Really Cool Battlebots Article

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Siphai
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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by Siphai » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:46 pm

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/6 ... al-history

Basically documenting the rise and fall of the Battlebots series. It's told through a series of quotes from Marc Thorpe, Greg Munson, Mark Setrakian, Trey Roski, Carlo Bertocchini and others. Its pretty poignant. The bit about the control that Comedy Central imposed was obviously very apparent when you watch the show; I can't remember anyone that actually enjoyed almost any of that stuff (Carmen Electra).

I also found this bit really interesting.

Trey Roski: The one thing I say about Comedy Central that was cool was, yeah, they added the comedy, but we filmed our show. They couldn't touch the fights. The person who wins is the person who wins; it didn't matter if you were Jay Leno or a 13-year-old girl. There was nothing manipulated, there was no favoritism.

Living in England, I watched more Robot Wars growing up, so when I finally watched Battlebots I appreciated this. Mentorn was ridiculously corrupt in terms of actually dealing with the competition, and nowhere is that more apparent then the treatment of Storm II during the New Blood Tournament and Season 7.

But one thing that I actually liked about Robot Wars was that all fights were aired. Yeah, the robots were usually ridiculously shitty and even in the later seasons they broke down more often then not, but it's frustrating to get to see only a handful of fights in a single Battlebots episode while a lot of them go unaired. Even semi-finals fights would often get pushed to the sideline with maybe a short little recap segment. It made the whole affair feel really abstract and I never really had any clue as to how the brackets worked in the damn show.

The litigation problems with Battlebots seem almost stupid for how much of a niche market it was. I'd love to see the series come back by moving away from television: broadcasting the fights directly on the internet, maybe ppv or something stupid like that.

Trey Roski: Comedy Central definitely pulled some stuff that wasn't necessarily appropriate. The show was inherently hysterical. One time Jamie Hyneman, the "Mythbusters" guy, walked up to the guy he's going against and starts asking him questions about the robot. Then he goes back to his table and pulls out this file, and starts sharpening the teeth on his robot. And I think he put an Alka-Seltzer in his mouth, so he's drooling this bubbly drool, it's just pouring out of his mouth. He looks over to the guy, just drooling and holding his breath so he's red. It was this mental game he was playing. He was trying to win the match before the event started. It was hysterical. They didn't need this fake element between fights.

lol

Siphai
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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by Siphai » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:48 pm

Robot Combat league is a really ugly affair too. It's a really boring and poorly done show that'll probably only serve to scare away networks from taking on anything Robot Combat based. And it really messes with the integrity of the sport too.

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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by GF93 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:57 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Siphai</dt><dd>Jun 24 2013&#44; 07:48 PM</dd></dl><div> Robot Combat league is a really ugly affair too. It's a really boring and poorly done show that'll probably only serve to scare away networks from taking on anything Robot Combat based. And it really messes with the integrity of the sport too. [/quote]
Agreed to oblivion. Whatever happened to real robot combat instead of having this glorified puppet show?
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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by Badnik96 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:17 pm

So much this. I'm just glad to hear BB is still trying to get back on the air.
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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by GF93 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:26 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Badnik96</dt><dd>Jun 24 2013&#44; 09:17 PM</dd></dl><div> So much this. I'm just glad to hear BB is still trying to get back on the air. [/quote]
Aye. And likewise, you've got Roaming Robots becoming the new Robot Wars, and maybe even trying to get back onto the telly at some point. When that happens, I can die happy. :v:
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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by MassimoV » Tue Jun 25, 2013 2:21 pm

Well if RW gets back on television, I hope you like flippers :v:.

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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by playzooki » Tue Jun 25, 2013 2:23 pm

If robot wars gets on telivision, i will do something that states i am extremely happy... i dunno

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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by That Kode Guy » Tue Jun 25, 2013 2:24 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>MassimoV</dt><dd>Jun 25 2013&#44; 03:21 PM</dd></dl><div> Well if RW gets back on television, I hope you like flippers :v:. [/quote]
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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by playzooki » Tue Jun 25, 2013 2:32 pm

<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>MassimoV</dt><dd>Jun 25 2013&#44; 02:21 PM</dd></dl><div> Well if RW gets back on television, I hope you like flippers :v:. [/quote]
FLIPPAHZ

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Really Cool Battlebots Article

Post by playzooki » Tue Jun 25, 2013 3:01 pm

I would read that just for the advert :lol:

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