In modern Battlebots, it would be practically useless. Full-body spinners have so many drawbacks, and even when they do manage to land good hits they’re just as likely to hurt themselves.
Blendo was amazing at the time, but the meta has evolved so much since then.
Full-body spinners do exist in Battlebots. But the competition in Battlebots far exceeds what existed in Robot Wars. The sport has evolved a lot. Also the power and weight limits are higher. Teams can afford to run heavier armor, and full-body spinners need to push lots of power to deal with that armor, but all of that power makes them just as likely to damage themselves by running into a wall.
A few examples of full-body spinners being their own worst enemies:
Captain Shrederator vs Huge (This one shows well how an unbalanced spinner is really hard to control. It manages to get air all by itself at one point.)
If a full-body spinner becomes unbalanced (like when part of its weapon breaks off) it becomes very difficult to control. And even when they’re controllable, they’re carrying an enormous amount of kinetic energy that isn’t contained very well, so often the best strategy against a full-body spinner is just to point your armor at them and let them destroy themselves.
It’s kind of sad, because they have a neat history in the sport, but these days everyone has a solid strategy to handle them, and you can’t change much on them to deal with different styles of bots.
I don’t think we’ll see many full-body spinners going forward.
I believe the only two full-body spinners still in Battlebots are Captain Shrederator and Gigabyte. Neither are particularly successful.
But you’re not wrong, I’m constantly shocked that Captain Shrederator keeps coming back for more punishment. There was talk of it retiring after the last season, but reportedly it’s being redesigned instead. Gigabyte theoretically has a leg up on Captain Shrederator because of the self-righter, but it also doesn’t seem to do very well.
The basic design problems are pretty tough to overcome. Similar issues are faced by other horizontal spinners like Tombstone, where if you can get them hitting a wall or the floor, they’ll bounce around potentially destroying themselves. Tombstone has seen more success though, because it’s hardier and can drive upside-down (and because that giant spinning bar is painful).
I think Blendo is the greatest, but my dad says it doesn’t work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, it doesn’t even run down the arena.
In modern Battlebots, it would be practically useless. Full-body spinners have so many drawbacks, and even when they do manage to land good hits they’re just as likely to hurt themselves.
Blendo was amazing at the time, but the meta has evolved so much since then.
How would a modern bot beat the blendo?
Full-body spinners do exist in Battlebots. But the competition in Battlebots far exceeds what existed in Robot Wars. The sport has evolved a lot. Also the power and weight limits are higher. Teams can afford to run heavier armor, and full-body spinners need to push lots of power to deal with that armor, but all of that power makes them just as likely to damage themselves by running into a wall.
A few examples of full-body spinners being their own worst enemies:
Captain Shrederator vs Riptide
Gigabyte vs Copperhead
Captain Shrederator vs Rotator
Captain Shrederator vs Huge (This one shows well how an unbalanced spinner is really hard to control. It manages to get air all by itself at one point.)
If a full-body spinner becomes unbalanced (like when part of its weapon breaks off) it becomes very difficult to control. And even when they’re controllable, they’re carrying an enormous amount of kinetic energy that isn’t contained very well, so often the best strategy against a full-body spinner is just to point your armor at them and let them destroy themselves.
It’s kind of sad, because they have a neat history in the sport, but these days everyone has a solid strategy to handle them, and you can’t change much on them to deal with different styles of bots.
I don’t think we’ll see many full-body spinners going forward.
3 out of 4 examples are of the same bot… Maybe Captain Shrederator just sucks. 🤷🏻♂️
I believe the only two full-body spinners still in Battlebots are Captain Shrederator and Gigabyte. Neither are particularly successful.
But you’re not wrong, I’m constantly shocked that Captain Shrederator keeps coming back for more punishment. There was talk of it retiring after the last season, but reportedly it’s being redesigned instead. Gigabyte theoretically has a leg up on Captain Shrederator because of the self-righter, but it also doesn’t seem to do very well.
The basic design problems are pretty tough to overcome. Similar issues are faced by other horizontal spinners like Tombstone, where if you can get them hitting a wall or the floor, they’ll bounce around potentially destroying themselves. Tombstone has seen more success though, because it’s hardier and can drive upside-down (and because that giant spinning bar is painful).
Blendo is the Kareem.
I think Blendo is the greatest, but my dad says it doesn’t work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, it doesn’t even run down the arena.
Tell your old man to drag the shrieking Maimer and the nudge up and down the court for 48 minutes.
I’m out there busting my blades every night…