BattleBots World Championship VII

This page contains potential spoilers for the upcoming season of BattleBots, with information on confimed fights cited from Discovery's episode descriptions and other public sources.
Discovery Season 6 is the sixth season of BattleBots since its return to television in 2015, and the fourth season since the Discovery network picked the show up from ABC.
Like every other reboot era seasons, it exclusively featured heavyweight robots. The season was filmed at Caesar's Entertainment Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada across a two-week period spanning late August to early September 2021. To commemorate the new location, KONAMI developed a unique slot machine featuring a handful of iconic BattleBots competitors in their 2021 guise.https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210901005239/en/World%E2%80%99s-First-BattleBots-Slot-Machine-Lands-in-Las-Vegas-for-the-2021-World-Championship This slot machine was present during filming for the return of a live audience, as they were absent during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discovery Season 6 of BattleBots had 63 competing robots in total, with several established teams entering multiple robots, including but not limited to Seems Reasonable Robotics with Tantrum and Blip, and Team Fast Electronics with Whiplash and Defender.https://battlebots.com/2021-season-robots/ This season saw the return of former runners-up Team Riobotz and Minotaur, as well as fan favorites Icewave and Yeti returning to the main competition for the first time since Seasons 3 and 4 respectively.
The biggest change to the BattleBox ahead of the season concerns a brand new hazard at the top of the arena - a 16" x 8" raised platform with flat sides and a pair of screws protruding from the front unofficially called The Shelf. It sits a total of six inches above the BattleBox floor, with slightly taller walls surrounding some of the edges to make it harder for bots to escape from.
The out of the arena zones near the doors where robots enter and exit the BattleBox have also been removed, though Greg Munson states this was purely in the interest of safety to prevent these doors from being blocked by defeated bots. Notable competitors to have lost to these OOTA zones in previous seasons include Bombshell in Discovery Season 3 courtesy of Bronco and Bloodsport's freak exit from Discovery Season 4 during their play-in rumble with Railgun MAX and Uppercut.
Concerning the rulebook, the sole major change concerned corralling following a highly controversial encounter between Hydra and HUGE in the 2020 season. Hydra's "bike rack" attachment prevented HUGE's spinning bar from making contact with Jake Ewert's machine while simultaneously being able to keep HUGE in a corner for much of the fight. Though not previously forbidden, fans and builders alike voiced their opinions on the fight, and as such, similar instances of corralling are now punishable.
The eleven-point judging system, which scored five points for damage and three points for both aggression and control, remained the same. The judges now uses a matrix system to accurately determine the winners of fights that go the whole three minutes. As a result of the primary weapon usage controversy during the 2020 season, teams will now only get a maximum of two points in both the aggression and control categories if they don't use the bot's functional primary weapon and are just pushing their opponents around the BattleBox. Self-inflicted damage is now considered when the judges determine the winners. 
Chris Rose, Kenny Florian, Faruq Tauheed, Pete Abrahamson, Derek Young, Lisa Winter, Jason Bardis, John Remar and David San Filippo all retained their respective roles from the previous season, though Jenny Taft did not return due to conflicting sporting commitments.https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/oz90jl/jenny_taft_not_returning_for_the_2021_season/
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The season trailer was publicly released on December 2nd 2021, showcasing snippets from several fights across the competition. It largely focuses around Faruq Tauheed, while also teasing the Giant Nut and panned shots of several robots' weapons. The editing style, actions of Faruq and mood of the trailer pays homage to Styx and the music video for their lead single Mr. Roboto, which plays throughout. The first episode is due to air on January 6th 2022 at 8pm ET/PT on the Discovery Channel.
As of yet, it is currently unknown whether the BattleBots: Bounty Hunters spin-off will make a return to Discovery+.
==BattleBots: Fight Night==
Robots confirmed to fight in a specific episode may well be fighting one other if not specified otherwise, though this is not assumed.
===Episode 1: Slash and Burn===
Free Shipping vs. Blacksmith
SawBlaze vs. SubZero
End Game vs. Hydra
JackPot vs. Ribbot
Deep Six vs. DUCK!
HyperShock vs. Claw Viper
Bloodsport vs. Skorpios
===Episode 2: I Like Big Bots (That Will Not Die)===
Blip vs. Rusty
Kraken vs. Tantrum
Rotator vs. MadCatter
Yeti vs. Gruff
Dragonslayer vs. Witch Doctor
Malice vs. Tombstone
Big Dill vs. Blade v3
===Episode 3: Ducks, Dragons, Killer Snakes - What a Zoo!===
Black Dragon vs. Icewave
DUCK! vs. TBA
Claw Viper vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. Copperhead
===Episode 4: Out With the Old===
Skorpios vs. Blade v3
Tantrum vs. TBA
Tombstone vs. TBA
Mad Catter vs. TBA
SawBlaze vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
Main Event TBA
===Episode 5: Let's Uppercut to the Chase!===
Uppercut vs. SawBlaze
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
Witch Doctor vs. End Game
===Episode 6: Spill or be Spilled ===
Minotaur vs. Deep Six
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
Main Event TBA
===Episode 7: Edges, Wedges and Wheels ===
Free Shipping vs. Overhaul
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
Main Event TBA
===Episode 8: Flip the Script ===
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
Main Event TBA
===Episode 9: Put Up or Shut Up===
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
TBA vs. TBA
Yeti vs. Skorpios
==Trivia==
*Discovery Season 6 marks the reboot era of BattleBots being officially longer than its classic era on Comedy Central.
**With a seventh reboot season already announced, Discovery is also set to match Comedy Central for the network with the longest run of consecutive seasons of BattleBots.
*The entire first episode's fight card was revealed to Supporters on Facebook in October 2021, a whole three months before the episode would air on Discovery.
*This season marked the first since the expiry of Robot Wars contracts for a handful of European teams, hence why robots such as Sabretooth were allowed to apply under the same name.
==References==
Category:Competitions