Another event is on the horizon, and it is time for me to make predictions!
Bot Blast 2014 is an annual event held in Bloomsburg, PA. It features antweight, beetleweight, and mantisweight robots (and formerly fairyweights). I will be competing with two ants this time, Slim Pickens, and my new ant, Viciously Circular (formerly called "Endgame").
Let's get Started!
Here's how the ants look:
Edit: as of July 4th, Cannon will not be competing
Probably my biggest concerns include Gyroscopic, an eggbeater that beat me at FI 2012, Cannon,
another beater that got second at Motorama 2013, FireArrow, a very good wedge that got 3rd last year, and Antelope (it's being redesigned to be 4wd instead of just 2wd), another good wedge. Another bot, Velociraptor, could possibly be a threat. It's done very well in the past, but my wedge should hold up against the sawblade. If we do fight, I do hope to see a lot of sparks!
Now we're onto the beetles!
Probably the one to watch out for is Raptor 2.2, the two-time Robogames champion. It's fast, very well driven, and can take a beating but keep on going. From the same team is Allosaurus, a drum bot which is one of the few bots that has ever beaten Raptor 2.2. Ripto 3.0 is a returning champion(?) which has done really well and can hit hard. Reigning champions Mondo Bizarro return as well. It's a good bot, but I think it might get outclassed by some of the other bots. One Fierce Javelin is competing, and seemed promising when it got a few wins at the 2014 USATL STEM Tech Olympiad, and is pretty fast, too.
Finally, the mantisweights.
Reigning champion Threecoil returns to fight against some more dangerous bots. It's got a flywheel powered flipper that gave it two first place finishes in a row. Returning after a years' hiatus, One Fierce Bush Wacker is a nasty spinner that won a few years ago. It's another hard hitter. Chibi Blackout is a nasty looking drumbot that resembles that of a 15lber. CATAPULT is a shell spinner that has been under construction for a while. If it doesn't have any technical problems, it could do a lot of damage.
That's it for today!
