#Battlebots Season 6 Episode 3 Review (TV Series, 2022)
Editorial note: these reviews will contain spoilers.
Welcome back to another exciting episode of Battlebots. The trend for the season is explosive knockouts and episode three is no different. Let’s get right into it.
The first fight is Hypershock vs Slammo! Hypershock is vertical spinner, with single and dual spinner configurations, designed to look like a remote controlled car. Slammo!, formerly SlamMow!, is a grappler bot, with two pairs of lifting and grabbing arms. These are fun robots to watch fight.
Hypershock wins the low ground game with a pair of forks on either side of its spinning disk. Slammo! doesn’t get a chance to try its strategy of dropping Hypershock on the Upper Deck. Slammo! gets flipped and slammed into the corner until it’s counted out. Hypershock has a new wider frame this season that makes it so much more stable on those impacts.
Next up is Valkyrie vs P1. Valkyrie is a returning rookie from last season, a horizontal undercutter with so many disk and blade configurations. This robot is fast, tanky, and very dangerous. Remember, Valkyrie was voted Most Destructive by the season 5 contestants. P1 is a very fast control bot, featuring a wide lifting panel built right into its front wedge. These two teams have great driving, strategy, and durability.
P1 wins the low ground game in this fight. It can consistently get its wedge under Valkyrie’s spinning disc, sending Valkyrie up and over the ramp and away from anything important in P1. Valkyrie takes out one of P1’s tires, but P1 really doesn’t lose much mobility with its four wheel system. Valkyrie gets flipped by P1’s lifting arm, setting it on fire, putting the weapon higher than P1’s body, and then immobilizing the weapon. Neither robot is moving well by the end, but they both survive to the judges decision.
P1 wins in a unanimous judges’ decision. I have to agree. Valkyrie caused damage to both robots, but P1 did get that great flip in right before Valkyrie flipped and its blade stopped working. P1 clearly won control and both robots showed great aggression. By the end, P1 had controlled most of the fight and had a bit more mobility. Both of these robots are built to last and have the potential to really shake up the tournament this season.
Last week, we got an entire segment exploring the out of the box designs in Battlebots ahead of the Mammoth fight, looking at some of the more unique competitors this season. This week, we see the return of Huge, a vertical asymmetrical bar spinner suspended between two gigantic, super flexible plastic wheels. The challenge in facing Huge is finding any way to attack it without being hit by its giant spinning blade. It’s just so bendy. Unless you can break those wheels in half, attacking the wheels is only going to push Huge away.
Its opponent is the only rookie bot of the episode, Riptide. Riptide is an eggbeater style spinner. Eggbeaters dominate the beetleweight robot meta right now. They are super sturdy vertical spinners that can send robots flying as easily as a high-powered flipper. Riptide’s form is very similar to the robots that dominate tournaments like NHRL, so I’m curious to see how this strategy scales up. The difference between a heavyweight and a beetleweight is a ratio of about 83:1.
Riptide ends the fight quickly. Riptide wins the box rush, popping Huge into the Screws in three hits. Those big flexible wheels can’t get the grip to move over the Screws even when they’re reversed to help push Huge out.
This fight demonstrates the Battlebox redesign very well. The Upper Deck is the new out of arena area. The walls of the Battlebox actually slope in at the bottom, making it so no robot can be tossed over the yellow barricade/Screws area and be totally immobilized. Huge would’ve been knocked out from the impact of Riptide’s second hit, but the angle on the wall pushed it back to the ground. Unfortunately for Huge, it happened right next to the Screws and it couldn’t climb back out. This is part safety feature, part effort to keep the fights going to knockout. Were the walls not redesigned, this would’ve been one of the fastest KOs in the Battlebots reboot seasons.
Next up is Fusion vs Cobalt. Fusion is a returning rookie from last season, the second bot from Team Whyachi in this year’s tournament. It features a horizontal disk spinner in the front and a vertical drum spinner on the back. Cobalt is a more experienced competitor under new ownership. Robotic Death Company, the team behind full body spinner Gigabyte, is now running Cobalt, a vertical spinner, as their second robot of the season.
Fusion is so much more reliable this season. Its able to effectively run the vertical and horizontal spinner at the same time. Both robots take enough time to get their vertical spinners up to speed, but Fusion’s spinner is at just the right height to send Cobalt flying. Cobalt keeps ramming into Fusion, hoping to make it catch fire or fail like it did last season, but Fusion isn’t going to break that easy. Cobalt loses in a knockout when it gets flipped upside and jammed on its own vertical spinner.
Up next is Black Dragon, an eggbeater built into a wedge with a flamethrower, vs Icewave, a gas-powered horizontal bar spinner. Both of these robots have incredibly powerful weapons and the potential to make it deep into the elimination tournament on knockouts alone.
Black Dragon wins the low ground game and the box rush, sending Icewave flying on the first impact and disabling its weapon chain. A few hits later, Icewave is counted out right underneath the Pulverizer. Black Dragon’s knockout is impressive.
The next fight is Witch Doctor vs Duck! Witch Doctor has competed on every season of the Battlebots reboot, currently running as a vertical spinner and flamethrower. Duck! is the best aquatic bird-themed robot in this year’s tournament, a control bot with an orange duckbill lifter that quacks. These highly themed robots stand out for aesthetics, strong strategies, and excellent driving.
This is a fascinating fight to watch. Witch Doctor takes an aggressive approach, slamming into Duck! again and again even after its spinner breaks. Meanwhile, Duck! lines up its frame to tank the hits from Witch Doctor until the weapon breaks. This fight really comes down to Witch Doctor having a stronger drive train and better mobility. Duck!’s weapons and forks may break, but that robot will not stop running.
The fight goes to a judges’ decision. Witch Doctor wins unanimously. I do agree. Duck! didn’t have the pushing power to really control the fight after Witch Doctor lost its weapon. They also couldn’t get their lifter at the right angle to actually use against Witch Doctor. The final image of the fight is Duck! trying to free itself from under the Screws as time runs out.
Finally, the Main Event of the episode is Copperhead vs Lock-Jaw. Copperhead is a drum spinner. Lock-Jaw is a vertical spinner. It’s worth pointing out that Lock-Jaw comes from Donald Hutson, one of the only builders to compete on every televised season of Battlebots going back to the Comedy Central days. Both of these teams constantly find new things to improve on their robots, whether they be a swap to more reliable internal component or a clearly visible change to frame or weapon design.
Lock-Jaw’s strategy is to run its back armor plate into Copperhead, potentially breaking the drum spinner. Copperhead wins the low ground game, rendering the strategy useless. Both robots go weapon on weapon, sending sparks flying and both robots into the air. Lock-Jaw loses its weapon to a fire and gets flipped upside down.
The fight goes to the judges’ decision. Copperhead wins a split decision I agree. Lock-Jaw was more aggressive, but Copperhead caused more damage and didn’t get pushed back as far on the impacts. Lock-Jaw started to take control in the last minute, but Copperhead held together better overall. Damage is the biggest point category on the scorecard and Copperhead looked like it took no damage in the exchanges.
The YouTube exclusive fight this week is Claw Viper vs rookie robot Pardon My French. This fight is available to watch already for paid members of the Battlebots Facebook group. It will premiere on the Battlebots YouTube channel this Sunday, 23 January.
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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