September 1st Fights

Here we go; this is going to be a long one since we had eight fights

Yeti vs Chomp: Yeti's team never thought they would make it past the first round and have been scrounging for parts ever since, not bad for a team that had low expectations. As for Chomp, I think this is their first real match against a formidable opponent. Faruq’s intro with Pac Man reference for Chomp was great. Yeti goes straight for Chomp and on the first hit knocks Chomp down which isn’t a surprise. While Chomp tries to right itself, Yeti gets in a few more hits but also drives head first into the wall which is dangerous to its weapon. After Chomp rights itself it gets two good hits in the gap between Yeti’s drum and chassis which could have been a problem. Yeti then goes in for another attack and takes out Chomp’s left “ear”, not sure what to call it. Chomp rights itself and backs off from attacking; you can see a lot of very visible scratches on Chomp. Yeti goes in again and gets in a few hits, Chomp also gets in a direct hit but Yeti has some extra armor on top so it has no affect. Yeti keeps attacking as Chomp tries to right itself. At this point I’m not too impressed with Yeti’s driving. It has driven straight into the wall head first a few times and now backed itself into the screws almost getting itself stuck. Chomp keeps swinging an either missing or hitting a well armored spot while Yeti keeps chipping away at Chomp not letting up even when Chomp is on its side. Chomp lands on its left side wear it lost the “ear” which is crucial to writing itself. You can also see a lot of damage to its belly. Chomp is unable to right itself and Yeti stays back waiting to see if it gets counted out. Yeti is also starting to smoke, we find out later it’s because they left a roll of electric tape inside the bot. But they didn’t know that at the time so it’s probably why they didn’t go in for more hits to finish off Chomp. They seem to be having a problem with swinging the blade to write Chomp and it gets counted out. Chomp’s weapon wasn’t going to do any damage unless it got a lucky hit like it did against Bite force and Yeti’s weapon was to destructive for Chomp to handle. Still it was great fight and I’m sure we’ll see Chomp back next year, hopefully with a redesign so it doesn’t keeping tipping over every other second.

Tombstone vs Beta: Apparently Beta’s plan was to go straight at Tombstone before its blade goes at full speed. That’s just not possible. Tombstone adds some extra armor to top and bottom to protect against the hammer. Both bots go straight at each other, Tombstone hits Beta and nothing happens to Beta. It was like it didn’t get hit. At this point I realize this is not going to be a quick win for Tombstone. While Beta had no reaction to the hit, Tombstone on the other hand is now on its side with its blade pushing it around. If ABC cancels Battlebots it will because it just couldn’t afford to keep replacing those tiles. You can clearly see the damage Tombstone is doing to the floor. Hopefully ABC bought those tiles in bulk. Beta follows Tombstone to the wall but didn’t get in a hit. Tombstone eventually rights itself, turns around and gets in another hit. Beta’s wedge armor holds up but Tombstone’s blade slides up and does knock a peace of something off Beta, not sure what but it doesn’t look critical. Beta gets under Tombstone and pushes it around and gets in two hits. They put in significant dents into Tombstone. All this time Tombstone’s blade is hitting Beta’s wedge armor and sparks are constantly flying and you see parts flying over every time Tombstone’s blade gets high enough. Beta finally pushes Tombstone into the wall and the force from the blade sends Tombstone flying. Beta doesn’t let up and gets under Tombstone and keeps pushing it into the wall. Beta keeps Tombstone pinned but it is only allowed to do that for a few seconds. Tombstone’s blade is low to the ground which meant it mostly made contact with Beta’s armor. Tombstone is now flipped over and with the blade much higher this now makes it easier to attack above the armor and do real damage to Beta. Despite some hits Tombstone is still cornered and gets hit with the Pulverizer. Beta gets under Tombstone again putting it at an angle where the blade is just scraping up the floor, sparks flying everywhere. Beta pins Tombstone to the wall again but doesn’t use its hammer. I’m not sure but I think the last hit from Tombstone disabled it. You can see a lot of significant damage. Beta keeps pushing Tombstone around and into the screws, unfortunately this turns Tombstone around and it hits Beta perfectly destroying the drive train for the hammer. The arm is barely held on and is just being dragged at this point. However, Beta just keeps pushing Tombstone around. Tombstone gets in two more hits and then Beta gets under it again. With ten seconds left, Beta keeps it there until the clock runs out. Beta controlled the fight and its two hits did some damage to Tombstone. But Tombstone just did too much damage and it won with a unanimous decision. I think the only people who didn’t like this fight is the ABC accountant and the maintenance crew that has to replace all those tiles. This was a great fight; I’m a sucker for sparks.

Bombshell vs Poison Arrow: Bombshell decides to stick with its vertical disk. I think this is a good choice despite it failing in the last fight. Its horizontal blade is probably too high to hit Poison Arrow and the axe is just not a good weapon against a small fast bot. They go to commercial before the fight starts, I really hate that. For some reason Poison Arrow turned around at start of fight and Bombshell had the perfect opportunity to hit it from behind but didn’t. Not sure why, as far as I can tell Poison Arrow doesn’t have any extra armor in the rear and even if it did that still wasn’t a reason not to attack. Poison Arrow turns around and the two bots dance around. PA hits Bombshell’s wedge and it has no affect. PA turns its back on Bombshell again but this time Bombshell gets in a hit but does no real damage. Bombshell hit PA again and pushes it into the wall. PA is now standing on its head against the wall and can’t move. Bombshell then backs off presumably to wait for PA to get counted out. PA tries to use its drone to attack Bombshell, why? They start the count out and then that’s when they get the idea to try and use the drone to hit PA and knock it down. Probably would have worked if they didn’t miss. Then I can’t believe it but Bombshell hits the drone and then rams into PA to bring it back into the fight. They dance around for a few seconds and then Bombshell hits PA knocking it to the screws and then hits it again to push it to top of the screws. Just as PA gets down Bombshell hits it again this time PA flies up and gets stuck between screws and wall. There is no getting out of that and Poison Arrow is called out. My first thought is that this is how Bronco will beat Minotaur. After the fight they asked him why he hit PA to get it back in the fight. His reply was he would rather lose spectacularly then win in a boring fight (paraphrasing). Not sure I would have done that but thanks for a great fight.

Bronco vs Minotaur: This is the fight I was looking forward to the most in the final four. They show you Minotaur’s drum and it has been through a lot. Minotaur adds the bottom wedge back to the bot, this and those horns they used once are pointless in my opinion. Bronco charges first and Minotaur doesn’t move for a few seconds. Then they dance around and Minotaur maneuvers to Broncos side. Despite hitting Bronco the drum doesn’t make contact on the wheel (that bottom wedge blocked it) but it then gets under Bronco but Bronco eventually knocks itself off with force from flipper. They dance around each other some more and Bronco eventually flips Minotaur twice. But the flipper is not as powerful as it usually is. This forces Minotaur to flip itself over because now the wedge it on the top, wasting time. Minotaur finally gets in some hits on the wheels and knocks two off from Bronco’s left side. Bronco manages to still drive pretty well and gets an opportunity to flip Minotaur again but doesn’t get a good shot. Minotaur then gets under Bronco and starts doing a lot of damage to the belly, sparks. Minotaur then pushes Bronco around for a while and then takes out the front right wheel. Bronco’s wedge for the flipper is also so bent out of shape that it will now never get under Minotaur to flip it not that it would have made a difference. The saws then take out the last remaining wheel on Broncos left side. With only two of its six wheels left, Bronco still moves better than some other bots. But Minotaur pushed Bronco to the corner and knocks off another wheel and does some more damage to Bronco’s belly. Minotaur takes out the last wheel and Bronco is counted out. I guess you can say Bronco got all tired out :) Come on, that was funny.

We are now down to the final 4

Minotaur vs Bombshell: Minotaur keeps its drum which looks nothing like what it did originally and Bombshell sticks with the vertical disk. Minotaur hits Bombshell first but its drum does nothing to the wedge. Once both weapons are at full speed you see both bots having a hard time from flipping over which shows how powerful they are. Neither bot gets in a good hit, Bombshell keeps missing and Minotaur hits the wedge which does nothing. Then Minotaur gets in a hit and knocks loose the armor on Bombshell’s front left wheel. Minotaur gets in a few more hits and finally knocks the piece off leaving Bombshell’s left side exposed. They butt heads a few times with neither getting around the other. Minotaur then hits Bombshell’s wedge again but this time Bombshell just pushes it back. They butt heads again only this time Minotaur flies across the arena, I’m guessing Bombshell’s spinning disk hit it at just the right time. Minotaur is now flipped over and having problems moving, its right wheel has stopped. Bombshell then goes in for more hits. Minotaur moves around doing wheelies on its left side most of the time and you can now see a rubber belt flapping on the right side which must be for the wheel. Bombshell gets in a few more hits and then Minotaur stops moving and gets counted out. You can see a little fight going on in their corner, obviously frustrated with what happened. This was a huge upset for me; I thought Minotaur would make it to the final.

Tombstone vs Yeti: Tombstone switches to its longer blade and Yeti adds a bar to connect its self-righting flippers. Neither bot goes straight at the other playing it safe. At one point Yeti had a perfect shot at one of Tombstone’s wheels but missed the opportunity. Then Tombstone’s blade hits Yeti’s drum and you see a piece of metal fly off and pieces of Yeti’s front right tire. Tombstone keeps hitting Yeti which is having problem with one tire missing pieces and then Tombstone takes Yeti’s front left tire completely out. Yeti can drive with one missing tire but not 1.5. With the two front tires out the drum is touching the ground and therefore can’t spin up. But Tombstone’s blade is no longer spinning and you can see the chain is loose. If Yeti didn’t lose its tires this could be a repeat of last year. There actually does seem to be some damage on Tombstone’s left rim. So Yeti did hit it in the beginning of the fight but did not do enough damage because Tombstone has not problems pushing Yeti around. Tombstone pushes Yeti into the screws and eventually knocks out what’s left of the remaining front tire. Tombstone controls the fight for the remainder of time and it goes to the judges, twice in a row for Tombstone. If Yeti had lost its rear tires instead of front, it could have won after Tombstone’s blade stopped working. It was a unanimous decision for Tombstone. Both lost the use of their weapons but Tombstone also took out Yeti’s wheels and controlled the fight.

Rumble: Bite Force vs Witch Doctor vs Wrecks: I was told this was going to be a great rumble. I understand that you need bots that are undamaged or can be repaired and the team to stay for the last day to do the rumble. But only three and Wrecks is one of them. Witch Doctor brings in Shaman again but doesn’t use it to just go after Wrecks. It’s not like Wrecks can attack it or run away from a small fast bot. Bite Force and Witch Doctor fight each other and ignore Wreck. BF takes off one of WD's front shields, had to bring Shaman in so needs to use weaker shield to come under weight. Have they learned nothing? WD actually hits Shaman when it got in the way of attacking BF. So BF then gets in an easy hit on Wrecks. BF then hits WD and gets WD in between it and Wrecks. BF takes out a tire, hits WD pushing it into Wrecks which then hits WD knocking it out of the arena. It was like watching a pin ball get knocked around. WD is now out of the fight. BF then attacks Wrecks head on which was a mistake because it gets flipped over and has no way to right itself. Do these guys not watch other fights? If Wrecks had any control over its movement it could now easily take out BF, but it doesn’t. BF can still move with its rear wheels and heads straight for the wall to use its weapon to right itself. It works on the fourth try. BF goes after a damaged Shaman first then attacks a flailing Wrecks head on again. Wrecks is now smoking and BF wants to be a Roomba. BF then goes in to attack Wrecks which is being counted out. Not because it wasn’t moving any different then it normally does, probable because the ref just got tired of seeing it trying to move. Bite Force wins but this was not the rumble I was expecting.

Tombstone vs Bombshell: They go to the commercial before the fight, argh! Bombshell switched to horizontal blade which they specifically made to go up against Tombstone if they ever met. They go right for each other and both get in a hit but Tombstone draws first blood and knocks off a piece of Bombshell. Bombshell needs to go for Tombstone’s chain which except for wheels is its only vulnerability. Tombstone gets another hit and knocks out one of Bombshell’s wheels. Tombstone circles around Bombshell and gets a few more hits. Bombshell is not moving and smoke is coming out of it. We then hear Ray ask the question we’ve been waiting months to hear, “You want some more?” Then Tombstone starts to destroy Bombshell with a few hits and then it’s counted out. Tombstone wins and gets the giant nut. The final fight wasn't epic but they rarely are.

This was a great season. My bracket was about as off as you can get except for the winner. Tombstone finally wins after last season upset. We got the great holy rake of justice and smiter of drones. So much more but this is already too long. Please let there be a third season next year.