It was one year ago that the proof of concept 'Storm' was built and run at Debenham.  I don't know how long you have to be involved in this sport to be an old hand, but I certainly feel like its been a real roller coaster year for Team Storm.  We've gone from a complete unknown to a well known team in the community in the space of 12 months.  I guess its at this point before I start the write up of Debenham that I should say thanks to all those who have helped us along.... Andrew Marchant, Mike Lambert, George Francis, Ian Watts, Alan Gribble, Dave Gamble, Bryan Moss, John Reid and many more.  Without your help and support we wouldn't have achieved in the past 12 months what we have done. 

Friday night.... let the fun begin

Friday afternoon was spent working on Storm, tidying up the last pieces.  It was already running and had a weapon sorted, it just needed the Armour bolting in place.  I'd also agreed to entertain people Friday night, Razer, M2, Dantomkia, Wolverine, Shredder, Ming all came over for an evening of drinking, chatting and fun.

Saturday.... the weekend begins.

We started on the Saturday morning somewhat nervous.  Being the ultimate pessimist I wasn't sure how Storm was going to behave, it hadn't been run in combat for a couple of months, and I knew there were some niggly issues with the drive train that needed sorting, but I just hadn't got around to fixing them.  It wasn't like there was anything seriously wrong with the machine, just odd bits that I knew could be improved on.  Probably not an issue, but it was enough to worry me just a little.  The list of machines attending read like a whose who of Robot Wars, everyone from Razer to Cassius III to Shredder were there.... this was going to be a fun weekend and for us the fun started with "The Dome" in the "starts of the future" competition.

Mike Lambert helps with a precision adjustment to Storm's scoop

The Dome was a strange machine with a very heavy axe weapon.  The machine was shaped like a dome and made out of thick steel box section.  Not only did it have a nasty looking weapon, it also looked like it was built to survive a nuclear explosion.  Storm was attending Debenham running its lifter weapon so as not to cause excessive damage to other machines, we could have been running the hydraulics, but that would have been somewhat evil to say the least.  I wasn't sure quite what to do with the Dome - it was four wheel drive as well, with one motor per wheel so in theory had more power than Storm as well.  When the fight started we both slammed into each other in the middle of the arena.  The Dome got a hit on the rear of Storm with its axe weapon and put a small dent into the rear armor of the machine.

Deciding that the Dome posed a real threat to Storm if it were to get a lucky hit in with its axe I decided that simply trying to win by pushing the thing around simply wasn't enough.... this required some brute force.  I started ramming the dome at full speed, pushing it around the arena and eventually into a corner.  It had skirts around the side made out of polycarbonate... the onslaught that I was producing with Storm bent, buckled, shattered and folded the skirts, and in the end of the Dome was stuck in the corner sitting off the ground on the mess of mangled skirts.  After a few extra hits just to ensure Storm had made its point the fight ended.... Storm was the clear winner.

Razer and Pussycat in the arena....

...for a photoshoot, not fighting !

Our next fight of the day was up against "The Stag".  This was a particularly nasty looking piece of kit, and not something that I was looking forward to fighting at all.  Having a hydraulic weapon for Storm I respect the technology, and knowing what Storm can do to a machine, I didn't fancy my chances with my linear actuator powered lifter against this stag beetle type crusher.... I even went to the point of asking them to go easy if it was clear that they were going to win !  The fight started and we used Storm to push the Stag around around the arena.  For a two wheel drive machine it had impressive traction, but luckily it wasn't anything that Storm couldn't cope with - we were soon doing the same as we had done against the Dome, smashing The Stag into the sides of the arena.  We even managed to get our haistly made lifter weapon underneath The Stag and turned them over on their back, where they were much less of a threat because they now coudln't get the claws around us due to their design.  We won the fight, and it later turned out that in the process we had smashed their linkages in their hydraulic crushing weapon.  I felt pretty bad as I had suggested before the fight that they would have an easy win when in the end we left them in a bit of a mess and working hard for quite a while repairing the machine.  Still they did make a hole in the front of Storm's scoop with one of their spikes... which they seemed very pleased with !

We had made it through to the final, and were drawn against Grim Reaper and Mute.  Due to a frequency clash however and no time to fix it, the fight was postponed to the Sunday morning.

Mike Lambert was driving Damtomkia as well as ever and walked away with a trophy as well as Paul Cooper with M2.

Mike clearly excited over his win

Joe leads "team game boy"

Sunday

We were due to have our final from the previous day fought first thing, unfortunately we were slightly late arriving at the venue, and despite arriving before the fight had started, they went ahead anyway with the final without Storm in the arena.  Suffice to say we were not pleased with the situation, but that's life.  We asked Alan Gribble where it left us, and he said we had third place by default.... so we can't really complain I guess !

Dominator II promised to avenge us and make Axe Awe come out like a sieve.  Axe Awe had been boasting that they had the better machine anyway, so I think there was a point to be made by Dominator II anyway !  Well it was reliability that won the day, Axe Awe's axe wasn't working and Dominator II made light work of them smashing through their machine again and again. 

On Sunday night we were contemplating whether or not to repair the damage to Storm.  In the end we decided that going to Pizza Express with Tornado and John Reid sounded like a far better proposition, and enjoyed an evening of Pizza and Champagne celebrating yet another win for the Tornado team.

Relaxing before the meal ...

......too much fudge cake...

...where's everyone else gone ?

Monday

We had a good day, because we weren't running the machine, we could actually relax and watch the fights without the worry in the back of your mind about who you'll have to face next.  There were some stunning fights throughout the day, however by far the best was M2 vs Chaos 2.  I think most people in the audience had expected Chaos 2 to win with ease, however Paul Coopers machine is coming on in leaps and bounds and the new M2 made light work of Chaos 2, throwing it over 6ft into the air at times.... going on to take the silver medal on the Monday, with Dominator II taking the first place.

Tornado and Dominator met just before the finals - it was always going to be a close fight, Dominator relished the thought of fighting a large flat box, and I don't think Tornado were looking forward to fighting an axe with a head almost the same depth as their machine.

Straight through a polycarb/titanium laminate on Tornado.....

.....oops, I'm sure that hole shouldn't be there !

So all things considered we didn't do too badly for a machine fighting without a weapon in a way it was never designed to run.  We beat The Dome, Mute and The Stag all with ease.  We did much better than I ever expected the machine to do, and did much better than many other machines.  We made our mark, and I think we genuinely impressed people with the performance on the machine (not least of all ourselves). Next time there's no more Mr Nice Guy.  We're going to be running the hydraulic weapon and to hell with the damage we might cause to others.  We took damage because we didn't have a serious weapon this year.  Next time we're not going to go easy on people at the expense of damage on our own machine........

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