RoboRugby Competition
The RoboRugby*08 competition was held on Tuesday
22 April 2008. The 21 robots played 41 matches to decide on the
winner. Full details are available here.
1st Place: Sir Winalot (John Kirby,
Con Murray, Shane Power)
2nd Place: Jen 2.0 (Conor Murphy,
Brendan Murray, Ian Woods)
3rd Place: Speedy Gonzales (Vincent Grace,
Aidan Harvey, John Layden)
4th Place: Gone in 60 Seconds (Glenn Hingerty,
Donal McGovern, Jamie Rothwell)
Darius RoboRugby Innovation Award: Team Nein!
(Andreas Luedicke, Jonathan Oxley, Lindy Wilson)
Matches
In a RoboRugby match, two robots compete against each other
on a playing table with 15 balls.
The picture shows the table layout at the start of a match.
Each robot aims to score points by moving balls into the scoring areas
at the ends of the table, while perhaps trying to prevent the opposing robot
from scoring points. Each match lasts for 60 seconds, and the
position of the balls at the end of the match determines the score.
For more details, see the competition rules.

The competition takes the form of a double-elimination tournament, where each robot
plays at least two matches. A
robot is only eliminated from the tournament after losing two
matches. The tournament ends when only one robot remains, and that
robot is the winner.
Some time before the main competition, there will be a ranking round,
where each robot is tested without opposition to determine its seeding or ranking for
the tournament.
Due to the large number of matches needed with 21 robots in a
double-elimination tournament, some of the first-round matches will be
held in advance of the main part of the tournament. These matches
will be recorded, and highlights will be shown to the audience during
the main competition.
Ranking
The ranking round was held on Wednesday 9 April. Each robot
was tested without opposition to determine its seeding or ranking
for the tournament. The ranking is in the table below.
The details are available here.
| Ranking |
Team Name |
Team Number |
| 1 |
The Block Doctors |
15 |
| 2 |
Hungry Hungry Hippo |
18 |
| 3 |
Paranoid Android |
16 |
| 4 |
The Blockbusters |
8 |
| 5 |
Jen 2.0 |
1 |
| 6 |
Two and a Half Men |
7 |
| 7 |
Speedy Gonzales |
14 |
| 8 |
Special |
17 |
| 9 |
Sir Winalot |
6 |
| 10 |
Team Nein! |
9 |
| 11 |
Mr. Plow |
4 |
| 12 |
Team 12 |
12 |
| 13 |
Gone in Sixty Seconds |
2 |
| 14 |
Team 5 |
5 |
| 15 |
Something Epic |
3 |
| 16 |
I Don't Know |
10 |
| 17 |
The Purple Cobras |
20 |
| 18 |
Rob'O'Driscoll |
13 |
| 19 |
Howard |
19 |
| 20 |
Barbiebot |
21 |
| 21 |
Team 11 |
11 |
Tournament
The competition takes the form of a double-elimination
tournament. Two robots compete in each match, and the winner
proceeds to play the winner of another match as usual.
However, a robot which loses a match gets a second chance - it goes
on to play against other robots in a similar position, and can
eventually fight its way back to victory. Only after two
defeats is a robot eliminated from the competition.
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