South Eastern Combat Robotics

Origins

South Eastern Combat Robotics is a now-defunct organization that hosted events throughout the Southeastern US in the early 2000's.  The organization was formed by a group of builders looking to fight robots closer to home.  The original founding members were Christopher McVey, Rick Nickel, John Kruse, Chris Williamson, and Marc DeVidts. 

Early Events:  Florida and North Carolina

Purchasing a few panes of Lexan for protection, their first event, Farm Fight, was held in January 2002 at McVey's farm in Alachua, Florida.   The event hosted robots up to 120lb Middleweights, with such legendary robots as Moebius and Little Drummer Boy competing.  Shortly thereafter, SECR was asked to host a robot event at the North Carolina Apple Festival in Hendersonville, NC.  The partnership with the Apple Festival helped fund substantial upgrades to the arena, eventually bringing it to a 4-sided, 20' x 32' fully-enclosed arena with wood floors and two panes of 1/4" air-gapped lexan.  The next two North Carolina events, Southern Assault and Robot Assault were held outdoors under a big tent, with the latter event infamously getting flooded by a massive rain storm. 

Rocket City Era

In 2004 the group elected Rick Nickel as their president, and he moved the events to his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama.  The next two events, aptly named Rocket City Robot Assault hosted weight classes up to 220lb Heavyweights.   The event was held in an abandoned textile mill, with over 100 robots in attendance from across the United States.

Final Event

Toward the end of 2004, with Marc DeVidts being elected SECR President, he arranged to move the arena to his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana where it would be upgraded one final time.  The subsequent event, Robotic Revolution, was held on July 4th weekend, 2005 and hosted 129 robots up to 220lb Heavyweights.  Famous attendees include Paul Ventimiglia, Brian Nave, Jim Smentowski and famous robots such as Team Whyachi, Megabyte, and Sewer Snake.  

Shortly after the event, in August 2005, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina.  Fortunately the arena was not damaged, and it was eventually used years later in Miami, FL, for some BotsIQ events.  With Marc moving out of New Orleans and none of the other members motivated to host the next event, sadly this would be the last event hosted by SECR.

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