Hi guys! This past weekend we (the Siegel family) got to go to Battle in the Backwoods 4. This was the second combat robot event in Tennessee that we attended this year. Jason and Jenna Rogers, who hosted the event, went above and beyond to make sure everyone felt welcome. They even got a really good food truck there for lunch and dinner! Battle in the Backwoods is a one-day event and there are several different weight classes that you can compete in. We did our usual 150-gram (fairy weights), and we competed with our non-destructive bots. There were people from all over the country (and Canada). They were of all different experience levels. The Battle Bots Season 5 Hypershock bot was there! Will Bales did not come, but it was so fun to ask the team all the many questions that we had about how the bot works and runs.
One of the most experienced robot competitors there was Santana Starks. He was so fun to compete against and he was running multiple bots in every weight class. Many of the other competitors were using destructive bots, so it was very fun and good for learning purposes to go up against spinners, especially because we almost always only battle our own bots which are non-destructive.
A very fun part of the event was that Ella, Charlie, Caroline, and Scott all got to compete against other teams – and each other in the end. It was very cool to see that all the Siegels that were competing beat everyone except for other Turnabots! That’s right! We all (except Scott who finished fourth) were on the podium! Team Turnabot swept the first four positions of all the fairy weight competitors.
Caroline/age 9/driving slipper got THIRD PLACE!
Charlie/age 10/driving cAnt got SECOND PLACE!
Ella/age 12/driving Squeez4r (pronounced squeezer) got FIRST PLACE!
“It was so fun to go up against all of the grown engineers and beat them to get first place!” – Ella (Who wrote this story).
The most fun part for all of us was probably meeting all the new people there and getting to talk to people that we met the last time we were there. The robot community is always so welcoming and helpful, with all the good ideas that a person could ever need. We are looking forward to more events in the future and are always looking to improve our bots and driving skills.