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!