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PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer

Kojiro posted:

It feels kinda like the Vegas show was a mistake, would that be fair to say?

It definitely hasn't been a rousing success.

It's very hard to see how it would make money. I imagine they went with cheaper modular designs on the robots, but you'd think it would still be expensive to do repairs every night.

(There's a good FaceOff for you, the real robots vs. their Battlebots Destructothon versions.)

I can understand why they went for it, though. It's surely not fun to have your whole enterprise contingent on landing a new TV contract every 2 years.

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SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


Kojiro posted:

It feels kinda like the Vegas show was a mistake, would that be fair to say?

I think it's likely the only saving grace to Battlebots potentially returning on TV in the future. I think the chances of landing a new TV deal without the ongoing live show would be significantly worse.

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS
A permanent venue is huge

Borsche69
May 8, 2014

also i managed to go to a show last year and it was pretty sick. tickets are like 40 bucks, bleachers give a great view of the box, they have drinks and such that they can finally sell in-venue, and the matches themselves are well done. very little downtime between fights etc. honestly a really good production

Sir DonkeyPunch
Mar 23, 2007

I didn't hear no bell
My impression is that Vegas is general is having a rough time

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZZHGeCkxzk

First of the Face Off sneak peeks. Not bad for what they're working with now!

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer

RBA Starblade posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZZHGeCkxzk

First of the Face Off sneak peeks. Not bad for what they're working with now!

Big step up on the presentation front from the Las Vegas tournament they put out a while back. Even with the cheesy advertisement in the middle of it. My one nitpick would be that they need fewer cuts; all the big hits had like 3 cuts in them like it was an action movie where they needed to hide that the actors can't do stunts.

Also them calling this a "pre-qualifier for WC VIII" reminds me that I think they ARE under contract for one more season with Discovery and it just hasn't been scheduled yet.

Match results talk:

Hypershock seems like it's in good hands. They haven't announced the new bot from Will Bales' team yet, but I assume he'll be driving it and Alex will take Hypershock. Not a lot to go on in this one, but what they showed looked a lot better than when she drove in that mini-tournament.

Tombstone, ahhhhhhhh, needs to hope Ray Billings can get back on the sticks for WC VIII. That was a brutal whiff.

PostNouveau fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Mar 11, 2025

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Looks like the YouTube series will be March 27. 8 episodes!

Bodyholes
Jun 30, 2005

Ray hasn't come up with a good way to fight the verts. Used to look forward to this bot's fights and now I dread them.

He tries to do the spin around thingy but it's such a risky strat. Exposing your bot's weakest side is not a fun thing to have to do.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer

Bodyholes posted:

Ray hasn't come up with a good way to fight the verts. Used to look forward to this bot's fights and now I dread them.

He tries to do the spin around thingy but it's such a risky strat. Exposing your bot's weakest side is not a fun thing to have to do.

One of my favorite bots of all time, but I'd love to see Ray pass the torch on Tombstone and focus on a new design like the Tantrum/Blip creator did.

UltraShame
Nov 6, 2006

Vocabulum.

RBA Starblade posted:

Looks like the YouTube series will be March 27. 8 episodes!

is this a subscription thing or just for free/funzos on youtube?

Great Beer
Jul 5, 2004

Bodyholes posted:

Ray hasn't come up with a good way to fight the verts. Used to look forward to this bot's fights and now I dread them.

He tries to do the spin around thingy but it's such a risky strat. Exposing your bot's weakest side is not a fun thing to have to do.

Offset horizontals like that are pretty much a solved problem. If you can survive the first couple of hits you can stay on top of them to prevent any chance of recovery, as wonderfully demonstrated by Hypershock. And once the weapon is gone very few of them are capable of doing anything else.

MikeNCR
Oct 11, 2003

UltraShame posted:

is this a subscription thing or just for free/funzos on youtube?

Free.

Propaganda Machine
Jan 2, 2005

Truthiness!

PostNouveau posted:

One of my favorite bots of all time, but I'd love to see Ray pass the torch on Tombstone and focus on a new design like the Tantrum/Blip creator did.

I can't even remember how long ago it was that I saw my first Last Rites match.

Yeah, he needs a makeover.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer

Propaganda Machine posted:

I can't even remember how long ago it was that I saw my first Last Rites match.

Yeah, he needs a makeover.

I can see why he'd probably be thinking this is a temporary meta that doesn't match up well with him. But I think it's not just that 50% of the field is vertical spinners. Didn't a lot of teams adopt Duck's philosophy on frames and start getting machine-tooled like completely metal custom frames that house everything and are well armored on the front and sides? Even if the meta shifts away from verts, I doubt it will shift from heavily armored. Any machine that can tank a couple hits on the sides/front can beat Tombstone now.

Still love Tombstone. I think it's got a crucial place in the competition now of separating the OK teams and the great teams. Your bot needs to be able to take Tombstone levels of punishment and keep moving and maintain weapon function in order to be a contender.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Yeah tombstone is the "you must be this tall to ride" bar which is a fine role.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
First Face Off is up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMyb4D4bPY

:lmao: putting a rookie team in a round-robin tournament with Tombstone, Hypershock, and Valkyrie

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Production is very good on these. Of course, they can't recreate the pomp and circumstance the TV crew can without Faruk and the announcers, but it's got a lot of what people have been saying the show lacks: talking to the drivers about the planning, engineering, and driving. It's less of a sporting event, but I like it.

Fight talk:

Orbitron-Valkyrie: Orbitron is a very cool idea. I dunno about the AI assist thing they have going on, but they managed to get the core concept of hit with one weapon while the other one spins up. That was a really good fight for a 2-weapon bot. I'm not sure I've ever seen another one execute the gameplan like that. Rotator never really seemed to pull it off.

Hypershock-Tombstone: Same fight from the preview. From a tournament perspective, that was probably the decisive fight since I'd think these two would be the favorites against a rookie and Valkyrie.

Hypershock-Orbitron: Ah, probably a mercy for Orbitron to get ringed out rather than taken apart for another 2 minutes. Although it looked like it might have been dead at that point anyway.

Tombstone-Valkyrie: Woo, that was a good one. Both bots took several big hits before they started limping.

:lol: was the judge's decision a "clap for the winner" decision from the crowd?


Boo that the tiebreaker is teams just "splitting" the trophy rather than a free-for-all battle royale.

Bertha the Toaster
Jan 11, 2009
I do wonder if Orbitron was put into this bracket simply because Hacksmith has now put out a video, which means there's going to be more traffic to the Battlebots video.

Overall it was good, a few weird bits I wasn't a fan off like the weird wrestling smackdown talk over the microphone.

Propaganda Machine
Jan 2, 2005

Truthiness!
I think the wrestling talk was their attempt to replace Faruk. I thought the teams wrote their own dumb bits for him to read anyway? I didn't mind it, it's serious science but a silly show.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

For what they're working with now I thought the format was pretty good! Just wish there was more, I liked having the episode on and glancing at it between meetings all day lol

Hope it works out for them, NHRL and all that is neat but it's just not the same when the robots aren't 250 pounds

MikeNCR
Oct 11, 2003

RBA Starblade posted:

For what they're working with now I thought the format was pretty good! Just wish there was more, I liked having the episode on and glancing at it between meetings all day lol

Hope it works out for them, NHRL and all that is neat but it's just not the same when the robots aren't 250 pounds

Yeah, I think particularly for YouTube or similar the <30min format works nicely. Seemed like it gave some good opportunities for teams to show their personalities as well.

Lone Goat
Apr 16, 2003

When life gives you lemons, suplex those lemons.




Propaganda Machine posted:

I think the wrestling talk was their attempt to replace Faruk. I thought the teams wrote their own dumb bits for him to read anyway? I didn't mind it, it's serious science but a silly show.

The problem wasn't that there was trash talk, it's that it was really bad trash talk delivered like a tween being forced to give an insincere apology.

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS
Yeah, nerds always gonna be a bit cringe


Really want more technical stuff of them nerding out about a cool design decision they made

Chronojam
Feb 20, 2006

This is me on vacation in Amsterdam :)
Never be afraid of being yourself!


RBA Starblade posted:

For what they're working with now I thought the format was pretty good! Just wish there was more, I liked having the episode on and glancing at it between meetings all day lol

Hope it works out for them, NHRL and all that is neat but it's just not the same when the robots aren't 250 pounds

Honestly I felt the opposite way. I think NHRL has become such a finely tuned production, they almost ought to try to arrange a 250lb exhibition there or bring in their crew to announce and film in the BattleBots arena somehow.

But I love me some more BattleBots. I need more after-battle damage! They're kinda doing it but it's edited pretty short. The camera quality seemed kinda off, maybe due to the lighting setup? The behind-the-scenes stuff was good though.

Propaganda Machine
Jan 2, 2005

Truthiness!

Lone Goat posted:

The problem wasn't that there was trash talk, it's that it was really bad trash talk delivered like a tween being forced to give an insincere apology.

I'm not disagreeing. The only difference is it wasn't Faruq with the delivery in these new ones. I always thought those rhymey intros were terribly written and cringe.

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

Propaganda Machine posted:

I'm not disagreeing. The only difference is it wasn't Faruq with the delivery in these new ones. I always thought those rhymey intros were terribly written and cringe.

A bunch of those were from the teams themselves though iirc

Lone Goat
Apr 16, 2003

When life gives you lemons, suplex those lemons.




Propaganda Machine posted:

I'm not disagreeing. The only difference is it wasn't Faruq with the delivery in these new ones. I always thought those rhymey intros were terribly written and cringe.

Yeah I wasn't a fan of those either but at least his delivery was good and it didn't feel like he was forced to say it at gunpoint.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZzdfkm_vns

Ok yeah I think Tombstone needs a total redesign now. Only two fights on this one.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Tombstone broken from the start or just an epic driving failure at the start there. Got very lucky Orbitron got high-centered.

:lol: at that finish after the Valkyrie team spent the whole episode acting like death row inmates on their last day. The new armor configuration for them looks wayyyyyyyyyy better.

Lumbermouth
Mar 6, 2008

GREG IS BIG NOW


I love how absolutely hosed the arena floors at NHRL get after a full afternoon of fights.

Zedd
Jul 6, 2009

I mean, who would have noticed another madman around here?



These youtube videos are pretty good. It's not the full on TV show production, but it can't be.
Smacktalk is awkward as can be, but like another Goon said, it's a bunch of nerds. :3:

Antivehicular
Dec 30, 2011


I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I had no idea the teams were writing the Faruq intros themselves and tbh that makes them much more endearing

dwarf74
Sep 2, 2012



Buglord
I am catching up from yesterday's NHRL, and controlling a robot via DDR pad and later a Rock Band drum set is absolutely what I watch this poo poo for.

Antivehicular posted:

I had no idea the teams were writing the Faruq intros themselves and tbh that makes them much more endearing

That must have changed. In his Behind the Bots interview he said there were writers responsible for them (and was very complimentary about them.)

dwarf74 fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Apr 7, 2025

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Episode 3's not out yet so I'm going to guess it's not going great on Youtube :(

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011
If Tombstone is getting thumped by Orbitron, it might be time to hang it up

Great Beer
Jul 5, 2004

RBA Starblade posted:

Episode 3's not out yet so I'm going to guess it's not going great on Youtube :(

I'm subbed to them on YouTube and I had no idea ep 2 even came out. YouTubes recommendation algorithm is dog poo poo.

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


RBA Starblade posted:

Episode 3's not out yet so I'm going to guess it's not going great on Youtube :(

It's weird because not keeping to the schedule will only make the view counts worse. But both episodes have over 100k views, not sure why they'd expect drastically more than that without doing lots of advertising for it.

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MikeNCR
Oct 11, 2003

Looks like 2-3 weeks until the next one comes out.

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