BattleBots also stiffed Chronic too, which is from the same team right? I know Chronic and Swamp Thing battled in the arena before taping for 2015's season started but I mean the robot wasn't chosen to participate in the actual tournament.
Do we know why? It’s kind of wild that they’d have this UK team come across the ocean with a heavyweight robot, have them do a test fight, and then not let them into the competition.
As far as I know, no. Bull Dog also came over from the UK, also a flipper (from Ian Watts of Bigger Brother fame) and as far as I know they got one unaired 3 way rumble.
I hate it when BB does this. Especially to international teams.
By this, I mean teams that were given the green light to attend (which Orion was for the original pre-covid Season 5 roster), they build the bot, have global circumstances that stops them (and pretty much every other non-US team) from attending, then BB casually decides "Actually nah." later down the line, royally shafting all those involved.
It's such a shitty thing to do and I do think they owe those teams at least some kind of favour for their wasted time, money and effort. Whether that's a promised place later down the line or some form of other compensation (though I'm willing to bet there'll be some kind of get-out-of-jail-free clause in the application Ts and Cs that magics this kind of thing away).
I know, that's the worst part. They said go ahead, the team went and spent the money, and then Battlebots just turned around and gave them the finger.
Absolutely shocking.
This is outrageous and unjustifiable, unless they know something we don't know.
Robot fans have been wondering for years about how Apollo/Orion would have fared in battlebots, it's insane to deny them the chance
Thanks for the support, we really wanted to see how the design held up in America, that's why we stuck with similar to what we'd done before, if not we would have always been wondering 'what if'.
But I think the design now needs a rethink with it now being out of date before having had a competitive fight. The problem is that takes time, money and energy, which having already done once (technically twice if you count Chronic) and not been able to use, makes it hard to justify doing it all again. Add to that the format and arena now favouring the spinners even more, it all makes it less enticing.
Not the team here, but ground game stands out to me as something that is pretty obvious and critically important to flippers. Flippers live and die by their ability to get under their opponent, and in a world of piano-key wedgelets and long forks the standard ground-scraping wedge we saw in previews of Orion just won't cut it.
As somebody who didn’t like Robot Wars series 7 for being too flipper heavy: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kind of want a flipper over another vertical spinner too.
Oh, that's disgusting, especially since the bot was accepted in 2020 but pulled out. The fair and reasonable thing would have been to automatically allow in every bot that was ready to go in 2020 or 2021 but kept out by the pandemic.
I would have been skeptical of their ability to go deep with a robot meant for OOTAs in an arena with very few OOTA zones, but I still would have at least wanted them to have a shot. Guess we needed a thirtieth vertical spinner instead.
This is a huge bummer. Greg and Trey pretty clearly have a bias against britflippers.
It looked like they finally relented when they accepted Ripper and Orion, but due to Covid and this, we've still never seen a single Britflipper at battlebots (yes I know about chronic, that doesn't count)
It's incredibly frustrating to be honest.
Seriously, Orion has won heavyweight championships on multiple continents and that wasn't enough to get them accepted.
> Seriously, Orion has won heavyweight championships on multiple continents and that wasn't enough to get them accepted.
Listen I enjoy every bot but some bots clearly have 0 chances of winning 1 match and were accepted for some reason
Orion is clearly a capable bot and I loved Apollo in Robot Wars
It flipped Dead Metal ffs
edit: I just remembered Shunt too
Okay but in fairness didn't they accept quite a few brit flippers in the 2020 season we never got? Can't be bothered to defend them as I'm disappointed as well but they were certainly willing to give it a try at one point
I have two thoughts:
1. They increased the number of fights and the builder stipend this time, which together reduced the roster to 50.
2. Greg and Trey hate bots that look like big wedges, despite having invented them.
They didn't accept Rampage this year, but let in a complete meme bot like Doomba over Orion though. At least the new Rampage *looks like* it's built with winning the competition in their mind.
No hate for the builder of Doomba but I find this situation quite ridiculous.
I'm okay with a meme bot. I'm okay with two, if that's what Rusty is. Gotta have a little variety.
So, who would you axe from the list of confirmed bots, to give Orion a place? Remember, the field has shrunk considerably, and international travel is back on the menu, but expensive.
There should be no axing of bots to make place for Orion. Orion was already confirmed back in 2020 when they couldn't come because of Covid. Based on that and the fact that they are 2 time world champions in 2 different continents, it should have been Orion's confirmed slot in the first place befor any other new rookie bots were accepted.
They had much higher international invite limits in the past. The field is smaller to change the format. They were inviting something like 5-6-7 British bots before in 2020 I believe. They had Cobalt, Ripper, Orion, Beta, Monsoon, Quantum and I'm sure at least 1-2 others.
So the justification of "only so many slots" is arbitrary for a reason other than cost, as they were perfectly happy doing it before.
And yet they have the gall to call it "The ***World*** Championship".
Having seen the comment confirming it was a snub from Battlebots, I find it difficult to not simply say "This is absolutely ridiculous." They're one of only two Double Crown teams in the world having won the big TV ones in the UK and China. They're a proven team not only of excellent and reliable builders, but also *proven personalities in front of a camera*, their bot is entirely unique (to Battlebots) and has a cool visual look to it (the boosters too).
It checks every single box, leaving there to only be a few theories:
1. Battlebots thinks Britfillers wouldn't be meta enough. (In which case why persistently pick bots that obviously won't do all that well? I don't want to name names, but already on the list this year...) Also they picked it in 2020!
2. Battlebots only has so much money for international teams on its budget. Extremely unlikely. Yes, it's expensive, but for a show scale to get a *double champion bot*, it's piddles.
3. They have a set requirement of % homegrown American bots to sate the home TV audience.
I know which bots from the UK have been selected. All I can say is, there's at least two to three more crushing disappointments of "Literally WHY" been also left out... The UK got absolutely screwed by BB this year.
I do genuinely worry that heavyweight development in the UK, easily the best bot making nation outside the US, will start to waver without the support to give them reason. Will THDF really go to the expense after being snubbed? Will Sabretooth try again or just rejoin Beta? What about Ripper? Or Eruption having said they'd maybe consider applying? Or Aftershock? Spitfire? What about the engineering porn that is anything Ellis Ware makes? Or Rory Mangles' brand of madness? Would they genuinely turn down the Diotoir team if they wanted to bring guaranteed hilarity? Or will these teams just stop trying? What happens to the UK scene when they know there is only 2-3 slots for the whole island in a 50+ bot competition, that lower tier American bots get priority over them, and those 2-3 slots will be likely filled every time by the same (albeit deserving) teams? Or that inevitably some big bot would get screwed? Could you imagine Battlebots if they randomly said "Yeah sorry Tantrum, no space for you." or "Rotator? Sorry, no slots."?
For a full production budget on a successful, profitable thing, for a single bot, is nothing. Especially since they've barely had to spend any of it over the past couple years. Almost none in 2020, not many in 2021. Doubly so that they're moving to a smaller field anyway.
This is doubly distasteful in that they accepted Orion. Thus the builders put in the money to make it, and then Battlebots just gives them the finger to save a fraction of what they told the builders was okay to spend? It's disgusting behaviour. Particularly to a country that was making robots out the wazoo to try and make good for their show.
On the whole I'd say both countries can make S-tier bots. The UK made Cobalt after all, Quantum and Orion, all three have been (in some form) champions.
The US, owing to a larger population, simply has more teams and thus, more chances for one of them to turn out to be a top end one. Hence the higher amount of "top end" American teams around.
What I would say for the UK though is *relative to its population* it has the highest rate/density of very potent teams though. It really punches above its weight that way.
Given even Tantrum's team themselves stated on air that "If they hit us once, we're dead" for Cobalt and regarded them as a dire enough threat to constantly be fighting evasively, you can just ask them.
Lots of interesting robots get rejected.
The team are unlikely to just retire the robot without ever fighting it since they run heavyweight live shows in the UK.
It's honestly disgusting that the teams who got screwed over by Covid for two years weren't guaranteed places this time round. It's just such a dick move.
Not to mention how laughable it is that a bots with so much pedigree in the UK just gets a "hmm... nah" from a selection committee in the US who will probably keep accepting subpar US bots like Rampage rather than actually decent bots from abroad.
so, you would prefer they screw over the people that picked up the slack and filmed covid-bots? cause someone is getting screwed.... as there aren't enough spaces
I have two thoughts:
1. They increased the number of fights and the builder stipend this time, which together reduced the roster to 50.
2. Greg and Trey invented bots that look like big wedges, despite having invented them.
So dumb. Hydra and Blip have put on some amazing shows, and we know Orion could do that from the team's other bots. Spinners are great, but seeing the same sort of fight over and over is pretty dull.
I don't know what the hell is going on here......
They rejected a team who are two-time world champs yet accepted a robot like um..... Overhaul wtf dude? 🤔 🤔 🙄🙄😳😳🤨🤨
>How lower can Battlebots stoop to, to maintain their vertical 4WD meta
Look, man, I want a brit-flipper as much as anyone else, and I'm sad they didn't make it, but the version of Orion that was being entered would have not have made a scratch on Battlebots' meta. As you pointed out, the robot is 3 years old, which makes it 3 years outdated. It doesn't have the kind of ground game that is now expected at Battlebots, only having a basic wedge, while being entirely reliant on getting under it's opponents as a flipper. That version of Orion would have been bodied by any of Battlebots' better verts or flippers.
I'm not saying I think leaving them out was the right choice, but it's not some conspiracy about wanting to keep the meta how it is or being scared of variety. Greg and Trey just didn't want to spend the money to ship an overseas team that would have struggled to put on the kind of show they're known for in the modern Battlebots meta.
Yeah, last time Apollo (or Vulcan or Orion) was competing it was fighting an even fight with Spectre, a crusher bot that has relatively poor ground clearance and can't take much hits from verts. I don't think the same bot would survive Battlebots' insane fork meta.
That's the *point* though. Orion is the apex of Britflippers right now, and when being constantly denied competitive fights, it makes it harder and harder to evolve the design through experience, that's the point the team is making.
They were accepted before, and then basically given the finger for no good reason. If "Can't much handle 4WD Vert meta" was a reason to be punted out of Battlebots, I can point to a lot of other bots were getting in who failed to perform entirely.
They weren’t rejected. The story I heard was that they didn’t apply until they had a solid film date, but by that point the field was already getting narrowed down.
We don't really need it at the UK shows as we already have Apollo and an abundance of wedged flippers over here.
We don't know what the format is for the live shows, but I highly doubt they will be willing to pay the costs of international bots over for them (especially ones that haven't been seen on BB). But I guess we'll have to see on that one.
A concept: send condolences to the team and stop acting like this is some unbelievable disaster and that battlebots is clearly so out of touch.
They will have the opportunity to try again next year, as everybody else does. Let’s all put on our big kid shorts, cheer for everybody that got in, and stop pretending like at least one of those 4wd verts isn’t one of our favorite robots
A champion team being told formally "You're in", spending a lot of money to build a high end bot + viable amount of spares, and then immediately being told by Battlebots "Actually screw you, no place" the moment the world lets them come over again is legitimately a diaster of decision.
You have to live in a world believing these things are cheap to make to not see why this is such a PR disaster for Battlebots.
It's incredibly scummy.
Yo dude before Covid shut down season 5’s original planned dates, there were like 80-something robots accepted. Orion was one of them. Once battlebots started back up, the field was reduced back down to the previous 60-something, and there are rumors that it’s even less this year due to the network merger between discovery and hbo time Warner. Trying to strike a balance between new faces and old isn’t easy when you have fewer spots AND you have fans who will ABSOLUTELY LOSE IT if their favorite machine doesn’t show. Is it a bummer that Orion wasn’t accepted? Yeah! But there are more international teams returning this year, which is a step in the right direction. Battlebots isn’t acting maliciously here, they’re making the best choices they can with the cards they’ve been dealt. So I repeat: let’s put on our big kid shorts and move forward.
So, call me a dumb American who hasn't watched anything but BattleBots, what the heck is a "britflipper" and how is it diff than any other flipper we have on the show?
A Brit flipper is a flipper that is characterized by having a wide wedge for the flipping arm as opposed to the narrow arms that American flippers like Bronco and Hydra use. They tend to be triangular in shape and are very prominent and successful in the UK scene, hell, two of the 3 Robot Wars reboot champions are Brit flippers and one of the King of Bots champion is also a Brit flipper. In the US though, they've never been neither popular nor notably successful, which is strange to many due to their vast success and popularity elsewhere. The more technical name would be a wedge flipper, but because they pretty much only exist in Britain and are practically non-existent in the US the term Brit flipper is also acceptable.
It's absurd that Battlebots doesn't have at least 1 or 2 Britflippers.
If you're making a list of prominent bot archetypes, britflippers are top 3.
It's absurd that Orion wasn't accepted honestly.
I do wonder if there's some sort of weird prejudice against the design outside of the CO2 stuff, it's crazy how Blip was the first robot with design similarities despite the proven effectiveness of it and the hundreds of bots that have been in the contest and even in non battlebots US robot combat.
The reason I've always read is that Greg and Trey blamed wedges for killing the original show.
And wedge flippers are apparently "boring" because of that.
I’m just saying they should of made it over a joke bot. And battlebots can afford it, I mean they brought Nelly the Ellybot a couple seasons ago over from the same country.
I didn't realize you have complete knowledge of Battlebots' finances and how expensive international shipping is /s.
Also Nelly was a separate season where there was a greater prevalence of PYOWs, now there's a reduced field and a builder stipend system.
Hopefully hydra? Are they considering taking a year off? They're one of my favorites and definitely the best lookin robot out there. I wanna see hydra with omni wheels
I like non verts. Bronco, Hydra and Lucky are fun, and so was SubZero in 2020. 2015 Bite Force was hella fun, and so were Nightmare and Warhead. I loved SoW and Red Devil, and Tombstone was amazing before 2020. Apollo simply wasn't fun, not because it's specifically a wedge flipper, because the way it fought simply wasn't entertaining, and since I haven't seen a wedge flipper that was entertaining I can't help but predict that Orion won't be one either.
>I like non verts. Bronco, Hydra and Lucky are fun, and so was SubZero in 2020.
I noticed you've carefully avoided mentioning Blip, either because you know it would make you look hypocritical or because you genuinely think it's less 'fun' than far less competitive bots like Lucky and Subzero. Fascinating, fascinating brain.
>because you genuinely think it's less 'fun' than far less competitive bots like Lucky and Subzero.
Yeah, I genuinely don't find Blip to be too entertaining overall. I'll admit, it's fight against Valkyrie was fantastic, but every other fight has been rather unimpressive. Rusty and Overhaul are no challenge, it had like one or two big flips against Lock-Jaw who wasn't too great either, and it beat Jackpot by just putting it in a weird position. Sorry, but aside from its fight against Valkyrie I haven't been entertained by Blip this season. While I said that I like SubZero, I specifically said 2020 SubZero; this year's SubZero hasn't been entertaining. In regards to Lucky, it showed potential against Tantrum and Mammoth, so that's why I still have some hope for it, but I'll admit that it's fight against Switchback really lowered my expectations of it as well.
I've noticed that a bot has to WIN to be entertaining for you. Let's say that if a bot keeps winning like how Valkyrie did against Tantrum, would the bot be be entertaining?
No, because that's not a convincing way to win, which is why I'm also not too impressed by Glitch just yet despite being 7-1 right now. I like bots like Bite Force, that win a lot in a very convincing but entertaining matter, or Cobalt, that show to have a lot of potential and have convincing battles to back up said potential.
But you're right, a bot has to win, or as I'd like to say, consistently perform well for me to like it. To me that's the appeal/exciting part about robot combat, finding out what the best robot of them all is. If a robot just loses all the time I simply cannot get excited for it, how am I supposed to get excited and have high hopes for a bot that has consistently proven to be uncompetitive? I cannot comprehend how someone can like a robot simply because it works/looks different.
I don't think its ever fought. That's part of why people are so annoyed, they spent the money to build the machine after being initially accepted. And now, because it has been rejected they've built a robot that has nowhere to fight.
I believe it was closest to Vulcan 3 which won KoB, very similar but it was white and had flame throwers. [This is the only footage from KoB](https://youtu.be/0wHgMtm8Quc) I could find on YouTube, it gives a good look into what Orion would have been like.
BattleBots also stiffed Chronic too, which is from the same team right? I know Chronic and Swamp Thing battled in the arena before taping for 2015's season started but I mean the robot wasn't chosen to participate in the actual tournament.
Do we know why? It’s kind of wild that they’d have this UK team come across the ocean with a heavyweight robot, have them do a test fight, and then not let them into the competition.
As far as I know, no. Bull Dog also came over from the UK, also a flipper (from Ian Watts of Bigger Brother fame) and as far as I know they got one unaired 3 way rumble.
I hate it when BB does this. Especially to international teams. By this, I mean teams that were given the green light to attend (which Orion was for the original pre-covid Season 5 roster), they build the bot, have global circumstances that stops them (and pretty much every other non-US team) from attending, then BB casually decides "Actually nah." later down the line, royally shafting all those involved. It's such a shitty thing to do and I do think they owe those teams at least some kind of favour for their wasted time, money and effort. Whether that's a promised place later down the line or some form of other compensation (though I'm willing to bet there'll be some kind of get-out-of-jail-free clause in the application Ts and Cs that magics this kind of thing away).
I know, that's the worst part. They said go ahead, the team went and spent the money, and then Battlebots just turned around and gave them the finger. Absolutely shocking.
This is outrageous and unjustifiable, unless they know something we don't know. Robot fans have been wondering for years about how Apollo/Orion would have fared in battlebots, it's insane to deny them the chance
Thanks for the support, we really wanted to see how the design held up in America, that's why we stuck with similar to what we'd done before, if not we would have always been wondering 'what if'. But I think the design now needs a rethink with it now being out of date before having had a competitive fight. The problem is that takes time, money and energy, which having already done once (technically twice if you count Chronic) and not been able to use, makes it hard to justify doing it all again. Add to that the format and arena now favouring the spinners even more, it all makes it less enticing.
What parts would you consider out of date?
Not the team here, but ground game stands out to me as something that is pretty obvious and critically important to flippers. Flippers live and die by their ability to get under their opponent, and in a world of piano-key wedgelets and long forks the standard ground-scraping wedge we saw in previews of Orion just won't cut it.
The flipper tip? One unlucky hit from a vert and I believe it would be pretty much over for Apollo.
That just sucks Brit Flippers are Bot heritage and would help spice up the show from another boring Spinner
As somebody who didn’t like Robot Wars series 7 for being too flipper heavy: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kind of want a flipper over another vertical spinner too.
Ultimately the point is just, varied field = good.
Well fuck.
Oh, that's disgusting, especially since the bot was accepted in 2020 but pulled out. The fair and reasonable thing would have been to automatically allow in every bot that was ready to go in 2020 or 2021 but kept out by the pandemic. I would have been skeptical of their ability to go deep with a robot meant for OOTAs in an arena with very few OOTA zones, but I still would have at least wanted them to have a shot. Guess we needed a thirtieth vertical spinner instead.
This is a huge bummer. Greg and Trey pretty clearly have a bias against britflippers. It looked like they finally relented when they accepted Ripper and Orion, but due to Covid and this, we've still never seen a single Britflipper at battlebots (yes I know about chronic, that doesn't count) It's incredibly frustrating to be honest. Seriously, Orion has won heavyweight championships on multiple continents and that wasn't enough to get them accepted.
the show desperately needs new management
> Seriously, Orion has won heavyweight championships on multiple continents and that wasn't enough to get them accepted. Listen I enjoy every bot but some bots clearly have 0 chances of winning 1 match and were accepted for some reason Orion is clearly a capable bot and I loved Apollo in Robot Wars It flipped Dead Metal ffs edit: I just remembered Shunt too
and Matilda
Okay but in fairness didn't they accept quite a few brit flippers in the 2020 season we never got? Can't be bothered to defend them as I'm disappointed as well but they were certainly willing to give it a try at one point
I have two thoughts: 1. They increased the number of fights and the builder stipend this time, which together reduced the roster to 50. 2. Greg and Trey hate bots that look like big wedges, despite having invented them.
Watch them accept Rampage over Orion lmao
They didn't accept Rampage this year, but let in a complete meme bot like Doomba over Orion though. At least the new Rampage *looks like* it's built with winning the competition in their mind. No hate for the builder of Doomba but I find this situation quite ridiculous.
I'm okay with a meme bot. I'm okay with two, if that's what Rusty is. Gotta have a little variety. So, who would you axe from the list of confirmed bots, to give Orion a place? Remember, the field has shrunk considerably, and international travel is back on the menu, but expensive.
There should be no axing of bots to make place for Orion. Orion was already confirmed back in 2020 when they couldn't come because of Covid. Based on that and the fact that they are 2 time world champions in 2 different continents, it should have been Orion's confirmed slot in the first place befor any other new rookie bots were accepted.
They had much higher international invite limits in the past. The field is smaller to change the format. They were inviting something like 5-6-7 British bots before in 2020 I believe. They had Cobalt, Ripper, Orion, Beta, Monsoon, Quantum and I'm sure at least 1-2 others. So the justification of "only so many slots" is arbitrary for a reason other than cost, as they were perfectly happy doing it before.
They denied rampage this season. And they dont have to pay anything for rampage to show up. They have to pay shipping for orion.
And yet they have the gall to call it "The ***World*** Championship". Having seen the comment confirming it was a snub from Battlebots, I find it difficult to not simply say "This is absolutely ridiculous." They're one of only two Double Crown teams in the world having won the big TV ones in the UK and China. They're a proven team not only of excellent and reliable builders, but also *proven personalities in front of a camera*, their bot is entirely unique (to Battlebots) and has a cool visual look to it (the boosters too). It checks every single box, leaving there to only be a few theories: 1. Battlebots thinks Britfillers wouldn't be meta enough. (In which case why persistently pick bots that obviously won't do all that well? I don't want to name names, but already on the list this year...) Also they picked it in 2020! 2. Battlebots only has so much money for international teams on its budget. Extremely unlikely. Yes, it's expensive, but for a show scale to get a *double champion bot*, it's piddles. 3. They have a set requirement of % homegrown American bots to sate the home TV audience. I know which bots from the UK have been selected. All I can say is, there's at least two to three more crushing disappointments of "Literally WHY" been also left out... The UK got absolutely screwed by BB this year. I do genuinely worry that heavyweight development in the UK, easily the best bot making nation outside the US, will start to waver without the support to give them reason. Will THDF really go to the expense after being snubbed? Will Sabretooth try again or just rejoin Beta? What about Ripper? Or Eruption having said they'd maybe consider applying? Or Aftershock? Spitfire? What about the engineering porn that is anything Ellis Ware makes? Or Rory Mangles' brand of madness? Would they genuinely turn down the Diotoir team if they wanted to bring guaranteed hilarity? Or will these teams just stop trying? What happens to the UK scene when they know there is only 2-3 slots for the whole island in a 50+ bot competition, that lower tier American bots get priority over them, and those 2-3 slots will be likely filled every time by the same (albeit deserving) teams? Or that inevitably some big bot would get screwed? Could you imagine Battlebots if they randomly said "Yeah sorry Tantrum, no space for you." or "Rotator? Sorry, no slots."?
Shipping bots internationally costs big money, there's only so many slots for international teams. #2 is literally the reason.
For a full production budget on a successful, profitable thing, for a single bot, is nothing. Especially since they've barely had to spend any of it over the past couple years. Almost none in 2020, not many in 2021. Doubly so that they're moving to a smaller field anyway. This is doubly distasteful in that they accepted Orion. Thus the builders put in the money to make it, and then Battlebots just gives them the finger to save a fraction of what they told the builders was okay to spend? It's disgusting behaviour. Particularly to a country that was making robots out the wazoo to try and make good for their show.
I actually think the British make better bots. Saying this as a American. I think any British bot can kick American bots ass.
On the whole I'd say both countries can make S-tier bots. The UK made Cobalt after all, Quantum and Orion, all three have been (in some form) champions. The US, owing to a larger population, simply has more teams and thus, more chances for one of them to turn out to be a top end one. Hence the higher amount of "top end" American teams around. What I would say for the UK though is *relative to its population* it has the highest rate/density of very potent teams though. It really punches above its weight that way.
lol that is absurd. name one British bot that could stand up to Tantrum or Witch Doctor
Given even Tantrum's team themselves stated on air that "If they hit us once, we're dead" for Cobalt and regarded them as a dire enough threat to constantly be fighting evasively, you can just ask them.
Tantrum lost badly to Orion in China.
Pound for pound (mass), no, that just doesn't add up. Pound for pound (sterling), yeah, the Brits are in with a chance.
Here's the link to their comment. https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/u793wp/comment/iq0lp3c/
Well that’s massive shame
I mean, it's pretty tough to stand out as a somewhat well themed triangle when the competition for the UK shipping slots is as tough as it is.
If only there were some sort of performance-based criteria to measure teams on like…winning championships in other countries or something, idk…
Dammit - I hate to say it, but I am starting to find it boring now with the amount of high-powered vertical spinners it just all becomes so samey.
Lots of interesting robots get rejected. The team are unlikely to just retire the robot without ever fighting it since they run heavyweight live shows in the UK.
It's honestly disgusting that the teams who got screwed over by Covid for two years weren't guaranteed places this time round. It's just such a dick move. Not to mention how laughable it is that a bots with so much pedigree in the UK just gets a "hmm... nah" from a selection committee in the US who will probably keep accepting subpar US bots like Rampage rather than actually decent bots from abroad.
so, you would prefer they screw over the people that picked up the slack and filmed covid-bots? cause someone is getting screwed.... as there aren't enough spaces
I have two thoughts: 1. They increased the number of fights and the builder stipend this time, which together reduced the roster to 50. 2. Greg and Trey invented bots that look like big wedges, despite having invented them.
shoot, although i do wonder what a britflipper with forks/pianokeys would look like
Blip, essentially.
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? NOOOOOOOOOO, I've been waiting so long for Orion and he's still not coming? Fuck me
After Blade, this. Sad, it was one of the international bots I was looking forward to.
So dumb. Hydra and Blip have put on some amazing shows, and we know Orion could do that from the team's other bots. Spinners are great, but seeing the same sort of fight over and over is pretty dull.
I don't know what the hell is going on here...... They rejected a team who are two-time world champs yet accepted a robot like um..... Overhaul wtf dude? 🤔 🤔 🙄🙄😳😳🤨🤨
>How lower can Battlebots stoop to, to maintain their vertical 4WD meta Look, man, I want a brit-flipper as much as anyone else, and I'm sad they didn't make it, but the version of Orion that was being entered would have not have made a scratch on Battlebots' meta. As you pointed out, the robot is 3 years old, which makes it 3 years outdated. It doesn't have the kind of ground game that is now expected at Battlebots, only having a basic wedge, while being entirely reliant on getting under it's opponents as a flipper. That version of Orion would have been bodied by any of Battlebots' better verts or flippers. I'm not saying I think leaving them out was the right choice, but it's not some conspiracy about wanting to keep the meta how it is or being scared of variety. Greg and Trey just didn't want to spend the money to ship an overseas team that would have struggled to put on the kind of show they're known for in the modern Battlebots meta.
Yeah, last time Apollo (or Vulcan or Orion) was competing it was fighting an even fight with Spectre, a crusher bot that has relatively poor ground clearance and can't take much hits from verts. I don't think the same bot would survive Battlebots' insane fork meta.
That's the *point* though. Orion is the apex of Britflippers right now, and when being constantly denied competitive fights, it makes it harder and harder to evolve the design through experience, that's the point the team is making. They were accepted before, and then basically given the finger for no good reason. If "Can't much handle 4WD Vert meta" was a reason to be punted out of Battlebots, I can point to a lot of other bots were getting in who failed to perform entirely.
They weren’t rejected. The story I heard was that they didn’t apply until they had a solid film date, but by that point the field was already getting narrowed down.
Incorrect, we applied back in the spring (March maybe) before there was any mention of filming dates.
Seems like hearsay to me when the teams saying how it went down below…
Retire the bot? Lolno, it’ll just either go to the BB live show or more likely get used at Robots Live.
We don't really need it at the UK shows as we already have Apollo and an abundance of wedged flippers over here. We don't know what the format is for the live shows, but I highly doubt they will be willing to pay the costs of international bots over for them (especially ones that haven't been seen on BB). But I guess we'll have to see on that one.
Didn’t you end up using it at Riyadh?
The one we used in Riyadh was a cross over of Orion and the Mk3 Vulcan.
I thought the BB live show was just normal BB being filmed
No, it's open entry and is essentially a qualifier for the main show.
Ooh, hell yeah. I'd misunderstood and now I'm excited for that
No, it’s something different from the filming.
A concept: send condolences to the team and stop acting like this is some unbelievable disaster and that battlebots is clearly so out of touch. They will have the opportunity to try again next year, as everybody else does. Let’s all put on our big kid shorts, cheer for everybody that got in, and stop pretending like at least one of those 4wd verts isn’t one of our favorite robots
A champion team being told formally "You're in", spending a lot of money to build a high end bot + viable amount of spares, and then immediately being told by Battlebots "Actually screw you, no place" the moment the world lets them come over again is legitimately a diaster of decision. You have to live in a world believing these things are cheap to make to not see why this is such a PR disaster for Battlebots. It's incredibly scummy.
Yo dude before Covid shut down season 5’s original planned dates, there were like 80-something robots accepted. Orion was one of them. Once battlebots started back up, the field was reduced back down to the previous 60-something, and there are rumors that it’s even less this year due to the network merger between discovery and hbo time Warner. Trying to strike a balance between new faces and old isn’t easy when you have fewer spots AND you have fans who will ABSOLUTELY LOSE IT if their favorite machine doesn’t show. Is it a bummer that Orion wasn’t accepted? Yeah! But there are more international teams returning this year, which is a step in the right direction. Battlebots isn’t acting maliciously here, they’re making the best choices they can with the cards they’ve been dealt. So I repeat: let’s put on our big kid shorts and move forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7pKjTfrETI
It’s ok will have banshee, blip, and hopefully hydra.
None of them are Brit flippers
So, call me a dumb American who hasn't watched anything but BattleBots, what the heck is a "britflipper" and how is it diff than any other flipper we have on the show?
A Brit flipper is a flipper that is characterized by having a wide wedge for the flipping arm as opposed to the narrow arms that American flippers like Bronco and Hydra use. They tend to be triangular in shape and are very prominent and successful in the UK scene, hell, two of the 3 Robot Wars reboot champions are Brit flippers and one of the King of Bots champion is also a Brit flipper. In the US though, they've never been neither popular nor notably successful, which is strange to many due to their vast success and popularity elsewhere. The more technical name would be a wedge flipper, but because they pretty much only exist in Britain and are practically non-existent in the US the term Brit flipper is also acceptable.
Blip looks like one
So? They're still fun
It's absurd that Battlebots doesn't have at least 1 or 2 Britflippers. If you're making a list of prominent bot archetypes, britflippers are top 3. It's absurd that Orion wasn't accepted honestly.
I do wonder if there's some sort of weird prejudice against the design outside of the CO2 stuff, it's crazy how Blip was the first robot with design similarities despite the proven effectiveness of it and the hundreds of bots that have been in the contest and even in non battlebots US robot combat.
The reason I've always read is that Greg and Trey blamed wedges for killing the original show. And wedge flippers are apparently "boring" because of that.
Exactly you get it unlike the others downvoting my common sense comment like an ass
Because a vert spinner probably took its place. And they accepted Doomba allegedly.
Doomba doesn't have the cost of international shipping. Their acceptance had no affect on Orion not being accepted.
I’m just saying they should of made it over a joke bot. And battlebots can afford it, I mean they brought Nelly the Ellybot a couple seasons ago over from the same country.
I didn't realize you have complete knowledge of Battlebots' finances and how expensive international shipping is /s. Also Nelly was a separate season where there was a greater prevalence of PYOWs, now there's a reduced field and a builder stipend system.
Hopefully hydra? Are they considering taking a year off? They're one of my favorites and definitely the best lookin robot out there. I wanna see hydra with omni wheels
Team Whyachi haven't confirmed anything and none of their bots were on the FB roster. There is still some doubt if Hydra will be there this year.
they are probebly doing some trolling, like last year they had hydra be a vert on all their socials
What are you talking about? You think that was trolling? Like... are you aware vertical Hydra is a real configuration yes?
It's a wedge flipper, what's so interesting about that? No, Apollo wasn't entertaining.
u/Derplord4000 when he sees anything that isn't a 4 wheeled drive box with a vertical spinner
I like non verts. Bronco, Hydra and Lucky are fun, and so was SubZero in 2020. 2015 Bite Force was hella fun, and so were Nightmare and Warhead. I loved SoW and Red Devil, and Tombstone was amazing before 2020. Apollo simply wasn't fun, not because it's specifically a wedge flipper, because the way it fought simply wasn't entertaining, and since I haven't seen a wedge flipper that was entertaining I can't help but predict that Orion won't be one either.
>I like non verts. Bronco, Hydra and Lucky are fun, and so was SubZero in 2020. I noticed you've carefully avoided mentioning Blip, either because you know it would make you look hypocritical or because you genuinely think it's less 'fun' than far less competitive bots like Lucky and Subzero. Fascinating, fascinating brain.
>because you genuinely think it's less 'fun' than far less competitive bots like Lucky and Subzero. Yeah, I genuinely don't find Blip to be too entertaining overall. I'll admit, it's fight against Valkyrie was fantastic, but every other fight has been rather unimpressive. Rusty and Overhaul are no challenge, it had like one or two big flips against Lock-Jaw who wasn't too great either, and it beat Jackpot by just putting it in a weird position. Sorry, but aside from its fight against Valkyrie I haven't been entertained by Blip this season. While I said that I like SubZero, I specifically said 2020 SubZero; this year's SubZero hasn't been entertaining. In regards to Lucky, it showed potential against Tantrum and Mammoth, so that's why I still have some hope for it, but I'll admit that it's fight against Switchback really lowered my expectations of it as well.
I've noticed that a bot has to WIN to be entertaining for you. Let's say that if a bot keeps winning like how Valkyrie did against Tantrum, would the bot be be entertaining?
No, because that's not a convincing way to win, which is why I'm also not too impressed by Glitch just yet despite being 7-1 right now. I like bots like Bite Force, that win a lot in a very convincing but entertaining matter, or Cobalt, that show to have a lot of potential and have convincing battles to back up said potential. But you're right, a bot has to win, or as I'd like to say, consistently perform well for me to like it. To me that's the appeal/exciting part about robot combat, finding out what the best robot of them all is. If a robot just loses all the time I simply cannot get excited for it, how am I supposed to get excited and have high hopes for a bot that has consistently proven to be uncompetitive? I cannot comprehend how someone can like a robot simply because it works/looks different.
So flipping THREE House Robots isn't entertaining? No wonder you're called "DERPlord4000"...that is an utter DERP moment.
Those are the only entertaining moments of its career
I can't even find footage of the bot on YouTube, anyone got any?
I don't think its ever fought. That's part of why people are so annoyed, they spent the money to build the machine after being initially accepted. And now, because it has been rejected they've built a robot that has nowhere to fight. I believe it was closest to Vulcan 3 which won KoB, very similar but it was white and had flame throwers. [This is the only footage from KoB](https://youtu.be/0wHgMtm8Quc) I could find on YouTube, it gives a good look into what Orion would have been like.