Huh, I wasn’t expecting this!

Week 10 is here and we haven’t seen the third appearance of Whiplash, or Uppercut, or Rotator, or Tantrum, or several other 2-0 robots. Well! It looks like they’re just getting a free pass into the tournament at 2-0! I guess that makes sense, only have the robots fight that have something left to prove. If the selection committee is satisfied with what they’ve seen, let them just chill out and get ready for the playoffs.

Looks like the following made the tournament at (an impressive) 2-0

• Whiplash

• Uppercut

• Copperhead

• Rotator

• Tantrum

• Hypershock

• Jackpot

Sadly we are deprived of a third fight for these robots. On the flip side, DAYUM the tournament is going to be spectacular.

Now, let’s proceed and handicap the fight card we have, rather than gripe about the fightcard we do not.

> Bloodsport (1-1) vs Claw Viper (1-1)

Bloodsport is fast and deadly. Claw Viper is fast and fairly harmless, they try to grab and flip/suplex their opponent. It usually doesn’t work. I don’t see the reason to spend any more time here, if Bloodsport can drive fast and wily enough to get space against Whiplash he can do it against this guy. I don’t think Claw Viper will hold up to multiple hard hits, and that’s what Bloodsport delivers.

The Pick: Bloodsport by Knockout

> Madcatter (1-1) vs Rampage (0-1?)

I’m only finding one previous fight by Rampage, a loss to Retrograde in a YouTube fight. Retrograde isn’t very good. I believe Rampage has an aggressive weapon that didn’t work very well. As for his opponent, well, there aren’t a lot of bots like Madcatter that can you 100% trust to defeat an inferior opponent. Their losses the past two years: Tombstone, Rotator (Bounty match), Sawblaze. They aren’t going to blow this one.

The Pick: Madcatter by KO

> Huge (1-1) vs Switchback (??? At least one loss)

I honestly don’t remember what happened in the Switchback/Slammo! YouTube fight, I think SB might have won but it couldn’t have been impressive in any case. It doesn’t matter, I don’t like this matchup for them. Switchback seems slow and awkward moving (also like, their weapon hasn’t really worked), Huge will have plenty of time to get the weapon going and then pick his spot of attack. I think he’s going to rip Switchback apart.

I called Huge dead earlier in the year…I have the complete opposite feeling right now. To me there feels like an air around Huge right now, like they’re going places, like they have a story to tell this season. We’ll see if they win this, and if so what their bracket in the tourney looks like. All I know is they looked great last fight and the design seems to be clicking. We will see.

The Pick: Huge by KO

> Kraken (0-2) vs Glitch (2-0)

Hmmmm…

Glitch is coming off the Upset of the Year(link) over Hydra, Kraken is coming off of an EXTREMELY disappointing loss to HiJinx, whom I do not think very highly of. I’m deeply tempted to take the upset here, figuring that Kraken is due for a good match, and Glitch is due for a bad one. Glitch has been super lucky this season (those hits against Hydra, holy moly) and Kraken has not. And that makes me think the inverse is coming.

…

Alright, what the hell, I’m pretty sure I’ll be 3-0 at this point in the night, I can afford to waste one. I just think Kraken is more durable, thoroughly more durable, Glitch was barely moving in both fights. Kraken should be the better driver and be able to grab his sides. He might just try to avoid the weapon (especially after the HiJinx disaster) and drag Glitch all over the place, or if he does he might have a shot to nullify it, at least it’s not a horizontal spinner which has killed him in his first two fights. Here’s your optomistic longshot of Week 10

Upset Pick of the Week: Kraken by Judges Decision

> Mammoth (1-1) vs Lucky (1-1)

Oh Mama. Wow, this is a match.

I’d say the winner makes the playoffs and the loser probably does not. Mammoth is a behemoth of a bot with a large flipping arm, Lucky is a tough average sized bot (i.e. much smaller than Mammoth) who tries to flip their opponent.

Um, has Mammoth faced a flipper before? What happens if you try to flip Mammoth? Is he possibly flip-resistant like Huge? I guess he did flip a bunch when fighting Huge and seemed to hold up, but in another fight the flips cost him (against Smeeeeeeeeee in the Bounties). So I dunno, inconclusive. As far as Lucky goes they really should be 2-0, they’ve looked great and possibly had Tantrum pinned when they decide to re-engage and ended up freeing Tantrum from their predicament. I like them a lot, they aren’t quite as low as other flippers and their weapon seems to punch out more, more likely to throw the robot vertically than the others do.

Man, I dunno, this one is hard to call, who knows how the interaction between the two will work until they’re in the arena together. I’ll take the punching little guy and am betting he’ll be able to knock Mammoth around. I half expect Mammoth’s weird design to get caught on something, the screws or something wacky on the upper deck. Either way, should be a good one.

The Pick: Lucky by KO

> Rusty (0-1) vs Witch Doctor (1-1)

Lol. Poor Rusty.

The Pick: Witch Doctor by KO

> Fusion vs Icewave

Should be an interesting match. Fusion had a big win over Cobalt that now looks kinda fraudulent (what was Cobalt DOING early in the season?) and then got their ass kicked by a very good Copperhead. Icewave got their ass kicked by Black Dragon in fight one and then bounced back with a quick KO of Deadlift. Black Dragon is good and Deadlift is bad, so maybe that doesn’t mean much.

Um, I kind of like this matchup for Icewave, even though their season to date probably tells us they’re the inferior bot. I was really impressed with Icewave’s driving in the last match, they kept their distance on Deadlift twice early to get the blade going for big strikes, and while Deadlift isn’t very good they’re fast and well-driven. I picked Deadlift and really thought they might be able to stay right on IW and prevent the weapon from spinning. I think Icewave is the better driver and probably faster here, so will get going and then initiate contact, and his weapon should be distinctly more powerful than Fusion’s dual setup. And I still have concerns about Fusion’s reliability/durability, so yeah. I’ve talked myself into this one, good enough. Fusion is still a cool bot and has a chance but two weapons means your cutting your power in half, they have the weaker weapon here for sure, and I just don’t think they’re good enough at the other things (armor, driving, speed, design) to make up for it.

The Pick: Icewave by KO

Let’s go!