We’re onto the quarterfinals! Only eight robots remain and on Thursday they’ll fight it out to see who makes the semis in the season finale… an hour afterwards! That’s right, it’s a two-hour season finale. Three rounds of competition! A new champion crowned! Maybe a rumble? Like a real rumble, not three bots but like the old days? Please? Or a grudge match? There have been hints that there was a HyperShock vs. Witch Doctor fight, I think we’d all love to see that, I mean I totally would.

The match ups, and my thoughts:

Tombstone vs. BETA: Fun fact, this was supposed to be Tombstone’s first fight last season, which would have been an absolute barnburner instead of Counter Revolution getting demolished, which was expected. Ray Billings has actually stated his worry about fighting BETA because the hammer can go over the bar and hit the weapon chain behind it and then Tombstone’s in trouble. He’ll have his own “Beta-Blocker” that’ll hopefully work better than Nightmare’s which fell off from its own recoil I think. As for BETA armor wise, Nightmare was able to get over the metal part of the wedge to get to the polycarbonate which is how it did its damage. Tombstone’ll have more of an issue, but it comes down to which bot can get their front lined up without giving the opponent a chance to fire. It’ll be close, especially between two great drivers, but I give the slight edge to Tombstone. Basically if the Lexan protecting the chain holds, Tombstone. If it breaks, BETA’ll get to the weapon chain for the win.

Yeti vs. Chomp: Ah, the ol’ 12-13 matchup. This is kinda similar to Tombstone and BETA actually, the powerful drum of Yeti and the surprisingly effective (when it hits and doesn’t flail) hammer of Chomp. The difference is Chomp’s hammer has the penetration effect while BETA’s is, well, a giant hammer, and Yeti’s thin armor has been well noted, and also the lack of spares. I think Chomp gets in on it en route to continuing its surprising run.

Bronco vs. Minotaur: The fight we all want to see. Fan (and DFO) favoring Bronco against other fan favorite Minotaur. Potentially the most hyped fight of the year unless Minotaur and Tombstone meet for the Nut. Or Bronco and Tombstone have a rematch, this time for the Nut. But that won’t have time for hype so this still wins.

Team Inertia Labs has been very ginger driving Bronco against spinners trying to see how the new rear wedge will hold up. It did fine against Chrome Fly and Razorback, but those were Chrome Fly and Razorback. One broke after one hit and one they actually weren’t fighting that great against considering you get zero aggression points for going in wedge first, even if you’re using the flipped on the backswing. This will not work against Minotaur for three minutes. Best case scenario you get Toro vs. Phrizbee-Ultimate where the defending super heavyweight champ runs away for two minutes, takes a couple hits, and gets the flip in at the buzzer which isn’t enough (and Minotaur’s invertible), worst case you get M.O.E-Matador (loss of wheels) or something more damaging. They’ll have to charge, but unless they can get the Brazilian bull over and out like they did to Stinger last year, I pick Minotaur.

Bombshell vs. Poison Arrow: The more I think of this fight the more I wonder what Bombshell can use against the drum. I honestly don’t know. Maybe the bar to try and get to the treads like it did against Cobalt because it’ll have a reach advantage? Either way Poison Arrow’s drum, after not showing much against Mega Tento, really came into its own sending Son of Whyachi into orbit and ending the saga of The Rakening. Although surprisingly the damage hasn’t been armor damage but internal (big crash jarring everything loose, Hypershock’s drivetrain drum and subsequently drivetrain dying). Either way, I imagine Poison Arrow’s strategy in weapon to weapon will be better than Cobalt’s wedge first, because I don’t know if the bar’s all that strong as much as it had all the time in the world to take out the tires, so I pick Poison Arrow.

And I guess… gimme Minotaur for the first international champion of BattleBots, not at all because some guy has a perfect bracket thus far and has Minotaur over Chomp. (The builders have said it’s not spoilers, whatever that means.)

That does it for this week’s delayed recap, but it’s better than nothing. Next week’s will be put off until I return on Monday, where a champion will be crowned, final thoughts will be given, and some fake awards that have no bearing on anyone will be bestowed. Also I’ll be able to post the final bracket, someone can post that in the comments, did I mention this entire thing was written on my phone and all? You try writing 1500 words like this. The bold type was a pain in the ass to scroll up and down. Anyway, Thursday night, 8 Eastern, 7 DFO, though I think it might be after football in some markets. Either way, watch and don’t spoil it too quickly for me.