Robot Ruckus at MegaCon 2024 1/n: Xolotl

Team Firewolf represented very well at MegaCon! We had Antlash and Xolotl competing. Robert was carrying on the Antlash name, while I was competing under the name Xolotl, even if Xolotl is really Antlash with an upgraded weapon. 

Xolotl is a Fingertech Viper Kit robot with a horizontal spinner. I didn't do so well and won one of my three fights. My cameraman's camera decided to take a deuce on my win against Tripple D, but he got my fights against Tyrone, a vicious horizontal spinner kit from Repeat Robotics, and Crazed Madman, a Fingertech wedge. My proudest moment was doing some damage on Tyrone despite tapping out once I got inverted. I knew I was most likely going to get destroyed if I kept moving. The damage was nowhere as bad as my absolute first fight against Nibbler at the Orlando Maker Faire, but it did involve a chassis transfer and getting a new front wedge. Team Junkyard Dogs is a pretty solid team, and even lasting as long as I did against them was quite the achievement for me!

My cameraman didn't get my second fight, which was against Tripple D, who beat Antlash earlier before getting disemboweled by the likes of Insomnia. Tripple D was a Fingertech Viper vertical spinner until he got destroyed earlier. They came in as a wedge, and I couldn't quite bring myself to destroy a little kid who had just gotten his robot blasted to bits at his very first competition. That being said, I still let Xolotl loose on him at maybe 30-40% power and tried to knock him out as cleanly as possible because I knew he could still take control and aggression points if he inverted me. I did get the knockout victory after a few well-placed hits.

And then there was my fight against Crazed Madman, who was one heck of a wedge driver. Suffice to say, going against a very experienced control bot driver was rather exciting, but I learned that I can indeed drive inverted. I still presented a bit of a hazard to him as an undercutter, even if I had iffy mobility at best. I still did some damage to him, but that AR-500 wedge was a bit of a nightmare!

After our fight, the driver of Crazed Madman and I got a picture together. 

And here's some other fun, random pictures I got, including the judging panel and various Avatar: The Last Airbender bits...

Hopefully tomorrow or sometime this week, I'll have a bit of a write-up for Antlash. I am very proud of R for his deep run in his very first ever competition with a robot he just barely finished at the competition!

More Practice With Xolotl

 

Escape Room and Three Birthdays

Aside from our intrepid ultra-tall explorer, none of the Fellowship of the Apex Predators had ever done an escape room before.  It was quite the adventure teaming up with such powerful forces of brainiacs to pull off the mission in the Escape Room on I-Drive in Orlando. We were also celebrating our fearless co-founder's birthday and had two belated celebrations in the process.  

We finished with just over 90 seconds remaining of our hour to solve the puzzle! 

And then there was dinner afterwards with a few extra members joining us from our birthday girl's family!

 

USA Archery Indoor Nationals 2024 2/n

 These are courtesy of the wonderful staff at Easton-Newberry.

And then I also had a bit of fun today on my "weather day" with Anduril, Flame of the West... I did a bit of surgery on it to make it a little more comfortable to shoot as part of a brief reset phase before I return to my regularly scheduled program. 

USA Archery Indoor Nationals 2024 1/n

 I survived the 2024 USA Archery Indoor Nationals! Score-wise, it was a lackluster performance to put it mildly.  In terms of enjoyment and fulfillment, it was probably the best Indoor Nationals I have ever done. I shot with some of the finest people ever, including a fellow traditional archer who loves Tolkien, a good-humored Olympic recurve archer, and a fellow geek on the next target.

The lesson from the weekend: Albuterol, Prednisone, and archery DO NOT mix! It's even worse when caffeine (after a few months of abstinence) gets thrown into the mix. I learned that the hard way as my brain and my eyes were spinning like a cartoon. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised to see most of my arrows actually stayed on the paper other than maybe 1-2 arrows the entire weekend. The other lesson: while cough drops are amazing for controlling coughing, they also wreak havoc on the digestive system, and these were even with the non-sugar-free ones.  Luckily, I didn't have to deal with digestive issues during the tournament! 

Florida Archery Association State Indoor 2024 and Xolotl Update

 Pictures were fairly sparse from this state indoor, but I got a few. Finished the weekend with a 747/1200, which was pretty good considering I spent a lot of mental energy trying NOT to cough my brains out on the first day and getting used to awkward lighting. That being said, I did very well for a less familiar venue than Easton-Newberry! The second day was a much stronger performance with me just falling short of 400/600 at 396/600. Now here's for preparing for the USA Archery Indoor Nationals!

And then there's work on Xolotl, this time with a lighter, more cutting-oriented blade instead of the HiJinx blade. I actually find the lighter blade much easier for me to drive effectively, and whew, it gave me the willies seeing what it did to the cardboard boxes in short order!

Remember, do NOT attempt this at home without proper containment or a large, open space!

Meet Xolotl

 I am starting with a warning... Do NOT attempt this at home without appropriate safety measures!

Xolotl is an ant-weight Fingertech Viper Kit horizontal spinner. Currently, I'm using a heavy HiJinx-inspired blade, although I also have the option of using a lighter weapon.  I have a lot of work to go with refining Xolotl, including working on my driving as well as giving it a more appropriate aesthetic to fit the Aztec god of fire and lightning as well as a psychopomp. I still have Antlash, but it's now got a new driver who will hopefully drive it to glory and emulate its heavy-weight namesake, Whiplash!