Welcome back to the Beat, where we time crunch the important stuff. Whoops. Anyway, the bubble is starting to take shape. Who’ll be in, who’ll be out, and who’ll be freaking out the entire time? We start finding out now. To the fights!

Lock-Jaw vs. MadCatter
Lock-Jaw: 2-1 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Malice; L, KO 2:36 vs. SawBlaze; W, KO 0:52 vs. Glitch)
MadCatter: 2-1 (W, KO 1:57 vs. Whiplash; L, KO 1:01 vs. Riptide; W, JD 3-0 vs. Big Dill)
Obviously, with both bots at 2-1 and losses to bots currently 3-0 (we’ll see about SawBlaze going 4-0), these two are in pretty good shape. A win cements them as in, while a loss will have some sweating but as far as the 2-2 bots go, they’ll still be in decent shape. For Lock-Jaw, this is a whole lot better than last year’s debacle, and rumors of Donald Hutson’s bot’s demise look to be premature.

And what do you know, this is our fight of the week.

So, Lock-Jaw wins by KO just under the buzzer at 2:59 in a barnburner. I’m gonna blame it on Martin Mason’s haiku not being 5-7-5. I mean, he had something there if he flipped and reworked the first two lines. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but it was chaotic. I think MadCatter was getting high-centered on something?

Gruff vs. Malice
Gruff: 1-2 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Ripperoni; L, KO 2:52 vs. Quantum; L, KO 1:35 vs. Witch Doctor)
Malice: 2-1 (L, JD 3-0 vs. Lock-Jaw; W, KO 1:52 vs. Emulsifier; W, JD 3-0 vs. Valkyrie)
This could be a bubble battle. I mean Gruff’s 1-2 and yes, the one win was against Ripperoni, but that was when Ripperoni’s counter-flywheel didn’t work and we just watched bounce all over the place. The normally stalwart Gruff’s lost twice by KO, though to tourney-bound bots.

Malice’s 2-1 campaign is kind of the opposite. The loss to Lock-Jaw doesn’t sting, but the win against Emulsifier was a bit pyrrhic and they won because Emulsifier high-centered itself, and Valkyrie hasn’t been Valkyrie this year. I still have no idea how the judges originally called that fight for Valkyrie, but the appeal was successful and Malice got the W, eventually.

As for this one, Malice’s forks did useful things from the get-go, getting under Gruff with minimal trouble at the start and doing damage to the back. Gruff was able to respond though and get the lifter under and flamethrower working for the full time allotment. Since Gruff had to let go of its pin, it did, by putting Malice in the Upper Deck screws, which put it on the shelf. Malice was able to get away and get off and reset.

This meant Malice could spin up and went the bots met head to head, took a piece out of Gruff’s front wedge, and it was hurting. Another big hit from Malice, and Gruff was out.

Malice wins by KO in 1:30. Let that erase any doubts—Malice is in.

Doomba vs. Dragon King
Doomba: 0-1 (L, KO vs. Double Tap)
Dragon King: 0-0
It’s another exhibition fight! We’ve seen Doomba, and everybody should love Doomba. Even if it did absolutely minimal against Double Tap.

We have not seen Dragon King, but if it looks like a similar concept to Red Devil you’d be right. Jerome Myles, who initially built Red Devil, famous for its Season 2 upset of Witch Doctor, built Dragon King for Chinese show King of Bots. And if those people in the dragon skulls seem familiar, you’d also be right, as it’s Zachary Lytle and Diana Tarlson, as Dragon King is currently owned and operated by the Skorpios team. (No word on if they break either bot out for Bot Bash parties.) It looks cool, but how good is it? Let’s find out.

Doomba started off… by driving right into the Upper Deck screws with its undercutter. Which might have immediately killed the undercutter. Dragon King, jaw first, bit in and tried to bring the saws down. The first worked, but the second was repelled by the working (yay!) chainsaw. It didn’t chainsaw though, just broke the hold. Dragon King took some time to reset before another hold and slice, setting some more sparks before eventually putting Doomba under the pulverizer, where it knocked stuff off the chainsaw, I don’t even know what. Doomba did something useful with its chainsaw, taking off one of Dragon King’s chains for its saw. But this fight was never in doubt.

Dragon King wins by unanimous decision.

Claw Viper vs. HyperShock
Claw Viper: 3-0 (W, KO 2:46 vs. Ominous; W, JD 3-0 vs. Ribbot; W, JD 3-0 vs. Overhaul)
HyperShock: 1-2 (L, JD* vs. SawBlaze; W, KO 1:48 vs. Whiplash; L, KO 2:37 vs. End Game)

Well, if you told me one of these robots is a lock to make it in preseason, I would have said defending Most Destructive HyperShock managed to get a win over SawBlaze and Whiplash and probably lost to End Game. I’d be wrong on account of losing to SawBlaze, so, yeah, they could use a win. Is this make or break though? Not necessarily.

Hey Claw Viper, you’re the red square bot against HyperShock. That counts for something. Going 3-0’ll do that. Nobody expected that one! But a win here and a top-8 seed is almost guaranteed.

Claw Viper, the faster of the two, and it’s rare you say that with HyperShock, went for the rush, but missed with the rush and the ensuing clamp, meaning that HyperShock could pop it up and over with its first hit. While Claw Viper self-righted, HyperShock was in a place to meet it and continue with a two-hit combo to send Claw Viper onto the screws and keep the pressure on. And the onslaught continued off the screws culminating in a big flip that sent Claw Viper from one corner to the other. Claw Viper’s arm was cockeyed and the bot was twitching but not moving.

HyperShock wins by KO in 1:19. That’s gonna see them in.

Free Shipping vs. Big Dill
Free Shipping: 1-2 (W, KO 2:01 vs. Gigabyte; L, KO 2:01 vs. Minotaur; L, JD 3-0 vs. Hydra)
Big Dill: 0-3 (L, KO 1:52 vs. HiJinx; L, KO 1:26 vs. Skorpios; L, JD 3-0 vs. MadCatter)
Out of these two bots only Free Shipping has a chance to move onto the tournament. And they’ll need a win, because a 2-2 Free Shipping with losses to Minotaur and Hydra sounds pretty okay!

Big Dill has, dare I say, found itself? Sure, nothing to show, but that fight against MadCatter was close and could have gone either way. It won’t make the tournament but if there’s a robot that could surprise and win a fight or two in whatever Golden Bolt format exists, they’re one of those on the list.

Free Shipping went for the “charge and see what happens” approach. Bond flip, Casino Royale-style. As in, did not work, though it looked cool with the flames. Big Dill’s new vertical attachment had the early momentum as a partial result of this as the forks were getting in under the wedge and the disk was hitting enough to keep turning Free Shipping around. Or, they were working in tandem, forks getting under and a slight lift, and then the disk hitting.

Free Shipping finally got some time with its wedge getting under, but the killsaw slot thwarted the attack. It also meant that Big Dill’s not-minibot (because it had a weapon), Chili Pepper could catch up and land a hit disrupting Free Shipping just enough as it charged ahead that it went right up the forks, and the disk, and flew through the air. Was Free Shipping okay? Yes. Was that a big hit? Also yes. Free Shipping came back and knocked Big Dill on its side and its weapon (yes, Free Shipping’s legally a weapon weapon) knocked off an armor panel, but then started to smoke. Guest commentator Nick Mabey of End Game said it may have been a belt, but that didn’t quite look like the little puff of belt smoke. But I haven’t built a champion heavyweight, so I’ll go with him. Regardless, the fight continued until Big Dill got a perfect lift to put Free Shipping on its side, just enough off the rail to not drive. But it was a blue-controlled pulverizer, so the hammer to try and pin it tipped it over. But continuing to work and either Free Shipping got stuck or it was actually immobilized. Well, that’s a count-out.

Big Dill gets the KO in 2:09 and stops Free Shipping’s tournament run before it can begin.

Shreddit Bro vs. Lucky
Shreddit Bro: 1-1 (W, JD 3-0 vs. Horizon; L, JD 3-0 vs. Ominous)
Lucky: 2-0 (W, KO 1:12 vs. Triton; W, JD 3-0 vs. Kraken)
Lucky’s been sneaky effective the last two years, only losing in the Fight Night rounds to Tantrum, and that was partially because Lucky let them off the rails. A win here and it’s 3-0 pending a fight against Cobalt, which should be interesting.

Shreddit Bro has unfortunately followed with the same issues as Pain Train. So, minimal luck at the scale up for the Staten Island crew.

Shreddit Bro went right up Lucky’s wedge and had a small flip as penalty. And then Lucky just stalked, looking for the opening. Eventually it found the opening by the blue square and into the screws. The screws went back and forth trying to get Shreddit Bro out, but no luck, as it balanced on the drum in the slot. Nothing to do there.

Lucky wins by KO in 1:15, and a big fight against Cobalt awaits. Shreddit Bro fights Overhaul in the finale, and even with a win, I think it would be one of the 2-2 bots passed over for a strong 3-loss bot.

Main Event: Hydra vs. SawBlaze
Hydra: 2-1 (W, KO 1:24 vs. Rotator; L, KO 1:57 vs. Tantrum; W, JD 3-0 vs. Free Shipping)
SawBlaze: 3-0 (W, JD* 3-0 vs. HyperShock; W, KO 2:36 vs. Lock-Jaw; W, KO 0:49 vs. Skorpios)
Now this is a main event. As far as bots who need the ground game go, these are two of them. Hydra followed up its loss to the defending champ by flipping Free Shipping approximately eleventy billion times. SawBlaze hasn’t lost yet and has actually never had an undefeated fight card, so it’s looking for some personal history, and in my opinion, a case for the #2 seed. (The 1-seed being the winner of Witch Doctor–Minotaur.)

How low are these bots? So low that they engaged in synchronized seam-hitting. And out of the two, SawBlaze hit it harder/worse because Hydra won the low man (eh, doesn’t count, nor does the other). Best-laid plans…

Both bots were trying to go around whatever seams they could find, and the curl in the fork was definitely not great for SawBlaze (1). This meant SawBlaze had to get to the sides to get the saw in, but Jamison Go overcorrected and Jake Ewert moved Hydra in to get a big flip (2) which landed forks down. This actually bent the plow base on SawBlaze due to the leverage on the forks hitting the floor (source: SawBlaze). And also was right where Hydra was (3). But yeah, damage flippers do is thanks to impulse and gravity, remember. As a result the whole front was bent on SawBlaze so the backhand approach was next. It did a little, but just glanced off Hydra, in which case it was about timing (4) as SawBlaze self-righted back onto the wedge (5) and then re-self-righted (6).

SawBlaze couldn’t drive at full bore, and you could see it wasn’t quite crabbing, but it was a similar concept. Occasionally a tine could get under but it wasn’t anything to really turn the tide. The forks couldn’t get under so it was a pin and let go (7). Finally SawBlaze could bring it down once or twice, but it was reversed (8) as it seemed like this would be more of a war of attrition for SawBlaze (9). They were winning a little more though, probably trying to line up a shot on the flipper itself. But just missing and eventually still paying (10). SawBlaze was stuck on the wall for a lineup (11) and it looked like the dragon might have been a bit cockeyed, or the arm was dead. The count-out started, and got to 2, and… Hydra flipped it back over to a side where the arm could get SawBlaze back over (12). I guess it was due to the angle of everything? Regardless, fight back on! (13) It meant that the fight would go to the judges because SawBlaze could still drive, and we were in the final ten seconds, so Hydra (14) gave SawBlaze a JD instead. Where it victory-spun and landed right in the same spot. Well then, now we know!

I mean yes, Hydra wins by unanimous decision.

With that, I believe there are three weeks left and the bracket starts to fill. SawBlaze at 3-1 probably won’t get a top-4 seed, so who will go 4-0? Copperhead’ll try next week against Ripperoni, so see you then.