With well over 250 applicants for the new series of BattleBots and only time or funds for a 48-entrant competition, the producers had a tough job with the selection. So tough, in fact, that they had to widen the roster by just another few robots. How? Have 12 machines prove their worth in a set of 3-way
What's up with that name, amirite?
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| The Gears Awaken logo, featuring a fully awake and alert gear Source: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/27/battlebots-season-2-poster?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter |
What happened in the episode?
If you've seen it then you already know. If for whatever reason you didn't, let me fill you in quickly.
There were four rumbles with three robots each. The winner of each rumble was given a place in the main tournament. We're told the total of 12 entrants are all too evenly matched to pick between but it becomes quickly apparent that this is a lie.
In the first battle, Son of Whyachi tore its way through 4 of the 5 Creepy Crawlies, with a sweet two-in-one for efficiency, as Ultraviolent flailed around in an attempt to crawl along with its arms like a hyperactive torso zombie.
Next up, Blacksmith beat Basilisk like it was snake whacking day (now there's a reference) but couldn't kill clusterbot Gemini. Basilisk's little drone friend Afterbyte bounced off Blacksmith and immediately broke a rotor blade. The clear winner then caught fire but put itself out quickly enough to go through by judges' decision.
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| Red Gemini took all Blacksmith could give Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yT-uqNA2zk&index=4&list=PL1BtOUP9FASq5U3oVnBFdXNap6echu4s2 |
Mohawk's pyrotechnics display didn't do too much as Invader pinballed off the BattleBox walls and came to rest in a corner. Lycan rammed its ever-spinning carcass because it seems Canadians are drawn to bright colours, killing its own drive in the process and letting Mohawk take the win.
Finally, Skorpios jammed itself under the screws as Black Ice, which looks like one of the better entries from Robot Wars '96, shoved Bad Kitty into submission.
Why wasn't Son of Whyachi put straight through to the main competition?
Son of Whyachi was the most potent bot out there and definitely wasn't 'evenly matched' with Creepy Crawlies or Ultraviolent. Invader gave them a run for their money but their receiver melted or something. Everyone who knows the old BattleBots knows SoW so why weren't they put straight through?
I have a theory and though I haven't confirmed it, it seems to hold its own pretty well. The full roster reveal showed two Team Whyachi robots. The team brought along Warrior Clan from last year as a kind of unofficial back-up reserve even though they didn't expect to use it, like Team Hardcore Robotics (Tombstone) did last year with Swamp Thing which we never got to see. Fortunately for the Whyachi team, so many competitors pulled out last minute this year that there weren't enough actual reserves to fill the gaps and the few assigned 'back-up reserves' didn't bother turning up. The producers didn't have much of a choice but to fill one of the gaps with Warrior Clan. Putting two robots from the same team straight through to the main competition is a bit unfair though, and knowing that Warrior Clan performed too well last year to be put in the qualifier rumbles, they stuck SoW in one instead.
I have a theory and though I haven't confirmed it, it seems to hold its own pretty well. The full roster reveal showed two Team Whyachi robots. The team brought along Warrior Clan from last year as a kind of unofficial back-up reserve even though they didn't expect to use it, like Team Hardcore Robotics (Tombstone) did last year with Swamp Thing which we never got to see. Fortunately for the Whyachi team, so many competitors pulled out last minute this year that there weren't enough actual reserves to fill the gaps and the few assigned 'back-up reserves' didn't bother turning up. The producers didn't have much of a choice but to fill one of the gaps with Warrior Clan. Putting two robots from the same team straight through to the main competition is a bit unfair though, and knowing that Warrior Clan performed too well last year to be put in the qualifier rumbles, they stuck SoW in one instead.
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| Highlighted are the Whyachi machines. Also notice Hypershock appears twice Source: https://sli.mg/a/E9e4eN |
Why build something as useless as Creepy Crawlies?
Why? Because Creepy Crawlies wasn't useless, it was brilliant (and that's not just my British bias showing). There are several benefits to having so many parts to a clusterbot; one bot can take a hit and another can move in while the opponent is spinning back up, you can fill the arena and not give your opponent any space and the different parts can help each other out by righting each other or getting each other unstuck. Better yet, having an entire swarm means, when controlled well, all parts of the cluster can attack at once from multiple angles, meaning their opponent doesn't know which way to look and gets caught out.
Problem is, the Crawlies got stuck with the worst draw possible - the 360-degree reach of Son of Whyachi. There's no benefit to striking from all angles when all angles are covered by a 120-pound spinning tribar.
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| Son of Whyachi achieves bot fission as two Creepy Crawlies collide Source: http://thirdlawsports.com/2016/05/15/battlebots-season-2-review-gears-awaken/ |
What was wrong with Ultraviolent?
I genuinely have no idea. For some reason, their drive didn't seem to work. With my tin foil hat adorned though, I can tell you that Ultraviolent is in the main bracket despite losing its qualifier rumble. You can see it twice in that roster image - once in the rumbles and once in the main competition. I suspect the second hole left by all those drop-outs had to be filled by something and for whatever reason the producers thought it ought to be Ultraviolent. Knowing they were through anyway, did the producers tell the team to feign having drive problems to stop them winning their qualifier and hope that no one would notice? Surely the team weren't expected to just take the hits for the sake of television, considering how expensive the damage can be, were they?
Drones?
Let's breeze over the fact that these things are quadcopters, not drones, because this whole blog is dedicated to radio-controlled boxes that we insist on calling robots.
Drones are this year's big gimmick, like minibots were last year. We've only seen the one so far but from teasers and team reveals we know there's a veritable fleet of drones out there. Team MBS Robotics insist that Basilisk's air support Afterbyte had potential, designed to suck on to the opponent and drill into it. My major issue here is that their vacuum sticking method requires a flat surface and few robots have one big enough to land on.
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| An early Afterbyte in testing Source: http://www.mbsrobotics.com/#!gallery/lqtv1 |
Flying robots have actually been allowed for years. The very first one fought in Robot Wars '95, using great big balloons to lift itself into the air - the very epitome of the 'run away for as long as possible' technique up until the balloons popped on an arena light. Up until now, no one has worked out a way to make drones effective so no one has bothered.
With so many this year, I'm holding out for a dogfight in the BattleBox rafters.
With so many this year, I'm holding out for a dogfight in the BattleBox rafters.
Why did Blacksmith have to take out both halves of Gemini?
If you were watching closely, you may have seen that only 3 out of the 5 Creepy Crawlies had to be immobilised for the whole bot to be beaten but only half of Gemini needed to keep going for them to last to the end of the match. This is because a competitor is only counted out when two-thirds of the clusterbot has been immobilised. Maths fans will notice that three-fifths of Creepy Crawlies is two-thirds but because Gemini's weight is evenly split, one cluster is half and no more, so both bots need to be taken out.
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| Two for the price of one Source: https://streamable.com/pbas |
Blacksmith managed to Newton's cradle one half of Gemini through the other but since they couldn't kill the second half, it went to the judges.
What happened to Invader?
Invader, just for some background info so you know what we're dealing with, is an updated, upgraded version of SuperMegabyte. This is the bigger, badder version of one of the greatest robots of the 2004-2009 era. Megabyte has the honour of permanently killing Typhoon 2 and helping force Biohazard into retirement. This is why I was looking forward to seeing it fight.
Sadly, they bounced off Lycan in such a way that they caught the screw hazard motor box and went flying. Invader must have hit every single wall panel in the BattleBox, pinging around like an air hockey puck slammed by an enthusiastic twelve-year-old. They came to stop in a corner but didn't spin down, no matter what, becoming a new arena hazard. Got to give it to them, the weapon drive can take a bashing. Thing is, the robot's main drive was dead and the whole robot should have shut down, as per the safety rules. It didn't, though, and from what little I understand about these things I believe part of the signal receiver fused to one of the battery banks, removing the middleman that is the human behind the controls. The weapon drive was basically stuck receiving a positive signal, so it didn't stop. Not for a while, anyway.
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| Mohawk, hypnotised by Invader's endless spinning Source: http://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/File:Invader_arena.png |
Invader took 45 minutes to spin down. The entire BattleBots audience and production team had to wait for Invader's batteries to run out of juice. This took so long because batteries in these machines need to take a lot of stop-start and this uses up lots of power. Without hitting things regularly, the batteries weren't losing their charge as fast as they would normally, so it took a long ol' time for Invader to stop spinning. It's worth saying the Robotic Death Company, the team behind Invader, used the same set up in Megabyte for years and never had any trouble.
Why did Lycan keep hitting Invader?
I don't fucking know. Seriously, if it's stopped, why hit it? Perhaps Invader's spinning made it look live and the Lycan team thought they were sitting in one place for the hell of it? Maybe Invader's spinning shell somehow caused it to creep around for a little while but we didn't see it post-production? Maybe the Lycan team have a grudge? Or maybe the pressure got to them. Points for aggression, I guess, and better luck next time. I still want to see what the American Storm 2 can really do.
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| The scars in Lycan's face, the result of one suicide charge after another Source: https://www.facebook.com/RoboticDeathCompany/?fref=ts |
Why didn't Mohawk do anything?
Mohawk was the third competitor in that battle and we didn't see too much of it. They took a hit from Invader and nudged Lycan to look like they were doing something but only really closed in after both of its opponents had more-or-less died.
What they were actually doing makes a lot of tactical sense. Mohawk's weaponry is quite slow - it's a hydraulic crusher, so it's going to be. That means they're vulnerable when they're biting down, which is fine for head-to-heads but not so good when there's a third bot in the ring. Worse still, Mohawk was never going to get a proper grip on Invader so they'd have to go for Lycan, leaving themselves open to the nasty spinner. What do? Leave your opponents to fight each other until either both are worn down or one is dead, letting you get in there without fear of being attacked from behind.
In the end, this tactic worked too well because Lycan took out half its own drive on Invader, leaving it horribly crippled. In Mohawk came, vulture-like and ready to finish Lycan off, but they were so nearly dead the fight was more or less done. Mohawk just looked like they sat out the entire battle instead of picking it up half-way through as they intended.
Why were Skorpios and Bad Kitty a bit shit?
Black Ice definitely went in as the underdog in this final fight. Hell, even commentator Chris Rose called it a piece from a patio barbecue. They won, though, and I can't help but feel the other two bots let me down.
Skorpios looked pretty cool, in the green & black and with that big saw blade ready to slice down into its opponents. Sparks flew from bad Kitty in their only contact with another robot before they charged into the static screw. Bad luck hit them in their robot's little angry face as the two 'rises' in the front wedge, used to high-centre and hook onto their opponent, were trapped under the screw right where its threads meet. It was stuck in such a way that reversing pulled the screw round and pressed it harder into Scorpios. In an attempt to escape (and maybe out of deserved frustration), Skorpios took it out on the arena hazard by sawing through it, leaving a three-inch-deep scar in it. They would've kept going, too, but the producers didn't want their nice shiny screws cut in half.
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| Only the screws felt the sting in Scorpios' tail Source: https://www.facebook.com/RoboticDeathCompany/?fref=ts |
That left Black Ice to fight Bad Kitty. The latter of these was built by Team Think Tank, creators of the deadly 'VD' series. The final heavyweight version, VD6, was the Elecric Boogaloo of its day. It was potent, looked great, fought well but never quite won anything. Bad Kitty's design is based on VD6 but it was built from the ground up and despite the terrifying split-headed cat, which looks like it walked out of a Silent Hill knock-off, I expected them to do well. Sadly an important piece of machinery in their workshop gave out, meaning they couldn't get their front wedges built in time. They managed to get some made on-site but only too late and they had to go in with a yawning gap under their front. That meant they couldn't get under anything and that meant they couldn't get their impressive weaponry into play.
With one opponent wedged and the other handicapped from the start, Black Ice had an easy time of it with their lack of proper weaponry but admittedly strong drive.
With one opponent wedged and the other handicapped from the start, Black Ice had an easy time of it with their lack of proper weaponry but admittedly strong drive.
Was Gears Awaken worth doing?
The Gears Awaken was a nice relief from the wait for the new series and a brief showcase of the rest to come. Bearing in mind that these were the robots that barely scraped through the application process, they gave only a taster of the high standard in this competition, with a lot of brilliantly inventive and solidly-built machines. I hope this teaser special is an indicator that ABC knows it has a hit on its hands and that BattleBots will continue to get more funding, more attention and greater popularity. Ultimately, and as always, I hope it all leads to a new wave of interest and participation in robot combat not just in the US but around the world.
