User blog:Jonateer/The NRO Report

Third place finisher in the TST First Roblox Wars, 2011. Second place finisher in the TST League and the League Pinball, 2014. Little else to show for a turbulent four years in ROBLOX robot combat circles. Unsurprising then, that I packed up my VehicleSeats and called it a day during the League special events, seemingly uninterested in returning to what looked like a dying sport.

Back Story!
I hadn't been a roboteer for twelve months before deciding I could take on organising a competition myself. In fact, plans were in motion in late 2010 - barely two months after the first Public Nuisance was constructed, on a chassis supplied by the group's owner, mosher100 (seemingly cannibalised from a Free Model RC car) - to set up some kind of Robot Wars inspired competition. Gaining the assistance of newbeaver256 (Bradley) during the entry period, Channel TST would - across the first half of 2011 - hold a 32-robot competition, which would be the first such ROBLOX competition to be filmed with the intention of a YouTube upload in late July.

The competition proved popular while battles took place, but the popularity did not translate well across to the screen, as the uploaded episodes, amateurishly edited together with commentary provided by Bradley and myself, gained few views in their early days. Nonetheless, assuming the minor issues and technical difficulties we faced during production could be put down to lack of experience and thus ironed out next time around, Bradley and myself quickly put together a series of small themed competitions - flipper robots, wedge robots, cluster robots, international robots - to be classed as a sequel series - The First Extreme Wars. We had hoped that a wider variety of ideas on display would draw more people in, for our extremely ambitious second full competition, which we assumed would see Randomepicrobot return to defend its title, and 63 other robots roll into the arena to fight for the honour instead.

Even with two new assistants for filming and setting up battles, Jimmy and Connor, the Extreme competitions did not go so smoothly. In fact, the eclectic mix of battles - and the struggle to keep on top of any kind of schedule - meant that work on Extreme was eventually halted, ending competitions such as the World Championships after only a handful of battles, and putting a stop to the Total Team Terror or Clash of the Clusterbots before they had begun. After 50 battles and 164 days of filming, 100 days more would pass while I decided what to do about Extreme; ultimately in an abandoned and silent format, the series would be released in mid-2012 as a hasty end to what had seemed like a good idea back in 2011.

Without Me
2012 was surprisingly quiet on the ROBLOX robot combat front. Revamped incarnations of Public Nuisance, now numbering seventh and above, would enter competitions organised by other persons. TST could be held responsible for some of these - Bradley and Connor set about their own plans for competitions similar to, albeit smaller than, the TST First Roblox Wars - but at the same time could be blamed for how silent things became. In spite of my continued interest in participating in ROBLOX robot combat, the lack of a filmed 'spectacle' competition was somewhat offputting. Perhaps this was the case for everyone else - now that their successes would never be seen by others, or available for the champion to watch over and over to relive the glory, what was the point?

I continued to develop my robots for only a small personal gain, in the hope that a competition with promise would surface that I could enter. I would have the fun of taking part, perhaps even take a title for once, but get none of the stress that came with trying to drag a Spaniard child out of his bath in order to hold a three-minute battle with a kid from Newcastle who had been waiting five weeks. The occasional invite would rise, from the usual faces, but even if I entered, I would be lucky to get a first round battle before the competition silently collapsed and the spreadsheet wiped clean for the next attempt.

There were even supposed TST attempts to hold new competitions: Connor again, Jimmy at one point, even Charlie. One was a simple revival of mosher's Challenge Belt series - this had been a straightforward series of spontaneous battles - the winner of the last battle, against a new challenger. There was no worry of waiting because the series relied entirely on that spotaneity of entries - someone jumps up and says "I think I can beat you!", and presents via Insert tool their robot which - as a result of 2010's lack of regulations on size - was merely their previous entry extended each direction by four studs.

Then, in 2014 - which on reflection seems a long time ago, but wasn't all that different to the 2016 I sit and type in now - Connor stepped up again. In what seemed like a regular, bi-annual occurrence, he told me he wanted to organise a new TST competition. Maybe a bit smaller than the First Roblox Wars, but we would keep entries local. Skype would be used for contacting people to organise battles, instead of waiting sometimes for days for a reply to the message we sent in a desperate attempt to reach them from ROBLOX Studio.

A number of seven people was very quickly found, mostly First Roblox Wars and Extreme entrants, but interest otherwise was lacking, so the competition was redesigned and engineered into a league format. Long story short: League ran incredibly smoothly. Having been once again filmed and intended as a pilot series for a new and improved TST Robot Wars, it was only a corrupted hard drive and the loss of editing progress that stopped it from being released, and in spite of the surprisingly high quality of battles on display League would remain unseen by the public who had been left waiting since Extreme. I took this as a sign that ROBLOX robot combat was dying, if not dead, but remained as an entry for two of the special event battles held after the main League competition had finished. A ROBLOX update breaking my robots (how unthinkable!) was the final nail, and I retired - not only from organising competitions, but also from competing.

RFC and the Report
Qwerty had been an entrant in the TST Robot Wars days, so I was familiar with him as a competitor, but I had no experience of his organising talents. Throughout the quiet period that unashamedly occupied the 2012-2014 sabbatical I had received invites to the occasional competition, held by him, with certain particular quirks or themes: "This is a swimming comp!" or "We want veterans!" I hadn't received any such invitations for quite some time until early in 2016, when an opening was offered in RFC's 2016 instalment of the Battlebots series. Allegedly wanting "starpower" in the competition, Qwerty contacted myself and Texy. While I wasn't particularly persuaded at first - the initial invite was a passive-aggressive response to my recent claim that robot combat on ROBLOX was dead - it was Texy's experience that RFC had a habit of swaying decisions or rigging results for maximum impact and entertainment value that convinced me to enter. I guess even if I was to be axed off in the first round for a major upset at the hands of the judges, the entertainment value might not be lacking?

I have no need to paraphrase what I said in the RFC Report, or what was left on display in the footage myself and Texy acquired (and I laboriously sifted through for a whole week) but in brief: what we experienced on that day of competition was a mere robot combat factory. RFC, or at least Battlebots 2016, was a relentless conveyor belt of battles - "Sod the result, just move on." There was no emphasis on the drivers, hardly any on the robots, and most battles were swayed by a wayward arena hazard. While the robots seemed improved since our last taste of public competition, the competition itself was simplified almost to the level of mosher's Challenge Belt in 2010. The most distinguishing features, were you describing the two without use of visuals, would be "RFC used admin to shout at people" and "Challenge Belt didn't have a roof".

Most people wouldn't be upset by this, but actually experiencing the event for myself was the straw that broke the camel's back. While TST was in control of how ROBLOX robot combat looked and felt, we had every right to be disappointed if something didn't go to plan, or to be delighted when something went well and say "Yes, let's do that again - but how about we change this to see if we can improve it?" Relegated to nameless entry in an outsider's competition, I would have to stand silent, my invisible face at the other side of the screen distraught at what I was seeing, and there was nothing I could do to change what was happening.

Well, I wasn't going to stand silent. I had worked across four years to improve ROBLOX robot combat and, as soon as I turn my back, it had been reduced to this. And because the only person there who I knew was Texy (although DylanBrown did join briefly), I understood (or was misled to believe) that everyone was to blame. Very few people escaped the Report. And very few people disagreed.

But Qwerty got it worst. He was furious. I spent much of my time in the week after the Report's release justifying my honest criticisms to him via ROBLOX PM, rather than - as I should have been - apologising for comments made to the innocent party. TST Robot Wars veterans appeared out of the woodwork, almost sympathetic for those of us who had suffered the gruelling event, while I was asked to provide a written list of suggestions for improvements in future RFC competitions, confined by the limits of ROBLOX private message censor systems, and as such unable to rant to the extent of the seven-day struggle that was compiling the original Report.

Those suggestions, although seemingly taken on board, were never put into practice. There were whispers that certain members of RFC below the likes of Qwerty or TGR would gather to form a new robot combat group, a decision that nicely coincided with ROBLOX bringing in New physics (RFC had elected to ignore this impending update during its last months). I soon got to hear other accounts of RFC corruption, bias and rigging from many of these members, and came to respect their decision to regroup and form what would become the New Robot Order. I was invited to join them shortly after their conception, attended their first meeting, and have been a proud part of the NRO since that point.

Many months on, after half a dozen or so competitions, it has been suggested that I do another (slightly less aggressive) Report. To save myself a week of endless video editing, staring back at events that frustrated me at the time and would frustrate me for seven more days, I've chosen to write out this Report here. And after rabbiting for however long it has been, now I can start.

The NRO Report
What distinguishes NRO from RFC can be given in one word: convivial. In this sense, it shares much of the enjoyable aspects with League of 2014 - most of the competitors, and each organiser, will be in a Skype call alongside the ROBLOX server, so everyone knows exactly what's going on. Battles aren't silent; they're crowded with the sound of people genuinely enjoying themselves. And when a battle ends, roboteers can exchange genuine congratulations and commiserations, instead of the soon tedious one-round tennis match that was RFC's "gg".

It may seem somewhat unfair to compare NRO and RFC, having experienced many months of one and a three-hour evening of the other, but the truth is that I have spent more time with NRO than RFC plainly because it is so much more enjoyable and rewarding. Similarly, it could be groansome if I were to say "when comparing NRO with TST", because many would assume I naturally defer to TST. So I shan't draw direct comparisons in this manner; I shall instead continue my few-word summaries.

Varied. I realise RFC had different themed competitions - Battlebots, Technica, Robot Wars et cetera - but I also understand the organising was generally conducted by one of two people, if that. Consequently, most competitions would just be an arena redux of last month's, ad inf. Even in TST, when we had the First Roblox War, the numerous Extreme competitions, and League, the rules and regulations remained the same, the arena largely identical. I guess what helped TST was the turnover was long enough for people to see enough of a change between competitions. In NRO, although competitions are far more regular, everyone is allowed to organise a competition if they wish, and as such are given the freedom to change rules to fit. Case and point, the first four heavyweight competitions I took part in: And, as of writing, the next competition will see a floating arena, its perimeter patrolled by a hundred-stud tall humanoid House Robot (Titan) with great heavy fists to smash down onto robots. Also, I am in the process of planning a competition whose arena will bring in aspects of Wheel of Fortune, where robots gamble to add an extra obstacle to the arena, which ultimately could help or harm their pursuit of a KO - a competition of such scope I would never have considered for TST.
 * Juggernaut: a House Robot of far superior weight and size to the competitor roams the nearest third of the arena, and the minimalist approach to hazards means tactics come into play when seeking a KO, rather than the sheer fortune that would befall a robot in RFC Battlebots who achieved an immobilisation on the side wall screws.
 * NRObot Wars: based on the recent relaunch of the BBC series, including arena aesthetic. Head-to-heads apart from the first round. House Robot in the CPZ.
 * Aadam Bomb: mixed weight-classes. Surely that's enough to tell you this was a competition to remember. If not, I'll spell it out for you: heavyweight flipper versus fleaweight anything.
 * Saw Showdown: an arena heavily influenced by - yes, you've guessed it - saws. Most notably; the "buckle-saws" which would often send a robot spinning, glitching, out of the arena. Instant KO. No time limit on battles; three redos for glitches before turning to the judges.

Equality. Everyone is on the same level (currently) in NRO, from a colloquial point of view - there is still a CEO, and admins, but on a social level we are all equal. In RFC, it was obvious there was a hierachy: Qwerty, whoever Qwerty wanted under him, whoever Qwerty wanted under them, veteran RFC members, new RFC members... ''veterans of non-RFC competitions. In TST, simply to bring some order to things when trying to keep to a schedule, everyone was aware that what I ''said went, but with me not being a natural leader, where the pyramid went from there was a tad hazy, which resulted in much of Bradley's controversy during early TST, as he was rather "self-elected" to his role. In NRO, a competition organiser still obviously has say over what happens, but from a competitive point of view they are on the same level as the others, eliminating that dictatorship feel that RFC had. NRO are holding regular meetings - again, everyone on the same level, sharing their point of view, everyone able to come to a conclusion or compromise without fear of senior interference. However, this sense of "equality" has been abused by certain NRO members - mentioning no names - but this is to be expected, and must be tolerated to preserve the equality currently held. If anything, NRO could do with asserting the authority of whoever is running a competition, to cut down on the sort of insubordination faced in the Aadam Bomb competition.

Opportunity. I think NRO is going to be a better entrance point for newbies than TST was, or certainly RFC. We saw TST's competitions as a higher-end of the spectrum - certainly not a hubris thing, but because they were being filmed and in that sense preserved, everything had to be just right in order that we didn't look incompetent to the intrigued viewer. We were putting ourselves in the hot seat, foolishly taking one for the team through overconfidence. That's why Extreme went so terribly - because everything was not right. In fact, little went right. League was the closest we got to fulfilling that aspiration. RFC, similarly, has that aspiration, and in striving for that perfection, turned itself into a factory of battles, an endless manufacture line spewing out "11-10 splits" every five minutes. Although there are currently talks of introducing two levels of competition to NRO - a simpler range of competitions for newbies, and a more complex setup for veterans and roboteers wishing to advance themselves - NRO offers a much easier entrance into robot combat, whether it be building your first robot or fighting for your first championship. Maybe it's easy for me to say that, celebrating - as I will in a few days' time - six years in the circle, but as I see it NRO has a far more welcoming environment (again: convivial) than the battery sergeant regime of RFC or the futile struggle for perfection that we persisted with at TST.

And, I should add, the opportunities aren't just open to budding competitors - NRO invites people to hold their own competitions. On which point:

"An ability to learn from one's mistakes", or "self-coaching". We've had somewhat experimental competitions in NRO that haven't gone quite to plan, but the ability to learn and improve is present, and as soon as a flaw is spotted, that band of people (convivial) comes together to work to fix it. The meetings come back into this; the most recent meeting was not just to discuss new rules or features that could be brought in, but also to discuss changes and clarification to existing rules, to improve the experience for future entries. Although I've held competitions in the past, once I get around to opening Zoned Out for entries and set up one weekend for battles, I'll be confident that whatever feedback I receive for what would be my first solo attempt at organising since Extreme can be taken on board and considered not just by me but, wherever applicable, by anyone else who would benefit.

I have no reason to knock NRO for what they have done over the last few months - to stride away from RFC after everything that happened, set up NRO so quickly and establish themselves as competent in spite of the influence RFC may have had on ROBLOX robot combat throughout the duration is a feat worth every modicum of my admiration. And, to be honest, what NRO has achieved since that inaugural Juggernaut competition does rather pale the TST First Roblox Wars in comparison (in spite of how well that went at the time!). But what can I say to balance the matter, to not seem biased towards NRO simply because it "isn't RFC"? Well, it's still early days, so much of what I say now may likely be irrelevant in a few months' time, but I'll give it a go nonetheless.

NRO is growing - which is fantastic. However, the social atmosphere generated by the Skype calls would not be maintained if these calls continued to be relied upon throughout the growth. One might even suggest that a competition with just a dozen entrants, and a Skype call running alongside with even 90% of those persons, would be chaotic. Even up to this point, there have been situations where an entrant who happens not to be in the call has been ignored in their in-game pleas. Somehow the use of Skype call and in-game chat for communication needs to be balanced - even if all that is required is for someone with a loud voice to keep an eye on the chat in case a problem arises...

Although it could seem hypocritical that I would hastily decline if asked to assist with this, I consider it may be worth attempting to film a small NRO competition for promotional purposes. I certainly wouldn't suggest embarking on a series of full competitions for YouTube upload after my experiences but in the same manner as we intended League, using a pilot series to advertise the group could be of benefit in helping it gain momentum.

I suspect I will come back to this report, maybe after twelve months of NRO to reflect on, because during this period of growth and evolution there has been little opportunity to spot the cracks in the paintwork. The regular meetings of the NRO, we hope, should eliminate the need for any Report amendments, though - unlike RFC, there is an open attitude to criticisms in the NRO.

Third place finisher in the TST First Roblox Wars, 2011. Second place finisher in the TST League and the League Pinball, 2014. Champion of NRObot Wars and Saw Showdown, 2016. I knew we'd get there in the end. I was clearly too busy stopping for Guests.

Jonateer