Could You be a Robot Combat Judge?

<BODY LINK="#009977" VLINK="#999999" BGCOLOR="#EFEFDE"> <FONT FACE="Lucidia Sans, Arial"> <FONT SIZE=6 color="red"> <A href="robotica.html"><img src="smallbot.gif" width="102" height="77" hspace=10 align=left border=0></a> Run Amok Combat Robotics<br> </font><B>Try Your Hand as a Combat Robot Judge</B> <HR color="red"><P> <font face="arial"><B><center> Your browser does not support frames.<P> The material below is a summary of the content in the frames provided at this site.</B></center> <HR><BR> So, you think you could be a judge at a robot combat tournament, eh? Some matches are easy: one robot sets fire to the other, rips it in half, and throws the flaming halves into opposite corners of the arena. Winner!<P> Well Spunky, the real judges say it ain't all that easy. Sometimes you have two 'bots waltz around without putting a scratch on each other. Other times both 'bots are so beat up it's hard to tell what loose parts came off which carcass. <P> Fortunately (or perhaps not) the <A href="http://www.botleague.net" target="_top">Robot Fighting League</A> provides "judging guidelines" to help you out in the tough situations. I'll point you to those guidelines later -- but first let's see how you do on the following examples without them: <P> <hr><hr> <center><B>Frames in this section give examples of specific robot fights<br>and how they should be judged according to the RFL judging guidelines.<br>The results are counter-intuitive.</B></center> <hr><hr> <P> On the subject of robot combat, Morgan Tilford of Team Mauler famously said, "You have to make the other robot your bitch." I don't approve of the reference, but I agree with the sentiment -- it's about control. If you control your opponent by pushing it around, nullifying its attacks, and preventing it from pursuing its best strategy you should win the match. <P> I've heard people claim that judging doesn't have any impact on the level of excitement in a match. I contend that builders aren't stupid. If judging favors robots that can endure attacks without a scratch and that only need to continuously move toward your opponent to maximize aggression points, they're going to produce tool steel armored, slow, invertable, weaponless bricks. That can't be good for the sport. <P> The current Judging guidelines shouldn't pander to builders, make it easy on the judges, or point the sport in a direction that rewards dull matches. <P><HR color="red"><center><P> Here is a link to the most current <A href="rules/Jjudging-guidelines_V3_1-0.pdf " target ="_top">Robot Fighting League Judging Guidelines (version 3.1)</A>. <P> If you believe this topic needs to be discussed, here is a link to the <A href="http://forums.delphiforums.com/THERFL/start" target ="_top">Robot Fighting League Forum</A>. <hr> <A href="robotica.html"><img src="RAHome.gif" border=0 alt="Run Amok Combat Robotics homepage"></A> </center></font>