High-Noon Hoopla

High-Noon Hoopla is a robot that debuted in August 2023. It is a modified SSP kit.

Hotkoin art

Wins: Skim, Fe Fan, BeetleJuice, Kamino (Forfeit), Canterbury

Losses: Ratfish, Shreddit Bro, Chubby Unicorn

Fights Cole drove: Skim, BeetleJuice, Shreddit Bro, Chubby Unicorn

Fights Josh drove: Fe Fan, Ratfish, Canterbury

High-Noon Hoopla is an SSP kit that has fought later in the NHRL 2023 season. It is a collaboration between Cole Wilson and Josh Belanger of Nubert and Red Hawk fame respectively. The idea for this robot is to run the SSP as stock with little modifications for its first couple events before making it our own and eventually giving it new weapon modules, inspired by Silk. Despite us saying it's "modified", it's only modified to the thinnest extent - the only thing making it different from the stock SSP is that for side skirts it uses armor from Red Hawk as opposed to the side skirts that Seth sells (Sorry Seth we might use them in the future). The robot was originally intended to be painted orange, as depicted in the Hotkoin drawing that you see. So this is an important lesson to make your robot before you get someone to draw it! As hinted by the name, the robot is western themed. Cole and Josh take turns driving the bot and the 2 builders follow a ritual where the driver wears a "drivers hat" - a womens beach hat that looks slightly like a cowboy hat. The 2 characters that inspired the theme are Esther Winchester (Cuphead), the name coming from the character's boss level in the game, and the Hotkoin drawing was inspired by Zora Salazar (Epithet Erased).

At HNH's debut event it was first up against the drum bot Skim. It was quite the first opponent for this bot because we did some research and found out Skim has been fighting for over a decade. It was a close fight, as Cole was driving and he was getting used to the controls and hadn't drove the bot much. But it was a win for HNH. It's next opponent was the Bad Crew beater bar Fe Fan. This match was where all of HNH's damage from August came from. They chewed up the top plate, bent a shoulder bolt, and left various dents and scratches on the UHMW billet chassis, but they stopped moving in the last seconds of the match and somehow HNH pulled off the miracle victory. It was next up against BeetleJuice, which was a super scary match for us since at this point they had qualified for the finals. However BeetleJuice's weapon failed and the robot started smoking, so HNH capitalized the entire match and won a decision, giving Cole and Josh one of their most honorable wins in their careers. It was next up against Ratfish, another robot that had been fighting for a while. It was a very tactical control and driving match but Ratfish won, probably due to getting some good flips on HNH. However there was no shame in this loss as Ratfish went on to place 2nd that very event, so HNH left the August 2023 NHRL mostly victorious, placing 19th out of around 160 3lb robots.

HNH also attended the NHRL September 2023, however it had not been repaired at all from the August 2023 NHRL, although the robot was fully functional. After it's success at August, the bot shot up the ranks, so it immediately got placed in the Challenger group and slated to fight Kamino. However Kamino forfeited this match, so HNH automatically went on to fight the feared robot that some call the "Blue Beater" - Shreddit Bro. Despite how scary its opponent was, HNH was aggressive throughout the match and managed to flip and pin Shreddit Bro on a couple occasions. However, the top had not been screwed on all the way, so when HNH got hit by Shreddit Bro at one point its top came off, so Cole and Josh tapped out, giving Shreddit Bro the W. The only repair to make was to change the forks and definitely remember to screw on the top plate harder next time. HNH qualified for the bracket and was up against Canterbury, so Cole and Josh deployed their wedge config. However with this configuration on HNH had some drive difficulties, however this didn't stop them from killing Canterbury's weapon with their wedge and dominating in control, winning the battle by judges' decision. HNH would next go up against the feared Chubby Unicorn. Despite how fearsome this opponent was, Cole drove this match well, dominating at the beginning but eventually succumbing to Chubby Unicorn's superior driving skill and getting hit many, many times. The fight went the full 3 minutes, but Chubby Unicorn easily won the decision, eliminating HNH. Despite it's poorer performance this event, Cole and Josh were happy to walk away with a win and having stood up to bots like Shreddit Bro and Chubby Unicorn.

HNH will hopefully be fighting at the NHRL March 2024 event. It will have a vert added onto it. A horizontal module is coming soon.

High-Noon Hoopla's redesign for March 2024.