Now that I got all my files from the trip converted I can begin writing this. Notwithstanding the fact that as the now head admin of the RoboGames wiki being as Asbestostar is MIA I have always wanted to go to RoboGames but before 2019 was afraid to fly. So when 2023 was announced I had to go.
I went for the first two days of the event, had a lot of fun and wish I could have stayed longer but without further ado, here's my trip report.
Day 0[]

First Class Breakfast
Everything was usual on the trip from Richmond to Atlanta aside from the fact that it was a 5 am wake up time to catch the flight. Slept a bit on the plane and woke up for a breakfast of a frittata. However, on the Atlanta to San Jose leg things were different.

Grand Canyon.
There was a thunderstorm along the intended route so the flight diverted its route around the inclement weather. As a result we wound up flying over both the Gulf of Mexico and the Grand Canyon. I actually took plenty of pictures but the one you see on the left is the best result from the set.
Upon landing at the airport I was hungry and upon incessantly nagging my father I got some tacos from a restaurant in the terminal. It was nothing special, just small airport food, something to hold me over til dinner. After eating and paying for my food we went to pick up the rental car, can't remember what it was as we really only used it to go to the event location, the hotel, and to get to and from the airport.

Airport Tacos
We then after a bit of driving checked into our hotel, part of the Hyatt chain as per usual and rested for a couple hours before heading out to dinner at a place called Nonni's Bistro in downtown Pleasonton. We started with bread and butter which was beautifully presented as a butter rose. For my appetizer I had a bowl of French Onion Soup, it was absolutely delicious, and I then waited for our dinner. I had Grilled Barramundi and a Ladrone Messicano cocktail. Dad was uncreative and had fries and steak as he usually does. We then went to the hotel and went to bed.
Noni's Bistro Gallery (Dinner)[]
Day 1[]

Axis on display.
And so the day of the event began, we woke up, had breakfast (nothing remarkable, your standard hotel breakfast buffet), and took the rental car out to the fairgrounds where it was being held. After going through security we couldn't find the entrance to the building where the tickets were being processed to get our wristbands. Then, after spending a while trying to find the entrance to the venue we finally found it, we were early so we would have to wait for the gates to open so to speak.
In the meantime we saw from the entrance that Mark Sektrakian, the mastermind behind some of the most technically impressive and beautiful 90's era combat robots ever built had brought two demonstration robots, Axis, and some spider robot I never got the name of. After the gates opened there was still set to be a while before the games began so we decided to go to the merch booth. First though I looked to my left and saw Rick Russ's insane jet powered undercutter Jet Lag on display so I took some pictures.

Tombstone chilling on a display table.
Again setting off to the merch booth I once more got sidetracked after seeing Ray Billings BattleBots entry Tombstone on display at the table next to the merch booth. Finally upon getting to the booth I found that it was being manned by Bunny Liaw who was running a few bots at the event, most notably White Rabbit which was basically their BattleBots entry Malice in a white paint job.
As such there was plenty of Malice merch on sale there, although there were other things like a Lynx t-shirt, several RoboGames trading cards being given out for free, old stock RoboGames 2018 t-shirts as well as 2023 t-shirts, and something I will get back to later on in day 1. Next we went to the bleachers anticipating the fights to start soon, but again got sidetracked, this time by girl scout cookies (they have Samoas on the west coast but not the east?), and after making our purchases we went to sit down at the bleachers, however it would be multiple hours until the fights actually started.

One of the few artbots at the event. Robot Playground, built by Sierra College,
Despite this it was lucky we were there as soon afterwards one of the bleachers seats which hadn't been bolted correctly by the fairgrounds staff shifted while someone was going down the bleachers and he promptly fell on his back, several of us helped him up and he got checked out by medical and security. Although shook up he was fine, this bleacher was promptly taped off for a good while after this while they fixed it.
After a while it was clear the fights weren't starting anytime soon so everyone, ourselves included went over to the small arenas where we caught Parax vs Man Child just as it was ending and judging by the final moments of this fight we probably didn't miss much either. Next I went over to check the art bots, if I could document just one of the less documented classes in the RG wiki at this event in my two days here I would do it.

REPLICA flies RoboGames air courtesy of Mondo Bizarro.
Well as it turns out it wasn't a very populated category this year with only a handful of entries, some hadn't even set up yet so the Art Bots I saw at this point were Robot #1 (Which was holding up the carcass of one time insectweight flipper Pinto), Robot Playground, and The Enchanted Tiki Tree. The matches then started again so I headed over to the 3lb combat arena and the first of several fights I would witness, REPLICA vs Mondo Bizarro.

REPLICA returns the favor.
This was quite a good back n fourth fight with REPLICA getting a small hit to start but Mondo Bizarro then responded with a larger hit and REPLICA was sent tumbling into the corner landing on its side, recovering, and delivering four consecutive pops to Mondo Bizarro flipping it twice. After a bit of jockeying for position by both robots, WHAM! Mondo Bizarro launched REPLICA against the side wall causing the plexiglass to visibly shake.

Mondo Bizarro is launched by REPLICA.
Next, as REPLICA attempted to self right by gyroing Mondo Bizarro took advantage and delivered another hit with REPLICA once again responding by sending Mondo Bizarro flying. Mondo Bizarro then recovered and pinned REPLICA in the corner of the arena, upon backing off REPLICA called for an unstick and the match was paused to free it off the wall.

Sparks fly as Mondo Bizarro and REPLICA go weapon on weapon.
When the match resumed one of REPLICA's drive sides were clearly jammed allowing Mondo Bizarro to get some free hits in. This however had the side effect of performing Percussive Maintenance, fixing whatever issue was plaguing REPLICA allowing them to eventually send Mondo Bizarro flying once more after a weapon on weapon exchange. Unfortunately for REPLICA this hit also flipped themselves and allowed Mondo Bizarro to come in and land a flurry of large hits including one ceiling shot to REPLICA.
After stabilizing from that exchange, REPLICA delivered multiple hits to Mondo Bizarro as the clock ran down on the match. The fight would ultimately go to Mondo Bizarro, although this was one of those decisions that could have gone either way.

Seconds from the final impact.
Next up was Bad Bot vs KillCake. I missed a good chunk of this fight as well cause I was distracted watching one of the two Japanese entries to the 1lbers (NeeBoMan). However, from what I can tell this was a pretty much one sided brutal beatdown by KillCake as by the time I got to the arena and started recording Bad Bot had already lost its weapon belt and was struggling to move.
It was then after some light hits KillCake would deliver a box shaking hit to Bad Bot, ricochet around the arena into the wall, and stop moving altogether. A pause was called to free BadBot in case it was stuck, but no the impact had actually broken something inside and upon resuming the fight BadBot was swiftly counted out leaving Bad Bot broken, but victorious.

The Mean Bean delivers a ceiling shot to Berserker.
I was however able to catch the whole of the next fight which was Berserker vs The Mean Bean. However due to the angle I was viewing from I was unable to see some of the action, now despite this I can still describe what happened from start to end. Berserker, being a melty brain spun up as soon as the match begun and due to spinning up its eggbeater The Mean Bean couldn't really box rush it.
This would not really matter much as Berserker would quickly go out of control and in true melty brain fashion hockey puck around the arena landing two hits to the front of The Mean Bean knocking it off balance on the first one. Eventually The Mean bean got control and delivered two consecutive hits including one ceiling shot that left Berserker without drive on one side.
Berserker would then attempt to spin up but due to its impaired drive not really get any proper momentum allowing The Mean Bean to come in with a large hit. This pattern would be repeated for the rest of the fight which went to a judges decision with The Mean Bean quite obviously emerging victorious.

Thagomizer lands a critical blow on S-236 Fuchs.
Next up I watched what would wind up being the eventual 1lb champion Sh00k drive around in the respective arena before the next match started. In this match we would finally see the second Japanese entry S-236 Fuchs, this was a beautifully 3d printed robot with a nasty weapon it didn't really get to use at the event due to its matchups, including this one against Thagomizer, a robot which was responsible for a whole bunch of similar designs across several weight classes.
This would be a quick match, as S-236 Fuchs was the type of robot Thagomizer was designed to fight with the later spinning up and swinging its tail spinner into the side of S-236 Fuchs. This flipped the Japanese machine over forcing S-236 Fuchs to use its srimech, however it was clear that hit had done serious damage to its drive as it was now barely able to move with a good chunk of the rear of the robot ripped off.
Despite this damage S-236 Fuchs did not tap out and Thagomizer lined up another hit ripping a whole wheel and drive belt out the rear of the Japanese vertical spinner which still continued to move so Thagomizer attacked again, this time ripping off a side panel. Shortly after this blow, as Thagomizer was lining up another attack S-236 Fuchs finally tapped out bringing the destructive match to an end.

Drop Test fails a flip on Cheddar.
Next was Drop Test vs Cheddar, now while Cheddar is a typical compact Brazilian vertical Drop Test was an interesting but sometimes finicky design, a spring powered flipper. This type of flipper has issues where sometimes the spring wont engage properly and I say this because welll....
As soon as this fight started Drop Test immediately got under Cheddar and tried flipping them but the flipper jammed halfway up, barely lifting Cheddar before the spring engaged flicking Cheddar away quite pitifully. This had dire consequences for Drop Test as Cheddar now was able to spin up and land a hit sending them Drop Test flying, landing upside down and since its flipper was malfunctioning Drop Test did not have the power in its weapon to self right and they were knocked out.

Loosey Goosey sends Wedge 1 flying.
Next up was the clusterbot Wedge 1 and Wedge 2 vs the articulated vertical spinner Loosey Goosey. As soon as this match started Wedge 2 wheelied itself upside down, however it quickly righted itself before getting under Loosey Goosey and pinning it against the wall. Loosey Goosey then got free but both of the wedges gave chase and shortly flanked and pinned Loosey Goosey again.
After getting free again Loosey Goosey was again swarmed by the clusterbot and Wedge 2 attempted another pin but a small bit of driver error allowed Loosey Goosey to first flick it away with its flywheel then send the nearby Wedge 1 flying. However by now Wedge 2 had got back into position and again pinned Loosey Goosey but Wedge 1 came in and messed up the pin.
This driver error allowed Loosey Goosey to attack both clusterbots with Wedge 1 getting the worst of the exchange being sent flying again and having a gash torn in its armor. Wedge 1 and 2 then pinned Loosey Goosey again and as the countdown on the match started Loosey Goosey sent Wedge 2 flying one last time as Wedge 1 shoved Loosey Goosey before the later flicked it away as the match ended with the resulting judges decision going in favor of Wedge 1 and Wedge 2.
Next up was Free Throw vs Gold Rush. Now, Gold Rush is a Candy Wasp kit which is the same kit as my robot Rice Rice Baby so I was watching this fight closely to see what weaknesses to look out for.