Last night saw the first four matches in the Sweet Sixteen, with the second four coming next week.  Here’s what you missed:

Minotaur vs. Warhead

Minotaur is my pick to win the whole tournament, and showed no signs of slowing down here.  Warhead was one of the oddest looking robots in the competition, but last round eschewed their dinosaur jaw for a (mostly) horizontal spinning disk.  Both Minotaur and Warhead delivered entertaining knockouts in the form of explosions last week, so this matchup held a lot of potential.  With the teams hailing from England (Warhead) and Brazil (Minotaur), it’s probably easiest to describe this one in soccer terms: Brazil easily handled the overmatched Brits.  Minotaur managed to get the low ground and delivered one good uppercut to Warhead’s spinner, knocking it off completely at which point the knockout became a fairly straightforward process.  The RioBotz team engaged in just as much destruction as was necessary (as opposed to the RioButz team, which has gone beyond the pale in their destruction the Olympic host city’s wholly inadequate sewage system) before backing off and letting Warhead stay down for the count.

Poison Arrow vs. Hypershock

Hypershock sneakily added a wedge directly in front of their vertical spinner in preparation for facing Poison Arrow, who pulled off a surprising upset of Warrior Clan in the previous round.  Hypershock retained their RAKE addition from the previous round, which saw them take down Warrior Clan’s drone, though it turned out not to be a factor in this one.  After almost immediately losing its primary weapon, Hypershock did some great driving and bullied Poison Arrow around the ring, using the arena weapons as best it could and hoping to take it to a decision, but ultimately Poison Arrow’s drum spinner inflicted too much damage and took Hypershock out via knockout.

Red Devil vs. Bombshell

With a combined seeding value of 49 (!), this busted bracket challenge featured the grab-and-buzzsaw Red Devil (#30) against the intensely modular Bombshell (#19).  THIS GUY BOMBSHELL I CALL HIM MIKE TROUT CAUSE HE’S GOT FIVE TOOLS! Despite a promising introduction as the crowd serenaded Battlebots ringman Faruq Tauheed with a chant of “Faruq, Faruq, Faruq is on fire” (getting him briefly break character), this matchup ended up being something of a dud.  Bombshell’s vertical spinner delivered a solid blow to one of Red Devil’s tracks and broke, leaving Bombshell dependent on the arena hazards for any offense.  Red Devil wasn’t able to grab hold of Bombshell for the whole match, and spent most of its time flopping around after being bumped repeatedly.  This one went to the judges and it was an easy decision; unanimous in favor of Bombshell.

Razorback vs. Bronco

Would DFO’s kiss of luck hold up, as local favorite Bronco faced off against the drum-spinner equipped Razorback?  It actually would, as Bronco benefited from an incredible stroke of good fortune to take down its opponent.  Employing the same “ass-first” strategy that brought it such a dramatic win against Chromefly, Bronco absorbed some punishment from Razorback (occasionally delivering a backhanded whack with its flipper arm) but it didn’t look like Razorback’s drum spinner was going to break and if things had proceeded as such it would have been an easy decision for the judges to award the fight to Razorback.  Unfortunately, an awkward collision between the two led to Razorback landing on its side and balancing there.  Bronco judiciously let it be, and won via a knockout.  It’s got to be a big disappointment for Razorback, considering they could have added a single pin or wedge to those sides and made it impossible to balance like that.  Lesson learned, I guess.

Last week’s scheduling was off (though I was 3 for 3 in the matched I picked) so for this week I’ve got:

TOMBSTONE (-8) vs. Brutus: There’s no way Tombstone loses before the semifinals.

NIGHTMARE (+5) vs. Beta: I’m actually calling the upset here, as I think Nightmare’s vertical spinner matches up really well against Beta’s surprisingly effective hammer here.

BITE FORCE (-3) vs. Chomp: Looks like DFO is going to lose one of its champions here, and I’m predicting it to be Chomp.  It keeps proving me wrong, but its run has got to end sometime.

Mega Tento vs. YETI (-2.5): I hate Mega Tento and am making this prediction entirely with my heart.

Contrary to the misinformation I was peddling last week, Battlebots will be back NEXT WEEK, and Senor Weaselo will be taking things from here.