Also held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, the Nationals were a lot of fun, even though our robots didn't fare too well!

Robolympics was a huge event with noncombat robots as well as combat robots.  My friend Ted Zeiger and I won a bronze medal with our "Ribbon Climbing" robot Freeclimber.

I also entered my mini-sumo robot which went 1-1.

For combat robots,

On a whim, Team Daisy decided to go down to Florida to check out Brian Nave's BattleBeach event with whatever bots we could cram into luggage.  The venue was really nifty, held in a performing arts center with comfy chairs and great lighting.

The pit area was outside under a tent, and just like at Robot Assault, that meant two days of rain.  We only got a little bit waterlogged though.

Our bots did surprisingly well.  The newly-redesigned Poundcake took first, as did Dandelion.  Sunflower came in second after two losses to the well-driven brick Eat Hitch and Die.

Every year MURC has an event in Denver which we help to run.  This year we competed with two little bots too.

It's a small but fun event held in a ballroom of a Denver hotel.  Nice surroundings, and some great fights.  The highlight for Team Daisy was finally beating our friend Pete from Team Cosmos for the first time.

Team Daisy hadn't been to a SECR event since Farm Fight, and Robot Assault seemed to be The Event Not To Miss for the summer of 2003.

Despite some rainstorms that turned the pits into ponds, we had a great time and it was Team Daisy's most successful tournament in quite a while.

The antweight Poundcake got fourth place in its debut.

The redesigned and rebuild beetle Fruitcake managed second place with its sawblade.

After some tuneups (including a new weapon configuration), Sunflower came in second place, losing only to my friends Team Cosmos with their unstoppable robot Helios.

Buttercup came in first place, by far the best performance ever by a Team Daisy lightweight.

BotBash is always fun -- the team format and robot soccer are always different and entertaining, and it's always about three hundred degrees fahrenheit.

Buttercup did a little better than its debut at steel conflict but still wasn't that great.  The teeth on the drumette were not tall enough to get a good bite.

Sunflower did okay but got really beat up by the amazing bot VD3 from Team Think Tank.

Overall, I had difficulty driving the bots this time out for some reason and had a middle of the road performance.

Held in conjunction with a motocross event, this was the third NERC event I'd attended.

Plagued by a wire that kept coming off of one of my drive motors, Sunflower got bludgeoned by Helios and lost in the semi-final to JB Johnson.  Got some good wins though and a lot of big hits.

The Dandelion rebuild was just barely finished in time and the bot was untested, with predictable results.  First round vs my friend Ted Zeiger's bot Neutrino, one of the gears in my custom gearbox broke a pin and he pushed me around at will.  Next, vs the fearsome Belladonna, the hastily repaired pin went again.  There were some tremendous weapon-on-weapon hits that left Dandelion rather battered, and it ended up high-centered on the arena floor.

Back to sunny California for the biggest non-BattleBot event I've been to.  It was crazy, 250+ fights in two days!

The newly-completed Buttercup lost both of its fights; first to Stryker... as the match started, I realized that I had forgotten to remove the retaining pin on the weapon!  Then my little rear wedge got jammed under the arena side and I was counted out.  In the second fight I got in some great hits on O'Dominator, but foolish driving landed me in the pit.  A disappointing showing.

The rebuilt Sunflower did okay and got a lot of compliments.  Its first fight was against Vienna Sausage.  Two tremendous hits and he tapped out.  Next vs the vicious spinner Ghetto Blaster, he had an electrical problem and could not spin his weapon -- I was able to push him in the pit.  Then, vs VD3, an insane drumbot, we had some tremendous collisions that left me upside down.  Barely able to move while inverted, I tapped out (only to discover later that VD3 was in fact completely dead and the judges were about to start counting him out!)  Next, I was able to tear a wheel off of ExoComp (the wheel hit the ceiling!).  Finally, vs Omega Sword, careless driving landed me in the pit.  Ended up tied for fifth place, not bad.

This BotBash was held on the campus of Arizona State University, and featured a unique 2-on-2 format and included "soccer" in addition to the usual combat event.

Sunflower had a pretty good run although its weapon was destroyed by Helios in an early round.

Just days before the competition, I blew both drive motors on Dandelion, and with no chance of getting replacements in time, I quickly threw together a replacement.  Its fifth place showing made me happy.

Clearly showing the wear and tear of its previous 17 matches, Cupcake was a wreck and lost to Tinbender and Ether.

Both bots finishing in front of Sunflower were from Colorado.  Three of the four bots finishing ahead of Dandelion were from Colorado.  Both bots that beat Cupcake were from Colorado.  If I could just stop other Colorado people from going to events, I'd do better!

Held at the Fairplex near Los Angeles, the Steel Conflict events are the largest I've attended besides BattleBots.

Margarita is the Spanish word for Daisy, so given the SoCal location, I painted it like a Mexican restaurant, and put a sombrero on it, hoping that this would change its fortunes.  After a win vs Low Blow, two losses followed:  to Wedge of Doom and a 23-22 decision to MisDirection.

Dandelion performed pretty well, getting some good wins but losing twice to my friend Ted Zeiger's bot Neutrino.

Cupcake lost an early round to my friend Pete Covert's ant Country Squire, but then went on a tear, winning a long string of matches up through the loser's bracket to take the trophy.

By good fortune, this UMURL event was being held while we were traveling to visit family nearby.  It was held in a shopping mall.

My only undefeated event!  The newly-built Fruitcake's saw blade was able to overpower its competition, and the upgraded Cupcake's drum and speed did the trick.

My second NERC event, HSRC was held in conjunction with a hobby show.

Off its Farm Fight victory, Sunflower did pretty well, defeating NERC legends Thing and SnowCone, but a broken drive train (the last Team Daisy use of cheap drill motors) made it uncompetitive.

The rebuilt Daffodil did better than its previous NERC outing, but a dead receiver battery and a broken drive train caused two forfeits.

Dancing Queen was able to push its way to the championship, much to my surprise.

Built some new bots and headed down south for an SECR event, which was held on a farm.

Probably my most successful event to date, everything seemed to go right except for the two losses to the superior 911. 

Back to BattleBots with a rebuilt Daisy.  Same result!

First fight was a knockout vs a thwackbot called Tike Fire.  Second fight was a narrow (but correct) 23-22 decision vs Robo Master.

Held in a warehouse with broken windows, BotBash 2001 had a kind of post-apocalyptic feel to it, and was great fun.

Radio problems cost me the first fight (vs Bad Buzzard), then a win against Squirrel, then Daisy got pummeled by Wedge of Doom.

Next, got interested in smaller bots and the "club" fighting scene, so built a 12 lb robot and an ant and headed out to my first NERC event.

Daffodil did well in its first fight but then had radio problems that made it uncontrollable.

Cute Little Daisy got in some good hits but was too slow to do well, and not invertable.

Our first tournament.  After building our very first bot, we threw it in the trunk and drove to San Francisco.  Say what you like about BattleBots, it got me hooked!

Our first opponent was GodTilla, a wedge with a roto-tiller on the rear.  We were able to push it across the arena into the spike strip, where it died.  A win!

Our second opponent was a thwackbot named Reaper.  It was faster and more powerful than us, but we put up a decent fight.  About half way through one of our drill gearboxes siezed up and some smoke came from the motor.  A well-deserved judges decision went to Reaper.