Battlebots 2023

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

I'm confident that Monsoon will kick the shit out of Horizon. 

[bernorange 8,359]

Episode was mostly in line with expectations.  Main event was a fantastic fight - better than I expected.

Spoiler

Gigabyte has zero durability.  Water is wet.

Claw Viper is fast.  And boring.

Monsoon got a freebie.  Horizon sucks so much.

Mammoth dominated control and aggression and got lucky that none of their chains broke.  Their weapon isn't designed to damage.  It's just a big, awkward control bot. Snooze.

Copperhead delivered.  Lulz at Triton. 

Not sure which surprised me more.  Lucky played smart with the armor config.  Kraken disappointed with mechanical problems.

Cobalt's forks worked until they didn't and their armor wedge didn't allow Minotaur's drum to find any purchase.  Minotaur had to play super aggressive to attack Cobalt's weapon just to land a hit.  Awesome fight.

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

I'm starting to come around on Claw Viper. It's definitely positioned itself as the premier grappler of the field, and can certainly present a matchup problem for some of the otherwise "better" bots. 

I wish that the Mammoth/Starchild match was given unlimited time. Terrible match, but tremendously entertaining. 

Remind me not to bet on Kraken ever again. 

Main Event was an instant classic. 

[bernorange 8,359]

Free Shipping has yet to win me over.  I expect Hydra to have some fun.

Huge appears to have improved their weapon this year.  Fusion always seems to have mechanical problems.  Fusion will likely struggle to land a solid hit on Huge.  Huge should land some blows.

Lockjaw v Glitch... Is either bot working 100%?  Both can be beasts when they are working.

Beta v Shatter could be a good fight.  Both have the same weapon type (overhead hammer).  Beta's hammer isn't designed to penetrate, Shatter's is.  Not sure they will penetrate Beta's armor.  I guess Beta's weapon bends/breaks before Shatter's does.

Quantum v Black Dragon could be fun.  Quantum's crusher weapon looks legit.  Black Dragon is usually super durable.

Terrortops v Slammo ... lulz.

Tantrum v Blip... I hope Blip gets their shit figured out - they looked so great last season. 

[bernorange 8,359]

Quite possibly the worst main event of the season.  Other than that, some decent matches and, for me, a couple of surprises.

Spoiler

Hydra romped as expected.  But Hydra appeared to have difficulty moving around the arena without getting hung up on the floor.

Huge won with 1 hit.  The follow up hits were fun but not necessary.  I'm really impressed with Huge this season.  The blade they used this match was wicked.

Lockjaw and Glitch attacked weapon on weapon and Lockjaw somehow won the exchange.  Glitch won every similar exchange last season.

Beta was aggressive and smart.  Shatter drove around like a 2am bars are closed fool.  The arm supporting Betas hammer looked much stronger than what they had the previous match.  Props to them for a better game plan than last time.

Quantum is fun to watch.  Their hydraulic press punched through some tough armor.  I wonder how they will match up against an elite horizontal spinner, but that was impressive work against an above average vertical spinner.

Terrortops seemed like a silly design.  I thought their lifting arms were going to cockblock the vertical spinner, but their driver worked the weapons pretty smartly.  Remains to be seen how they will handle getting punched in the mouth, but it was a nice bout for a rookie bot.

It honestly looked like neither Tantrum nor Blip wanted to throw a punch or win that fight.  LAME.

 

[bernorange 8,359]

Gruff doesn't appear to have the stuff.

Malice v Valkyrie - don't really care

Madcatter should romp

Ribbot v Jackpot could be a fun match.  Ribbot has disappointed so far this tourney, but I know they can do better.  Jackpot is a decent bot.

Skorpios v Sawblaze should be a fun match.  Similar bots.

Ripperoni should have fun with Hijinx

End Game v. Hypershock should be fun.  I expect neither bot will get stuck in the floor with forks.  Should be some weapon on weapon hits.

Several good matchups (on paper anyway) tonight.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Gruff can take a beating, and will likely receive one. 

My money is on Sawblaze. 

Still hard to trust Ripperoni, but Hijinx is just fodder. 

*today is only Wednesday... 

[Horn_Spanker 524]

Can't help but notice the Witch Doctor girl's eyebrows and wonder what the carpet must be like.

[bernorange 8,359]

7 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

*today is only Wednesday... 

[bernorange 8,359]

Well that was an entertaining episode.

Malice v Valkyrie made me feel embarrassed for Battlebots and that was before the judges scored the fight.  

 

[bernorange 8,359]

Riptide should romp

Mammoth sucks but can be entertaining

Banshee v Emulsifier - meh

Copperhead should destroy Kraken unless Kraken fixed their shit and even then they likely take it on the chin

Horizon is slow and hits like a wet noodle.

Ominous v Shreddit - lol

Whiplash v Monsoon should be a good fight.  I think Monsoon takes it

 

[NoName 16,351]

35 minutes ago, bernorange said:

Riptide should romp

Mammoth sucks but can be entertaining

Banshee v Emulsifier - meh

Copperhead should destroy Kraken unless Kraken fixed their shit and even then they likely take it on the chin

Horizon is slow and hits like a wet noodle.

Ominous v Shreddit - lol

Whiplash v Monsoon should be a good fight.  I think Monsoon takes it

 

there is some Riptide stuff that is evidently going to come out in Episode 10 when he goes against Captain Shredderator. based on things in the facebook group there is a lot of actual hate for the dude and how he handles things, plus the whole "i cured autism with these magic beans" stuff his dad is/was selling (Ethan is on the spectrum)

captain shred captain had this to say today? on reddit about it, so now it sounds like it's just going to be behind the scenes and people will just dislike Riptide/Kurtz Family/Ethan moving forward, which is hard to do in the bot builder community.

Spoiler

from captain shred: who also added he was going to say more about it but decided not to now. guessing production asked him not to based on some other things he has said.

His dad just had some words for us after the fight that are more so embarrassing in regards to how he parents Ethan

+

I’m not gonna say anything, out of respect for the production team (Specifically Greg, Trey, Pete) but there is more that happens after the fight, in the pits, that is obviously not shown on camera.

+

Nave blood runs deep, the Kurtz clan would have been outnumbered

more stuff he said here: https://old.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/11kckgk/fight_card_predictions/jb75hr9/

also discovered there is this subreddit that sounds like they just cut the bullshit out and only show the fights? hosting their videos at dailymotion

https://old.reddit.com/r/BattleBotsRaw/

last weeks ep:

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

I'm not opening whatever is under the spoiler tags (and thanks for keeping it hidden, @NoName!) but there was a lot of ill will towards Riptide Spaz surrounding a previous match (vs. Madcatter, maybe?) because apparently Riptide Spaz just completely stole someone's design from the smaller levels of competition and scaled it up into Riptide. Seems like that's (rightfully, in my view) considered pretty uncool throughout the community.

I don't know anything about dude's autism or whatever his dad is up to, but they're a far cry from having found a "cure" if he's the end result. Guy has all the charm and grace of a leafblower in your neighbor's yard at 7am on a Saturday. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Prepuce of Doom

[NoName 16,351]

14 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

I'm not opening whatever is under the spoiler tags (and thanks for keeping it hidden, @NoName!) but there was a lot of ill will towards Riptide Spaz surrounding a previous match (vs. Madcatter, maybe?) because apparently Riptide Spaz just completely stole someone's design from the smaller levels of competition and scaled it up into Riptide. Seems like that's (rightfully, in my view) considered pretty uncool throughout the community.

I don't know anything about dude's autism or whatever his dad is up to, but they're a far cry from having found a "cure" if he's the end result. Guy has all the charm and grace of a leafblower in your neighbor's yard at 7am on a Saturday. 

totally understand it, you won't have anything spoiled for the actual fight card it's reddit comments from the captain of capt. shredderator.

...basically it's scene drama. captain shred. was going to post about it and put Riptide on blast for some things that happened in the pits, but production / people he know talked him into going easy and not discussing it beyond what he has said. curious if he changes it after the season but for now it's nothing other than shit people in a pretty chill hobby scene.

 

[bernorange 8,359]

I watched it last night.  I was entertained.

Spoiler

Team Riptide showed zero sportsmanship or class by tearing up the Shredderator bot after it was already incapacitated.  That's just costing a team money.  Kurtz obviously hasn't learned a life lesson about never messing with another man's money.  Karma is going to be rough for Kurtz one day.

Mammoth sucked and was not entertaining.

Banshee sucked.  Emulsifier's weapon looked legit, but it was never able to actually find purchase for a solid whammy hit.  Meh indeed.

Copperhead looked strong .  Kraken's box rush was as fast as any bot I've seen, but it seemed to have trouble moving after that.  Kid controlling the Kraken weapon was too spastic and that prevented Kraken from being able to move in a controlled fashion.

WTF has happened to Shatter!?  They used to be a decent bot.  Horizon continues to be "just a notch above pain train" level dumb even when their blades do spin and the judges should feel dirty for having to have scored that match.  Do cosmetic parts count for damage in the scoring?

Ominous v Shreddit brought the lulz in my house.  We especially enjoyed Chris's pre-fight comment about the Shreddit/Pain Train guy's delusion that his bots are good.  At least their drum didn't fall out of the chassis after the first hit this time.

Whiplash v Monsoon was a tough bout.  I'm not sure how the judges scored it, but I thought Monsoon should have won damage 4-1, aggression 2-1 and lost control 1-2.

Martin Mason's community college ad at the end of the show was cute.  You could tell when he was in the booth earlier as a guest commentator that he really respects all the people in the pits that design and build these bots.

 

[bernorange 8,359]

Comments about the Riptide team on  https://old.reddit.com/r/battlebots/  are savage.

[NoName 16,351]

riptide/capt shred stuff below, going to spoiler until after folks watch the episode

 

Spoiler

team explanation from discord

captain shred comment on the subreddit (this is brian's son nick btw): https://old.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/11nb991/teams_explanation_regarding_what_happened_in/

Quote

 

I don’t wanna get into the he-said she-said issue of this. Idk who Sid is, but there was one member of Riptide who not only apologized but offered to help repair shred. If that’s sid, good dude. I guess I’ll just get into what was said in the pits since they want to try and justify themselves - and as I said in other threads, acted well within the rules and can’t knock them for that.

So, it’s clear we were unhappy with things and so was production, the crowd, etc. In the pits, nobody from team Riptide even acknowledged us for a while until Stan (Ethan’s dad) came over to our pit table to make some excuses. The excuses were how Ethan took it too far, but it was his (Stan’s) fault because as he said “I told Ethan if he was going too far I would put my hand on his shoulder and he would KNOW to calm down.” Uhh.. dude what? Why not verbally tell your kid to relax. After he said that, my uncle said “you know your team and son have a reputation and if you continue to take responsibility for his actions he will never grow out of it” to which Stan replied “no I’m not aware of this reputation.” So, no real apology, no Ethan taking responsibility for clear poor sportsmanship, but excuses from Daddy because he can’t get a handle on his son.

Listen, people are right - he acted within the rules and sure our robot not moving from a single place but gyrating upside COULD have been misconstrued as still being able to fight but let’s get real. Nobody, not Ethan or Stan, actually believe what this post is saying in the OP.

 

shatter's captain in the comments

Quote

I've done a lot of ridiculous stuff on this show over the years, including tonight's episode, but the Riptide team really had to take it to another level to piss off production. You handled this situation incredibly well though. And if people want to make fun of a bot for being bad then they can go after Shatter! and myself all day long. You've earned a rest from all the unwarranted criticism over the years.

all you need to see is that no one from either team went over and hugged/fist bumped/etc with the other team.

fuck those guys.

 

other comments Nick (Captain Shred captain's son, tattoo'd guy who pushes the bot in the intro) said elsewhere on reddit. these are in reverse order hence the 10k discussion below

Quote

For the record, Gigabyte was no disabled in their fight against tombstone. The base was still driving, go and rewatch. The difference is the unspoken agreement competitors have to not do damage in bad faith. Ethan did not abide by this agreement, which is where the backlash comes from. Did he act within the rules? Yes. Did he act in a manner that is generally respected amongst the competitors and more invested fan-base? No.

No monetary compensation needed. Maybe I’ll put some parts up for auction or something but asking for donations doesn’t sit right with me.

10k in damage

 

Quote

 

hink of it like this, Tombstone v Gigabyte, when Gigabyte is deshelled it still had translational movement and could have been considered a combatant. Ray chose to not hit their opponent, even though it was well within the rules, in order to save John and his team hours of work and thousands of dollars. That isn’t hyperbole. It was $10k of damage MINIMUM.

In this fight, we had LESS THAN translational movement. The base was gyrating inside the shell and not only had no movement abilities but had no ability to damage as the weapon was not spinning. It is well understood, even by Ethan in the pre-fight interview, that once we are upside we are pretty helpless. There were many hits while we were upside down but the base was spinning, I believe 9, it wasn’t until the last hit that fried electronics and the spin shut off.

Furthermore, let’s assume that he did flip us over or we somehow self-righted after the first hit that bent our frame and created a lip. We wouldn’t have been able to move because we would have no ground clearance. Threat neutralized after the first upside down hit, that’s it. Would have saved thousands of dollars in shell damage, electronics damage, gear box damage, etc

 

more

Quote

 

It was close to $10,000 in damage, the single most expensive fight ever for our team and it was completely unnecessary. Nothing from that robot could be salvaged and we had to rebuild a new robot from the ground up for our jackpot right which was THE NEXT DAY.

This is why teams bring extra robots and we did but they were all damaged from previous seasons

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

Riptide guys are huge assholes.

Edited March 10, 2023 by NoName

[bernorange 8,359]

Regarding stuff that wasn't shown to TV audiences (watch episode before reading):

Spoiler

Apparently, the judge had to physically remove the RC controller from Ethan's hands after the match.  Team Kurtz people may have interfered/body blocked the ref from doing so for a bit too.  The ref was apparently *pissed* at Ethan for not setting the controller down. 

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Fuck Ethan, his father, and the entire Riptide team in the goatass. 

Boring episode overall. 

Shatter vs Horizon followed by Ominous vs Shreddit Bro was underwhelming. 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Holy shit, what an episode! 

Lots of wrong picks in our house - Mrs. Doom and I tied for the win with just 3 right. 

[bernorange 8,359]

There were some entertaining fights.  We enjoyed that episode.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

23 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Holy shit, what an episode! 

Lots of wrong picks in our house - Mrs. Doom and I tied for the win with just 3 right. 

Actually, I won with 3. She and the Doomlet tied with two (Dragon King, and Lucky, who fought Shreddit Bro, so kind of a gimme...). 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Tonight's fight card. 

Funny that we're getting a "scorpion and the frog" matchup. 

[bernorange 8,359]

I look forward to seeing Quantum fight a vertical spinner.  Quantum has impressed me this season.

Should be the swan song for Gigabyte.  I wonder if they throw caution to the wind and go all out with power for high kinetic hits.  End Game should still win I think.

Shreddit Bro means I get to laugh at whatshisnuts again.  Overhaul aint all that either, so it's going to be a cripple fight.

Rotator should beat Fusion even though Rotator has looked awful this season and Fusion has looked better this season.

I like the scorpion over he frog.  Ribbot doesn't seem to have the magic they had last season.

Rookie bot battle likely goes to Terrortops if their driver is on point last their last fight.

Main event looks spicy.  I like Copperhead, but I think the odds are probably a toss up

 

 

[bernorange 8,359]

Last week's episode had some entertaining fights.  Here' the card for tonight:

 

Starchild v Huge should be some comedy.  Will Huge actually launch a bot into the air?

Triton v Horizon ... I mean... lulz...

Bloodsport v Beta might be interesting if Beta uses their amazing wedge.  Bloodsport used a blade that gave them some reach in their last fight.  Will they break Beta's hammer?

Black Dragon v Riptide will get all the hype.  Similar design for the bots so I expect this fight will be determined by driving skill.

[bernorange 8,359]

That episode was chock full of boring matches.  Hope next week brings more action.

[bernorange 8,359]

Lucky v Cobalt could be a fun match.

Blip v Banshee features two struggling flipper bots.

Tantrum v Whiplash features two bots that have had success historically, but they have both underperformed my expectations this season.

Main event could be spicy.

~~~

Anyone printing brackets tonight after the reveal?

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Main event is going to be nuts. The Minotaur driver is going to go berserk. 

With 7 matches to go in the regular season, our household regular season championship is still up for grabs, though Mrs. Doom (60 correct out of 98 - 0.612) will be tough for me to catch (57/98 - 0.582), and nearly impossible for the Doomlet to catch (53/98 - 0.541), as he can only tie her if he's perfect and she gets everything wrong tonight. 

We'll definitely be completing brackets at our house. 

[bernorange 8,359]

WTF Blip?  So dumb.  So, so dumb.

I think Slammo v Double Tap may have been the singularly most boring "fight" ever televised in Battlebots.  Both teams should have had negative scores from the judges and tossed from the event.

I did enjoy the main event.

I'm off to print my brackets now...

[bernorange 8,359]

Printable .PDF of the bracket available here:

https://battlebots.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/BattleBots-WC7_At-Home-BracketFilled.pdf

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Yeah, that Blip modification was perplexing. 

I loved how they didn't even bother with the traditional announcement of the judges' decision and post-fight interviews for Slammo/Double Tap. Funny way for Mrs. Doom to have clinched the household regular season championship. 

I felt a little bad for the judges that Minotaur/Witch Doctor came down to a decision - talk about pressure. While I think they got it right, I also think that it would have had to be a conclusive and definitive display for any of them to have given it to Witch Doctor, all things considered. 

[bernorange 8,359]

Do we need to spoiler fight talk after the episode airs? 

Spoiler

Damage was about equal, but Minotaur gets the edge for aggression and control IMO.  It was an easy decision per the judging criteria.  I don't know why W.D. let Minotaur just grind both of their front tires into nothing while pushed against the wall, but maybe their drive train just wasn't strong enough to push back and get away.  It was shocking to see Minotaur's drum disabled though.  First time I think I've ever seen that.

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

1 hour ago, bernorange said:

Do we need to spoiler fight talk after the episode airs? 

  Hide contents

Damage was about equal, but Minotaur gets the edge for aggression and control IMO.  It was an easy decision per the judging criteria.  I don't know why W.D. let Minotaur just grind both of their front tires into nothing while pushed against the wall, but maybe their drive train just wasn't strong enough to push back and get away.  It was shocking to see Minotaur's drum disabled though.  First time I think I've ever seen that.

 

Personally, I just avoid the thread until I'm caught up, but I guess using the spoiler tag (especially when talking about what was essentially the fight of the year to this point) can't hurt, though this long after the fact (3 days), I don't think it's all that necessary. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Prepuce of Doom

[bernorange 8,359]

8 minutes ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Personally, I just avoid the thread until I'm caught up, ...

Same.  I'm only going to use the spoiler for comments that might spoil unaired content.  If it's already aired on TV, it's fair game to discuss.

[Focht Up 631]

To me, it's bullshit that teams that finished at 1-3 made the field of 32, while teams that are 2-2 got left out.

[bernorange 8,359]

The graphic I saw had 3 teams at 2-2 and none of them deserved to be in the tournament imo.  SOS was lopsided in many cases.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

Yeah, strength of schedule is a thing. And many of the matchups all season were obviously intentional - they didn't just toss all the teams in a hat. 

[bernorange 8,359]

Tournament starts tonight, but there isn't a fight card for tonight's show (that I saw anyway).  My bracket is ready.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

I'm traveling for work right now - haven't filled ours out yet, but will do so before watching tomorrow... 

[bernorange 8,359]

I went 6/8 on my bracket yesterday.  It should have been 7/8.  Bloodsport/Lockjaw result was a major fluke.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

I also went 6/8. I incorrectly picked Rotator and Bloodsport. 

Mrs. Doom only got Bloodsport wrong. 

Doomlet's bracket is still perfect. 

Those were some outstanding matches with impressive durability on display. 

[bernorange 8,359]

I missed on Bloodsport and Claw Viper. 

Hats off to Madcatter.  They underperformed during the season but it looks like they figured some things out for the tournament.

[bernorange 8,359]

Wow.  Round of 32 part 2 was the best episode of the season by far.  Only a couple of boring matches and a lot of excellent fights.  I shit the bed on my bracket picks going 3 for 8, but I'm not complaining.

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

We just finished - Doomlet conked out midway through last night. Yeah, that was an action-packed episode. I sure dislike Ethan Kurtz and his smug-assed Big Divorcee Energy father. 

I've lost five first round picks and am down two E8 teams (Cobalt and Quantum). 

Doomlet has lost three first round picks and is down one E8 team (Ripperoni). 

Mrs. Doom has lost three first round picks and zero beyond that. 

We each have different champions - everyone has Minotaur in the finals, but I'm the only one who picked them to win (beating Endgame). Doomlet has Endgame winning it all, while Mrs. Doom has Witch Doctor. 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,053]

That was fucking awesome. 

[bernorange 8,359]

My brackets turned to hot steamy poop, but I didn't care.  Much strategery and carnage.  I was entertained.

That tall, blond dude on team Sawblaze cracks me the fuck up.  It's like he lazily looks around the room for a random victim to consume their soul with his eyes.

I fully expect Ethan Kurtz to return next season and brag that he was undefeated this season.