Robot combat counts as a sport, right?
Anybody watching the new season of Battlebots on Discovery? First episode of the season had some great fights and big surprises (is Captain Shrederator good now?), and a ton of things catching on fire. They made some rule changes this year that I'm not so sure about, but there are a lot of really interesting bots fighting this time.
I only got into robot combat just last year when my partner convinced me to watch the 2020 season with him. I became way more obsessed with it than he ever was. Now I like to build bots for the lower weight classes - usually 3d printed fairyweight (150g) or antweight (1lb) bots, but the 250lb monsters on TV are definitely way more exciting.
What's your favorite robot? Do you like big spinners like Uppercut or Tombstone, or unconventional designs like HUGE or Smeeeeeeeeeeeeeee? Are you also disappointed that Duck! doesn't have a face this season? Is Blip the cutest bot to ever compete? Tell me your Battlebot Battlethoughts.
End Game is going to win the giant nut again and it gives me no joy to report this.
New fights every Thursday, plus a bonus Sunday fight on youtube!
There are tons of good fights on Youtube, but I really recommend catching the show and getting all the stuff between the fights - interviews with builders, the Bot Whisperer giving insights to the fights.
You can tell that the announcers have really come to appreciate the sport over the years.
Is Kenny Florian still doing commentary for these ?
Yes! It's so fun watching his earlier seasons where he didn't really seem to know what was going on, but now he definitely "gets" the sport.
Kenflo was getting pretty good at commentary in mma before he split with the ufc. He started working with the pfl (smaller fight org) recently.
Hell of a fighter too. Happy he found something after fighting.