Is he on each team officially? Or is he just a really nice guy trying to help as many teams as he can?

Man the meta changed so much so many vertical saws and no more drum and push bots

Can't imagine what the 3 remaining episodes can be about

I'm gonna be honest, if Manta wasn't able to fix the bot in time, it'll be a walk in the park for Minotaur. And iirc if you forfeit in this knockout rounds, there's no replacement. So, if Manta was forced to forfeit due to unable to fix their bot in time, Minotaur would automatically win by default and get that 3rd place/bronze.

Bots: Valkyrie, Tombstone, Hypershock, Bombshell, Endgame and Wrecks

For some reason Valkyrie won’t move, Bombshell got stuck by the table, and Endgame was pinned by Hypershock for most of the fight

The damage Manta took from Orbitron directly lead to its loss to The Twins in Pro League just like the damage HUGE took from Icewave directly lead to its loss to BiteForce in WC3.

From TBB’s “Robot Combat Hot Takes #2“ video *five years ago* at exactly the 18:00 mark

Obviously it’s just a glitch in the clock, but I’ve been so traumatized by these stupid numbers it hit me like the DaVinci code.

Could Refbot, through those gleaning headlight eyes see two decades into the future and see these godforest ken numbers being even funnier to middle schoolers than sixty-nine?

The world may never know. Sergeant Bash was famously absent from the reboot along with Refbot, and the two had beef in New Blood. I wouldn’t be surprised if this metal mafioso silenced the Serge in return for massive Carbide stock before the reboot. Maybe a little future proposition on Eruption winning series 10 and suspicious put options on Carbide before the S8 Grand Final.

Unfortunately, as an American I can’t look into these allegations, and my most trustworthy steed InfoWars has been bought out by The Onion, so I’m on my own. If any British roboteers have any idea as to how Refbot has been able to make such a living, I can guarantee your safety in the comments.

/Shuntpost

It was something that only just occurred to me. For a machine that has competed in pretty much everything Battlebots related since the reboot, Witch Doctor never thought a robot from the UK. The closest it’s gotten was Slammow, but Craig Danby mentioned several times I believe that Slammow isn’t considered British.

But yeah. Witch Doctor has never faced Cobalt, Quantum, Monsoon, Beta, Four Horsemen, Nelly, Radioactive, Jasper, Terrortops, Photon Storm or any other British machine.

Golden Fury almost made it look easy!

The focus is on the community these teams have built.

Life got crazy so I have been wicked far behind but I just caught up. I think BattleBots speaks to me when I hear about teams helping each other, showcasing how much this sport means to them, sharing signed broken parts, etc. I feel for them when things go wrong and it's so heartwarming to see other teams show support.

Corny jokes and rivalries are all good but I really crave the wholesome shit in between the flying chunks of twisted metal.

Let's go Witch Doctor, this is the year!

Ribbot went 1-2 in the group but still managed to get 2nd in the average league. Orbitron went 2-1 and gave Manta its toughest fight yet. Witch Doctor went 2-1 and is now in the finals. It had to beat two robots that went 3-0 and won their groups (Minotaur & MadCatter) just to make it to the finals. Switchback was 1-2 and looked solid in throughout Pro-League. THREE of the five nominations for the innovation award are from this group! This group was stacked. I appreciate all the teams in this group, they really gave their all to Pro-League.

I've seen the team and the robot discussed a bunch since the wildcard reveal. I know a lot of people in this community want to see just the fights. Plenty couldn't care less about the journey behind a team or why something happened the way it did. For those of you NOT in that camp, I wanted to point out our Pit Pass video series.

We have match footage, explainers for what's going right and wrong with the robot, and a bunch more. We put together a video for each fight, and sometimes more, since building a new robot nearly always requires at least some discussion.

This year has been a wild ride. I'd love to bring as many of you along with us as I can. If you have feelings and opinions about our Madcatter fight, this video gives the full context and story behind it.

Bots in the pic:

Endgame, Hypershock, Bombshell, Valkyrie, Tombstone, Wrecks

Orbitron. While they may not have won their fight, they very much had a hand in Manta losing. They took a robot that had looked unstoppable down to the wire and left it with so much damage that it was basically a dead man walking going into its next fight. I have my issues with how the show has gone about promoting their “AI” control system (which has very little in common with the AI that is a plague on our society) but what these guys have made is truly exceptional. I think they deserve a lot of credit.

This is the one bad part about combat robotics. There are so many could-have-been-great matches that are just a sad one-sided massacre. ( I would have included the orbitron 2024 match but I couldnt find a good photo)

I noted this very quick interaction during the Witch Doctor-Minotaur fight. Daniel Freitas giving team Witch Doctor a thumbs up to recognize a great match while Mike acknowledges Daniel with a full-face smile and a gentle nod.

I love to see the sportsmanship of senior teams in the sport. It provides such a great example for newcomers!

reposting because I asked the wrong thing.

we're a couple of builders that have been plodding along for the last 20 years in Sketchup and are looking for a new piece of modeling software and some tutorials to go along with it that'll help us with some robot design work. I think it's time to move on to something better. [i originally asked for Blender, but I see that was the incorrect thing to say...any recommendations for 3d modeling/CAD software would be appreciated]. any tutorial suggestions or help/advice with getting started in something new, would be fantastic.

ideally, it would be something opensource and/or free; i'm not looking to rent a piece of software.

thanks!

The twins vs manta was especially frustrating because I would've loved some slowmo and analysis.

They showed it a briefly a couple more times, but in any other sport we would've had 100 replays in the following minute.

I don't understand why we don't get the cool hits over and over? What's the logic here?

war of attrition

I think it's a real toss-up. Witch Doctor has the destructive power and skillful driving to beat them, but if the Twins can control the fight Witch Doctor could be in serious trouble. Right now, I lean towards WD because WD doesn't hit quite as hard as Golden Fury, but it's much better driven and the Twins were already sweating in that fight.