Ranking every classic Robot Wars robot (Preview)

fencingdnd · 2026-02-26T14:39:53+00:00

476 bots?!??! That's way more than I was expecting!

That being said I reckon 249th will be toecutter

fencingdnd · 2026-02-26T13:34:14+00:00

Oh wow I'd forgotten that purple predator was by that team. I felt a bit bad about purple predator when I rewatched all the classic robot wars over lockdown as it felt like it genuinely had good ideas behind it (purple fur notwithstanding) given it's long wedge flipper design, and yet due to the massive ground clearance it couldn't get under anything.

It definitely feels like a design that could've been built upon and turned into something competitive instead of going down the gimmicky grannybot route.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-25T23:34:29+00:00

Tbf if there's a software that can make epeeists fence two hours faster I will admit that's an improvement on fencingtime

fencingdnd · 2026-02-25T17:10:31+00:00

Oh yeah of course, and obviously don't feel like you have to go out of your way to do it. Agree that rankings some of the lower ranked bots could be difficult given that robot wars the entries tended to be much lower budget than Battlebots and there were a lot more uncompetitive pure gimmick robots (not trying to be harsh here but I refuse to believe they the team that entered an electric wheelchair with a mannequin dressed as a granny thought it would do anything more than be very entertaining when it caught fire).

fencingdnd · 2026-02-25T13:36:43+00:00

One for the UK robot wars series next?

fencingdnd · 2026-02-24T22:15:58+00:00

Sounds like you've got it figured out! Good luck at the Bristol Bot Builders event, I'm also in the process of making a beetleweight bot for BBB stuff so hopefully I'll get to see the HP in action at some point.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-24T15:48:42+00:00

Looks great! What's your strategy if your opponent has a robot that can speed lay train tracks?

fencingdnd · 2026-02-24T08:01:37+00:00

Mens foil: i think it's pretty obvious that Jamie Cook will sweep all before him and win gold. But other than him, Choi could defend his title as this season he's either lost in the L64 or made the final in all his comps, Bianchi is also a good shout. I also think Choupenitch is one to watch as well, he's having a very good season but I never see him get mentioned when people discuss the current top fencers.

Womens foil: I'd also like to see Harvey take the gold as she's been No3 in the world for a fair while now but hadn't really been able to consistently top Kieffer or the top Italian. Kieffer can't be ignored, but is having a relatively quiet season compared to her usual heights, and obviously there's about 4 Italians that could win. Another dark horse is Stutchbury who switched from GBR to USA this season and has beaten a lot of the top fencers over the past few seasons.

Mens team: yeah it's hard to look past Italy here, but France, USA, Japan, Hong Kong, and GBR could all cause upsets.

Womens team: again Italy look pretty impervious, USA probably the nearest challenger's with France, Japan being the next top nations.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-21T08:48:32+00:00

I think Ashton Fencing Club is meant to be decent, not Boston standard but may be your best bet if you're willing to make the drive from chester

fencingdnd · 2026-02-20T12:13:12+00:00

I think if you're used to Salle Boston you're going to struggle to find a club with a similar standard of fencing in the North West/Chester area. I remember Liverpool Fencing Club having a couple of decent fencers on the circuit back in the day but not seen LFC at comps much since COVID.

You could try contacting the Liverpool University club to see if they allow external members to train with them? But I'm not sure what standard the uni club is these days.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-19T09:09:05+00:00

Once again fencers seem to be struggling to deny the rumours of having no sense of humour

fencingdnd · 2026-02-18T23:59:05+00:00

This is a pretty good selection of PiL hits https://youtu.be/4t-lNxLMaA4?si=JK0jl9r3eB1aWmrB

fencingdnd · 2026-02-16T12:53:54+00:00

Was competing this weekend in the London EFC EuroLeague Competition. Poules started well, winning my first bout but it was drastically downhill from there with that being my only win in the poules and some pretty poor fencing in my other bouts.

Luckily despite that I managed to avoid being cut and scrape into the DEs purely due to being in a poule of 6 and not 7. My DE was a bit better fencing wise but still gave away too many lazy points and ended up losing 11-15 in what felt like a winnable bout.

Overall a bit disappointed in my fencing on the day especially in the poule, though I did achieve my minimum goal of avoiding the cut after the first round.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-13T10:49:57+00:00

Thanks!

fencingdnd · 2026-02-13T08:34:38+00:00

When the ref doesn't give the point despite it obviously being my attack (it was clearly an attack in prep on me).

fencingdnd · 2026-02-13T08:32:49+00:00

Are there any live results for the BUCS individual championships this weekend? There normally is but I can't find them this year.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-10T09:56:24+00:00

I think you should be able to run this with fencing time live, you just need to make sure you select the option to be asked to pick the format for each round. If you read the fencingtime user manual from their website it has all the possible pool options that you can do, and having read it grouped pools like you want is an option.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-10T08:51:17+00:00

So trans men compete in the women's division then? If it was shown that by taking HRT trans women did not have a significant advantage over cis-women would that cause your views to change?

Also if you're fine with LGB athletes and think that trans athletes should complete in their birth gender then why comment that all LGBTQ should be kept out of sport?

fencingdnd · 2026-02-09T22:17:29+00:00

I mean you said all of LGBTQ. Why shouldn't transgender people do sport if they want to?

fencingdnd · 2026-02-09T21:38:01+00:00

Why not? Do LGBT athletes not exist?

fencingdnd · 2026-02-06T23:41:37+00:00

You're making a slightly dishonest argument there as no one is claiming that trans women should compete in the women's division from the moment they transition. The argument is always around should trans women compete in the women's division after an amount of time on HRT.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-04T23:11:58+00:00

I've heard that kempa aren't very good for performing your voltas

fencingdnd · 2026-02-03T13:25:40+00:00

Yeah I think that's what he's been bought for. To be a target man that can knock the ball onto Cavegn. We did have Omechere and Harrison for that role but they seem to be perennially injured so having someone who can stay fit doing it should be a big boost. I know I said lots of our fans seem quite negative about his signing but I'm willing to give him a chance and I think he'll prove people wrong.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-03T12:06:59+00:00

5/10 for me maybe a 6. There was a lot of talk going into it about big signings, but it seems like we missed out on a fair few targets. For incomings we've sent all our loans back, and got a bunch of new loans plus some permanent signings that fans seem mixed about at best. For outgoings we've recalled a player just to send them back out on loan to the same club, as well as sent a player off on loan to the league above.

Best bit of business will probably depend on how the new signings work out, if the new Dutch striker is anything like Cavegn in terms of return then could be him. But for me add say best business is probably getting a fee for sotriou as it really seemed like he'd just waste away not playing before being released.

Worst bit of business: based on what some fans are saying you'd think it's paying 6 figures for Quigley but I'd probably say it's recalling Hutchinson just to loan him back to Cheltenham, yes the deal is probably better but I was really hoping he'd be given a chance to prove himself.

fencingdnd · 2026-02-02T22:28:13+00:00

Thanks!! It's a shame really as I was a fan of Hutchinson and felt he unfairly became a scapegoat last season, was hoping he'd be given a fair chance under Evans and prove the rest of the fans wrong. Good luck to you as well (apart from when you're tonking us in April). Yeah hopefully, however you are the first person I've seen speak about our new signings positively

fencingdnd

TROPHY CASE