EVAC Nov 2024 Event Report

EVAC (East Valley Attack Combat Robotics), is the newest combat robotic club in Arizona alongside Wolves Robotics Booster Club, UoA’s Wildcat Robotics Club, and of course my own club: Arizona Robotic Combat. Since this was their first ever event, I was expecting a nice laid back competition that was fun to both hang out and compete at. It was indeed both!

Since the event only hosted beetleweights, I brought my 3 pound beetleweight, Puca.

This is version 3.2 of Puca and it has a few upgrades since fighting at NHRL October 2024:

  • The drum
    • 4130 has been upgraded to S7
    • Wall thickness increased by 33% (Now 4mm)
    • Belt width increased from 6mm to 9mm
  • The drive
  • The chassis
    • Aluminum wood screws on top to save weight
    • Ti rods (painted black) added to prevent the carbon plate holes from stripping outward

Fight 1: Puca vs Spinny Boiii

Livestream Link: 2:01:33

After looking at the lineup for the event, Spinny Boiii was literally the only robot I didn’t want to fight first. It’s a two wheel drive bot with magnets and a large beater bar. It won the last ARC event and is one tough machine! So of course, it was my first opponent…

The match started off well for Puca, I was getting in some decent hits and kicking Spinny Boiii around. The first half of the match was heavily in my favor. However, as time went on Spinny Boiii started to increase their weapon rpm where as I didn’t have the battery life to confidently do so. This lead to Spinny Boiii winning the rest of the weapon on weapon hits.

Puca is able to self-right via gyro, but I’ve never been able to do it reliably. Spinny Boiii’s speed and aggression makes attempting to do so even more difficult. This led me to attempt to self-right by just going weapon to weapon against him and hoping I land right side up. This isn’t ideal since it puts the energy of both of our weapons into sending me to the ceiling, giving my opponent more points.

I also had some minor issues with ground clearance. Puca’s drum would strike the floor every once in awhile. After the match, I added some plastite screws to the “feet” and filed them down until they were at the height I wanted.

The match surprisingly went the distance with both robots taking basically no damage despite it being a non-stop slugfest. After the match, we both agreed that the result could easily go either way. It was an extremely close judge’s decision in favor of Spinny Boiii, sending Puca to the loser’s bracket.

After inspecting Puca for damage, I noticed this very funny slice taken out of my wheel that’s parallel with the chassis frame. This is exactly how I want my wheels to break, just a missing chunk of foam. Had this been the previous version of my Mega Smol Hubs, the entire tread would likely have been torn off. If you’re interested in these wheels/hubs, I have a post about them.

Fight 2: Puca vs Phantom

Livestream Link: 4:34:54

My next opponent was Phantom, a horizontal midcutter. At the beginning of the match, Puca landed some pretty big hits that warped Phantom’s frame. This ended up jamming their horizontal blade and it stopped spinning. I tried to spend some more time gyro self righting but wasn’t able to pull it off. So instead, I just went back to hitting my opponent to self right. I then tried to focus on the wheels. After bending both drive shafts, Phantom was completely incapacitated and Puca won by KO.

Damage to Phantom’s frame and drive system after the match:

Fight 3: Puca vs Crescendo

Livestream Link: 5:24:52

Puca’s next fight was Crescendo, another midcutter. Last time I fought Crescendo, he cracked my one of my drums in half down the middle, so I was very eager for a rematch with the new thicker drum. Just like last time, the match started off well in Puca’s favor. I was winning weapon to weapon hits and kicking Cresendo up in the air over and over. Cresendo started to gain ground though, landing a couple of big hits that sent us both flying across the arena. After one such hint, my entire robot stopped moving entirely. No weapon, no drive, nothing. Puca was counted out and Crescendo won by KO.

After taking Puca apart after the event, the problem was quickly identified. The main power lead to my switch had frayed over time and finally broke during out match.

On the bright side though, the new drum didn’t blow up! So I’ll take that at least. But with this second loss, Puca is now out of the tournament.

Fight 4: The Rumble!

Livestream Link: 6:51:13

Before the finals, the event hosted an official rumble with a prize and a trophy on the line. This is different than most events that just throw one together to fill time between fights. I thought it was a great idea. 8 robots (and an empty Sally husk) entered the arena and fought it out to the death.

I wanted to make sure my battery lasted for the entire fight, so I kept my weapon throttle around 25% most of the time. That’s enough to give little hits that flip the other robot other, but won’t do much damage.

I did my best to avoid contact with other active weapons and approached my opponents from safe angles. Other robots quickly started to break one by one. When Puca and Crescendo were the only bots left with working spinners, I focused more on him. I landed a nice shot that popped him into the air, then attacked a group of robots in the corner. In the picture below, you can see the red mini bot crawl on top of me, trapping me in the corner and leaving me totally exposed to Crescendo.

Luckily, the red robot quickly fell off of me and I was able to turn around just in time. I went weapon to weapon against Crescendo, popped him into the air, and broke his belt! (Revenge at last!)

At this point, Puca was the last robot with a weapon remaining. I spent the rest of the match getting little hits wherever I could to keep my aggression up while preserving battery life.

Ouroboros had its drum damaged earlier in the fight, but Puca landed a nice big hit that ripped it off entirely as a nice little bonus towards the end 😀

At 6:53:50 or so, I ask the announcer how much time is left. He answered “24 seconds” which is why you hear my weapon rev up. I didn’t land any massive hits, but it was funny at least.

With Puca being the only robot with its drive and weapon both fully operational, it was declared the victor of the rumble!

Fight 5: Puca vs Liberator (Grudge Match)

Livestream Link: 7:52:23

Since Puca was still in working condition, a Liberator team asked for a grudge match. Liberator is a horizontal undercutter. Puca had fought it in the past during the Wildcat Robotics event and won, but since we didn’t get to fight each other today, we did a grudge match for fun. Undercutters have been known to rip my frame rails from the robot entirely, so I felt this fight would serve to test to the new titanium reinforcement bars too.

After landing a big hit on him, I did my best to stay on top of him to keep from from getting back up to speed. I got him stuck up on a corner and took the opportunity to throttle my weapon up to full speed. Unfortunately, I didn’t do much except grind at him. The weapon motor may be too fast for its own good. I’ve been considering going lower in kv since I never use its top speed very often. After a few more hits, his weapon stopped working.

Deciding to just floor it, I kept the weapon at max throttle awhile longer but continued to just grind away instead of getting any bite. As the fight drew to a close, my battery was completely drained. The low voltage protection on my weapon ESC kicked in, and it prevented me from spinning at all. My drive still worked, but I was barely crawling along as the match finally ended.

In the end, Puca won by JD… but this battery might be toast.

Conclusion

While Puca only went 1-2 in the bracket, winning the rumble and the grudge match gave me an overall positive win/loss ratio. I’ve got a nice list of things to improve on and will be sure to apply those at the next event Puca competes at, which will likely be Motorama 2025.

EVAC was a lot of fun and it’s exciting to have more events here in Arizona! (Especially ones I don’t have to run myself hehe.) I’ll definitely be at the next one and bring an even stronger Puca!

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