BattleBots Thread

[Atheris]

That's the Tombstone I came to see.

Hell yeah, brother.

[Ameriganastan]

Yeah, let's put Chomp against a robot with an actual weapon next time and see what happens...

[Kohr]

Yeah, let's put Chomp against a robot with an actual weapon next time and see what happens...

I mean yeah, it's not like it's going to win the giant nut or anything, but that bot is still super cool. I like the turret idea especially. I wonder if someone can make a non-walker robot with a turret and how well that would do.

[Andsed]

That was quite the double weapon kill lmao.

[Ameriganastan]

That was quite the double weapon kill lmao.

And then Shatter just whacked it all fight with it's stubby arm. That was funny.

[Atheris]

That was quite the double weapon kill lmao.

And then Shatter just whacked it all fight with it's stubby arm. That was funny.

"Eh. Eh. Eh. Why won't you die?!"

[Andsed]

That was quite the double weapon kill lmao.

And then Shatter just whacked it all fight with it's stubby arm. That was funny.

It’s like bot equivalent of slap fight.

[Atheris]

And then Shatter just whacked it all fight with it's stubby arm. That was funny.

It’s like bot equivalent of slap fight.

"They say I rap like a robot so call me RapBot"
"Now who thinks their arms are long enough to slapbox, slapbox"

Something's wrong, I can feel it.

[Baloo Kingdom]

Glad to see the bots back

[Ameriganastan]

HAHAHA! Suck it, Endgame. Not so tough when you actually have to fight, are you? Kiwi bastards.

[Andsed]

Who’s wheel came off? I’m guessing Endgame as they were unable to move but I can’t tell.

Edit: nvm I think Bloodsport has red wheels so it was definitely Endgames wheel.

[Kohr]

I mean, I guess the judges probably got it right with Malice considering they had a tiny bit more pushing power after the double weapon KO that was basically an equivalent exchange, but I mean still... that fight has to be one of the hardest things to make a call on that I've ever seen.

Also, Bloodsport is a much better horizontal than Tombstone now. I suspected it after the first episode, but now it's all but confirmed in my mind.

[Atheris]

HAHAHA! Suck it, Endgame. Not so tough when you actually have to fight, are you? Kiwi bastards.

WOOOOO GET STUFFED YOU PSEUDO-AUSTRALIANS

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

A quick note on exposed wheels before I turn to the fights: exposed wheels are preferable to covered ones when fighting spinners because they don't get jammed. If you get hit in the side, you will lose a wheel but will still be able to drive using the others (Sewer Snake was a fantastic example of this). With covered wheels, the armour would be buckled into the wheel if you were hit, jamming the wheel and stopping you from moving. Maybe you could get away with it if your wheels were right in the middle of the robot, but that's not a good design choice. To prove the point, most robots in the UK have covered wheels (we have very few big spinners), whereas in America, which has had many huge spinners for 20 years now, most robots have exposed wheels for this exact reason.

Now onto the fights:
- I speculated that Slapbox was just fodder to give Tombstone his first win. It seems I was right, though they lasted longer than some of his opponents do, which isn't bad for a rookie.
- Glad to see Craig get another televised win, and this time with an actually functioning robot. It seems to struggle with balance, so probably won't make the top 32, but at least it worked for once.
- I'm surprised by the durability of Skorpios. It took some bid hits and I was sure its weapon arm must have been damaged, but it was fine. Perfect Phoenix may have been upgraded, but it definitely looked like the 10 year old bot that it is in this fight.
- OK, I'll admit that I'm impressed by Madcatter now. Ribbot is a robot which has shown itself to be solid mid-tier, and I expected it to win this one, but Madcatter showed itself to be both more durable and more damaging. Seriously impressive glow-up after all it did last year was split in half.
- Glad that Chomp actually seemed to work, considering how complicated it is. It wasn't a high level victory, but I don't think Chomp had won a match since their victory over Bite Force in 2016. It was a fun fight to watch too, though I will also probably enjoy when the producers throw Chomp to a big spinner and we can watch it lose all its legs.
- Really close fight between Shatter and Malice. I don't know what fight the Shatter guy watched, because it seemed pretty even to me. Shatter's omni-wheels offer it little traction, and it did start smoking near the end, which may have influenced the judges. Personally I'd have been happy with either decision tbh.
- I predicted 3 hits maximum for this fight, and we basically got 2.5. End Game definitely seemed to be winning, so it's a shame that the producers didn't show/explain in the replays when Bloodsport caused that damage. On the Tombstone Vs Bloodsport comparison, I think the main difference is that Bloodsport is more stable, partly because their weapon is in the middle of the robot, and partly because they have the new stabilising arms on the bar.

Probably the best of the 4 episodes so far, I'm looking forward to next week.

[Kohr]

- I'm surprised by the durability of Skorpios. It took some bid hits and I was sure its weapon arm must have been damaged, but it was fine. Perfect Phoenix may have been upgraded, but it definitely looked like the 10 year old bot that it is in this fight.

I think Skorpios is still a very high tier robot. It's just that Bloodsport is poised to go on a run this year.

- Really close fight between Shatter and Malice. I don't know what fight the Shatter guy watched, because it seemed pretty even to me. Shatter's omni-wheels offer it little traction, and it did start smoking near the end, which may have influenced the judges. Personally I'd have been happy with either decision tbh.

Yeah, honestly Victor from Rotator had more reason to be upset than Adam from Shatter did, even though I still think Beta won that fight hands down.

- I predicted 3 hits maximum for this fight, and we basically got 2.5. End Game definitely seemed to be winning, so it's a shame that the producers didn't show/explain in the replays when Bloodsport caused that damage. On the Tombstone Vs Bloodsport comparison, I think the main difference is that Bloodsport is more stable, partly because their weapon is in the middle of the robot, and partly because they have the new stabilising arms on the bar.

I also would imagine that Bloodsport is benefitting from its new rectangular body as opposed to the circular one, which had them flying around the arena last year like a hockey puck.

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

OK, so no Battlebots tonight, but there is some info about the Bounty Hunters tournament starting Monday on Discovery+. It's essentially a knockout tournament of 8 competing robots, with the winner fighting an established veteran (IceWave and Bronco in the first two episodes. Likely SOW will be the other, and each of these three will have 2 of the 6 episodes). I've heard that any winners will automatically be granted places in the top 32, but it's not confirmed. Anyway, we've got the first two brackets, so here are some predictions:

- idk what Black Widow does, but I doubt they will beat Skorpios.
- P1 is a flipper. Tracer cannot self-right. Not hard to see how this will go.
- Hypershock is unreliable but Sporkinok isn't a threat to them at all.
- The Ghost Raptor design seems consistently poor, and Deadlift looks quite tough, though it's hard to know how they'll perform since they're new.

- P1 wasn't particularly reliable in the past, so I can see Skorpios beating them even if they spend half the fight being flipped around.
- Deadlift is like Gruff but with no flamethrowers and probably not as durable. I think Hypershock will beat them.

- The final between Skorpios and Hypershock could be a great fight. On the assumption that Hypershock have fixed their issues from the Gruff fight, I think they'll take it because Skorpios struggles against Verts.

- Hypershock and IceWave also seems like a fun match. The new IceWave looks very slick. Obviously I don't know how it will perform, but I think it will have the power to knock out Hypershock, leaving this episode with no winner.

- Axolotl is another new robot, so I don't know what it does, but I think RotatoR will win.
- I think it's finally time for Captain Shred to get a win.
- Madcatter should easily beat Atom #94 based on their performances so far.
- Chomp should comfortably beat Bale Spear.

- RotatoR is strong against horizontals, and will have no issue with Captain Shred.
- I think Chomp will be weak to verts, so Madcatter will win this one.

- RotatoR has always been very weak against verts, so I predict Madcatter will beat it.

- I think 2018 Bronco would do well against Madcatter. 2019 Bronco... not so much. I really don't know how this fight will go, but for the sake of this episode actually having a winner I will predict Madcatter to win.

[Kohr]

OK, so no Battlebots tonight, but there is some info about the Bounty Hunters tournament starting Monday on Discovery+. It's essentially a knockout tournament of 8 competing robots, with the winner fighting an established veteran (IceWave and Bronco in the first two episodes. Likely SOW will be the other, and each of these three will have 2 of the 6 episodes). I've heard that any winners will automatically be granted places in the top 32, but it's not confirmed. Anyway, we've got the first two brackets, so here are some predictions:

(Image)
- idk what Black Widow does, but I doubt they will beat Skorpios.
- P1 is a flipper. Tracer cannot self-right. Not hard to see how this will go.
- Hypershock is unreliable but Sporkinok isn't a threat to them at all.
- The Ghost Raptor design seems consistently poor, and Deadlift looks quite tough, though it's hard to know how they'll perform since they're new.

- P1 wasn't particularly reliable in the past, so I can see Skorpios beating them even if they spend half the fight being flipped around.
- Deadlift is like Gruff but with no flamethrowers and probably not as durable. I think Hypershock will beat them.

- The final between Skorpios and Hypershock could be a great fight. On the assumption that Hypershock have fixed their issues from the Gruff fight, I think they'll take it because Skorpios struggles against Verts.

- Hypershock and IceWave also seems like a fun match. The new IceWave looks very slick. Obviously I don't know how it will perform, but I think it will have the power to knock out Hypershock, leaving this episode with no winner.

(Image)
- Axolotl is another new robot, so I don't know what it does, but I think RotatoR will win.
- I think it's finally time for Captain Shred to get a win.
- Madcatter should easily beat Atom #94 based on their performances so far.
- Chomp should comfortably beat Bale Spear.

- RotatoR is strong against horizontals, and will have no issue with Captain Shred.
- I think Chomp will be weak to verts, so Madcatter will win this one.

- RotatoR has always been very weak against verts, so I predict Madcatter will beat it.

- I think 2018 Bronco would do well against Madcatter. 2019 Bronco... not so much. I really don't know how this fight will go, but for the sake of this episode actually having a winner I will predict Madcatter to win.

I had no idea this was a thing. I don't have Discovery+, so I will have to find some other way to watch this. I hope it's something that stays on the side and doesn't impact the tournament.

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

I had no idea this was a thing. I don't have Discovery+, so I will have to find some other way to watch this. I hope it's something that stays on the side and doesn't impact the tournament.

It'll probably appear on Youtube. Since I'm not American, I have to watch the regular episodes on Youtube anyway so it makes no difference to me.

[Kohr]

Anyone else see the bounty hunter fights? My thoughts:

-I was impressed that Captain Shrederator put up such a good fight against Rotator. I was not expecting a judges' decision.
-Poor Bronco. We still haven't see a good flip from it since that Las Vegas exhibition tournament way back when. Rotator deserved that win, and yes, it was a lot different than its loss versus Beta.
-Interesting to see Skorpios' flaming hammer-type configuration, which I didn't know existed. Probably not the best thing to bring out versus better competition, but against that spider robot, it did just fine.
-I thought it was funny that the Hypershock/Sporkinok fight was so bad that it wasn't shown in its entirety. Later on, Hypershock got dominated by Skorpios. Will Bales is doomed to have reliability problems until the end of time, it seems.
-Ice Wave still can't beat Skorpios, but that's not a big deal. I remember when I thought Ice Wave won that fight from 2018. I've since done a full 180 from that bad opinion.

[Kohr]

Also, do we know if Ice Wave and Bronco will be competing in the tournament proper, or did they just show up for bounty hunters? I really hope it's the former.

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

Anyone else see the bounty hunter fights? My thoughts:

-I was impressed that Captain Shrederator put up such a good fight against Rotator. I was not expecting a judges' decision.
-Poor Bronco. We still haven't see a good flip from it since that Las Vegas exhibition tournament way back when. Rotator deserved that win, and yes, it was a lot different than its loss versus Beta.
-Interesting to see Skorpios' flaming hammer-type configuration, which I didn't know existed. Probably not the best thing to bring out versus better competition, but against that spider robot, it did just fine.
-I thought it was funny that the Hypershock/Sporkinok fight was so bad that it wasn't shown in its entirety. Later on, Hypershock got dominated by Skorpios. Will Bales is doomed to have reliability problems until the end of time, it seems.
-Ice Wave still can't beat Skorpios, but that's not a big deal. I remember when I thought Ice Wave won that fight from 2018. I've since done a full 180 from that bad opinion.

Finally someone has put them up on Youtube haha. Shame they weren't in order, so I had the later fights spoiled for me while I was looking for the first round, but oh well.

- I actually think RotatoR was pretty lucky. I personally thought Shred had done enough to win their fight even with the loss of the weapon at the end. RotatoR also got lucky in the final when Madcatter got stuck on the floor which allowed RotatoR to take out their wheels. Their performance in the final was impressive though.
- Bronco needs a total redesign. It's simply way too long at this stage and they got absolutely dominated because they maneuver like a cruise ship.
- I still don't understand Ghost Raptor. They were being dominated in the first fight before getting lucky, their weapon still has the propensity to snap and even when it doesn't it stops working after one hit, and the whole machine doesn't seem to be stable when the weapon is spinning. This was a consistently good series of robots in the classic series, reaching the grand final at one point, but this design simply doesn't work.
- I've defended the judges on multiple occasions this year, but the Tracer/P1 decision is a step too far for me. Unlike in the Beta match, it's not like P1 completely dominated, and Tracer had maybe 5 or 6 good damaging hits on their opponent. Sure, P1 could have won by knockout within the first minute... but they didn't because of poor control.
- The IceWave design looks done to me. It seems the engine setup doesn't produce enough torque to get that bar going. A few years ago, that was fine, but 2020 robots are faster and more durable than ever, and that spinup time is a disaster. I don't understand engineering enough to know whether they can mess around with the engine to improve spinup time, but it wouldn't surprise me if the next IceWave was electric.
- Skorpios is basically Diesector now. Back in the olden days, Diesector (predecessor to Lockjaw) was essentially a control bot with two weak hammers that were designed to rack up points so Diesector won pretty much every judges decision, even though they never did any damage,. Skorpios' weapon is similar. They control their opponent with the scoop and then use the "hammer-saw" to score points. That thing barely got though the thin casing on IceWave's engine, but it didn't need to. Kinda interesting to see how they've gone the opposite way to Sawblaze, which is now a knockout bot.

EDIT: I doubt Bronco or Icewave are competing properly. Same with SOW. I thought all three of these had 2 episodes each (because they weren't competing in the main tournament), but it seems Tombstone, Witch Doctor, and Beta are the other 3 "legends".

[Kohr]

Anyone else see the bounty hunter fights? My thoughts:

-I was impressed that Captain Shrederator put up such a good fight against Rotator. I was not expecting a judges' decision.
-Poor Bronco. We still haven't see a good flip from it since that Las Vegas exhibition tournament way back when. Rotator deserved that win, and yes, it was a lot different than its loss versus Beta.
-Interesting to see Skorpios' flaming hammer-type configuration, which I didn't know existed. Probably not the best thing to bring out versus better competition, but against that spider robot, it did just fine.
-I thought it was funny that the Hypershock/Sporkinok fight was so bad that it wasn't shown in its entirety. Later on, Hypershock got dominated by Skorpios. Will Bales is doomed to have reliability problems until the end of time, it seems.
-Ice Wave still can't beat Skorpios, but that's not a big deal. I remember when I thought Ice Wave won that fight from 2018. I've since done a full 180 from that bad opinion.

Finally someone has put them up on Youtube haha. Shame they weren't in order, so I had the later fights spoiled for me while I was looking for the first round, but oh well.

- I actually think RotatoR was pretty lucky. I personally thought Shred had done enough to win their fight even with the loss of the weapon at the end. RotatoR also got lucky in the final when Madcatter got stuck on the floor which allowed RotatoR to take out their wheels. Their performance in the final was impressive though.
- Bronco needs a total redesign. It's simply way too long at this stage and they got absolutely dominated because they maneuver like a cruise ship.
- I still don't understand Ghost Raptor. They were being dominated in the first fight before getting lucky, their weapon still has the propensity to snap and even when it doesn't it stops working after one hit, and the whole machine doesn't seem to be stable when the weapon is spinning. This was a consistently good series of robots in the classic series, reaching the grand final at one point, but this design simply doesn't work.
- I've defended the judges on multiple occasions this year, but the Tracer/P1 decision is a step too far for me. Unlike in the Beta match, it's not like P1 completely dominated, and Tracer had maybe 5 or 6 good damaging hits on their opponent. Sure, P1 could have won by knockout within the first minute... but they didn't because of poor control.
- The IceWave design looks done to me. It seems the engine setup doesn't produce enough torque to get that bar going. A few years ago, that was fine, but 2020 robots are faster and more durable than ever, and that spinup time is a disaster. I don't understand engineering enough to know whether they can mess around with the engine to improve spinup time, but it wouldn't surprise me if the next IceWave was electric.
- Skorpios is basically Diesector now. Back in the olden days, Diesector (predecessor to Lockjaw) was essentially a control bot with two weak hammers that were designed to rack up points so Diesector won pretty much every judges decision, even though they never did any damage,. Skorpios' weapon is similar. They control their opponent with the scoop and then use the "hammer-saw" to score points. That thing barely got though the thin casing on IceWave's engine, but it didn't need to. Kinda interesting to see how they've gone the opposite way to Sawblaze, which is now a knockout bot.

EDIT: I doubt Bronco or Icewave are competing properly. Same with SOW. I thought all three of these had 2 episodes each (because they weren't competing in the main tournament), but it seems Tombstone, Witch Doctor, and Beta are the other 3 "legends".

I want to see Icewave fight opponents other than ones it's had trouble beating in the past before I call the design done, but you may ultimately end up being right about that. Also, I forgot to mention that it seems like it's official that we're not going to get any real competitors out of the new bots this year, with the closest we're getting being Malice or maybe one of the lifters. That's a shame, but not every rookie class can be a hit.

Edit: you're also right about Skorpios and the hammer saw. It has kind of sucked this year, but the bot's still been great. If you remember from last year, the thing was laying some vicious hits on the likes of Copperhead, Sidewinder, and Tantrum. Also, my pet peeve (as you pointed out with Tracer/P1) is when drivers hit robots that are going to be counted out, especially if they're stuck somewhere and could get unstuck. I never know if it's because of poor control or sportsmanship, but if it's the latter, it's foolish, especially if you're fighting an active spinner.

[Ozzy]

The oof factor is strong this episode.

A team that made a bot not many can engage, are complaining about a bot they can't easily engage. I don't agree with arguing with the referee like he can't do his job, but that was certainly an interesting strategy on Hydra's part.

[Kohr]

The real villains of the Huge/Hydra fiasco were the matchmakers. The matchmakers were frankly being idiots by pairing those two up. Look, obviously it's totally legitimate to send a flipper against Huge and see what happens, but the matchmakers did that last year with Bronco (and the year before that with SubZero). There are very few flippers and only one Huge, so they shouldn't be having fights with this amount of frequency in a field of 50-60. By giving us this matchup, it ruined our ability as viewers to watch Hydra and Huge do cool things in better matchups. It's just ridiculous.

-I see they're hyping up Jackpot as a serious contender this season, but it has zero convincing wins so far.
-Sporkinok looks to have competition for worst bot of the year in the for of Aegis. Grabot is also highly questionable, but I appreciate its creativity.
-Good job to Kraken on beating Witch Doctor. They're becoming one of the stronger teams, I think, and are especially good against verts.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Also, do we know if Ice Wave and Bronco will be competing in the tournament proper, or did they just show up for bounty hunters? I really hope it's the former.

From what it sounds like Bronco might be getting retired.