BattleBots! It's back. (1 Viewer)

[eighsse2]

I hope someone rips apart Rip Tide and his cocky ***. You were caught modifying your bot after you weighed in at exactly 250 lb. There was every reason to have you re-weigh and re-test your bot, and then you "magically" lose 2 pounds. Yeah, I would want to punch you in the face also.

I think you speak for a lot of people

Somewhat related, I've always wondered if builders have ever tried to cheat the tip speed limit somehow. They're tested to max out at 250 mph. But, it's their bot, their programming, their controller. What if they programmed a cheat code into their controller that pushes it up to 300 mph in battle?

Could it be possible he had two extra pounds attached to that egg beater spinner to slow it down in testing, and then removed the extra weight to surpass the tip speed limit? I don't believe that's what happened, but it makes you wonder what they were doing. Like you said, asking to re-test was totally appropriate, and the kid can be very obnoxious.

I also hate hating him, though, because I love Riptide.

 

[JB Breakfast Club]

I hope someone rips apart Rip Tide and his cocky ***. You were caught modifying your bot after you weighed in at exactly 250 lb. There was every reason to have you re-weigh and re-test your bot, and then you "magically" lose 2 pounds. Yeah, I would want to punch you in the face also.

I think you speak for a lot of people

Somewhat related, I've always wondered if builders have ever tried to cheat the tip speed limit somehow. They're tested to max out at 250 mph. But, it's their bot, their programming, their controller. What if they programmed a cheat code into their controller that pushes it up to 300 mph in battle?

Could it be possible he had two extra pounds attached to that egg beater spinner to slow it down in testing, and then removed the extra weight to surpass the tip speed limit? I don't believe that's what happened, but it makes you wonder what they were doing. Like you said, asking to re-test was totally appropriate, and the kid can be very obnoxious.

I also hate hating him, though, because I love Riptide.

I listen to the "Behind the Bots" podcast, and it's clear the other teams all hate Riptide.

 

[JB Breakfast Club]

A bot hit the 20 foot ceiling tonight.

 

[eighsse2]

Just for kicks, I have been doing power rankings every week. Here were my preseason rankings, along with how far each bot made it this season.

1. End Game (final 16)
2. Witch Doctor (Quarterfinals+)
3. Hydra (Quarterfinals+)
4. Whiplash (final 16)
5. Minotaur (Quarterfinals+)
6. Blip (playoffs)
7. Cobalt (playoffs)
8. Sawblaze (Quarterfinals+)
9. Glitch
10. Death Roll (playoffs)
11. Copperhead (Quarterfinals+)
12. Black Dragon (final 16)
13. Jackpot (playoffs)
14. Riptide (Quarterfinals+)
15. Hypershock (final 16)
16. MaDCaTter (final 16)
17. ROTATOR (playoffs)
18. Tantrum (playoffs)
19. Bloodsport (playoffs)
20. Malice (final 16)
21. Valkyrie
22. Emulsifier
23. Monsoon (final 16)
24. Ribbot (Quarterfinals+)
25. SHREDDIT BRO!
26. HUGE (Quarterfinals+)
27. Skorpios (playoffs)
28. RIPperoni (playoffs)
29. Ominous
30. Triton
31. Gigabyte
32. Starchild
33. DOOM
34. Lock-Jaw (final 16)
35. Shatter! (playoffs)
36. Fusion (playoffs)
37. Captain Shrederator
38. Mammoth
39. Big Dill
40. Terrortops
41. Kraken
42. Gruff
43. Horizon
44. Switchback (playoffs)
45. Beta (playoffs)
46. Quantum (playoffs)
47. Double Tap
48. LUCKY! (playoffs)
49. Free Shipping
50. HiJinx
51. Banshee
52. Claw Viper (playoffs)
53. Rusty Jr.
54. Dragon King
55. Slammo!
56. Overhaul
57. Doomba

 

[eighsse2]

HUGE has really put it all together this year. Seems pretty unstoppable. Will be interesting to see their next battle and, if they win, the following. Because they will both be against exceptionally destructive weapons.

 

[eighsse2]

In addition to the power rankings, (which are simply based on my personal expectations for each bot against any random opponent), I have been scoring each match through the season based on a very simple scale. I can then use my power rankings to estimate each bot's strength of schedule, and then combine their cumulative score with their strength of schedule to get a final schedule-weighted score. Seems somewhat less potential for personal bias to sneak in this way, as opposed to just my personal power rankings. Anyway, here are my rankings using this weighted score metric. And my current power rankings in parentheses.

Power ranking significantly higher than grade ranking
Power ranking significantly lower than grade ranking
Bold if extreme difference

1 (1) Riptide 58.8
2 (7) Sawblaze 48.3
3 (9) HUGE 47.2
4 (5) Witch Doctor 44.3
5 (3) End Game 41.8
6 (4) Hydra 39.8
7 (2) Minotaur 38.3
8 (8) Cobalt 30.2
9 (6) Copperhead 24.3
10 (14) RIPperoni 23.4
11 (12) Monsoon 21.8
12 (13) HyperShock 20.2
13 (26) Quantum 18.6
14 (20) ROTATOR 10.2
15 (27) Ribbot 9.8
16 (11) Deathroll 9.6
17 (22) Valkyrie 6.5
18 (21) Claw Viper 4.8
19 (23) Bloodsport 4.8
20 (10) Black Dragon 3.8
21 (15) Malice 3.7
22 (19) MaDCaTter 2.7
23 (33) Switchback 2.4
24 (17) Whiplash 2.2
25 (18) Tantrum 1.0
26 (36) Beta 0.6
27 (32) Fusion 0.6
28 (24) Lock-Jaw -2.0
29 (16) Blip -3.4
30 (38) Mammoth -4.5
31 (48) Big Dill -4.8
32 (25) Glitch -5.5
33 (43) Gruff -6.3
34 (51) Banshee -6.5
35 (31) Triton -6.8
36 (30) Emulsifier -7.3
37 (39) LUCKY -9.0
38 (40) SHREDDIT BRO! -10.5
39 (34) Ominous -11.0
40 (42) Captain Shrederator -11.3
41 (44) Free Shipping -14.0
42 (28) Skorpios -15.4
43 (37) Gigabyte -15.8
44 (29) Jackpot -15.8
45 (41) Terrortops -16.0
46 (52) Overhaul -16.3
47 (47) Double Tap -16.5
48 (54) Slammo! -20.5
49 (46) Shatter! -23.0
50 (53) Horizon -23.5
51 (56) Dragon King -25.0
52 (50) Starchild -25.3
53 (45) HiJinx -25.3
54 (49) Kraken -30.8
55 (57) Doomba -32.5
N/A (35) DOOM N/A
N/A (55) Rusty Jr. N/A

 

[eighsse2]

Also I have graded my power rankings versus results for ever match. For each of the 129 matches so far, the rank (at that point time) of the losing bot minus the rank i6f the winning bot (at that point in time) equals the grade. Cumulatively, my rankings are at +704, or +5.5 per match. Hard to say without anything to compare it to, but certainly average would have to be very much on the positive side. I would guess this is a decent-to-pretty-good grade. Not great, but good.

Overall win-loss record using my rankings is 81-48. Again, pretty good, nothing great. Significantly above 50% should be expected. 20-4 in the playoffs, though, which I would say is very good, especially considering tighter competition.

Picks going forward, based on rankings:

Minotaur over Sawblaze
Hydra over Ribbot
Riptide over Copperhead
Witch Doctor over HUGE

Minotaur over Hydra
Riptide over Witch Doctor

RIPTIDE over Minotaur

 

[JB Breakfast Club]

Fantastic season. Hopefully we get a decisive result in the final.

 

[eighsse2]

Fantastic season. Hopefully we get a decisive result in the final.

I'm going with HUGE. Interesting configuration for Sawblaze, but not gonna get it done. Crazy night of upsets.

 

[UOFI_316]

That was a fun night of fights. Riptide going down to Covid was an outcome I was not expecting. A few years ago didn't Hydra use some huge cage to corral Huge and keep him in a corner? Seems coming up with weird attachments against them is the way to go.

 

[nightmare]

That was a fun night of fights. Riptide going down to Covid was an outcome I was not expecting. A few years ago didn't Hydra use some huge cage to corral Huge and keep him in a corner? Seems coming up with weird attachments against them is the way to go.

Yes, some controversy there. Hydra didn't use his weapon in that fight and won on control points.

 

[eighsse2]

That was a fun night of fights. Riptide going down to Covid was an outcome I was not expecting. A few years ago didn't Hydra use some huge cage to corral Huge and keep him in a corner? Seems coming up with weird attachments against them is the way to go.

Yes, some controversy there. Hydra didn't use his weapon in that fight and won on control points.

The HUGE builder made a comment in the finale last night to the effect of: "we fight against more crazy attachments than we fight against normal robots." He didn't seem to have a particularly negative tone when he said it, but I still wonder if he's getting a little fed up and was taking a shot at the loose rules. I don't personally even know what the rules say exactly about modifications, surely there is a line somewhere (as an extreme example, you can't just have 3 robots prepared that are all completely different designs, and switch to whichever one is best suited for each matchup). But I wouldn't be too surprised if they have a new, somewhat tighter rule about modifications next season.

 

[UOFI_316]

That was a fun night of fights. Riptide going down to Covid was an outcome I was not expecting. A few years ago didn't Hydra use some huge cage to corral Huge and keep him in a corner? Seems coming up with weird attachments against them is the way to go.

Yes, some controversy there. Hydra didn't use his weapon in that fight and won on control points.

The HUGE builder made a comment in the finale last night to the effect of: "we fight against more crazy attachments than we fight against normal robots." He didn't seem to have a particularly negative tone when he said it, but I still wonder if he's getting a little fed up and was taking a shot at the loose rules. I don't personally even know what the rules say exactly about modifications, surely there is a line somewhere (as an extreme example, you can't just have 3 robots prepared that are all completely different designs, and switch to whichever one is best suited for each matchup). But I wouldn't be too surprised if they have a new, somewhat tighter rule about modifications next season.

I would assume you need to weigh in with the robot you are going to use. I am guessing the rule is no changes after weight in (so the Riptide crap doesn't happen) but neither builder knows what the other might look like going into the weigh in. They just build up the "what attachment will they be using this fight" for TV. So Huge knew what Sawblaze was going to have before the fight. I would say that Sawblaze adding some "eyebrows" and modifying his "dust pan" is more within the rules then Hydra adding a massive fence to the front of his robot. Sawblaze could still use his primary weapon to attack, Hydra could not use his flipper with his attachments.

 

[eighsse2]

Tl;dr version: Just poking around for any random ideas that might be helpful in the formatting of a head-to-head win-loss based BattleBots fantasy league. Especially the fantasy playoffs.

So, I mentioned upthread that I have started a very small BattleBots keeper "league" (if you can call three teams a league). Each team keeps 10 bots, then we draft from the pool of all rookies, bots returning from hiatus, and "free agents" who were cut. But, we're discussing changing the scoring format, and there are just so many different ideas. I wondered if anyone might have any random ideas to throw out there that might help to shape things.

Current format:
1 point for each regular season win
1 point for each playoff berth
1 point for each round 1 win
n points for each round n win (e.g., the championship win alone is worth 5 points, but implies a total of 16 for the berth and all the playoff wins leading up to it)

I'm considering another idea that is pretty nebulous right now, because there are so many specific ways it could be done. Basically, I'd like it to be more like a real sports league or fantasy league, with actual head-to-head "matches" between our teams. So here's one form of the idea:

Each episode, for any pair of our three teams (A vs B; B vs C; C vs A) which has at least one battle, a win will be given to the winner of the majority of those battles, and a loss to the other (will do my best to make a series of tiebreakers to avoid ties, but ties will be used when absolutely necessary). Battles involving one team against itself are meaningless.

Example:
A beats C
B beats C
A beats A
C beats C
C beats A
B beats C
C beats B

Cumulatively:
A vs B did not occur. No win, no loss, no tie.
B defeated C by a score of 2-1.
C vs A resulted in a 1-1 tie. Suppose the tiebreaker is in A's favor.

Standings after Week 1:
B 1-0
A 1-0
C 0-2

This would continue for the entire regular season. The team with the best record would be the #1 seed, then the #2 seed, and last the #3 seed.

Playoffs:
To reward the #1 seed, his team would become champion of the league if any one of his bots even reaches the BattleBots championship match, unless #2 has the champion bot and three of the final four bots.
Otherwise, the #2 seed would become champion, if either (a) one of his bots wins the BattleBots championship, or (b) three of his bots reach the final four.
Otherwise, the #3 seed would become champion.
(I realize these advantages might seem excessive, especially for #1, but normally the top teams in a league get the ultimate advantage: playoff berth, rather than elimination. But since there are only three teams, eliminating anyone before the playoffs would seem too exclusive, so I opted for a huge advantage.)

The playoff system is admittedly awkward and contrived.

Another idea for the playoffs is:
The #1 seed gets a "bye". Out of the #2 and #3 seed, whoever has more bots reach the final eight "advances" in the bracket to face #1. Then, of the final 7 battles, whichever between #1 and the winner of #2 vs #3 has more wins, wins the championship (ties would be broken by the level of the wins, championship worth the most).

Thank you very much for your time, any input is much appreciated.

 

[Psychopav]

I mean, any of this is better than printing out the brackets and following along all alone each week of the tournament.

So I'm IN!

Wait, what are you asking?

 

[eighsse2]

Just seeing if anyone wanted to brainstorm any scoring ideas for my Battlebots keeper league. It's a lot to take in, I've done a lot of brainstorming already.

 

[John123]

New season starting tonight. The secondary tournament, for the Golden Bolt.

 

[eighsse2]

I will be watching it since I don't have the Amazon tv thing!

 

[eighsse2]

To all BattleBots fans: it has been 19 months since the last tournament (the big one, not the Golden Bolt thing) took place. Discovery Channel has not greenlit a new season yet, and that is the problem.

Let them know you want BattleBots back through this link!

https://help.discovery.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

 

[eighsse2]

Today is the premier of BattleBots Faceoffs, on the BattleBots Youtube channel. It is being called the qualifiers for the upcoming season (which hopefully actually happens eventually). Faceoffs consists of 8 separate round robin tournaments, each with only 4 competitors (6 matches). From what I can tell, each tournament will be two episodes long, and one episode will be released every Thursday. So this should last 16 weeks. The actual matches already took place months ago.

 

[eighsse2]

Today is the premier of BattleBots Faceoffs, on the BattleBots Youtube channel. It is being called the qualifiers for the upcoming season (which hopefully actually happens eventually). Faceoffs consists of 8 separate round robin tournaments, each with only 4 competitors (6 matches). From what I can tell, each tournament will be two episodes long, and one episode will be released every Thursday. So this should last 16 weeks. The actual matches already took place months ago.

Some of what I said there was incorrect assumptions on my part. I guess they are producing this thing as they go along, so nothing is necessarily going to be consistent.

But finally, the second of eight episodes is up on YouTube now. The whole six matches are all on the one video this time.