Overview[]
Tsunami was a heavyweight robot from Germany that competed in German Robot Wars, and Series 7 of Robot Wars. Tsunami had finished as runner-up in German Robot Wars, losing out to Black Hole in the Grand Final. During its appearance in the UK Series, Tsunami flipped all three of its opponents out of the arena on the way to the Heat Final, where it was ironically thrown out of the arena by X-Terminator's flywheel.
Versions of Tsunami[]
Tsunami (German Robot Wars)[]
In the German Robot Wars, Tsunami was a steep wedge-shaped robot, weighing 90kg. It was painted black with a tidal wave design, and the robot's name in red on the sides. Its weapon was a flipper, which ran at a low pressure in exchange for lots of use throughout the battles, and could still overturn robots much bigger than Tsunami. Underneath the flipper was an aesthetic of open jaws, and the curved rear of the robot was decorated with LEDs. Tsunami was fast, courtesy of its two 750w electric motors, and had the lowest ground clearance in the German Wars, but its armour proved very susceptible to being ripped away, such as against Black Hole in the Grand Final.
Tsunami (UK Series 7)[]
For its UK Series appearance, Tsunami was altered to use a more compact and rounded design, made up of grey titanium armour, which was still susceptible to ripping, such as its battle against X-Terminator. Tsunami now used a steep flipper operating at full pressure, one of the strongest and most effective in the Seventh Wars. The robot was extremely quick at 30mph, and was more than capable of flipping robots out of the arena and self-righting effectively, also being one of the few flippers in the classic series to throw itself over with flips. Tsunami could also level its wedge at a slightly raised height for the purpose of entering the arena and travelling across the floor at full speed without digging its lip into the floor.
The tidal wave and red lettering was replaced by a different logo in white. Just like Scraptosaur, it had a snarling mouth full of teeth painted onto the battery that could be seen when its flipper was fired. Two stabilisers were also found in front of this section, although Tsunami tended to bend its own stabilisers upwards upon landing, which gradually raised its ground clearance throughout matches.
Qualification[]
In order to qualify for the German series of Robot Wars, all German competitors were required to attend an inspection run by Derek Foxwell in May 2002, to receive safety advice, and pointers with the build. A relatively complete (albeit unpainted) Tsunami attended the event, and as German Robot Wars had less applicants than the number of spaces for competitors, Tsunami was automatically accepted for the German series.
In its qualifier for the UK's seventh series, Tsunami fought Shredder Evolution and Woden. However, Shredder Evolution was able to collect the points for immobilising Woden, and would ultimately win the battle over Tsunami. Despite this, Tsunami qualified for the series alongside Shredder Evolution through a discretionary place.
Robot History[]
German Robot Wars[]
Tsunami began its campaign in the German Series against Absolut Krankhaft and Black Hole. Moments into the fight, Tsunami, aided by Black Hole, toppled Absolut Krankhaft, but righted it again, before eventually flipping it once and for all, leaving Absolut Krankhaft to the House Robots. Tsunami and Black Hole dodged each other until Absolut Krankhaft was pitted, eliminating it from the competition.
In the second round, Tsunami faced Not Perfect. Tsunami dominated the battle; flipping Not Perfect repeatedly and shearing the front plate clean off. Tsunami pushed Not Perfect into Dead Metal; however Not Perfect escaped. Tsunami continued with its attacks, even when its flipper began to run out of power. Despite a late fight back from Not Perfect, pushing Tsunami onto the flame pit, the judges decided to put Tsunami through to the Grand Final.
Tyke was Tsunami’s first Grand Final opponent. Throughout the battle, Tsunami threw Tyke over, righted it and threw it over again; however midway through the battle Tsunami began to smoke. Luckily, this didn’t affect Tsunami, and Tyke broke down and was attacked by the House Robots. Tsunami won the battle and qualified for the Grand Final.
In the Grand Final, Tsunami came up against Black Hole. Tsunami controlled large portions of the early fight, flipping Black Hole over in the opening seconds, but eventually re-righted it, allowing Black Hole to come back and shred the armour of Tsunami, ripping panels off the side and back. The battle was decided by the judges, who voted against Tsunami, thus finishing as runner up in the only German Robot Wars ever.
UK Robot Wars Series 7[]
In the first round, Tsunami fought the 11th seed X-Terminator, veteran Major Tom 3, and Diabolus. Its success in the German Wars was made obvious by Tsunami's explosive start, launching Diabolus, while turning itself over. After X-Terminator had overturned Major Tom 3, Tsunami pushed it to the arena wall and threw it out completely. In the meantime, X-Terminator had immobilised Diabolus and propped it on the arena wall, so Tsunami also threw it out of the arena, and qualified for the second round in style.
The second round allowed Tsunami to further show its dominance. Tsunami exploited the ground clearance of Constrictor, and launched it around the arena. One of Tsunami's flips was so powerful, Constrictor lost pieces of its armour upon landing. A speedy run towards the arena wall allowed Tsunami to flip a robot out of the arena for a third time.
Tsunami once again faced X-Terminator in the Heat Final. Tsunami was wary of the powerful spinner, and took its time making its approach. After taking a few scratches from X-Terminator's disc, Tsunami managed to exploit a corner of X-Terminator, and slipped underneath. Tsunami flipped the 11th seed, which carried itself towards the arena wall. Tsunami flipped X-Terminator again, placing it on the arena wall. However, the foreshadowing of overconfidence came true, and Tsunami attempted to throw X-Terminator out of the arena, but failed. This allowed X-Terminator to land several blows with its flywheel, and Tsunami eventually ran out of CO2 gas and broke down. X-Terminator charged towards the back of Tsunami, simultaneously causing external damage, and throwing it out of the arena. It was a vicious and ironic end for Tsunami.It was revealed by Craig Charles during the post battle interviews that Refbot was about to go in and count X-Terminator out, had Tsunami left it upside down.
Live Events[]
Tsunami has only made one appearance in the Robot Wars Live Events. It competed in the first live event of the newly rebranded Robot Wars at Portsmouth in March 2013. Tsunami lost its heat against Eruption where it was thrown out the arena and also lost every other whiteboard fight it competed in. It did however win the European Challenge, where it earned vengeance on Black Hole by defeating its spiritual successor Luzifer, also defeating Gravity.
Following the end of Robot Wars, Tsunami continued to fight in many live events, mainly in Europe due to the team coming from Germany, Including the Roaming Robots 2003 Event held in the Netherlands for the European Championships. It also made an appearance at the Roaming Robots event which was held in Folkestone in 2004. In 2007, Tsunami was sold to another German team called Team Flatliner, it remained out of action for five more years until it was refurbished and brought out of retirement in 2012.
Results[]
| Series | Event | Round | Opponent(s) | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German Robot Wars | Heat B | Eliminator | Absolut Krankhaft Black Hole |
Qualified |
| Heat Final | Not Perfect | Won | ||
| Grand-Final | Eliminator | Tyke | Won | |
| Grand-Final | Black Hole | Lost | ||
| Dutch Robot Games 2 (Representing Germany) |
2003 | Saturday Afternoon Session - Fight 2 | OO-0 Scorpion (UK) |
Won |
| Sunday Morning Session - Fight 4 | Harry Bamm Bamm (Holland) |
Won | ||
| Sunday Afternoon Session - Battle 3 | Edge Hog (UK) Bigger Brother (UK) |
Lost | ||
| UK Robot Wars Series 7 | Qualifier | Group Battle | Shredder Evolution Woden |
Qualified |
| Heat F | Eliminator | (11) X-Terminator Major Tom 3 Diabolous |
Qualified | |
| Semi-Final | Constrictor | Won | ||
| Heat Final | (11) X-Terminator | Lost | ||
| Robot Wars Live 2013 | Portsmouth | Heat | Eruption | Lost |
| European Challenge (Representing Germany) |
Round 1 | Gravity 5.2 (Holland) Luzifer (Germany) |
Won | |
| Whiteboard Battles | Meggamouse The Steel Avenger |
Lost | ||
| Eruption Gravity 5.2 Ripper |
Lost | |||
- Wins: 6
- Losses: 6
See Also[]
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