Some fun details from the Season 2 Stories: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly panel out of DragonCon:
After the conclusion of Season 1, it took a significant amount of time for ABC to bite the bullet and approve Season 2, which was only officially decided in October 2015 with an initial order of 10 episodes (later expanded to an eleventh with The Gears Awaken preview episode). This meant the selection process for teams was drastically compressed, with teams starting to receive notification that they were accepted in January for more established teams and all the way into mid-February for new teams. Most of the bots shipped out at the beginning of April, meaning most of the bots were built over 2-3 months, tops. Based on the comments of the builders on the panel, three months is actually ideal in terms of ensuring no leeway for procrastination, even if it's a little tight. For comparison, the Snake, a legendarily complex bot built by Mark Setrakian (winner of seven Giant Nuts), was built in just 11 days.
On the production end, the Arena needed repairs and upgrades: the lower polycarbonate panels of the arena walls are 1.25" thick, but the panel one segment up was a fair deal thinner. Due to the launches and shrapnel events in Season 1, the layer above the first was thickened to 1.25" and the ceiling got a double-layer as well. Going hand-in-hand with this were some changes to arena hazards: in the original Comedy Central run, the hazards were all manually operated by a guy in a booth, and during the High School and College competition days the Hammers were added as a team-controlled element (each team controlling a pair of hammers). For the ABC run, since prize money is involved the entire system needed to be automated. In Season 1 this was not so sophisticated, but in Season 2 the tuning was tightened and additional safety measures were added, like manual hazard overrides [from the control booth] to avoid damaging the box itself or current limiting and reversible drive on the screws/augers to avoid jams and unintended damage to those systems. One change from Season 1 to Season 2 was wedge-related: to dissuade Wedges, new Hellraiser Spikes were added that would rise up and prevent forward movement by a robot. However, they were high enough that they were likely to be damaged by spinning weapons or excessively impact the speed and pacing of matches and they were disabled for nearly the entire tournament. In Season 2, the Hellraisers were replaced with shorter domed protrusions capable of high-centering robots that started operating at the 60-second mark, and have been noted in several cases to work exactly as intended.
Related to combating the incentives for wedges was the rule change to judging, which is based on Aggression, Strategy, Damage, and Control. Wedges no longer count as an aggressive element and are instead considered defensive, and Aggression is granted two points to be allocated per judge. Typically in an even match with both weapons running and doing decent damage with no KO, those points would be split evenly between teams. If a weapon was disabled before it could cause serious damage and the other bot was able to continue attacking, the points would go to the other bot. This rule will likely not change, especially since the builders have already begun adapting so well to it. This season was a little awkward because of the serious tunnel vision experienced by each robots' driver(s).
When operating one of these robots in a real match, the intensity and focus required to pilot them is such that nearly all the teams have someone spotting to help ensure the driver isn't missing something obvious, as this tunnel vision can cause problems. For example: in the Lock Jaw vs Brutus match, Lock Jaw's driver instinctively drove with his wedge toward Brutus for the majority of the match, using his primary weapon just once. Under earlier rulesets, the strategy was sound - push your opponent with a wedge until their weapon breaks and then whip out your weapon - this would have gotten him the match. However, failing to use that weapon enough threw Aggression points to Brutus, and Lock Jaw lost the match.
Spotters are not perfect though, and one of the most maligned robots online is actually one of the first to successfully find a solution that was so effective it won them a Giant Bolt. Of the four Giant Bolts - Best Driver, Best Design, Most Destructive, and the Founder's Award - the last went to Chomp for its potential to advance the sport. Despite impressions from the peanut gallery, the auto-targeting worked exactly as intended. In the Bite Force match, Chomp hit the same exact spot twice, and in the Yeti match Chomp hit the same spot multiple times. That its weapon and sensor system was also the most complex in the entire field and it never failed once makes for an even more impressive accomplishment. The impact of Chomp's successful implementation of auto-targeting and firing will have dramatic effects on future weapon systems in the sport worldwide. Two bots that did not make the show this year due to malfunctions that would have been potential winners of the Founder's Award had they competed are The Dentist and Hellachopper. Each has a weapon system so destructive that had they been operational, they may have utterly changed the outcome of their respective brackets. As for other prizes and winnings, in the initial phase each team wins $500 win or lose, and the prizes increment upwards with each win (stepping up to $1000-$2000, with the final round at around $20,000-$30,000); all told, Tombstone went home with about $40,000 in prize money.
One addition that was unanticipated by the show runners was Hypershock's rake. Initially the idea was to use a wicker broom purely so it could be set on fire by a drone as bait, then use it to beat the drone out of the sky, but the producers insisted on no organic materials. When it was added, the general impression was that it was either a stroke of incredible genius or the team would never live it down, but as we can see it made more sense in the end than it seemed even from the start.
As for inter-match changes to bots, Bombshell was the most modular bot this season and pushed the state of design forward with its principles. Each weapon has its own batteries, motors, speed controllers, and receivers, and can operate 100% independently of the drive train. One interesting tidbit is the horizontal bar was designed specifically to kill Tombstone. With its 8" range of variable height, it was to be aligned to the height of Tombstone's chain and used to snap it, disabling the weapon. While that didn't quite work in real life, it missed by less than an inch and will force Tombstone to machine a completely new shaft.
Several bots sported colored flamethrowers this year, notably Shaman and SawBlaze. Each used a different system: Shaman used a butane tank with a bit of alcohol added earlier to the base of the tank containing dissolved colorants, and was operated normally. SawBlaze used crushed copper sulfate delivered to the propane feed system at a metered rate by an auger, producing the classic vaporized copper flame seen in so many school lab demonstrations. In the Bite Force/Witch Doctor/Wrecks rumble, Shaman was hit by Witch Doctor causing a breach of one of the flamethrower tanks, splashing alcohol on a wall visible in the filmed frame where you can see it burn for about three seconds before panning away.
On the Topics of The Bad and The Ugly are Bot Pox and the "automatic cleaning system". One of the Canadian team members of Lucky brought in a particularly potent strain of the Flu, which about half of the competitors and a number of the show-runners contracted. For one of Son of Whyachi's matches, Terry Ewert had to be roused from his hotel room and carted over to the event in a zombie-like state, fight his round, and immediately return to hibernation afterward. As for the tale of the Automatic Cleaning System, the night after the event wrapped the Security guards failed to notice anything odd about a torrent of water spraying down on the arena from above. Assuming it was some kind of high-tech cleaning system rather than a malfunctioning sprinkler system, it was allowed to douse the box for something like six hours before being properly noticed and stopped. Fortunately an army of dehumidifiers and a lack of live power saved most of the box, but they do anticipate some replacements will be necessary for next year. One already decided change is to render the floor much more rigid, making deflected spinner impacts much more devastating in future seasons.
And as a final tantalizing note, Comedy Central's 5th season of BattleBots actually had around 600 filmed matches, of which only 34 made it to broadcast. Best of all, that match footage is still with the producers and in good condition, though the sheer scale of the task of editing them together will call for significant funds to be raised before they are released in some form.
I like Yeti but it seems like it suffers from an overly complex control scheme or a lack of driving skill. I don't think it's a coincidence that it's two best fights, mega tento and chomp, it didn't mess with it's flipper arm at all. In the very beginning of it's bout against Tombstone it had a great shot lined up against a wheel but couldn't take it because he had to back out and adjust the flipper arm, which is something that happened a couple times to it in other rounds of the tournament too. I know the flipper is there as much for self righting as it is a weapon so I hope it comes back next season with a better way of managing it.
Minotaur is a beast and I loved watching it use the force of it's spinner to compensate for the loss of a wheel. Also doesn't hurt that their front man is incredibly likable. Is he the designer or a former driver of it? Seems like most faces of the teams also drive the bot and minotaur is an exception.
So how does Minotaur do that floatly flip move? is it using the barrel spinner as a gyroscope?
Basically yes, all the spinning weapons exhibit gyroscopic effects (it's why Nightmare has a limited turning speed and why Minotaur and Poison Arrow can do the crazy gyrodancing). Basically any rotation about the Z-axis will cause a force to manifest 90 degrees off of that rotation, pulling the system in that same direction. The right hand rule comes to mind here.
So how does Minotaur do that floatly flip move? is it using the barrel spinner as a gyroscope?
Basically yes, all the spinning weapons exhibit gyroscopic effects (it's why Nightmare has a limited turning speed and why Minotaur and Poison Arrow can do the crazy gyrodancing). Basically any rotation about the Z-axis will cause a force to manifest 90 degrees off of that rotation, pulling the system in that same direction. The right hand rule comes to mind here.
Which makes me even more impressed with his driving
So how does Minotaur do that floatly flip move? is it using the barrel spinner as a gyroscope?
Basically yes, all the spinning weapons exhibit gyroscopic effects (it's why Nightmare has a limited turning speed and why Minotaur and Poison Arrow can do the crazy gyrodancing). Basically any rotation about the Z-axis will cause a force to manifest 90 degrees off of that rotation, pulling the system in that same direction. The right hand rule comes to mind here.
Which makes me even more impressed with his driving
That guy was the best driver in the competition
At least one of the best, certainly. The two competitor-voted awards, best design and best driver, gave the former to Red Devil and the latter to Hypershock. Take another look at the Hypershock vs Warrior Clan match and you can see why the voting went that way:
So how does Minotaur do that floatly flip move? is it using the barrel spinner as a gyroscope?
Basically yes, all the spinning weapons exhibit gyroscopic effects (it's why Nightmare has a limited turning speed and why Minotaur and Poison Arrow can do the crazy gyrodancing). Basically any rotation about the Z-axis will cause a force to manifest 90 degrees off of that rotation, pulling the system in that same direction. The right hand rule comes to mind here.
Which makes me even more impressed with his driving
That guy was the best driver in the competition
Daniel Zacarias Freitas is his name, and yeah he's a beast. He didn't get the Best Driver bolt, but that's probably because Minotaur got Most Destructive.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
So how does Minotaur do that floatly flip move? is it using the barrel spinner as a gyroscope?
Basically yes, all the spinning weapons exhibit gyroscopic effects (it's why Nightmare has a limited turning speed and why Minotaur and Poison Arrow can do the crazy gyrodancing). Basically any rotation about the Z-axis will cause a force to manifest 90 degrees off of that rotation, pulling the system in that same direction. The right hand rule comes to mind here.
Which makes me even more impressed with his driving
That guy was the best driver in the competition
At least one of the best, certainly. The two competitor-voted awards, best design and best driver, gave the former to Red Devil and the latter to Hypershock. Take another look at the Hypershock vs Warrior Clan match and you can see why the voting went that way:
Minotaur was hardly robbed though, they did win the Most Destructive award.
Is there an award for best victory dance?
I feel like there should be. Beta had some great post match launches with that hammer, but it's hard to go wrong with a well executed spinner dance.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
Death Roll's blade looks like it's only a 1/16 of an inch the way it warped itself.
I don't get why more bots don't aim for Tombstone's wheels.
Especially Bombshell. Taking out the chain would have been huge, but the wheels are such bigger targets, and crippling even one would make Tombstone a sitting duck. I don't think it could do the kind of dancing Minotaur did!
I don't get why more bots don't aim for Tombstone's wheels.
Especially Bombshell. Taking out the chain would have been huge, but the wheels are such bigger targets, and crippling even one would make Tombstone a sitting duck. I don't think it could do the kind of dancing Minotaur did!
It's very hard to maneuver around Tombstone, while getting them to aim their weapon right at yours is relatively simple.
It may sound weird, but I bet a sideways mounted spinner like Bombshell had could have wreaked havoc on wheels. The issue has always been getting around an opponent, then turning to get your forward facing weapon onto the enemy. Just remember how fast and agile bots like Bombshell and Hypershock were in running rings around opponents. If they had a vertical spinner off to the side rather than the front, they could drive full speed around and aim for the side/wheels of bots. However, getting bot balance and driveability down would be a major challenge.
With how fast and agile these bots are getting, I can definitely see some people trying to take advantage and go for more speed and targeting rather than the big bruiser bots of old (of which Tombstone is the pinacle atm).
The verticle drum spinners like Minotaur are sort of like this, but their manueverability is severely hampered by the gyro forces of the verticle spinners. You could even hear the speeds on the drums, Minotaur rarely ever got their drum up to full speed, because the instant they tried, they were almost completely unable to turn and stay flat on the ground.
I don't get why more bots don't aim for Tombstone's wheels.
Especially Bombshell. Taking out the chain would have been huge, but the wheels are such bigger targets, and crippling even one would make Tombstone a sitting duck. I don't think it could do the kind of dancing Minotaur did!
It's very hard to maneuver around Tombstone, while getting them to aim their weapon right at yours is relatively simple.
Beta managed it, though they had the armor to tank through the hits.
It may sound weird, but I bet a sideways mounted spinner like Bombshell had could have wreaked havoc on wheels. The issue has always been getting around an opponent, then turning to get your forward facing weapon onto the enemy. Just remember how fast and agile bots like Bombshell and Hypershock were in running rings around opponents. If they had a vertical spinner off to the side rather than the front, they could drive full speed around and aim for the side/wheels of bots. However, getting bot balance and driveability down would be a major challenge.
With how fast and agile these bots are getting, I can definitely see some people trying to take advantage and go for more speed and targeting rather than the big bruiser bots of old (of which Tombstone is the pinacle atm).
The verticle drum spinners like Minotaur are sort of like this, but their manueverability is severely hampered by the gyro forces of the verticle spinners. You could even hear the speeds on the drums, Minotaur rarely ever got their drum up to full speed, because the instant they tried, they were almost completely unable to turn and stay flat on the ground.
I've always wondered why double spinners like Chromefly or that one vertical double spinner last season are always front and back and not on the sides for just this reason. Charge past Tombstone or Bronco and sideswipe them. Trying to go around like everybody does, they just need to turn in place, meaning you need to do a lot more maneuvering to get to their wheels than they need to do to protect them, and that negates a lot of advantage you might get just by being faster (and it's not like Tombstone's slow in its own right).
It may sound weird, but I bet a sideways mounted spinner like Bombshell had could have wreaked havoc on wheels. The issue has always been getting around an opponent, then turning to get your forward facing weapon onto the enemy. Just remember how fast and agile bots like Bombshell and Hypershock were in running rings around opponents. If they had a vertical spinner off to the side rather than the front, they could drive full speed around and aim for the side/wheels of bots. However, getting bot balance and driveability down would be a major challenge.
With how fast and agile these bots are getting, I can definitely see some people trying to take advantage and go for more speed and targeting rather than the big bruiser bots of old (of which Tombstone is the pinacle atm).
The verticle drum spinners like Minotaur are sort of like this, but their manueverability is severely hampered by the gyro forces of the verticle spinners. You could even hear the speeds on the drums, Minotaur rarely ever got their drum up to full speed, because the instant they tried, they were almost completely unable to turn and stay flat on the ground.
I've always wondered why double spinners like Chromefly or that one vertical double spinner last season are always front and back and not on the sides for just this reason. Charge past Tombstone or Bronco and sideswipe them. Trying to go around like everybody does, they just need to turn in place, meaning you need to do a lot more maneuvering to get to their wheels than they need to do to protect them, and that negates a lot of advantage you might get just by being faster (and it's not like Tombstone's slow in its own right).
I'm guessing that it's a lot harder to target something just to the side of your bot then it is to target them dead center with the front or back of a bot. Especially when both bots are moving and positioning themselves. You'd be pretty reliant on them coming to you for that weapon to be effective unless you were an excellent driver.
I'd think that Hazard's design would be pretty effective in this season, and I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen something like it scaled up to the heavy weight class. A big horizontal bar spinner that was center mounted could hit bots charging from the side or rear as easily as from the front.
It may sound weird, but I bet a sideways mounted spinner like Bombshell had could have wreaked havoc on wheels. The issue has always been getting around an opponent, then turning to get your forward facing weapon onto the enemy. Just remember how fast and agile bots like Bombshell and Hypershock were in running rings around opponents. If they had a vertical spinner off to the side rather than the front, they could drive full speed around and aim for the side/wheels of bots. However, getting bot balance and driveability down would be a major challenge.
With how fast and agile these bots are getting, I can definitely see some people trying to take advantage and go for more speed and targeting rather than the big bruiser bots of old (of which Tombstone is the pinacle atm).
The verticle drum spinners like Minotaur are sort of like this, but their manueverability is severely hampered by the gyro forces of the verticle spinners. You could even hear the speeds on the drums, Minotaur rarely ever got their drum up to full speed, because the instant they tried, they were almost completely unable to turn and stay flat on the ground.
I've always wondered why double spinners like Chromefly or that one vertical double spinner last season are always front and back and not on the sides for just this reason. Charge past Tombstone or Bronco and sideswipe them. Trying to go around like everybody does, they just need to turn in place, meaning you need to do a lot more maneuvering to get to their wheels than they need to do to protect them, and that negates a lot of advantage you might get just by being faster (and it's not like Tombstone's slow in its own right).
I'm guessing that it's a lot harder to target something just to the side of your bot then it is to target them dead center with the front or back of a bot. Especially when both bots are moving and positioning themselves. You'd be pretty reliant on them coming to you for that weapon to be effective unless you were an excellent driver.
I'd think that Hazard's design would be pretty effective in this season, and I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen something like it scaled up to the heavy weight class. A big horizontal bar spinner that was center mounted could hit bots charging from the side or rear as easily as from the front.
It may sound weird, but I bet a sideways mounted spinner like Bombshell had could have wreaked havoc on wheels. The issue has always been getting around an opponent, then turning to get your forward facing weapon onto the enemy. Just remember how fast and agile bots like Bombshell and Hypershock were in running rings around opponents. If they had a vertical spinner off to the side rather than the front, they could drive full speed around and aim for the side/wheels of bots. However, getting bot balance and driveability down would be a major challenge.
With how fast and agile these bots are getting, I can definitely see some people trying to take advantage and go for more speed and targeting rather than the big bruiser bots of old (of which Tombstone is the pinacle atm).
The verticle drum spinners like Minotaur are sort of like this, but their manueverability is severely hampered by the gyro forces of the verticle spinners. You could even hear the speeds on the drums, Minotaur rarely ever got their drum up to full speed, because the instant they tried, they were almost completely unable to turn and stay flat on the ground.
I've always wondered why double spinners like Chromefly or that one vertical double spinner last season are always front and back and not on the sides for just this reason. Charge past Tombstone or Bronco and sideswipe them. Trying to go around like everybody does, they just need to turn in place, meaning you need to do a lot more maneuvering to get to their wheels than they need to do to protect them, and that negates a lot of advantage you might get just by being faster (and it's not like Tombstone's slow in its own right).
I'm guessing that it's a lot harder to target something just to the side of your bot then it is to target them dead center with the front or back of a bot. Especially when both bots are moving and positioning themselves. You'd be pretty reliant on them coming to you for that weapon to be effective unless you were an excellent driver.
I'd think that Hazard's design would be pretty effective in this season, and I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen something like it scaled up to the heavy weight class. A big horizontal bar spinner that was center mounted could hit bots charging from the side or rear as easily as from the front.
At that point you basically have Son of Wiatchi.
Or Icewave. Using multiple weapons is shied away from because both weapons will be less destructive than just one, and they will also steal weight from your structure and armor. Some robots are fast enough to cause Tombstone problems, but you have to be able to move around Tombstone faster than it can rotate in place without taking a major hit, which is a tall order.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
So many ineffective weapons, I bet you could drop Tombstone into one of these rumbles and the only worry would be all the debris possibly gumming up the weapon drive chain.
Seal on
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
That video is actually a serious piece of evidence for not going to MIT #ohsnap
It's a fight that is totally justified in being web-only.
I'd actually be interested in seeing the Battlebots style "must have a real weapon" rules applied to a lower weight class competition.
If nobody could afford thick armor plates then stuff like saws and punches would become effective weapons.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Each of those designs are fine overall in smaller weight classes, properly adapting them to 250lbs is the struggle. There's a reason the MIT teams are on BattleBots, and it's not because they're from MIT: they make good bots and have solid competition records.
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After the conclusion of Season 1, it took a significant amount of time for ABC to bite the bullet and approve Season 2, which was only officially decided in October 2015 with an initial order of 10 episodes (later expanded to an eleventh with The Gears Awaken preview episode). This meant the selection process for teams was drastically compressed, with teams starting to receive notification that they were accepted in January for more established teams and all the way into mid-February for new teams. Most of the bots shipped out at the beginning of April, meaning most of the bots were built over 2-3 months, tops. Based on the comments of the builders on the panel, three months is actually ideal in terms of ensuring no leeway for procrastination, even if it's a little tight. For comparison, the Snake, a legendarily complex bot built by Mark Setrakian (winner of seven Giant Nuts), was built in just 11 days.
On the production end, the Arena needed repairs and upgrades: the lower polycarbonate panels of the arena walls are 1.25" thick, but the panel one segment up was a fair deal thinner. Due to the launches and shrapnel events in Season 1, the layer above the first was thickened to 1.25" and the ceiling got a double-layer as well. Going hand-in-hand with this were some changes to arena hazards: in the original Comedy Central run, the hazards were all manually operated by a guy in a booth, and during the High School and College competition days the Hammers were added as a team-controlled element (each team controlling a pair of hammers). For the ABC run, since prize money is involved the entire system needed to be automated. In Season 1 this was not so sophisticated, but in Season 2 the tuning was tightened and additional safety measures were added, like manual hazard overrides [from the control booth] to avoid damaging the box itself or current limiting and reversible drive on the screws/augers to avoid jams and unintended damage to those systems. One change from Season 1 to Season 2 was wedge-related: to dissuade Wedges, new Hellraiser Spikes were added that would rise up and prevent forward movement by a robot. However, they were high enough that they were likely to be damaged by spinning weapons or excessively impact the speed and pacing of matches and they were disabled for nearly the entire tournament. In Season 2, the Hellraisers were replaced with shorter domed protrusions capable of high-centering robots that started operating at the 60-second mark, and have been noted in several cases to work exactly as intended.
Related to combating the incentives for wedges was the rule change to judging, which is based on Aggression, Strategy, Damage, and Control. Wedges no longer count as an aggressive element and are instead considered defensive, and Aggression is granted two points to be allocated per judge. Typically in an even match with both weapons running and doing decent damage with no KO, those points would be split evenly between teams. If a weapon was disabled before it could cause serious damage and the other bot was able to continue attacking, the points would go to the other bot. This rule will likely not change, especially since the builders have already begun adapting so well to it. This season was a little awkward because of the serious tunnel vision experienced by each robots' driver(s).
When operating one of these robots in a real match, the intensity and focus required to pilot them is such that nearly all the teams have someone spotting to help ensure the driver isn't missing something obvious, as this tunnel vision can cause problems. For example: in the Lock Jaw vs Brutus match, Lock Jaw's driver instinctively drove with his wedge toward Brutus for the majority of the match, using his primary weapon just once. Under earlier rulesets, the strategy was sound - push your opponent with a wedge until their weapon breaks and then whip out your weapon - this would have gotten him the match. However, failing to use that weapon enough threw Aggression points to Brutus, and Lock Jaw lost the match.
Spotters are not perfect though, and one of the most maligned robots online is actually one of the first to successfully find a solution that was so effective it won them a Giant Bolt. Of the four Giant Bolts - Best Driver, Best Design, Most Destructive, and the Founder's Award - the last went to Chomp for its potential to advance the sport. Despite impressions from the peanut gallery, the auto-targeting worked exactly as intended. In the Bite Force match, Chomp hit the same exact spot twice, and in the Yeti match Chomp hit the same spot multiple times. That its weapon and sensor system was also the most complex in the entire field and it never failed once makes for an even more impressive accomplishment. The impact of Chomp's successful implementation of auto-targeting and firing will have dramatic effects on future weapon systems in the sport worldwide. Two bots that did not make the show this year due to malfunctions that would have been potential winners of the Founder's Award had they competed are The Dentist and Hellachopper. Each has a weapon system so destructive that had they been operational, they may have utterly changed the outcome of their respective brackets. As for other prizes and winnings, in the initial phase each team wins $500 win or lose, and the prizes increment upwards with each win (stepping up to $1000-$2000, with the final round at around $20,000-$30,000); all told, Tombstone went home with about $40,000 in prize money.
One addition that was unanticipated by the show runners was Hypershock's rake. Initially the idea was to use a wicker broom purely so it could be set on fire by a drone as bait, then use it to beat the drone out of the sky, but the producers insisted on no organic materials. When it was added, the general impression was that it was either a stroke of incredible genius or the team would never live it down, but as we can see it made more sense in the end than it seemed even from the start.
As for inter-match changes to bots, Bombshell was the most modular bot this season and pushed the state of design forward with its principles. Each weapon has its own batteries, motors, speed controllers, and receivers, and can operate 100% independently of the drive train. One interesting tidbit is the horizontal bar was designed specifically to kill Tombstone. With its 8" range of variable height, it was to be aligned to the height of Tombstone's chain and used to snap it, disabling the weapon. While that didn't quite work in real life, it missed by less than an inch and will force Tombstone to machine a completely new shaft.
Several bots sported colored flamethrowers this year, notably Shaman and SawBlaze. Each used a different system: Shaman used a butane tank with a bit of alcohol added earlier to the base of the tank containing dissolved colorants, and was operated normally. SawBlaze used crushed copper sulfate delivered to the propane feed system at a metered rate by an auger, producing the classic vaporized copper flame seen in so many school lab demonstrations. In the Bite Force/Witch Doctor/Wrecks rumble, Shaman was hit by Witch Doctor causing a breach of one of the flamethrower tanks, splashing alcohol on a wall visible in the filmed frame where you can see it burn for about three seconds before panning away.
On the Topics of The Bad and The Ugly are Bot Pox and the "automatic cleaning system". One of the Canadian team members of Lucky brought in a particularly potent strain of the Flu, which about half of the competitors and a number of the show-runners contracted. For one of Son of Whyachi's matches, Terry Ewert had to be roused from his hotel room and carted over to the event in a zombie-like state, fight his round, and immediately return to hibernation afterward. As for the tale of the Automatic Cleaning System, the night after the event wrapped the Security guards failed to notice anything odd about a torrent of water spraying down on the arena from above. Assuming it was some kind of high-tech cleaning system rather than a malfunctioning sprinkler system, it was allowed to douse the box for something like six hours before being properly noticed and stopped. Fortunately an army of dehumidifiers and a lack of live power saved most of the box, but they do anticipate some replacements will be necessary for next year. One already decided change is to render the floor much more rigid, making deflected spinner impacts much more devastating in future seasons.
And as a final tantalizing note, Comedy Central's 5th season of BattleBots actually had around 600 filmed matches, of which only 34 made it to broadcast. Best of all, that match footage is still with the producers and in good condition, though the sheer scale of the task of editing them together will call for significant funds to be raised before they are released in some form.
I like Yeti but it seems like it suffers from an overly complex control scheme or a lack of driving skill. I don't think it's a coincidence that it's two best fights, mega tento and chomp, it didn't mess with it's flipper arm at all. In the very beginning of it's bout against Tombstone it had a great shot lined up against a wheel but couldn't take it because he had to back out and adjust the flipper arm, which is something that happened a couple times to it in other rounds of the tournament too. I know the flipper is there as much for self righting as it is a weapon so I hope it comes back next season with a better way of managing it.
Minotaur is a beast and I loved watching it use the force of it's spinner to compensate for the loss of a wheel. Also doesn't hurt that their front man is incredibly likable. Is he the designer or a former driver of it? Seems like most faces of the teams also drive the bot and minotaur is an exception.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Basically yes, all the spinning weapons exhibit gyroscopic effects (it's why Nightmare has a limited turning speed and why Minotaur and Poison Arrow can do the crazy gyrodancing). Basically any rotation about the Z-axis will cause a force to manifest 90 degrees off of that rotation, pulling the system in that same direction. The right hand rule comes to mind here.
Which makes me even more impressed with his driving
That guy was the best driver in the competition
At least one of the best, certainly. The two competitor-voted awards, best design and best driver, gave the former to Red Devil and the latter to Hypershock. Take another look at the Hypershock vs Warrior Clan match and you can see why the voting went that way:
Minotaur was hardly robbed though, they did win the Most Destructive award.
Daniel Zacarias Freitas is his name, and yeah he's a beast. He didn't get the Best Driver bolt, but that's probably because Minotaur got Most Destructive.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Is there an award for best victory dance?
I feel like there should be. Beta had some great post match launches with that hammer, but it's hard to go wrong with a well executed spinner dance.
I don't get why more bots don't aim for Tombstone's wheels.
It's very hard to maneuver around Tombstone, while getting them to aim their weapon right at yours is relatively simple.
With how fast and agile these bots are getting, I can definitely see some people trying to take advantage and go for more speed and targeting rather than the big bruiser bots of old (of which Tombstone is the pinacle atm).
The verticle drum spinners like Minotaur are sort of like this, but their manueverability is severely hampered by the gyro forces of the verticle spinners. You could even hear the speeds on the drums, Minotaur rarely ever got their drum up to full speed, because the instant they tried, they were almost completely unable to turn and stay flat on the ground.
Beta managed it, though they had the armor to tank through the hits.
(And kept not firing the hammer for some reason)
I've always wondered why double spinners like Chromefly or that one vertical double spinner last season are always front and back and not on the sides for just this reason. Charge past Tombstone or Bronco and sideswipe them. Trying to go around like everybody does, they just need to turn in place, meaning you need to do a lot more maneuvering to get to their wheels than they need to do to protect them, and that negates a lot of advantage you might get just by being faster (and it's not like Tombstone's slow in its own right).
I'm guessing that it's a lot harder to target something just to the side of your bot then it is to target them dead center with the front or back of a bot. Especially when both bots are moving and positioning themselves. You'd be pretty reliant on them coming to you for that weapon to be effective unless you were an excellent driver.
I'd think that Hazard's design would be pretty effective in this season, and I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen something like it scaled up to the heavy weight class. A big horizontal bar spinner that was center mounted could hit bots charging from the side or rear as easily as from the front.
At that point you basically have Son of Wiatchi.
Or Icewave. Using multiple weapons is shied away from because both weapons will be less destructive than just one, and they will also steal weight from your structure and armor. Some robots are fast enough to cause Tombstone problems, but you have to be able to move around Tombstone faster than it can rotate in place without taking a major hit, which is a tall order.
spectacular
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
It's a fight that is totally justified in being web-only.
If nobody could afford thick armor plates then stuff like saws and punches would become effective weapons.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
The old show on comedy central used to have different weight classes, I wouldn't mind seeing that again.
oh, didn't know those were out.
gives a review of how they are.
And a trailer for MegaBots, with the first episode to drop in two weeks!
Tested.com released some 360 videos from inside the battlebox during matches and from inside the bots. Open them on YouTube or on your phone for the best experience.
Shots from inside the battlebox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_4177869231&feature=iv&src_vid=Pdj1bHqMWsQ&v=QVZLsw3tNSU
Want to see what Bite Force Sees?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2372566735&feature=iv&src_vid=Pdj1bHqMWsQ&v=BQJ-c_Gci1w
Looks like it's going to be a weekly series with a moderate technical focus (slanted toward the entertainment side) leading up to the duel.
I hate to say it, but they are look a lot better than us.