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It’s a very versatile bot, driven by one of the best drivers in the sport.

Even if Minotaur never got stuck, it lost control points because it could barely move for the entire second half of the fight. Its control was so bad that it was going to be counted out. That’s why Witch Doctor won the control category.

@@Jellyman1129 Control revolves around getting your opponent in a position where they are more vulnerable or less effective, while damage is about inflicting damage on your opponent so that they become vulnerable or less effective. Witch Doctor was in a state where they could take advantage of the damage on Minotaur and score control, but they never acted upon it.

@@Vibrantatious Witch Doctor never acted on Minotaur’s poor mobility because doing so is often disrespectful and unsportsmanlike. Minotaur was going to be counted out because it could barely move, but the Minotaur team kept arguing with the ref and interrupting him. Witch Doctor was waiting for a count-out, which many other robots have done before. Once the timer ticked past 10 seconds remaining (when a count-out is impossible), Witch Doctor went in for a hit to show the judges it was still functional.

czcams.com/video/G7vSG2gxPqg/video.htmlfeature=shared

You make some good points. I discussed the alleged safety concerns in the video. I don’t know why safety is now a concern when bots getting insane OOTAs was never a problem in previous seasons. I do agree that there should be OOTA zones in the corners. That way, there’s still plenty of room to fight while making the arena symmetrical. Eliminating OOTAs entirely and replacing them with a giant rectangular obstacle that barely has any utility was a big mistake.

@@Jellyman1129 I must admit safety for US robot combat is rather lax compared to the UK. I've not heard of any builders saying that there were incidents at filming that provoked the change but considering the incidents that have occurred in US events outside BattleBots it's possible there was pressure from international teams or production to adopt some safety protocols from the UK and Europe in order to set a standard. Such as arming bots from behind the entrance barriers rather than at the starting squares. It's also possible that this is all part of lowering the cost of insurance at the venue by removing as much risk of injury as possible.

@teamcoolspeedbot4357 That’s a likely possibility.

Skillet makes bangers! 😆

True

Beta is one of my favorite robots. I had to give it its own video. 😁

Yeah, its fight with MadCatter was fantastic! The only reason I didn’t mention Big Dill was because its strength of schedule was weaker than Emulsifier’s. But definitely an honorable mention.

Yeah, I could easily see why people think SawBlaze should be seeded above Hydra. Even Chris Rose admitted that SawBlaze was seeded a bit too low. I only covered the MAJOR seeding changes where multiple robots moved all over the place, but saying SawBlaze should be higher is a valid argument.

That’s an interesting concept. But the more complex a design is, the easier it is to break.

It’s among the best! 😁

Paul the GOAT!

It got flipped once in a 2016 rumble with Witch Doctor and Wrecks, but it was still able to move.

I agree, because the main objective of any fight is to completely destroy OR DISABLE your opponent. So in order to not bias against any weapon type, the criteria should determine how effective your chosen weapon is. Otherwise, builders are going to purposely choose weapons that fit the biased criteria in order to win, making the field lack diversity. That’s why vertical spinners are oversaturating the meta. I like this idea, but I know the BattleBots producers would never allow this because fights between lifters would be “boring”. So I kept damage as a category, but made it less important than aggression as a compromise. That way, all robots must be aggressive to win regardless of weapon type without completely sacrificing visceral carnage.

The outcome is exactly what I expected.

Well time to grab the popcorn

It’s intended for flippers and control bots, but it’s circumstantial at best. I don’t think it has been very effective in helping those archetypes.

It was…inevitable! 😄

It also caused the inevitable death of my eardrums.

If I was ranking the robot’s overall legacy, then I’d definitely put Tombstone in S. But I’m ranking each robot based on their performance in Season 6, in which Tombstone didn’t do too well.

Even though Witch Doctor got stuck on the Upper Deck wall, the rules state that robots are allowed to be unstuck from parts of the arena not meant to be hazards. So Witch Doctor was allowed to be unstuck. The rules for Season 7 completely removed this and now any robots that gets stuck ANYWHERE will be counted out. There will be no unsticks, which is something I give my opinions on in this video: czcams.com/video/dc48Pk3vRDQ/video.html I understand why Witch Doctor vs. Minotaur might’ve been a close fight to the audience, but Hydra vs. Tantrum had an entire segment of the episode dedicated to discussing why the judges scored the way they did. I put that clip in this video, so I have no idea why some people STILL think Hydra should’ve won that fight. You obviously understand that, but I’ve had other people stubbornly protest that Hydra wouldn’t won the Giant Nut if it beat Tantrum and I’m so glad it didn’t.

Play-in matches should only be in the bracket when all robots get an equal number of qualifying fights. Then robots that are very close in their records can fight over a spot. It shouldn’t have been a gimmick to give Hydra a spot, and next season’s rules thankfully aren’t allowing that anymore. Minotaur showed good control AT FIRST, but then threw that out the window when it drove itself into the screws and lost a tire. Then its control was so horrendous that it was going to be counted out. The only reason it was still able to fight is because the Minotaur team was arguing with the referee and interrupting his count-out. The Witch Doctor team wasn’t aggressive because their referee LITERALLY TOLD THEM that Minotaur was going to be counted out! I covered this in the video. Hydra showed good control by flipping Tantrum and indeed won the control category. However, Hydra wasn’t aggressive at all. Tantrum spinning around Hydra and looking for an opening, while not particularly aggressive, is MORE aggressive than sitting in one spot and waiting for the opponent to come to you. For damage, Hydra got the tip of its flipper snapped off, and while that’s not particularly significant damage, Tantrum had suffered NO damage at all. It’s very clear to see why Tantrum beat Hydra. Again, I covered this in the video.

@@Jellyman1129 You forgot 1 thing. It's not just win-loss ratio that determine rankings. It's also match caliber and strength of schedule. That's why Malice, Skorpios, Hydra, and Defender had play in matches. Their win-loss ratios along with the strength of schedule and match caliber were the deciding factors. If all four bottom seed slots were play in matches, then likelyhood it would've been HiJinx, Mammoth, Deep Six, and Blacksmith battling it out for those other two slots. Hydra having a play in wasn't really a gimmick to me at all. Because their only win against Gruff was rather faint and their loss to Glitch gave it a big blow while its loss to End Game was only more of a what-if scenario due to the fact they were winning and that powerful flip the bot made killed itself. Again, I looked more deeper in the Minotaur and Witch Doctor fight. Minotaur did actually prove they did have controlled movement with one wheel. Hence why a countout never happened. Plus, being able to show you can have translational movement on one wheel would get you control points than an opponent deliberately refusing to engage at all. Take Kraken vs HiJinx for example. Kraken just sat still and refused to engage while HiJinx was nearly on the verge of "Apex-ing" and that caused HiJinx to get its weapon constantly to tip speed and maul the dickens out of Kraken. As for Hydra and Tantrum. Let me point this out because I know some people who do robot combat and do this as a similar strategy. Playing the "Turret Game" with your opponent could count as aggression. It wouldn't get as much points as like Black Dragon going fool-hardy charging. But Tantrum running away and doing its crop circles, not trying to engage at all, would not get as much praise as Hydra basically playing as a tank turret, keeping it's front aimed at Tantrum for nearly the whole battle, while also trying to see if it can get a side on opportunity. Also, the people who I know do robot combat with, sometimes don't treat damage as damage, but also as effectiveness as well. Meaning if you're able to do powerful flips to your opponent, that gives you points, being able to damage your opponent significantly, that gives you points.

@@lunamelody2025 Hydra losing to End Game isn’t too bad, but losing to Glitch by KO and beating a mid-tier lifter in Gruff? Yikes! Hydra shouldn’t have gotten a spot in the tournament at all. Minotaur obviously didn’t have enough controlled movement to stay in the fight because the referee was BEGINNING THE PHYSICAL MOTIONS to start the count-out. The Witch Doctor referee LITERALLY TOLD THEM that Minotaur was going to be counted out. Sure, Minotaur had enough controlled movement to move out of the corner, but shuffling across the arena very slowly and crab walking is NOT controlled movement. The Witch Doctor team knew this and waited for a count-out, especially since their referee LITERALLY TOLD THEM a count-out was imminent. The only reason Minotaur didn’t get counted out was because the team was aggressively arguing with their referee, and if you look back at the fight, you’ll see the Minotaur referee BEGINNING THE PHYSICAL MOTIONS to start the count-out. It’s no wonder the judges gave Witch Doctor the win, Minotaur should’ve been KO’ed. It had trouble driving for THE ENTIRE REST OF THE FIGHT, a full 90 seconds! I don’t understand why you’re trying to defend Minotaur when it lost fair and square by the rules. It doesn’t really matter what you THINK the rules should be or what the rules are in OTHER robot fighting competitions, the rules in BattleBots state that a robot waiting for its opponent to come to it is NOT aggressive behavior. No matter how you look at Tantrum driving circles around Hydra, the rules clearly say that Hydra’s behavior was not aggressive. In next season’s rules, they updated the aggression definition and LITERALLY SPECIFY that a robot driving in circles looking for an opening is more aggressive than a bot sitting in one spot and waiting for its opponent to come to it. Even Chris and Kenny had an entire segment of the episode dedicated to explaining the outcome of that fight and I put that segment in the video! I don’t know why you’re still confused.

Your opinion of what counts as entertaining doesn’t mean you can bias the judging criteria to your liking. The old days of BattleBots had literal bricks with wedges on them. It’s not like that anymore as control bots have an actual active weapon that either lifts or grapples or crushes. Even the co-creator himself said control bots like DUCK!, Gruff, and Kraken are indeed entertaining. If you insist that spinners are the only viable weapon, then every bot will look like End Game in a few years. It’ll be nothing but vertical spinners as far as the eye can see. At least the 2015 season had a diverse cast of robots. I’d rather watch a pushing match and occasional use of the arena hazards than two vertical spinners having super long forks trying to get the ground game. That strategy has been done to death and is more boring than any pushing match. If the judging criteria was that good, why would they need to add a Match Steward that allows competitors to appeal judges decisions?

Hydra went 1-2 and even if it did deserve a spot in the bracket, other bots that went 1-1 deserve a play-in to be given another chance instead of giving a 1-2 bot a FOURTH fight. That is very suspicious to me. Lock-Jaw doesn’t have any wins because it has the toughest schedule. When a Desperado is available, Lock-Jaw enters it, usually dominates, and gets into the bracket. I agree that Ribbot should get a high seed. Their schedule was easy, but still went 3-0. A high seed is deserving, but 2ND?! I would’ve been okay with 4th of 5th, but 2ND next to END GAME seems ridiculous.

@@Jellyman1129 1. The 1-1 bots did deserve a chance, but Hydra most likely ranks above them, 1-2 bots take priority in terms of getting a play in, it’s not a 4th fight to prove yourself it’s an extension of the bracket because they couldn’t decide if the bubble bots should get an in, and the only 1-1 that comes to mind is SMEEEEEEEEE who could not repair in time for a third fight, everyone else was 2-0 or 0-2. And again, play-ins we’re not a side event and was not a thing any bot could enter, the 2 play-in bots could’ve qualified for a 31 or 32 seed, or be a bubble/alternate, Lockjaw was not in consideration because it did not get a win, honestly it would be worse to throw in a winless bot, even if it had a harder schedule, it didn’t win, by that logic Shrederator and Bombshell in S4 probably should’ve gotten a play in. And there aren’t many better choices tbh of the rest of the top 8 seeds, Copperhead and Whiplash both almost lost a SD to a 0-3 and 1-2 bot respectively, Sawblaze had a very quick loss, Blip’s SOS had a 0-7 record in total, and Uppercut and RotatoR’s was 2-4 with Kraken and Free Shipping not getting any wins. Ribbot’s was 4-4 at least, all bots at least qualified for the tournament, it was undefeated, and all of it by KO. It’s definitely debatable, but Ribbot 100% deserved its seed (I probably would’ve thrown Whiplash the 2nd seed personally, but I don’t see a massive problem with Ribbot’s seed).

@@WatermelonNoel Because robots got an uneven number of qualifying, the seeding got screwed up. Uppercut went 2-0 with two KO wins. It was seeded under Ribbot because it only got two fights when Ribbot got three. That’s not Uppercut’s fault. If it got a third qualifying fight and won, it would have a better schedule than Ribbot and would thus be seeded above it. It’s already bad enough the records are uneven, but bots that got three fights shouldn’t be seeded higher just because they got more fights. That’s the main problem with Ribbot being seeded 2nd, other robots had stronger schedules.

@@Jellyman1129 would’ve, should’ve, could’ve, the selection committee has to work with what they were given. It’s unfortunate teams couldn’t get a third fight, but you can’t rank Uppercut and such higher…just because they might’ve gotten a better win/schedule if they had a third fight. Robot didn’t get seeded higher just because it had more wins, it got seeded higher because it beat 2-1 bots and all of their wins were by KO. It’s. A problem with the season, but not the actual seedings, it’s not Ribbot’s fault Uppercut didn’t get a third fight.

@@WatermelonNoel Then explain to me how on Earth Blip got seeded 7th?! It’s strength of schedule is against three winless bots. Meanwhile, Fusion is sitting at 1-2 when all of its opponents made the bracket. The seeding is bad in a lot of places, I just mentioned Ribbot’s in the video. Even with robots that DID get all three fights, the seeding makes no sense.

I was waiting for someone to notice this! 😄 I saw his video on the topic and agreed with everything he said. So when making my video, I tried to use the same arguments he made without just copying his video entirely. His analysis of the tournament was extremely accurate and I tried to match that level of thoroughness while still giving my video its own identity.

@@Jellyman1129 I also want to clarify one thing. Ribbot was the only robot other than endgame to get 3 knockouts. Someone said that in one of mystrsyko's videos on the matter. The production team has a reason if that's true.

Okay, but three KOs over one mid-tier lifter and two low-tier lifters isn’t that impressive. This is where strength of schedule comes in.

@@Jellyman1129 True.

Hydra stans will defend their favorite robot regardless of the circumstances. They’ll be fine with Hydra breaking the rules, but will blame the judges when it loses fairly. That’s a big part of the reason I made this video. Just because Hydra is the new “villain” of BattleBots doesn’t mean it gets free wins.

@@Jellyman1129 It could be on fire and in two....

@@BradleyBoy That would be a sight to behold! 😂

@@Jellyman1129 Jake: We still won I saw them move .1 seconds before the starting signal....

@@BradleyBoy No no, Jake’s argument for losing to Tantrum was that the tip of Hydra’s flipper is ablative armor and therefore doesn’t count as damage. He thinks Hydra should’ve won the damage category because of this. That was his actual argument when he was interviewed after the fight and it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! 🤣

About Minotaur vs Witch Doctor. I thought Minotaur was moving similarly to how Witch Doctor was when they fought Deathroll in 2019. I feel like since Witch Doctor didn’t get counted out neither should Minotaur, so I feel like Minotaur should’ve won the match, but yeah the toxicity after that fight was bad.

@@ryanbates3319 I agree that Minotaur was “crab walking” like Witch Doctor did in that 2019 fight. I think the difference is that Witch Doctor was moving fast enough in a given direction to stay in the fight, albeit having difficulty. Minotaur took quite a while just to leave the corner. However, I don’t even think THIS is where the controversy lies. Even if Minotaur was able to continue fighting and go the full 3 minutes (which it did), the judging criteria shows Witch Doctor won the fight because it had more damage and more control. I don’t have too much of an issue with Minotaur being able to continue for the rest of the fight, I just don’t understand the extremely toxic reaction. We’ve had worse judges decisions before, I don’t know why people were treating this fight like it was HUGE vs Hydra. I will meet you halfway and say if Minotaur lost mobility LATER in the fight, it could’ve won. But I can see how having driving issues for 90 seconds (literally half the fight) doesn’t look too good to the judges, especially when both refs expected a count-out.

“I don’t know why people were treating this fight like it was HUGE Vs Hydra.” We don’t speak about that fight. That wasn’t even a fight. But I think you make some good points. It just sucks that s6 ended the way it did. If these bots fight again, hopefully it will be without controversy.

@@ryanbates3319 My bad, calling it a “fight” is indeed a strong word. It was more like a pushing contest. I don’t think anyone wanted Season 6 to end the way it did. I hope Season 7 will be better, but we’ll see.

I didn’t think last season was bad but the upper deck is a bit of a pain in the ass and I had to see duck(my fav bot) get fed to 3 spinner bots and end its Battlebots career on a bad note :(

I only say it’s a bad trade because it also buffs vertical spinners, as if they needed yet ANOTHER way to win. Gigabyte should’ve went to the center of the arena and spun back up, really don’t know why they kept attacking. Even still, any robot could’ve been trapped there. Horizontal spinners just suffer more from it.

Absolutely! No machine in BattleBots has ever been this dominant and yet, the design of Bite Force is so simple. No crazy gimmicks and virtually no weaknesses, just a consistently good robot!

Ray Billings would like to know your location Edit: I actually watched the video, yeah I kinda agree now. If Bite Force is the king, Tombstone is definitely the heir to the throne

Tombstone is legendary, but Bite Force seems to be its weakness.

Chomp :

Chomp Crying in the corner

It’s definitely EASIER removing a bot from the Upper Deck, but I don’t really see how it’s any SAFER. Even if it IS safer, that doesn’t make its addition any better.

Robots were already aggressive without the Upper Deck, so adding it to increase engagement doesn’t make sense. If they want to increase aggression, just make it worth more points in the judging criteria. I just want to see it removed. It doesn’t add anything to fights and is nothing but a nuisance.

I’m totally okay with damage being a category, but I think it should be equal to the control category. That way, a control bot who can’t get damage points has a fair chance against a spinner that can’t get control points. Having damage as a category is required in a sport like this, but I don’t think it should be weighed so heavily against the other categories. Having aggression be the deciding factor makes sense because any bot can show aggression regardless of what weapon they have. Damage and control are dependent on each bot’s weapon, so having those two categories be equal would make fights fair and keep the field diverse.

@@Jellyman1129 I was thinking about if it makes sense to say this, but my problem with the damage category is that while many robots in theory are capable of dealing damage to their opponent, spinners are the only ones that can reliably do that in a spinner meta. I would personally replace the damage category with the old strategy category from years ago, rework how that category works to make it less unclear, and change effective use of your primary weapon to efficient use of your primary weapon. Effective use wants you to deal damage while efficient use wants your weapon to do its job. Thoughts?

I see what you’re getting at, but damage has to be a category somewhere. It would make JDs extremely controversial. Yes, spinners are the only ones to do significant damage, but control bots are the only ones to get significant control. So I’m okay with damage and control being categories as long as they’re equal. Then aggression being the most heavily weighted category would encourage aggressive fights and keeping them entertaining. Plus, any bot can be aggressive regardless of what weapon they use. Heck, you could argue control should be worth MORE than damage because control bots rely on lasting the full three minutes and winning by JD. Spinners rely on getting KOs, so they should be penalized for not killing their opponent. Look at Tombstone vs. Gruff from Season 4. By my judging criteria, Gruff won that fight. If a fight LOOKS like one bot dominated, but the scoring on PAPER gives the win to the other bot, then that judging criteria is heavily flawed. And I feel like that’s what we’ve been seeing time and time again. So my philosophy is that the judging criteria should mimic what we saw in the fight. It’s not about punishing spinners and ignoring damage, it’s about properly recognizing control as a viable category and keeping it just as valuable as damage.