As the winner of the final bout after the overturning of the results, I am the winner of the dynasty.

I am the winner of the final Bout in the Tournament, and have achieved Victory.

It’s a beautiful, star-filled night here at the Arena Halls. The outside façade of the building is lit up by roving spotlights and thousands of pin-prick fairy lights, giving the whole thing the feel of a canopy of stars - or, if you like, CrowBot’s chassis after CarolAIna Reaper was done with it.

The red carpet is bustling, with gossip reporters and serious journalists alike rubbing shoulders on one side of the ropes while movie stars, frontier gunslingers and suited politicians march up the marble colonnade towards Victory Plaza.

Tickets for this Bout are going on the black market at ₩100k a pop, but thanks to tiered pricing and some generous schemes there’s no shortage of fans here tonight - many of whom have been here for the entire festival. All of the Bots are being celebrated; in particular there’s a lot of DuckTank merch, as well as a touching memorial to Habanero who was, of course, brutally murdered to appease the terrible deity Tarquin Oseele, may his one foul eye never fall upon us.

Much of the Arena Hall complex has been sealed off - visitors entering the grounds are herded expertly towards the Stadium, which is only used for the final and whose fast tiered stands can hold a full capacity of around 95,000 people. And folks, I hear that it’s a sellout tonight - expect an electric atmosphere for a cracking final Bout.

Now, onto that final Bout itself. Dark Lord is entering into the 4 position. Now, Dark Lord should really have been called Dark Horse - although its dominance in this competition can’t be underestimated, its strength has lain in its unpredictability. Dark Lord has never fought with the same configuration twice, often pioneering counterstrategies specifically targeted at its opponent. Tonight Brendan has once again zigged when the opponent zagged: Dark Lord is here tonight as a shove-bot, of all things, hoping to catch the newly-heavier Hard Hat at its own game. A flipper is expected to give some extra poke in the final stretch while a giant mitt should keep Hard Hat penned in.

In 16 it’s Hard Hat, which has reconfigured around a more traditional weapon build - an axe and a ram - along side the traditional cow catcher which is its calling card; I doubt we’ll be seeing much of that tonight, as this is a heavy Hat. Experts have calculated that the basic shove differential is worth about 3 squares in Dark Lord’s favour, but when flipped you would expect that to be far more.

The national anthem is now being sung.

...

And with that and a great roar, the Operators stake hands with the President and head to their respective Operation Plinths. A long climb up the ladders to the suspended platform, and then they both signal their readiness. The judges briefly confer, and then wave to the announcer, who, from the announcing terrace, takes his mike in hand -

“FRIENDS, GUESTS, DISTINGUISHED DIGNITARIES - LEEEEEETS GEEEEEET REAAAAADY… TO RUUUUUMMMMMBBBBLLLLEEEEEEE!”

A huge cheer from the crowd, a blue flare in the night sky, and it’s on! The grand finale of the BlogBot League!

Dark Lord makes the big push across the field, tearing up the surface as it screams into position 15, dinking into Hard Hat but taking a knock on that ram as it does so. Hard Hat does not hesitate to respond in the time honoured tradition - an axe to the face - and just to note, neither party is wearing ablative armour tonight so every hit counts!

Dark Lord tanks the axe hit - this was part of the plan - and then gets that flipped underneath Hard Hat. It’s on it’s back - so far everything is going as Brendan will have anticipated!

But - what’s this?

Oh, wow!

Never one to play it safe in the finale, SingularByte is pulling out a new move!

With Hard Hat on its back, SingularByte is using a complex pattern of joypad taps to evade while flipped!

Dark Lord is trying to line up a shove angle but the rocking Hard Hat isn’t falling into line! Dark Lord is forced into a blocking pattern - that big flipped shove that it was counting on won’t materialise!

Hard Hat has rocked back on its treads - the Hard Hat section of the stadium gives a huge roar - and retaliates with a big chop of the axe!

Frustrated, Brendan jams forward on the controller - flipped or not, Hard Hat is still too light to put up much fight - or is it? No - those axe hits have been shaking Dark Lord’s engine loose and it doesn’t have the juice it once had! It’s running at about 80% of capacity! That’s not enough - Hard Hat’s feet are planted! It ain’t going anywhere!

The axe, again, and Dark Lord’s chassis is on the point of giving in!

Dark Lord flips again but this is desperation - SingularByte has been drilling and he knows his stuff - he can deny Dark Lord his shoving line all day! It’s a stalemate until Hard Hat finds its feet again - which it does - and, with the crack heard around the world - brings that axe down one last, final, decisive time!

The crowd goes wild as Dark Lord’s armour splits!

SingularByte throws his hands up in the air in jubilation!

A hundred cans of tickertape explode in a shower of colour and noise!

What an incredible Bout!

The judges have approached the Announcer, who grabs his mike to call the Bout:

Hard Hat and SingularByte WIN by TKO!

Pause the tournament.

If Call for Judgment: Closing the Warp hole has not been enacted, enact it and complete the edit to the ruleset wiki page.

Update the link to the governing ruleset to the ruleset wiki page edit made when the last step of this CfJ was completed, or the ruleset wiki page edit that contains the enactment of Call for Judgment: Closing the Warp hole, whichever exists.

In the rule BotScript move the following statement:

If it’s a Melee System and the Opponent’s Bot is not in any of the three spaces immediately in front of the reacting Bot, then the System’s Effect is instead not used.

To be its own item in the rule above.
Rephrase it to read:

If the system being used is a Melee System and the Opponent’s Bot is not in any of the three spaces immediately in front of the reacting Bot, then the System’s Effect is instead not used.

If the Call for Judgment: Warp Zone Closed is still open and has not been enacted, then fail it.
If the Call for Judgment: Warp Zone Closed has been enacted, then undo its changes before enacting this proposal

If enacted, this should modify the standard ruleset immediately as defined in the Standardized Rule Books rule.

Delete the reaction “”...then [Use system Y / Move X spaces [toward / away from]] the bot that inflicted Z status.” Where Y is a valid system on the bot, X is a positive integer, and Z is a status” from the list of Possible Reactions in the rule “BotScript.”

As is traditional, the semi-final Bout is a little unusual as it is not held in the Arena Halls. Instead, it is held in a bamboo clearing in the mountains above the city; there is no audience, and the Operators wear only the simple teal robes of penitent monks. In some ways, this Bout is the real point of the whole exercise, as the loser is taken away to be offered up in a vicious blood sacrifice to our demented God, who demands our obedience. In olden times it was the winner who was sacrificed, but that became too much of a bummer, and it can’t be the second-place finisher because then you can’t have a final; so now it’s the third-place finisher. The stakes for these operators could literally not be higher.

But what a Bout we have today. Habanero burst onto the scene late but has stolen headlines, hearts and Bouts from much more experienced operators through his shrewd and ingenious understanding of the mechanics of the sport. The rotating vortex of spikes that the Reaper employed in its early bouts changed the game, and left several Bots - and not a few Operators - so damaged that they had to quit the sport altogether. In this Bout they seem to have gone back to basics - an axe and a flipper. Something very poetic about that but if Habanero’s form is anything to go by then we can expect that there’ll be some kind of wrinkle.

Between Habanero and a date with Brendan is, of course, inevitably, SingularByte and Hard Hard. Some call SingularByte the GOAT; others say that’s premature in a field of some of the best Operators the history of the sport has ever seen. What is for sure is that Hard Hat dominated the midgame, pushing the shove-bot archetype to the furthest extent. For a stretch he looked unbeatable, until Dark Lord put an end to his reign of terror with back-to-back victories in Bouts 20 and 28. But pay no mind to the naysayers: no-one understands the game like SingularByte, and if the bookie’s odds have slightly favoured the number 2 seed then that is simply a reflection of the fact that SingularByte was changing the game before Habanero even picked up a socket wrench. Gone is the shove-bot, though; this Hard Hat is heavy, laden down with toys like thick ablative plating, a giant mitt, spring-loaded treads and the blunt muzzle of a howitzer.

The two Operators bow deeply to each other, and then a gong sounds; this Bout has commenced.

The Reaper pulls immediately back to position 1, while Hard Hat similarly retreats to position 17. A defensive start from both players, reflecting the presence of Cool Hand Luke in the middle of the Arena - right now the cow-bolt is looking around, picking a target to fix on, but both operators know that Luke has a movement range restricted to positions 7 to 13, and thus a weapons range of 4 to 16, so what we’re seeing here is the two just pulling out of range and committing to a ranged battle -  good on paper for SingularByte, with that Howitzer, but seemingly very bad for Habanero, with two melee systems.

The Reaper seems content to hold position, though, while Luke meanders around on its patrol route - looking for stray heifers or errant Bots, finding neither - but Hard Hat has wound up pressure in its treads - is Hard Hat preparing to leap into melee range? No, it’s just preparatory - while the Reaper holds and Luke moseys, Hard Hat pokes that muzzle out from its carapace and lets rip! Thunder as the shells crash across the length of the Arena, knocking a huge chunk out of Luke and rattling the Reaper - the ablative plating absorbed most of the damage but I think I see a few connections might have worked Loose - and the Reaper now urgently needs a response!

And it’s - what?

Sorry, play that tape back slowly, please.. I just… What?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Reaper seems to have… used a rift in space-time? Exploited an ambiguity in the rules of the universe? Somehow, Habanero has manufactured a way of making his melee weapons strike from any distance, and has snuck his flipper - from position 1 to position 17 - under Hard Hat and flipped it on its back!

This is incredible! What an incredible play! The ref if flipping through the rulesbook but there’s nothing, SingularByte is appealing, but it’s airtight - the rules say nothing about manufacturing a space-time rift to attack with melee from long range!

Hard Hat is on its back, and now the Reaper is chopping that axe through the portal! Hard Hat’s ablative plating is holding up and it flips itself back upright - but now it’s adjusting for range on that Howitzer but Luke is at position 10, meaning that Hard Hat doesn’t have the uninterrupted range! And there’s the flip again, Hard Hat is back on its back, and that’s another chop from the axe!

This Bout could go literally either way - it’s a race to rack up enough damage - Hard Hat is back on its feet and Luke is away from the centre of the board so it lets rip, and that’s another huge, thunderous smash - and Luke is down! Luke is a pile of rubble in the middle of the arena but the Reaper’s plating still holds!

Hard to say what this development does to the game. On the one hand, Hard Hat will now spend more time on its back; on the other, it doesn’t have to worry about Luke messing with its range. Let’s see how this plays out.

The Reaper immediately flips Hard Hat and now gets two whacks of the axe in while its Opponent recovers. Hard Hat’s plating looks very dented but it’s holding on, arguably at this stage though Reaper’s armour looks sturdier; Hard Hat is back upright and lets rip, and OH! That’s it! The extra damage from the loose connectors is now more than Reaper’s plate can handle and now the Reaper is exposed! But Hard Hat is back on its back and with two more chops of that axe - so’s Hard Hat! Both Bots have lost their ablative plating and now it’s just a race to the finish!

This is gripping stuff!

Hard Hat is back on it’s feet - is this the decisive blow - IT IS! That Howitzer rips across the stage again, and the chassis damage is bad but the knock-on damage to the engine drops its output below where it needs to be! The space-time rift collapses in on itself, the axe falls to the floor, the Reaper powers down for the last time - and the judge calls it - Hard Hat wins by TKO!!

Oh, what a Bout that was. Habanero looks peaceful as he is lead away to be offered up in ritual human sacrifice, and why wouldn’t he - what a competition he’s had, what an incredible bout. Habanero has made this contest electric, and what a pity that he won’t be back to contest for the title in future years, but such is the savage mercy of Tarquin Oseele, encrazed God of violence and murder. Habanero, the third-place finisher and bronze medalist. But congratulations to SingularByte - tune in for the final tomorrow, it’s going to be incredible.

If Call for Judgment: You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right round round round was not enacted, enact it.

In the rule Formalised Disputes, change each instance of the word “round” to “tier”.

In the rules Winners at War and Standardised Rule Books, and the proposal Exit Criteria if it has not yet been resolved, change all instances of the work Round to Tier.

Uphold that Tiers of the Tournament have not been advanced every time a round, as defined in the rule The Arena, has concluded in a Bout.

In the rule Winners at War, at the end of the bulleted list that immediately follows the sentence “Once the Bracket has been posted, the following schedule takes effect”, add the following:

* If the Announcer has received a clear, positive statement from all participants in a Round that they have completed the activities that the needed to complete in their current Readiness setting then they may bring forward the relevant deadline on a one-off basis for that Round, by announcing that they are doing so on the #current-dynasty channel of the BlogNomic Discord.

Reports are coming in of 2 hour queues at the New Cortex Jetdrome - something like five times the usual footfall, all people trying to get to the finals in time, many of whom don’t have tickets - they just want to be here, to soak in the atmosphere and breath the same air as the winners of this, the great sport in our culture.

And now, we have today’s final bout. Trapdoorspyder has perhaps been the main character of this season; he’s played in the most Bouts, spent time as its undisputed villain, but also came within a hair’s whisker of having been top seed having swapped the world number 1 position with Brendan on an almost daily basis on the way here. Currently the number 3, he’s up against a brash, impetuous newcomer - although there has been no shortage of speculation that Habanero is a veteran in disguise, given the ease with which he has navigated this contest, racking up multiple wins on the way to a 4th seed in this contest. Any outcome other than a win for Trapdoorspyder and B.A.D would be an upset, but with its new howitzer-focused loadout and with Habanero’s adaptability, anything could happen.

The blue light is lit - they’re off!

B.A.D is off first, moving into position 8, but Trapdoorspyder seems to be distracted - he looks like he’s reading a pamphlet of some kind? The Reaper advances pell-mell, a huge, reckless ram that smashes into B.A.D - not moving the other bot an inch but shoving was perhaps not the point, so much as shredding the ablative plate of B.A.D with those spikes. But B.A.D is not retaliating - Trap seems to have fully put the controller down, and is immersed in that document - what is it? What does the title page say? I-N-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-O-N - M -A- N - U - A - L….”

Habanero is not going to be courteous and is out with the axe but Trap is not looking up - what’s under that? “HOW TO USE YOUR NEW HOWITZER”? Is this - am I seeing this? Again that axe, and, yes, it looks like Trap is only just now reading up on how to use the new Howitzer system that his bot design is build around! This is bizarre - B.A.D is dead stick while its operator absorbs himself in the minutiae of the only weapon system there is on his bot!

Whack, whack, whack with the axe, and before you know it - the plating is in shreds and so’s the chassis! What a weird bout, but Habanero is through to the round three playoff - CarolAIna Reaper wins by TKO!

Well, what do we say about this? Always a larger-than-life character, Trapdoorspyder has delighted and infuriated in equal measure. No-one would deny his massive talent, but sometimes this has been obscured by his off-pitch antics; either way, though, his presence has enriched this contest massively, and the crowds will be willing him on to return in future years. Trapdoorspyder, our fourth-place finalist.

Up on the hill, the smoke can already be seen as the area is spiritually cleansed for the final Bout and the subsequent winner’s ceremony. Friends, I can assure you that the Cult of the Dark One has been working overtime this year to ensure that we have a really electrifying, energetic closing show, and I know you’re not going to want to miss it. Who knows? Maybe one of these two operators will be the star of the show.

SupernovaStarbright has leapt to prominence in this contest as the underground duellist enfant terrible who has put much older and more seasoned competitors to the sword. One of them has been SIngularByte; the last time they met, in Bout 2, she came away with the win. But since then she’s been behind SingularByte in the league rankings - not through any fault of her own, but because SingularByte has remained consistently close to the top of the craft. He comes in today as the narrow favourite, the world number 2 vs the number 5, but no-one thinks that an upset is out of the question.

And they’re off!

It’s DuckMech starting strong, coming to position 13, and Hard Hat holds tight at 16, watching what its opponent will do next in this battle of the shovers. DuckMech moves into ramming speed but as it slams into Hard Hat its Opponent does not budge - the two bots are almost perfectly matched on paper but Supernova is clearly hoping that that ram will be the difference between them.

Oh, but SingularByte has other ideas - it thinks that the difference between them is a flipper, and it’s not wrong! DuckMech is on its back, and now it is EASILY shoved - so Hard Hat now obliges, with its trademark move, pushing DuckMech all the way back to position 8! Snisbo finds a way to right the Duck and gets two good rams in - once while Hard Hat attempts a flip while DuckMech is still mid-recovery - but before long it’s back on its back, and now it’s being shoved again, this time all the way back to position 1! This looks bad - does DuckMech have an answer? It looks like no - again, with the ram, but all this damage is just being absorbed by that giant mitt, and then DuckMech is on its back again - and with one final shove, DuckMech is in the place where it’s put so many of its competitors - in the gutter - and the judges have called it! HARD HAT WINS BY TKO!

SingularByte will be aware that Brendan has already won his bout, so this sends Hard Hat to the Round 3 playoff against either Trapdoorspyder or Habanero. But this moment is all for SupernovaStarbright - the audience here have loved every minute she’s been in the Operator cockpit. DuckMech merch has sold by the bucketload here, and for sure, if she comes back next year it won’t be as a rookie - it’ll be as a contender that anyone is afraid to scrap with. SupernovaStarbright, out in fifth.

The Duke and Duchess of Physiy are in attendance today… Clearly the matters that occur here are of international importance but it is unusual to see the representatives of the secluded forest Kingdom here in the Archipelago. And what a match to join us for! The number 1 seed, Dark Lord, is coming out for the first time in this contest, and as it enters the stadium a low, dark, throat-based chant erupts spontaneously for the audience - some members of the Cult of the Dark One are in attendance, clearly. It’s up against Killing Joke, the sixth-seed, who it met once before back in Bout 16 - that one went Dark Lord’s way - will there be an upset now?

Dark Lord has reconfigured around a massive howitzer while Killing Joke remains unchanged.

And they’re off!

Dark Lord pulls out the stops using its nox tank to rip off a huge salvo from that howitzer before Killing Joke even has a chance to react - god, that gun is mighty! It rips into Killing Joke’s shell like it was nothing, leaving a chunk of chassis smoulering and bubbling on the arena floor! Killing Joke isn’t out of this though, it closes into position 7 - oh, but that’s not wise, that’s exactly within range of Dark Lord’s axe, which comes swinging out from the side of the chassis and takes another chunk out of Killing Joke’s armour, and, finding a vulnerability, seems to have rattled some damage into the engine as well.

Surely there’s no way back from this?

Well, no, there isn’t - because it seems like Killing Joke is disabled - it looks like the initial Howitzer blast rattled the chassis of Killing Joke Loose, meaning that the axe strike jolted the engine further out of alignment - and now here we are Killing Joke has lost power, and the judges are conferring - that’s it - Killing Joke has been ruled Defunct, and Dark Lord wins by TKO!

The other Operators in the Tournament will be terrified by that clinical disassembly, and with this win Brendan and Dark Lord progress to a guaranteed slot in the final. But let’s also take a moment for this Tournament’s six-place finalist, Darknight and the Killing Joke. Over four bouts he has won the hearts of millions, and his practice round win against Habanero is one of the most-streamed Bouts on the internet. As Darknight waves to the crowd and shakes the hand of the League President, we salute one of the contest’s true competitors, and look forward to seeing more form him in future years.

As a new penultimate paragraph of the rule Winners at War, add the text:

It is permissible for the Announcer to deviate from the stated schedule by delaying for some amount of time, however in the case of intentional delays of fifteen minutes or more, the announcer should make a best effort attempt to inform all impacted Operators about the delay and the expected time of the next step of the schedule being performed. Once this expected time has been announced, the announcer should strive not to perform that next step before the expected time is reached. (Exception: The step for actually running the bout after all operators are set does not require an expected time even in the case of delays, and if such a time is stated anyway, the Announcer is not obligated to stick to that time.)

If this proposal is enacted, it causes the link to the governing ruleset to be updated to the wiki page revision that contains this newly added paragraph.

... and if you are joining us now then you will witness the last few moments of the tournament opening ceremony, as three hundred youths parade with bared chests and waving flags, as a reminder that we do all of this - the League, the Tournament, all of it - as a ritual to appease our bloodthirsty deity Tarquin Oseele, to whom we demonstrate our strongest so he knows that we are truly weak. Marvellous.

Preliminary business aside, and now, it’s on to the contest!

Sadly, we received news this morning that Lendunistus has had to withdraw from the contest. Sponsorship for Credit Score: F failed to materialise after some ill-advised tweets written several years ago came to light, and so the Bot could not be made match-ready in time. This means that Darknight wins, technically, by TKO, although it’s not the way any of us would have wanted to see it; but Darknight is, regardless, now oly two to three Bouts away from winning this year’s contest, which I’m sure will fill him with relief.

Meanwhile let’s take a moment to acknowledge this contest’s 7th seed and 8th-place finalist: Credit Score: F. The Bot fought six bouts in this competition, and won two of them, both against departed Operator Raven1207. Despite this somewhat middling success record, lendunistus was well-liked in the Arena Halls, and we do of course wish him nothing but the best and hope to see him again next year.

Now, however, on to a match that is taking place: SupernovaStarbright versus Maldor.

Supernova comes into this having reworked DuckTank into a more formidable-looking DuckMech, and looks to be the favourite - the number 5 seed slipped back into that position only in the practice phase, having declined to take the field herself and thus having been overtaken by her competitors. She’s up against Maldor, though, the 8th seed with only two Bouts and no wins to his name. Well - if there was a time to find winning form, this was it.

They’re joined by the menacing form of the Pyramid, as well as a light sprinkling of traps.

And they’re off!

DuckMech is first out, ramming hard into the Pyramid and using that Cow Catcher to shove the house bot clean across the stage! The young wizz has taken herself to position 13, and the Pyramid to 14, dumping the whole problem on Bad Door’s doorstep! But Bad Door isn’t fussed - he has a flipper! With a slittle flourish he sends the Pyramid gradefully skyward, before it clatters back down on its side!

DuckMech uses this moment to employ some fancy footwork, evading against an incoming attack, while the Pyramid tries to right itself - and succeds! Bad Door tries to use its flipper again, but the Pyramid, having just righted itself, moves away from the flipper jaw! But it can’t stop itself taking another shove from the DuckMech - whose front-mounted battering ram is starting to do some dents to the Pyramid chassis. Pyramid changes its heading to face DuckMech but the flipper comes in and the Pyramid is on its back again!

We now seem to have slipped into a steady state - DuckMech evades, Pyramid rights itself, Bad Door tries and fails to flip, DuckMech shoves ineffectively as Bad Door is blocking further progress, Pyramid spins in place, Bad Door successfully flips.

This six-move pattern repeats itself, with the only variation being that DuckMech’s battering ram slowly reduces the Pyramid to scrap - fully knocking off its flamethrower and doing serious damage to its pincers - but the House Bot is saved by the bell when sudden death is called!

In turn 61 DuckTank continues to pressure the Pyramid, but no need as the ground beneath it suddenly erupts, propelling the House Bot from the arena! Bad Door is next up and prepares to take advantage of it - but no, the ground beneath it goes up too! It comes down shattered, and that’s it for Bad Door in this contest - out in 7th place, but what a final Bout to go out on. The crowd give Maldor a warm standing ovation, but SupernovaStarbright is on to round 2-

SupernovaStarbright wins by TKO!

Add a rule called Standardised Rule Books as the top-most dynastic rule:

This rule is to be followed irrespective of anything else stated in this rule.
The link to the governing ruleset is: (blank)

When this rule enters the ruleset, and whenever a Round is completed (where Round is defined by Winners at War), the link to the governing ruleset above should be updated by the announcer to be a link to the most recent legal revision of the ruleset from its wiki history page as it exists at the time of that event occuring.

With the exception of the rule Standardised Rule Books, all players are to follow the dynastic rules of the governing ruleset as if they are the current dynastic rules, rather than following the dynastic rules of the current ruleset. If no link to the governing ruleset exists, the current dynastic rules are to be followed instead.

Set the Readiness of all Operators who are not drawn in a Round 1 Tournament Bout to Workshop.

If all Round 1 Tournament Bouts have concluded by the time this CfJ is enacted then reset the 24 hour timer for the commencement of Round 2 Bouts to derive from the time of enactment of this CfJ.

If the Proposal “Imperfectly Debalanced” was not enacted, then this Proposal has no further effect.

Change the System Effect of the System “Springloaded Treads” to read:

When this System is used, the Actor loads up its springs and the next move or bypass reaction it performs becomes a mighty leap: the Actor immediately moves to the square it would have had it carried out its movement reaction in full, ignoring all obstacles. If this would cause the Actor to occupy the same square as another Bot, that Bot takes 2% Engine condition damage for every square the Actor moved on its turn, becomes Scrambled for two turns from the rattling impact, and the Actor instead moves to the empty square closest to the point of impact, prioritizing squares this Bot would be facing towards if it moved to the point of impact.

In the description of Sudden Death in the rule Ending a Bout, change 50% to 100%.

If there is a 50% in the Effect of the System Ablative Plating, change it to 25%.

In the rule Statuses, replace “it will cease to be Flipped after 3 turns have passed” with:

it will cease to be Flipped after 5 turns have passed

In the rule Statuses, replace the bullet point Scrambled with:

Scrambled: Each round a Bot is Scrambled, before running its turn, the Announcer separately randomises the order of its Script’s Triggers and Reactions. When it ceases to be Scrambled its Triggers and Reactions regain their standard order. A Bot may only become Scrambled once per Bout and ceases to be Scrambled after three rounds have elapsed.

Remove “for the next two turns” from the effect of the Signal Jammer, and reduce its Consumption to 270.

Change the System Effect of the System “Lead Weight” to read:

Passive: If a bot with this system would be Shoved more than three spaces in one turn, it is instead only Shoved three spaces. This Bot cannot be Shoved by a Bot that started its turn adjacent to this Bot due to the lack of momentum.

Change the System Effect of the System “Ablative Plating” to read:

Passive: All Condition loss incurred by other Components on the Actor is reduced by 50% and is incurred to this System instead of any other Component that it might be incurred to. Regardless of Statuses or the effects of other Systems on this Bot, no damage incurred to this System as a result of this Effect may cause damage to be incurred to other Components on this Bot. This Bot is not particularly agile and always starts a Bout on the right if it is the only Bot in the Bout with this System equipped.

Change the System Effect of the System “Nox Tank” to read:

Passive: At the start of a Bout this System’s Condition drops to 0%. If no other Bot in the Bout has this System and this Bot does not have Ablative Plating equipped then this Bot always starts a Bout on the left.

Append a new System to the list under the rule “Systems”:

| Springloaded Treads || ₩3,000 || 250 || When this System is used, the Actor loads up its springs and the next move or bypass reaction it performs becomes a mighty leap: the Actor immediately moves to the square it would have had it carried out its movement reaction in full, ignoring all obstacles. If after this the Actor occupies the same square as another Bot, that Bot takes 2% Engine condition damage for every square the Actor moved on its turn, becomes Scrambled for two turns from the rattling impact, and the Actor bypasses forward to the first empty square.

Congratulations, Operators: you have made it to the final Tournament of this year’s BlogBot League!

Here are the Seeds for this year’s competition.

1. Brendan (Seed score: 2.914) =
2. SingularByte (Seed score: 3.658) ^
3. Trapdoorspyder (Seed score: 3.974) v
4. Habanero (Seed score: 4.233) ^
5. SupernovaStarbright (Seed score: 4.291) v
6. Darknight (Seed score: 6.025) ^
7. Lendunistus (Seed score: 8.251) =
8. Maldor (Seed score: 11.745) =

Add Passive: to the beginning of the Effect of the LED Banner. Uphold that the winner of any Bout, if they had an LED Banner attached to their Bot at the time of their win, added the name of the loser to their LED Banner as described by its effect. In the rule Systems, after the sentence “If a System effect is preceded by “Passive:”, then it has no effect when used, and instead applies to a Bot with that System at all times”, add “If a System does not have the ‘Passive:’ tag then its effect is only applied when it is activated by a line of BotScript.”

In the effect of the LED Banner, after ‘these names are publicly tracked’, add ‘and persist when the LED Banner is either equipped on the Bot or in its Operator’s Spare Parts bin; if the Operator loses the LED Banner through any means then their LED Banner name tracking is blanked (set to “-”) and is considered to hold no names.’

I’m back! Yes, your regular announcer is back in the saddle after a relaxing long weekend on the beaches on the Hormi peninsula. My name is Alie, by the way, I’m not sure that it’s been established but it is an important character detail. I have a beautiful spouse and several children. On with the Bots!

On paper this practice Bout is going to be a massacre: the Reaper is the only undefeated Bot in the league, having shredded Raven1207 and Maldor and even having dispensed with League veteran SingularByte with some style, while Killing Joke has yet to bank a win despite having had its first roll-out way back in Bout number 11. But! The Reaper’s signature rotating collar of spikes has been banned by the league, and Killing Joke has been extensively renovated since its last appearance against Dark Lord, so there’s a lot on the line here.

In position 4 we have Killing Joke, the rictus Joker grin freshly repainted onto that heavy Camelot chassis. Glowering at it malevolently from position 10 is the Pyramid - a opaque black slab of a Bot, standing at four feet in height and towering over every other Bot in the league, ally menace and mystery - where did it come from, and where will it go? And then in 16 it’s the Reaper, which seems to have added some Spikes back onto its frame at the last minute thanks to its Modular Breakpoint. And we’re off!

Very cagey, this, as the Killing Joke holds position - micro-movements, almost trying to bait a response, but nothing that shifts it from position 4. the Pyramid turns to face the Reaper, its inscrutable angles reflecting the empty bleachers - and the Reaper also holds position, each Bot looking for a break…

Killing Joke continues to hold, but the Pyramid comes off of its line, moving to position 13 - in threatening range of the Reaper! The Reaper must surely respond - but no - Habanero seems to have decided that the House Bot is not with its time, and Pyramid will punish that, as Killing Joke looks on gnosticly, but out of a smooth panel on pyramid’s hull comes a nozzle with spurts liquid flame all over the Reaper! The Reaper is loaded with Ablative Plating but a lick of the flamethrower is a serious business, especially given the number of Systems on the Reaper, but the Reaper continues to not respond, so Pyramid retracts its flamethrower and instead goes for the pincers - which clamp into the Reaper’s hull unresisted, giving it a good shake!

Pyramid seems frustrated with its quarry just sitting there, so angry barges forward, but its weak motor does no damage to the Reaper and it takes a scratch on the Reaper’s spike collar. But with that little flurry of activity the Bout settles into a holding pattern - Killing Joke holding its position, the Reaper stubbornly staying still, and the Pyramid patrolling between 12 and 15. With no audience there’s no-one to react to this, but I can’t help but wonder what this is doing for the competitors - what kind of strategies are they seeing play out here?

Oh, there’s the klaxon - it’s sudden death!

It’s been a while since we saw a sudden death Bout, and the systems have had a bit of an upgrade - each ring of the arena has a variable chance of exploding each round, with the centre being safer than the edges. On the first round of explosions nothing triggers - Killing Joke still holding position. On the second, Pyramid comes to position 15 on its patrol - and! Positions 1, 16 and 19 explode, but position 16 is occupied by the Reaper! Usually this would be instant death, but the Reaper has ablative plating - but with Loose the damage being absorbed is significant, and that plating isn’t completely broken but it is cracked! Round 3 of sudden death and Habanero charges forward to position 10, the safest square on the board, and explosions go off at 2, 3, 5, 15, 16 and 17 - Habanero dodged a bullet there but Pyramid caught an explosion and is gone from the Bout! Round 4, Killing Joke holds its position - still! With all this! And there’s booms at 2 - nothing at 4! - 6, 7, 9 and OH MY GOD - 10 goes - that’s the Reaper’s plating shattered and it’s vulnerable! Now it’s just a question of which goes up first, 4 or 10, and the odds favour Reaper still - even after having tanked two hits of the Sudden Death - but on Round 5, BOTH POSITIONS explode and it’s going to the judges!

In the event that both competitors take a TKO knockout at the same time, the tiebreaker is average condition. Killing Joke came into the Bout with some superficial damage and, of course, took 100% chassis damage right at the end there - leaving it with an average Condition of 86%. The Reaper, though, went into the Bout in top condition but lost its chassis and its plating - leaving it with an average condition of just 67%. Which means it’s a shocking upset! Many will feel that this was a lucky win, but the scoreboard ultimately doesn’t lie:

Killing Joke wins by TKO!

Bonour, you silly little viewer a’ ‘ome, it is moi, le Annuncier Continental, Gustave. Ole!

Vas ist das, you are conceeeeeerned that je suis an alarming mashup of continental stereotypes? Mi amigos, fret not, for this is un lande de fantase, and your petit stereotypes are all confuséd ‘ere.

On zis monde, it is quite normal, de verdad!

In any case, heute morgan we have two gladiatores - le venerable B.A.D et el positively creaky Hard Hat. A great rivalry, this, but this is but a practice bout, which may explain why it has been given to le ethnic commentator, d’accord?

‘Ard ‘at is but a little changed - gone is its old cattle catcher, replaced with ablative plating an le comical giant mitt. Alores! Es ist sehr verwirrt.

B.A.D. remains what we in le continent refer to as an Odge Podge - silly dome body, axe, thick ceramic plate, not tres elegante, vale?

Whatever, the go time, it is now, wee.

It is le B.A.D. with le initiative, moving to positione 12, forgetting peraps that la positione 12 contains an explosion trap? BOOM goes B.A.D., very silly, bolts loose, bad for engine. Hard Hat carries out le grande pivote, facing in el otra direccione, and B.A.D. continues its naughty little advance, to position 13.

Hard Hat now moves, forward, which means closer to the gutter, but stops right on the edge at position 19 and then just - sits there?

B.A.D. does a creepy-creep forward, to 14 and then 15, while Hard Hat is just… how you say… untätig? Inert? Okay.

Then B.A.D moves to position 16 and that is le go time for Hard Hat! Si si si, el hombre casco de seguridad scuttles back to 15, and B.A.D turns around but too late, le trap, el es esprungo, and now B.A.D. is being pushed back - el mot de Hard Hat, el es atomico! B.A.D. stops the pushing at square 18 and goes a whacky with the axey, but no matter to Hard Hat, which simply resumes pushing - and that’s enough - the silly B.A.D. robot is in the gutter and now it is wine and cheese time, si?

Hard Hat wins by TKO!

Add a subrule to the rule “BotScript” entitled “Movement Power” as follows:

Each Bot has a Movement Power equal to its Effective Power Output minus 50% of the consumption of the chassis and every system on the bot, divided by 100 and rounded up, plus two. (For instance, a Bot whose Engine had an Effective Power Output of 1000, a Chassis consuming 250, and Systems consuming 250, would have a Movement Power of 1000 - 250 => 750 / 100 ~=> 8 + 2 = 9.)

Append to the bullet list that follows “All otherwise-legal Reactions are Resolvable, except if that Reaction:” in the rule “BotScript” the following:

* would move the Actor a number of times in a single round that exceeds that Actor’s Movement Power.

Reword the Effect of the System Lead Weight in the rule “Systems” as follows:

Passive: If a Bot with this System would be Shoved, its Shove Power is multiplied by ten times the Condition of this system. In addition, the Bot with this System has its Movement Power reduced by 2.

Append to the Effect of the System Ablative Plating in the rule “Systems” as follows:

If a Bot with this System would have a Movement Power greater than 5, its Movement Power is instead considered to be 5.

Uphold the repairs done via Income via SingularByte that were performed today before the time that this cfj was posted.

If a simple majority of EVCs on this cfj say “Penalty”, then remove 3 instances of Advanced Logic Module (60%) from SingularByte’s Spare Parts Bin (or condition from components in there such that the same amount of net worth is lost, should those 3 components not be found).

In the rule Statuses, replace “it will cease to be Flipped after 3 turns have passed” with:

“it will cease to be Flipped after 5 turns have passed”

In the rule Statuses, replace the bullet point Scrambled with:

Scrambled: When a Bot becomes Scrambled, the Announcer randomises the order of its Script. Additionally, if possible, two lines of the script are picked and their reactions are exchanged with each other, then, if possible, this is repeated for another two lines. (A given list item is permitted to be randomly chosen multiple times by this effect). When it ceases to be Scrambled its Script regains its standard order, and any exchanged reactions return to their normal places.

In the rule Systems, replace the effect of Ablative Plating with:

Passive: All Condition loss incurred by other Components on the Actor is doubled and is incurred to this System instead of any other Component that it might be incurred to. Regardless of Statuses or the effects of other Systems on this Bot, no damage incurred to this System as a result of this Effect may cause damage to be incurred to other Components on this Bot.

In the rule Systems, replace the effect of Plate with:

Passive: All Condition loss incurred by this component is halved (rounded up).

In the rule Systems, append the following to the effect of Lead Weight:

The actor’s reactions to move forwards or backwards X times cannot have a value of X greater than 5. The actor’s reactions to bypass forwards or backwards X times cannot have a value of X greater than 3. The actor cannot take the evade reaction.

Two exhibition matches were scheduled for the day before the competition was due to begin. Although the weapons would be tipped with foam, the impact on the Tournament would be measurable, and as such the crowds were starting to filter back into the arena halls.

Those matches were:

HABANERO vs DARKNIGHT, featuring House Bot THE PYRAMID
SINGULARBYTE VS TRAPDOORSPYDER, with an explosion tile at 12

On the Blognomic main page, under the wiki page view, add a link to the workshop found here: https://wiki.blognomic.com/index.php?title=Workshop

Under the heading Dynastic rules, place the following in bold and as its own heading:

TOURNAMENT MODE IS ACTIVE

Reword the sentence reading “Tokens only exist relative to the BotScript that created them; the Announcer may distinguish between Tokens of the same name generated by different scripts as they please” in the rule “Tokens” to read

Tokens only exist relative to the BotScript that created them; the Announcer may distinguish between Tokens of the same name generated by different scripts as they please; and Token names are flavour text.

Reword the sentence reading “Triggers and Reactions marked Advanced may only be Resolvable if the Actor is permitted to use them by a System Effect or other ruleset-defined mechanism” in the rule “BotScript” to read

is marked Advanced (or has its Trigger marked as Advanced), but the Actor has no Advanced Logic Module with a Condition of greater than 0% in its Systems.

Rewrite the subrule ‘Tokens’ under ‘BotScript’ to read:

Some BotScript Triggers or Reactions may refer to Tokens being tracked or modified. Tokens are privately tracked by the Announcer; each Token contains an integer value, a flavour text string of no more than 5 characters which serves as its name, and belongs to exactly one Bot. When a Token is modified by a Bot, the value of that Bot’s Token with the given name is updated accordingly if it exists. Otherwise, a new Token is created belonging to that Bot with a value of 0 and the name of the Token the Bot attempted to modify, which is then updated accordingly. All Tokens are destroyed after each Bout.

Er, so, yeah, I was in Arena Hall D and I guess I could tell you what went down.

Oh, you mean, you want it all announcer-y? Nah, sorry bruh, I just bought a VIP pass or whatever, I dunno. Anyway, there wasn’t anybody else there, you know, it was trippy, like, was I the only one who bought the ₩300,000 deluxe all-access practice bout pass? I got to meet SingularByte and Habanero, that was pretty rad. I think they thought it was going to be all in private or whatever, so I told them I’d keep it quiet, but, like, I paid ₩300,000, I figure I got a right to tell my story?

Anyway, Habanero sort of won the toss or whatever, but Hard Hat has that gnarly nox tank so I’ll be telling it like it went first, which it did, you know. So Hard Hat in position 4 or whatever they call it. The Reaper - hehe, the Reaper, that is sick - in 16.

Gotta say, man, I’m no expert but both of the bots looked pretty sick, Hard Hat had this big ole nox tank and the Reaper was doing this thing with a giant axe - they’d made it look like a scythe - and a big mitt so Hard Hat wouldn’t be able to bypass. And I guess Habanero stuck a lead weight in with his breakpoint as well. Man, I was sitting there going, sheeeeesh - Hard Hat does not do well with bumpers up anyway, and now there’s a lead weight in there?

Oh yeah and the other thing was, they both had like foam tips on their weapons. Said it was a practice bout, didn’t want to do any damage. That was the only lame thing about it.

Anyway, yeah, so, Hard Hat goes first and does his big shove thing, all the way over the arena, but Reaper has the lead weight or whatever so Hard Hat is all like CLUNK but Reaper is all like NUH-UH and just sits there. And then that gnarly axe comes out and Hard Hat doesn’t like that, so backs up, but I think he thought he’d, like, push the Reaper a little? Because he backs up too far and goes into the bumpers, and you can see that SB isn’t down with this at all, like, seriously, dude looks pissed.

So Hard Hat lands in position 5, on its back, and the Reaper comes forward, and I’m like, WOAH, did he forget that there’s traps? Because that would be sick - but he didn’t, he stopped at 7, and then whacked Hard Hat with an axe again - pretty sick. Hard Hats gets back upright, tight, and then tries its big shove move again, but this time it goes even worse, it just clunks into the lead weight and then it’s on the flip trap and ends on its ass again. It’s all, like, wobble wobble, but Reaper just whacks it too more times with the axe and that’s enough, then the called it a day.

All in all it was pretty sweet, maybe not worth ₩300,000 but I guess I had it, I’ve been on a fricken hot streak on online Bot betting lately, you know?

So yeah CarolAIna Reaper won by TKO or whatever.

The Arena Hall was silent but for the atonal whistles of a janitor moving piles of detritus around. No fans, no loud music, no arcade machines blurting the catchphrases; no journalists looking for a scoop or paparazzi looking for an angle. No children, no neckbeards, no mysterious men in long red trenchcoats and wide-brimmed hats. The high, vaulted corridors let in light and gave back nothing in return.

From one side of the aircraft-hangar-sized Workshop to the other, two people met eyes, and slowly made their way to the middle of the room before awkwardly meeting.

“Can’t sleep?”

“Isn’t it weird how, one day, you go from being one of the biggest celebrities in the world - people screaming your name, being mobbed for autographs wherever you go - to, the next day, being nothing but a cardboard cutout, a literally nameless prop used in a scene intended to illustrate the pathos of a quiet moment in a long war?”

“...”

“So who do you think is going to win?”

“betblogbot.com has Brendan as the favourite but, you know, it’s three matches back to back, anything can do wrong. any of the top four or five have a chance I think.”

“You wanna practice?”

“Sure.”

The sign above the door of Arena Hall D whirred for a minute, before settling to show: SingularByte vs Habanero, Bumpers and Traps.

Add the following to the end of the first paragraph of the rule Systems:

The Effect of a System may only be applied to, or on behalf of, a Bot if it is equipped on that Bot (unless it is used against that Bot, by an Opponent using it during a Bout).

A proposal changed the way that Bouts pay out was enacted at the end of July that I didn’t notice, and no-one noticed me not noticing, so the end of Bout payouts have been wrong for half the dynasty. Oops!

The rules currently state that all participants in a Bout get 1000+500 per other bot; I’ve been behaving as if just the winner gets 2000 and the loser gets nothing. This has affected every Bout since Bout 20.

This CfJ suggests giving losers their money but letting winners have their bonuses, as the alternative is to unwind too much of the dynasty.

Uphold that the money values awarded to Bots at the end of every Bout to date are correct, and then adjust the Money held by the following Operators or idle Operators as follows, or setting their Money to 20,000 if that value would be exceeded:

Lendunistus +1500
Maldor +3000
SingularByte +4500
SupernovaStarbright +3000
Trapdoorspyder +3000
chiiika +3000
Raven1207 +3000

Uphold all previous changes to operators’ money values during this dynasty.

Create a new rule called Blank Cheque as a subrule of Winners at War:

All operators are considered to have infinite money while the game is in tournament mode. Any action that would increase, decrease or otherwise alter the money of an operator instead leave the operator with infinite money. This supersedes the normal ₩20,000 cap.

Revert the change made to the rule Income by the proposal Galvanised Sprocket.
Any additions made to the rule Income by Fighting Fund (if it was enacted) are to be left as-is.

In the rule Winners at War, reword the bullet point that currently reads:

In Round 2 of the Bracket, all Operators to have won their round 1 Bout should progress to be matched against Operators deferred into round 2 (due to having populated LED banners or being too high-seeded for round 1)

to say

In Round 2 of the Bracket, all Operators to have won their round 1 Bout should progress, alongside any Operators deferred into round 2 (due to having populated LED banners or being too high-seeded for round 1). Round 2 Bouts are then organised similarly to Round 1 Bouts, with the top seed Operators being matched with the non-top-seed Operators

.

Good morning and welcome to Tournament Mode.

As things stand, 8 Operators are eligible to take their Bots through to the final Tournament. Four of those Operators - Brendan, Habanero, Lendunistus and Trapdoorspyder - have activated their LED Banners and thus will be allowed to bypass the first round of the content. Bouts will be sorted according to seed order; this post sets out what the current Seed order is and how it is derived. Following this post, Operators have three full days to adjust their positioning and attempt to either secure a name on an LED Banner or improve their seed rank.

Seeds have been calculated based off of a Seed Score, in which the lowest value wins. These are derived as follows:
* Bouts played: Each Operator is given a Rank, from 1 to 8, based on how many Bouts they have participated in. If they have taken part on many Bouts then this measure has less impact than if they have taken part in very few Bouts; increasing your number of Bouts Played improves your seed score considerably, but only up to a (relative) threshold.
* Win/Loss %: Bouts Won / Bouts Played, as a %, with impact of score again weighted by how many Bouts have been played; a high W/L over many Bouts has more impact than few
* Winner Adjusted Score: Each Bout has been given a Score measuring how hard it was to win. This score is based on: the W/L% of the loser, whether the Bout went to Sudden Death, and whether it came earlier in the Dynasty or later. An Operator’s average WAS for Bouts that they have won is ranked.
* Average Damage Taken on Loss: Losing without taking much damage also has a small impact on the final determination.

Without further ado, here are the Provisional Rankings:

1. Brendan (Seed Score: 1.995)
2. Trapdoorspyder (Seed Score: 2.281)
3. SupernovaStarbright (Seed Score: 3.016)
4. SingularByte (Seed Score: 4.097)
5. Habanero (Seed Score: 5.000)
6. Lendunistus (Seed Score: 7.751)
7. Darknight (Seed Score: 9.608)
8. Maldor (Seed Score: 10.345)

chiiika and thundershrike become idle after 8 and 7 days of inactivity, respectively.

Increase the Money of all Operators by 5,000. If this would bring an Operator’s Money to above 20,000, instead set that Operator’s Money to 20,000.

Add the following to the end of the last paragraph of the rule Income:

If the game is in Tournament Mode then that increase is instead 20%.

Add the following to the end of the rule Income:

If the game is in Tournament Mode then each Operator may, once after each Bout, award themselves ₩1,000.

Add the following as a subrule to the rule Winners at War, called Practice Bouts:

Any Bouts fought between the start of Tournament Mode and the posting of the Final Bracket are Practice Bouts; at the conclusion of a Practice Bout the Conditions of all Components on any Bot to participate in that Bout is restored to the value it had immediately prior to that Bout taking place.

Arena Hall A is packed out here, with fans expecting a thrilling match between two titans of the sport. Between them they’ve been involved nineteen of the last thirty-two matches, and they’ve met twice before - Trapdoorspyder beat SingularByte way back in Bout 6, and SingularByte levelled up the series in bout 24 - so this is for pride as much as position.

Trapdoorspyder’s bot B.A.D. takes position 4 - still not really changed in an “it ain’t broke” kind of a way - while Hard Hat similarly is in its traditional configuration at position 16. Let’s see how this plays out.

The blue light! And BAD comes straight forward to position 15, getting right in Hard Hat’s face. Hard Hat - WOAH! HARD HAT ejects backwards into the gutter! And SingularByte is loudly protesting to the referee - the crowd is booing, suspecting some kind of collaboration again, but Trapdoorspyder is just laughing has ass off - SingularByte seems to be explaining that his controller isn’t working, he’s demonstrating that the movement stick has been reversed, and Trap is bent over double - is this some kind of grotesque prank by the competitor? Is he trying to humiliate his rival in this way?

The judges have been called down and a heated conference is taking place… I can see now that the judge is slowly walking away back across the arena towards the announcer’s booth.. Now they’re talking…

The Announcer has taken the mic, we’ll now cross over live:

“In Bout 33 if the League Championship, it has been found that the Operator Trapdoorspyder DID tamper with the instruments of his rival SingularByte!”

Oh, wow, listen to those boos.

“BUT!... The rules manual of BlogBot is very clear! That it is the responsibility of EACH OPERATOR to check their equipment before a Bout commences and that the equipment brought into the hall, if otherwise legal, must be that with which they compete!”

The audience are on their feet, they are not happy.

“Therefore, it is the ruling of the judges that this was nevertheless a legal Bout! B.A.D. wins by TKO!”

It’s not for me to suggest that CarolAIna Reaper only has one trick, but, look, it’s a really good trick, and here’s a packed stadium to show for it; the mood in the room is that Bad Door is getting creamed, but there will be some in the stands curious as to how this match-up plays out: whether Habanero has another gear, whether Maldor can improve on its freshman loss against Brendan’s Dark Lord, whether a counterplay to the spikes strategy has been found at this stage in the game. The Reaper’s demolition of CrowBot proved to be so expensive that Raven1207 had to leave the contest rather than face the repair bill, so either way it feels like coming into a Bout with a Bot like the Reaper only half-prepared would be a mistake not worth repeating.

Here are the competitors - Habanero won the toss so CarolAIna Reaper is there in position 4. Habanero seems to have learned Brendan’s “jiggle it until it just comes out” technique for the Modular Breakpoint, which seems to have been removed during staging and replaced with a surprise Flipper; but the two rows of rotating spikes are still there and still very dangerous. This is one Reaper you should fear - it’ll take your hand clean off if you’re not careful!

Bad Door appears to be completely unchanged - the ram/flipper/taser combo that found itself stuck when faced with Dark Lord’s grappling approach a few Bouts ago.

And between them we have that mound of military discipline, the Colonel - it’s been a while since we’ve seen him, but he looks jaunty and ready to spar. Behind him are a couple of traps - a shock at 8 and a flip at 9, and oh, that seems to be an explosion at 14 as well.

Aha, there’s the blue light - they’re off!

The Reaper makes a strong surge, weaving a clever bypass track through the traps, past the Colonel, past Bad Door and into position 18! But Bad Door is ready for him - that crackling taser shoots out and jams the Reaper right on the spikes! The Colonel keeps his position in the centre of the map, keeping an eye on things from a distance but not feeling the need to intervene! Now the Reaper hits hard into reverse and those spikes just shred into Bad Door, tearing off steel in chunks and ripping the ram away from its hardpoint and sending it across the arena floor! The crowd loves this!

Bad Door shoots again with its taser - is this the strategy, to absorb damage until the taser can take care of the spikes? It’s not a bad idea but it needs to work quicker, because Habanero keeps reversing his Bot into his opponent, and bits of Bad Door keep flying off as a result of it - now the flipper’s gone - and the Colonel is content to just keep a stentorian eye on things from the centre - so no help is coming! Another shot with the taser but it’s no good, now that taser has been ripped out and thrown away, and Bad Door is dead stick - a sitting duck - Maldor throws up his hands in frustration but there’s nothing that can save him now. One more bump from the spinning spikes of death and that’s it for Bad Door - its chassis is shot and so is its chances of winning this Bout.

Habanero wins by TKO!

In the rule Winners at War, replace everything between “Once the Bracket has been posted, the following schedule takes effect” and “....and all the Systems in the list exist in their Spare Parts Bin” with the following:

Once the Bracket has been posted, the Announcer should privately resolve all Bouts in the Tournament using the most recent loadout and script of each Bot at that time; they should then make a post summarising the Tournament and announcing the winner.

“Ah, there you are.”

SingularByte had found Trapdoorspyder sitting by a fountain, angrily tearing chunks of bread from a loaf, showing the chunks to the birds, and then spitefully eating them.

“What do you want, nerd,” snarled Trap.

“You know,” said SingularByte, grabbing a perch, “the snarly villain schtick used to bother me. Now it feels almost… nostalgic.”

“You feeling wistful for the good old days?”

“You bet. Now it’s all nothing but rows of spikes and autonomous ai units. Not what it used to be, back when we were in charge.”

“Tournament’s just around the corner. We can be again.”

“Hey! You know what, you’re right. We can show these kids how it’s done!”

“Why wait? Open slot in the roster tomorrow.”

“Want to show them how it’s done? Two bots, no configs?”

“You know, I really do.”

Change the System Effect of the System “Modular Breakpoint” to read:

Passive: The Operator of the Actor may privately message the Announcer to add a System from their Spare Parts Bin to their Bot while their Readiness is Staging, if they have enough spare Hardpoints to do so and Modular Breakpoint is present on the Bot at the time the chosen System would be added. The Announcer should add that System to the Actor once its Operator’s Readiness is Set, but before processing the Bout. Only one System may be added to a Bot in this way in a given Bout.

Today we have a real six-pointer as two of the very best in the league match up. Amongst the Operators that have tested themselves in multiple Bouts, SupernovaStarbright has one of the best records - 5 wins from 7, a 71% win rate, and against some very tough opposition. The only Operator in the League with a better record than that is Brendan, the League’s own resident bad boy, with 5 wins from 6 - that’s 83% of his matches won. The audience is expecting a big bout tonight and - you know - I think they’re going to get one.

In position 4 is Dark Lord and I think there’s some kind of jiggery-pokery going on there. When it rolled into the bay it had a modular breakpoint, its LED Banner and a lead weight, but in the Staging area Brendan seems to have pulled a fast move - not just yanking out the Modular Breakpoint but somehow doing so in a way that he could stuff not just one extra system into its hardpoint but two - as it seems to have magically acquired both a Giant Mitt and an Axe. I think that may void the warrantee on the breakpoint but as far as the tournament rulebook goes it appears to be legal, so that’s where it stands - and it looks like today Brendan is determined to chop his way to the final.

DuckTank, meanwhile, is unchanged in position 16 - it’s a rough road, being a shover on a field with obstacles, but if anyone can pull it of it’s Supernova - with her experience in underground botfighting she is nothing if not adaptable.

There’s the blue light - they’re off!

Dark Lord jumps forward, getting right into DuckTank’s face by dumping itself into position 15, and DuckTank responds by revving up that big nuclear engine - in front of DuckTank is a rough place to be! Supernova launches her bot forward but - oh, no! This is a rare oversight for the young prodigy as she seems to have forgotten that Dark Lord’s lead weight makes it nigh-unshovable, and DuckTank just bounces off - a small dent from that battering ram in Dark Lord’s chassis is all DuckTank has to show for its efforts!

Dark Lord can take a scuff, though, because it has an axe to play with, and oof - DuckTank knows about it there, with a wicked swing crunching into its chassis!

DuckTank wheels around on an evasive move while Dark Lord blocks patiently blocks, and this is interesting - Dark Lord is using the same technique against DuckTank that Supernova used against Trapdoorspyder in her bout against B.A.D, frustrating her attempts to break out of the corner and keeping her option space small. DuckTank tries a shove from a different angle, but it fares no better - Dark Lord is rock solid, its base is solidly planted, and it won’t be moved. And there’s the axe again!

A note of desperation is creeping in for Supernova who again wheels away evasively before coming back in again - I get the sense now that she’s not so much trying to shove as facing up to the fact that the ram is the only option that she has, hoping that Dark Lord’s chassis might give way before hers does. Looks unlikely though! That ram is doing damage but nothing compared to Dark Lord’s axe, which takes another huge chunk out of DuckTank’s hull!

DuckTank makes one last attempt to evade but Dark Lord remains resolute, not falling for it - one more bash from the ram but then the axe falls again - and DuckTank is shattered, unable to compete! Brendan stands on the brink of greatness, with a fourth name now on that LED board, and three days left to find a fifth! The refs call the bout -

Dark Lord wins by TKO!

Change the wording of the effect of Advanced Logic Module in Systems to:

Passive: Enables all Advanced Triggers and Reactions in the rule BotScript. The Script of a bot with this system may be a list of up to 25 Triggers rather than its normal limit.

In the rule BotScript, replace ‘“If line #X of this script was the trigger that took effect in the Actor’s most recent round preceding this one”, where X is an integer between 1 and 10’ with:

“If line #X of this script was the trigger that took effect in the Actor’s most recent round preceding this one”, where X is an integer between 1 and 25 (inclusive)

Reword the sentence in the rule “Bot Loadout” that reads “If the Condition of an Engine or Chassis of a Bot is 0%, then that Bot is said to be Trashed” to

If the Condition of an Engine or Chassis of a Bot is 0%, or if that Bot has multiple Systems with the same Name, then that Bot is said to be Trashed.

If there are any Trashed Bots whose Operators do not have the Readiness of Workshop when this proposal enacts, set the Readiness of those Operators to Workshop.

Hey, welcome back to the Habanero and Maldor Show, the only podcast to be broadcasting right from the workshop floor of the BlogBot championship!

That’s right, Hab, and don’t forget that you can listen to us using your podcast app of choice or watch us on videocast!

That’s right, Mal. And hey, we’ve got big news today, haven’t we?

We sure have - it’s finally happening!

Yes, finally, we’ve been drawn against… each other!

I know you guys love the show, and don’t worry - still good friends, still good vibes, but now we get to see each others’ artistry up close.

That’s right, Mal. I’m excited, are you excited?

I actually am! CarolAIna Reaper has attracted a lot of buzz, I’m excited to see if Bad Door can be the bot to stop it in its tracks.

If anyone can it’s you, buddy. Any news on configurations?

I understand that we get the Colonel for company, and some trap tiles: a shock at 8, explosion at 14 and a flip at square 9.

Easy peasy. Can’t wait, buddy; if it has to be anyone I hope it’s you.

I hope it’s me too!

In the effect of Spikes, change 15 to 3.

In the effect of Ram, change ten to 2.

Increase the Consumption of Spikes to 90, of Flamethrower to 230, and decrease the Consumption of Ram to 60.

In the status Scorched, change 5 to 10.

Idle me. I’ll join the next dynasty

Advertisers are getting tetchy, Danny.

I don’t see why? Viewership figures are up on all previous years, engagement is through the roof and sponsorship opportunities…

All of that’s great, Danny, but the advertisers want spectacle.

Spectacle?

You know, pizzazz, razzmatazz, other words with a surprising number of z’s in them…

Embezzelment?

Danny, if you’re going to be like that then tis meeting is over.

Okay, look, you want a show? Fine. Name two Bots who haven’t fought yet, your two favourites.

Dark Lord?

I shoulda guessed you’d be a Dark Lord guy. Okay, and…?

DuckTank.

Slightly more surprising, but okay. Dark Lord and DuckTank… done. Tomorrow, 7pm, Arena Hall A. It’s prime time, baby!

Oh, you say baby too?

You bet your sweet ass. And we’re going to have obstacles at positions 8, 10 and 13 - ah, the audiences are gonna love it.

In the rule ‘Winners at War’, add the following paragraph after “...continuing in the same pattern until the single Bout in the last round of the Tournament Bracket has concluded.”:

While the game is in Tournament Mode, any Operator whose Readiness is Workshop or Ready may privately message the Announcer with a list of Systems they wish to be added to their Bot for their upcoming tournament Bout. Once an Operator’s Readiness is set to Staging, the Announcer should remove all the Systems in their list from their Spare Parts Bin and add the Systems to their Bot, given their Bot has enough spare hardpoints to accommodate all the Systems in their list and all the Systems in the list exist in their Spare Parts Bin.

A highly anticipated match today as SupernovaStarbright meets Trapdoorspyder - for the third time in this tournament, in fact. This has become one of the classic pairings, as no two operators have met each other as often, and going into the bout the score is tied - their first meeting in Bout #13 was a DuckTank win, while their more recent interaction in Bout 21 was famously the bout that SupernovaStarbright threw in order to get onto Trapdoorspyder’s LED board. We of course can’t know what happens behind the scenes here at the arena halls but the rumour is that she has recanted that position, and possibly also that Trapdoorspyder reneged on his side of the deal anyway, so we should see a more competitive match today.

In the left, in position 4, it’s DuckTank - still a chunky little pusher, now decked out with a nuclear engine to give some heft to its battering ram / cow catcher combo. Assessors seem to think that DuckTank is now likely to have similar pushing power to Hard Hat, but of course the shoving meta has faded a bit since the mid-portion of this tournament - we’ll see if Annoy-o-Tron has the answers.

Except that Annoy-o-Tron is no more! Over in position 15, instead of the usual mound-shaped body, we have the newly rechristened B.A.D, as it seems like Trapdoorspyder wants to capitalise on his recent infamy - under the hood it looks like the same sort of loadout as Annoy-o-Tron, but the whole presentation is much gothier, like the robot version of black eyeliner and a tattoo on the inside of your lip.

And they’re off!

DuckTank steams forward to position 13, getting right into the range of B.A.D.‘s axe but not close enough to get a shove in or give a poke with that battering ram - but what do I know - position is everything here, after all. B.A.D. declines to take a swing, instead opting for an evasive move, clearly anticipating a shove, but DuckTank has anticipated the anticipation and makes its own blocking pattern, trying to dissuade B.A.D. from attempting to bypass! This is some very high-level tactical play from these two, play and counter-play being rolled out seamlessly - and the crowd loves it - even BAD is getting some encouraging cheers amongst the usual boos.

BAD breaks formation first, swinging in with a quick axe attack - but this requires BAD to stand still for a second, and that gives DuckTank an opening, which it uses to crunch forward, moving to position 17 and pushing BAD to 18 in the process! The damage from the ram is superficial but the danger is acute - the edge of the arena is right there - BAD tries evasive moves again but DuckTank snaps right back into that blocking pattern, keeping BAD corralled into the corner, and BAD is going to try to fight its way out, another huge swing with that axe, but DuckTank isn’t missing an opportunity like that! One more big shove and that’s it - BAD is in the gutter and out of this match! What a Bout!

DuckTank wins by TKO!

Create a new rule entitled “Damage” as follows:

When a Bot’s hardware component suffers condition loss, that condition loss is known as damage.

If a Bot’s System would take damage greater than the total remaining Condition of that System, the difference between the damage inflicted and the remaining Condition of that system is applied as damage to that Bot’s next-frontmost System, or to the Bot’s Chassis if the bot has no next-frontmost System.

Add the following as a subrule of the “Bot Loadout” rule, titled “Compounding Systems”:

If a Bot would have two or more systems that share the same name equipped on their Bot, that Bot is considered to have exactly one of that system equipped on their Bot for the purposes of applying the effect of that system, unless all instances of that system on that Bot are at 0%. If a System refers to its own condition, then the highest condition instance of that System on that Bot is used.

It’s a small crowd tonight due to counterprogramming - this Bout has been scheduled at the same time as Dark Lord vs Hard Hat in the next Arena Hall over, and this match between CrowBot (with its slightly underwhelming win/loss ratio) and a new pilot of mysterious background seems to have been written off by many as the lesser attraction. This commentator, however, can’t help to be compelled by the mysterious Habanero - there they are now, in the operator pit, shrouded by a heavy poncho and a wide sombrero hat. Who are they, and where have they come from? How will they shake up this league?

We’re about to find out. CrowBot2000 has taken position 4, unchanged since its loss to Credit Score: F - still working with that flamethrower/axe combo.

Opposite it is our first look at CarolAIna Reaper. Its form factor is similar to a stumpy chilli pepper but it is covered in spikes - and under the spikes, thick ablative plating. This is an interesting loadout, and not one we’ve seen before; in this league we’ve seen spikes do some damage but there must be twice as many spikes on this Bot as we’ve seen before and that can only compound the potential for damage.

There’s the blue light - they’re off.

CrowBot is first to act, taking a cautious position at square 9, and Habanero - oh! Habanero moves decisively out to meet it, its chassis spinning as it does so, and it slams into CrowBot, and there it is! There are those spikes, tearing and smashing into CrowBot with incredible ferocity, a single bump rips CrowBot’s flamethrower clean off and throws it across the arena, and the double-spike loadout suddenly makes a load of sense!

CrowBot gets a swing in with its axe but that gets absorbed by the ablative plating on the Reaper, who pulled back a little to position 14 - CrowBot just sits there, stunned - but here’s the Reaper again, with its little run-up, smashing back into CrowBot and this time ripping the axe straight out of the chassis and sending it flying into the pit wall! This is stunning and the crowd are on their feet - what an incredible Bout - they’ve never seen anything like this before!

Once again Habanero pulls the Reaper backwards for a big run-up, and Raven is just looking at his controller - he has no idea what to do in the face of this!

Here it comes again - boom - those spikes shredding chassis now, and that’s that, one little bump and CrowBot is eviscerated. The Bout is swiftly called and I can guarantee that Habanero’s next Bout will be much more closely watched.

CarolAIna Reaper wins by TKO!

If Proposal: Needs Less Halting Problem was enacted, revert its changes.

Add a new System to the list in the rule Systems:

| Advanced Logic Module || ₩4,500 || 290 || Passive: Enables all Advanced Triggers and Reactions in the rule Botscript.

In the rule BotScript, add the following to the bulleted list immediately after the sentence ‘All otherwise-legal Reactions are Resolvable, except if that Reaction’:

Triggers and Reactions marked Advanced may only be Resolvable if the Actor is permitted to use them by a System Effect or other ruleset-defined mechanism.

In the same rule, after “Combined triggers are accompanied by a single Reaction as normal”, add:

Combinable Reactions may be combined with one other other Reaction in the same manner as Triggers; however, a Combinable Reaction must be the first in the combined Reaction.

Add the following to the list of triggers:

* Advanced: “If the value of Token X is [greater than / less than / equal to] Y”, where X is any string of one five characters in length and Y is any integer
* Advanced: “If [the Actor’s / Y’s] [chassis / engine / exposed System] has a Condition that is [greater than / less than / equal to] X”, where x is any positive percentage value and Y is the name of a single Opponent that is a current participant in the same Bout as the Actor
* Advanced: “If line #X of this script was the trigger that took effect in the Actor’s most recent round preceding this one”, where X is an integer between 1 and 10
* Advanced: “If on the Opponent’s last turn they uses system X” where X is the name of any System

Add the following to the list of reactions:

* Advanced, Combinable: “...[increase / decrease] Token X by Y”, where X is any string of one five characters in length and Y is any integer
* Advanced: “... then move X times towards opponent Y”, where X is a positive integer and Y is the name of a single Opponent that is a current participant in the same Bout as the Actor

Add the following as a new subrule to the rule BotScript, called Tokens:

Some BotScript Triggers or Reactions may refer to Tokens being tracked or modified. Tokens only exist relative to the BotScript that created them; the Announcer may distinguish between Tokens of the same name generated by different scripts as they please. A Token is created for a BotScript whenever its value is modified by a Reaction in that script, if that token does not already exist for that script; each Token may only hold numeric values, defaults to a value of zero, has its value privately tracked by the Announcer, and is reset to zero and then destroyed at the end of the Bout in which is was created.

Create a subrule of Winners at War called Formalised Disputes:

This rule is flavour text if the game is not in Tournament Mode.

If the events of a bout in tournament mode are ever being challenged by a call for judgement and that call for judgement’s text requests a pause in the tournament, the schedule in Winners at War is paused for as long as that call for judgement is not resolved; time spent with the tournament being paused is not counted towards the 12 hour and 24 hour thresholds in the schedule. Only the Announcer is permitted to enact calls for judgement that request that the tournament be paused.

Where multiple open calls for judgement each request a pause, that pause lasts until all of them have been resolved.

In cases where a rule has been unambiguously applied incorrectly by the Announcer in a bout in tournament mode in the opinion of the Announcer, the Announcer is permitted to recalculate the results of that bout without the use of a proposal or call for judgement so long as less than 24 hours have passed since the end of that bout. The new ending time for a recalculated bout is considered to be the ending time of that bout’s Round, with the most recent ending time being used in the case of multiple recalculated bouts in the same round. This ending time recalculation applies whether the bout was recalculated as a result of the enactment of votable matter, or as a result of the Announcer choosing to recalculate without the use of a votable matter.

In the case of a declaration of victory existing while a call for judgement requests a pause in the tournament, all Operators are encouraged to vote against that declaration of victory if they believe that the revelation of new or secret information as a result of the possible enactment of that call for judgement could change their vote. There is no 120 hour cooldown on the use of a Declaration of Victory while the game is in Tournament Mode, though fair play rules still apply.

Where this rule refers to a Round, it uses Round in the context implied in Winners at War rather than the context in The Arena.

There’s history between these tow Operators; the last time they met SingularByte contested the result, and still holds that Brendan essentially stole the match - most lately calling Brendan out in a series of guest verses on rap tracks, as SingularByte is also a very skilled MC besides being a skilled Operator.

Still, the expectations for this Bout are low; Brendan was public about being willing take on anybody to deny Trapdoorspyder further victories, and the sense in the air is that neither Operator is going to be trying too hard here, or wanting to risk valuable components in advance of a possible Tournament finish.

In position 4 we have Hard Hat, unchanged since its last bout against Annoy-o-Tron, in which Cool Hand Luke provided a famous assist. Opposite from Hard Hat is Dark Lord - who seems to have varied its loadout at the last minute with a giant mitt, to prevent bypassing manoeuvres, thanks to its modular breakpoint.

And they’re off - but Hard Hat is just sitting there - is this another SingularByte stratagem? In the Operator pit SingularByte is looking expectantly at Brendan, who jams the control forwards, moving Dark Lord over the traps and past the various obstacles to position 8. SingularByte looks disgusted - it’s unclear what he was looking for from the Bad Boy of BlogBot but he didn’t get it - and now h’s dramatically jamming Hard Hat backwards, and yes - out of bounds! SingularByte declines a post-match handshake from Brendan and stalks out of the arena, but Brendan just shrugs and updates his LED Banner, as the judges announce -

Dark Lord wins by TKO!

In the rule Showboating change “quorum or more” to “more than four”.

Brendan is to be Habanero’s mentor.

Enact the proposal ‘Needs More Turing Completeness’, changing the Reaction it adds to read:

...then [enable/disable/toggle] the Triggers at the following positions in the list: X. If the Script has been run less than thrice this turn, run it again after this Reaction is Resolved without incrementing the turn number of the Bout”, where X is a set of integers denoting valid positions in the list of Triggers

Meanwhile, in a seedy bar not far from the Arena Hall complex…

If you give the bartender the exact right kind of nod, they’ll gesture you towards a nondescript door which will lead you to a dark corridor. At the end of that corridor is a heavy steel door, which, when opened, will reveal a narrow, rusted-iron spiral staircase leading down into a damp cellar. From the foot of these stairs you will now be able to hear the sounds of people shouting and the tortured whine of metal on metal. This is the real deal; push through the curtains and what you’ll see is the real BlogBot fighting league, the dark, dangerous underbelly of the sport where everything is for keeps and nothing is off limits.

Take this bout, for example. One Bot, called Zero Wing, is basically a control unit surrounded by autonomous modules that can break away, charge down the opponent and detonate themselves - expensive for the Operator, worse still for the Opponent. It’s hanging back, now, at the edge of the fighting pit, its drones circling its main unit, looking for an opening through which to strike.

Because its opponent is also a Bot of no common factor; named Six Eyes, its form profile is more or less a series of rotating rings inside a fixed frame, each of which holds a lens in place. When activated a single laser beam can be split into a half-dozen, scoring the centre of the stage and preventing even a determined bot-cloud from getting through. This bot is making aggressive moves; it’s a battle of positioning, as the ring-bot tries to find a position where it can catch its Opponent’s central unit with its laser with enough force to knock it out in one, while the Operator of the cloud-bot is trusting their gut, watching the rings, waiting for a moment where -

Ah. There it is.

For just a split-second the rings are misconfigured, giving too much coverage on the left and not enough on the right. And that’s all that the swarm needs; two of the detonation modules peel away from the central housing and score up the left hand track of the pit - but it was a feint, and actually the rings were never misconfigured at all, and suddenly those lenses are snapped back into position, the detonation modules are fried and dead-stick, and that’s now created a little safety-corridor on the left for Six Eyes, who takes it…

Because behind Six Eyes is a player knows that you don’t play against the Bot, you play against its Operator.

In the chaos as the Bout concludes, with the bookies collecting their winnings and the crowd jostling and yelling, someone appears at the Operator pit, by Six Eyes’ Operator: someone in the livery of the BlogBot league. The Operator is handed a note; it reads:

ANNOY-O-TRON. ARENA HALL B. NO CONFIGS.

SupernovaStarbright stands up and, with a thin smile, grabs her competitor’s pink slip, her winnings, and a fat manilla folder marked TRAPDOORSPYDER. Time for DuckTank to get back to work.

Meanwhile, across town, a mysterious figure stepped off of a boat and onto the dock. Despite the lashing rain, this stranger had no coat or umbrella, and nor did the man there to meet him - although this person at least could be identified thanks to the BlogBot League pin on his lapel. “Are you… Habanero?” asked the man, and the figure just nodded. “Come this way please… Your first bout happens imminently, it’s against Raven1207 and CrowBot2000, do you need time to get ready…?”

Habanero’s response was simply a shake of the head. It was time to shake up this league.

In the rule ‘BotScript’, change the first sentence to read:

Each Bot has a Script, being a list of up to ten Triggers, each Trigger having a corresponding Reaction and a boolean value indicating whether it is Enabled or Disabled (defaulting to Enabled).

In the same rule, change:

until they find a Trigger which is true for the Bot in question and its corresponding Reaction is Resolvable

to read:

until they find a Trigger which is Enabled, true for the Bot in question, and has a Resolvable corresponding Reaction

Append the following Reaction to the bullet point list starting with “Possible Reactions are:-” in the same rule:

...then [enable/disable/toggle] the Triggers at the following positions in the list: X. If the Script has been run less than thrice this turn, run it again after this Reaction is Resolved”, where X is a set of integers denoting valid positions in the list of Triggers

I formally announce my intention to become an Operator.

In the rule Taunt, change

When a Bout concludes, the Winner gains additional Money equal to ten times their own Red Mist, and any non-winning participants lose percentage points of Condition to their chassis and exposed system equal to their Red Mist, to minimums of zero; then, the Red Mist of all participants in that Bout is set to zero.

to read

When a Bout concludes, the Winner gains additional Money equal to one hundred times their own Red Mist, and any non-winning participants lose percentage points of Condition to their chassis and exposed system equal to five times their Red Mist, to minimums of zero; then, the Red Mist of all participants in that Bout is set to zero.

[A music video for the track Safety Gear by Lil Botty]

[The first verse features typical scenes of rap music excess - Lil Botty on a boat, Lil Botty in the club, Lil Botty shooting at a helicopter with a gamma pistol]

[The second verse, however, is a guest verse from none other than MC HardHat himself - now watch out as SingularBeat drops some rhymes]

Yeah, yeah
Ayo, the fans, it’s time.
It’s time, the fans (aight, the fans, begin).

Straight out the metallic dungeons of rap
The trap drops deep as does my ajax
I’m a mothershover, ‘cause to shove is the sister tax
Beyond the walls of bots, life is defined
I think of victory when I’m in an Arena Hall C state of mind

Hope the axe got some tax.
My max don’t like no dirty wax.
Run up to the syntax and get the lax.

In an Arena Hall C state of mind.
What more could you ask for? The strong trap?
You complain about Dark Lord
Out and about stealing Bouts, Brendan I’m calling you out
I gotta love it though - somebody still sneaks through this crap

Brendan, you got called out bruv,
Brendan, you got called out

I’m rappin’ to the chassis,
And I’m gonna move your profligacy.
Weak, damaged, defunct, like a bar
Boy, I tell you, I thought you were a spar.

I gotta take the Dark Lord, gotta take the map.
I woulda tried to win I guess I got no rap.
I’m rappin’ to the profligacy,
And I’m gonna move your chassis.

Yea, yaz, in an Arena Hall C state of mind.

Thinking of victory. Yaz, thinking of victory (victory).

[Behind him, Hard Hat does donuts while an effigy of the Arena Hall explodes in a CGI effect]

We’re in for a spicy match tonight - over the course of this contest Trapdoorspyder has emerged as the villain of the piece, and the fans just love to hate him. Here he is now, entering the stadium - the boos are starting up - but oh, he seems to be pushing his elderly granny along in a wheelchair, oh, that’s blunting some of the audience response, the stands seem to be quieting down - WHAT! He’s just tipped granny OUT of the wheelchair and asked the hottest person in the audience that he could find to hop in instead! That’s his grandma, sprawls on the floor, while he is flirting with his front-row floozy! Oh, what a villain, what an vicious brute!

By contract, here’s chiiika, dressed in a white power-suit, looking like she’s ready for nothing less than business in this bout. Yvette doesn’t have the strongest record in this contest, in three bouts she’s chalked up one win, against Credit Score: F, but she’s the firm crowd favourite tonight.

In position 4 starts Annoy-o-Tron, which seems to have been redesigned to look more… menacing? Lots of extra spikes, and it seems to have a mohawk now. Other than that its configuration seems to be unchanged.

In position 10 we have Cool Hand Luke, the house bot that herds horses and axes bots. Cool Hand Luke is perfectly capable of knocking out a competitor if left to its own devices, so both Operators will hopefully be cognisant of its threat and will have planned to work around it.

And in position 16 it’s Yvette, similarly unchanged in configuration.

The blue light is on and so is this Bout! Trapdoorspyder jams on his controller, sending Annoy-o-Tron into a 180 - it’s facing outside of the arena, towards the bumpers - and Yvette jumps forward before clattering into the back of Cool Hand Luke. The house bot is unperturbed, facing the other direction - and then Annoy-o-Tron jams had backwards, sketching an elaborate bypass pattern to push across the entire arena to position 19.

Luke moves into the area vacated by Annoy, heading into square 7, and Yvette - oh goodness - Yvette pulls the same move again, ramming Luke hard from behind, and why is she picking a fight with the house bot when Annoy-o-Tron is right there? He’s not even doing anything, just sitting smugly on the sidelines, and now Luke is turning around - he won’t take being hit twice - and Yvette seems to be stuck in place, watching it happen.

A grapple and three swift axe-blows later and that’s it - it’s all over for Yvette. Trapdoorspyder smugly steps into the middle of the arena, as if conducting the audience’s boos, while chiiika gives a small wave and then heads out through the Operator tunnel, disappointed by unbowed. Over the tannoy comes the announcement -

Annoy-o-Tron wins by TKO!

In the rule Winners at War, in the bulleted list immediately following the line that reads “Once the Bracket has been posted, the following schedule takes effect”, change all instances of 24 to 12 and then change all instances of 48 to 24.

Remove the words “50% of” from the sentence in the rule “Systems” that currently reads “An Operator whose Readiness is not Set may remove a System from their Bot at any time by either increasing their money by 50% of the Effective Cost of the system being removed or adding that system at the appropriate condition to their Spare Parts Bin.”

If there exists a rule called “Repair Wrench” then repeal it.

In the rule Income, change “Once in between each Bout in which they participate, while their Readiness is Workshop, an Operator may add 5% condition to each component in their Bot” to read as follows:

At any time while their Readiness is Workshop, an Operator may add 5% condition to each component in their Bot for each full 24 hour period that has elapsed since they last performed this action or since the end of the last Bout in which they were a participant, whichever is most recent.

.

Repeal the rule Repair Wrench.

Add to the list of triggers in the rule “BotScript” the following:

* “If the Actor is in the space numbered X [or [higher / lower]]...”, where X is a positive integer.
* “If the Actor is in the space lettered X [or [earlier / later]]...”, where X is a letter from A to F.

09h42, CORRIDOR H LEADING TO ARENA HALL C

Three children are playing with BlogBot action figures in an alcove behind one of the stages hosting cosplay competitions. One of them is showing off their rare, limited-edition Credit Score F figurine, with articulated flipper action. Trapdoorspyder spots them while passing through, diverts his course, and pushes them out of the way before viciously stomping on the rare action figure. “This is what becomes of homes and dreams!” he shouts.

11h07, CENTRAL PARADE SQUARE

Giancarlo Federico Magistrelli, the internationally renowned ice sculpturist, is unveiling his latest work in the main plaza outside the stadium. A life-sized replica of Cool Hand Luke, it is designed to stand in the square for weeks and slowly reveal over time the smaller models of The Colonel and The Pyramid hidden within. Trapdoorspyder sits at the side of the square for an hour with a magnifying glass, training the sun onto a patch of ice and melting a hole clean through the middle of the sculpture, ruining it.

15h47, THE CANTEEN

Trapdoorspyder is standing on the chaffing dish stand, his trousers around his ankles, when chiiika bursts in.

“ENOUGH,” she cries out, “Is this how you behave in the Archepelagic League?”

“Are you calling me out,” snarls Trapdoorspyder.

“You bet I am,” says chiiika. “Arena Hall A, 19h00, bumpers up, Cool Hand Luke. I’m gonna make you wish you were never born.”

She sweeps from the canteen while the attendees cheer raucously.

In the Repair Wrench subrule…

Change the formula from

Decrease their money by the formula: ((new effective cost of the part) - (previous effective cost of the part)) * 1.25

to

Decrease their money by the formula: ((new effective cost of the part) - (previous effective cost of the part)) * 0.65

Add the following to the end of the rule:

Equipment repaired in this way can only have their condition increased by 15% and only be repaired once in a 24 hour period beginning when the atomic action was completed

In the Repair Wrench subrule, change the formula from

Decrease their money by the formula: ((new effective cost of the part) - (previous effective cost of the part)) * 1.25

to

Decrease their money by the formula: ((new effective cost of the part) - (previous effective cost of the part)) * 0.65

Immediately after the first sentence of “Winners at War” append:

If no Operator have had their readiness changed in the last 96 hours, and no bouts are currently pending resolution, then the game has entered Tournament Mode.

Replace “On 22 August” with “On the day that Tournament Mode begins”
Replace “On 25 August” with “Three days after Tournament Mode begins”

In the rule Winners at War, change “The winner of the last Bout in the Tournament has achieved Victory” to “The winner of the final Bout in the Tournament has achieved Victory”.

Ah, here’s Brendan, swaggering into the arena. Looks like he’s flipping off the crowd - ah, and they love it. To be fair, that’s a mild, even affectionate entrance for the Bad Boy of BlogBot. Just Brendan being Brendan! By contrast, here’s maldor, chatting, signing autographs, pausing for a selfie - seems like a really likeable guy - but Brendan’s just putting on his aviators and scanning the crowd for hot chicks. That is some rock and roll living, right there.

Here come the bots. The bumpers are up, so neither Operator seems to have gone for a shove-heavy lineup. Dark Lord is coming into position 4, having reconfigured around a grapple-and axe combo - the versatility of this Bot and Operator is so wild, last Bout it was a conventional shover but this is a completely different spec.

On the other end, at 16, it’s Bad Door - Bad Door is of course very familiar to fans having just come off of a hot run in the club circuit, but tonight’s it’s first runout in the League. The ram/flipper/taser combo it’s working with today is an interesting mix, less immediately obvious in terms of strategy than Dark Lord, but who knows? It’s not just about the config, it’s about the orders.

The blue light is flashing - here we go!

Dark Lord is off the line first, crashing forward to position 16 - clattering into Bad Door back but bashing itself hard on that ram in the process! Bad Door retaliates with a shot from its taser which embeds itself into Dark Lord’s LED Banner, but Dark Lord has popped a side-loaded harpoon from its chassis and plugs Bad Door right in the side with it - Bad Door is Grappled and appears to be Anchored to Dark Lord!

Bad Door now has a puzzle as to how to resolve its predicament - and it appears to have decided on the ram way out, charging straight at Dark Lord and trying to force its way through! Dark Lord has the edge on shoving power so isn’t budged but that ram is starting to do some serious damage to the Dark Lord’s hull. But Dark Lord isn’t backing off - and now, from the other side of the chassis comes a glittering pickaxe - which is brought down hard onto Bad Door, doing major damage to its chassis! Again and again Bad Door tries to break free, but Dark Lord is implacable - holding its position and bringing down that axe, two, three, four times - and Bad Door can’t hold up against the onslaught.

Dark Lord wins by TKO!

Today’s marquee match is between Credit Score F and Annoy-o-Tron, and on paper it’s an interesting match-up - Credit Score is here on its sixth Bout of the contest, with three wins and three losses under its belt, while Annoy-o-tron is on its ninth go, with five wins to four losses. So a very even track record, and although Annoy-o-Tron has arguably faced tougher opponents thus far, it has also been embroiled in a messy match-rigging scandal.

Here they are - on the left, in position 4, it’s Credit Score: F - the crowd is greeting lendunistus warmly as he enters the operator box.

And on the right, Annoy-o-Tron - again, a big reaction from the crowd, but a few boos scattered throughout. That’s interesting - usually BlogBots is a very good-natured sport and you’ll see a lot of people in the crowd reacting against the boos, cheering louder, considering them unsportsmanlike.

And they’re off! And - oh! Credit Score F is straight into the bumper with a massive hard reverse!

A big flip from the bumper and Credit Score is flipped into square 6. Was this just a misfire on the control pad? Lendunistus looks composed but the crowd is starting to get agitated… Annoy-o-tron is prodding cautiously forward to 10, and then again to 9 while Credit Score rights itself, but then Credit Score again rams hard backwards into the barriers - going flying into position 12 - and now the crowd is starting to boo - this looks like it could get ugly.

Annoy-o-Tron, to be fair, isn’t standing still - it spins in place, trying to get a bearing on Credit Score, but lendunistus is off again, hard in reverse - but now Annoy-o-Tron is in the way and the chassis of Credit Score smashes into it, sparks flying - the shove power in Credit Score is just greater, but with the obstacles in the arena the control isn’t there, so Annoy-o-Tron ends up wedged behind an obstacle at position 8 while lendunistus is just in position 9.

The shove has left Annoy-o-Tron flipped, so Credit Score F resumes its suicide run - again reversing hard into the left hand bumpers - and slamming down into position 6, on its back - and here we have both bots on their backs, rocking to get upright - some of the more agitated members of the audience are starting to throw bottles.

Annoy-o-Tron is the first back on its feet and it turns in position to face the other way, and then Credit Score F is back upright and, again, hurtling back towards the barriers. This is sad to see, now, as Annoy-o-Tron seems to be unwilling to come out from behind its obstacle - just turning in place - as Credit Score F pounds itself into the left hand wall again and again. Finally - after three more flips - the chassis of Credit Score F cracks, and, to the sound of loud boos from disappointed fans, the Bout is called. Annoy-o-Tron may have won this Bout, but the true loser was perhaps the sport that we all love - what an expensive way to throw a match.

Annoy-o-Tron wins by TKO!

Change the cost of the LED Banner system to 120.

Add the following to the list of rules listed under Fair Play:

An admin should not abuse any powers granted to them as a result of their Admin status, such as performing a scam that another non-Admin Operator could not have performed as a result of not being an Admin. This does not include situations where an Admin quickly performs a scam shortly after enacting a proposal.

Rewrite the effect for the Ablative Plating System as follows:

Passive: All Condition loss incurred by other Components on the Actor is reduced by 50% and is incurred to this System instead of any other Component that it might be incurred to. Regardless of Statuses or the effects of other Systems on this Bot, no damage incurred to this System as a result of this Effect may cause damage to be incurred to other Components on this Bot.

Add a new rule, called the BlogBot League Final Showcase:

If the date is on or after 22 August 2022 then the game has entered Tournament Mode. If the game is not in Tournament Mode then the rest of this rule is flavour text.

The rules Showboating and Taunt have no effect and are flavour text; any Operator or Announcer may remove them from the ruleset.

On 22 August or as soon as possible thereafter, the Announcer should post a Provisional Seed List. The Provisional Seed List is the Announcer’s subjective opinion of which Operators in the Dynasty have the best Bots, ordered from 1 being the best to the highest number being the weakest. The Operator is allowed to use whatever private metrics they please to assess this, with the single exception that they cannot consider the number of names on any Bot’s LED Banner.

On 25 August or as soon as possible thereafter, the Announcer should post the Final Seed List. The Final Seed list is the same in form, purpose and rules for composition as the Provisional Seed List, updated to take into account any changes between the posting of the two documents. Once the Final Seed List has been posted, all Operators have their Readiness set to Workshop, Operators may not change their Readiness, and unidling Operators are considered not to be Operators for the purposes of the remainder of this rule for the remainder of the Dynasty.

When the Final Seed List has been posted, the Announcer should at their earliest opportunity post a Bracket. The Bracket is the organised list of Bouts that will comprise the Final Tournament, and the Announcer may organise those Bouts as they determine best, following where possible the following principles:
* In round 1 of the Bracket, all Operators with no LED Banner or no names on their LED Banner should participate in a Bout
* In round 1 of the Bracket, Bouts should be organised with the top seed Operators (the top n/2 names on the Final Seed List, where n is the number of Operators participating in round 1) being matched with the non-top-seed Operators
* If there are an uneven or otherwise unmanageable number of Operators in round 1 then the top-most seeded Operators may be deferred into round 2
* Whenever an Operator loses a Bout in the Tournament, they are eliminated from the Tournament and cannot be scheduled in a future Tournament Bout, cannot win the Tournament, and cannot achieve Victory in this dynasty
* In Round 2 of the Bracket, all Operators to have won their round 1 Bout should progress to be matched against Operators deferred into round 2 (due to having populated LED banners or being too high-seeded for round 1)
* If there are an uneven or otherwise unmanageable number of Operators in round 2 then the Operator with the most names in their LED Banner (using top-most seededness as a tiebreaker) may be deferred into round 3
* Rounds then proceed with winning Operators proceding into further rounds, until a final Bout of 2 Operators is due to take place
* In any round after round 2 (i.e. round 3 or above), if there are uneven number of Operators in the round, then before any of the Bouts in that round take place an elimination bout is held between the two bottom seeded Operators in that round; the loser of an elimination bout is eliminated
* All Bouts in the Bracket should have their Configurations detailed in the Bracket document

Once the Bracket has been posted, the following schedule takes effect:

* 48 hours after the Bracket has been posted, all Operators have their Readiness set to Staging
* 24 hours after that, all Operators have their Readiness set to Set; as soon as possible thereafter, the Announcer should run the first round Bouts in the Tournament Bracket,
* 48 hours after the result of the final Round 1 Bout has been posted, all Operators due to participate in a Round 2 Bout have their Readiness set to Staging
* 24 hours after that, all Round 2 participant Operators have their Readiness set to Set; as soon as possible thereafter, the Announcer should run the second round Bouts in the Tournament Bracket

...continuing in the same pattern until the single Bout in the last round of the Tournament Bracket has concluded.

The winner of the last Bout in the Tournament has achieved Victory.

Just got a new works order in

Oh, yeah, what we go?

Arena Hall G. Apparently they need a bunch of obstacles installed.

Aw, hell.

Yeah, so it’s gotta be stuff we don’t mind if it gets bashed up.

I’ve got some MDF we could use?

Don’t think so, I think they’re looking for more of an industrial steel vibe.

Are they paying for it?

It’s the BlogBot League, they ain’t exactly short of cash.

What’s the config?

Obstacles above 1, 2 and 8, and one below 4. Oh, and we gotta put the bumpers up as well.

Alright, let’s get to work.

Who d’you think’s getting this one?

Oh, I heard about this - it’s Annoy-o-Tron and Credit Score: F.

Heh. Good luck to em, that’s what I say.

In the bullet point list titled “Possible Reaction are:-” Add the following entries:

…then [Use system Y / Move X spaces [toward / away from]] the bot that inflicted Z status. Where Y is a valid system on the bot, X is a positive integer, and Z is a status

In the rule “Bouts”, after “When an Operator’s Readiness is Workshop and their Bot is not Trashed, they may set their Readiness to Ready at any time”, add the following:

* When an Operator’s Readiness has been set to Ready for the past 48 hours, they may set it to Workshop

In the rule BotScript, change the text “All Reactions are Resolvable, except if that Reaction:” to read:

All otherwise-legal Reactions are Resolvable, except if that Reaction:

In the same rule change “If a line in a script is no longer a legal entry but may be legally represented by other wording without changing the meaning it had at the time of being provided to the announcer, the announcer should strive to treat it as if it had that legal wording if possible” to read

If a line in a script is not a legal entry but may be clearly assessed (without context) as having the same meaning as a single, specific instance of legally compliant wording, without changing the meaning that that line had at the time of being provided to the announcer, the announcer should strive to treat it as if it had that legal wording if possible.

Add the following to the end of the first paragraph of the same rule:

All legal Triggers and Reactions can be found in lists in this rule.

Set the Readiness of any Operator whose Readiness is Set and whose EVC on this CfJ contains the word “rethink” to Staging.

In the subrule “Configuration”, remove the text “.In this Bout, square 20 is also In Bounds, and the right-hand-most Bot starts on square 17 rather than square 16;” and then capitalize the first letter of the word immediately following the removed text.

Two children look up from exchanging collectable cards of their favourite Bots and Operators. One is holding the shiny foil Brendan card; that child is in the middle of negotiating a trade for the classmate’s extra-deluxe Maldor card.

As they sit, two adult figures appear over their shoulders. The children look up; it’s Brendan and Maldor themselves! “WOAH!” say the kids as the two heroic operators look down at them.

At the bottom of the screen appears the legend: COLLECT THEM ALL! All of the League’s biggest stars, for you to keep and collect in your Office BlogBots League Collectable Card Binder! Available from all good newsagents!

Then a close-shot of a smiling Brendan - “And if you want to get your card signed by me - come to Arena Hall G tomorrow at noon before the big Bout!”

Cut to Maldor - “That’s right, I’ll be there taking on Dark Lord, and the bumpers will be up! Don’t miss it!”

A plain title card, saying: BLOGBOTS CARDS ARE OFFICIAL SPONSORS OF THE ULTIMATE BLOGBOTS LEAGUE. TM AND ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Astonishingly, these two bots - some would say the top seeds of the contest so far, although some of the newer comers might dispute it - have only met in the contest once before, right at the early days of the League. In that bout, SingularByte was still refining his signature shove-style, and managed to KO Hard Hat himself by steering his bot into the gutters. Tonight that won’t be an issue - the huge paddle-shapped bumpers are up, and Cool Hand Luke is patrolling the centre of the arena.

There, in position 4, is the familiar figure of Annoy-o-Tron - still a deceptively simple Bot, with just a mound-shaped body for defence and an axe on offence, the menace of Annoy-o-Tron rests entirely in the skill of its operator, Trapdoorspyder, who has emerged as a master at waiting for his opponent to self-destruct.

In position 10 we have Cool Hand Luke, the rootinest, tootinest cow-House-Bot in the old west. Yee haw! Let’s see if that big ole lasso Grapple and even more menacing Axe come into effect tonight.

And over there, in position 17, it’s the yellow-domed menace itself - stripped down to just its signature cow catcher - it’s Hard Hat! The crowd loves to see this audience favourite in the ring and tonight is no different.

Just a reminder that there has been significant discussion on the message boards about collusion with regards to Annoy-o-Tron since its last bout, so fans will be eagle-eyed to see whether Hard Hat puts up a fight.

And they’re off!

Annoy-o-Tron makes the first move, and with a shimmery bypass move it snakes all the way across the arena floor to take up position right behind Hard Hat in position 18! Cool Hand Luke sits impassively at position 10, but then Hard Hat has another malfunction - just like DuckTank did, it slams hard into reverse, but here the barriers are up, and that’s no good! Hard Hat sails across the arena, slamming down in position 3, completely upside down!

Annoy-o-Tron again bypasses - backwards this time across the stage to position 4 - an attack position - while Cool Hand Luke turns in place to survey the action. While Hard Hat is struggling to right itself, Annoy-o-Tron rotates in position to bring its axe into attack position - will Hard Hat get away in time? Cool Hand Luke is moving forward now, occupying a curious position in square 7 - Annoy-o-Tron is in range of its melee weapons, and may be distracted! Hard Hat struggles upright and tries to bypass away but slams straight back into the barriers - and they’ve deposited it right back in position 2, not upside down this time as SingularByte pulls off a deft mid-air correction, but still well within range of Annoy-o-Tron’s axe - which comes down with a sickening crunch! The crowd goes wild - this is very obviously not a fix, but it all seems to be Annoy-o-Tron right now!

But oh my god - with Annoy-o-Tron’s still in Hard hat’s chassis, Cool Hand Luke has fires out that gas-powered harpoon of a Grapple and has speared Annoy-o-Tron right through the outer shell! They’re bound together now in a tight 3-square radius!

Hard Hat has spotted its window now and slams on its reverse pedal, bypassing deftly around both its opponent and the House Bot to the relative safety of position 19. Annoy-o-Tron moves forward, still trying to shake off its pursuer - to no avail! Annoy-o-Tron takes position 1 but Cool Hand Luke is dragged to position 4, and there’s that axe! Is this Hard Hat’s strategy, to dance in and out of trouble while the House Bot keeps Annoy-o-Tron occupied?

It looks like it might be, as Hard Hat now moves back to position 2 - right between Annoy-o-Tron and Cool Hand Luke! Annoy-o-Tron simply, coolly turns around - oh, look at the skill here, Trapdoorspyder deftly suckering his rival into the firing line of the House Bot - which does not disappoint! That axe slams into Hard Hat and Hard Hat is now at risk from getting it from both sides, so flees back to position 19 and a moment of safety!

Annoy-o-Tron bypasses forward now, taking position 8 and dragging Cool Hand Luke into position 5 - and there’s nothing to absorb the blow this time - Cool Hand Luke’s savage axe slamming into Annoy-o-Tron’s chassis. This is a complete turnaround now as Annoy-o-Tron cannot seem to escape the House Bot and that chassis looks badly damaged now, with each of these extra blows getting refined precision thanks to the grapple removing the operator’s need to steer! Hard Hat bypasses right back to position 2, this time a much safer proposition, and Annoy-o-Tron bypasses towards the middle of the arena - hoping to catch Hard Hat again at the other side? Ah, no good - Annoy-o-Tron takes position in square 11, but Cool Hand Luke is still right there with him at position 8, and one more huge swing of the axe is all it takes - that Incisor TRN9P can take a lot but this was just too much. Annoy-o-Tron powers down and the judges call the Bout:

Hard Hat wins by TKO!

Add a new subrule to the rule Bot Loadout titled “Little Leagues”:

If they do not already have one, an Operator may purchase a Mini Bot by paying ₩1,000 and gaining a Mini Bot.

In the rule titled “Bot Loadout”, reword the second line and the four bullet points below it to the following:

Each Operator possesses exactly one Bot, whose characteristics are publicly tracked. In addition, each Operator may have up to one Mini Bot, although each Operator defaults to not having a Mini Bot.

The characteristics that each Bot and Mini Bot must have are as follows:
* A name, which may be freely selected by the Bot’s Operator, must be different than each other Bot’s and Mini Bot’s name and is flavour text
* An Engine, which is by default a Petrol motor for Bots and an Electric motor for for Mini Bots
* A Chassis, which is by default an Apex Systems X1500 for Bots and a Frictionless Inquisitor for Mini Bots
* An ordered list of Systems, of which a single Bot may have between none and a number equal to the number of hardpoints on the Bot’s Chassis, defaulting into none

Mini Bots must also have the following Characteristics, and a Mini Bot is considered to be Defunct if any of these Characteristics are not true of it:
* The Chassis may not have a cost exceeding ₩3,350
* The Engine may not have a cost exceeding ₩4,000
* The Systems used may not exceed a total value of ₩2,000

Move the last sentence of the subrule “The Arena” to the end of the rule “BotScript”, prior to the first subrule, and reword it to the following:

Relative to each Bot’s and Mini Bot’s Script, the Bot or Mini Bot who is performing the Script may be referred to as the Actor, and any other Bot or Mini Bot participating in a Bout with the Actor may be referred to as an Opponent.

In the subrule titled “Engines”, change the first line to the following:

A Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Engine has the following characteristics: a fuel type (which also acts as its name), a one-off cost, and a power output. The characteristics of each type of engine can be found below.

In the subrule titled “Engines”, change the text reading:

At any time as an atomic action, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may:
* Either increase their money by the effective one-off cost of their engine or add their engine and its condition to their Spare Parts Bin.
* Replace the Engine of their Bot with another of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Engine. If the new Engine is present in their Spare Parts Bin, they may instead remove it from their Spare Parts Bin.

To the following:

At any time as an atomic action, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop for either their Bot or Mini Bot may do the following for the corresponding Bot or Mini Bot:
* Either increase their money by the effective one-off cost of their Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Engine and then remove it, or add their Bot’s or Mini-Bot’s engine and its condition to their Spare Parts Bin.
* Either set the Engine of the previously referred to Bot or Mini Bot with another engine of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Engine, or set the previously referred to Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Engine to one matching an Engine in their Spare Parts Bin and then remove that Engine from their Spare Parts Bin.

In the subrule titled “Chassises”, change the first line to the following:

A Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Chassis has the following characteristics: a model (which also acts as its name), a cost, a number of hardpoints, and a consumption. The characteristics of each type of chassis can be found below.

In the subrule titled “Chassises”, change the text reading

At any time as an atomic action, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may:
* Either increase their money by the effective one-off cost of their Chassis or add their Chassis and its condition to their Spare Parts Bin.
* Replace the Chassis of their Bot with another of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Chassis. If the new Chassis is present in their Spare Parts Bin, they may instead choose to remove it from their Spare Parts Bin rather than paying the Effective One-off Cost.

To the following:

At any time as an atomic action, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop for either their Bot or Mini Bot may do the following for the corresponding Bot or MIni Bot:
* Either increase their money by the effective one-off cost of their Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Chassis and then remove it, or add their Bot’s or Mini Bot’s engine and its condition to their Spare Parts Bin.
* Either set the Chassis of the previously chosen Bot or Mini Bot with another Chassis of any Condition by paying the Effective One-off Cost of the new Chassis, or set the previously referred to Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Chassis to one matching an Chassis in their Spare Parts Bin and then remove that Chassis from their Spare Parts Bin.

If the subrule titled “Systems”, change the first line to the following:

A Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Systems can each have the following characteristics: a name, a cost, a consumption, and an effect. The characteristics of each type of System can be found below.

In the subrule titled “Systems”, change the text reading:

At any time, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop may add a System of a desired Condition to their Bot by spending its Effective Cost or removing that system from their Spare Parts Bin as long as that system is present in their Spare Parts Bin at that condition. An Operator whose Readiness is not Set may remove a System from their Bot at any time by either increasing their money by 50% of the Effective Cost of the system being removed or adding that system at the appropriate condition to their Spare Parts Bin.
The list of a Bot’s Systems represent the mounted positions of those systems, listed from front to back. When a System Effect refers to the Exposed System of a Bot, it means its frontmost System (if the Bot is facing the Bot using the Effect) or its rearmost System (if it is not). While a Bot is Flipped, none of its Systems are Exposed.
While a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be “No effect.”, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot.
If a System effect is preceded by “Passive:”, then it has no effect when used, and instead applies to a Bot with that System at all times.

To the following:

At any time, an Operator whose Readiness is Workshop for either their Bot or Mini Bot may add a System of a desired Condition to the Corresponding Bot or Mini Bot by spending its Effective Cost or removing that system from their Spare Parts Bin, as long as that system is present in their Spare Parts Bin at that condition. An Operator whose Readiness is not Set for either their Bot or Mini Bot may remove a System from the Bot corresponding Bot or Mini at any time by either increasing their money by 50% of the Effective Cost of the system being removed, or adding that system at the appropriate condition to their Spare Parts Bin.
The list of a Bot’s and Mini Bot’s Systems represent the mounted positions of those systems, listed from front to back. When a System Effect refers to the Exposed System of a Bot or Mini Bot, it means its frontmost System (if the Bot or Mini Bot is facing the Bot or Mini Bot using the Effect) or its rearmost System (if it is not). While a Bot or Mini Bot is Flipped, none of its Systems are Exposed.
While a System has a Condition of 0%, then its Effect is considered to be “No effect.”, and it is skipped when determining the frontmost or rearmost System of a Bot and Mini Bot.
If a System effect is preceded by “Passive:”, then it has no effect when used, and instead applies to Bots and Mini Bots with that System at all times.

In the subrule “Systems”, for each System with the word “bot” in its effect that is not part of another word, change that word to “Bot or Mini Bot”.

Reword the text of the subrule titled “Repair Wrench” to the following:

As an atomic action, when their readiness is set to workshop, an operator may:
* Set the condition of any part on their Bot, Mini Bot or in their spare parts bin to any condition higher than it previously was
* Decrease their money by the formula: ((new effective cost of the part) - (previous effective cost of the part)) * 1.25

Throughout the subrules “Scratch Damage” and “Statuses”, change each instance of the word “bot” that is not part of another word to “Bot or Mini Bot”, and change each instance of the word ‘bots” that is not part of another word to “Bots or Mini Bots”.

Change the first two paragraphs of the rule “BotScript” to the following:

Each Bot and Mini Bot has a Script, being a list of up to ten Triggers, each Trigger having a corresponding Reaction. Up to two Triggers may also be optionally combined into a single Trigger. This is formatted as “A and B”, where A is the first Trigger being combined and B is the second one. Combined triggers are accompanied by a single Reaction as normal. Bots’ and Mini Bots’ Scripts are tracked privately by the Announcer.
An Operator may change their Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Script at any time by privately informing the Announcer of this.

Throughout the list of possible Triggers and Reactions in the rule “BotScript”, change each instance of the word “Bot” that is not part of another word to the following: “[Bot/Mini Bot]”

Beginning with the part or the rule “BotScript” reading “To run a Script” and continuing through to the end of the second to last paragraph of the rule (not counting the subrules), change each instance of the word “bot” that is not part of another word to “Bot or Mini Bot”.

In the rule “Income”, change the word “bot” to “Bot and Mini Bot, up to the maximum value of 100%”.

Change the effect of the System known as “LED Banner” to the following:

Displays the name of every distinct Operator that this Bot has defeated in a Bout while using this System; these names are publicly tracked. If the Operator of this Bot also owns a Mini Bot, they may also include up to two names of Operators that that Mini Bot has defeated. Has no other effect.

Change the text of the rule “Bouts” to the following, without changing the subrules of that rule:

Operators pit their Bots and Mini Bots against each other in Bouts. At any time, each Bot and Mini Bot may be engaged in at most one Bout. The number of bouts each Bot and Mini Bot has been engaged in is publicly tracked, and includes announced bouts that include the bot that are yet to be resolved. This publicly tracked value may be referred to as the Bout Count.
Bots and Mini Bots have a Readiness, which is publicly tracked and may be either Workshop, Ready, Staging, or Set, and which defaults to Workshop.
* When a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Workshop it is not Trashed, the Operator of that Bot or Mini Bot may set the Readiness of that Bot or Mini Bot to Ready at any time
* When a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Ready and they are named in an Announcement Post then the Announcer should set their Readiness to Staging
* When a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Staging, the Operator of that Bot or Mini Bot may set the Readiness of that Bot or Mini Bot to Set at any time.
* When a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Set and they are participating in a Bout then the Announcer should set their Readiness to Workshop
Changes to any of a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s physical hardware components by that Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Operator (i.e. anything defined in the rule Bot Loadout) may only be made when the Corresponding Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Workshop. Changes to a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s software by that Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Operator (i.e. anything defined in the rule BotScript) can only be made when the Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Workshop, Ready or Staging.
If, at any point during a Bout, one of the participating Bots or Mini Bots has had their Readiness set to Set for the last 48 hours and the other has not changed their Readiness from Staging since the Announcement Post for that Bout, then the Bot or Mini Bot whose Readiness is Staging forfeits the match and the other Bot or Mini Bot is the Winner for that Bout.
Mini Bouts are a special type of Bout, which is still treated as a Bout for the purposes of anything that refers to a Bout, with the exception that there are always 0 Configuration Variations.
As a Daily Action, the Announcer may Announce any number of upcoming Bouts and Mini Bouts, by randomly selecting two Bots using the Selection Criteria for Bouts in this rule for each Bout, selectings two Mini Bots using the Selections Criteria for Mini Bouts in this rule and making a post Announcing their names.
The Selection Criteria for selecting Bots to engage in a Bout is:
* If a Bot has a higher Bout Count than any other Bot, they may not be selected by the Announcer, except if there are no other available Bots to select.
* If a Bot has a Readiness that is not Ready, it may not be selected by the Announcer.
* The random selection of eligible Operators is weighted towards Bots with a smaller Bout Count - for each eligible Bot, subtract the current Bout Count for that Bot from the highest Bout Count of all eligible Bots then add 1 to get the weighting that the random selection will use.
The Selection Criteria for selecting Mini Bots to engage in a Mini Bout is:
* If a Mini Bot has a higher Bout Count than any other Mini Bot, they may not be selected by the Announcer, except if there are no other available Mini Bots to select.
* If a Mini Bot has a Readiness that is not Ready, it may not be selected by the Announcer.
* The random selection of eligible Operators is weighted towards MIni Bots with a smaller Bout Count - for each eligible Mini Bot, subtract the current Bout Count for that MIni Bot from the highest Bout Count of all eligible Mini Bots then add 1 to get the weighting that the random selection will use.
Whenever the Announcer is required to randomly generate an outcome as part of administering a Bout they may do so privately.

Throughout the subrules “When Push Comes to Shove”, “Evasion”, “The Arena”, and “Ending a Bout”, do the following:
For each instance of the word “bot” that is not part of another word, change it to be “Bot or Mini Bot”
For each instance of the word “bots” that is not part of another word, change it to be “Bots or Mini Bots” with the exception of the last instance of the word “bots”
For each instance of the word “bot’s” that is not part of another word, change it to be “Bot’s or Mini Bot’s”

Change the last paragraph of the subrule Ending a Bout to the Following:

When a Bout has Ended, the Announcer posts an entry to the blog summarising the events of the Bout and its Winner. All Operators who had Bots in the Bout gain ₩1,000, plus ₩500 for each Opponent. Likewise, all Operators who had Mini Bots in the Bout gain ₩750 plus ₩250 for each Opponent. When these values are awarded, the Readiness of all Operators to have participated in that Bout are set to Workshop if they are not already at that value. Once this summary post has been posted, that Bout is considered to be fully concluded and may have no further impact on the gamestate.

If https://blognomic.com/archive/tattlebots passed, reword the subrule “Secret Loadouts” to the following:

If a Bot or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Ready, and it has no Systems, then that Bot or Mini Bot is considered to have a Secret Loadout. A Secret Loadout is an ordered list of Systems that matches a subset of the Systems in that Operator’s Spare Parts Bin, and which must obey the same rules as if that list of Systems were the ones applied the Bot or Mini Bot; a Secret Loadout defaults to an empty list. While a Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness is Ready, the Operator of that Bot may change their Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Secret Loadout at any time by privately informing the Announcer of this.

When the Announcer has been informed of a Secret Loadout by a given Operator, they must—immediately prior to changing that Operator’s Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Readiness to Staging—perform an atomic action called Kitting Out as follows:
* Removing the set of Systems matching the Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Secret Loadout from that Bot’s or Mini Bot’s Operator’s Spare Parts Bin
* Setting the Systems of the Bot or Mini Bot to match their Secret Loadout, in the specified order, with the same Conditions they had while in the Spare Parts Bin

Change the wording of the rule Taunt from:

An Operator may Taunt another Operator (the Taunt Target) at any time provided that the following is true:

To

An Operator may Taunt another Operator (the Taunt Target) at any time provided that any following are true:

Add another line to the rule, before the last line:

If all three of the previous conditions are true, the operator taunting the Taunt target may add one the amount of red mist given to the Taunt Target additionally.

Create a new subrule of the rule “Bot Loadouts” entitled “Secret Loadouts” as follows:

If an Operator’s Readiness is Ready, and their Bot has no Systems, then that Operator’s Bot is considered to have a Secret Loadout. A Secret Loadout is an ordered list of Systems that matches a subset of the Systems in that Operator’s Spare Parts Bin, and which must obey the same rules as if that list of Systems were the ones applied to the Operator’s Bot; a Secret Loadout defaults to an empty list. While an Operator’s Readiness is Ready, that Operator may change their Bot’s Secret Loadout at any time by privately informing the Announcer of this.

When the Announcer has been informed of a Secret Loadout by a given Operator, they may—immediately prior to changing that Operator’s Readiness to Staging—perform an atomic action called Kitting Out as follows:
* Removing the set of Systems matching the Operator’s Secret Loadout from that Operator’s Spare Parts Bin
* Setting the Systems of the Operator’s Bot to match their Secret Loadout, in the specified order, with the same Conditions they had while in the Spare Parts Bin

Reword the item in the rule “Bouts” that reads “When an Operator’s Readiness is Ready and they are named in an Announcement Post then the Announcer should set their Readiness to Staging” to read:

When an Operator’s Readiness is Ready and they are named in an Announcement Post then the Announcer should set their Readiness to Staging, after Kitting Out that Operator if they have a Secret Loadout

Special Briefing: Report to the Chair of the Standing Committee for Regional Stability and Peace
Eyes Only

19h47, 02/09/44, NEW CRESCI:

The BlogsBot League Finals continue, with today’s announcement of a new prize fight: two of the very top seeds will be meeting tomorrow, SingularByte’s Hard Hat against Trapdoorspyder’s Annoy-o-Tron. Potentially this could be a map with geopolitical ramifications; Trapdoorspyder represents a minority faction and has become an emblematic athlete for that community, while Hard Hat has been embraced as a symbol of an intolerant tendency within the territory. The potential for violence in the aftermath of this Bout is low but not zero; it is recommended that the embassy be put on high alert and security staff be prepared for overtime requirements.

MEMO from the Chair of the Standing Committee for Regional Stability and Peace
Eyes Only

20h08, 02/09/44, CALLE CITY

Thank you for your update, Ambassador - we believe some details were missing, however - are there to be any modifications to the arena?

MEMO to the Chair of the Standing Committee for Regional Stability and Peace
Eyes Only

20h12, 02/09/44, NEW CRESCI:

Apologies, ma’am; Bumpers will be up, and the new House Bot, Cool Hand Luke, will be a participant. I believe that the best odds can be found at betblogbot.com.

It looks like Raven1207 has invested some money in this Bout - not so much in CrowBot, which remains one of the cheaper bots in the League, but in staging. For those listening to us on Radio BlogBot, thousands of crow feathers are falling from the ceiling while orchestral music plays. By contrast, Credit Score: F is simply moving into position with very little fanfare.

CrowBot is being lowered by a crane into position 4 - a single white-light spotlight making it appear like a descending angel - while Credit Score: F is plonking itself unceremoniously into position 16.

There’s the blue light - they’re off!

The crowd roars its appreciation - they’ve been craving the red meat of bot on bot action! CrowBot is straight off from the stocks, moving into position 9. Lendunistus sees this tactical move and responds, pushing Credit Score F into position 13 - just outside of the range of CrowBot’s melee weapons. But Raven is to trigger happy, letting off a huge gout of flame from its flamethrower that doesn’t quite manage to reach Credit Score’s position. Oh! But Credit Score keeps scuttling forward - it’s right on top of CrowBot now, in position 10! Looks like we’re in for a melee slugfest and the crowd loves it!

CrowBot gets the first strike in, bathing Credit Score with another blast of heat from that flamethrower - the paint on Credit Score’s chassis immediately puckers and its articulated joints all look Scorched! But what’s this - Credit Score is pulling out it’s flipper - and it’s found purchase! CrowBot is up and over on its back, defenceless, and that’s when Credit Score goes in with its axe - and then again - two huge chops on the underside of CrowBot from that axe, and CrowBot is - oh! It’s rocked itself back upright This match is still on!

Another blast from that flamethrower and Credit Score is starting to take some serious damage, the systems are warping every time they’re used and that chassis is starting to look very worn - but the flipper still works - there it is! CrowBot is back on its back and has no answer to the problem of being flipped! Two more big hits from that workmanlike hatchet and that’s it - CrowBot’s Apex Systems chassis is split clean down the middle and the Bot cannot compete any longer! The judges have called it -

Credit Score: F wins by TKO!

Throughout the ruleset and gamestate (excluding all votable matters), correct ‘Hydrolic’ to ‘Hydraulic’. Change the Cost of a Hydraulic engine to ₩7,300, and reduce the Money of any Operator whose Bot or Spare Parts Bin has a Hydraulic engine by ₩2,300; if any such Operator does not have ₩2,300 then sell their Systems, from the back to the front and gaining 50% of that System’s full Cost in value from the sale, until they do have enough Money.

Add the following as a new chassis:

| Numenatics Featherlight 44714 || ₩9,110 || 3 || 305

Add the following as new Systems:

| Modular Breakpoint || ₩3,100 || 170 || Passive: The Operator of the Actor may privately message the Announcer to add a System from their Spare Parts Bin to their Bot while their Readiness is Staging, if they have enough spare Hardpoints to do so. The Announcer should add that System to the Actor once its Operator’s Readiness is Set, but before processing the Bout.
| Howitzer || ₩2,600 || 260 || If no Opponent is less than eight spaces away from the Actor then the Condition of all Opponents’ Chassises is reduced by 50% and the Opponents gains the Status Loose
| Ablative Plating || ₩3,700 || 120 || Passive: All Condition loss incurred by the Actor is reduced by 50% and is incurred to this System instead of any other System that it might be incurred to.

Make the rule “Scratch Damage” a subrule of the rule “Bot Loadout” and place it at the end of that rule.

Make the rule “Statuses” a subrule of the rule “Bot Loadout” and place it at the end of that rule.

Well these two have been trading blows on twitter all morning - either there’s no love lost between them or it’s all a bit of gamesmanship. I’ve always said, BlogBots is played on a hundred-square-foot arena but it really takes place up in the ole noggin, and in Brendan and chiiika we have to masters of the head-game that is BlogBots. Hopefully we’ll see some of their nifty work in the arena as well.

Oh - here we go!

IN THE LEFT, IN POSITION 4! It’s Dark Lord! Looks like the emo teen of this scene has had a bit of a rework - a dark LED banner has been positioned towards the front, as if being used as a tactical shield, and some of the other bits of glittering weaponry look slimmed down - as always, Dark Lord is expensive, but looks somehow more nimble than usual.

AND TO THE RIGHT, IN POSITION 16! Coming in on her third bout in this series, following a win against Credit Score: F and a loss to Hard Hat, it’s Yvette the Botmistress! She too has taken some changes; an upgraded chassis can be seen underneath a mound-shaped body, clearly anticipating a flip-heavy attack.

There’s the red light - then the amber - then the blue! It’s on!

Dark Lord is the first mover, and that huge nuclear engine is no joke - Dark Lord slammed across the arena right into Yvette, shoving her back to position 17 - and Yvette answers with those huge crunchy pincers, clanking into Dark Lord and giving it an almighty jolt! That’ll’ve rattled a few bolts Loose!

But no matter, says Dark Lord, and - OH! Oh my goodness! That lighter build-out has worked wonders because there Yvette goes, shoved in one motion out of the arena and into the gutter. What a move! The judges waste no time in deliberating - it’s Dark Lord wins by TKO!

Add a new rule to the ruleset, called Taunt:

Each Operator has a value for Red Mist, which is a publicly tracked integer that defaults to zero.

An Operator may Taunt another Operator (the Taunt Target) at any time provided that the following is true:

*They have not Taunted that Taunt target in the past 48 hours
* Both the acting Operator and the Taunt Target have their Readiness set to Workshop or Ready
* The acting Operator and the Taunt Target are Announced to be participants in the same upcoming Bout, and at least one of those Operators has a Readiness of Staging

When an Operator Taunts a Taunt Target they increase the Taunt Target’s Red Mist to any value up to two higher than their own Red Mist.

When a Bout concludes, the Winner gains additional Money equal to ten times their own Red Mist, and any non-winning participants lose percentage points of Condition to their chassis and exposed system equal to their Red Mist, to minimums of zero; then, the Red Mist of all participants in that Bout is set to zero.

Add a section under the BotScript rule:

Within 48 hours of a bout (defined as 48 hours after a story post containing bout results is posted), an operator may privately message the Announcer for their bot’s BotScript execution string.
The BotScript Execution string contains the numbers corresponding to which triggers were activated during each round of play separated with a comma. If a scrambler was used, then it should be indicated as such with an S preceding the trigger that was executed. If no triggers were executed for any other reason then it should be indicated with an X.

The following Systems are Discounted: Grinder, Plate, Targeting Module, Back-Up Battery. If any Bot or any Spare Parts Bin has any Discounted System, remove it, then increase the Money of its Operator by its Cost multiplied by its Condition. Once all Bots have no Discounted Systems, divide the Cost of each Discounted System in the Ruleset by 5, and divide the Consumption of each Discounted System in the Ruleset by 2.

In the effects of the System called Ram, change “Shoving” to “Shoving or Bumping”.

Reduce the Consumption of Taser to 290.

The following Systems are Recalibrated: Mound-Shaped Body, Spikes, Cow Catcher, Lead Weight. Set the Consumption of each Recalibrated System to 30. If the changes to Consumption for Recalibrated Systems would cause any non-Defunct Bot to become Defunct, set the Readiness of that Bot’s Operator to Workshop.

In the Effect for the Grapple system, change “does not have” to “has”.

Append after the sentence in the rule “Ending a Bout” that reads “When a Bout has Ended, the Announcer posts an entry to the blog summarising the events of the Bout and its Winner” the following sentence:

The Announcer also, in this entry, posts the BotScript of the Winner’s Bot.

Append to the rule “Scratch Damage” the following:

A Bot that would take Scratch Damage more than once in a given turn only takes Scratch Damage once in that turn instead. (This does not affect how Scratch Damage is multiplied.)

Reword the phrase in the rule BotScript that reads “if an individual move step would take the Bot into an occupied space” to read

if a move reaction would take the Bot into an occupied space

Set to Staging the Readiness of each Operator who is Set.

I would like to be un-idled, and participate in this bot madness…

Add the following to the end of the rule Showboating:

If an LED Banner system is reduced to 0% Condition then its owner’s LED Banner Message loses all names stored in it and is set to blank (and its Consumption is adjusted accordingly).

As was traditional, at the start of the fourth week of the League Finals, a grand ball was held for all of the Operators. A gala black-tie event, it was the hottest ticket of the seasons; models, politicians and moguls all showed up, all hoping to rub shoulders with those brave folks who put their nerves and their Bots on the line for the purposes of entertainment.

And those Operators? Well, it was an opportunity for them to size each other up and psych each other out.

This year, chiiika cornered Brendan over by the shrimp buffet. “You know they only call you the ‘bad boy’ of BlogsBot because you’re bad, right? Like, literally not very good,” she hissed. “How dare you,” he snarled back. “We’ll settle this tomorrow; Arena Hall C, no configurations.” “You’re on,” replied chiiika, biting the head off of a shrimp before walking away.

Meanwhile, lendunistus was warily stalking Raven1207 around a colossal ice sculpture of SingularByte holding Hard Hat. “You shouldn’t put all those feathers on CrowBot,” sneered lendunistus; “I heard that they’re installing flame traps at positions 6 and 3 in Arena Hall F, and you wouldn’t want to get burned.” Sadly, by the time Raven’s translator has relayed this to the visiting Operator and a retort had been formed, lendistus was already deep in conversation with the Ambassador from some Continental nation and the moment had passed…

Reword the Effect of the System called “LED Banner” to the following:

Displays the name of every distinct Operator and idle Operator that this Bot has defeated in a Bout while using this System; these names are publicly tracked. Has no other effect.

Add the following System to the list in the rule Systems, above the entry for Grapple:

| Hookshot || ₩800 || 110 || If the opponent is within ten spaces, move the Actor to the square that is immediately adjacent to the Opponent; this System is not affected by Evasion and a Bot that is Evading is still affected by this System.

Rewrite the effect of the system Grapple as follows:

If the target Opponent does not have the status Anchored then this system has no effect. Otherwise, give them the status Anchored [x], where [x] is the name of the Bot using this system .

Add the following as a new Status in the rule Statuses:

Anchored [x] (where [x] is the name of another Bot): Whenever this Bot moves or bypasses, any Bot in the same Bout whose name is [x] (‘the Anchorer’) moves to the closest square to its current position that is in bounds, not occupied by another Bot, and within three squares of the Bot with this Status; if this isn’t possible then the Anchorer retains its position and the Bot with this Status loses this Status. If this Bot has multiple iterations of this Status attributed to multiple named Bots then this impact resolves for those Bots in turn order. A Bot with this Status takes an additional 10 percentage points of Chassis condition damage from any melee System which does Chassis damage. For the purposes of BotScript triggers or System effects, ‘Anchored’ refers to this status in any of its variations.