Current Events > BattleBots: Fight Night week 5 discussion topic *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

DVR crew here.

Pretty good batch of fights. Happy for Witch Doctor. Was disappointed Mammoth didn't really do much.

Whiplash was clutch AF in that match. I would LOVE to see them fight Bite Force. Probably two of the best drivers in the sport.
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Jasper is an interesting looking bot.
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Bad night for my predictions, good night for enjoyable fights.

I've seen Witch Doctor lose too many fights that they (in my opinion) should have won, so I haven't put much faith in that bot. Looks like I should give them another chance.

Shatter did an excellent job as well, probably the most effective use of a hammer bot I've ever seen.

Disappointing to see Minotaur lose again. They've always been one of my three favorite bots, along with Bronco and Tombstone.

SOW vs Whiplash could have gone either way. Whiplash has the perfect weapon for dealing with SOW but had to survive long enough to use it.

Typhon posted...

I've seen Witch Doctor lose too many fights that they (in my opinion) should have won, so I haven't put much faith in that bot. Looks like I should give them another chance.

I think the same way about Witch Doctor, but when the same thing applies tenfold to its opponent, it kind of wins by default. Captain Shrederator should be a pretty decent bot, but it's actually flaming garbage.

Typhon posted...

SOW vs Whiplash could have gone either way. Whiplash has the perfect weapon for dealing with SOW but had to survive long enough to use it.

Agreed. I mentally picked Son Of Whyachi to win even knowing that Whiplash could pull off what they did simply because I didn't think they'd survive long enough to do it. But even after losing a chunk of their scoop, they survived and pulled it off. It was an impressive performance.
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Tbqh Minotaur was perfect last season. Whatever they changed in the off season seems like it did more harm than good. Like, yeah you didn't win the championship, but you only lost to like the #1 bot/driver lol. Didn't need to change much.
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This season has been great, there are so many dangerous robots and so few potatoes. Just fight after fight of carnage and damage, I love it.

That Uppercut robot is cool as hell. I can't wait to see them face something with more centralized mass to see how high they can launch a bot.

I love hammer bots so I love Shatter, the combo of the omni-wheels and the ablative plates is great, gives them great mobility with complete wheel protection. Well, mostly complete, I wonder what Tombstone would do to them?

Minotaur screwed up by changing things sure, but honestly the field catching up to them is just as big a factor. How many dangerous spinners are there this year? More than a dozen? Of course they could still destroy many a bot when things get working properly but they're just another killer bot in a field of killer bots.

SOW is a good bot but it's an old bot with known weaknesses. Whiplash is very simple but ridiculously effective at pressure and overturning bots, they were going to beat SOW barring something major. The only chance SOW had was a big hit breaking some linkage or popping out a battery. A puncher's chance, sure, but only that.
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MasterGakke posted...

I wonder what Tombstone would do to them?

Probably go with his largest grey blade, the one with the weights on the end. That would punch right through the ablative armor and keep going into the frame.

That being said, it appears that Shatter is dialed in now. The brother operating the hammer is a bit too trigger-happy IMO, but it seemed to withstand striking the floor repeatedly.
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Damn I've been way too busy and I completely forgot to check back up here. Love that Leno bot lol
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I'm a bit late, mostly because I was off elsewhere and dealing with slightly more time critical stuff.

Anyhoo, it's nice to see witch doctor sorta dialed in for once after its first season. They had a slight design flaw previous seasons and first aired match this one they combusted, so it's nice to see it actually win fairly convincingly and not explode. On the other hand I do feel somewhat bad for shredderator.

Speaking of, I also feel somewhat bad for minotaur, but then again they've been such a force to fear and this is what happens when you try to improve your ability to do more damage per hit and wind up potentially screwing with a proven design. I was also kinda rooting for gigabyte anyways, because not many full body spinners seem to survive long term. It's like they give themselves brain damage and just stop every fight. Fittingly it also faulted in this match as well...

I'm glad to see shatter actually function. I'm sure it'll get trashed against some of the other bots down the road, because it seemed a bit 'off' even during this fight where it got shoved around a fair bit and didn't exactly devastate so to speak. Will be interesting to see how effective the armor design works out.

Either way, fairly decent episode with some interesting matches.

Purple_Cheetah posted...

I also feel somewhat bad for minotaur,

Yeah, Minotaur's drum spinner is scary, but I feel like the next meta for most bots is going to be the off-centered vertical spinner. They might not all be as lopsided as Uppercut, but it seems Biteforce left an impression going forward.
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I'm old schooling it.

Ziggo...how could I forget the bot shaped like a Hershey Kiss, and oh so hard to figure out which side is front?

That flag is not just for show.

Methodical and strategic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6lYbdIdXLI" data-time="
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28:55

Anyone who reads lips, what did Team Ziggo say?
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Purple_Cheetah posted...

I'm sure it'll get trashed against some of the other bots down the road, because it seemed a bit 'off' even during this fight where it got shoved around a fair bit and didn't exactly devastate so to speak. Will be interesting to see how effective the armor design works out.

I'm not sure it was off so much as hammers being so ineffective of a weapon that even when you are perfectly on, it still looks underwhelming. I mean Shatter got like 50 hits in that fight and Wan Hoo was still a largely working bot. If any other weapon type got 50 hits in, there would be just scrap-metal at the end. Hammerbots have to work twice as hard for half the results.
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Compsognathus posted...

Hammerbots have to work twice as hard for half the results.

And that's when they hit! You also have to work four to ten times harder just to connect, depending on the type of weapon being compared.
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Compsognathus posted...

I'm not sure it was off so much as hammers being so ineffective of a weapon that even when you are perfectly on, it still looks underwhelming. I mean Shatter got like 50 hits in that fight and Wan Hoo was still a largely working bot. If any other weapon type got 50 hits in, there would be just scrap-metal at the end. Hammerbots have to work twice as hard for half the results.

DuneMan posted...

And that's when they hit! You also have to work four to ten times harder just to connect, depending on the type of weapon being compared.

Yeah, axe/hammer bots have pretty much never been bots that were skilled at landing knockouts. They usually win battles by controlling fights and scoring points with the judges through repeated hits. Sadly, that style of fighting just doesn't work nearly as well in BattleBots as it does across the pond in the Robot Wars arena, where having weaker knockout potential can more easily be offset by better driving and clever use of the hazards.

In all of robot combat history, I'd say there have only been five truly successful axe/hammer bots: Killerhurtz, Dominator 2, Terrorhurtz, Thor, and Beta. Whether Shatter will perform like one of these greats or fizzle out like most axe/hammer bots over the years is yet to be seen.
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I wish they would go back to the old format where they had 3 fights in a half hour.
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Lonestar2000 posted...

I wish they would go back to the old format where they had 3 fights in a half hour.

Yeah or even last year when they did like 5 or 6 fights in an hour.

Two hours is just tooooo long. You pretty much have to watch it on DVR, I can't imagine watching it live. They drag it out SO much.
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Compsognathus posted...

Purple_Cheetah posted...

I'm sure it'll get trashed against some of the other bots down the road, because it seemed a bit 'off' even during this fight where it got shoved around a fair bit and didn't exactly devastate so to speak. Will be interesting to see how effective the armor design works out.

I'm not sure it was off so much as hammers being so ineffective of a weapon that even when you are perfectly on, it still looks underwhelming. I mean Shatter got like 50 hits in that fight and Wan Hoo was still a largely working bot. If any other weapon type got 50 hits in, there would be just scrap-metal at the end. Hammerbots have to work twice as hard for half the results.

Oh I'm already well aware of the downsides to accuracy/timing based weapons vs spin it up and just hope it makes contact. I was mostly refering to the first portion of the fight where it didn't quite seem to have timing or driving down and was just shoved around without really attacking, but eventually they got it. The whole 'get hit and shoved around' for 20 seconds won't work too well against some of the more lethal spinners or even some of the others. They even got upset/controlled for a bit later. I mean, the armor seems nice, but it can only do so much.

Rewatching it, seeing SoW's mini bot get obliterated and sent across the box by its own was just as amusing as the first. Talk about friendly fire, not to mention the trip up just prior.

Purple_Cheetah posted...

Rewatching it, seeing SoW's mini bot get obliterated and sent across the box by its own was just as amusing as the first. Talk about friendly fire, not to mention the trip up just prior.

They can be useful... Usually it's when they're just small wedges with magnets underneath to secure their spot under an enemy bot.
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Hammer bots are definitely down the list in terms of effective strategy, but they're still effective. They rely on hitting very specific areas, either batteries, wires, or drive components like chains or belts, and that those areas are more vulnerable from above than through the ubiquitous armored wedges. Against Wan Hu, Shatter was actually pretty unlucky that the volume of blows they landed didn't sneak through and damage something integral in the drive system.

As armor materials used in these bots gets tougher and tougher, I actually think hammer bots are on the rise. Look at a bot like Gigabyte, even Tombstone would've depended on the shock of their spinner's impact going though that armor disk to do damage, not piercing it to hit internal components directly. That's literally tank armor, and the same shock is hitting both bots. But a good spike dropping through the top could bypass that and kill it in 1 hit. Could, though, it's all about getting that one sweet strike.
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LostForest posted...

Lonestar2000 posted...

I wish they would go back to the old format where they had 3 fights in a half hour.

Yeah or even last year when they did like 5 or 6 fights in an hour.

Two hours is just tooooo long. You pretty much have to watch it on DVR, I can't imagine watching it live. They drag it out SO much.

Remember that commercials are on the rise. My dad noticed this, too.
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DuneMan posted...

Purple_Cheetah posted...

Rewatching it, seeing SoW's mini bot get obliterated and sent across the box by its own was just as amusing as the first. Talk about friendly fire, not to mention the trip up just prior.

They can be useful... Usually it's when they're just small wedges with magnets underneath to secure their spot under an enemy bot.

Yeah, but in this case SoW's minibot got stuck under SoW, holding the wrong bot up for a brief moment(at least it was effective at it) only to then get hit by the spinning hammer once they seperated.

Seeing it get murdered in the slow motion highlight/recap was amusing. Usually it's the opposing minibot that gets obliterated, but seeing as it was friendly fire it was like it said 'I'm sorry, master' and was punished thusly.

All this talk about axes and hammers is making me miss John Reid and Team Hurtz even more that I already was... now I'm sad.
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Grr untelevised matches...even one sided fights are sensationalist, people!

I think i remember this one. T-Minus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0DLf601vVY" data-time="
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Calwings posted...

All this talk about axes and hammers is making me miss John Reid and Team Hurtz even more that I already was... now I'm sad.

Sounds familiar...Who do they drive?
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MI4 REAL posted...

Calwings posted...

All this talk about axes and hammers is making me miss John Reid and Team Hurtz even more that I already was... now I'm sad.

Sounds familiar...Who do they drive?

They were in one season of Battlebots but they've been Robot Wars staples for a while.
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I have to give my comments to the Ziggo fight.
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This and the Man Show were my new millennium loves.
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MI4 REAL posted...

Calwings posted...

All this talk about axes and hammers is making me miss John Reid and Team Hurtz even more that I already was... now I'm sad.

Sounds familiar...Who do they drive?

For BB they were using BETA. They weren't in 2015, but were in 2016. They were a low profile sloped large hammer bot that gave quite a few bots including tombstone a run for their money. Was probably one of the best and entertaining fights of that season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es0S7qCmXQc" data-time="

I'm on a nostalgia trip and i'm all out of alcohol.

That isn't good :(

But that I'm on vacation (from work) is.
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MI4 REAL posted...

Calwings posted...

All this talk about axes and hammers is making me miss John Reid and Team Hurtz even more that I already was... now I'm sad.

Sounds familiar...Who do they drive?

Killerhurtz in the original BattleBots and Robot Wars, Terrorhurtz in both the original and revived Robot Wars, and Beta in the revived BattleBots.

https://battlebots.fandom.com/wiki/KillerHurtz
https://robotwars.fandom.com/wiki/Terrorhurtz
https://battlebots.fandom.com/wiki/BETA

All three of them are axe/hammer bots, and John Reid is basically the greatest roboteer of all time when it comes to that weapon type. He and his team took all three of these robots to at least a top 8 finish at some point in either BattleBots or Robot Wars on TV, and Terrorhurtz is also a two-time UK champion in the live event tournaments that took place during the decade or so that both shows were off TV.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tPFaSnLxN0" data-time="

15:03

Pulverizer's been torn off!
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Hazard was defeated by T-minus in S5. Hazard was 17-0 going into the fight.

Won the middleweight championship 3x in a row in seasons 1,3,4 and did not compete in S2.
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Billy Witch Doctor Dot Com feel more comfortable with chicken.
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For some reason, Science channel pushed Battlebots back one hour this week.
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Yeah..

Also that was.. barely worth the wait.

I guess on the plus side I got to rewatch some of those fights.

Purple_Cheetah posted...

Also that was.. barely worth the wait.

Sadly I've found that to be the general trend this season.
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I think I've concluded that if it's a bonus fight, it automatically sucks. So far only one of them was interesting. The others are fizzle fights.

There's been some duds in the main content though, so it's hard to fully judge based solely on that. Oh well, I'll still watch the bonus fights because one alternative is annoying and I want to see as many as possible.

I love Tombstone!
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