Current Events > BattleBots new season premiere discussion topic *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

After being cancelled by ABC over a year ago, the metal mayhem resumes tonight at 8PM Eastern on the Discovery Channel. The premiere episode of this 20-episode season (double the number of episodes ABC gave it in either of its two season before) will feature plenty of exciting battles, including a main event bout that could potentially be the Ali vs. Frazier of robot combat when it's all said and done:



As our ring announcer Faruq Tauheed would say: in less than 60 minutes, IT'S ROBOT FIGHTIN' TIME!
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20 episodes? Excellent! It really bothered me before on ABC when they would skip through entire matches as a quick recap because they didn't have time. Hopefully they get all of the matches in this time. Much respect to Discovery.
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Nice I saw the ABC series on Hulu will watch this one for sure.
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themaster627 posted...

20 episodes? Excellent! It really bothered me before on ABC when they would skip through entire matches as a quick recap because they didn't have time. Hopefully they get all of the matches in this time. Much respect to Discovery.

They also expanded the format. Every bot gets multiple qualifying battles (I think it's 3 but not totally sure) and at the end of all of them, the top 16 bots move on to the actual single-elimination tournament. It's still possible that less interesting battles could be skipped, but we're still getting to see a lot more battles this season.
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Five minutes to robot fightin' time!
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The first season champion Bite Force leads off the new season, taking on the fiery hammer of Blacksmith!

That was a really close battle, way closer than I expected. Bite Force comes out on top by unanimous decision.
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A triple-threat battle with three brand new robots is next: Mecha Rampage vs. Free Shipping vs. Duck

I have no idea what to expect with this one.
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Garbage. Like 5 minutes of the show is actual robot fighting. So much filler.
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That three-way fight was way crazier than I expected. Spinners, smoke, fire, flips, and one very courageous little duck. Even after losing a wing, Duck outlasts the others and wins by unanimous decision.

VandorLee posted...

Garbage. Like 5 minutes of the show is actual robot fighting. So much filler.

We just had two fights go to a judges decision, three minutes apiece. So it's already passed your estimate and there's still three fights left in the show.
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Huge with an upset over SubZero.
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DirkDiggles posted...

Huge with an upset over SubZero.

I don't consider it an upset. Huge's design is bizarre but genius, and Subzero just had an awful matchup against it. There was a similar robot in UK's Robot Wars called Gabriel, that also used gigantic, wobbly wheels as a defense mechanism. Gabriel wasn't as strong offensively, but it was able to tank the most powerful horizontal spinner in the UK, Carbide, for a full 3 minutes. If Huge is anywhere close to that durable but stays as destructive as it was in that last fight, it could be a major dark horse come tournament time.

Time for a battle of returning veterans: last year's runner-up, Bombshell, takes on the tough and gritty Lock-Jaw!
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Come on, Bombshell. Why would you come into the arena without a self-righting mechanism?
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Loved it when it origionally aired on CC only cought a few on ABC. Ill def check it out.
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Time for our main event! The defending champion Tombstone takes its insanely powerful bar spinner into battle against the rowdy Minotaur! Will the king of the battlebox conquer again? Or will the beast shake the throne to its foundation?
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That fight was a massacre! The arena floor was shredded, the arena wall was dented, shrapnel was everywhere, and of course... Minotaur was torn to pieces!

Scrapyard City, bitch! Tombstone wins! I'd say that was a great first episode to the season, and I'm certainly hyped for more next week.
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That was an awesome episode. Less filler, more fighting action, and the fights were awesome. I'm so glad this is back.

I was really impressed by HUGE. I thought that was going to be this year's joke robot like Wrecks was in the previous two seasons, but that design was clever and the blade is fierce. This could be a huge (pardon the pun) dark horse this season. It all depends on the match-ups. If it keeps facing bots like Subzero, then it should make the top 16 no problem. However, if it gets opponents like Tombstone or Son of Whyachi, then it's going to be a difficult journey to get there.

Anyway, I'm just glad that one of my favorite shows is back and it appears to be better than ever.

Cheeze_E_Breath posted...

That was an awesome episode. Less filler, more fighting action, and the fights were awesome.

Agreed. The pacing of the episode was much better, and besides the disappointment of Bombshell not having a self-righting mechanism in 20-freaking-18, every fight was really good. We got some impressive performances from veterans and newcomers alike, which makes it even better.

Cheeze_E_Breath posted...

I was really impressed by HUGE. I thought that was going to be this year's joke robot like Wrecks was in the previous two seasons, but that design was clever and the blade is fierce. This could be a huge (pardon the pun) dark horse this season. It all depends on the match-ups. If it keeps facing bots like Subzero, then it should make the top 16 no problem. However, if it gets opponents like Tombstone or Son of Whyachi, then it's going to be a difficult journey to get there.

Don't underestimate Huge's potential and durability against horizontal spinners, especially those wheels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktON2WTqQLg" data-time="

This fight features Gabriel, the similarly designed bot I mentioned earlier, tanking two of the most powerful spinners in UK Robot Wars and surviving a full 3 minutes, but losing the judges' decision. Now imagine if Gabriel had a spinner weapon almost as good as these robots it was tanking. That's basically what Huge is.

I'd say the only thing that can reasonably knock out Huge is a big and powerful vertical spinner that can go between the wheels and hit the central body. Since Nightmare unfortunately didn't return for this season, I don't even know if there's a vertical spinner in the competition high enough to do the job.

Cheeze_E_Breath posted...

Anyway, I'm just glad that one of my favorite shows is back and it appears to be better than ever.

Same, this is gonna be a great season.
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Glad I'm not the only one who's happy that Chobot isn't a judge anymore. She was awful.