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- "We want to rename the competition to be 'Queen of Bots', so we're quite confident!"
- — Sabrina Skilling after Suspension's first match
Suspension was a heavyweight robot which competed in Season 1 of King of Bots. It was entered by a team of female British students, with the robot's name referencing the team's occupation as students. In its first battle, Suspension defeated WU66 by knockout.
Design
- "Our strategy is to lift the other robot to get its wheels off from the floor, which will leave them exposed. We'll then have to smash them into the wall, with 13 horsepower."
- — Sabrina Skilling
Suspension with its team
Suspension was an invertible robot driven by two central wheels, boasting 13hp of push. Its primary weapon was a broad scoop, which functioned as a lifter not unlike that of BattleBots entry Stinger: The Killer Bee, as it would fire forwards to directly overturn robots, or hold them in place atop of its ridged mechanism behind the lifter. Concealed beneath the lifting wedge is a flamethrower weapon, one of only three in King of Bots. Suspension displayed great speed and manoeuvrability, and thick armour, but a lack of damage output. The wedge also brandished the Brentwood School logo, and spikes facing the floor at each side, although the steep nature of the wedge meant that Suspension could not drive under opponents with low ground clearances.
Robot History
Season 1
- "Oh my gosh, this thing goes quite fast. We really didn't know what to expect."
- — Sabrina Skilling on WU66
Suspension resists the spinner of WU66
Suspension traps WU66 against the wall
In its first battle, Suspension fought the Chinese entry WU66. It quickly slammed into the side of WU66, and controlled its movements while resisting its opponent's spinning bar. Sparks flew as WU66's bar skimmed the top of Suspension, but the British machine rolled WU66 into a Grinder, which took a second hit from the hazard by its own accord while Suspension tested its flamethrower. Suspension swiftly drove into the side of the fleeing WU66, and drove it back into the Grinder for further damage, although Suspension made a glancing contact with the hazard itself. Suspension proved unable to get its steep wedge under the ground clearance of WU66, but it pinned the Chinese representative against the arena wall, and survived one final blow from the bar spinner before rolling it against the arena spikes. WU66 had lost mobility, so Suspension retreated and earned its win via knockout, allowing it to qualify for the second round.
- "It's one of the first ones we've won with this robot, so it's a good feeling. With the circuitry, that should be really easy to fix, but the fireworks looked cool, and the driving was good."
- — Sabrina Skilling on the win against WU66
Results
| SUSPENSION - RESULTS | ||
| Season 1 | ||
| Round 1 | vs. WU66 | Won |
| Round 2 | vs. Unknown | Unknown |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 1
- Losses: 0
Outside King of Bots
Suspension's original incarnation, now Internal Suspension
Before competing on King of Bots, Suspension was originally designed as a 70kg robot armed with a set of rear flails shaped into the letters of Suspension's name. It made its live events debut at the Robots Live! event in Burgess Hill, where it was thrown out of the arena by Weird Alice in one battle and immobilised in another against Eruption and Big Nipper. Later in the same month, Suspension competed at the same Extreme Robots event as Expulsion, managing to pick up a combat win.[1]
In September 2017, the King of Bots version of Suspension fought, also using loose chains at the rear to allow sit-and-spin tactics while spinners were still deemed unsafe at live events. It fought at the live event Extreme Robots in Colchester but lost group battles to Cyclone twice, TR3 twice, Eruption, Behemoth, Meggamouse, and Iron-Awe 5 respectively. The original version of Suspension became known as Internal Suspension, but was thrown out of the arena by Eruption.
The second version of Expulsion
Before competing with Suspension, the Brentwood School Roboteers competed on Robot Wars with their original robot, Expulsion. The first version was an invertible robot armed with a unique horizontal spinner, but it was immobilised during Series 9 in its battle with M.R. Speed Squared, Heavy Metal and Foxic, which was shown during King of Bots. The second version of Expulsion used a unique tool spinner, and the robot was more successful, defeating Push to Exit and Coyote to earn third place in its heat, despite losing two other battles in its heat, and becoming the first robot to be defeated during the 10 Robot Rumble.
Trivia
King of Bots Suspension Teaser
- At the time of Season 1, Sabrina Skilling and Rebecca Ashcroft were students in Year 13, Juliette Skilling was in Year 11, and Mary Hirst was listed as the 'head of school'[2], each studying subjects relating to STEM.
- Suspension along with Ink Thorns, Deep Sea Giant Shark and Scorpion appeared in a teaser trailer for the series.
References
External Links
- Suspension on the official King of Bots website (Chinese)
- Team Suspension KoB Twitter
- Team Expulsion Facebook page
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