Robot Wars Series VIII - Week 2 Discussion

Week 2, certainly an interesting set of battles. Fewer true veterans this time, and a couple of brand new (seemingly somewhat untested) robots. As before, spoilers from here on, in case anyone hasn't watched the episode.

I called Disconstructor out as soon as I saw it on the website (sorry guys). I know that may have been presumptuous of me, but it was on the basis of it being a mobile box with a weapon attached, and it turns out I was right. What I didn't expect to see, was Tough as Nails go out so early. I was quietly rooting for the Dutch team, being one of my favourites from Series 7, with some excellent drivers. Personally I think they could've gone a lot further had Shockwave and Thor not ganged up on them, and I certainly did think they had control most of the fight, but that's the way it goes I suppose. In the final, I truly was expecting Thor to beat down the opposition, the axe proving incredibly effective in the previous bout, but Shockwave's sturdier blade proved more useful than the seemingly cobbled-together HDPE one. I was mighty impressed by Shockwave and Thor overall, which is honestly more than I can say for the Foxic team. I was actually rooting for Foxic to begin with. Quite a clever design with a quirky animal paintjob. However that kind of disappeared the more the episode went on. I don't intend to be mean, but I found Team Captain Craig Danby's attitude constantly rude and unsporting, even if it was in jest. Giving up because you lost your first head-to-head and not even trying against your opponent in the next is certainly not my idea of a good competitor. This coupled with Foxic's less-than-stellar performance and sadly ineffective weapon (which seemed to struggle as a lifter, never mind a 'devastating guillotine') had my respect for them evaporate by the last few fights. It's all well and good going after the house robots as a bit of fun, but to do your opponent the dishonour of ignoring them, and even (with Thor) calling them 'cowards', is not how you should behave. Sadly we didn't see much of Draven, I'd certainly love to see that weapon in action again if the team continues in live events or enters the next series. M.R. Speed Squared really impressed me in the first round, doing serious damage to both its opponents and itself, and I really did wonder for a second if we had another Typhoon on our hands. Sadly I think that was the beginning of the end for them, as their apparently very new design was not tried and tested enough to withstand the constant beating from the warzone, and their condition worsened from then on. As for Chimera, I was honestly hoping for better. I did think those wheels would have been sturdier than they were, but they simply couldn't stand up to the initial assault from Speed Squared. That said, I'm no expert, but I don't think their weapon would've been that effective had they had a chance against the others in the head-to-heads. Good episode overall despite the Foxic vs M.R. Speed Squared fight, the finalists were both worthy competitors, and I hope Shockwave does well in the Grand Final.

"and even (with Thor) calling them 'cowards', is not how you should behave." You know Craig and Jason are good friends right... That's about par for the course with their trashtalk.

"I found Team Captain Craig Danby's attitude constantly rude and unsporting, even if it was in jest." Craig is far from unsporting and was a massive help in getting nuts back into the arena after a bit of Carbiding. We all trashtalk each other, TV just decided to only show one side of it.

Don't believe everything you see on TV, Craig got screwed in the edit. Yeah foxic had issues and he still tried to make the most of it by going after Dead Metal something that did make for some great TV.

I liked the banter, it's better than the pantomime you used to get, bribing judges, tampering with competitors robots in pits etc....
I'm struggling with the format still a bit, seeing Thor do so well then losing to a robot it had beaten already.
It was nice to see the house robots get proper stuck in this week.
Their was a lot of expectations from last week so a couple of boring fights. But as they haven't got the time needed to fix them properly it was going to happen, especially if some are untried and tested in battle their going to have failures.

I was surprised at that robots weight (can't remember name right now) only weighing 70 odd kg's but I can see what it was on the show as it was different.
Looking forward to next week to see supernova, looks a good line up, enjoyed my first glimpse of big nipper with the disk on the front, should be an interesting one to watch.

And those camera angles and editing really annoyed me again, cutting away at the wrong time.
The final is going to be awesome

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shakey

"and even (with Thor) calling them 'cowards', is not how you should behave." You know Craig and Jason are good friends right... That's about par for the course with their trashtalk.

"I found Team Captain Craig Danby's attitude constantly rude and unsporting, even if it was in jest." Craig is far from unsporting and was a massive help in getting nuts back into the arena after a bit of Carbiding. We all trashtalk each other, TV just decided to only show one side of it.

Don't believe everything you see on TV, Craig got screwed in the edit. Yeah foxic had issues and he still tried to make the most of it by going after Dead Metal something that did make for some great TV.

---

My bad then, if they're actually good friends, fair enough. Maybe it was just Craig's confidence that somehow rubbed me the wrong way, I don't know. As for getting stuck underneath Dead Metal making for great TV, I'm not so sure. I'd honestly have preferred Speed Squared vs Foxic proper, even if it was a quick fight. Towards the end, they did start to come together, and it honestly wasn't too bad. Nuts running away from Terrorherz was interesting enough, this could've been ok. All the same, it's really odd that Craig would be so misrepresented in the edit if that's the case. Just seemed very strange to me, twice in a row. Anyway, fair enough if I'm wrong.

Yeah the camera angles are odd still, and the lack of music and John's audio commentary quality kinda grates at me in the fights. Not terribly, but it does feel lacking. Still, I doubt it's gonna change mid-series, and it's just a small complaint. Really looking forward to seeing Big Nipper in the next episode too, along with Orte and Dantomkia. I'm betting on Overdozer's demise in the first round, but it would be hilarious to see them go through with the huge handicap they seem to have put themselves at. They're gonna have to be careful with so many lifters and flippers.

Gutted for Thor, it felt like Jason should have won that episode. Starting to see a link between the robots that have evolved, and those that are new builds in terms of reliability.

I think what should be pointed out on the program is that a lot of these teams are seasoned competitors, using new untested designs because of the limitations placed upon them by the shows management.

Where as they normally build a flipper and are experienced at that, they are now trying their best to enter a 4wd pusher they haven't had the chance to be familiar with.

I enjoyed this episode more the second time around, personally. It was a bit disappointing - brilliant action in round one, and then in round 2 the fights got a bit stale for numerous reasons. And another anti-climactic heat final where a robot breaks down after a single hit and then ends up in the pit in less than a minute. I think this round robin format for the 2nd round is going to be very hit and miss.

Also, no disrespect intended to Craig Danby or the Foxic team but their behaviour in front of the cameras did come over as rude, arrogant and obnoxious, from the perspective of the viewing audience, and it was not enjoyable to watch. However, watching it for a second time made it pretty obvious to me that the editing was malicious, rather than the roboteers. The way they edited Craig calling Jason a coward in the pits, for example. This was the biggest disappointment of all.

Still - looking forward to the next episode, as we haven't seen any high pressure flippers yet - episode 3 will hopefully be a lot of fun just like episode 1 was :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Matt

Also, no disrespect intended to Craig Danby or the Foxic team but their behaviour in front of the cameras did come over as rude, arrogant and obnoxious, from the perspective of the viewing audience, and it was not enjoyable to watch. However, watching it for a second time made it pretty obvious to me that the editing was malicious, rather than the roboteers. The way they edited Craig calling Jason a coward in the pits, for example. This was the biggest disappointment of all.

Still - looking forward to the next episode, as we haven't seen any high pressure flippers yet - episode 3 will hopefully be a lot of fun just like episode 1 was :)

---

I dont know if you have ever been involved with the tv series Matt but this language is what the producers like
to hear-pick any five episodes and you will find similar language-i'm pretty sure they shook hands and enjoyed a
beer afterwards.
As for the battles, it was obvious that Thor was in a class of its own and should have walked it with 9 points
in my opinion, but to win Robot wars you must be the best every fight and even with this new points system
you need to avoid a full defeat-whats wrong with a bit of humility anyway:-|.
Dissapointed with Chimera-untested against spinners but if you dont rebuild it guys I might be interested
in the workings.

I don't know why the producers like to hear it - none of the viewers seem to. And even if the aim was to just get people talking about it, it's making me think less of Mentorn as a company. They could have got my attention a lot more easily with something that was actually funny or jovial rather than this weird seemingly anti-social editing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by team death

I dont know if you have ever been involved with the tv series Matt but this language is what the producers like
to hear-pick any five episodes and you will find similar language-i'm pretty sure they shook hands and enjoyed a
beer afterwards.

---

I haven't been involved with the TV series (or built any robots, yet!) but I know the producers like this type of thing, I just think they went a bit too far this time, because usually they'd make some effort to inform the viewers that it was just a bit of fun and they were best of friends really, and it was never really that convincing in the first place.

I thought the way they edited it to make the Foxic team look obnoxious was a bit too convincing, and they made no effort to point out that it was all for show, so lots of people think it was serious, and consequently that has led to a lot of criticism/verbal abuse directed towards them on social media.

I just remembered Chimera was one of your robots - That must've been painful to watch.

Some really good fights! As for the editing why do we keep seeing the same transition clips? I don't know what i'll do if I see anymore green lasers! Also is it me or do they keep showing us clips of fights that we havn't seen yet? If its true that craig was severly mis-represented I don't think that's cool. He was definantly put across in a bad light right from his first interview with Angela caling him arrogant if I remember correctly. Anyway absolutely loved Thor. Jason is clearly such a good driver and he came across as a nice guy (although with the editing that could mean nothing - but i suspect not). Shockwave also did really wel but they seemed really suprised (and thrilled no doubt) to beat Thor - loved that moment. As already said by others really looking forward to the grand final.

Craig is a really nice guy, mostly known for Tanto on the live circuit. I was on the next table to him at my first ever event, and despite Tanto being hard work at the event he was helping me with all sorts, loaning cables and chargers and everything.

I feel a bit as though I'm sat on the outskirts of it all as I'm Autistic, and I've mostly entered feather's at live events, but have spent a lot of time seeing the same Heavy teams chatting and laughing together. A lot of them met on the original RobotWars, and then after ten years on the live circuit are all just a big group of mates.