W1:
Round 1: I basically practiced Sentinel the morning I hear this tournament was just getting in signups. Once I heard the tournament was starting once I got home from work, I was the nervous driver here, and I tried to drive Sentinel as best as I could against Ronin. I was trying my hardest to escape Ronin as much as possible because I knew he could possibly push me in. I was just laughing when I knew I actually won a battle with Sentinel at all.
Round 2: Now here's what I expected when driving Sentinel. Me accidentally flying on my back, and just hopelessly trying to self-right. Good job game devs for making a flipper not able to self-right.
Round 3: I felt I was doomed again when I got flipped again the same way, but Plerco was a bro and actually came close enough to make me self-right. Big thanks to him, even if it eventually cost him, especially when I finally figured out how to drive opponents around with Sentinel.
W2:
Round 1: Holy crap. This was absolutely my favorite battle from the entire tournament. I was so worried when my flips on Sentinel were getting weaker, and I was desperately trying to get under Coal Miner to get it on it's side. The one weak spot. It got real tough and I was so lucky to NARROWLY hang on by a thread when I pitted Coal Miner. That was a hell of a match.
Round 2: Going from my best performance to my worst performance in the tournament. I guess that's what you get for trying to aggressively drive a car towards something. At least Sentinel running on it's back was funny to watch.
Round 3: Looking back, this whole round could be summed up as, "Going from good, to bad, and then to ugly". While I was way more cautious trying to avoid the flippers like the plague and trying to push Coal Miner around and failing to capitalize because my driving may have been too cautious. Things really went downhill when wheels started to go off one-by-one. My front flipper was damaged, so I had no hope of trying to do anything whatsoever, so I just had to watch in despair as toaster just gutted Sentinel like the handicapped child it was. At least I survived till the end, so that's alright I guess.
L2:
Round 1: It was a new day at the time which this was recorded (today), but that didn't stop me from having absolutely no idea how to even still drive this hunk of junk around. I was glad I got to fight every bot in the bracket at least once, so already I had an accomplishment. I was lucky I could take advantage of Raptor's high ground clearance to push it around, and when I blocked the axe with the wedge, I got pushy and aggressive. Taking it to finish Raptor off.
Round 2: I actually forgot how I survived that flip from the skin of my teeth when I hopped on that flipper there. Especially when I got Raptor stuck in a position where I could safely pit it.
FINAL:
Round 1: Going in, I was playing everything as safely as I could. Especially since I know Coal Miner's power of ripping my wheels off. So I had to take advantage when Coal Miner wasn't directly facing me with its spinner, so I managed to wait around when Coal Miner wasn't near me... and just watch Coal Miner just drive down the pit.
Round 2: How the hell do I even keep surviving that damn pit anyway?! I keep driving near it and somehow not losing to it. Anyway, more Coal Miner driving itself down again, so I was just a little concerned now, but at the same time, very excited that I even made it this far. I almost felt like I was gonna choke from nervousness under the pressure.
FINAL (Set 2):
Round 1: I had my game plan of playing safely as possible, but apparently, it seemed toaster was having some driving issues. We did a couple tests to make sure (I kinda learned the hard way for one of those) to make sure toaster was driving alright. I wasn't exactly sure on the issue, but when he saw his bot getting stuck on the pit without movement, I was a bit concerned. But at least we both knew we could bot drive reliably.
Round 2: This was it, I thought. For all the marbles. I had to play aggressive when I had my opportunity to flip, and it seemed to work when I finally got Coal Miner to stay on it's side. I was doing slight movements just to make sure I wouldn't get counted out, and my god I cannot believe I had done it that day. Although If I recall correctly looking at it now, this was a match placed differently? I know it was all in the same day, but I swear it wasn't quite the last match. Either way, the result kinda ended up the same.