BattleBots

Background Pony #55DB
The new season begins on January 5, so that’s less than three weeks from now.
Posted Report
Background Pony #55DB
First episode of the new season was on just a few hours ago. Interestingly, this season is being identified as “World Championship VII” rather than by a certain year as previous seasons had been. Also, airing right after the new episodes will apparently be a “best of” series of episodes (supposedly even including moments from the older series that was 20 to 25 years ago), with this week’s episode listing the “Top 10 knockouts”.
Perhaps most notable of all for this season is that we’ve been given a complete schedule for who will be all four opponents for each team for the entire qualifying round, and you can see that schedule at this page: https://battlebots.com/match-schedule/
Posted Report
Background Pony #55DB
Second episode was on last night, and there were quite some spectacular moments, most notably from the very first fight involving Hypershock vs Sawblaze. Sawblaze’s weapon managed to get stuck within the bottom of Hypershock so tightly that not only was the fight ended early due to the crews failing to separate them within the battle box, but we ended up getting multiple updates throughout the episode about further efforts to finally separate those two bots.
Posted Report
Background Pony #EFE7
Another new episode was just on, and for the first time this season, the judges made a split decision. As a result, we were introduced to a new concept being introduced this season, in which the losing team can appeal the judges’s decision to force a further review of the fight and possibly overturn the initial decision. However, teams are allowed to make such an appeal only once throughout the entire season, so teams will have to really consider if they truly believe they should’ve won a fight that the judges scored against them. Thankfully, the team that lost the split decision that occurred in this episode decided to not appeal, which I think is a fair choice considering that it’s still rather early in the qualifying round with a few more fights left to go that could potentially have good enough results to overcome such a loss.
Also, the new “best of” episode that was on right afterwards (about the top outrageous moments) reminded me of another new rule that was introduced this season. Due to how immensely destructive Deep Six and it’s 100 lb vertical spinner had been in the last few seasons (not just to its opponents but also to itself and the arena), there is now a maximum weight limit of 80 lb for spinning weapons. As a result, Deep Six is no longer permitted to compete, so the team who built it decided to build Triton, which is a horizontal spinner that is right at the 80 lb limit.
Posted Report
Background Pony #EFE7
How about that major upset in the most recent episode? End Game got a terrible start against Ripperoni, which was able to win a devastating knockout against the former champion. You’d better start believing that this spinning pizza bot could make a deep run this season.
Posted Report
ABronyAccount
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag

@Background Pony #EFE7
I’ve always said forks are going to cause trouble. I hope the meta moves away from them.
This kind of thing was an eventuality, in almost every forky-match there’s been at least one instance of them getting jammed in the killsaws. It physically hurts me to watch.
Anyway, RIPperoni’s flywheel seems to have been running the entire match this time. Looks like they’ve got a good design when it works.
Also, very cathartic to see Tantrum prove that their victory over Hydra is more than just luck.
If this really is the final fighting season for Shredderator, it’ll be the end of a long and storied career. I have DVDs from 2003 robot league fights featuring them. No shame in being a menace of the sport for two decades.
Background Pony #A782
I had a good laugh when I saw the name of this week’s episode: “You Want a Pizza Me?”
But seriously, I just finished watching the new episode and there were quite some interesting moments. Most notably, the very first ever appeal of a judge’s decision was made by Malice in their fight against Valkyrie, making the argument that their weapon had not in fact been disabled. Upon further review of the video, the judges ultimately agreed and reversed their initial decision. And since this appeal was successful, Malice will have the ability to use another appeal later in the tournament (it’s only when an appeal fails that a team is not allowed to make another attempt for the rest of the season).
Also in this episode was a much anticipated match-up between the two hammer-saw bots of SawBlaze and Skorpios. Let’s just say it was a massive letdown when Skorpios decided to replace their usual weapon with a giant sword, which SawBlaze easily cut right through for a quick win.
Posted Report
ABronyAccount
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag

I actually saw the video from Team Skorpios of them showing off that particular weapon weeks ago. I didn’t think it would make an appearance in a real fight.
They had to know it was not going to work. I think they feel like they don’t have to take every single match seriously, even if there are no certain victories. Maybe they also didn’t have confidence they could beat Sawblaze. The pre-fight interview focused on the geometry of Saw Blaze’s hammersaw and why it was pretty much untouchable for them in the normal configuration. But 1) Overkill’s blade is not sharp, so they can’t cut a belt with it anyway, and 2) the had, HAD to know it would tip them over and give up their ability to control the bot.
So I think they knew going in that this wasn’t going to be a win, but they wanted to do something memorable.
Big Dill is putting on a much better showing, I honestly did not think they’d be that aggressive and controlling against Mad Catter like in the first half. Too bad they lost momentum in the second half.
Also, wow. Every fight Witch Doctor’s been in has been one for the highlight reels.
A couple of observations on the season so far:
Starchild ’s weapon has a really problematic “sweet-spot.” It’s proven difficult for Brandon Zalinsky to land a good hit no matter who the opponent is. Really looking forward to their match-up against Huge, but I think they need to seriously rework that tail end if they want the bot to be competitive.
Slam-Mow put up a pretty good fight against TerrorTops, which turned out to be an extremely effective design. TT and Big Dill are basically clones now. Using the spin attack to defend against TT was pretty genius, it’s too bad they didn’t get more opportunities.
Seems like we have a crap-ton of robots that are 3 and 0 this time around, too; including a couple of surprising ones!
Posted Report
Background Pony #A782
Among some rather destructive fights, the most recent episode also included further use of the appeal. In fact, three teams attempted it after losing their fights, and all three of them failed, so that means Shatter, Shreddit Bro, and Monsoon will not be allowed to make any additional appeals for the rest of this season.
And apparently, the show is off for the next two weeks for some reason, so the next new episode won’t be until March 30.
Posted Report
Background Pony #AF77
New episodes have resumed, and from checking the match schedule page, it looks like there are now just four more episodes left to go until the tournament begins. All competitors have now gone through three out of their four qualifying matches, and while some favorites to go all the way have begun to emerge, some others by this point will almost certainly fail to make it to the tournament bracket.
Background Pony #AF77
I just finished watching tonight’s new episode, and boy did it have some spectacular battles. Lock Jaw vs Mad Catter, Claw Viper vs Hypershock, and Hydra vs Sawblaze, all of them were just incredible. Believe me, this is one episode you just had to watch!
ABronyAccount
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag

Dang, I missed the one entitled “Never Say Die.” Caught “Claws and Jaws” and “Pizza Party” though! Great fights, and not really any disappointing matches. Was surprised a couple of times with matches going exactly the way I thought they wouldn’t, too.
Background Pony #7FB0
This week’s new episode just finished, with quite a few interesting results.
I really liked seeing how Mammoth won against Kraken. Not so impressed with Valkyrie, who seemed to perform very timidly, especially against such a notoriously faulty bot as Glitch has been this season. And for the main event of Black Dragon vs Riptide, Riptide finished the qualifying round with a perfect record of four knockouts, which means Black Dragon’s streak of not being knocked out ends at 24, just one short of tying the all-time record set by Bite Force.
Next week’s new episode will feature Minotaur vs Witch Doctor, and I’m really looking forward to that one.
Background Pony #7FB0
Tonight’s episode was the final set of fights for the qualifying round.
By far the most anticipated fight was Minotaur vs Witch Doctor, and it was worth the hype. They went the full three minutes, both weapons got disabled so the fight ended in a shoving match, and the winner by judges decision was Minotaur. Perhaps the best part of the outcome was the excellent sportsmanship shared between the two teams.
So now the bracket for the knockout round has been set. I’ll share my predictions for the knockout round when I get a chance in the next few days.
Background Pony #7FB0
And I completely forgot to make my picks until just before the new episode begins. (For anyone curious, here’s a link to see the bracket: https://battlebots.com/wcvii-bracket/) Well, good thing I watch TV on Hulu and am able to pause and rewind live TV. So now I can get my predictions out before actually watching the episode. I’ll wait until tomorrow to update any calls I got wrong, but for now, here’s what I’m predicting…
Round of 32:
Minotaur wins against Fusion
Switchback wins against Malice
Sawblaze wins against Blip
Cobalt wins against Monsoon
Riptide wins against Shatter
Hypershock wins against Lucky
Endgame wins against Tantrum
Copperhead wins against Rotator
Witch Doctor wins against Jackpot
Bloodsport wins against Lockjaw
Huge wins against Scorpios
Claw Viper against over Mad Catter
Hydra wins against Deathroll
Beta wins against Whiplash
Quantum wins against Ribbot
Ripperoni wins against Black Dragon
Round of 16:
Minotaur wins against Switchback
Sawblaze wins against Cobalt
Riptide wins against Hypershock
Endgame wins against Copperhead
Witch Doctor wins against Bloodsport
Huge wins against Claw Viper
Beta wins against Hydra
Ripperoni wins against Quantum
Quarterfinals:
Minotaur wins against Sawblaze
Riptide wins against End Game
Witch Doctor wins against Huge
Ripperoni wins against Beta
Semifinals:
Minotaur wins against Ripperoni
Riptide wins against Witch Doctor
Final:
Minotaur wins against Riptide
And those are my predictions. Now to watch the new episode for the Round of 32 matches to see how many of them I got right…
ABronyAccount
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag

For the opening Round of 32 episode:
Riptide vs. Shatter: Man, Team Riptide sure is salty that teams are suspicious when they act skeevy and break the rules. Even if they aren’t caught cheating, they’re still not complying with the rules going into the match. It would have been better to shrug that off as well-deserved lack of trust after they got caught fiddling with their bot after weigh-in, would have helped reduce the damage to their reputation.
Mad Catter vs. Claw Viper: Damn good fight! And a good show of mutual respect and sportsmanship. Even if Team CV invoked a challenge of the decision, both teams took it in stride. I can’t blame CV for trying it, since they essentially had nothing to lose by playing that card and I think their captain felt he owed it to the team since the initial decision was split. Really looking forward to seeing more Claw Viper next year!
Lucky vs. Hypershock: Really good showing by Lucky! I honestly didn’t expect them to go the distance, but they did. Their weapon is just too underpowered and too flimsy, though. They’re going to have to redesign that to be competitive even if they do have a really good driver. By the time you get to the tournament, they’re ALL good drivers.
Bloodsport vs. Lockjaw: Really happy to see Lockjaw win. Bloodsport pretty much defeated themselves by slamming into the dead weapon of LJ and killing their own weapon in the process so they couldn’t self-right afterwards. Still, Team LJ went in with the right configuration and strategy. There’s really no “good” way to go against a horizontal spinner where the weapon radius is larger than the robot’s frame, so you only have two viable paths: break their weapon with your face or force them to break it against the spike strips.
Huge vs. Skorpios: Went about how I expected it to. Skorpios needs to put some more work into their weapon. Nothing wrong with an over-head hammersaw, especially against a Huge, but their has a high probability of dying before the match and robbing them of options to win. Their basic robot is still robust and viable, especially with that enormous steel shield in front.
End Game vs. Tantrum: A good match in the first half. Once Tantrum’s weapon was broken, though, they really didn’t have a chance. They got the forks under Endgame early on, but that also made it hard for their weapon to connect.
Jackpot vs. Witchdoctor: Jackpot just plain got out-driven and then taken apart. WD took every opening once they landed a hit and put JP off balance. Textbook controlled aggression. Jackpot has more reach but less mobility, and WD’s weapon was able to get in and hit hard - probably BECAUSE they were only spinning it at 75%.
Rotator vs. Copperhead: I really love both bots and both teams so I didn’t know who to root for. Copperhead’s wheels are solid cast urethane rubber, so destroying one to the extent that the right-side drive fails is a real accomplishment. Likewise, tearing up Rotator’s fender to keep their weapon from spinning up again was a great outcome. This turned out to be one of several recent fights where both teams burned each other out in the first half, reducing them to stumbling around in the second half.
Background Pony #68E5
With the Round of 32 now complete, here’s my revised picks for the remaining fights…
Round of 16:
Minotaur wins against Malice
SawBlaze wins against Monsoon
Riptide wins against HyperShock
End Game wins against Copperhead
Witch Doctor wins against Lock-Jaw
Huge wins against MadCatter
Hydra wins against Whiplash
Black Dragon wins against Ribbot
Quarterfinals:
Minotaur wins against SawBlaze
Riptide wins against End Game
Witch Doctor wins against Huge
Hydra wins against Black Dragon
Semifinals:
Minotaur wins against Hydra
Riptide wins against Witch Doctor
Final:
Minotaur wins against Riptide
So, despite getting almost an entire quadrant wrong, my picks for the last few fights remain the same.
Background Pony #68E5
For those of you who have not yet seen the most recent episode… End Game lost their fight, and with Tantrum already eliminated in the previous round, that means there will definitely be a first time winner of the Championship this season.
Final episode of the season will be later this week, so here are my revised picks for the remaining fights…
Quarterfinals:
Minotaur wins against SawBlaze
Riptide wins against Copperhead
Witch Doctor wins against Huge
Hydra wins against Ribbot
Semifinals:
Minotaur wins against Hydra
Riptide wins against Witch Doctor
Final:
Minotaur wins against Riptide
Essentially, my predictions for the top four remain the same, so we’ll see in a few days if I got that correct.
Background Pony #68E5
Season 7 is finished, and the winner of the Giant Nut is…
SawBlaze
With how great that has been over the years and how they’ve gradually kept improving, I’d say that team absolutely deserved to win the championship this year.
The action’s not yet over, however. It is confirmed there will be a second season of the special tournament where the championship prize is the Giant Golden Bolt. It’ll be interesting to see which non-championship teams will advance to the final tournament this time. (No idea when it’ll be on, but I’ll be sure to inform you once I find out.)
ABronyAccount
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag

I was really glad to see Copperhead take out Riptide, but I’m biased since they’re one of my all-time favorite teams/robots. The losing driver made some rookie mistakes, but I don’t think their regular driver wouldn’t have made those same mistakes or mistakes of a similar nature.
I think Witch Doctor should have used their double disk weapon against Huge and eaten into their wheels with it. After their weapon stopped working, even that chunk of a spinner wasn’t going to be enough to break Huge’s weapon.
Speaking of, really glad to see Huge advance all the way to the finals. I love unconventional designs and theirs is extremely well thought-out against the majority of bots on the field. Even if, at the end of the day, it’s still a vertical spinner - at least it’s got an extremely original implementation.
I hope to see more teams adopt clever solutions like that in the future. As pointed out by the commentators, the basic layout of the winning bots for the last several years was already getting kind of stale, barring Tantrum’s neat idea to keep the weapon safe and operating for most of a fight.
At any rate, that was a night of some really awesome matches! Ribbot and Hydra facing off was extremely tense. I could sense Jake trying to lure them in with those superfluous flips.
Background Pony #2703
It’s finally here! The second season of the Slugfest (where past champions compete against other teams that fought their way into the tournament will all to compete for the Giant Golden Bolt) is about to begin, later tonight. If I remember the previous year correctly, this tournament was likely filmed immediately following the conclusion of the previous regular season, so all the bots we got familiar with back then will still be there. Not to mention, the most recent winner of the Giant Nut will automatically be part of the final round with all the other past champions. Anyway, I’m certainly looking forward to see which of the lesser teams can qualify for the main tournament in these first few episodes.
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