BattleBots Thread

[Ameriganastan]

I need a new favorite robot. Tombstone has been nothing but disappointing since that championship run...God, he's just like my football team.

[Ozzy]

I need a new favorite robot. Tombstone has been nothing but disappointing since that championship run...God, he's just like my football team.

Uh, yeah... same. It's a massive let-down.

I am just gonna make the switch to Team Whyachi.

[Ozzy]

...aaaaaand there goes the hard counter to Hydra.

That was the perfect wedge for something like Gigabyte, I didn't see that one coming. I also didn't anticipate Gigabyte absolutely refusing to die though despite hitting the wall twice at mach 5 speeds.

[Kohr]

...aaaaaand there goes the hard counter to Hydra.

That was the perfect wedge for something like Gigabyte, I didn't see that one coming. I also didn't anticipate Gigabyte absolutely refusing to die though despite hitting the wall twice at mach 5 speeds.

Me neither. Gigabyte held up quite well.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

I think its safe to say Black Dragon just won the "toughest bot of the year" award.

[Kohr]

I am sad.

[MLGDogeland]

I need a new favorite robot. Tombstone has been nothing but disappointing since that championship run...God, he's just like my football team.

I switched to Hydra gang immediately after Tombstone's loss to Skorpios.

[Kohr]

I need a new favorite robot. Tombstone has been nothing but disappointing since that championship run...God, he's just like my football team.

I switched to Hydra gang immediately after Tombstone's loss to Skorpios.

Hydra gang is in mourning tonight. What a disappointing end to their great season. At least they went out in a close fight, unlike last year.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Ive been binging Battlebot clips on youtube the last few days. I used to love watching Robot Wars when i was a kid so this is amazing.

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

EPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!!!

Possibly my favourite episode of any robot combat show ever. My hands are still shaking now from excitement!
A quick rundown of the fights
- BD showing its durability, and more importantly winning the battle for low ground. I thought this was Ribbot's when the fire started, so credit to BD for continuing to dominate the fight. This win will more than make up for their loss to Texas Twister last year, where a similar thing happened.
- End Game straight up dominating against Shatter. Their new superlong forks were a great addition. All season I've been extolling the virtues of ground-scraping forks and wedgelets, and so many of the fights in this episode were a demonstration of why these are so important. Shatter had decent forks, but EG's were longer, and that's why they won the head-on exchanges.
- What incredible driving from Tantrum. At one point I actually paused the match because I thought I was watching it in fast-forward. The control and speed and agility that Tantrum has is ridiculous, and straight-up dominating Sawblaze at their own game is something I never thought I'd see.
- Hydra has never lost the ground game, but the forks for Whiplash lost the fight. After losing the ground game easily to Sawblaze in the first fight, Whiplash made the necessary adjustments and it paid off. I'm not sure what damage Hydra took internally, but their drive seemed compromised after that first hit. Their drive has cut out at the end of the Witch Doctor and Gigabyte fights this season, and finally their luck ran out. Hydra is so reliant on winning the ground game, so they need to be even lower next year.

- Tantrum maybe a bit unlucky here. They had EG where they wanted, and I'm not sure why the spinner blew up. Still, the control and patience EG displayed in this fight is very impressive. They drive almost like Bite Force now, but with a weapon that hits much harder.
- Without low forks on BD, this fight was always going to end one way. Probably the least interesting fight of the episode, but still a fun 3-minute brawl.

- I'll be honest, I expected Whiplash to dominate End Game, but once again the "my forks are longer than yours" strategy came into play and EG won every exchange. They took out the disk and bent the lifter on pretty much the first hit, and after that it was just a matter of time before they got the big one.

All in all, a very impressive tournament from End Game. Their approach seems much more controlled than in previous years, but the main thing is that they've sorted out their wedge game, and now have a front end for any opponent.

My predictions were... off, but not as bad as others. I correctly predicted:
14/16 of the top 16
5/8 Quarter finalists
1/4 Semi finalists
1/2 Finalists
0/1 Champion

[Kohr]

My predictions were... off, but not as bad as others. I correctly predicted:
14/16 of the top 16
5/8 Quarter finalists
1/4 Semi finalists
1/2 Finalists
0/1 Champion

Yeah, you did really well in predictions considering most of our brackets went up in flames.

[Window Land]

If you told me at the start of the season that tantrum would out drive sawblaze for a spot in the semifinals I would have laughed. Then again, if you would have told me that at the beginning of the episode I still would have laughed. They really have come far from the bot whose fist is embedded in the battle box glass. Hydra's issues showed up again- if the can't just win the battle for low ground and flip it is not fast or reliable enough to win. Whiplash did good overall but they still have some durability issues. End game seems to have ascended to elite, although they are hardly the toughest giant nut winner. Black dragon is quite impressive with that durability also.

[Kohr]

Hydra's issues showed up again- if the can't just win the battle for low ground and flip it is not fast or reliable enough to win.

True. But any bot that loses the ground game is probably going to lose the match.

[Window Land]

Hydra's issues showed up again- if the can't just win the battle for low ground and flip it is not fast or reliable enough to win.

True. But any bot that loses the ground game is probably going to lose the match.

That's true- it is difficult to win if a bot loses the battle for low ground. However, good bots often find ways to over come that, like getting around to the side, or just saying screw it and hitting the other bot anyway, sorta like witch doctor.

[Window Land]

Now that the season's up, I want to pose a question: what is your ideal battlebot design? That is, if you made a battlebot, what design would it have? Me personally, I would go with a full bodied spinner with a field oriented, holonomic drivetrain. That is, a drivetrain that can travel in any direction, like shatter's, that the directions on the joystick map to the directions of the box edges. It would let me combine big hits with good manuverability.

[Ameriganastan]

Worst season ever.

[Kohr]

Now that the season's up, I want to pose a question: what is your ideal battlebot design? That is, if you made a battlebot, what design would it have? Me personally, I would go with a full bodied spinner with a field oriented, holonomic drivetrain. That is, a drivetrain that can travel in any direction, like shatter's, that the directions on the joystick map to the directions of the box edges. It would let me combine big hits with good manuverability.

If I knew anything about how to build robots, I've always been interested in seeing how a design like Tough as Nails, with two horizonal crushers, would do in modern times. I probably wouldn't go super far, but I'd be happy if it was decently competitive.

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

Remember the rankings spreadsheet I made last year? Well it's back again! I've included my rankings for 2018, 2019, and 2020. The formula used to rank robots is a weighted rolling 3-year system, so don't expect the average score to increase in future seasons like it has in the first 3.

Despite never winning a nut, the consistency of Whiplash sees them top the table ahead of champions End Game. Bite Force is 3rd despite not even turning up this season. The ranking now includes 50 robots, but I've only included the top 20 here.

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

Filming for season 6 of Battlebots is about to begin in Las Vegas. Not sure when it will be aired, but presumably it will be some time in the autumn. Discovery has also committed to season 7, which is great news because we usually have to wait until one season has finished before the next is confirmed. Clearly Battlebots is giving them very good ratings.

A few things to note:
- It will no longer be legal to throw robots over the wall (not sure if this applies to the whole thing, or just certain sections). If this happens accidentally, the fight will be paused and the robot will be recovered. I presume this is in response to End Game and Uppercut ending half their fights in 30 seconds last year by just yeeting opponents over the wall
- To compensate for this rule, there is a new 'shelf' hazard, behind one set of screws. Nobody really knows how it works yet, but it seems like robots can be thrown there and counted out. However, it will be possible for robots to escape, though I believe those with ground-scraping forks will struggle to get out. I'm not convinced by this hazard, but we'll see how it works in the fights and how it changes the tactics of drivers.
- Bite Force will not return for this season. They are negotiating better terms for the teams, as it seems that despite putting in huge amounts of money and work, teams don't get much/any of a cut of the revenue that Battlebots brings in.
- South Korean spinner Orby is making their Battlebots debut, after disintegrating opponents over in China.
- Minotaur is back for this season. Yeti is also back, despite Greg saying he'd retired a couple of years ago. He's teamed up with 2X nut winner Christian Carlberg this time round. Deep Six also return, and are now able to self-right with the weapon.
- There will likely be no British teams this year due to Covid travel regulations, with the exception of Slammow, who live in the US, and Cobalt, which has been sold to the Gigabyte team and will be driven by former Stinger captain Max Maxham.
- Speaking of Slammow, there are rumours and photos which suggest the team may have also brought Bombshell in some form or other, but they are denying that at the moment.
- Tombstone is of course back with some new blades, including a thicc titanium blade which looks like it could break the concept of time itself.

I'm looking forward to it!

[Ameriganastan]

Wake up, thread. We're back January 6th.

[Necroghastia]

Really digging Slammo's new paint job.

[Kohr]

Wake up, thread. We're back January 6th.

Let's go!!! I see the fight card has been released too!

[Pencil Sharpeners 2]

Predictions for episode 1 are hard, partly because we don't know what changes robots made in the offseason, and partly because there are new hazards and rules which may affect how fights go. Still here's my first guess.

- I think Sawblaze will beat Minotaur. In previous years Minotaur has gyrodanced quite a lot, and I think Sawblaze will be able to use that to its advantage. On top of that, I'm not sure if Minotaur will be able to prevent Sawblaze from getting under it from the front. We also don't know how resilient that top armour of Minotaur is.
- I was impressed with Gigabyte's durability last year, once they switched out the dodgy Chinese parts. I also know that they have a special new shell this year to combat vertical spinners. Having said that, I think Uppercut will have too much for them and will win comfortably.
- I have no idea what Switchback will do. Its weapon seems too heavy to be swinging about above the robot. Gruff had reliability problems last year, but I see them easily winning this match.
- Captain Shred really can't catch a break. I think if it was reliable, it's shell would provide good protection against Tombstone, and it would have a chance. However, it isn't reliable, so will probably break down halfway through the fight as usual.
- I've seen test box footage of the new Blacksmith, and that weapon sounds scary. As much as I like robots who do something different, that flaming hammer rarely caused any damage, so hopefully the new sawblaze-style weapon will work better for them. I think Free Shipping will probably tank most of the hits, but will lose easily on the judges' decision.
- I've heard that Pain Train is much improved this year, but I still expect Deep Six (who is also much improved) to take an easy knockout here.
- Last year, I predicted Hydra and End Game would meet in the final and that Hydra would win. We never got that final, but I'm sticking with my prediction for Hydra here. From build update images that both teams have posted in the lead up to the tournament, it seems that there's going to be an insane fork game in this fight.
- Deadlift and Jackpot is a repeat of a fight we saw last year in the Bounty Hunters, which Deadlift won easily. Deadlift seem to have a lot more upgrades than Jackpot, so I think they'll win again.

[Kohr]

- I think Sawblaze will beat Minotaur. In previous years Minotaur has gyrodanced quite a lot, and I think Sawblaze will be able to use that to its advantage. On top of that, I'm not sure if Minotaur will be able to prevent Sawblaze from getting under it from the front. We also don't know how resilient that top armour of Minotaur is.

I also think Sawblaze will win, but that's mainly because they always get slotted in the first fight of the season and always win it.

- Last year, I predicted Hydra and End Game would meet in the final and that Hydra would win. We never got that final, but I'm sticking with my prediction for Hydra here. From build update images that both teams have posted in the lead up to the tournament, it seems that there's going to be an insane fork game in this fight.

I think Hydra takes this one. For all their problems in the championship bracket, they usually take out top vertical spinners.

- Deadlift and Jackpot is a repeat of a fight we saw last year in the Bounty Hunters, which Deadlift won easily. Deadlift seem to have a lot more upgrades than Jackpot, so I think they'll win again.

Being in an untelevised fight is not a super good sign that Jackpot will be able to improve on its success from last year.

[Necroghastia]

holy fucking shit shrederator