For the second consecutive year, BotBrawl returned to Bingemans! Four divisions, three arenas, and a card that opened at noon on Saturday and did not stop until half past eight on Sunday night.
Pictured: Beast of Burden lifts Tankenstein - photo by Liam Haddock
Pictured: Fans crowd around an arena - photo by Liam Haddock
By the end of it: 66 robots from 34 teams, 151 fights, 50 knockouts.
Here's how it went.
Beetleweights: NV never blinked
Pictured: NV - photo by Eric Laird
Nineteen 3-pounders went into a double-elimination draw, and NV (Easiest Thing in The World) of Team Three Cheers went through the winners bracket without ever being in real danger. It tapped out Spoingus in round two, lucked into a another Team Three Cheers bot for round 2 and a forfeit from ODS, and squeaked past Shrubert on a judges' decision in round four; the only fight all weekend where it looked beatable.
Then it met Cyclone twice.
Pictured: NV and Cyclone collide - photo by Liam Haddock
Dreadbots' machine had already beaten Shadow and Vortex on the winners side before NV knocked it into the losers bracket in the winners final. Cyclone did what a good bot does with a second life: it came back through and KO'd Shrubert in the losers final to earn the rematch.
But NV would take the grand finals by KO. NV leaves Kitchener at 1312 rating, the highest-rated beetleweight in the database.
The other story in the class was Shrubert.
Pictured: Shrubert suplexing JAK3 - photo by Liam Haddock
The Robotanists' suplexer arrived unrated at 1000, got beaten by NV, and then won five straight on the losers side — including a knockout of JAK3 — before Cyclone finally stopped it. Third place, and +144 rating, the biggest climb in the division.
Pictured: Shrubert suplexing Spoingus - photo by Liam Haddock
Beetleweights:
1. NV (Easiest Thing in The World) — Team Three Cheers
2. Cyclone — Dreadbots
3. Shrubert — Robotanists
4. JAK3 — Shedtronic
Antweight: 35 bots, a random draw, and a rookie who wrecked the field
The 1-pound class was the deep end of the weekend — 35 entries and a losers bracket nine rounds long. Some very good robots got sent to it early: Just Add Water came in as the highest-rated bot in the class at 1268 and was defeated by Fully defined in winners round two.
What came out of the chaos was Small, of CROC, making its BotBrawl debut.
Pictured: Small of CROC - photo by Liam Haddock
Six wins, five of them by KO, one loss — to Blood On The Dance Floor in winners round five — and then a run back through the losers side that finished with a knockout of Smirking Cat Sawbot, one of the most experienced antweights on the circuit, in the losers final.
Pictured: Smirking Cat Sawbot slices an opponent - photo by Liam Haddock
That set up a grand final against Buttercup of Shedtronic, itself a debutant and itself unbeaten until the winners final. Small took it on a judges' decision, earning a championship in it's first ever competition.
Pictured: Buttercup launches Smirking Cat Saw Bot - photo by Liam Haddock
Small finished at 1253, up 253 points in a weekend — the biggest single-event gain by any robot at the Summer Classic, and enough to make it the second-ranked antweight on the site behind Siren. Buttercup went 1000 → 1175. Smirking Cat Sawbot (1226), JAK1 (1222) and Blood On The Dance Floor (1162) all moved up.
Antweight:
1. Small (CROC)
2. Buttercup (Shedtronic)
3. Smirking Cat Sawbot — Team Joto
4. Blood On The Dance Floor — WATBOTs
Sumo: RoboFreaks tAKES both
Both sumo classes ran as round robins into a playoff, and RoboFreaks walked away with both trophies.
Pictured: Ralph's lid - photo by Liam Haddock
In the 30-pound class, Ralph — a 4WD pneumatic flipper — went 6–0 in the group, beat MAX in the semi, and beat Homer of Idle Hands in the final. Homer was the only bot in the field with a claim on it, going 5–1 in the group with its single loss coming to, yes, Ralph. Finagler of ExperiMENTAL took third. Ralph finished the weekend at 1284, the highest rating held by any robot at the event.
In the 150-pound class, Resurrected did the same thing: 4–0 in the group, past Otis in the semi, and past Beast of Burden in the grand final. Four fights, four wins, no dropped matches, 1012 → 1149. tankenstein of Orbital Spin Robotics knocked Otis out for third.
Pictured: Resurrected hooks the pole v Tankenstein - photo by Liam Haddock
30 lb Sumo:
1. Ralph — RoboFreaks
2. Homer — Idle Hands
3. Finagler — ExperiMENTAL
150 lb Sumo:
1. Resurrected — RoboFreaks
2. Beast of Burden — ExperiMENTAL
3. tankenstein — Orbital Spin Robotics
The stuff around the edges
- 45% of combat fights ended in a knockout. Add tapouts and just over 60% of the 110 combat bouts ended before the buzzer. Thirty-three went to the judges.
- Seventeen postponements were granted for repairs, ten of them on Sunday, which is what a deep losers bracket does to a pit.
- Seven exhibition fights ran between bracket rounds, including a 2v2 tag match and a sumo grudge between Otis and Cicada.
- Every robot passed tech. 62 safety checks, 62 passes.
- Honk was crunched in Beast of Burden's jaws in a spectacular manner.
Pictured: Beast of Burden chomps on Honk - photos by Liam Haddock
Thank you
To the many teams who hauled bots to Kitchener, to the builders who stayed up in the pits Saturday night so their robots could fight Sunday morning, to judge Nancy and volunteers Craig, Veronica and many more, to Bingemans, and to everyone who paid at the door and stuck around for the 8:30 finish — thank you.
Full brackets, fight-by-fight results and rating changes are on the event page.
UP NEXT
Season 3 of BBRL is just around the corner! Info coming soon!
And the final event of the year is yet to be announced, so make sure you're following us on our social media, join the discord and check back here frequently to make sure you're up to date on the latest in BotBrawl!