Crossfire

**Crossfire** (Simplified Chinese: 封锁火线) is a Scottish robot built by Gary Cairns Team Northbound that competed at the inaugural *King of Bots* competition It was a red, and black x-shaped robot armed with a diagonal spinning bar.

## Design

Crossfire was a large, invertible robot propelled by two outward-facing wheels and supported by four spring-cushioned ‘legs’ with castors forming an ‘X’-shape. Its weapons were a face-mounted horizontal bar spinner with a diameter of 1 meter – which spun at 2,000rpm – and a flamethrower mounted beneath the spinner mount. Crossfire’s symmetrical design gave it 360 degrees of offense and defence, while the weapon assembly was mounted on a pivot, allowing it to swivel whenever the robot lifted itself up vertically or onto one side. It took some design inspiration from the fairyweight competitor No Fly Zone.

## Qualification

The Far North team were not initially selected to compete in Season 1, as King of Bots placed a greater emphasis on collecting established roboteers before looking at individual designs. As a result, the team were instead placed on the waiting list for potential reserves. Following further correspondence with Cairns, the King of Bots producers ultimately selected Crossfire for the show after responding favourably to an early CAD model of the robot.

## Robot history

### King of Bots

#### Season 1

Crossfire appeared in Episode 3, where it fought fellow UK entry The Grubs in the first round. Slowly, it manoeuvred out of the blue square, driving towards and past one of the floor flippers before proceeding to turn around in circles over the floor rods. As it tried to turn and attack Chop, Crossfire repeatedly lifted its bottom castors off the floor, causing its entire weapon assembly to swivel in the process. It continued to pursue Chop, only to lift and hold its weapon assembly off the floor as it spun round on the spot. The weight of Crossfire’s weapon caused the whole robot to overbalance and manoeuvre towards the nearest floor flipper, while simultaneously exposing it to a side-on attack from Chop. The flipper threw both robots simultaneously, with Crossfire tipping onto one side before landing upright onto the flipper. Immediately, the floor flipper threw Crossfire again, this time across the arena and into Mince, albeit not without its bar spinner tearing a chunk out of the flipper’s edge. The collisions with the floor and Mince broke the suspension of two of Crossfire’s ‘legs’, leaving it resting on its weapon assembly. With its rear wheels lifted off the floor, it was unable to drive any further; as a result, Crossfire was counted out and lost the battle by knockout.

However, Crossfire's campaign had not yet ended, as Team Far North's innovative design was rewarded by the producers, who awarded one of four wildcard positions to Crossfire, which allowed it to skip straight to the third round. There, it faced a fellow wildcard which had lost in the first round, Spin Doctor from the United States of America.

Crossfire immediately spun up its blade, and kept its weapon facing Spin Doctor while also activating the smokescreen in front of the American team. This tactic was returned, with no effect on the battle. Still circling in place to protect its back end, Crossfire taunted Spin Doctor using its flamethrower, but the drum spinner finally drove under Crossfire, and then drove into its back end while using its own flamethrower. The weaponry of both robots collided near the arena wall, throwing sparks while also disabling the weapon of Crossfire. While Spin Doctor pushed Crossfire away from this area, a piece of Crossfire's back end was ripped away, and it became clear that Crossfire had been immobilized. It was counted out, and eliminated from the competition for a second time.

Crossfire also fought in a nine-robot Rumble held at the end of Season 1. There, it fought alongside Blue, Dark Knight, Griffin, Ink Thorns, Nuclear Bomb, Steel Dragon, The Grubs and Violent Dragon. Initially, Crossfire twitched in its starting position, getting its bar spinner up to speed before turning towards Blue and lifting its weapon assembly into the air. Sparks flew as Crossfire’s spinner made contact with Blue’s axe head, the impact also resulting in the suspension for one of its legs breaking off. Spinning madly in the center of the arena, Crossfire ejected one of its own castor wheels, before being pushed sideways by Griffin. Eventually, Crossfire’s bar spinner stopped rotating by the time it and Griffin lingered near the wall spikes; Crossfire itself was then pushed into the wall and an immobile Ink Thorns by Dark Knight. At that moment, it sustained an axe blow from Blue which forced the bar spinner down; as a result, the electronics for the spinner short-circuited, leaving Crossfire without a working weapon. Moments later, Crossfire was lifted by the floor rods along with Dark Knight, which proceeded to push it and Ink Thorns across the arena simultaneously.Crossfire escaped, but not without sustaining damage to another of its legs from Chop – the orange segment of The Grubs. It drove away, only to sustain another attack from Chop, and after occasionally bumping into its remaining opponents was eventually pushed around by Nuclear Bomb. Crossfire spun round and slowly drove towards Nuclear Bomb, only to drive away from the latter and attempt to push Dark Knight. Eventually, it crawled towards Violent Dragon and stopped moving altogether, ultimately losing the Rumble to Nuclear Bomb.