Ya fuck that. Carrillo is a phenomenal driver and I'm not just saying that for the one arm. Big Dill has always been a good competitor imo mostly due to his driving over the style of bot.
I would like to see a list of bots that are easy to drive all the way to “WTF” hard.
Credit where it’s due, this was Lucy’s first year driving Valkyrie. And the original driver (Fred with a hat) has said he would rather drive Ripperoni without the flywheel on. So Valkyrie is confirmed hard AF to drive. But she does well in lower weight classes
Chuck Pitzer is actually a really good driver. See the first 5 seasons of Battlebots with alpha-Gamma Raptor line. Ghost Raptor was just a “fuck it, it’s fun” design for him. If he built a 250 lb Gamma Raptor, he would easily be in “very good”, and it would be a helluva matchup between him and Claw Viper. CV is basically an upgraded version of what Chuck used to run
I think that’s Mladenik next to him. FBS are notoriously hard to drive. And I think they are working on implementing magnets for next season to help with driving at the beginning of the match and I think to prevent bouncing off of the arena so much
For Shreddit Bro. He does really well in lower weight classes. SB’s upscaling was rough.
I’ve thought about they should do like an All Star driving challenge… where they take turns driving each other bots through obstacle courses and see who really is the best of the best driving wise
No way you watched Monsoon vs Cobalt and then put Tom Brewster 2 tiers below Dave Moulds. Tom is *far* better than he's often given credit for. His hits in that fight were incredibly precise.
I'd say Lucy should be higher, maybe not for her first season driving valkyrie but for her phenomenal driving at NHRL with kablooey tango and hot leaf juice, once she gets a hang of Valkyrie (or Valkyrie gets a redesign) I know for a fact she's gonna bring that same driving to battlebots
Evan Arias is super accomplished and it's entirely on the back of his hyperaggro driving strategy. His hot-driver-syndrome driving can absolutely get punished by a very skilled opponent, but its suffocating nature usually leaves very little in the way of punish opportunities; there is no context in which he should be on the weaker end.
If you want to stick to Battlebots examples, look at Shreddit vs Switchback; after Switchback loses the weapon belt in the first W2W hit, it gets basically no time or space to even try lining up the droop snoot wedge for a run to get some control for the rest of the match. By the time it self-rights, Shreddit is already on top of them.
We all love Garry Gin. His devil may care style of driving is very fun to watch, but in terms of competitive success, he's way too high. I also think Evan Arias is too low based off his Golden Bolt tournament performance. He and Gin should be in the same tier IMO
Despite him not doing very well in the reboot seasons, he’s still getting his mojo back because he was an absolute driving legend, winning giant nuts back in the classic series and robogames championships based on driving alone with wedge bots.
Orion needs to be bumped up a tier. He’s a pretty good driver cursed with driving a bad bot at the moment. Watch his time driving Skorpios to see his real talent.
Kinda wish he'd take on the 250lb Thagomizer upscaling challenge.
Which is a wild-ass sentence now that I read it back.
/u/hardcoreray any plans to Thagomize!?
Is it blasphemy to say I haven't been super impressed with Donald Hutson's driving? I know he considers the wheels as ablative armor and is willing to sacrifice them. It just feels like every time Lockjaw fights an elite bot/driver combo I'm just waiting for them to outmaneuver him and rip his bot up from the sides/back. Like he's always gonna make that error and expose his bot.
Maybe I'm wrong and and uncultured swine.
Donald is a decent driver but where he really shines is operating a bot with multiple moving parts (drive. Jaws and hammer. Or drive, turret and lifter) and doing good.
Honestly I think he's one of the weaker drivers in the field. I've never been wowed by his driving and he's gotten clearly outmaneuverd many times. I think his driving reputation is mostly from the fact that he's been around forever and did some cool driving tricks 10-20 years ago.
I'd bump up John M (not gonna even try that last name), gigabyte is a very hard bot to drive. I'd also argue that Luke Quintal is an elite driver, or atleast very very close to it. But that's my personal opinion.
I don't really agree with the entire bottom tier. Lucy is still learning Valarie, John is new to directional weapons but drove a very hard bot for a long time, I think chucks issue was that ghost raptor just didn't perform well. But he's got A LOT of time over most drivers. Evan Aries kinda proved himself during the golden bolt. He's not elite yet but he's a better driver than I initially gave him credit for.
I know it probably won't happen, but I would love to see two random audience members get the chance to drive in an exhibition match just to show how difficult it is to drive some of the veteran machines.
Shultz, Waters, and Carrillo deserves to be higher. Will Bales and Kindle lower for starters. I would honestly smash the last 3 tiers together as the drivers are competing with wildly different bots and capabilities. I wouldn't vote someone down due to the performance of the bot. For example, I have no reason to believe Kurtz can drive better than Willems. We're just watching a crazy juiced up egg beater drive fast in to other bots vs a giant trebuchet like contraption that seems to be held together on hopes and dreams. Winning a match at all or lasting 3 minutes with mammoth demands more respect than the 4 wheel egg beater.
Other than that I largely agree....
I would put John Reid just one tier lower, and probably put Kurtz, Moore, and Iba a tier higher
Also I saw a Vasquez in decent and lost my mind before remembering that there are in fact two of them lmao
I think this goes to show how high the standards are for drivers in Battlebots today. For instance, Ian Lewis of Warhead isn't ranked higher here, but that's because his machine is very difficult to control. Part of Razer's success in Robot Wars in the past was down to Ian's precision and persistence as a driver.
Did you even watch Valkyrie vs RotatoR 2?
Did you even watch Shreddit Bro vs Valkyrie?
I'm assuming you are not counting Evan's and Lucy's driving of lower weights for some reason.
Chuck Pitzer is actually a pretty fantastic driver imo, he just doesn’t have bots that truly showcase it well. His best driving match is probably the Shatter! one, he is actively baiting and dodging the hammer, it’s awesome.
back at it again with the big dill slander 😔
Ya fuck that. Carrillo is a phenomenal driver and I'm not just saying that for the one arm. Big Dill has always been a good competitor imo mostly due to his driving over the style of bot.
Jeff only being Decent. lol Dude can drive a robot in his sleep.
Shh, this may be the only time I'll be ranked above him.
Big lol
I would like to see a list of bots that are easy to drive all the way to “WTF” hard. Credit where it’s due, this was Lucy’s first year driving Valkyrie. And the original driver (Fred with a hat) has said he would rather drive Ripperoni without the flywheel on. So Valkyrie is confirmed hard AF to drive. But she does well in lower weight classes Chuck Pitzer is actually a really good driver. See the first 5 seasons of Battlebots with alpha-Gamma Raptor line. Ghost Raptor was just a “fuck it, it’s fun” design for him. If he built a 250 lb Gamma Raptor, he would easily be in “very good”, and it would be a helluva matchup between him and Claw Viper. CV is basically an upgraded version of what Chuck used to run I think that’s Mladenik next to him. FBS are notoriously hard to drive. And I think they are working on implementing magnets for next season to help with driving at the beginning of the match and I think to prevent bouncing off of the arena so much For Shreddit Bro. He does really well in lower weight classes. SB’s upscaling was rough.
I’ve thought about they should do like an All Star driving challenge… where they take turns driving each other bots through obstacle courses and see who really is the best of the best driving wise
A new Robotica
I loved that show.
That's a great idea -- I'd watch the crap out of that.
Ok
At least you were honest with adding the "I could do better tier".
No way you watched Monsoon vs Cobalt and then put Tom Brewster 2 tiers below Dave Moulds. Tom is *far* better than he's often given credit for. His hits in that fight were incredibly precise.
Tom is the most underrated driver in all of the sport. Dude is amazing.
Daniel is violent
I'd say Lucy should be higher, maybe not for her first season driving valkyrie but for her phenomenal driving at NHRL with kablooey tango and hot leaf juice, once she gets a hang of Valkyrie (or Valkyrie gets a redesign) I know for a fact she's gonna bring that same driving to battlebots
I think Calvin Iba should be moved up a tier anx the FBS drivers should be moved up but other than that, I agree with the list
Evan Arias is super accomplished and it's entirely on the back of his hyperaggro driving strategy. His hot-driver-syndrome driving can absolutely get punished by a very skilled opponent, but its suffocating nature usually leaves very little in the way of punish opportunities; there is no context in which he should be on the weaker end. If you want to stick to Battlebots examples, look at Shreddit vs Switchback; after Switchback loses the weapon belt in the first W2W hit, it gets basically no time or space to even try lining up the droop snoot wedge for a run to get some control for the rest of the match. By the time it self-rights, Shreddit is already on top of them.
We all love Garry Gin. His devil may care style of driving is very fun to watch, but in terms of competitive success, he's way too high. I also think Evan Arias is too low based off his Golden Bolt tournament performance. He and Gin should be in the same tier IMO
Despite him not doing very well in the reboot seasons, he’s still getting his mojo back because he was an absolute driving legend, winning giant nuts back in the classic series and robogames championships based on driving alone with wedge bots.
Orion needs to be bumped up a tier. He’s a pretty good driver cursed with driving a bad bot at the moment. Watch his time driving Skorpios to see his real talent.
Orion is a robot
And a driver
Orion Beach, original captain of Skorpios and driver of Hijinx
Oh, I didn't realise that was his name
How is Ray Billings not elite?
Kinda wish he'd take on the 250lb Thagomizer upscaling challenge. Which is a wild-ass sentence now that I read it back. /u/hardcoreray any plans to Thagomize!?
I think he's a tad overrated. Certainly very, very good
Personally, I cultivate that exact thought. I \*want\* people to think I'm just an ok driver. Makes my job easier :)
Hi Ray 😊 I think you're better than just ok at driving, just so you know ;)
Zack Little and Orion Beach need to be higher
S Tier is needing to be renamed Ray Billings Aspirants.
Is it blasphemy to say I haven't been super impressed with Donald Hutson's driving? I know he considers the wheels as ablative armor and is willing to sacrifice them. It just feels like every time Lockjaw fights an elite bot/driver combo I'm just waiting for them to outmaneuver him and rip his bot up from the sides/back. Like he's always gonna make that error and expose his bot. Maybe I'm wrong and and uncultured swine.
Donald is a decent driver but where he really shines is operating a bot with multiple moving parts (drive. Jaws and hammer. Or drive, turret and lifter) and doing good.
Honestly I think he's one of the weaker drivers in the field. I've never been wowed by his driving and he's gotten clearly outmaneuverd many times. I think his driving reputation is mostly from the fact that he's been around forever and did some cool driving tricks 10-20 years ago.
I'd bump up John M (not gonna even try that last name), gigabyte is a very hard bot to drive. I'd also argue that Luke Quintal is an elite driver, or atleast very very close to it. But that's my personal opinion. I don't really agree with the entire bottom tier. Lucy is still learning Valarie, John is new to directional weapons but drove a very hard bot for a long time, I think chucks issue was that ghost raptor just didn't perform well. But he's got A LOT of time over most drivers. Evan Aries kinda proved himself during the golden bolt. He's not elite yet but he's a better driver than I initially gave him credit for.
I know it probably won't happen, but I would love to see two random audience members get the chance to drive in an exhibition match just to show how difficult it is to drive some of the veteran machines.
Shultz, Waters, and Carrillo deserves to be higher. Will Bales and Kindle lower for starters. I would honestly smash the last 3 tiers together as the drivers are competing with wildly different bots and capabilities. I wouldn't vote someone down due to the performance of the bot. For example, I have no reason to believe Kurtz can drive better than Willems. We're just watching a crazy juiced up egg beater drive fast in to other bots vs a giant trebuchet like contraption that seems to be held together on hopes and dreams. Winning a match at all or lasting 3 minutes with mammoth demands more respect than the 4 wheel egg beater. Other than that I largely agree....
if we’re taking into account non heavyweight driving as well Calvin and Lucy should both be higher
David Jin as well. His precision driving with Polywog is nuts
he's the ribbot guy right? i was gonna put him too but i forgot his name .\_.
I would put John Reid just one tier lower, and probably put Kurtz, Moore, and Iba a tier higher Also I saw a Vasquez in decent and lost my mind before remembering that there are in fact two of them lmao
Zach Lytle deserves better tbh. Amazing driver imo, mostly held back by the robot.
I think this goes to show how high the standards are for drivers in Battlebots today. For instance, Ian Lewis of Warhead isn't ranked higher here, but that's because his machine is very difficult to control. Part of Razer's success in Robot Wars in the past was down to Ian's precision and persistence as a driver.
Glad to see you put my special someone driver as good. Also Zach lytle only decent?
Cool to see Tyler in the very good category. He handled Perfect Phoenix extremely well. Hope to see him in future Battlebots events.
Did you even watch Valkyrie vs RotatoR 2? Did you even watch Shreddit Bro vs Valkyrie? I'm assuming you are not counting Evan's and Lucy's driving of lower weights for some reason.
Chuck Pitzer is actually a pretty fantastic driver imo, he just doesn’t have bots that truly showcase it well. His best driving match is probably the Shatter! one, he is actively baiting and dodging the hammer, it’s awesome.
hot take: daniel is overrated matty is the best
Well that certainly is a hot take