernova. The only logical choice left to pick.

The Pool: Behemoth, IG-88, Judge Shred 3, Kan-Opener, Mute, Pussycat, Spawn Again, St. Agro, Supernova, Thermidor II

28. Judge Shred 3 (Adster1005)

Sentenced: Judge Shred 3 - Quite possibly the weakest one in the pool, and whilst it had a good win over UFO, I believe the others deserve to go further.

Pooled: Ripper - This gets harder every time. I've pooled Ripper over Lightning because Ripper had two dominant fights before being thoroughly being outclassed, whereas Lightning had a dominant round one fight, and used tactics to their advantage in Round 2.

Round 12

27. Kan-Opener (RA2)

Kan’t Keep: Kan-Opener. Bravo on them for being the two time Annihilator champion, but it’s clear they won by avoiding combat, and letting Ripper do all the work. I strongly feel Ripper deserves to finish above them, after all Ripper took out 3 bots in the annihilator, and Kan Opener took out one. And now that Ripper’s in trouble, well, this bot has opened its last Kan. And that’s to say nothing of the main series performance, which calls into question if they could ever win any melee in which more than 1 robot was to be eliminated.

Pooling: Big Nipper. Pretty above average for Series 7, very creative, and would go on to be Hall of Fame Honourable Mention... but their huge success came after Robot Wars, here they only showed themselves to be a decent lifter.

Pool: Behemoth, Big Nipper, IG-88, Mute, Pussycat, Ripper, Spawn Again, St. Agro, Supernova, Thermidor II

Bigger Brother's immunity has worn off.

PIT Ripper (SpaceManiac888)

Lost where it counted: Ripper. Completely disagree with Ripper outranking Kan-Opener. Yes, it may have beaten more robots, but it lost where it counted, the final. Also outclassed by Firestorm 5.

Time to bolt out: Lightning. Decent early performances, but being outclassed by Gravity in the Heat Final is not exactly brilliant at this stage.

Pool: Behemoth, Big Nipper, IG-88, Lightning, Mute, Pussycat, Spawn Again, St. Agro, Supernova, Thermidor 2

26. Lightning (Jimlaad43)

Cut: Lightning. The least impressive of the remaining 2-1 robots that I can remove. The flipper wasn't as good as other designs, and TBH it was lucky it was in a melee where the big robots flopped.

Lucky to not be Rogued, Raging Knightmare. See my strikes comment below.

Pool: Behemoth, Big Nipper, IG-88, Mute, Pussycat, Raging Knigytmare, Spawn Again, St. Agro, Supernova, Thermidor 2

25. Thermidor 2 (ThatRedOtter)

Served up with some lovely chips - Thermidor 2 Honestly this was the cut I argued with myself the least about making, won a very weak heat with almost nothing to show for it, could argue it had a nasty draw after, but I wouldn't back it to beat any of the other semi finalists.

I wanted to be funny but the problems ruined it again - The Grim Reaper

Pool: Behemoth, Big Nipper, IG-88, Mute, Pussycat, Raging Knigytmare, Spawn Again, St. Agro, Supernova, The Grim Reaper

24. Behemoth (O Raz3r O)

Not their lucky day today: Behemoth Had an excellent Round 1 display, overturning Tartarus in one of the quickest immobilisations ever and avenging it’s Series 5 defeat against Crushtacean comfortably, although briefly troubled late. Sadly for Behemoth, it fell foul to Mute in one of the freakiest immobilisations ever, although I’d be confident in backing Mute anyway in the long term due to Behemoth’s own self-righting issues, before being eaten up for breakfast by superior control by Dantomkia in the All-Stars.

Just making up the numbers in the pool at this stage: M2

23. Mute (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (Toon Ganondorf)

Rogue house robot: cutting my own nominee Mute. Reasons as mentioned above, could rarely carry out attacks and got two lucky wins.

Pool: dantomkia

Pool: Big Nipper, Dantomkia, IG-88, M2, Pussycat, Raging Knightmare, Spawn Again, St. Agro, Supernova, The Grim Reaper

22. St. Agro (ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT) (NJGW)

ROGUE HOUSE ROBOT: St. Agro - The X-Terminator loss can be discarded, but St. Agro had a weak Heat and still managed to put in a 5.5/10 performance en route to Heat victory. Goodbye, my own nomination.

Pool: Bulldog Breed.

The pool: Big Nipper, Bulldog Breed, IG-88, M2, Pussycat, Raging Knightmare, Spawn Again, Supernova, The Grim Reaper.

21. Raging Knightmare (ToastUltimatum)

Dispirited: RAGING KNIGHTMARE. We have a real vicious loop here, where Kan-Opener is ranked lower than Raging Knightmare despite its clear win, but due to Spawn Again being my own nominee, I’m forced to let it outplacement Raging Knightmare who vanquished it. I’m just glad Ripper was removed from the middle of this chain.

Pool: tornado cuz it lost twice in 1 series lul

20. IG-88 (CrashBash)

Forced Out: IG-88. Easily the most vulnerable remaining robot.

Back into the pool: Bigger Brother. It was only saved because of its prowess in previous series, which obviously is NOT what this is about. Bigger Brother this series still had a 1-2 record and threw away an obvious victory.

19. Supernova (Adster1005)

More of a Black Hole: Supernova - a close call, but it died in Round 1 of the main competition. The others all survived past round 1, and whilst it does have redeeming factors in 3WC, I don't think I can save it on this alone at this late stage.

Pool: Tsunami - Last heat finalist.

The Final Rankdown

18. Spawn Again

• This is one of the only positions I'm confident about, with Spawn Again being a robot I would gladly remove from the final rankdown in order to accommodate Supernova. The flipper was extremely powerful, but dangerously so, and the machine simply wasn't a complete package. -ToastUltimatum, 18

• Great melee, pretty bad Round 2 performance, and horrid luck in the Heat Final. Everyone else in this rankdown outperformed it in some way. -SpaceManiac888, 18

• Spawn Again had some promising parts from Series 7. It moved smoothly, and its Round 1 performance was fantastic. However, the blowup in the Heat Final is an issue that was just always going to happen no matter what, and that docks a lot of points. Not to mention that its Round 2 battle is very strange. It got dragged by R.O.C.S. at one point, but even aside from that it just looked laboured and unconvincing. Its flipper struggled to get height and explosiveness, and it moved much slower. It reminds me of Thermidor 2 vs. The Kraken with how laboured its OotA attempts looked in that fight. -NJGW, 18

• lucky to be here, Toasts point about the ram is well taken and while it was good, 17th is as high as I can put it. -Toon Ganondorf, 17

• Spawn Again in Series 7 frustrates me so much as it had finally got rid of all its malfunctions from Series 6 and then suddenly had a malfunction. Its performance did seem to get worse and worse as the heat progressed too, which doesn't help. -CrashBash, 17

• Had a brilliant round 1 performance, but it should have been capable of finishing off R.O.C.S. sooner than it did, although thank goodness it didn't, I really enjoyed that fight. The explosion is a freak thing, but at the end of the day, it showed that Spawn Again still had to have something go wrong with it, just like in every series before that bar Extreme 2. -O Raz3r O, 16

• Spawn Again. I think this bot is inherently, a very well-designed robot. Things break because they push the envelope. They had an explosively good Round 1, and I think some people overblow how close ROCS was to winning. Still a blowout in the heat final is a blowout in the heat final, so this is as far as they go. -RA2, 16

• Round 1 performance was spectacular, Round 2 not as much and was winning round 3 until the malfunction. -Jimlaad43, 15

• A very good machine, OOTAed Chip, and defeated the other two opponents. As much as I enjoyed the exploding pneumatics, it's worst attempt and it doesn't have much more to add at this point. -Adster1005, 13

17. Pussycat

• I'd comfortably call Pussycat the fourth, possibly even fifth, strongest robot of the 8 all-stars robots we got, it simply had a very easy route to the final and looked well on course to lose the final until a snipe against Dantomkia. It also did little in its melee compared to Roobarb, and I'd be tempted to say that it only got through ahead of Twister because it was such a popular machine. Its fight against M2 was closer than it looked, but Pussycat just couldn't quite do enough to get off the bottom. -Raz3r, 18

• Pussycat had a strange Series 7. A very good overall record, but its biggest win was a flat one, and even in defeat it actually threatened M2 with a KO attack! But overall Pussycat was much more timid. It's a design that will always stay in a fight, but its weapon was by this stage very situational and largely limited for effectiveness. A good campaign numbers wise. -NJGW, 17

• Although I'm ranking Pussycat directly above a machine it lost to in M2, it's also considerably lower than one of its own victims, Dantomkia. Should balance out fairly well. I had no idea how far Pussycat would climb up this rankdown, so a 20-15 finish feels pretty good. -Toast, 16

• Have to give it credit for the All-Stars, especially in the second and third rounds, as well as Round 1. However, in Round 2 of Main Competition, it was outdone by a good machine in M2. -Adster, 16

• Great All-Stars performance, but its actual main competition record was pretty poor. Not only did it lose to M2 in only the Second Round, it also struggled in its melee. Henceforth, as a champion it outranks Ripper, but goes no further. -Space, 15

• Honestly, I'm disappointed not so much by Pussycat's performance overall, but how it was completely overlooked, especially in the All-Stars. It's ranked higher than everyone else so far because it at least managed to win the All-Stars and put up a good fight against M2, but it's still a Round 2 dropout, which will always hinder it. -Crash, 15

• Didn’t do well in the domestic championship, but no one can take away their all stars championship victory. The defining moment, that bumps them up for me, was their immobilization of King B3 in the opening seconds. King B may not have been a pantheon robot, but it confirmed for me that Pussycat could do the same to any robot with exposed wheels. - RA2, 15

• Did well in both rounds of the main championship but was just beaten by a better robot. Won the All-Stars with a good shot on Dantomkia, but didn't really shine as much as previous years. -Jimlaad, 14

• Pussycat has a 4-1 win loss ratio in Series 7, same as David Gribble Pussycat in Series 5, and the same as Atomic and Bulldog Breed. It’s loss is far closer than the losses suffered by those two. I can’t put it above the top 11 because Dantomkia is the only one I’d back in a straight clash, but it has to finish highly. -TG, 12

16. Big Nipper

• I’ve never quite seen it, it can lift and move but it collected only a single win against Jackson Wallop in a one on one fight and Grim Reaper dominated it in round 1. -TG, 18

• My unfulfilled nominee last round, and my mind has not changed. Nipper was a very innovative design that would enjoy great success 4 years after RW. But I don’t know them well enough to know how much they changed between RW and that. Fact is that while they held their own in the heat final, they were up against the weakest semifinalist in Grim Reaper. Their heat semifinal win was over a robot with a fatally flawed design. Great robot, #17 is a great ranking for a heat finalist. -RA2, 17

• While it perhaps should have won the heat final with a good display, I think it lost its little duel with The Grim Reaper in round 1 comfortably anyway, cancelling that out, whilst Jackson Wallop could do literally nothing to it, giving Big Nipper perhaps the easiest Round 2 draw it could have gotten in the whole series. There's honestly little else I can say of Big Nipper in this series. -Raz3r, 17

• Did well in its heat, but overall it was a poor heat without Terrorhurtz once Barber-Ous broke down. -Jimlaad, 17

• A good machine in Series 7, and held The Grim Reaper off well in the Heat Final, but I do think it is one of the weakest machines left here. -Adster, 17

• . Good performance, especially the heat final which it absolutely could have won. That being said, I feel it was somewhat gifted with the heat it got drawn into, as only The Grim Reaper could have posed a threat anyway. - Crash, 14

• - You know something, I was tempted to put Big Nipper above The Grimreaper on the grounds that it's much better built to resist spinners and axes. I do think Big Nipper would pose a more significant threat to the likes of Terrorhurtz, Storm II and even Typhoon 2 than TGR, and of course the TV edit showed us a Heat Final that Big Nipper deserved to win anyway. But I suppose THe Grimreaper not only won the Heat Final, but also did better in the first-round melee. -Toast, 13

• no apologies. One of my favourite machines, and I'm rating it high here. It was in its live event format here, and should've been a Semi-Finalist as far as I'm concerned. It not reaching that stage sadly limits its battle count, but it did beat Ripper in this form, and I'd back it against all of the other machines I've put it above. - NJGW, 13

• Putting both Heat B finalists together because they were really that close to each other. Both great, durable machines that can certainly trouble their opponents, but ultimately may be outclassed by better flippers and rammers to warrant any higher placing. -Space, 12

15. Bigger Brother

• The most disastrous of the rest of these robots. Yes it immobilised the eventual champion in round 1, but that was the sum total of its achievements, especially as it pitted itself in the All-Stars after not actually attacking opponents. -Jimlaad, 18

• Well, I attempted to remove them a while back, so no surprise that I’m putting them last. I cannot give them huge credit for beating Typhoon when it was clear the latter’s spinner wasn’t working. They got done a bit dirty by the house bots, fine, but that was after their choice to underestimate Iron Awe. They seemed to be using their full power just to invert other robots - a far cry from how they were launching bots out left & right in series past. And I’m not holding the All Stars against them, but I’m sure not putting them above robots that have their battle record plus some. Perhaps it was misfortune that everything went wrong for them, but i’m ranking them against 17 robots for all of whom things went much more right - RA2, 18

• Previously cut, but pitted. Definitely not the best Series for the machine, with a Round 2 exit and threw away a win in the All-Stars (although I wouldn't trade that battle for anything). -Adster, 18

• There's really no other option under the circumstances. A 1-2 record is not only extremely poor under any circumstances, but it's even more so for a former grand finalist. Especially as Bigger Brother could have, and should have, won both the fights it lost. -CrashBash, 18

• Bigger Brother. Still a great machine, the only one to defeat Typhoon 2, but crashed out too early on to warrant higher ranking, even if bad luck was to blame. -Space, 16

• As unlucky as it got in defeat at the hands of Iron-Awe 2.1, and as unjudgeable as that All-Stars melee is, I still would back the majority of the Series 7 Semi-Finalist flippers against Bigger Brother, and that is why it falls so low on my list. -Raz3r, 15

• as I said on Firestorm, I won’t count All Stars against it, nor will I demean Iron Awe by saying that Bigger Brother flubbed the fight. It’s a genuine king killer here, the only bot in the whole comp that id rate against the top 4 of Series 7. -TG, 13

• Where you rank Bigger Brother in your rankdown depends on how you perceive the objective of the game. Many play the game with the intention of ranking robots based only on their performance in that series alone, but I think that if you take that approach, there's little room for discussion and you're basically stuck rearranging the robots by wins and losses only. That's why I've always played based on our evaluation of a robot's abilities when we judge them in fantasy tournaments and overall opinions. A 1-2 combat record does not define Bigger Brother, we know exactly how good it is, and I won't hold it back from a high finish just because of some unlucky defeats. -Toast, 11

• I'm going to forgive a situational OotA defeat and throwaway fun at the end of the series. Bigger Brother is still a fantastic, versatile machine, and is one of the only machines that could beat Typhoon 2 which gives it big points. It'd give Storm 2 a good fight, would beat X-Terminator, and Tornado again too. -NJGW, 6

14. Ripper

• Ultimately, I am not really sure where the hype is coming regarding Ripper's Series 7 record. Yes, it is a great machine, but I do think some of its highlights are exaggerated. NJGW already mentioned the melee, but the Annihilator is where things completely go overboard. Yes, it defeated several machines... like a broken Robochicken, Flippa, and a machine that could be easily side-stranded in Ewe 2. Not really much to shout about. Then, we have the fact it was cleanly beaten by Kan-Opener, who is long gone from this Rankdown. Henceforth, it only places 17th in the top 18. -Space, 17

• a massive promotion for its dominant Annihilator display, but it’s two losses were fairly poor and it can’t do too much better. -TG, 16

• Ripper I feel had a very good performance in both its heat and the annihilator, but I worry that people seem to overglory it when it had some very clear weaknesses. Its paper-thin armour will always leave it vulernable no matter how far in the internals are and the team outright admitted (and we saw first hand) that it was vulnerable to being stranded by flippers. A poor death in the annihilator doesn't help either. -Crash, 16

• Ripper is a proper interesting case. It had dominant battles, but also incompetent performances. Its first round melee is also one of the most overglorified performances in Robot Wars. People remember the big flip on Aggrobot and think that Ripper dominated the melee. It didn't. It completed four flips, its flipper stops working after just over a minute, and it spent well over half the battle driving nowhere near its opponents, and doing nothing. Ripper's boisterous attitude and visually-appealing flips look great and are great fun, but it promotes Ripper to a status that it isn't quite capable of consistently IMO. Still a very good machine, hence a Top 15 finish. But it has flaws. -NJGW, 15

• On form, Ripper could make you believe it's the best robot in the entire Seventh Wars, but on the flipside you have its vulnerability to being back-stranded, and the frankly poor loss to Kan-Opener. There's a lot more positive things to say about an excellent machine like Ripper, but those little flaws hold it back at the very end. -Toast, 14

• Ripper was a very good machine, with a very good Round 1 battle, round 2 was over quickly, but then resorted to taking on the House Robots. The heat final showed them being horribly outclassed by Firestorm V. - Adster, 14

• Sure, they lost in the heat final, but Grim Reaper (or any bot ranked lower than Ripper) wouldn’t have beaten Firestorm either. Ripper, as I said when kanned Kan Opener, achieved the most kills in the annihilator. It won’t go above any other semifinalists becuase of the armour - I am not convinced it would hold off a spinner as well as claimed. -RA2, 13

• Yes it died in the Annihilator final, but in the same way as the Northern Annihilator, Dominator 2 was the best performing robot there too. An expert at killing robots instantly and was unlucky to be put in a heat with Firestorm. Could have won probably 50% of the other heats. -Jimlaad, 13

• Ripper has rubbish armour, but the flipper was powerful, and it was the star of the Annihilator up until the final round, disposing of Robochicken, Ewe 2 and Raging Knightmare tremendously alongside its quick KOs of Zorro and Daisy Cutter. Losing to Firestorm 5 is nothing to be upset about, this is a robot which didn't lose to a single flipper after its loss to Chaos 2 in Series 3. While Ripper's loss to Kan-Opener hinted at a reliability problem, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt due to being completely fine in its previous 6 fights. I've put it above Dantomkia simply because of their Live Event clash about a year later, where the two robots were virtually unchanged from their Series 7 guise, so I see little reason as to why happened there wouldn't happen here too. - Raz3r 9

13. The Grim Reaper

• The weakest of the remaining Semi-Finalists. Didn't win with a knockout and being a flipper in Series 7 that doesn't get a OotA doesn't help. -Jimlaad, 16

• - All three fights to a Judges' decision, just didn't seem to have the KO power this series. Good battles, but there are better machines left. -Adster, 15

• a robot I now semi love based on its fundamentals. Did well against Storm 2, but no KOs and no big scalps to show for itself. -TG,15

• The Grim Reaper is always considered one of the 'weaker' Series 7 Semi-Finalists, and I understand why. Its not a visually-good battler, with a lack of KO potential and generally modest flipper power. But it's still a good, consistent performer. You know what you'll get from it, and it proved very durable against Storm 2 despite being dominated. I think the way it paces itself during fights would help it get the better of the likes of a faulty Spawn Again, and an inconsistent Bulldog Breed and Ripper. -NJGW, 14

• . I did just call them the weakest semifinalist, after all. Another solidly designed robot, certainly takes some good construction to stand up to Storm 2. But that’s all I can say, it was a very passable robot whom I don't think would make it further than semifinals. -RA2, 14

• See my vote for Big Nipper, just ranked higher because it defeated said robot. -Crash, 13

• As soon as Big Nipper enters my ranking, The Grimreaper has to directly follow, its ceiling is about the same as Big Nipper's (if not lower), and they belong back-to-back. -Toast, 12

• It wasn't the KO killer its name suggests, but that's what happens when five of your six opponents in the series are invertible and reliable. The Grim Reaper was fast, well driven and incredibly resilient and I think it would have been more than a match for plenty of other heat finalists and semi-finalists. I'd say it definitely got the better of Big Nipper in Round 1, showed some clever control against Gyrobot and edged a close heat final which could have gone either way against Big Nipper. Few robots fared as well against the Storm 2 onslaught as The Grim Reaper either, and I believe it's earnt its place in the Top 12. -Raz3r, 12

• It ouranks Big Nipper because it beat Big Nipper. Simple as that. -Space, 11

12. M2

• As you all know, I adore this machine with all my heart. M2 will continue to be my favourite robot for the rest of time, but my fantastical admiration of this beauty in blue has made me keenly aware of its flaws. With self-righting struggles when the robot was low on gas, vulnerable armour, and comparatively low flipper power when looking at the other machines in the pool, I'm ranking M2 surprisingly low. -Toast, 17

• A solid robot, could have inherited the mantle of Dominator 2, Wild Thing and Spawn Again it if had time but it was undone after providing four of the best fights of Series 7.- TG, 14

• M2 had an amazing first round melee, before having a fight with Pussycat closer than you might originally think. Despite being in major peril in its heat final it recovered well against Tiberius 3, but it got completely dominated by Atomic, only achieving one string of three flips while Atomic got many, many, many more. Ahead of Bulldog Breed because I think it'd just about edge it Head-to-Head. - Raz3r, 13

• good displays, has a certain ceiling, but can perform to that level consistently. -NJGW, 12

• I'm not saying M2's performance in its heat was bad, not by any means. A great opening melee where it got two robots OOTA, a fantastic fight with Pussycat and a remarkable come-from-behind victory over Tiberius. I just find it hard to say that M2 really deserved its spot in the semi-final when you take everything into consideration. It's the little details at the end of the day. -Crash, 12

• Not much I can say about this robot, other than it’s a very good, solid flipper that got outclassed here, and probably wouldn’t beat any of the top 8 -RA2, 12

• Double out of the arena, edged out Pussycat, never gave up against Tiberius 3 and almost beating Atomic. Great machine, but its armour and loss to Atomic, another flipper, means it ends up only 10th. -Space, 10

• M2 did well across all 4 rounds, a double OOTA, taking out a seed and flipping Tiberius 3 into the pit, as well as getting an even match out of Atomic. -Adster, 9

• A strong performance that got its heat moved to be the series opener it was that good! Beaten by the much better Atomic in the next round though and nearly got beaten by Tiberius until the turnaround. -Jimlaad, 8

11. Bulldog Breed

• - It seems opinion on Series 7 Bulldog Breed has dropped in recent times, and I do agree. It was great to see it make a step further, and visually it looked more spinner-proof, robust and consistent - making strides from its strong EX2 performance. But the reality is that it wasn't overly convincing. It didn't get ahead of steam in its melee, and the performance against Kat 3 was fine without being a truly dominant flipper performance - it never threatened an OotA and just flipped around mostly in the arena centre. The performance against Tough as Nails was good, but it was still a close fight, and that closes off Bulldog Breed's campaign rather unconvincingly as a whole. Though it'd beat Pussycat again at least. -NJGW, 16

• I can't help but feel Bulldog Breed is going to do too well simply because it beat Tough as Nails. Let me first remind everyone just how close that fight was; Tough as Nails was quite close to coming out on top, and it was hardly dominance from Bulldog Breed, certainly not enough for me to decisively say Bulldog Breed is a better robot than TAN. Beyond that, Bulldog Breed took significant damage from Infernal Contraption in its melee and got manhandled by Mantis, before escaping its heat on a very weak schedule, without even threatening to throw anything out of the arena along the way. Surely you need at least one OotA in Series 7 to command respect? Compare its run to Tsunami - both lost to X-Terminator at the Heat Final and Top 8 positions respectively, but Tsunami made far more of an impact in two fights than Bulldog Breed did in four, and then Tsunami did much better against XT as well! That's just one example, but I could come up with individual reasons to rank Bulldog Breed below everyone left. -Toast, 15

• Had a really poor performance in its heat. Mantis overshadowed it in round 1, its failure to flip an immobile Hard out was pretty embarrassing considering what we saw of it in the Tag Team Terror of extreme 2 against Pussycat, and it couldn't finish off Kat 3. Had a fantastic display against Tough as Nails, but even that was still a close fight, before its decimation at the hands of X-Terminator in my favourite fight of the classic era. -Raz3r, 14

• Solid performances, and deserved to reach the semi-finals for the first time. Outranks Tough as Nails because it beat it, but ultimately it had a solid but not spectacular campaign. -Space, 13

• Brilliant run, but I have to penalise it like Grim Reaper for not scoring an OotA in the series of the OotA. -Jimlaad, 11

• . A solid performance, especially given the fact that it was fighting in a rather crippled state, but honestly it felt a little underwhelming. I feel some of its better fights were based more on what its opponents did than Bulldog Breed itself. -Crash, 10

• Solid as a brick, one of the only flippers who could take down TAN despite fitting in its clutches. It would lost to any number of better robots but we have a far bigger sample size of dominant fights than we do for....[Atomic] -TG, 9

• I was really pleased for Bulldog Breed to get to a Semi-Final, and despite the initial controversy, and I enjoyed all of the fights, and despite the struggle against Hard, the Kat 3 fight was well-fought and holding Tough as Nails off really benefits it in this final rankdown -Adster, 8

• While Gravity had high highs and low lows, BB was always quite good. That match against Tough as Nails was a masterclass in driving. That’s the reason that this fight went so differently than TAN vs Robochicken, there was barely a moment where BB’s wedge wasn’t pointed at Tough as Nails. Extremely solid competitor, but they were apparently mullered by Infernal Contraption, so for that vulnerability, they won’t breach any grand finalists. -RA2, 6

10. Tough as Nails

• Controversial, maybe, but Tough as Nails, while an effective, unique design, often had opponents that troubled it, from Robochicken to Bulldog Breed. Ultimately, it could take out good robots like Disc-O-Inferno, and even challenge the great Series 7 machines, but ultimately a large majority of the All-Stars this series would outclass it. Storm 2 certainly did. -Space, 14

• Just ask Disc-O-Inferno, Scraptosaur and Gravity how good this robot was. However, it did get beaten convincingly by two robots which out-pushed it. -Jimlaad, 12

• It might have been beaten by Bulldog Breed, who is below it by a few places, but its trump card is that it comfortably handled Gravity, and had one of the best Round 1 performances of any robot ever in a melee environment. Can't imagine how high it would go if it had faced Typhoon 2 in the Third World Championship, who I'm sure Tough as Nails could have beaten. Guess we'll never know now. -Raz3r, 11

• its design is a positive and negative. It ensures it has to work too hard against a machine like Robochicken, but it's also capable of smothering Gravity of all things. Edges it over the last couple, but its design isn't consistent enough to worry those higher up. -NJGW, 11

• This bot could end matches really fast if the opposition had low pushing power. The way they just trampled Gravity and Disk-O-Inferno made everyone’s jaws hit the floor. They invented a design tailor made to take advantage of the arena, and very well could’ve won a future series. Losing to Bulldog Breed & Storm II is nothing to be ashamed of -RA2, 10

• Took out Disc-O-Inferno very quickly, dispatched Panic Attack, before struggling somewhat against Robochicken. Bulldog Breed gave them a good fight and won, meaning struggling with two fights has to limit it to the top of the bottom half. -Adster, 10

• Lost to Bulldog Breed, but honestly put up such a good fight beforehand that I had to rank it higher. Also a solid performance across its heat, another great comeback (this time against Robochicken) and absolutely dominated its WCQ, against two of the strongest robots Holland had at the time no less. -Crash, 9

• You can genuinely put TAN anywhere. It has a loss to Bulldog Breed which I've ranked fairly low, but it also has a win on Gravity which we've all ranked very highly. If you then go down to potential, TAN probably picks up losses to more robots ranked beneath it, like The Grimreaper and Big Nipper, but it also probably beats Typhoon 2, the actual champion of the series! We were so close to having that fight too, but TAN's tendency to lose hopelessly when outclassed in pushing power stunts its progression at 9th on my ranking. -Toast, 9

• benefits highly from HARDOX and decisive wins over Disco Inferno and Gravity, which gives me faith that it would win against some of the big players in the top echelons. -TG, 6

9. Dantomkia

• Though pushed aside by the brightest stars of this season, Dantomkia was very much a force to be reckoned with - the double-KO in the All Stars for one -RA2, 11

• A very quick OOTA in the Semi-Final first round detracts overall, and the inability to win via KO in the eliminator also detracts. Rounds 2 and 3 and the OOTA and quickest battle record help it. -Adster, 11

• Cruised through its heat with lots of control and aggression to boot, but losing so quickly against Gravity counts against it badly. Its OotA against Behemoth in the All-Stars is one of the most controlled, thought out attacks I've ever seen on Robot Wars, and it was even able to take on two House Robots simultaneously, but the manner of the loss to Pussycat prevents it from finishing higher. -Raz3r, 10

• Much like Ripper and Spawn Again before it, Dantomkia was the master of highs and lows. Dantomkia was responsible for some of the most impressive victories in Series 7, dominating two different melees, setting a record for quickest victory, and easily outclassing very competent robots. This is enough for Dantomkia to breach my Top 10, but the recurring breakdowns seen in Series 6 and Extreme 2 were evidently still there based on its strange loss to Pussycat and the subsequent live circuit. -Toast, 10

• I used to be super critical of Dantomkia back when I felt I had to dislike some machines to fit in. But I've come around on it, and it's Series 7 fights especially are so much fun and super convincing in places. Unfortunately, Dantomkia's inconsistent design for flipper on flipper fights, wheelie problems and reliability hinder it pushing further up though. -NJGW, 10

• Limp death in the All-Stars final hurts what was a strong run, but like IG-88, it does get penalised for being flipped out in 6 seconds. Spectacular elsewhere and nothing in its hear could hold a candle to Dantomkia. -Jimlaad, 10

• Certainly earned the "Princess of out of the arenas". And yes, Princess because Dantomkia is female, you know! Amazing heat, good All Stars performances, but an embarassing loss to Pussycat and being outclassed by a similar design in Gravity leaves it 9th. -Space, 9

• deserved to be higher than its Series 6 performance because it’s run was so decisive, and it’s all stars run even more so. The series 7 loss was such a shot in the dark run of bad luck that I can’t criticise Dantomkia for it. Just super controlled and aggressive, reliability issues hold it back a tad but all stars does help it’s aggregate more than it hurts. -TG, 8

• Another solid Dantomkia performance, with a great run in the All-Stars, docked only for a very weak finish to said competition. -Crash, 8

8. Tsunami

• The double OOTA in Round 1 and third OOTA in round 2, but it's lack of control when trying to get X-Terminator out costs it here. -Adster, 13

• a beast of a flipper but it’s shape gives me concern about its ability to perform against some other robots, and its failure to beat a big name has name keep it below robots like Bulldog Breed who I would have it beat. -TG, 11

• Two explosive battles and three OOTAS. Easily could have been a semi-finalist in a few other heats and should have been a semi-finalist in the heat it got. Ultimately beat itself...X-Terminator just cleaned up the mess. -Crash, 11

• I would call this empirical evidence that they could make the semis in a different lineup. The design really was the prefect “ejector” almost seemed customized to throw bots over an arena barrier of that height. -RA2, 9

• Potential Grand Finalist had it not had the brain fart with X-Terminator a sitting duck. Got unlucky there and severely punished. -Jimlaad, 9

• The "what could have been" for the series, Tsunami just looked invincible in its campaign, even defeating X-Terminator. But that one mistake cost it everything, and so we can only speculate how well it would have ultimately done. Would it have beaten St. Agro? Bulldog Breed? Typhoon 2? Storm 2? Quite possibly. -Space, 8

• explosiveness, compactness, and only denied a Grand Final spot because of one split second mistake. I have no doubts it would've easily bested St. Agro and Bulldog Breed itself to reach the final four. Tsunami was virtually an updated Chaos 2, with better armour, a reliable srimech and a better design. It's a fantastic machine, but despite thinking it could threaten them, I'm not as confident it'd beat Typhoon 2 or Storm 2 as the machine I've placed directly above it. -NJGW, 7

• - … hence I've put Tsunami above it. This robot was Grand Finalist material, and one tactical blunder cost it that place, as I have no doubt lt would have beaten both St. Agro and Bulldog Breed with ease. Could it have beaten Typhoon 2? Who knows, but once it righted X-Terminator it took a hell of a beating, didn't it? -Raz3r, 6

• As mentioned in my X-Terminator vote, Tsunami "won" one "match" against X-Terminator before subsequently losing the direct follow-up, and if Tsunami had left XT alone, it would've reached the Grand Final. What further helps me put Tsunami above XT is knowing that while XT had no hope against Typhoon 2 and lost to Tornado quite easily, Tsunami was potentially capable of beating both. Sixth place for a potential runner-up (even champion?) feels almost too low when you put it like that. -Toast, 6

7. Gravity

• this feels disgusting. I was fully going into this Rankdown when it was first announced hoping to push Gravity into the Top 5, but instead it goes lower than it finished IRL! I don't like that I've done this, but poor armour, wheelie issues, and a general lack of versatility compared to others this high up limits it to 9th. -NJGW, 9

• Somehow I've ended up with TAN and Gravity back-to-back in my rank, but Gravity's ability to win almost any match with the click of a finger boosts it into my Top 8, and its ability to lose plenty of matches with the flick of a spinning blade stops it there. -Toast, 8

• The most powerful flipper in Series 7, and without a doubt the best robot from outside the UK. That said, basically anything invertible was its kryptonite, and low wedges posed a serious problem. The ease with which TAN pitted it is also foreboding. -RA2, 8

• An absolute powerhouse, destroying the arena with Hydra, dispatching the 7th seed, as well as then getting rid of Lightning and then breaking the fastest battle record, which was great, considering it was already recently broken, Gravity throwing out the machine that had broken it was immense. -Adster, 7

• There were so, so many machines that looked invincible this series, up until their defeats. Gravity was one such machine, tossing out Hydra, 13 Black and Dantomkia as if they were no names. Armour and ground clearance issues ultimately cost it, but it certainly would have beaten more opponents in this series than Tornado could. -Space, 6

• An absolutely dominant performer across Series 7, with three OOTAs scored, four House Robots thrown over and a record smashed. It had its blemishes and weaknesses, but performed well overall. -Crash, 6

• made one of the best first impressions to the UK scene ever. It's not like it was in a heat of slouches; Hydra, 13 Black and Lightning are all good robots in their own right, and Dantomkia was an even better one to beat in the Semi-Finals. Had it timed an attack right, Gravity may well have taken out reigning champions Tornado too. Alas, it was not to be, and I can't quite put it any higher due to the way Tough as Nails completely dominated it in the World championship Qualifier and the OHKO Mr. Psycho landed on it in the House Robot Rebellion that showcased its fragility. Above Tsunami due to the quality of opposition it had to beat in its heat, would have loved to seen the two of them fight. -Raz3r, 5

• the Dutch beast, a decisive member of the all stars with four spectacular wins in a row. Could not have beaten the top 4 but was able to shrug off serious house robots like they were nothing. -TG, 5

• What a flipper, and what a House Robot graveyard it racked up! Chucked powerful robots out of the arena with ease and kept Tornado honest until the champs ran them down. The less said about the 3WC the better. -Jimlaad, 5

6. X-Terminator

• and just as disgusting is this! But again, I think it'd lose handily to Bigger Brother, it should've lost to Tsunami, Firestorm 5 would show up its manoeuvrability, Tornado beat it once and would even if X-Terminator was at full health and same goes for Storm 2, Atomic would either outskid it to victory and just generally has a higher ceiling against the other top robots, and it got beat comfortably by Typhoon 2. Sorry, but as much as I love X-Terminator, it still did have big flaws, and it got a pretty kind Semi-Final draw. -NJGW, 8

• I'm going to join Raz3r in putting X-Terminator below Tsunami. I give massive credit to X-Terminator for beating Tsunami in one of the best matches of all time, but nobody would deny that it lost the match before being saved. In my mind, X-Terminator was a best of three which went 2-1 in favour of X-Terminator, but Tsunami's little "win" along the way is enough for me to validate X-Terminator going below it. The lack of a srimech and slow speeds are more prominent weaknesses than Tsunami's, and whichever one won the Heat Final would've got to at least the same stage of the tournament. -Toast, 7

• When X Terminator was on, it could rarely be stopped, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t two terrible fights in its S7 campaign and a heat final which it had basically lost. The Bulldog Breed fight was its peak and it never came back. I’d have it beat Gravity but it was just too chunky and exposed. -TG, 7

• Had the best performance of the four Grand Finalists in the Semi-Finals, destroying St. Agro and Bulldog Breed having already done the damage to the likes of Diabolus and Killer Carrot 2, but you could say it was lucky to even reach that stage. Tsunami had it beat, and there was nothing X-Terminator could have done to escape its predicament... -Raz3r, 7

• A deserving if surprising Grand Finalist, and the Grand Final really wasn't kind to it. Plus it should have lost to Tsunami a lot sooner. -Jimlaad, 6

• An extremely destructive weapon and easily one of the best spinners of its time. Well built overall and I'd love to say it deserved its fourth place finish, but the whole fight with Tsunami makes it difficult for me to say that, or indeed put it in the top four. -Crash, 5

• This machine had arguably one of the best designs to cope with an ever changing show. With flippers becoming better by the day, a spinner that was anti-flipper was vital for it to succeed. Capable of achieving out of the arenas, and defeating such flippers like Tsunami, St. Agro and Bulldog Breed, X-Terminator proved it was now part of the elite. Sadly, it just was not durable enough to withstand relentless hits from Typhoon 2 or Tornado, meaning it ranks outside the top 4. -Space, 5

• I’ll be kind to this robot and only drop it one place below its Series 7 finishing. This thing was an absolute beast in a flipper-dominated sector, and incredibly feared. They drop a place because they were dead to rights in the heat final and their srimech failed them, but even so, they capitalized on that second chance grandly, and they still truly are better than every bot I’ve ranked beneath them. -RA2, 5

• - Another much improved machine in the Seventh Wars, and destroyed practically everything it came across. A shame that it fought Typhoon II in the Grand Final eliminator, but that's the limiter here. -Adster, 4

5. Atomic

• likely to seriously overperform in this rankdown, I will nor deny it did well Ko-ing an easy heat and M2, but it’s armour looks to be the same armour that Hypno disc ripped up two years prior, and Bulldog Breed never killed itself just by missing a flip. People praise atomic for its potential, I’m far far more conservative. -TG, 10

• People might be surprised to see me put Atomic so low, but one of the reasons why I've done so is it because it had one of the easiest heats of any semi-finalist in Series 7. Terror Turtle, Cygnus X-1, S.M.I.D.S.Y. and Hellbent are robots the Series 5 version of Atomic could have beaten, or literally any other Series 7 Semi-Finalist, or even middle ground heat finalists like Lightning, Ceros or Judge Shred 3. It performed very well against M2, but wasn't challenged enough for it to be an amazing display, and while people argue it could have beaten Typhoon 2, the fact of the matter is that it didn't, because of poor control on its part, too eager to finish the job early, and then the flipper malfunctioned of its own accord, not because of a Typhoon 2 attack. -Raz3r, 8

• Another machine I loved seeing thrive, with the OOTA and remaining domination of all robots in Round 1, as well as throwing Hellbent and S.M.I.D.S.Y. out, and finally dumping out M2. If Atomic had got Typhoon 2 over, the Wars would have been different. Sadly, that holds it back here. -Adster, 7

• The very definition of a complete package. Excellent weapon, excellent defence, excellent speed, excellent wedge. Atomic boasted very few flaws, and earns its place in the Top 5, but I suppose the malfunction against Typhoon 2 did happen, and its nearest rival in the Top 5 would be Firestorm V which regularly beats Atomic in our fantasy tournaments. -Toast, 5

• I am absolutely gutted that what happened to it happened. This was a machine that tha romped through its (admittedly easy) heat, scored four OOTAs and very very nearly beat Typhoon 2. It's a shame we didn't see more of it ultimately. It could have done more. Heck, it could have even won. -Crash, 4

• my draft had Atomic at like 9th, but it's ended up here. Even though I'm putting it here, even I think this is too high in general. But I just can't deny that it should've beaten Typhoon 2 handily, and its skid steering and plough setup would threaten Storm 2 too. It has such a very high ceiling at its best. - NJGW, 3
• Yet another seemingly invincible flipper, and perhaps more so, because before its unfortunate demise, nothing, not even Typhoon 2 could seemingly stop it. I have to rank it here because I worry about how it would survive against flippers that could overturn it, and the overall durability of its flipper against spinners like X-Terminator -Space, 4

• From losing to Short Circuit in the qualifiers, to a Top-8 placement, this robot definitely wins “Most Improved.” Threw every bot like a ragdoll and even came close to beating Typhoon, who’d been mowing down flippers left and right. They’re very much a “complete package” robot -RA2, 4

• The robot robbed the most TBH, 4 consecutive OotAs, all spectacular and put in one of the best battles of the series with M2. Could have won the whole thing without its malfunction. -Jimlaad, 2

4. Firestorm 5

• It's Firestorm, you'd expect it to be high. Another really great performance in the main competition, with three OOTAs in a row, but again it loses points for a disasterous exit to the All-Stars. -Crash, 7

• As consistent as ever, aside from the obvious not coming in 3rd. Their strength of schedule was a little less impressive than the robots ranked above them, and that was the main deciding factor. -RA2, 7

• Another spectacular run for Firestorm in which it was clearly the class of the field, but just happened to meet probably the one robot that could beat it a bit too early -Jimlaad, 7

• Didn't put a foot wrong in its first four fights. Had a faultless heat performance, but could do nothing against Storm 2. The near unjudgeable All-Stars melee loss only really dents it because Firestorm 5 was so clearly the best robot of the 8, and should have won the competition. -Raz3r, 4

• We all know the strength of Firestorm, a three-time Grand Finalist which entered Series 7 in its best and final iteration. Everything that gave Firestorm a high ranking in Series 5-6 applies here, but that also unfortunately drags across its loss to Tornado in the Sixth Wars. If that hadn't happened, I might've put Firestorm V above Tornado. -Toast, 4

• peak Firestorm doesn’t do as well as it’s predecessor but courtesy of drawing one of two bots it couldn’t beat. I will not hold the all stars against it because that’s like judging a star athletes performance on his tripping and falling while goofing around with kids on a street race on Saturday. -TG, 4

• only lost to Storm 2 and a throwaway All-Stars defeat. Big points for me personally believing it could beat Typhoon 2. -NJGW, 4

• The urge to put this at number 1 is very, very high. I want to put this at number 1, because I believe that they could have won this series, had they drawn Typhoon 2 or the pit still being closed. Overall, I do believe that Firestorm could beat all machines below it (even Tornado this year), and I really want to put it at number 1, and if it had won the All-Stars, I might be able to justify it, but sadly, it lost in Round 1, and that means I have to put it in 3rd. -Adster, 3

• The Firestorm series just got better and better to me. Like with a few flippers in this era, Firestorm 5 was just unstoppable, until something else more so was capable of beating it. Nothing up until Storm 2 could stand up to it, and I argue it would have won the All-Stars competition if it took it seriously. -Space, 3

3. Tornado

• Here is the thing about Tornado: It had arguably the weakest heat in Series 7. Not to mention, it really started to show its age in this series, because it became far too easy to overturn. Look at Leveller 2 for example, who managed to overturn its opponent. While Tornado managed to beat Gravity, it was ultimately too vulnerable to the majority of flippers this season, not to mention Storm 2 and even Typhoon 2. Had Series 8 come calling, Tornado would require a redesign. -Space, 7

• A potentially controversial choice here, but Tornado for me is the 5th strongest machine in the Seventh Wars. It was outclassed twice by Storm II, and I think X-Terminator could have given them a good run for their money if X-Terminator hadn't have fought Typhoon II in the previous round. -Adster, 5

• consistent performances, beat X-Terminator and Gravity, put in a solid second display against Storm 2. -NJGW, 5

• Like everyone else, I'll be building my top three from the actual top three of the Seventh Wars, with Tornado finishing in third, its exact series finish. -Toast, 3

• Just kept on going, only having a brief worry against Leveller 2 in its heat, and only getting a scare once again when it faced Gravity, but Tornado held its ground and finished the job. Performed reasonably well twice against Storm 2, outwedging it several times, although it was clear Storm 2 was better. -Raz3r, 3

• I need no justification. It's Tornado, we know what it can do and we know it can do it very well. It didn't do anything wrong this series - it was just outclassed by a robot that was exactly it but better. -Crash, 3

• Pretty standard Tornado run here that got them #2 in the S5 & 6 rankdowns. Not a whole lot can be said in their third high placement that hasn’t been said already, other than that Gravity was a pretty big head for their mantle. They drop to 3 here because Typhoon was nigh unbeatable, and Storm 2 was just plain better than them. -RA2, 3

• Proved that its Series 6 title wasn't a fluke and was back to its pushing best here, and it would have been nice to see what it could have done with Typhoon 2, but the producers would rather have seen box vs box. Twice. -Jimlaad, 3

• though it feels like storm 2 lite, it’s still the pushing beast we know and a dominant win over Gravity redeems any doubts we might have had. -TG, 3

2. Typhoon 2

• The champs must go 4th for me. Round 1 was an embarrassment, Thermidor's death wasn't exactly spectacular and Atomic got really unlucky. Plus the Grand Final was a bit dubious between the two. -Jimlaad, 4

• A worthy series champion which I've grown to respect so much. I rank it only below Storm II, not necessarily because I think Typhoon 2 should've lost that fight, but simply because it boasted a weakness that could give it losses to the likes of Tsunami, Atomic, Bigger Brother etc on a bad day. -Toast, 2

• I held a childish grudge for a long time, because of the limited information that I took as fact. But after being more entwined in the community , and getting a better insight into people’s reputations, and how they conduct themselves, I find myself more inclined to believe Gary’s version of events, and I’ve come around to seeing that their victory was well-earned. It was a stroke of luck that they passed round 1 for sure, but which champion ‘’didn’t’’ have some degree of luck at some stage? It’s no accident that no one could box rush them, nor that (round 1 excluded) they had only one moment where they nearly got flipped, their driving was masterful. And they handed Storm their only loss, that’s major. The imperfection keeping them from #1 is of course, the Round 1 scare that I’ve kept saying to avert your eyes from, and some other things that I’ll go into detail below. -RA2, 2

• Round 1 was an unfortunate battle for Typhoon 2, with its weapon seemingly not working, but it was merciless in its next three fights, had a little bit of luck against Atomic and then destroyed the second best spinner in the competition X-Terminator without breaking a sweat. I do believe it still should have lost the title fight, but it's hardly the most controversial decision of all time, I can see the reasons for why it was given the championship instead of Storm 2. Raz3r, 2

• Despite the lack of srimech, Typhoon 2 just could not be stopped by a robot with a flipper. As soon as a flipper closed it, it was deflected away, damaged and often left crippled after the first few hits. In a flipper-dominated series, Typhoon 2 was absolutely amazing in stopping whatever stood in its path. Even spinners like X-Terminator failed to hold a candle against it. Ultimately, I feel that the fact it theoretically could be disrupted and thus left vulnerable prevents it from topping the rankdown, but certainly, had Robot Wars continued soon after Series 7, it would have been a yardstick for any machine looking to become an elite for series to come. -SPace, 2

• Both grand finalists had a great run to the Grand Final and both certainly can say they deserved to be there. Both are as good as each other, and Typhoon 2 showed it was capable of great destruction. Literally the only reason why the eventual champion is lower than the eventual runner-up is because it had more issues to contend with, and wasn't as strong in some of its fights, like its first round battle. -Crash, 2

• great power, very good displays, but it isn't quite as invulnerable as Storm 2 comparatively feels. Not that the Title Fight was an undeserved result though - I'm not using that fight against it here. -NJGW, 2

• The only undefeated robot in the series comes first. - TG, 1

• the eventual champion. Yes it withdrew from the 3WC (but it didn't technically enter), but it still has a perfect 7-0 W-L record, and apart from a minor blip in Round 1, every round after showed it's power. Hammerhead 2 was mangled, Iron-Awe 2.1 was destroyed, Thermidor II was OHKOed. Atomic was outdone, X-Terminator was shattered and Storm II held it off, but not enough to take the crown. Typhoon 2, despite having a glaring issue in a lack of a srimech, didn't let it phase it and won the title. -Adster, 1

1. Storm 2

• Storm II was obviously going to rank quite highly, as it is quite a machine, very powerful and just all-round awesome. In addition, its OOTA of The Steel Avenger is iconic. 2nd place in the main competition and the Third World Championship winner elevate it to silver medal, but it's one loss to the overall champion leaves it at second, to...[Typhoon] -Raz3r, 2

• I believe in honouring the results. I also believe that Ed Hoppitt has been slightly debunked over the last few years and as such I’m happy to call the win clean. -TG, 2

• Ultimately, Storm 2 wins this, not only for winning the World Championship (which Typhoon 2 withdrew from at the last moment), but it made machines like Firestorm 5 and Tornado look like alsorans. Only robots like Razer achieved this feat. Not to mention, Storm 2 was just perfectly designed to combat the rise of flippers, was durable enough to withstand Typhoon 2 and ultimately no one aside from Typhoon 2 had any idea on how to beat it. No wonder this machine was somewhat disliked by some during the Wiki's early years... was it even possible to beat it pre-Reboot with anyone other than Typhoon 2? -Space, 1

• the most well-rounded, most-grounded machine. I can only speculate on what could beat it, whereas I feel more confident and very confident on a couple that could beat Typhoon 2. Armour, consistency, great ground clearance, speed and versatility. Fully deserved number 1 machine. -NJGW, 1

• I fear a negative light may have been placed on Storm 2 considering the contradicting controversy points, but the fact remains, even in defeat, Storm 2 was extremely explosive and showed so few signs of weaknesses. Plus, it had some really great moments, including that KO on Steel Avenger that no doubt goes down as one of the all-time greatest. -Crash, 1

• No matter how much we've come around to the overexposed Storm II "controversy" and seen Ed Hoppitt's claims for what they really are, not one person would deny that Storm II was an excellent machine. Both it and Typhoon 2 were miles ahead of the pack, and of the two, Storm II is the one that lacks any sort of weakness. Comfortably the best robot of the Seventh Wars, and only rivalled by Razer for the title of best classic series competitor altogether. -Toast, 1

• The Third World Championship is what elevates Storm up to best in the series because that was the icing on the cake. Used Supernova to destroy Sir Killalot, Scored an OotA with sheer force, completely silenced Firestorm in its prime and bullied Tornado twice. -JImlaad, 1

• Didn't appear to have any troubles against any of its opponents up until Typhoon 2. Supernova, Trax and The Steel Avenger were all brushed aside, it never looked like it was going to lose to The Grim Reaper, and it outclassed Firestorm 5 in a way no machine other than Razer has really done so. Beat previous champions Tornado twice, and let's not forget the way it outpushed Tough as Nails either, that was just brutal. Probably should have won the judges' decision against Typhoon 2, but far, far worse calls have been made in the past. Ahead of Typhoon 2 due to showing no vulnerabilities up until the title fight and after it should have already been given the victory in the final of the Third World Championship against Supernova. -Raz3r, 1

• One word is the above-all-else deciding factor in picking the top robot, and that word is, “invulnerable.” That is to say, which robot looked straight up the most unbeatable? Nothing looked like it could beat Storm 2, its only loss was close. Storm 2 easily dispatched two grand finalists, and was the only survivor of Typhoon (when its spinner worked). Combining their domestic & WC wins, their bounty is just a little more impressive than Typhoon’s in my opinion. And let’s not forget the active weapons rule, that’s the cherry on top. They accomplished all they did while retrofitting a lifting arm onto their design. They fought & won against the most formidable opponent in all of Robot Wars - the producers. -RA2, 1