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[[File:Switch Team.jpg|thumb|Switch with Kevin Cleasby in ''King of Bots II'']] |
[[File:Switch Team.jpg|thumb|Switch with Kevin Cleasby in ''King of Bots II'']] |
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Switch was completely rebuilt for ''King of Bots II'', and now boasted an interchangeable array of weapons, including the returning hammer weapon, a drum spinner, and a lifting mechanism, although the lifter would ultimately not be used in the series. The robot's leading wedges were also refined to boast longer reach, with sharpened points, and Switch's internals were reworked. |
Switch was completely rebuilt for ''King of Bots II'', and now boasted an interchangeable array of weapons, including the returning hammer weapon, a drum spinner, and a lifting mechanism, although the lifter would ultimately not be used in the series. The robot's leading wedges were also refined to boast longer reach, with sharpened points, and Switch's internals were reworked. |
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+ | [[File:Switch in it's drum spinner configuration.png|thumb|220x220px]] |
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==Robot History== |
==Robot History== |
Revision as of 20:49, 18 August 2019
Switch was a robot from the United Kingdom which competed in Season 1.5, the debut season of This is Fighting Robots, and the second season of King of Bots. It was built by Kevin Cleasby, who competed in Season 1 of King of Bots as part of Alan Young's Vulcan team.
In This is Fighting Robots, Switch was initially selected by Zhang Yishan of the Blue team, but lost both its rumble and its Tag Team battle under this captaincy before being eliminated from the competition.
Switch was more successful in King of Bots II, joining Zhu Zheng Ting's team in Episode 3 after immobilizing Cracked Sword in its first battle.
Design
Switch was a low box-shaped robot with a four-wheel drive system, using a predominantly yellow and black color scheme. It was designed to use modular weaponry, but time constraints made this infeasible, so Switch's primary weapon is a hammer, powered by a LEM motor, which also allows the robot to self-right. Switch also features two small hinged wedges at the front, each painted in yellow and black hazard stripes. The wedges were intended to protect the robot's front wheels as well as to get underneath opponents, although their hinges often lead to ground clearance issues and resulted in the wedges getting lodged underneath Switch during battles.
- "Switch was designed to be modular and therefore have switchable weapons however due to tight time constraints we focussed all of our time into making the best hammer we could which is powered by a LEM motor thanks to our friends at Lynch Motors!"
- — Switch Facebook page
Switch was completely rebuilt for King of Bots II, and now boasted an interchangeable array of weapons, including the returning hammer weapon, a drum spinner, and a lifting mechanism, although the lifter would ultimately not be used in the series. The robot's leading wedges were also refined to boast longer reach, with sharpened points, and Switch's internals were reworked.
Robot History
This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)
During the celebrities’ initial selection process, Zhang Yishan chose Switch to join the Blue team, and thus secured its place in the main competition. It first appeared in the second round, where it fought EarthShaker, Stealth and Thunder and Lightning.
Switch began the battle by immediately turning into, circling round and driving up the front of EarthShaker; as it landed a blow on EarthShaker’s flipper, it was launched into the air, and inadvertently threw itself upside-down while retracting its hammer. A second flip from EarthShaker rolled Switch back onto its wheels, enabling it to escape and charge into Thunder. It was pushed back by the orange multibot, but used its hammer to throw itself off of Thunder’s wedge. Seconds later, Switch charged into Thunder again, but its hinged wedges resulted in it driving up Thunder’s wedge and leaving it helpless as Thunder pushed it over one of the floor flippers. The flipper threw both robots over, with Switch firing its hammer as Thunder proceeded to push it into Lightning.
Switch pushed Thunder back into Stealth and EarthShaker, which immediately flipped it over again. It self-righted flamboyantly using its hammer, only to be flipped over once more by EarthShaker and forced to self-right again. Switch darted away from an approaching Lightning before attempting to strike Thunder’s top armor as it and both multibots stood next to an immobile EarthShaker. Both Switch and Thunder were sent recoiling across the arena by an approaching Stealth, with Switch initially recovering by ramming into the rear of Stealth. By this point, it struggled for traction as one of its hinged wedges lifted its left-front wheel off the floor, allowing Thunder to push it into the wall spikes. Switch pushed Thunder back, driving away over the flame jets with both of its front wheels suspended, and sustained damage to one of its wedges as Thunder pushed it into a grinder. It continued to be pushed and carried around the arena until Stealth bumped into Thunder, causing Switch to be jolted free. Switch continued to pursue Thunder across the arena, only to receive one final hit from Stealth which threw it towards the flame jets.
Nevertheless, Switch was still mobile by the end of the battle, and survived to a Judges’ decision along with its remaining opponents. However, the decision ruled against Switch, resulting in it being unable to score a point for Yishan and his team. Switch was then drafted into the Tag Team round, where it was partnered with Lieutenant Bam of the yellow team, to battle the reigning King of Bots champion Spectre of the green team, and its teammate ORBY Blade of the red team.
At the start of the battle, Switch was slammed into the air by a charge from Spectre, which grabbed Switch by the rear wheel, and pressed it into the arena wall. This had already damaged Switch's locomotion, and Spectre continued to hassle it. Reversing away from the pit, ORBY Blade backed into Switch with its rear wedge, bringing Switch into the air. Switch drove under ORBY Blade and attempted to use its hammer, but missed its shot. Switch clearly had mobility on one wheel only, and after hovering around ORBY Blade, it eventually lost mobility altogether. Spectre took this opportunity to grab hold of Switch, crushing down on it while ramming it into the spikes on the arena wall, and then the Grinder. Spectre dragged Switch over to the pit, but just as it was about to drop Switch in for the official knockout, the pit raised back up, releasing the previously pitted Lieutenant Bam. Nevertheless, Switch was officially deemed immobile, and Lieutenant Bam was later pitted again, eliminating both teammates from the competition.
King of Bots II (Season 2)
Before the main filming of the series took place, the new version of Switch participated in a mandatory "warm-up battle", not included as part of the main series. Many roboteers in attendance were against the idea of these warm-up battles, and refused to use their weaponry in protest, including Switch. As a result, Switch lost its warm-up battle to Drift after refusing to fire its hammer for the full bout.
Switch first appeared in Episode 3, alongside eleven other international competitors. Switch was drawn against Cracked Sword in a head-to-head battle, to determine whether or not Switch would join Zhu Zheng Ting's team. For this battle, Switch used its signature hammer weapon.
Switch exhibited superior driving at the start of the battle, manoeuvring its way around to the back of Cracked Sword to pop it into the air. Switch then launched the most critical attack of the match by firing its hammer into the bar spinner of Cracked Sword - this succeeded in stopping the bar spinner of Cracked Sword, but Switch's hammer head was also torn away in the process. Nevertheless, Switch charged into Cracked Sword twice, missing its weapon swings on both occasions, although the second charge still disoriented Cracked Sword, and also kicked Switch's loose hammer head across the arena. Switch then drove Cracked Sword into the spikes lining the arena wall, loosening one of its exposed tires.
Another charge saw Switch wedge under the weapon frame of Cracked Sword to suspend it above the floor, but Switch still could not land any successful weapon blows until Cracked Sword backed into the arena wall, where Switch pinned it in place and took several swings using its bare weapon shaft, hitting the exposed bars of Cracked Sword's weapon frame. After the two robots separated, Switch carried Cracked Sword across the arena, and eventually, Cracked Sword lost mobility altogether. Switch therefore won the battle by knockout, and claimed a place on Zhu Zheng Ting's team.
In the next phase of the competition, Zhu Zheng Ting's team faced off against Tao Shen in what could have been up to three battles. Switch's place on the team was also under threat, as an overall loss from Zhu Zheng Ting's team across the next matches would have led to either Switch or Black Rabbit being removed from the roster. Switch and Two BBQ would have fought against Po Feng and Earth Shovel in the third of these matches, but as Zhu Zheng Ting's robots won their first two rounds over Tao Shen, Switch did not need to fight a battle, and its place on the team was retained.
Results
SWITCH - RESULTS | ||
This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5) | ||
Main Championship | ||
Rumble | vs. EarthShaker, Stealth, Thunder and Lightning | Lost |
Tag Team (with Lieutenant Bam) |
vs. ORBY Blade, Spectre | Lost |
King of Bots (Season 2) | ||
Main Championship Part of Zhu Zheng Ting's team | ||
Challenger Round | vs. Cracked Sword | Won |
Warm-Up Battles | ||
Head-to-Head | vs. Drift | Lost |
NOTE: Like other international robots competing in warm-up battles, Switch refused to use its weaponry during this battle, in protest. |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 1
- Losses: 2
NOTE: Switch's warm-up battle is not included
Series Record
Series | Switch Series Record |
---|---|
Season 1 | Entered with Vulcan |
Season 1.5 | Selected by celebrity, no wins |
Season 2 | Selected by celebrity, one victory |
NOTE: Kevin Cleasby entered the King of Bots UK featherweight championship with Microswitch
Outside King of Bots
Kevin Cleasby is a member of Team Make Robotics, who had competed in the UK TV show Robot Wars with Behemoth since the second series. Cleasby himself first appeared as a team member in the eighth series, filmed and broadcast in 2016. In Series 8, Behemoth qualified over Bonk and The General to advance to the second round, where it defeated Nuts and Terrorhurtz in sequence, but lost a destructive battle to Carbide. This still gave Behemoth enough points to qualify for the Heat Final, but Behemoth lost to Carbide once again here.
Behemoth returned for Series 9 and advanced over Cobra and Hobgoblin in its Group Battle, but lost its second battle to Eruption. Behemoth started to redeem this by defeating PP3D, but after applying an experimental new weapon, Behemoth controversially lost its final battle of the series to Cherub.
Behemoth competed in Series 10 and won a narrow Judges' decision over Sabretooth and Donald Thump in the first round, and defeated The Swarm in the second round, to reach the Heat Final against former champion Apollo. Here, Behemoth pulled off a surprise win to enter its first Grand Final, although it was pitted in battle with Carbide and Nuts 2. Behemoth flipped Magnetar to win its Redemption Round, but was finally stopped by Eruption in the semi-final of the competition, resigning Behemoth to third place.
In September 2018, Switch and Behemoth appeared together for the first time at the Robots Live! event in Stevenage. Both robots fought in the main FRA UK Championship with reasonable success, initially reaching the quarter-finals before losing to Manta and Iron-Awe 6 respectively. Switch and Behemoth fought together in a 'Redemption' round alongside YOTON for a place in the semi-finals, with varying fortunes - while Behemoth was pitted mid-battle and eliminated from the championship, Switch survived the full three minutes and progressed on the subsequent judges' decision. However, after burning its weapon motor out and being left short of spares, Switch was forced to concede its place in the semi-finals, allowing YOTON to be reinstated.[1]
References
External Links
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