(Note: Previously I have broken up this category into two types of vertical disk spinners – regular sized ones and Super Vertical Spinners. The idea being there’s the traditional, more common size, and then there’s this new massive size that has become such a force in the recent BattleBots landscape.

Nonetheless, while this post was inspired by the decline of the Super Vertical Disk Spinners, the regular vertical spinners aren’t doing very well either! So this post can apply to the big ones or the group as a whole, take your pick)

This season I put five robots in the category of Super Vertical Disk Spinners. They are as follows:

• End Game
• Uppercut
• Jackpot
• Cobalt
• Madcatter

Here are the respective records for those five robots during the 2021* regular season.

• 3-0
• 2-0
• 2-0
• 2-1
• 2-1

Really worth mentioning here – all the wins by these five robots WERE BY KNOCKOUT.

The only losses were when Madcatter was completed dominated by Sawblaze, and when Cobalt was using his “defensive configuration” in a non-competitive loss to Fusion. (WILDCARD, Baby!)

In totality those robots went 11-2 in the regular season, which is an 85% winning percentage.

Then came the postseason! (They were five of the top sixteen seeds, seeds 1 5 10 14 15 in order)

• End Game 1-1 (lost to Minotaur)
• Uppercut 1-1 (lost to Riptide)
• Jackpot 1-1 (lost to Blip)
• Cobalt 2-0 (still going!)
• Madcatter 0-1 (lost to Black Dragon)

That’s a 5-4 overall record for the playoffs, a 56% winning percentage (furthermore, 3 of the 4 losses were upsets, losses to a robot with a lesser seed, none of whom had a vertical spinner). Unless Cobalt wins another match to make the Final Four (it’s against Tantrum, I don’t think they will) then this group will finish at 50-50 for the postseason, after being COMPLETELY UNTOUCHABLE in the regular season.

Bah?

Zuh???

What on earth happened?????

P.S. Regular vertical disk spinners – Witch Doctor has won two playoff matches and is still kicking, Hypershock suffered a bad upset in their opening match. Lock-Jaw didn’t make the playoffs. Ribbot used their horizontal spinner in their playoff match (and LOST), Black Dragon stuck with their egg-beater weapon all year (they’ve used a vertical spinner in the past) so they don’t matter here. Anyone else? Fusion has both vertical and horizontal spinners, they went 1-2 and looks lost (they have other issues to iron out). Tantrum’s weapon is technically a vertical spinner but it just doesn’t qualify here (largely because the weapon is often irrelevant to their success). It seems the year may have been a decline in both total number of vertical spinners, and then the results of the two tier of such spinners. Crazy how the evolution of the sport continues to twist and turn.