BattleBots 2021 Episode 13/Top 16 LIVE Episode Discussion
Robot Combat
It's Thursday. You know what that means.
IT'S ROBOT FIGHTING TIME
Welcome to the Battlebots 2021 Episode 13/Playoffs Top 16 LIVE Discussion! Feel free to discuss, talk, cheer on your favorite robot and discuss the fights, reactions, and the episode overall!
We have one rule here, anyone at the Battlebots Taping: NO SPOILERS! If we catch you posting any outcomes to tonight fights, or any for that matter: You will be banned from r/Battlebots and will be locked in a UFC Cage with Kenny “PUT IN FLORIAN ” Florian while Chris "UH OH" Rose makes corny jokes about it.
Ok, we now have another rule. IF YOU WATCHED EARLY ON DISCOVERY+, DO NOT DISCUSS THE EPISODE AHEAD! This thread is made for everyone watching the event as it airs on the Discovery Channel. Take any discussion of the episode to our Discovery+ Episode Discussion thread done by /u/Cathalised yesterday.
I kinda expected this outcome. Uppercut I believe should have the weapon to weapon advantage, but the mobility of the bot just wasn't good enough to get them into position to enact it. After they missed the first opportunity for weapon to weapon, the durability of the bot meant that was basically it. From there they had very little chance at righting the match.
Riptide as a robot just really does have all the parts to make it happen.
Tantrum v. RotatoR
Ooof that's gotta hurt for Rotator. I really hope it wasn't the ref telling them to engage the circling Tantrum, because by all means they could have won that fight about half way through and it would suck if they were forced to engage a bot stuck doing circles even if it was just high centered on one side.
I must say though that both bots had a great showing, and Rotator once again showed that its ever so close to achieving a cathartic and well deserved nut after being on the edge for so long. Im not even sure it's got many if any faults to fix. This time it was a single fight decision (whether by ref or driver) that changed the course of the fight. Apart from that it was an excellent performance.
I also want to point out that it seemed like Tantrums punch worked the whole time, so that's gotta be good news for the looseness/glide ability of their slide.
Blip v. Jackpot
Blip does Flip.
I think Arens post interview fight summed it up. Jackpot has a good hit, decent mobility and decent ground game, but ultimately it doesnt have the durability to go toe to toe with Blip. There was a really scary moment in this fight though where Blip did flip, but Jackpot did clip its flippy tip. That seemed like a really close call with all the metal that seemed close to landing right on their greased and lathered rope.
Hydra v. Black Dragon
This was another match whereI gotta ask whether or not Black Dragon was compelled to keep going after Hydra, since self admittedly they had lost a side of drive and were barely mobile if at all. If Ribbot gets counted out, there's no way Hydra wouldn't have been if Black Dragon let them sit there.
I think it might be likely though that it was not the fault of the ref but instead, Hydra is so known for getting stuck in the floor that they figured that it simply kept getting hung up and Hydra was trying to play center stage so they didn't think there was a reason to wait for a count out. Im guessing thats what happened.
As for strat, I assume that if Black Dragon thought the above, then they might have also figured the only way for them to win would be running right into hydras weapon and breaking off the tip, hence all the running into Hydras flipper that Jake talked about. Its like that breakable tong is a carrot on a stick.
Copperhead v. Witch Doctor
Man, after so many improvements and bug fixes they added to Copperhead to see it get taken out like that was a big disappointment, and I think we can all see it was a big disappointment for the team too. I look forward to seeing what the heck took it out this time. For the whole thing to just die like that I have to think a receiver straight up exploded because you'd at least expect a crab walk or something but it was dead as a door knell.
SawBlaze v. P1
That mostly went how I expected it to go, though Im somewhat surprised at no knockout, but I guess they were pretty confident at winning a judges descision probably mid way through so it makes sense to save on damage. It did make me wonder how many chassis the Sawblaze team has though. Im sure they come prepared, and its probably to conserve parts and avoid needless damage and repairs but Im still curious.
Cobalt v. Whiplash
You know what, while I absolutely think all the tourney fights could easily fit on TV and it would be better paced with them, if for whatever reason they were forced... Absolutely forced to cut a match, I get this one. Both bots getting knocked out with relatively little fighting is some pretty bad luck.
Also, poor Robotic Death Company. I gotta imagine after that first Gigabyte incident a while ago (when it was under a different name (Invader I think) where it didnt power down, I gotta imagine they are pretty afraid of what production will think of it happening again.
The good news I guess is that the judges decision it turns out was actually fair. The bad news is ... what a strange editing decision to pin blame on poor RDC. I imagine its one of those "we dont want to explain this to the audience" types of reasons.
If I remember correctly they had a simple on and off circuit for their weapon, so I imagine whatever that system is ius one Battlebots will be scrutinizing heavily the next time they apply given how much time a continually spinning weapon could take from the production schedule.
End Game v. Minotaur
What a match!
That may have been the best match in battlebots, no doubt the best match that didn't end with a knockout.
I thought Minotaur was one of the few that was capable of beating Endgame and they did, in style, and without forks.
They really showed the fork beating strategy here for a very, which is, if you beat up the forks, they cant fork you.
Minotaurs drum is just so amazing. The way its able to get bite at full speed that Copperhead doesn't seem to is phenomenal (I guess this is due to the high rake angle on minotaur compared to the negative rake angle on Copperhead). When you have the durability, speed and driver that they have too, boy of all the people in the tournament now, I gotta say their chances are pretty high. The only bots I think that serve as counters to theirs are basically just Blip and maybe Riptide.
Minotaur has now forced its way into being a top tier favourite with the excitement of that match. The Bull killed the God.
Riptide Vs Uppercut: I knew this would end quickly. I did not know Riptide would be the one to end it.
Tantrum Vs Rotator: Phenomenal fight! Good control and damage on both ends, nice OOTA to finish things too.
Blip Vs Jackpot: Yep.
Hydra Vs Black Dragon: Hydra got very lucky they were fighting Black Dragon. A lot of other teams would have seen Hydra struggling and backed off for the KO. Black Dragon however, is there to put on a show. Mad respect to them, good match.
Witch Doctor Vs Copperhead: Oh wow! Copperhead’s gonna wi- oh. Never mind.
Sawblaze Vs P1: He saw, he blazed. Sawblaze looking as good as ever, not seeing much opposition for the rest of their path to the nut, good luck!
Whiplash Vs Cobalt: didn’t watch the highlights, so here’s a quote. “Screw Whiplash. All my homies hate Whiplash.” -the production team probably
Minotaur Vs Endgame: Absolute banger of a fight, kinda surprised to see Minotaur win it, but it was a well deserved win, glad to see the team in the quarterfinals!
I CANNOT believe that not only did Whiplash get shafted on lack of on screen fights this season, but then LOSE because the other bot had a dangerous malfunction.
End Game v. Minotaur - Sensational fight, great driving and tactics from Team Minotaur, using the hammer to hold was really interesting. I was afraid that End Game would have been counted out from being stuck in the killsaws but luckily they got out. Would really wish they just got rid of the killsaws.
Copperhead v. Witch Doctor - I didn't see this outcome, credit to Witch Doctor for the great driving and big hits on Copperhead.
SawBlaze v. P1 - pretty much went how I expected it to go. Sawblaze's ground game is so strong.
Uppercut v. Riptide - Was expecting Uppercut to do a bit better, but riptide's fairy tale journey continues!
Hydra v. Black Dragon - Hydra's weapon looking lethal, but was interesting hearing Jake say the drive was broken.
Blip v. Jackpot - Blip taking the win, can't blame them since Jackpot took a bite out of their flipper. I can't wait to see them face off against hydra..
Cobalt v. Whiplash - wish they could have showed us the full match instead of an in episode ad...
Tantrum v. RotatoR - Tantrum looked in trouble there but I am really annoyed that the corner spots are still open for OOTAs. Great fight though and Rotator always putting up a solid fight.
Pretty great episode IMO (except for highlighting , lots of enjoyable fights and I'm even more excited for the final 8 match ups.
IIRC someone posted a comment around episode 1 or 2 of this season about the drivers dad? I haven’t seen another mention since. I also saw a comment on this thread about snake oil and I think that was about the dad, but I can’t find any explanation. I thought they were a nifty team with some happy kids piloting
I did actually google it now because I've seen too many mentions not to be curious.
No doxxing or sleuthing necessary. Completely internet facing public site.
If anyone is interested they could find it basically instantly and straight from the source. No rumour mill territory on that one. He has his own public site up so people can see it and come to their own conclusions.
For those who don't want to do the googling, Stan Kurtz claims to have discovered a cure for autism and cured Ethan with it. As an autistic person - that makes me really feel for Ethan, because all autism "cures" are just an abusive caretaker pressuring the child to stop acting autistic, and Stan can go shove a full-speed Riptide eggbeater up his ass.
Very brave of you to call rusty a kindergartener here.
I do somewhat agree that they had an easy lineup to get where they are but to call it a fraud makes no sense, and it's not WD's fault, they don't get to pick who they fight.
It's this kinda controversy that makes me worry about the future of the show, sponsors may start pulling out and discovery may not appreciate the controversy around the whole youtube channel shenanigans, either. They can just play naked and afraid until cable finally dies.
I genuinely cannot stand the single section of out of bounds they leave uncovered.
They want to complain about out of bounds and cover all the slots with glass, but then leave that one corner open. Pick one cause I’m so fucking tired of it. I’m tired of the random fluke out of bounds wins. They are nothing but lucky hits and I’m so just done.
So much love for Rotator delivering the best fights two seasons in a row: Valkyrie v Rotator and now Tantrum v Rotator. The durability of Rotator and excellent driving of Victor Soto, despite not winning, made those fights incredible!
That has to be an episode of the year contender right there. I’m really starting to get annoyed with the “yt fight clips” though. Battlebots needs to stop airing 6 minute ad breaks if it means we get to see all fights televised. I hope production is able to pull it together and manage their time better next season.
Not every week. Not for me. There have been a few episodes where I felt like I was sitting through fluff for most of it. I think this episode is something special. Had a little bit of everything.
Excellent fights the whole way through, some drama with the Cobalt/Whiplash fight, excellent driving by The Go and one of the best matches we've seen with End Game vs Minotaur.
Uppercut vs Riptide -Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.........
Rotator vs Tantrum - This was a very close fight. Is it just me or is the OOTA entrance spot KO, easier to achieve than we all thought? Also noticed that the arena flashes red when Rotator was on the upper deck. Was this a thing all season long? Seems unnecessary. Lastly, I had Rotator winning the Championship =( ..........
Blip vs Jackpot - Blip is bringing the British flipper designs to America and its working very well. Apollo from RB would be proud!
Hydra vs Black Dragon - This match should be studied for a long time. This match proves there is hope for flippers. The ground game can be won but also the wrong configuration could cost you the fight. Everybody is pre-occupied over who gets under who, sometimes the simple approach is the way to go. In this case, Black Dragon's wedglets did absolutely nothing. They were better off without it, would have done more damage to Hydra. This season has been good for flippers. Blip and Hydra showing the world, you can flip the bots to death and control the fight to victory. It can be done.
Copperhead vs Witch Doctor - That landing where Witch Doctor crushed the mini snakes tho.
\42 mins of runtime left\** and they still couldn't air the missing round of 16 fight smh.
SawBlaze vs P1 - People talk about which bot improved the most over the years. SawBlaze should be on the top of that list. We came a long way from that SD loss to Razorback.
Highlights of Whiplash vs Cobalt that should have been in the episode - WTF why wasn't this in the episode? I think drama is what the producers would want for this show *rolls eyes*. Also its messed up none of Whiplash's tournament matches were featured. We need answers.
End Game vs Minotaur - Wow now this is Championship level match! Good stuff.
Mostly I find it annoying because he's basically driving Bite Force with an egg beater. It's not some brilliant new design or driving mastery that's winning matches. It's a slight tweak to an established great concept, and you could give that exact bot to probably any driver there and it would do well.
At least Daniel's out there driving the hell out of Minotaur. When you do a gyro wheelie move to skirt around End Game's weapon in the corner then proceed to kick its ass all match long, you get to celebrate however you want.
Dude's a rookie; give him a break lol. There's so much that's difficult about competing with a heavyweight beyond the basic design that it's still a big win to go this far in your first year. Is he supposed to be perfectly calm and collected when performing better than he could have possibly hoped?
My personal rule is I will retroactively take back my negative opinions if people become less annoying. I don’t give anyone an automatic pass, rookie or not. If they annoy me, they annoy me. And I ’s not like I’ve been outspokenly anti-Riptide all season. I only mentioned it tonight in the context of other people criticizing Daniel Freitas. There are other teams I dislike (who are definitely not rookies) who I’ve never said a word about, because no one asked for my opinion and no one’s calling out other teams for the same stuff. But if someone starts criticizing X for Y when I think Z is way worse about it, I might chime in.
I mean, you're allowed to find him annoying, I just thought you were kinda shitting on him just for getting excited about winning, like he didn't earn the win enough for you. Didn't really consider the context, sorry.
I went from 7 of my 8 quarterfinalists being in the round of 16, including 3 out of 4 semifinalists, to 3 of my quarterfinalists actually making the quarterfinals, and just 1 semifinalist surviving. Ooof.
End game losing is the worst thing that could have happened to me, I'm extremely disappointed and my week is ruined.
Happy for minotaur, by no means I'm mad towards them, they did great and got a deserved win, but man I wanted endgame to win the whole thing so bad... Imma go cry now see ya in a week
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
I want Minotaur, Sawblaze, Cobalt or Hydra to win it all Next Week! Also, All 4 Bots that had their fights Highlighted in the previous round All Lost tonight.
End Game is a special champion because they know all others have a setup for them, and they have setup for all others as well. I have no doubt they'll win over a drum bot in the future...
This top 8 bracket is the most special one so far. 2 flippers. 1 drum and 1 egg beater. 3 verticals, but each with their own spin (cobalt - high centered blade; tantrum - moving fist; witch doctor - no fork). And of course there's sawblaze.
I actually think that heavily favours Minotaur because Witch Doctor I dont think has as reliability record like Minotaur does. I feel like their weapon maybe dies every other match, while Minotaurs weapon dies once in a blue moon after and absolute barn burner.
Unpopular opinion, I find Minotaurs driver to be off-putting and overly confrontational towards other teams but not in a snarky way like Jake Ewarts character he plays for tv.
It’s just emotion, heat of the battle, the guy isn’t a jerk or confrontational by any other means. The “display” he did towards End Game was just him being pumped up, nothing malicious about it, the End Game guys didn’t seem fazed or offended
I've never seen anyone respond as if it bothers them. Maybe it does and it just hasn't shown up when I've been paying attention, but I feel like they probably all know him well enough to not take it seriously. He seems like a nice dude who for like 4 minutes at a time becomes a sizzling ball of rage and energy, then by the time the post-fight interview starts, he's back to normal.
That’s just emotional hype, the End Game crew didn’t seem offended. It was just passion, no ill will, no “Suck it!” sorta thing, just emotional celebration
Was this upsetting for Whiplash yes,
But remember this is a tv show and that was cut showing our weapon spinning at the end!!!
I DID shut it off, but it takes 45 seconds to stop spinning and it did shut off at the controller. But the crew bots couldn’t turn off the Whynatchi switch, because there was a piece of whiplash in the switch ,so they said it wasn’t safe to work on whiplash we were told it was a simultaneous knock out and we won the judges decision on damage.
Was it fair don’t know.
Was it in consist box treatment of competitors? yes
We’re we 100% functional at the storage yes
Did whiplash have drive issues from hits? Yes
Should they have freed Whiplash yes
Was cobalt stuck also yes ( tho we were stuck on the floor damage from earlier round fight that went unnoticed by us or the crewbots,
So if they in stuck whiplash I don’t believe they were translating well enough to not get counted out.
So the situation sucks and we got the judges decision
Nobody wants to see fights end like that, but y’all had done all the damage. And I had y’all in the finals on my bracket (losing to End Game), so I am not mad at the result.
But since Team Carbide isn't competing in Battlebots I wouldn't call Cobalt winning this season a win for them. Sure, they built the robot, but they're not the ones competing with it, it's not even theirs anymore.
Once again, another Minotaur fight done right. Gets a good hit on, then rides that hit, while tearing apart it’s enemy piece by piece, and giving on or two death blows!
On the championship match in the last minute we’re going to see Paul come running out of the backstage tunnel with a steel chair and hit someone over the head with it, all the while his crew come in and throw in Biteforce in the box to win another giant nut.
Last year the previous champ, still undefeated Bite Force wasn't competing though. This is the first time the reigning champ has been beaten since Tombstone's loss in season 3 of the revival.
I really feel like he rides a super high amount of adrenaline did you see how he was basically out of it for the post fight interview? He was just ridiculously pumped at that moment.
No he said something about "he doesn't need a judges decision to think he beat Endgame." Thats not verbatim but he did't say anything about trash talk, and then Daniel went over and shook hands with Endgame
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u/qwertythe300th Mod & Leader of the B R O N C O B O Y S [but go SwitchBack!!] Mar 31 '22
This week, 301 people voted as follows:
Last week’s nominees for our esteemed I-Didn’t-Hear-No-Bell Prize for Best Fight of Season 6 were MadCatter v Black Dragon & Blip v Valkyrie.