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Prepuce of Doom

By Prepuce of Doom
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BrickHorn

BrickHorn 18447

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6 hours ago, bernorange said:

The driver for Defender needs to learn how to take a win.  They righted their opponent when it would have been counted out.  Dumb.

This season has seen an exceptional number of unforced driver errors like that. At least a couple of bots ended up losing a match they would have won with just a little self-restraint. 

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Prepuce of Doom

Prepuce of Doom 21285

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57 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

This season has seen an exceptional number of unforced driver errors like that. At least a couple of bots ended up losing a match they would have won with just a little self-restraint. 

I get it though - there's something a little unsporting about just "winning on a technicality" versus affirmatively destroying your opponent. If a team is confident in its ability to win straight up, I don't fault someone for nudging an opponent back into contention, even if it ultimately comes back to bite them. It may well end up being a point in that team's favor in a tiebreaker scenario for seeding or for inclusion in the final bracket of 32.

That said, I also get it if a team takes the win as soon as it's presented to them, especially if they're not confident in their chances otherwise. 

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Captainant

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just had this pop up on my YouTube recommendations, pretty cool deep-dive on the fight and damage from team Witch doctor! These bots put out a scary amount of damage and can take a fucking beating. Incredible engineering and design considerations for these things. Pretty cool to hear more detail about the repair and logistics process a team has to manage during a season, imo

 

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Prepuce of Doom

Prepuce of Doom 21285

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Tonight's fight card. I don't really think of Skorpios as being a "main event-level" bot, but I can envision it being a good matchup. 

I wonder (and don't necessarily care to know, as it would be a very mild kind of spoiler) whether the producers decide which fights will be the main event on a given episode before or after they're complete.

 

20220217_082217.jpg

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bernorange

bernorange 8385

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Bloodsport disappointed me in their last match.  They will lose if they didn't fix their shit.

I'm looking forward to seeing Blip again.  Can Overhaul get underneath Blip?  If not, Blip wins.

Bx2, Rx4, ?

I'm guessing producers decide main event/ card order after fights are done, but maybe they are following the order presented to the live audience.

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BrickHorn

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6 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Ghost Raptor? More like Ghost Craptor, amirite? 

That final assault literally made me queasy. It was gory. And yeah, Ghost Raptor is stupid.

Between that fight and Huge’s destruction of Retrograde, last night’s card was the most devastating I can remember. 

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Prepuce of Doom

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27 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

That final assault literally made me queasy. It was gory. And yeah, Ghost Raptor is stupid.

Between that fight and Huge’s destruction of Retrograde, last night’s card was the most devastating I can remember. 

I'd put the Ghost Raptor destruction up there with this fight in terms of total annihilation. 

 

 

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Prepuce of Doom

Prepuce of Doom 21285

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11 minutes ago, 4doorsMoreWhores said:

Duck is complete garbage

Disagree - it can absorb the most punishment of any bot (or very close to it) and has been that way for years. It's real drawback is its total lack of a meaningful weapon, and this year's beak is proving to be a pretty weak design. I think the "bowling alley pin clearer"-style lifter with just a sharp little beak from a season or two ago was the most useful tool (can't rightly refer to it as a weapon...) 

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BrickHorn

BrickHorn 18447

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1 hour ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Disagree - it can absorb the most punishment of any bot (or very close to it) and has been that way for years

That used to be the case. But not anymore. Duck is garbage and just stands around getting shredded until it craps out. Literally its one strength in past seasons was durability but, this year, it is right up there with Pain Train in the competition for the “Most Likely to Get Easily Ripped to Shreds” award.

Speaking of Pain Train, the Bounty Hunters match against Sub Zero was another clinic in ineptitude. Pain Train could apparently only move one wheel at a time from the get-go and its weapon was rendered non-functional on first contact. I don’t understand how you build a bot that can’t move in a straight line or basically in any predictable path. 

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Prepuce of Doom

Prepuce of Doom 21285

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3 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

That used to be the case. But not anymore. Duck is garbage and just stands around getting shredded until it craps out. Literally its one strength in past seasons was durability but, this year, it is right up there with Pain Train in the competition for the “Most Likely to Get Easily Ripped to Shreds” award

That's fair. They're definitely worse this year than ever before, but I still wouldn't put it in the "complete garbage" category like Pain Train, Rusty, the various scrubs that you see once, etc.  Nevertheless, I certainly don't mean to suggest that they're any better than their 0-3 record indicates. 

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NoName

NoName 17148

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finally watched the end game vs sawblaze fight from 2? weeks ago

man, getting flipped out like that is horseshit. that is an area that either needs to be blocked off so that EXACT thing doesn't happen or they need to expand the battlebox to the corner.

that is some bullshit.

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bernorange

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1 hour ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

... Tonight's fight card. First four red, last three blue is my hunch. ...

You really think Witch Doctor can take Rusty, eh?  Bold prediction.

Huge v Switchback might be weird.  I don't recall watching Switchback before, but it looks like it's a tall bot from the icon in the pic.

If Glitch has fixed their issues, I could see them giving Kraken problems.  Depends on who wins the low ground - getting underneath the opponent.

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Prepuce of Doom

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Doomlet is kicking the shit out of the rest of the family in our bracket pool. Mrs. Doom is mathematically eliminated, and the Inlaws of Doom both have no more points to gain. I am technically not eliminated, but will require a very specific turn of events in order catch and pass him. He's got the lead, plus six E8 teams to my two (one which won't earn me any more points, plus my champion.)

20220402_171742.jpg

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TexLonghorn

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Same with the Tantrum/Hydra battle.  Tantrum driving in a circle around Hydra and avoiding contact is aggression??  When they weren't doing the avoiding routine, Hydra was throwing them all over the place.

Battlebots has been pushing Witch Doctor through the whole event this year.  They got a 24-seed for beating that 0-3 disaster of an entry for Duck this year, losing by KO to End Game, and then beating 0-2 Rusty and pretending that that was some sort of achievement.  Then, when Witch Doctor's first-round 9-seed opponent in the tourney couldn't get their bot to work (3-0 Glitch), Battlebots replaced them with 1-2 Mammoth??  So all of the bots that Witch Doctor beat going into the round of 16 went a combined 1-7.

Spoiler

Then in the Witch Doctor/Minotaur fight, Witch Doctor gets stuck and a few seconds later, Minotaur loses a wheel after it falls off the stupid new platform this year - and that wheel very well could have been damaged by the saws and not Witch Doctor.  After the two bots stop effectively moving (WD being stuck and Mino without a tire), THEN they opt to stop the match and unstick WD.  This would give the advantage to WD who, once unstuck, would be able to move around and attack Mino.  What does WD do, though?  They just run around avoiding any contact whatsoever for almost the full ONE MINUTE-THIRTY, specifically saying "Don't engage" during a close-up.  When they decide to attack with just a few seconds left, it does nothing - and in fact, WD bounces back more from it than Mino is affected.

Neither of the final teams should have been in the finals, but thankfully, WD didn't win after its absolute gift of a season.

Finally, some thoughts for next season.  1) They need to dump the little useless platform that they added this year - what's the point of it?  The main effect of it was just to ruin the flow of several matches.  2) They need to cut Faruq's announcing bits to the shortest time possible - he's tolerable when it's just a couple of lines, but when it's a whole soliloquy it was a FFWD for me every time.  3) They need to get rid of the saws in the floor - when they pop up, they don't affect any of the matches, and when they aren't popped up, bot after bot gets tripped up or downright stuck in the holes.  And 4)  They need to fix the freaking floor - there are so many divots in that thing that any low bot would repeatedly get tripped up just trying to drive around the floor this season.  A bot would be coming in for an attack and then get stuck and have to back up to try again - what an excitement killer.

 

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Prepuce of Doom

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I'm less offended by the Hydra/Tantrum fight. I think it could have gone either way. And to your point about relative aggression in that match, I think Tantrum was just trying to get around to the sides or back of Hydra, not that they were deliberately avoiding contact. When all Hydra does is camp out in the center of the ring and pivot to aim its flipper at its approaching attacker, there's going to be a lot of avoidance if the opponent is a skilled (and/or strategic) driver. 

I like Faruq's opening introductions, but otherwise, I totally agree with your other points. 

The platform seems to be a not so subtle effort to discourage or legislate out full body spinners, and to a lesser extent, any horizontal spinners, which seems foolish. The variety of bots is one of the things that makes Battlebots fun, but altering the playing surface in a manner that seriously compromises a specific design seems really short-sighted to me. 

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NoName

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3 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

The platform seems to be a not so subtle effort to discourage or legislate out full body spinners, and to a lesser extent, any horizontal spinners, which seems foolish. The variety of bots is one of the things that makes Battlebots fun, but altering the playing surface in a manner that seriously compromises a specific design seems really short-sighted to me. 

the platform is real dumb. i get the concept of mixing things up, but what % of fights this year even ended up w/ a bot on the top level?

i want to see some more robot fighting stuff under the battlebots name. just do the smaller ones, do a weekend tournament for them, etc.

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NoName

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i seem to remember someone earlier (Hydra?) talking about getting as low as possible and having a segment on "the low ground"

that battlebot box looks like trash. if Hydra can stay in the middle and not worry about the killsaws (dumn, when have they ever impacted anything other than having people get caught on them to end fights?) cutouts and be patient/have the other team come to him he may win. the longer in the tournament he goes the less hardy other bots are going to be/more likely they are using backup parts and the more likely one high flip and hard hit puts them out.

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NoName

NoName 17148

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I'm not done yet, but that Cobalt/Tantrum fight was dumb. This is at least the 2nd time a bot has been "kicked out of the arena" and lost - literally they have glass everywhere but that one corner? isn't this fixable?

so dumb. that whole fight was dumb and just pisses me off a million ways. yet again we see bots get caught on the floor. yet again bots get KO'd due to shitty box design. yet again a less good bot wins.

i get Witch Doctor staying away - smart decision not to lose but they are going to get some hate and honestly deserved. i feel bad for Minotaur, once again bad design (the teeth on the upper level) influences a fight. bad design in general - the upper level being there in the first place - influences the winner.

dumb.

thoughts on the semi finals and finals:

Spoiler

i can't BELIEVE sawblaze lost. those fucking guys?! THOSE fucking guys?

got to be the weakest finale in a long time.

at least WD didn't win

 

 

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Chewbacca

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On 4/9/2022 at 10:38 AM, Prepuce of Doom said:

By the looks of it, it was so that they could hand the victory to Witch Doctor. 

No shit, Minotaur absolutely got screwed in that fight.  Not only did they free Witch Doctor, but WD did nothing to Minotaur the whole fight, and then deliberately stayed away after getting freed.  I don't understand those decisions (the actual decision as well as the decision to free WD) at all.  And I can't fucking stand Witch Doctor.  Hate that bot.

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NoName

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45 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

No shit, Minotaur absolutely got screwed in that fight.  Not only did they free Witch Doctor, but WD did nothing to Minotaur the whole fight, and then deliberately stayed away after getting freed.  I don't understand those decisions (the actual decision as well as the decision to free WD) at all.  And I can't fucking stand Witch Doctor.  Hate that bot.

from reddit/FB: Every season of BattleBots referee John Remar's comments on the Witch Doctor fight

Text spoilered below:

Spoiler

To the BattleBots community, I want to address a couple of points that pertain to last night's finals. First, I can assure you that the producers have never asked the refs (or anyone that I know of) to manipulate the fights in anyway. As refs, our goal is always to be as consistent as possible and follow the rules. Of course, we are not perfect and the referees themselves don't always agree. Some of what we do is subjective but we believe that we follow the rules to the best of our abilities. We understand that being a referee is not easy and that we need to be able to take criticism. We are completely open to that, are always listening and learning. But no, the fights are not manipulated by the referees in anyway. The most challenging part of BattleBots is dealing with controlled movement. As I read through many of the social media post, I see lots of different opinions/viewpoints on who won last nights fight between Minotaur and Witch Doctor. I (ref John) believe Minotaur should've been counted out. Obviously, the other ref did not. Looking back at the fight, I think Dave (the other referee) made the right call to let it go. I was also the one that called the time out to unstick. Unfortunately, the numerous and sticks that have happened both in this season and many of the seasons past have never been shown on TV and have always been edited out. So I don't blame fans one bit for feeling like the rules have been manipulated because they had never seen that before. But there have been many times we've called timeouts to unstick. And let's remember, the rule state that the unstick timeouts can be called in specific situations and not in others. So I believe we've been consistent with that but from a fan standpoint it may not look that way. And that is totally fair criticism. During the Minotaur v. Witch Doctor fight, an edit was made to shorten the time (I guess for TV) that it looked like the timeout was called immediately. It was not called immediately however, I probably could've given it another two or three seconds. Always learning lessons. If you read the rules you will clearly see that certain places in the arena allow for a referee to call a time out and to unstick. There are also times when the BattleBots officials feel that it is not safe to unstick and therefore send it to the judges. Sometimes this makes television and sometimes it doesn't. But in no way does it change the outcome of any of the fights. Maybe you agree with the decisions of the referees or maybe you don't. Certainly we welcome any and all feedback. We have thick skin and we've been doing this for a long time.

As for the judging, we have three judges for a reason. Sometimes they see things differently than me and other times they do not. But I do see a lot of split decisions and I never feel that judges show favoritism. They seem to have their system and they follow it. During breaks, I've asked them why they made a decision and they've always had good feedback to support what they believe. Personally, I would love to see and hear from the judges after each fight. That would certainly help them explain why they scored a fight in a particular fashion. I've gotten to know all the judges over the years and I know them to be dedicated and unbiased. I don't believe they would ever do anything to intentionally stack the deck against any particular team. Things happen very fast in the Box, and while they have a monitor for viewing, their vantage point is clearly from one side of the arena. They are also sitting down and are closer to the arena floor where as the referees are standing up and have a better vantage point. Referees can also move around. It does get challenging for referees when we have large number of teammates and a very limited amount of space for viewing. We try to stay out of their way while also maintaining eye contact. Not always an easy task but nonetheless part of the job. As for the judges, I don't believe they've manipulated the outcome of any fight nor have have I seen anyone else for that matter. The judges do disagree with each other but mostly I hear them talk about wanting to get it right and how important that is. All three of them are former competitors and they personally know what it's like to win and to lose.

BattleBots is so fortunate to have the best teams in the world and they all want to win. They put their heart, soul, and a lot of time and money into the sport. Every bit of passion shows and they are great at what they do. I love watching them get excited and its important for them to feel comfortable letting me know their feelings in the heat of the moment or at any time for that matter. I don't fault them in anyway for feeling frustrated when they feel like something has been taken away from them. But I can assure everyone, I have seen nothing that would indicate anything nefarious.

Our fans are equally as passionate as our teams and I absolutely love when they engage in the sport. You can agree or disagree on just about any aspect of reffing, judging and the rules. Its great to see and hear from our passionate fans. I always welcome that. We also listen to what many of you say and take that into consideration. This season is no exception. The rules have evolved since day one and we will continue to refine them. We try to be as proactive as possible and anticipate any potential challenges that may arise. Sometimes we get the rules right and sometimes we don’t. But we always do our best to make them fair and reasonable. The referees also started a new tradition of trying to get around and talk with each team prior to the beginning of filming. The purpose of this is to clarify any rules and or listen to any challenges the teams might have. Because of this, we were able to adjust some of the rules and clarify things that some of the teams really were frustrated with. We went to bat for the teams because we also felt that the rule wasn't written very well. As the sport evolves so will the rules. There will be times when things work and there will be times when things don't. But I can assure you that when they don't, they will always be looked at and we will make every effort to fix them.

But let me be clear, no fight in any way has ever been manipulated by the refs nor do I believe any fight has ever been manipulated by a judge. Nothing is fixed. The producers do not dictate the outcome of any fight. We strive to be perfect but know we are not. BattleBots can and should do a better job of explaining the rules during the show (i.e. stuck under the rail of the deck verses stuck leaning on the deck). I know this would help the fans a lot. Rules need to be cleaned up and clarified (i.e. controlled movement). All of these things are already in progress. I believe that BattleBots is so truly loved and cared for by the fans that it's only right they have a voice and express both their pleasures and displeasures with the show. Please know, you are loudly heard and we know you care.

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Captainant

Captainant 28538

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So the conference I was at last week in Las Vegas finished with an 8 bot bracket, I recorded a bunch of the fights because why not! Here's some intro stuff and most of the fights that I recorded with my cell phone. It's AWESOME to see live - those bots have some serious power! And all the drivers were super cool and gave me some stickers and poker chips for stopping by and looking at the damage with em lol. 

I put each video in a spoiler so I don't longcat too bad, and I missed some of the rounds (sorry, had to get another free beer), but it's some neat preseason robot fighting action!

Round 1: Blip vs Whiplash

Spoiler

 

Round 1: Skorpios vs Cobalt

Spoiler

 

Round 1: Tombstone vs Hypershock

Spoiler

 

Round 2: Hydra vs Cobalt

Spoiler

 

Bonus grudge match: Malice vs Jackpot

Spoiler

 

Final: Hypershock vs Hydra

Spoiler

 

And very cool to see the giant nut in person as well!

image.thumb.jpeg.40f10031bdd0fd5cc85448dddace0d5a.jpeg

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Captainant

Captainant 28538

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9 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Pretty cool - thanks for sharing. Looking forward to watching these later. 

What kind of conference? 

Machine learning, automation, robotics, and space were the main topics. Tons of incredible tech - including a bipedal robot that can self-navigate in a semi-controlled environment (right before the Westworld season premier lmao), a live flight demo of that jet pack that's done a trial with UK special forces, and a bunch of cutting-edge machine learning techniques that I can run on my desktop computer and produce incredible results.

edit: also sorry in advance for my constant yelling and hollering in the videos lol

Edited by Captainant
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Captainant

Captainant 28538

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Bump, just stumbled across a bunch of never aired on TV fights on the BattleBots YouTube

Some pretty good fights and action from the jump! It feels like a preseason sort of deal

 

Also, I'm freakin STOKED - I'm gonna be in Vegas this weekend to see Texans/Raiders and snagged tickets to see BattleBots at 4 this Saturday with my buddies

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