NHRL Teams. A a special mid-year event held on June 1st where competitors would register in teams of three robots, one from each weight class. Saiko! would be the 12lb robot of the “Dream Team” alongside Lynx (3lbs) and Emulsifier aka ‘Mulsie (30lbs). Truly a team of dreams for NHRL fans but a nightmare for any and all opposition.
Robots would compete in their respective tournaments and score points for their team with each victory: 3 points for a JD win and 4 points for a KO win. The team with the most points by the end wins an additional prize!
It’s funny how the Dream Team came into fruition. I was actually initially approached by another team who was seeking a 30lb robot. I liked the team but was reluctant in short because repairs on MegatRON are expensive and difficult. Instead, I investigated who the other entrants were. I asked Adam Wrigley if Matt and Emulsifier were planning on attending and instead of replying he had another idea: to bring us together. At the same time I knew Calvin was looking for a team. It was settled, the fellowship of kick-ass bots.
Each tournament was composed of a group stage and an elimination stage. In the group stage, four robots would battle round-robin style and the two with the highest point count would advance to the elimination bracket. Tie breakers used where appropriate.
Saiko! was placed in group A alongside Caldera 12, Night Crawler, and Robocat. Many considered this the death group but alternatively I saw non-standard bots like King Size (Ugee) and Maximizer to be much more challenging opponents. I felt much more confident in a head-to-head than a strategic dogfight. I arrived on Friday night to setup alongside ‘Mulsie teammates Matt and Brett. Saturday morning I helped Calvin assemble Lynx which I considered a huge honor.
Group Stage (Qualifying stream here)
Match 1: Caldera 12 ( W )
I battled Glenn and Caldera many times in the beetleweight class and I know the 12-pound version will be equally tough. In fact, it might be one of the few robots to spin faster that Saiko! His blade being nearly equal to the width of Saiko! was also intimidating.
In preparation, I made a special armor using some excess material from my workplace and welded it to an old set of armor. Upon impact, the loops combined with the stiffness material would absorb a significant amount of energy.
Unfortunately I was never able to try them out. The match was decided in the first hit when Saiko! bent Caldera’s blade and it sliced its own belt. Glenn gave me the blade as a trophy but later had to ask for it back to continue fighting in the bracket rounds.
Match 2: Robocat ( W )
Considered the underdog (or undercat?) of the group but certainly no slouch. Things were going as expected until one mutual exchange somehow left Saiko! with one dead drive side. Although Robocat was losing armor pieces, loss of function is worth more in the damage scoring and drivetrain specifically would make it harder to maintain aggression. Luckily for me, Robocat was happy to be the aggressor and we continued mutual blows until Robocat self-destructed in a self-righting attempt.
Back in the pits, I discovered one of the drive escs has simply died. Failed in a dead short as evidenced by the heavy resistance to turning when off. Reviewing the match, I theorized it was an inrush of current from backdriving the drive motors. In the absence of the correct tools and components for handling current spikes, I charged up one of Saiko!s older 4s batteries to run in the next match; this combination was reliable for many years and was a reasonable fallback plan.
Match 3: Night Crawler ( L )
In all of group A, Night Crawler was my most feared opponent. The bigger and faster weapon on Night Crawler will demotivate head-on engagements and I’ll have to be more methodical if he turns up the RPMs. My hope was to come out strong by winning the first exchange and following up with a flurry of attacks that damage something. While I did win the first exchange, I couldn’t follow up with the flurry; the weapon esc was inoperable for the rest of the match. With the damage category out of the question, I tried to win control and aggression with pins and slams. But it was difficult to avoid his weapon for 2 mins and 50 seconds and ended up taking some massive hits, ending in a JD loss.
At the conclusion of all group A battles, Saiko! and Caldera 12 were tied for points with 8 each. But because Saiko! had won the head-to-head fight, Saiko! was given the rank 1 position in group A.
I spent the time in-between the bracket rounds to try and diagnose the weapon esc issue. In this setup, the Rhino 80A was providing BEC to the receiver so the esc itself was not dead; this was further confirmed with a power cycle and expected operation. Current theory is the impulse load on the weapon caused a momentary brownout that reset the ESC. Since my throttle was high, the ESC woke up and started the range calibration sequence instead of arming. More bus capacitance or a dedicated BEC circuit would have been valid solutions but I didn’t have the hardware with me. For now, I swapped back to the Castle Creations Mamba X; Saiko! was now running last year’s electronics and motors.
Bracket Stage (Primetime stream here)
Match 4: Grim Ripper ( W )
Yes an undercutter! I was pretty excited to try out the billet-machined steel wedge I had made for this exact situation. Grim Ripper has an awesome conical UHMW armor as well so weapon-to-weapon was actually the best chance of hard engagement. Similar to the Caldera 12 match, the first hit set the tone for the match. A huge impact by Saiko! disabled the weapon on Grim Ripper (bent chassis?). The wedge worked perfectly; the AR weapon on Grim Ripper left only a smudge on the surface of the hardened steel. The remainder of the match, I chased Grim around the arena until it was high centered and took the KO.
What seemed like a flawless match was still riddles with issues. An eagle-eyed observer will notice the weapon actually spun down a few times after hits luckily without resetting the ESC; this is likely a protection feature as opposed to a brownout. Scratching my head and wishing I turned data logging on, I decided for the hail Mary approach for the end game; disabling low-voltage protection altogether.
Match 5: Xupa Cabra ( W )
Fixing all these issues throughout the day, I paid little attention to the other fights. When I finally called it “good enough” for my esc hot potato game I was surprised that I wasn’t fighting Maximizer. Not anything against Xupa, but Jake was on an absolute tear that day and I expected that momentum to carry over. I assumed their fight was an absolute brawl based on how frantic and long the repair was. As was shown on the stream, they were feverishly working far beyond our match call time.
Eventually Xupa packed it up and put it into the box with one drive side inoperable. It was a lose-lose-lose situation no matter how you look at it. Nobody likes to take a forfeit win but nobody feels good about beating a bot any less than 100%. And if you lose to an bot that is half working… it feels a bit embarrassing. For the match, I played to my obvious advantage in maneuverability. Play it safe, control the engagements, don’t take damage. One of the hits bounced them up on the rail with their good wheel hanging free. The house bot was unable to free them and Saiko! took the KO.
Match 6: King Size ( W )
The David and Goliath match once again. Saiko! has fought Ugee two times prior and somehow pulled out the win. That record does not provide any confidence even now; every match is its own entity as any given bot and driver is never exactly the same.
The strategy remained the same; stay mobile and take safe shots in the center of the arena for best results. Near the walls, I chance getting boxed in or even worse gyro dancing onto the wall like I did twice. I used my unstick the first time and quickly used my weapon to climb on the floor to escape the second time. Phew!
The fight was riveting and tense. Trying to be aggressive, deliver hits, and avoid the blade were tall challenges (pun intended). Near the end I got a tip to try and “show more aggression” so I slowed the stick-n-move tactics to try and get a solid bite with their weapon by sitting under their blade. The result was a peeled top plate, a removed cosmetic piece, and a flip at the end. Not the way you want to end the match for a judges decision. At the same time, King Size was fatigued to the point where one of their drive sides had stopped working! That may have been the detail that swayed the judges, as they turned in the narrowest of margins 9/8 each in favor of Saiko!!
King Size was so close so many times to disabling a function on Saiko!.
In Conclusion
With each weight classes’ bracket completed, the points were tallied and the Dream Team was victorious with a staggering 53 points! That meant we took home the mega golden dumpster and $10k for the team! Champions of the inaugural NHRL Teams event!
Teams was an incredible experience overall. Builders formed unlikely teams and gave each other a greater entity to cheer for. Rivals became friends and acquaintances grew closer through teamwork. I enjoyed the small details such as the custom jerseys as well; a little something extra to elevate the experience and strengthen that team identity. I am looking forward to how the Teams model evolves in the next season and you can bet we’ll be back to defend our title!
Jamison Go 
