I remember watching Ray Billings' robot "Tombstone" in a mismatch, where after just a few seconds of combat his opponent's robot was crippled, weaponless, could barely move, but nonetheless came at Tombstone again. Ray gave him a light hit to bounce him away, then called over something like "John - stay down, please, stay down." so he wouldn't have to do any more destruction. That moment changed my opinion of Mr. Billings.

Suddenly appreciate how Ray Billings always ask if you want more.

From what I understand, Team Riptide is genuinely disliked in the pits. What they do for the camera isn't an act. They are every bit the arrogant trash talkers behind the scenes, including Ethan's dad.

Battle starts at 4:50.

Looks like battlebots now has an actual villain, and not someone just playing the role. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

I vaguely recall yeti from a couple of years back that went really far into the competition but struggled to maintain their bot due to I think lack of parts, but because they were an extremely nice team others who were no longer competing were helping them in the pits. Yeah that ain't happening for riptide

There was a comment made on Reddit by the captain of Captain Shrederator where he says that afterwards in the pits, the father of Riptide's captain came over and, rather than apologize, made a bunch of excuses as to why Ethan kept hitting a clearly knocked-out bot. From the comment: "The excuses were how Ethan took it too far, but it was his (Stan’s) fault because as he said “I told Ethan if he was going too far I would put my hand on his shoulder and he would KNOW to calm down.” Uhh.. dude what? Why not verbally tell your kid to relax. After he said that, my uncle said “you know your team and son have a reputation and if you continue to take responsibility for his actions he will never grow out of it” to which Stan replied “no I’m not aware of this reputation.” So, no real apology, no Ethan taking responsibility for clear poor sportsmanship, but excuses from Daddy because he can’t get a handle on his son." Keep in mind, this is the same father who apparently claims to have "cured" his son's autism and now sells this "autism cure". We've also seen Ethan taunting and putting his hand directly in front of Martin Mason's mouth in their post-match interview a few weeks ago so this is a clearly established pattern of poor sportsmanship that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. UPDATE: Now they were just plainly caught cheating by working on their bot after they weighed-in, "somehow" losing 2 pounds in the process. Just absolutely indefensible.

_”It was close to $10,000 in damage, the single most expensive fight ever for our team :) and it was completely unnecessary. Nothing from that robot could be salvaged and we had to rebuild a new robot from the ground up for our jackpot fight which was THE NEXT DAY.”_ -Nick Nave

This fight is what will probably lead to some huge demand for a tap-out button for next season. Way too much, hate to see how CS will be repaired after that evisceration! 😬

"It was pretty hard to tell when to stop" - My man, if you've bent their baseplate at a 90 degree angle THEY AREN'T GOING TO MOVE

You know what was a great fight? Monsoon vs Whiplash. You know, that fight you choose as the main event because you knew it was full of quality, rather than because it was great outrage-fuelled engagement-bait, and which absolutely lived up to that billing by going the distance and creating a very difficult decision for the judges? That one. That's your actual 'fight of the week'. That's the kinda thing you promote. What you've got here is your 'controversy of the week'.

The sad part is that this could be Shredarator’s last televised fight.

Here's a thought. Instead of having random people in black and white striped shirts that can count to 10, get people that are actually involved in the sport to ref and give them the power to stop a fight instantly like in ALL other combat sports.

So glad this show survived through out the years, love it

I have a feeling team riptide has made themselves a lot of enemies and will get they come ups one day. it may not be in the box but in the pits that we will never see.

People calling out Riptide for hitting Shredderator over and over again, but in the past Shredderator has hit bots DURING the countdown against disabled bots.

When the ref has to take the controller out of your hand because you refuse to disengage, I think it's a pretty clear indicator that you are going too far.

They didnt break any official rules as far as I can tell, but yes I do feel they went too far. They knew that to beat CS you only need to flip him and they did that. Could have sat back and let the count out occur

This has already been said a lot but Monsoon vs Whiplash is the true Fight of the Week.

Riptides primary weapon packs some serious damage (heaviest weapon this championship or something). But I'd like to see how they fare against an exceptionally fast bot that can get behind them like Claw viper

Jake. Plays the villain. These folks seem to actually be one.

I think Battlebots' social media manager knew which fight this week would get the most engagement... ;)

Did the break the law of the rules? No. Did they break the spirit of the rules? In my mind yes.

Fairly certain Monsoon vs. Whiplash was the fight of the week but controversy gets more views I guess.

Monsoon VS Whiplash should’ve been fight of the week.

Yeah, it was way over the top. It crossed the line big time. This is an insanely expensive sport, and if you treat your competitors that way, soon you wont have any. Nobody can afford to completely replace every part of their bot after every match.

Riptide said all they needed to do is flip them and Shrederator would be done, they did that but proceeded to continue hitting, Shred has no self righter, bad sportsmanship

Riptide did in fact stop hitting Shrederator as soon as Shrederator stopped spinning. Even at 5:28 Shrederator landed flat and was starting to spin up again while not upside down. As a fan, I know Shrederator was a huge underdog and the fight was basically over at 5:18, but you could argue the hit at 5:23 was generous because it gave Shrederator a chance to flip back over and continue fighting. But, again Riptide stopped hitting Shrederator as soon as it was clear that the active weapon stopped at 5:44. If teams want to tap out before that they should add a white flag or something and have the refs stop the fight. Mind you I am a big fan of Shrederator, but their slogan is "if we're spinning we're winning" and they were still actively spinning up until 5:39, albeit upside down. I understand their frustration with the cost of rebuilding, but I think the hate on Riptide is a bit too much. Not exactly rooting for them but they have a scary robot, probably among the top 5 bots to win the whole thing this year.

We found him, the CEO of unsportsmanlike conduct.

Boutta get some popcorn for this comment section

Unfortunately this fight has lost Riptide a fan from me. Having fought in dozens of lighter weight class competitions, I have never had an opponent who was so disrespectful to continue dishing out that kind of damage after I was clearly disabled. I genuinely hope that another team has the opportunity to give them the same treatment and write off a robot after this. Completely unprofessional and uncalled for.

Okay, now you're just trying to stoke fires here. These are not the fights you should be encouraging. We want slugfests full of destruction that go right to the buzzer (or close enough), not some spoiled brat causing $10k of damage to a bot that's already dead after being told several times to stop. Incredibly poor sportsmanship on the part of Ethan and the Riptide team.

Saw the posts on social media before seeing the video. Was not as bad as I anticipated. Kid will eat humble pie soon. I like the idea of tap out buttons, however this sport wouldn't get nearly as much viewership outside of the "inner nerds" if they just have everyone tap out to save money on repairs. To wrap up, the fight was fair and within the rules, the behavior before and after is where the un sportsman like behavior lies. *if* they had gone over and shook his hand and said hey sorry, but good fight. Glad I got to battle you. After the fight it would have been 1000x better.

"Some of us are gentlemen... some of us hold back. Now, if you're out of control... you don't just go for it, do you? It's a gentlemen's agreement. Around here... we're kind of a bit 'hold-back-ish'... those guys, for some reason, they just... they just lay into it!" - Ian Lewis In short, yes. yes they did. Battlebots I beg you, please dont bring them back next season unless a serious attitude change occurs, we want the best robots and more importantly the best teams in the world, and whilst riptide is a great robot, the team seem to be souring not just the teams but now the audience as well. Going in for unnecessary damage after the fight is already won is not sportsman like, it increases the repair bill and only gives an advantage to them in the world championship bracket. Also Monsoon vs Whiplash was fight of the week, not this show of unsportsman-like conduct and squash match

Even though riptide is better than glitch physically. At least glitch has a better, sportsmanlike team. That’s why they are the true rookies if the year in my book

I remember watching Riptides first match and being really impressed with the bot. Then the team captain spoke and left me feeling like he was a child with little about him to admire. Yes, he has a powerful bot and passable driving skills but little else is impressive about this child in an adult body. I love Battlebots and watch it religously but this fight was an embarassment to the sport. There are so many amazing teams that seem more like good friends than competitors. That's part of the draw to watch. Then there's the Riptide team. You owe an apology for your childish behavior. If that was my son, he wouldn't be competing again until he learned some humility, respect, and sportmanship. Grow up and quit acting like a spoiled brat.

Battlebots if you want to profit off of the fact that the wider audience likes to watch total destruction like this then pay your builders better so they can afford a $10k repair in 1 day. You're right that the non-fan audience will like this more than a better more technical fight and it will bait engagement from fans who know how much toxicity the Kurtz's have brought to the pits.

Riptide is like the Denver Broncos of the Battlebots.

I hope that if Riptide once gets damaged so badly it can't move, the other team remembers this fight and shows no mercy either. Karma will settle this sooner or later.

"Captain Shred was still moving therefore it is still a threat" Uhmmm Captain shred was flipped upside down and flopping like a fish... How is that even a threat Plus Ethan said it himself the plan was to flip Captain Shred upside down and that's it so why they kept attacking In a UFC fight that's like kicking the body of your opponent that is already unconscious or incapacitated which is really disrespectful Yeah we definitely need BiteForce back in the field these kids needs to learn some manners and respect

Riptide is the villain of this season. But not like how tombstone or hydra was. This is just a childish villain with no self control.

Tombstone vs Gigabyte.. Ray Billings* showed some sportsmanship not to destroy a vulnerable bot without any protection and asking the other team to stop moving to get counted out . Riptide had all the time to think about this situation (beforehand) knowing well how overpowered they are against CS. Flipped CS is basically knocked out , everyone knows that.

They wanted to topple Captain Shredderator and they did it. All of the fight after that was unnecessary, they could've just let him lay on his back like a bug not able to self-right.

Doesn't really matter whether we KZfaq viewers think he went too far, but it matters whether the other drivers think he did. Riptide just cost Cap's team a lot of money in unnecessary repairs, and that's just poor sportsmanship. A lot of the other teams might take that personally and decide dude needs to be taught a lesson. Because what goes around comes around. And I'm absolutely there for it. Dude is obnoxious both inside and outside the arena and I'm hoping Black Dragon knocks him out and keeps hitting him until the refs pry the controller of of his hands. But that's just me. I'm petty like that.

Not conclusive whether Riptide should have stopped earlier, imho. Shrederator went on rotating. That was a choice. Shrederator sended two signals: please stop (verbally), and in the same time 'go on, I am still alive'.

On one hand, you can say Riptide should have stopped once they had Sherdderator flipped over. They had no means of self-righting. It was over then. On the other hand, they DID stop when the count started and when the bot was wedged.

Nobody can tell me that Captain Shrederator was a threat to Riptide anymore after their hull was ripped open like a tuna can. In therms of sportsmanship this was much worse than the Huge vs Hydra fight a couple of years ago. Huge lost by lack of sportsmanship but at least had still a working bot left. Those teams and builders are a great community which shares the same passion about bot building and understand, how much effort, money and time it takes to build a working 220lbs battlebot. Destroying an incapacitated bot by no reason is an unspoken no-go. I think this fight is another example of the controversy with team Ripide. The rumors about their stolen design from team Madcatter, beating bots by dominant knock-outs and making fun of their opponents, or this lack of sportsmanship that happened against Captain Shrederator.

r/battlebots entered the chat

i always thought riptide was the douchiest team, this just proves it. i will root for their complete obliteration in every fight.

Yes, they did is the short answer. The lack of sportsmanship and remorse was truly despicable in this fight. When you see the head ref take the controller of the driver, you know they've had enough. Also, I love how battlebots chooses controversy of a great fight, Aka the whiplash monsoon fight. I do genuinely feel sorry for the shrederator team as this has retired an entire shell and countless parts.

Making this the "Fight of the Week" is in such incredibly poor taste after Whiplash vs. Monsoon was very clearly the best fight this week. This is just a bad attempt to milk controversy for engagement. Was Riptide within the rules? Yes. Was it poor Sportsmanship? Also yes. Ethan Kurts very clearly knew Shrederator was dead. He said in the before fight interview that he knew the fight would be over if Shrederator was inverted. He got him inverted, and then went far beyond that. At 5:15 they launched and inverted Shrederator and immediately kept hitting them. They knew they were just piling it on at that point. Ray Billing showed us that Karma does come knocking if you take too many hits on already dead bots (Tombstone vs. Bronco). Ethan and Riptide should tread carefully, because at this point, if they get stuck on their side or on the rails or something, I doubt anyone is gonna give them a friendly push to resume the match.

I really want to see riptide get absolutely torn apart soon so he can hopefully get off his high horse

Rewarding this behavior is not good for the sport long term. Many of BB’s mainstay competitors hate Team Riptide, and there was never this level of conflict before them. Battlebots survived the loss of Bite Force and Tombstone, and I urge you to really consider if this one generic vertical spinner is worth the deterioration of camaraderie and community that comes with it.

He was still moving, it wasn’t riptides fault

That was awesome...the look on their face as their robot is being shredded

In BattleBots, I want to see damage! But I think the next opponent facing Riptide may not stop as well... At least thats what I would do...

Battlebots be like: Fight of the week = Quality Fight < Controversy

6:07 ok Darren relax. It’s call Battle Bots.

They didn't touch the other bot once the countdown started. They were only hit when their weapon was engaged. All fair play from Riptide.

To answer the title, yes, definitely.

This season has been all "if it is moving it is not dead yet" now we get "that was so unnecessary" while the robot is moving all over the place. Pick one 🤷‍♂️

To answer that question, NO. That’s the referee’s role to inform them to stop.

I understand there will be some casual viewers who don't understand the full situation who'll respond to this but, Captain Shrederator was already done, it was upside down without a viable way of self righting. Riptide didn't need to go full boar. Now Shrederator has a slim chance of being at full fighting capacity when it faces Jackpot. A complete lack of sportsmanship from Riptide was shown here. The robot fighting community is built on sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, simple. Like it or not.

Sad part is ya kept hearing the one guy. Hit him again hit him again after he was destroyed

The entrance *alone* was too far. :P I like how the announcers even commented on that with the same thing I thought: "REALLY?" I admit, people doing stuff like that irk me - and I am afraid of people like that. They honestly give me horrible high school flashbacks when I was surrounded by classmates with similar behavior (except they acted out when angry, and while they didn't rip their shirts off, they started a lot of fights with each other and/or knocked tables around). But in a more joking manner: Let's leave the scare tactics to Minotaur. ;) Because angry bull is ANGRY. Regarding the fight: I did still see Shred spinning so as long as you can move at all, according to the new rules, your opponent can still hit you and it's a fight to the death. Some people will show mercy, others won't, and some may take the "easy route" and others want to showcase their potentntial. Don't forget, during End Game vs Ripperoni, EG got stuck and Ripp could've won automatically, but they wanted to have a real fight and while it was a huge risk, they freed EG and did just that; Even that is showing some sportsmanship - even moreso when Ripp had the upset against EG BUT didn't act like arrogant buttheads about it. They didn't go on saying that "oh yeah, we're gonna just KO everyone out here, just like that" and have an obnoxious "victory speech". They were still humble, despite winning over one of the most powerful Bots in the tournament! I do feel bad about how much damage Shred took, and I hope they can make the Jackpot fight with the support of other teams. HOWEVER, the arrogance shown at the end and obnoxious yelling was just...Unecessary, to be frank. Again, it doesn't hurt to be humble. And I admit, Shred isn't the "best" Bot by a long shot, but at least the team doesn't act like crazy teenagers if/when they win. Even when they upset against Tombstone, they didn't act out like this. TLDR: Just a lot of unruly behavior out of the fight, and they can definitely celebrate! Just do it with some respect...Or y'know...Go to the bar later or something, idk. :P Also just gonna repeat that I didn't see the entrance as "cringe" as much as "terrifying" due to my direct fear of people who act like that. I didn't cringe, I freaking looked away and tensed up!!

What made it even worse was the smug look on his face afterwards. Not cool. If it were up to me, he wouldn't be welcome at Battlebots in the future.

isnt this the point of the show? its a battle. dont sign up for it if you cant handle to get beat.

If you guys haven't seen the subreddit y'all should see it. Right after the episode aired, the subreddit is basically France in 1794.

NO! THEY DIDNT GO TO FAR! THIS IS ROBOT FIGHTING! I WANNA SEE SOME PARTS FLYING!! LETSSSS GOOOOO

Honestly… team riptide isn’t making any friends. Total lack of sportsmanship. What goes around comes around. Hope whoever beats them leaves their machine with just as much damage

Its very clear to me that the people in the comment section either actually engage with battlebots and enjoy the sport, or have no idea that nobody makes money from the show. If your bot gets destroyed, you have to just make up 5-10k in two days and/or rebuild the entire bot from literal spares.

Couldn't give us Whiplash v Monsoon instead? Don't give Riptide more screentime than they deserve.

Battlebots ratings in part rely on carnage. The show benefits from destroyers like Tombstone and Minotaur, who have been breaking bots to bits this badly for some time. Maybe the show could help builders finance expensive repairs since carnage is so good for ratings? And couldn't the ref have called the fight when it was obvious that Shredderator was knocked out? I think the person here who predicted there will be a tap-out button is ahead of the curve. That idea seems pretty credible.

I think they promote one robot demolishing another. Isn't that the whole idea of Battle Bots?

it was funny to see the Shredder operator crying like a baby. "NOooo ): "

He became the "Shredderaded" 😂😂

In the heat of the moment, inadvertently going too far can happen. But that arrogant grinning and shouting after the match shows that they intentionally caused that kind of unnecessary extra damage. When seeing someone being hit by a car, the riptide guys would likely just steal his wallet and kick him in the head instead of calling an ambulance. I hope that they´ve got the chance to meet minotaur later on and he does the same thing to their bot.

Until the bout is over, it's 100% on.

If it weren't for the sake of preventing spoilers, that title would be an huge understatement

even when the fight was over, you can see the smugness at 6:15 , absolutely no sportsmanship there

The ref screaming the KO countdown was something else😂. I thought they had a crow in there for a second

That's poor sportsmanship. Shrederator was obviously already done, yet Mr. Testosterone couldn't stop himself from pounding it to a pulp. In any properly regulated fight, it would have been stopped by a referee before the useless and wasteful carnage.

You're still spinning, you're still a target.

Yes. They did. Worst Sportsmanship I’ve ever witnessed in Robot Combat - really a poor look for the sport.

Shrederator needs a nice retirement a gracefully one not this bad. Riptide is a great bot but the team is too obnoxious and over the top .

Add a "throw in the towel" button, to quit a fight to avoid further bot damage.

Last i checked its called "battle bots"not "mercy bots". You know what you signed up for when you enter that arena.

The man whose handling the remote on Capt. Shred team looks like the bad guy on John Wick 1

Always nice to see Captain Shredderator getting destroyed

Sad thing for the community, sure no “rules” were broken, but there are unwritten rules like in all sports. So much effort and $$ is put into these bots and I rather have the field open to more bots then just 6 vertical spinners

Yes. Yes they did.

I could be supportive of the fact of being able to show more destruction and spectacle by continuing to hit them, onlu if they then followed through with sportsmanlike behaviour such as offering financial and physical assistance with rebuilding shrederator in good faith. It could have been a more acceptable and kinder ending to the story

I don't like Team Riptide. Great, impressive Bot, but I don't think I would easily befriend the teammembers. That said, Shrederator was still spinning during the hits. If there is anything Biteforce proved us, it is that you keep hitting your opponent until it is no more moving to win fights. Exactly what Riptide did. Clean fight to me, and not liking that controversy is pushed on us. I do feel sorry for team Shrederator.

Ok, so for those who don't know, this footage is heavily edited. The part where the team protests happened at the end of the fight, not during. It was edited in to seem like they kept hitting after being asked to stop, but it's not what happened. Also as you can see Cpt. Shredderator kept spinning and bouncing around, basically signaling to keep the fight going. Only in the very last seconds of the fight footage it can be argued there was an unnecessary hit, but the damage had already been done at that point. It's funny because usually Shredderator always dies on the first or second impact. Like, dies dies, immobile. This is the only fight of them where they kept spinning even after taking heavy hits. Maybe they're not used to it, but they should have powered down.

This level of destruction is what I expect of every battle!!

This is what they used to do on the UK version and it was great. If they'd stopped trying to spin and get away, then they probably would have been left alone. Whining because your robot was killed is daft on this show.

Yes Riptide went too far. One of the values in BattleBots has always been sportsmanship

He stopped hitting em when they stopped spinning. Nothing wrong here.

My thoughts: they went to far but it’s about entertainment and finding. A balance. There are so many fights especially this season where the winning bot backs off to wait for the count down and the fights are boring. Some of these weapons are getting so powerful they can with in under 20 seconds. How do you make an hour long tv show out of 6 fights that are 20 seconds long. You can’t.

I get that Riptide's crew has a bad rep, and rightfully earned, but I'm not sure they are in the wrong here. Captain Shrederator was still spinning. This shows me that there should be an option to surrender during the fight. The BattleBots version of "throwing in the towel". The end result would have been the same, and there would have been a lot less damage to a legendary bot. I'm surprised that this isn't already an option, at least at the time.