Welcome back to the Beat! Last time out, HyperShock actually friggin’ worked in its first fight, P1 scored a big upset, and Copperhead outlasted Lock-Jaw. What somewhat ridiculous stuff is inevitably in store this week? Well, let’s fight out. Onto the fights!

Malice vs. Jackpot
Malice: 0-1 (L, JD 3-0 vs. Tantrum)
Jackpot: 1-0 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Deadlift)

Malice got a tough first outing getting absolute tank Tantrum, but their weapon bearings lasted all of one hit, so that’s gotta get sorted out regardless of how strong the little orange bot’s armor is. They’re using the same weapon as the Tantrum fight, as Rolling Blackout returns, with its S7 tooth attached, so we’ll see the progress.

Jackpot’s got a big wedge for this one and a a new single disk for this one, called Heartbreaker. Yes, it looks like a heart. Jeff Waters worked on Malice last year (or apparently OWNED Malice) before they got the last-minute call for Jackpot, so he knows the bot’s workings.

Both charged and missed at first. Jackpot won first weapon to weapon hit as Malice was driven back, but the horizontal gave as good as she got. But it was coming at a cost, because Malice was flipping from some of the shots due to the power of Jackpot’s weapon.

Malice looked quicker from the first fight, but the drive power wasn’t mattering. Jackpot was getting the advantage, flipping Malice over seemingly every other hit. Another big hit took out the weapon, then Malice got sent 6 feet up, flipping over and taking out a light with shrapnel as Jackpot went for the kill, putting Malice up against the screws. The screws reversed to keep them in the fight and unhook them. Jackpot was starting to smoke, probably the weapon motor, but it didn’t matter, Malice was crabwalking and that wasn’t enough to avoid the count.

Jackpot wins by KO in an action-packed 48 seconds and is now 5-0 in Fight Nights. The win over Malice probably gets them in, where it would take catastrophe to not be in the top 32. Malice is 0-2 and are in a bit of trouble for the tourney. They’re definitely in a must-win scenario for their third and final fight.

Ribbot vs. Overhaul
Ribbot: 1-0 (W, KO 1:50 vs. Defender)
Overhaul: 0-0

Ribbot looked really good against Defender with their vert. For this fight they’re got the undercutter, proving that yes, they’re modular.

Charles Guan and Overhaul are back after a couple seasons’ hiatus, and no longer a Cambridge team (since he’s apparently now in Atlanta) though still the original MIT rep. The bot is still very blue and very cat ears. Ribbot even joined the blue cat party! The drive system’s been revamped and the wheels are bigger and bulkier than the last time we saw Overhaul two years ago. Also that’s not much of a horizontal setup, with the forks. In the after-fight write-up, Charles Guan admitted that he forgot about the rule change, which is that in the case of a modular bot both captains agree on the setups. So he could have learned that Ribbot was running the undercutter and they could run the horizontal setup. That’s probably going to be a problem here.

Yes, like the opening weapon to forks hit. Overhaul tanked it early, but the forks soon bent and the front plow looked like it bent right into the front left tire and blocked the whole bot from driving. So Overhaul looked mostly functional still, but that was it, KO.

Ribbot by KO in 43 seconds. They haven’t gotten a “top tier bot” due to getting a rookie in Defender and a bot that had been out of the game for a while in Overhaul, but they are looking really good. I expect that they’re in already and will get another 2-0 bot in a seeding match. Hey, maybe Jackpot.

Blade vs. Skorpios
Team ORBY finally debuts. The Korean squad that did solid work in King of Bots has finally come across the Pacific. They’re a big horizontal bar spinner, thought of as the Korean (and painted yellow) equivalent of Tombstone. Their bar for this one is 50 lbs.. And for their debut, they probably get the worst matchup they could have gotten. Because…

Skorpios is back, fresh off a top 16 performance and a bounty win. And Bot Bash Parties are back in business! They were last year’s resident spinner-killer, so of course they get another big horizontal to fight. Their new hammer-saw is now spinning twice as fast as last year. And after all this time, Faruq FINALLY gets a Mortal Kombat line.

By the way, the driver of Blade (Sangeun Ju) is a professional violinist. So there’s a hope for me to get into BattleBots! I just have to design and build a robot with the money I don’t have!

Blade went wedge first to prepare for Skorpios’s rush, but instead got driven back into the short corner. Skorpios was doing damage with that new hammer saw and stopping Blade’s, uh, blade for the duration. They had to let go and continued to stick on Blade and rack up damage on the back. To the point that they got through the armor and briefly got the hammer saw stuck. They let go and pushed onto the pulverizer and the short corner doing more damage.

Blade was barely mobile and couldn’t get out of the corner, but Skorpios came back in after a brief pause, continuing the damage and take Blade to the killsaws. Skorpios got greedy and took their own hit from the pulverizer, but a dominant performance, even if it went to the judges, where I’d be surprised if Blade got a point. There was some flak by the community about letting Blade get counted out, but there was some miscommunication there because Blade kept moving rather than pack it in and fight another day.

Skorpios wins by unanimous decision.

Tombstone vs. Mammoth
Tombstone: 0-1 (L, KO 2:02 vs. Captain Shrederator)
Mammoth: 1-0 (W, KO 1:44 vs. HiJinx)

Well, one of these bots is 1-0 after beating a bot that made the tournament last year, and the other is 0-1 after losing to a bot that didn’t. And it’s not the ones you’d expect from looking at the two and going “Yes, this is a fighting robot.”

Tombstone again finds itself 0-1 and in need of a win, but Mammoth is better than Slap Box. This could be a do or die fight for the King of Kinetic Energy. Everyone has a plan to fight Tombstone. You have to.

Mammoth keeps surprising me, and this would be another one of them. At 1-0 a wins here and they’ll be looking for more than the 30th seed. Their plan to fight Tombstone? The UHMW weapon is back as that’s the anti-horizontal setup. If Tombstone gets to the side at all or through the uprights this could get ugly, quickly.

The box rush tried to keep Tombstone inside the forks and control the arena. But Tombstone went right through the uprights and off the crossbar, already bending Mammoth’s forks. Mammoth charged again but kept taking heavy punishment. The third strike sent Mammoth back, sent Tombstone right into the wall of the short corner, and it looked like both bots were down a wheel. Mammoth’s right wheel was completely off, while Tombstone’s right wheel seemed loose as it veered back and forth. (Apparently the nut for the weapon bar was stuck in the killsaw slot, because they had to make the killsaws ever so slightly wider for the pyrotechnics.)

Mammoth could crabwalk and spin around, and Tombstone was stuck in the saws. It’s a simultaneous incapacitation, a double KO! It’s the first one we’ve had since the famous Deep Six/Nelly the Ellybot fight. You know, the one where Deep Six fell over.

As per the rules, it goes to the judges.

Damage: 4-1 Tombstone. The wheel entirely off looks worse than whatever’s up internally with Tombstone. Plus the bent forks? There’s a lot more wrong.
Aggression: 2-1 Mammoth. It was a death or glory charge. Even if it ended in death. I don’t know if you can give 3-0 on account of just not enough time.
Control: 2-1, uh, someone. I’m not sure. I guess Mammoth.

So I have Tombstone winning either 6-5 or 7-4.

And the judges agreed, it’s Tombstone by unanimous decision, granted an abbreviated one (time not found on the BattleBots website). Tombstone’s still gotta work on tanking Tombstone, it might be too powerful now.

Lucky vs. Tantrum
Lucky: 0-0
Tantrum: 1-0 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Malice)

The Canadians are back, and it’s a new driver for Lucky! It’s world-class RC driver Matt Olson. Considering in Season 2 Gary Gin was driving Lucky, even the RC king might be a downgrade. Lucky’s never been particularly lucky, but hey, maybe this is the year things change for the four-bar flipper. Tantrum is 1-0 after a unanimous decision win over Malice where they dominated but the weapon did die at the end. For this fight they now they have a minibot named Nugget.

This is a rematch from an exhibition back in 2019 (where Tantrum won by unanimous decision). In this rematch Tantrum came in hot, but Lucky was able to get under the forks and flip them right over, and got Tantrum stuck on the screws. Tantrum was able to punch to get some movement, and might have gotten themselves free but might not have gotten off in time, but Lucky went for another flip. That was probably a mistake.

After that, Tantrum regained its bearings, getting under the sides of Lucky and taking off the side armor and wheels off the left side. In a flash Lucky was down to one tire, and not quite mobile enough.

Tantrum survives the early flurry to win by KO in 1:44 and go to 2-0. And looking at the rules, I have no idea if they would have gotten an unstick, because that’s now a thing in BattleBots. It used to be no unsticks. That could answer things.

Ghost Raptor vs. Glitch
The Sabertooth Cat Ghost Raptor returns! After the 2015 semifinal run that involved taking down Icewave with some ingenuity it’s been much tougher sledding for Chuck Pitzer, still looking after all these years for that ever-elusive Giant Nut. Ghost Raptor looks mostly the same (though of course everything’s been improved), but in addition to the angled spinner and lifter we know, there’s a flamethrower.

Glitch is an omniwheeled eggbeater who I am expecting big things from. There was a stuck screw in the frame that nearly delayed the fight, but Chuck Pitzer actually helped get it out of there. That’s the pits. The one thing I worry about is the wedge in front. It looks like there’s a lot of room before the eggbeater bites, and apparently it’s a ground scraper. That’s great because it’ll neutralize the emerging fork game, but they have to make sure it isn’t too low that it becomes a hindrance.

The two bots angled for positioning and there was almost immediately a little bit of a death hum, which was definitely Glitch’s doing. Ghost Raptor went for a hit as Glitch looked like there were either some traction issues or wedge too low issues, but Glitch Raptor took a hit in the exchange, where its spinner was out of commission. Glitch’s drive issues continued. It didn’t look like it was the front wedge, but it looked like they were under the rails, where the bot was too low. Ghost Raptor did the sporting thing and unstuck Glitch, as the bumper helped. That got Glitch finally somewhat mobile, but neither bot was particularly aggressive, as Ghost Raptor was down its spinner. They went for but mistimed a lift and paid for it, as the center console went right into the eggbeater. Glitch’s drive came back to life for the last few seconds, doing another flurry of damage into that center pod. It went to the judges.

Damage: Glitch’s issues weren’t damage-based, so 5-0 Glitch.
Aggression: Neither bot was particularly aggressive. There were momentary flurries by Glitch to prevent the shutout, so 2-1 Ghost Raptor then?
Control: 3-0 Ghost Raptor. Glitch was stuck twice. You don’t get points for that.

Glitch by unanimous decision. I don’t know, in terms of aggression and control, I could easily see this the other way. Or at least a split decision. I do have it 6-5 Glitch. Chuck Pitzer could have definitely left them and prior to the unstick rule counted Glitch out twice or so in this fight. I have no idea how that’ll get solved though.

YouTube Exclusive: Retrograde vs. Rampage
A pair of rookie bots, even if not both rookie teams. Retrograde is the Bots ‘n’ Stuff second squad, so a chunk of the team (if not the whole team) worked on Bloodsport last year, and probably still does. Unlike Bloodsport it’s not just one heavy spinner weapon, as the bot sports a lifter-clamper in the front and an undercutter in the rear.

Rampage is a rookie bot from a BattleBots rookie team. The Knox family bot is a… four-wheeled wedged vert. Okay, so no points for originality, but we’ll get to see how it performs.

So… no srimech. Yeah, that’s a problem. They wanted to survive every fight, and yeah, I guess they survived to the next one in that they didn’t take a ton of damage, but… self-righting mechanism. Retrograde wins by KO in 2:17. Not gonna lie, I’m surprised it wasn’t with 2:17 left on the clock, but that’s what it says on the site.

Main Event
SawBlaze vs. MadCatter
SawBlaze: 1-0 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Minotaur)
MadCatter: 1-0 (W, KO 2:01 vs. Yeti)

Professor Martin Mason is teaching remote during BattleBots! Yes, Martin Mason is a professor of physics and engineering, in addition to being a master of kayfabe and Macho Man Randy Savage impersonations. As for the continuing to impress MadCatter, it’ll be using its smallest and lightest weapon, named French Fry. The trade-off is that it can spin up in 2.2 seconds and that speed’ll be critical against the powerful SawBlaze, back with the smaller offset middle fork and hammer saw.

As you’d expect, there was the box rush… by MadCatter? Wait, that’s not what I expected. MadCatter tried to push the action early on but it was SawBlaze with the reversal, getting to the side and bringing the weapon down and doing damage to the lifter. That doubles as MadCatter’s srimech, so it’s a little bit of a problem. SawBlaze then took MadCatter to the pulverizer, doing damage with hammer and with saw. Then they backed up to take out noted minibot Gassy Cat, which started to smoke heavily.

After another push to the screws, SawBlaze had the cat face-first into the rails and the screws. Repeatedly. While SawBlaze’s weapon stuck in the back. Were there terrible adult film tropes and memes? You fucking bet there were.

SawBlaze pushed MadCatter into every hazard, especially the Upper Deck screws, and thanks to the hammer saw being stuck ripped off the top plate. SawBlaze pushed and flipped MadCatter, now damaging the bottom, and then one more push to the pulverizer. Wow. Taking off the top plate is really impressive.

SawBlaze by KO in 2:44. Wow. SawBlaze is making a run for the top seed this year, because that was an evisceration.

MadCatter driver Calvin Iba did get some revenge though, as his beetleweight Lynx defeated Jamison Go’s legendary Silent Spring both times they faced off en route to the Norwalk Havoc Robot League championship this past year.

That does it for this week. As for next week’s fights…

Free Shipping tries to not get its flamethrower blown up by Uppercut. (We’re pretty sure it will.)
In a battle of 1-0 hammer-type bots, Blacksmith takes on Shatter!, which will be running its sword!
Rookie Jäger debuts against the 1-0 P1, in an unfamiliar role as the favorite.
Hydra tries to bounce back from its opening loss as it takes on the 1-0 Gruff.
Beyblade fight! Gigabyte and Captain Shrederator square off in the full-body spinner battle.
Rookie Dragon Slayer tries to slay the frightening DUCK!
In the YouTube Exclusive, Valkyrie looks to bounce back against interesting newcomer Triple Crown.
Main Event: Defending champion End Game takes on 2019 runner-up Witch Doctor.

See you next week!