All right, it’s that time, for the last time, it’s robot fighting time.

For old friends, welcome back! For new friends, welcome to the final BattleBots recap of the summer. I’m your friendly neighborhood Senor Weaselo. We’ve been following this season’s BattleBots since the competing robots were announced back in April, and once the fights started we’ve been reviewing them. Of course, there were the Olympics in the way, which ABC used to move the last episodes back to not-going-against-the-Olympics. But then there was also the town hall meeting (THANKS OBAMA) which moved everything back. Also it’s been convention season, basically it’s an absolute shitshow actually watching everyone’s favorite robot-fighting show. And then to boot last week in many markets it was bumped by preseason football to the late-night timeslot. And THEN even though every fight thus far (including the cut ones) has been posted on Youtube or somewhere via BattleBots, the quarters/semis/finals will not due to international contracts (Season 1 is finally showing in Britain).

Naturally the Internet is a little bit panicky about whether there will be a third season, whether on ABC or anywhere else. We’d like to hope so, this was a fantastic tournament with plenty of spectacular fights—Lock-Jaw vs. Yeti, for instance, made my top 10 fights of all-time, it was that close. The hashtag if you’re into that is #WeWantSeason3. You can watch it on the ABC site, that’s probably the best route, or through other means that I can’t tell you about. (You know why, you rebel you.)

Due to the town hall meeting pushing every episode back a week, the finale was a two-hour jamboree of the quarterfinals (hour 1), the semis, and the championship (hour 2). So let’s get right to it!

Chomp vs. Yeti:

How they got here: Chomp won a controversial split decision against Disk O’Inferno, but made up for it by KOing Captain Shrederator with a hit jarring something loose and by upsetting defending champion Bite Force with a precision strike breaking the weapon chain en route to a 3-0 victory. Yeti thrilled us all in the prelims with a battle of force vs. finesse, beating Lock-Jaw 3-0 in an instant classic. In the bracket, they won the battle of the north, ripping Lucky’s flipper off en route to the KO, and quickly beat up on Mega Tento with another KO.

Yeti went against the all-offense display for the first time all season, removing the lifter/srimech attachment in favor of extra armor on top to try and keep Chomp’s hammer at bay. The worry would be about the weapon chain though, which is what the semi-autonomous Chomp took out on Bite Force—the tracking system on Chomp means it easily can face front where the hammer can do its damage. Chomp took damage from the hazards against Bite Force and the seemingly unsteady nature of the bot would have to be careful against the powerful drum spinner.

From the get-go, even though Greg Gibson said they’d be wary, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t come hard charging, and Yeti controlled the early part of the fight. Chomp got a couple shots in that weapon well, but didn’t hit the chain. But Chomp’s topsy-turvy nature got it in trouble as Yeti was able to take out one of those self-righting wings which made it tougher for Chomp to self-right, though not impossible. It did a couple aileron rolls (not barrel rolls) as a result of a couple shots from Yeti, and maybe thanks to its own power. This just worked more in Yeti’s favor as it took out more of those self-righting pieces on Chomp, and one more attack by Chomp put it on its side, this time without a way to get back up. Yeti, KO 2:24

Tombstone vs. BETA:

How they got here: Top-seeded Tombstone did what Tombstone does. KO of Black Ice, KO of Escape Velocity, ending the hopes of space programs everywhere. But we didn’t see pieces flying, so the KO against Brutus had some of that, taking wheels and the front wedge and toppling the gun for good measure. BETA put the hammer on Lucky en route to a 3-0 victory, then had a dominating KO against Overhaul and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against Nightmare.

Nightmare did plenty of damage to BETA and would have won the judges’ decision if not for getting flipped over and getting a surprisingly quick count-out just before the bell (although I think not the 2:59 I said), including a weapon motor, so BETA had work to do. Tombstone has thin armor because its defense is its offense, but the hammer is Tombstone’s most feared opponent, even from Season 1 when these two robots were supposed to fight. No, seriously, the prelim fight last season was supposed to be Tombstone vs. BETA but due to the airline losing the speed controllers (again, seriously) BETA dropped out which led to the bludgeoning that was Tombstone vs. Counter Revolution.

It’s not just the hammer that has the potential to knock off Tombstone, it’s the shape of BETA’s wedge and an excellent driver in John Reid, and that was evident from the initial charge from BETA having Tombstone go over the wedge and take some time to get its bearings. The hammer may not have been at top form, but they controlled the early fight with the wedge and getting a fair few shots. Basically, a masterclass in how to fight a horizontal spinner, and then with a little luck the spinner breaks and the problem is solved. Unfortunately the spinner didn’t break. A shove into the screws sent the inverted Tombstone spinning in a 180, but thanks to the blade being higher now it spun right into BETA’s hammer and disabled it. This was a big point in the fight, and the question was whether it came too late for the top seed since the fight ended a little afterwards. This was a close one, and you can see in Ray Billings’s and John Reid’s faces that that was a great fight and they didn’t know either. Tombstone, 3-0 but there is no doubt all three decisions were 3-2. By the Comedy Central rules, this might have gone BETA’s way, but I’m guessing they went 2-0 for Tombstone in aggression because the wedge was defensive and Team Hertz was a bit skittish with their hammer early probably due to the Nightmare fight. But if you last the full three minutes against a still-working Tombstone, you and your robot deserve every bit of respect. The Curse was more than broken.

Bombshell vs. Poison Arrow:

How they got here: Bombshell is one of the robots I was surprised to see get a wild card. It got dominated by Complete Control being grabbed, hoisted, and roasted, losing 3-0. But it showed it was well-deserved, first KOing “British Tombstone” Cobalt by taking out its wheels and then knocking Red Devil around with a 3-0 win. Poison Arrow pushed Mega Tento around en route to a 3-0 win, then upset Son of Whyachi by sending it 10 feet in the air and halfway across the Box and KO’d HyperShock via showing its ability to take the hits.

Poison Arrow definitely took damage from the drum of HyperShock, but their biggest worry was what the Swiss-army bot Bombshell would do. Bombshell went for the vertical spinner which delivered a big hit on Red Devil but stopped working fairly early, but they saw how easy it was to get under the drum and hoped for the best.

For once, no true box rush from either bot, though Bombshell looked like they were going to. Once the two did meet, it showed that the Chaos Corps made the right choice because the wedge got under Poison Arrow, and combined with the vertical disc Bombshell pinned Poison Arrow drum down against the wall. That looked like it was it but once the countdown started (and Poison Arrow’s drone Buzz went to try and bump the main bot off) Bombshell knocked Poison Arrow off the rails continuing the fight. With that second chance, Poison Arrow… got shunted by Bombshell’s disc towards the screws, and one more shot got it stuck. Not on top of the screws. Drum down again, behind the screws. No coming back from that one. Out of the arena and out of the tourney, while the wild card advances. Bombshell, KO 1:35

Bronco vs. Minotaur:

How they got here: DFO favorite Bronco sent Blacksmith all over the arena, flipping it seven times if I remember en route to the #2 seed. Then it flipped Chrome Fly onto the edge after it broke itself, and then shunted Razorback onto its side using the backswing of its flipper. No idea how Minotaur only got the 7 seed considering it took apart Photon Storm, rupturing the crusher’s hydraulics, but it has continued to destroy what’s in front of it, breaking Blacksmith (and the Internet) in a 3-0 decision that was somehow less close than that and decapitating Warhead with a KO.

After the hype once the bracket came out, the big question once this fight was official was “What will Bronco do?” Against Chrome Fly and Razorback Xander Rose and Reason Bradley were tentative in their driving, using the rear wedge. That works against lesser bots but that probably wouldn’t against the Brazilian bull.

Bronco went for the box rush flipped first (and the fandom rejoiced), but from the first flip something seemed off. It got early lifts and flips on Minotaur, but it was only that. Minotaur, which is compact enough that Bronco could send it flying, didn’t get any real air. What happened (thanks to a certain intrepid person asking on Bronco’s Facebook page) was that there was a valve failure which meant that half the system was powered and the other half was a vacuum. So the whole thing was operating at about a quarter of the strength it should have. Once Minotaur and Team RioBotz realized that there was no fear, Bronco got caught between strategies, and the wheels fell off. Or were torn off.

The good news is that Bronco’s biggest upgrade, changing the drive to work on fewer tires, worked! The bad news is that all six tires got taken off. Brings back memories of M.O.E. vs. The Matador. Minotaur, KO 2:54

The semifinal matchups: Tombstone vs. Yeti and Minotaur vs. Bombshell. Tombstone-Minotaur potential awaits. And we get to wait… for no time at all.