July 28 Fights

Beta vs Overhaul: With the new rule in place the only way for Overhaul to win any fight is for it to grab an opponent and have enough power to crush it. I have yet to see if it has that power. At least team Beta didn't drop their bot while pulling it up the ramp this time but it flips itself over after swinging its hammer during the "activation", not sure if that's a testament to its power or poor design. Beta's wedge around the entire bot made it impossible for Overhaul to get under and grab it and Beta gets a few hits in early in the fight. Looks like it's hammer does some damage but hard to tell if it's significant. Beta then swings and misses flipping itself over and giving Overhaul a chance to grab it in its hooks. Overhaul held on to Beta for a few seconds then let's go. Not sure what happened there, you can hold onto a bot for 10 seconds before having to let it go. So Overhaul's weapon is useless. After that it's pretty much Beta chasing Overhaul around and getting in a lot of hits even knocking a few pieces off. Beta pushes Overhaul into a corner, gets in a few hits and that seems to knock something lose in Overhaul to disable it. Out of all the bots with a swinging hammer or blade, I think Beta is the best. I have yet to see it go against a formidable bot.

Hypershock vs Warrior Clan: Hypershock adds a rake to its bot to use against WC's drone, considering how useless drones are I don't see the point. Hypershock goes in fighting and gets a few hits in. WC gets under it once and this is wear it's suppose to do its damage but doesn't succeed. Then Hypershock actually swats the drone with the rake knocking it down then uses it weapon to destroy it. If this doesn't prove how useless drones are I don't know what will. You can't even fly the thing good enough to avoid getting hit with a rake? Back to the fight. Hypershock gets another hit in and then the two bots drive circles around each other until Hypershock gets another hit in and does some significant damage to WC. Despite WC getting under Hypershock a few time it doesn't manage to flip Hypershock or do any damage. WC does its best to keep Hypershock from getting behind it but eventually Hypershock does and gets another hit in the same spot. WC is getting pealed open and it is visibly less maneuverable. Hypershock uses its rake to push WC under the pulverizer and then WC gets counted out. It's was a great fight with good driving and seeing the drone knocked out with a rake was just great. Defeated by a garden tool. For decades, everyone has been wondering what the ultimate battlebots weapon is, now we know.

Stinger vs Mega Tento: Stinger's one good feature is the six wheels that give it a lot of control and traction to push other bots around but that is no longer good enough to win a fight. And Mega Tento is just stupid. Stinger adds a mini bit for this fight because of no good reason and MT puts it weapon on the rear outside of its dome so now we can see its weapon do damage. Not sure why it took them that long to figure this out. Stinger is able to push MT around with some difficulty, so MT seems heavier than I had expected. Stinger's flame looks like it does more damage to itself and this basically becomes a pushing match. Stinger then loses a wheel but not from anything MT did directly. Stinger's flame continues to prove useless. Despite the loss of its wheel it can still push MT around. The fight ends and goes to judges decision. Mega Tento wins, Stinger had more damage due to it losing a wheel even if MT didn't actually do anything. Stinger's flame is useless and in the end it just pushes bots around. So the judges made the right decision. But now I have to see another fight with MT, ugh!

For whatever reason they decided to do quick recaps of four fights. I don't know if this was because they had to skip a week and didn't have time to show the full fights. Some of them looked good. I'm not going to comment on these fights until they post the full fight for each on YouTube. This was just stupid. Even if they were quick short fights, I'd rather see that then the usual fillers.

Chomp vs Captain Shrederator: Chomp is one more of those flimsy looking bots with a swing arm that might be powerful but you have to be really lucky to get a hit. The two bots size each other up before fighting. Chomp manages to keep from letting CS attack for the side or back. Chomp swing and misses knocking itself over and giving CS the opening to attack. Surprisingly CS does little damage despite getting in some hits. Chomp swings a few more times but doesn't knock itself over and CS is not as aggressive at it should be. Chomp swings again, knocks itself over right on the blades and gets stuck on them for a few seconds. Now it becomes apparent that there is something wrong with CS and that is the reason it wasn't more aggressive. Despite being a sitting duck Chomp still misses and then when it does hit CS that actually gets the bot working again. So basically Chomp swings and misses, CS stops working then Chomp hits it and it starts working. This happened twice. No idea what that is about. Eventually CS just stops for good and is counted out.

So we got a rake, two fights where bots that should not have gotten this far win and recaps for what probably are better fights even if they were short. All hail the rake!