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[Spehss _]

Thread for discussing Battlebots and any other "robot fighting shows" like Robot Wars or the various combat robot tourneys that I've read about. Also feel free to talk about robotics or electronics or AI or the impending rise of our glorious robot overlords or any of that other cool geeky stuff.

Spoiler: Battlebots 2015 info (click to show/hide)

Battlebots got a 2015 reboot. The series originally ran from the late 90s to early 2000s on Comedy Central and included various cool dudes as hosts, including everyone's favorite science guy Bill Nye. Now it's been brought back in 2015 with lots of new faces and a different style but the same battlefield and the same kinds of robotic designs and carnage. It's airing currently on ABC at 9:00 PM (8:00 PM central) on Sundays.

Battlebots 2015 official website. Includes a countdown to the next episode airing, and info on the competitors, the cost of tickets to be in the audience, and rules for joining the competition yourself.

ABC official website. Missed an episode? Episodes air at a time you just can't watch due to whacky timezones? You can watch them here.

Battlebots on ABC Season 1 ratings and views.

How Battlebots Ended Up on ABC after 13 Year Hiatus

You can also find videos of the original series on youtube, which ran for ~4 seasons. Video quality can vary. Smells like old vhs tapes and analog television. Lots of crazy great fights though.

Spoiler: fight clips (click to show/hide)

Wrecks vs Plan X (2015)
Last Rites vs Sewer Snake (Robogames)
Hypnodisc vs Splinter (Robot Wars)
Shrederator vs Warrior (RFL Triangle Series Nationals)

Spoiler: other resources (click to show/hide)

Found the Fighting Robots Association which seems to provide info on standard rules and safety for building and competing, as well as track various robot fighting events. They also have a forum. I assume most of their stuff is based in UK, considering they track Robot Wars.

Spoiler: cool stuff (click to show/hide)

Mechadon. A six legged walker bot with huge blades for legs, capable of flipping and rotating itself via a segmented body. It's practically unflippable, weighs ~472 pounds, and looks cool as hell. Not great in Battlebots fights, but a crazy cool engineering achievement nonetheless.

Snake. Made by the same guy as Mechadon, Snake is a "walker" bot that has no wheels. It has no legs either, instead relying on a segmented body with undulating rotating segments to provide traction and locomotion. It looks like a big snake with a 3 pronged pincer head and a drill tail. A wild design, but poor in combat.

Wrecks. A walker bot that relies on its big spinning vertical blade to provide momentum and rock its back legs back and forth, causing it to move. Unique design, and not from the dude who made Mechadon or Snake. Despite a cool design, it didn't fare well in the 2015 season, despite causing good damage to its opponent at times.

Spoiler: season 2 info (click to show/hide)

Official rules for applying for season 2. Includes pdfs containing design rules and tournament rules, as well as the current deadline for applying.

Worth noting that to apply you only need a design for the robot, albeit a very technical design proving you know your shit. ABC encourages that you don't need to actually build the bot until it's confirmed that you will be a part of the tournament.

If anyone has content they want added to the OP let me know, either in thread or by pm.

[Furtuka]

ROBITS

[Rose]

Watch posting.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Posting to watch, to post.

[NAV]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!

[Willfor]

Still remember watching this years ago, and I didn't realize how much I missed having battling robots in my life. I think I definitely preferred the British series of them, but I'll take a good American broadcast where I can get it.

Thank you, ABC.

[RedWarrior0]

Holy shit. The Sting/Bronco match is going to be absolutely absurd.

[Spehss _]

Holy shit. The Sting/Bronco match is going to be absolutely absurd.

I feel like Warhead shoulda won against Sting.

If Warhead's driver hadn't been utterly pants on head retarded and charged straight into Sting to get flipped over, the fight could've been way less one sided. Once Warhead was flipped over it was over. And that was disappointing.

Darn wedgebots and their strategy to push bots to death. Bronco is more interesting at least, due to the flipper.

[RedWarrior0]

I dunno, even after that first attack Stinger pretty well manhandled Warhead. The driver's pretty good, and Warhead's design just wasn't going to have much of a chance against a faster, more maneuverable, lower robot when it only has that front spinner weapons-wise.

On a mostly related note, if you look up Sewer Snake vs Last Rites, it's basically Stinger vs Tombstone, same drivers and basically the same robot design.

Final thought before sleep: Bronco flipping Plan X was absolutely absurd.

[Itnetlolor]

It's a shame Minion was not in this year's tournament. That was always a fun bot to watch fight. Wedge on the front, circular saw on the back, and a pretty fast super-heavyweight while at it. That machine was a tank in the arena.

[Spehss _]

I dunno, even after that first attack Stinger pretty well manhandled Warhead. The driver's pretty good, and Warhead's design just wasn't going to have much of a chance against a faster, more maneuverable, lower robot when it only has that front spinner weapons-wise.

On a mostly related note, if you look up Sewer Snake vs Last Rites, it's basically Stinger vs Tombstone, same drivers and basically the same robot design.

Final thought before sleep: Bronco flipping Plan X was absolutely absurd.

This video? Sewer Snake vs Last Rites

The pushbot in the video has a flamethrower though, which is more weaponry than Stinger has. If it weren't for the pushbot's flamethrower causing the spinnerbot's weapon to stop working (again) then the spinner could've torn the pushbot apart. The pushbot took lots of damage in the short time the spinner was active.

If we're basing the winner of a Tombstone vs Stinger fight on this video, assuming Tombstone's weaponry works as soon as the match starts, I'd think Tombstone would win by sheer destruction.


I checked the official website to see how big a feat Bronco flipping Plan X was. The website doesn't give any details on the weights of the robots. :|

[RedWarrior0]

Supposedly, Bronco's makers posted a video of Bronco flipping a 250lb weight (the max weight of the robots), so it's a pretty powerful flipper.

For those that didn't see The Flip

[Zrk2]

GET HYPE

[MonkeyHead]

As an ex competitor on Robot Wars UK, I suppose I need to PTW.

Oh, and no, I will not divulge which robots were mine, for reasons of identity protection.

[wierd]

I've wanted to become a competitor before...

Assuming I build a robotic death machine, what would I need to do to sign it up?