Welcome back to the Beat! Last week we had minor controversies, but hold onto your butts for this week. We got some doozies, headlined by this week’s Main Event. Let’s just get to it. Onto the fights!

Ripperoni vs. End Game
Ripperoni: 0-1 (L, JD 3-0 vs. Gruff)
End Game: 1-0 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Blip)

Well, on paper this doesn’t look all that promising. End Game looked every bit as invincible as normal dispatching Blip. Well, except for the part where the weapon jammed. But those forks provided zero purchase for the flipper to, you know, flip.

Meanwhile, Ripperoni did, uh, not. The rear flywheel wasn’t working, so all that attempted gyro stability? Yeah, that was non-existent as Ripperoni bounced around the Box. So, stability would be a good progress against a former champion and preseason #1.

End Game went with its long forks, knowing that Ripperoni would have the reach advantage but not the stability. Not to be outdone, Ripperoni went with… plastic forks. Absolutely brilliant.

Not absolutely brilliant? End Game immediately getting its leftmost fork stuck in a killsaw slot, and jammed way up in there. So, uh, yeah, fight over?

Ripperoni came in for a hit, which still didn’t get End Game out of the slot, and already a potential countdown. By the way, that first hit already bent the right side rail of End Game, so yes, Ripperoni can do damage.

They were able to get End Game out by a push from the back sending End Game into the air and back onto the weapon. And again, yes, Ripperoni hits hard, you can see the damage to End Game’s back rail now.

Not only that but all this damage and warping had knocked away almost all the forks on End Game, so yeah, that really hadn’t worked out. Because it meant that End Game didn’t have the leverage anymore and Ripperoni had the reach advantage, so every time it was End Game getting turned away, the distance of the Box in some cases.

End Game wasn’t beaten yet though, and was able to get enough to the side to get Ripperoni over, and they had to get that big right wheel damaged on Ripperoni. But the tossing pizza found a way to once again get right, and hey, 250 lbs. spinning like that is still intimidating.

Both bots were feeling the effects of everything as that right wheel was hanging on precariously, but End Game suddenly just came to a stop. It looked like they got high-centered, maybe on themselves considering the damage to that back rail.

Ripperoni wins by KO in 1:37. They get HiJinx next, while End Game will try to lick its wounds against HyperShock. That’s BattleBots, Suzyn.

Switchback vs. Death Roll
Switchback: 1-0 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Banshee)
Death Roll: 0-1 (L, KO 1:27 vs. Cobalt)

Switchback didn’t exactly impress in its first fight, even if that was a win. This is opposed to Death Roll, which impressively took a punch, but then had to take several more from Cobalt, and that never ends well. Biggest thing that’s changed in the last few years? The ground game meta. It’s something Death Roll does not have.

The good news is, due to Switchback’s weapon, it doesn’t have that kind of meta-defining wedge/forks either, and the two bots going weapon to weapon was indeed weapon to weapon. And Switchback got in a solid hit, sending Death Roll back.

And then its weapon stopped and Death Roll took over, flipping it over, then taking out a weapon belt, then otherwise working on Switchback, whose weapon was only spinning now because the Aussie spinner was imparting energy on it. The arm wasn’t moving at this point, and after a pulverizer pin Death Roll finished off with removing one of the forks from that arm. The croc gets a victim.

Death Roll wins by KO in 1:44. They’ll get Mammoth next (make your prehistoric jokes now) while Switchback faces Ominous.

Captain Shrederator vs. HiJinx
Captain Shrederator: 0-1 (L, KO 2:38 vs. Quantum)
HiJinx: 1-0 (W, KO 1:52 vs. Big Dill)

Captain Shrederator had what on paper was either a really promising or really rough fight against Quantum. It was the latter as Quantum turned it into a salt shaker.

HiJinx had a win against Big Dill, but it wasn’t the most convincing and strongest. For one, the weapon stopped and it got flipped. Against other robots that could be a death sentence, but it was able to get away with it against Big Dill.

I’m a little surprised HiJinx didn’t lead with the rear tail as an attempt to box rush. However, considering Shrederator started by veering right into the screws by the Upper Deck, never mind. The two bots met in a good pop, sending Shrederator skyward and seemingly immediately killing the weapon. As Chris Rose pointed out, the shell looked uneven.

And yet, HiJinx wasn’t spinning up either, instead using the tail. This had become a pushing match, which would a place exactly neither of these robots want to be. HiJinx had the edge, pushing Shrederator to the short corner, but all they could really due to punish the spinner was gingerly push it into the wall. There was some intermittent spinning, but that’s not exactly going to do anything.

Whatever Brian Nave asked what Shrederator’s spinner was jammed on, it unjammed, because midway through the fight Shrederator’s shell started spinning again. Meanwhile, now it was HiJinx in trouble as it twitched for a second to turn, then stopped again. HiJinx’s tail prevented a clean pass at the wheels, but apart from the most occasional twitch, there was nothing going on with HiJinx. And the twitches were far enough apart that they weren’t counting.

Captain Shrederator wins by KO in 2:22. Convincing? No. Win? Yes. They get Riptide next, while HiJinx faces Ripperoni.

Rotator vs. Jackpot
Rotator: 0-1 (L, KO 1:24 vs. Hydra)
Jackpot: 0-1 (L, KO 0:55 vs. Skorpios)

Both of these bots need wins. A completely rebuilt Rotator had radio problems in their opener, and that would be a problem against anyone, let alone Hydra. It went as expected. The weapon’s running at half power still. Meanwhile, Jackpot lost their first Fight Night fight ever to Skorpios and their srimech/lifter.

Also, this is a rematch of a Season 5 tournament fight, where Rotator won due to the lack of Jackpot srimech, since they took it off in exchange for a plow. The plow did not go well, clearly.

Rotator tried to be as diversionary as possible. Forks or weapon? Jackpot responded by lifting its, uh, lifter, to try and give their weapon as much purchase as possible, and got the opening hit on Rotator’s side. But Rotator responded with its patented whiparound move and scored hit after hit on Jackpot, though it definitely looked like those were flecks of gold, not red, coming off after the impacts. Rotator continued to drive tactically and caught the right angle to tear away Jackpot’s right wedgelet/plow, and now Rotator was feeling it a whole lot more, trying to get the wheels on Jackpot now, as the vert was hobbled but still mobile. More importantly, the heart-shaped weapon was still spinning on Jackpot, so Rotator, though picking and popping, still had to be careful. Rotator got under Jackpot, but wasn’t able to get the weapon to the underbelly, but it didn’t seem to matter as Jackpot’s weapon had stopped. Rotator took a shot from the killsaws, but Jackpot giving chase seemed to stop right there. The killsaws helped try to move it but they wouldn’t quite do it as it had all locked up for Jackpot, and that would do it.

Rotator wins by KO in 2:49. They’ll fight Bloodsport next in a battle of horizontal spinners, while Jackpot will be in must-win mode vs. another 0-2 bot, Ribbot.

Big Dill vs. Skorpios
Big Dill: 0-1 (L, KO 1:52 vs. HiJinx)
Skorpios: 1-0 (W, KO 0:55 vs. Jackpot)

After not doing so against HiJinx, Big Dill finally gets to show off its new toy! It’s a vertical spinner. I’d say they can’t all be verts, but they’re doing a damn good job of trying.

Skorpios doesn’t have that kind of fancy new toy. Just the same old toys, but those old toys aren’t too bad. It got a rare KO win over Jackpot, so that’s always nice forth the normally stalwart hammer-saw.

Regardless this would be a control battle, as Big Dill got the initial grab but only for a split-second before Skorpios got away. Skorpios responded with a shot on Big Dill’s forks, but this time Big Dill escaped before serious damage as the two bots jostled and turned. Skorpios was wheelieing a little bit and went over Big Dill once, but the lifter couldn’t convert.

It converted when Skorpios wheelied right in front of it, sending Skorpios the rest of the way over weapon-first, and then Big Dill followed up (okay, some seconds later) with a shot that sent Skorpios rolling, as it continued to wheelie around more than keeping the front down and being composed as Big Dill started to control the fight.

Aaaaand then it just died. Ooof. This was shaping up to be the second-biggest upset of the night too. Skorpios got a gimme hit on the top armor before backing off.

Skorpios wins by KO in 1:26, a bit of a steal really. They’ve got the sawbot showdown with SawBlaze next. Big Dill, 0-2, definitely needs a win over MadCatter—they’re not getting in at 1-3.

Banshee vs. Valkyrie
Banshee: 0-1 (L, JD 3-0 vs. Switchback)
Valkyrie: 1-0 (W, KO 1:45 vs. Mammoth)

David Small, one of the many Davids of Team Malice, branched out this year with Banshee, the closest thing in the field we’ve got to a Brit flipper, because for some reason Orion was excluded. Unfortunately Banshee got a total of one flip in against Switchback and lost that decision.

New-look Valkyrie performed well enough against Mammoth, though getting stuck on the tusk the first time meant that new captain/driver Lucy Du was maybe a little bit hesitant. Hey, still got the KO. For this fight Valkyrie sports… a lance.

Banshee box rushed, and the box rush actually knocked a little piece off of Valkyrie, which if I remember from past seasons is supposed to help keep it upright. And lo and behold, Banshee follows up with a flip to get Valkyrie over. Another flip from Banshee didn’t get it over, and so overhead Valkyrie, similar to overhead HiJinx, had some problems.

Another flip by Banshee tore the lance off, while, again, keeping Valkyrie inverted, where it has a lot more issues. Valkyrie had to spin down in order to move. Meanwhile, somehow, Banshee was having driving issues. Partially due to getting stuck in a killsaw slow briefly. It gave Valkyrie a chance to do some more damage, but they decided to hang back.

Time ran out on this one, and for the first time… we have a split decision. Fon Davis and Derek Young score this one for… Banshee, your winner by split decision.

Well, there’s your second-biggest upset of the night. Banshee gets to face Emulsifier next, while Valkyrie gets Malice.

Main Event: Hydra vs. Tantrum
Hydra: 1-0 (W, KO 1:24 vs. Rotator)
Tantrum: 0-1 (L, KO 1:20 vs. Minotaur)

Jake Ewert will go to his grave believing that Hydra should have advanced to the finals against Witch Doctor, and considering a win over the bot in a past, could very well have been the one hoisting the Giant Nut at the end. With the rules of last year, he certainly had a case, and now we have clarifications of “What is aggression?” and potential appealing of fight decisions. So, once again, Jake’s done something to add to the rulebook. Call him a regular Jim Smentowski, but that was more “Oh, shit, robots are dangerous and we don’t want to kill the audience.”

Tantrum has a massive chip on its shoulder right about now. 0-1, and a grudge match to boot. Sure, it’s one of the few bots that could go 1-3 and still make it, but it’d like to, you know, not do that. The long forks are out for this one.

Hydra went straight ahead, right into those long forks of Tantrum, which immediately fired a shot to the underbelly, then on the next exchange went for the flipper tongue, hitting the front twice. First things first, Tantrum’s forks were winning the ground game. Hydra was able to answer though and repel Tantrum with a flip, but the srimech proved fully functional and was able to get away from a stalking Hydra. Tantrum nearly got themselves caught in the killsaw slot, but good spotting by co-captain Alex Grant combined with Dillon Carey’s driving got the champ out of harm’s way.

Tantrum worked the sides before getting under and hitting the access point and O-ring on Hydra. And that underbody hit is what did it, just like the fight against Witch Doctor. That actually cut the O-ring in a way that Hydra started leaking its hydraulic fluid.

Second verse, even more definitive than the first. Tantrum wins the rematch, this time by KO in 1:57. Desperate little sister Blip awaits. For Hydra, they’ll face Free Shipping.

Phew. We’ve got an Upset of the Year candidate, so I can just pencil that in. And we have a main event in Minotaur-Cobalt, so that’s exciting. Okay. That’s everything. See you next week!