A bot with only one loss, and that one was a forfeit, in the Finals. A bot that, according to designer doom_force, had only one flaw, the fact that it was drab.

I never game him color, today or back then.

BASS came about for Fantasy Fury. Like so many other great bots, it was inspired by real life robots.

My chief design idea came from the designs of Huggy Bear and Nightmare. I wanted a long and stable design like Huggy Bear and an elevated end like Nightmare, and I added a big ass blade. I think it was a good design for the frame, all four of the arms gave me the stable nature of Huggy Bear, and I got enough Nightmare into him that he was high off the ground and minimized body area that could be hit.

The bot also had another characteristic of Nightmare. If flipped, it was as good as dead, but rather than be reactive, doom_force thought proactively.

When I saw that he never would have been able to get back on his wheels, I strived to make his blades long enough to block most access to his body and so they could his the ground if inverted, possibly moving me around a bit.

All this careful plotting and thinking brought about a superheavyweight menace that instantly struck fear into all who saw it, BASS.



But this wasn't a BASS that you could mount on your wall and have it sing "Sleepy Lagoon" to scare your unsuspecting in-laws.

I think it [stood] for 'Bad Ass Super Spinner.' You have to remember, I was thirteen at the time, so that was totally awesome.

In a league that also hosted a "Bad-Ass Barnacle," no one was going to judge the bot by its name, especially once they fought it in the arena. After a quick exit in the first Fantasy Fury, BASS stepped down a weight class to the Heavyweight division for the second Fantasy Fury, where after one quick loss, it got itself together and went on a rampage knocking out four straight opponents, landing itself in the Finals. But forgetting to submit a strategy once more became the doom_force downfall.

It was most likely one of those things I just never made stick in my mind "RP!" "Hey, let's check ARC!...BASS has a match...that he lost by not RPing... hmm, yeah." *muffled swearing*

The presence of Team Tez slowly diminished in future tournaments.

I believe I was starting high school once we got to the ARC-sanctioned RPGs, and I just got swarmed with things and didn't get back into it. And each time after that, it was just that I was too busy to make bots and to know I would RP, let it be school work or other interests.

Though neither BASS nor Team Tez have resurfaced in the online combat leagues, neither have been forgotten. BASS was recently named as one of the 100 Best Custom Fantasy League bots, quite an achievement for a bot whose designer doesn't even think is completely realistic.

His arms never had enough room to be able to put actual motors in them and were way to frail for me to actually build him and send him to battle. My fear would be him just snapping mid-match, which would be his only real life flaw.

As for doom_force, he is still busy with offline activities, but is still able to grace the community with his presence. Furthermore, he has recently avowed that given the chance and lack of offline burdens, he would once more jump into the tournament activities with renewed vim and vigor. In the meanwhile, the community waits patiently for the return, and remembers fondly the marvel of BASS.

He's currently retired and is in charge of protecting my chicken sandwiches.