Not Ted Cruz.

Welcome back to the Champions Beat! Where the hunters are 3-0 against the hunted after Glitch managed to get Rotator to shear its own bottom plate off. It means there are two slots left to be claimed for the Golden Bolt tournament. Up for grabs? The bounty belonging to one of the toughest bots to kill around, Skorpios.

Skorpios had an inauspicious beginning. Originally an Orion Beach captained team after he helmed Wrecks the previous year, Skorpios appeared in the Bots Awaken rumbles of Season 2. Where Orion Beach promptly drove it straight into the screws where it got stuck. He tried to use the saw to free it by cutting through the screws and made some headway until the ref told him to please stop doing that. Fun fact, that was also our first appearance from Martin Mason who was on Team Think Tank with Bad Kitty, before taking his college crew to build MadCatter and become the Macho Man we love today. But yeah, that’s how Black Ice won that fight. Black Ice was not supposed to or expected to win that fight. Zachary Lytle and Diana Tarlson, members of Offbeat Robotics, took over the team in 2019 as captains, and then the following year the team split where half of the team kept the name and built HiJinx, including Jen Herchenroeder and Orion Beach, and half stayed on Skorpios. So, if you need the flowchart, Skorpios was an offshoot from Wrecks, and then Skorpios offshooted into HiJinx. It’s all connected in combat robotics.

However, Skorpios has also done some impressive things, like in its 2018 season. Four fights, four judges decisions, beating Lucky, Icewave (in an upset), and HyperShock (without its normal weaponry), losing only to Rotator, which sheared off its arm, hence the beating HyperShock without the weaponry. They would have qualified for the tournament, but again, lack of actual weapon arm. After a 2019 again just missing the tournament via loss to Lock-Jaw in the play-ins, Skorpios finally got in in 2020, losing to Witch Doctor in the first round (denying us of hammer saw on hammer saw violence). But, by codifying their 2018 breakout season, beating HyperShock in the bounty final and winning Icewave’s bounty, Skorpios, they earned their spot as gatekeeper here. Can the difficult to kill Skorpios actually defend its bounty? We’ll find out. To the fights!

Big Dill vs. Bloodsport
Big Dill: Did not compete in 2021; 2020: 1-2, did not qualify
Bloodsport: 2-1, #17 seed; lost to Minotaur in round of 32

Pickle lifter Big Dill didn’t compete this year in the main season. I’m guessing it was an alternate after last year. It did beat Atom #94 but admittedly they had problems throughout. Losses to Lock-Jaw and Rotator weren’t slouches though, so I can’t say it did poorly enough to warrant that. Meanwhile, Bloodsport had an uphill climb, starting off the season against Whiplash and falling on the Upper Deck. Wins against SubZero and Claw Viper salvaged the season, but it was a hard counter in Minotaur in the first round, so their tournament ended a little earlier than they would have liked.

Big Dill half-hearted the rush, seeing Bloodsport didn’t go the same way as them, and then got olé’d. Bloodsport made contact with the forks up Big Dill, sending both bots recoiling. Big Dill held steady and let Bloodsport go up the wedge, but you could see that was still also probably a bad call as Bloodsport got hits on the weapon and clipped a chain. It was going to be forks down for Big Dill here on out.

Sorry, forks down, in the screws. I don’t know if that was an attempted buttressing so Bloodsport would break its weapon on Big Dill’s rear, but this was a mistake as Bloodsport jammed Big Dill further in, then could just pick Big Dill apart by taking off a wheel guard.

Actually, that was it. Big Dill had a wheel off the ground to boot. Fight over, Bloodsport concludes by making Big Dill’s minibot go plaid halfway across the Box.

Bloodsport wins by KO in 50 seconds.

Deadlift vs. Blacksmith
Deadlift: 0-2, did not qualify
Blacksmith: 1-2, did not qualify

The Big Time Hammer™ returns! Though, again, hammer saw these days. Blacksmith would have been the 32 seed in all likelihood had it beaten Malice. But though the new weapon’s got more boom, as we saw against Free Shipping, still some kinks to work out, as seen against Shatter! which used the Mary Special on it and Malice, which actually worked for the full three minutes. Man, Al Kindle gets no luck.

Deadlift is tenacious, we’ll give it that. It competed in two bounties last year and actually managed to get a win over Jackpot. It did not win the rematch this year, and the fact it didn’t get a third fight after going 0-2 tells you how this year went.

Deadlift was going for Blacksmith’s arm, which was of course spinning up. This did not work, as Blacksmith was able to get under Deadlift and push it into the wall and start bringing the power hammer down. At first this wasn’t doing much but slowly and steadily the hits started to add up, and Deadlift’s drive was definitely diminished. Blacksmith was able to take Deadlift pretty much anywhere in wanted. The rails, the screws, the paddles—Deadlift couldn’t do much.

The referee said he’d count out Deadlift once Blacksmith was no longer engaging. I’m not sure why that warrants anything since you know then that Deadlift is out. But no, they stayed in the fight somehow, even if barely. Blacksmith came for one more hit before the buzzer and threw a weapon chain. Well, that might make it 10-1 instead of 11-0 now.

Blacksmith wins by unanimous decision.

Switchback vs. Lucky
Switchback: 1-2, did not qualify
Lucky: 2-1, #25 seed; lost to Copperhead in round of 32

Props to Switchback for a new design. Part hammer saw, part drum, the 180 degrees of motion means that it could be dangerous. The joints of the hinges, combined with the articulation being really slow, means it’s a little exposed. Or a lot exposed, as seen by the losses to Gruff and HUGE. But proof of concept.

Lucky should have gone 3-0. If they leave Tantrum on the rails in that first fight, they win it handily. But Marc Demers and not Braves first baseman Matt Olson got Tantrum off the rails to continue the fight, and as they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

The two bots circled, as Lucky was wise to not try and go to Switchback’s front. But Lucky doubled back and put its right side right in Switchback’s path of fire. And that direct hit locked up the drive, probably by jamming the wheel guard in there. Lucky went for a flip, missed, and the flipper jammed.

This is not helping my “Lucky should have gone 3-0” sentence from a paragraph ago.

Switchback got high centered on something and had to use its lifter to try and get off of it. Lucky started to smoke as it feebly turned in a circle. That would be considered inadequate movement and worthy of a count-out.

Switchback wins by KO in 55 seconds and gets to fight Blacksmith next. Lucky remains unlucky.

Blade vs. Kraken
Blade: 1-2, did not qualify
Kraken: 0-3, did not qualify

Okay, who’d Matt Spurk piss off? That’s three horizontal spinners in four fights after getting Rotator, HiJinx, and now Blade. And the fourth was Glitch, and we’ve seen what Glitch can do, the only one of the three to KO the stalwart Kraken. This frame has to be a Frankenframe, at best at this point.

Blade, meanwhile, got Skorpios as a first fight and that pretty much set the tone for the Korean bot’s BattleBots debut. They broke a blade against Lucky, and though they had a win against Dragon Slayer, that was nowhere near enough. So, neither of these bots had great luck. Oh, and the winner faces Bloodsport. So, continue the piss-poor luck!

Kraken slightly may have false started, but it’s okay, I guess. Nobody called it out, or they did and this was the edit. Either way, Kraken started by going up to Blade’s rear blow for the attempted bite. Blade proceeded to swing around and give Kraken a Joker scar, and slice into Wally. (No, not Wally!)

This actually took down one of Blade’s weapon belts, but Blade has multiple belts so it continued to attack. Kraken tried to corral Blade but this continued to be detrimental to the robot’s health, as Blade hit Kraken on the side, toppling it. Kraken self-righted and finally got a bite in on the plow. This was still a death or glory move, and mostly death. Blade kept damaging the upper jaw on Kraken while she bit the yellow bot, and though Kraken tried to push Blade to the pulverizer, the horizontal was able to rotate enough to shred Kraken’s tire and then hit the axle. Blade continued to tear into various parts of Kraken, culminating in the lower jaw wedge.

And yet, once again, you can’t kill Kraken. The fight went to the judges. Sure, it’s a cut and dry result.

Blade wins by unanimous decision.

This is also the last time we’ll see this iteration of Kraken, which is being retired… from BattleBots. If you go to Robot Ruckus in Florida you might get to see it. Will you see CE Robotics again? Yes, they’re working on a Kraken 2.

Well, after Artemis launches. BattleBots may not be rocket science, but that is the dude’s actual job. Fingers crossed that it all works.

Blade vs. Bloodsport
Well, this’ll be fun. Two very powerful horizontal spinners get to square off. And that’s always a recipe for fun and/or pain!

The two bots spun up, and Bloodsport was actually the one that left the starting square. You’d think that Blade would go in plow first, but this wasn’t the case. It spun up, and happened to turn the way Bloodsport was coming from so the first strike hit the wedge, but it definitely seemed a little less mobile from the strike. It was still mobile to use the wedge to take the second hit, which nearly toppled Bloodsport over.

Buuut it also basically took the wedge off its mounting to such an extent that it dipped below the robot, and the wheels on Blade are so small that they were no longer touching the ground. Essentially, Blade high-centered itself on its own wedge. Bloodsport’s not dumb enough to hit that wedge a third time, which might rip it off and be a lot of points, but would also potentially continue the fight. Not this time, at least. Fight over.

Bloodsport wins by KO in 38 seconds.

Switchback vs. Blacksmith
Well, we expected one of these robots to get here, as Blacksmith wailed on Deadlift for about 2:55. (The last few seconds or so was throwing a belt.) Switchback managed to get the exact right place to KO Lucky, which counts all the same. Blacksmith is a lot heartier than the Canadian bot though, so don’t expect that to happen again.

Switchback didn’t, as they spun away at the last second from Blacksmith going after the weapon, a solid olé before getting a nibble on the circling Blacksmith’s side. Blacksmith responded by getting under the weapon and shoving Switchback into the waiting pulverizer, which pinned Switchback as Blacksmith used its power hammer to… mostly hit the pulverizer, but also get that power hammer down the side of Switchback and take one of the chains operating the articulating arm. Blacksmith ran the forks under and flipped Switchback over, and at that point the question was whether Switchback could self-right. The answer was yes, though Blacksmith continued to punish it in the corner, trying to work on the other point.

Switchback was mobile but definitely not at 100%, unable to get out of the short corner. And Blacksmith could come back in and slice through the armor while Switchback was trying not to tip over. Blacksmith continued to use the pulverizer to pin and coordinate its own attacks.

Blacksmith let Switchback out of the corner enough to continue striking it with the power hammer, possibly to take it to the screws afterwards, but there was no need. That would do it.

Blacksmith wins by KO in 2:27.

Blacksmith vs. Bloodsport
As this is the bounty final, the winner gets Skorpios, of course.

For this fight, and probably against Skorpios if they got that far, Bloodsport had a new blade, known as the Ferrous Wheel. Basically, instead of an overhead bar, it acts more like an overhead disk, being both offensive and defensive against saw bots such as Blacksmith, Skorpios, or SawBlaze. Blacksmith forgoed its forks for a plow, the definite right thing to do in the situation.

The Ferrous Wheel almost immediately put a slice into Blacksmith’s plow, so that tells us that yes, the Ferrous Wheel’s pretty good. The second hit caught the plow a little more flush and flipped Blacksmith over, forcing it to self-right. It was the only thing it could use the power hammer for early on. With Bloodsport’s weapon spinning and offering that top protection, bringing it down would be considered a poor strategy. Blacksmith was absolutely going to have to wait and stop that weapon.

Blacksmith’s front was doing a good job of taking the hits, but ill-fortuned spins meant that even for a moment the rear was exposed and Bloodsport could do damage that way to the back and open up the armor there. Blacksmith needed a stop sooner rather than later on this one.

So, like SpongeBob, Blacksmith tried to floor it into Bloodsport. Either it would stop the weapon, or better, flip Bloodsport over, which would take time to get back up. It didn’t work too well since Blacksmith took more damage from it, but it did finally stop the weapon, where Blacksmith could finally bring the power hammer down multiple times in quick succession. It didn’t do a ton of damage though, but Bloodsport was definitely slowing down. Normally Bots ‘n’ Stuff try to cycle the spinner so it doesn’t overheat, and against Blacksmith that didn’t work quite as well. So Blacksmith could continue to pounce, taking Bloodsport to the screws, trying to get back points. Blacksmith had to back away to let the screws reverse and because of pin rules, but Bloodsport was still caught for Blacksmith to come in again.

Bloodsport finally got away as this fight had gotten a lot closer in the last 45 seconds or so, but Blacksmith had control of a spinning Bloodsport to take it to the wall and drop the power hammer…

…a little too early. And there went the power hammer. Disk gone, arm damaged… and then end of fight. Not the way you want to end it and if Blacksmith had closed the gap, it just unclosed.

It went to the judges, who surprisingly turned in a split decision.

Derek Young and Lisa Winter give it to Bloodsport, who wins by split decision and gets to fight Skorpios.

Golden Bolt Qualifier
Bloodsport vs. Skorpios
Skorpios: 1-2, #32 seed; lost in round of 32 to End Game

Well, fun fact, these two bots fought last year, and Bloodsport actually won by KO, a rare and impressive feat considering later that same season Skorpios tanked all of Tombstone’s blows en route to its own KO win.

Bloodsport was definitely going to go with the same weapon from the Blacksmith fight—it actually wasn’t the exact same, but it was the same circular concept, and it meant strategies were probably going to be similar. Skorpios came in to intercept Bloodsport while maintaining a centralized part of the arena, and it was going to be more of the same of making sure that Bloodsport would be unable to spin before going for anything.

Unlike Blacksmith, Skorpios actually got a stop to the weapon early on to drop the hammer saw into and score points. Mainly aggression and control. Into the wall, into the corner, Skorpios was working away in the early stages of this one.

But it only takes one, and the one was from the saw arm not coming back, leaving it wide open. Skorpios had to tank a blow afterwards and it immediately bent the arm. Now, Bloodsport was back in this because that damage would definitely outdo whatever Skorpios could. They’d pretty much have to almost sweep control and aggression now. They were still controlling, even when Bloodsport was spinning, using the arm more as a clamp now because that weapon was not going to weapon now.

The clamp worked though, as it was still above Bloodsport’s weapon to not take enough damage to shear it off, which would be even worse, though Bloodsport wasn’t really biting in much at this point. Skorpios nearly topped it over by ramming, and finally went for the scoop to put Bloodsport on the Upper Deck. Bloodsport got off, but Skorpios caught it in time to go for one final slam… but ran out of time. This would go to the judges.

I wish I could talk about this one in completion, but this is one where I only got to see clips and not the whole fight. But it was a split decision, between Bloodsport bending the arm and Skorpios controlling the fight.

And… Skorpios wins the split decision and becomes the first bot of 2021 to defend its bounty, joining the three champions (Tombstone, End Game, and Tantrum) and three earlier bounty hunters (HyperShock, Ribbot, and Glitch) in the Golden Bolt tournament. One spot remains.

Whose is it? It’s very obviously Witch Doctor’s, process of elimination. Who’ll take them on? Surprisingly not every quarterfinalist that isn’t Tantrum or Witch Doctor since they’d be in farther.

We’ll go over that bracket, however, next week. We’ll see you then.