toreysback posted... let me make a confession.
i am the casual eyeballs the show is working to capture. i had some vague ideas about how the behind the scenes operation worked, but i figured that was all part of the show, that battlebots bankrolled anyone who could demonstrate some sort of minimal competency. The destruction of capt shred was visually stunning, and fully what the show seems to want to present. so while i expected the extra hits to lead to a show feud, i didn't expect it to lead to a complaint about how much money the destruction was costing.
so is the 10k coming out of this guy's pocket or what? I guess what i am asking is, how do these guys make money? auto racing uses sponsors, and we see what the race cars look like - these robots are nothing of the sort. if sponsors are the answer, how do they gain their exposure? i mean, i barely follow auto racing, and i still know who the major sponsors are, and whose outfits they sponsor.
The long and short of it is they really don't make money. They do it because it's their hobby. If they are lucky sponsorships help them break even. So yeah, those repairs are coming out of pocket. Obviously they damage and destruction is part of the game. And nobody is afraid of taking big hits as part of the fight. But everyone in the pits knows how much hard work and money goes into the bots so they all do what they can do avoid unnecessary hits. Which is why fucking up and entirely incapacitated bot is such and incredible dick move.
If CS took that damage because that's what was needed to beat them, nobody would he complaining. The fact that all that damage came after Shred was knocked out, is what makes it heinous. It'd be like a boxer landing a knock out punch and then preceding to beat the shit out their now unconscious opponent. The fact that the team is fully of cocky jerks and the bot is funded by daddy's autism "cures" just makes it even worse.