Welcome back, roboteers. After a needed summer break, Season 2 of Mech Madness is finally set to begin! There are a few significant changes incoming, so please take some time and read the modified rules below. I'm looking forward to an even longer season, featuring many more of your unique and impressive creations!
ENTRY DETAILS:- I'm setting the bar even higher for Season 2 of Mech Madness. The 32 bot minimum and 64 bot maximum are GONE. I aim for a large field that can fill an entire season of robot combat this time around.
Any participating builder is allowed to send me as many entrants as they wish. Up to 5 robots will be included in the season's field per builder! The restrictions on fresh entries have been lifted. However, I require that at least 1 of your submissions be either one of your robots from Mech Madness 1 (rebuilds are acceptable but not required) OR a brand new design that hasn't seen tournament time before. This should go without saying, but it's highly frowned upon to enter anything that's not your own build. I reserve the right to reject anything that doesn't fit the spirit of the tournament.
You may PM me your .bot file here (or on Discord) or direct me to an upload on the Exchange if you prefer. Any friends of yours who don't have a GTM account are more than welcome to email me a .bot file as well, just let me know and I'll get you the appropriate contact info!
Accepted robots will make the cut based on an even combination of originality and effectiveness. Obviously, returning contenders that meet the new standards for MM2 and were fan favorites or had a deep run last season will have priority as the field is determined.
Keep the name of your bots pronounceable and realistic as well. I'll ask for revisions before accepting any bots with names I don't feel comfortable reading repeatedly on mic, for obvious reasons. I'm still undecided about commentary, but just in case...
SIGNUPS BEGIN NOW. THE DEADLINE IS SET FOR OCTOBER 28th.
BUILD RULES:- Tourney will be run in the Mech Madness build of DSL that I utilized last season. All components are the same as a base copy of DSL 2.2, with the exception of custom-skinned components that were submitted to be last season.
Strict IRL build rules. I'm pretty ok with breaking Co7 and intersecting some components in the name of more realistic appearance, just NO INTERSECTING BATTERIES AND MOTORS. Use common sense, obviously. Weapons need adequate support. Tribar spinners will require support bars, vertical discs require triangular support structures. Please don't hesitate to ask me to explain these guidelines further to you if there are any questions as to whether your entry is IRL legal by my standards. :)
Heavyweight (800KGs)
All IRL packs, Component Freedom, and OBJRA2 are allowed and encouraged to allow a pretty dense amount of design creativity. I'll be looking for personality in the designs!
I can AI decently, but I encourage you to send me bindings and AI your controls for best performance, especially if you're building a more complex control bot. I want to ensure that your robot performs up to your expectations for it!
Active Weapon Rule (see Battlebots). Flamethrowers DO NOT count as sole active weapons. Overhead body-hammers (eg: Gabriel) are acceptable, "sit & spin" thwackbots are not.
No weapon spam (mainly no more than 1 Mech disc, 2 Frenzy Hammers, 3 Bursts, more than 5 teeth on a disc, kind of common sense stuff). Shell spinners can be analyzed on a case-by-case basis for tooth spam and I reserve the right to ask for modifications if needed.
CB2 parts are NOT allowed, with the exception of Flatmotors and the O-Servos.
Multibots allowed (max 2 able to fight at 1 time, but a Grubs-esque modular entry would be acceptable). Majority of weight disabled counts as KO. Active weapon rule applies for the entry as a whole, so only one bot of the 2 needs to have an active weapon in battle.
No drones.
Walkers/unorthodox drive trains are allowed as long as the bot can show directional movement, though no weight bonuses will be given.
Modularity allowed (up to 4 configurations) without major changes to the base robot.
TOURNAMENT RULES:- Fights will be held in the Mech Madness Court (a reskin of the RoboGames Arena)
3 minute fights before judge's decision, or until one bot is KOed.
IMPORTANT - KO, in this tournament, is defined as when a robot loses directional movement or when any part of that robot touches the Out-of-Bounds area. So if one side of drive is disabled (all wheels/treads removed from left or right side), the robot will be considered KOed at the point it was immobilized.
I'll restart on pins due to wonky AI/crashes, but if a bot is consistently crashing the game via havok, I reserve the right to disqualify (hopefully, the screening process will prevent this from being a problem ahead of time).
NEW FOR SEASON 2: A 20 second countdown will begin if a robot that cannot drive while inverted is flipped. Thus, a shell spinner that stays careening around the arena upside-down for 20 seconds will be considered KOed (this has been changed from 30 seconds in Season 1).
Judge's decision will be based on the standard 3 criteria of Damage, Control, and Aggression. Instead of splitting points, each bot will be graded from 1-10 in each of the 3 categories post-match.
NEW FOR SEASON 2 - This year's format will change drastically. To simulate the concept of a sports season (and not at all rip off Battlebots Season 3 >.>), every accepted robot will be placed in a group (or "Conference"). Each Conference will then host it's own exciting, 15-fight long episode, where the 6 bots in that Conference will face off against each other in a 1-v-1 Round Robin style. Thus, each robot will be guaranteed 5 fights before a Conference Champion is determined by record. That Champion will earn an automatic bid to the single-elimination Postseason Tournament. Other robots will be considered for "at-large" bids based on their performance in their conference. By the end of the regular season, there should be a highly competetive bracket made up of the best bots in the league!
Other exhibition fights and grudge matches may still be aired as well, time-permitting. :)
I'll record fights first, then cut them as necessary, then add in commentary & post-graphics.
CONFIRMED SEASON 2 ENTRIES:
Returning Robots:
Azimuth 2
Deadgnaws
F3 (formerly "Fission")
Highschool Ex
Keres
Lythronax
Mole Butcher
Neon Revolution 2
Pinchy 2
Poison Gas
Polkadot Spider 2
Purple Pack
Sir John Longarm
Super Swarf
Taipan 2
Tilted
Toxin (formerly "Carnage")
Unnamed & Untamed
Vertigo
New Participants:
26 Wheeler
360 Degrees of Rage
416
Aggressive Negotiations
Astronaut 13^2
A.M.M.N.O. IV
Bad Dreams 2
Bananaque
Big Forest Cyborg
Big Oops
Black Heart
Black Ice
Bloodstained Melody
Bobbit
Brontothere
Brumalia
Bruno
Captain Pugwash
ChaoticStorm
Clonezer
Colonel Kabam 2
Cyanide 3
Dark Side of Blue
Delicate Sensibility
DIO
Disturbia
Endless Winter
E.N.T.iii.T.Y
Epilep-Z & C-Zure
Espresso Machine
Fabulous Scorpion
Fastdrill Gen II
First Blood
Flatline 2
Flipper Time
Full Force Beating
Genewal Gwip
Grab-o-Saw
Helichopper
Here To Simply Suffer
HexaVortex
Hexy
Hornet X
HuffleBloods
Immerse
Inhaler
Keyless Chamber
Killer Pumpkin
Kinzoku II
K.I.V.
Kuro Hakai 3
Length
M.A.D.
Maggrusher
Megaload
Mini Metal
Molerat
Necky Sr.
Neon Duster 2
Nightmare Wheel
Nimbus
Octane
OverChopper Gen II
Paladin
PC_MR02
Pocari
Predatory
Purin II
Purple Nurple V4
Quartz
Queen Bee & Drone Bee
Raising Shell
RedRum
Reptilium
Roaring Iceberg
Roka
Sabre V
Saw Transport
Shock Collar
Shooting Star MK3
Shredder
Shredder 2
Smashtacean
The Snowcogs
Sonar
Sour Note
Speed Demon V
Star Light
Stinger Missile
Storm Scavenger
Swamp Thing
The Blighted Mind
The Final Revelation & First Contact
The Fool
The Infinity Gauntlet
The Linings
The Outsider 6
Tipping Point
Titan 2
Toreador
Trash
Tri-Hard
Tsunami VI
Urchin 2
Vendetta
Vespid & Formica
Violent Takeoff
Virtus
Vortex
Wildclone
Wings
Yellow Jacket
Zuul
Bracket and Album of Season 1 Competitors:
https://challonge.com/MechMadnessGTM (https://challonge.com/MechMadnessGTM)
https://imgur.com/a/pfBof (https://imgur.com/a/pfBof)
Album of Season 2 Competitors:
url=https://imgur.com/a/tKdcwhd (https://imgur.com/a/tKdcwhd)
Ongoing Spreadsheet of Season 2 Fight Records: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qSp9ZnWhde0GtrAy37OkXuA_G78EW9eQnHFyPyFFsvE/edit?usp=sharing
Season 2 World Championship Tournament Bracket: https://challonge.com/ssq58wvm
A major thank you and credit to the following builders for their contributions!: 8bean, Badnik96, BDBlu, Bildschirm, Dadddjent, DemonOfTomorrow, DragonSteinCole evil toaster, F1Krazy, geese, Guldenflame, Hoppin, Jamied666, kaiser, KillerTurtleG, Kris, MrBK445, Mystic, NeonCalypso, Olister92, Plerco, pokebro14, PrimevalMamba, RedAce, Sevalent, TheOrcCorp, TheRoboteer, Thyrus
Naturally confident in my 3 bots abilities. Should be great fun to watch.
2nd, 10th & 13th seed are impressive and gives me the sense that my bots will do well.
Fission should be able to easily rip Wu pah, which is a shame cuz I really like it.
Hornet and the sting. The wildcard of my bots, but should be good at pinning Badniks bot ez
King, should be pretty safe against the hammer of Adamant.
Yay! I'm in 2 of these fights! Very excited.
Ophidia might be in with a chance. The whole armor is mostly steel, so it should be able to survive the first few hits (hopefully). But if it can't get under the fully body spinner, its so screwed.
Pack Snakes are done for. A powerful flipper against a cluster is probably loss, unless luck is on my side ;).
Your bloody snake bots have already beaten me twice so don't count yourself out! :D
Yay! I'm in the last fight! :p
I'm so curious and happy! :3
The first half of our Round 1 battles have been fought and are in the record books! Check 'em out below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-76WtEPb06g
Mostly chalk so far, I think the 2nd half of the first round is full of more exciting matches, personally. The round of 32 is shaping up to be quite fun though!
2 out of 3 aint bad. Almost had pack snake at a few points but the AI was never gonna have an easy time dealing with a cluster and I just couldn't land that knockout blow early enough to let me focus on the other half of the cluster. Happy with Coldfront and Azimuth's performances though. Hope they can do well and continue to put on a strong showing through the rest of the bracket!
Glad to see the 2 of my bots winning, can't wait for the rest of the bracket :dance:
Oof, it was close for my brothers, I dont thought they wanna kill eatchother so badly! XD
I'm pumped to see how Red Dead does! :o
Hey chaching actually did well. Im exited for the rest of the tournament and also its cool that you included yourself in the video,not many other people do that and its refreshing :) Looking at my next match ups im gonna say that I wont do as well
damm dazzler was so close well I've updated him now so maybe I can get him to do well next tournament, watching the Stratford rats getting litteraly torn in 2 is the funniest thing I could ever witness in a battle XD
Yeee, Red Dead did good! :3
Look forward to the next fights!
If you're gunna go out do it in style by being in pieces and flung OOTA! GG Hop looks like you got a winner there
Redemption Round 1 is here!:
https://youtu.be/nDLnw7Am4b4
Doomsday Prophecy vs. Wu-Pah! was probably the toughest judge's decision so far. Very close, I think Wu-Pah!'s batteries giving out just inside of the clock expiring for those 2 hits from TDP was the difference-maker. Awesome fights all-around though!
Great round must say.
Also wanna know what music was used on Day 2, 24 minutes in.
Fission performed as well as I expected, Vertigo is a scary machine so it could've ended poorly. Good game F1.
DiD 2 is the one to watch here. An absolute monster.
Prince of Velocity is also impressive.
And Swarf.
Round of 16 looking quite stacked if I do say so myself.
Ah well, that's 2/3 bots down
thank God dazzler was finally good for something. Also plerco don't worry about cha ching,he was a lame design anyways :) good fight my friend
ha! the bot that put Tilted in the LB went out :P
Also @Plerco the battle with Cha Ching was actually nice to watch imo
Vertigo doing what Vertigo does best... gutripping. Not sure how well it's going to stand up to Atropa Belladonna, though...
Purple pack was too busy nibbling at each others wheels rather than fighting lol
Nibbler keeps on nibblin'. Although it's inability to cause any real damage is gunna be its Achilles heel
why am I out? :o I got back into the arena in matter of seconds
A couple of posts have been made already, but here is the video for the Sweet 16 and another round of Redemption fights!
https://youtu.be/aucwOt1eJrk
As Roboteer mentioned, Tilted Spec 2 unfortunately hit the floor of the OoB area. Tournament rules dictate that once touching that floor, the robot is considered OotA-ed. I was disappointed to lose TS2 to that rule (and have the fight end there), but I stand by said rule for the kind of balance within the field that I always hoped the RG arena could be capable of.
Nice as always! I never fought I will get this far! :O
I just noticed that there are like multiple 1 Seeds, why? xD
Looks like Quartz has two fundamental flaws I need to iron out. The front panels need to be moved forward slightly so they actually protect the chassis, and I need to improve the self-righting. I think I can lighten the flipper to help with that, as it didn't take nearly as much damage from the three spinners as I expected.
Also, according to my spreadsheet, the loss to Deadgnaws was my 100th in all competitions heck
Deadgnaws actually won something with a PERFECT record. It got very lucky in my opinion but goddamn, I'm surprised and over the moon at the same time! Was expecting Titan to win the last battle as it's made better!
This is an ace tournament system, looking forward to the rest of the conferences! :mrgreen:
Good lord, I sucked at designing hammers when I designed this version of Kuro Hakai. It won't make it very far, I'm afraid.
I'm glad that Paladin returned to win the Conference. It's been a while since it last appeared.
Over to the UK for our last conference of the Eastern Hemisphere!
https://youtu.be/DqOwTYj4_4A
Well I am bloody chuffed about that performance
Hufflebloods really ****s with the AI with how part of it can go out but you get stuck aggroed on it, which I do think cost me my 1v1 with it, but given I went on to win the conference anyway I ain't gonna make too much fuss. I think I was very lucky to win vs Gwip too so it kinda balances out overall
TY for a great heat and tourney so far Bagman!
Epic performence from the champ Highschool Ex. I wonder if you will release the AI for both Mech Madness tournemants after Mech Madness 2 is done.
^Your 2nd comment is definitely in my plans for the future ;)
Also, there is now a view-able spreadsheet listing every bot involved in Mech Madness. I'll be tracking their conference, season record, strongest win, and most damaging loss as we go:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qSp9ZnWhde0GtrAy37OkXuA_G78EW9eQnHFyPyFFsvE/edit?usp=sharing
Actually, that was mine lol. As I'm a tourney mod, I tried quoting him, but pressed modify instead and didn't notice until now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj-v6zCnEaw
Epic performence from the champ Highschool Ex. I wonder if you will release the AI for both Mech Madness tournemants after Mech Madness 2 is done.
Proper post
Guessing you think all tourney hosts should release their tourney after finishing them as AI pack because of what Orc did with OW, as well as what few other hosts did before. Just saying
^Your 2nd comment is definitely in my plans for the future ;)
Also, there is now a view-able spreadsheet listing every bot involved in Mech Madness. I'll be tracking their conference, season record, strongest win, and most damaging loss as we go:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qSp9ZnWhde0GtrAy37OkXuA_G78EW9eQnHFyPyFFsvE/edit?usp=sharing
Actually, that was mine lol. As I'm a tourney mod, I tried quoting him, but pressed modify instead and didn't notice until now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj-v6zCnEaw
Oof
Legitimately surprised I got joint second in that conference.
welp, time to rebuild Vertigo for the 9001st time
I'd say "maybe it's time to retire it" but let's be honest here, I am terrible at letting go of things
The Deep South Conference was one of my favorites to record. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/zzfwXRdkvfQ
Poison Gas v. Sour Note was the best take I could get pre-havok. Every fight went the same way between them, lol. Suffice to say, I don't think PG could have come back with just those 2 wheels left, so I made the determination to include that fight instead of outright disqualifying it for that fight.
Man, it feels like a long time since I had a bot do that well. Sour Note finally came good.
Man, I forgot how stacked Octane's heat was. With F3, Speed Demon, and Overchopper all in the mix, I think I can be pleased with joint 2nd place and being the only one to beat Overchopper. Just Espresso Machine's heat to go for me, then to see whether Octane and Quartz make it into the final 64.
The crappy wedge on this version of Speed Demon was really hurting it in this heat, but I was expecting that after its first non-conference match. I was expecting to lose to F3 too given the disparity in DP between our weapons, but the loss to Overchopper was disappointing given the anti-HS focus of Speed Demon. That said, I think the latest version of SD would have comfortably won this heat, so at least progress has been made
Nice to see that I won the conference. Looks like the second version of OverChopper continue to perform well, earning a lock in spot to the bracket like in OW3. Though talking about that, the whole Octane fight also reminded me of OverChopper's fight against Eyes On Me. Now it's just Flipper Time and Saw Transport for me
Who won the Midwest City Conference?
Who won the Midwest City Conference?
Ah, good catch!
The Linings should be marked as conference champion.
Call me surprised. The overhead grabber did better than expected.
I think this heat highlights one of the best things about MM2: because every robot gets seven fights, including the non-conference fights, and the conferences are generally well-balanced, even unconventional designs like these get a chance to shine. Saw Transport has won two fights, and in most tournaments it would only get two fights.
I mean, I'm a little salty that Vertigo is on the same W/L ratio as a robot that literally can't drive, but that's just how these things go
Also, the music kicked ass. Shameless movie trailer music? Yes. Awesome to listen to while watching robot combat? Also yes.
Yeah, sad to see my bot perform that badly. I think I maybe should upgrade it like I do with all of my bots to my modern build standard rather than retiring it. Also, yeah F1 with the fight amount. It got only one fight in OWO before where it lost, and that was when I spun the disc the wrong way
really surprised that 360 pulled it off. did have a good laugh though when it lost to trash lmao
Final upload for the day, the Mountain West Conference!
https://youtu.be/NgepEBrSOu0
So this is a perfect time to remind anyone in case there are any questions. Mech Madness's rules indicate that over half of a multibot's weight must be KOed in order for the overall KO to take place. Since the Purple Pack member with the black panel on the front weighs more than the other one, when it was KOed, the entire team was considered KOed for those fights. I indicated this after the 2nd fight, but forgot to after the 1st. Apologies for that!
Love the triple upload. Anyway, so Fastdrill is out, while OverChopper lost as I expected. As for other conferences, nice redemption from Shock Collar after it's OWO lost, while Big Oops is just as strong as it was in PWS4
Hey, just caught up, this is an amazing tour you're running here! Good job.
Also great to see First Blood finally succeeding by something other than luck :laughing
Damn, really thought First Blood would get into the bracket this time considering its WL record. No matter though, I can see why the other bubble bots were chosen over it and this tournament is really fun to watch. Thx FaceBagman
(Double post for premiere link!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MflkE1F5yFA
Absolutely stoked with that result. Sabre continues to surprise me and I imagine everyone else too
hard counter, ****ed by havoks, SnS lmao
I hope one of the few not gay tryhard bots ends up winning. Honestly I only just saw Tilted Evo 2 and idk how it was accepted lmao that sh** is more disgusting than anything I've even thought of building
hard counter, ****ed by havoks, SnS lmao
I hope one of the few not gay tryhard bots ends up winning. Honestly I only just saw Tilted Evo 2 and idk how it was accepted lmao that sh** is more disgusting than anything I've even thought of building
To be concise and not put too much of my personal opinion into the subject, elements of this season that have failed my own expectations are actively being addressed for next season.
I didn't intent that post to be criticism on your tournament, aside from maybe the signups process slightly. Just whinging about my poor luck tbh
^Totally understood. And I actually just commented yesterday how bummed I was at all of your bots' luck in round 1.
But yeah, I'll be stepping up entry restrictions for Season 3.
Anyways, here's the concluding episode, every fight from the Round of 16 right through to the final match!
https://youtu.be/Ik-TpoGN6es
Congratulations to Sev (again) and Pocari for winning Season 2 of Mech Madness! Certainly not the robot I would have guessed would win it all, but one I'm honored to call the champion.
Hope you all had a great time watching! I'm so grateful to you all.
In other news, deadline for Season 3 entries is open-ended as of now, and contingent on when I am able to make the edits to the RG arena I'm trying to make (creating KO zone registration in the OotA trenches), but I will accept entries anytime starting now, with unlimited revisions! Just PM me or review the thread I'll be creating later for build rule updates. :)
This has been such a great season, while I didn't compete this season it was great to watch and I'm hyped for MM3.
Also nice to see Deadgnaws do well
No shame in losing to the former champ. Sabre getting as far as it did was absolutely mental given how inherently sub-optimal its design is, but I'm really proud of how I've refined it to get the most out of it.
Thanks for another fantastic tournament Bagman. As always it's been a blast, and I greatly look forward to a potential MM3 in future.
Bloody awesome unique tournament that has come to an end! Well done Bagman! :heart_smiley:
Beyond surprised and happy that Deadgnaws got to the Round of 4!
Delighted to see Sour Note do well, it even finished with the same 8-2 record as Vertigo and [DEAD END] did last year. Great as well to see Pocari win, and Deadgnaws do so well. Excellent tourney, and I'm looking forward to the next one already!