Jot

Jot as it appeared in January 2024

Builder	Max Morningstar
Driver	Max Morningstar
Team	TRC
Weight Class	3lb
Body Material	TPU Chassis
Weapon	Horizontal Thwacking Spinner (AR500)
Weapon Drive	EMAX ECOII 2306 2400Kv
Drive	Repeat Drive Max from Repeat Robotics
Power	4S Lipo
Lifetime record	3-1

Overview

Jot is a 3lb robot designed and built by Max Morningstar, first competing at the January 2024 New Bots event at NHRL. Morningstar came up with the idea to build Jot while reflecting on the 2023 Championships, in which cam lifter Supreme Ruler and corral bot Full Court made deep runs into the 3lb and 12lb brackets respectively, with the latter taking home the Golden Brett in its weight class. Morningstar wanted a design that could combat these styles of robots while still being competitive against vertical spinning robots. While in the shower, Morningstar was hit by a flash of inspiration, surmising that a bigwheel bot was the ideal counter to both types of designs, being able to bulldoze over corral bots while also being largely immune to cam lifters, which rely on the low ground clearance typical in meta 4WD vertical spinner designs.

In coming up with the Jot design, Morningstar looked to Starchild for initial inspiration. Having seen the Starchild variant Axis of Evil compete in the August 2023 event, Morningstar knew one of the biggest drawbacks to the design was the challenge of lining up hits with the robot's rear-mounted vertical spinner. To fix this, Morningstar combined the big wheels and elongated chassis of Starchild with a horizontal blade, envisioning a robot with a thwacking attack pattern that would be easier to drive and land reliable hits with. Having seen the dominant performance of the thagomizer-style robot Maximizer, Morningstar believed the design would be versatile enough to counter cam lifters and corral robots while still being competitively viable versus 4WD vertical spinners, which typically have less armor on the sides than the front.

Jot's name is an esoteric reference to a comedy sketch made by the podcasting network Headgum, in which two characters discuss ideas for viral t-shirt designs. Morningstar's robot Four Beet Salad, a 1lb plastic version of Jot, is named for another reference within the same video.

Before settling on the name Jot, the robot was originally going to be called Starmizer as an homage to Starchild and Maximizer, the two robots most impactful on the Jot design.

Fight History

NHRL January 2024

Jot vs Terminus

Jot's first qualifying fight of the January event, and indeed of its career, was slated to be against Terminus, a hammersaw built by the robotics team from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The fight would have been an interesting one and potentially a devastating loss for Jot, since due to weight constraints Jot only had 1mm of TPU top and bottom armor on its main chassis. Unfortunately, Terminus had issues with belt tension on both its hammersaw arm and drivetrain, and was unable to pass safety in time to compete in the match. Under the new 2024 ruleset, Jot was awarded its first ever win, by forfeit.

Jot vs Little Melty

Jot's second fight was against another Rose-Hulman bot, Little Melty. Little Melty, as its name suggests, was a meltybrain design where the entire robot spins up to high RPMs, turning its own chassis into a primary weapon. Jot once again had a lucky break when the driver of Little Melty accidentally put the robot into the cage upside down, obscuring the directional LEDs that would have allowed them to see what direction the robot thought it was facing. Without these LEDs, the team was unable to effectively control their robot, piloting it into the walls by their starting corner, where the robot remained until the match ended. This was good news for Jot, as unbeknownst to the Little Melty team the hub holding Jot's wheel onto its drive axle was loose, and the wheel had begun to creep towards the edge of the axle as Jot approached its opponent's position. Had Jot maneuvered more aggressively, or taken a direct hit from Little Melty, Jot likely would have been quickly disabled. Luckily, Jot driver Max Morningstar noticed the wheel start to shift and wisely kept Jot's movement to a minimum until Little Melty tapped out, granting Jot its second win and a berth in the January 2024 3lb bracket.

While anticlimactic, this was a critical fight for Jot because it exposed glaring issues in the robot's design. First, Jot's drive was incredibly sensitive. Its wheels were directly driven by Repeat Drive Max motors, which are designed for significantly smaller wheels than those boasted by Jot. Even with settings turned way down on Morningstar's controller, Jot accelerated quickly at even small inputs, making the robot very difficult to drive. Jot's weapon, a horizontal spinner that rested at roughly a 45 degree angle, exacerbated the problem by adding weird gyroscopic forces that made Jot want to variably not drive straight or attempt to roll over when turned. The combination of these factors would greatly inhibit Jot's ability to effectively damage opponents throughout the January 2024 event.

Jot vs TriJinx

Jot's first fight in the tournament bracket was against TriJinx, a robot modeled after the heavyweight robot HiJinx. Driven by a powerful hub motor, TriJinx wielded a large horizontal primary weapon, which traditionally perform well against bigwheel robots. However, Jot's lucky streak continued, and upon reaching the cage TriJinx realized that its weapon was nonfunctional (later revealed to be a result of a faulty weapon ESC). This would prove pivotal during the fight. Jot's weapon was largely ineffective, and was intermittently spinner over the course of the match due to excess friction on the weapon shaft causing the weapon to temporarily seize up. Despite it's lack of a working weapon, TriJinx proved an adept control bot, successfully attempting multiple pins on Jot. However, the spring steel cleats on Jot's wheels proved to be highly effective, allowing Jot to drive up over TriJinx and escape its pins as fast as the robot could attempt them. TriJinx's nonfunctional weapon, and Jot's ability to work its way out of pins, ultimately led to a split judge's decision in favor of Jot, who advanced in the bracket.

Jot vs Sir Spinny

Jot's next opponent was a multibot consisting of a FingerTech vertical spinner and a lifting minibot. In theory, this was a matchup that Jot was designed to dominate. However, given the drive sensitivity and overpowering gyroscopic weapon force, Jot was mostly at the mercy of Sir Spinny, which did its best to dismantle Jot over the three-minute match. Sir Spinny successfully removed most of the spring steel cleats on Jot's wheels, took off both self-righting spikes, and sheared off Jot's weapon shaft, causing Jot's spinner to be ejected from the robot. While Jot was able to cling to life for the full match, the resulting unanimous judge's decision in favor of Sir Spinny was no surprise. By taking this win, Sir Spinny delivered Jot the first loss of its career and eliminated it from the 3lb tournament bracket.

Chaos Rumble

After dropping out of the 3lb bracket (and repairing the extensive damage sustained at the hands of Sir Spinny), Jot entered into a freestyle rumble featuring robots The Fool, Event Horizon, Hex, and several multibots. Also participating was fellow TRC robot Indubitably, which typically had a lifter arm but after sustaining damage to its main weapon servo was being driven as just a wedge. The fight was pure chaos - Jot eventually lost a wheel after a strong hit from Event Horizon, though maintained a remarkable amount of mobility despite having lost half its drive train. There was a fun interaction between Jot and the multibot for The Fool, which had been equipped with a cow catcher-esque attachment designed to restrain bigwheel robots. By the time the multibot made its way over to Jot, Jot had already lost its wheel. Undeterred, the multibot attempted a pin to hilarious effect when the cow catcher got stuck through one of Jot's spokes, entangling the two robots together to the great amusement of both drivers.

Following the rumble, Jot gifted its removed wheel to the Event Horizon team as a trophy from the rumble, and was in turn gifted the cow catcher from The Fool's multibot.

Show Match: Jot and Rewind vs Chainsaw Kitty

Jot's final fight of the competition was originally going to be another rumble once again featuring Event Horizon and Indubitably, alongside the rebuilt robot Rewind that had recently been knocked out of the 3lb tournament. Unfortunately, both Event Horizon and Indubitably ultimately withdrew from the rumble for a variety of reasons. Undeterred, the drivers for Rewind and Jot went to register for a freestyle fight when they happened to run into Kezia Skye, driver of Chainsaw Kitty, coincidentally also looking for opponents for a final freestyle fight for the day. Jot and Rewind immediately agreed to the match, not wanting to turn down a chance to be in the cage with one of the most recognizable and dominant beetleweight robots to compete at NHRL. At Kezia's suggestion, rather than being a true rumble, the match was conducted as a true freestyle fight, with Chainsaw Kitty and its multibot Knifecat facing off against the alliance of Jot and Rewind.

Despite the fact that she was facing two full beetleweight robots, Chainsaw Kitty was able to not only hold her ground but put on a dominant performance. By the end of the fight Jot was completely disabled, and would likely have been counted out had it not been for Rewind, which showcased both its excellent durability and skilled driving, lasting to the end of the match even after receiving several devastating hits from Chainsaw Kitty's weapon. Upon further inspection post-fight, it became clear that the hits from Chainsaw Kitty had loosened the gearboxes of Jot to the point where the brushless motors of the drivetrain were able to freespin in the chassis, severing their own wires and disabling the robot's drive. The damage sustained in this match, alongside the driving issues that plagued Jot throughout the day, would be the primary focus of Jot's redesign for its next competition.

Statistics

Info

• Rank: #193 in 3lb.
• Last 5 fights: WWWL
• Current streak: L1 (0 KOs/KO'd)
• Longest winning streak: 3 (1 KOs)
• Longest losing streak: 1 (0 KO'd)
• Avg fight time (seconds): 140.3

Record

Year	Events	Fights	W	L	%	KOs	KO'd
2018-19
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024	1	4	3	1	0.750	1	0
All-Time	1	4	3	1	0.750	1	0

Events

Date	Fought as	Reached	Place	Fights	W	L	KOs	KO'd
January 20, 2024	Jot	Bracket Rd. 2		4	3	1	0	0

Opponents

Opponent	Fights	W	L	KOs	KO'd	Last Meeting
Terminus	1	1	0	0	0	January 20, 2024
Little Melty	1	1	0	0	0	January 20, 2024
TriJinx	1	1	0	0	0	January 20, 2024
Sir Spinny	1	0	1	0	0	January 20, 2024

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Full Fight History

Date	Opponent	Round	Result	By	Points	Fight Length (s)	Video
January 20, 2024	Terminus	Qualifiers Rd. 1	Win	Forfeit	1.00
January 20, 2024	Little Melty	Qualifiers Rd. 2	Win	Tapout	1.00	61	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C6iSvDtFB4&t=10049s
January 20, 2024	TriJinx	Bracket Rd. 1	Win	Judges Decision	1.00	180	https://nhrl-matches.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/streams/Cage-7-Overhead-High_1080p_121.mp4
January 20, 2024	Sir Spinny	Bracket Rd. 2	Loss	Judges Decision	-1.00	180	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C6iSvDtFB4&t=29597s

* Forfeits are not counted in a bot's W-L record.

For more information on how points are calculated for rankings, click here.

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Select Fights

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Freestyle fight between a team of Jot and control bot Rewind against Kezia Skye's Chainsaw Kitty at the January 2024 event. Chainsaw Kitty had a dominant showing despite facing two full 3-pound beetleweight robots, disabling Jot and roofing Rewind multiple times.

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Hype reel for Jot made using footage from the January 2024 event. Featured are Jot's first test drive (without cleats), the fight versus Little Melty, and the freestyle fight between Jot and Rewind, and Chainsaw Kitty.