Morgrugyn Destruction (Non-AWS) - 30 May 2015 - Caerphilly

[Rapidrory]

One of the people who have previously won an AWS before won... :L

[Rhys]

Kwijiboom won't ever be doing any more winning, judging by the state it left the arena in.

Void won the warm-up. And the full combat. And the tag team. Just goes to show that spinners don't necessarily dominate in an arena without drop-offs.

I'd like to give a huge thanks to everyone who turned up. I was worried the low numbers might make it a bit of a boring event, but I had some great fights as a competitor and a spectator. Also, thanks to all those who made a donation to help with the costs of putting the event on. And also kudos to Andy and Scott for modifying their arena, hiring a van and bringing it all the way down to South Wales. Hopefully you all thought it was worth the effort.

From a rules point of view, I think the changes certainly shook things up. There was a lot more damage than I've seen for a long time. And without the drop-off, there was an extra tactical element to any attack. On the down side I found myself losing interest in any pusher fights I had as I knew there was very little I could do to win.

Anyway, hope all who were there enjoyed it, and those who weren't there enjoy the video.

[Rapidrory]

The lack of drop offs was great fun Not feasible for an AWS, but the fights were mad, and those which weren't were nicely cut short by the 2 minute limit.

Oh, and the all spinner Annihilator... Oh good god! That was just insane...

[joey_picus]

The spinner annihilator was one of the greatest things I've ever seen XD Andrew W's melty brain thing was frighteningly good...

I thoroughly enjoyed myself; there was an awful lot of cameraderie and good discussion to be had and be part of, and I got quite a lot of brainstorming done for the AWS - so much to do in a month...^^;;; Many thanks to Rhys for putting it on, and to Andy H and W, Scott, Rory, Alex, Dave, Peter, Ceri, and the inevitable people I've forgotten (sorry!) for making it so good. S. D. F. didn't do well at all but the in-arena video experiment definitely worked - when I have access to a computer that can turn the footage not upside down I'll link it as the Baby Hell fight in particular had some great moments I think!

Congratulations to Scott for winning everything (or so it seemed!) and hopefully my future trips to Wales are as fun as my first was

[razerdave]

Spinner Annihilator:

https://youtu.be/63WKIuCU3xI

You're welcome

[ajw]

Thanks to Rhys for hosting another great event. Congratulations to Scott on another good win. There were some excellent fights with plenty of damage which I look forward to seeing in the video when it gets uploaded. The low walls were an interesting feature to the arena and certainly changed the dynamic of the fights, although as mentioned it did mean robots solely relying on pusher opponents had little chance of winning other than on judges decisions. However, I do believe this format encourages more innovation over the typical 50% drop off arena. Low walls that could drop completely, after say 1 minute into the fight,would be interesting option to give the best of both worlds.

I look forward to the next event.

[peterwaller]

Yes great event thanks to Rhys and thanks to Scott and Andy for the arena.
Quite a lot of damge to repair but a great day out and the Annihilator was even better on video than I remebered.
I think we were mostly agreed it wouldn't suit the AWS but I think for other events if the extra walls were a little lower it would be good to try again.

[EpicentrE]

Thanks to Rhys for hosting a great event, and to everyone else for coming.

As others have said, the arena in this configuration would not be suitable for an AWS, but it was great fun to have a change of pace. I think it really brought out the best in everyone's driving, and a lot of the fights which went to judges' decisions were really close calls. Whereas we thought this configuration would mostly favour spinners, in fact I think those that benefited most were machines that were capable of flipping or lifting opponents over the walls. What that's made me realise is that, while I still think some low walls are a good idea for future arena designs, in the absence of huge pits they give far too much advantage to machines with good flippers. Thus, when we look at making arenas with smaller pits, we should also ensure that only a small amount of the perimeter is made up of low walls.

I also think the 2 minute time limit was proven to be a great idea and something we should definitely look at changing in the rules in the future.

There were some other great ideas that came out of this event which aren't really related to the AWS, but worth mentioning. Dave Weston suggested randomising the tag teams, which I think is a great idea to add variety to the teams we normally see working together. However, the best idea bar none was Andy's suggestion to allow spinners to start spinning up at 3 on the countdown in the spinner annihilator .

Thanks again for a great event, and see you all at the AWS!

[peterwaller]

The one thing I can never quite understand about the annihilator is how grown men can put so much time, effort and money into designing and building a robot and still find it funny when they get smashed up but it was hilarious.

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Coming up with a configuration for the AWS will be interesting. Suggestions welcome!

I'm glad both my points of low walls favouring flippers and the 2min fight limit have proved valid. It looked like smashing fun though.

Definitely up for less drop off for the AWS. Maybe something similar to yesterday but with higher walls and a gap in the centre of them for push outs? Or a staggered gap, one wall with a hole on the left and the other on the right?

Also, anyone got a close up picture of Vortex?