About the Robot Fighting League

• Mission: Promote the sport of fighting robots, provide consistency between events, support builders, and event organizers.

• The RFL had it's founding meeting in Las Vegas NV on November 8th 2002. The RFL continues to have meetings at each event where several members are in attendance.

• What does the RFL do?
  • The RFL has created a Standard Extensible set of Tech Regulations for the robots that attend each event. These rules are created for and by builders and event organizers.
  • The RFL has created some standards for describing arenas and for sport wide event results posting.
  • We hope to grow our membership to include all robot combat events.
  • The RFL is investigating becoming an official event sanctioning body to keep the sport safe and fun for all.
  • The RFL encourages events to share resources to make events safer and easier.

   

• Who is the RFL?
  • The RFL general membership is made up of event organizers and support personnel. All members are also robot builders and competitors.

   

• How did the RFL come to be?
  • When it looked like there may be a long break between televised robot fighting events Alexander Rose of Inertia Labs started looking for other events to participate in. After looking over many of the different rule sets and contacting several event holders it became apparent that the events could benefit from some cohesiveness and communication. Alexander then contacted as many events as possible, and with the help of Bob Pitzer and Steve Brown an email list and forum was established for event holders. The first two points of conversation were rules and event results. We invited in people who were working on rules databases, and Alexander went to work reading all the different rule sets and trying to make something more cohesive. Since many people in the group were going to the 2002 Las Vegas Street Fight we decided to hold an inaugural meeting there to give the rule set idea a vote of confidence and to decide on a name. Robot Fighting League was decided on as a name and the rules passed unanimously. The RFL was born.

   

• What do RFL member organizations get out of the RFL?
  • Just about every member of the RFL started as a builder and continues to build robots. They started having events because they wanted a local and fun place to compete, almost all do so through donations or at a significant financial loss. Just about the only large events that have made money or broke even in Robotic Combat are ones that were either paid for by TV, or are part of a fair or expo that paid them to have the event. Most event organizers and clubs hold events because they love it. Some are funded by a single person and some by clubs where all the members chip in. The RFL has opened a discussion among all these event organizers so that they can help each other with resources and advice.  Out of this communication ideas like the Triangle Nationals were spawned and the event organizers now travel to see each  others events to help out and learn.

• What does the building community get out of the RFL?
  • The greatest benefits so far to the building community are the standard formatted rules and a central place to find out about events in your area. This rule set was written by builders for builders. While the RFL realizes that rules are still different between events, we at least all now have a standard format that we are working within that does a few things:
    • The standard format allows builders to easily see how each event varies and whether their robot can attend.
    • The new rule set was designed to achieve safety but still allow maximum flexibility for the builder and event. Since most limits in the rule set are not hard limits, but ones beyond which the builder must contact the event, this allows for basically any robot that can be operated safely within that event to compete.
    • After each season the RFL will be able to make the rules even tighter and more cohesive.
  • If any builders have suggestions, questions, or comments about the RFL there are always members available to discuss this with. We encourage builders to let us know what we can do better. Please contact your local event or RFL Chair.
  • It should also be pointed out that at the very least the RFL isn't costing anyone anything, and is doing no harm...

   

• What does the RFL do when one of its members does something wrong?
  • When we have reports of poor arena construction, non payment of prize money, or events stepping on each others toes, the whole membership does their best to remedy the situation through discussion.    
  • Member organizations that have had problems already have been encouraged through discussion and peer pressure to remedy those situations.
  • If you notice something at an RFL tournament that you were not comfortable with we encourage you to bring it up with that member or the .

   

• Why aren't all events in the RFL?
  • All events who wish to support the goals of the RFL are encouraged to apply for membership.  Some events would rather be on their own however and or they don't want to use the RFL rule set (using the rule set is mandatory for all members). The RFL respects these decisions but hopes that eventually it can be a league for all events. The RFL welcomes comments and suggestions to forward this agenda.