Robot Wars 2016 Discussion Thread

[RageTester]

5th episode proves why 4 way rumble is bad for this type of competition...
This is not team match, and yet I can clearly see 2 bots working against 1 numerous times...

2nd chance, from packing to go home to winning their way through to grand final...
I know they got serious drive problems, but now I am rooting for them to end on top...

No doubt Razer could have won again...

[Jonzu95]

APOLLO HYPE!

[Jakewilliamson]

I feel so sad, I wanted Gabriel to be the wildcard to school the vet's.
A very well done to the Apollo team, they deserved the champion title after knocking out the house robots in its heat! :)

[Thyrus]

Good final. Good choice for the wildcard. Felt bad for it tough. The two bots that made the final were great. The winning bot deserved that as beeing the only veteran regularly qualifying for the final.

The judges interviews are annoying af as they just explain what we all just saw.

So for season 2 they have to bring back the old format. As what happened to thor costd alot of money and it's a lot of stress to repair things in a short time to be somewhat mobile again. Every fight against thor in the head to head was a wildcard. Especially after carbite was done with it.
Also make the arena and housebots less agressive again.
Yes the old format could be seen as unfair as you only get one chance and when you f up you're out but  hey that's how a freaking tournament works.

[R01]

APOLLO HYPE!

YES!

Good final match, good thing it wasn't one of those where the link gets knocked out 3 seconds into it. However this showed why the round robin system can be complete garbage:

Carbide destroyed a lot of bots, and once you were destroyed by it you'd have a half working bot. Thor got destroyed, Apollo luckily lost the link earlier but I think was one of the only bots to hold up against it, and TR2 got some heavy damage in it's match(which was the last one for them) as well. The result of Thor vs Apollo was clear, even if they got a judges decision they would've gone to the finals, really the only chance for Thor to win would've been if Apollo stopped working for some reason.

Full Battle reviews:

Pulsar vs Thor vs TR2
Obvious result, Pulsar was a really nice team and it's sad that their bot didn't work properly, a bit of a funny start with only Thor moving to the middle. Also it was clear that Thor would get the wildcard, all of it's fights were great and it lost the heat final because of the link.

Carbide vs Shockwave vs Apollo
2 of my favorites against the strongest spinner, ugh this isn't going to go well, especially after how they talk about Shockwave having weak armor...
They did start well, Shockwave even keeping Carbide's blade up into the air, then the Arena side wall was gone... Series7 flashbacks, you can have strong armor plates but if only glue is holding them together you won't get far, hope they get that stuff fixed for Series 2.

At this point I felt that Shockwave got a bit robbed, they got stuck? or stopped because of what happened, took them a good bit to stop the match and Shockwave sadly got a sideways hit from Carbide. Looked like the drive would now have problems(still looked like it would work but some of the bent armor might be blocking the wheel) but after they took a closer look the damage was worse than expected. At least they gave the roboteers time to repair.

Carbide vs Thor
Thor's front anti spinner pannel always looked small, it worked for the first few hits, but because both robots would be launched across the arena there was no opportunity to hit with the hammer, a few hits later and the wheel guards got attacked, anti spinner pannel ripped off and just destroyed, similar to what Hypnodisc was able to do, minus sending bots across the arena. They did do one final hit to end it after Thor's drive link got lose or it's wheels weren't touching the ground anymore, but as far as I know they did say they were ok with it.

TR2 vs Apollo
While I'd like Apollo to go far(and together with TR2 they were the only ones that could really take on Carbide, at least I'd think so) I wasn't really too confident in their reliability, they did have a easier time to get under TR2 and almost got them out of the arena. TR2's flipper then got stuck(out of gas) and they were stuck on their back.

Carbide vs Apollo
Apollo started good but quickly lost the link, after that, the fight was over and Carbide got two cheap hits in, not too happy about those...

Thor vs TR2
I don't remember too much happening in this fight, TR2 flipped over Thor a lot and their Co2 system got locked up because of that, later on Carbide didn't seem to have enough power to flip

Carbide vs TR2
Carbide started strong, somehow knocking away a top pannel off of TR2 as well as doing a lot of damage to that wedge, suddenly it wasn't as strong as expected, they still kept on fighting and Carbide's reliability issues from Heat A returned, stopping the blade, TR2 didn't have much flipping power left(their Co2 sure went down fast) and couldn't OOTA Carbide, but pushed them against Shunt instead.

Apollo vs Thor
Thor didn't have much of a chance here, it was nice seeing Dara watch the battle together with TR2, but shouldn't they have been fixing their robot in that time? Apollo got a good flip in which made Thor lose it's back side, which is apparently where the safety link is.

Final: Apollo vs Carbide
I somewhat expected this one to happen as Thor getting a win seemed impossible(a judges decision would give Apollo enough points already, since they won the match against TR2 they would go through), Apollo started strong but also got some of it's pannels ripped off, the bottom one near the Co2 canister and the top one where the link would be, after Carbide's blade stopped I hoped that they wouldn't break down. This time the Blade most likely stopped from all the flipping it got from Apollo. The battle went on, Apollo sadly doesn't have that much Co2 gas because it uses up so much per flip and the flipper started to get stuck. They used Shunt to get it down again and then flip Carbide around more, Carbide did manage to push them a bit but it was still Apollo that did a lot. Funny enough, the flipper also got closed over Carbide at times, making it look like a Clampbot.

Apollo then won the judges decision which they definitely deserved, and I'm happy to see them win this and have the reliability issues fixed(apparently Apollo is a evolution of Kronic?), Carbide getting second place is good enough, would've found it a bit disappointing if we had Carbide slashing everything apart.

JP had some good commentary moments this episode but did say some garbage again. Hope they can just get rid of those fake drama moments for the show and be more accurate(also acknowledge the old series instead of always saying "this never happened before").

[wakkydude]

I personally liked the effects of the new format, even though I can see the logistical problems that it caused due to the requirement to keep repairing even when against hugely damaging opponents. I liked the opportunities it gave for failing teams to get back into the fight, it increased the amount of content per episode, and it led to some moments that we wouldn't have had if it wasn't in place (after all, the allowance for failure is the only reason we got Carbide past the first heat, after its defeat to Terrorhurtz). That said though I see the issues people have raised - I'm really not sure what a good compromise is because I really don't quite want to give up the advantages myself.

[Badger]

I just think it's poorly thought out. Like you get rid of half the bots in each heat in the first match and then squeeze as many matches as you can out of the remaining half, and in the process screw over bots who are matched vs spinners first. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone in

the position Thor was in this episode

just driving into the pit or pretending they're dead from the start to avoid getting rekt by the spinner.

[wakkydude]

I just think it's poorly thought out. Like you get rid of half the bots in each heat in the first match and then squeeze as many matches as you can out of the remaining half, and in the process screw over bots who are matched vs spinners first. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone in

the position Thor was in this episode

just driving into the pit or pretending they're dead from the start to avoid getting rekt by the spinner.

Yeah, there are obvious weaknesses, with the group battles being the absolute pinnacle of the failures.

It's a shame because these problems are virtually unavoidable through having such a format: due to the way robot combat works, damage can rack up easily. I guess in theory it worked a lot better than it did in practice - but if they get rid of it completely and don't try to learn from it in some way I just think it'll be a shame to see some of its positive aspects gone. It was definitely something worth trying at the bare minimum.

[JoeBlo]

Carbide becomes the new Hypnodisc! feared finalist only to fall short

[Thyrus]

Carbide becomes the new Hypnodisc! feared finalist only to fall short

Reminds me of a certain hardcore robot from a certain show that has battles with bots from a certain year 2015 in a certain way

[R01]

Carbide becomes the new Hypnodisc! feared finalist only to fall short

Heh, was going to mention that.

First having done so much destruction, with TR2 activating the pit I thought we might get Hypnodisc vs Bigger Brother again. For the Finale I wasn't sure if Apollo's switch would be knocked out again, but it was definitely nice, no Chaos 2 vs Hypnodisc or Pussycat vs Hypnodisc short match, but a good final battle.

[AHeapOfGames]

Afraid to say that I really disliked the final. I don't think Thor was a great wildcard, and it went on to be just dead weight in the head-to-heads, only because Pulsar decided to break down straight away...

I think the format needs changing. It ruined this grand final.

[jackster96]

Afraid to say that I really disliked the final. I don't think Thor was a great wildcard, and it went on to be just dead weight in the head-to-heads, only because Pulsar decided to break down straight away...

I like the new format as it offers more fights but with that it does come with its issues.
So you didn't like the final because the robot that performed the best out of the selection got the wild card and that pulsar got knocked out straight away to no ones shock with its reliability erm okay then o_O

Final was great, RIP Thor I thought that its armour was a lot better than what it was, got a feeling that the floor flipper didn't like it, hopefully means we will see a new version of Thor built, great show glad Apollo won it thought the best fight was Apollo vs TR2. Already pre ordered the blu-ray

Says that these robots failed to qualify just to name a few Iron awe 5 & 7, manta and maelstrom? wonder if it was due to the limited spaces or if they wanted more variety?

[RedAce]

Not a spectacular episode overall as it showed the head to head format at its worst now.  I'm glad Thor was chosen as a wildcard as I thought they did deserve it, but they just kept getting beaten to the point where it's now a byebot for the head to head battles.  It really showed how anticlimactic each battle was after their bout against Carbide.

Also, the final battle, was probably one of, if not, the best finals in Robot Wars.  Though that being said, there really wasn't much competition overall on that.  I also liked both Carbide and Apollo from their heats, so that's a good start.  While the battle had both bots their weapons, it was still finding ways to be interesting overall.  Great to see Apollo win overall.  Congrats to them.

Also, I pretty much agree with Thyrus to bring the old battle format back.

[WeN]

I also agree to bring the old battle format back.

[MassimoV]

Lol Newcastle couldn't get the three points, and the bot from Derby choked, how appropriate. Fun show, really would like another season.

[Badger]

n00b question, why do none of the bots (particularly spinners) use internal combustion engines for weapons rather than electric motors? Have electric motors gottrn to the point where they are more powerful at that weight? Or is it just the fear of overturning when flipped? Prohibited in the rules? 

[R1885]

n00b question, why do none of the bots (particularly spinners) use internal combustion engines for weapons rather than electric motors? Have electric motors gottrn to the point where they are more powerful at that weight? Or is it just the fear of overturning when flipped? Prohibited in the rules?

Way too unreliable. They can just spontaneously die at any moment. Not to mention all the other components needed to make them run(Gas, gas tank, clutch, starter, etc.). They're just not worth it when lower power but far more reliable electric motors exist.

[ecolusian]

Im so happy apollo won, final my home city gets some love in RW's. flipped my sh** when they won the final XD

[cephalopod]

Afraid to say that I really disliked the final. I don't think Thor was a great wildcard, and it went on to be just dead weight in the head-to-heads, only because Pulsar decided to break down straight away...

I think the format needs changing. It ruined this grand final.

Yeah I've heard about your video...