No one wanted to talk about any of the current seasons?
The 2019 season aired about 6 months ago, but I'm currently about halfway through it. Gotta say, I like the 2 hour format a lot better; it was completely inexcusable to abridge or cut fights like they were doing.
I've had a softspot for Minotaur since its debut in... 2017, I believe? But the new model in 19 was a bit of a letdown. It took awhile for them to find their stride, but I liked the old one more.
Some of the one-time ones were embarrassing. "Rainbow", run by a bunch of Russian bronies. What the fuck?
So yeah, let's get this topic back up, find more fans who want to talk about it and all that.
Given the current pandemic, robot combat seems to be something I'd think would lend itself well since you don't really need an audience to watch robots destroy each other.
Given the current pandemic, robot combat seems to be something I'd think would lend itself well since you don't really need an audience to watch robots destroy each other.
Many returning teams like Tombstone, Icewave, Bronco, Witch Doctor, and Huge. A few notable MIAs in Minotaur, Bite Force, and Death Roll. Quarantine & travel restrictions may give this season a more USA-centric feel. End Game and Beta are they only international teams I've seen so far.
Favorite fight from the 1st episode was Sporkinok vs. Rusty, but only because of the meta surrounding it. Sporkinok is a pastel pink lifter captained by a tranny. Rusty is a pile of scrap built by a farmboy Chad from Illinois. The fight sucked as they're both rookies, but the tranny lost and in the end, that makes us all winners.
Many returning teams like Tombstone, Icewave, Bronco, Witch Doctor, and Huge. A few notable MIAs in Minotaur, Bite Force, and Death Roll. Quarantine & travel restrictions may give this season a more USA-centric feel. End Game and Beta are they only international teams I've seen so far.
Favorite fight from the 1st episode was Sporkinok vs. Rusty, but only because of the meta surrounding it. Sporkinok is a pastel pink lifter captained by a tranny. Rusty is a pile of scrap built by a farmboy Chad from Illinois. The fight sucked as they're both rookies, but the tranny lost and in the end, that makes us all winners.
Rusty was definitely the best, kind of reminded me of the look of the Iron Giant. He probably won't last long in the season once he has to go up against a more experienced team, though, which is a shame. There is a lot of charm to the one man underdog team with a scrappy robot. Plus fuck trannies.
Dave Easton (a solid whitebread name) is the creator of Rusty and listed the Iron Giant as his favorite robot, so the style makes sense. I'm hoping that as Rusty gets destroyed by the big-time spinners, Dave repairs him with scrap metal from the back of a pickup truck and by the end of the tournament Rusty looks nothing like how he started.
I'm onboard with Team Rusty. May he rise from the scrap pile after every loss, just like his hero the Iron Giant.
Alright motherfuckers. Forget about those cooking shows and wildlife documentaries because come January 6th the Discovery Channel is a place for Battlebots. Its robot fighting time!
Season 6 is here with a literal all-star group of long-time teams, breakout 2020 stars, Covid returnees and a select few newcomers. More information can be found in all of the typical places (the wiki, the ugggh... subreddit, the discords, the FB group full of morons asking when it airs in the UK, etc.) but here's the fight card for tomorrow's episode, regardless.
Seems like the producers are learning that mixing fighting styles produce the best matches. Most of them are lifter vs spinner, with a couple full-body spinners thrown in.
My parlay bet for tonight: Minotaur tears off Sawblaze's arm, Blacksmith's driver has a sourpuss face (he's from New Jersey), and Deep Six damages the arena. Even odds on the Shredderator team having an "anti-Tombstone" modification.
I love this dude so much. He has the energy that a lot of the more primitive bots of the 90's combat robot series had. Sure he isn't champion material per se, but he's a good boy!
Rusty's only win last season was against the trannybot team, so he gets a winner reaction in my book.
Sawblaze V Minotaur
This one was firey. Sawblaze has always been good a scooping opponents due to it's dustpan designs so to flip Minotaur and then hit it in the batteries. Then for Minotaur to survive 2:30 while being on damn fire. Really good way to start the season.
Uppercut Vs Gigabyte.
I'll admit I'm skeptical of the new box lay out, the raised platform seems like the pit from Robot Wars and just a cheap way to knockout bots and not have the bots actually fight. For uppercut to corner Gigabyte, then knock it on it's head so hard it bent the self righting stick was a good tactic.
Also props to Gigabyte this season for finally using American steel for the rod on top, that broke off twice last year I think due to being cheap Chinese pig steel.
Switchback vs Gruff
This has been hyped a bit on the subreddit but as you can see from the fight, Switchback didn't have the experience to be aggressive and really use it's weapon. The fact it fell over and couldn't move for some reason because it's main weapon is also it's self righter might be a liability rather than a breakthrough design.
Captain Shrederator vs Tombstone
I've got a soft spot for the Captain. Past 2 seasons have seen it have reliability issues and I really want it to have a good start this season. To put it up against Tombstone and due to Ray redesigning the back of the bot as well as the heavier blade, meant the internals for Tombstone lit on fire. The Captain took hits from Tombstone's blade and actually came out the victor, without falling prey to the issues it's had before. Genuine win for Brian.
Free Shipping vs Blacksmith
Free Shipping should be called Devil's Chariot due to all the fire it was throwing everywhere. I like Blacksmith, simply because it's a big steel bot that hits with a hammer and spews fire. The new hammer on it is like Sawblaze's is nice and seems to do more damage, at least enough to impress the judges.
Pain Train vs Deep Six
Love Deep Six, the hole it made in the floor in 2019 just shows the power the weapon could hold. The rules were actually changed so the blade can only spin at 120mph I think as well as the new floor that was reinforced in 2020. The result was you can see him bounce off the floor at one part and not puncture it. I love bit stupid whirley birdy bots and Deep Six took 2 hits to get rid of Pain Train.
Break his Bot, Make him Humble.
Hydra Vs End Game.
Headline event and didn't disappoint in my opinion. Hydra tried to flip once but it's flipper got stick, allowing End Game to try and take him. Problem was those forks on the front are good for keeping away Hydra, but also kept End Game from delivering a few good hits till he lost one. One good solid hit into the wall was enough to get rid of him. End Game is going to do good this year I think.
Couple of business things. 3 time champ Bite Force is not in this season, because his creator Paul Ventimiglia wants bot designers to be paid more money to be able to compete and he's technically right, Battlebots offers 25k if you make it to the end but the bots built can easily range from 10k - 50k in terms of cost, which is why they seek so many sponsorships. The same Paul Ventimiglia who famously burns through 4 brushless motors every match back in 2016 - 2017. These brushless motors are designed to last 3 years but wear out in a single match in Battlebots, a typical one will set you back about $600, but Paul was easily burning 5k a match to replace every single motor, burnt or not before a match.
2nd is the format this year, 3 rounds to impress judges, then 32 seeds battle 5 rounds for the giant nut. The judges score card is also different this time so we avoid a Rotator vs Beta situation, where Beta won but didn't fire it's hammer once in the match.
As for why Battlebots moved back to Vegas, publisher thing with Discovery I think.
The network will air 80 hours of the robot combat competition, which is moving the action to Las Vegas for the next two years.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
But also considering the original series was also filmed there, you could say it's back home.
And don't worry about Battlebots being cancelled anytime soon, Season 7 is guaranteed up there and ever since Discovery picked up the show, it's been one of the most popular on the network.
Jenny Taft, the pit girl from last season also isn't returning this season. I think she got picked up by another show or just wasn't interested in coming back.
Last of all is if you want to AMA any of the bot builders after the show, the subreddit is actually a pretty good place. Yeah I know >reddit but it's pretty small at 50k subs so it's got a comfy vibe where bot builders talk to each other even in the off season. Ray pops in from time to time.
Think that covers the start of S6, here's to hopefully a good season.
Rusty is up against a new bot Blip, and the main liner is Bloodsport vs Whiplash. Whiplash got to the finals last year and Bloodsports spinner is as deadly as ever.
That YT exclusive one I might have to look for as Shatter in action is something I want to see.
Yeti vs Madcatter
Even if Madcatter doesn't quite have a weapon that could go toe to toe with some other bots, it's creator Martin is like a retired professional wrestler called out to give a promo. I love it. It's gone with a vertical spinner this year instead of it's little hammer. Yeti is a simple bot, 40 pound drum on front, charge, get results. The forks on the front did get in the way a few times but it's an effective design.
Poor Yeti got dismembered in it's fight, gonna take awhile to rebuild.
Defender vs Ribbot
A bot from the Vasquez, looks to be a grapple bot in a similar style to Overhaul. Ribbot is a bot I underestimate because it's made of easily detachable plastic up top, except below it has a ring spinner very close to the ground, easily able to shred tires. They've also gone vertical spinner this year, as they did last year.
Grapple based robots would work in Robot Wars with the pit, here though you need damage. So Ribbot wins.
Hijinx vs Mammoth
Hijinx was in last season and took a massive hit from Uppercut. So hopefully it'll get out of the bottom bracket this season and be an actual competitor, that AR500 bar of it can do some serious damage. Mammoth is the "Swingset with wheels" but it's design is even enough to ring out Huge, so don't count it out.
Flipping over Hijinx and knocking off a wheel turns it into a bloody helicopter. Haha.
Kraken vs Rotator
I've always seen Kraken as a "meme" bot, one who looks good but doesn't have the functionality of actually being serious. That bot demolishing Witch Doctor last season shows that it can use it's design for control purposes and it's teeth are sharp enough to tear out batteries. Will it get a good run this year?
Rotator is a design that likes looks impractical, because 2 weapons means split motor power between them, but then against Tombstone it gets flipped over, it's top spinner is high enough to cut Tombstone's weapon chain and it's from is likewise heavily armored. Famous for ending Tombstones long winning streak, Rotator has also been redesigned since season 5, using only one spinner this time instead of two.
Holy hell. Kraken on fire, Rotator can't get free (30 seconds grapple then if can't unhook, ref can call time out just for the bots to be pulled apart. No repairs and Kraken was dowsed down).
Teeth get knocked the fug out, as well as the upper plate of Kraken's mouth, essentially him needing dentures. Loses a tire and rotator hits the right side of Kraken. The explosion was some of the co2 that had stuck to the fuel tank. Amazing hit.
Rotator wins and Kraken again has to be built back better because damn, it took some damage.
First tranny flag of the season. Ever since that bot last season there's been more infecting the hobby. Luckily they're all virtue signalling and can't build for shit so they get beaten by the likes of Rusty.
>Team PRIDE applied for Discovery Season 6 in April 2021 with an upgraded version of Sporkinok, including CNC-machined drive gearboxes manufactured by the team, though details of other upgrades are unknown.
However, Lilith Specht announced in June 2021 that they had not been selected via the team's Facebook page.
Thank god. The producers can get some flak for how fights are chosen and contentious decisions but even they wouldn't choose a shitty tranny bot a second time.
Rusty vs Blip
Okay, first up. This is Rusty Mk1. Mk2 was supposed to appear but apparently Mk2 weighed more than 250 pounds come inspection time and Mk1 has to be subbed in.
From Rusty's Facebook page:
So, why OG Rusty and no new Rusty?
There’s likely a lot of speculation and rumor, but there’s a plethora of reasons Rusty MKII didn’t make his debut this season. I’ll highlight a few.
I took a very different approach to the new robot. Rusty Jr. shares little to nothing with Rusty Sr. With about 6 to 8 months to build a completely new robot I was behind the ball before I got started. Before starting the new design, I had to weigh if I could afford or even acquire critical components in time. Without these critical root components, I would have had to take an entirely different approach, and start the design over. I started by chasing sponsors. Getting sponsors on board, and then getting parts or discounts from said sponsors takes months, not days. I started getting some of the critical parts for the new design, and decided to forge ahead with the new machine. Keep in mind, most if not all the builders are working 40-60 hour weeks, and were (are) battling with supply issues. Suppliers were backed up, parts were out of stock, and many machine shops had backlogs. I had a supplier just cancel an order this week from about a year ago. I had a plethora of parts just not shipping on time, not getting machined on time, and it tanked progress. I ended up trying to find alternatives and workarounds, but one thing after another just kept going sideways. All one can do is keep swinging, and I still am.
I don’t quit when things don’t go my way. It came down to either not competing or calling Rusty out of retirement, which I really didn’t want to do. I’ve become very attached to that rusted contraption. I reluctantly decided to pull the hay out of his internals (literally), and send him back into the fray. Repairs and changes were made on the fly. Literally "on the fly" after Blip.
No one is more disappointed than I am about the new machine not making his debut this year. I apologize for the confusion. That being said, RJ is definitely worth the wait and I hope you are as excited to see him fight in the future as I am. The support from the fans never ceases to amaze me, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone. Thank you.
P.S.
Rusty would like everyone to know Blip works very well.
Blip is a new bot on the scene. It's a back sloping flipper that instead of being powered by pnumatics like Bronco or Hydra, it houses kinetic energy in a flywheel going 9k rpm to be used when it flips. This means it's essentially a glorified trebuchet except it flips up really well. Blip's creator was the captain of Tantrum last season, he's gone independent.
Damn, all that power in something so small. Flipping Rusty like it's nothing. There's something to that design I think.
TO THE MOON
Tantrum vs Malice
Tantrum went deep last year, actually went from meme to wrecking ball. That spinner worked for once and it became a serious contender.
Malice is a durable bot but from memory it's weapon has failed more than once. Hopefully this season it'll be better.
Tantrum with all the punches, the ghosts of weapons failure past continue to haunt Malice.
Bloodsport vs Whiplash
Bloodsport has a new AR500 blade, that's gonna cut deep. They've always been an effective bot. I think they'll go deep this year.
Whiplash has always been good, maybe not just the design of the bot but Matty driving it is one of the best. Last year runner up proves that.
Bloodsport has the damage and really good driving but it's Matty Vasquez here, he always keeps that wedge front and manages to get Bloodsport up on the new upper deck, unable to self right. Really goes to show you how good at control Whiplash is.
That's all for this week. Next week should be as enjoyable.
Can't quote but @ShoFuKan I am all for us having a tranny flag/virtue signalling counter. We can all take bets on how many get shown before the end of the season!
Poor Rusty - he never stood a chance but bless him. Shame they couldn't use his proper design but I totally get it - building combat bots takes time, effort, brains and LOTS of money. It was fun seeing him fly!
Glad to see a thread for this here. It does feel like these past two seasons have been a case of keeping the title warm for Bite Force while it sits out, as I honestly think End Game deserved to lose to Rotator last season.
On the topic of troonism and robot combat, why does mystrsyko (combat robot YouTuber) have a trans flag in the background of his videos? As far as I'm aware, he's not trans, nor is his wife, so it's another good example of virtue signalling within the community for no reason.
There's also a fair degree of it in Bugglebots too (British Youtube Beetleweight series, actually pretty good despite that).
Glad to see a thread for this here. It does feel like these past two seasons have been a case of keeping the title warm for Bite Force while it sits out, as I honestly think End Game deserved to lose to Rotator last season.
It'll be interesting when Biteforce comes back. Vertical spinners have been the meta for a few years but proven designs in S1 like Bronco and Tombstone are having trouble this season or arn't competing due to the corona restrictions and a more diversified field with the likes of Rotator, Huge and Whiplash. This allows the bots that were considered "Middle" of the fighting card to push up into having a chance at the top 32, which is how End Game won last year.
As for that fight, Rotator is a really solid wedge bot but it's blade is a bit small, so it has trouble doing damage to impress the judges which his battles often go to because he can't get a KO.
Season 5 had 3 of it's 5 fights go to judge's decisions, same against Kraken this week. So since End Game broke Rotator's weapon, it edged it out in terms of damage.
I would say it's like speedrunning community and it attracts the autism. A small hobby or niche that the freaks latch onto to get into the spotlight and attention whore.
Bugglebots have had a few threads up on r/battlebots. The smaller design competitions allow people to not take out a 2nd mortgage when building a bot. It seems like a cool weight class.
On the topic of troonism and robot combat, why does mystrsyko (combat robot YouTuber) have a trans flag in the background of his videos? As far as I'm aware, he's not trans, nor is his wife, so it's another good example of virtue signalling within the community for no reason.
There's also a fair degree of it in Bugglebots too (British Youtube Beetleweight series, actually pretty good despite that).
Mystrsyko began using that flag when Sporkinrok debuted in Battlebots. He was really excited about the "inclusivity" but had to swallow his pride (pun not intended) when Rusty came out on top. He's always voiced that there should be more women taking part in combat robot fighting (which I honestly can't see happening because most women don't seem to be interested in mechanics or engineering as a whole) so it doesn't surprise me he kept the flag up even after Sporkinrok lost.
Bugglebots have had a few threads up on r/battlebots. The smaller design competitions allow people to not take out a 2nd mortgage when building a bot. It seems like a cool weight class.
I'd love to actually join the lower weight classes but I'm incredibly intimidated by engineering even though it fascinates me to hell and back. I know the Witch Doctor team did a really good set of videos to show off how to join the lower weight classes but they're with American regulations in mind.
Believe it or not most, if not all, of the guys you see on Robot Wars (which I'm still salty at the BBC for cancelling) go to smaller events and they all seem like super chill and fun guys who just like to watch things they build explode. It seems like a chill sport in general.
