The 'Shroom:Issue 173/Pipe Plaza

Director’s Notes
Written by:

Hello and welcome to another month, which means another Pipe Plaza! Bit of a short one this month but that's because we just had the Mario Awards! Some of our writers have been focusing more on that and couldn't send in their section but we've still go some great content anyways!!

Don't forget, if you like what you see here, you can write a section of you own too and join us here in Pipe Plaza! Just head to the sign up page for everything you need to know!

I have nothing else of importance to add so do enjoy what we have to offer this month!

Section of the Month

NIWA News
Written by:

Hello, everyone! Welcome to NIWA News, a section where I show the going ons with the wikis in our NIWA group within the last month!

Promotions
 * Vivian was promoted to the rank of Patroller on Nookipedia!
 * Luigi1234 was promoted to the rank of Patroller on WiKirby!

Demotions
 * Notmyhandle was demoted from his Bureaucrat role on StrategyWiki due to inactivity.
 * Greenrupee, GoldenChaos, and User-100054463 were all demoted from their respective roles on Zelda Wiki due to inactivity.

Anniversary Announcements
Written by:

Oh yeah, Anniversary Announcements time! Expecting Waluigi? Too bad!

The Fire Bros
The ceremony was last week! It was another great show, and everyone making presentations, reading/listening to them, and those present during the chat party are warmly thanked for a great night! Have you not yet read them? Then go to the Mario Awards board on the forums and check them out.

As always, you can give your feedback and ideas in the suggestion box.

Tournaments
As the season nears its end, let's have another look at the latest tournament developments.

Mario Awards Scribble Deathmatch Forum thread GBAToad FinishedAll seven rounds have been played, and have brought forward a victory to The Pyro Guy, with a 7-win streak! Following up is winstein with a 6-1 score, and then BBQ Turtle, Hearts, Mr. Edo, and ZelenPixel with 5-2. In addition, as a thanks to GBAToad, a gallery of scribbles related to him, created by the players, has been posted as well. GBAToad will be posting a final post detailing his thoughts soon.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Time Trials Forum thread Alex95 21 June through August</li></ul><p style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);margin-top:0;padding:0 12px 6px;border-radius:0 0 13px 13px">Eight races have now been completed, with the ninth and penultimate race, on Wild Woods, currently ongoing. After this one, a last time trial on Rainbow Road will bring it home.

<h4 style="background:rgba(34,139,34,0.4);margin-bottom:1px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:13px 13px 0 0"> <ul style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);padding:6px;margin:0;list-style:none">Forum thread</li> Uniju</li> 3 through 6 September</li></ul><p style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);margin-top:0;padding:0 12px 6px;border-radius:0 0 13px 13px">Work on games is almost finished, with the remainder being mostly background technology. However, it did have to be postponed by a week so the overall quality of the event can be better ensured without rush. The Minecraft games are hosted on the MarioWiki server in a dedicated world, and includes classics such as Spleef and Capture the Flag, but also recreations of games such as Shine Runners and Apples to Apples, and originals such as Murderer and Payload.

<h4 style="background:rgba(34,139,34,0.4);margin-bottom:1px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:13px 13px 0 0">Panel de Pon <ul style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);padding:6px;margin:0;list-style:none">Forum thread</li> Roserade</li> 22 June through 27 August</li></ul><p style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);margin-top:0;padding:0 12px 6px;border-radius:0 0 13px 13px">Because of the Round Robin format and progress of the game, Roserade has mostly let go of the per-round announcements. Istead players are prompted to finish all their battles before the 27th, with the recommendation to still keep a one-per-five-days guideline in mind for their remaining battles.

<h4 style="background:rgba(34,139,34,0.4);margin-bottom:1px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:13px 13px 0 0">Super Mario Hint Hunt <ul style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);padding:6px;margin:0;list-style:none">Forum thread</li> The Pyro Guy</li> Intermission</li></ul><p style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);margin-top:0;padding:0 12px 6px;border-radius:0 0 13px 13px">Because of many people making presentations, the second round didn't start on the 17th, being postponed to after the ceremony instead. No specific period is currently set for this, other than "soon".

<h4 style="background:rgba(34,139,34,0.4);margin-bottom:1px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:13px 13px 0 0">Super Smash Bros. Ultimate singles and doubles <ul style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);padding:6px;margin:0;list-style:none">Forum thread</li> Hooded Pitohui</li> 7 July</li></ul><p style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);margin-top:0;padding:0 12px 6px;border-radius:0 0 13px 13px">Round 5 is currently ongoing for both singles and doubles, ending Monday.

<h4 style="background:rgba(34,139,34,0.4);margin-bottom:1px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:13px 13px 0 0">Wario's Woods <ul style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);padding:6px;margin:0;list-style:none">Forum thread</li> Kirbyo</li> 15 July</li></ul><p style="background:rgba(34,139,34,.2);margin-top:0;padding:0 12px 6px;border-radius:0 0 13px 13px">Round 5 is currently ongoing, with the ending date set to 11 August, but little activity other than the reporting of scores is ongoing in this regard.

And as such comes this month's AA to an end. Next month will be the last updates on tournaments, before we close off for the year. See you again then, goodbye!

All information above was correct as of 2021-08-20.

What's in a Campaign?
By:

Welcome back, 'Shroom readers, to another edition of What's in a Campaign?, a section where we look at the successes and failures of various Robot Wars robots. Last month we looked at the one-hit wonder spinning blade of Fluffy. This month, we're going to be looking at another robot that ended up being a one-hit wonder for a totally different reason, that being Series 7's low-pressure flipper, The Grim Reaper.

Captained by Simon Smith with his brother Gary and son Charlie, The Grim Reaper debuted in Series 3. The Grim Reaper started its life as a fairly middle-of-the-road ram bot, with a spike at the front and lifting spikes at the back. In Series 3, The Grim Reaper lost its only fight to Series semi-finalist, Big Brother, on a judge's decision after Big Brother knocked off one of The Grim Reaper's wheels. After failing to qualify for Series 4, The Grim Reaper team took a few series off (in fact, until the reboot, The Grim Reaper team had the record for longest amount of series between appearances) before returning with a new look and a new weapon. Weighing 99kg, powered by 24v 750w motors, and with a top speed of 12 mph, The Grim Reaper, like many of Series 7's robots, came equipped with a rear-hinged flipper that could lift as much as 250kg. But unlike most robots with a flipper, The Grim Reaper opted to equip itself with a low-pressure flipper as opposed to a high-pressure flipper. Now, you might be wonder what the difference is and, you see, it's actually pretty simple. A high-pressure flipper will let you flip a robot higher, but you'll also use more CO2 with each flip, whereas with a low-pressure flipper, your flips are weaker but you'll use less CO2 with each flip.



So, if The Grim Reaper were to come up against another flipping bot with a high-pressure flipper, they'd, in theory, have the advantage because they'd be able to use their flipper much more than their opponent. In addition, The Grim Reaper team had one more trick up their sleeve: that being the personification of death itself standing near the judges, watching over them and making sure they make the right decision. With these improvements, The Grim Reaper team qualified for Robot Wars Series 7 through the touring auditions. As always, all images are sourced from the amazing Robot Wars Wiki, and I will be providing a video of the fights as well as time stamps for when those fights start.

Placed in Heat B, The Grim Reaper's chances were given an immediate boost when the number three seed and Series 6 grand finalist, Terrorhurtz ,was disqualified from the competition. You see, Series 7 had a rule stating that your robot had to be finished when you arrived, and the Terrorhurtz team arrived with their robot unfinished and were therefore disqualified from Series 7, eliminating the clear favorite from the heat. Because this is Series 7, we once again have a format change! In Series 6, they ditched the one-on-one first round fights for a first round that would consist instead of two four-way free-for-alls, where two of the four robots in each match would advance to the second round. For Series 7, the producers decided to keep Series 6 first round format, and, to be totally honest, it's for the better. Because, if I'm being totally honest, I adore Series 6's and Series 7's formats. I love the free-for-alls a lot, and I think they make for some very interesting and close battles.

Unfortunately, this round one fight is not one of them! The four robots in this fight (1:25) are The Grim Reaper, Big Nipper, who sports a really unique stag beetle like crusher/lifter, former and future Annihilator Champion Kan-Opener, who sports a set of sideways crushing pincers, and, finally, Barbaric Response, who sports a flipper. Starting this battle off hot, The Grim Reaper gets a quick, if not a little meaningless, flip on Kan-Opener, who, being invertible, isn't affected by it. After that flip, the match quickly breaks down into basically two 1v1 fights, because Kan-Opener gets its pincers locked into Barbaric Response and is unable to get them out for the rest of the fight, meaning that Kan-Opener VS Barbaric Response is nothing more then some weak and boring shoving. Luckily, The Grim Reaper VS Big Nipper proves to be a lot more exciting, with both robots being about even. The Grim Reaper starts out by getting in a few flips before Big Nipper drives The Grim Reaper into the wall and does a few rams into the wall before The Grim Reaper manages to get back the advantage with some flips. This goes on for a little bit before the Big Nipper goes in and gets a few lifts on Kan-Opener and Barbaric Response, who are still stuck together. The Pit opens up and all four robots hover around it, with Big Nipper narrowly avoiding getting pushed in the pit by The Grim Reaper.



The match ends with The Grim Reaper getting a few more flips on Big Nipper as the match goes to the judges. Unsurprisingly, the judges decided to go for the only active robots, sending The Grim Reaper and Big Nipper into the second round.

In the second round (6:25), The Grim Reaper goes up against the impressive full-body spinner of Gyrobot. From the start, The Grim Reaper dominates this fight, charging in and immediately flipping over the invertible machine, preventing it from spinning its weapon up all the way. After the first flip, Gyrobot starts having trouble spinning its weapon up, and, even when it does start to spin it up, The Grim Reaper's flipper is low enough the ground that it manages to flip Gyrobot over, which stops the spinning weapon dead in its tracks. To be honest, there's not a whole lot else to this fight. There's a fun moment where The Grim Reaper manages to pin Gyrobot in its flipper and drive it around for a bit. But most of the fight is just The Grim Reaper flipping Gyrobot over, but because its a low-pressure flipper and not a high-pressure flipper, it can't flip Gyrobot out of the arena and the match goes to the judges. Once again, unsurprisingly, the judges go for The Grim Reaper, sending it into the heat final where it comes up against round one opponent Big Nipper.

Honestly this fight (12:53) is a classic, where you've got two evenly-matched robots giving it everything they've got in the arena. The fight starts off poorly for The Grim Reaper, with Big Nipper getting under them and flipping them a bit. There's a cool visual early on with The Big Nipper getting perfectly under The Grim Reaper, carrying them around, causing the The Grim Reaper to flip themselves off Big Nipper's pincers. After that, The Grim Reaper manages to turn the tables, getting in flip after flip on Big Nipper, driving them in the CPZ and into the useless boxing gloves of house robot Cassius Chrome. But, then, just as it looks like The Grim Reaper is on top, Big Nipper manages to get under The Grim Reaper and pins them to an arena wall, where house robot Sgt. Bash brings his hydraulic claw down on The Grim Reaper's flipper. From here, it's evenly-matched combat with the match going to the judges as Big Nipper drives The Grim Reaper into the walls. This is a very close judges' decision and it's still debated (among like the five people who care, that is) who really won this fight.

But the judges, perhaps intimidated by death himself, once again go for The Grim Reaper, sending them into the Series 7 semi-finals.

Unfortunately for The Grim Reaper team, making the Series Semi-Finals turns out to be a bit of a cursed prize, as the opponent they draw is the number 16 seed and New Blood Champion, the speedy brick on wheels, Storm 2. This fight (18:06) isn't even close, Storm 2, a robot that once rammed a robot so hard that it threw that robot out of the arena, is on top the entire fight. Thanks to Storm 2's side skirts, The Grim Reaper isn't able to get under Storm 2 at all, and the entire fight is just Storm 2 getting under The Grim Reaper and ramming it into the walls (including a few rams where it looked like Storm 2 might have been able to ram The Grim Reaper out of the arena.) The Grim Reaper tries to mount some sort of offense, but, quite frankly, they're out-matched and really never even manage to get an attack off. Despite the beating they took, Storm 2 wasn't able to KO The Grim Reaper so the fight went to the judges. This time, however, the judges refuse to be intimidated by Death himself and award the fight to Storm 2, sending The Grim Reaper out of the competition (Series 7 got rid of the semi-final losers melees that Series 5 and 6 had.)

Sadly, this would be the last time, at least in a televised avenue, that we'd ever see The Grim Reaper. Robot Wars Series 7 would be the last series of Robot Wars for 12 years, and The Grim Reaper would only make a limited amount of live events. At some point after the 7th wars, The Grim Reaper was sold to roboteer Calum Jones. who built a robot modeled after The Grim Reaper but with modern internals. Called Reaper, this robot would fail to qualify for the reboot (although they did win two untelevised whiteboard battles). The Grim Reaper is a weird robot, all things considered. Like, I get why you went with a low-pressure flipper, because it allows you to get more flips, but, unfortunately, they never really got the chance to show why that mattered. Every 1v1 fight they had was against an invertible robot, and they never got the chance to show their stuff against another high-pressure flipper. Perhaps if Robot Wars hadn't been cancelled and The Grim Reaper had the chance to show its stuff against different opponents it would have gotten a chance to really shine. But as it stands, The Grim Reaper stands as just another one-off Series 7 semi-finalist flipper in a series that was full of one off semi-finalist flippers.