If Robot Wars would be back on TV...

[Thyrus]

Many of us would love to see Robot Wars or Battlebots back on TV. But how many old teams and/or Robots would return? Considering that some teams now own quite a few of the famous robots from back in the day. What Robot is owned by whom? Bulldog Breed is owend by Team Tilly, SMIDSY is owend by team Typhoon as far as the wiki knows.
I kinda doubt that one team could handle to enter more than 2 bots into a tournament like this considering the amount of work between fights and stuff.

Discuss!

[Philippa]

There would also be th fact that you would have so little entries and also a huge lack in diversity of weapons.

[playzooki]

i think if robot wars came back, other weight classes would get more air time.

[RFS]

There would also be th fact that you would have so little entries and also a huge lack in diversity of weapons.

This. The very nature of the sport ensured that the variety of effective robots would gradually narrow down due to its aspect of pseudo natural selection.

(Also you can have a team with more than one robot in a weight class, Robot Action League and Scrap Daddy did that in BattleBots.)

[SKBT]

There would also be th fact that you would have so little entries and also a huge lack in diversity of weapons.

This. The very nature of the sport ensured that the variety of effective robots would gradually narrow down due to its aspect of pseudo natural selection.

(Also you can have a team with more than one robot in a weight class, Robot Action League and Scrap Daddy did that in BattleBots.)

until someone does something like gloomy and turns the weight class upside down again.

[RFS]

At the risk of sounding like a total asshole I see what appears to be a VDD and an SOB. The fire/battery damage is neat and all though. Gloomy's design is pretty refreshing, it's been a while since the "dustpan" look was en vogue in the sport.

[Natef]

i forget, did gloomy get 3rd at that even?

[Resetti's Replicas]

The real issue is the economic situation.  In the 90's and early aughts we were experiencing economic prosperity - for a lot of people, it was no sweat to take time off of work, and to invest large sums of money in a project with basically no chance of return and a high chance of loss.  Consequentially, supply of robots exceeds demand, and the TV show is entertaining because the producers can handpick the most TVgenic bots.

Now of course we're in a recession, and it's all turned on its head.  But history has shown that the economy goes in cycles - could be possible that on the next upswing the sport gets a second chance at TV. Or a huge cash injection couldexpedite the process - is anyone owed a favor by Richard Branson?

[Badnik96]

i forget, did gloomy get 3rd at that event?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it did.

[Natef]

if any robot combat show started airing, i feel like it would end up being like this:

[Resetti's Replicas]

That's the reason you need a lot of robots - nobody wants to watch 6 minutes of combat padded with 32 minutes of talking and 12 minutes of commercials, which is what you'd be looking at if that vid was a snippet from an hour-long program.

[El Chickenado]

i feel that if battle bots or robot wars came back on tv i would like to see new teams of course old teams would be fine but new talent makes for good entertainment. I enjoy the rise over time aspect that tornado and toro had which is why new talent is more important to me.

[SKBT]

the big limiting factor isn't robot quantity, its inconsistency in quality of fights. for every good fight, you go through many more lame fights

[RFS]

the big limiting factor isn't robot quantity, its inconsistency in quality of fights. for every good fight, you go through many more lame fights

Proper commentary and good editing can make anything look good. BattleBots' first season (with Voltarc and Biohazard, a horribly boring fight) didn't quite have the formula down but by the time the show was in its fifth season they were able to at least make some of the less-appealing fights watchable by means of filling some of the dead air with technical info about the hazards or the team's other robots. Fights were also sometimes glazed over with the "BattleBots Update" segment that showed highlights from a few matches here and there.

I think BattleBots had a pretty good idea with the "TV rounds" which helped largely weed out the more boring fights. When a wedge got through to the TV rounds it was usually because it had a great driver or was otherwise noteworthy (Voltarc, The Big B, etc). Robot Wars also did well with the flashiness of the house robots and the arena itself. If there were two wedges you weren't bored because you were hoping one of them would  end up on the BBQ pit. :P

One method that should be avoided at all costs, however, is cutting the fight itself down. Science Channel was guilty of this big time when they did their RoboGames coverage; their commentary was kinda crappy and they took 3 minute fights and whittled them down to well under a minute. Yeah, the fights in question were boring, but that's a kind of underhanded thing to do. (I also read on these forums that they allegedly used their footage to construct a tournament bracket that did not exist?)

[Natef]

yeah, robogames 2011 was double elimination, but the killer robots special made it look like a single elimination event.

[Badnik96]

Yep, they picked and chose matches from Robogames '11 and made it into a single elim bracket. The bronze medalist that year (Breaker Box) didn't even get any screen time.

[RFS]

Yep, they picked and chose matches from Robogames '11 and made it into a single elim bracket. The bronze medalist that year (Breaker Box) didn't even get any screen time.

I found it a bit odd that Smentowski's robot both A) did not get that much air time and B) didn't get that far in the "tournament". I figured Breaker Box was old enough of a bot that it would have been well beyond the "break in" point of its design.

[Natef]

jim's been pretty successful with the ant version of it, shazbot (though shazbot came first)

[qwertythe300th]

How Many Heavies are even active still? Anyone have a list?

[Natef]

US or Uk?