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  View Poll Results: Should spinners be allowed?
  Voters
  15. You may not vote on this poll
  No, they're too destructive
  1	6.67%
  Meh. Not bothered
  5	33.33%
  Destruction? That's the whole point of combat robots, isn't it?
  9	60.00%
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  Thread: Spinners- Opinions?
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  5th September 2021, 20:27 #1
  I'll Play One Day
  Roboteer
  I'm only considering building a robot at the moment as I currently have other commitments, but i wondered what everyone's opinion on spinners? I was indifferent about them until Carbide came along, but they upped the game so much, and are so destructive that they discourage me from even bothering building a robot. Opinions?
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  6th September 2021, 09:34 #2
  Ocracoke
  Team Kaizen
  Spinners, in of themselves, are quite destructive but there are two things which may help here:
  1. In the UK Live Events scene, the maximum speed a spinner can get up to is 125mph in either the HW or MW categories since the only arena that can hold them (Extreme Robots) is considered a Class 2 arena. The arena you may have seen in the reboot of Robot Wars (series 8 - 10) was a Class 1.
  That doesn't mean spinners can't cause damage of course, the speed limit is for safety reasons. A well thought out design and suitable armour material will help but damage, when facing any robot (not just a spinner) is largely inevitable.
  2. As alluded to above, Extreme Robots is the only arena that can handle spinners in any weight category at all. Robots Live! is a Class 3 arena and thus, spinners aren't permitted so you won't necesserially see them at each event you go to.
  Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots
  AW: Amai, Ikari, Lafiel, Osu, Ramu
  BW: Shu!, The Honey Badger
  FW: Azriel
  MW: Jibril, Kaizen
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  6th September 2021, 22:06 #3
  I'll Play One Day
  Roboteer
  Whilst browsing the forum recently I read someone saying that at events now, you could decide whether you wanted to fight spinner 'bots or not. Is that true? Because it could change the design process for any 'bot.
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  6th September 2021, 22:15 #4
  Ocracoke
  Team Kaizen
  That is true. You can elect not to fight a spinner at Extreme Robots.
  Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots
  AW: Amai, Ikari, Lafiel, Osu, Ramu
  BW: Shu!, The Honey Badger
  FW: Azriel
  MW: Jibril, Kaizen
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  6th September 2021, 23:50 #5
  I'll Play One Day
  Roboteer
  so obviously they are considered a problem if there is special dispensation? Or do you forfeit your round? Please bear in mind that I know nothing about the formula other than watching old episodes of Robot Wars!
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  7th September 2021, 00:12 #6
  Ocracoke
  Team Kaizen
  Depends on the match. Some fights are exhibiton fights, others are competiton fights where if you do pull out, you do forfeit that round - best speaking to the event organisers about it if you are concerned. It is also worth noting that we are normally quite a friendly bunch and if you ask the roboteer (who remember will probably have invested similar amounts of time and money into their machines as you) nicely, holding back is a thing.
  I do get your concern. I wouldn't want my £1000 MW or even my £300 FW being smashed up within 3 minutes of being in an arena but ultimately, that is the nature of the sport, damage happens. My last MW got turned over and then the bottom panel smashed by a spinner in the Middleweight Championships of 2019, nearly nuking the batteries in the process. I taped the entire thing back together and it went back out into the arena within an hour or so.
  The rebuild of the MW involved signifcantly more armour and better durabilty so it will be less likely to happen. In reality, it wasn't spinners that did the most damage to Jibril 1.x, it was flippers where landing on its back often twisted the axe gearshaft. It was only when I upgraded to Titanium that it became less of an issue and I doubled the thickness for the 2.0 version to prevent that happening agan.
  I was in the same boat when I started, having only Robot Wars and Battlebots to go off of (having previously applied for Series III and IV of RW). This is why you'll typically see people recommend newcomers to the sport try in the Featherweight oe Beetleweight categories where, arguably, spinners are more potent but the cost of repairing them is that much less. The amount of investment needed drops significantly but still be in the same sort of field as Heavies and Middles (for Feathers, Beetles tend to be in their own events).
  If you go to an event like RoboDojo, they have their own Sportsman class as well which Spinners aren't permitted in either which, along with Robots Live!, make a good entrance into the sport.
  Last edited by Ocracoke; 7th September 2021 at 00:26.
  Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots
  AW: Amai, Ikari, Lafiel, Osu, Ramu
  BW: Shu!, The Honey Badger
  FW: Azriel
  MW: Jibril, Kaizen
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  7th September 2021, 23:51 #7
  Shakey
  Member
  Originally Posted by I'll Play One Day
  so obviously they are considered a problem if there is special dispensation? Or do you forfeit your round? Please bear in mind that I know nothing about the formula other than watching old episodes of Robot Wars!
  It's not that spinners are a 'problem', they are simply part of the sport. But that for frequent live events keeping a robot running through the damage can get expensive which isn't wholly sustainable for a live circuit for every team.
  While you can forfeit matches ahead if you don't want to fight a spinner I would discourage this. It's only going to make things difficult for the EO trying to run the show. Instead I suggest you only compete your robot at a level you feel comfortable in rather than at every level and pick and choose your fights.
  So enter non spinner exhibition matches or tournaments. But don't go entering spinner tournaments if you intend on forfeiting if you draw one.
  Also your robot is still going to get damaged, it's going to happen. This is a destructive hobby by nature and is half the fun on it. It is something you have to accept will happen, even if spinners aren't involved.
  As to the poll because I can't vote in it for some reason, banning spinners full stop from the sport is a bit of a ridiculous notion. They're one of the big aspects of it and if you want to compete away from them there are avenues for that without fully removing them.
  Last edited by Shakey; 7th September 2021 at 23:55.
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  9th September 2021, 22:03 #8
  I'll Play One Day
  Roboteer
  Damage is one thing and not unexpected, but the spinners have got so powerful nowadays that they can and do completely destroy a robot.
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  10th September 2021, 07:56 #9
  voyanuitoa
  Roboteer
  I seem to recall a spinner completely destroying robots back around 1999-2000. It's always been there and there has always been an arms race of a kind between damage output and armour/construction techniques.
  Powerhouse Robotics
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  10th September 2021, 09:39 #10
  Ocracoke
  Team Kaizen
  I seem to recall a spinner completely destroying robots back around 1999-2000.
  Hypno-Disc I presume you are referring to?
  Damage is one thing and not unexpected, but the spinners have got so powerful nowadays that they can and do completely destroy a robot.
  As previously mentioned, there are events where spinners aren't permitted if you really did not want to face one at all. However, spinners are part of the sport and again, as I said, the person at the controls of the spinner will have invested similar amounts of money into their machine as yours. As soon as you are immobile, chances are they'll hold back.
  I've had a Featherweight totally gutted by *several* spinners in an Extreme Robots event in Manchester 2018 in a melee fight of about 20+ robots. The peeps who were are the controls of the spinners were quite apologetic and even offered to help rebuild the thing. About two hours later, with help, the robot went back into the arena. That sort of community spirit isn't shown on the TV show very well but I can assure you, it does exist.
  The point I am trying to make is that rather than outright avoid spinners (which as discussed have been limited in their top speed), embrace it as part of the sport and that is the risk you take with whatever you put in the arena. If an axe robot were to get a lucky hit and puncture your batteries causing an internal fire, would you want to not face axe robots again?