Robot Wars – Extreme Cardboard Edition!!!!

On Sunday 9th of April we had our last Sunday evening Bible Study – ‘Redefine‘ event before the Easter break. To make it a fun-filled and special night, we held our very own, and back by popular demand, ‘Robot Wars‘ evening.

We had 3 teams of engineers that were given sheets of cardboard, sticky tape, packing tape, cable ties, scissors, aluminium foil, card, tissue paper, a ball of thick cotton string, and a 3 wheeled garden planter base. Out of these materials there were tasked with constructing their very own ‘battle-bot‘ that would need to fight it out over a series of rounds to see who was the champion.

The contest was judged by 3 of our volunteer leaders; who were judging the contestants on the amount of control they had over the robot, the amount of aggression shown during the rounds and finally the amount of damage inflicted or sustained during a round. If a robot was completely incapacitated due to being irreparably damaged in some way they were automatically disqualified. Equally, if a robot was knocked out of the ring, this resulted in an immediate disqualification and loss of the round.

It was a lot of fun. Everyone got into creating and designing their robots with a lot of enthusiasm and good teamwork. It’s so good to see the image of God as our Creator shining through as we create things. Also the whole aspect of working together to see something made came out brilliantly on the evening; with everyone playing their part to produce their finished robot. Two of the volunteer leaders even created a new house robot to challenge our director Tim Gough’s championship winning robot ‘Sir Gingerlot‘.

When the field of play started we had 3 robots at the ready; ‘Barn-Alpha‘, ‘Poppet‘ & ‘Rollo‘ (I guess two of the teams were getting hungry from all of the building and creating and were thinking about chocolate snacks by the time it came to choosing names for their robots?!)

‘Barn-Alpha‘ was a sleek, hot rod or rocket looking machine, with ailerons on the side for control and a nicely shaped wedge at the front for getting under an opponents ‘bot’ to lift it up and incapacitate it.

‘Poppet‘ looked a bit more akin to a cardboard pig, with a large snout-like battering ram at the front and rolls of sticky tape at the back to balance out the weight.

Finally we had ‘Rollo‘, complete with ‘Rollo’ decal on the side of its fuselage. This too had a battering ram on the front, though to the side and not centrally located.

The first round went to ‘Barn-Alpha‘, who demonstrated better control and more aggression, despite not inflicting significant damage to ‘Poppet‘. ‘Poppet‘ fared little better against ‘Rollo‘ on the damage front, but due to ‘Rollo’s‘ lack of aggressiveness the round ended in a draw. ‘Barn-Alpha‘ then went on to win their round against ‘Rollo‘. It seemed that ‘Barn-Alpha‘ was going to walk away with the competition; as they had been in the lead for most of the event. However disaster struck when they entered their second round against ‘Poppet‘ and their undercarriage and wheels were mercilessly ripped off by ‘Poppet’s‘ large battering ram.

This was a huge blow to Team ‘Barn-Alpha‘ and after their bot was unceremoniously dragged from the arena, it was time for a final showdown between ‘Rollo‘ & ‘Poppet‘ to see who would emerge victorious. After 30 seconds of gruelling blows between these evenly matched bots, ‘Poppet‘ managed to knock ‘Rollo‘ out of the arena and earn the title of the night’s ‘champion‘ bot.

Congratulations were given and commiserations received; and the night was capped off by the exhibition fight between ‘Sir Gingerlot‘ and ‘The Tapenator‘. ‘The Tapenator‘ was not fairing well against the solidity of ‘Sir Gingerlot’s‘ tank like structure, despite having hobbled him by knocking one of his wheels off! In-fact it seemed like his days were numbered when ‘Sir Gingerlot‘ eliminated himself by knocking himself out of the arena trying to knock ‘The Tapenator’s‘ battering ram off!

Shock’s all round it seemed from the night. The little David’s managed to defeat the mighty Goliaths; a good lesson to be learned there.

It also is a good reminder to us as we head into the Easter week-end of God defeating sin & death on the cross.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” – Colossians 2:13-15  “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” – 1 Corinthians 2:8.

On Good Friday as were remember Jesus dying for the sins of the world on the cross; let us also remember that He won. He defeated sin & death and rose again victorious. This was a great surprise to the devil and all his angels.

So this Easter week-end, let us celebrate and rejoice that Jesus has won. Jesus has paid the price for our sins; and that Jesus is Lord!

Be Blessed!