Battlebots - General Discussion

[madmax]

10 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I know he won one battle for sure. 

Yes, he won one.  Everyone was shocked.

10 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I think it's bogus that Hydra gets a chance to fight a 2-1 bot (Defender) for one of the last 2 tournament spots.  Defender should've gotten that spot.  Then if there were not more 2-1 teams, they could've pitted Hydra against another 1-2 bot.  Ugh, Ewerts.

I think there's something in the by-laws that a Ewert has to be in the tournament.  😉

[Vermicious Knid]

I looked it up, Rusty won against Sporkinok. And the wiki says he won a Bounty Hunters bout.

No Sporkinok this year, and it looks like SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! was knocked out of the competition.

[enoughcats]

8 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

like SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! was knocked out of the competition.

SMEEEEEEEEEEE did not even fit INSIDE the painted square at the beginning of the match.  Didn't there used to be a rule that the bot had to fit inside that?  (I haven't read the rules, I think the last set of rules I read was about three years ago.)

[madmax]

SMEEEEEEEEEEEE is probably one of the dumbest robots I've seen on there.  

[Quilt Fairy]

6 hours ago, madmax said:

SMEEEEEEEEEEEE is probably one of the dumbest robots I've seen on there.  

At least the inventor is thinking outside the box (literally).  If everybody only followed what worked, we might have nothing but a bunch of Tombstone clones by now 

[JH Lipton]

On 2/28/2022 at 1:21 PM, proserpina65 said:

Yeah, I think Jake Ewert has succeeded Ray Billings in the most-hated department.  (Although in Billings' case, I think it was mostly for show, whereas I think Jake Ewert is just an ass.)  That said, if it were anyone except a Ewert running Hydra, I'd be more disposed to enjoy the flipping because it is fun to watch.

There was a segment with Ray and Jake with them talking about Jake taking over the "most hated" spot from Ray, so at least he has a bit of a sense of humor about it.  I noticed that Ray seems a LOT more light-hearted this season, taking losses with a sense of humor, congratulating other teams and saying that they beat him where he used to say that he beat himself. 

There really isn't much logistic difference between Hijinx and Tombstone, so I guess I can move past the simplistic design.

My wife and I are both on team Witch Doctor.  The Golightly are the best team captained by a woman (Malice and Valerie aren't bad but their record is spotty st best) and I'm glad to see more women on most of the teams. (The "frat bros" will never be a favorite of mine.  Witch Doctor has gone toe-to-toe with top tier bots and won (they won their Bounty Hunter spit last year).

Coolest things about the last episode were the bot (Malice?) ending up on its back and the bot taking out Icewave AND its drone in one shot.

[libgirl2]

Spoiler

Another sacrificial lamb to Witch Doctor... 

 

[yourdreamer]

Technically two sacrifices!

[libgirl2]

7 minutes ago, yourdreamer said:

Technically two sacrifices!

Yes. 

[yourdreamer]

I watched on Discovery earlier today so I have been waiting not so patiently for the live airing. I wanted Hyper Shock to win their bout, so of course P1 somehow did. 
 

Poor Skorpios. At least they got to say they made the tourney. 
 

Double so for poor Glitch. I guess the bot lived up to its name. 

[libgirl2]

I wish we could have seen the Copperhead/Lucky battle. 

[Totale]

Why the Faruq do they show us stupid behind the scenes "fun" about how teams look like their robots and cut out actual tournament matches?  Why is Witch Doctor "feared" and "legendary" because they came in second in 2019?  Why are the commentators so visibly disturbed that "not our year once again" Hypershock got whipped once again as they so often do?  Why the thumb on the scale that ensures at least one Udder Gun (as well as WD) gets into the tournament? 

I just felt bad for Glitch who got screwed.  ED chick said they were just sitting around all day.  Why not change up the match order and give them more time to fix their glitch?

[madmax]

14 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I wish we could have seen the Copperhead/Lucky battle. 

I said as much to Mr. Max: Get rid of all the talk and show the matches!  The Copperhead/Lucky battle and the Huge/Uppercut battles both looked really good, but all we saw were highlights.  No one cares that the teams look like their robots.  Duh, we can see, ya know.

9 hours ago, Totale said:

Why the Faruq do they show us stupid behind the scenes "fun" about how teams look like their robots and cut out actual tournament matches?  Why is Witch Doctor "feared" and "legendary" because they came in second in 2019?  Why are the commentators so visibly disturbed that "not our year once again" Hypershock got whipped once again as they so often do?  Why the thumb on the scale that ensures at least one Udder Gun (as well as WD) gets into the tournament? 

I just felt bad for Glitch who got screwed.  ED chick said they were just sitting around all day.  Why not change up the match order and give them more time to fix their glitch?

Not a fan of Witch Doctor at all.  I really wanted to see them go up against Glitch.  Sucks that they didn't get a chance to participate because they were a fearsome robot.  And their pre-season wasn't a pair of gimmes like Witch Doctor.

Hypershock actually looked the best this year that I've seen in all the years I've been watching.  And I thought he should have won that match.  He had a couple of really good hits on P1 and he managed to right himself to get in that one big hit that had P1 flying.

And I stated above, I believe it's in the by-laws that a Ewert bot has to be in the tournament.  I'm kinda sorta kidding....

[Rickster]

Inquiring minds (actually my girlfriend) want to know, why do Kenny and Chris always wear the same clothes in every show? Don’t they even have a change of shirts? Or are they filming all this in one day?

[Vermicious Knid]

P1 is so low to the ground with the front forming a ramp its' opponents just keep driving right over it. Brilliant design actually.

I fast forward through pretty much everything but the actual battles and it's like 40 minutes.

[madmax]

14 hours ago, Rickster said:

Inquiring minds (actually my girlfriend) want to know, why do Kenny and Chris always wear the same clothes in every show? Don’t they even have a change of shirts? Or are they filming all this in one day?

It's probably like a game show, they film a bunch in one or two days.  Probably why Glitch couldn't get fixed in time.  I noticed that Kenny and Chris talk about weeks, but the builders talk about hours.

[enoughcats]

10 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

P1 is so low to the ground with the front forming a ramp its' opponents just keep driving right over it. Brilliant design actually.

Possibly an homage to a very oldtimer.  It was in the heavyweight category and it was a very low to the stage wedge in one direction with a (? red) warning sign stenciled on the top of it. The owners/drivers were a husband and wife who dressed in green hospital 'pajamas'.

9 minutes ago, madmax said:

why Glitch couldn't get fixed in time.

Wasn't there an interview earlier this season when the interviewed team said they just sat around because their scheduled opponent had to do about eight hours of work to get their bot running? 

[madmax]

On 3/19/2022 at 12:00 PM, enoughcats said:

Possibly an homage to a very oldtimer.  It was in the heavyweight category and it was a very low to the stage wedge in one direction with a (? red) warning sign stenciled on the top of it. The owners/drivers were a husband and wife who dressed in green hospital 'pajamas'.

BIOHAZARD!!!  Loved that bot.  It won the giant nut at least once.

[proserpina65]

On 3/17/2022 at 11:28 PM, yourdreamer said:

I wanted Hyper Shock to win their bout, so of course P1 somehow did. 

Me, too.  I was surprised it was unanimous.  It's not like P1 did any actual damage.  Oh well, it figures, Hypershock was living up to its billing this season.  I'm thinking not getting that third fight before the tournament was not a good thing; I know the teams who didn't get one were not happy about it.

On 3/18/2022 at 11:16 AM, Totale said:

Why is Witch Doctor "feared" and "legendary" because they came in second in 2019? 

I have yet to figure that out.  I've been watching for several seasons now and 2019 is the only season they did much at all.  The other years have pretty much been hype they couldn't live up to.  They're mostly style over substance and have gotten by with bouts against much weaker opponents.

Edited to note that the round of 16 match between End Game and Minotaur has the potential to be seriously awesome.

Edited March 21, 2022 by proserpina65

[grommit2]

I still need a scorecard to identify the robots.
But, one of the coolest things is to see a 250 pound robot get  blasted into the air, pieces flying off...oh yeah!

[proserpina65]

33 minutes ago, grommit2 said:

But, one of the coolest things is to see a 250 pound robot get  blasted into the air, pieces flying off...oh yeah!

The only thing better is when they explode.

[CoderLady]

45 minutes ago, grommit2 said:

I still need a scorecard to identify the robots.
But, one of the coolest things is to see a 250 pound robot get  blasted into the air, pieces flying off...oh yeah!

 

11 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

The only thing better is when they explode.

Big, lovely orange fireballs all the way up to the ceiling.... It doesn't get better than this.

[libgirl2]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:21 PM, proserpina65 said:

I have yet to figure that out.  I've been watching for several seasons now and 2019 is the only season they did much at all.  The other years have pretty much been hype they couldn't live up to.  They're mostly style over substance and have gotten by with bouts against much weaker opponents.

 

Yes, 2019 was a great year for Witch Doctor. We were even surprised how well they did. They haven't done near as well since and this year, I wouldn't exactly brag about their wins. It just seems to me TPTB are really want that bot in the competition. I'm reminded how much they loved Chomp, which spent most of the time on it's side and then later walking like a crab. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by libgirl2

[CoderLady]

Witch Doctor did have a lot of spectacular wins in past seasons, but I think they don't seem to shine as much now because there are so many amazing new bots in the competition. It seems like the veterans are starting to get trounced by the young'uns, and Witch Doctor is no exception. I never expected to see Tombstone or Lockjaw get beaten by newer bots either but it's happening regularly now. What's the world coming to?

Not to be mean, but I'm glad the two most annoyingly overrated bots on the planet didn't make it into the tournament. If I never see Duck! or Chomp (interesting concept but has no place in a fight competition) ever again I'll be happy.

[madmax]

3 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Witch Doctor did have a lot of spectacular wins in past seasons, but I think they don't seem to shine as much now because there are so many amazing new bots in the competition. It seems like the veterans are starting to get trounced by the young'uns, and Witch Doctor is no exception. I never expected to see Tombstone or Lockjaw get beaten by newer bots either but it's happening regularly now. What's the world coming to?

There are some really great new designs...and some really crappy ones.

3 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Not to be mean, but I'm glad the two most annoyingly overrated bots on the planet didn't make it into the tournament. If I never see Duck! or Chomp (interesting concept but has no place in a fight competition) ever again I'll be happy.

I thought Chomp was ridiculous.  That thing spent more time trying to self-right than actually fighting.  And most of the time, it flipped itself.

I liked the original version of Duck.  Yeah, it was pretty much a brick on wheels, but that's what made it work.  The new version is horrible.

[proserpina65]

14 hours ago, madmax said:

I liked the original version of Duck.  Yeah, it was pretty much a brick on wheels, but that's what made it work.  The new version is horrible.

The longer 'beak' definitely seems to be a design flaw.  It should just go back to the old design.

17 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Witch Doctor did have a lot of spectacular wins in past seasons,

I don't think they had that many spectacular wins other than in the 2019 season.  And even then, I think the semi-final win over Death Roll could've gone for either bot.  (I was rooting for Death Roll.)  To me, Witch Doctor has pretty much been a serviceable bot with mostly style going for it.  I want to like it, because I do think having more female bot builders is a great thing, but I'm just not that impressed, particularly with its reliability.

To be fair, some of my favorite bots have historically had serious reliability issues too.  Yes, HyperShock, I'm looking at you.  But I cut that one some slack because, I'll be honest, I think Will Bales is really cute and I am really shallow.

14 hours ago, madmax said:

I thought Chomp was ridiculous.  That thing spent more time trying to self-right than actually fighting.  And most of the time, it flipped itself.

The idea of original flavor Chomp was good.  The execution had some serious stability issues.  The new Chomp was absolutely ridiculous, although the turret aspect was intriguing.

[libgirl2]

I saw a cute post on Facebook. Witch Doctor's next opponent is a garbage can lid. In all jest, it is not a bad bot, but it's legend is bigger than it is.

[libgirl2]

Last night, under spoiler until everyone catches up

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

I was surprised how quickly Ribbot went down! Or should I say up! I thought the battle could have gone either way, but I thought there would be a good fight between the two.  They should have stayed with their original design. And that thing they added to Gigabyte lasted a whole half a second. 

I will say one thing, I thought Blip was a one off, but it is really good. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2022 by libgirl2

[enoughcats]

On 3/23/2022 at 11:55 AM, libgirl2 said:

I saw a cute post on Facebook. Witch Doctor's next opponent is a garbage can lid. In all jest, it is not a bad bot, but it's legend is bigger than it is.

It's not too late to start cheering for garbage can lids. 

[chitowngirl]

3 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Last night, under spoiler until everyone catches up

  Hide contents

I was surprised how quickly Ribbot went down! Or should I say up! I thought the battle could have gone either way, but I thought there would be a good fight between the two.  They should have stayed with their original design. And that thing they added to Gigabyte lasted a whole half a second. 

I will say one thing, I thought Blip was a one off, but it is really good. 

 

If it’s aired, it doesn’t need to be under spoiler tags.

[libgirl2]

8 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

If it’s aired, it doesn’t need to be under spoiler tags.

How do I remove the spoiler tag? 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 3/19/2022 at 12:48 AM, Vermicious Knid said:

I fast forward through pretty much everything but the actual battles and it's like 40 minutes.

I watch everything but the actual battles on 1.3 speed (I like Chris and Kenny), and FF through the commercials, and it takes a little over an hour. 

I don't remember which bot it was, but last night one of them got sent into the air and it wasn't flipping or spinning, just soaring straight up, and it actually made my stomach drop.

[madmax]

Too much talking.  Two bouts we only saw highlights of, and both looked good.  One was Whiplash, my favorite, despite Matty's crazy eyes.

Knew Hydra was going to get in but kind of surprised it beat Ribbot so handily.  Ribbot was a pretty sturdy bot, but getting flipped that many times definitely causes damage.  I think they were playing dumb about the controlled movement thing; they didn't want to lose their #2 seed.

Blip looks good - and great flipping design - but I don't think they can go the distance.

Yay!  Tombstone is out!!!!

[rmontro]

Too bad Glitch had technical problems and had to withdraw from the tournament.  I actually thought they might be able to make some noise and get pretty far.

[Quilt Fairy]

And we have a Ewert in the final 16.  Whoopee. 

14 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

How do I remove the spoiler tag? 

Edit your post, highlight the spoilered part and then hit the spoiler icon again.  That should un-spoiler it. 

[libgirl2]

9 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

And we have a Ewert in the final 16.  Whoopee. 

Edit your post, highlight the spoilered part and then hit the spoiler icon again.  That should un-spoiler it. 

It doesn't work and now I have three spoilers. I"m leaving it. If someone doesn't want to read it they don't have to 

Edited March 26, 2022 by libgirl2

[proserpina65]

On 3/25/2022 at 7:55 PM, madmax said:

Knew Hydra was going to get in but kind of surprised it beat Ribbot so handily.  Ribbot was a pretty sturdy bot, but getting flipped that many times definitely causes damage.  I think they were playing dumb about the controlled movement thing; they didn't want to lose their #2 seed.

I think they should've stayed with their original weapon.  Changing weapons mid-competition rarely works out well.

Damn it, I was so hoping Hydra would die again.  Hopefully having two non-dying fights in such a short period of time will doom it against Black Dragon.

On 3/26/2022 at 12:13 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

And we have a Ewert in the final 16.  Whoopee. 

My sentiments exactly.

[enoughcats]

Now we know that Black Dragons can fly and breathe fire at the same time, repeatedly. 

Flippers that are strongly enough made to keep their flipping ability can avoid the destruction of spinning blades. 

Blip remains undefeated and his builder has a great smile. 

Deep down, I felt bad for the guys from New Zealand being eliminated when Witch Doctor advanced in a lesser match.  But my long standing admiration for Minotaur's strength and the skill (almost magical skill of their driver grew by leaps and bounds.  Escaping by going up on two side wheels was awesomely memorable. 

The explanation of the partly shown match, and that one bot's kill switch to its weapon didn't work...ok...but that somehow became a decision for the judges.  Was the other bot stuck or disabled?  

Great fights, we'll probably rewatch last week's and this week's for the fun of it. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by enoughcats

[libgirl2]

That Endgame/Minotaur match was the bomb! Wow. 

[madmax]

Rotator blew that match.  He should have just sat back and waited for Tantrum to be counted out.  His side man told Victor that Tantrum wasn't moving, but instead he had to keep going in for the hit.

That Minotaur/End Game fight was great.  I'm not a huge fan of them, but Daniel Freitas is one awesome driver.

13 hours ago, enoughcats said:

The explanation of the partly shown match, and that one bot's kill switch to its weapon didn't work...ok...but that somehow became a decision for the judges.  Was the other bot stuck or disabled?  

Again, let's not show the #2 seed from 2020 in a full match.  🙄 Instead, give us this half-assed highlight which didn't even make sense.  Did they just wait for Cobalt's battery to die?  Shouldn't a working kill switch be a must?

[Vermicious Knid]

Sad that next week is the end. They don't seem to have started filming for the next season yet.

[Omeletsmom]

Dammit, all Black Dragon had to do was BACK OFF!  Hydra's drive was broken; if Black Dragon hadn't kept running into their flipper, they could have been counted out.

[grommit2]

On 4/3/2022 at 2:36 AM, Vermicious Knid said:

Sad that next week is the end. They don't seem to have started filming for the next season yet.

Hi Vermicious...I have this all planned out.  
I have several old tools:  lawn mower, Roomba, vacuum cleaner, toaster, etc.
I am going to haul them into the back  yard and start hammering away with a sledge hammer.  
That should satisfy some of my need for smashing and bashing. 

[proserpina65]

NO, NO, NO!!!!!  NOT END GAME!!!!!!!!!!!

That said, that was an amazing bout which could've gone either way up until the last 30-45 seconds when it was all Minotaur.  As much as it breaks my heart that my cute Kiwis were eliminated, at least it was against a terrific bot in a deserved decision.

Unlike that very weird Whiplash elimination.  Not that Cobalt isn't a really good bot but it was just a strange situation.  It looks like both bots were stuck (Whiplash under the side of the deck and Cobalt on the floor, I think) and I guess since Cobalt's team couldn't shut down its weapon, it wasn't safe for anyone to be in the Battle Box to unstick Whiplash.  But then, how did they get the bots out of the box for the next fight?

Oh well, I'm rooting for Sawblaze to take the Giant Nut now.  Although, given my track record in this tournament, maybe I should root for Hydra.

21 hours ago, Omeletsmom said:

Dammit, all Black Dragon had to do was BACK OFF!  Hydra's drive was broken; if Black Dragon hadn't kept running into their flipper, they could have been counted out.

Yeah, their inexperience fighting flippers really did them in.

[CoderLady]

10 hours ago, grommit2 said:

Hi Vermicious...I have this all planned out.  
I have several old tools:  lawn mower, Roomba, vacuum cleaner, toaster, etc.
I am going to haul them into the back  yard and start hammering away with a sledge hammer.  
That should satisfy some of my need for smashing and bashing. 

 

8 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

NO, NO, NO!!!!!  NOT END GAME!!!!!!!!!!!

That said, that was an amazing bout which could've gone either way up until the last 30-45 seconds when it was all Minotaur.  As much as it breaks my heart that my cute Kiwis were eliminated, at least it was against a terrific bot in a deserved decision.

[...]

Oh well, I'm rooting for Sawblaze to take the Giant Nut now.  Although, given my track record in this tournament, maybe I should root for Hydra.

@grommit2 If you can squish them all together maybe you can have the next underdog 'bot to replace Rusty next season. Start thinking up a name!

I'm sad about End Game losing but there's no shame in losing to Minotaur. Those guys are amazing and always have been.

I've been watching Jamison Go competing with his lighter weight (3, 12 & 30 lb) robots in the Norwalk Havoc Robot League (NHRL) fights on YouTube these past two seasons and his 'bots are truly awesome. He's won the Golden Dumpster, the league's Giant Nut, multiple times both years. He never stops innovating and it keeps paying off big time. It's only a matter of time before he wins the Giant Nut, too.

Edited April 5, 2022 by CoderLady
Golden Dumpster, not Giant. Oops.

[Vermicious Knid]

One of the bots had a part stuck in a kill blade slot and couldn't get it out, I think.

grommit2, you could end up with this:

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Vermicious Knid
too quick

[libgirl2]

Massive favoritism tonight. 

[rocketinu]

1 hour ago, libgirl2 said:

Massive favoritism tonight. 

Big time. Hydra was robbed.

[rmontro]

I was really hoping for a minute there maybe Minotaur could take the tournament, but then it got caught up in the screws and was basically immobile.  Some bad sportsmanship on both sides, I thought, with Witch Doctor just waiting for the ref to start counting Minotaur out, and the Brazilian guy saying the judges were a joke.  Maybe Witch Doctor should have lost all its aggression points.

I was hoping Tantrum would beat Hydra, but that outcome was suspect.

Can't believe the way Witch Doctor destroyed SawBlaze.  Amazing that they've been in two of the last three finals.  Congratulations to Tantrum.

[enoughcats]

17 minutes ago, rmontro said:

an't believe the way Witch Doctor destroyed SawBlaze. 

We need to look at the path to tonight's matches.

Witch Doctor first beat Rusty.  Rusty with no offense. Witch Doctor with very little, if any, scratches to be repaired.

Next Witch Doctor match.  The bot that was supposed to fight Witch Doctor was unable to compete. so the powers that make decisions, went to the back lot and found a lesser bot who was still running and they offered to 'fight' WD.  WD won really easily and , again, no wear and tear from this opponent.  My husband's riding lawnmower could have beaten both those opponents. 

Which brings us to their third match, the first in the finals against a real bot, that had already had TWO real fights in the same amount of time.   WD declared the winner but did take some strong hits. Other bot was the mechanical equivalent of being punch drunk.

And, low and behold, when WD came to the final match, it started having problems.  Maybe had it had two hard fought fights earlier, it would have strengthened itself.  Maybe. Or real competition might have changed a lot of things.