Hodag's most brutal fights yet

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]I think I finally have my beetle eight punch spinner figured out. And let's hope so, cuz I've only got two events to hammer out the kinks before we go out east to NHL and fight on the big stage.

[00:00:17]Hey builders, I'm Tyler of Team Crypted Robotics and today we're talking about my Beetle Punchpinner Hodag. I've been working on it for almost two years now and as I've mentioned before, I'm taking it to NHL in April. I'm already signed up as of and on the list as of now. I'll probably know what the bracket is by the time this video has come out and and hopefully I can get this video out before I go to NHL. There's actually a change of plans. I decided to include NHL in this video since it took me so long to get this video out. So, in this video, we're going to talk about the changes made in the offseason, the first two events of the year, and NHL itself.

[00:00:55]So, in the first half of this video, you're going to hear me talking about NHL as if it's not covered in the video, but it is.

[00:01:03]And these are the only two events I have to kind of get all of the kinks out before I go to NHL and fight on a bigger stage. Since it's a 16- hour trip and there's going to be a lot more eyeballs on that event, I like to have my robot as dialed in and figured out as I can.

[00:01:18]But with that said, I'll let pass me talk about the changes I made in the off season.

[00:01:24]So, now let's go over the changes I made to Hodag. I made a lot of small changes, but let's start out with the biggest one where I added I got rid of the normal top bolt that was here and one of the bottom screws that was those were plastite screws. I got rid of those and replace them with a throughbolt on each side and those pretty much go through the top and the bottom. I end up having to cut and counter sync the holes myself because this is a very expensive part to basically get a completely new one of and I obviously didn't have to do that.

[00:02:01]So, this was made the most sense. That meant also reprinting these sides.

[00:02:07]Luckily, they're the part that gets beat up the most, so it's nice to have fresh ones. I also made a bunch of minor changes to the back. Nothing that is super exciting or worth noting.

[00:02:17]Basically, I [music] got rid of the material here, so it's more optimized as far as weight. And I also made it a little bit easier to get it on with the sides here. Speaking of these sides, the or the drive mount as I like to call them, I changed I pushed the rear and front wheel like a millimeter closer together. Um, if you were watching the other video, you might have noticed that they or this front axle was literally being bent towards the back and that caused it to get sort of jammed up. So, by spacing that out a little bit, it will mitigate that a lot and make it so it's just a cleaner fit. This turned out to be a lot more annoying than you'd think because of how I had the dependencies, but you don't need to worry about that. Also, we have, this isn't the default front, but this is the front I wanted to put on this one.

[00:03:08][music] uh where I have a version of the front that is basically this same old one except for I put forks on it. That way in the later in the day if I'm worried about getting stuck on the wall, I have this as an option and they are nice and long.

[00:03:22]And also I changed the geometry of this little false front with the bailing.

[00:03:28]Basically, as you can see, I made it notably less thick. That way my opponent can get further up on the robot and get closer to my weapon. So hopefully I can have a little bit more bite. [music] And speaking of bite, I also have a asymmetrical weapon. I actually made this I had this cut and designed before the previous event, but I was too lazy to take apart this whole weapon assembly. And that's also why it's only on one of these copies because [music] decided to do half of the work in disassembling it.

[00:04:01]body.

[00:04:03]>> So, I figured I may as well fully disassemble it so I can put this on and have them extra bite. But going back to the front, I did change the metal forks.

[00:04:12]Basically, we have they're a little bit shorter and they have a hook on it and hopefully this will make it a lot harder to get stuck in the kick plates at events. so that it's doing double duty, helping that making it so they don't aren't able to get off of me as easily and sort of hold pins better while also preventing me from getting stuck as easily. I didn't make that many of them in case I want to make subtle changes to it. I almost forgot to mention I did reprint this part so that it is so it was printed on the print bed this way and it should mitigate them it breaking in fights if it breaks again. I'll probably just make this part make it just bigger. There's definitely enough room inside of here to do it. It's just I don't want to waste, you know, extra filament or weight on it. Wouldn't be that much weight, but I just didn't want to make it any bigger than it had to be.

[00:05:04]If you're new to the channel or haven't been caught up on Hodag videos, you may want to check out my last Hodak video that I put out at the end of last year that goes over the most recent major overhaul to the build. But with that said, let's get into Hodag's first event of the year, which is Simo Winter Wars.

[00:05:20]It is down in Missouri. It's a double elimination tournament, so if we lose twice, we're out of the tournament. It's a MRCA qualifying event, so our rank within the Midwest will change with each fight. The event was also a coat drive, which is important context as you'll see in a minute because not only did my girlfriend give me some old coats that she had lying around to donate, but I also dressed Hodag up as ho ho hoag because in addition to collecting coats, they also collected donations through the warmest bot competition.

[00:05:50]Essentially, builders could set aside one copy of the robots to be dressed as cozy as possible, and then people would vote by giving donations to the jar for your bot, and that money would end up going to the coat drive. And whoever had collected the most money won the warmest bot competition. And so, at the beginning of the event, I actually had one copy set aside. I basically just printed the body out of red and put a little hat on it and called it ho ho hoag. So because of that, at the beginning of the match, I had one version of Hodag. I decided to put the TPU, the white TPU front on it, and I had the other version of Hodag ready to fight either vertical spinner or just control setup with forks basically with the metal forks cuz I knew there was only one horizontal spinner at the entire event. I figured the odds of me getting matched up against them in the first round was pretty low and I figured the odds of us also being the first fight of the day was pretty low. But unfortunately, I miscalculated because our first fight of the day was Grand Slam, which is a two- wheeled horizontal.

[00:07:00][music] And since I couldn't change configurations in time since I was the first fight of the day, I decided to grab ho ho hoag since I decided TPU forks would be [music] better than metal ones cuz I figured the metal forks would get [music] uh chewed up too much. So I decided to grab ho hoag off the table and ho ho hoag had to go into the arena. And [music] um let's see if that t thin tepu front is going to be enough. Three, two, one, fight. Robots fight. And our two minute timer starts as both of these weapons rolling alive. Big impact. Huge amounts of energy in that horizontal spinner on Grand Slam going for the bottom.

[00:07:43]>> Not a great start.

[00:07:44]>> That tends to be a vulnerable point on a lot of bots. Oh, there goes the >> We lose a drive belt.

[00:07:49]>> Hod's drive not looking too good right there. Oh no. More chunks taken out of Hod Slam looking to put it to rest now.

[00:07:58]Oh, that entire side of his weapon assembly is all janked out of shape there. Big impact. Oh, his forks coming off of Hodak, too. Grand slam running up again into the wall.

[00:08:09]>> There goes one of the shafts for the >> linear slide.

[00:08:14]>> But Hodak just keeps it right that robot design.

[00:08:19]>> Oh yeah, we got stuck in the side.

[00:08:21]>> He goes in for a hit.

[00:08:22]>> Pushing it further in.

[00:08:25]Oh, taking it loose.

[00:08:29]I found another way to get stuck apparently.

[00:08:39]>> Congratulations to your winner.

[00:08:41]>> So, yeah, if we stop it right there. Um, I tapped out because the wheel, as you can see, is now coming out the top of the robot and is, uh, parallel with the floor. Uh, basically, I was stuck into the wall and he ended up hitting the backside. Yeah, that was a rough one.

[00:09:00]The front basically did nothing to stop his weapon. He basically went up over the top and in the first exchange, he ended up taking out the weapon assembly.

[00:09:12]That hub motor is completely cooked and done for. And it was pretty much all downhill from there. He ended up uh cutting through the sides into the drive. And when I got stuck in the wall, he basically just took out that drive motor. I probably should have tapped out since I was losing anyways and maybe I would have uh saved myself some money.

[00:09:33]But I thought maybe I could survive. I I do I think I didn't realize how much infill I had on the uh sides of the robot because I noticed that like after those hits I'm like why do I have such low infill? Because it I should note that Hodg is very underweight right now.

[00:09:52]So, I think going into the next event when I reprint the sides because this one got torn up and the other one will get torn up. Spoiler alert. And so, I think I'll reprint them at 100% infill because I think we're still a ways underweight. Uh, so overall, not a good start to the day. I think that would have went very differently had I had been able to configure Hodag properly.

[00:10:17]Although it's hard to say because Grand Slam hits like a freight train, but hopefully we can dig ourselves out of the losers bracket. Um, our next fight is against Relax a bit.

[00:10:31]Fought Relax a Bit at the last Winter Wars. It's a [music] four-wheel drive.

[00:10:36]It was a four-wheel drive drill last year. This um [music] for this event, it's a four-wheel drive hammersaw.

[00:10:42]Although, he told me going into this fight that the hammersaw [music] wasn't working. So, we should have a pretty good advantage in this fight. And last time we fought him, we already beat him pretty handedly. And so, with all the upgrades [music] and stuff, we should be favored in this fight.

[00:10:58]>> Two fight robots.

[00:11:02]>> Immediately there was a drill earlier, but that's multiple configurations. He switches blade and a drill depending on his opponent.

[00:11:21][music] >> So, we're taking it nice and slow, nice and easy. Since I know he's not spinning, I don't want to get I'm also still worried about getting stuck in the wall.

[00:11:39]>> Little worried.

[00:11:46]>> [music] >> So yeah, we're just sort of taking our time getting underneath him, >> pushing him around.

[00:11:58]>> Trying to do a little bit of damage.

[00:12:02]>> We got one minute left.

[00:12:04]Release that one.

[00:12:13]>> [music] >> before.

[00:12:21][music] >> So, at this point, I going to let him get counted out >> cuz there's no real sense in doing more damage to him.

[00:12:39]>> And that is it. So, overall, that was a pretty easy fight. Uh, I I had a lot, you could see I had a lot of hesitation in my driving. Um, I'm surprised that for a hammer saw, he doesn't have more ground game to try to control, but we pretty much had complete control over the fight. Our punches weren't super hard-hitting, but we definitely grinded up on the bottom of his robot a lot, and we were I wasn't really too worried at any point, but overall good to finally get a win. So, we are one in one and we continue fighting. Um, honestly, that went even better than the last time we fought him. Uh, because the last time we fought him, he actually was able to his drill was working. I was able to actually do a little bit of damage. But this time his weapon wasn't spinning at all and we so we ended up not taking any damage. I should note before we get into the next fight that our fight after relax and before the next one had to forfeit. So, we end up moving further into the bracket, and it counts as a win for us. Our next fight is against ibuprofen, which is a four-wheel drive vert. I saw its fight against who's Earl right before it, and it was a slugfest. So, I am quite worried about this one. Um, I should mention that for this fight, this was the first fight of the day where they had the housebot working, which is a, I believe, 42 lb robot meant to unstick some of the beetles.

[00:14:13]>> Not a good start. Getting a He got a good hit on our bottom.

[00:14:22]real tentative both of us.

[00:14:26]Oh, he gets a pop on us. He stops moving. I decide to keep engaging cuz I don't know if he's going to turn on.

[00:14:35][music] Oh no.

[00:14:45]>> 10.

[00:14:50]>> Oh. And he turns back on. [music] Maybe I shouldn't have uh turned my spun down. Ooh, he takes out my drive belt.

[00:15:02]>> I don't know what it was either. I think it was my belt. [music] >> Yeah, he took out my drive belt. I got I hit something on him. able to get a pin right here.

[00:15:13]Very terrifying situation.

[00:15:18]Luckily, we don't use our front wheels too much, so even without the drive belt, we can drive pretty well.

[00:15:29][music] You lose the fork. I think I might have hit that at some point. [music] We're upside down. self right in time just in time. [music] Able to get some hits.

[00:15:45][music] Maybe able to get his backside.

[00:15:52]We slam him into the house spot which takes his weapon down and we're just tearing up his bottom. [music] Three, two, one.

[00:16:09]>> Holy. Um, that was an absolute slugfest.

[00:16:13]Um, I think if I would have stopped engaging the moment I realized his robot wasn't working, he might have gotten counted out, but it's hard to say. We took a ton of damage in that fight, but his weapon did go down and I think and we did get some good hits and we were sort of had the better end of part of it and so we did actually end up winning that judge's decision. I feel pretty good about that fight. I don't see how I could have driven that much better. I'm also can see that these new metal forks are working pretty well. I know Simo's kick plates in previous events, they've been really easy to get stuck under. And so me being able to drive into the wall and not get stuck is actually a really good sign for these forks. But that was a slugfest. I just want to interject quick to talk about the damages from this fight. One of the TPU fronts kind of came off from one of the hits. He completely broke the axle for one of the front wheels, which I'm really surprised that didn't affect the drive too much. I mean, I already knew those front wheels weren't doing much, but god damn. Also, he bent the shaft on one of the drive motors in the back. Um, I actually end up still running with it for the rest of the vent because I was so behind on time, only having one copy and I actually had to use my one postponement.

[00:17:35]Also, that same drive wheel had part of the wheel coming apart, similar to what we saw in that Grand Slam fight. I didn't swap out the wheel, though. I just super glued it back together and ran with it because I didn't really have much time to do the repairs cuz like I said, I already had to use my postponement to get ready for my next fight. But, we're already looking at the most damage Hod has probably taken in a single event. We actually won that judge's decision, which kind of makes sense after his weapon went down because I think the blows were kind of even against each other, but his weapon going down and Hodex staying fully functional is why we ended up on top. Him also turning off is not a good look for the judges. And actually after this fight, I took so much damage and since I didn't have a second copy like I normally did because as I only brought one hub motor and you you already saw what happened to that hub motor. Um so I only had one copy and this was actually the first event where I had to use a postponement in order to stay in the event and I had to so I had to postpone my f fight against my next opponent which is actually grand slam.

[00:18:44]That name should sound familiar because that was my first [music] fight of the day and they are the reason I'm in the losers bracket currently. But a notable change from this fight and the last time I a I had enough time to actually put a wedge on a Hodag. So maybe that wedge will make all the difference. Uh we'll see. Either way, I am quite scared because I know how hard that [music] robot hits.

[00:19:12]one fight. My last fight.

[00:19:14]>> I did forget to mention that the punch was intermittent when I was getting it ready for this fight and I kind of just rolled with it.

[00:19:26]>> Wedge is working pretty well.

[00:19:29][music] >> Nice pop.

[00:19:39]Oo, his wheelguard stuck.

[00:19:42]>> Start counting.

[00:19:44]>> Considering the shape of my weapon, I won't knock you down.

[00:19:47]>> Nine.

[00:19:48]>> Oh, that is >> seven.

[00:19:51]>> I'm so sorry.

[00:19:54]>> Three, two, [laughter] >> and that's it.

[00:19:59]>> So, I will say we definitely got lucky on that one. It seemed like his weapon stopped spinning due to some sort of issue. Um because I think if it was spinning he it would have been just enough to get him off there. That's actually not true. The reason he couldn't get off the wall is because the hub motor didn't have enough torque in order to spin from a stall. So that's a trade-off at least in horizontal spinners. If you use a hub motor over the belt and pulley horizontals that use the belt and pulley don't have that problem quite as much. Um him getting stuck there is super lucky on our part.

[00:20:31]You will notice that the linear shaft for the punching mechanism was no longer seated. So, it's pretty clear that the throughbolts that I was using before did not work uh to fix that issue. The issue I had against Bert.

[00:20:44]>> Sorry.

[00:20:45]>> I think I know what the problem is. So, when I make the holes that the linear shafts go into, I think I made the hole too deep cuz I wanted a little bit of room so it like isn't like completely tight. And I think I just need to tighten the tolerances for those holes.

[00:21:03]And maybe that'll happen a little bit less. Um, but overall, I'm really happy about that. The wedge did a lot of the work there. It held up great. Uh, I was really scared going to that fight, so winning is a huge deal. I should note that fight put us into the top three and puts us against our next opponent. Who is who is who Earl?

[00:21:30][music] Whose Earl is a four-wheel drive beater bar. It's made by the same driver of Bert, who we've fought twice already and lost both times. Uh, this is Whose Earl's first event, and it did pretty well considering it's now in the top three, and it's only lost so far today was against Pipeline Punch. So, I'm quite scared going into this and I'm basically assuming that I'm going to lose um considering the fact that my punching mechanism wasn't really working going into last fight because of the re the repeat compacts having that pinion gear issue and I didn't feel like taking the bot completely apart to fix it in between the fights. So, I just rolled with it, especially because I don't have a postponement. So, I'd rather have an iffy punching mechanism than not be ready for the next fight. So, this is going to be a tight a close one. Uh, we got like a weird drive where one wheel is all held together with super glue and a skew. The punching mechanism has a bad pinion gear. We have no second copy and it's we're just hanging on for dear life.

[00:22:40]>> 3 2 1 All right.

[00:22:46]Not a good start.

[00:22:50]He ends up upside down longer than us somehow.

[00:22:56]>> He does have a drive side go down.

[00:23:04]>> Why did I do that?

[00:23:06]>> I have to be careful.

[00:23:12]>> So, we have to really pick our shots.

[00:23:14]Even though his drive is done, that weapon hits hard.

[00:23:25]>> Looks like trying to show control. Oh, he just Oh, he can almost have the punch there.

[00:23:33]>> Don't want to get stuck.

[00:23:36]>> Uhoh. Can he get it? Can he get it? He's trying. He's trying to punch.

[00:23:42]Oh, there it is.

[00:23:44]>> A little bit of material.

[00:23:49][music] Right there.

[00:24:09]>> I guess I won't punch anymore. That was the rack from the punching mechanism. I guess I didn't >> I for some reason was only using two screws, but I should have been using >> three.

[00:24:30]finish it here.

[00:24:37][music] >> Okay, can barely touch that. Four, three, two, one.

[00:24:45]>> That is >> That fight was nerve-wracking cuz even when his drive went down, that weapon hit so hard, I was afraid of it. We did actually win that J decision cuz we sort of were able to control him, push him around. Uh, his drive going down helped us obviously with damage points and our weapon and drive was still functional at the end. I Our weapon assembly did take some damage. A problem I have with the weapon assembly is there's not enough material between this and the outside part where the screw goes in there cuz there's that spacer on top to like hold it together and there's not enough material between where that screw goes in and like where it ends up landing.

[00:25:24]And so I think in future I've think I've actually changed in CAD. I just never ordered parts yet. Um where there's a little bit more material behind it so it won't break like that. And since we're going into the final since we just made top two because we won that judges decision, we're going against Pipeline Punch.

[00:25:43]And I kind of don't expect to really win against Pipeline Punch. So, I ended up deciding to uh just not bother with that top shoulder bolt to like hold it together cuz I'm like it it usually holds together without it. So, I should be fine without that uh spacer on top at least long enough to make it through the last fight because otherwise I have to take the whole robot apart. I have to take otherwise I'd have to take the back of the robot apart. I'd have to disassemble the whole weapon assembly in order to get that part that attached, which is a not trivial task in order to take a part that weapon assembly. And I don't have a second copy. So, I just decided to run with it going into that fight. Now, we are going into the finals fight, which is against Pipeline Punch.

[00:26:31][music] Pipeline Punch is a four-wheel drive vertical spinner. It is the twotime MRCA champ. It has won a lot of events and is incredibly terrifying. It hasn't lost all day. And this is actually my first time fighting it despite me fighting a lot of knockoffs of Pipeline Punch, including Ian's own knockoff of it where his own kit version that he created. And I'm not expecting to win this fight, but I'm just happy to have made it this far.

[00:27:04]If I do win this fight, however, there will be another fight and because of how double elimination works. So, if I lose, the event is over. And if I win, uh, we have to fight one more time.

[00:27:26]>> Was able to push us around.

[00:27:32]Man, I don't like it.

[00:27:36]>> Oh, drive side is not [music] working.

[00:27:48]>> So, we're able to drive straight there.

[00:27:49]I'm not sure what happened before.

[00:27:53]Oh my god, he's stuck.

[00:28:00]I assume he's not fully stuck, so I decide to try to get a free hit in.

[00:28:06]Oh, there's my one of my linear shafts.

[00:28:19]Oh, we are [music] dancing.

[00:28:31]>> [music] >> Oh, not so great.

[00:28:42]>> There's a certain point in the fight where I just decided I wanted to last the full 2 minutes.

[00:28:47]>> I knew I wasn't going to win.

[00:29:03]Oh my god, I keep getting so many hits.

[00:29:12]>> Jesus.

[00:29:15]>> Pushed back a little bit.

[00:29:16]>> I did not spin that up. 3.

[00:29:21]>> Unsurprisingly, we lost that judge's decision. Although, I'm glad I was able to make the full two minutes. Whenever we locked forks, he was basically able to like like we were sort of he was basically able to push us back. the bailing on the front was enough to stop the forks, but I think he just he has um he has uh stronger motors at a certain point and I think my drive might have been compromised by that time of the day. So, we got pretty beat up during that one. You can also see how uh beat up this is. Um this also shows how little material I need to put more material here. That was an insane fight.

[00:30:01]I barely I think scratched him that whole fight. I think it could have gone worse, I guess. Not too bad for being against the uh twotime MRCA champ.

[00:30:14]Overall, I feel really good about Hod how Hodag performed throughout that whole day considering our loss was me not having the correct configuration and going against the two-time MRCA champ.

[00:30:26]And so I feel really good about where Hodag's at. While at the same time, I think we did learn about some things we need to change. Like we do have things that we can improve. Unfortunately, we have only one event before NHL to really test out these changes and to find any more kinks. Since I took so much damage in this event, I ended up dropping it from the next event I had planned cuz originally I had planned on going to two more events before NHL, but now we're down to one and that one event is two weeks before NHL. So that's going to be a tight turnaround. But before we talk about that event, let's go into the specifics on the changes I made.

[00:31:00]Let's start out with the weapon mechanism. The only part I changed was the UHMW mounts for the side that it slides on. It's a relatively minor change, and if I didn't have to or if I wasn't losing [music] some to damage, I wouldn't have bothered ordering more, but I was going to run out otherwise.

[00:31:16]The changes are only to this ear part.

[00:31:19]Uh, this is actually the old one, unsurprisingly, and this is the new one.

[00:31:23]This is also the new one. and the old one but separated that way I can show you guys the difference. Basically, I added a little bit more material and rounded this off [music] more so that I was having troubles whenever I'd get knocked upside down that I would land on this part and then it would get broken.

[00:31:38]And I moved the hole for the [music] spacer inward more. Makes it so there's more material on the side so when it gets knocked upside down, [music] it would always break along that point.

[00:31:48]Maybe it'll be less likely to break. I also changed where the hole for the weapon lock goes. I pushed it in a little bit more because on the old one, this weapon rotates [music] almost the entire way. And on the new one, this way it can't rotate as much.

[00:32:01]This didn't become a problem until I started using the asymmetrical blade.

[00:32:05]And NHL requires that [music] you have less than 180° of movement when you have the weapon lock in. I'm not worried about that for Harbor City Riot, [music] but since I'm going to NHL after this one, I wanted to change that ahead of time. Now, let's move on to the front of the robot. I went from the weird two screw thing I had where I had screws coming in both sides and nuts in the back here. It wasn't a very good system and it made it so I couldn't change my configuration out quick enough. So, I'm just using one long bolt. [music] I really don't have a good reason why I wasn't doing that before. And because I did that, I also changed the front and added a little bit more material in order to keep this front on since that in the last event the when the vertical [music] spinners would hit it, they would end up breaking there. So hopefully the little bit of extra material will keep those on better. I also have a new wedge specifically for robots like thrombler. So if I want a [music] some ground game when going against a horizontal spinner, you'll notice that there is more material than on this one. So my weapon can't go as far out. But [music] I need the extra protection anyways because most horizontals with forks don't have nearly as much power in their weapon as some of the other ones. So I feel comfortable [music] having a little less protection with the TPU wedge. With the sides, I changed it so that the there's a room for a hex bolt instead of the room for the head of the screw. And I which is not a big deal because I had to reprint these anyways because for the last event they were too hollow. I actually might have went a little overboard because these are now 100% infill and I was actually really struggling to make weight particularly when I have the titanium top plates on. So that definitely will be a thing that I'll have to worry about before an HRL. I don't think I'll have to worry [music] about it for this next event though. And lastly, I made changes to the back. You can't tell at all, but I basically just changed the density of this hole so that there's not really room for this [music] linear shaft to move. Um, on this one, it kind of looks like I might have overdid it, but I guess we'll find out at the next event. But hopefully since these won't be able to move, they won't be able to slide out at all cuz that was still happening at the last event even with these throughbolts. But we'll see.

[00:34:08]Hopefully this will be enough for us to win.

[00:34:11]So, now let's get into the last event we have before NHL, which is Harbor City Riot up in Duth, Minnesota. It's actually two weeks before NHL. So, hopefully I don't take too much damage because I'm not going to have a heck of a lot of time to order new parts. I ideally I shouldn't have to order any because I ordered as if I was going to two events back to back because I am going to two events back to back. This tournament is in the middle of a car show called Moto Ed, so there'll be lots of viewers coming in and out, which is always nice. Uh, unfortunately, it has a little bit lower signups, so there's not too many other robots. I think last I checked there is seven because I'm recording this before the event, so there's some things I don't know.

[00:34:54]Because there was such low signups, they were originally going to do modified Swiss, they're going to ch they I got an email saying they're going to discuss it at the event. And this is actually one of the few times I was able to actually record stuff before an event. So that's nice. But I should say since I haven't said it yet that I go over events on stream the Thursday immediately after that event. Every Thursday at 7 p.m. I stream. So that's the quickest way to find out how my robots do at events. And on other weeks I either do work on CAD or I do other stuff that is all combat robot related. This event is a MRCA qualifying event. So, it will affect our rank. Inability to qualify for MRCA finals at the end of the season. I also brought a plastic ant shuffler called I'm a spooky sea monster. The video on that will probably be the next video I put out after this one. With that said, our first fight was against Grim.

[00:35:50]If you remember, I fought Grim at Hodak's first event back in I believe it was either September. is either September or October [music] RSL in 2024. We ended up winning that one, but this is a very different Grim and this is a a very different Hodag. So, this is definitely going to be a lot scarier.

[00:36:10]Um, I am thinking that it our wedge has done pretty well since we were able to it did pretty well when we fought Grand Slam. So, I have high hopes.

[00:36:25]>> [music] >> So, I'm struggling to phase it. There we go.

[00:36:30][music] Not my best driving.

[00:36:40]>> Oh, yeah. He gets stuck in the wall.

[00:36:46]>> He was in there deep.

[00:36:48]3 2 1 [music] >> here. I get stuck in the floor and he ends up getting a hit on that back wheel.

[00:37:00]So, we're [music] are we're down a drive side.

[00:37:05]I'm not sure why we stopped there.

[00:37:14]And then yeah, he rips the wedge off and tap out. So overall that was not great.

[00:37:20]He got the hit that took out the drive right at at the same time I got stuck in the floor. You can literally see in the clip the piece of the wooden floor. Like overall it didn't feel like that great of driving. I noticed that the drive side that went down it was a pinion gear issue. So I that might have affected the drive before I even got hit like that. I think that also didn't help me like keep facing him during the fight. It's been an ongoing thing where my first fight of the day I drive like crap and that seems to ring true here. But yeah, that was a steel kick plate and he was stuck in there. So that was a pretty nasty hit. I was kind of hoping that getting stuck in the kick plate would damage his weapon, but clearly it didn't do that much. And once the wedge fell off, I decided to tap out since I was clearly already losing. It is insane how much damage he was able to do to the sides of the robot yet not even damage the wheels at all.

[00:38:15]Also, the wedge ended up ripping off because of the 3D printed part that it's screwed into. Ended up failing along where it's bolted to the front of the bot. I'm gonna reprint those at a different angle because it it pretty much failed along the layer lines, but I it's easy enough to print at a orientation that the layer lines won't be the weak point. So, in the future, it'll take a little bit more force in order to rip those off. So, a loss to start the day is not great. Our second fight is against a another horizontal called Respectfully.

[00:38:51]This one is another really big weapon, but it does not spin [music] up quite as quickly and definitely does not have as many events under its belt. I'm pretty sure this is actually its first event, [music] so this should be a little bit better for us.

[00:39:10]>> Not quite able to get across the B box very fast.

[00:39:18]Trying to stay on him, although I don't want to like let him hit my backside.

[00:39:26]Basically able to pin him against the wall.

[00:39:30]He's not very mobile.

[00:39:36]Basically [music] get some free hits in.

[00:39:40]Although here I decide to wait for him to get counted out.

[00:39:51]But overall, that was a much better fight. I don't have a picture of it actually, weirdly enough. He actually damaged my wheel. It's hard to tell in the video, but he did get a chunk out of one of the back wheels. Um, so I had to replace one of the back wheels or decided to. So, overall, pretty good fight. He wasn't super mobile, so there's not really much to learn from it. We were able to stay on him enough to uh prevent his weapon from spinning up. It wasn't super clean, but it was enough to get us a knockout. So, we're one in one. And now our third fight is against Shake Hands with Danger.

[00:40:27]It is another guess what? Two wheel drive horizontal. But this is a big scary horizontal. I saw one of its earlier fights. I believe it was against something and he did a ton of damage.

[00:40:40]So, I'm pretty nervous going into this one. Um, I hopefully the wedge can hold up, especially after it getting ripped off during the grim fight. I should note, while this builder is not really known for his three-pound robots, he does have experience with a 12p pounder that you may or may not have heard of called minor threat 5. So, keep that in mind going into this.

[00:41:04]Continuous start. Making sure I'm facing him.

[00:41:08]I'm able to push him into that corner.

[00:41:10]And his weapon does not stop spinning when I throw it in the steel kick plates, which is concerning.

[00:41:23]>> I'm definitely using his own weapon more than my own.

[00:41:28]>> That looks terrifying.

[00:41:46]I'm just doing my best to stay on him and stay wedge first on him. The blade might be I keep thinking he's like going to hit my wheels, but they are fine.

[00:42:11]Usually doesn't take that long to selfright now. You can tell our wedge is a bit bent up and that's affecting our drive.

[00:42:22]>> Here he gets stuck. This event is different than the other ones we go to.

[00:42:26]So here they decide to they unstick him so we get to keep fighting. I think at other events, at least other MRCA events, he would have gotten counted out, but I guess it is what it is.

[00:42:39]>> 30 seconds remaining. His wheel comes off after smacking [snorts] between us and the kick plates. I'm not driving as straight. Our weapon is no longer seated. [snorts] >> Trying to be a lot more careful.

[00:42:59]>> It's hard to drive straight when your wedge is scraping on the ground like that.

[00:43:04]>> 5 4 3 2 1 That's the match. Both of us were looking pretty rough at the end of this that one. His drive I People are saying that he might have gotten counted out had I not kept engaging, but it was hard to tell cuz he was sort of moving.

[00:43:21]I think most of the translation was from his spinner, not from his wheels. Um, overall, I don't know how we could have driven that much better. I mean, and I'm really surprised some of the times we fell on his weapon, we didn't end up taking damage to the drive. So, our weapon was down and his drive was down.

[00:43:39]So, we definitely gave the judges a lot to think about. The judge's decision actually went our way, which in a way makes sense, even though because our weapon was down and his drive was completely down, so damage was relatively even and we pretty much controlled the pace of that entire fight and had the aggression the entire fight.

[00:44:00]Every hit was pretty much initiated by us or him just sort of like spinning in circles. And there was a lot of good moments where we were able actually just push his weapon into the wall and we're able to take the hits on our terms for the most part. And that's why we didn't end up taking more damage. And honestly, a lot of the damage he did was when he was the most chaotic. A win's a win, I guess, despite us arguably looking more damaged. Um, the wedge held up pretty well. I'm pretty impressed with that. I was able to bend it back into shape so I can keep using that same wedge. I did have a backup, but that brings us into our fourth fight, which is against Pacific Punch.

[00:44:43]Pacific Punch is a another is not another is that it's a four-wheel drive vert. It is one of the many Pipeline Punch, I guess, clones or knockoffs, orever you want to call it. Uh, at the last event I saw Pacific Punch at, I had some brownout issues, but it looks like at this event he had those fixed. So, I'm definitely pretty scared to go into this one. Um, I've had some mixed results going against the pipeline punch. Actually, I've had mostly negative results fighting the pipeline [music] punch and its uh cousins. I guess I'm not sure what's going to happen when our forks come together to the front. So, this will be interesting cuz I know I think his robots a little bit faster than mine and his weapon definitely hits harder than mine.

[00:45:26][music] >> Not very straight coming out the gate.

[00:45:32]We lock horns.

[00:45:43]They're doing pretty good so far. Not too bad. I don't really get much contact with the weapon, though.

[00:45:52]Do a somersault.

[00:45:54]My one of my forks is now bent.

[00:46:01]able to knock him upside down but not able to really capitalize.

[00:46:09]>> Try to square up unfortunately allows him to get out of it.

[00:46:19]I forgot to mention this, but my forks were a little bit up when I noticed I put it in the box, and I should have fixed that. Oh, we're going to circle back to that one.

[00:46:32]But yeah, that takes our He took the whole end of the gear box off on that one.

[00:46:39]And obviously, we're struggling to drive straight.

[00:46:48]Trying to stay facing him best we can.

[00:47:04]Oh, and there I end up tapping out.

[00:47:07]So, we end up tapping out because the weapon shafts fell out of the front, which has been an ongoing issue with this version of Hodag. Uh, going into NHL though, I decided to super glue them into the front since I mean I have to do something to keep them in there.

[00:47:26]Hopefully super gluing works. You know, obviously glue holds things in in place and I know super glue isn't the greatest for impacts, but I think since it's already in a place since the shafts are already where they want to be, I think super glue is going to end up doing the trick. And I wasn't doing too bad until we lost that wheel. We weren't exactly winning, but we weren't getting our butt kicked quite yet. Although I my driving definitely needs some work because there's a lot of times where I went in for hits and just missed. I think some of it could be the robot not driving as straight as I want it to be as opposed to necessarily all being my skill. It is what it is. Uh I should mention that was the end of the day. Overall, I think it kind of brought me down to earth after getting second place at the last event.

[00:48:16]Although, we did have some We did have a hard record. Pacific Punch and Grim are two pretty high ranked bots and they were the ones that beat us. I think we're going to go down slightly in rank because even though the bots that beat us were definitely better than us, the bots that we beat were new bots. Going into NHL, I definitely have a little less confidence than I was going into this fight or going into this event, but we'll see how that goes. And now, let's talk about NHRL, the moment you've all been waiting for. It's the biggest event that we go to each year. I pretty much end up taking it as seriously as I take MRCA Finals. Since I'm taking 16 hours to get there, I want to have my best foot forward when I get there and represent the Midwest as best as I can.

[00:49:02]And it's only two weeks after the last event. I did this on purpose. So, my driving would be at its peak, even though I would have very little time to make repairs and even less to make changes. And we took a lot more damage than I initially planned at DUTH, but we were able to get three working copies going to this event. I wasn't able to make that many changes. Pretty much, I just super glued the linear shafts into the front of the robot, so hopefully that'll be enough to keep them in. And I also designed a big wheel config because I knew actual size is going to be there.

[00:49:38]And more importantly in my group for qualification. And a quick note on that.

[00:49:43]Basically to qualify for the single elimination bracket at NHL, you're in a group and you have to win either your first two fights or the first two of your three in order to qualify. And you're pretty much put into a group so you have a really good idea of who you're going to fight. Um, but without further ado, let's get into our first fight, which is against Blue Viper.

[00:50:07]They're a four-wheel drive lifter.

[00:50:09]They're a SSP kit, which we've fought before and won. So, I'm feeling pretty confident going into this. Also, their only event was like the same event last year, and they didn't do [music] great then. I was actually worried this fight wouldn't even happen because they weren't able to go through safety until like an hour before the fight. I was actually kind of checking. I was trying to check in. I didn't know where their [music] their like pit was, like where they were in the pits, but they were able to get into the fight and we did have a fight. So, I guess we'll just get [music] onto it.

[00:50:48]>> So, the drive isn't as straight as I thought it would be.

[00:50:54]They basically aren't they didn't get out of the box at all and they pretty much tapped out immediately. You can actually see here that I didn't feel comfortable to drive so I drive around to test it. Yeah, there's not really much to talk about considering they pretty much turned off immediately. I wasn't able to check in to see what happened with the robot. Um, but it doesn't really give us much driving at the start of the day cuz as you guys know know that watch my content, my first fight of the day is always kind of sucks. But not much we can do about it.

[00:51:27]I did notice the driving wasn't super straight as soon as I started. That's why you could see me driving a little bit afterwards to try to figure out what was going on. So because of that, I end up using a different copy of Hodag for the next fight which is against Sir Sicy.

[00:51:44]>> [music] >> I kind of figured assumed I was going to fight Sir Sicy because they're the number sixth [music] ranked bot at NHL.

[00:51:52]They're a four-wheel drive Drisk, but the Drisk is sort of caned. Um, they're a pretty scary robot. I get they're going to be really aggressive and they're going to bounce us around a bunch. [music] Um, I'm I was kind of assuming we would lose this one for a lot of my predictions, but I think maybe if we can get them just right, [music] maybe we can be able to hopefully pin them and maybe eek out a win.

[00:52:18][music] They get a hit up good couple hit outs right away.

[00:52:30]This is kind of what I was worried would happen. and he would just toss us around.

[00:52:34][music] We're kind of able to get underneath him, pop him away.

[00:52:46]We hit the camera, but we're still in it.

[00:52:56]But unfortunately, our drive side goes down. So, it's going to be an uphill battle from here.

[00:53:03]>> [music] >> struggle to face him there.

[00:53:13]We're doing basically whatever we can to try to still face him. Lord knows I ain't tapping out.

[00:53:25][music] Making him work for it.

[00:53:40]Still not I'm able to knock him around.

[00:53:43]Just keep hoping that maybe something will [music] happen to him basically at this point.

[00:53:56][music] Worried we're I was worried we'd get stuck in that corner, which is probably what he wants to do cuz he wants to end it.

[00:54:33]I if I remember correctly on the right side, the [music] shaft for the linear rail is is falling out at this point. So that's why the weapon assembly is caned.

[00:54:47]It the UHMW is fine.

[00:55:13]>> [music] >> So, we end up making it to the bell. Um, we ended up unsurprisingly losing that judge's decision since our punching mechanism no longer worked and we lost half the drive and he pretty much got a lot more hits on us than we did on him.

[00:55:36]Um, we were still in it pretty much until we lost that drive side.

[00:55:39]Unsurprisingly, the problem with the drive was the same as it's always been. It's been that damn pinion gear. The pinion gear was slipping. That's happened entirely too many times now with these same drive motors. I'm tempted to switch, but I have to rearrange the weight and hode a lot in order to do it. I don't have pictures of the damage, but you can see pretty clearly that he pretty much got the the little TPU fork things on the side. Those were pretty much gone by the end of the fight. So, I may need to rethink those since those clearly didn't do much of anything. Um, I don't feel too bad about how I drove that because I'm not really sure like driving wise what I really could have done differently. But the super glue was not enough to keep those linear shafts in because which I kind of had a feeling would be the case because I know that and you should know that super glue its biggest weakness is impact and obviously in combat robotics there's lots of impact. So you probably just popped it out on one big hit. There's not much I can do at the event about that because super glue is pretty much the quick solution to that. But yeah, the fork configuration was clearly not working on against Sir Sicy. Pretty much the corners he was able to get pretty solid hits. What Rough House is saying about the metal forks on the outside that might work better because he wouldn't have basically just chewed up that TPU part. And I definitely should have had a I definitely need a different config for robots such as Sir Sicy considering it clearly was not working. I did I do feel pretty good about how I drove once I lost my drive because even after losing that drive side, I was able to like stay in the fight. We're going to move on to the next fight, which actually I did predictions for my group and I actually predicted I would fight this robot based on how the matchups were. And so I'm proud of myself for being able to predict this since I assumed I'd win my first fight, lose my second fight, and I predicted that this bot would win their or lose their first fight than win their second one. And that was actual size.

[00:57:52]Actual size is a big wheeled robot. It is a pretty decently ranked at NHL, but not like crazy high. Um, I know I watched some of Max Morning Star's videos, so I've kind of an idea what I'm going into. I've never fought a big wheeled robot before, so I'm not sure how this is going to go. The configuration I have is basically just a TPU wall, and I had some like aluminum rods laying around super glued like coming out of it. I pretty much expect the aluminum rods to be knocked off really quickly, but I expect that TPU wall to still be there and which is what I [music] expect to do most of the work.

[00:58:32]Um, so let's just get into it.

[00:58:49]Not a great start. immediately lose one of the aluminum rods.

[00:59:01]I wasn't doing It's not exactly my best driving.

[00:59:07]I'm kind I kind of not sure what to do.

[00:59:09]I'm not [music] used to this.

[00:59:13]So eventually I just start like trying to come at him from far away.

[00:59:19]>> [music] >> cuz I really want to attack those wheels.

[00:59:27]It's pretty clear we're able to do some damage to the wheels early on. We lose that other shaft.

[00:59:40]I don't like that.

[00:59:46]We're struggling to self-right.

[00:59:49]I [music] It's hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure this is around when one of the linear rails fell out.

[00:59:57]Yep. Yeah, one of the linear rails [music] was out. Out that. So, this is where we we get stuck upside down. Need to unstick. Normally, this wouldn't [music] happen, but because of the issue with the linear rails falling out, that's why we're stuck.

[01:00:17]So, one linear rail is keeping that spinner in, but I'm still running it because if we lose, we're done.

[01:00:25]Hopefully, we can just do enough damage to those tires and it won't matter.

[01:00:29][music] We weren't using that linear rod anyways.

[01:00:56]I I really shouldn't have driven [music] over that. We're still in it, but it's not looking great for us. I'm really worried about going upside down.

[01:01:14]Yeah, I'm really scared every time we go upside down cuz I know it can't selfright as easily. Also, the house spots are sort of in the way. Oh, now the weapon assembly is completely [music] off, but screw it. It's the last fight. We'll keep going.

[01:01:31][music] So, that didn't go great. I would say the the config kind of did its job. Like kind of went as expected. Um, I probably shouldn't have even bothered with the little rods on the front cuz it was just wasted weight. Maybe I could have put it at the front at a different angle so it didn't get knocked as much or like thrown as far. Um, it again, the linear rods just falling out is clearly the biggest issue. And I don't I'm not sure exactly what it is about actual size that made it happen. I seemingly quicker than other fights. I think mostly because he's able to hit the weapon assembly itself, I guess. And like just where he hits it, I think makes them want to pop out. So, I'm definitely going to have to before any other event have to find a much bigger solution in order to sort of keep those in. The last three things I've tried to keep those linear rails in like were pretty much me trying to do as little as possible. But it's clear I'm going to have to do a much bigger thing in order to keep them inside. Which is interesting because the previous version, version two, I never had really problems with the linear rails falling out, but I think with the larger diameter, that's what caused it to keep popping out like that. Yeah. Uh, I think my driving definitely could have been better. I pretty much drove straight into his weapon a lot more than I should have. I did use the same copy that was in the first one, so maybe it wasn't driving as straight. But also, I think I'm so used to trying to go front to front with so many robots that maybe I definitely shouldn't have done that here. But I think if the linear rails would have stayed in, I would have been able to more to be able to do more damage to his tires and definitely would have been at least a closer fight. Um, it wouldn't necessarily obviously would have been a guaranteed win, but I definitely would have been a more interest a closer fight since we end so we ended up going one and two and it was very similar to how things went last event. So, I don't feel great about that. Um, especially considering the fight we won again was a fight where opponent basically wasn't even in it. Um although the fights we lost I felt that we had tougher opponents than we did last year and also I we there were both three-minute matches and we held our own for three minutes and kept it interesting at least for three minutes.

[01:04:10]It wasn't just so I tech so in a if you actually look at how the fights themselves went we tech we kind of did better even though our record's the same. But before you leave, I should note that although we are done with the tournament, we are not Hodag wasn't done for the day. We decided to throw Hodag into a rumble.

[01:04:31]What I did not account for was the fact that this rumble would include Chonive.

[01:04:38]For those that are unaware, Chon is a 45 lb shuffling shell spinner because it's a featherweight that has a weight bonus.

[01:04:49]It's effectively retired, but they decide to bring it out for rumbles every so often. And Hodag has the unfortunate privilege of getting to fight does not feel like the right word. I guess thrown in the arena with it. And our mission is to just survive and hopefully not take too much damage. I pretty much threw on the most damaged parts of Hodag for this one expecting to take a ton of damage.

[01:05:17]But let's see if we can survive for 3 minutes against a shell spinner that weighs 15 times more than Hodag does reference. But let's get into it.

[01:05:26]>> I think this was the opportunity that was mentioned in the fortune cookie.

[01:05:32]I'm like trying to keep my distance from Chunky.

[01:05:36]I'm like, he's chunky is faster than I thought he was.

[01:05:40]>> You can see him being chasted.

[01:05:43]>> I'm going to seek you out.

[01:05:45]>> Well, the eggs are popping.

[01:05:46]>> Drove straight into him.

[01:05:48]>> Oh, and then the robots are getting hit.

[01:05:51]>> Then one drive side kind of goes down.

[01:05:56]>> No, this is this is a primary objective.

[01:06:00]Get some confetti out of the Easter egg.

[01:06:01]Get some candy. Some paper candy.

[01:06:03]Objective number two, survive.

[01:06:08]That is a terrifying noise from so much power in that shell.

[01:06:14]>> Oh, >> I got some took some square hits from Chon.

[01:06:21]>> Crpples Crumple Stiltskin a terrifying robot to go up against.

[01:06:25]>> Look, Payman was impaled on one of the spears on the edge of Jon. It was >> It got giant swung around. Henman was trying to hide behind me.

[01:06:38]>> I hope someone brought a shot back.

[01:06:42]>> Chunky. No.

[01:06:45]Chunky. Yes.

[01:06:46]>> Oh, the now the housebot's getting in with it.

[01:06:50]>> Me and my hat.

[01:06:51]>> It's air blast attack. It's pyro M2.

[01:06:58]Truly, these three pounders are being cast aside like they are nothing.

[01:07:03]>> Yeah, it's chunky. Really, it's just so funny to watch. Tossing them around like they're just totally weightless. They have like no physics.

[01:07:10]>> The weapon still my weapon still works.

[01:07:12][music] So, there's that.

[01:07:14]>> Just get thrown. They get all over the board. The beautiful paint jobs are being torn to shreds.

[01:07:26]Oh, and then the house spot getting in on it. He's angry now.

[01:07:30]>> Chunky, I don't know if you're allowed to do this. But what I want to see is I want to see you full force hit the house bot as if it were [music] your target.

[01:07:40]>> As someone who occasionally has to repair the house bot, I don't know.

[01:07:45]>> I'm just curious. You know, >> you're just here asking questions.

[01:07:49]>> I'm just >> You're just asking questions.

[01:07:51]>> I just want to know. I just want just want to know. Luckily, I'm pretty sure Chunky was not spinning at full speed.

[01:07:57]>> Couple surviving eggs and a couple surviving beetles.

[01:08:01]>> Such ridiculous physics. And I mean, Chunky, I think, is probably going at like quarter force right now.

[01:08:08]>> Yeah, I know. I I've known you to be louder than this, Chunk.

[01:08:16]>> Speak softly and carry a big shell.

[01:08:25]IS UP TO. OH, THAT I COULD FEEL THAT.

[01:08:28]>> YEAH, that's what I wanted. Thank you.

[01:08:29]That wasn't full force, but thank you.

[01:08:31]>> That pretty much kind of went as expected. I didn't assume that Hodak's drive could survive a 45lb robot, even though he was clearly not spinning at full capacity.

[01:08:43]I pretty much lost both drive motors. I might be able to salvage one of them, but one of them is definitely cooked. I also didn't realize until I took it apart that I also lost my battery. I am amazed that the entire battery didn't set fire. I obviously disposed of that battery and just considered myself lucky I didn't set the whole robot on fire. I do think it's funny that this is the one fight where the linear shafts did not come out of the front of Hodag, which I don't know how to interpret that other than the fact that apparently horizontal spinners aren't as good at removing the linear shafts as vertical spinners. I guess no matter how big the horizontal spinner is, it's pretty clear our biggest issue with Hodag is the linear shafts falling out of the front of the robot. It's happened in at least one fight in the last four events, even the one that was in the last video at the end of last year. I do have an idea to actually fix that, though. I I got an idea from one of my commenters to basically just thread the ends of the rods and make the hole in the front of the robot smaller. I could thread it straight into the TPU. And if that doesn't work, try using embedding a nut into the front. That way there's actually some metal to thread into instead of just the plastic. So, we do have somewhere to go from there. I do also want to make some adjustments to the drive because currently the belts often get twisted and I think there's too much tension on there. I need to and I also want to make it so I can use bushings on those front wheels so then maybe it'll spin better and will just consistently drive straighter. That's all I have for you guys. Thanks for watching. If you're looking for something else to watch, here is my last video I did on Hodag where I made my most recent major overhaul. And that was at the end of last year I made those changes. So, so if you want a more indepth explanation of how this version of Hodag works, be sure to check that out.