Battlebots - General Discussion

[Quilt Fairy]

8 hours ago, grommit2 said:

Ok...problem:  I cannot tell one bot from another.
I need a photo array with names. 
Like a scorecard with pictures. 
But, I sure do like those huge collisions where both bots go flying. 

Here you go: 2020 season robots

[4Sibes Redux]

No comments about this week’s competition yet. But I wanted to state that I really like Uppercut. 

[libgirl2]

8 hours ago, 4Sibes Redux said:

No comments about this week’s competition yet. But I wanted to state that I really like Uppercut. 

I just knew Hijinx was going to lose I just didn't expect so quickly...... 

[4Sibes Redux]

I don’t like hammer bots because it is very difficult for them to get the timing right. But I was happy to see one (Shattered) have success. 

I was disappointed that Copperhead lost, but I do like having a unique bot like Mammoth compete. 

[Totale]

On 2/27/2021 at 12:18 PM, 4Sibes Redux said:

I was disappointed that Copperhead lost, but I do like having a unique bot like Mammoth compete. 

Mammoth always looks to me like it's having a slappy fight.

[rmontro]

7 hours ago, Totale said:

Mammoth always looks to me like it's having a slappy fight.

 Maybe they should have named it Slappy.

[enoughcats]

Season finale tonight. 

[rmontro]

I had expected Hydra to win, but its flipper didn't appear to be functioning correctly.  End Game was another favorite, but it always bugged me the way its one side tends to lift when it tries to maneuver.  I guess it has to do with the bot trying to fight the gyroscopic force of the weapon, I don't know, I'm not a physicist.

I thought this was a weakened field this year, it seemed like a lot of the top bots got shuffled over to the Bounty Hunters show on Discovery Plus.

[libgirl2]

Rusty got best rookie of the year, but that also could have easily gone to Jackpot, but I get it, people had fun with Rusty.  I was thrilled they named the design award after Grant Imahara, but to be honest, I would have preferred another bot to win, not Chomp. I don't get the Chomp love. 

[Quilt Fairy]

10 hours ago, rmontro said:

I thought this was a weakened field this year

It's always a disappointment when the championship match gets decided so quickly by one bot tossing the other out of the ring, but other than that, I disagree.  For one thing, Hydra didn't win, which just makes me happy all by itself.  For another, I thought last week's show - not sure where the competition was at that point, maybe round of 32? - had eight of the hardest hitting matches I have ever seen in Battlebots. 

And now what will I watch on Thursday nights? ☹️

[libgirl2]

7 minutes ago, Quilt Fairy said:

It's always a disappointment when the championship match gets decided so quickly by one bot tossing the other out of the ring, but other than that, I disagree.  For one thing, Hydra didn't win, which just makes me happy all by itself.  For another, I thought last week's show - not sure where the competition was at that point, maybe round of 32? - had eight of the hardest hitting matches I have ever seen in Battlebots. 

And now what will I watch on Thursday nights? ☹️

I think this year we were able to see some bots and battles we normally might not have seen. I still love that Huge/Mammoth battle. I do agree, I wish last night championship battle went longer, I had told my husband "I hope this is a good fight". Regardless, congrats to both teams and to the winner. This was a fun season. I loved seeing the other teams there to cheer on each other. I think I liked it more than having a regular audience. 

[Gothish520]

On 7/20/2019 at 10:57 AM, rmontro said:

Two more very close fights with Lock-Jaw/Duck and Sawblaze/Blacksmith.  I really thought Duck should have won its fight.  Funny thing is, I had thought before watching it that Duck really needs to win by knockout, because it doesn't really have much of an offense weapon, and the judges supposedly weigh heavily for the main offensive weapon.  Duck's best offense is its defense.

I'm beginning to see why people don't like Ray Billings.  Rotator beat Tombstone fair and square, but he somehow turned it around to being all about himself, saying he had the most destructive bot because he had "destroyed himself".  I thought he should have showed a little more sportsmanship in that situation.  He had also said earlier in the show that Tombstone either wins or it beats itself.  No opponent wants to hear that garbage.

Way late to the party (my husband and I just binged the series and caught up to the new season a couple of weeks ago), but this 100%. I said the exact same thing to my husband, that he couldn't even give props to Rotator, who clearly won the fight on merit. 

I have since softened my position a little on Billings because he seems revered and might actually be a nice guy, but situations like this definitely helped fan the flames of his villian status. I have thoroughly enjoyed every fight that Tombstone has lost.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Gothish520

[rmontro]

4 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I loved seeing the other teams there to cheer on each other. I think I liked it more than having a regular audience. 

I liked that also, it seemed to add another dimension to it.  You could see at times when they were truly impressed, as opposed to being told "line up out there and be the audience".

Regarding Ray Billings, I don't know how much his villainy is manufactured, but Tombstone had a pretty weak season, I thought.  He was lucky to even get into the bracket.  He always looks a bit sad out there by himself or with one other guy, while most teams have a big gang up there.

[libgirl2]

44 minutes ago, Gothish520 said:

Way late to the party (my husband and I just binged the series and caught up to the new season a couple of weeks ago), but this 100%. I said the exact same thing to my husband, that he couldn't even give props to Rotator, who clearly won the fight on merit. 

I have since softened my position a little on Billings because he seems revered and might actually be a nice guy, but situations like this definitely helped fan the flames of his villian status. I have thoroughly enjoyed every fight that Tombstone has lost.

As in all entertainment shows, there is a villian... usually the guy who seems the bad guy is one of the nicest guys and vice versa.  I have heard that is what he plays because that is what people want and in reality he is a nice guy who is very supportive of the "sport". I don't know, sometimes I can't stand him, other times I give him props. 

Edited March 12, 2021 by libgirl2

[enoughcats]

8 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I was thrilled they named the design award after Grant Imahara, but to be honest, I would have preferred another bot to win, not Chomp. I don't get the Chomp love. 

When two or three years ago Chomp went with the automated hammer whose 'electric eye' for want of a better word followed its prey and hit automatically, Chomp was awarded some prize for innovation. It was top heavy and kept falling over and seemed to spend most of its matches trying to right itself.  The innovation earned it a prize that the rest of it got ignored.  So this year, somehow they got a dispensation to double the weight of it and walk like Ms. Wigglesworth.  The weight was a fighting advantage that didn't win fights, and the auto hammer wasn't impressive. Lots of people worked a lot on it; nobody said Too big, too ponderous, too slow. They should have.

4 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

And now what will I watch on Thursday nights?

Maybe go to Youtube and search for videos of past competitions? 

[Gothish520]

On 2/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

I don't remember the bot that did it, but someone attached a spike to their bot to put through Huge's wheels.  It didn't cut them up, but it prevented Huge from doing much IIRC. 

That was Kraken, and it was a great fight! The spike was effective but Kraken couldn't avoid Huge's spinner and took a lot of damage. In the end it went to the judges and Huge won in a unanimous decision. But Kraken really fought hard and gave us a great show.

15 minutes ago, enoughcats said:

When two or three years ago Chomp went with the automated hammer whose 'electric eye' for want of a better word followed its prey and hit automatically, Chomp was awarded some prize for innovation. It was top heavy and kept falling over and seemed to spend most of its matches trying to right itself.  The innovation earned it a prize that the rest of it got ignored.  So this year, somehow they got a dispensation to double the weight of it and walk like Ms. Wigglesworth.  The weight was a fighting advantage that didn't win fights, and the auto hammer wasn't impressive. Lots of people worked a lot on it; nobody said Too big, too ponderous, too slow. They should have.

Maybe go to Youtube and search for videos of past competitions? 

That's probably what I will be doing after I watch Bounty Hunters, lol.

[Gothish520]

Spoiler

 

My husband's favorite bot is Whiplash, but I have a soft spot for Endgame so I'm happy for them. I enjoyed this season a lot, I'm glad they were able to make it work.

I don't much consider this a weak season in that there were still some top-tier bots like Tombstone and Witch Doctor that should have had relatively easy runs to the finale. That they had bad seasons shows that anything can happen and nothing is a given in robot combat, lol.

So glad Hydra didn't make it to the finale. Congrats to the End Game team!

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Gothish520

[libgirl2]

41 minutes ago, enoughcats said:

When two or three years ago Chomp went with the automated hammer whose 'electric eye' for want of a better word followed its prey and hit automatically, Chomp was awarded some prize for innovation. It was top heavy and kept falling over and seemed to spend most of its matches trying to right itself.  The innovation earned it a prize that the rest of it got ignored.  So this year, somehow they got a dispensation to double the weight of it and walk like Ms. Wigglesworth.  The weight was a fighting advantage that didn't win fights, and the auto hammer wasn't impressive. Lots of people worked a lot on it; nobody said Too big, too ponderous, too slow. They should have.

 

I started watching Battlebots right around that time and most of my recollections of Chomp is it going to hit and then flopping on it's side. I couldn't get why everyone was so excited about it. And when it came out this year, I expected better, instead it lumbered around and TBH looked silly out there. And it's weakness was found out pretty quickly. 

[Quilt Fairy]

 I have Comcast/Xfinity and most of the previous seasons are available free through onDemand. 

The season finale has aired.  There's no need to spoiler any of the results.

 

[proserpina65]

I am so thrilled that End Game won the Giant Nut - I love those crazy Kiwis.  Although I also love the Vasquez family, so it was one of these "either winner is good with me".  And thank god it wasn't Hydra.

[Gothish520]

On 3/12/2021 at 8:41 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

 I have Comcast/Xfinity and most of the previous seasons are available free through onDemand. 

The season finale has aired.  There's no need to spoiler any of the results.

 

Thanks, i will change it. I wasn't sure since no one else had come out and said Endgame won yet.

Apparently you can't remove spoiler tags, annoying, lol.

Edited March 14, 2021 by Gothish520

[QuantumMechanic]

On 3/12/2021 at 12:42 AM, rmontro said:

I thought this was a weakened field this year, it seemed like a lot of the top bots got shuffled over to the Bounty Hunters show on Discovery Plus.

So what was the Bounty Hunters premise and what bots did they move over there?  (I'm not about to pay for another streamer.).

I've been wondering which bots were not on the main show because of Bounty Hunters and which just didn't/couldn't come because of the plague.

Edited March 19, 2021 by QuantumMechanic

[libgirl2]

3 hours ago, QuantumMechanic said:

So what was the Bounty Hunters premise and what bots did they move over there?  (I'm not about to pay for another streamer.).

I've been wondering which bots were not on the main show because of Bounty Hunters and which just didn't/couldn't come because of the plague.

They are playing Bounty Hunters on Discovery as of last night. I am so glad I didn't read spoilers and didn't pay for Discovery +

[Rickster]

1 hour ago, libgirl2 said:

They are playing Bounty Hunters on Discovery as of last night. I am so glad I didn't read spoilers and didn't pay for Discovery +

Me too. I was pretty surprised to see this show up on regular cable, given all the ads on the regular show.

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, Rickster said:

Me too. I was pretty surprised to see this show up on regular cable, given all the ads on the regular show.

Same with us and so soon too. 

[chitowngirl]

Is Bounty Hunters just a one and done this week by Discovery and a lure to get us to the streaming service?

[libgirl2]

25 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

Is Bounty Hunters just a one and done this week by Discovery and a lure to get us to the streaming service?

I thought I read it will be on every Thursday. 

[Rickster]

There’s another episode next Thursday already set up on my DVR. No idea how many in total.

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, Rickster said:

There’s another episode next Thursday already set up on my DVR. No idea how many in total.

And next Thursday they're rerunning the Bounty Hunters episode they showed this week.  It looks like these episodes are very standalone though, so no real problem with missing them. 

In the first episode they were saying this might be the last time we see Bronco, so I guess it's retiring?  And that main event was pretty disappointing because of what happened with Bronco, so if that was its swan song it left a little to be desired.

[Quilt Fairy]

8 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

They are playing Bounty Hunters on Discovery as of last night. I am so glad I didn't read spoilers and didn't pay for Discovery +

Well, damn, I would have thought that my DVR would record anything labeled "Battlebots" in any form, but it missed this.  None of the episodes seem to be available on demand, but it looks like the first episode will be repeated in a few weeks. 

[4Sibes Redux]

14 hours ago, QuantumMechanic said:

So what was the Bounty Hunters premise and what bots did they move over there?  (I'm not about to pay for another streamer.).

The participants are the same bots as in the regular competition so far. The premis is that each week there is one bot at the “top” that the others compete to take on. There are three prelim rounds with the winner going on to take on the other winner until you get to the week’s finale. I think the winner each week takes home $5000. 
 

Each bout is formatted like the regular ones are. They were obviously filmed during the big competition. All bouts take place on the same day, so the bots have to be put together quickly. I assume that the participants do this after they’ve been eliminated after the big competition.

I enjoy the Bounty Hunters as much as the big show. I think a lot of it is because of how this year only has the audience comprised of participants. It’s very good natured and makes me happy. 

[CoderLady]

If you don't want to wait until next week to see the first two Bounty Hunters episodes, Discovery Go is a free (with ads) streamer you probably have access to through your cable provider. Look on the on-screen app menu that comes with your service. You just have to enter an activation code from your phone or laptop to sign up. Enjoy!

[Quilt Fairy]

22 hours ago, CoderLady said:

If you don't want to wait until next week to see the first two Bounty Hunters episodes, Discovery Go is a free (with ads) streamer you probably have access to through your cable provider. Look on the on-screen app menu that comes with your service. You just have to enter an activation code from your phone or laptop to sign up. Enjoy!

Thank you for this info.  I was able to stream the first 2 eps on my laptop.  I had forgotten about Discovery Go, but in any event I would have assumed that it got merged into Discovery +.

[Totale]

On 3/19/2021 at 11:38 PM, 4Sibes Redux said:

I enjoy the Bounty Hunters as much as the big show.

 

Having seen three so far I tend to agree.  I'm glad I didn't spring for Pay TV to see them, though, which I was near to doing at a couple of points. 

[rmontro]

From the episodes I've seen so far, the bounty bots don't seem to be doing too well.  I think Tombstone is the only one that has won so far (watching the reruns on the regular Discovery Channel).

Edited April 13, 2021 by rmontro

[libgirl2]

On 4/10/2021 at 11:04 PM, rmontro said:

From the episodes I've seen so far, the bounty bots don't seem to be doing too well.  I think Tombstone is the only one that has one so far (watching the reruns on the regular Discovery Channel).

No they haven't. WE are watching the reruns too since we don't have Discovery +. Still I'm really enjoying it. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by libgirl2

[proserpina65]

I was surprised that Lockjaw wasn't one of the legend bots being hunted.  Seems far more of one than Witch Doctor.  But I'm not surprised at all that it won.

[libgirl2]

Malice really needs to work on that design! 

[rmontro]

On 4/15/2021 at 4:59 PM, proserpina65 said:

I was surprised that Lockjaw wasn't one of the legend bots being hunted.  Seems far more of one than Witch Doctor.

Witch Doctor freaking destroyed SubZero though.  Was that the end of the Bounty Hunters season?

[Rickster]

On 4/16/2021 at 9:21 PM, rmontro said:

Witch Doctor freaking destroyed SubZero though.  Was that the end of the Bounty Hunters season?

Looking at the Discovery+ schedule, it seems there should be one more 2 hour episode. But it doesn’t look like it’s on next Thursday, according to my DVR.

[proserpina65]

On 4/16/2021 at 9:21 PM, rmontro said:

Witch Doctor freaking destroyed SubZero though.  Was that the end of the Bounty Hunters season?

True, but I still don't think of a bot which has never won the whole tournament as a legend.  It was an impressive fight, though.

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

True, but I still don't think of a bot which has never won the whole tournament as a legend.  

But... they wear funny hats and wiggle their fingers at the camera.

[enoughcats]

And they got married.

[libgirl2]

On 4/16/2021 at 8:21 PM, rmontro said:

Witch Doctor freaking destroyed SubZero though.  Was that the end of the Bounty Hunters season?

Subzero was decimated in a matter of seconds. No contest at all. 

[Quilt Fairy]

While I'll take another ep of Battlebots any time in any form, the Bounty Hunters episodes fall a little flat for me.  There doesn't seem to be any standards/requirements for the challenging bots and frankly, too many of them just aren't ready for the big leagues.  It makes for very short, one-sided battles that just aren't very enjoyable. 

[rmontro]

I can't believe Gigabyte won that last Bounty match.  I expected Son of Whyachi to absolutely destroy them.  I think that was the season finale this time?  Losing record for the legends.

[libgirl2]

On 4/30/2021 at 7:53 PM, rmontro said:

I can't believe Gigabyte won that last Bounty match.  I expected Son of Whyachi to absolutely destroy them.  I think that was the season finale this time?  Losing record for the legends.

We were really surprised too! And in such a convincing matter. 

I wish there were a few more episodes. I'm going to miss the show. 

[CoderLady]

On 4/30/2021 at 5:53 PM, rmontro said:

I can't believe Gigabyte won that last Bounty match.  I expected Son of Whyachi to absolutely destroy them.  I think that was the season finale this time?  Losing record for the legends.

 

3 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

We were really surprised too! And in such a convincing matter. 

I wish there were a few more episodes. I'm going to miss the show. 

Son of Whyachi really, really needs a self-righter. Maybe when it got its reputation as fearsome it was the baddest thing spinning, but there are smarter drivers and better bots out there now. IIRC one of the other last times it got beaten was by a bot flipping it.

Edited May 4, 2021 by CoderLady

[Quilt Fairy]

13 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Maybe when it got its reputation as fearsome it was the baddest thing spinning, but there are smarter drivers and better bots out there now

I think that's true for all of these "legends".  

[enoughcats]

On 5/5/2021 at 2:46 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

baddest thing spinning

Going way, way back there was a battlebots forum, back in Comedy Central time.  Lots of sharing between the different teams.  One thing I remember is that one of the electric drill motors was going to be on sale and the replacement wasn't going to be as strong.  

I found the idea of a drill's electric motor-battery driven to power a battlebot to be really interesting and I'd look at the bots in different ways.