I love robot combat. It's dieing, though. More and more venues are getting cancelled. And it's really fucking expensive to build a robot ($2,000 is a cheap one), ship it to the competition (because if you're not driving to the contest, you're flying, and you can't exactly put your 150+ pound machine on the plane), pay for a hotel, pay the entry fee, pay for the speed controlloers which you know you're going to burn out (decent ones cost $600 a piece, and you need two), and possibly pay for the robot that might get destroyed.

My point; it gets expensive. And with more and more venues getting cancelled, it's getting harder and harder for people to get into it. The only way you can compete on a budget is if you live close to one of the competitions.