Tom Scott

Hebocon UK: Deliberately Terrible Robot Fighting (2016x35)

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If your robot-building skills aren't quite up to Battlebots or Robot Wars, then Hebocon might be for you. Described "as a robot sumo-wrestling competition for those who are not technically gifted", the emphasis is on having fun, entertaining the crowd, and "heboiness". At Electromagnetic Field 2016, a maker festival in the UK, I hosted one of the UK's first hebocon contests. I'll be honest: we skipped over a few of the more complicated rules about penalising high-tech robots in favour of entertaining the crowd, but no-one seemed to mind. Not even the actual Robot Wars competitors. Thanks to everyone who helped put this together: Alia Sheikh, Andrew Vine and Robert McWilliam on the film crew, Jim MacArthur who actually ran the show, and all the folks at EMF Camp -- and of course, all the people who built the robots!