Storm 2 is a robot that competed in the British television game showRobot Wars. It was a small invertible box-shaped robot with a wedge on the front. The robot was originally built with no weapons but the team was asked to add an active weapon in order to take part in the seventh series, so the team came up with a built-in lifting arm, very similar to the American robot BioHazard. However, it was not the weapon but the immense speed and power of the robot that did the most damage to its opponents, managing to throw The Steel Avenger out of the Arena in its Series 7 heat final. The robot competed in the seventh series of Robot Wars, winning The Third World Championship at the end of the series, having won the 16th seed into the competition by being victorious in the New Blood Championship of Extreme 2. Storm 2 was created by Ed Hoppitt. He was joined by Tim Bence and Andrew Rayner. Hoppitt and Bence would alternate driving during the wars. Not long after the filming of New Blood, Andrew Rayner got married, moved house and began a family, so his place on the team was filled by Bence's fiance, Meral Kolac. In the original run, Storm 2 was somewhat notable because it was the most prominent robot never to lose a battle through KO, only losing one battle on a controversial judges' decision. The said decision was the grand final of Series 7, losing the title to Typhoon 2. However, it lost on knockout to Apollo in the heat final of the 2016 series after being thrown out of the arena, having lost to the same bot on judges decision in the group stages - in both fixtures, Apollo flipped over at least one house robot. Storm 2 was eligible to be named as a wildcard but was not chosen. Like many other robots, Storm 2 also competed in Techno Games as Ickle Toaster in the Football and Sumo events. The original Storm was never seen in Robot Wars, but competed in various robot combat events across the UK and the Dutch Robot Games. When it was involved on the 2016 series of Robot Wars, the robot cost £20,000 and used Telemetry systems, thermistors, bespoke PMDC motors, and dry ice systems to prevent overheating.
Team Storm have made several claims allegiating that Robot Wars' producers were trying to manipulate the rules, match outcomes and even the matches themselves in order to quell Storm 2's success as Storm 2's "rambot" design, a robot with no weapons attacking purely by ramming opponents, was supposedly deemed "boring" by the producers.
The active weapons rule
Team Storm state that Storm 2 was almost denied its entry into Robot Wars Extreme series 2 when producers Mentorn realized that Storm 2 was a rambot, while being under the impression that Team Storm were submitting the original Storm, which was armed with a hydraulic crusher. Producer Bill Hobbins supposedly intervened and allowed Storm 2's entry into the New Blood tournament, where it proved victorious. Between Extreme 2 and Series 7, an "active weapon" rule was introduced into the show, stating that all robots must be equipped with a moving weapon. While no confirmation has been given, it is believed that this rule was added to exclude robots relying on heavy armor, and some even believing that it was added specifically to counter Storm 2 after its success in Extreme and the Series 6 winner Tornado also having largely relied on its ramming power. Team Storm were informed that although their victory in Extreme automatically qualified them into Series 7, they were required to fit an active weapon onto Storm 2 in accordance to the new rule. Though Team Storm felt that the new rule was added for superficial reasons and in response to their success, Storm 2 was fitted with a lifting arm to comply.
Firestorm
After Storm 2 kick-started its campaign of the Series 7 championship by throwing The Steel Avenger out of the arena in its Heat Final, Storm 2 met three times Grand Finalist Firestorm 5 in the second round of the semi-final. Storm 2 dominated the match by utilising Firestorm's poor pushing power to eventually pit its opponent. However, Team Storm claims that between the match finish and post-battle interviews, there was a long pause during which, allegedly, the producers were trying to persuade judges into disqualifying Storm 2 on the grounds of not using its active weapon in the match. While no confirmation of the discussion has been given, Storm 2 was declared the victor.
Tornado
In the first fight of the Grand Final, Storm 2 met reigning champion and fellow rambot Tornado. Storm 2 dominated the fight, but towards the end, with Tornado running inverted, Refbot activated the pit and Tornado drove into it. Team Storm and the crowd cheered thinking the match was over, but the pit didn't detonate its pyrotechnics signifying a fallen robot, the match didn't end, and the pit floor rose back up, allowing Tornado to escape. In the TV edit, Tornado was shown to escape the pit just before it descended. Nevertheless, Tornado lost the fight, and judges declared Storm 2 as the winner.
Typhoon 2
Storm 2's Grand Final battle with Typhoon 2 proved to be one of the most controversial in the show's history, During the fight, Typhoon 2 crashed into a wall causing damage to the arena. The fight was stopped to carry out repairs, though Team Storm claim that the producers planned to edit the mishap out, and that Team Typhoon were allowed to repair the damage Typhoon 2 had sustained, which included its weapon failing to activate. Team Typhoon captain Gary Cairns refuted the latter claim, stating that the teams were kept separated from their robots during interruptions and in any case, they wouldn't have had enough time or equipment to perform any repairs on their robot. When the fight aired, Typhoon 2's crash and the subsequent restart were both included. Despite Storm 2's strong presence in the fight and Typhoon 2 losing one of its drive chains, the judges gave the victory to Typhoon 2, as Storm 2 had one of its armor panels dislodged, giving Typhoon 2 the edge in damage. This crowned Typhoon 2 the Series 7 champion, and marked Storm 2's only loss in the original series. Team Storm claims that the decision in Typhoon 2's favor received heavy booing from the audience that was edited out in the TV cut, and that the judges had issued apologies to Team Storm as they had only later found out about the damage to Typhoon 2's drive chain. Cairns states that the judges only assessed damage to the exterior and didn't ask to see the internals of the robots. In the 2016 series, Storm 2 fought Cairns' new machine, PP3D, in the decisive group match, in which the winner would reach the heat final. Storm 2 gained its revenge on team Typhoon after PP3D's drive failed, and Storm 2 pressed the pit button, meaning PP3D couldn't escape.
Supernova
The last controversial incident involving Storm 2 ironically happened in the last ever televised fight. During the Third World Championship Final, Supernova, the Sri Lankan representative, launched an unsuccessful attack on Storm 2. One of its wheels was on Storm 2's wedge, leaving it off balance and it careered sideways into the arena wall, stuck. Storm 2 ran away, believing Team Storm had won the fight, but Refbot freed Supernova instead of counting it out as his counter wasn't working. Then Shunt propped Storm 2 against the angle grinder. After Supernova got away, Storm 2 was finally freed, but it was running inverted, where it was more vulnerable to attacks. The judges gave Storm 2 the win, based on the old rule that if a robot is immobilised for more than 30 seconds, it is out of the fight. This fight has received criticism for heavy editing use, since the televised fight didn't accurately show how long Supernova was pinned on the wall. Supernova was judged to be stacked on the arena wall for far more than 30 seconds, meaning it lost.
