BattleBots Season 2 Discussion Thread

[Philippa]

Based on the flashes of video in the starts of episodes, and a post on Twitter, the five rumbles going up on Youtube are...

Stinger VS Ghost Raptor VS Lockjaw
Skorpios VS Bucktooth Burl VS Deathroll
Splatter VS Rotator VS Disk O' Inferno
Ringmaster VS Overdrive VS Bad Kitty
Overhaul VS Sawblaze VS Unknown (Maybe Brutus for an MIT showdown?)

[R01]

HardcoreRay vs MikeNCR

WHO. WILL. WIN.


Edit:

Mike, man. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You did fantastic, especially since losing so sadly to Complete Control like that, and getting the wildcard rightfully, and actually making it to the final. That's incredible. 2nd place is usually the first loser. But luckily for you, you're the last loser, and that's just as good as winning, because you were the last to fall at the hurdle    Congratulations, man!

Exactly, he did a very well job on it, shame that the Blade thing didn't work but I always thought it was a risky strategy because there was almost no defense, they got lucky with Cobalt and by the time they noticed their wheels being shredded it was too late, still had enough to get one late hit in and damage one of Bombshell's drive pods.

The VS was amazing, the Hammer of Bombshell didn't look too strong but the VS man, such a great weapon and surprising upset against Minotaur, also great way to finish Poison Arrow.

Ray's here on GTM as well?

Anyone else think that the weapon choice for Bombshell, in the final, was absolutely stupid? Even if the VS took too much damage and was out of commission for the final, surely the hammer would have done better than the HS. If I were them, the HS weapon would have been the very last thing I would've considering attaching. Anyone know the reasoning behind the weapon choice?

Would've much preferred if Biteforce or Beta were the champs, or at least got to the finals but, at least a GTMer got the finals :P

You probably already got the answer, but their plan(just like with Cobalt before they changed their strategy of stopping Bombshell's Blade) was to cut the weapon motor chain and disable the weapon that way, it was just off a tiny little bit.

After some hours of sleep I was able to watch this and wow what a show!

Mike: really well done! I would have never thought that Bombshell would get that far. I knew from the promo pictures that you would beat poisen arrow but I did not expect it to be in such an awesome fasion. Also you are the one that has beaten freaking minotaur! congratulations (and thank you) for this. I was hoping the hs would do the same thing to Tombstone it did to cobalt but hey you got second place in freaking Battlebots!

Ray: I was always rooting against Tombstone but it's because it's such a good machine. same thing for minotaur. You totally deserve this trophy and the right to be called champion! Well done to you. Now that that's over: Black Ice and Escape Velocity? :D Why was Brutus the first real opponent for Tombstone?

Season 2 was such a great thing to see. it improved on everything except the constant air time. please abc give this show more love. I can not wait for season 3 with ray mike and yeti with actuall spare parts!

PS: This moment in the rumble where witch doctor was tossed from Biteforce onto Wrecks and then send flying out.. poor thing. Love for Witch Doctor

Can't say that at all, Season 2 is going into the direction of Series 7 Robot Wars, sure talk up Tombstone even more and call Biteforce a bad bot because it lost it's weapon and had one burnt out motor. And then there's the rule change... Tombstone got number 1 seed(they should've given that to Biteforce even if it had a new design) which means your first and maybe second battle will be easy ones due to the way how seeding works.

yeti vs chomp was probably my favorite match of the episode, lots of back and forth action

Anyone else think that the weapon choice for Bombshell, in the final, was absolutely stupid? Even if the VS took too much damage and was out of commission for the final, surely the hammer would have done better than the HS. If I were them, the HS weapon would have been the very last thing I would've considering attaching. Anyone know the reasoning behind the weapon choice?

Would've much preferred if Biteforce or Beta were the champs, or at least got to the finals but, at least a GTMer got the finals :P

the HS was about level with the biggest weak spot on tombstones weapon, the chain area which had just showed weakness the last fight.

Liked it as well, really wanted Yeti to rip that hammer off because I don't like Chomp's view on the new rules and them getting that far(ok, it's the producer's fault that they changed the floor like that which made the design worse) but a bot that's doing a Magikarp, falling over that much and spending most of it's time on the side shouldn't get that far. Yeti was friendly and didn't attack them more after they were getting counted out.

Was a great final

Quaterfinals:
Yeti vs Chomp; not surprised by the winner Chomp flailing around like normal like a fish out of water held up well, I wanted chomp to get ripped to bits the hits that chomp did looked ineffective.
Beta vs Tombstone; This was a great match sad about beta losing but once its weapon got knocked out it was always up against it feel like beta would of had trouble against yeti if it would of gotten through.
Bombshell vs poison arrow; my fav match id probably have to say fantastic driving by mike I didn't expect Bombshell to take it and with a neat out of the arena.
Minotaur vs Bronco; Looked like bronco was having real issues flipping at full strength as when it got under and did flip it was more of a small lift and 6 from 6 wheels gone not bad expected minotaur to win.

Semifinal:
Bombshell vs Minotaur; this was an upset but I wanted Bombshell to win and after some of the side panels got ripped off and a wheel my hopes started to go down but after a few successful hits from Bombshell that took one of the drives out from Minotaur and another either bent the chassis enough to stop Minotaur getting traction and immobilising it, Bombshell the winner.
Yeti vs Tombstone; bit of a dull match unfortunately was clear who won it just from the opening damage done to the wheels, then Tombstones weapon broke but yeti couldnt use theres as the drum was touching/bouncing then just came to a small pushing match, Tombstone the winner.

Three way melee; was a fun match nice to see that wrecks did some damage shaman got friendly fired by witch doctor and bite force actually worked pretty damn well.

Final:
Tombstone vs Bombshell; wanted Bombshell to win hoping it would get the lucky hit in but it didnt but expected Tombstone to win as it did.

If Beta met Yeti then they would've been in trouble because of the lifting arms(but it would be a hard choice for yeti, armor or arms.
There were actually two Bronco bots, one with the wedge setup mounted(and apparently a weaker flipper for some reason, probably to not jump too much) and one without it/wheelguards.
Yeti's weapon was disabled in that match, that's why they couldn't use it after that.

Man this series has been amazing and the final episode didnt disappoint, Dare I say... the best televised robot combat season ever

On another note before I get onto the episode.. Warhead was actually insanely closer to beating Minotaur then I thought with that first hit! Rubber belt was only inches away.
 

Beta can tank damage quite amazingly, its a shame the shape kind of feeds opponents into the weapon system

I honestly have no idea what Bronco was doing? all the hype over the solid rear wedge and then you attack Minotaur of all robots head on??

Not that it mattered because Bombshell! Mike where the hell were you hiding this thing all competition!.. just quietly humming through the heats and then went into Berserk mode for the final episode.. I thought Bombshell v Poison Arrow was going to be close.. not that Poison Arrow was going to become a frisbee, then to topple Minotaur too was amazing!

The HS attachment was always going to be high risk, high reward but damn those VS attachment fights were cool.   

Think Minotaur had a second belt, in one fight you can see it being ripped off but the drum kept going.

Bronco needed to attack them head on, just using the wedge wouldn't have worked, but definitely should've removed the rear wedge and add wheelguards instead.
Bombshell was amazing.

Okay I found a way to watch. Time to do this.

Wait what? Tombstone beating a bot in a pushing match? What is this?

What the flipping hell?! This is probably the most damage Bite Force done in the whole tournament! Also, lol Out of the Arena hit by Wrecks. That self-righting move by Bite Force is flawed though. What if its weapon breaks from the maneuver?

Well, Bombshell made it this far. It had pulled a lot of clever wins and took out two of the deadly spinners in this tournament. They had accomplished a lot. To think a fellow fanboy make it this far brings a tear to my eye.

Oh and the return of Ray Billings' "You want more?"

Congrats Tombstone for winning the tourney! Congrats Bombshell for giving us good fights and making it all the way!

Biteforce is supposed to selfright via Gyro forces, just like Minotaur would, guess the weapon wasn't working properly or the front wedges were heavy?

Ray was friendly to the other Roboteers, however, because of the rule change I found the judges decisions to be kinda obvious.

[Thrackerzod]

Just got to watch the finale!

Wow.  That was awesome!  I was predicting Minotaur to win; didn't expect Bombshell at all. Would have loved to see Bombshell manage to aim their hit right in the final, but getting to see Tombstone do what it does best was also fantastic.

Can we give the winner one of those ribbons that we're giving the GTMC winners? I feel he deserves it.

I second this.

Also think this is a good idea.

I hope they get to work out the rules a bit more and do a season 3.

[Thyrus]

R01 what's the stuff you took?

[Conraaa]

Chomp won the Founder's Award. In other news I was completely wrong about who would get awards.

This is their description of the founder's award in their own words.

It's a recognition that may vary in how it's earned from year to year, but it is for bringing an exemplary bot that does interesting things and pushes the sport in the direction in which the founders hope BattleBots will grow.

Very deserving, in my opinion.

[R01]

R01 what's the stuff you took?

Could ask the same question to you, or did you only watch the battles?

Chomp won the Founder's Award. In other news I was completely wrong about who would get awards.

This is their description of the founder's award in their own words.

It's a recognition that may vary in how it's earned from year to year, but it is for bringing an exemplary bot that does interesting things and pushes the sport in the direction in which the founders hope BattleBots will grow.

Very deserving, in my opinion.

Chomp out of all things? Seriously? Maybe has to do with the AI that did the hammer hits, but without that I'm sure there would've been other bots that could've got that.

[Thyrus]

I don't get what your problem seems to be. Yes the judges decissions in some fights were questionable especally looking at chomp here. But I don't see how battlebots is going to be like series 7 of Robot Wars.

Oh and even though I disliked Chomps way of winning I must say it is a well build bot. Zoey has to improve the stability of it but it took damage so well. looking at the fights with Capt. Shredderator and Yeti it didn't seem to recive alot of external damage. get rid of the flamethrower and improve the stability and maybe the power of the axe and you're good to go.

[R01]

I don't get what your problem seems to be. Yes the judges decissions in some fights were questionable especally looking at chomp here. But I don't see how battlebots is going to be like series 7 of Robot Wars.

Oh and even though I disliked Chomps way of winning I must say it is a well build bot. Zoey has to improve the stability of it but it took damage so well. looking at the fights with Capt. Shredderator and Yeti it didn't seem to recive alot of external damage. get rid of the flamethrower and improve the stability and maybe the power of the axe and you're good to go.

They were talking down some bots, Biteforce being the best example, then we have the ones that get overhyped, see Warhead and Tombstone, "enough of this talk, who wants to see a battle" there were other moments as well but I can't remember them currently. Also it's not the judges decision but the rules that's messing that stuff up.

Chomp was extremely solid, it did have more stability because it was going to use magnets, but the floor change in the Battlebox messed it up, just like Beta, so they had to reduce the axe power, it can be even stronger.

[yugitom]

I have no ill will towards Chomp (although I feel it's wins were incredibly undeserving) but it definitely shouldn't have won the Founders' Award. Especially when the criteria is:

bringing an exemplary bot that does interesting things and pushes the sport in the direction in which the founders hope BattleBots will grow.

The only 'interesting' thing it did was reveal how crap the rules were.

Although I don't fully agree with the sentiment, I do kinda agree with R01 about the series 7 thing. Due to Biteforce winning in a 'controversial' way in series 1, the producers wanted to prevent it winning the same way, again. Thus, the horrible primary weapon rule. In fact, it was so poorly drafted, that people were on Biteforce's side when it lost to Chomp.

Also, I still think the weapon choice on Bombshell was an incredibly risky move and that using the VS would've been smarter, as it doesn't look as flimsy as the hammer and HS. Just imho, tho. I don't claim to to know how sturdy the VS on Bombshell is and how well it could take hits from Tombstone.

[Thyrus]

I don't get what your problem seems to be. Yes the judges decissions in some fights were questionable especally looking at chomp here. But I don't see how battlebots is going to be like series 7 of Robot Wars.

Oh and even though I disliked Chomps way of winning I must say it is a well build bot. Zoey has to improve the stability of it but it took damage so well. looking at the fights with Capt. Shredderator and Yeti it didn't seem to recive alot of external damage. get rid of the flamethrower and improve the stability and maybe the power of the axe and you're good to go.

They were talking down some bots, Biteforce being the best example, then we have the ones that get overhyped, see Warhead and Tombstone, "enough of this talk, who wants to see a battle" there were other moments as well but I can't remember them currently. Also it's not the judges decision but the rules that's messing that stuff up.

Chomp was extremely solid, it did have more stability because it was going to use magnets, but the floor change in the Battlebox messed it up, just like Beta, so they had to reduce the axe power, it can be even stronger.

Oh that's what you meant. Well I didn't mind the trash talk too much. The commentators don't seem to have an idea on what's going on. In the end it's the performance of the bottom that decides the battle.
And I have mentioned that the active weapons rifle has to be changed.

[yugitom]

The commentators don't seem to have an idea on what's going on.

Kenny actually did surprise me with what he said during the matches. I think it's unfair to say that. That other guy doesn't, tho.

And I have mentioned that the active weapons rifle has to be changed.

Always hated the active weapons rifle

[Thyrus]

Kenny has some experience with his background I gusset but Chris is a bit clueless.
Yeah I don't get why the active rifles didn't count towards damage :D

[R01]

The commentators don't seem to have an idea on what's going on.

Kenny actually did surprise me with what he said during the matches. I think it's unfair to say that. That other guy doesn't, tho.

And I have mentioned that the active weapons rifle has to be changed.

Always hated the active weapons rifle

For me, they did know stuff surprisingly well(minus not knowing about the rule change) until the last episode. I wish they kept the moderator(who's now only doing interviews after battle) from Season 1.

[Shinkioh]

Also, I still think the weapon choice on Bombshell was an incredibly risky move and that using the VS would've been smarter, as it doesn't look as flimsy as the hammer and HS. Just imho, tho. I don't claim to to know how sturdy the VS on Bombshell is and how well it could take hits from Tombstone.

Didn't Minotaur took a small chunk of the vertical spinner?

[JoeBlo]

I wouldnt swap out Chris and Kenny for anyone,

I still think they are great fun and pretty on the ball with it (at least more than once they picked up something I didnt notice right away)

The only thing I noticed this year was the "tale of the tape" section was cut out a lot (I assume in editing as the graphics were on the screen behind them)

All in all though, ABC just needs to give it some priority timeslots and they will have Robot Combat gold, this year was brilliant

[Thyrus]

There was a tail of the tape last year?
I've been watching this years tott on youtube if you're refering to this

[Philippa]

There was a tail of the tape last year?
I've been watching this years tott on youtube if you're refering to this

Pretty sure he means the bit where they look at each team's stats prior to the fight.

[JoeBlo]

Oops yeah I forgot about the web series they also had..

Yes I meant when Samantha, Chis and Kenny talk about this screen before passing over to Faruq



That seemed to be cut a lot in post production

[R01]

Oops yeah I forgot about the web series they also had..

Yes I meant when Samantha, Chis and Kenny talk about this screen before passing over to Faruq

(Image removed from quote.)

That seemed to be cut a lot in post production

Yeah, I guess only people who were there live got to see it(didn't know it was called the same as the web series), basically there were 3 types of matches, ones that did have the stat display, ones that only had the match and the ones that only had the highlights.

Also was this version of Complete Control having a spinner killer wedge on the back?

[Shinkioh]

Yeah this Complete Control had a back wedge which Derek Young removed, blaming it for dislodging their drive in the opening moment of the fight.