Current Events > BattleBots 2020 begins THIS THURSDAY, episode 1 fight card revealed

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://i.imgur.com/Sv2uOsV.jpg

Whiplash vs. Sawblaze is a battle of two great veteran drivers, Tombstone vs. End Game is going to be a violent clash of powerful weapons, Fusion is the newest machine from Team Whyachi and it looks like a monster, and SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE looks like the dumbest fucking thing and I love it. After a long wait, the day is finally almost here... get excited, because IT'S ROBOT FIGHTIN' TIME!
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That's a lot of fights! Is it a two hour premier or are they holding them some of them back as channel exclusives?

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Haven't watched something like this since G4 was a thing

Ah yeah. Great slightly late birthday present.

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Compsognathus posted...

Ah yeah. Great slightly kate birthday present.

Why not a full kate birthday present?

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Lonestar2000 posted...

Why not a full kate birthday present?

My phone has the worst ducking autocorrect.

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NightRender posted...

That's a lot of fights! Is it a two hour premier or are they holding them some of them back as channel exclusives?

It's a two hour premiere because all of the episodes are two hours, just like they were last season. They might have some bonus fights online or in the Science Channel re-runs, but those are usually noted in the fight card as such.

Trumpo posted...

Haven't watched something like this since G4 was a thing

Then you've missed some really crazy fights since BattleBots came back in 2015. This is the fifth season back and it's gotten better every year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkbAcwYix7I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7nZlcOlkg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2V_niXijF8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-9MqluTTEI

Robot Wars (the British version that we watched on G4 back then) also came back at one point but was cancelled a second time after three seasons. There were some pretty wild fights in that one too though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju77BBguSQc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr1g87Pn1u0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT3_7XYoar8
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bump
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Fuck I loved battle bots

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I've been hyped to see Fusion in action ever since it was first shown. Glad I won't be waiting much longer.
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Oh good, we won't have to wait long to see Smeeeeeeeee's wiggling wedge. I'm very interested in seeing it, even if it's a flop.

I wonder what Battlebots 2030 will be like. Will we have sophisticated and elegant laser beam-firing destroyers that look like PS5s?

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no vlad the impaler 2.0?

will bill nye be the colour man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLp4phGL41s

bump

Naysaspace posted...

no vlad the impaler 2.0?

https://battlebots.com/2020-season-robots/

There's the full field, and there are still a few veteran teams around from the classic years. Team Mutant Robots (Disector/Tazbot) now fights with Lock-Jaw, Inertia Labs (Toro/T-Minus) now fights with Bronco, Team Hurtz (Killerhurtz/Terrorhurtz) now fights with Beta, and Team Whyachi is bringing three bots, Hydra and Fusion along with the living legend Son Of Whyachi. Nightmare and Warhead were also around for a few seasons of the reboot but have since retired. There might be a few other classic teams with new bots that I'm missing, but I'm pretty sure that Vlad's team isn't one of them.
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Today is the day. It'll be interesting to see what tweaks the veteran teams have employed for their bots. Some of the bots, like Sawblaze IIRC, actually underperformed a bit last season as their tweaks didn't necessarily help. Hopefully, for its sake, End Game has some decent ablative armor up front to protect against Tombstone. Otherwise I can see it getting ripped in half...

I also wonder what the odds are on Capt. Shredderator tearing itself apart in the first match. :P

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Hmm, note to self, watch the last 5 seasons of this show.

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Error1355 posted...

Hmm, note to self, watch the last 5 seasons of this show.

There will be some fun highlights.

Speaking of, there was a betting pool running for a season as to whether or not a bot would get launched high enough into the air to strike the overhead lights. And other general instances where shrapnel might cause a spectator's heart to skip a beat.

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Today's the day!

Error1355 posted...

Hmm, note to self, watch the last 5 seasons of this show.

The reboot has only had four seasons (this is the fifth) and even then, the first two were kind of rough because they were still figuring things out. But definitely check out the two most recent ones (the two that aired on Discovery Channel) if you can, because that's where they really hit their stride.
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Have their been any breakthroughs in robot designs on the show since the 00s?

gamer167 posted...

Have their been any breakthroughs in robot designs on the show since the 00s?

There are a few oddballs, like the "overhead saw on an arm to hit them on the top" design of Sawblaze/Skorpios and the "wheels so fucking big the enemy's weapon can't even reach the main body" design of HUGE. But a lot of the field is standard stuff, just really beefed up. Discs and bars that spin faster than they did 20 years ago, hammers and axes that hit harder than they did 20 years ago, and flippers that flip higher than they did 20 years ago.
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gamer167 posted...

Have their been any breakthroughs in robot designs on the show since the 00s?

A lot of the really impressive stuff in these new seasons comes from relaxing the rules mostly.

There's a just a single higher weight class so every thing is both more durable and more destructive.

Flamethrowers, drones and even some projectiles are allowed.

Some builders are playing with AI targeting for their bots.

But the most successful bots are really just taking tried and true concepts, like bar spinners, and min-maxing and refining it to perfection.

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New Chomp looks absolutely absurd. Like completely ridiculous. But it doesn't look like it will be flopping.

Also I'm not watching until tomorrow since I'm having a birthday/Battlebots watch party. Well party is a strong word given that it just me, my roommates and like the two other people we actually see in COVID times, but whatever. So I'll dip out of this thread once it airs.

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damn som, didnt know this was being rebooted as well! used to be my shit back then!

NightRender posted...

the most successful bots are really just taking tried and true concepts, like bar spinners, and min-maxing and refining it to perfection.

Yeah. If you look at the design of a bot like Tombstone it's just crash bars surrounding an arm that holds a big chunkin' piece of metal spun at high speeds by a sturdy chain. The phrase min-max definitely comes to mind looking at that bot.

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The time has arrived, so let the carnage begin. IT'S ROBOT FIGHTIN' TIME!!!
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The postseason tournament has been expanded to 32 bots this year!
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I didn't put a spoiler tag in the title, so please keep any discussions about the actual fights themselves (including match results) under spoiler tags.

Awesome opening fight! I expected Sawblaze to control that fight and win, but I didn't expect it to win by knockout. That overhead saw is no joke.
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The first huge upset of the season! Mad Catter has knocked out Fusion!
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Didn't see that coming. Wow. That looked like a motor fire.
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Axe Backwards just fucking exploded.
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If 2020 were a bot, it would be Captain Shrederator
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If 2020 were a bot fight, it would be Lock-Jaw vs. Captain Shrederator
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Ngl I thought of Medabots before I thought of battlebots

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Calwings posted...

If 2020 were a bot, it would be Captain Shrederator

Loud, annoying, useless, covered in American flag colors, and killing itself from the inside. Yep, that's 2020.
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The debut I've been most excited for is finally coming.

*takes deep breath*

SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
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https://i.imgur.com/DXdKj.jpg
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SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS and I'm so happy
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I watched the Blacksmith vs Minotaur fight and laughed uncontrollably the entire time. I did not know I needed battling robots in my life.

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Main event time! Tombstone vs. End Game!

MorbidFaithless posted...

I watched the Blacksmith vs Minotaur fight and laughed uncontrollably the entire time. I did not know I needed battling robots in my life.

There are tons of fights just as insane as that one. This sport is a blessing.
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this came up on my YouTube recommendations about a month ago, was pretty cool. Tombstone fucking wrecked like, everybody I saw it go against

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Holy shit!
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End Game just pulled one of the biggest upsets in BattleBots history! They called their shot, and they absolutely knocked it out of the park! Literally!
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I couldn't stop laughing at SMEEE~

Looks even goofier than stills suggest.

end game just ate tombstones hit like it was nothing, and got a lil lucky when tombstone got stuck on the screws

smeeeeeeeeee is an interesting one, nothing durable from it looks like, but it has potential

malice was scary, simply put. Its like tombstone and minitaur had a baby

I feel bad for cpt shredderator, the dude kicked ass back then and even when with its old design. Not much luck with it. I miss full body spinner

Mad catter had a HUGE overhaul and is looking terrifying. Of course they followed the "bite force" design

Cant wait for Beta, that thing has got to be the most deveststing old school hammer bot in all battlebots, watch what it did to Overhaul in the past and tell me you became a fan of them

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BigTee66 posted...

Mad catter had a HUGE overhaul and is looking terrifying. Of course they followed the "bite force" design

Yeah, it surprised me how much that bot improved. They could be this season's equivalent of Death Roll last season in terms of a bot that wasn't very good before suddenly having a huge surge of success.

BigTee66 posted...

Cant wait for Beta, that thing has got to be the most deveststing old school hammer bot in all battlebots, watch what it did to Overhaul in the past and tell me you became a fan of them

Nobody builds an axe/hammer bot like John Reid and Team Hurtz. Killerhurtz was great in the classic BattleBots, while Terrorhurtz was great in Robot Wars and also won multiple UK championships in the decade while BB and RW were off television and robot combat was restricted to live events. Beta is the culmination of decades of experience and technology, and seeing them finally come back to BattleBots is going to be a treat.
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