BattleBots: Difference between revisions

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It was hosted in the first two seasons by Bil Dwyer and Sean Salisbury. In the third season Sean was replaced by Tim Green.

 

* [[Boring but Practical]]: Wedges. Voltronic in particular screams this trope. Its weapon was a slow lifting arm that had small spikes pop out from the bottom when it grabbed something. It would then carry the opponent around, with them unable to retaliate because their wheels weren't touching anything. Voltronic won most of its fights by doing this, even after a rule was added stating robots could not "pin" another for more than 30 seconds: If the trapped robot could still move, they had to let go.

** In an arena where the most guaranteed win is to hold your opponent under a giant hammer, heavily-armored non-offensive designs seem a lot more attractive. It's no wonder that Biohazard, Diesector, and and Vlad all won multiple Nuts, while Mechavore and Surgeon general got none.

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Quite a few robots, although most used a pointed tip instead of a blunt end. The Judge played this trope straight, though.

** And '''The Pulverizer''', the most destructive obstacle in the arena. If the bot designer does not have a plan for getting away from the giant hammers, then you just know [[Boss Arena Idiocy|that's where they will end up]].

* [[Explosive Overclocking]]: Mauler 51-50 was notorious for this.

* [[Follow the Leader]]: Any time a successful design was created, the next season would have several imitators.

* [[Glass Cannon]]: Nightmare, whose huge vertical spinning saw was definitely one of the nastiest weapons on the show... but the bot had two completely exposed wheels that were ripped off plenty of times in the course of the show, and to top it all off, its shape made it very easy to tip over. Nightmare was involved in some of the most spectacular knockouts in the history of Battlebots, but more often than not, it was on the ''receiving'' end of those knockouts. Nightmare's lightweight companion, Backlash, which was lower to the ground and consequently had better balance, was far more effective and made it to the lightweight finals more than once, winning in Season One.

* [[Glory Days]]: Son of Whyachi dominated the heavyweight division in season 3, winning all seven of its matches en route to a championship. After a rules change forced it into the superheavyweight division, it struggled to replicate its earlier success, losing in a first round knockout in season four and in the second round in season 5.

** This applies to a number of bots that did well in early seasons but whose designs became outdated later on, such as Backlash, Mauler, El Diablo, Deadblow, and a number of others. Later, even bots such as Biohazard would become subject to this in post-Battlebots tournaments, as fierce young teams with updated designs and more money began taking over the sport on the independent scene.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: While tiny by most "humongous mecha" standards, Mechadon towered over every other robot in the show, thanks to its huge legs.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Bambino was a robot that never made it to the TV rounds. The reason might have been that it used two baseball bats as its weapons. Bats are fine and dandy against [[Puny Humans|humans]], but against robots? Forget about it.

* [[Joke Character]]: Chinkilla, a ridiculous-looking robot with a Jay Leno face. It's main method of attack was flipping robots over by pushing the chin underneath. Unfortunately it was too heavy to enter any of the standard tournaments so it was only seen in exhibition matches.

*** Its a shame they don't have the full video of the fight online, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMNcT2BC7W4 but this says enough].

** Also Crash Test Dummy, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBL0diT2ifk As seen here]

* [[Lethal Joke Character]]: Dr. Inferno Jr, which looks very top heavy and unbalanced, but somehow manages to kick ass and take names. It won the Lightweight championship twice.

* [[Life or Limb Decision]]: Happened to Diesector of all bots. He got his hammer stuck in the slot for the kill saws somehow. Naturally, he let the saws cut the hammer off. Viewable here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PC7gAo1cfE\]

* [[Lovely Assistant]]: Carmen Electra, Traci Bingham, Donna D'Errico, Heidi Mark

* [[Made of Iron]]: Most of the competitors if you take it literally. In terms of taking obscene amounts of punishment and still moving, Iceberg and Zion both qualify for their fights against Phrizbee-Ultimate and Hazard.

* [[Melee a Trois]]: The Rumbles at the end of each tournament gathered up all the robots that were still working and threw all of them in the arena at once. One Rumble in Season 2 had about twenty heavyweight robots in it. Twenty. In an arena meant for two. It got confusing.

* [[Mighty Glacier]]: Son of Whyachi, at least during season three when its primary method of propulsion was its slow walking feet.

* [[Opening Narration]]: Previews of the upcoming fights.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Viewers were often treated to shots of San Francisco and Las Vegas (depending on where that season's tourney was being held) with no real point except to fill a little time. It happened [[Once an Episode]].

* [[Spikes of Doom]]: The wall of the arena was lined with them. Several robots used spikes as weapons, but they usually weren't effective. The best moment for spikes was probably the finale of Ankle Biter vs. The Master. {{spoiler|Ankle Biter managed to get under The Master and proceeded to ram it into the wall, impaling it on a spike.}}

* [[Stone Wall]]: New Cruelty, Turtle, Iceberg, '''ZION''', if not in looks.

** Overkill's blade was originally intended to thwack bots into submission, either from above or from the side by spinning around and hitting them with it, but its most successful application has been as a "spinner killer". Particularly in the case of horizontal saw spinners, bots have cut through the blade only to find that in doing so, they've rendered their own weapon useless, allowing Overkill to dominate the rest of the fight by pushing them around. This has happened to MOE, Mechavore, Surgeon General, and Warhead, and is a big reason why Overkill has never lost by knockout.

* [[Technical Pacifist]]: Flippers and lifters. Yeah, they're fighting, but they usually didn't destroy their enemies because they couldn't - flinging a robot into the air does a lot less than you'd think.

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMq6Hw-oxSs El Diablo vs. Ra], Hazard vs. Sabotage. There was also a competitor named Overkill, but its weapon was rather lacking and it won most of its fights by perseverance and not destruction.

** Megabyte, a full-body spinner from the heavyweight division, was eliminated early in the preliminary rounds of the fifth season tournament. After the show's run ended, its builders continued to work on it for non-televised tournaments in later years. A couple years after the end of Battlebots' run, Megabyte fought ''the'' Biohazard (who dominated during Battlebots' TV run and is often thought to be the "face" of American robot combat) and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifBLBYwxe2Q completely obliterated it] (even worse than Son of Whyachi had done back in season three).

** Slam Job is another bot whose success in the box has increased significantly after Battlebots' TV run ended. Remembered mostly for being the victim of Nightmare's Crowning Moment Of Awesome, Slam Job is now known as one of the highest-ranked heavyweights on the independent circuit. It even has a victory over the aforementioned Megabyte.

* [[Victory Pose]]: Most robots are capable of performing a "Victory Spin" by spinning in place. It doesn't really work for full-body spinners, though, and most walkers can't do it either because they would have to turn on a dime to pull it off.

** Diesector in particular has an excellent victory dance that uses all his weapons to great effect. Bigger Brother and Little Sister also loved to do this.

** Only the College tournament, the High School and Professional [Heavyweight] tournaments don't have a Network yet.

** The 2009 College Tournament was to air on digital cable and satellite but was canceled at the last minute before airing even a single episode. One episode from this made it to Youtube's pay-per-view service, the rest are sitting in an editing room somewhere.

 

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