Dr. Inferno Jr. vs. Tentoumushi 8.0
No Apologies vs. Son of Whyachi
Dr. Inferno Jr. vs. Tentoumushi 8.0
The judges say: 26-19 victory for Dr. Inferno Jr.
The fans say: 32-13 victory for Dr. Inferno Jr.
Scott: Actually, it's not so much that Tentoumushi scored only one point in Aggression but that Dr. Inferno Jr. simply did not let up in this fight. Attack, attack, attack -- and its attacks did pretty well. Tentoumushi attacked, but just couldn't match the level of Dr. Inferno Jr.'s aggression.
Besides some damage to the Tomy Omnibot shell, nothing harmful was done to Dr. Inferno Jr.'s body (and the Tomy Omnibot is highly superficial). Tentoumushi's ladybug shell suffered some cuts and gashes, but really never lost its functionality. Edge to the Doctor.
Dr. Inferno Jr.'s strategy just seemed to be "I'm going out there full force, ladybug shell or not." Tentoumushi's strategy seemed to be (surprise) to smother Dr. Inferno Jr. with the shell, though it was having trouble carrying the strategy out. I thought about penalizing Dr. Inferno Jr. for freeing Tentoumushi after the couple of times it could have stranded it on the spike strip for a knockout, but really, Dr. Inferno Jr. was shoving Tentoumushi around so much, the freeing wasn't going to work against it. So 3-2 for Dr. Inferno Jr.
Will: The hardest thing to score was aggression. Both robots were very aggressive, always on each other, but Dr. Inferno Jr. gets the edge because he was able to actually do something with his aggressiveness (see Strategy score).
Damage was also pretty tough. Both bots were pretty badly beaten up, and while none of that damage was really functional, Tentoumushi 8.0 seemed to have the worst of the damage. Dr. Inferno Jr. did start to come apart somewhat, but it was a result of his aggression toward Tentoumushi - dragging the shell around did cause a few parts of the cosmetic "doctor" part of the robot to loosen. But Tentoumushi's damage was directly related to Dr. Inferno Jr.'s aggression - shoving one of those big ladybug shells into a wall is bound to cause it to break. The hazards didn't help her, either.
It seemed that Dr. Inferno Jr. knew exactly what they wanted to do from the start. Dr. Inferno Jr. took advantage of his height and allowed himself to be smothered once or twice, because he knew he could easily drag her around anywhere he wanted. As far as Tentoumushi...I couldn't tell what the heck she was trying to do. Sure, she could smother him, but each time she did, her wheels came off the ground. Perhaps some kind of weapon in the shell would've helped her a bit.
Xrayspex: I'm going to be more terse this week than usual. Both Tentomushi and Dr. Inferno Jr. showed aggressiveness, Tentomushi with the smother weapon and Dr. Inferno Jr. mostly with hits and pushes. I felt that Dr. Inferno Jr. was the more aggresive of the two so I gave it a slight points advantage.
For damage, Tentomushi got beat on by the saws pretty badly and ended up in the spikes a lot. The smother weapon was damaged quite a bit. I believe that Dr. Inferno Jr. sustained some damage to his head from being smothered so much but it was certainly not a severe as the saw damage to Tentomushi.
For strategy, Tentomushi's smother strategy didn't work very well as Dr. Inferno Jr. had superior power and was able to push Tentomushi around from inside the smother weapon. It looked like Tentomushi's best chance was to tip Dr. Inferno Jr. over with the smother weapon, but Dr. Inferno Jr. was able to escape from this. Dr. Inferno Jr. was able to turn Tentomushi's smother strategy against it by pushing it to hazards. Dr. Inferno Jr.'s main strategy appeared to be to push Tentomushi to hazards, and this worked very well. Dr. Inferno Jr. gets the strategy points.
No Apologies vs. Son of Whyachi
The judges say: 24-21 victory for No Apologies
The fans say: 25-20 victory for No Apologies
Shin: Yet another fight that makes one sit down, think, and go "Hmm.". Whatever was wrong with Son of Whyachi sure screwed him over big time in this match, though. Except for the scarce few times he actually went at No Apologies, Son of Whyachi more-or-less just kinda...stayed there and slowly spun. Then again, Son of Whyachi isn't normally a very aggressive bot as, oh say, Deadblow in Season 1. So the fact that he wasn't too aggressive didn't surprise me at all. Seeing him get pushed against hazards make me widen my eyes a bit. This is the few ways that annoying...thing in front of No Apologies did him some good. It made the job of pushing Son of Whyachi to wherever tons easier.
There was obviously already something wrong with Son of Whyachi at the start, and he was dying down fast in the final part of the fight. Since No Apologies' attacks, as moderate as they were, certainly weren't helping Son of Whyachi spin any faster, I decided to give him that extra point, despite the fact that Son of Whyachi did more things that resembled actual damage to an opponent. This isn't completely a good thing, since the most he even damaged of No Apologies was that crappy...thingy in front of him, and that was actually proving to be a hindrance on No Apologies' part. To have it taken off was honestly more of a favor than a loss! Still, No Apologies' hammer was eventually messed up as well (somewhat self-inflicted, but still...), and Son of Whyachi initiated the only real POP! in that fight, so he got a tiny edge for damage.
This is purely just my speculation, but that fork-iron...lifty...keep-at-bay...piece of filth thingy...probably wouldn't have been so bad had Son of Whyachi been performing at his normal capacity. Hell, it sure would've gone off a lot quicker, I know that much. It was a good device for keeping Son of Whyachi away from No Apologies' body, but at the same time it kept No Apologies from being able to hit his opponent, so it resulted in a pretty boring and tedious battle. However, No Apologies made pretty good use of his disadvantage to still prove he was winning by using his trashy abstraction to push Son of Whyachi into hazards, and apparently that was enough to assure his winning. Son of Whyachi...usually really only has one strategy. And that strategy only really works when he's working well. Which he wasn't in this fight, so his strategy was more or less a flop. That's all I can really say. If a spinbot can't spin, then it's very much doomed, that's the bottom line.
Will: This was a tough match to call because both bots were having problems as the match progressed. However, No Apologies managed to pull off the upset by staying on Son of Whyachi when he could, using the Whyachi Tool to his advantage (see Strategy). Son of Whyachi gets two points and keeps it close for managing to move in when his spinner was up to a high speed (not full due to a battery problem).
Damage is a lot clearer. I can't take points off Son of Whyachi for his battery problems because that happened before the match. Besides, I'm pretty sure No Apologies couldn't have caused a battery to explode while in the staging area or some other pre-fight location. Based on this, No Apologies did nothing functional to Son of Whyachi except tangle him up with the Whyachi Tool. I was sooo close to calling that an entanglement device, but when Son of Whyachi destroyed it, I didn't worry about it much after that.
Speaking of the Whyachi Tool, that was a good move to keep Son of Whyachi at bay, and that was pretty much the story of the match. Son of Whyachi couldn't use his strategy of tearing No Apologies apart due to his voltage problems, but I did give him a point for tearing off No Apologies' hammer spike, as that would be part of its normal strategy.
Xrayspex: It pained me to have to give out 15 points for this fight. If I could have just given out five points between the two robots that would have been fine with me. But that's not the way judging works so here goes.
Both robots kept going at each other as best they could with what they had to work with, but I felt that No Apologies was more aggressive with the lifter attachment and the hammer than Son of Whyachi was with its hammers. Slight advantage to No Apologies.
For damage, Son of Whyachi gets the points for shredding the lifter attachment and bending No Apologies's hammer. Granted Son of Whyachi was broken, but that was due to Team Whyachi messing around with the electronics and had nothing to do with No Apologies. No Apologies poked Son of Whyachi with the hammer a couple times and delivered it to the screw once, so No Apologies gets a point.
Son of Whyachi's whole strategy revolves around obliterating opponents with the hammers. If the hammers aren't working, Son of Whyachi doesn't have a strategy. No Apologies's lifter attachment, although not very durable, was somewhat effective at keeping Son of Whyachi at a distance. No Apologies also had the hammer, and was able to push Son of Whyachi around more effectively. I give the majority of the strategy points to No Apologies.
The judges say: 30-15 victory for Huggy Bear
The fans say: 28-17 victory for Huggy Bear
Scott: For Aggression, I counted two attacks from each robot -- twice where Bad Attitude briefly got under Huggy Bear, and Huggy Bear's clamp that took Bad Attitude to the sledgehammer plus that bit at the end where it had Bad Attitude's wheels off the ground. Huggy Bear's attacks were more effective, so it gets the edge.
A lot of self-inflicted damage in this fight. The only damage that was brought about by the opponent was when Huggy Bear took Bad Attitude to the sledgehammer. However, the hammer couldn't harm Bad Attitude, so I give Damage the ol' 3-2, with the edge going to the robot that made the better attempt.
For Strategy, I think Bad Attitude was aiming for the sides of Huggy Bear, though it didn't fare too well at that. Huggy Bear obviously was trying to clamp Bad Attitude. I think I'm again going to give the edge to Huggy Bear because of those two dramatic instances of self-damage Bad Attitude gave itself. (The Judges' Guide says self-inflicted damage can count against Strategy if the damage affected the attack. Getting one's wheel shredded probably affected Bad Attitude's attack, and being tossed through the air head-over-heels definitely adversely affected the attack.)
Shin: Huggy Bear's fighting style amuses me greatly for some reason. I have no idea why, but probably because they call it something nice like 'hugging' when all it really does is trap you in a deathgrip and only allows you to wait for doom in the hazards. How so very unfriendly and unloving! There was no love to be foundeth here. Huggy Bear wasn't all over Bad Attitude, but then again, I don't think Huggy Bear's the kind of bot that's made to zip around at the speed of light like Bad Attitude, Wedge of Doom, Gamma Raptor, and other various bots are made to be like. Now that I think about it, considering how wide and vulnerable to hazards Huggy Bear is, it's probably good that he doesn't zip around the way Bad Attitude does, because he'd be making twice as many careless mistakes as Bad Attitude had in this fight. Namely, running over the killsaws over...and over...and over. Eventually to the point where Bad Attitude got flipped and it was all his fault. And we can't forget those priceless moments when Huggy Bear does trap Bad Attitude into his 'hug zone' and allows the screws and the pulverizer to smash Bad Attitude to oblivion. That was really sweet and loving.
Like I said, Huggy Bear wasn't very aggressive and he shouldn't be. Bad Attitude was the main aggressor and he should be; that's what he's made to do. Of course, Bad Attitude was a little stingy when it came to the when and where of ramming into Huggy Bear. This is reasonable, seeing as, while Huggy Bear wasn't going at Bad Attitude, he was making damn sure whenever Bad Attitude made a go for him, he'd have his hug zone there and ready to welcome him. Since Huggy Bear is practically one of, if not the widest Middleweight in the fight, it wasn't easy for Bad Attitude to be able to pick a decent spot to charge at Huggy Bear and successfully ram him in time. Still, Bad Attitude was definitely showing off more aggression than what Huggy Bear showed, which was only when he got a hold of Bad Attitude (or when he happened to get near the hug zone).
The strategy didn't really seem all that lopsided, but Bad Attitude honestly seemed to be at a loss for what else to do later on in the fight. When he's repeatedly running circles around Huggy Bear, you can tell he's out of ideas of how to fight his opponent, and just stalling. Huggy Bear, while he can stand to be a bit speedier so he can trap his opponents more often, successfully did what he wanted to do, and had effectively scared Bad Attitude out of relentlessly ramming him like he was probably planning on doing. For it is a wedge, and what else can wedges do? Push, push, push.
Xrayspex: What it appeared to me that we had here was one very aggressive robot with no strategy and one pathologically defensive robot with a good strategy.
Bad Attitude drove around the Battlebox trying to get to the side of Huggy Bear, and eventually put a number of hits on it. Huggy Bear spent most of the fight rotating in one spot, keeping the "hug zone" facing Bad Attitude and waiting for Bad Attitude to drive into it. Huggy Bear never went towards Bad Attitude, and really only moved forwards once Bad Attitude already trapped itself in the hug zone. Bad Attitude gets the aggression points.
Bad Attitude wasn't able to damage Huggy Bear. Huggy Bear brought Bad Attitude to the screws and the hammers. Huggy Bear gets the damage points.
I don't know what Bad Attitude's strategy was. Maybe just hit Huggy Bear and pray that something comes loose. This was an ineffective strategy. Bad Attitude drove itself into numerous hazards. That's just bad strategy. Huggy Bear's strategy was to keep the hug zone facing its opponent, hope the opponent drives into it, clamp the opponent and take it to a hazard, and limit unnecessary movement to avoid driving into a hazard itself. This was suprisingly effective in this fight. Huggy Bear gets the points.