Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Beat! Last time out we saw dueling flippers with drastically different outcomes, as Hydra used gravity to break WAR Hawk into its separate components while Bronco debuted and got shredded by Bite Force. Plus we saw HyperShock decapitate Monsoon and Skorpios double-decapitate Sidewinder. Is double-decapitation a thing? It is now. Anyway, this week we have the return of DUCK!, Cobalt taking on Bombshell, and the main event, Tombstone and RotatoR, two of the three robots to win Most Destructive (Minotaur was the other). To the fights! First:

Episode 5 bonus fight: Texas Twister vs. Axe Backwards
Texas Twister: 1-0 (W, JD 2-1 vs. Black Dragon)
Axe Backwards: 0-1 (L, KO 1:36 vs. Mammoth)

It’s the ol’ horizontal vs. vertical matchup. Kinda. Texas Twister won a hard-fought and controversial decision against Black Dragon where I think I scored it as I saw it for Black Dragon. So clearly not the greatest win for Fuzzy Mauldin and Team Toad, but it is a win. Axe Backwards didn’t have a great win, or a great loss, or even a decent loss, considering they got Road House’d out of the arena by Mammoth. It hasn’t gone well so far in the full-body drum’s sophomore season. Or when it was in its rookie season. I just don’t think it’s the world’s greatest design due to the drum not being allowed to be more than the circumference of the tires, so the wheel always hits first. Also the wheels aren’t that great as there’s a type of tape or adhesive for traction. Listen, I don’t know much or anything about robot combat since I was trash at anything that involved engineering in physics, and the electricity and magnetism half of AP Physics I always fucked up which unit was which (but I still got a 5… somehow) but that might not have been the best tires you could’ve gotten for your money, Kurt. But as he noted, they have spares and they’re pretty sturdy, so he’s going to lead with the wheels first.

Well, the box rush from Axe Backwards kinda worked, except they missed the disk which waited a second or so to spin up. But in that time we got to see Spitfire (yeah, it’s with them now) fly! And then crash. And then get shredded by Texas Twister’s disk. Oh, Spitfire. One of these days you’ll work. (Probably not.)

Meanwhile speaking of not working, Axe Backwards’s drum wasn’t doing that and Texas Twister went to spin at it, and got a decent hit before flipping over which put it at a probably more dangerous undercutter setting. It meant they could get under Axe Backwards better and attack from a more stable position, taking off what looked like those pieces of tape. I said they probably weren’t great!

It probably wasn’t great when one of the wheels got totally lopped off either, complete with the drive motor from it! Quoth Kurt Durjan, “I have never seen that!” Which I assume means the motor coming off with it because Axe Backwards has lost a fair few wheels in its fights. It was smoking, some wires were hanging out from the bad wheel, and Kurt said hit it again because hell with it. Which I assume meant the other wheel but instead it was the other axe (the first one came off with the wheels). So zero axes, one wheel, and a count to 10 for Axe Backwards. Texas Twister wins by KO in 1:26 and moves to 2-0. Onto this week’s fights!

Quantum vs. Death Roll
Quantum: 1-1 (W, JD 3-0 in 2:16 vs. Blacksmith; L, KO 1:19 vs. Lock-Jaw)
Death Roll: 2-0 (W, KO 1:35 vs. End Game; W, KO 0:53 vs. Foxtrot)

Remember Season 2 when Death Roll (1.0) got shredded by Captain Shrederator? You know, a fight the full body spinner actually won? It’s come a long way from there considering its victories over last season’s playoff contender End Game. Less so with Foxtrot, that doesn’t particularly count for a whole lot. But it’s 2-0, and a win over the feared crusher that is Quantum would be the kind of signature win that could get them into the championship. Meanwhile, Quantum scared the fuck out of everyone by going through Blacksmith’s AR500 armor like it was nothing. Which means that the only way to beat Quantum is to never get bit, which is what Lock-Jaw did. It’s a tall order for Death Roll but it’ll be a big test to see if the Aussies have a contender on their hands. Ultimo Destructo was 2-0 last year, and we know how that ended up.

Death Roll got to spin up as Quantum had to figure out where to bite. Which gave Death Roll enough to charge in and attack towards the weapon, which did draw sparks. And more importantly it got away before Quantum could get a solid bite. It came in again and the bots came together and a belt came off somewhere as Quantum locked its jaws. That had to be Death Roll’s weapon belt since those teeth were right by Death Roll’s weapon. But it wasn’t enough to completely stop the weapon, as Death Roll like many other robots has redundant weapon belts. Death Roll responded by hitting Quantum and rolling it over, then coming in again to roll it over again and get on the initiative. A third one followed, bending Quantum’s front wedge and its teeth, and Death Roll could keep coming in, getting a shot on Quantum’s side and taking off what I believe was a drive chain as Quantum lost some mobility, followed by a wheel on that side. Death Roll wins by KO in around a minute and moves to 3-0, and especially with a win like that, barring catastrophe, the Aussies will waltz on. As for Quantum, these fights were around the same time as the Desperado tournament, so with two losses barring another Last Chance Rumble Quantum will probably not advance.

Bombshell vs. Cobalt
Bombshell: 0-2 (L, KO 0:52 vs. DUCK!; L, KO 0:57 vs. RotatoR)
Cobalt: 1-1 (W, KO 1:08 vs. SubZero; L, KO 2:18 vs. DUCK!)

Fun fact, it’s a Season 2 rematch! Let’s go to the videotape:

The one where Bombshell’s horizontal bar worked amazingly well because Cobalt basically stood still allowing Bombshell to adjust on the fly to snip the tires off? That one. Cobalt was in its Carbide-like setup than its new shiny Tungsten-like setup (minus the axe), and somehow this one might be more lethal than the three-time Robot Wars grand finalist. Right now I have it as the top one-loss bot, considering its one loss was to the floor while it was kicking the ass out of DUCK!.

Speaking of losing to DUCK!, Bombshell still hasn’t figured things out, getting KOed within a minute twice, and this time is going away from its wedged disk setup to its “boat” setup, which has the disk leading the robot so it’s the first thing that makes contact. So yes, there is some modularity even if we’ve yet to see the horizontal bar—it sounds like there were issues. I don’t think there’s a Last Chance Rumble in store if they go 0-4 this year since they’re not the returning runner-up. So this is Bombshell’s last stand.

Both bots got a chance to spin up, but Bombshell charged and went up Cobalt’s wedge. The first time this happened everything was okay, just some sparks from the disks hitting each other’s armor. The second time did not work nearly as well for Bombshell as it went up the ramp, went flying skywards, landed face first as something came off, and ended up, once again, flipped over. Actually, it was the front attachment of Cobalt’s wedge that came off so that’s not too bad. But the srimech still doesn’t work. So once again, Bombshell goes down in under a minute. Cobalt wins by KO and moves to 2-1, and barring a catastrophic loss, should make the tournament, even if they do lose their final fight. They’ve been that impressive in my eyes.

Gemini vs. Tantrum
Gemini: 0-1 (L, JD 3-0-0 vs. Gruff w/ Marvin)
Tantrum: 0-0?

First off, Faruq throwing the tantrum for Tantrum wins this week’s intros. Complete with running around the BattleBox and crying. Anyway, Gemini didn’t do too great, though it did better than Marvin in that rumble. Tantrum we haven’t seen yet; I have no idea whether they mentioned an unaired fight. I’d think so, since at this point it’s episode 7, but I don’t have it tallied, and the BattleBots site doesn’t have it up as of now. So, it’s a question mark for now. They’ve changed the weapon from spring-loaded flipper to “puncher,” essentially a vertical disk on a system that brings it forward to attack.

As the fight began Tantrum started with the black Gemini bot, and the puncher punched, but it wasn’t doing a whole lot even with Gemini riding its wedge. It moves at a faster clip than I thought, but it wasn’t doing a whole lot, almost like the wedge was actually preventing the disk from actually landing as well as it would like. It actually worked better in the fully front position which got a couple shots on the black robot and it stopped. And then Tantrum went after the red bot, sending it spinning away. It retreated from Tantrum and nudged the black robot free, so it went back to its 2 on 1 setup.

Tantrum went back after the black Gemini bot, sending it to a wall though the red bot took a swipe at Tantrum, not that it did too much. Tantrum kept going after the black bot and slammed it into the wall, then if the red bot came after Tantrum it would defend, including flipping it over, then taking it into the wall.

Somehow the black Gemini bot’s right side armor started coming apart, while Tantrum’s wedge kept repelling attacks. The puncher did do some damage, but more importantly it was being aggressive. The red bot got stuck on Tantrum’s puncher… holder? I don’t know, but it works very nicely as a free way to back up and take that robot to the screws. So the red robot was smarting and not spinning, the black one was in shambles with its armor torn and its weapon entirely askew, and though Tantrum’s weapon didn’t get that fatal blow it could control the fight until the buzzer sounded and it went to the judges. Tantrum wins by unanimous decision.

Lock-Jaw vs. DUCK!
Lock-Jaw: 1-1 (L, KO 0:48 vs. Tombstone; W, KO 1:19 vs. Quantum)
DUCK!: 2-0 (W, KO 0:52 vs. Bombshell; W, KO 2:18 vs. Cobalt)

The battle of bots who’ve let the other bot wail until they pass out! I mean, it counts, with Lock-Jaw’s defensive plow being effective against Brutus (even in a loss) or Son of Whyachi, and DUCK! being as difficult as it is to defeat. Even if both bots got their wheels lopped off by Tombstone. The crazy thing is that DUCK! has won its two fights by KO, especially the Bombshell fight where it actually actively got the KO, as opposed to the Cobalt fight where it won thanks to the floor. Lock-Jaw is 1-1 after beating Quantum, a win that looks slightly worse after Quantum losing a second fight, but was still a masterclass in driving by the wily vet Donald Hutson. And his strategy for this fight according to Kenny, against the wind of everything in robot combat, is to pick spots and not try to knock DUCK! out because it’ll do more harm than good, but to get the judges’ decision. I agree, DUCK! isn’t going to win the damage points too often so that’s worst case 2 of the 4 points you need to win the decision. Maybe 3. Then all you need is to split aggression and control. With that in mind, expect more of the top end of DUCK!’s plow in an attempt to use the top spike to do something in the way of damage.

DUCK! charged and nearly flipped Lock-Jaw over, though it could get itself righted. It seemed like Lock-Jaw was going to use the forks try and lift DUCK! and it wasn’t quite working totally well. Lock-Jaw could get some better hits and actually try and flip DUCK! over instead of itself as DUCK! pulled a classic Breaker Box to reset itself, but it gave Lock-Jaw a chance to push DUCK! around towards the wall. At this point the plow was upside down in the attempt to hammer format, which wasn’t doing too much apart from DUCK! dancing around to try and get the wrong side of the plow going. Occasionally it would go right side around as Lock-Jaw was fully spun up to repel that.

Even though it wasn’t a full attack method by Lock-Jaw it started smoking about a minute in, but it backed away and the smoke stopped. Lock-Jaw could keep jabbing and spin DUCK! around. The smoke appeared again as the two locked horns, meaning that Lock-Jaw had to get away and survive for the next minute without the smoke getting worse, and it was up for DUCK! to try and bear down on Lock-Jaw to try and burn him out. Lock-Jaw’s weapon wasn’t spinning so it was looking good for DUCK! as it started to hammer away. They tried to run up and lift Lock-Jaw but expert driving evaded the attempted run and lift as time continued to tick down and it went to the jduges. Lock-Jaw wins by unanimous decision as both bots move to 2-1.

SawBlaze vs. Blacksmith
SawBlaze: 1-1 (W, JD 3-0 vs. RotatoR; L, KO 1:42 vs. Tombstone)
Blacksmith: 1-1 (L, JD 3-0 in 2:16 vs. Quantum; W, JD 2-1 vs. Kraken)

Poor Blacksmith. Are they ever going to get an “easier” matchup? Well, I guess Kraken, which Blacksmith won, but the point is Al Kindle’s bot gets no love, and honestly shouldn’t be getting the difficult matchups that it does, but it’s arguably the most difficult robot to stop outside of DUCK! and Free Shipping. Unless you flip them into orbit of course (all have lost by KO to Bronco, with Free Shipping also losing to Hydra via that manner). In this case they get SawBlaze, a top 16 robot. The good news is that the AR500 armor should hold this time because it’s not a ridiculous amount of crush in the overhead bot opponent. SawBlaze has its more concussive weapon for this one, similar to Skorpios’s that we saw against Sidewinder. But hey, a win here puts a robot at 2-1 and in decent shape, though they’d still have to win their final fight in all likelihood.

SawBlaze came out the aggressor but was having difficulty getting under Blacksmith’s forks, wheelieing instead, also in part because of the heavier weapon. Blacksmith was able to get a couple hits in on SawBlaze’s forks as a result. SawBlaze however could come from the side and got its pin, but because of the armor really just came for the one hammer-like strike. SawBlaze was still having issues getting around with the heavier weapon and managed to flip itself over, but Blacksmith couldn’t really do anything about it because SawBlaze immediately self-righted.

SawBlaze got a run in but Blacksmith got away and SawBlaze got itself stuck in the screws. It cost itself a couple hits via the Big Time Hammer™, but the biggest issue with Blacksmith is the lack of power from that hammer. If anything the forks were being more effective, flipping SawBlaze over like in the fight against Kraken, which meant that it was getting control points if not damage points. Indeed, SawBlaze was the only one drawing sparks from their “hammer” strikes. But Jamison Go was doing a better job getting to Blacksmith’s sides as the fight went along, or spinning to hit with the disk while in the back as Blacksmith charged, close to the hammer.

SawBlaze was getting under more frequently including getting under the front, though that meant that while pinned Blacksmith’s hammer kept firing, so it wouldn’t be the best plan of attack anyway. And the hammer started firing much more frequently in the last minute. It also looked like SawBlaze’s weapon wasn’t spinning. So the two bots stuck and moved and spun and parried and powered and pinned and hammered until the buzzer sounded. It went to the judges in what was sure to be tight either way. And it was to the tune of a split decision for SawBlaze. Once again, let’s score it. Control and aggression I have split—aggression was definitely even, and though I feel like SawBlaze had more control this is the problem of it being only 2 points, where it was a slight edge but not enough in my eyes to warrant a 2-0 in the category. If it were 3 points it would go 2-1 SawBlaze though. As for damage, I think that the damage to SawBlaze’s saw not spinning is greater than the armor damage, so I’d give that 2-1, and the fight 4-3, to Blacksmith, like Derek Young. This goes onto the short list for Fight of the Year though.

RailGun Max vs. Shellshock
RailGun Max: 1-0 (W, KO 1:03 vs. Mad-Catter)
Shellshock: 0-0

When we last saw Chinese bot RailGun Max, it managed to split Mad-Catter in half with its eggbeater spinner. I don’t care that Icewave did it twice, that’s still impressive. That might be tougher against the full-body spinner Shellshock, a high school team making its debut, and the second notable turtle-based bot in BattleBots, the first being Turtle/Turtle Road Kill, US Robot Wars rumble winner and Season 5.0 middleweight semifinalist that lost to S.O.B. in the JV side of that bracket (since the other semi was the famous T-Minus vs. Hazard fight).

RailGun Max didn’t go full box rush, they went wide but still came in quick and its first strike with that eggbeater spinner sent Shellshock flying almost halfway across the Box, though it was never at risk of tipping. That’s still some power to get that kind of distance. It definitely did a fair bit to Shellshock as the spinning slowed and they lost their version of the Gigabyte antenna. Which meant RailGun Max could attack it a second time to hit off the rail, and a third time off the Lexan to flip it over. Three hits in 13 seconds, and with that antenna and the spinning gone, that was already it. As was the smoke. RailGun Max wins by KO in well under a minute, but started smoking at the end.

Main Event: Tombstone vs. RotatoR
Tombstone: 2-0 (W, KO 0:48 vs. Lock-Jaw; W, KO 1:42 vs. SawBlaze)
RotatoR: 1-1 (L, JD 3-0 vs. SawBlaze; W, KO 0:57 vs. Bombshell)

The story behind this one is allegedly that Ray Billings didn’t know if Victor Soto’s bot really deserved the Giant Bolt for Most Destructive last season. I have no idea if that’s actually true or not, but I do understand the sentiment, considering Icewave broke two robots in half and they only showed the Vanquish fight at every single turn whether they needed to or not. In which case RotatoR won the award for taking apart Icewave’s engine. And not just taking apart but quite literally chopping it to bits. Also for decapitating Skorpios’s saw arm, but they rigged something together and actually won a fight using literally an angle grinder. Icewave’s dismantling was in the round of 16. Either way, we still have not seen RotatoR in its twin weapon configuration, and we won’t see it in this fight as they go with the same plow-like configuration as they had in the Icewave fight, with the plow taking the place of the bottom weapon and the top weapon bar active. They’ve gotten the one bar sorted out though, as seen from the damage done to Bombshell. Tombstone had an interesting decision because as per Justin Billings (seen here with the scythe), the toothed bar that they used in this fight for extra reach did take some damage they had to weld from I believe the SawBlaze fight. Ray said in the episode he thought about using the red anti-wedge bar.

Obviously RotatoR came in with the box rush with that front plow. You kinda have to to prevent Tombstone from getting all the way up. The second one was even bigger and Tombstone went flying and somersaulted at speed. And I have no idea how that bar was still spinning because that was some serious angular momentum. After the third version of Tombstone going skyward it was flipped over and that might have helped, because the bar was hitting higher and this time it spun RotatoR around and hit it multiple times as it sparked, almost like something was shorting. However, Tombstone was on one wheel, and when it spiked itself off the floor it was unstable spinning up. That meant that the weld failed or some other damage was done to that bar and it was unbalanced. We saw this to a greater extent in that Season 1 classic against Witch Doctor, where it was unbalanced because half the bar had broken. RotatoR was unbalanced as well because there was about a shard of horizontal bar left, so basically nothing. But Tombstone’s imbalance drew it to a wall which killed the weapon spinning. Which might help in its stability, but RotatoR would have the advantage in a pushing match. It would also be an advantage to RotatoR that Tombstone was on fire. According to Kenny that was the weapon motor, which makes sense because the bar imbalance would put a whole lot of extra strain. There was about half the match left though, so that would be a bit of a problem in terms of not burning everything else out. At this point it was just Tombstone driving around to try and get some sort of thwacks at RotatoR which couldn’t do too much pushing, and trying to see if Tombstone would survive the bell. It took the two bots locking around and spinning for the fire to presumably spread enough to start the count but it was going to be close. But it counts! RotatoR gets the upset of the season, with the KO of Tombstone in 2:59 and a hug from Ray on a hell of a fight.

So that does it for the day, and shakes up the seeding and the standings. Next week is the Desperado Tournament, where eight robots with less than stellar records square off in a single elimination bracket. Winner gets an entry into the championship, losers probably see their already-fading championship hopes flicker away. Then comes a two-week break where we’ll have things such as the midseason roundtable, where we’ll have some guests. As for now, see you next week!