Battlebots is Back

[tomandtish]

The new season starts this Thursday (https://battlebots.com/event/battlebots-2020-episode-01-discovery/) at 8pm (eastern).

You can see all the bots here (https://battlebots.com/2020-season-robots/).

Plenty of the old favorites are there: Tombstone, Bronco, Huge, etc.

Some of the ones who keep hanging on despite lack of success are there, especially CHOMP which apparently has a major design change.

And there's at least one surprising absence: Paul Ventimiglia apparently announced on Facebook that he would not be competing this year due to COVID, and also that he's selling Bite Force to make either an upgraded Bite Force or a new bot entirely. That means we'll have a new champion for sure and also that the longest Battlebot undefeated streak will be adding no more wins. Minotaur is also missing.

[Traab]

Everybody knocks chomp but I like him. Yeah he isnt the most stable of bots, but he doesnt really need to be as he can self right easily enough and has enough power to actually cause some damage with that weapon of his. As well as the durability to take a lot of hits and keep going. He isnt my favorite but at least he is fun tow atch.

[tomandtish]

Everybody knocks chomp but I like him. Yeah he isnt the most stable of bots, but he doesnt really need to be as he can self right easily enough and has enough power to actually cause some damage with that weapon of his. As well as the durability to take a lot of hits and keep going. He isnt my favorite but at least he is fun tow atch.

Except you never really see him cause any damage with that weapon of his (except in one notable case). Also, he spends most of his time self-righting because he gets knocked over so easily.

Record is 4 wins/8 losses. Let's review the wins...

CHOMP/Kraken: Kraken pushes CHOMP around for most of the match, then gets greedy and flips itself over while grappling. When they try and self-right, cable comes loose and they can't. Bilders indicate after the match that the cable had been poorly attached.

CHOMP/The Disk o' Inferno: DoI knocks CHOMP around a bit, then loses it's weapon hitting CHOMP. They then both push each oher around. CHOMP spends more time on its side, but also gets hits that don't do damage but do look impressive. it goes to judges and CHOMP gets the decision.

Chomp/Captain Shrederator: The bash each other around a bit. Then CHOMP hits CS and CS stops, then hits it again and CS starts. Repeat twice. Then it finally goes down for good. I'd call this the closest CHOMP comes to a second legitimate win, except this is a consistent build flaw with Captain Shederator. All 9 of his losses were by KO, and 7 of them he just stopped spinning and moving. His motors have always been incredibly vulnerable to shock.

Edit: Actually, two notable cases for the weapon doing damage if you count the time it bent almost 180 degrees. Does damage to self count?

CHOMP/Bite Force: Yes, CHOMP has a win over the winningest Bot in Battlebots (at least as of the reboot). And this is actually the one legitimate win I'd say they have. They get a lucky hit on Bite Force right at the beginning and disable the weapon. The bots push each other around and CHOMP gets the decision.

So 4 wins that give it a 3% win record. Except two of those wins weren't really CHOMP winning. They were the other team losing. Meanwhile CHOMP spends a large percentage of time on its side, including being put there from firing their own weapon.

I understand the fan appeal, but objectively this is* a poorly designed bot. I also include Blacksmith, Wrex, and Captain Shederator in that group.

*The redesign they've done for 2020 is significant, so let's see if there's any substantial improvement. The base is much wider so it shouldn't be spending as much time on its side. So the "is" could become a "was".

[Traab]

You mean 33% win rate I presume. I never said he was an amazing champ bot, but at least he isnt mecha fricking tentamushi! That thing is the william hung of battlebots. Its objectively terrible but the audience finds it so hilarious it keeps getting to not only come back but keeps getting first round byes. And honestly, he is pretty much the only bot with a pick type weapon who has ever really accomplished anything with it so i give him respect for taking an inferior weapon and actually making it sorta work.

[pendell]

The new season starts this Thursday (https://battlebots.com/event/battlebots-2020-episode-01-discovery/) at 8pm (eastern).

You can see all the bots here (https://battlebots.com/2020-season-robots/).

Plenty of the old favorites are there: Tombstone, Bronco, Huge, etc.

Some of the ones who keep hanging on despite lack of success are there, especially CHOMP which apparently has a major design change.

And there's at least one surprising absence: Paul Ventimiglia apparently announced on Facebook that he would not be competing this year due to COVID, and also that he's selling Bite Force to make either an upgraded Bite Force or a new bot entirely. That means we'll have a new champion for sure and also that the longest Battlebot undefeated streak will be adding no more wins. Minotaur is also missing.

Very sad about Paul; he is a great competitor, and his bot is outstanding. All the same, I'm delighted the show is back!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

I'll be curious to see the format in these COVID days. I assume no live audience, and possibly no standing in the ring together to announce the winner.

[Arcane_Secrets]

The new season starts this Thursday (https://battlebots.com/event/battlebots-2020-episode-01-discovery/) at 8pm (eastern).

You can see all the bots here (https://battlebots.com/2020-season-robots/).

Plenty of the old favorites are there: Tombstone, Bronco, Huge, etc.

Some of the ones who keep hanging on despite lack of success are there, especially CHOMP which apparently has a major design change.

And there's at least one surprising absence: Paul Ventimiglia apparently announced on Facebook that he would not be competing this year due to COVID, and also that he's selling Bite Force to make either an upgraded Bite Force or a new bot entirely. That means we'll have a new champion for sure and also that the longest Battlebot undefeated streak will be adding no more wins. Minotaur is also missing.

Minotaur's my favorite but I guess I can't really see how it'd beat Tombstone unless Tombstone had another fluke loss.

[tomandtish]

Minotaur's my favorite but I guess I can't really see how it'd beat Tombstone unless Tombstone had another fluke loss.

Actually, when they fought in 2018 it looked like Minotaur was going to be the winner. Tombstone hadn't inflicted too much damage and Minotaur had bent Tombstones blade. But Minotaur got hung up on a broken piece of the floor and was counted out. I do believe Tombstone would have lost that one if it had gone to a decision.

[Traab]

Actually, when they fought in 2018 it looked like Minotaur was going to be the winner. Tombstone hadn't inflicted too much damage and Minotaur had bent Tombstones blade. But Minotaur got hung up on a broken piece of the floor and was counted out. I do believe Tombstone would have lost that one if it had gone to a decision.

I have to admit, the drum spinners really shocked me with how destructive they were when they first showed up. A high speed drum can really knock an enemy bot flying and it seems like it puts less strain on the drum than it does on a blade. Which really helps last in a battle that doesnt end in a single destructive hit. A lot of blade bots seemed to burn out when they got stuck in a fight that was going the distance.

[MikelaC1]

i just checked and it doesnt appear to be on Discovery Channel. Even did a search for Battlebots and all I turned up is repeats of previous years on GameShow network.

[pendell]

I can find it (https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/battlebots/). Season 5 of battle bots. I don't subscribe to discovery so it may be some time before I can see the actual shows.

UPDATE: Seems I can. I'll try to give a breakdown.

ROBOTS ACTIVATE.


The bots appear identical with saws on the back, but with a slightly different color scheme. They attack each other aggressively, and for a minute I'm worried because Sawblaze is visibly on fire, perhaps being pushed too hard, but it pays off. Sawblaze starts landing hits, finally backs whiplash into the screws, and hits whiplash in just the right spot to disable the vehicle.

WINNER: Sawblaze by KO.



Fusion has two weapons, which to my mind sounds like twice the complexity and additional control challenge. Mad Catter looks ... goofy. What is this bot even supposed to do? Let's find out.

Okay, now I see.. it has a vertical spinner, a plow, and a lifting arm , and it's a lot lower to the ground than I expected. A worthy combatant, then.

The buzzer kicks off, and Mad Catter charges right in! It gets a good initial shot, and keeps the momentum for the rest of the match. About 1:30 in both bots have lost their spinners, leaving Mad Catter with a lifting arm (useless, since Fusion runs just fine inverted) and Fusion has nothing. The great hits trigger off a massive fire inside fusion which, after about 30 seconds, burns out the control wires and disables the bot.

WINNER: Mad Catter by KO.



Malice brings a 65 pound horizontal spinner to the dance, while axe backward's whole body is a drum, with axes on the top. Seems an awkward design.

Axe's team captain says he wants to box rush the other team, but as the buzzer goes off it's Malice that charges in! They touch... and ...

WOW.

A HUGE ball of flame in the box from Axe Backwards! When the flames die down a bit the Axe bot burns merrily like a log on a yule fire, as bits of its drive belt hang off of it.

Gamely, the bot still tries to move, but Malice isn't having it.

The Captain of Malice turns to the Axe team and says "one more hit".

It's three more hits, but at the end of it Axe is disabled.

As the countdown starts Captain Malice looks again at Team Axe and says one word: "Knockout".

Is she secretly Fujin from Final Fantasy 8.

As the countdown finishes, she shouts "YEEAAH! SUCK IT! "

Some bad blood between these teams? That could be a problem, eventually. But yes, Team Malice takes this one in dramatic fashion.

In the after fight interview, she tells us that she'd been getting a lot of grief from people telling her she couldn't do it, and her team worked hard for this dramatic, obvious victory.

WINNER: Malice by KO.




Bloodsport has a large horizontal spinner while skorpios has a smaller vertical spinner. Bloodsport's plan is to get underneath scorpios, while scorpios intends to control Bloodsport with its wedge and hit from the top.

Within seconds, bits of bloodsport are flying across the battle box, but they are unimportant; the wedges bloodsport had hoped to get underneath scorpios. Things are all going scorpio's way until its vertical saw gets bent and wobbly. Thus weakened, it is powerless to prevent bloodsport backing up, spinning its blade to full speed, and start pounding away . Skorpio's right side is critically damaged, and it eventually stops moving.

WINNER: Bloodsport by KO.




Vertical spinner in lockjaw versus horizontal Captain S, which has been greatly simplified for reliability.

The fight starts the Captains' way, as he spins up and rips off a piece of lockjaw's wedge at the very start. But he can't keep it up; in a collision his own energy works against him, sending the bot flying across the box where it starts smoking. It remains movable, but now both bots have lost their primary weapons. This gives lockjaw the advantage, because it can still push and control Captain S, but S has been changed into a simple moving frisbee. Lockjaw chases the Captain, catches up, and jams the bot into the screws. Captain S is unable to escape and the countdown begins. Lockjaw's primary comes back online but it is not needed, the captain is counted out.

WINNER: Lockjaw by KO.



Sporkenok is a hammer and lifter, while Rusty carries a Hammer. Two rookies. Let's see how they do!

Sporkenok seems a better, more elegant design.

Sporkenok is definitely the better driver. Rusty takes himself into the screws without assistance, and Sporkenok hits him, but doesn't seem to be able to do any real damage.

Rusty's weapon is awkward, but Sporkenok doesn't really seem to be doing much. It looks like Sporkenok LETS Rusty hit them, but Rusty misses and Sporkenok just drives away. But Sporkenok still can't do any damage! Finally, Rusty gets in a hit and it looks like Sporkenok is disabled; one wheel is in the air and the wheel on the ground is not moving. Rusty gets the win!




A moving platform versus a mechanical shark?
Okay, smee has two small spinners guided by a strip.

Shark can't bite through the tape, and it appears that smee chews up the tires, but for the most part they simply bump against each other for three minutes before it goes to the judges.

WINNER: Smee, by decision (3-0).



Tombstone is the meanest horizontal spinner in the game, and the heavy favorite. Endgame has a vertical spinner and a wedge.

I think I don't even have to watch.

I am dead wrong.

Fifteen seconds after the match starts it's over. In the first collision Tombstone's vaunted spinner bar, the Stormbringer blade of battlebots, stops spinning. Thus discommoded, Endgame follows up with a good solid hit that knocks Tombstone clean out of the box and pins it vertically on the other side of the screws! The bot is completely immobilized, and its vaunted durability is useless in this situation. Endgame gets the win in a surprising upset!

WINNER: Endgame, by KO.


Interestingly, Tombstone's crew are the only ones wearing masks. Ironic, that evil Captain Ray should set the best example.

That's the downside; The real winner of this event is COVID; looking around , it seems like the arena is packed with people, very few of whom are wearing masks. I see some crew in the pits masking up, but it doesn't look like anyone in the audience or the announcers did so. A bad sign. I hope these competitors will be back next year :(.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tyckspoon]

A moving platform versus a mechanical shark?
Okay, smee has two small spinners guided by a strip.

Shark can't bite through the tape, and it appears that smee chews up the tires, but for the most part they simply bump against each other for three minutes before it goes to the judges.

WINNER: Smee, by decision (3-0).



Weird, weird bot here. Concept is cute, but it looks like they may have given up too much weapon size/power to really do much damage against bigger units; maybe if they come up against people who have the smaller drive wheels or are mounted with weapons that don't tolerate being banged up well? On the other hand that flexible tape section has basically no means of really damaging it short of cutting it apart or shattering it and the give in it could absorb a lot of what would be damaging blows, so this may be an unexpectedly hard bot to put down.

I think the aesthetics on Sharkoprion really worked against it here - that 'nose' section prevented it from getting close enough to try to wedge under Smeeeeeeeeeeeee and mostly left it swatting ineffectually at the flexible bar, although it also largely stopped Smeeeeeeeeeeeeee from completing its 'wrap around and pincer between both spinners' plan. Will be interesting to see if that pinning maneuver works on anything and can make up for the individually weaker strikes.

[Traab]

Im guessing team malice is probably been encouraged to fill the "bad guy" role that tombstone used to fill. They need a destructive bot that tears up opponents for some "drama" Also axe backward, wow its been awhile since I heard that name. He really isnt a very good bot.

[Arcane_Secrets]

Im guessing team malice is probably been encouraged to fill the "bad guy" role that tombstone used to fill. They need a destructive bot that tears up opponents for some "drama" Also axe backward, wow its been awhile since I heard that name. He really isnt a very good bot.

No, it is not a good bot at all. Invader SMEE was hilarious, but I'm a little baffled by how its supposed to win against any bot that's really destructive although lifters could have some trouble with it. It'll be interesting to see how it does against Bronco if they ever match up.

The sheer amount of fire in the first episodes was a good start and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

[Traab]

I remember watching this when I was a kid, glad to see it's making a comeback.

Its been on pretty much every year I think. To me part of the fun is seeing how they tweak the rules each time to try and make a more spectacular or at least different tournament. The inclusion of drones for example. Turns out they werent very useful, but they made for some hilarious moments like when one bot strapped a plastic garden rake to its arm and swatted a flamethrower drone out of the sky. Also the mini bot thing where some teams took a few pounds from their main bot to create tiny wedge bots or mini flamethrowers, they actually did manage to sometimes be interesting in a fight for more than exploding (mainly for exploding)

[tomandtish]

Sorry for the delay in replying. I'm not allowed to watch it without my wife, and she was getting over a serious illness. So we didn't get to watch it until Monday night, and by then i was sick.

Pendell did a good job of breaking down the fights, so I'll only ass comments as needed.

This is a classic case of neither bot selling me on the design. The saws don't do damage AS saws. They are both hammer saws, and any damage done by the weapon is from force of impact. But usually both bots usually end up winning through control.

Fusion's two weapon design (and both apparently run at the same time) seems like it costs power. Since you're devoting power to both weapons at the same time, presumably each has only half the power it could.

Axe Backward is one of those concepts that seems neat on paper but just doesn't work in reality. They've only one one fight so far, and honestly Ultimo Destructo took itself out of the fight.

Captain Shrederator has done nothing to change my opinion. By the nature of it's design, it HAS to be able to survive big energy transferring hits. And it can't. After the battle they pointed out that they gone back to the original design, but that one pin broke, costing them control. Again, if your bot can be taken out that easily, you have a poor design. Again, they are 2 and 10 since the reboot. That doesn't say anything good.

What Pendell left out is that Rusty is the classic example of a true junk yard build. Parts include a mailbox and a salad bowl (yes Nick, that is a salad bowl on top. We have one like it.). Honestly, the body cost maybe $30 bucks. if you are ranking any bot an underdog based on appearance, this is it.


The rules on this are interesting. A bot must be able to start the fight completely in the box (which Smeee doesn't), but officials can make an exception. So I'm assuming one was made. Not sure I see the point of having an exception, but there you go.

Pendell summed it up right. WOW! That's one of the quickest victories I've seen in the reboot. 15 seconds plus a mandatory 10 count. End Game was helped byu the fact that Tombstone seemed to have gotten hung up a boit by the screws, allowing that last hit to be unopposed. But it's an impressive win, made more so because3 it is against Tombstone.




[url=https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/battlebots/] ...The real winner of this event is COVID; looking around , it seems like the arena is packed with people, very few of whom are wearing masks. I see some crew in the pits masking up, but it doesn't look like anyone in the audience or the announcers did so. A bad sign. I hope these competitors will be back next year :(.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Actually, the audience is all other teams, They built the platforms around the ring and teams can watch the matches from there. As they said, it allows an "unprecedented opportunity to study the opposition". Now, how well are the teams isolating? Who knows.

[pendell]

Episode 2!


Ghost Raptor Vs. Shatter!

Looks like a spinner in Ghost Raptor vs.
Shatter, a bot with a hammer on top.

Hammers don't usually do very well, I remember all the problems
Blacksmith had. Will Shatter show me something different?

Before the match even starts, shatter swings its hammer and knocks some of its own armor off during the spin off. Not a good omen.

The battle starts. Shatter knocks off its own armor but succeeds in disabling Ghost's primary weapon. Ghost is obviously the better driver, but without the primary there
is nothing they can do to damage Shatter. Ghost attempts to push
shatter over the edge of the battle box but lacks the power to do so. Perhaps it is earlier damage or perhaps the exertion is more than the machine can take, but Ghost Raptor catches on fire and is disabled. For a few seconds it appears that both robots are immobilized, but Shatter manages to extricate itself and show movement, while Ghost is permanently immobile.

Even though Shatter won this, I wasn't impressed by a bot that left pieces of itself all over the box. They're going to have a lot more trouble down the road.

WINNER: Shatter! by KO.


Tracer vs. Ribbot


Tracer is a rookie with a vertical spinner, and a minibot
with a small horizontal spinner.
The team captain is confident it's one of the most durable
bots in the tournament.

Ribbot, run by a team of university students from WPI, has an undercutting vertical spinner, and the foam is missing. It looks like a lot more slimmed down compared to earlier entries.

They charge each other. First touch knocks off ribbots right front wheel, but the SECOND hit knocks Tracer on its back. Tracer has no self-righting mechanism and can't move. Ribbot busies itself destroying the minibot, then Tracer is counted out.

I guess that's a rookie for you. He didn't allow for the possibility that his bot could be flipped, and he'll have to take that lesson home to consider.

WINNER: Ribbot by KO.


Black Dragon vs. Kraken

Black Dragon is a Brazilian team
They have the shortest intro I've heard.
"From Etujuba Brazil it's Black Dragon!"

They have a wedge to get underneath BD,
a vertical spinner and additional top armor.

Kraken is a 3 year veteran with what appears to be a grappler with teeth. It's intended for control more than direct damage. It also has a flamethrower, probably cosmetic.

Kraken also has a minibot, don't have any idea what it does. Probably don't care, either, when has a minibot ever been useful?

The battle starts. BD drives right into Kraken's mouth and kraken bites down, to no apparent effect. It flames as well, again to no effect. It drags BD around for 30 seconds before releasing, at which point BD rams into the mouth again, breaking its tooth. Black Dragon begins a comeback, knocking Kraken over twice, but Kraken self-rights and continues the fight. Some minor Kraken pieces are knocked off. Kraken picks up BD and takes it over to the sledgehammer, which whacks Black Dragon repeatedly, again to no effect. Then the buzzer sounds.

A very tough fight!

I think I have to give this one to Black Dragon based on damage, but we'll see what the judges say.

They agree, although it is a split decision.

WINNER: Black Dragon, by Decision (2-1)



Mammoth vs. Huge


The two largest bots in the field this year,
a vertical spinner in huge and Mammoth is apparently designed
to launch the other bot out of the Arena.

For the early part of the fight it's Mammoth that goes flying all over the box, not Huge, but Huge has trouble damaging Mammoth because Huge is itself so large and unwieldy. Then Mammoth successfully controls the fight, traps huge in SledgeHammer corner, then successfully flips Huge halfway out of the battle box with one wheel in and one wheel out. Unable to extricate itself or move, Huge is immobilized and counted out.

WINNER: Mammoth, by KO.


Claw Viber vs. Hijinx


Two rookie teams. Claw viper has , indeed, a claw on front.
It is supposed to have a lifter as well, and can accelarete from 0 to 20 in a half second. If true, it is the fastest bot in battlebots. Does this mean a box rush is coming up?

Hijinx has a very low horizontal spinner. This is
apparently an experimental bot.
It has a 3 second spinup on the primary so we're almost certainly going to see a box rush first.

Fight starts. Sure enough, claw viper charges but misses.
Hijinx gets in some hits but, oddly, the blade seems to take more damage than Claw Viper does.

They say "speed is life". This is very true in this fight; Claw Viper's incredible speed allows it to dominate the match, first trapping Hijinx in a corner but failing to actually flip it out. Even so, Claw Viper takes Hijinx for a ride around the battle box and when the ride is over, Hijinx is not moving.

WINNER: Claw Viper by KO.




Perfect Phoenix vs. Extinguisher

PP is led by Tyler Win, 11 years old,
a MENSA student (IQ 156) who's been following Ray Billings,
apparently Tyler's mom is dating Ray, the captain of Tombstone.

And. like tombstone, it's a horizontal spinner
low to the ground with a cute little mascot on top.

The team of two 11 year olds have trouble pushing the
bot onto the floor, but they get it done unassisted.

John Flack, at 18, leads the other bot which has a
giant hammer.

And yes, there is Ray Billings in the corner,
watching the young man spin pilot the machine. Always two there are, a master and an apprentice....

The Dark Side is with him. Extinguisher box rushes, PP evades and deals a counter-blow. It doesn't even seem that visibly damaged, but apparently PP hit it in just the right spot to turn Extinguisher off, which is counted out. After the fight, Tyler says the shock of the collision probably went into Extinguisher and hit a critical component like a speed controller or a battery, shutting Extinguisher down.

WINNER: Perfect Phoenix, by KO.



Hydra vs. Witch Doctor

Last year's #2 comes in with a vertical spinner.

Hydra is a flipper but has
very little armor.

This is a beautiful fight. Hydra gets in and starts flipping Witch Doctor every which way but WD is one tough bot. Again and again it is flipped, again and again it self rights, but about a minute into the match it starts wobbling and doesn't seem to be able to track properly. Hydra flips it some more but WD comes right back at him again and again. Then WD starts smoking. Finally Hydra succeeds in flipping it half out of the box, hooked on the bar, but like a zombie from a horror movie WD refuses to die! It gets off the bar and now Hydra can't move! The count down starts but is aborted half way as hydra gradually begins to move. As the battle crawls to a decision WD drives around the box, smoke billowing from it like a steam engine, while Hydra limps slowly around. Neither bot can engage as the battle finally ends.

After the fight, Hydra tells us they had lost movement because their speed controllers overheated. They had to wait a few seconds for those to cool down, then they could resume movement and avert the countdown.

Very tough one to call, but I'd give it to Hydra on the basis not only of significant damage but on control as well.

The judges agree, and give it to Hydra in a split decision.

WINNER: Hydra, by decision (2-1)


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Traab]

Upon reading the first description I had to eyeroll in exasperation. Its like, are they dousing every bot in kerosene before they enter the arena? It seems like half the bots that have lost so far have caught fire. Then none of the rest ended in fireballs and I was disappointed my theory seems unlikely. :p

On a related note, im so bored with the battlebox itself. It might as well not bother having anything but the screws as thats the only feature that ever accomplishes anything. I wish they would bring back the fun part of robot wars, having two overpowered arena bots in their corners waiting on the fool that dares come too close. It doesnt have to go full scale where they would manually toss the bots into a pit or whatever, but just being an ACTUAL hazard that can and will damage your bot because they are twice the size and have twice as nasty of weapons.

[tomandtish]

Pendell does another excellent job, so I'll only comment for some specifics.

Chuck was a semifinalist in the first season of the reboot, but did horribly in season 2 and is just returning. Needless to say, this is not the return he hoped for. The armor on Shatter is designed to break off, so it's not really damaging itself. Still looks bad though.

Ribbot is my wife's favorite (she loves frogs!) so she's happy for the win.

This was a tough call. I don't think anyone would have been surprised if it was called the other way. And at least some of the audience (remember, they are other teams this year) thought the same, as there were some actual boos when the decision was announced.

Pendell's reviews are good, but he understated this one a bit. For the first half of the fight Huge is literally sending Mammoth flying. Suplexes, reverse suplexs, even what might have been a DDT. Huge iand Mammoth look like the finale of a WWE match. And after the match we see that Huge came within 1/2 inch of hitting Mammoth's drive chain. Honestly, this was probably the most visually entertaining fight of the reboot.

Before the match you can tell the announcers are a little dubious about the speed claims for Claw Viper. Lots of "He says" and "If it's as fast as he says" comments. After the match the doubts are over. Claw Viper is the fastest bot we've seen during the reboot. If anything, it might be a bit too fast, as there were a few times he overshot his target.

OK, it's official. Tyler Winn and Perfect Phoenix are the team I'm rooting for. Watching Tyler and his fellow 11yo push the bot to the arena, you suddenly realize that the bot almost certainly weighs more than the two of them combined. Incidentally the body of the robot used to be Paul Ventimiglia's bot Brutality. And the body of the bot itself is older than the driver. So you have a bot built partailly off of the body created by one of the winningest drivers in the reboot, and a driver trained by one of the most brutal drivers in the game. He is the chosen one!

I used to give Wtch Doctor problems for reliability (it was smoking by the end of most of its matches last year), but after the beating it suffered I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. There were 7-8 flips where they were 8 feet or more above the floor, but they kept coming. Their mobility problems happened because the right front wedge got bent up against the wheel, acting as kind of a break. As for Hydra, it simply cemented it's place as the flip bot to beat this season.

[pendell]

Agree. The sight of Perfect Phoenix's 11-year-old team gamely pushing their bot into the arena unassisted won them major points with me. That was guts and courage.

Although we all know about chosen ones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXFulZhAnCc) .

Actually, he DID learn something from Billings' experiences.


Once he'd won, you'll notice he kept his distance rather than going in to inflict additional unnecessary damage. Ray delighted in destroying other people's bots in the early years of the reboot, but that all stopped once he had that one fight where he damaged his own bot going for gratuitous hits, and that cost him a championship.

After that, while he still pummeled seven kinds of stuffing out of the opposing bots during the match itself, once the bot was obviously beaten he backed up and kept his distance.

Tyler did the same. You'll notice he commented that the 'bot came out of the fight in pretty much the condition it went in. That saves him some repair work, which is all the more important when you have an early bed time to go to school next day.


Witch Doctor -- they impress me. I don't know if they'll win the championship, but I expect them to get at least to the quarter finals. The reason is I've seen a lot of teams in my day. I've seen losers and winners. And the difference I've found is that winners don't give up, no matter how far they're down. And losers? As a fan of a baseball team in the 80s, I've seen that losers always find a way to throw away their lead. No matter how far up they are, they always find some way to throw it away. Winners? they always keep coming back no matter how far down they are.

And witch doctor did that. I won't give out the winner of their bout, but they evidenced a strong, fierce, determination not to give up when things looked bad for them in that match. That's what winners do. Even if they don't win every match, it means that more often than not they find ways to turn losses into wins.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[pendell]

Battlebots 3

Copperhead vs. Gigabyte

Gigabyte is a horizontal spinner taking
Copperhead, which has a drum on the front similar to
Minotaur. Supposedly Copperhead has doubled its spinup speed.

Match starts: Copperhead rolls right over and hits Gigabyte hard, knocking the vertical stick on top off. evidently this served both as a self-mechanism and a directional indicator, so
now the bot is in trouble if its overturned and the driver can't tell which direction it's supposed to be moving in.

Both bots seem to be skidding around. Is there ice on the floor or something?

Copperhead backs up, works for a minute to line up...

And then CUTS GIGABYTE IN TWO. The knock is so hard the entire upper half of gigabyte goes flying off, and the shell that's left is immobile. And there's debris all over the battlebox.

WOW. Name that Bot Muramasa, after the legendary swordsmith who reputedly created cursed blades.

WINNER: Copperhead, by KO.



Jackpot Vs. Subzero

Jackbot was built in 30 days for $4000, very cheap
for a battlebot. Looks like it has a vertical spinner? Also
looks kind of awkward.

Subzero is a veteran with a new team captain. It
has a pneumatic driver to flip enemy bots.
Arms, armor, and drive train have all been upgraded.

Match starts! Jackpot is having serious mobility problems
from the very beginning, almost immobile. Subzero tries to scoop it up but gets hit by that huge saw on Jackpot. Sparks.
Jackpot gets flipped but lands right side up and comes back for action. Subzero rams it into the corner. All it has to do is flip to end the fight... but the flip never comes.

First the flipper won't work , so instead SZ rams Jackpot repeatedly. Then Subzero just shuts down. It's not moving any longer.

I suppose the cumulative damage from that huge saw eventually
took its toll? The announcers think it's reliability issues
on Subzero.

WINNER: Jackpot, by KO.



Uppercut vs. Gemini

Gemini has two robots, each with a horizontal spinner.
I'm not convinced of the soundness of this strategy; Neither is durable as one alone. The phrase "defeat in detail" springs to mind.

Uppercut is a team from MIT, led by the yo-yo champion of the world. It has a new motor and a vertical spinner that generates
a tremendous amount of energy.

Match starts:

BAM! Uppercut takes on one of Gemini's bots and knocks it straight out of the arena! That's half the team. Now we've
got one half size bot versus a full sized bot; doesn't look good for Gemini.

Next, Uppercut turns around and hits the other bot. POW! It doesn't take it out of the arena, but bits fly all over the battle box and the second bot is out . The entire fight took fourteen seconds, not counting the countdown. Uppercust just smacked the one bot cold, then hit the other. The announcers said Uppercut will be throwing "Haymakers" this season. They weren't wrong.

WINNER: Uppercut, by KO.


Beta vs. Rotator

Beta brings us a pneumatic hammer, three times more powerful than the previous electric version, which was already the most powerful hammerbot in the team.

Rotator is a spinner which has been working hard on his reliability; they upset Tombstone in a previous season, so they are a dangerous contender.

Match starts: Beta has a lighter hammer than they did previously, investing in frontal armor and a huge wedge. Their plan appears to be to push rotator around until it's blade stops or slows , then pound them with the hammer.

But they never do get a chance to swing the hammer. They keep waiting and waiting for Rotator's blade to slow, but it never does. That bot is very durable!

Then, Rotator gets a glancing hit and takes the hammer off anyway.

For the rest of the match, Beta pushes Rotator around but neither can inflict more damage, and time expires.

I expect the judge's decision to be for Rotator. While Beta did more damage by shoving, the criteria is damage with the primary weapon, and on that level Rotator was well in advance. Plus, I can't possibly give you a win if you don't use your primary weapon even once in the course of the match! Damage plus aggression give the match to Rotator, I think.

Still, some excellent driving by the Beta team.

The judges disagree: They call it for Beta , deciding that
aggression plus control counterbalance the damage done by Rotator.

There's a lot of grumbling in the pits from Hypershock and Rotator about the decision, but I think the judges called it best they could; Still, I'd have called it differently. If you never use your primary weapon, you can't win aggression.

WINNER: Beta, by decision (2-1)


Valkyrie vs. Tantrum

Valkyrie brings a horizontal spinner and has been studying
for the last year.

Tantrum has a vertical spinner.

Neither team invested in Farouk's announcment. It's just the city they're from and name.

The match starts: They rush either other. It's hard to tell who's doing more damage at first. Valkyrie's primary stops spinning, but Tantrum is still operational.

Tantrum now dominates the fight but isn't able to do much with the primary weapon; they simply can't get a grip on Valkyrie to bring it into contact.

It looks like Tantrum is dominant, all the way up to the point it suddenly stops moving.

I guess the fight was simply too stressful for the machine; it is counted out.

WINNER: Valkyrie, by KO.


Atom #94 vs. Big Dill

Atom 94 is
Another team discipled by Ray Billings, this one from India,
our first ever Indian team. They bring a vertical spinner ot the fight. 94 is the atomic number of plutonium, we are informed.


Big Dill's captain has only one arm due to a birth defect,
but that won't stop him tonight! He brings a lifter.
They also have a minibot to get beneath Atom 94.

Match starts: Atom 94 immediately has problems and start spinning in circles on the floor. Out of control , they cede control of the match to Big Dill, which repeatedly lifts, flips, and takes them for a ride around the box. Adam #94 is smoking, now. Eventually, the two get entangled and cannot be separated, so the call goes to the judges, but there's no doubt as to the outcome this time.

WINNER: Big Dill, by decision (3-0)



Gruff Vs. Hypershock

Gruff is a lifter/grappler with a torch , a lot of durability,
and a terrific driver.

Hypershock is a vigorous contender bringing a vertical spinner.

The match starts; the get into it and Gruff feeds it its flame.
Hypershock's vertical stops and this time Gruff takes it for ride and breathes fire again . Hypershock stops dead. Has flame finally succeeded in taking out a bot?

WINNER: Gruff by KO.




Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

Pendell has done the usual excellent job. A few comments...


This is the second time that Giga has been decapitated that way. Tombstone has done it previously. Looks like a design flaw.


Subzero has had consistent reliability issues. I'd actually bet my wife the last tamale that Subzero would break down. Victory is pork flavored.


They actually commented before the match that Gemini's builder was going to use this decision to decide whether or not to continue with this design. Safe to say I suspect they'll go in a different direction. The problem is that two 125 pounds aren't each half as effective as a 250 pound bot. There's too much duplication of components.


Totally agree with Pendell on this one. If you never even fire your primary weapon, what's the point? I'd have given it to Rotator.


Tantrum is still trying to make that punch spinner work. The idea is that the spinner is protected by the robot until they fire it forward (think the inner mouth of an "Alien" alien).But it never fired in this match, and seems too small to do real damage anyway. It's amazing that they have 3 wins through 3 seasons, even though those wins are against bots with even worse records.


Yeah, this is a hard fight to judge. Big Dill was definitely dominant, but how much of that was Atom having problems right from the beginning? This falls into the category of "Atom lost" rather than Big Dill won.



Gruff is a tough bot (it went the distance with Tombstone last year). Hypershock tends to have reliability issues, and in fact has never made the playoffs. But Gruff clearly controls this fight. Hypershock never really gets moving, and loses the weapon pretty early.

[pendell]

Episode 4 : Blood , sweat, and gears

Tombstone vs. Slap Box

Ray has to come back after being stuffed out of the ring
by End Game in the last fight. Anyone can lose once... but twice?

A family team, 14 year old driver and 11 year old sister driving minibot. They bring wedges and armor on the front. Looks like the intent is to flip Tombstone on its side. But it has exposed tires on the side, meat for Tombstone's blade?

The 'bot whisperer' analyst note that the armour on slap box isn't really put on strongly, so he expects to see pieces of Slap Box all over the arena. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Tombstone is the heavy favorite.

The kid charges in and hits tombstone pretty hard. He knocks tombstone on its side and the blade digs into the floor! Unfortunately for him, Tombstone is tough. It rights itself and the blade starts back up again, while Slap Box's wedges have been sheared off. Then carefully, surgically, Ray in Tombstone chops off the exposed wheels of Slap Box, just as promised. With only one wheel left, it is left to crab walk and Tombstone stands back as the countdown begins. Instead, he goes after the mini bot and the little 11 year old drivers squeals "Please no!"

Ray backs off in an uncharacteristic gesture of chivalry, but the countdown continues and Tombstone cruises to an easy victory.

Gotta give the rookie props for charging out there, but this wasn't a fair matchup at all. Tombstone is simply too durable, and Ray is simply too good a driver. He gives them a thumbs up afterwards, saying "it was a good match", and it was. The rookie team did as well as could reasonably be expected against Death himself.

WINNER: Tombstone, by KO.


Pain Train vs. Slammow!

Pain Train is a rookie while Slammow! is a new bot, incorporating lessons from two failed designs.

Pain train is a vertical spinner and intends to aggressively charge in, which suits the former marine driver to a T.

Slammow! is a grappler /lifter which is designed to lift a half ton, four times the weight of a tournament bot. His intent is to push Pain Train into the corner flip him over, and then suplex Pain Train. The builder says he HAS to win this year. This is his third time and it must not be winless.

As we prep for the fight we hear Pain Train's driver mutter,
"I'm takin' those wheels, baby."

Fight starts. Pain train has a lot of trouble driving, giving Slammow! plenty of time to line up for his signature attack. Once he slams pain train. Then again. He takes some damage from the spinner, but it doesn't seem to really be able to bite. Then Slammow! hits again and fully suplexes Pain Train. PT's weapon belt is on the floor of the box and the main weapon is no longer functional. PT is immobile and the countdown starts, but it finds movement again. Slammow! is missing one of its arms now but it is still able to get a hit in, and this time PT is permanently immobile.

WINNER: Slammow! by KO.


Perfect Phoenix vs. Skorpios

I've been anticipating this fight for awhile ever since they won their first fight with one good hit. Plus, I admire the guts of these two 11-year-old kids, Tyler and Sawyer. Will they be able to pull it off a second time?

Skorpios is a vertical spinner plus wedge which is 1 down already against Bloodsport. The wedge will be used to neutralize PPs' blade and then Skorpio's own weapon will come from above.

That's the plan, anyway.

PP plans to attack when he does a wheelie and take out Skorpio's tires.

Skorpios charges right in and misses, much like PP's first match but Tyler misses the counterblow this time. The wedge and the blade collide in sparks. After a few hits PP's blade stops spinning.

Uh-oh.

Skorpios executes its attack to perfection, bringing the blade down from above and making repeated hits on PP, which is now smoking. Then, finally, Skorpios hits him again and shoves him into the screws, where PP is a twisted wreck and immobile. Heartbreaker for the kids, but Skorpios came in seriously and fought aggressively all through the fight. That's the difference between a veteran driver and PP's last rookie opponent. Better luck next time!

WINNER: Skorpios by KO.


Ribbot vs. Madcatter

Ribbot brings a vertical spinner and wedgelets to take on Madcatter which has vertical spinner, a plow, a lifting arm, and a minibot with a horizontal spinner called "Toebiter." Both are 1-0 coming into this fight, both determined to impress the
selection committee a second time. I guess I have to root for community college Madcatter vs. the well-known WPI team.

At first, Ribbot outdrives Madcatter but then is distracted by the minibot. While chaising it Madcatter roars back, lands a tremendous shot and rips off the metal off the top of Ribbot! Ribbot is knocked over, missing its top skin, and smoking. Their primary weapon is disabled. Madcatter's weapon is down as well. The minibot actually proves useful and gets underneath Ribbot to make it a sitting duck as Madcatter's weapon spins back up. It makes some more hits but both bots are mobile as the clock ticks down to the end of the match.

The judges HAVE to give this one to madcatter by unanimous decision.

Yup, they agree. This wasn't a hard one to judge.

WINNER: Madcatter by Decision (3-0)


Chomp vs. Gamma 9!

CHOMP has been re-engineered as a walker to take advantage of the greater weight limit allocated to walkers, so it weighs 500 pounds, twice the weight of a standard competitor. It also brings a hammer and a
flamethrower. It will be taking on Gamma 9, which is a
lifter bot. I suspect it will have great trouble against the huge Chomp. Chomp looks like a sit-down lawnmower when it's brought into the battle box.

Fight starts. Gamma 9 succeeds in outmaneuvering and lifting chomp but, once it has, it can't do anything with it. Chomp retaliates with the hammer and damages the lifting arm. It lands repeated hits which, though not enough to disable Gamma, still knocks pieces off. As the clock winds down it lands a solid blow into the guts of Gamma 9 but the clock expires before any countdown can start.

My guess is unanimous decision for Chomp.

They agree.

WINNER: Chomp, by decision (3-0)


Malice vs. Shatter!

Malice has some things to prove; evidently the female captain got a lot of grief from her male colleagues, which doesn't make sense to me given how skilled Witch Doctor is. Even so, she's here and she's here for blood. In fact, she was a member of team Shatter! last year. She's gone with a lighter weapon in order to put more armor on top against Shatter!


Shatter! knocked off some of its own armor in the previous match which it nonetheless won; let's see if they've got any better since then.

The fight starts , and in the first weapon-on-weapon contact BOTH primaries are disabled; Malice's belt lies on the floor while the head of Shatter!'s hammer is clean off; it is left with a little stub that flails ineffectually at Malice. The two bots shove each other for the next two minutes thirty seconds until the clock counts down and its' time for the judges to earn their pay.

I think I have to give this one to Malice on control but this is definitely going to be a split decision and a tight call.

But that is the way it unfolds.

WINNER: Malice by Decision (2-1)




End Game vs. Bloodsport

Ah, the match we've been waiting for. End Game clobbered Tombstone in its first and we want to see if the Tombstone-killer can repeat itself.

Bloodsport has a horizontal spinner and a wedge , so it is a very Tombstone-like bot. Will the same thing work a second time?

End Game has a LOT of armor on the front to go with its vertical spinner and Bloodsport has a very heavy bar today, 77 pounds compared to the maximum of 80. Looks like they brought their biggest weapon for this fight.

They collide in some really vicious hits but once they're over End Game has dropped a belt. It is crab walking. Bloodsport loops around but holds off as endgame smokes in the center of the ring, burning out its motors. Less than a minute into the match, it is counted out.


Well, those were some entertaining fights but I have to give the prize for most innovative to CHOMP. Their walker robot was like something out of a star wars movie. I have a hard time imagining it as the finalist, but it is still one scary monstrosity.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Arcane_Secrets]

I'm not going to post a full review, but

Huge v. Hydra

That was certainly....something. I hated that Hydra got the win last night because they totally didn't deserve it on all possible levels. They were on the verge of getting disqualified for just holding for a long time. They redesigned their bot so that it was fundamentally incapable of even using its weapon meaningfully and did nothing but block. I think that's vastly worse than Beta not even using its weapon, because at least it still had the option. Hydra just went in there not even trying to have anything that even resembled weapon use when they're supposed to be a flipper. The rules shouldn't have allowed that and they shouldn't have been rewarded for it.

[Traab]

I disagree. While the battle was lame, hydra basically completely shut down huge in all ways. Huge managed to land ONE glancing blow but was driven all over the place by hydra, who was in complete and total control of the match from first moment to last. i didnt like the "I dont feel like letting him go" part as that felt petty and lame, but he still perfectly countered huge 100%. Huge was rendered totally helpless for the entire match and that earned hydra an easy win. Superior driving, superior battle control, and superior damage as even those two pulverizer hits were more than huge managed to land. Aside from a potential dq for refusing to release the pin, hydra earned that win in all categories. But yeah, boring fight to watch, and it felt cheap that hydra designed itself specifically to counter a single bot, but then is that very different from the blade bots changing the height or angle of their blades to target specific opponents? That gets done all the time, they know their opponent has a much lower and longer wedge for example, so they drop the blade to compensate, or they raise it to target exposed machinery gears and drive belts. Is it better because it makes for a much more violent fight?

[pendell]

Claw Viper vs. Black Dragon


Claw viper is one of the fastest bots on the field
and speed has shown to be a definite advantage
in the box.

Black Dragon won its first match by decision, and
brings a vertical spinner .

Claw viper charges and misses, Black dragon counters nad lands a solid counter hit. Black dragon hits from the side
and rips into claw viper with its spinner.

Claw Viper smokes and is immobilized. It finally
gets moving again, and black dragon hits it again. That does it. A very convincing win! This was all BD, which they won
by superior driving skill.

WINNER: Black Dragon, by KO.


Jackpot vs. Ghost Raptor

Jackpot is the cheapest battlebot on the file,d, and won
by outlasting the vveteran subzero. It brings a vertical spinner. They've modified, added top armor, removed the force and done other things to prevent to catch on the floor.

Ghost Raptor, a spinner, lost to Shatter and is facing elimination. I think this is going to be difficult for him;
he had trouble damaging Shatter! , and Jackpot is a very tough bot.

Whelp, that was quick. In their first contact Ghost Raptor's spinner goes flying off! Completely disarmed, it has no chance unless some mechanical failure disables Jackpot.

Nothing doing. Ghost Raptor is reduced to crab walking , then to not moving at all. Counted out.

Jackpot is one amazingly tough bot. The maker is definitely proving that you don't need an expensive bot to win in battle bots -- the 'bot whisperer' mentioned that you could spend $4000 (the cost of Jackpot) in batteries ALONE.

Well, he's certainly proving his thesis tonight.

Post fight, he tells how they learned so much from their first battle and pretty much rebuilt the bot from the lessons learned against SubZero; I guess that's part of the luxury cheap gives you; easier to rebuild!

Really well done!

WINNER: Jackpot, by KO.




Subzero vs.Grabot

Subzero, a flipper lost to Jackpot when a malfunction disabled their system. They can't afford to lose again.

The newcomer, Grabot, is a grappler to lift up subzero. Looks like a tough bot.

The bot whisperer is worried about the complexity of Grabot.

Flip, flip, flip. It's all Subzero. I'm not even sure Grabot is moving any more but Subzero keeps hitting it.

At last, mercifully, the countdown begins. That was brutal.
Grabot accomplished absolutely nothing.

WINNER: Subzero, by KO.


Hydra vs. Huge

Hydra, the flipper, KOd witch doctor in its first match.

Huge is its usual big but otherwise unimpressive self. I can't recall the last time this bot won, but here it is.

Hydra comes in -- what the heck is that? A cowcatcher, they
called it?

The bot whisperer is nervous. He thinks they're too large and fragile. Huge may even be able to flip him by spinning upward against that cowcatcher.

Okay, neither can do anything to either. The cowcatcher keeps huge away but bronco can't do anything either. Now we see some sparks as huge hits the primary. Bronco pushes him into the corner, where he is hit by the pulverizer. Gets into an argument with the ref. The ref demands he back up while Bronco argues he doesn't have to -- he's not actually touching Huge. The ref is forced to actually warn Hydra, who finally backs up.

This one is going to the judges , isn't it?

It sure does. Nothing changes.

The call for huge would be:
1) Huge did damage with it's primary weapon, which Bronco never did. Sure , Bronco pushed it into the corner and got the pulverizer to do something, but the criteria for damage is with the PRIMARY WEAPON.

2) I don't want to see any more of this sumo-bot stuff in the battle box.

I can see a case to be made for Hydra, though, in that it
definitely should get all the control points and I would give it points on aggression too.

Thinking this through, I think I have to give it to Hydra.
Aggression+control versus extremely minimal damage on Huge's side of the balance sheet.

The judges agree, unanimously.

Even so, I think we need a rule change. And there is booing from the crowd. He won by the rules, but if the rules allow this sort of thing, the rules need fixing.

WINNER: Hydra, by KO.


Fusion vs. Aegis

Aegis is a brand new box. This is a flipper. They intend to slow down fusion and flip them. It has a great deal of kevlar armor, so it should be very tough.


Fusion has two weapons, failed against Madcatter. They've replaced the weapon controllers in the hope they won't burn out this time.

Both systems have trouble.

Fusion freezed up. It takes a few seconds to
fire up, but when it does, it backs up
into Aegis, UNDER the kevlar armor, and utterly destroys it. Very clever!

One more hit for violence's sake, and that's it. Wow, that was fast.

Even so, fusion has work to do if it wants to win. A ten second pause before the primary weapon fires up would be a death sentence against a veteran.

WINNER: Fusion, by KO.




Lock-jaw vs. Big Dill

Lockjaw , vertical spinner, destroyed Captain Shredderator in their first bout but it lost a belt in the process. The team has adjusted to try to prevent that mistake a second time.

Big Dill is a lifter which won its last bout against atom 94 by decision.

Fight's on. Lock-jaw out-drives Big dill and takes off pieces. Big Dill tries to square up but can't find an angle of attack. Lock-jaw takes off his right fork, ruining his primary weapon.

Then Lock-Jaw's spinner shuts down and both bots have reverted to pusher bots.

Lock-jaw pushes Big Dill into a corner and it is almost counted, but it recovers just in time to avoid being counted out. It goes to the judges, but there's not much doubt how this one will play out.

WINNER: Lock-Jaw, by decision (3-0)


Witch Doctor vs. Kraken

Witch doctor was last year's #2, comes this year with a vertical spinner. It lost to Hydra in a tremendously tough and entertaining fight. Let's see if they can do better this time.

Kraken is a grappler with a minibot, and lost its last match against Black Dragon in a close decision. What will they show us this time?

The announcers clearly expect Witch Doctor to be the favorite here.

Fight's on. Kraken gets a bit in. Witch doctor is jiggling up and down and its weapon is spinning at about fast speed. The battle is all Kraken's, as they control, bite, hold, release, bite again. WD still took off a strip of armour
off of Kraken. Both bots are operational as it goes to a judge's decision.

I would give it to Kraken.

The judges agree.

WINNER: Kraken , by decision (3-0)


What did other people say? I see arcane_secrets and Traab are discussing.


I agree with Traab. This was a lousy fight but Hydra won within the rules. This is the same thing as with Beta's fight -- in both that fight and Hydra's, both went to a control strategy and never even bothered to fire the primary weapon. The rules allow this. Let's change the rules such that you must at least FIRE the primary weapon .
Say -- in a judge's decision, you automatically lose if your damage score is zero. If you want to win with a push bot, you've got to destroy the other bot, throw it out of the ring or such. Be entertaining.

Change the rules, don't punish Hydra or Beta for playing within them.



Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Traab]

I would like to change one part of my argument about hydra. I think the real problem there is utterly changing your bots type. Like, you enter as a drum bot, then remove the drum and turn into a flipper, thats kinda screwed up. Its one thing to adjust your main weapon so it will be more effective against an opponent, but something else entirely to try to be a swiss army bot with attachments that totally change your bots style like that. I even understand WHY they did it. A flipper would have been less than effective against huge, It would be really hard to get the perfect placement to flip in the first place, and the thing has no issues with being flipped anyways. But that doesnt mean you get to say, "I wont play a flip bot, I will play a push bot/hammer bot/saw bot/flamethrower bot." You entered with a flip bot, thats the bot you should be using. The whole point of picking a weapon type is that they arent all equally effective against every type of opponent.

[Arcane_Secrets]

I disagree. While the battle was lame, hydra basically completely shut down huge in all ways. Huge managed to land ONE glancing blow but was driven all over the place by hydra, who was in complete and total control of the match from first moment to last. i didnt like the "I dont feel like letting him go" part as that felt petty and lame, but he still perfectly countered huge 100%. Huge was rendered totally helpless for the entire match and that earned hydra an easy win. Superior driving, superior battle control, and superior damage as even those two pulverizer hits were more than huge managed to land. Aside from a potential dq for refusing to release the pin, hydra earned that win in all categories. But yeah, boring fight to watch, and it felt cheap that hydra designed itself specifically to counter a single bot, but then is that very different from the blade bots changing the height or angle of their blades to target specific opponents? That gets done all the time, they know their opponent has a much lower and longer wedge for example, so they drop the blade to compensate, or they raise it to target exposed machinery gears and drive belts. Is it better because it makes for a much more violent fight?

"But yeah, boring fight to watch, and it felt cheap that hydra designed itself specifically to counter a single bot, but then is that very different from the blade bots changing the height or angle of their blades to target specific opponents?"

Well...yes. Changing a weapon, even to the point of switching out weapons entirely which Warhead has done from time to time is different. Its still actually using a weapon. Even choosing *not* to use a weapon (which Beta did) is still having that as an option. Would you prefer if all of the fights were just like this?

It doesn't have to be violent. An effective liftbot (not a flipper) really isn't that violent but its still actually using its weapon and its better than this.

[Arcane_Secrets]

By the way, I'd definitely agree that a rule change about weapon usage (and the necessity of such) would solve issues like this as far as I'm concerned.

[tomandtish]

Episode 4 : Blood , sweat, and gears

Tombstone vs. Slap Box

Ray has to come back after being stuffed out of the ring
by End Game in the last fight. Anyone can lose once... but twice?

A family team, 14 year old driver and 11 year old sister driving minibot. They bring wedges and armor on the front. Looks like the intent is to flip Tombstone on its side. But it has exposed tires on the side, meat for Tombstone's blade?

The 'bot whisperer' analyst note that the armour on slap box isn't really put on strongly, so he expects to see pieces of Slap Box all over the arena. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Tombstone is the heavy favorite.

The kid charges in and hits tombstone pretty hard. He knocks tombstone on its side and the blade digs into the floor! Unfortunately for him, Tombstone is tough. It rights itself and the blade starts back up again, while Slap Box's wedges have been sheared off. Then carefully, surgically, Ray in Tombstone chops off the exposed wheels of Slap Box, just as promised. With only one wheel left, it is left to crab walk and Tombstone stands back as the countdown begins. Instead, he goes after the mini bot and the little 11 year old drivers squeals "Please no!"

Ray backs off in an uncharacteristic gesture of chivalry, but the countdown continues and Tombstone cruises to an easy victory.

Gotta give the rookie props for charging out there, but this wasn't a fair matchup at all. Tombstone is simply too durable, and Ray is simply too good a driver. He gives them a thumbs up afterwards, saying "it was a good match", and it was. The rookie team did as well as could reasonably be expected against Death himself.

WINNER: Tombstone, by KO.


Pain Train vs. Slammow!

Pain Train is a rookie while Slammow! is a new bot, incorporating lessons from two failed designs.

Pain train is a vertical spinner and intends to aggressively charge in, which suits the former marine driver to a T.

Slammow! is a grappler /lifter which is designed to lift a half ton, four times the weight of a tournament bot. His intent is to push Pain Train into the corner flip him over, and then suplex Pain Train. The builder says he HAS to win this year. This is his third time and it must not be winless.

As we prep for the fight we hear Pain Train's driver mutter,
"I'm takin' those wheels, baby."

Fight starts. Pain train has a lot of trouble driving, giving Slammow! plenty of time to line up for his signature attack. Once he slams pain train. Then again. He takes some damage from the spinner, but it doesn't seem to really be able to bite. Then Slammow! hits again and fully suplexes Pain Train. PT's weapon belt is on the floor of the box and the main weapon is no longer functional. PT is immobile and the countdown starts, but it finds movement again. Slammow! is missing one of its arms now but it is still able to get a hit in, and this time PT is permanently immobile.

WINNER: Slammow! by KO.


Perfect Phoenix vs. Skorpios

I've been anticipating this fight for awhile ever since they won their first fight with one good hit. Plus, I admire the guts of these two 11-year-old kids, Tyler and Sawyer. Will they be able to pull it off a second time?

Skorpios is a vertical spinner plus wedge which is 1 down already against Bloodsport. The wedge will be used to neutralize PPs' blade and then Skorpio's own weapon will come from above.

That's the plan, anyway.

PP plans to attack when he does a wheelie and take out Skorpio's tires.

Skorpios charges right in and misses, much like PP's first match but Tyler misses the counterblow this time. The wedge and the blade collide in sparks. After a few hits PP's blade stops spinning.

Uh-oh.

Skorpios executes its attack to perfection, bringing the blade down from above and making repeated hits on PP, which is now smoking. Then, finally, Skorpios hits him again and shoves him into the screws, where PP is a twisted wreck and immobile. Heartbreaker for the kids, but Skorpios came in seriously and fought aggressively all through the fight. That's the difference between a veteran driver and PP's last rookie opponent. Better luck next time!

WINNER: Skorpios by KO.


Ribbot vs. Madcatter

Ribbot brings a vertical spinner and wedgelets to take on Madcatter which has vertical spinner, a plow, a lifting arm, and a minibot with a horizontal spinner called "Toebiter." Both are 1-0 coming into this fight, both determined to impress the
selection committee a second time. I guess I have to root for community college Madcatter vs. the well-known WPI team.

At first, Ribbot outdrives Madcatter but then is distracted by the minibot. While chaising it Madcatter roars back, lands a tremendous shot and rips off the metal off the top of Ribbot! Ribbot is knocked over, missing its top skin, and smoking. Their primary weapon is disabled. Madcatter's weapon is down as well. The minibot actually proves useful and gets underneath Ribbot to make it a sitting duck as Madcatter's weapon spins back up. It makes some more hits but both bots are mobile as the clock ticks down to the end of the match.

The judges HAVE to give this one to madcatter by unanimous decision.

Yup, they agree. This wasn't a hard one to judge.

WINNER: Madcatter by Decision (3-0)


Chomp vs. Gamma 9!

CHOMP has been re-engineered as a walker to take advantage of the greater weight limit allocated to walkers, so it weighs 500 pounds, twice the weight of a standard competitor. It also brings a hammer and a
flamethrower. It will be taking on Gamma 9, which is a
lifter bot. I suspect it will have great trouble against the huge Chomp. Chomp looks like a sit-down lawnmower when it's brought into the battle box.

Fight starts. Gamma 9 succeeds in outmaneuvering and lifting chomp but, once it has, it can't do anything with it. Chomp retaliates with the hammer and damages the lifting arm. It lands repeated hits which, though not enough to disable Gamma, still knocks pieces off. As the clock winds down it lands a solid blow into the guts of Gamma 9 but the clock expires before any countdown can start.

My guess is unanimous decision for Chomp.

They agree.

WINNER: Chomp, by decision (3-0)


Malice vs. Shatter!

Malice has some things to prove; evidently the female captain got a lot of grief from her male colleagues, which doesn't make sense to me given how skilled Witch Doctor is. Even so, she's here and she's here for blood. In fact, she was a member of team Shatter! last year. She's gone with a lighter weapon in order to put more armor on top against Shatter!


Shatter! knocked off some of its own armor in the previous match which it nonetheless won; let's see if they've got any better since then.

The fight starts , and in the first weapon-on-weapon contact BOTH primaries are disabled; Malice's belt lies on the floor while the head of Shatter!'s hammer is clean off; it is left with a little stub that flails ineffectually at Malice. The two bots shove each other for the next two minutes thirty seconds until the clock counts down and its' time for the judges to earn their pay.

I think I have to give this one to Malice on control but this is definitely going to be a split decision and a tight call.

But that is the way it unfolds.

WINNER: Malice by Decision (2-1)




End Game vs. Bloodsport

Ah, the match we've been waiting for. End Game clobbered Tombstone in its first and we want to see if the Tombstone-killer can repeat itself.

Bloodsport has a horizontal spinner and a wedge , so it is a very Tombstone-like bot. Will the same thing work a second time?

End Game has a LOT of armor on the front to go with its vertical spinner and Bloodsport has a very heavy bar today, 77 pounds compared to the maximum of 80. Looks like they brought their biggest weapon for this fight.

They collide in some really vicious hits but once they're over End Game has dropped a belt. It is crab walking. Bloodsport loops around but holds off as endgame smokes in the center of the ring, burning out its motors. Less than a minute into the match, it is counted out.


Well, those were some entertaining fights but I have to give the prize for most innovative to CHOMP. Their walker robot was like something out of a star wars movie. I have a hard time imagining it as the finalist, but it is still one scary monstrosity.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Pendell did his usual excellent job here. No need for additional comment.




Claw Viper vs. Black Dragon


Claw viper is one of the fastest bots on the field
and speed has shown to be a definite advantage
in the box.

Black Dragon won its first match by decision, and
brings a vertical spinner .

Claw viper charges and misses, Black dragon counters nad lands a solid counter hit. Black dragon hits from the side
and rips into claw viper with its spinner.

Claw Viper smokes and is immobilized. It finally
gets moving again, and black dragon hits it again. That does it. A very convincing win! This was all BD, which they won
by superior driving skill.

WINNER: Black Dragon, by KO.


Jackpot vs. Ghost Raptor

Jackpot is the cheapest battlebot on the file,d, and won
by outlasting the vveteran subzero. It brings a vertical spinner. They've modified, added top armor, removed the force and done other things to prevent to catch on the floor.

Ghost Raptor, a spinner, lost to Shatter and is facing elimination. I think this is going to be difficult for him;
he had trouble damaging Shatter! , and Jackpot is a very tough bot.

Whelp, that was quick. In their first contact Ghost Raptor's spinner goes flying off! Completely disarmed, it has no chance unless some mechanical failure disables Jackpot.

Nothing doing. Ghost Raptor is reduced to crab walking , then to not moving at all. Counted out.

Jackpot is one amazingly tough bot. The maker is definitely proving that you don't need an expensive bot to win in battle bots -- the 'bot whisperer' mentioned that you could spend $4000 (the cost of Jackpot) in batteries ALONE.

Well, he's certainly proving his thesis tonight.

Post fight, he tells how they learned so much from their first battle and pretty much rebuilt the bot from the lessons learned against SubZero; I guess that's part of the luxury cheap gives you; easier to rebuild!

Really well done!

WINNER: Jackpot, by KO.




Subzero vs.Grabot

Subzero, a flipper lost to Jackpot when a malfunction disabled their system. They can't afford to lose again.

The newcomer, Grabot, is a grappler to lift up subzero. Looks like a tough bot.

The bot whisperer is worried about the complexity of Grabot.

Flip, flip, flip. It's all Subzero. I'm not even sure Grabot is moving any more but Subzero keeps hitting it.

At last, mercifully, the countdown begins. That was brutal.
Grabot accomplished absolutely nothing.

WINNER: Subzero, by KO.


Hydra vs. Huge

Hydra, the flipper, KOd witch doctor in its first match.

Huge is its usual big but otherwise unimpressive self. I can't recall the last time this bot won, but here it is.

Hydra comes in -- what the heck is that? A cowcatcher, they
called it?

The bot whisperer is nervous. He thinks they're too large and fragile. Huge may even be able to flip him by spinning upward against that cowcatcher.

Okay, neither can do anything to either. The cowcatcher keeps huge away but bronco can't do anything either. Now we see some sparks as huge hits the primary. Bronco pushes him into the corner, where he is hit by the pulverizer. Gets into an argument with the ref. The ref demands he back up while Bronco argues he doesn't have to -- he's not actually touching Huge. The ref is forced to actually warn Hydra, who finally backs up.

This one is going to the judges , isn't it?

It sure does. Nothing changes.

The call for huge would be:
1) Huge did damage with it's primary weapon, which Bronco never did. Sure , Bronco pushed it into the corner and got the pulverizer to do something, but the criteria for damage is with the PRIMARY WEAPON.

2) I don't want to see any more of this sumo-bot stuff in the battle box.

I can see a case to be made for Hydra, though, in that it
definitely should get all the control points and I would give it points on aggression too.

Thinking this through, I think I have to give it to Hydra.
Aggression+control versus extremely minimal damage on Huge's side of the balance sheet.

The judges agree, unanimously.

Even so, I think we need a rule change. And there is booing from the crowd. He won by the rules, but if the rules allow this sort of thing, the rules need fixing.

WINNER: Hydra, by KO.


Fusion vs. Aegis

Aegis is a brand new box. This is a flipper. They intend to slow down fusion and flip them. It has a great deal of kevlar armor, so it should be very tough.


Fusion has two weapons, failed against Madcatter. They've replaced the weapon controllers in the hope they won't burn out this time.

Both systems have trouble.

Fusion freezed up. It takes a few seconds to
fire up, but when it does, it backs up
into Aegis, UNDER the kevlar armor, and utterly destroys it. Very clever!

One more hit for violence's sake, and that's it. Wow, that was fast.

Even so, fusion has work to do if it wants to win. A ten second pause before the primary weapon fires up would be a death sentence against a veteran.

WINNER: Fusion, by KO.




Lock-jaw vs. Big Dill

Lockjaw , vertical spinner, destroyed Captain Shredderator in their first bout but it lost a belt in the process. The team has adjusted to try to prevent that mistake a second time.

Big Dill is a lifter which won its last bout against atom 94 by decision.

Fight's on. Lock-jaw out-drives Big dill and takes off pieces. Big Dill tries to square up but can't find an angle of attack. Lock-jaw takes off his right fork, ruining his primary weapon.

Then Lock-Jaw's spinner shuts down and both bots have reverted to pusher bots.

Lock-jaw pushes Big Dill into a corner and it is almost counted, but it recovers just in time to avoid being counted out. It goes to the judges, but there's not much doubt how this one will play out.

WINNER: Lock-Jaw, by decision (3-0)


Witch Doctor vs. Kraken

Witch doctor was last year's #2, comes this year with a vertical spinner. It lost to Hydra in a tremendously tough and entertaining fight. Let's see if they can do better this time.

Kraken is a grappler with a minibot, and lost its last match against Black Dragon in a close decision. What will they show us this time?

The announcers clearly expect Witch Doctor to be the favorite here.

Fight's on. Kraken gets a bit in. Witch doctor is jiggling up and down and its weapon is spinning at about fast speed. The battle is all Kraken's, as they control, bite, hold, release, bite again. WD still took off a strip of armour
off of Kraken. Both bots are operational as it goes to a judge's decision.

I would give it to Kraken.

The judges agree.

WINNER: Kraken , by decision (3-0)


What did other people say? I see arcane_secrets and Traab are discussing.


I agree with Traab. This was a lousy fight but Hydra won within the rules. This is the same thing as with Beta's fight -- in both that fight and Hydra's, both went to a control strategy and never even bothered to fire the primary weapon. The rules allow this. Let's change the rules such that you must at least FIRE the primary weapon .
Say -- in a judge's decision, you automatically lose if your damage score is zero. If you want to win with a push bot, you've got to destroy the other bot, throw it out of the ring or such. Be entertaining.

Change the rules, don't punish Hydra or Beta for playing within them.



Respectfully,

Brian P.


More good commentary from Pendell.

I will say, if Black Dragon hadn't continued pushing Claw Viper as much as it did, I wonder if they would have gotten the count out earlier. I noticed that CV wasn't moving about 1/3rd of the way through the ride Black Dragon took them on. I'll also say, speed is good, but only if you can do something with it. Black Dragon is definitely a serious contender this year.


Let me be clear: I'm rooting for Jackpot to go far (I always like the underdog). But I do want to see what happens up against a top tier bot. Ghost Raptor was top tier in season 1, but wasn't in 2 and isn't showing any indication of it this season. Sunzero has never been a significant competitor. I want to see them against an End Game, a Witch Doctor, or a Lockjaw.

Having said that, they did make very short work of Ghost Raptor. And you can see the dismay on Chuck's face. He came back after 4 years, and is getting his butt handed to him.

So having said Subzero is not a competitor, they win solidly against Grabot. it's a solid victory, but I'm not terribly impressed given Grabot seems so unimpressive. The Grabot design seemed poor and they never really even got moving. Subzero still has a lot to prove to me.

Pendell, minor detail. You refer to Hydra as Bronco a few times. But otherwise I have to agree with you. Guidelines say damage is based on primary weapon. But judges don't seem to be paying attention to that. I'd have called it for Huge myself. Huge was just as aggressive as Hydra (it kept trying to make contact). And Hydra tries to pin Huge while claiming that they aren't touching him. This was a disappointing fight to watch. And the audience boos show how they feel as well.


Have to agree with Pendell. This is another win that doesn't really impress. If you can't get your weapon going quickly, you're toast against some of the veterans. And again, if Fusion has both weapons running at the same time, then there's got to be power issues. No way you can have both weapons hitting as powerfully as one would alone. I also fault Aegis. "Let them come to you" is what they said when Fusion has having problems at the beginning. No, that's when you go in for the easy hit!


I will say that the difference between Ray Billings and Jake Ewer is that Ray enjoys playing the "villain" in a wrestling kind of way. Jake OTOH is an a#$%^&e. He admits he's the villain, but he isn't in a fun way like Ray is.


Lockjaw is one of two "almost" bots. They almost make the finals. They almost go the distance. But they consistently have durability issues. A rough look at the last 5 seasons shows that Donald has finished more fights without the weapon working at the end of the match than they have with it working. We had smoke at the beginning of the match, and i suspect a motor overheat caused the weapon to stop working.

Don't get me wrong, they deserved the victory. But reliability issues lead me to believe he isn't going far into the finals.


Speaking of "Almost" bots, Witch Doctor is the other one. They've had an "almost" moment in each of the 4 seasons. And like Lockjaw they historically have durability problems. I won't fault them for the fight with Hydra given how much time they spent in the air, but in the previous four seasons most of their matches resulted in technical issues. That first hit unbalances them by splitting the weapon disc, and they never really get back in control. Kraken gets the control and aggression points. And team Witch Doctor knows they lost if you look at their faces at the end of the match.

[pendell]

Episode VI: Battle of the Undefeated

Valkyrie vs. Rotator

Valkyrie with its horizontal spinner lucked out against Tantrum in the earlier fight, will it do better?

Rotator is a spinner which lost a deeply controversial match to
Beta in the first round. Maybe this time they can show their stuff.

Fight's on: Rotator and Valkyrie are both aggressive. Valkyrie is momentarily knocked on its vertical axis but recovers; meanwhile Rotator keeps its wedge pointed towards Valkyrie. It is holding the low ground but its primary weapon is inactive.

Rotator's blade starts up again. They charge each other again, and again, like knights on horseback. Although there are plenty of sparks and Valkyrie is knocked 6 inches into the air at one point, still there is no crippling damage and the combatants fight on.

Valkyrie knocked vertical again but it presses in and now we see bits and pieces coming off of rotator, but it's still strong.

Rotator starting to show minor mobility issues; it's hurt.

Both bots primaries go inactive and they go in for a last wrestler's clench as the timer counts down.

What a fight!

It goes to the judges. I'm calling it for Valkyrie on behalf of visible damage but Rotator has NOTHING to be ashamed of. If I were on the selection committee,
I'd pick it in a heartbeat over some of our other contenders who never used their weapons and scored technical victories.

The judges make a special request! They enter the battlebox to examine the combatants and the debris up close and personal, the decision is that close.

After they return , making sure they got it right, they hand down their unanimous decision.

WINNER: VALKYRIE, by decision, 3-0.


Gigabyte Vs. Extinguisher

Copperhead was bisected by Copperhead in its last fight. It has, as the driver admits, one more chance to prove itself to the selection committee.

Extinguisher was defeated by Perfect Phoenix with one hit; it has to impress the selection committee this time around. They're bringing a wedge and a hammer in this fight.

Fight's on; Extinguisher misses the hit and allows Gigabyte to get its weapon up to speed. It quickly pays as Gigabyte rips up its hammer, putting it at a 45 degree angle and useless.

At this point the fight is already over; Extinguisher has no weapon but Gigabyte's spinner is at full speed. We wait for the coup de grace.

It is not long in coming. Gigabyte takes off one of E's tires and it is reduced to crabwalking. Gigabyte backs to a distance as the referee counts Extinguisher out.


WINNER: Gigabyte, by KO.


Sharkoprion vs. Slap Box

Sharkoprion lost to Smeeee because it couldn't bite through Smee's gimmick tape. Shark is a biter which , the announcers tell us, can operate a maximum of 30 times before being out of pressure. Let's see how it does against a more conventional bot.

Slap box is a rookie team who had the misfortune to go up against Tombstone in its first ever battlebox matchup, and what happened was exactly what you would expect. Again, it has a second chance to show its stuff against an easier foe. For pity's sake, it's like facing Sephiroth as the first boss of FF VII before you've even left Midgard. The announcers note that the eight year old daughter of the team will be operating the flamethrower. Lucky kid. I didn't get to operate a flamethrower when I was eight!

Slap box successfully box rushes sharko and knocks some bits off. Shark tries to bite down but Slapbox is just to fast. So far the fight is all slapboxes' way.

Sharko at last bites down on Slap-boxes lifting/flamethrower arm but this does nothing. It bites it again and this time Slap box takes it for a ride around the battlebox while the flamethrower spews hellfire into sharkos face, giving an impressive visual.

Slap-box successfully flips Sharko and the shark's primary weapon is disabled. Slap-box continues to try to stick its arm underneath the shark and flame it while Sharko tries to flip back over.

Sharko desperately spins in place to flip itself over but can't.

Slap-box flips them over, then flips them back again.

At last sharko stops moving. Whether damage from Slap-box or the attempt to flip it burned out the batteries, it's hard to tell, but Sharko is counted out with 35 seconds left and Slap-box gets its first win!

As the fight ends the Shark's captain shouts the same thing to Slap-box that Ray Billings did: "Great Fight! That was a great fight, man! That was awesome!" Everybody's impressed with this up-and-coming rookie team!

Even though slap-box got the win and I'm happy for them, their bot just isn't showing me the destructive potential to go the distance. Even so, they've definitely proved they belong here on Battlebots.

WINNER: Slap-box , by KO.





Malice vs. MadCatter

Malice is a horizontal spinner with a very determined Captain, who delighted in destroying Axe Backwards. "Bunny" has been a pit crew member for other bots and is here as Captain in her own right. She is determined and passionate, but can she repeat?

Mad Catter managed to defeat Fusion last time, and brings a flaming hammer. The intent is to flip Malice and then hit the underside with the flaming hammer. They also have a minibot whose purpose I do not understand. Maybe to do the flip? Anyway, this is their chance to prove the victory wasn't a fluke.

Mad Catter's Captain -- Martin Mason -- is zany. He has a little poem all made up celebrating his win before hand. I'm already rooting for Malice.


Fight's on. There are several vicious collisions and Malice is knocked vertical. It can't move, and starts shaking its wheels to get horizontal again. If it can't, this is a KO.

To add insult to injury, the minibot zips up and now we see its purpose; it lights up a flamethrower which singes Malice's hindquarters.

A shot to Malice's controller frantically working the stick back and forth but to no effect; Malice is counted out.

Well, that was a valuable lesson. I haven't seen a horizontal spinner knocked vertical before but now we've seen it twice, once in this fight and once with Valkyrie.

Mason gives his victory interview SHOUTING THE ENTIRE TIME. Was he a pro wrestler before he was a community college professor?

WINNER: Mad Catter, by KO.


Tantrum vs.Atom #94

Tantrum dominated the fight with Valkyrie right up to the point it stopped moving. They've stripped off the fists and flamethrowers to add more batteries; apparently running out of juice is what caused them to lose against Valkyrie. They expect this , a pair of forks to prop 94 up, and a vertical spinner to give them the victory.

Atom #94 is an Indian team advised by Ray Billings; It brings a vertical spinner. They had serious issues in their initial debut against Big Dill, and have completely rebuilt their drive train for this fight.

Fight's on. 94 still looks like its struggling , but it lands a nice hit on tantrum. Tantrum comes back and manages to pick up 94 and give it a ride around the battlebox, lots of sparks.

Tantrum drives underneath and pops 94 with its weapon, inverting 94.

One more hit from Tantrum and 94 is stuck , inverted, immovable, counted out.

I have many Indian colleagues and I was rooting for this team because I really wanted to see an Indian team do well, but it looks like this year is not going to be the year. I think it's time for them to step back, re-think , and come back stronger next year.

WINNER: Tantrum, by KO.



Smeeeee vs. Pain Train

Smeeeee is a strange little bot ; two spinners joined by a tape. It won tne earlier decision against Sharkopion, going against Pain Train , a rookie vertical spinner captained by a former marine which also struggled with control issues, much like Atom #94. Pain Train has lowered its speed in this match so they can get sharper turns against Smeeeeee.

Fight's on. Pain train charges right into Smeee and is foiled by the tape but equally Smeee can't turn on the flanks to do any damage.

Smee is able to clip pain train for minor damage but pain train doesn't seem to be able to come to grips with Smeee.


PT's driving issues manifets again.

Then the match turns around. Pain train flips around and goes head to head with Smee's port bot, ripping the spinner right off.

Now the battle swings the other way. Smee knicks Pain train, and PT's massive blade digs into the arena floor and falls out! Pain Train is disarmed!

But the impact disables smee as well! Neither bot is armed , and neither can properly push the other.

As they count down the two get into a shoving match and smoke comes from Pain Train as it shoves against Smeee but to no avail.

It goes to a decision.

I thought both bots performed poorly, but I have to give it with reluctance to Smeeeee because Pain Train had a lot more control issues. Smeee did a better job of driving and hitting PT, so I have to give it the edge in control points and the match.

The judges decision is split, but they give it to Pain Train. Defensible, but both bots underperformed. You must do better to impress the selection committee!

WINNER: Pain Train, by decision (2-1).




Main Event: Sawblaze vs. Uppercut


Sawblaze destroyed Whiplash with an impressive display of driving in its first match , while Uppercut, the team from MIT, destroyed the twin bot Gemini by annihilating each of the two bots in rapid succession. Let's see how it does against a more conventional bot.

Fight's on!

They try to get around each other but with one shot Rotator knocks sawblaze across the arena and nearly out of the box!

It tries to follow up and rupture's Sawblaze's flamethrower fuel tank, which explodes! KA-BOOM! A fireball in the battlebox!

Upper cut hits sawblaze again and again, knocking a chunk off of Sawblaze.

Uppercut keeps at it, picking Sawblaze apart and in short order Sawblaze is done, immobile, and counted out.

Great fight, and great performance by Uppercut!

The announcers are greatly impressed: They've seen this kind of damage only from the top contenders in this sport, and suddenly Uppercut is being mentioned in the same breath as Monsoon and Tombstone.

After the fight, there's a quick shot of bits of sawblaze still blazing merrily away.

WINNER: Sawblaze, by KO.




Respectfully,

Brian P.

[pendell]

Episode 7: Turning up the Heat.


This is the final first round; next time we go to the round of 32 as chosen by the selection committee.

Axe Backwards vs. Captain Shred

Axe was annihilated by Malice in its first round , while the Captain was crushed by lockjaw, being reduced to a mere moving frisbee. It's been rebuilt entirely from the last fight.

Fight's on!

They approach each other cautiously, giving gach other time to spin up. Captain hits from back and draws first blood, bouncing Axe over the box.

More contact. Axe presnting its wedge. Shred goes flying over the top but comes back. Still more contact but both bots are still fully operational.

More contacts. Axe Backwards is crab-walking a bit but still has forward motion. Eventually the Captain gets around behind him and takes off a wheel. That's the end of the match for axe backwards.

WINNER: Captain Shrederator, by KO.


Copperhead vs. P1

I will always think of Copperhead as "Muramasa" after it bisected Gigabyte in its first fight.

I don't recall seeing P1 before. It looks like a cute little formula 1 racer. It has an AR500 stel wede to protect against copperhead, but I don't see what it's primary weapn is. The pre-fight interview suggests they're going to try to get under copperhead and knock it into the air. Will it work?

Uh-ho, not a good omen. Barely is the command "Robots activate" given when bits start falling off of P1. Not the best engineering, seemingly.

But now we see it's weapon -- a flipper build into the front. So the plan is for it to get under its enemy and flip it into the air. Frankly, after that little display, I'm not hopeful.

Fight's on. Copperhead spinning up sounds like a jet engine warming up, remniscient of Minotaur in earlier season's.

Alas, it plays out exactly as I expected. Two hits from Copperhead and P1 is done, just like that. It's flipper waas totally ineffective and that drum spinner did a number on him. One hit and it was barely moving, 2 hits and P1 was out altogether.

This match definitely shows that Copperhead is for real. I would be surprised if it falls short of Top 8. As for P1,
I hope they can show us more next year!


WINNER: Copperhead, by KO.


Rusty vs. Beta

Rusty is our underdog made on a budget, taking on Beta which never used its primary weapon in its first bout. I'm hoping
it can show us more this time. There's only one person on the team, Captain Dave Eaton, who lives on his parent's farm. Show us!


The bot expert is worried for Rusty ; he's not convinced the pneumatic drill can penetrate Beta's top layer, while Beta's hammer will be extremely powerful if it hits.

Fight's on!

Beta Out-drives Rusty and eventually gets just what it wants, to get around behind and strike with a single , precision blow to the back of Rusty, putting a huge dent in Rusty's behind.

Rusty's shaking now. I'm not sure it's mobile.

It is moving, but very slowly. Beta hits it again, then backs off as Rusty struggles to show it is still effective.

Beta rams it twice more but Rusty isn't moving. It is counted out.

So it appears that Beta is for real and I must revise my opinion of them upward. They are a very cautious, tactical team which drove very well and struck with two precise blows to end the match. I'm still not convinced Beta will be a top contender, but they really showed us some skill in this fight!


Mammoth vs. Hypershock

Mammoth is a very large bot which overcame Huge in tis previous encounter.

Hypershock is a vertical spinner which was defeated by Gruff, presumably by when Gruff's flame overheated the internal components.


Fight's on!

Hypershock is outdriving hypershock and casuing damage. Now flips Mammoth over and pushed into the crew.
Mammoth's chain is off and that's the end of the fight.

Mammoth asks Hypershock to flip him over and he dtries, but he doesn't flip all the way and now smoke is coming out .
The countdown starts , and finishes without dispute.

WINNER: Hypershock, by KO.



Subzero vs. Sporkinok

Subzero looked like it was winning against Jackpot, right up to the point it shut down and was counted out. Reliability issues.

Sporkenok is another hammer which was defeated by Rusty.

Fight's on. Subzero dominates the match. It flips
Sporkinok and for a few seconds it appears the fight is over, but subzero flips them back over. The announcers speculate that this is so subzero can better show its stuff
to the selection committee.

Subzero charges, misses and impales itself on the screws.
It flips itself off, upside down, flips itself back upright,
then goes back to work on the hapless Sporkenok, which has been off to the side doing nothing while all this is happening.

Subzero tries repeatedly to flip Sporkenok out of the ring but can't do it. Doesnt' matter, Spork isn't moving. The ref has seen enough, and counts Sporkenok out.

WINNER: Subzero, by KO.





Bale spear vs. Tracer

Tracer was defeated by a design flaw in the last fight as it has no self-righting mechanism, and Ribbot had indeed knocked it over. Bale Spear I have no record of. It looks like a barn. Not surprising, as the captain is indeed a farmer. It has a spear on the front to pierce, but it can also flip, apparently.

Fight's on!

Bale spear chases the minibot while tracer move slowly, though it tears off one of the cosmetic barn doors.

next, the minibot shows it stuff, pinning Bale Spear so Tracer can line up and hit it. Next , Tracer takes Bale Spear into the screws , where it is immovable. Counted out. Seemingly Bale Spear was not able to take hits.


WINNER: Tracer, by KO.



Main Event: Gruff vs. Whiplash

Gruff is a lifter/grappler with a torch which destroyed Hypershock, a verteran contendr, in its first fight.

Whiplash was defeated by Sawblaze, but it was a very tough fight.

Fight's on. And what a fight it is! Both bots are very a
aggressive, a whirlwind of action, flames spewing everywhere, and we can't tell who's winning.

Looks like Gruff has lost one of its flamethrowers and is now pushed into the corner as Whiplash tries, and fails, to
flip him out.

Both flamethrowers are now inoperative and Gruff is shwoing
damage , but it's still functional and still in the fight.
But what can it do to Whiplash as Whiplash continues to try to flip him and bring the saw to bear?

Gruff gets the reversal and Whiplash is smoking!

Whiplash's saw is no longer active but it can still
flip.

Gruff is smoking too.

Whiplash drives Gruff into the corner , and now smoke leaking from both bots.


Whiplash continues to flip gruff, ut doesn't seem to able to inflict a finishing blow as the timer counts down.
Even so, with such a dominant performance by Whiplash,
it seems likely Whiplash will win by unanimous decision.
Even so, both bots show they belonged today, in my opinion.

The announcers call it that way too, and sure enough that's what the Judges give us. Still a very entertaining fight!

WINNER: Whiplash, by decision (3-0)


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[pendell]

Episode 8: Hit the Jackpot


We're still working through the first round for selection, but this should be the last set of qualifiers.

Huge vs. Kraken

Huge is down 0-2 and has one last chance to impress;

Kraken lost to Black Dragon but won against witch doctor, although neither was a KO. We'll see how it does against hte biggest bot in the field. It brings a harpoon today. Our bot whisperer has no idea how Kraken can fight Huge tonight.

Fight's on!

Kraken charges right in and bites down on Huge, immobilizing the vertical spinner weapon before it can reach damaging velocity. It next cuts loose in flame and is definitely winning the control battle, at least at the start of the fight.

Kraken releases after the full 30 seconds, and bits of huge come off.

Kraken comes in, bites, stops the weapon, but a glancing hit. Next time around it allows Huge's weapon to spin up and this time contact with that weapon takes a BIG chunk out of Kraken, but it's cosmetic. The fight continues.

Continued hits by Huge while Kraken can't do anything, big chunks being ripped off. Kraken is still armed and operable, but how long can that last with the damage it's taking?

Kraken uses its spear to stick to the side of huge and evade the primary but can't do anything. Huge lands another massive shot and this time Kraken is knocked over , can't move, only spin in place. This happened with nine seconds left so there will be no KO but there is no doubt, in my mind, who the winner of this fight is.

WINNER: Huge, by decision (3-0)



Ribbot Vs. Axolotl


Ribbot , with its vertical spinner lost to madcatter, the only undefeated bot in the field, so that's no shame. It also overcame Tracer, a rookie, giving us a record of 1-1 coming in tonight. They bring an undercutter horizontal spinner tonight, going weapon-to-weapon with Axolotl. They plan to use their greater speed and agility to advantage, pick and choose their spots to hit.

We haven't seen Axolotl yet this season; it's previous match was untelevised and a lost to War?EZ! It looks like a vertical spinner with wedgelets on the floor, a rookie.

Bot whisperer thinks Axolotl has very little chance. Here's hoping they prove better than his expectations.

Fight's on!

Two hits and Axolotl's primary is disabled. We hear their team yell, "We can't move it!" The fight is over.

The countdown starts but Ribbot charges again out of vainglory and rips off its own head. It is still mobile, so only Axolotl is counted out but that was a VERY costly mistake. It could have cost them the match, instead it will cost them some repair time.

WINNER: Ribbot, by KO.


Big Dill vs. Rotator

Big Dill, a lifter, is 1-1 defeating Atom 94 in a decision but that didn't tell us much about this fight. 94 has really struggled this season, so defeating it doesn't really demonstrate that its opponents are top contenders. Lockjaw, a much more dangerous veteran team, overcame Big Dill with a decision. So this is make-or-break time for the giant pickle. They have reinforced their front with heavy armour to compete with Rotator's weapon.

Rotator is a spinner down 0-2, first against Beta and then against Valkyrie. Down to its last chance; I expect the team to give their all tonight. They've stripped the armour and other things off because , after seeing BD's match against Atom 94, they believe it will be a liability, just more stuff for Big Dill to grab onto. The bot weighs in at 215 pounds , 35 pounds under the allowed weight, a record for lightest bot as a competitor.

Fight's on!

A very cautious approach, some dancing around. Rotator starts biting into BD, BD lifts rotator once to no effect. After that its having a hard time lifting Rotator while Rotator continues to slice away with its spinner. The forks on BD are showing wear.

Bit by bit Rotator outmaneuvers Big Dill and takes off more and more pieces until Big Dill stops moving. Their gamble has paid off; they now have a record not only for lightest contestant, but lightest winner as well.

WINNER: Rotator, by KO.



Lock-jaw vs. Jackpot

Lock-jaw , a vertical spinner, has proven very effective this season, defeating both Captain Shredderator by KO and Big Dill by decision.

But Jackpot is no easy opponent. This bot is the cheapest out there, built for $4000 (the cost of batteries alone on some of the other bots), it has defeated the veteran SubZero and Ghost Raptor, both by KO. I'm going to be rooting for this team tonight.

And, as the pre-fight talk goes, only one of these can emerge as an undefeated 3-0.

Heck, I don't have to be neutral. GO FOR IT JACKPOT!

Buzzer sounds.

Jackpot charges straight in for a weapon to weapon hit and afterwards Lockjaw's weapon isn't spinning fast at all. Captain Hudson intended to win this match with his driving but so far Jackpot is the one winning both the driving and damage games.

A third collision and one of Jackpot's belts come off. Smoke comes from Lockjaw's motors, overheating.

A fourth hit, but this time it's jackpot's weapon that is disabled. This is now a pushing match. Jackpot is the heavier bot, but Hudson is a far more experienced driver.

More smoke out of Lockjaw.

Lockjaw stops moving. Countdown starts.

That's it! The rookie bot, Jackpot, is now 3-0 against one of the toughest veterans in the sport! YES!

WINNER: Jackpot, by KO.


Chronos vs. Bloodsport

We haven't seen Chronos on air this season so I assume their fights were off camera. The report is that they are winless this season. Bot whisperer tells us this is a ring spinnner which is a very hard design to make work; which is why it's the only one in the field this year.

Bloodsport overcame Skorpios, tonight's main event contender, by KO. They would seem to have the advantage against a relatively unknown team, but anything can happen in the box. They are undefeated this season.

The whisperer points out that Bloodsport spins a lot faster than Chronos, so when there is contact they will probably send Chronos flying into the wall. We'll see.



ROBOTS ACTIVATE.

Chronos runs from Bloodsport, but Bloodsport chases it down and delivers a punishing shot, instantly disabling Chronos' primary weapon.

More hits. Chronos lures bloodsport into the corner of the battle box and, in the process of hitting Chronos, Bloodsport hits the wall with it's blade. It can't do that too often and keep its weapon operable.

Bloodsports weapon is powered down. Is it inoperable or is it just powered down? Lot of pushing going on right now.

A few seconds later, it spins up again. So powered down to save it. Looks like some more damage coming up.

More sparks, but Chronos is very durable. Bloodsport powers down its weapon again. Perhaps they don't think they can do more damage , and they want to save the blade for future bouts.

A few more cycles of this. Bloodsport powers up, hits for sparks and nothing else, powers down again. Powers up at the end of the fight to demonstrate that they disabled Chronos' primary but their own is still functional. That should be enough to get the judge's nod as the clock expires.


It is. Bloodsport, along with Madcatter and Jackpot, is undefeated this season.

WINNER: Bloodsport, by decision (3-0)


Fusion vs. War?EZ!

Fusion has dual weapons and this proved a liability in tis fight against Madcatter, which it lost by KO, but it has overcome Aegis by KO to enter this round 1-1.

War?EZ! I haven't seen yet; It is a vertical spinner which are 1-1 in untelevised bouts, including a bout against Axolotl, a fellow rookie who was not particularly distinguished this season. Fusion is a tougher foe. This is a father-son duo John and Dillon Juarez.

The announcers expect Fusion to be heavily favored. They aren't going to pretend this is anything like an even contest.
The bot whisperer is really nervous about War?Ez!'s exposed wheels.

Fusion sniffs that they are viewing this as a practice bout. I hope War gives them reason to regret that arrogance.


Fight's on!

Fusion has trouble with the floor, allowing War!Ez to get in some free hits . For a few brief seconds it looks like an upset -- then Fusion pivots with its weapon and BOTH bots go flying across the box from the contact! Here the difference in experience shows -- Fusion is flipped ( I think) but is still fully operable and drivable. War?EZ! is flipped over, has lost a wheel (just as the whisperer feared), and is immobile. This fight is over. I like war's design, but some rookie flaws give the victory to Fusion.

WINNER: Fusion, by KO.



Main Event: Skorpios vs . Tombstone


The pre-fight chatter builds up Skorpios as "specifically designed" to take down Tombstone. Skorpios KOd
Perfect Phoenix, so they can beat up little kids, but in turn lost to Bloodsport. Now they're going up against what may be the toughest bot in the field. They have a wedge to break Tombstone's weapon, then hit from the top with their own saw. They've been waiting for this match for four years. They've been working overtime to repair every crack and tape every wire for this fight.

Tombstone? Well, everyone knows Tombstone. Death incarnate, this monster is still beatable; but it's still an unexpected event and a cause for cheering , akin to seeing Darth Vader lose. Endgame got Tombstone's number early this season, first breaking T's weapon and then stuffing him out of the box. T's next match was against a rookie, which went exactly as you would expect when your first match is against the most lethal bot in the field. Now Captain Ray has to prove that his bot is still effective against a veteran contender, in this highly anticipated main event bout. The announcers tell us he believes, based on the matchup, he can beat Skorpios 8 out of 10 times but he's taking this fight very seriously indeed.

The announcers talk about Skorpios winning as "huge upset". Ergo, they think Tombstone is the favorite here.

Whisperer says Ray has gone with a lighter blade which spins up faster. He doesn't want to go out of the box again, as he did against Endgame.

Here we go!

So far Skorpios' strategy appears to be working. The wedge is resisting Tombstone's blade and he has managed a hit from the top saw. Both bots still fighting viciously, though. Skorpios is driving brilliantly. Ray keeps trying to come in from the side and rip off the wheels but Scorpios keeps its wedge pointed right at Tombstone and rushes in again and again.

More hits! Skorpios' wedge is showing damage and one of those tires looks weak but it's still aggressive and coming into the fight! If it can just take down Tombstone's weapon, it can still win this!

Tombstone loses a wheel! The countdown starts!


Ray Billing is in shock. "They're counting me out?"

Yes, yes we are. With only one wheel you're crab walking. Announcer Kenny Florian says "I'm not sure that's controlled movement" and I don't think it is either.

The Ref finishes the countdown and, in an epic fight for the ages of Battlebox, Skorpios triumphs over the enemy it was designed to defeat!

WINNER: Skorpios, by KO. (!!)


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Tvtyrant]

I went back and watched all the battlebot matches on youtube. I didn't watch it much as a kid, but it's fun to go back and see them. The newer form of Chomp and Icewave tend to be my favorites, and the wedge bots my least. I know it's the best design but the big crappy looking ones are nearly always more fun.

[Traab]

As far as tombstone goes, im not sure why, but he seems to have lost a lot of that air of inevitable destruction, and has been trading more on rep than results. And ribbot shows why showboating is bad.

[Arcane_Secrets]

I went back and watched all the battlebot matches on youtube. I didn't watch it much as a kid, but it's fun to go back and see them. The newer form of Chomp and Icewave tend to be my favorites, and the wedge bots my least. I know it's the best design but the big crappy looking ones are nearly always more fun.

I like Chomp a lot more this season than I have before, although I doubt they'd ever go into the finals. So far Uppercut is definitely one of my favorites, especially because so many of their wins have been dramatic this year like the fight between it and Gemini or Sawblaze last week.

[tomandtish]

Sorry for the absence from a thread I started. Real life got in the way. Pendell has done his usual excellent job summing up.

Episode 6

Have to agree that this was one of the most even and entertaining fights we've seen. It started well for Rotator but turned around once Valkyrie started landing solid hits. I agree with the decision. You can tell by their expressions before the announcement that Rotator didn't think they won.

Fairly quick. Gigabyte has always been its own worst enemy, with the force of their hits often causing them to break. But they are able to keep the bot on the ground in this fight and make short work of Extinguisher.

Sharko is one of those bots that doesn't impress me. The jaws seem to do no real damage, and it doesn't have a lifter attached, so it can't flip bots out of the arena. They like talking about the tail slap, but at no time did I see a tail slap move Slap Box more than an inch or so. With the exception of that one grapple, this was Slap box all the way.

First let me say that I can't stand Martin of MadCatter. I've never enjoyed that whole wrestling style persona, and it is worse in this case since it's a very poor Jesse Ventura imitation. I actually mute anytime he is talking.

So you can imagine my disappointment when this fight is over fairly quickly. This shows the disadvantage of having a flat back on your robot. it's a freak hit in this case, but a grappler using the side of the box might be able to do the same thing. Unfortunately this means MadCatter will almost certainly advance to the playoffs.

Tantrum has gotten rid of the fist, which is good. Going into the match I still don't like that punch design. It hasn't seemed effective at all. Now you have to have your timing down to get a hit unless you can force the other bot on top of you.

And of course I get to eat some crow. 94 got in one good hit at the beginning, then it was all Tantrum. They won the battle for low ground, and were powerful enough to win the shoving matches. I still think the punch design isn't really benefiting them. Their best shots came when they were able to force 94 up on top of them.


Kenny has put together a weapon power ranking, which should spark lots of debate. Here it is:

10: Gruff's lifter

9: Sawblaze's hammer saw

8: Beta's hammer

7: Valkyrie's horizontal spinner

6: Rotator's horizontal spinner(s)

5: Bloodsport's horizontal spinner

4: Witch Doctor's vertical spinner

3: End Game's vertical spinner

2: Hydra's flipper

1: Tombstone's horizontal spinner.

Kenny believes spinners are dominant, as they take up 6 of the top 10 and 4 of the top 5. My only real gripe would be Beta's hammer and Sawblaze's hammer saw. They typically don't do that much damage barring the occasional lucky shot. I do agree with Hydra being in the top 5, since that robot has the best chance of one-shotting an opponent by flipping them out of the ring.

Smee is one of those bots that I dislike from a style perspective. It's way too long, and you're almost certainly losing power trying to keep this thing going. There's a comment that Smee and Pain Train are using the exact same type and amount of batteries, but Smee is the biggest bot here (debatable) and Pain Train is the smallest.

The fight starts very slowly. pain Train is having driving issues. The problem (to me) seems to be that when they accelerate they rear up, which prevents them from getting under anyone. it's a design issue, not a floor issue. First significant blood comes when pain Train takes out one of Smee's spinners. However, a short time later Smee gets a hit on the front of Pain Trin and Pain Train's spinner comes completely off. Nothing significant happens after this and it goes to the judges. I'd give it to Pain train mostly on aggression. Judges come down with a split decision in favor of Pain Train.

Jameson of Sawblaze is one of the best drivers in the game. And for the most part that's actually how he wins his matches. The hammer saw seldom does significant damage. Alex of Uppercut used to be on Sablaze's team in 2018. They met at MIT where Jameson mentored Alex, and Jameson's girlfriend Lucy was Alex's TA. A lot of connection between the teams, and there's a "The apprentice may become the master" vibe.

The fight starts and within 10 seconds we have the answer. The apprentice strikes down the master. And this isn';t a long drawn out fight with a judges' decision at the end. The first solid hit almost ends it as Uppercut knocks them onto the rails. Sawblaze is able to get off but then another hit ruptures the tank for their flame and you actually have an explosion in the box. A few more hits and Sawblaze isn't moving.

Alex and Team Uppercut show that they are significant competition and in contention for the nut.


Episode 7

These are two bots that tend to have reliability issues. Let's see which one breaks down first.

They circle for a bit, the CS gets in the first solid hit. Both go flying but recover. There's some more hits, then CS gets one of AB's wheels. That ends the fight. Except apparently not for CS. When they go to the after fight interview CS is still spinning at top speed. This is apparently not intentional, and shows that reliability is still going to be an issue. From the sound of things they are actually waiting for the battery to die.

As Pendell indicated, this fight is short and brutal. P1 is so outclassed it is losing pieces before the fight begins (a spoiler fell off). Two hits seal the deal and Copperhead gets another victory. When asked who they wanted to take on, they call out Black Dragon (they used to compete against each other with 60 pound bots).

Beta is looking for a little redemption here. They won their first fight in a controversial decision where they never swung their hammer. They need to how that the bot actually works. Rusty is the cheapest bot of the bunch, but has become a fan favorite.

There's not too much to say about this fight. Beta pushes Rusty around slamming it into the sides. After one slam Rusty is having movement issues. Beta then hits it twice with the hammer, causing significant damage to the mailbox. Rusty isn't really moving at this point and is counted out.

Even more than Pendell I'm still not impressed with Beta. Rusty started having drive issues before Beta used the hammer, which basically dented up a mailbox. They have yet to show me that they can take on a top tier bot and use their weapon to effectiveness (note they only swung it twice).

Pendell summed this up, but left out the kicker. When Mammoth asks Hypershock to flip them over, they say "anything but the battery box". Two seconds later the battery box is a smoking wreck. Will says he's sorry, but he's smiling way too much.

Not much to add to this one. Subzero is another bot that still isn't that impressive, as the wins are against low tier bots. I suspect if they make the playoffs they'll be eliminated quickly.

99 times out of 100 a mini-bot makes no difference in a fight, and can often be a source of loss since destroying it is destroying some of the poundage of the other team. That 100th time though, it can make a big difference. Needle did for Tracer in this fight. This fight was all Tracer, and Bale Spear is almost certainly eliminated.

Interestingly Gruff is missing a wedglit at the front before the battle even starts. Not sure why they couldn't repair that. it seems simple, but what do I know?

The fight starts and it quickly apparent it is going to be Whiplash's fight to lose. They are pushing Gruff all over, and while they don't get many true flip they clearly control the fight. Gruff loses their flamethrowers in a small explosion fairly early on.

It gets a bit interesting at the 90 second mark when Whiplash starts smoking (overheating belts or motors I assume), but Gruff starts smoking a bit later. While Gruff did a little pushing and grappling, Whiplash dominates as the clock runs out. Whiplash gets the unanimous decision. An entertaining fight. And while both are worthy bots, Matt shows that he's one of the best drivers in the game.


Episode 8

Huge is still one of my favorites, even though it's had a poor season. I'm curious to see how Kraken can deal with them, since it seems like Kraken is one of the worst designs to do anything to Huge. But I've been wrong before.... And it looks like Kraken has made a modification to it's front: a small fork to push Huge around.

Well, I'm somewhat wrong. Kraken's modification works well at the beginning. They grab Huge and subject them to 20 seconds of flame. For a little bit it seems Kraken might pull this off. But then Huge starts landing hits, and armor starts flying. The fight goes the full 3 minutes, and while Kraken got another grapple on Huge, Huge has left pieces of Kraken all over the floor. My money is a unanimous decision for Huge... and I'm right.

Ribbot is my wife's favorite (she loves frogs) so I'm contractually obligated to root for him...which I would anyway.

Fight starts and Ribbot clearly dominates, pushing Axo around with big hits and it looks like Axo is dying. Ribbot goes for one more hit, and the force knocks the entire top of the frog off. Fortunately it appears mostly cosmetic and armor, as Ribbot is still functional. Axo is counted out, but it shows the danger of showboating.

Pendell summed this fight well. It's never really in doubt. Rotator starts off aggressive and just chips away at Big Dill. It takes a while but Big Dill is counted out. Honestly, this fight probably didn't help Rotator's playoff odds that much. It wasn't a spectacular win and it was against an opponent that hasn't impressed much itself.

This looks like the classic case of the boxer vs. the brawler. If Donald can chip away at Jackpot without getting nailed by that huge spinner, they'll win. But if the spinner connects once or twice, it's all over.

Unfortunately the boxer tries to out muscle the brawler at the beginning. There's a head to head clash and Lockjaw comes off the worst, losing their weapon. Now a pushbot, Lockjaw continues to slam into the front of Jackpot. My assumption is he's hoping to disable the weapon so they can be on even terms in a push match, nut he takes a fair amount of damage doing so and is smoking by the time jackpot's weapon stops working. The push match goes to jackpot as Lockjaw finally stops working.

Not much to add here. Chronos is a newer bot and I noticed that even at the beginning of the fight they had a long spinup time. That's the kiss of death for a bot. And I like that Bloodsport played it safe. A solid performance and good use of resources. The commentators commented on Chronos' durability, but it wasn't tested that strongly since Bloodsport chose to save the wear and tear.

A one hit fight that had the potential to take both bots out, but Fusion is able to recover. Having said that, this is not the first time they've had problems with catching on the floor. If they don't get that fixed then they won't go far (if they go at all).

Pendell summed up this battle excellently. I will add one comment though. I was surprised about the countdown because Skorpios was still engaged. If bot A is actively attacking bot B, then there's not a countdown. At least, that was the rule in previous seasons. Look like they took it out. I actually thought Skorpios could have gotten the countdown much earlier if they had backed off and let the refs see clearly that Tombstone was disabled.

[pendell]

Episode 9: Now or Never


The episode is so named because this is the last chance for some of these teams to qualify for the round of 32; others have to choose what they will risk for a better seed versus damage to the bot which will cause problems in later matches; the rest? They can still finish the season with their heads held high.

Captain Shred Vs. Shatter!

Captain S overcame Axe Backwards but lost to Lockjaw, as it proved ineffective once its primray was disabled. They need this one for a shot at the tournament.

Shatter
Shatter overcame Ghost Raptor but lost to Malice so is also coming into this fight hungry for a win. They have removed their decorative armor which gave them their name, as they believe the optics of shattering armour cost them damage points in their loss.

Fight's on!

They approach cautiously. Captain S chips away at Shatter, doing cosmetic damage. Shatter is trying to wait to slow CS down before dropping the hammer, but he needs to get something going soon or he'll lose on damage again. Decorative armor or no, bits of shatter are still being ripped off.

Captain S starts to struggle as it keeps hitting the wedge of Shatter. Shatter starts to deploy its hammer. Misses, flips itself, rights itself but now Captain Shred is smoking!

Captain Shred's primary is no longer functional and Shatter starts to connect with the hammer. Once. Twice. The fight is now favoring Shatter.

Shatter pins Captain S in the corner and hits repeatedly with the hammer, shattering the Captain's top, but the Captain is still mobile
as the timer runs out.

I'd give it to Shatter; they executed their game plan for perfection and dealt more damage as well.

They agree.

WINNER: Shatter , by decision (3-0)



Gigabyte vs. Claw Viper

Gigabyte was dissected by Copperhead but successfully overcame Extinguisher, a rookie. This is their last chance to show their stuff.

Claw Viper is incredibly fast. It missed the box rush against fellow rookie Hijinx but still out-drove to victory. This didn't work against black dragon. Again, very fast but again, missed the first hit. A veteran doesn't allow that kind of mistake, and Gigabyte is indeed a veteran. Going to be a tough match.

Fight's on! Claw Viper goes for the box rush and misses, allowing Gigabyte to spin up to full speed, the one thing you don't want a spinner to do. Some contact. Gigabyte knocked into the air but comes down intact. Meanwhile, Claw Viper looks like it's starting to have trouble driving.

Gigabyte hits hard for sparks twice and Claw Viper has more and more trouble; it looks like it is no longer an effective combatant but still technically mobile.

Claw Viper is lost a wheel and is under the pulverizer. It is immobile and counted out.

WINNER: Gigabyte by KO.



Chomp vs. Hijinx

CHOMP is our only walker, huge and heavy. It is 1-1 after an untelevised loss.

Hijinx is an experiment which lost to Claw Viper but won an untelevised fight. Let's see how it does against Chomp!

Fight's on!

Chomp steadily waddles into the center of the ring as Hijinx patiently spins up its blade to full speed.

First collision, no apparent damage. Second shot, Chomp's front is bent forward slightly. It deploys its hammer.

Hijinx strategy becomes obvious; Tempt Chomp to deploy the hammer, then dart in and slash the legs on the recovery. So far this is successful, but Chomp is still mobile.

Another hit bends Chomp's skirt, and now the legs can't move the bot. It is immobile, and is counted out.

WINNER: Hijinx, by KO.



Witch Doctor Vs. Slammow

Witch Doctor was last years' #2 but hasn't done nearly as well this year. They have to win this one; the selection committee may bring them in out of respect for their toughness and demonstrated capability, but they need at least one win.

Slammow decisively defeated Pain Train but must have lost an untelevised match, because it isn't listed in the undefeated column. A victory over WD would all but seal its place in the tournament.

Fight's on!

WD charges but it's weapon gets caught in Slammow's claws and does no damage.

Witch doctor can't reach through the front wedge to damage slammow. WD backs off to attempt to attack from the flanks, but Slammow keeps up with them.

WD hits for sparks and bits of Slammow go flying , but still functional. Slammow pushes WD into the corner and grabs witch doctor but WD escapes and turns to re-engage.

WD continues to hit for damage and Slammow's arms are barely functional, if they're functional at all.

Oh, dear. Now huge chunks of slammow are coming off and it looks far the worse for wear.

Slammow is crab-walking. WD lines up for a kill shot, but completely misses and rams right into the wall, very embarrassing for the man reputed to be one of the best drivers in the battlebox. But the error is irrelevant. Slammow is immobile and is counted out.

WINNER: Witch Doctor, by KO.


Extinguisher vs. Gruff

Extinguisher has lost twice: Once to Perfect Phoenix and once to Gigabyte, so as a rookie team they have no hope of advancing. It's ditched the hammer for a vertical spinner this time. It looks more dangerous this time.

Gruff has overcome hypershock and came very, very close in a decision against Whiplash in one of the more entertaining fights this season. I dare to say the result of such a skilled bot against a winless rookie team is almost a foregone conclusion, though of course it's also possible Gruff will get overconfident and lose.

The announcers try to set the expectation that Extinguisher can have a reputation if it "goes the distance"
against Gruff. So it's obvious their expectations are not high.

Fight's on!

Extinguisher gets a shot in but it's spinner spins down. Gruff gets a grip and has an extremely hard time but finally builds up the power to pull of the suplex, flipping extinguisher over.

Extinguisher's spinner is inactive while Gruff continues to attack, trying to do the flip again.

Gruff is smoking; it seems to have overexerted itself.

Gruff is helpless, but Extinguisher can't do anything to it except bump a little.

And there's the countdown. In this fight, Extinguisher didn't beat Gruff; Gruff beat itself. They pushed their engines too hard for too long and burned themselves out, in my view.

And that's why there's no such thing as a foregone conclusion in the battle box!

WINNER: Extinguisher, by KO.



Perfect Phoenix vs. Atom #94

Two disciples of Ray Billings compete with their spinners. Atom 94 has had a luckless season so far. PP has overcome one rookie and lost to a seasoned veteran. Let's see if PP can improve to 2-1 and have a shot at the tournament -- or whether Atom can salvage a victory to take home and make the people of India smile.


Fight's on!

First collisions. Atom is the heavier bot and sends PP flying like a frisbee, nearly out of the box, but it recovers! Atom's vertical disk spinner is now inoperative while PP is still working, but it can't take many more falls like that. It's anyone's match at this point!

PP has the operative weapon while Atom is disabled. PP continues to attack, hammering away, but now it stops in the middle of the floor. It's blade is inoperative and a great plume of smoke is coming out. Reduced to a push bot, it continues to attack relentlessly. The two wrestlers spar for the remainder of the bout until time expires.

PP starts to smoke badly just as the timer finishes.

Despite my favoritism for PP, I think I have to give it to them based on the fact they inflicted damage, while all the damage to PP was self-inflicted as it attacked Atom too vigorously. In all three categories -- Damage, Control, Aggression -- this match is PP's, in my opinion.

The judges agree.


WINNER: Perfect Phoenix, by decision (3-0)



Main Event: Copperhead vs. Black Dragon


Oh. OH. This should be good.

Copperhead has destroyed its way through to an undefeated record so far , impressive all the way. Now it's up to Black Dragon, similarly undefeated, which won a decision against Hydra and a KO against Claw Viper. These bots have both been really impressive so I think this will be a worthy main event!

Black Dragon has brought the "Eggbeater", their biggest and most powerful weapon, to minimize the chance of it breaking.

Copperhead voiced a wish to fight BD earlier in the season; now they get their wish!

Fight's on!

Copperhead doesn't move and BD gets a free hit in. But Copperhead comes back and hits HARD. It inverts Black Dragon which has difficulty using its weapon in this configuration. It hits again to flip it back over and this time a belt comes off of BD.

The Eggbeater on BD is no longer able to spin at combat speeds, flapping loosely. Copperhead is still fully functional, despite the destruction of a minibot, and it continues to hit hard, bouncing BD into the air.

Undeterred, BD uses its raw mass to punch back, and now Copperhead is having drive issues.

BD pushes Copperhead over the kill saws. Neither has a primary weapon active as time expires.


Very close. I'd give it to Copperhead, but I'm guessing this will be a split decision.


Nope, it's unanimous; they give it to Copperhead. The belt flying and the bouncing and the utter dominance in the early part of the match evidently made the difference.

WINNER: Copperhead, by decision (3-0)



Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

Episode 9: Now or Never


The episode is so named because this is the last chance for some of these teams to qualify for the round of 32; others have to choose what they will risk for a better seed versus damage to the bot which will cause problems in later matches; the rest? They can still finish the season with their heads held high.

Captain Shred Vs. Shatter!

Captain S overcame Axe Backwards but lost to Lockjaw, as it proved ineffective once its primray was disabled. They need this one for a shot at the tournament.

Shatter
Shatter overcame Ghost Raptor but lost to Malice so is also coming into this fight hungry for a win. They have removed their decorative armor which gave them their name, as they believe the optics of shattering armour cost them damage points in their loss.

Fight's on!

They approach cautiously. Captain S chips away at Shatter, doing cosmetic damage. Shatter is trying to wait to slow CS down before dropping the hammer, but he needs to get something going soon or he'll lose on damage again. Decorative armor or no, bits of shatter are still being ripped off.

Captain S starts to struggle as it keeps hitting the wedge of Shatter. Shatter starts to deploy its hammer. Misses, flips itself, rights itself but now Captain Shred is smoking!

Captain Shred's primary is no longer functional and Shatter starts to connect with the hammer. Once. Twice. The fight is now favoring Shatter.

Shatter pins Captain S in the corner and hits repeatedly with the hammer, shattering the Captain's top, but the Captain is still mobile
as the timer runs out.

I'd give it to Shatter; they executed their game plan for perfection and dealt more damage as well.

They agree.

WINNER: Shatter , by decision (3-0)



Gigabyte vs. Claw Viper

Gigabyte was dissected by Copperhead but successfully overcame Extinguisher, a rookie. This is their last chance to show their stuff.

Claw Viper is incredibly fast. It missed the box rush against fellow rookie Hijinx but still out-drove to victory. This didn't work against black dragon. Again, very fast but again, missed the first hit. A veteran doesn't allow that kind of mistake, and Gigabyte is indeed a veteran. Going to be a tough match.

Fight's on! Claw Viper goes for the box rush and misses, allowing Gigabyte to spin up to full speed, the one thing you don't want a spinner to do. Some contact. Gigabyte knocked into the air but comes down intact. Meanwhile, Claw Viper looks like it's starting to have trouble driving.

Gigabyte hits hard for sparks twice and Claw Viper has more and more trouble; it looks like it is no longer an effective combatant but still technically mobile.

Claw Viper is lost a wheel and is under the pulverizer. It is immobile and counted out.

WINNER: Gigabyte by KO.



Chomp vs. Hijinx

CHOMP is our only walker, huge and heavy. It is 1-1 after an untelevised loss.

Hijinx is an experiment which lost to Claw Viper but won an untelevised fight. Let's see how it does against Chomp!

Fight's on!

Chomp steadily waddles into the center of the ring as Hijinx patiently spins up its blade to full speed.

First collision, no apparent damage. Second shot, Chomp's front is bent forward slightly. It deploys its hammer.

Hijinx strategy becomes obvious; Tempt Chomp to deploy the hammer, then dart in and slash the legs on the recovery. So far this is successful, but Chomp is still mobile.

Another hit bends Chomp's skirt, and now the legs can't move the bot. It is immobile, and is counted out.

WINNER: Hijinx, by KO.



Witch Doctor Vs. Slammow

Witch Doctor was last years' #2 but hasn't done nearly as well this year. They have to win this one; the selection committee may bring them in out of respect for their toughness and demonstrated capability, but they need at least one win.

Slammow decisively defeated Pain Train but must have lost an untelevised match, because it isn't listed in the undefeated column. A victory over WD would all but seal its place in the tournament.

Fight's on!

WD charges but it's weapon gets caught in Slammow's claws and does no damage.

Witch doctor can't reach through the front wedge to damage slammow. WD backs off to attempt to attack from the flanks, but Slammow keeps up with them.

WD hits for sparks and bits of Slammow go flying , but still functional. Slammow pushes WD into the corner and grabs witch doctor but WD escapes and turns to re-engage.

WD continues to hit for damage and Slammow's arms are barely functional, if they're functional at all.

Oh, dear. Now huge chunks of slammow are coming off and it looks far the worse for wear.

Slammow is crab-walking. WD lines up for a kill shot, but completely misses and rams right into the wall, very embarrassing for the man reputed to be one of the best drivers in the battlebox. But the error is irrelevant. Slammow is immobile and is counted out.

WINNER: Witch Doctor, by KO.


Extinguisher vs. Gruff

Extinguisher has lost twice: Once to Perfect Phoenix and once to Gigabyte, so as a rookie team they have no hope of advancing. It's ditched the hammer for a vertical spinner this time. It looks more dangerous this time.

Gruff has overcome hypershock and came very, very close in a decision against Whiplash in one of the more entertaining fights this season. I dare to say the result of such a skilled bot against a winless rookie team is almost a foregone conclusion, though of course it's also possible Gruff will get overconfident and lose.

The announcers try to set the expectation that Extinguisher can have a reputation if it "goes the distance"
against Gruff. So it's obvious their expectations are not high.

Fight's on!

Extinguisher gets a shot in but it's spinner spins down. Gruff gets a grip and has an extremely hard time but finally builds up the power to pull of the suplex, flipping extinguisher over.

Extinguisher's spinner is inactive while Gruff continues to attack, trying to do the flip again.

Gruff is smoking; it seems to have overexerted itself.

Gruff is helpless, but Extinguisher can't do anything to it except bump a little.

And there's the countdown. In this fight, Extinguisher didn't beat Gruff; Gruff beat itself. They pushed their engines too hard for too long and burned themselves out, in my view.

And that's why there's no such thing as a foregone conclusion in the battle box!

WINNER: Extinguisher, by KO.



Perfect Phoenix vs. Atom #94

Two disciples of Ray Billings compete with their spinners. Atom 94 has had a luckless season so far. PP has overcome one rookie and lost to a seasoned veteran. Let's see if PP can improve to 2-1 and have a shot at the tournament -- or whether Atom can salvage a victory to take home and make the people of India smile.


Fight's on!

First collisions. Atom is the heavier bot and sends PP flying like a frisbee, nearly out of the box, but it recovers! Atom's vertical disk spinner is now inoperative while PP is still working, but it can't take many more falls like that. It's anyone's match at this point!

PP has the operative weapon while Atom is disabled. PP continues to attack, hammering away, but now it stops in the middle of the floor. It's blade is inoperative and a great plume of smoke is coming out. Reduced to a push bot, it continues to attack relentlessly. The two wrestlers spar for the remainder of the bout until time expires.

PP starts to smoke badly just as the timer finishes.

Despite my favoritism for PP, I think I have to give it to them based on the fact they inflicted damage, while all the damage to PP was self-inflicted as it attacked Atom too vigorously. In all three categories -- Damage, Control, Aggression -- this match is PP's, in my opinion.

The judges agree.


WINNER: Perfect Phoenix, by decision (3-0)



Main Event: Copperhead vs. Black Dragon


Oh. OH. This should be good.

Copperhead has destroyed its way through to an undefeated record so far , impressive all the way. Now it's up to Black Dragon, similarly undefeated, which won a decision against Hydra and a KO against Claw Viper. These bots have both been really impressive so I think this will be a worthy main event!

Black Dragon has brought the "Eggbeater", their biggest and most powerful weapon, to minimize the chance of it breaking.

Copperhead voiced a wish to fight BD earlier in the season; now they get their wish!

Fight's on!

Copperhead doesn't move and BD gets a free hit in. But Copperhead comes back and hits HARD. It inverts Black Dragon which has difficulty using its weapon in this configuration. It hits again to flip it back over and this time a belt comes off of BD.

The Eggbeater on BD is no longer able to spin at combat speeds, flapping loosely. Copperhead is still fully functional, despite the destruction of a minibot, and it continues to hit hard, bouncing BD into the air.

Undeterred, BD uses its raw mass to punch back, and now Copperhead is having drive issues.

BD pushes Copperhead over the kill saws. Neither has a primary weapon active as time expires.


Very close. I'd give it to Copperhead, but I'm guessing this will be a split decision.


Nope, it's unanimous; they give it to Copperhead. The belt flying and the bouncing and the utter dominance in the early part of the match evidently made the difference.

WINNER: Copperhead, by decision (3-0)



Respectfully,

Brian P.

More excellent commentary from Pendell.

Interestingly, one of the few times we see a hammer do significant damage. And it reinforces my beliefs about the Captain. People are actually basing strategy on the assumption it will malfunction. May be time to try a new design. I certainly agree Shatter won that fight.

Speed is wonderful, but only if you can control it. They either need to tone it down, or get a lot more practice. Even when working they tend to miss some easy shots.

Can't say I'm unhappy to see Chomp lose. They claim the weight increase is to allow the bot to be competitive. But if you have to double the weight to even have a shot, doesn't that inherently mean the design isn't good for freestyle combat? I've always considered it overrated, and if anything this season strengthen that.

Slammow was apparently undefeated, as they were 2/0 going into the match. In addition to the win over Pain Train, they won an untelevised match against War?EZ!

Witch Doctor needed an impressive win to have any shot at the round of 32. I don't know if this was impressive enough. The poor driving didn't help matters.

Yeah, this win won't do anything to help Extinguisher's reputation. 2 losses and a win that they did little to earn isn't impressing anyone. They have a long way to go.

This match (when compared to Shatter's) also shows that you can't rely on a wait and see mindset. By getting the damage in early, Perfect Phoenix was able to survive. If they hadn't taken out Atom's weapon, the match would be up in the air.


I figured it would go to Copperhead, but also expected the split decision. As always, damage is king and Coppertop inflicted the most (and most obvious) visual damage. Black Dragon hs nothing to be ashamed of though, and this was one of the better fights of the season. Both will make the round of 32. I expect Copperhead to be top 4 and Black Dragon to be top 8.

With that, one more week to see who can get into the round of 32. For some, it will be a last chance to impress the judges. For others, they are just gonna have to watch and hope particular bots win/lose.

Let's see how things are looking...

Robot Fight Record
Bloodsport 3–0
Copperhead 3–0
JackPot 3–0
MadCatter 3–0
Black Dragon 2–1
Fusion 2–1
Gigabyte 2–1
HiJinx* 2–1
Lock-Jaw 2–1
Malice 2–1
Mammoth* 2–1
Perfect Phoenix 2–1
Ribbot 2–1
Shatter! 2–1
Skorpios 2–1
SlamMow!* 2–1
SubZero 2–1
Beta 2–0
Hydra 2–0
Uppercut 2–0
Valkyrie 2–0
Big Dill 1–2
Captain Shrederator 1–2
Chomp* 1–2
Claw Viper 1–2
Extinguisher 1–2
Gruff 1–2
HUGE 1–2
Kraken 1–2
Rotator 1–2
Tombstone 1–2
Tracer* 1–2
War? EZ!* 1–2
Witch Doctor 1–2
Deadlift* 1–1
End Game 1–1
HyperShock 1–1
P1* 1–1
Pain Train 1–1
Rusty 1–1
SawBlaze 1–1
Slap Box 1–1
SMEEEEEEEEEEE 1–1
Tantrum 1–1
Whiplash 1–1
Atom #94 0–3
Ghost Raptor* 0–3
Axe Backwards 0–2
Axolotl* 0–2
Bale Spear* 0–2
Chronos* 0–2
Sharkoprion 0–2
Sporkinok 0–2
Aegis 0–1
Gamma 9 0–1
Gemini 0–1
GRABOT 0–1
Black Widow –
Rampage –

* means they had one or more untelevised fights.

What's hard to tell with the available info is how many of the bots that have only had one match so far is a result of damage severe enough to remove them from competition. Black Widow and Rampage were apparently accepted but never fought.

[Tvtyrant]

Gruff Vs. Hypershock

Gruff is a lifter/grappler with a torch , a lot of durability,
and a terrific driver.

Hypershock is a vigorous contender bringing a vertical spinner.

The match starts; the get into it and Gruff feeds it its flame.
Hypershock's vertical stops and this time Gruff takes it for ride and breathes fire again . Hypershock stops dead. Has flame finally succeeded in taking out a bot?

WINNER: Gruff by KO.




Respectfully,

Brian P.
I went back and watched this one after Gruff's loss. This is literally the only time I have ever seen a flamethrower work.

[DaedalusMkV]

I went back and watched this one after Gruff's loss. This is literally the only time I have ever seen a flamethrower work.

Complete Control managed it a couple of times, most notably against Bombshell where Bombshell wound up suspended in the air being roasted by the flamethrower for about 30 seconds. That was one of the more impressive results I've ever seen out of a non-spinner design. IIRC, you could see molten plastic dripping out of Bombshell's interior by the end of that. Pretty sure no bot could have survived that one; all its internal wiring would have been pretty much obliterated, and the battery was probably wrecked too. Pretty sure Bombshell needed a complete rebuild afterwards.

The problem with flamethrowers has always been maintaining contact for long enough to start melting the bot's interior components. Gruff's looks a lot more intense than most, and it certainly seemed to cause some huge problems for Hypershock, but with no way to hold the opponent in place it's probably only going to really matter against 'bots that already struggle with heat problems. Which, admittedly, is most spinners, so you could do worse on that front.

[Tvtyrant]

Complete Control managed it a couple of times, most notably against Bombshell where Bombshell wound up suspended in the air being roasted by the flamethrower for about 30 seconds. That was one of the more impressive results I've ever seen out of a non-spinner design. IIRC, you could see molten plastic dripping out of Bombshell's interior by the end of that. Pretty sure no bot could have survived that one; all its internal wiring would have been pretty much obliterated, and the battery was probably wrecked too. Pretty sure Bombshell needed a complete rebuild afterwards.

The problem with flamethrowers has always been maintaining contact for long enough to start melting the bot's interior components. Gruff's looks a lot more intense than most, and it certainly seemed to cause some huge problems for Hypershock, but with no way to hold the opponent in place it's probably only going to really matter against 'bots that already struggle with heat problems. Which, admittedly, is most spinners, so you could do worse on that front.

I do wonder about the flamethrower design. Is there a rule that they have to be mounted high? Because the obvious attack angle to me is to melt the rubber/plastic wheels, but that doesn't seem to be anyone's approach.

Oh this explains a lot

"Section 7. Flames
Flame outputs are intended for showmanship only and are not considered to be an Active
Weapon, as defined below.
a. Flame Output Requirements
Flame outputs are subject to the following:
• Only pure propane, pure butane, or a combination of the two can be used.
• Total gas storage per bot (or a Multi-Bot combination) is limited to 16.4 ounces.
• All gas storage tanks must be protected with armor.
• The gas cannot be deliberately heated or cooled.
• The flame effect can be reliably started and stopped at will using the remote control.
• The maximum length of the flame is 4 feet, regardless of the pointing direction.
• The length and angle limits of the flame must be adjustable.
• Flames from Flybots must be aimed vertically downward.
• At maximum gas flow, the flame can’t operate for more than 1 minute total time.
Note that the 4-foot flame length requirement will be strictly enforced, with potentially serious
consequences for bots with flames exceeding this limit. BattleBots officials reserve the right to
test a bot at any time to verify the flame length.
Refer to the Tournament Rules for more details"

[Traab]

Im guessing its primarily about the explosion risk of setting off an oversized tank for a ten foot flame that can actually carve through metal. And maybe the damage of melting the battlebox and releasing poison fumes. Burning the floor while trying to melt tires is probably bad.

[Tvtyrant]

Im guessing its primarily about the explosion risk of setting off an oversized tank for a ten foot flame that can actually carve through metal. And maybe the damage of melting the battlebox and releasing poison fumes. Burning the floor while trying to melt tires is probably bad.

Yeah I imagine that rubber matting they use isn't very healthy to breath. One of the waiver rules is they can just kick everyone out and let your bot burn to the ground without asking you if something goes really wrong and they fear lithium or lead battery fumes.

[Arcane_Secrets]

I went back and watched this one after Gruff's loss. This is literally the only time I have ever seen a flamethrower work.

I've seen it work a couple of other times. I think it was Complete Control that was a combo lifter/flamethrower that picked up the opposition and completely roasted them because it was able to hold them still and concentrate the fire. Warhead v. Obwalden Overlord had Warhead completely melt the shield and make the bot completely stationary, but Obwalden was a really bad design anyways.

[pendell]

Battlebots Episode 10: Qualify! Or Wave Goodbye!

Wait, what? We're STILL in the qualification rounds? I thought this was over last week! Ugh.

Hydra vs. Uppercut

Hydra, the flipper, takes on the spinner Uppercut.

The battle starts. Hydra gets stuck on the floor, but recovers and flips Uppercut onto its back, which proceeds to drive around one one wheel. While it rights itself, Hydra goes after Uppercut's nuisance bot and destroys it for damage points.

Now Uppercut is squared off and they are ready to face each other again.

Hydra flips Uppercut twice more, landing once on its weapon, but it recovers and finally hits hydra in the side for sparks. Both bots are very tough; they aren't going down easily.

Again and again Hydra flips uppercut, but it is still fully mobile. Uppercut goes into the screws but comes out again. Its weapon is still spinning although perhaps not at full speed. That's one tough bot!

Hydra is cautious now but Upper cut darts in and hits him, but no serious damage. Two more flips and time expires.

I think the judges will give this one to Hydra.

And they do.

WINNER: Hydra, by decision (3-0)



Rusty vs. Sawblaze

Fight's on. Rusty comes out and Sawblaze immediately takes the bot in the flank and hits Rusty with his saw in a letter-perfect execution of what Sawblaze is built for.

Sawblaze keeps up the pressure and a shower of sparks erupts for several seconds as it bites into Rusty, making the battlebox look like a welder's workshop. It drives Rusty to the screws.

Sawblaze cuts again. We can see the blade visibly cutting into Rusty's thick metal.

Rusty doesn't seem to be doing much, though it is still mobile.

Back into the screws. Rusty is on its side and should be out, but Sawblaze rights it and hits again with the saw.

Rusty continues to move even though Sawblaze cuts huge gashes and flames. Again, Rusty is knocked over but Sawblaze flips him over agin and continues to cut in.

Rusty's top is dented by the sledgehammer but
it still keeps moving and finally the
clock counts down.

Really, there's no question who won this won, but Rusty wins an honorable victory for being so tough to take so much damage and still keep moving. The crowd is cheering for Rusty even though he didn't win.

WINNER: Sawblaze, by decision (3-0)



Tantrum vs. Gamma 9

Tantrum hits Gamma 9 and wins the control battle, pushing him into the corner and then into the screws.

Gamma 9 seems to be having control issues.

Tantrum's weapon sounds like a jet engine as it thrusts Gamma 9 into the side of the box right in front of the ref. It hits again and bits of Gamma 9 goes flying.

Another hit and Gamma 9 is flipped but self-rights.

More hits and Gamma 9 at last stops moving. It is counted out just before the clock expires.

WINNER: Tantrum , by KO.



End game vs. Hypershock

These bots are really good. I anticipate.

But the match doesn't last long at all. Endgame charges right into the action. One, two, three hits and then Hypershock is stuffed out of the battle box , it's self-righting mechanism jammed open. Thus trapped, it cannot move and is counted out.

I double-checked and this is almost exactly the same thing that happened to Tombstone at Endgame's hands. That was also a really powerful spinner knocked out of the box and unable to recover. So Tombstone doesn't have to feel bad; seems Endgame is the new kid on the block! If they don't get a really high seed after such impressive victories I will be very surprised.


WINNER: Endgame, by KO.


Smeeee vs P1

P1 goes right to the middle of smee, picks it up by the tape, and throws one half of Smeeeeee out of the box. That should be KO but we're not done yet; P1 brings Smee back into the box and does the same move again. Smee gets a bite or two into P1 but P1 continues to dominate the fight, again picking up Smee by the tape and attempting -- but not quite succeeding -- in throwing it out of the ring again.

That's it. Smeee is inverted on top of the screws and immobile. Counted out with just seconds left in the fight.

With all respect to the builders and their effort to put out such an innovative bot, I hope they don't bring this design back next year. As with Gemini, two small bots simply don't stack up to one full-size powerful bot. You're simply begging for defeat in detail.

WINNER: P1, by KO.


Beta vs. Grabot

Grabot has drive issues immediately. Beta takes its time and takes control , driving Grabot around the box.

The announcers ask : "When is Beta going to fire that hammer? "

Finally, it does. Pushing Grabot into the corner it lines up squarely and lands two solid hits from the hammer, denting the top of Grabot. Grabot is still mobile but seems helpless; it hasn't been effective since the start of the match.

Beta drives around and carefully lands up grabot in the corner before hitting twice more. They hurt; I can practically feel the impact from here.

Grabot is now crabwalking but Beta moves in and delivers six consecutive hammer strikes. Grabot is now smoking and crab-walking.

We're still waiting.

The announcers speak up: "Oh just count 'em down for **** sakes!"

And right then the countdown finally starts up and we're done.

Beta is a very conservative drive. I appreciate the skill with which he moves his bot and lines up his shot, but I think that's going to cost him against a more veteran bot. If they can damage beta sufficiently Beta will never have a chance to use its hammer. I don't see them making it to the finals, though they will definitely be in the top 32 with a 3-0 record.

WINNER: Beta, by KO.




MAIN EVENT: Whiplash vs. Valkyrie

Whiplash rushes Valkyrie immediately and hits hard, but Valkyrie counters almost immediately. Whiplash comes in again!


Whiplash's wedge proves stronger than Valkyrie's weapon which is disabled. Whiplash tries to throw Valkyrie out of the battlebox over the screws but can't quite manage it; Valkyrie is too far forward and the lifter can't get enough leverage.

For the rest of the fight Whiplash tries vainly to flip Valkyrie out but Whiplash is not Hydra; it does not have the strength. Time expires. With bits of Valkyrie all over the box now, there's no question of the decision even though Valkyrie is still mobile at the end.

WINNER: Whiplash, by decision (3-0)


Now that the last fight is over, they will announce the lineup for the round of 32!


GROUP 4: TOP SEED: UPPERCUT (#4).

Uppercut vs.. Hijinx
Beta vs. Ribbot
Black Dragon vs. Slammow
Madcatter vs Tombstone.

Tombstone is ranked 21, not surprising after a 1-2 season. Still, that's gotta leave a mark.


GROUP 3: TOP SEED: COPPERHEAD( #3)

Copperhead vs. Mammoth
Lock-jaw vs. Shatter!
End game vs. Perfect Phoenix
Jackpot vs. Rotator


GROUP 2: TOP SEED: BLOODSPORT (#2)
Bloodsport vs. Gruff
Fusion vs. Tantrum
Sawblaze vs. Kraken
Skorpios vs. Witch Doctor.

This is Bloodsport's first year but they're already the #2 seed! Great job guys!


GROUP 1: TOP SEED: HYDRA (#1)
Hydra vs. Hypershock (#32)
Malice vs. Gigabyte
Whiplash vs. Huge
Valkyrie vs. Subzero





Respectfully,

Brian P.

[pendell]

Episode 11: Survive and Advance

Now that the qualifiers are over,
we are now into the single elimination tournament.

No desperado tournament this year; too bad, I thought that was a neat idea.

Madcatter vs. Tombstone

Fight's on. Madcatter charges and misses. Tombstone swings its blade and squares on. Mad catter cant approach without being bit. Pieces of mad catter start to litter the battlebox, but they do manage to toss Tombstone into the air once and a second time Tombstone runs straight into the screws in an own-goal. Even so, both bots remain fully functional and deadly.

Madcatter's weapon is inoperative and it is now driving in circles.

Tombstone nips off a bit of madcatter's armor and it crawls forward a few steps and is counted out. That's it for Madcatter. I know some here won't be sorry to see the captain with the pro wrestling persona exit.

I'm not really surprised. So far Ray has been beaten twice, both times by being flipped out of the ring, and Madcatter's vertical spinner didn't really seem up to that job.

WINNER: Tombstone, by KO.



Uppercut vs. Hijinx

The fight is over before it starts. The blades of Uppercut and Hijinx almost immediately connect and BOTH robots go flying. Uppercut is knocked end over end and for a minute it's anyone's guess whether it will be able to recover or not, but after a few seconds they finally come under control and resume movement.

Hijinx is not so lucky; it has been stuffed out of the arena and cannot recover.

WINNER: Uppercut, by KO.


Black Dragon vs. Slammow

Black Dragon brings a dual vertical spinner this time.

Slammow is from Raleigh, so I suppose I have to root for them. I don't see how this is going to work , though. Black Dragon is torugh.
It's a grappler today with a wedge to save it from BD's spinner.

Fight's on. Slammow gets underneath and attempts, but fails, to lift black dragon. That's all they've got. BD cuts into them repeatedly with the spinner, knocking them over, and now some of Slammow's belt is on the floor.
Slammow is knocked over and immovable. It is counted out and the crowd is excited as Black Dragon chalks up its first victory. Evidently you need more than a St. George icon painted on the front to slay a dragon!

We hear Slammow's Captain: "Nearly had 'em; sick of nearly having people."

WINNER: Black Dragon , by KO.


Beta Vs. Ribbot

Beta adds an armor piercing attachment to the hammer for this one in order to penetrate Ribbot's soft top.

Looks like a vertical spinner with wedglets for ribbot. Beta is heavily favored.

Fight's on!

They come together and beta's weapon choice, as well as his lack of aggression, begin to tell. Ribbot closes and, while Beta holds fire, Ribbot knocks Beta repeatedly over , into the screws. Almost out of the box, but Beta levers itself back in with its hammer. It fires off a shot at Ribbot which seems to do no damage, while ribbot continues to hit him, and know bits of Beta's armour are hanging loose.

Beta is immobile. The countdown starts.

Beta takes their hands off the controller. It's over.

WINNER: Ribbot, by KO.



Whiplash vs. Huge

Whiplash charges in and attempts to flip or damage huge and takes some damage from huge's blade when it does so. Whiplash easily controls the pace of the fight but neither bought is able to deliver serious damage as the timer counts down.

I have to give this one to Whiplash. The damage looked about even and Whiplash had all the control and aggression points.

The expert says he sees a lot of bits of Huge on the floor so he would give it to Whiplash too in all three categories.

The judges concur.


WINNER: Whiplash, ,by decision (3-0)


Valkyrie vs. Sub-Zero

Before the fight, Sub-Zero's driver says his objective is to flip Valkyrie out of the arena. "If they get around us, we're done".

So it proves. In the first collision Sub-Zero NEARLY knocks Valkyrie out of the box but she bounces back. Then she starts in with the blade. At first Sub-Zero is able to keep the armour squared up to the blade but at last falters. Valkyrie gets around to the side, then to the rear, rips off Sub-Zero's back panel and at last shuts Sub-Zero down.

WINNER: Valkyrie, by KO.


Malice Vs. Gigabyte

The fight starts and Malice is at a disadvantage; it can't reach Gigabytes lower weapon and any approach causes Gigabyte to hit first. Malice charges and is instantly bounced back. What else has she got?

Gigabyte takes control of the fight and lands shot after shot, then retreats to the center of the box and Malice follow. Malice is now experiencing drive issues and may be crab-walking.

Malice now has only one working wheel. Malice
baits Gigabyte in with a masterful move and uses Gigabytes own energy to send it across the box, but it isn't enough. Malice has only one working wheel and is circling. The countdown starts ... and finishes. That's it.


WINNER: Gigabyte, by KO.



Hydra vs. Hypershock

Some brilliant driving by both teams. Then Hypershock lands a hit and Hydra retaliates by flipping Hypershock end over end! Hypershock is upside down now but still just as deadly as right side up.

Another flip and Hypershock is right side up again. A third flip and Hypershock's weapon is disabled but it is still very, very mobile.

Again and again Hydra flips Hypershock. Flip 8 is especially impressive, nearly the length of the battlebox, and another belt falls off of hypershock.

After flip 9 hypershock is no longer moving but Hydra keeps after him. Finally, on flip 13 , Hydra stuffs Hypershock out of the battlebox and proves why Hydra is the #1 seed this year.


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

Episode 11: Survive and Advance

Now that the qualifiers are over,
we are now into the single elimination tournament.

No desperado tournament this year; too bad, I thought that was a neat idea.

Madcatter vs. Tombstone

Fight's on. Madcatter charges and misses. Tombstone swings its blade and squares on. Mad catter cant approach without being bit. Pieces of mad catter start to litter the battlebox, but they do manage to toss Tombstone into the air once and a second time Tombstone runs straight into the screws in an own-goal. Even so, both bots remain fully functional and deadly.

Madcatter's weapon is inoperative and it is now driving in circles.

Tombstone nips off a bit of madcatter's armor and it crawls forward a few steps and is counted out. That's it for Madcatter. I know some here won't be sorry to see the captain with the pro wrestling persona exit.

I'm not really surprised. So far Ray has been beaten twice, both times by being flipped out of the ring, and Madcatter's vertical spinner didn't really seem up to that job.

WINNER: Tombstone, by KO.



Uppercut vs. Hijinx

The fight is over before it starts. The blades of Uppercut and Hijinx almost immediately connect and BOTH robots go flying. Uppercut is knocked end over end and for a minute it's anyone's guess whether it will be able to recover or not, but after a few seconds they finally come under control and resume movement.

Hijinx is not so lucky; it has been stuffed out of the arena and cannot recover.

WINNER: Uppercut, by KO.


Black Dragon vs. Slammow

Black Dragon brings a dual vertical spinner this time.

Slammow is from Raleigh, so I suppose I have to root for them. I don't see how this is going to work , though. Black Dragon is torugh.
It's a grappler today with a wedge to save it from BD's spinner.

Fight's on. Slammow gets underneath and attempts, but fails, to lift black dragon. That's all they've got. BD cuts into them repeatedly with the spinner, knocking them over, and now some of Slammow's belt is on the floor.
Slammow is knocked over and immovable. It is counted out and the crowd is excited as Black Dragon chalks up its first victory. Evidently you need more than a St. George icon painted on the front to slay a dragon!

We hear Slammow's Captain: "Nearly had 'em; sick of nearly having people."

WINNER: Black Dragon , by KO.


Beta Vs. Ribbot

Beta adds an armor piercing attachment to the hammer for this one in order to penetrate Ribbot's soft top.

Looks like a vertical spinner with wedglets for ribbot. Beta is heavily favored.

Fight's on!

They come together and beta's weapon choice, as well as his lack of aggression, begin to tell. Ribbot closes and, while Beta holds fire, Ribbot knocks Beta repeatedly over , into the screws. Almost out of the box, but Beta levers itself back in with its hammer. It fires off a shot at Ribbot which seems to do no damage, while ribbot continues to hit him, and know bits of Beta's armour are hanging loose.

Beta is immobile. The countdown starts.

Beta takes their hands off the controller. It's over.

WINNER: Ribbot, by KO.



Whiplash vs. Huge

Whiplash charges in and attempts to flip or damage huge and takes some damage from huge's blade when it does so. Whiplash easily controls the pace of the fight but neither bought is able to deliver serious damage as the timer counts down.

I have to give this one to Whiplash. The damage looked about even and Whiplash had all the control and aggression points.

The expert says he sees a lot of bits of Huge on the floor so he would give it to Whiplash too in all three categories.

The judges concur.


WINNER: Whiplash, ,by decision (3-0)


Valkyrie vs. Sub-Zero

Before the fight, Sub-Zero's driver says his objective is to flip Valkyrie out of the arena. "If they get around us, we're done".

So it proves. In the first collision Sub-Zero NEARLY knocks Valkyrie out of the box but she bounces back. Then she starts in with the blade. At first Sub-Zero is able to keep the armour squared up to the blade but at last falters. Valkyrie gets around to the side, then to the rear, rips off Sub-Zero's back panel and at last shuts Sub-Zero down.

WINNER: Valkyrie, by KO.


Malice Vs. Gigabyte

The fight starts and Malice is at a disadvantage; it can't reach Gigabytes lower weapon and any approach causes Gigabyte to hit first. Malice charges and is instantly bounced back. What else has she got?

Gigabyte takes control of the fight and lands shot after shot, then retreats to the center of the box and Malice follow. Malice is now experiencing drive issues and may be crab-walking.

Malice now has only one working wheel. Malice
baits Gigabyte in with a masterful move and uses Gigabytes own energy to send it across the box, but it isn't enough. Malice has only one working wheel and is circling. The countdown starts ... and finishes. That's it.


WINNER: Gigabyte, by KO.



Hydra vs. Hypershock

Some brilliant driving by both teams. Then Hypershock lands a hit and Hydra retaliates by flipping Hypershock end over end! Hypershock is upside down now but still just as deadly as right side up.

Another flip and Hypershock is right side up again. A third flip and Hypershock's weapon is disabled but it is still very, very mobile.

Again and again Hydra flips Hypershock. Flip 8 is especially impressive, nearly the length of the battlebox, and another belt falls off of hypershock.

After flip 9 hypershock is no longer moving but Hydra keeps after him. Finally, on flip 13 , Hydra stuffs Hypershock out of the battlebox and proves why Hydra is the #1 seed this year.


Respectfully,

Brian P.



This was vintage Tombstone. Circle your opponent and take pieces off him. And yes, I'm one of the ones very glad to see the personality gone!

This fight was over in about the same amount of time it takes to read Pendell's comments. Uppercut is probably the most brutal vertical spinner in the competition. I expect them to make it to the semi-finals.

Slammow! (don't forget the !) has a problem with it's self-righter/lifter. Specifically, when it's up and back, the bot rears up exposing the belly. They need to shift weight forward so that doesn't happen. I agree that Black Dragon dominated this fight.


Needless to say, my wife (who loves frogs) is estatic that Ribbot won. I'm pleased as well. This fight convinces me that Beta didn't deserve the decision they got during the qualifiers. Again, they barely use the hammer. I could MAYBE understand the caution before (not agree but understand), but these are one and done. So what are you waiting for?

Whiplash's strategy was to stay under Huge and keep the blade from spinning. And for the most part it works. There's a few times Huge is able to get some speed, but generally their blade is barely moving. Whiplash gets (and deserves) the victory. Incidentally, this is the only fight that went the distance.

Valkyrie has had reliability issues in previous seasons but those seem to be under control. Other than that first hit, they dominated this fight.

Malice knew the angle of Gigabyte's shell was going to be an issue. It looked like they were hoping that hits would eventually stop it from rotating, but that didn't happen.

Poor Hypershock. They are a perpetual "almost" bot. They almost get things right, but reliability always rears it's head. I wasn't surprised at all that their weapon stopped working. Hydra demonstrated why they are the first seed, and the deadliest flipper bot in the game. Even Bronco at it's best wasn't this devistating.


My predictions for the rest of the round of 32....

Bloodsport v. Gruff: I'm gonna buck the bracket and go with Gruff. I don't recall Bloodsport taking on a bot that is this tough, and I suspect Gruff will be able to close and take a hit or two to grapple with Bloodsport.

Fusion V. Tantrum: This is a hard one. Both bots were 2-1. The wins for both bots were knockouts (Fusion averages a knock out in about half the time of Tantrum). And both bots only had wins against lower tier bots (none of which made the bracket themselves). Honestly, the only reason why one will make the round of 16 is because they are up against each other. Otherwise, I suspect it would be one and done. I'll give it to Fusion because their weapon seems a bit more effective.

SawBlaze v. Kraken: I'm giving this one to SawBlaze. Kraken was 1-2 instead of 2-1 like SawBlaze, and while they may have faced a slightly tougher field they had no knockouts.

Skorpios v. Witch Doctor: Definitely Skorpios. WD may be a fan favorite, but they took a big step back this season. Only one win, and that was against Slammow! Most seasons (except last one) they are a bad luck team, and this season looks the same.

Copperhead v. Mammoth: This should be Copperhead all the way. They were 3-0 and faced tougher competition. The only issue I see is that it might be tough for them to get a solid hit against the frame of Mammoth.

Lock Jaw v. Shatter!: Another tough match to call. Both were 2-1 with one knockout, and neither faced particularly stiff competition. Lock Jaw is the better driver, but Shatter! is faster. I'll give it to Lock Jaw IF he can avoid some of the reliability issues that seem to come up at bad times.

End Game v. Perfect Phoenix: A real heart/mind conflict hear. I really want Phoenix to win, because I love the idea of a two man team that weighs less combined than their bot. However, while both are 2-1 End Game faced much stiffer competition, and took out Tombstone. So this should be End Game's fight (damn it!).

JackPot V. Rotator: JackPot is another 3-0 bot, although the only serious competition they faced was Lock Jaw. Rotator went 1-2, and their only win was against a low tier bot (Big Dill). I actually suspect Rotator got in more for last season's performance that this one's. I'll give it to JackPot.


And my predictions for the first half of the Round of 16....

Hydra v. Gigabyte: No shock here, this should be Hydra's fight all the way. I suspect the second flip will stop Gigabyte from spinning. Honestly, to me the bet is whether this goes more than a minute.

Whiplash v. Valkyrie: Both are 3-1 (were they participating in Bounty Hunters?). Valkyrie has one more knockout, but Whiplash beat Valkyrie in a JD match this season. I'm gonna give it to Whiplash. Better driver (so far) and Valkyrie sometimes has maneuvering problems because of the design.

Uppercut v. Ribbot: Another heart/head moment. Logically this is Uppercut's fight all the way. They are one of the most powerful spinners in the bracket. But for the sake of my marriage I'll be rooting for Ribbot to pull off the upset.

Black Dragon v. Tombstone: Black Dragon is tougher and has a better record. Tombstone hits harder (which can damage itself as well as an opponent), and was also 1-2 in the prelims (he apparently also won a Bounty match). I'm going to say Black Dragon.

[Tvtyrant]

I feel like Gruff got robbed here a bit, not going to life. Blood Sport basically just push botted the whole time, gruff caught and burned it twice.

Skropios' body did really well, they couldn't make up for the loss of their primary weapon.

Mammoth pulls of a big upset here, it was a really good match overall. Copper head drove well, but couldn't hit anything important and got tossed a lot.

Oh hey, Kraken might be the only bot that can drive on one wheel. That's really impressive, even if they were beaten soundly.

[pendell]

Responses to TvTyrant's comments inline:


Episode 12: We're beast slayin' tonight!


Lockjaw (#14) vs. Shatter! (#19)

Lockjaw has added top armour to protect it from
Shatter's vertical strike.

Shatter has added their ablative armour back and have added forks to slow down Lockjaw's weapon strikes.

Fight's on!

Lockjaw starts a strategic opening, drives around lockjaw to get their spinner up to speed, and then approaches, striking Shatter's front for some sparks.

A little more driving, but Shatter! finally hits with its hammer. I hope Beta is paying attention --- THIS is how a hammer bot is supposed to be driven!

Shatter! scores repeated hits on Lockjaw. For its part, Lockjaw's spinner doesn't seem to be able to come into proper contact with any part of Shatter! that matters.

Bits of Lockjaw go flying, and now Shatter!'s hammer appears to be stuck inside Lockjaw for a few seconds.

Lockjaw, apparently inverted, backs up, spins itself around and to land -- upside down? Rightside up? Either way it's deliberate on Captain Donald Hudson's part.

Now smoke pours out of lockjaw. It's motor is burning up.

Now Lockjaw is immobile in the center of the box. Shatter! moves in and delivers one more punishing blow, and the countdown starts. That's it.

WINNER: Shatter! (by KO)



Jackpot (#11) vs. Rotator (#22)

Jackpot has removed their self-righting mechanism to add a plow which will contest Rotater's blade. The announcers are concerned. For a bot that succeeded by being simple, this is additional complexity and a gamble on Jackpot's part.

Rotator has brought its large blade and plans on a very offensive battle, avoiding weapon-to-weapon hits.

Fight's on!

Jackpot starts out, shoving with the wedge on the rear then turning around to strike with the great blade on the front. This works, and rotator is hit, but Rotator returns , adjusts , and begins hitting for sparks as well.

Then one huge hit and both bots go spinning. Jackpot lands upside down, and with no self-righting mechanism is out of the fight.

Lesson learned: NEVER EVER discard your self-righting mechanism. Not unless you're Captain Shredderator which is the same upside down or right side up.

WINNER: Rotator (by KO)


Perfect Phoenix (#27) vs. End Game (#6)

Ray Billing steps in behind the young Tyler captaining PP. He's apparently been giving help with quick rebuilds of the bot and has some incentive to see this one go well: Endgame beat Tombstone earlier in the regular season.

Fight's on!

The two bots approach but at first neither bot can damage the other -- PP's spinner is foiled by End Game's bumpers while Endgame's own blade is too far back for weapon to weapon combat. End game is the more powerful bot, however, and shoves PP into the side of the battle box.

Two more hits , and Perfect Phoenix is upside down on top of the screws. I assume it will be dumped off in a second or two.

The screws reverse, but PP isn't completely off and is immobile. That's it. PP is counted out.

WINNER: End Game (by KO)




Copperhead (#3) vs. Mammoth (#30)

Mammoth is concerned their weapon is not ideal, but it's the part they have available at this point. He doesn't seem very confident.

Copperhead tells us they are going to attempt a hit-and-run strategy, hit at the sides, avoid Mammoth's weapon.

Fight's on!

So much for Copperhead's plan. As soon as the bell rings they charge right into each other for a weapon-to-weapon hit. Mammoth seems to take the worst of it.

Mammoth hits copperhead hard, and copperhead retaliates. This is quite a punching fight!

Copperhead's weapon is now inoperative, and I'm not sure Mammoth's is much better.

Time expires. Knock it off.

I think Damage was about even, so I'll give it to Mammoth on control points.

Copperhead's team congratulates Mammoth; win or lose, that was a great performance by the
#30 seed against the #3!

The announcers tell us copperhead did damage at the start of the fight and their drum spinner came back after 45 seconds , when it did damage again, so there's a case to be made for Copperhead on the basis of damage.

It's a split decision, but the judges give it to Mammoth.

Agree with TvTyrant.

WINNER: Mammoth , by decision (2-1)



Sawblaze (#7) vs. Kraken (#26)

Sawblaze has increased the speed of its weapon to the maximum allowed -- 250mph (402 kph)

Fight's on!

Sawblaze hits Kraken, knocks it into the screws, Then lands another shot. Unbowed, Kraken pivots and grabs Sawblazes weapon in its teeth. Exactly what they wanted to do.

Okay, now what? Kraken reminds me of a dog that having chased a car, actually caught it.

30 seconds of clamping but Sawblazes AR 550 weapon resists the crushing pressure of Kraken. Kraken releases, Sawblaze promptly hits Kraken, then drives it into the corner and hits again. Kraken loses a wheel.

Sawblaze hits again. Kraken is moving -- barely -- on one wheel, but is at Sawblaze's mercy. Sawblaze, meanwhile, seems to have lost the function of its primary weapon and is reduced to a pushbot. Even so, the damage it has already done should be more than enough to give it the judge's decision.

Time expires.

In my mind there is no question: Sawblaze wins this one on raw damage.

They agree.

Agree with TvTyrant: Kraken is a tough bot but they need something to do damage with. That bite attack seems kind of awkward.


WINNER: Sawblaze, by decision (3-0)


Bloodsport (#2) vs. Gruff (#31)

Gruff is designed to take on horizontal spinners like Bloodsport, but the announcers credit Bloodsport with really incredible driving skill.

Blood expects a judge's decision -- Gruff is tough so they will be careful in their damage dealing, so that they don't destroy themselves on Gruff's tough body.

Fight's on!

Blood sport avoids, gets up to full speed, comes in .. POW! THe collision knocks both bots to the other side of the box, and Bloodsports three bladed weapon now has only two blades! The announcers declare it inoperable, which means the fight is now Gruff's to lose. Gruff grabs on and lets Bloodsport taste its flame!

Gruff has lost a prong, but the other is still functional and almost flips Bloodsport.

Gruff is having some problems and Bloodsport is demonstrating some great control now. They push Gruff under the pulverizer but Bloodsport takes a hit from the other one as well.

Gruff rips off one of Bloodsport's wedges, and then time expires.

I think Gruff wins this one on damage.

The judges disagree. They give it to Bloodsport. I suppose because the damage to the blade was not caused by the primary weapon.

No, that wasn't why. Judge Jason, who scored the battle for Bloodsport, explained that while Bloodsport lost half its primary weapon, Gruff also lot half its weapon and crippled it's drive; damage to the drive counts more with this judge than damage to the weapon, so he scored it for Bloodsport, though he acknowledges it was a very close call.

TV tyrant: I disagree. As the judge outlined, Bloodsport won this one on damage even if it wasn't obvious to us. But he's right. Now that I think about it, Gruff DID have drive issues and they DID lose one of the forks.

WINNER: Bloodsport, by decision (2-1)


Fusion (#15) vs. Tantrum (#18)

Fight's on!
Tantrum gets behind fusion and starts landing hits!
Weapon to weapon collision and the battle turns around. Tantrum's weapon is badly bent.
Fusion hits them hard from the side and now Tantrum is crab-walking, but they recover.

Tantrum drives forward and now Fusion is directly on top of Tantrum and its primary weapon! A second later, Fusion bursts into flames!

Fusion is trapped on top of Tantrum, which is still moving ,even with 114kg of bot on top of it, and the countdown starts.

WINNER: Tantrum (by KO)



Skorpios (#10) vs. Witch Doctor (#23)

Skorpios has added teeth to the front in order to get underneath WD.

Fight's on!

The two approach cautiously but Witch Doctor starts scoring hits. They take one of the teeth off Skorpios but Skorpios' primary is inactive. They push WD into the corner and use the vertical spinner, Unfortunately, with the weapon in active it is not effective.

WD's weapon is active but Skorpios is not. So long as WD continues chipping away at Skorpios, they should win this one.

Skorpios flips them over (though they flip back ) and continues to hit with anon functional weapon.

But WD still keeps hitting, and it flips Skorpios a full 360.

Time expires. No question in my mind Witch Doctor deserves the win on damage.

The judges agree.

Agree with Tvtyrant; Skorpios fought this won hard but without a weapon they had little chance to win.

WINNER: Witch Doctor, by decision (3-0)


So in this match a bunch of low seeds were matched against high seeds. These were supposed to be "easy matches" , but those easy matches surprised us far more often then I expected. Great job!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

Responses to TvTyrant's comments inline:


Episode 12: We're beast slayin' tonight!


Lockjaw (#14) vs. Shatter! (#19)

Lockjaw has added top armour to protect it from
Shatter's vertical strike.

Shatter has added their ablative armour back and have added forks to slow down Lockjaw's weapon strikes.

Fight's on!

Lockjaw starts a strategic opening, drives around lockjaw to get their spinner up to speed, and then approaches, striking Shatter's front for some sparks.

A little more driving, but Shatter! finally hits with its hammer. I hope Beta is paying attention --- THIS is how a hammer bot is supposed to be driven!

Shatter! scores repeated hits on Lockjaw. For its part, Lockjaw's spinner doesn't seem to be able to come into proper contact with any part of Shatter! that matters.

Bits of Lockjaw go flying, and now Shatter!'s hammer appears to be stuck inside Lockjaw for a few seconds.

Lockjaw, apparently inverted, backs up, spins itself around and to land -- upside down? Rightside up? Either way it's deliberate on Captain Donald Hudson's part.

Now smoke pours out of lockjaw. It's motor is burning up.

Now Lockjaw is immobile in the center of the box. Shatter! moves in and delivers one more punishing blow, and the countdown starts. That's it.

WINNER: Shatter! (by KO)



Jackpot (#11) vs. Rotator (#22)

Jackpot has removed their self-righting mechanism to add a plow which will contest Rotater's blade. The announcers are concerned. For a bot that succeeded by being simple, this is additional complexity and a gamble on Jackpot's part.

Rotator has brought its large blade and plans on a very offensive battle, avoiding weapon-to-weapon hits.

Fight's on!

Jackpot starts out, shoving with the wedge on the rear then turning around to strike with the great blade on the front. This works, and rotator is hit, but Rotator returns , adjusts , and begins hitting for sparks as well.

Then one huge hit and both bots go spinning. Jackpot lands upside down, and with no self-righting mechanism is out of the fight.

Lesson learned: NEVER EVER discard your self-righting mechanism. Not unless you're Captain Shredderator which is the same upside down or right side up.

WINNER: Rotator (by KO)


Perfect Phoenix (#27) vs. End Game (#6)

Ray Billing steps in behind the young Tyler captaining PP. He's apparently been giving help with quick rebuilds of the bot and has some incentive to see this one go well: Endgame beat Tombstone earlier in the regular season.

Fight's on!

The two bots approach but at first neither bot can damage the other -- PP's spinner is foiled by End Game's bumpers while Endgame's own blade is too far back for weapon to weapon combat. End game is the more powerful bot, however, and shoves PP into the side of the battle box.

Two more hits , and Perfect Phoenix is upside down on top of the screws. I assume it will be dumped off in a second or two.

The screws reverse, but PP isn't completely off and is immobile. That's it. PP is counted out.

WINNER: End Game (by KO)




Copperhead (#3) vs. Mammoth (#30)

Mammoth is concerned their weapon is not ideal, but it's the part they have available at this point. He doesn't seem very confident.

Copperhead tells us they are going to attempt a hit-and-run strategy, hit at the sides, avoid Mammoth's weapon.

Fight's on!

So much for Copperhead's plan. As soon as the bell rings they charge right into each other for a weapon-to-weapon hit. Mammoth seems to take the worst of it.

Mammoth hits copperhead hard, and copperhead retaliates. This is quite a punching fight!

Copperhead's weapon is now inoperative, and I'm not sure Mammoth's is much better.

Time expires. Knock it off.

I think Damage was about even, so I'll give it to Mammoth on control points.

Copperhead's team congratulates Mammoth; win or lose, that was a great performance by the
#30 seed against the #3!

The announcers tell us copperhead did damage at the start of the fight and their drum spinner came back after 45 seconds , when it did damage again, so there's a case to be made for Copperhead on the basis of damage.

It's a split decision, but the judges give it to Mammoth.

Agree with TvTyrant.

WINNER: Mammoth , by decision (2-1)



Sawblaze (#7) vs. Kraken (#26)

Sawblaze has increased the speed of its weapon to the maximum allowed -- 250mph (402 kph)

Fight's on!

Sawblaze hits Kraken, knocks it into the screws, Then lands another shot. Unbowed, Kraken pivots and grabs Sawblazes weapon in its teeth. Exactly what they wanted to do.

Okay, now what? Kraken reminds me of a dog that having chased a car, actually caught it.

30 seconds of clamping but Sawblazes AR 550 weapon resists the crushing pressure of Kraken. Kraken releases, Sawblaze promptly hits Kraken, then drives it into the corner and hits again. Kraken loses a wheel.

Sawblaze hits again. Kraken is moving -- barely -- on one wheel, but is at Sawblaze's mercy. Sawblaze, meanwhile, seems to have lost the function of its primary weapon and is reduced to a pushbot. Even so, the damage it has already done should be more than enough to give it the judge's decision.

Time expires.

In my mind there is no question: Sawblaze wins this one on raw damage.

They agree.

Agree with TvTyrant: Kraken is a tough bot but they need something to do damage with. That bite attack seems kind of awkward.


WINNER: Sawblaze, by decision (3-0)


Bloodsport (#2) vs. Gruff (#31)

Gruff is designed to take on horizontal spinners like Bloodsport, but the announcers credit Bloodsport with really incredible driving skill.

Blood expects a judge's decision -- Gruff is tough so they will be careful in their damage dealing, so that they don't destroy themselves on Gruff's tough body.

Fight's on!

Blood sport avoids, gets up to full speed, comes in .. POW! THe collision knocks both bots to the other side of the box, and Bloodsports three bladed weapon now has only two blades! The announcers declare it inoperable, which means the fight is now Gruff's to lose. Gruff grabs on and lets Bloodsport taste its flame!

Gruff has lost a prong, but the other is still functional and almost flips Bloodsport.

Gruff is having some problems and Bloodsport is demonstrating some great control now. They push Gruff under the pulverizer but Bloodsport takes a hit from the other one as well.

Gruff rips off one of Bloodsport's wedges, and then time expires.

I think Gruff wins this one on damage.

The judges disagree. They give it to Bloodsport. I suppose because the damage to the blade was not caused by the primary weapon.

No, that wasn't why. Judge Jason, who scored the battle for Bloodsport, explained that while Bloodsport lost half its primary weapon, Gruff also lot half its weapon and crippled it's drive; damage to the drive counts more with this judge than damage to the weapon, so he scored it for Bloodsport, though he acknowledges it was a very close call.

TV tyrant: I disagree. As the judge outlined, Bloodsport won this one on damage even if it wasn't obvious to us. But he's right. Now that I think about it, Gruff DID have drive issues and they DID lose one of the forks.

WINNER: Bloodsport, by decision (2-1)


Fusion (#15) vs. Tantrum (#18)

Fight's on!
Tantrum gets behind fusion and starts landing hits!
Weapon to weapon collision and the battle turns around. Tantrum's weapon is badly bent.
Fusion hits them hard from the side and now Tantrum is crab-walking, but they recover.

Tantrum drives forward and now Fusion is directly on top of Tantrum and its primary weapon! A second later, Fusion bursts into flames!

Fusion is trapped on top of Tantrum, which is still moving ,even with 114kg of bot on top of it, and the countdown starts.

WINNER: Tantrum (by KO)



Skorpios (#10) vs. Witch Doctor (#23)

Skorpios has added teeth to the front in order to get underneath WD.

Fight's on!

The two approach cautiously but Witch Doctor starts scoring hits. They take one of the teeth off Skorpios but Skorpios' primary is inactive. They push WD into the corner and use the vertical spinner, Unfortunately, with the weapon in active it is not effective.

WD's weapon is active but Skorpios is not. So long as WD continues chipping away at Skorpios, they should win this one.

Skorpios flips them over (though they flip back ) and continues to hit with anon functional weapon.

But WD still keeps hitting, and it flips Skorpios a full 360.

Time expires. No question in my mind Witch Doctor deserves the win on damage.

The judges agree.

Agree with Tvtyrant; Skorpios fought this won hard but without a weapon they had little chance to win.

WINNER: Witch Doctor, by decision (3-0)


So in this match a bunch of low seeds were matched against high seeds. These were supposed to be "easy matches" , but those easy matches surprised us far more often then I expected. Great job!

Respectfully,

Brian P.


While I had the wrong winner, part of why Lockjaw lost is what I predicted: reliability. Not only the battery overheating, but his forks were so low that they kept snagging on the floor (esp. in the kill saws). As for Shatter, this silences any doubts (mine included) about the effectiveness of their hammer.

So I'm 0-2 on predictions at this point. Rotator did an excellent job. In fairness to me though, I didn't forsee such a significant remodel of Jackpot, esp. removing the uprighter (which seemed incredibly short-sighted even before the fight started). Rotator pretty much handled this exactly right. Wait for an opportunity and send your opponent flying.

This fight demonstrates the advantage of experience. End Game played their timing perfectly, and got the quick victory.

I'll disagree just slightly with Pendell. Perfect Phoenix did manage to get most of the way off the screws, but unfortunately was still upside down with no way to self-right. If they'd been right-side up I think they'd have been OK (well, for a few more seconds anyway).

1-2 in predictions.

Have to agree that this was one of the best fights we saw. And this falls into the category of"I'll give it to Mammoth but I'm not sure anyone would complain if Copperhead had gotten the verdict." It was great fun watching the interview with Mammoth's captain at the end. He was so happy! 1-3 for predictions.

Yeah, this was mostly Sawblaze's fight. I didn't get too excited about the 30 second hauling around by Kraken because 1) They didn't do any damage with it and 2) In watching a replay it wasn't so much that Kraken snagged Sawblaze as Sawblaze ran their saw are into Kraken's mouth. 2-3 in predictions.

Interestingly, even without Jason's logic I would still give it to Bloodsport. Remember, judges can award UP TO 5 points for damage. But it's not an all or nothing, and they don't even have to assign a full 5 points (they could go 3-2, or even 2-1). But Bloodsport dominated in the control and aggression categories, and Gruff never really got anything going in those areas. of course, I'm 2-4 in predictions now so what do I know.

That has to be the funniest ending to a match we've ever seen. Tantrum's running around with a 250 pound burning bot on their head. We ended up laughing for about 5 minutes. And even today, "I'm on fire" will get a laugh. (In more unfortunate news I'm 2-5).

Yeah, this was Witch Doctor's fight all the way. Skorpios may have gotten a few hits but did no real damage (Witch Doctor's spinner stopped after an aggressive hit on Skorpios. So apparently the one win wasn't a fluke. And I'm 2-6 for the week. Sigh...

It was a highly entertaining episode, and here's hoping we get more that are just as good.

My predictions for the rest of the round of 16 (first half is up above).

Bloodsport v. Tantrum: Bloodsport

SawBlaze v. Witch Doctor: SawBlaze

Mammoth v. Shatter: Mammoth

End game v. Rotator: End Game.

[Tvtyrant]

Hydra v. Gigabyte:Hydra is boringly good. It is in the running for the best bot of all time and I hate it. Gigabyte did really well not to die in this match.
Whiplash v. Valkyrie: Whiplash dominates this fight, Valkyrie like Gigabyte holds on for dear life and shows remarkable toughness but this is a sad day for horizontal spinners.
Uppercut v. Ribbot:This time the spinner wins! Wow, uppercut tears it freaking apart before it breaks down and loses the match. Ribbot is the only horizontal left, having pulled off multiple upsets by not dying and the other bot self destructing.
Black Dragon v. Tombstone:Tombstone fails to get the wheels and eventually breaks. BD's weapon also breaks, but being a wedge bot it pushes Tombstone around until the match ends.The whole Spin it to Win It strategy is looking pretty dead these days between the weapon limits and better armor.
Mammoth vs. Shatter: Shatter pulls it off and finally Mammoth is extinct. It's sad because I like Mammoth, but I also like Shatter so it's not terrible. Only wedges remain in the tournament.
Witch Doctor vs. Sawblaze: Sawblaze avenges it's twin and gets the win Skorpios would have gotten with a working weapon. Witch Doctor's weapon doesn't have the reach to get involved past the oversized wedge, and it's not fast enough to get around Sawblaze.
Bloodsport vs Tantrum: Spinner breaks, I stopped watching after that. Gigabyte's death was more entertaining.
Endgame vs. RotatorThe most fun match of the day IMO. The game play jumps back and forth the whole match.

Ribbot is the last hope for the underdogs! Go Ribbot!

[Arcane_Secrets]

I know exactly what you mean. It seems like everyone who might've been able to defeat Hydra (like Tombstone, or Witch Doctor) got eliminated last night too. :smallmad: Black Dragon *might* be able to do it since they've had a really good year.

[pendell]

battlebots

Episode 13: Shock and Awe

16 bots left. When this night is done,
there will be only 18.



Fight's on. Sawblaze starts off strong,
evading Witch Doctor's first rush,
hits them from the side, drives them into the rails, and perfectly lined up, hits iwth the vertical saw.
Witch Doctor does a little pirouette as it is released before re-engaging.

Undeterred, Witch Doctor comes back and lands a big hit with the vertical blade, sending sawblaze through a 360 in the air. Then hits them again!

Saw blaze tries, misses, witch doctor hits with a counter blow. But Sawblaze isn't done. It comes from the side and again beautifully executes an overhead strike after taking WD into the rails, taking a hit from the pulverizer in the process.

The championship fight can't possibly be better than this!

Sawblaze hits again and Witch Doctor loses it's front wedge! Again Sawblaze pushes them into the corner of the box and WD sustains a double hit both from Sawblaze's overhead strike and the pulverizer. But like a zombie in a horror movie, it won't stop coming.

Three more big hits on WD!

WD begins to smoke.

WD goes into Into the pulverizer again and their primary weapon is nonfunctional.

WD is at last disabled with one second left on the clock.

What a glorious fight and a great show by Sawblaze! They've definitely demonstrated they are contenders for the Giant Nut.

WINNER: Sawblaze, by KO.



Ribbot charges in and instantly pieces fly off. Ribbot can't even get close to upper cut without being destroyed. Frog parts fly everywhere.

Then something amazing happens.

Ribbot pushes Uppercut into the pulverizer, which gets hammered and flipped. Now upside down and very heavily damaged, Ribbot comes on but Uppercut is crab walking.

The countdown starts, and in an incredible turn of events Uppercut is counted out! Ribbot took far more damage but at the end of the day they are mobile and Uppercut is not.

Unbelievable.

WINNER: Ribbot, by KO.




In the first collisions Bloodsport draws sparks. Tantrum's primary is inoperative but it proves masterful at the control aspect of the battle, shoving Bloodsport into the screws or the corner again and again. Bloodsport's wedgelets are knocked off , which actually free bloodsports weapon so it is a net gain.
Tantrum is punishing bloodsport severely but not with the primary weapon!

Bloodsport loses a wheel as time expires.

I give it to Tantrum; while Bloodsport may have scored more damage than the primary the control and aggression was all Tantrum.

It's a close decision, but the judges agree.

WINNER: Tantrum, by decision (2-1)




Box rush by Hydra. It finally connects, unafraid behind it's wedge, and sends Gigabyte bouncing across the box off the corners like a ball in a pinball machine.

A second flip. Gigabyte is wobbling. A third. Gigabyte loses a belt. A fourth. And again.

Hydra is dominating the match while Gigabyte is unable to spin up or land effective damage. Hydra does take a hit from the pulverizer but that won't be enough.

Two more flips. Gigabyte finally catches a shot. Hydra's flipper sticks up, making it useless just as time expires. The announcers count 13 flips. But Gigabyte is incredibly durable and made it the distance.

Hydra dominated this match and inflicted significant damage besides. I give the match to them.

The judges agree.

WINNER: Hydra , by decision (3-0)






Tombstone has brought a shorter , more durable blade for use against black dragon. BD, for their part has also adjusted their weapon and added additional armor , discarding the flamethrower to make room for it. They've also created a wedge specifically for Tombstone. This oughta be good.

Fight's on!

Tombstone tries to cut in from the side and hits for some damage, but after a few vicious exchanges both bots lose their primary weapons. The battle devolves into a pushing match, which Black Dragon is much better able to compete in than Tombstone is.

Time expires. It was actually pretty boring.

I give it to Black Dragon. Damage slightly favored Tombstone but Black Dragon had all the control and the aggression.

The judges agree.

WINNER: Black Dragon, by decision (3-0)




Whiplash successfully box-rushes Valkyrie and goes to work, trying to disable Valkyrie's primary weapon before bringing their own lifter to bear. Valkyrie is inverted but her weapon is fully spun up.

Whiplash repeatedly flips Valkyrie over the screws but she bounces back, and her deadly weapon is still at full speed.

Valkyrie's weapon is now disabled and whiplash repeatedly puts them up over the screws, trying to flip them out of the box.

Time expires just as a plume of smoke comes from Whiploash. There's little doubt they won this match, however.

WINNER: Whiplash, by Decision (3-0)




Shatter! is having trouble getting close to Mammoth and punts Shatter! into the screws. Shatter! loses some ablative armour (which is supposed to come off) but finally gets a good hit, and Mammoth loses its weapon chain.

Shatter! punctures a wheel, but then its own weapon becomes inoperative.

Just at the end, Mammoth's wheel falls off.

Time expires.

I think Damage goes to Shatter!, Control to Mammoth, Damage to Shatter. This one's going to be very close but I'd give this one to Shatter!

It's a split decision, but the judges also give it to Shatter!

Winner: Shatter! by decision (2-1)




A vicious, tight fight. Endgame takes off one of Rotator's wedgelets but Rotator gets one of Endgame's belt and its weapon slows.

Endgame loses its weapon but delivers a punishing body blow which inverts Rotator. But Rotator seems more dangerous in this configuration and starts delivering damage to Endgame, which is experiencing drive issues.

Rotator's weapon is now inoperative also and Endgame begins racking up the control points as the clock counts down.

Time expires.

Almost too close to call, but I'm giving it to Rotator. The reason being that Rotator used its primary to disable Endgame's weapon, while Rotator's weapon was disabled by pushing. Only damage from the primary weapon counts.

The announcers argue Endgame could be it, as Endgame remained aggressive throughout the match. Control + aggression together outweigh damage, in their view.

The judges split, but give it to Endgame, agreeing with the announceres.

WINNER: Endgame, by decision (2-1)



Some good fights but some disappointing ones as well. Wayyy to many battles ended in a decision.

Can't argue with any of Tvtyrant's assessments.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

Pendell, I assume you meant there will be 8 bots left, not 18. Good commentary from you and tvtyrant.

This was definitely one of the more exciting bracket rounds...

You're looking at one of the rare occasions where Witch Doctor is just flat outdriven. Could never get around and do the damage they wanted. I actually think Sawblaze might have gotten the countdown about 10 seconds earlier if they hadn't kept pushing Witch Doctor around.

This is probably the biggest upset we've seen on Battlebots so far. Ribbot is getting pounded left and right, and pieces are all over the floor. I've just ducked a smack from my wife because I made the old "What's red and green and spins in circles? A frog in a blender" joke. and then...

"ANIMATE DEAD!".

That's honestly what I think happened. Zombie Ribbot slams into Uppercut repeatedly, and finally gets the win. I'm trying to remember the last time we saw a bot take that much damage and win, and I think we have to go back to Tombstone in the semi-finals against Bronco (who was already being counted out when Tombstone destroyed itself). And Ribbot probably faces the same problem. They took so much damage that I have to wonder if the bot will be even close to 100% next match.

Another big upset here, since I doubt many (if any) people thought Tantrum would get the win. But they did an excellent job of shoving Bloodsport around the ring. I do agree with our commentators that Bloodsport did more damage, but Tantrum dominated everywhere else.

Have to agree that the only surprise here was Gigabyte making it the distance. This is a bot that's had its top removed twice in fights. They've definitely improved the durability, but never seem to do the damage they should. Hydra is definitely the bot to beat.

I'll agree it was actually somewhat of a boring fight. Tombstone is a one trick pony, so when the loses the weapon it's usually all over. The more important thing to learn from this fight is that you can build a bot that stands up to Tombstone, and is still effective against other bots. I have Bloodsport just a short bit behind Hydra.

Valkyrie has definitely shown it can take a pounding, but was obviously outdriven by Whiplash.

Mammoth put up a hard fight, and was doing better on control. I agree with our commentators that losing the wheel right as the clock count ended may very well have caused Mammoth the fight.

This was a solid match. I see what Pendell is saying about damage. I was also lightly giving it to Rotator, but am fine with the decision. Remember, points are not all or nothing. It could be scored as follows: Damage 3-2 Rotator, Control and Aggression each 2-1 EndGame. And that's ignoring that they don't have to assign all points in a category (so damage could be 2-1).

And with that, this coming Thursday is the finale. My predictions for quarters, semis, and championship matches. Obviously, wrong predictions in the quarters will screw me royally....

Quarter finales...

Hydra v. Whiplash: I'll give it to Hydra. To win Whiplash would have to never go head to head, and Hydra is maneuverable enough that I don't think they can pull it off.

Ribbot v. Black Dragon: This should be Black Dragon all the way. They are tougher and inflict more damage. I'll root for Ribbot but won't put my money there.

Sawblaze v. Tantrum: Jason is too good a driver. This is Sawblaze's fight to lose.

Shatter v. End Game: Have to give it to Endgame. Better drivers.

Semi finals.... Again, this could be totally wrong....

Black Dragon v. Hydra. Have to give it to Hydra. BD is tough, but toughness doesn't matter if you've been knocked out of the ring.

End game v. Sawblaze: Tough call. Sawblaze has the better driver but End Game does more consistent damage. Going to give it to End Game, but honestly this is a tossup.

Hydra v. End Game: Have to give it to Hydra. He's shown he can avoid damage.


Thoughts?

[Tvtyrant]

Pendell, I assume you meant there will be 8 bots left, not 18. Good commentary from you and tvtyrant.

This was definitely one of the more exciting bracket rounds...

You're looking at one of the rare occasions where Witch Doctor is just flat outdriven. Could never get around and do the damage they wanted. I actually think Sawblaze might have gotten the countdown about 10 seconds earlier if they hadn't kept pushing Witch Doctor around.

This is probably the biggest upset we've seen on Battlebots so far. Ribbot is getting pounded left and right, and pieces are all over the floor. I've just ducked a smack from my wife because I made the old "What's red and green and spins in circles? A frog in a blender" joke. and then...

"ANIMATE DEAD!".

That's honestly what I think happened. Zombie Ribbot slams into Uppercut repeatedly, and finally gets the win. I'm trying to remember the last time we saw a bot take that much damage and win, and I think we have to go back to Tombstone in the semi-finals against Bronco (who was already being counted out when Tombstone destroyed itself). And Ribbot probably faces the same problem. They took so much damage that I have to wonder if the bot will be even close to 100% next match.

Another big upset here, since I doubt many (if any) people thought Tantrum would get the win. But they did an excellent job of shoving Bloodsport around the ring. I do agree with our commentators that Bloodsport did more damage, but Tantrum dominated everywhere else.

Have to agree that the only surprise here was Gigabyte making it the distance. This is a bot that's had its top removed twice in fights. They've definitely improved the durability, but never seem to do the damage they should. Hydra is definitely the bot to beat.

I'll agree it was actually somewhat of a boring fight. Tombstone is a one trick pony, so when the loses the weapon it's usually all over. The more important thing to learn from this fight is that you can build a bot that stands up to Tombstone, and is still effective against other bots. I have Bloodsport just a short bit behind Hydra.

Valkyrie has definitely shown it can take a pounding, but was obviously outdriven by Whiplash.

Mammoth put up a hard fight, and was doing better on control. I agree with our commentators that losing the wheel right as the clock count ended may very well have caused Mammoth the fight.

This was a solid match. I see what Pendell is saying about damage. I was also lightly giving it to Rotator, but am fine with the decision. Remember, points are not all or nothing. It could be scored as follows: Damage 3-2 Rotator, Control and Aggression each 2-1 EndGame. And that's ignoring that they don't have to assign all points in a category (so damage could be 2-1).

And with that, this coming Thursday is the finale. My predictions for quarters, semis, and championship matches. Obviously, wrong predictions in the quarters will screw me royally....

Quarter finales...

Hydra v. Whiplash: I'll give it to Hydra. To win Whiplash would have to never go head to head, and Hydra is maneuverable enough that I don't think they can pull it off.

Ribbot v. Black Dragon: This should be Black Dragon all the way. They are tougher and inflict more damage. I'll root for Ribbot but won't put my money there.

Sawblaze v. Tantrum: Jason is too good a driver. This is Sawblaze's fight to lose.

Shatter v. End Game: Have to give it to Endgame. Better drivers.

Semi finals.... Again, this could be totally wrong....

Black Dragon v. Hydra. Have to give it to Hydra. BD is tough, but toughness doesn't matter if you've been knocked out of the ring.

End game v. Sawblaze: Tough call. Sawblaze has the better driver but End Game does more consistent damage. Going to give it to End Game, but honestly this is a tossup.

Hydra v. End Game: Have to give it to Hydra. He's shown he can avoid damage.


Thoughts?



I mostly agree. I think of the survivors Sawblaze and Black Dragon have the best chance of beating Hydra, so I'm hoping Sawblaze beats End Game so Hydra has more chances to lose.

I'm really hoping for a Ribbot win though. Maybe every bot will kill themselves and it leap frogs to victory.

[pendell]

Episode 14: The World Championship Finals

Quarter Finals

Ribbot vs. Black Dragon

Ribbot has a powerful vertical disc and wedglets
Black Dragon. Ironically, the same configuration of
vertical dual disc spinner and wedgelets as well.

Pete Abramson, the bot whisperer, is concerned that BD is using a lighter weapon, which will make it harder to self-right; a vertical spinner like Ribbot is definitely a threat to flip an opposing bot!

Fight's on!

They circle each other , but Ribbot loses a wedgelet and this distraction is all BD needs; it zips in and starts hitting hard, knocking Ribbot into the air and taking some of its front off.

Ribbot is flipped. Three of its four wedgelets are off and the entire top half has been removed, leaving only the core of the bot , which is still armed and mobile. They're going to lose on damage if they can't turn this around fast.

Black Dragon is smoking and their primary weapon is not active ; it appears they have burned out their weapon motor. Ribbot, meanwhile, is inverted and not able to use its weapon to best effect.

Ribbot's weapon is still moving but doesn't seem functional. ; Black Dragon bursts into flames! This is a pushing match and Ribbot is pushed into the screws. Ribbot flees; can they stay mobile long enough for the fire to shut Black Dragon down?

BD continues to bully Ribbot all over the box, still burning like a torch. Its own right wedgelet comes off, a casualty of the fire, I think.

The fire is spreading.

Time expires. Black Dragon is still moving at the end of the match after being on fire for something close to a minute thirty seconds. Wow.

Ray Billings is grinning like a thief, clapping. Everyone loves this!

The crew enters the box and douse the fire with an extinguisher.

They have to win this one; but I think this may have compromised their ability to take home the Giant Nut; They don't have much time to rebuild and that had to have done some really serious damage to the bot.


There's not much doubt in THIS decision though.

I guess it's true what they say: Fire cannot kill a dragon.

WINNER: Black Dragon, by decision (3-0)


Shatter! vs. End Game

Fight's on!

End Game hits shatter hard on the side, chipping away at that ablative armour. But Shatter comes back and lands some good hits, but End Game comes back and knocks him over.
They come again, and this time End Game takes the Hammer head off the Hammer. With no weapon, Shatter! is helpless.

From this point it is murder. Shatter! is immobile at 1:07, and counted out.

WINNER: End Game, by KO.


Tantrum vs. Sawblaze

Tantrum nips at Sawblaze, hitting repeatedly and getting under Sawblaze. They chip away at the front forks and throws
Sawblaze into the screws. Sawblaze gets a hit in with the Saw but Tantrum is dominating ths round.

Now Tantrum pins Sawblaze against the wall and punches hard from behind.
Another hit from behind, flippng. And anotehr one! Sawblaze is upside down! It self-rights. The right fork is bent up.

Now, in the last few seconds, Sawblaze finally takes control, biting hard down into Tantrum with the saw but
there are only two seconds left; the match is over.

Surely Tantrum has won this one. It dominated for 2:58 and inflicted damage as well.


The judges agree.

WINNER: Tantrum, by decision (3-0)




Hydra Vs. Whiplash

Fight's on!

Hydra misses its flip and Hydra flips them over.
Finally, Hydra flips them.
And again. Twice. Tries to launch them out of the box but fails. A fourth flip. A fifth. A sixth. Whiplash hist Whiplash in the side with the saw. Whiplash hits from the back hard and begins smoking.

What a fight! That was very, very close. I think Whiplash gets this one, though. They scored more damage. Although Hydra did indeed flip Whiplash several times, it doesn't seem to have had much effect.

I bet this will be a split decision.

Those flips weren't as high as before; Whiplash must have damaged it at the outset.

Yup, split decision.

And yes, it's Whiplash. They have knocked out the seemingly undefeatable #1 seed!

WINNER: Whiplash, by decision (2-1)



Semifinal #1

Tantrum vs. End Game

Tantrum uses its speed to flank End Game. They take End Game into the rails and get under End Game, hittiing hard, but smoke comes out. They've burned out heir weapon motor and are helpless.

Now it's End Game's turn and it starts hiting tantrum.
Finally Endgame knocks Tantrum over. It has no self-righting mechanism, and that is all.

WINNER: End Game, by KO.


Semifinal #2

Black Dragon vs. Sawblaze
The announcer Chris describes BD as "The unburnt, breaker of belts" or something like that. Now we'll see if it's still able to fight after being on fire for 2:04 in the last fight. Apparently the fire was in the weapon battery,
which is in a self-contained compartment separate from the drive battery, which is why it was unphased in the last fight.

They have the Eggbeater out again, allowing them to self-right more effectively.

Whiplash box rushes. They circle close. Whiplash Gets connect and takes off part of black dragon. It hits again,
takes black dragon into the rails, and inverts it.

BD is spending a lot of time inverted. Whiplash loses one of its forks.

Both primary weapons are nonfunctional. In a push bot contest, the advantage is all Whiplash.

Whiplash pushes BD vertical! It looks like a knockout, but
Whiplash's primary weapon and reactivates! They continue to hit! Almost BD is out of the box over the rails, but time expires before a countdown can start. BD falls back into the box anyway.

There's no way they can give this to anyone but Whiplash, not after such a commanding performance.

WINNER: Whiplash, by decision (3-0)


Finals

EndGame vs. Whiplash

Endgame is strategic, remaining squared forward to Whiplash, not letting them get around them. Finally gets a hit, then another one, pushes them back into the screws as their vertical spinner is inserted underneath Whiplash's lifter, which is now raised, possibly into the very center of the bot!

Whiplash's vertical spinner is topped.

Whiplash disengages, circles, Endgame remains squared up to them, inching ever closer...

And then, just like that, it is over. Endgame gets some hits, then hits hard and the vertical momentum stuffs Whiplash out of the battlebox, just like Tombstone was in the regular season. That's all.

WINNER: End Game, by KO.




Bolt awards ("best in show")

Valkyrie -- most destructive bot

Skorpios -- Founder's award for advancing battle bots.

Best Newcomer -- Rusty

Best design - renamed after a bog designer who passed away -- goes to Chomp



World Champion

EndGame, our first international battle bot team to go all the way! Congratulations to the New Zealanders!


That's it for this season; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Tvtyrant]

So I was completely wrong, and End Game wins! Some of the best matches in history, I almost though Ribbot was going to advance again but BD was just too tough. I really want to see Black Dragon vs Gruff now, battle of the toughest.

[tomandtish]

Episode 14: The World Championship Finals

Quarter Finals

Ribbot vs. Black Dragon

Ribbot has a powerful vertical disc and wedglets
Black Dragon. Ironically, the same configuration of
vertical dual disc spinner and wedgelets as well.

Pete Abramson, the bot whisperer, is concerned that BD is using a lighter weapon, which will make it harder to self-right; a vertical spinner like Ribbot is definitely a threat to flip an opposing bot!

Fight's on!

They circle each other , but Ribbot loses a wedgelet and this distraction is all BD needs; it zips in and starts hitting hard, knocking Ribbot into the air and taking some of its front off.

Ribbot is flipped. Three of its four wedgelets are off and the entire top half has been removed, leaving only the core of the bot , which is still armed and mobile. They're going to lose on damage if they can't turn this around fast.

Black Dragon is smoking and their primary weapon is not active ; it appears they have burned out their weapon motor. Ribbot, meanwhile, is inverted and not able to use its weapon to best effect.

Ribbot's weapon is still moving but doesn't seem functional. ; Black Dragon bursts into flames! This is a pushing match and Ribbot is pushed into the screws. Ribbot flees; can they stay mobile long enough for the fire to shut Black Dragon down?

BD continues to bully Ribbot all over the box, still burning like a torch. Its own right wedgelet comes off, a casualty of the fire, I think.

The fire is spreading.

Time expires. Black Dragon is still moving at the end of the match after being on fire for something close to a minute thirty seconds. Wow.

Ray Billings is grinning like a thief, clapping. Everyone loves this!

The crew enters the box and douse the fire with an extinguisher.

They have to win this one; but I think this may have compromised their ability to take home the Giant Nut; They don't have much time to rebuild and that had to have done some really serious damage to the bot.


There's not much doubt in THIS decision though.

I guess it's true what they say: Fire cannot kill a dragon.

WINNER: Black Dragon, by decision (3-0)


Shatter! vs. End Game

Fight's on!

End Game hits shatter hard on the side, chipping away at that ablative armour. But Shatter comes back and lands some good hits, but End Game comes back and knocks him over.
They come again, and this time End Game takes the Hammer head off the Hammer. With no weapon, Shatter! is helpless.

From this point it is murder. Shatter! is immobile at 1:07, and counted out.

WINNER: End Game, by KO.


Tantrum vs. Sawblaze

Tantrum nips at Sawblaze, hitting repeatedly and getting under Sawblaze. They chip away at the front forks and throws
Sawblaze into the screws. Sawblaze gets a hit in with the Saw but Tantrum is dominating ths round.

Now Tantrum pins Sawblaze against the wall and punches hard from behind.
Another hit from behind, flippng. And anotehr one! Sawblaze is upside down! It self-rights. The right fork is bent up.

Now, in the last few seconds, Sawblaze finally takes control, biting hard down into Tantrum with the saw but
there are only two seconds left; the match is over.

Surely Tantrum has won this one. It dominated for 2:58 and inflicted damage as well.


The judges agree.

WINNER: Tantrum, by decision (3-0)




Hydra Vs. Whiplash

Fight's on!

Hydra misses its flip and Hydra flips them over.
Finally, Hydra flips them.
And again. Twice. Tries to launch them out of the box but fails. A fourth flip. A fifth. A sixth. Whiplash hist Whiplash in the side with the saw. Whiplash hits from the back hard and begins smoking.

What a fight! That was very, very close. I think Whiplash gets this one, though. They scored more damage. Although Hydra did indeed flip Whiplash several times, it doesn't seem to have had much effect.

I bet this will be a split decision.

Those flips weren't as high as before; Whiplash must have damaged it at the outset.

Yup, split decision.

And yes, it's Whiplash. They have knocked out the seemingly undefeatable #1 seed!

WINNER: Whiplash, by decision (2-1)



Semifinal #1

Tantrum vs. End Game

Tantrum uses its speed to flank End Game. They take End Game into the rails and get under End Game, hittiing hard, but smoke comes out. They've burned out heir weapon motor and are helpless.

Now it's End Game's turn and it starts hiting tantrum.
Finally Endgame knocks Tantrum over. It has no self-righting mechanism, and that is all.

WINNER: End Game, by KO.


Semifinal #2

Black Dragon vs. Sawblaze
The announcer Chris describes BD as "The unburnt, breaker of belts" or something like that. Now we'll see if it's still able to fight after being on fire for 2:04 in the last fight. Apparently the fire was in the weapon battery,
which is in a self-contained compartment separate from the drive battery, which is why it was unphased in the last fight.

They have the Eggbeater out again, allowing them to self-right more effectively.

Whiplash box rushes. They circle close. Whiplash Gets connect and takes off part of black dragon. It hits again,
takes black dragon into the rails, and inverts it.

BD is spending a lot of time inverted. Whiplash loses one of its forks.

Both primary weapons are nonfunctional. In a push bot contest, the advantage is all Whiplash.

Whiplash pushes BD vertical! It looks like a knockout, but
Whiplash's primary weapon and reactivates! They continue to hit! Almost BD is out of the box over the rails, but time expires before a countdown can start. BD falls back into the box anyway.

There's no way they can give this to anyone but Whiplash, not after such a commanding performance.

WINNER: Whiplash, by decision (3-0)


Finals

EndGame vs. Whiplash

Endgame is strategic, remaining squared forward to Whiplash, not letting them get around them. Finally gets a hit, then another one, pushes them back into the screws as their vertical spinner is inserted underneath Whiplash's lifter, which is now raised, possibly into the very center of the bot!

Whiplash's vertical spinner is topped.

Whiplash disengages, circles, Endgame remains squared up to them, inching ever closer...

And then, just like that, it is over. Endgame gets some hits, then hits hard and the vertical momentum stuffs Whiplash out of the battlebox, just like Tombstone was in the regular season. That's all.

WINNER: End Game, by KO.




Bolt awards ("best in show")

Valkyrie -- most destructive bot

Skorpios -- Founder's award for advancing battle bots.

Best Newcomer -- Rusty

Best design - renamed after a bog designer who passed away -- goes to Chomp



World Champion

EndGame, our first international battle bot team to go all the way! Congratulations to the New Zealanders!


That's it for this season; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Usual excellent commentary....

Pendell actually understates the fire here. Smoke started about 40 seconds into the match, and the first flame was seen at 56 seconds. So Black Dragon was on fire for 2:04 of a 3:00 fight. While watching it my wife was like..

"Yay, it's on fire. it'll die soon".
"OK, time for you to die".
"What the %^&* is that bot made of?!?"
And when it survived to the end...
"You got to be $%^&*^% kidding me!!!"

Despite her hopes, her favorite Ribbot just couldn't get anything going. Even on fire Black Dragon dominated. Later in the show, we found out that the weapon battery is in its own isolated compartment. So while the fire looked magnificent, it didn't pose as much danger to the rest of the bot as it appeared. They were basically sweeping ashes out of the compartment.

One correct pick so far.

I'll give Shatter points for this season. They performed much better than i expected. But they were outdriven, and losing the weapon put the final nail in the coffin.

Two correct picks so far.

Well, my first incorrect pick. I assumed SawBlaze would outdrive Tantrum. That never happened. Tantrum dominated in the control and aggression categories. Thumbs up for Tantrum!

And my second incorrect pick, so I'm 2-2 in the quarterfinals. Part of the problem is that Hydra seemed to lack aggressiveness. Hydra couldn't get under far enough to get a good flip when Whiplash was upright. Hydra would get a weak flip, but instead of going for a second flip while Whiplash was inverted, he pulled back and waited. As a result, he had significantly fewer flips than he normally does, and none of them got the height he was known for. Meanwhile Whiplash is winning in aggression and damage.

Tantrum came out strong, but once they lost the weapon it was all End Game. Nothing really to add.

Whiplash is the better driver, but Black Dragon is the tougher bot... but driving skill wins out. Whiplash pushes Black Dragon around the ring, and is so dominant that even when they have Black Dragon standing on it's butt (and probably helpless) they knock them down and continue the fight. Damage, Aggression, Control... Whiplash dominates in all of them and gets the unanimous decision.

Again, a skilled driver versus a hard-hitting bot. Should be interesting... and it's over. End Game dominates Whiplash and knocks them out of the ring in short order. Whiplash never got anything going and looked helpless almost from the very beginning. And we have our first international champion!


I'm fine with all the Bot awards except Chomp. I still maintain that if you need 250 additional pounds to be able to compete in a 250 pound limit competition, then your bot isn't really valid. Let's create a competition for walkers.

Incidentally the award is the Grant Imahara award now. Named for Grant Imahara (of Myth Buster's fame) who was also a bot fighter in days gone past.

[tomandtish]

For those not aware, Battlebots: Bounty Hunters is now available on Discovery on-demand without a Discovery plus channel purchase.

[Tvtyrant]

For those not aware, Battlebots: Bounty Hunters is now available on Discovery on-demand without a Discovery plus channel purchase.

Woooh thanks!