Channel TST

Channel TST is an NRO team run by Jonateer.

This team is a veteran team and is arguably one of the pioneers of Roblox Robot Combat. Taking part in competitions ever since mid 2010, Channel TST has been a well-known team in Roblox Robot Combat, not only as a team with competing robots but also organising competitions between 2011 and 2014.

Before the NRO
Long before Jonateer found himself competing in NRO he was seeking out a means of organising robot combat on Roblox, as far back as 2010 when mosher100, owner of the biggest Robot Wars group on Roblox at that point, invited him to join. After brief participation in the ongoing Challenge Belt competition, Jonateer decided to attempt to run a full scale competition himself, to satisfy the void he felt existed with current competition: this would, in 2011, come to be known as TST Robot Wars' First Roblox Wars. It would, however, also be the final full competition TST would run, despite plans in 2012 to run a series of smaller competitions (titled 'Extreme') and a 2014 resurrection of TST Robot Wars on a smaller scale.

The team's appearances in competition post-TST were infrequent, owing to the team's proclaimed retirement during 2014's League Special Events. Before joining the New Robot Order, the team would make one last appearance in public competition in RFC's Battlebots 2016, having received an invite from the organiser Qwerty expressing a wish that veterans such as Jonateer or Texodus participate.

PNigma
After her one-off appearance at RFC Battlebots 2016, a stripped-down PNigma made her NRO debut at Juggernaut, scoring its first victory. Necessary modifications to make her more competitive were not ready in time for Rusty Rumble, so the redesigned Public Nuisance returned in NRObot Wars, claiming the team's first ROBLOX robot combat title in dominant fashion. She would win again at Saw Showdown and Juggernaut 2 with her minimal upgrades making each more difficult, claiming a record three championships for an individual robot, but failed to reach the top 3 in any of her other campaigns until Den of the End, when strategic decisions cost her the title in battles against The Clusterheads and This Way Up. After this first claim of a medal other than gold, PNigma gained an unfortunate habit of failing to move beyond the third round, continuing to struggle in its final appearance at the NRO/RFC Finals. She was retired from regular competition at the start of 2018.

PNigma's appearances in the relaunched RFC in 2017 continued its success of late 2016, reaching the final at both stops and taking first place in the second.

This Way Up
This Way Up started life as an intended new Public Nuisance for one of the many aborted TST Robot Wars relaunches, this time in mid 2015. The Storm II lifter robot failed to perform properly at the time, and continued to underachieve in its first outing at Juggernaut, losing its only battle but living up to its name by failing to self-right. It took a lengthy break for a rebuild, returning as a front-hinged "launcher" bot at Saw Showdown, achieving just one win but surprising its opponents in the process. After misfortune at Realm of Titan, its luck changed, claiming second at Rusty Rumble 2. This Way Up would take two more runner-up finishes, at Den of the End and in the RRCWS heavyweight category, finally achieving a first place in War of the Worlds. As with PNigma, Den of the End would seem to mark a change in fortune, as This Way Up struggled to progress beyond round 3 in subsequent competitions. Success and fortune would return in time for the NRO/RFC Finals, where This Way Up was crowned 2017 Champion.

This Way Up showed consistency outside NRO in RFCCS 2017, landing in the third place playoffs at both stops and claiming third place each time.

Nibblet (fleaweight)
The team's first New-era attempt at a vertical spinner came in the then-smallest weight category, and proved effective in private testing. However, in the early days of NRO, a lack of understanding of the phenomenon that would come to be known as "Nightmaring" meant that the first Nibblet was very soon replaced with Nibblet 2, stylised as nIIbblet. It lost its only battle in the Fleaweight Pre-Wars Experienced bracket and dropped out of Aadam Bomb contention early before being replaced again by Nibblet Lazarus - nibbl3t - though the competition it had been first intended to compete in failed to start.

A fourth robot in the Nibblet series would instead move to the heavyweight category, while both Nibblet 2 and Nibblet Lazarus remained active alongside. The original Nibblet has been retired due to its successors' better performance and is unlikely to be restored to its intended functionality.

Cactus
To meet the minimum entries requirement of the Fleaweight Pre-Wars, a simplistic thwackbot was created to enter alongside nIIbblet. Despite its basic design - particularly in comparison to its over-engineered teammate in the Experienced line-up - Cactus dominated the Beginner bracket in its only appearance.

Although a successful robot by most people's standards, its status as a filler bot suggests it may not return to competition.

Milly-Ann Bug
To satisfy the rules of Texodus' Robot Wars, a heavyweight replica of Milly-Ann Bug was created, featuring a circular saw and articulation between the two hemispheres, in order to be as authentic as possible. The articulation, however, proved more complex than necessary and cost it in control. Unable to self-right after being toppled, it lost its only battle. Due to the nature of its existence and its chronic hopelessness, it has since been retired from combat.

Gworb
Gworb was an axe-wielding robot entered into War of the Worlds as one of the hopeful alien robots attempting to take over Earth. It differed from most axe robots at the time as it utilised HingeConstraints instead of Motor surfaces, which likely explained its unreliability. It scored one victory only during its short-lived campaign.

It is unlikely that Gworb will compete again; if a representative of the SDSS14+13B Zercon system participates in future War of the Worlds competitions, a successor to Gworb will step up to the challenge.

PNchantress
Having intended to rebuild the most successful incarnation of Public Nuisance from the TST era - PN VI - for some time, the team eventually produced a larger evolution of the steep wedge bot to compete in the superheavyweight bracket of the RRCWS. Equipped with the rear drum, now intended as a genuine weapon, and a rear-hinged flipper in place of PN VI's front-hinged, it took each of its battles to a judges decision and won each one to claim the superheavyweight title in its first and only appearance.

Although a champion, PNchantress showed weaknesses which its design made difficult to amend, and as such she may not compete in future.

Nibblet (heavyweight)
With kilojon restrictions looming, the team turned to spinner robots as a potential new heavyweight line-up for 2018. The first of these was a vertical spinner continuing the Nibblet series. Although built on a completely different scale, the new Nibblet followed the name and number convention, running under the name Nibblet Sue - IVibblet. This Nibblet started life as a Team Pirate chassis but was a believable next step in Nibblet's evolution, with TST modifications being primarily the 'double-headed' flywheel and rollbars to help with self-righting. Nibblet Sue's debut in NRO Tower was by no means a certain route to the final, as it struggled in certain challenges, but a run of judges decisions led it to a championship in its first campaign. A better performance from Nibblet Sue in the Finals than three-time champion PNigma saw Nibblet promoted in PNigma's place as a more regular TST entry.

Hard
The team returned to the second Texodus' Robot Wars competition, again entering only one robot while opting to take a reserve bot as their second entry. For this second competition, Hard was chosen as the robot to build a replica of - specifically the version which participated in the Seventh Wars, in order to meet the requirement that all replicas must be of UK Robot Wars competitors. The flipper was considered a more competent weapon than the Milly-Ann Bug, while the design was flattened somewhat for convenience when building.

NRO Career
Although built with only RFC Battlebots in mind, PNigma was given a second chance to prove itself in competition at the inaugural New Robot Order tournament. To make up the numbers, a second robot was provided in the form of This Way Up, a robot originally intended for a 2015 TST Robot Wars relaunch that quickly lost momentum. While This Way Up (as it was christened, due to its inability to self-right) was heavily modified to get the old robot working in New physics, PNigma was unchanged physically from its Battlebots entry.

The Juggernaut Tournament
In the first round of the July Juggernaut competition, PNigma defeated Usnig by tossing it over the wall into the Pit, while the grudge match with Error.Exe ended quickly as This Way Up was flipped over and was unable to self-right. PNigma survived to a judges' decision after battling Barberous 2, but in spite of its aggression the battle was ruled against the TST robot, particularly as Barberous 2 had dealt the more damage and managed to get PNigma out of the arena during the fight.

NRObot Wars
PNigma finally recieved modifications prior to its participation in NRObot Wars, now featuring an ungainly 'spatula' flipper. The first round of this heavyweight competition - consisting of four robot battles - did not prove easy for any robot, with PNigma's particular line-up a struggle to dispense of the unpredictable Thresher, joined by the more reliable Abstract V5 and Olympus. The battle, disturbed by numerous breaks and pauses, ended with Thresher and Olympus immobile; although both remaining robots proceeded to the next round, PNigma ended the troublesome bout by dispatching of Abstract over the side wall.

The second round against Shove-Shock was considerably less difficult, with the lightweight opponent flipped also out of the arena. Matilda was unable to escape PNigma's attack after the battle's close. The next round, against Protosaurus, ran the full length; PNigma had difficulty flipping its hedgehog-themed opponent at times, but a unanimous decision sent PNigma through. Barberous 2, a robot that had defeated PNigma in the Juggernaut, would face PNigma again in the following round; perhaps due to the new 'spatula' weapon, the battle this time was far instead in PNigmas favour, but persisted with Barberous 2 being tossed around the arena walls until the arena flipper managed to nip it across the arena and over the wall.

The final, a supposed grudge match for the battle that eliminated Public Nuisance Mk IV in the First Wars, put PNigma - the so-called underdog of the competition - against Wheely Big Cheddar, another very powerful flipper. When the battle started, movement was tentative, with PNigma getting early flips. One flip saw the cheese robot out of the arena, but Wheely Big Cheddar was able to return to the battle, now employing a strategy to lure PNigma to the pit it had opened upon its return. The strategy failed, however, when Wheely Big Cheddar strayed too close, and - as it began to topple into the pit - a light flip from PNigma put it fully into the pit, and saw PNigma crowned as the NRObot Wars July 2016 champion.

Fleaweight Pre-Wars
The team's first attempt at a fleaweight would make its debut here, in the form of Nibblet. One day before the Fleaweight Pre-Wars were due to start, the team had difficulty in fixing a bug with Nibblet's flywheel. With assistance from mosher100, the problem was rectified when a second version of the robot - the name stylised as nIIbblet - was constructed, also with an optional alternative axe-styled flywheel. As with This Way Up, a second robot was provided, the supposedly sacrificial thwackbot Cactus.

In the Fleaweight Pre-Wars, Cactus survived its first round in the Beginner category by flicking Flea Plank out of the arena. In the following round, Mini Saw took a surprising loss to Cactus when - while being pushed into the pit - the robot suddenly leapt into the crowd, and Cactus had to stop suddenly to avoid falling in itself. In the Beginner Final, Embra the debris-walkerbot would face Cactus: the debris would have no effect on the high sloping surfaces of Cactus and, with its two large wheels, Cactus was able to push Embra around the arena and eventually onto its back, immobilising it, taking 1st place in the Pre-Wars Beginner category. Conversely, in the Experienced category, Nibblet 2 was eliminated in the first round by Olive; after the battle was paused for buckling, the restart saw Nibblet 2 caught at just the wrong angle in the corner and flicked over the wall.

Aadam Bomb
After its victory in NRObot Wars, PNigma received minor modifications. The face was changed to one of the standard Public Nuisance faces, specifically the more common "crazy" face, while a small female face with brunette hair adorned the side panel, supposedly representing the team's first title in an attempt to "pretty up" the ugly robot. The spatula flipper was now housed more at the front of the robot, with 'anti-tiptoe' extensions around the end to prevent the robot's rear from lifting when it flipped, as had happened during the first competitions. On either side of the robot, round domes were added to prevent PNigma from landing on its side, a position which - thanks to the front extensions - it would be otherwise unable to self-right from. The final physical change was the addition of 'ears' not unlike early incarnations of the robot; these originally had been intended to stop the flipper before it reached its full distance, but were moved further to the sides and now act as snaggers for exposed wheels if a robot ends up on top of PNigma. Meanwhile, an "anti-buckling" system was added to the robot's controls - a feature that New Robot Order were considering at this point as compulsory, if a robot should buckle mid-battle and can quickly repair itself.

Owing to the nature of the Aadam Bomb competition that followed, the new PNigma's first battle would be against TST's own robot Nibblet, with mosher at the controls of the fleaweight. The battle was over fairly swiftly, as Nibblet ended up not only out of the arena but off the baseplate. The battle against likewise fleaweight Olive, though somewhat longer in duration, ended similarly. In the following round, PNigma would face a superheavyweight Dreamy V2, a robot over double its own weight. Seemingly disadvantaged by this, the first attack launched PNigma into the side wall, pinned mostly by the width of Dreamy V2. Fortunately, PNigma used Dreamy's harsh acceleration against it, as the new flipper setting allowed PNigma to flip the superheavyweight over its shoulder and out of the arena. PNigma faced the flamethrowing Bunsen in the following round, though a troubled start to the battle saw PNigma dragged onto Bunsen's front end and pushed into the pit. In the loser's rounds, Nibblet was pitted after being immobilised by Nightmare. Apollo worked its way up through the losers rounds to finally face PNigma in a closely-fought battle, though Apollo would ultimately win as PNigma's final flip threw itself further forward than its opponent, and took itself out of the arena.

Saw Showdown
Developments on PNigma focused on control, gaining a higher steering speed to try and eliminate the issues it had during Aadam Bomb with being unable to turn quick enough into an opponent when side by side. The domes on the wheel covers had proved ineffective, so longer and thinner spikes styled on those of the older Public Nuisances were added, further enhancing its visible similarities with the older robots. This upgrade was entered into September's Saw Showdown, alongside an also heavily modified This Way Up: while This Way Up in its Juggernaut setup had featured a lifting mechanism, the robot now had a much simpler forward-hinged flipper built into its top panel, intending to give the robot greater potency at the expense of the tongue-in-cheek significance of the name This Way Up - with this flipper, This Way Up was now capable of self-righting.

In the first round of the Saw Showdown, PNigma's battle against Buzzer was brief, as Buzzer struck the floor bucklesaws and was launched out of the arena. Meanwhile, This Way Up threw Black Hole over the wall with its top-hinged flipper. This Way Up lost in the next round to Black Sun 2, in spite of a few good flips, by landing on a bucklesaw while self-righting. PNigma faced The Feared, but the battle seemed to be lost when a mix-up of controls saw Jon briefly lose control; when he returned to the battle, The Feared had seemingly been thrown out of the arena during the confusion. Wobsta Legacy faced Super Plank next; an issue with the turning circle of the red half sent it spinning into the pit, eliminating the clusterbot. Wharya - also called Inverse - faced PNigma next - a tense battle with many flips between both robots, which eventually saw Wharya out of the arena, albeit buckling and glitching. Next, in the final four, the opponent was Sgt Saw, which PNigma managed to immobilise in the corner on its back.

The final saw PNigma face Black Sun 2, the robot that had eliminated This Way Up. Although tentative, the battle was decided with one solitary flip: Black Sun 2 tossed over the arena wall, PNigma to survive and take its second title in NRO as the inaugural Saw Showdown champion.

Realm Of Titan
As a continued tradition from the NRObot Wars victory, a blonde-haired vignette joined the brunette, albeit on the other side of the robot. The two championships, also, were listed on the rear wedge of the robot, allowing somewhat overambitious space for further titles.

This Way Up in its first round battle faced Bigger Brother and Sciverous, but in one hit Sciverous threw This Way Up over the wall. PNigma, meanwhile, had little to do in its battle with Fat Plank and Storm Chaser; although it dealt the flip that initially buckled Fat Plank, it remained mostly out of the action for the restart while Storm Chaser flipped Fat Plank out of the arena.

This Way Up's loser round battle against Synister 4 saw as little action as PNigma's first battle: after a delay for Synister 4's Titan-caused buckling, Synister 4 yet again immobilised itself on the pyramid. Titan's arm flung it aside, through the CanCollide false walls and out of the arena.

The lack of action for either of the team's robots in Realm of Titan was put down to the arena's construction - there were gaps in the floor where the blue neon was, rather than a continuous floor with neon on top, thus causing issues not just for PNigma but any two-wheeled robots in the competition, and Titan's access to hazards meant a battle would often be decided by a typically-exaggerated OOTA. The team had managed to get both its robots through a battle simply by staying out of the action, with This Way Up's win left in the hands of the house robot Titan. While the team had considered withdrawing for different reasons during Friday practice, assuming the employment of three-ways and a hundred-stud house robot would cause severe lag, they had chosen to remain for Saturday's battles, but on Sunday chose to forfeit both robots' places: This Way Up, reaching "Round -2", and PNigma in round 2.

The team was eligible for the Wildcard Rumble in spite of forfeiting and, with the issues with the arena being fixed, chose to restore PNigma. PNigma survived for a relatively long time in the battle, managing to get flips on Synister 4, PM4 and Brenda during the battle. However, a flip on Seige Engine - Troy saw the large flywheel come down on PNigma, launching both itself and PNigma out of the arena. A second Wildcard was required, and therefore This Way Up too was given another chance, but fell as the third remaining robot after having little effect on its opponents.

Texodus' Robot Wars
The team was eager to recover from the disappointment of their result in Realm of Titan, but the recovery process would not start immediately, as the next competition - Texodus' Robot Wars - had specific stipulations in place against entries with "negative ground clearance", forbidding entry to either PNigma or This Way Up. With competition entries originally being restricted to replicas of BBC Robot Wars competitors, TST constructed and entered a replica of Milly-Ann Bug, and later elected to take a robot from the lottery as their second entry. Thus, Diotoir was entered for the team.

In Texodus' NRObot Wars, Milly-Ann Bug faced Beta-ish, but the battle saw two redoes before a third attempt saw Milly-Ann Bug toppled over and unable to roll itself back onto its wheels. The team's lottery robot, Diotoir, took part in a four-way melee for a seeding, but Diotoir was thrown out of the arena by Firestorm. In the main competition, Diotoir would be drawn against Recyclopse. The battle was slow to start with minor but frequent contact, before Diotoir successfully toppled the dome-shaped robot. After Sergeant Bash left his CPZ to attack, Diotoir turned on him too. In the following round, Diotoir again faced Firestorm with similar results, eliminating the Irish robot from the competition.

Rusty Rumble 2
PNigma, relatively unchanged since Realm of Titan, and This Way Up, with a weight increase to 404sgs, were entered into Rusty Rumble 2; the team had sat out the first Rusty Rumble competition in order that, come the sequel competition where Tremor would fight to defend its title, PNigma and whichever other TST robots existed at that time could enter "on the back foot" and participate in a competition that already had history and backstory to its competitors. Having fared reasonably well with PNigma in the mixed-weight Aadam Bomb tournament, the team were hopeful heading into the weekend, if a little fearful of the "breakjoints" arena hazards.

This Way Up faced the bizarre Hobocon robot Sump Ting Wong in the first round; in spite of the odd circumstances, the battle was short-lived as the first flip tossed Sump Ting Wong directly onto the breakjoint spinner, obliterating it almost instantly. This win however would put This Way Up directly against the team's own PNigma.

PNigma's battle against its own teammate lasted the full time, and PNigma significantly gained damage by landing on the spinner, resulting in a judges decision where This Way Up was in favour for the Hazards criteria. However, control and aggression were seen to be on PNigma's side and - in spite of the lost corner of the flipper - significant, powerful flips on This Way Up gave PNigma the majority with damage, putting it through with a narrow result to the next round.

Power House was next to face PNigma; the battle paused after a few flips to fix buckling, but PNigma soon regained control of the battle, neatly tossing Power House closer to - and finally over - the arena wall. For a place in the final, there would be a rematch - the new and improved Barberous 3 against PNigma. In spite of the earliest attack in the form of a first flip, PNigma went to attack at the wrong angle and was caught at Barberous 3's rear, and sent rolling across and out of the arena.

With both robots now demoted to the losers' bracket, This Way Up met in the first round with Abomination, quickly dispensing of it with a single flip, which dropped it into the pit. Next would be Super Plank - as quickly as in its previous battle, This Way Up was able to nip behind Super Plank as it struck the side wall, scooped underneath it and threw it with such force it landed in the fake grandstands surrounding the arena.

This Way Up's battle against Blizzard lasted longer, with only slight movements in a cagey battle to start. Blizzard however pinned itself on the arena side bars and, with every attempt to escape, was flipped back up onto the bars before managing to escape, only to land, immobilised, on the wall and be counted out.

After a lengthy break, competition resumed, placing This Way Up against Planky Plank, with one decisive flip sending Planky Plank into the pit. Careful driving from This Way Up allowed it to close the pit on the wooden robot and eliminate it from the competition. The unfortunate result of this battle was that, once again, the two TST robots would face each other in the next round. This Way Up in this second draw, came out on top, as PNigma never recovered properly from landing on the arena side bars and was flicked neatly into the open pit by This Way Up.

Crocodilotron, having seen Sgt Saw plunge into the pit, moved into the next round alongside This Way Up. After a difficult start, This Way Up was pinned between the pit and Crocodilotron, but using its flipper against the wall managed to drag its opponent in with it, forcing a reset of the battle at one minute in. Two further restarts yielded no clear winner, but a final attempt - in spite of This Way Up's dominance - also ended similarly. Spectacularly, it was decided to choose a winner through Rock, Paper, Scissors - incredibly, both Jon and Red chose the same items three times in a row, before three trivia questions as a last resort, deciding This Way Up as the winner. This Way Up's campaign went no further as, in its battle against Bunsen, the spinning bar caught This Way Up and trapped it in the far corner of the arena.

Both robots would, however, benefit from the disqualification of Barberous 3 - winner of the final - as it was found to be overweight. This would promote This Way Up to its strongest finish yet with a runner-up spot, while PNigma would break into the top 4.

The Juggernaut Tournament 2
For the first NRO competition of the new year, PNigma - fresh from its third title in RFC's Blade Arena - and This Way Up - after two consecutive third place finishes in RFCCS 2017 - were entered into the return to Juggernaut's arena. The robots were modified after the RFC stop, not only for the addition of a third female face to PNigma's front wedge: PNigma gained new artwork themed on a latex catsuit, while This Way Up was structurally modified so that the flipper now covered the front of the robot as well as the top.

In the first round, This Way Up dispatched of Rebellium with another flip typical of those during its Rusty Rumble 2 run. However, the battle made apparent flaws in the robot's redesign, particularly as the flipper now seemed more stiff than it had during the previous campaigns. PNigma also struggled in its opening round, as its fight with Macedon lasted the full time with PNigma unable to deal any critical blows. The judges ruled in PNigma's favour on all four criteria, however, and both robots moved into the second round with a better result for the team already than in the first Juggernaut.

In the next round, This Way Up fought Seige Engine: Alexandria, throwing it out of the arena once. The battle was ended in a premature manner as Seige Engine was interrupted in its return to the arena, but on the restart This Way Up dodged Seige Engine's attack, pinning the wooden flywheel robot on the edge of the pit and managed to tip it in. PNigma, eager to prove itself after failing to beat Macedon by outright KO, eliminated Mango Masher after only one flip, leaving it immobilised on its back.

This Way Up fought Dantomkia next, appearing to get good flips in to start with but lost the fight when it slid onto the ramp to the pit. After fighting to reverse against the pushing Dantomkia, This Way Up attempted to jump over into Juggernaut's zone, but was pushed by the House Robot back and into the pit. PNigma managed to immobilise Ram Em 7 in its next round by flipping it onto its back, a position from which Ram Em 7 merely over-rotated with every attempt to right itself.

PNigma's battle against Groudon started badly as it was thrown out of the arena twice almost immediately. After a restart for buckling, the battle was slow to get going properly, although PNigma managed to get two flips onto Groudon, the first into Juggernaut's area and the second saw Groudon over the wall and into the open perimeter.

Colossal fell to PNigma after flips on either side; when the Red Zone was activated, Colossal was flipped and toppled back into the Zone when self-righting. PNigma, the only non-Red Zone robot to have made it into the top 4, would now face Lemon in the Final. The battle ran the full length, with the Red Zone activated but both robots managing to survive in the new area. Lemon was predictably awarded points for Damage, but PNigma won on the other three criteria to inherit the title of second Juggernaut champion.

War of the Worlds
This Way Up was entered into Texodus' War of the Worlds representing Earth, while new bucklesome robot Gworb would act as the team's alien entry, representing the planet Epizootics from the SDSS14+13B Zercon system. Gworb's first battle was against Earth entry Beta-ish, another axe robot. Surprisingly, in spite of the alien's unpredictability, the battle lasted almost two minutes with pushing and axe blows from either robot. However, at a crucial point in the battle, when both robots needed to self-right, Beta-ish was sent somersaulting out of the arena. Astonished by the result, Gworb swiftly dove into the pit. Meanwhile, This Way Up saw Personal Space Invader spin itself out of the arena in a similar fashion after opening the pit against its opponent. This Way Up then turned against Dinky Dodgem the house robot but was unable to flip the house robot before it drove itself into the pit.

This Way Up managed to flip Firestorm out of the arena after an initial restart, while Gworb's fight against Brenda ended with the axe-wielding alien robot activating the pit and disabling the surrounding wall lasers, which Brenda swiftly took advantage of by tossing it over the lowered walls.

This Way Up returned to defend Earth after its Saw Showdown disappointment, fighting fellow Earth robot Malphas in a match which for its first minute was very cautious on both sides. Seeking an opportunity to KO its opponent, Malphas pressed the release button, disabling the wall lasers and allowing This Way Up to flick it over the corner wall.

Reaching its second final, This Way Up fought fellow retired-robot-to-be Sgt Saw, who quickly dodged the initial attack to press the release button. The fight from this point was a struggle though, as This Way Up became impaled on Dinky Dodgem on two occasions, though Sgt Saw was unable to take full advantage. This Way Up eventually flipped Sgt Saw in the second minute, and its square saw blade dragged it over the arena wall. In spite of its loss, this would be Sgt Saw's best ever performance in its final competition, but This Way Up - as the team headed into temporary retirement - would also finally achieve after two runner-up finishes first place in a competition.

Den of the End
Entered alongside This Way Up was PNigma with its most significant modifications since Saw Showdown: after facing some of its most difficult battles on the way to the Juggernaut title, it was hoped that installing a rear flamethrower would allow the team to gain Damage points for future judges decisions. More noticeable was the alternative flipper, the "Pro" flipper: this was an experimental shape built after Juggernaut 2 in the hope that it might be better suited to certain opponents, though no robots of this design ended up competing. Early issues with control, as with Realm of Titan, were this time fixed before competition started. This Way Up was drawn into Group D, while PNigma ended up in Group I; both robots started the competition in the qualifier round.

This Way Up struggled against The Plow 2, but ultimately won as The Plow 2 lost control and dove into the Void during the first hazard period. PNigma's battle against Scorch lasted the full length and the robots tied on points, but in the first attempt at a tie-breaker PNigma threw Scorch out of the arena but drove off the ring itself. On the second attempt, PNigma managed to flip Scorch onto its back, a position from which it could only drag itself closer to the edge. With this result, both TST robots were successfully through to the Swiss round.

This Way Up's first battle in the Swiss round also lasted the full three minutes against community robot Planky Plank, with a 3-1 decision to the TST robot. PNigma meanwhile, fighting Thunderstorm in a mostly even match, managed to throw the robot over into a position from where it somersaulted to the edge of the arena and eventually over the wall. In round 2, the two TST robots fought, and This Way Up successfully threw PNigma out of the arena after the End went rogue for the team's first outright KO of the competition. In round 3, PNigma fought Macedon once again, but was successful in knocking out the Syn Robotics entry with only two flips; Macedon, stranded on the arena perimeter, eventually slid through a gap in the wall and out of the battle. After a long match against Groudon, This Way Up opened its flipper at the wrong moment and was flicked out of the arena by the large spinner.

PNigma's next fight against Colossal lasted the full time, with one particularly worrying flip that put PNigma into one of the outer catch fences. However, the judges ruled on all four criteria in PNigma's favour, given its persistent attacks and Colossal's damage at the hands of the End. A misjudged attack in This Way Up's battle against Ram Em 7 saw it bounce off the side wall and onto the red flipper, but it was able to turn the battle swiftly back around by sliding under Ram Em 7 and neatly flipping it through a wall opening.

This Way Up's fight against Thunderstorm was not as brief as the team would have hoped, although they managed to use the first hazard to their advantage by pushing Thunderstorm into a Doom laser. Towards the end of the battle, This Way Up flipped Thunderstorm over and, as it attempted to self-right, the combined power of the two flippers saw Thunderstorm out of the arena. PNigma and Crybaby's bout saw little action but plenty of strategy lasting the full three minutes, but a unanimous decision gave PNigma the victory.

The Clusterheads lost on a split judges decision to This Way Up after a battle with few significant flips, sliding the mostly dominant clusterbot further down the ranking. PNigma's rematch with Groudon again lasted the full length, though - in a surprise result for the team - the judges ruled unanimously in PNigma's favour. In the final round, This Way Up managed to flick Seige Engine: Alexandria out of the arena, though in this round it seemed that Crybaby's last battle against Groudon would be a bigger influence in TST's chances of winning the tournament, with Groudon's large spinner throwing Crybaby out of the arena. For its deciding fight against Clusterheads 2, PNigma opted for its 'pro' flipper, but with little success, losing on a 3-2 decision and putting it out of title contention. While this had been considered a bizarre strategy, the team felt that This Way Up had seemed the stronger robot throughout the competition though PNigma was a better match for Groudon given its victory earlier in the competition, and with This Way Up confirmed for the final PNigma would ideally sacrifice its chance for the title to give This Way Up a cleaner fight.

This Way Up reached its first NRO final, fighting Groudon once again, the battle pausing midway for a first major buckle but ultimately lasting to a judges decision. The hazard criteria was the deciding factor, with Groudon emerging over This Way Up as Den of the End champion as the End had attacked This Way Up significantly more during its Rogue period in spite of Groudon's brief immobility - a source of frustration for TST as they felt the final had been decided by the End's driver rather than either competing robot. PNigma would take third place behind This Way Up in the rumble against the Clusterheads and Thunderstorm: Thunderstorm was taken out early by the Doom lasers, while the Clusterheads continued to fight with PNigma until one half of the clusterbot was finally flipped into the Void.

This Way Up also managed to win the second and third rumbles in the competition, while PNigma was eliminated early from the first by Ace when attempting to rescue Metal Turtle 3. This Way Up survived to the end of the fourth rumble but was eliminated by Red Fox Rampage in a head-to-head battle.

A more convincing runner-up finish than in Rusty Rumble 2 for the ailing This Way Up was of little comfort to the team, nor was PNigma's performance to reach third place after initially being retired on the high of its third title in Juggernaut 2 but eventually brought back to make up numbers. Shortly after the tournament's conclusion, the team confirmed that it would be retiring from regular combat during a period of high activity in NRO, with the team's entries into the War of the Worlds (which had yet to conclude), Fleaweight Wars and Saw Showdown 2 remaining in place. It was suggested that appearances in Frenemy Frenzy and an eventual third Juggernaut tournament were also highly likely, while Jon would remain active to judge battles and provide assistance to teams building new robots.

Saw Showdown 2
In spite of recent events, the team's appearance in the second Saw Showdown hardly in question as PNigma would return with the hopes of defending its title, wearing for the occasion a gold and silver livery styled like that of the NRObot Wars entry. This Way Up was entered alongside the reigning champion with a significant upgrade in the form of autonomous flame throwing minibots, though in Saw Showdown testing they were found to perform unsatisfactorily and were kept out of battles until further work could be done.

With the minibots still out of action, This Way Up fought Scorch unaided and struggled against the drum spinner after an initial flip nearly put Scorch straight into the pit. Eventually, This Way Up manoeuvred itself under Scorch and flipped it out of the arena. PNigma struggled too against Retrowave as the bots exchanged pushes and flips, though a succession of flips put Retrowave upside down with its flipper open, from which point on it was immobilised and counted out.

This Way Up's campaign ended in a similar fashion to its Saw Showdown debut, fighting Black Hole 2 with one functioning minibot; in spite of an early flip, progress was hindered by General Saw, and This Way Up was ultimately caught at the wrong angle by the spinner and sent out of the arena. PNigma started its battle against Lemon with careful movements to avoid General Saw as it attacked its opponent, but was unable to repeat its Juggernaut strategy in the hazard-littered arena and was sent spinning into the open pit on the third hit.

PNigma's appearance in the Sgt Saw Memorial rumble was a somewhat more optimistic battle to bow out with, as PNigma survived alongside Black Hole 2 to the end but, when both robots suffered at the blades of the bucklesaws, landed outside the arena while Black Hole 2 remained upside down within the walls.

Sabbatical
The team remained involved with New Robot Order during the sabbatical, taking the opportunity to spectate on the retro competition Party Like It's 2010 and help with filming. Alongside mosher100, Jon also worked on a system for measuring spinner potential, which would be used in conjunction with max power limits - measured in the unit 'kilojons' - to restrict the capabilities of the increasingly dominant spinner robots. Work continued on the team's robots, This Way Up and PNigma, as the disappointing minibots of the Saw Showdown 2 campaign were abandoned and the extra weight instead used to add a rear 'spoiler' to This Way Up in order to catch robots it got under. In PNigma's case, however, the work was unplanned: an August update which seemed to change the causes of negative ground clearance prevented PNigma's wheels from touching the ground any longer, and modifications had to be made to get PNigma back to mobility, regardless of how much worse a performer the update had made it. The update affected This Way Up, raising the bodywork entirely, and negative ground clearance only became an issue if weight was placed on any area of the skirt.

RRCWS
For the heavyweight campaign of RRCWS, PNigma and This Way Up made their return, while new robot PNchantress - inspired by the Extreme All-Stars incarnation of Public Nuisance that fought in 2012 - competed in the superheavyweight category. PNchantress was given the third seed in its category, while This Way Up and PNigma were seeded second and fourth respectively based on recent performances.

PNigma in its pink livery struggled as usual in the opening round to get flips on its opponent Stump Grinder, but Stump Grinder's spinner saw it lose control and bounce from wall to wall, ultimately landing on its head at the battle's close and losing by immobilisation. This Way Up's fight against Gunsmith was a stronger showing for TST as This Way Up put numerous flips in against Gunsmith's hammer attacks, though the battle did last to a judges decision, where the judges ultimately ruled in This Way Up's favour. New robot PNchantress meanwhile was unconvincing in its victory - another judges decision - against walker Tarantula, failing to get many flips in due to Warrioring of the opponent and Nightmaring of its own flipper. Nonetheless, all three TST robots were through to the third round of their respective categories.

In the next round of the superheavyweight championship, PNchantress put on a better showing against Nightmare, but was unable to finish off the spinning flail robot. An initial judges verdict was inconclusive, before it was decided to give PNchantress the victory as Nightmare had taken time to self-right from attacks. PNigma's decision to remove the lawnmower addition - intended to prevent it from becoming stranded in the trenches - proved crucial in its fight against 13th seed GudTurtle, as it was thrown out of the arena and became stranded in the moat despite getting early flips. The Den of the End runner-up fared better against Froggy though again failed to achieve a KO; a unanimous judges decision moved it on to the next round, with PNigma as the only TST robot thus far to fall.

After a restart, PNigma would again fail to deal a winning flip to Planky Plank in the losers round, though the lawnmower addition - this time installed as a precaution - came in handy as Planky Plank's blade caught it at the wrong angle and flicked itself over the arena wall. It performed better against Head Smasher 2 in the following round, achieving several flips against the struggling opponent, and moved on to the next round on a unanimous judges decision. PNchantress put on a surprisingly strong performance against ring spinner Spirit of Fox, using its rear drum to counter the powerful horizontal forces and even managing to get flips in; on another unanimous decision the untested Public Nuisance was through. This Way Up would continue the trend, defeating Death Before Dishonour on a judges decision unable to get the ideal flip under its slippery opponent.

PNigma continued its run through the losers round, eliminating This Way Up's previous quarry Death Before Dishonour, but was still unable to KO it during the allotted time. PNchantress would use the same strategy that gave it a victory over Spirit of Fox to fight fruit-themed full body spinner Watermelon, taking the battle to yet another judges decision and taking the victory, albeit predictably losing on the damage criteria to the violent opposition. In This Way Up's pursuit of a shot at the tile, it secured a KO elimination for the team by flipping sixth seed Red Fox Rampage VI into the moat.

PNigma's victory in yet another judges decision against Protato would see it face the first seed ArcticFoxRampage VI, a surprising appearance in the losers round so early for the favourite. Perhaps expectedly, the fourth seed fell after only eight seconds, as the lawnmower failed to prevent it from becoming stranded in the trench on the first strike of the flywheel. Juggernaut 2 runner-up Lemon faced This Way Up next; as with superheavyweight Watermelon in its bout with PNchantress, it would take the damage criteria in the judges ruling, but This Way Up would move on into the final based on control and aggression.

PNchantress fought Watermelon again in the superheavyweight final after its win in the losers round, taking the fight to another judges decision. Difficulties with the flipper meant the rear drum had been prioritised for attacks; the judges considered these attacks enough to unanimously vote for PNchantress as the RRCWS Superheavyweight Champion. This Way Up then fought Ram Em 7 to take the Heavyweight Champion title, though the first of the final battles ended with a judges decision handing victory to Ram Em 7. With the competition being double elimination, Ram Em 7 still had to beat This Way Up again, and did so quickly, flipping This Way Up into the moat and taking the heavyweight title.

In a demonstration battle, This Way Up fought the upgraded Proud American and, after numerous flips, was eventually successful in dumping the dustpan robot into the outer arena moat.

Realm of Titan 2
Eager to improve on the performance in the first Realm of Titan, PNigma and This Way Up returned to the floating arena. This Way Up fought first, in a battle alongside Buzzer, Stealth and first seed Protato, having inherited the status following the decision for Ming the Merciless not to defend its title. The two low front-hinged flippers struggled despite their supposed advantages, unable to get many attacks on their opponents. This Way Up achieved a flip very soon in its small dispute with Stealth, dispensing of it before turning its attention to the weaker Buzzer with little success. However, as Protato went to attack Buzzer itself, it left its rear open to attack from This Way Up and the first seed promptly followed Stealth out of the arena. PNigma, fighting alongside fellow pink bot Dee, defeated Storm 2 and Liam's Bot with continued difficulty, but eventually managing to throw both robots out of the arena also.

This Way Up would lose in its second round battle alongside Turtle, thrown out of the arena by the vertical spinner of GudTurtle 2.0 while attempting to send the Red Fox clone the same way that Crybaby had sent its fellow turtle-themed robot. PNigma's second round battle, meanwhile, with Black Hole 2, Nuts 2 and Lumberjack'd lasted to a judges decision as all four robots struggled against the elements. PNigma managed only one flip each on Black Hole 2 and Lumberjack'd, and strayed too close to Nuts' flails late in the fight. With the lag contributing to a difficult battle, and the resulting judges decision becoming confused and therefore controversial, a redo for the match was called. Conditions were not much better, but PNigma was successful in more attacks, achieving another KO on Nuts 2 early in the fight. The remaining three survived again, with Black Hole 2 moving on alongside PNigma.

This Way Up returned, however, by being randomly drawn from the round 2 losers to receive another chance. PNigma fell moments before cease in its round 3 bout despite a persistent showing against Savage, AFH and Protato, venturing too close to the open left wall before Savage took advantage, cementing its own place in the next round. As PNigma fell first, with Protato and AFH fighting in a tie-breaker sumo for the chance to progress alongside Savage, PNigma was fully eliminated from Realm of Titan 2. This Way Up, drawn against GudTurtle once again, was eliminated in the same manner as their previous encounter alongside fellow second chance Buffalo Bill 3.

NRO Tower
New robot Nibblet Sue made its debut in NRO Tower, powering through the Gauntlet and advancing to the second floor with a time of 22 seconds.

It struggled on the second floor due to its small front surface area and inability to push with precision, but managed a tally of 5 points. A cushion of zero-pointers meant Nibblet advanced, albeit seeded lower for the third floor.

An early mistake on floor three grounded Nibblet Sue on the 5 point ramp, but its eventual recovery allowed it to score on the blue and red doors. Another low score of 30 was just enough to see it through.

On floor 4, Nibblet got a first hit on the white block with its spinner, throwing it about halfway along. The tower guards intervened but Nibblet successfully moved the ball with a second hit to the end goal in a time of 14 seconds.

Running against Simple, Nibblet immediately shot for the Barrel Wall, scoring its 20 points, then turned to score another 20 over the Bridge. Its opponent was fought back by the Tower Guards while Nibblet scored another 10 points on the Grated Floor, but bounced back onto the grates and became beached for much of the remainder of the run. Once it was freed it made a final effort to slip past the Tower Guards and score further, but ran out of time and impaled itself under the wall. Nevertheless, with its opponent failing to score, Nibblet advanced to floor 6, where it would make its battle debut.

In the arena, Nibblet first fought Power House, struggling with control and achieving very few substantial hits. The most significant moment came when Power House, after one hit, landed upside down against the arena wall, but connection issues prevented Nibblet from getting a KO. A judges decision gave Nibblet the victory.

Nibblet continued to struggle against Ainsley's Meat Grinder, failing again to take advantage when attacking Ainsley's Meat Grinder near the OOTA wall. At one point, as Ainsley's Meat Grinder was heading over the wall, the design of Nibblet's spinner actually dragged it back to safety. After a buckle, the battle lasted the full length, with the only factor separating the two being that the Boss, the resident house robot, had come into contact more with Ainsley's Meat Grinder. A somewhat controversial judges decision gave Nibblet the victory by a narrow margin.

Nibblet's steering issues meant it suffered against ArcticFoxHatred in the final, achieving very few successful attacks but surviving against the front-hinged flipper to yet another judges decision. With no clear winner, the winner would be decided by another run of the Gauntlet. Both robots opted for the middle route, but ArcticFoxHatred was delayed by the large balls at the start of the run, and Nibblet was able to gain ground. Despite its difficulty moving the doors, and then its steering troubles while negotiating the narrow passage, it reached the end first as ArcticFoxHatred soon gave up the chase, and Nibblet Sue was crowned NRO Tower Champion.

Christmas Pinball
In December, PNigma made its first appearance outside combat in the second Pinball competition, looking similar to its Juggernaut design but Christmas-themed in a latex Ms Claus costume. It scored 156 points on its run, nearly managing to flip Shunt on the way. This score placed it eighth, putting it through to the next round.

In its first battle against Lumberjack'd, it rushed for points early on the barrels and car doors before going in to attack Lumberjack'd. Before the battles end, PNigma achieved a flip on Bashius Chrome, but failed to knock Lumberjack'd out of play, though its performance put it through to the next round.

PNigma was at an early disadvantage on points against Headsmasher but persisted with its attacks, achieving several flips including many significant flips in one corner of the arena near a pit. However, as the battle again lasted the full duration, the judges were called upon; despite its opponent's significant point gain, PNigma was given the victory based on its constant aggression.

Questionable Braincells, the somewhat surprising finalist, proved a slippery opponent for PNigma, scoring early and putting PNigma at serious risk of losing the final. It struggled to catch the opponent or achieve successful attacks, but nipped behind Bashius Chrome to score on its button. Late in the fight, as Bashius attacked the two duelling robots, out of control Questionable Braincells spun into the pit.

Notably, twice during the competition, Bashius Chrome set fire to PNigma's trophy heads, leaving them charred for the remainder of both runs.

NRO/RFC Finals
Victories throughout the year for PNigma, This Way Up and Nibblet Sue gave them automatic entry to the NRO/RFC Finals held in December 2017. A failure to interpret the start time announcement correctly meant the team failed to turn up on the first day of battles, and the entries were competed without Jonateer in attendance.

PNigma struggled in Block A, achieving only two wins of its seven battles and coming 6th in the block, only one point behind Psychopathy in 5th. Meanwhile, in Block B, an upgraded Nibblet Sue took three victories and one draw, reaching 4th, while This Way Up fared best of the team's entries, losing only two battles. It tied on victories with Meme Bot, but as it had won in their head-to-head, This Way Up advanced to the battle for the title.

This Way Up would fight Savage in the final with Jonateer at the controls for the first time in the competition, with whichever bot reached three wins out of five first taking the title. Although cautious at first, This Way Up achieved three consecutive KOs, defeating Savage and taking the 2017 title, following the likes of Blizzard, Black Sun, White and Toro.

SOMRW
This Way Up's performance in its heat was a struggle with its upgrades, but it survived the first round, throwing Proud American 2 out of the arena near the battle's end and winning the judges' decision over fellow survivor Colossal. In the next round, it dispensed of community team entry Plankdust by eliminating it on the Doom Dial wall, and achieved a third consecutive OOTA flip against Colossal to take its place in the Grand Final. Nibblet Sue, meanwhile, struggled in its first round and was eliminated, moving it into the Redemption Round. From there it fought its way back against clusterbot Jerro and Waller, then Panda, taking both fights the full length with the judges ruling in its favour. In the heat final, however, it struggled against :C=O: - both robots survived the full length despite a brief period of confusion mid-fight regarding the Rogue House Robot, but the decision was unanimous in favour of :C=O:, dropping Nibblet Sue into the Rumble.

Nibblet survived the full forty minutes of the thirteen-robot rumble, the longest battle in NRO history, alongside Domigator, but owing to the battle conditions struggled to perform. Domigator's numerous KO flips meant the judges ruled in its favour. In its first Grand Final battle, This Way Up fought :C=O: and walker Dracula and struggled with its controls but, after :C=O: dove into the pit, This Way Up was able to slide under Dracula and slowly push it in to join :C=O:. Its next opponent, Planky Plank, proved a slippery opponent after This Way Up's first attack nearly eliminated it immediately. The judges, however, put This Way Up through on a unanimous decision.

In the semi-final This Way Up struggled to get under Phwoar, achieving only two substantial flips. The latter however allowed This Way Up to latch onto Phwoar's hammer; as the pair of robots slid towards the pit, This Way Up released it and dropped it in.

In the rumble to decide which two robots moved into the final, :C=O: again found itself in the pit, as did This Way Up towards the end of the final itself despite a strong showing, as it was flipped onto its side with an open srimech by the floor flipper and slid towards house robot Armageddon, who sent it across the arena and into the pit.