This is it. Eight bots, seven fights, three rounds of competition, and at the end, someone walks away with the Giant Nut for the first time in their career. Who will it be? Well, we have seven teams that everyone would be happy to see, and also Riptide, who at worst will be on the short list for some hardware, because after we see who walks away with the Giant Nut, we can have some postseason predictions, because…

This is not going to be me signing off for this season’s BattleBots. Over the summer Champions II will air, as everyone tries to knock off End Game for the Golden Bolt. Afterwards we’ll be able to see the official awards and the Beaties, but not until after Champions. As for the Giant Nut, to the fights!

(1) Minotaur vs. (8) SawBlaze
Minotaur: (W, KO 1:53 vs. Tantrum; W, KO 2:01 vs. Free Shipping; W, KO 2:54 vs. Cobalt; W, JD 3-0 vs. Witch Doctor; R32-W, KO 0:42 vs. Fusion; R16-W, JD 3-0 vs. Malice)
SawBlaze: (W, JD* 3-0 vs. HyperShock; W, KO 2:36 vs. Lock-Jaw; W, KO 0:49 vs. Skorpios; L, JD 3-0 vs. Hydra; R32-W, JD 3-0 vs. Blip; R16-W, KO 2:08 vs. Monsoon)

We start with a marquee matchup of two of the three bots that, for my money, are the most “due” to win it all.

The top seed, Minotaur, has made the quarterfinals every year it’s competed, including last season’s controversial quarterfinal against Witch Doctor. So, that’s 4/4, two semifinals, and one of them culminated in a championship appearance, a loss to Bite Force back in WC 3. So this is really where the season starts for RioBotz. They’ve won a Most Destructive (waaaay back in Season 2), and if there were still a Giant Bolt for Best Driver Daniel Freitas probably would’ve won one by now. And here, it’s finally culminated in a perfect regular season and the top overall seed and, presumably, the inside track to win it all.

SawBlaze gets a little farther seemingly every year. From Season 2, where it got hosed in a split decision against Razorback (because the rules that year were heavily, heavily skewed towards using your primary weapon, and SawBlaze’s saw broke from the first hit it dished out, so even though it pushed Razorback around… it got nothing for it—there is a reason why the rules were scaled back). The next season, it made the tournament, in the top 16, and since then it’s gotten to the quarters, and last year, the semis, also losing to Witch Doctor. Can Jamison Go and team do one fight better?

This is, of course, a rematch of a Season 6 fight, the first of the season, where SawBlaze scooped Minotaur up, got it to flip over, and landed a battery shot from the get-go. This time, as the highlighted fight of the finale…

…was no exception, as Jamison Go can drop the hammer-saw with surgical precision. The big difference? Minotaur was still working, and still delivered hit after hit to SawBlaze. I have no idea how these Brazilian robots do it, they can be on fire and still deliver all these shots to SawBlaze, and actually disable the weapon, while on fire. That shot where Minotaur flipped over SawBlaze and it managed to roll back over? If the flexing mechanism had been taken out, that’s a fight ender. But it wasn’t, and so the fight continued until the flames finally overcame Minotaur. Juuust in the nick of time if you’re SawBlaze, because this could have very well swung the other way in the eyes of the judges.

SawBlaze wins by KO in 2:53. Minotaur is in yet another Fight of the Year nominee, though this is in a losing effort. SawBlaze continues its streak of either making it as far or improving on past seasons.

(3) Witch Doctor vs. (6) HUGE
Witch Doctor: (W, KO 1:15 vs. Ribbot; W, JD 2-1 vs. Fusion; W, KO 1:35 vs. Gruff; L, JD 3-0 vs. Minotaur; R32-W, KO 2:21 vs. Jackpot; R16-W, KO 0:57 vs. Lock-Jaw)
HUGE: (W, KO 2:00 vs. Shatter!; W, JD 3-0 vs. Blip; W, KO 0:44 vs. Fusion; W, JD 3-0 vs. Starchild; R32-W, KO 1:00 vs. Skorpios; R16-W, JD 3-0 vs. MadCatter)

It’s rare the higher-seeded robot, at these high statures, has the worse record, but that’s the case here. Witch Doctor’s the third of the short list of three I mentioned as the most “due” in the Minotaur–SawBlaze fight. Witch Doctor is one of three robots to make multiple championship final fights. The others are Tombstone (Seasons 1-2) and Bite Force (Seasons 1, 3-4). Those two both have Giant Nuts. Witch Doctor is looking for the third time as the charm, and the only bot in the field that it lost to this season (Minotaur) is out.

HUGE was nearly retired after last season. Oodles of terrible matchups called “Hey, let’s put the big robots together!” or Whiplash nearly did him in, but Jonathan Schulz and team decided for potentially one more try at the ol’ apple. I’d say it was a good decision, as one of the few bots to go 4-0 this year and actually get matchups in the meta it was supposed to break, such as Blip, Fusion, and MadCatter. Shatter! and Skorpios were potentially tricky fights, but now the meta-breaker gets the robot that’s arguably queen of the meta, as the last pure 4WD vertical disk in the tourney. (The drums and eggbeaters are meta-adjacent and potentially the new meta, but we’re talking four-wheel drive vertical disks here.)

Witch Doctor didn’t go wide, like we expected. Instead went and tried to rush to stop HUGE’s blade and use its torque to push HUGE. However, their weapon was already out as HUGE hit the weapon hub. Jonathan Schulz pretty much said this would happen, and Mike Gellatly, for all his strategy, sometimes just decides “Fuck it, go for their weapon.” Most of the time this does work for Witch Doctor, but this was not one of those times. HUGE caught the side of Witch Doctor, then sent it flying. Witch Doctor was fine, but one side of ribcage was gone, ripped off. No innards were exposed because they have armor under the ribs, but this was less than ideal. Now they were going to have to break HUGE’s weapon, somehow, but HUGE wasn’t letting them, because it seemed like they were going back for the intermittent move again, similar to what they had done against MadCatter, due to all the damage they’d done to Witch Doctor. Damage was a win. They’d spin up here and there to show functionality, but it was now just playing to the clock, spinning the wheels around to also try and repel Witch Doctor’s pushes. So, there wasn’t very much Witch Doctor could do. I would say there could have been a little too much of it by HUGE and it could have backfired if the judges gave all the aggression and control points to Witch Doctor, but with a dead weapon after the first shot it’s tough to sweep it.

HUGE wins by unanimous decision and is a first-time semifinalist.

(4) Hydra vs. (28) Ribbot
Hydra: (W, KO 1:24 vs. Rotator; L, KO 1:57 vs. Tantrum; W, JD 3-0 vs. Free Shipping; W, JD 3-0 vs. SawBlaze; R32-W, JD 3-0 vs. Death Roll; R16-W, KO 1:31 vs. Whiplash)
Ribbot: (L, KO 1:15 vs. Witch Doctor; L, JD 3-0 vs. Claw Viper; L, JD 3-0 vs. Jackpot; W, KO 2:15 vs. Skorpios; R32-W, KO 1:28 vs. Quantum; R16-W, KO 2:14 vs. Black Dragon)

Hey, it’s another rematch! This time it’s of last year’s first round, where 31st seed Hydra upset 2nd-seeded Ribbot. This time, the seeds are nearly flipped, and Ribbot is going with its forks and vertical configuration instead of the undercutter, which didn’t work last time.

For Hydra, it’s another quarterfinal appearance, but Jake Ewert won’t be satisfied until he wins the family’s second Giant Nut, and flips a bot that stays in the rafters. Death Roll might have licked the ceiling, but it has nothing on HyperShock’s roof shot, and I’m sure that pisses him off, kayfabe heel or not.

Ribbot was probably 90 seconds away from going 0-4 and definitely not making the tournament, but turned the tables on Skorpios to earn the chance to go on this run, beating a robot that had gone undefeated (Quantum) and getting revenge from two years ago (Black Dragon). I’m still surprised they were seeded 28th, ahead of Jackpot (which was seeded 30th, despite being 2-2). But regardless, the underfrog is in the quarterfinals for the second time in three years, both times seeded 20th or lower. As mentioned, the modular bot would this time be going with its vertical setup because the undercutter didn’t work against Hydra last time.

The bots came out hot, like two Metapods or championship boxing. Which is to say, the two bots stared each other down, fork to fork. Hydra hit a seam, and then a second, as they felt each other out. Hydra would fire as a bait move (like against Whiplash) but nothing was really going on. Ribbot was drawing sparks for a split second, but again, nothing going on.

A mini-flip, and Hydra looked like at the least it would win the ground game, but then Jake Ewert turned when he shouldn’t, showed Hydra’s side, and paid for it, as that’s when Ribbot struck.

And just like that, the drive was damaged, and another flurry from Ribbot, and that was it.

Ribbot wins by KO in 2:39, where the first minute or so was dead air. They’ll be taking on SawBlaze in the semis.

(2) Riptide vs. (10) Copperhead
Riptide: (W, KO 0:47 vs. Glitch; W, KO 1:01 vs. MadCatter; W, KO 1:09 vs. Captain Shrederator; W, KO 1:01 vs. Black Dragon; R32-W, KO 1:56 vs. Shatter!; R16-W, KO 1:17 vs. HyperShock)
Copperhead: (W, KO 0:35 vs. Bloodsport; W, JD* 3-0 vs. Triton; W, KO 1:26 vs. Kraken; L, KO 0:44 vs. Ripperoni; R32-W, JD 3-0 vs. Rotator; R16-W, JD 3-0 vs. End Game)

What is there that hasn’t been said about Riptide? Well good, so I don’t have to repeat myself as we have BREAKING NEWS. Okay, it’s not that breaking since this filmed in October, but you know what I mean.

Anyway the news is: captain and driver Ethan Kurtz pinged positive for covid this day of filming, so he had to quarantine. So, he’s out, and driving will be Felix Jing, a Vex Robotics champion driver. So he has experience driving robots in a high-pressure setting. However, Vex is not a full-contact (robotic) sport, so he’s stepping into a whole new world with zero stick time.

Even prior to learning about Ethan, Luke Quintal of Copperhead wanted to go weapon on weapon with Riptide, because he believed they could break it. Bold words going up against the power that Riptide’s been putting out, but now’s the put up or shut up time, right? Plus, it worked against End Game.

Riptide rushed and sent Copperhead to the Upper Deck, flipping it and keeping it in the short corner. This was punctuated by a wall shot, where Copperhead got maybe a third or halfway up. Definitely not the same roof shot that HyperShock compounded. So Riptide had delivered some big hits.

I say had because it wasn’t going to deliver any more of them this fight, as the mighty eggbeater had been split in half.

Riptide was now resorting to trying to push, and was actually getting the low push, but Copperhead trying to grind away. The torque on Riptide was winning out but they hit a weird angle and managed to flip themselves. Though Riptide could drive inverted on two wheels, with the weapon out of commission, they were not going to be able to flip themselves back. So Copperhead could finally get to the rails, and earn the control points by working methodically through the fight, preventing it from getting too chaotic. They did eventually flip Riptide back over, so the pushing match continued.

And then Copperhead lost the right wheel. So with 30 seconds left, it was back to a toss-up as it went to the judges. I’ll get in on it too.

Damage: Totally disabled weapon vs. wheel falling off, but there was also some fork damage to Riptide. It’s definitely 3-2. In the rulebook, “Damage causing seriously reduced mobility should count more than damage to a weapon system.” And Copperhead was crabwalking. But this was entirely eliminating the weapon functionality as opposed to reduced functionality of the drive. So I guess 3-2 Copperhead.
Aggression: 2-1 Copperhead, as it was able to push and chase with its primary weapon once Riptide’s broke.
Control: 2-1 Riptide, as though Copperhead initiated, Riptide was able to repel and push back Copperhead at times, including pins.

I’m expecting a split decision. And I’m right!

Lisa Winter-Copperhead
Derek Young-Riptide
Fon Davis-Copperhead

Copperhead wins by split decision. Props to Felix Jing, btw. Though, I’d disagree with co-captain Sid Prabhakaran on facing a lot of adversity. Yes, your captain testing positive for covid is adversity. But the other stuff? I don’t think shooting yourself in the foot is adversity. And to further lodge feet in mouths, Ethan actually said, because they did talk to him (thanks to BattleBots Update) that Riptide would have won if he was driving. This may be true, but, like, way to immediately throw your teammate under the bus there, cap.

Then, Riptide appealed, and the call was… an extra point in aggression for Copperhead from Derek Young. So Copperhead now wins by unanimous decision. Well, that worked. Copperhead then received a hero’s welcome in the pits.

Wait, no, that was my meme. This was the real one.

Apparently this was cut from about three minutes of cheering. I mean, take down End Game and Riptide? That’s a task. Anyway, we go to the semifinals, no time to waste!

(8) SawBlaze vs. (28) Ribbot
Well, this is another rematch from way back when. Ribbot’s rookie season saw them take on SawBlaze. It didn’t go supremely well from them, ending in a JD loss, but hey, it was their second fight with the frog. Things have certainly gone better since for David Jin and team.

The two bots toughest to gameplan, according to Jamison Go: Ribbot (modularity) and HUGE (HUGE). Ribbot is going for the vert again, while SawBlaze plowed up with the front forks.

SawBlaze guessed right in terms of which way Ribbot would go, trying to swing wide. SawBlaze caught some of Ribbot with a corner and the two do-si-doed. For many seconds, to the point the refs said that someone needed to stop moving. Jamison mentioned that if he stopped SawBlaze, it would get popped, so the dance continued until a seam separated the two, finally.

SawBlaze got the first hit, right on the weapon belt. Ribbot was smoking (yes, SawBlaze caused another battery fire) and the weapon had stopped. The bots continued to circle and the smoke increased, as SawBlaze bullied Ribbot about the Box. The smoke was still increasing as SawBlaze kept pushing, as there was more and more smoke, and then flame, as SawBlaze pushed Ribbot to the Deck. But it got off, as SawBlaze took it more to the screws as the flame grew. Another trip to the Deck all but sealed it, but it went to the judges. Granted, it was another cut and dry fight, unlike Copperhead–Riptide.

SawBlaze by unanimous decision. It’s been on the short list of bots still looking for their first Nut, and Jamison Go and co. are in the finals. And whoever the guy waving the towel is keeps spinning it!

(6) HUGE vs. (10) Copperhead
It’s a battle of contrasts—one of the smallest, most compact bots in the field vs. the robot so big it’s named HUGE. Both captains have surprising strategies for this one:

Luke Quintal (Copperhead): The two robots they’ve feared the most: End Game (who they beat) and HUGE. They’re actually going to be spinning downwards, a tactic they got from the End Game fight from when they were flipped, and were able to use the extra momentum to help break the former champ’s weapon.

Jonathan Schulz: Going for the wheels, not the armor. The Brazilian wheels are meant to be mostly indestructible, as long as they don’t, you know, fall off. Unfortunately that did just happen, plus it seems like drive has normally been Copperhead’s weakness.

Copperhead came out slow, working the weapons as it hoped. But HUGE took the blows and started to monster truck over Copperhead. A belt came off somewhere (okay, a chain, a drivechain) while HUGE did that. So quickly on, Copperhead was crabwalking and gyrodancing to try and still go weapon to weapon, while still showing movement. It was to the point that the bot got nearly vertical which looked cool, but… a couple hits of that and the weapon was out too. And shortly after, the other side of drive, thanks to HUGE taking out the other drivechain. No drivechains means no drive, and that means fight over. Sorry Copperhead, being the People’s Champion doesn’t win you hardware.

HUGE wins by KO in 1:59. Jonathan Schulz and team go from maybe retiring the design, to the finals.

And for the first time, East Coast represent! SawBlaze reps Cambridge, MA, while HUGE is from South Windsor, CT, so that means the champion of BattleBots will not be from a place overlooking the Pacific! Or Wisconsin. (Thanks, Team Whyachi, I can’t just say “east of the Mississippi.”)

(Note: Backlash won while Jim Smentowski was based in California, not Florida.)

CHAMPIONSHIP
(6) HUGE vs. (8) SawBlaze
We start off with the above link, a voice-over by Faruq Tauheed about the long-standing run of the meta, the four-wheel drive vertical spinners that have dominated the last five years.

As we said, Jonathan Schulz was on the verge of scrapping the HUGE design after last season. But finally, with a stream of actually getting to fight the meta, the anti-vert bot gets the vindication of making the final. HUGE put on the Tegris wheels for this fight, on account of they’re harder to carve up, and I think that means HUGE can armor up as well? A lighter weapon can do that too. Regardless, SawBlaze is one of the few robots that can hit the body, and a tougher test than Shatter! and Skorpios.

For Jamison Go, he’s been here from the beginning of the reboot, first with the original version of Overhaul, then, as I said, getting hosed in SawBlaze’s debut against Razorback. SawBlaze has gotten one fight better every year, which looms badly (since a step up from losing in the semis is losing in the final), but this time, he’s looking to skip a year. SawBlaze is going for an inversion to the plow, what he’s calling a “cradle.” It’s a bit of a gamble, but hey, when in Vegas, risk big for big rewards. In addition to that, it’s got the same eyebrows to protect the top. All this is to try and catch HUGE’s blade and being able to drop the hammer saw down. Last fight of the year (until Champions), can’t hold anything back.

Both bots came in, SawBlaze rushing in of course, but HUGE shielded with its wheels and then sent SawBlaze flying with uppercuts, airborne, even sending SawBlaze on top of HUGE. But SawBlaze was undeterred, into the rails and going for the belts. And again with that surgical precision, it took a side of belts off. HUGE has double belts on both sides, so this didn’t totally kill the weapon, but it would probably be running at half-capacity.

Half-capacity was still something, as SawBlaze pushed but HUGE was able to make contact with the weapon and flip SawBlaze over again. SawBlaze self-righted in the nick of time, the arm narrowly avoiding HUGE’s weapon and using the cradle and eyebrows to pin HUGE and be able to bring the hammer saw in. HUGE was looking to spin up, but SawBlaze was hot on its tail, taking HUGE on a coast to coast box run, definitely winning the control battle at this point.

SawBlaze was continuing to shove and you could see damage to HUGE’s body. But HUGE’s weapon was still spinning and the championship match would go to the judges for the first time since the Season 1 final. And that one was pretty cut and dry with Bite Force able to handle Tombstone.

The judges came in to inspect damage since hey, it’s the final, and it was close, and you don’t want to fuck this up.

Damage: You can see the damage to HUGE’s body, and the drive may have slowed done. Definitely some damage to the plow, but it all worked. I go SawBlaze 3-2. Whose belt is that on the floor, too? (It seems like they were HUGE’s, which diminished but obviously did not eliminate effectiveness.)
Aggression: HUGE dominated early, but the late push I go SawBlaze 2-1
Control: SawBlaze took the back half, I go SawBlaze 2-1.

Your winner, by unanimous decision, is…

…

SawBlaze!

It’s been a long road, and he’s won in so many other weight classes with Silent Spring (a 3 lb. modular bot that swept 2019) and megatRON (a 30 lb. mini-SawBlaze), and at last, Jamison Go and Team SawBlaze (and let him stress that, Team SawBlaze) have their hands on the Giant Nut.

Oh, and his 12 lb. bot Saiko! is one of the favorites for the Golden Brett this year.

As I mentioned, since BattleBots: Champions II will be coming out at some point, the Giant Bolts will not be given out yet. But I’ll give my short list of who my favorites may be, as of now, knowing that Champions will shape things a bit.

Most Destructive
-Riptide
-HUGE
-Copperhead

Grant Imahara Award (Best Design)
-Quantum
-Ripperoni
-Blip
-Horizon

Rookie of the Year
-Ripperoni
-Uh… Terrortops? I mean, it’s an alternate so does that count?

Okay, so, with that, we play the waiting game until Champions comes out. Or Hungry Hungry Hippos. So, we’ll see you… not next week, but sometime soon!