Battlebots 2015: Episode 3 Review

Well, here we are, the first 4 fights of the round of 16, and the first of the true eliminations. Fights were determined by seed, you know, 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, and so on. It was a KO kind of night, with only 1 of 4 reaching the 3 minute mark, and honestly, the one that did go 3 minutes was over way before the buzzer ended the fight.

Ice Wave vs. Chomp

A horizontal spinning blade versus a bot whose sole strategy seemed to be spraying flame in the general direction of its opponents. Like seriously, why did Chomp get a wild card pick? It's big, fat, not sturdy in any way, and had clearly inferior weaponry. Ice Wave could have sat still and let Chomp run into it and still won.

Warhead vs. Stinger

At least Warhead makes sense as a wildcard. Unfortunately, it was thoroughly embarrassed once again, this time by Stinger. Stinger proved once again the effectiveness of a simple wedge in the Battlebox, especially if that wedge can lift. Warhead couldn't get past the wedge, and so it was dominated the entire time. I did think it was pretty cool of the Stinger team to keep Warhead in the fight the entire time, since the fight was basically over after 20 seconds. They put on a good show, at the very least.

Ghost Raptor vs. Warrior Clan

Finally, a fight where both robots actually won their first fight. Good of Ghost Raptor to get rid of the blade, that thing was literally useless, and the wedge/lifting arm is probably a better option. I say probably, because Warrior Clan did a whole lot of nothing the entire fight. With its opponent literally breaking down, all Ghost Raptor had to do was not break down first, and it didn't, so it got an extremely boring KO.

Plan X vs. Bronco

Basically, unless you have an extremely destructive robot and get a really good shot off first, if your robot cannot self-right or cannot drive upside down, you have basically no hope against a flipper, especially against Bronco. Plan X is not destructive, it cannot self right and it can't drive upside down. The fight lasted 30 seconds. It only took one flip.

Random Thoughts to close:

Finally some Killsaws in this episode. They do actually work.

How exactly were the seeds determined? Were they random, or was some thought put into them?

I noticed that Bronco is fighting Stinger in the quarterfinals. That might be an interesting fight.

Speaking of future fights, they put Lock-Jaw and Overhaul together again for their round of 16 fight. Hoping for more controversy, I guess.