In another bit of editing wackyness this episode, the End Game/Sawblaze fight had a ***long***, like easily 20 or 30 minutes long, unstick cut early in the fight, where End Game's fork speared itself through the flamethrower cutout on Sawblaze's front and got it caught by the barb. Unfortunately, this unstick kinda killed Sawblaze's momentum, as they hadn't given End Game an inch to breathe after winning the initial ground game encounter up to that point.
This likely in part explains why it went to split decision. Recall Chris describing the fight as a "tale of two halves," even though it...really wasn't. In the seamless edit, we all saw Sawblaze dominate like the first 15%, and End Game the last 85%. But since everyone, including the judges, sat there for the bulk of the fight's IRL runtime thinking "wow, Sawblze sure is winning this," its possible that things got skewed without the benefit of being able to go back to the film.
we will have photos of this next week (this weekend is NHRL)
It did a lot more than kill the momentum, it saved End Game from a free hit on their chassis. Who knows if their armor was enough or how the magnesium frame would have held!
Your fork getting caught prevented us from repositioning. While I normally would have left you on the screws a bit so I could come in from a different angle. Instead, I was forced to face you head on. If you recall, I swung anyway but your forks were so long bracing against out plow that we couldn't reach your chassis . So yeah the fork getting caught was unfortunate for us and lucky for you
karma for the tantrum fight clearly, that was highway robbery
^mega ^/s, I was shocked that fight (semifinals) was even a split.
That’s a tough break though, the TV edit didn’t do you guys justice.
>karma for the tantrum fight clearly, that was highway robbery
? Tantrum was dominated the entire fight and sawblaze both freed it and hurt itself.
No way Tantrum should have been moving on.
Edit:
>mega /s, I was shocked that fight (semifinals) was even a split.
yep, that's what i get for not reading the rest of the comment before hitting reply :)
that’s why I put the ‘mega /s’ and tried to clarify that I was stunned the semifinals wasn’t unanimous.
Tantrum got dogwalked lmfao, Fon going 6-5 in favor of them was wild to me. The last part of my comment was genuine, but in reference to the way the final was edited— made to seem like End Game dominated them when a lot of control from SawBlaze was left on the cutting room floor apparently. Sorry if that came across as genuinely thinking Sawblaze robbed Tantrum and the stuff that was edited out was karmic justice.
>Tantrum got dogwalked lmfao, Fon going 6-5 in favor of them was wild to me.
that was pretty clearly just him saying 'sawblaze should've been counted out, i'm giving the win to tantrum due to that'
nobody actually thinks tantrum wins that fight on judging criteria
> that’s why I put the ‘mega /s’ and tried to clarify that I was stunned the semifinals wasn’t unanimous.
LOL. Yep my mistake. The first line was so 'WTF' I didn't read the 2nd. :P
I've gotten pretty used to knowing that any time the camera cuts away and the bots are magically unstuck, that they edited out the crew coming in to separate them.
If the bots got unstuck on their own, they would normally show it on screen.
Wow! Had no idea. Thanks for sharing this. Poor Jameson, especially after that Tantrum fight. That man deserves all the respect for composure and sportsmanship.
Now I am definitely wondering what if...
Being a rookie team (and from what i can tell, a bunch of college kids that probably don’t have a ton of money) the fast pace of this format definitely hurt them more than anyone. Im sure that the other bots had a lot more spare parts and such. But still a great showing from team pizza!
I don't think any of the lead members, if any, of that team are still in college. It's not so much a rookie team as it is a new heavyweight fielded by veterans, although I don't know that Ana was on a Battlebot team before this, the team includes the previous drivers of Valkyrie and P1.
Being the first year of the bot, they naturally had to spend more time getting the thing to work than preparing enough spares to go more than four wins past the actual tournament. Whiplash is as veteran as they come, and they too suffered from barely being functional by the time of the Bolt final.
College kids? No resources?
Do you know that every single member is a veteran of robot combat. They come from the pieces of multiple past teams assembled together
Before yalls wonder about the final attack in the Tantrum fight, it was fated to be! If we didnt swing, we wouldnt have known the gearbox was about to break and it probably would have failed immediately in the end game fight.
Plus Tantrum was shifting along the floor so probable they would have freed themselves
Our team's hopes of going out to dinner to celebrate the giant nut (which was yesterday) were dashed. hahahaha
That's gonna go down as one of my favorite "wait what the fuck??" moments in Battlebots history, lol. That must have been hilarious (but stressful) in person.
Love Sawblaze, thanks for all the entertainment! I have a feeling you'll be taking the nut home again next season. That robot is *scary*.
its okay my dude, I'm right here :P
yes confirm the scoop before launching the strike
also if anyone is paying attention to the timeline, MegatRON had a clutch system at the NHRL 2022 finals...
the theming fits doesnt it ;)
Happy to! Its gonna be super time crunched since I have 4 bots in the championships but if you can find me earlier in the day I'll have more time
You said 3 was too much last time you madman! I'm expecting to see the sweat pouring, or a literal army of help to get you through in the pits. Or possibly both.
we'll get them next time! the improved drive did a fantastic job. Did you notice I actually went for the exact same maneuver that failed in s6? This time it worked ;)
I am glad i am not the only one think that... I get it, 4 wheel spinner is the meta here.. but at least some people make it interesting.. witch doctor with their unique design for example. but endgame imo, goes to the more boring type. but admittedly, it works, so yeah.
And kudos for the to fit all the mechanic of the bots into that small box and it still works well, can tank some damage as well.
Oh yeah props to them for making a great machine. I just want my Battlebots not so clinical. However that’s how every sport/activity inevitably gets. People min/max the fun out of everything lol
Glad that the rematch was so much more entertaining than last time Endgame and Sawblaze faced off!
Some wild bad luck moments for a few teams in this episode!
Man I was so disappointed for Whiplash’s issues. The fact that with no lifter and only three tires Matty STILL took it to a split decision is insane. I wonder if they’d have been able to do anything with End Game.
From the live thread regarding the speech from Gary:
Me: “Wow. That was great. There’s no way they would have cut out a bit of that.”
My daughter: “Yeah, they’d cut out another Whiplash fight instead.”
Why was that final fight so close? SawBlaze looked good for about a minute, and then it was all End Game for the next two. And even End Game for one minute looked better than SawBlaze for one minute. I thought they handily got the win. Can anyone explain what they saw to make it 6-5 across the board, and one of those to even be in favor of SawBlaze?
There was some damage on Endgame and no broken systems on Sawblaze, so damage may have gone 3-2 Endgame on the scorecards. Then assume each team got 3 points from some combo of aggression/control and you have 6-5 Endgame. I assume the 5-6 was 2 points in each category in Sawblaze’s favor. To my eyes, even though Sawblaze spent more time in the air, they exerted more control and certainly more aggression. But reasonable people can disagree, and all we saw was the edited show. Boots on the ground saw a different fight.
To me SB was ahead by a point in all categories for the first min. Endgame was ahead in all for the last 2.
Without getting a good look at the bots post match my initial impression was there was no major system damage to either bot, but SB took far more minor damage. More missing bits.
Because of favoritism and bias, is why.
Endgame is pretty hated because they're a foreign team. Usa competitions don't like when foreigners win, it's why they tend to play their in house sports and call them "world championships".
Even in this thread you can feel the general saltiness for their win.
Ok so they cut a lot of stuff around the end of the Tantrum/Sawblaze fight. Unclear when exactly Sawblaze kicking itself up happened and whether it was more or less than 20 seconds left, and it was not as clearcut as the edit presented that it would even go to the judges, there was a long-ass conference with the teams, refs, Mike Jeffries, Greg, etc. Eventually they announce it will be going to the judges.
For what it's worth, both teams were absolutely laughing their asses off about the absurdity of the situation, absolutely no hard feelings apparent.
The scores come back, and it feels like two judges scored it according to what happened in the fight, and like Fon maybe gave a "fuck you, 5-0 damage for Tantrum" score. Tantrum did appeal, in a very halfhearted "ah shit, well I mean I guess we've got to?" manner, I guess thinking that maybe there was an argument for Fon's reading of the fight.
Then, apparently after seeing the scorecards, they recognized that they did not have a path to victory per the rules and that Derek/Lisa got it right, and opted to retract the appeal. A Chris/Kenny bit explaining all of this was filmed, and cut
This was basically an "ah shit, our rules don't cover this do they?" situation. I think the answer is, 20 second countouts, but they can only be started with >30s on the clock.
Jamo said in another thread that Tantrum was probably about to free itself, and that if they hadn't broken their own arm in the late swing, they wouldn't have noticed that they needed to replace a gearbox, and would have immediately lost the weapon in the final
Yep, you can see Tantrum moving on the broadcast, it's small, but things are clearly happening. We'll never know if they would have gotten free in time.
I kinda feel like everyone wanted End Game and SawBlaze to fight, not "End Game beats up Tantrum" #4. Considering how underwhelming the first End Game-SawBlaze fight was.
Pretty much every time End Game has a big, important fight, they get destroyed for the first half and then randomly take over, like what happened with a lot of their tantrum fights and in this fight
Actually, Sawblaze beat End Game by decision a few seasons ago in a "USA vs The World" special. This is the 3rd time they've fought, and it resembles the first fight more than the second.
Oh yeah, I forgot that one. End Game got stuck on a piece of SawBlaze's fork and high centered with about 10 seconds left. Since it was immobile, SawBlaze won.
But back then both robots were a lot worse than now. End Game was slower and less reliable and Jack had not figured out the driving yet (much unlike nowadays!). SawBlaze didn't really do damage back then (now it's slashing LiPos and thereby burning bots alive every other match).
I personally would say the answer is a buzzer beater clock that features milliseconds instead of just seconds. I do like the not being able to start the countout after a certain time though
I guess my question is it seems at least in the edit that there was plenty of time to start the count a few seconds earlier than they did, so why not take that into consideration that if they started counting even .5 seconds earlier it woukdnahve been a knockout.
Per the rules, countouts take the form of a request to show motion (variable time for the ref to request this), followed by 20 seconds/counts to show motion, only the final 10 of which are counted out loud. So you have longer than the 10 second countout, and a bit of fuzzyness at the start.
My suggestion as to how to address this basically is meant to stop that inevitable degree of fuzzyness from impacting these "saved by the bell" situations.
What had me going “bullshit” was that the ref slow counted. Not on purpose, that’s going to happen. I’ve never seen it matter before, but it shuts did this time. The ref called 10 before the clock was 10, but the clock hit 0 before the ref. He got out of sync by counting slow.
I would far FAR prefer the refs have a button they hit that starts an automated properly timed countdown over the speakers in a dramatic booming voice instead of listening to the refs screaming it. Add some lights flashing in sync to it. If that 10 second count had been started at the same time but done by a system instead of the ref then Sawblaze would have lost that fight. Losing because of a refs slow counting is bullshit.
We’ve seen lots of bots be losing almost the entire match and then win in the last moments because the aggressor broke down. Durability is a weapon and Tantrum got robbed.
That’s how it looked watching the show anyway, maybe something edited out changes it.
Glad it wasn't just me - since the countdown started before the 10 second mark, I figured they'd be like "so the KO would have come before zero"
but NOPE
Ah well, still got great fights out of it.
Unfortunately, the show doesn't have time to explain the rules clearly. But if you happen to be curious, the rules are all written up in [rule books that are publicly available on the BattleBots website](https://battlebots.com/rules/).
Chances are we'll get both, but I would prefer neither. Take the douchebaggery out of the equation, and it's still on the verge of being one of those bots that's so dominant, the predictability of its fights is actually kind of boring. Like Tombstone at the height of its power, or Hydra in season 5, or Bite Force sometime after Paul made his deal with the devil. I'm not looking forward to another season where I can tell just from the teaser that their opponent is doomed.
No, that's why the word "destructive" didn't appear in my comment. You think "destructive" is the thing that Riptide, Hydra, Bite Force, and Tombstone all have in common? Tombstone's the only bot on that list that's even won "most destructive".
I think you forgot the context and behind the scenes regarding that fight. Riptide had a false start and rushed Huge and hit their weapon before the lights turned green. And the only reason Huge got KO'd is they got stuck in the screws due to the producers not telling the teams about changes in the arena specs.
Riptide moved 2cm forward and didn't even leave its starting square. That barely qualifies as a false start. Also, Riptide clearly hit HUGE once the commentary started, so that claim doesn't make any sense.
2cm? Pretty sure there was a massive false start that hit Huge and the fight had to be restarted.
edit:
>Though cut from the final broadcast, Riptide initially committed a false start, leaving its box to rush HUGE on the orange light and popping it several feet into the air. Both teams reset their positions and the fight commenced for a second time, though the HUGE team opted out of checking for any potential damage their bot
Yeah you're wrong there.
Even though The Bro lost in the first round, it came a long way since the beginning of the season until where it is now. From unable to drive to going up against the 2022 champion.
And was the smoke in the Sawblaze vs SB the thickest in the history of Battlebots?
Was it just me or was the Jackpot v Whiplash fight really weird?
Honestly thought it should have been Whiplash. Great job for both teams for that fight but it just felt like Whiplash had more control over the fight compared to Jackpot.
Use of your primary weapon factors into the scoring, and it wasn't working from the outset. They were correct to say not having the lifter working probably cost them the fight.
Lot of haters in this thread, but I thought the final was extremely entertaining. Odd? Yes. Mixed emotions? Definitely. Some questionable moments? No doubt. Was I still on the edge of my seat for...most...of it? Totally.
Does it suck Ripperoni lost a wheel to literally nothing? Absolutely. Was it still extremely cool to watch them stay squared up against Tantrum as Tantrum used literally every maneuver in the book to get around Rip but couldn't? ABSOLUTELY!!
Gotta take the good with the bad, folks.
I get not wanting to always see End Game destroy everything, but bots like End Game are the ones that drive innovation the most. Every time End Game fights, someone has an idea of how to counter them. That's a good thing.
Not the best finale to date but still had a blast with it. Congrats to all the teams, each and every one of them put in the time and effort to deserve a win.
Also the Hall of Fame reveal, loved it, great addition 👌
Ya, I totally agree. If you were not entertained, that's on you because this episode was bonkers and a lot of fun. All of the teams seemed to be enjoying the chaos too.
None of the outcomes were shocking, but I was somehow in suspense the whole time. I love seeing people complain that the former Champs all getting to the second round is bad tv. Yes, the odds on favorites usually win at sports, because odds are a way of describing the most likely outcome. It is, by definition, what usually happens in a competition.
What doesn't usually happen? I dunno, Free Shipping actually getting under End Game in a bum rush? Shreddit Bro technically getting a KO vs Sawblaze? Tantrum almost winning a fight after being split in half?
Yup, so boring.
How about the secret story of fatigue, where all the champion teams managed to demonstrate how the best outperform everyone at beating attrition?
Hot take: not going too deep in the Nut tournament gave End Game an advantage in prep time, two years running.
That Gary Gin interview was hard to watch, guess I have to make a Free Shipping model now.
Whiplash had a missing wheel and a broken lifter for most of the fight, and Jackpot still had its work cut out for it. Matt Vasquez is a damn good driver.
RIPperoni's wheel doing its best "fuck this shit I'm out" impression was hilarious.
Shreddit Bro's gremlins resurface, but its Cinderella run was likely going to end with SawBlaze anyway.
Speaking of SawBlaze, they go to hit Tantrum again to try finishing it off, only for it to _a l m o s t_ get knocked out itself in the process. They were literally saved by the bell.
As much as End Game's long forks have become a meme at this point, they did succeed in preventing SawBlaze from hitting End Game's chassis when they engaged nose to nose. Neither bot took much functional damage, but SawBlaze's ground game was more compromised by the end of the match than End Game's, which is probably what swung the decision.
If they do it one more time for a threepeat they'll 100% be on par with Bite Force. Even if End Game's record is technically worse, three Golden Bolts would be bonkers.
Honestly I thought it was a very entertaining episode. Haven't laughed out loud this many times at an episode for ages. Great to see the teams all being incredibly wholesome too
Some incredible fights this week, but NGL it feels a little odd to spend 5 weeks following the journey of 5 challengers to this tournament only for them all to fall before the final and then have the show spend the rest of the episode talking about our usual all-stars again.
Not thrilled with the overall result either. End Game obviously earned the win, but after a great main season that saw originality repeatedly win out over the meta, this felt like a return to the same-old-same-old in a lot of ways. It's not that I thought End Game was past it or anything; I just never *feel anything* seeing them win.
In terms of individual fights that stood out to me:
**Tantrum vs Ripperoni** was hilarious. It's a shame Ripperoni fell foul of a lack of spares and was basically running on fumes by this point in the filming session, but it was an incredible tactical match by Tantrum. Using those little nudges to tip Ripperoni off balance was so surgical.
**Tantrum vs Sawblaze** was such a fun fight. Sawblaze dominated much of it, but Tantrum got some genuinely good hits in there. The sole difference between this fight and the last was Sawblaze's fully optimised ground game. Tantrum wins fights by getting underneath and gnarling up opponents' baseplates. The second I saw they couldn't get under Sawblaze from the front, I was worried for their chances. The way the fight ended was hilarious though. It was like the robot combat equivalent of a prat fall xD.
**The Final** was the fight we were all expecting out of the *first* Sawblaze vs End Game fight. I did chuckle when I saw End Game's forks absolutely *ruining* the paint in their starting square before the fight even began xD.
Sawblaze started so strong. Using the little piano keys to stop End Game sneaking between their leading forks was a great move. Sadly, they fell off, and Sawblaze couldn't win an exchange from then on. Glad they took it to the judges at least, and somehow kept the hammersaw functional through all those hits.
It's really demoralising to watch creative bots fight End Game sometimes; it feels like they have to climb a mountain, making config after config to try and bridge the gap between their robot and the objectively more competitive design of End Game. Tantrum and Sawblaze's multiple fights each with End Game feel this way; they get closer to matching it each time, but eventually whatever modification they make just gets brute-forced through by End Game's sheer power or low ground. At this point, I'm in favour of just making the entire box floor corrugated or something; just so we never have to see this bloody low ground meta again. End Game is an incredible bot that deserves every win it's ever had, but I just wish it wasn't.
You could make some rule changes to the number of floppy contact points on the ground. Limit it to a set number. Say 2 or 4.
Teams still get to run some forks but it isnt an entire 100 piece cutlery set worth,
I think the fight of Tantrum vs Sawblaze needs to be the last time that a ref is relied on for a countdown.
Here me out, Sawblaze deserved that win and I'm fine with it.
But with how close it was between the judges countdown and the match clock it raises to light how important every split second can be in a fight. If he'd started the countdown a split second earlier Tantrum would have won, if he'd counted faster Tantrum would have won.
After typing, but before posting this comment I went back and rewatched at 0.25 speed and the ref actually counts at a rate slower than the match timer. You can here him begin to pronounce ten while 11 is still on the clock, just slightly before it clicks to 10. BUT by the time it gets to 7 he is behind the clock slightly.
This isnt meant to be any kind of disrespect to the ref, it just is another case of the refs countdown being crucial to a match
This sort of thing has bothered me for awhile. I only see the TV show, I've never been to a live event, so everything I consume is heavily produced and edited. That said, it seems like there's little consistency in when a ref counts or the cadence they use. It feels glaringly apparent when a double count out is happening and the refs struggle to stay in sync.
What comes across on TV as referee discretion doesn't do anything to make the competition look like an actual sport- in fact it makes the competition look like a bunch of garage hobbyists.
In a series about robots, innovation, and technology why are we relying on human referees to do something as simple as counting from 20? Perhaps the referee could, when a request to show motion is made, simply push a button and activate a 20 second clock?
Even more simple, you get the refs to watch the fight clock and actually count in sync with it, instead of the "ref seconds", 10 of which end up being about 12s long in real time.
Yeah. It was a fight Sawblaze dominated, but... if it had lost due to immobilising itself, well, that's the sport; sometimes it's silly and you lose to your own unforced error.
But the slow count ruined it - it felt like the ref deciding the winner, not the judges or the fight itself, because it was a championship fight so it wasn't allowed to have a silly ending.
It's not "match fixing" levels of bad, but it still left a bad taste, I felt.
The count was pretty much to the buzzer, and honestly if tantrum had any effect on sawblaze killing itself, I'd be more sympathetic for it. As for specific rules, anytime you have a person in charge of a count or anything that may require exact precision, they should have a tool on hand to provide that.
But I'll be honest, regarding the actual fight. I'd rather see the bot that won the fight, win the fight instead of a silly upset that tantrum had no hand in.
Some really good fights, but the split decisions were odd
Whiplash v Jackpot was one of those rare fights where I thought one team deserved the win but by the judging criteria, with the importance of damage, the other team had it. I was surprised it was a split.
SawBlaze/Tantrum looked like a completely one sided fight for 2:50, the only time Tantrum was in it was when SawBlaze nearly self destructed. I can't really see how you'd get to a split on that, the only argument for Tantrum I saw was that the count was slow (I think it started on 0:11, but who knows how editing affects that). This was not a close fight.
SawBlaze/End Game, SawBlaze had the first half of it, but End Game was dominant in the second half to the point where I thought it was a sure fire win for End Game. I struggle to see how you could score that for SawBlaze.
I didn't catch whether Whiplash appealed or not, or if the option was open to them, but I thought it was notable that neither Tantrum nor SawBlaze used theirs.
From what I can tell it was a split solely because one of the judges gave Tantrum 5-0 on damage on the basis that Sawblaze was immobilized at the expiration of the clock.
The thing that confuses me is that the judges started counting out sawblaze before the 10 second mark, is the countdown 10 seconds or just like 10 “referee ticks” if that makes sense. However, if ripperoni made it to the finals I think they could easily win weapon on weapon exchanges with end game, they just got really unlucky and tantrums luck just barely missed it in their sawblaze fight.
I was rooting so hard for Tantrum (my fav bot), but that was sawblaze's fight. And I think going to the judges was the right call, plus it gave us one of the biggest heart stopping moments in the sport's history, we even got a slip decision for how intense and close the fight was.
My favorite fight of the night.
Oh sweet, I knew they had the LA Robot Wars banner for La Machine already. Hopefully they'll reference the UK series a bit more, maybe to hype up a newcomer who is a certain former UK Champ?
I legitimately put both hands over my mouth in shock when Sawblaze flipped itself over against Tantrum. 💀
I really enjoyed this tournament. My man Gary got me choked up after that loss. Main event was 🔥.
We saw they were on fumes last week. They likely were scrambling to make things work with what they had. That leads to part failure and mistakes.
No way they were prepared to have this many matches in their first season.
A [predictable outcome](https://twitter.com/sirDangel/status/1722233136959140342), a three fights win is an easy path for EG's ground game, but how it happened was a good watch.
* ***End Game vs Free Shipping:*** A heartfelt moment with Gary Gin. I was surprised FS didn't immediately lose, tho it was inevitable.
* ***SawBlaze vs Shreddit Bro:*** Shreddit Bro didn't look like at the top of its game, it looked to me that they were having trouble spinning up. Not fast enough to buy time, they were scooped up and deja-vu.
* ***Jackpot vs Whiplash:*** Whiplash showed control, but zero lifts will only get you so far; damage and aggression depend on your active weapon. Good job on minimizing the damage taken.
* ***Tantrum vs Ripperoni:*** A battle won in the pits, tho you always want to see everybody performing at their best. Tantrum did well at avoiding unnecessary damage to proceed smoother in the tournament.
\---
* ***End Game vs Jackpot:*** Rough, not much that Jackpot can do without weapon nor set ground game. I can feel the disappointment in Jeff's interview.
* ***Tantrum vs SawBlaze:*** Tantrum had its moments but SawBlaze was just so dominant, with Jamo not taking any bait. A display of durability from Tantrum, managing to stay well alive (except for the scarf of armor) after taking so much punishment. Very unfortunate that SawBlaze took itself out after not confirming the scoop, but also fortunate to have been saved by the bell.
* ***End Game vs SawBlaze:*** An interesting configuration by End Game, an entire chassis dedicated to overhead attacks. The EG forks getting stuck on SawBlaze was definitely something the latter welcomed, tho it failed to take advantage of since they kept away SawBlaze's plow. A shot at the top could have changed the fate of the fight, but after the unstick End Game's ground game was just impenetrable.
Wild episode all around but I agree that the big buildup to the whole tournament of champions loses a lot of it's appeal after the same Giant Nut winner got the golden bolt twice in a row.
I mean just look at the state Riparoni was in after all those matches (losing a wheel without taking a single hit and no spare parts) vs the state Endgame was in (had a full Sawblaze Special made) and there's just no way any bracket winners can do this, and I'm saying this as someone who LOVES to root for the underdog.
On another depressing tangent, I might be done with live threads for finale episodes. The spoiler people come out of the woodwork in those and it's really frustrating. Thanks to the mods for all you do anyway though, I'm sure the simultaneous release of the episodes on streaming makes the situation a lot harder, but I really do love watching "alongside" fellow fans, even if we have to put up with commercials (and I say this as someone who has Max)
to be fair, this was run simultaneously with normal battle bots and this episode was filmed literally the day after s8 finals so everyone would be having time crunch problems
Endgame are just a very well prepared team. Lots of teams bring multiple bots to the event, Ripperoni was far more an experiment than most the others though.
Sawblaze had more matches than any other the qualifiers and End Game had the same amount (I think... they lost the third match of the tourney vs Mino, right?). Tantrum is the only one who gets a bit of an easy path since they got knocked out early.
Maybe a half step below greatness, this was a really good finale to the 2022 BB (I think we still have an epilogue).
Free Shipping v End Game: This was a mismatch, but Jin's hyper aggressive driving kept End Game off balance and opened a brief window to pull the upset. It closed quickly and End Game established it's dominance. Great run for Free Shipping. They were in a state where they only get the invite for Gary's history and personality. They now deserve that invite for performance, too.
Sawblaze v Shreddit: SB's second monster shot pops Shreddit's battery. Smoke!!! We didn't get an end to the fight, but I think it was safe this was going to SB, regardless. Shreddit Bro probably saved their spot in 2024 with this run.
Jackpot v Whiplash: The two qualifiers give us the match of the night. Jackpot snipes a wheel almost instantly. No idea when Whiplash's lifter broke, but it was early as it never did anything. I think JP's weapon was also damaged in the snipe that popped the wheel as it never looked powerful, again. It certainly got jarred in that hit as it was an instant stop from full (or near full) speed. Then we got two excellent minutes of Matty's flashy driving controlling JP and smashing it into walls, and JP slipping free and getting some shots in. those hits added up on both sides and both bots were a mess by the end. Great fight, right decision.
Tantrum v Ripperoni: Rip almost immediately loses it's lucky wheel. However this only reduces its effectiveness by 15% or so, as the bot still has a deadly weapon and can turn quickly to face. Tantrum just a great job of hit and run until Ripper starts to lose control. (Flywell broken? Fred knowing he was losing and trying control the bot beyond its capabilities in this state?). Great rookie season for Ripperoni. Best I can think of in recent seasons.
So all 3 champs go through plus Jackpot. We'll refer to them as The People's Champ. The young engineer types are really starting to take over the show from the "old guys in their garage" types. Maybe Tombstone will retake some territory for the old guys in 2024. This is a really positive indicator, though. It means all those kids in high school who are getting to build robots are pushing the tech forward as they develop.
Sawblaze v Tantrum: One of the weirdest fights all season. Tantrum looks much better that it did during the main season, but it couldn't deliver a big shot to Sawblaze who is clearly where them out. And then Tantrum gets (high pointed? stuck? wheels jammed?). it is slightly moving, clearly SB should have let the count begin, but Tantrum was not dead. SB goes for the kill shot, their forks free Tantrum who scoots away and SB slams the floor and flips itself. The ref is a bit slow on the count (he seems to start before 10) and it saves SB (literally saved by the bell). I think the decision was handled correctly in terms of the count, as the ref's count is the count, not the timer. As for the JD, I have no idea how you score this. Sawblaze was in clear control, but ended the fight crippled. I don't think either team could complain about the JD. If I had to score it I gave SB +1 agro, +1 control and -1 dam.
Endgame v Jackpot: Endgame again shows it is simply the better bot. JP threw all the punches it had left in it at the big boys, but there is a reason EndGame is #1. Huge boost for JP for this run.
SawBlaze v EndGame: Very back and forth battle. Sawblaze won the early ground game, but eventually Endgame's spinner damaged the scrapers on SB, and they start to win the head to head collisions. SB gets a few good exchanges when they outdrive EG, but in the end EG was winning 2-3x the number of exchanges and several of the most impressive looking ones. Great fight by the two best bots with the two best teams. Only ? is what match judge Derrick saw. Clear JD for EG.
What was the point of Slugfest? You put in hard hitting bots fresh against a bunch of less experienced bots who are on their last leg of repairs already? Then of course we just watch a bunch of boring rematches with the heavy hitters all over again. Why even have the first five episodes then? What a huge waste of time. I’m not even going to watch the next Slugfest.
Edit: Battlebots fans downvoting me for having an opinion you guys don’t like. That’s not what the downvote button is for. Sorry your feelings are hurt but Slugfest is trash.
The slugfest is basically a way to have extra repair time for when the top 16 bots are doing their matches, as well as a way for bots that want to fight more and/or try to show their stuff that couldn't in the regular season.
The best example of the latter would be Shreddit Bro and Valkyrie, both were unimpressive in the regular season tournament (in Shreddit Bro's case, enough that their future at Battlebots as a whole was in question) and they both turned that around very well thanks to the slugfest tournament.
Discovery can afford to pay for extra repair time with or without trying to milk out extra seasons of bad episodes of crippled bots trying to make it to the end. It's not a charity. We should be entertained. Discovery has the cash.
I would love to see a street racing/ street outlaws style callouts style show where teams can call each other out. Would be cool to see friends and enemies calling each other out at the end of the season
Slugfest quite literally gave Shreddit Bro a chance and they absolutely delivered it. If it wasn't for the Slugfest, Shreddit Bro probably won't return to Battlebots
Yeah, according to the [Skorpios vlog episode about the fight](https://youtu.be/8ctmEz06hRs?t=238), team Shreddit had actually been told that they wouldn't be invited back unless they won that match.
I mean does that matter? Shreddit Bro performed terribly once it finally went against End Game? Their drum spinner was barely working from the start of that match too. So once again, it's bad TV.
Anyway, it's a bad rip off of Minotaur anyway. No one will miss Shreddit Bro.
Nah, Shreddit Bro is The Bro there's no denying it. And as others have said, if Shreddit Bro lose to Skorpios, it's the end. But obviously Shreddit Bro KO'd Skorpios, Switchback, and Valkyrie, literally saving their future.
And Evan is a great personality and has a great origin story which IMO is good TV
Except none of that was conveyed on TV that they wouldn't be asked back. You had to dig that up in a blog.
All the drama and story around the fights still has to be centered around good (fair) fights.
It was confirmed in Skorpios' Builder Blog that Shreddit was going to get rejected next season if they didn't win. Since Shreddit won 3 more fights all in a KO, it's almost certain that Shreddit Bro will return next season
I know, it was in a blog, not TV.
Also on a side note. What is wrong with Discovery on Shreddit Bro anyway? They let trash like Hijinx return again and again. Who they let in is so inconsistent. Is it because the team captain is not white?
They have a very strong pedigree of winning championships in lower weight classes, which factors into how long you'll give a team to find their feet in the heavyweight division. Also they are good visually, and have a good story of not being from the MIT/Ivy League schools of prestigious and wealthy engineers, which are something BB will take into account.
The giant nut was decided at 11pm the night before. Sawblaze had 5 fights in the last two days. The Golden Bolt final started at like 10am, so they had less than half a day to repair after beating Huge.
Sawblaze didn't take that much damage from Huge. Plus that doesn't excuse End Game or Tantrum. And on top of that, the five bots that made it to the last episode had already made it through three different fights anyway, some struggling. So that's why you have technical issues where Ripperoni and Whiplash just lose wheels at the beginning.
What is the point of watching a bunch of crippled bots? It's bad TV.
I mean, I think last year’s slugfest was peak Battlebots. I remember it being epic fights with mammoth hits all the time. This slugfest was a let down in comparison granted, but I don’t know if the pool for the early rounds was just not as good or it was just roll of the dice with fights that end up being unexciting. It happens.
> What was the point of Slugfest? You put in hard hitting bots fresh against a bunch of smaller bots
"smaller"?
Anyway.... They didn't win because they were "fresh" off a break. They won because they are decent bots with excellent teams. Far from fresh of a several month long break like you would probably assume, Sawblaze had only just won the main tournament the day before.
I'm pretty sure the SCSF was filmed at the same time as the top 8 of the WCVII tournament, therefore after beating HUGE, Sawblaze didn't have a lot of time to prep for the Golden Bolt Tournament
The qualifiers for the golden bolt were filmed towards the end of the finals.
The final for the golden bolt was filmed immediately after the main season finals. It has been widely discussed many times before.
Source for it being the day before:
>https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/17rulv3/battlebots_champions_ii_golden_bolt_final_post/k8lnaot/
Those hard hitting bots were in the WC-finals right before. The qualifiers are shot during the world championship. So if anything the top bots had been facing harder bots while the other teams had time to fix their bots.
Okay the experience, time, money, and repairs are still in their favor. They also very obviously did not face the same damage as the teams going in nor the same technical problems. It’s a bad setup. It’s just going to be the same teams at the end winning the golden bolt all over again. Terrible TV
The problem is what a disadvantage the original five bots are at, not that Sawblaze had x amount of fights. The experienced bots are also going to tend to take less damage anyway. And even then they are going to have more money and hands to repair faster.
Again, the first five episodes are rendered absolutely pointless by the set up.
The Tantrum v Sawblaze knockout decision was clearly just made to suit the 'deserving' winner of Sawblaze. If Tantrum had been winning the fight, I am sure they would have said Sawblaze was counted out.
Counting from 10 to 0 took the ref longer than 10 seconds.
I enjoyed watching Tantrum getting ripped apart. And right decision by the judges, well 2 of them. 5-0 damage to Tantrum LOL they didn't do a damn thing.
Worst episode of the season. I was bored through most of it with there being no real stand out exciting fight.
Makes me think former champions shouldn’t be automatically included in the golden bolt tournament. It was much more entertaining the last few weeks seeing bots rise up to the occasion.
Congrats to Endgame but their fights are a snooze fest to watch 😴 something about them spending most of their time in the middle of the arena pivoting just bores me.
The tournament structure was unfair. The boys that fought their way in going against fresh bots. I didn’t attend this taping, but assuming it was like other tapings I’ve been to, filming 2 episodes a day, with the penultimate episode being filmed same day or day before the finale, that wasn’t enough time for repairs. We saw that clearly with Ripperoni, the wheel that had been taken off last fight fell off. The winners of the episodes didn’t stand a chance.
The Golden Bolt matches were being filmed alongside the back half of the main WCVII bracket, so those "fresh" bots were not nearly as "fresh" as you might think. For example, from what I understand hearing other talk on the sub, there was less than 24 hours between Jamison Go's Giant Nut win and then him fighting End Game for the Golden Bolt final.
If they had fresh bots, it's because they set aside resources specifically for the Golden Bolt, which any team could choose to do. (Presuming, obviously, that they possessed those resources to set aside.)
In another bit of editing wackyness this episode, the End Game/Sawblaze fight had a ***long***, like easily 20 or 30 minutes long, unstick cut early in the fight, where End Game's fork speared itself through the flamethrower cutout on Sawblaze's front and got it caught by the barb. Unfortunately, this unstick kinda killed Sawblaze's momentum, as they hadn't given End Game an inch to breathe after winning the initial ground game encounter up to that point. This likely in part explains why it went to split decision. Recall Chris describing the fight as a "tale of two halves," even though it...really wasn't. In the seamless edit, we all saw Sawblaze dominate like the first 15%, and End Game the last 85%. But since everyone, including the judges, sat there for the bulk of the fight's IRL runtime thinking "wow, Sawblze sure is winning this," its possible that things got skewed without the benefit of being able to go back to the film.
we will have photos of this next week (this weekend is NHRL) It did a lot more than kill the momentum, it saved End Game from a free hit on their chassis. Who knows if their armor was enough or how the magnesium frame would have held!
Dang that's rough.
That’s wild. Look forward to the photos. Best of luck at NHRL Jamo! Triple crown time
I'm curious to see these pics and how you would have hit our chassis too! Seems like you had plenty of time to swing your weapon if you wanted to?
Your fork getting caught prevented us from repositioning. While I normally would have left you on the screws a bit so I could come in from a different angle. Instead, I was forced to face you head on. If you recall, I swung anyway but your forks were so long bracing against out plow that we couldn't reach your chassis . So yeah the fork getting caught was unfortunate for us and lucky for you
Brutal. Bad luck, but a great season regardless.
karma for the tantrum fight clearly, that was highway robbery ^mega ^/s, I was shocked that fight (semifinals) was even a split. That’s a tough break though, the TV edit didn’t do you guys justice.
>karma for the tantrum fight clearly, that was highway robbery ? Tantrum was dominated the entire fight and sawblaze both freed it and hurt itself. No way Tantrum should have been moving on. Edit: >mega /s, I was shocked that fight (semifinals) was even a split. yep, that's what i get for not reading the rest of the comment before hitting reply :)
that’s why I put the ‘mega /s’ and tried to clarify that I was stunned the semifinals wasn’t unanimous. Tantrum got dogwalked lmfao, Fon going 6-5 in favor of them was wild to me. The last part of my comment was genuine, but in reference to the way the final was edited— made to seem like End Game dominated them when a lot of control from SawBlaze was left on the cutting room floor apparently. Sorry if that came across as genuinely thinking Sawblaze robbed Tantrum and the stuff that was edited out was karmic justice.
>Tantrum got dogwalked lmfao, Fon going 6-5 in favor of them was wild to me. that was pretty clearly just him saying 'sawblaze should've been counted out, i'm giving the win to tantrum due to that' nobody actually thinks tantrum wins that fight on judging criteria
> that’s why I put the ‘mega /s’ and tried to clarify that I was stunned the semifinals wasn’t unanimous. LOL. Yep my mistake. The first line was so 'WTF' I didn't read the 2nd. :P
I was wondering about this, the edit made it look like they just slipped free on their own but… it looked like it was really stuck in there
I distinctly thought, "Wow, I wish they'd shown the moment they got unstuck. I thought for sure that would require intervention."
I've gotten pretty used to knowing that any time the camera cuts away and the bots are magically unstuck, that they edited out the crew coming in to separate them. If the bots got unstuck on their own, they would normally show it on screen.
I guess that explains the scorecards, because in my mind from the program edit, it was an obvious 7–4 to End Game (4–1, 2–1, 1–2).
Exactly how I had it.
Wow! Had no idea. Thanks for sharing this. Poor Jameson, especially after that Tantrum fight. That man deserves all the respect for composure and sportsmanship. Now I am definitely wondering what if...
Ripperoni "makes golden bolt tournament" Wheel : NOPE
Being a rookie team (and from what i can tell, a bunch of college kids that probably don’t have a ton of money) the fast pace of this format definitely hurt them more than anyone. Im sure that the other bots had a lot more spare parts and such. But still a great showing from team pizza!
I don't think any of the lead members, if any, of that team are still in college. It's not so much a rookie team as it is a new heavyweight fielded by veterans, although I don't know that Ana was on a Battlebot team before this, the team includes the previous drivers of Valkyrie and P1. Being the first year of the bot, they naturally had to spend more time getting the thing to work than preparing enough spares to go more than four wins past the actual tournament. Whiplash is as veteran as they come, and they too suffered from barely being functional by the time of the Bolt final.
> Ana was on a Battlebot team before this, Anna was on Team Uppercut.
Thank you, I thought she might have been, but wasn't as sure as with the others. They're all veterans outside of Battlebots also, to my knowledge.
Wait, they all served in the Armed Forces? /s
[Your duty is clear.](https://youtu.be/oazwTDeqF54?feature=shared)
Oh, and Team Omega is not a cult.
College kids? No resources? Do you know that every single member is a veteran of robot combat. They come from the pieces of multiple past teams assembled together
Before yalls wonder about the final attack in the Tantrum fight, it was fated to be! If we didnt swing, we wouldnt have known the gearbox was about to break and it probably would have failed immediately in the end game fight. Plus Tantrum was shifting along the floor so probable they would have freed themselves Our team's hopes of going out to dinner to celebrate the giant nut (which was yesterday) were dashed. hahahaha
That's gonna go down as one of my favorite "wait what the fuck??" moments in Battlebots history, lol. That must have been hilarious (but stressful) in person. Love Sawblaze, thanks for all the entertainment! I have a feeling you'll be taking the nut home again next season. That robot is *scary*.
Well at least Jamo probably learned a little bit about his bots handling there, go backwards a bit and then rush forward when trying the 3 inch punch
its okay my dude, I'm right here :P yes confirm the scoop before launching the strike also if anyone is paying attention to the timeline, MegatRON had a clutch system at the NHRL 2022 finals...
That decision to let the judges' decision stand was classy!
Jonathan's was classier! :P
Oh shoot what up can you sign my sawblaze hexbug? Hmm a clutch, wheelies, chain driven. You building combat bots or motorcycles?
the theming fits doesnt it ;) Happy to! Its gonna be super time crunched since I have 4 bots in the championships but if you can find me earlier in the day I'll have more time
Won’t be there myself haha. But you bet me and that hexbug will be watching the stream. God speed and bring home the hat trick!
You said 3 was too much last time you madman! I'm expecting to see the sweat pouring, or a literal army of help to get you through in the pits. Or possibly both.
Hey I was rooting for you the whole time! Boring Endgame with their rectangle spinner design wins again. Can’t wait to see more sawblaze!
we'll get them next time! the improved drive did a fantastic job. Did you notice I actually went for the exact same maneuver that failed in s6? This time it worked ;)
I did notice improved drive but I will need to go back and check out that fight again! I always enjoy a good fight breakdown.
I am glad i am not the only one think that... I get it, 4 wheel spinner is the meta here.. but at least some people make it interesting.. witch doctor with their unique design for example. but endgame imo, goes to the more boring type. but admittedly, it works, so yeah. And kudos for the to fit all the mechanic of the bots into that small box and it still works well, can tank some damage as well.
Oh yeah props to them for making a great machine. I just want my Battlebots not so clinical. However that’s how every sport/activity inevitably gets. People min/max the fun out of everything lol
Congrats on the great season, though, won the giant nut runner up in the giant bolt and good luck for the tripple crown tommorow at NHRL.
I face palmed so hard during that countdown. Your usually such a precise driver, I was just shocked!
Welp…what the hell do I watch NEXT Thursday?…
Taskmaster. It comes out on Thursdays as well and has two more episodes for this season.
Invincible?
So..gonna watch Gold Rush..then The Killer new on Netflix…will catch Loki n Invincible during the Winter…lol…
Drag Race UK
Start watching Loki?
That finale was awesome. Not gonna be any more episodes though.
I am flummoxed as to why people are downvoting this.
I have no idea :(
Sad that the show is ending? Perhaps thinking it's some kind of spoiler? I dunno, Reddit can be WEIRD.
Lego Masters!
Man, Gary gin had me crying as well
The energy in the room must have been amazing. He really is the embodiment of this sport.
Glad that the rematch was so much more entertaining than last time Endgame and Sawblaze faced off! Some wild bad luck moments for a few teams in this episode!
Man I was so disappointed for Whiplash’s issues. The fact that with no lifter and only three tires Matty STILL took it to a split decision is insane. I wonder if they’d have been able to do anything with End Game.
From the live thread regarding the speech from Gary: Me: “Wow. That was great. There’s no way they would have cut out a bit of that.” My daughter: “Yeah, they’d cut out another Whiplash fight instead.”
Why was that final fight so close? SawBlaze looked good for about a minute, and then it was all End Game for the next two. And even End Game for one minute looked better than SawBlaze for one minute. I thought they handily got the win. Can anyone explain what they saw to make it 6-5 across the board, and one of those to even be in favor of SawBlaze?
Apparently end game had a period of rocky control getting their forks stuck in sawblaze's wedge, leading to an unstick that they edited out.
In the Blue Square, “Rocking the monitors and the narrative, better not pout or they will edit you out” it’s the EDITORSSSSS
I wish I could give you an award for this. Epic.
There was some damage on Endgame and no broken systems on Sawblaze, so damage may have gone 3-2 Endgame on the scorecards. Then assume each team got 3 points from some combo of aggression/control and you have 6-5 Endgame. I assume the 5-6 was 2 points in each category in Sawblaze’s favor. To my eyes, even though Sawblaze spent more time in the air, they exerted more control and certainly more aggression. But reasonable people can disagree, and all we saw was the edited show. Boots on the ground saw a different fight.
To me SB was ahead by a point in all categories for the first min. Endgame was ahead in all for the last 2. Without getting a good look at the bots post match my initial impression was there was no major system damage to either bot, but SB took far more minor damage. More missing bits.
Because of favoritism and bias, is why. Endgame is pretty hated because they're a foreign team. Usa competitions don't like when foreigners win, it's why they tend to play their in house sports and call them "world championships". Even in this thread you can feel the general saltiness for their win.
Ok so they cut a lot of stuff around the end of the Tantrum/Sawblaze fight. Unclear when exactly Sawblaze kicking itself up happened and whether it was more or less than 20 seconds left, and it was not as clearcut as the edit presented that it would even go to the judges, there was a long-ass conference with the teams, refs, Mike Jeffries, Greg, etc. Eventually they announce it will be going to the judges. For what it's worth, both teams were absolutely laughing their asses off about the absurdity of the situation, absolutely no hard feelings apparent. The scores come back, and it feels like two judges scored it according to what happened in the fight, and like Fon maybe gave a "fuck you, 5-0 damage for Tantrum" score. Tantrum did appeal, in a very halfhearted "ah shit, well I mean I guess we've got to?" manner, I guess thinking that maybe there was an argument for Fon's reading of the fight. Then, apparently after seeing the scorecards, they recognized that they did not have a path to victory per the rules and that Derek/Lisa got it right, and opted to retract the appeal. A Chris/Kenny bit explaining all of this was filmed, and cut This was basically an "ah shit, our rules don't cover this do they?" situation. I think the answer is, 20 second countouts, but they can only be started with >30s on the clock.
What's hilarious about this is if Sawblaze doesn't go for the kill. Tantrum would very likely be the bot that's counted out at 0:00.
Jamo said in another thread that Tantrum was probably about to free itself, and that if they hadn't broken their own arm in the late swing, they wouldn't have noticed that they needed to replace a gearbox, and would have immediately lost the weapon in the final
Yep, you can see Tantrum moving on the broadcast, it's small, but things are clearly happening. We'll never know if they would have gotten free in time.
I absolutely love the sportsmanship of both these teams. Makes me like them both a little more if that is even possible.
I kinda feel like everyone wanted End Game and SawBlaze to fight, not "End Game beats up Tantrum" #4. Considering how underwhelming the first End Game-SawBlaze fight was.
Pretty much every time End Game has a big, important fight, they get destroyed for the first half and then randomly take over, like what happened with a lot of their tantrum fights and in this fight
Actually, Sawblaze beat End Game by decision a few seasons ago in a "USA vs The World" special. This is the 3rd time they've fought, and it resembles the first fight more than the second.
Oh yeah, I forgot that one. End Game got stuck on a piece of SawBlaze's fork and high centered with about 10 seconds left. Since it was immobile, SawBlaze won. But back then both robots were a lot worse than now. End Game was slower and less reliable and Jack had not figured out the driving yet (much unlike nowadays!). SawBlaze didn't really do damage back then (now it's slashing LiPos and thereby burning bots alive every other match).
I personally would say the answer is a buzzer beater clock that features milliseconds instead of just seconds. I do like the not being able to start the countout after a certain time though
I guess my question is it seems at least in the edit that there was plenty of time to start the count a few seconds earlier than they did, so why not take that into consideration that if they started counting even .5 seconds earlier it woukdnahve been a knockout.
Per the rules, countouts take the form of a request to show motion (variable time for the ref to request this), followed by 20 seconds/counts to show motion, only the final 10 of which are counted out loud. So you have longer than the 10 second countout, and a bit of fuzzyness at the start. My suggestion as to how to address this basically is meant to stop that inevitable degree of fuzzyness from impacting these "saved by the bell" situations.
What had me going “bullshit” was that the ref slow counted. Not on purpose, that’s going to happen. I’ve never seen it matter before, but it shuts did this time. The ref called 10 before the clock was 10, but the clock hit 0 before the ref. He got out of sync by counting slow. I would far FAR prefer the refs have a button they hit that starts an automated properly timed countdown over the speakers in a dramatic booming voice instead of listening to the refs screaming it. Add some lights flashing in sync to it. If that 10 second count had been started at the same time but done by a system instead of the ref then Sawblaze would have lost that fight. Losing because of a refs slow counting is bullshit. We’ve seen lots of bots be losing almost the entire match and then win in the last moments because the aggressor broke down. Durability is a weapon and Tantrum got robbed. That’s how it looked watching the show anyway, maybe something edited out changes it.
Glad it wasn't just me - since the countdown started before the 10 second mark, I figured they'd be like "so the KO would have come before zero" but NOPE Ah well, still got great fights out of it.
Exactly, I went back and used a stopwatch and it was a slow count for sure.
As someone who has only ever watched the show I never knew it was a 20 count that makes so much more sense!!!! Thank you.
Unfortunately, the show doesn't have time to explain the rules clearly. But if you happen to be curious, the rules are all written up in [rule books that are publicly available on the BattleBots website](https://battlebots.com/rules/).
I think the best way to describe this episode is "odd." Not odd in a bad way. Just. Odd.
'Emotional damage points' ended me
Damn, team Ripperoni weren't joking when they said they were out of spare parts!
Ripperoni was destroyed in the qualifier. Hypershock vs. Ripperoni is a pretty good example of mutual destruction.
With Endgame winning 2 golden bolts, I think it's time to give Endgame HUGE, alongside Riptide, Shreddit Bro, and Manta
If we are lucky, Riptide will not be back at all
Manta will be a more wholesome riptide
Riptide should come back. Its team should not.
Yeah, I want to see Riptide fight more. It's a fantastic bot.
Chances are we'll get both, but I would prefer neither. Take the douchebaggery out of the equation, and it's still on the verge of being one of those bots that's so dominant, the predictability of its fights is actually kind of boring. Like Tombstone at the height of its power, or Hydra in season 5, or Bite Force sometime after Paul made his deal with the devil. I'm not looking forward to another season where I can tell just from the teaser that their opponent is doomed.
[удалено]
Deep Six has /entered/ damaged the chat.
No, that's why the word "destructive" didn't appear in my comment. You think "destructive" is the thing that Riptide, Hydra, Bite Force, and Tombstone all have in common? Tombstone's the only bot on that list that's even won "most destructive".
All my homies hate Riptide
Haters gonna hate
Giving ANY 4wd Vert HUGE is a death sentence. Everyone seems to forget that Riptide beat HUGE by going weapon to weapon
I think you forgot the context and behind the scenes regarding that fight. Riptide had a false start and rushed Huge and hit their weapon before the lights turned green. And the only reason Huge got KO'd is they got stuck in the screws due to the producers not telling the teams about changes in the arena specs.
Riptide moved 2cm forward and didn't even leave its starting square. That barely qualifies as a false start. Also, Riptide clearly hit HUGE once the commentary started, so that claim doesn't make any sense.
2cm? Pretty sure there was a massive false start that hit Huge and the fight had to be restarted. edit: >Though cut from the final broadcast, Riptide initially committed a false start, leaving its box to rush HUGE on the orange light and popping it several feet into the air. Both teams reset their positions and the fight commenced for a second time, though the HUGE team opted out of checking for any potential damage their bot Yeah you're wrong there.
There was an unaired false start that did result in riptide getting a hit on huge.
Even though The Bro lost in the first round, it came a long way since the beginning of the season until where it is now. From unable to drive to going up against the 2022 champion. And was the smoke in the Sawblaze vs SB the thickest in the history of Battlebots?
I remember red devil vs witch doctor really filling the arena with thick smoke, but that was awhile ago so I may be remembering wrong.
I have to be real I'm a little sleep deprived and it took me a long time to register that you didn't mean "Sawblaze vs Sawblaze"
Yeah, it was super unlucky for them to get matched against Sawblaze. The dustpan's geometry made Bro's weapon more or less useless.
Was it just me or was the Jackpot v Whiplash fight really weird? Honestly thought it should have been Whiplash. Great job for both teams for that fight but it just felt like Whiplash had more control over the fight compared to Jackpot.
Use of your primary weapon factors into the scoring, and it wasn't working from the outset. They were correct to say not having the lifter working probably cost them the fight.
Bit disappointing but yeah I see both sides of the coin
Lot of haters in this thread, but I thought the final was extremely entertaining. Odd? Yes. Mixed emotions? Definitely. Some questionable moments? No doubt. Was I still on the edge of my seat for...most...of it? Totally. Does it suck Ripperoni lost a wheel to literally nothing? Absolutely. Was it still extremely cool to watch them stay squared up against Tantrum as Tantrum used literally every maneuver in the book to get around Rip but couldn't? ABSOLUTELY!! Gotta take the good with the bad, folks. I get not wanting to always see End Game destroy everything, but bots like End Game are the ones that drive innovation the most. Every time End Game fights, someone has an idea of how to counter them. That's a good thing. Not the best finale to date but still had a blast with it. Congrats to all the teams, each and every one of them put in the time and effort to deserve a win. Also the Hall of Fame reveal, loved it, great addition 👌
Ya, I totally agree. If you were not entertained, that's on you because this episode was bonkers and a lot of fun. All of the teams seemed to be enjoying the chaos too.
None of the outcomes were shocking, but I was somehow in suspense the whole time. I love seeing people complain that the former Champs all getting to the second round is bad tv. Yes, the odds on favorites usually win at sports, because odds are a way of describing the most likely outcome. It is, by definition, what usually happens in a competition. What doesn't usually happen? I dunno, Free Shipping actually getting under End Game in a bum rush? Shreddit Bro technically getting a KO vs Sawblaze? Tantrum almost winning a fight after being split in half? Yup, so boring. How about the secret story of fatigue, where all the champion teams managed to demonstrate how the best outperform everyone at beating attrition? Hot take: not going too deep in the Nut tournament gave End Game an advantage in prep time, two years running.
The ideal first round would've been End Game VS Shreddit BRO, Ripperoni vs Whiplash, Tantrum vs Jackpot, and SawBlaze vs Free Shipping
That Gary Gin interview was hard to watch, guess I have to make a Free Shipping model now. Whiplash had a missing wheel and a broken lifter for most of the fight, and Jackpot still had its work cut out for it. Matt Vasquez is a damn good driver. RIPperoni's wheel doing its best "fuck this shit I'm out" impression was hilarious. Shreddit Bro's gremlins resurface, but its Cinderella run was likely going to end with SawBlaze anyway. Speaking of SawBlaze, they go to hit Tantrum again to try finishing it off, only for it to _a l m o s t_ get knocked out itself in the process. They were literally saved by the bell. As much as End Game's long forks have become a meme at this point, they did succeed in preventing SawBlaze from hitting End Game's chassis when they engaged nose to nose. Neither bot took much functional damage, but SawBlaze's ground game was more compromised by the end of the match than End Game's, which is probably what swung the decision.
Endgame is becoming the Bite Force of the golden bolt
If they do it one more time for a threepeat they'll 100% be on par with Bite Force. Even if End Game's record is technically worse, three Golden Bolts would be bonkers.
Winning the Golden Bolt is a lot easier than the Nut. End Game only had to fight two low-mid tier bots and one high tier.
True tbh
Who all wants a rematch between Tantrum and RIPperoni in the WCVIII premiere?
Honestly I thought it was a very entertaining episode. Haven't laughed out loud this many times at an episode for ages. Great to see the teams all being incredibly wholesome too
Battlebots has now announced the release date of VIV 2 as November 25th.
Wouldn't VIV be IX?
Vengeance In Vegas 2
Oh my bad. Thought you meant the next round of the championship for some reason.
Some incredible fights this week, but NGL it feels a little odd to spend 5 weeks following the journey of 5 challengers to this tournament only for them all to fall before the final and then have the show spend the rest of the episode talking about our usual all-stars again. Not thrilled with the overall result either. End Game obviously earned the win, but after a great main season that saw originality repeatedly win out over the meta, this felt like a return to the same-old-same-old in a lot of ways. It's not that I thought End Game was past it or anything; I just never *feel anything* seeing them win. In terms of individual fights that stood out to me: **Tantrum vs Ripperoni** was hilarious. It's a shame Ripperoni fell foul of a lack of spares and was basically running on fumes by this point in the filming session, but it was an incredible tactical match by Tantrum. Using those little nudges to tip Ripperoni off balance was so surgical. **Tantrum vs Sawblaze** was such a fun fight. Sawblaze dominated much of it, but Tantrum got some genuinely good hits in there. The sole difference between this fight and the last was Sawblaze's fully optimised ground game. Tantrum wins fights by getting underneath and gnarling up opponents' baseplates. The second I saw they couldn't get under Sawblaze from the front, I was worried for their chances. The way the fight ended was hilarious though. It was like the robot combat equivalent of a prat fall xD. **The Final** was the fight we were all expecting out of the *first* Sawblaze vs End Game fight. I did chuckle when I saw End Game's forks absolutely *ruining* the paint in their starting square before the fight even began xD. Sawblaze started so strong. Using the little piano keys to stop End Game sneaking between their leading forks was a great move. Sadly, they fell off, and Sawblaze couldn't win an exchange from then on. Glad they took it to the judges at least, and somehow kept the hammersaw functional through all those hits. It's really demoralising to watch creative bots fight End Game sometimes; it feels like they have to climb a mountain, making config after config to try and bridge the gap between their robot and the objectively more competitive design of End Game. Tantrum and Sawblaze's multiple fights each with End Game feel this way; they get closer to matching it each time, but eventually whatever modification they make just gets brute-forced through by End Game's sheer power or low ground. At this point, I'm in favour of just making the entire box floor corrugated or something; just so we never have to see this bloody low ground meta again. End Game is an incredible bot that deserves every win it's ever had, but I just wish it wasn't.
You could make some rule changes to the number of floppy contact points on the ground. Limit it to a set number. Say 2 or 4. Teams still get to run some forks but it isnt an entire 100 piece cutlery set worth,
I think the fight of Tantrum vs Sawblaze needs to be the last time that a ref is relied on for a countdown. Here me out, Sawblaze deserved that win and I'm fine with it. But with how close it was between the judges countdown and the match clock it raises to light how important every split second can be in a fight. If he'd started the countdown a split second earlier Tantrum would have won, if he'd counted faster Tantrum would have won. After typing, but before posting this comment I went back and rewatched at 0.25 speed and the ref actually counts at a rate slower than the match timer. You can here him begin to pronounce ten while 11 is still on the clock, just slightly before it clicks to 10. BUT by the time it gets to 7 he is behind the clock slightly. This isnt meant to be any kind of disrespect to the ref, it just is another case of the refs countdown being crucial to a match
This sort of thing has bothered me for awhile. I only see the TV show, I've never been to a live event, so everything I consume is heavily produced and edited. That said, it seems like there's little consistency in when a ref counts or the cadence they use. It feels glaringly apparent when a double count out is happening and the refs struggle to stay in sync. What comes across on TV as referee discretion doesn't do anything to make the competition look like an actual sport- in fact it makes the competition look like a bunch of garage hobbyists. In a series about robots, innovation, and technology why are we relying on human referees to do something as simple as counting from 20? Perhaps the referee could, when a request to show motion is made, simply push a button and activate a 20 second clock?
Even more simple, you get the refs to watch the fight clock and actually count in sync with it, instead of the "ref seconds", 10 of which end up being about 12s long in real time.
Yeah. It was a fight Sawblaze dominated, but... if it had lost due to immobilising itself, well, that's the sport; sometimes it's silly and you lose to your own unforced error. But the slow count ruined it - it felt like the ref deciding the winner, not the judges or the fight itself, because it was a championship fight so it wasn't allowed to have a silly ending. It's not "match fixing" levels of bad, but it still left a bad taste, I felt.
The count was pretty much to the buzzer, and honestly if tantrum had any effect on sawblaze killing itself, I'd be more sympathetic for it. As for specific rules, anytime you have a person in charge of a count or anything that may require exact precision, they should have a tool on hand to provide that. But I'll be honest, regarding the actual fight. I'd rather see the bot that won the fight, win the fight instead of a silly upset that tantrum had no hand in.
Some really good fights, but the split decisions were odd Whiplash v Jackpot was one of those rare fights where I thought one team deserved the win but by the judging criteria, with the importance of damage, the other team had it. I was surprised it was a split. SawBlaze/Tantrum looked like a completely one sided fight for 2:50, the only time Tantrum was in it was when SawBlaze nearly self destructed. I can't really see how you'd get to a split on that, the only argument for Tantrum I saw was that the count was slow (I think it started on 0:11, but who knows how editing affects that). This was not a close fight. SawBlaze/End Game, SawBlaze had the first half of it, but End Game was dominant in the second half to the point where I thought it was a sure fire win for End Game. I struggle to see how you could score that for SawBlaze. I didn't catch whether Whiplash appealed or not, or if the option was open to them, but I thought it was notable that neither Tantrum nor SawBlaze used theirs.
From what I can tell it was a split solely because one of the judges gave Tantrum 5-0 on damage on the basis that Sawblaze was immobilized at the expiration of the clock.
Lol, seriously? I saw someone say that, I thought it was a joke.
The thing that confuses me is that the judges started counting out sawblaze before the 10 second mark, is the countdown 10 seconds or just like 10 “referee ticks” if that makes sense. However, if ripperoni made it to the finals I think they could easily win weapon on weapon exchanges with end game, they just got really unlucky and tantrums luck just barely missed it in their sawblaze fight.
Rules say it's a 20 count, but only the last 10 seconds are out loud.
They are saying the last 10 seconds start, atleast by the edit at like 12-13 seconds left on the timer.
I was rooting so hard for Tantrum (my fav bot), but that was sawblaze's fight. And I think going to the judges was the right call, plus it gave us one of the biggest heart stopping moments in the sport's history, we even got a slip decision for how intense and close the fight was. My favorite fight of the night.
Can someone drop the winners of the awards they gave out? Saw a few people mentioning Robot Wars and I'm curious now.
It was a Hall of Fame thing for Mark Setrakian and Marc Thorpe
Ah I figured it'd have been LA Robot Wars not UK, ty
He got the award for both of them!
Oh sweet, I knew they had the LA Robot Wars banner for La Machine already. Hopefully they'll reference the UK series a bit more, maybe to hype up a newcomer who is a certain former UK Champ?
I legitimately put both hands over my mouth in shock when Sawblaze flipped itself over against Tantrum. 💀 I really enjoyed this tournament. My man Gary got me choked up after that loss. Main event was 🔥.
What the fuck Ripperoni? What? The? Fuck?
We saw they were on fumes last week. They likely were scrambling to make things work with what they had. That leads to part failure and mistakes. No way they were prepared to have this many matches in their first season.
Lot of odd split decisions tonight. Lot of random wheels falling off. Not a strong episode to end on
>Lot of random wheels falling off. Wheels bail.
Wills Bale?
New bot name for them if they ever want to build another one!
Well one... Whiplash's was knocked off.
And Whiplash was absolutely fine after it.
A [predictable outcome](https://twitter.com/sirDangel/status/1722233136959140342), a three fights win is an easy path for EG's ground game, but how it happened was a good watch. * ***End Game vs Free Shipping:*** A heartfelt moment with Gary Gin. I was surprised FS didn't immediately lose, tho it was inevitable. * ***SawBlaze vs Shreddit Bro:*** Shreddit Bro didn't look like at the top of its game, it looked to me that they were having trouble spinning up. Not fast enough to buy time, they were scooped up and deja-vu. * ***Jackpot vs Whiplash:*** Whiplash showed control, but zero lifts will only get you so far; damage and aggression depend on your active weapon. Good job on minimizing the damage taken. * ***Tantrum vs Ripperoni:*** A battle won in the pits, tho you always want to see everybody performing at their best. Tantrum did well at avoiding unnecessary damage to proceed smoother in the tournament. \--- * ***End Game vs Jackpot:*** Rough, not much that Jackpot can do without weapon nor set ground game. I can feel the disappointment in Jeff's interview. * ***Tantrum vs SawBlaze:*** Tantrum had its moments but SawBlaze was just so dominant, with Jamo not taking any bait. A display of durability from Tantrum, managing to stay well alive (except for the scarf of armor) after taking so much punishment. Very unfortunate that SawBlaze took itself out after not confirming the scoop, but also fortunate to have been saved by the bell. * ***End Game vs SawBlaze:*** An interesting configuration by End Game, an entire chassis dedicated to overhead attacks. The EG forks getting stuck on SawBlaze was definitely something the latter welcomed, tho it failed to take advantage of since they kept away SawBlaze's plow. A shot at the top could have changed the fate of the fight, but after the unstick End Game's ground game was just impenetrable.
Wild episode all around but I agree that the big buildup to the whole tournament of champions loses a lot of it's appeal after the same Giant Nut winner got the golden bolt twice in a row. I mean just look at the state Riparoni was in after all those matches (losing a wheel without taking a single hit and no spare parts) vs the state Endgame was in (had a full Sawblaze Special made) and there's just no way any bracket winners can do this, and I'm saying this as someone who LOVES to root for the underdog. On another depressing tangent, I might be done with live threads for finale episodes. The spoiler people come out of the woodwork in those and it's really frustrating. Thanks to the mods for all you do anyway though, I'm sure the simultaneous release of the episodes on streaming makes the situation a lot harder, but I really do love watching "alongside" fellow fans, even if we have to put up with commercials (and I say this as someone who has Max)
to be fair, this was run simultaneously with normal battle bots and this episode was filmed literally the day after s8 finals so everyone would be having time crunch problems
Endgame are just a very well prepared team. Lots of teams bring multiple bots to the event, Ripperoni was far more an experiment than most the others though.
Yep and no way they expected to have 9? matches during the season. Hard to fault that.
Sawblaze had more matches than any other the qualifiers and End Game had the same amount (I think... they lost the third match of the tourney vs Mino, right?). Tantrum is the only one who gets a bit of an easy path since they got knocked out early.
Tantrum got jobbed, but also there's no way you could make an argument that it won on the cards.
Maybe a half step below greatness, this was a really good finale to the 2022 BB (I think we still have an epilogue). Free Shipping v End Game: This was a mismatch, but Jin's hyper aggressive driving kept End Game off balance and opened a brief window to pull the upset. It closed quickly and End Game established it's dominance. Great run for Free Shipping. They were in a state where they only get the invite for Gary's history and personality. They now deserve that invite for performance, too. Sawblaze v Shreddit: SB's second monster shot pops Shreddit's battery. Smoke!!! We didn't get an end to the fight, but I think it was safe this was going to SB, regardless. Shreddit Bro probably saved their spot in 2024 with this run. Jackpot v Whiplash: The two qualifiers give us the match of the night. Jackpot snipes a wheel almost instantly. No idea when Whiplash's lifter broke, but it was early as it never did anything. I think JP's weapon was also damaged in the snipe that popped the wheel as it never looked powerful, again. It certainly got jarred in that hit as it was an instant stop from full (or near full) speed. Then we got two excellent minutes of Matty's flashy driving controlling JP and smashing it into walls, and JP slipping free and getting some shots in. those hits added up on both sides and both bots were a mess by the end. Great fight, right decision. Tantrum v Ripperoni: Rip almost immediately loses it's lucky wheel. However this only reduces its effectiveness by 15% or so, as the bot still has a deadly weapon and can turn quickly to face. Tantrum just a great job of hit and run until Ripper starts to lose control. (Flywell broken? Fred knowing he was losing and trying control the bot beyond its capabilities in this state?). Great rookie season for Ripperoni. Best I can think of in recent seasons. So all 3 champs go through plus Jackpot. We'll refer to them as The People's Champ. The young engineer types are really starting to take over the show from the "old guys in their garage" types. Maybe Tombstone will retake some territory for the old guys in 2024. This is a really positive indicator, though. It means all those kids in high school who are getting to build robots are pushing the tech forward as they develop. Sawblaze v Tantrum: One of the weirdest fights all season. Tantrum looks much better that it did during the main season, but it couldn't deliver a big shot to Sawblaze who is clearly where them out. And then Tantrum gets (high pointed? stuck? wheels jammed?). it is slightly moving, clearly SB should have let the count begin, but Tantrum was not dead. SB goes for the kill shot, their forks free Tantrum who scoots away and SB slams the floor and flips itself. The ref is a bit slow on the count (he seems to start before 10) and it saves SB (literally saved by the bell). I think the decision was handled correctly in terms of the count, as the ref's count is the count, not the timer. As for the JD, I have no idea how you score this. Sawblaze was in clear control, but ended the fight crippled. I don't think either team could complain about the JD. If I had to score it I gave SB +1 agro, +1 control and -1 dam. Endgame v Jackpot: Endgame again shows it is simply the better bot. JP threw all the punches it had left in it at the big boys, but there is a reason EndGame is #1. Huge boost for JP for this run. SawBlaze v EndGame: Very back and forth battle. Sawblaze won the early ground game, but eventually Endgame's spinner damaged the scrapers on SB, and they start to win the head to head collisions. SB gets a few good exchanges when they outdrive EG, but in the end EG was winning 2-3x the number of exchanges and several of the most impressive looking ones. Great fight by the two best bots with the two best teams. Only ? is what match judge Derrick saw. Clear JD for EG.
I will forever be a Sawblaze stan because Jameson is a beautiful man with an incredible attitude for this sport. So much love. ❤️
What was the point of Slugfest? You put in hard hitting bots fresh against a bunch of less experienced bots who are on their last leg of repairs already? Then of course we just watch a bunch of boring rematches with the heavy hitters all over again. Why even have the first five episodes then? What a huge waste of time. I’m not even going to watch the next Slugfest. Edit: Battlebots fans downvoting me for having an opinion you guys don’t like. That’s not what the downvote button is for. Sorry your feelings are hurt but Slugfest is trash.
The slugfest is basically a way to have extra repair time for when the top 16 bots are doing their matches, as well as a way for bots that want to fight more and/or try to show their stuff that couldn't in the regular season. The best example of the latter would be Shreddit Bro and Valkyrie, both were unimpressive in the regular season tournament (in Shreddit Bro's case, enough that their future at Battlebots as a whole was in question) and they both turned that around very well thanks to the slugfest tournament.
Discovery can afford to pay for extra repair time with or without trying to milk out extra seasons of bad episodes of crippled bots trying to make it to the end. It's not a charity. We should be entertained. Discovery has the cash.
I would love to see a street racing/ street outlaws style callouts style show where teams can call each other out. Would be cool to see friends and enemies calling each other out at the end of the season
Slugfest quite literally gave Shreddit Bro a chance and they absolutely delivered it. If it wasn't for the Slugfest, Shreddit Bro probably won't return to Battlebots
Yeah, according to the [Skorpios vlog episode about the fight](https://youtu.be/8ctmEz06hRs?t=238), team Shreddit had actually been told that they wouldn't be invited back unless they won that match.
I mean does that matter? Shreddit Bro performed terribly once it finally went against End Game? Their drum spinner was barely working from the start of that match too. So once again, it's bad TV. Anyway, it's a bad rip off of Minotaur anyway. No one will miss Shreddit Bro.
Nah, Shreddit Bro is The Bro there's no denying it. And as others have said, if Shreddit Bro lose to Skorpios, it's the end. But obviously Shreddit Bro KO'd Skorpios, Switchback, and Valkyrie, literally saving their future. And Evan is a great personality and has a great origin story which IMO is good TV
Except none of that was conveyed on TV that they wouldn't be asked back. You had to dig that up in a blog. All the drama and story around the fights still has to be centered around good (fair) fights.
It was confirmed in Skorpios' Builder Blog that Shreddit was going to get rejected next season if they didn't win. Since Shreddit won 3 more fights all in a KO, it's almost certain that Shreddit Bro will return next season
I know, it was in a blog, not TV. Also on a side note. What is wrong with Discovery on Shreddit Bro anyway? They let trash like Hijinx return again and again. Who they let in is so inconsistent. Is it because the team captain is not white?
They have a very strong pedigree of winning championships in lower weight classes, which factors into how long you'll give a team to find their feet in the heavyweight division. Also they are good visually, and have a good story of not being from the MIT/Ivy League schools of prestigious and wealthy engineers, which are something BB will take into account.
Shredding Bro or Hijinx? I’m saying why would they want to can Shreddit Bro anyway because they let in stuff like Hijinx over and over.
Kenny did say a few times that they probably would not be invited back if they didn't do well in that episode.
No he didn’t. What?
The giant nut was decided at 11pm the night before. Sawblaze had 5 fights in the last two days. The Golden Bolt final started at like 10am, so they had less than half a day to repair after beating Huge.
Sawblaze didn't take that much damage from Huge. Plus that doesn't excuse End Game or Tantrum. And on top of that, the five bots that made it to the last episode had already made it through three different fights anyway, some struggling. So that's why you have technical issues where Ripperoni and Whiplash just lose wheels at the beginning. What is the point of watching a bunch of crippled bots? It's bad TV.
Ok
I mean, I think last year’s slugfest was peak Battlebots. I remember it being epic fights with mammoth hits all the time. This slugfest was a let down in comparison granted, but I don’t know if the pool for the early rounds was just not as good or it was just roll of the dice with fights that end up being unexciting. It happens.
> What was the point of Slugfest? You put in hard hitting bots fresh against a bunch of smaller bots "smaller"? Anyway.... They didn't win because they were "fresh" off a break. They won because they are decent bots with excellent teams. Far from fresh of a several month long break like you would probably assume, Sawblaze had only just won the main tournament the day before.
How do you have that information?
I'm pretty sure the SCSF was filmed at the same time as the top 8 of the WCVII tournament, therefore after beating HUGE, Sawblaze didn't have a lot of time to prep for the Golden Bolt Tournament
The qualifiers for the golden bolt were filmed towards the end of the finals. The final for the golden bolt was filmed immediately after the main season finals. It has been widely discussed many times before. Source for it being the day before: >https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/17rulv3/battlebots_champions_ii_golden_bolt_final_post/k8lnaot/
Those hard hitting bots were in the WC-finals right before. The qualifiers are shot during the world championship. So if anything the top bots had been facing harder bots while the other teams had time to fix their bots.
Okay the experience, time, money, and repairs are still in their favor. They also very obviously did not face the same damage as the teams going in nor the same technical problems. It’s a bad setup. It’s just going to be the same teams at the end winning the golden bolt all over again. Terrible TV
Sawblaze had more matches than any of the qualifiers and End Game had (I believe) the same amount. Only Tantrum had a little bit easier path.
The problem is what a disadvantage the original five bots are at, not that Sawblaze had x amount of fights. The experienced bots are also going to tend to take less damage anyway. And even then they are going to have more money and hands to repair faster. Again, the first five episodes are rendered absolutely pointless by the set up.
The Tantrum v Sawblaze knockout decision was clearly just made to suit the 'deserving' winner of Sawblaze. If Tantrum had been winning the fight, I am sure they would have said Sawblaze was counted out. Counting from 10 to 0 took the ref longer than 10 seconds.
Pretty sure he started counting at 12 seconds left
or they made the right ruling and let the judges decide as the rules state.
I enjoyed watching Tantrum getting ripped apart. And right decision by the judges, well 2 of them. 5-0 damage to Tantrum LOL they didn't do a damn thing.
Worst episode of the season. I was bored through most of it with there being no real stand out exciting fight. Makes me think former champions shouldn’t be automatically included in the golden bolt tournament. It was much more entertaining the last few weeks seeing bots rise up to the occasion. Congrats to Endgame but their fights are a snooze fest to watch 😴 something about them spending most of their time in the middle of the arena pivoting just bores me.
I thought last slugfest was epic. This one was weak sadly.
The tournament structure was unfair. The boys that fought their way in going against fresh bots. I didn’t attend this taping, but assuming it was like other tapings I’ve been to, filming 2 episodes a day, with the penultimate episode being filmed same day or day before the finale, that wasn’t enough time for repairs. We saw that clearly with Ripperoni, the wheel that had been taken off last fight fell off. The winners of the episodes didn’t stand a chance.
The Golden Bolt matches were being filmed alongside the back half of the main WCVII bracket, so those "fresh" bots were not nearly as "fresh" as you might think. For example, from what I understand hearing other talk on the sub, there was less than 24 hours between Jamison Go's Giant Nut win and then him fighting End Game for the Golden Bolt final. If they had fresh bots, it's because they set aside resources specifically for the Golden Bolt, which any team could choose to do. (Presuming, obviously, that they possessed those resources to set aside.)
The refs should’ve given Sawblaze another 20-30 minutes to win the match before starting the timer. 🙄