Ok, everyone* has one match under their belt. Let’s check in on the state of the fields and re-do the tiers, updating from the preseason post.

Tier 1 – The Greats

End Game (1-0)

Witch Doctor (1-0)

Sawblaze (1-0)

Minotaur (1-0)

Hydra (1-0)

Tantrum (0-1)

Tantrum maintains its status in tier 1 but just barely. I can’t kick the champs down the ladder so quickly. At least they lost to another top tier robot (and I had Minotaur at 5th in the preseason). I thought they looked good against Minotaur, so we’ll see how they fare in their next fight against…checks notes…oh good god it’s Hydra, the next robot on the list. Yikes. Well, that will certainly be informative.

The other five looks like absolute aces right now. I will again reiterate how much I appreciate the diversity. It doesn’t really matter, but Minotaur sits above Hydra because it beat Hydra head-to-head in 2019, and Hydra did take another loss to a similar weapon (Glitch) last season.

Tier 2 – Very Dangerous Contenders

Cobalt (1-0)

Riptide (1-0)

Madcatter (1-0)

Copperhead (1-0)

All 1-0. All had convincing, impressive victories over good to excellent competition. All bear extremely powerful vertical weapons and that’s the main draw.

It is the age of vertical spinners. It is the age of power. These are the ones doing it correctly (after End Game, of course)

Tier 3 – Something’s Missing

Rotator (0-1)

Whiplash (0-1)

Blip (0-1)

Hypershock (0-1)

Ribbot (0-1)

Glitch (0-1)

This group all lost, obviously. This is a group of strong and highly rated robots who happened to all lose to strong opponents, it is what it is. Somebody has to lose these things. Still, there are concerns here, pretty much up and down the board. Let’s go through them in a Lightning Round, 5 words or less, to state the main concern for each robot

• Rotator: horizontal weapons are unhip atm
• Whiplash: can’t beat verticals
• Blip: loses low ground to elites
• Hypershock: no self-righter (also, wild and crazy)
• Ribbot: which configuration is best?
• Glitch: omg where to begin

Tier 3.5 – I don’t know cause they haven’t played yet!

Black Dragon (0-0)

Black Dragon finished top 4 in 2020 and top 16 last season. I think they probably belong in tier 3 with the Ribbots of the world but we’ll wait until we see them live, as we did with everyone else. Maybe I’ll have a small post next week for them alone, and if there’s anyone else we haven’t seen yet that shows something in episode 4.

Tier 4 – Ascending and Worth Keeping an Eye On

Skorpios (1-0)

Quantum (1-0)

Huge (1-0)

Skorpios had a very impressive and very important win over Jackpot, who had never lost a regular season match before. Quantum and Huge looked so unbelievably dominant that I am including them here. Time will tell us where exactly in the hierachy they belong, right now it’s just a great start.

Tier 5 – Dangerous but Lost, Kinda Badly

Jackpot (0-1)

Death Roll (0-1)

Bloodsport (0-1)

Shatter! (0-1)

Seems like we have obvious limitations here – in order: Jackpot is cheaply constructed and can’t self-right, Death Roll is Australian, Bloodsport is a horizontal spinner in a world that hates those, Shatter! is a hammer bot which is even more unusual and which time has told us is a weapon time without the damage capabilities to be a contender.

Tier 6 – …Maybe?

Fusion (1-0)

Emulsifier (1-0)

Claw Viper (1-0)

I’m highly intrigued with what I saw from these guys, especially Claw Viper’s transformation from bad to what looks like very good. Good work people! Let’s see more.