#Battlebots Season 6 Episode 5 Review (TV Series, 2022)
Editorial note: these Battlebots reviews will feature spoilers.
We’re so close to seeing all of the competitors on this season of Battlebots. Two more rookies battled for this first time this episode, with a third getting their debut in the YouTube exclusive fight this Sunday. The Discovery website features all the robots competing this season, but we do know that Perfect Phoenix is only competing in the Bounty Hunters tournament this season. The family revealed that the shooting schedule conflicted with the start of team captain Tyler Nguyen’s school year, so they joined in for the end of the shoot this time around.
Onto the episode.
The first fight is Free Shipping, the always entertaining lifter/flamethrower from Gary Gin and Team Special Discovery, against Uppercut, the super strong asymmetrical vertical spinner from Alex Hattori and Team Uppercut. This is the second fight for both robots this season. Free Shipping lost a judges’ decision to Blacksmith, while Uppercut won in a knockout against Gigabyte.
This fight is inching us ever closer to a robot hitting the ceiling of the Battlebox this season. Free Shipping and Uppercut are both very aggressive, making lots of head on head contact from the start. Uppercut’s spinner tears away Free Shipping’s front wedges, sending parts flying toward the ceiling. Free Shipping doesn’t stop its aggressive approach until a poor landing propped the bot at just the right angle to be unable to use the lifting arm to free itself from the wall.
From what I could tell, this fight would’ve gone the full three minutes if Free Shipping didn’t get stuck. The bot was still driving and the lifter arm and one of the two flamethrowers was still working. Uppercut clearly won damage and was launching Free Shipping all over the place. Battlebots put so much work into stopping robots from getting stuck out of arena and some of my favorites are finding new and creative ways of getting stuck and lose their fights.
Next up is Blacksmith, Al Kindle and Team Half Fast Astronaut’s power hammer/flamethrower, vs. Shatter!, Adam Wrigley and Team Bots FC’s omniwheel hammer bot. Both of these teams won their previous fights. Blacksmith won a unanimous judges’ decision against Free Shipping. Shatter! won a unanimous judges’ decision against SubZero. The 2021 season is looking like the prime time to be a powerful hammer bot, so I’m excited to see these two go head to head.
Blacksmith comes out strong, landing a nasty blow against Shatter!’s weapon. Shatter switched to an extra long hammer and front forks that give it the advantage in all the other exchanges. Blacksmith cannot get close enough to attack without getting hit, resulting in it is losing its weapon belt early on. Blacksmith is fast with more pushing power, but Shatter!’s omniwheels keep the hammer centered on Blacksmith. Even when Blacksmith attacks from behind, Shatter!’s weapon can still attack.
Shatter! wins a unanimous judges’ decision. I agree. They caused more damage to Blacksmith and kept that weapon facing Blacksmith the entire fight. Blacksmith took over control, but couldn’t use the power hammer for most of the fight.
Shatter! looks really good this season. That hammer is so powerful and the frame is staying pretty close to the ground. The big issue we’ve seen with hammer bots in the past is their ability to stay grounded. There’s so much force going into each blow that the robots tend to lift up off the ground. Shatter! and Blacksmith are staying pretty much glued to the floor, which is bad news for any robots they face going forward.
The next fight is Jäger vs. P1. Jäger is a brand new robot this season, and one of the robot types I always root for. It’s a multibot. Give me chaos mixed with teamwork any day. Jäger has an undercutter and a hammersaw, plus a super powerful minibot wedge.
The joy of the multibot and challenge of the multibot in Battlebots is the rules. A multibot does not get a weight advantage. All of the robots have to weigh under 250lbs combined, which is why the Four Horseman could only ever run three robots. However, in order to knockout a multibot, the opponent has to knockout 50% of the robot components. If you have two multibots of the same weight, both have to be knocked out to lose that way; if you have three multibots of equal weight, two have to be knocked out; etc.
The other thing to know about Jäger is the builder situation. Jäger in an international robot, the combined effort of Raff Schneider from Germany and Andy Russell from the UK. Most of the UK teams selected for the 2021 tournament wound up not being able to fly to the tournament, leaving them unable to actually compete. Raff made it in, both robots made it, but Andy could not travel. Team Jäger teamed up with Emmanuel Carillo from Team Big Dill to compete with Jäger. This is Battlebots sportsmanship at its finest. One day, we’ll see Team Jäger compete as originally intended with all of their planned strategies and practice on their own bots. At least we get to see the potential of Jäger’s design.
Jäger is up against P1, the lifter from Brandon Zalinsky and Team Aberrant Robotics. P1 is coming off a great victory against Valkyrie. Zalinsky is an excellent driver and he has a strong handle of what works for P1 this season.
This fight does not go the way I expected it to at all. Jäger’s minibot is strong enough to drive at P1 and actually high center it with a good bit of force. This gives the hammersaw an opportunity to land a nasty hit against P1. You can actually see the hole it bit into P1’s armor clearly after the blow. The undercutter knocks P1 off the minibot, giving P1 the chance to turn the fight around. P1 knocks out the hammersaw, and unfortunately the undercutter isn’t spinning fast enough to cause damage to P1’s frame. Jäger is a lot more resilient than it first seemed, freeing itself from a countdown after P1 catches it on the edge of the Upper Deck. P1 lines up the shot again and this time Jäger’s undercutter gets counted out.
P1 is very durable this season and Brandon Zalinsky is great at keeping that front wedge pointed right at the enemy. Jäger has a lot of potential if they can keep that hammersaw arm working throughout the match.
Up next is Hydra vs. Gruff. Hydra is the flipper from Jake Ewert and Team Whyachi. Gruff is the control bot/flamethrower from Sam McAmis and Team Gruff. Hydra lost its first fight against End Game after their flipper got stuck. Gruff won their first fight against Switchback in a knockout.
Battlebots uses this opportunity to thoroughly discuss the low ground game. I’ve brought that up a lot this season. We are in a wedgelet/fork meta, where the goal is to get under your opponent so your weapon can hit first. This was a huge deal near the end of the Comedy Central era, as many of the fights turned into wedge versus wedge battles with the winner being whichever wedge was lowest to the ground. That’s part of why the ABC reboot required an active weapon for all competitors. You could literally see who would win in a field dominated by wedges by how long and low the wedge was.
Hydra dominates this match from the start with their low ground game. They get under Gruff at every impact, launching them with their flipper over and over. Eventually, Hydra sends Gruff into the gap between the edge of the Arena walls and the doors, leading to an out of the arena knockout. It’s impressive. It’s even more impressive that Battlebots put all that effort into building the Upper Deck as the new official out of the arena area and robots are finding new and creative ways to knockout opponents between the plexiglass walls and the bumpers on the floor.
If Hydra’s performance wasn’t impressive enough for you, pay attention to the post-fight interview with Jake Ewert. He’s disappointed. The flipper was not getting full power, so his strategy of letting gravity knockout his opponent didn’t work. Just remember how high End Game went in the first fight before the flipper got stuck. Hydra is terrifying.
Next up is an episode of Beyblades. The Battlebots Reddit has been losing their collective minds over the first full body spinner versus full body spinner fight to happen since the ABC reboot. Just imagine the chaos. These bots tend to bounce all over the place until someone is knocked out. Now we get two of them slamming into each other like billiard balls.
Gigabyte, from John Mladenik and Team Robotic Death Company, faces off against Captain Shrederator, from Brian Nave and Team LOGICOM. I’ve said it before in these reviews. Full body spinners are like magic to me. I’ve studied the mechanics of the design. I understand in theory how they work. In practice, I cannot begin to comprehend how they maintain control and move with any semblance of accuracy while their shells spin up to full speed. Robots go brrr.
This is, sadly, a quick fight. After two hits, Captain Shrederator stops working. Gigabyte goes in for another hit or two before realizing its opponent has already stopped. Gigabyte wins in a knockout.
Neither team is happy with this. We actually get interviews with the winner and the loser this time, which rarely happens. John Mladenik clearly doesn’t feel great about the win and Brian Nave is upset that the radio control failed the robot again. I hate to see robots lose to the gremlins, so I’m right there with these two teams on this. I think both Gigabyte and Captain Shrederator are strong robots this season and I’m pulling for both to make the top 32.
The next fight sees the debut of Dragon Slayer. Dragon Slayer is a new asymmetrical vertical spinner from Jordan Neal and Team Wild Slide Robotics. This is a mean looking vertical spinner with thick angled armor plates on the front. The show also makes it a point to mention that Jonathan Shultz, the captain of Huge, and Will Bales, the captain of Hypershock, mentored him leading up to this season.
Dragon Slayer is facing DUCK!, my favorite quacking control bot. I love DUCK! I love the design, the strategy, and the commitment to the bit. Battlebots gives us what we want and actually lets us hear the quacking lifter throughout the entire fight, so I’m all in. DUCK! is coming off a tough loss in a judges’ decision against Witch Doctor.
The good news is DUCK! seems to be running like it should in this fight. The bad news is their aggressive duckbill first approach to every fight results in the duckbill being torn in half by Dragon Slayer’s blade. That spinner is destructive. In the words of Witch Doctor captain Andrea Gellatly, “DUCK! doesn’t die.”
Dragon Slayer wins a unanimous judges’ decision. I do agree. Dragon Slayer clearly won damage and was aggressive the entire fight. I’m still rooting for DUCK! and hope the bot shows off its full potential in its third fight.
Last up is the Main Event. Last season’s champion End Game, a powerful asymmetrical vertical spinner from Nick Mabey, Jeff Barker, and Team OYES Robotics, faces Witch Doctor, an equally powerful dual disk vertical spinner from Andrea and Mike Gellatly and Team Witch Doctor. End Game won its first fight of the season against Hydra in a knockout, ironically after it lost the front forks that stopped its weapon from hitting its opponent. Witch Doctor won its first fight in a unanimous judges’ decision against DUCK!.
The whole low ground game/wedgelet/fork discussion happened to set up this fight. End Game has always used interchangeable wedges and forks to get under its opponents. Witch Doctor prefers to go weapon first and win on the strength of its weapon and driving.
Both teams make a more cautious approach to this fight. Witch Doctor keeps circling End Game, trying to get an angle on the front corner or side of their opponent. End Game keeps waiting for Witch Doctor to approach them. Witch Doctor is a more agile robot. End Game actually tilts off the ground from gyroscopic force if it spins too fast in place. Both robots get good hits in against one another, but Witch Doctor lands poorly from a hit and damages its drive train. End Game takes advantage of the less limber Witch Doctor, breaking its self righting mechanism and winning in a knockout.
This week’s YouTube exclusive fight is going to see the debut of Triple Crown. Triple Crown is an interchangeable weapon robot with a three wheel drive system. This robot comes from Tom Meddenhall, who has previous won championships at Robotica and Robot Wars with Panzer Mk 1, 2, 3, and 4. That’s four championships with four very different iterations of the Panzer robot.
I mentioned above how full body spinners are like magic to me. I cannot even begin to understand the hows and whys of Triple Crown. Meddenhall has a long series of videos on his YouTube breaking down various design features. My reaction gives me some great insight into when I realize I’m talking and my students have no idea what I’m saying anymore.
I’m excited to see this robot come to life in its fight against Valkyrie. If you’re a member of the Battlebots Facebook group, you can watch the fight now. It will also be available on the YouTube channel this Sunday, 6 February.
Battlebots premieres new episodes at 8PM EST on Thursdays Nights on Discovery Channel. Discovery+ releases the episodes earlier in the day.
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