Robot Wars Series 3 Heat F

[@cdname47]

the thing I just noticed is that ming have their own parody control backpack that the dad is wearing just as philppa is highlight the sons highly accurate parody beard

[@carribob1992]

Tantrum: a thresher with a lot of wheels on the front. T2: A cross between Thomas The Tank Engine, A Cylon and The War Rig from Fury Road. T2R Special: Same as T2 but with an axe and a ladybird paint scheme. Also lost to Tornado in a series 4 qualifier.

[@Knochenbrigade]

The commentator is plain awesome. So much passion.

[@Triad106]

Jonathan Pearce. Remained the commentator up until the final series (10) which ended in 2018. Also a veteran footy commentator :)

[@itsTaylor__1995]

@@Triad106 You can't go wrong with JP. He sounds a lot older now compared to these days from the 00s

[@CarlAdams-m7k]

41:05 Until that moment when you see the arena spike flips The Darke Destroyer up and over. And not Grave Digger.

[@sayethvexus8332]

So weird to see Ming not fully embracing their Ming the Merciless-pastiche personas. Loving the Mortis team parody though! Speaking of Mortis, I find it amusing that they beat Cassius in the grudge match at the end of series 2, but lose to a Cassius clone with their improved robot! It was a pleasant surprise to see Rob Knight return in BattleBots with Obwalden Overlord though, even though said robot was more of a tech demo than a serious competitor. It's also a bit of a shame Mortis had so much invested in it and only had the Commonwealth Carnage to show for it. It's always pretty sad when a robot turns up but does nothing. Glad they started driving robots into the arena in later series, so that doesn't happen. Darke Destroyer was cool. Very unique-looking machine. That's one of the things I love about the earlier series - not only did you get a lot of non-standard designs, but they also actually won a fight or two! Weirdly, I never really liked Gravedigger - probably because it didn't just have blatant inspiration from Cassius (the way Firestorm and a few other robots did), it blatantly copied it. I wonder why hardened nose cones never really caught on?

[@DevilboyScooby]

Don't forget, Mortis won the Ashes too, that most important of battles against Neme- *ahem*, Terror Australis.

[@misterwishart]

Not sure how you could consider Gravedigger a rip-off and Firestorm not

[@thesmithersy]

And the War of independence for Mortis too.

[@predator931]

Sergeant Meikle's axe must be the worst weapon I've ever seen

[@achmed45662]

Mr_Quality97 it's tied with the iron mask weapon both are rubbish.

[@striderofenglandgaming6573]

naplam rubbish 2

[@marblwrexbro458]

Maybe Darke Destroyer II's weapon in series 4?

[@burzaburza2970]

Milly-Ann Bug wooden sticks/spikes i remember :D

[@ryanpeters6937]

This, flip flop fly and x terminator's axe from s4

[@DevilboyScooby]

7:53 Guy in the background with long ginger hair/glasses looks (on the left of David Crosby) like the guy that was in the Mortis team in Series 1.

[@TheTrailburner]

Even to this day I still cannot understand the verdict on the T2 V Darke Destroyer fight. T2 was clearly on top for nearly the entire fight, pushing around DD into the CPZ and onto the flame jet. The helicopter blade didn't seem effective at all, so I don't understand why that blade was the factor in deciding aggression.

[@kinagrill]

Yeah sometimes the judges just seem like they were watching the wrong fight or some such. But then again being on top and most damaging isn't the primary criteria. How is the control, the style and just overall endurance. Hammering into an armored bit and doing nothing more than surface damage-scratches might look impressive but it's more or less zero points of value.

[@mikey_bb]

I definitely feel like the Mortis team had money to burn 🤣

[@PaiceMaker]

Great to have Cassius back.........oh wait....

[@ryanodonovan9497]

Actually, I'd describe Gravedigger as Cassius emerging _from_ a grave as a zombie!

[@DevilboyScooby]

T2 were robbed :'(

[@LuckyLucyHi]

When I started to watch this episode, I couldn't remember why I disliked Darke Destroyer as a child. Then I saw DD vs TII and remembered again...

[@procta2343]

yeah i thought T2 was a lot more aggressive there, i would appealed against that one like.

[@JDLupus]

"The decision came down to aggression; they had a more aggressive weapon than yours." Uuuuuuh... shouldn't that be under "damage?" Those spinning blades are utter shite!

[@Headspr0uter]

@@JDLupus yeah, it's absurd. if there was more time on the clock, it would have been only a matter of time until T2 pushed darke into the pit of dealt enough damage to it with hazards. T2 was ahead of its time considering how much tornado and 101 accomplished by simply pushing their opponents around.

[@randomchicken01]

Pretty petty how all the other roboteers shit on the Mortis boys all the time just for building a good robot.

[@ToaArcan]

That's a behind-the-scenes controversy, manufactured by Mentorn, and the kicker is that Mortis' only sin was _good sportsmanship._ In the Series 2 Semis, the arena hazards were meant to be inactive during the Pinball, but some chucklefuck decided to fire the arena spikes under Mortis and disabled the robot. This was far from an isolated incident, as classic RW had a long history of allowing arena operators and House Roboteers to just fuck with the competitors, often in ways that saw teams eliminated from the running for literally no good reason. This is largely what caused Roger Plant to start trying to make a machine that could bring down Killalot, and ultimately his eventual retirement from the show, but it was an attitude that continued all the way up to Series 7, with the lower-weight class battles being seen largely as an excuse to have the House Robots destroy tiny and lightly-armoured machines that were a few dozen times lighter than them. Mentorn had, until that point, been hyping Mortis up a lot, and were keen to avoid having their golden child robot eliminated with zero points because some dude decided to be dick to them, so they decided to award Mortis a second go, which is honestly fair. However, Rob Knight put honour before reason and refused, and while Mortis did return to the arena, Rob refused to drive the machine, leading to middling score in the Pinball (Even when not trying, Mortis still did better than Napalm, who honestly deserved to go home in its Heat Final rather than Round 2 of the Semis), and a swift loss to Panic Attack. In response, Mentorn edited the episode and scripted Jonathan Pearce's commentary to frame the whole affair as Mortis demanding a second go, and then continued to manufacture criticism of Mortis for... [checks notes]... not accepting a do-over. The scenes of other roboteers cheering for Mortis' elimination, the House Robots ganging up on Mortis in spite of its victory in Round 1, the boos when Mortis are declared the winners of the same battle, and probably the fake beard and parody of Rob's controller apparatus the Ming team equipped were _Mentorn holding a grudge_ for, and I repeat, _being sporting._

[@Headspr0uter]

i think part of it is due to the "everyman" appeal that cheaper robots have. people love seeing chaos 2 win because it only cost 250£, which is pretty attainable for the average joe that saves up their disposable income, the price quoted for mortis in this heat is 30 grand, which i think makes a lot of people see them as "rich kids". it would have been nice to see mortis lose in the first war vs recyclopse for this reason, however i think it was obvious to most people that mortis had recyclopse on the back foot the entire fight because of its superior speed and torque.

[@shogun2215]

The Mortis team really do come across as elitist though. A bunch of posh boys from Cambridge, with a stupid exoskeleton mechanism and a pretty hopeless robot that cost the same as a decent car. No wonder people hated them.

[@ДмитрийМачулин-ч3т]

37:32 That's Hypno-Disc at the back!

[@Drewster6]

Mortis was one of those that just never got far despite being an incredible robot.

[@kinagrill]

It's fun rewatching these and see the evolution of weaponry and how certain stuff just ends up phased out for the more tried and true lifting arms, flippers, bulldozer blades, big and heavy spinners, etc. I mean they work, so why try and 'fix' it when the issue ain't broken, right? :)

[@cr10001]

Well, after the last heat that had competitive bots in it, this is back to the standard of heats C and D - only two credible bots in it, Mortis and Gravedigger. And maybe T2, which at least outmanouvred Darke Destroyer quite convincingly (and the judges were idiots. How does having a totally futile 'weapon' count as 'aggression'?)

[@sp0nge1337]

It must say a lot about Cassius in the Second Wars that Cassius-at-Home still made it through to the finals.

[@antcunningham1997]

23:50 the Roboteers stand by sounds different then the heat battles. And even the 3 2 1 activate sounds different too

[@D3Z112]

I remember watching this and to this day, I am still confused on how the judges awarded the win for Darke Destroyer to advance ahead of T2.

[@434444334]

Dark destroyer took more dmg got hit more by house bots and was less agressive and T2 DODGED 2 attacks

[@rlinders9972]

2:42 I love that you can see a cafe.

[@Red-px1fr]

Series 3 Mortis is a nice upgrade with the lifting arm. They really should have ditched the tracks for wheels though, it cost them again. Dark Destroyer is a wonky but fun design, the weapon is even pretty effective for this stage in Robot Wars, but why have it on the back of a robot that must be awkward as hell to reverse toward an opponent? And yeah, T2 were robbed, WTH was the thinking behind that judges decision?

[@Headbanger142]

You could say that Super Saiyan armor Rob Knight was a good way for him to reach all the controls himself but it didn't really improve the robot's performance. Looked uncontrollable half the time.

[@karlrudd8914]

I've been binge watching these and this heat is leagues worse than the others so far. From Chaos 2 to Dark Destroyer 😝

[@111111hakar]

looking at it now Mings weapon actualy just fell off before it even made contact with the floor, what was it even being held down with? even in series 3 I'm sure safty regs were more stringent than that.

[@davidfearis7335]

DARK DESTROYER if they had a weapon like Hypno-Disc & Pussycat it could've been a deadly robot

[@cdname47]

also goddamit johnathon Pearce, it's clear to see gravedigger's flipper comes out about 2 seconds after the spike flips the darke destroyer how can you miss that?

[@DevilboyScooby]

He never said Gravedigger flipped them over. Just that they _were_ flipped over. Craig is the one that claimed Gravedigger flipped them.

[@davidfearis7335]

Do You Get The Feeling Nobody Likes The MORTIS Team?

[@leeshaw375]

Why do the house robots always insist on getting involved even when the robots don't go in the ppz. What's the point of them if they can just come out and attack when they like.

[@Damaged7]

Its a show. If what they've been fliming has been boring or uneventful they will probably used the house bots a bit more. They are are bad guys, they are heels, they are supposed to do what they want.

[@burzaburza2970]

21:10 why end so fast?

[@reyzorisk2783]

No shrimech no chance. They were right to end it.

[@tacticalcalebgaming7264]

And dead metal’s best

[@NotSure109]

Cut off the ends of interviews, but leave in the History channel bumper. Brilliant editing.

[@Damaged7]

Only so much you can do if it wasn't recorded in the first place.

[@tylervielie5767]

T-Wrecks makes a cameo appearance in the Pits.

[@88DanBob]

Sgt MEIKEL team, slim shady, Brendan Frasier and not so slim shady 😂😂😂

[@IronBahamut]

I'd like to see Noel Sharkey's explanation of why T2 lost that fight

[@Headspr0uter]

i think they knew both robots would get flipped eventually by gravedigger, so effectively it didn't matter what they picked. therefore they picked the one that would maybe at least be able to put in a few dents before going down....even though darke can't even steer itself properly because of its impractical wheel setup. the design was really cool, but that machine was just asking to get pushed around.

[@111111hakar]

I assume it was given on Damage. if you look closely the entire front right corner of T2 was torn and rended uwards which by the standards of series 3 was pretty major damage dealt and likely earned them a lot of points.

[@ryanodonovan9497]

@@111111hakar Uh, no. That is utter nonsense. T2's plough was just fine, and even if it suffered superficial damage, how is that anywhere near the points T2 should've scored for pushing The Darke Destroyer around the whole time? And what the judges say about The Darke Destroyer's blade being more aggressive is also bullshit. So what if it technically hit more times than T2 pushed? It's blatantly obvious which attacks had the more impact.

[@RobotwarsKing]

T2 -- flushed down the loo!

[@davidfearis7335]

10:37-13:17 VECTOR You Don't Get Anything But The Early Bus Home By Playing DEAD

[@burzaburza2970]

Why people are hating Mortis? I don't get it oO

[@bungditdin8019]

Posh boys, Cambridge educated, spent a considerable amount more on their robot. They played up to the villain persona though. It’s all in the name of apparent fun

[@Johnno9989]

I don't hate them. I'm surprised though that nobody said that they was a bunch of nerds ;)

[@christopherhall619]

I know this is a year late but essentially Mortis and the producers got cross at each other and the tv edit made it look like they were whiney losers.

[@datguy8805]

Powerful axe..... sure bud

[@burzaburza2970]

Again Robt Knight not steering = disaster

[@Scott_396]

Big Cheese. Destroys the house .

[@leoli6116]

That fight of Gravedigger vs Mortis is one of the few good fights in series 3.

[@LarixusSnydes]

Gravedigger was basically a carbon copy of Cassius. No originality. And the Mortis team need to consider the rule of KISS. No use wielding a deadly weapon when your locomotion is easily compromised. Beautiful to look at though.

[@DevilboyScooby]

Can I ask what's with the not-in-shot aspect ratio?

[@njgw1465]

It's because H2 broadcast the episodes in even smaller than 4:3. I uploaded the original H2 version for a Series 4 heat and it was unanimously voted as the worse version. 4:3 versions will also be uploaded on a back up channel at some point. Don't worry though, nothing is actually cut off in these uploads - H2's "Weeknights From" text just goes into black borders instead.

[@DevilboyScooby]

Ah, so nothing is actually missing from the show itself. you've just cropped out black?

[@njgw1465]

Yeah, that's right

[@bazookallamaproductions5280]

15:08 that axe will be impossible to penetrate past the first hook. worst design ive ever seen.

[@burzaburza2970]

Crusader had barrels, 50x target and all the balls and had 90 exactly like Newt? Wtf

[@ryanodonovan9497]

I've watched both runs back and can't quite see how both robots scored 90 points. The only possibility I see is that Eye of Newt knocked over a couple more barrels than Crusader did, and thus their scores became equal. I don't even get what motive there'd be for any producer bias since both robots were new and weren't taking part in the UK Championship.

[@pinkacid]

BS! T2 was the aggressor throughout! They pinned the crap out of DD and kept on them till the end- utter crap!

[@Killadey]

I wouldn't mind being Philippa's forester!

[@MrKoiking1]

Doesn't even make sense, or you mean you want to trim her pubes?

[@Dim4323]

7:52 people don't like Morris for no reason

[@GenericSoda]

I never understood the heat they got. Was it because of how favored they were by Mentorn perhaps?

[@tufty1990]

@@GenericSoda Couple of factors producer favouritism being one of them. They were set out from the other from the start by the high cost, they didn't actually spend 30 grand, most of it was donated, in the first wars they took it very seriously and reacted badly to a judges decision that went against them. In the second wars the producers contrived to put them through a semi final round they had lost at the expense of a school team, the Mortis team weren't happy about it and Rob Knight refused to drive the robot saying it was unfair, the tv edit made it appear that the Mortis team had demanded to be put through. I think this series and next it was mostly in good humour, pantomime sort of thing.

[@BambiTrout]

@@tufty1990 Just looked into that after seeing this comment and I have so much more respect for the Mortis team now. The producers were definitely playing favourites and Mortis were not comfortable being given benefits that no other team got. For more detail for anyone wondering, the series 2 incident was that in the pinball trial Mortis' tank tracks got destroyed by an arena spike. The producers had originally said that no spikes would be used but then changed their minds without informing the competitors. Despite this, Rob Knight accepted the loss fair and square, but the producers insisted that they repair the robot and run the trial again - something no other robot got to do. In protest, Rob Knight refused to drive and handed the controls to Ben Impey for the rest of the series, who a) was not as good, and b) was also unhappy and so put in minimal effort. They redid the pinball trial and the producers gave them bonus points, but even without them, they ended up beating Napalm - the Dartford Girls' School team and going through. They then lost to Panic Attack without really trying. The edit and commentary basically made it seem like they were a bunch of whiny, bitter losers, particularly after their complaints about the judges decision in series 1.

[@TheMysteriouswatcher]

@@tufty1990 considering how bullshit the decision was to make Recyclopse the winner of that match when Mortis was in control 80% of the time, I don't blame them in the least. Doesn't help that fuckin Johnathan was biased as hell against Mortis and did absolute piss poor commentary on that match.

[@tufty1990]

@@TheMysteriouswatcher I remember reading somewhere that the judges wanted to call that match a draw, Mortis had taken damage and very questionable driving but had been the aggressor whereas Recyclopse hadn't really done much but under pressure to produce a firm decision went with Recyclopse. It is one of the closest matches there has been. I always felt the same about the commentary on that match, it's almost funny how a Mortis attack is interpreted as 'good defensive work by Recyclopse'. As the commentary is added later I guess the answer to that is that for the benefit of the viewers, to make the decision seem justified they decided to be very pro recyclopse.

[@burzaburza2970]

Crappy final but i kinda like these robots

[@QseftJohn]

Now I know why house robots are a thing on the other side of the pond, the competing bot could hardly hurt each other in the beginning of the show.

[@AndyDuphresne]

According to their Fandom Wiki thing they were developed in order to essentially be characters. They wanted to make sure there would always a few robots that the audience would recognize and get behind in case a favorite competitor got knocked out

[@jakemills7835]

WDYM, sgt meikle's weapon clearly had some serious force behind it :D

[@cr10001]

@@AndyDuphresne Well that was an utterly stupid idea. Who's going to cheer the house thugbots that gang up and smash up competitors - that are smaller than them - after they've been disabled? I cheer whenever a competitor has a go at a house robot.

[@111111hakar]

@@cr10001 Millions of children accors the UK in the late 90's and early 2000s, we all had our favourite robots and house robots were included in that list.

[@cr10001]

@@111111hakar Well, for the reasons I just gave in my comment, I find that really rather horrifying. Who wants to be a fan of a bot that is allowed to be much bigger and heavier than the bots it's attacking, that the other bots aren't supposed to attack, and that spends its time ganging up with its thug mates to smash up defenceless robots that some other competitor bot has just disabled in a fair fight? That's just sheer thuggery. Ian Lewis famously complained that Pussycat had a go at Razer after it was stuck, but every time I see that I think 'wait, isn't that what the house thugbots do *all the time* and that prat JP cheers them on?'

[@majorkilljoy]

thats where mortis went wrong! spent more time on fancy control pannels instead of a robot that actually worked lol

[@MrKoiking1]

Love the barely coherent introductions

[@Cykelpump33]

Firestorm ripped off Gravedigger. Exactly the same design.

[@classicsportclassictiyl8547]

Heat F aka the return of Mortis the Piers Morgan of Robot Wars

[@mechasaurus]

A lot of boos and thumbs-down, this time.

[@coley38772]

So glad that high cost Cambridge bot was beaten by lower budget one.

[@MikuInEnglish]

I've never seen such a group of sorry robots in any of these wars. Nothing exciting about any of them. all CRAP. Can't even self right and the weapons are mostly useless. This use to be a great competition but now with the stupid socker thing sheesh , not worth it.

[@jhibbitt1]

they didn't have any seedings in this series so as a result, their choices of robots in each heat were a bit all over the place. they fixed that problem in future series' though

[@BambiTrout]

Very few robots prior to series 3 could self right. Cassius in series 2 was so hyped specifically because it could self right. A lot of the things you seem to be complaining about were common features of all of the early series, so saying it "used to be" better seems a bit odd. Are you sure you're not complaining about how the EARLIER series are worse than the LATER series rather than the other way around. Also, this is one of the shittier heats of series 3. There are significantly more impressive robots in other heats.