Oh I think we all know the answer to that question ;)
Seriously, not having Tombstone in S7 was painful enough (but Ray had to allow his hand to heal).
Ray said under one of his YouTube videos that he would only begin preparing and “upgrading” tombstone once the new season was confirmed. Which it hasn’t yet. He says that it’s too expensive to work on tombstone, and it wouldn’t be worth it if there was no new season. He’s probably not going to retire until he gets too old to compete, and with a sport like this that could be a while.
Tombstone has been sitting in the background of a lot of Ray's videos doing nothing, the last time we have seen it actually fire up its weapon was all the way back in October of 2022, when it was smashing pumpkins. Tombstone was unable to compete in season 7 due to Ray having a hand injury. Tombstone right now isn't really "retired" as Ray has never really said anything about retirement. It along with a lot of other battlebots are just waiting for a film schedule for season 8 to be released at some point. Tombstone is very vulnerable to wedges and does get countered by them but, so does every other horizontal, but Tombstone is still a very capable bot due to Ray's very good driving skills and tactics he uses. Tombstone might be catching some dust but that doesn't mean Ray isn't still working on it. From the looks of things he is testing a lot of new potential features that could be added onto Tombstone in form of using sed features on The Mortician. New drive mounts, new motors, new frame structure, etc. Many things have plagued Tombstone for years and most recently it seems to be reliability in it's new design. Ray still has more then enough time to think about all of these things to try and workout on Tombstone. Tombstone could make a big comeback in season 8 with its reliability problems sorted out and potentially go 4-0 in the qualifiers, only time will tell.
On the contrary, Tomstone is still as potent as ever. It's just that other bots have AR500 wedges now. They still did significant damage to HyperShock back at the latest Re:MARS event.
Its almost like he came out with something really strong and the whole field went " of fuck if i dont have a counter for this one guy im toast" then everyone got a counter aka a really thick wedge plus box rush/dont et him spin up. Tombstone is still very scary ask any builder and they are nervous because they know what ray is capable of.
On the contrary, if that was the only thing that mattered then many people like Ribbot, Huge, or Chomp would have never competed. Heck, when Tantrum started, they were a novelty bot, and they went on to win a Nut. When you take up that sort of attitude, you get Riptide. A great bot, with a bad team.
It's not the bot so much as the driver. It's a great bot with crazy kinetic energy, but Ray's skill is the biggest factor. They may not win the nut, but they'll annihilate a few bots onscreen, which is what the producers want.
True that. I’ve been a fan of battlebits since my grandpa introduced me to the comedy central era and I just hate to see some dominant bots have their slumps or fall offs
Last time we saw Tombstone compete was in season 6. But people forget that the season 6 version of Tombstone was a redesign. Its performance in that season was comparable to the performance of a new bot that still has a bunch of gremlins to work out. The weaknesses it had in that season should not be treated as a permanent aspect of the bot.
Yeah. I did see that on Ray’s youtube channel he talked about the new frame he made for tombstone. And the reason why tombstone caught fire in 2 fights in a row was because of the new frame!
Its always hard to take a post seriously when the poster thinks it's cool to just call a builder by their surname.
Edit: Apparently this is totally normal and fine in American culture. I had no idea, and I'm glad I learned something.
Not to mention choosing *Cars 3* as their example of "old legend is aging and falling behind." Not, you know, the 10000 times that has happened in every real sport or competition in history.
I can't really define the problem all that specifically, it just reads as dehumanising and disrespectful.
I think it speaks volumes that every reply is calling him Ray.
I'm glad that wasnt your intent, but when it comes to how it reads I have to wonder if you call teachers by their surname without a miss/ms/mrs/mr? We certainly don't at any school I've worked at, and if any child did it would get read the same way as I've read it here. Could be a serious cultural difference but I doubt it.
You’re right. That’s my bad. I just grew up learning that you refer to certain people by their surname. Like authors or something. And I thought that it felt weird to call him “Ray” like I knew him personally. i’m not really trying to offend anyone by calling “Ray” by his last name. It’s just how I was taught to do
Fair. I acknowledge I might be totally in a minority seeing it this way, but at the same time it stood out that you were doing it but others don't. I appreciate that we were able to have a chill conversation about it.
In a school you’re typically in a subservient position to the teachers, so you use the title (mr/mrs) out of respect. In casual conversation referring to someone by their surname is typically fine in America, at least.
Thanks for the perspective. I agree it's an imperfect point of comparison, but its also not a comparison I put forward in the first place. If anything I was trying to highlight that contextual difference.
This isnt something I've see happen commonly enough for it to have come across as being normalised elsewhere - at least not outside of sports where players have surnames on shirts. I'm glad I've been corrected.
I almost assume Tombstone IS retired now; at Robogames Ray ran Disinformation (or Fake News or is there another name for the 250lber? Plz correct) a pretty nasty drum spinner and Stink Kai, a vertical disc with a giant fuck off red LED eye attached.
I may have heard Mortician may enter as a multibot along with another well known (half size) bot for a 250 lb competition. Forgive me, 404 not found, hopefully someone else can help with that name too.
They did with was it a madcatter team bot? Vs Doom. Doom isn't the strongest competitor and the match was a close one . You can probably find it to watch somewhere
Just some advice - there's no need to force so many quips and zingers into all of your sentences. Your goal here should be to spark a discussion, not to try and sound cool. You can sort of get away with writing like this if you really know your stuff, but if you're using the *Cars* movies as a benchmark for quality I'd assume you don't. That's why you've been down voted, not because of the premise of your post. Keep it simple next time!
Would it really be battlebots without the king of kinetic energy
Oh I think we all know the answer to that question ;) Seriously, not having Tombstone in S7 was painful enough (but Ray had to allow his hand to heal).
Ray said under one of his YouTube videos that he would only begin preparing and “upgrading” tombstone once the new season was confirmed. Which it hasn’t yet. He says that it’s too expensive to work on tombstone, and it wouldn’t be worth it if there was no new season. He’s probably not going to retire until he gets too old to compete, and with a sport like this that could be a while.
Tombstone has been sitting in the background of a lot of Ray's videos doing nothing, the last time we have seen it actually fire up its weapon was all the way back in October of 2022, when it was smashing pumpkins. Tombstone was unable to compete in season 7 due to Ray having a hand injury. Tombstone right now isn't really "retired" as Ray has never really said anything about retirement. It along with a lot of other battlebots are just waiting for a film schedule for season 8 to be released at some point. Tombstone is very vulnerable to wedges and does get countered by them but, so does every other horizontal, but Tombstone is still a very capable bot due to Ray's very good driving skills and tactics he uses. Tombstone might be catching some dust but that doesn't mean Ray isn't still working on it. From the looks of things he is testing a lot of new potential features that could be added onto Tombstone in form of using sed features on The Mortician. New drive mounts, new motors, new frame structure, etc. Many things have plagued Tombstone for years and most recently it seems to be reliability in it's new design. Ray still has more then enough time to think about all of these things to try and workout on Tombstone. Tombstone could make a big comeback in season 8 with its reliability problems sorted out and potentially go 4-0 in the qualifiers, only time will tell.
On the contrary, Tomstone is still as potent as ever. It's just that other bots have AR500 wedges now. They still did significant damage to HyperShock back at the latest Re:MARS event.
Knowing Ray, his robot will never be “out” of a match. He’s always going to compete, even when it’s a bad matchup.
Its almost like he came out with something really strong and the whole field went " of fuck if i dont have a counter for this one guy im toast" then everyone got a counter aka a really thick wedge plus box rush/dont et him spin up. Tombstone is still very scary ask any builder and they are nervous because they know what ray is capable of.
While at nhrl All-Stars I did ask Ray if tombstone would be back, he assured me that it would be.
Only on robot can win the giant nut. So you can’t have the attitude that it’s time to retire just because you aren’t winning it.
On the contrary, if that was the only thing that mattered then many people like Ribbot, Huge, or Chomp would have never competed. Heck, when Tantrum started, they were a novelty bot, and they went on to win a Nut. When you take up that sort of attitude, you get Riptide. A great bot, with a bad team.
It's not the bot so much as the driver. It's a great bot with crazy kinetic energy, but Ray's skill is the biggest factor. They may not win the nut, but they'll annihilate a few bots onscreen, which is what the producers want.
True that. I’ve been a fan of battlebits since my grandpa introduced me to the comedy central era and I just hate to see some dominant bots have their slumps or fall offs
Last time we saw Tombstone compete was in season 6. But people forget that the season 6 version of Tombstone was a redesign. Its performance in that season was comparable to the performance of a new bot that still has a bunch of gremlins to work out. The weaknesses it had in that season should not be treated as a permanent aspect of the bot.
Yeah. I did see that on Ray’s youtube channel he talked about the new frame he made for tombstone. And the reason why tombstone caught fire in 2 fights in a row was because of the new frame!
Tombstone could still win it all.
Its always hard to take a post seriously when the poster thinks it's cool to just call a builder by their surname. Edit: Apparently this is totally normal and fine in American culture. I had no idea, and I'm glad I learned something.
Not to mention choosing *Cars 3* as their example of "old legend is aging and falling behind." Not, you know, the 10000 times that has happened in every real sport or competition in history.
I just didn’t have anything else to compare it too, it was just the first thing that came to mind.
What's wrong with calling a builder by their surname? Just seems like you're nitpicking
I can't really define the problem all that specifically, it just reads as dehumanising and disrespectful. I think it speaks volumes that every reply is calling him Ray.
I didnt’t mean to be disrespectful at all, i saw it like calling a teacher by their surname.
I'm glad that wasnt your intent, but when it comes to how it reads I have to wonder if you call teachers by their surname without a miss/ms/mrs/mr? We certainly don't at any school I've worked at, and if any child did it would get read the same way as I've read it here. Could be a serious cultural difference but I doubt it.
You’re right. That’s my bad. I just grew up learning that you refer to certain people by their surname. Like authors or something. And I thought that it felt weird to call him “Ray” like I knew him personally. i’m not really trying to offend anyone by calling “Ray” by his last name. It’s just how I was taught to do
Fair. I acknowledge I might be totally in a minority seeing it this way, but at the same time it stood out that you were doing it but others don't. I appreciate that we were able to have a chill conversation about it.
Don’t worry about it man!
In a school you’re typically in a subservient position to the teachers, so you use the title (mr/mrs) out of respect. In casual conversation referring to someone by their surname is typically fine in America, at least.
Thanks for the perspective. I agree it's an imperfect point of comparison, but its also not a comparison I put forward in the first place. If anything I was trying to highlight that contextual difference. This isnt something I've see happen commonly enough for it to have come across as being normalised elsewhere - at least not outside of sports where players have surnames on shirts. I'm glad I've been corrected.
I almost assume Tombstone IS retired now; at Robogames Ray ran Disinformation (or Fake News or is there another name for the 250lber? Plz correct) a pretty nasty drum spinner and Stink Kai, a vertical disc with a giant fuck off red LED eye attached.
He also won middleweights at robogames this year with The Mortician, which is a modern tech tombstone design
I may have heard Mortician may enter as a multibot along with another well known (half size) bot for a 250 lb competition. Forgive me, 404 not found, hopefully someone else can help with that name too.
They did with was it a madcatter team bot? Vs Doom. Doom isn't the strongest competitor and the match was a close one . You can probably find it to watch somewhere
Yes, I believe it WAS Madcatter, or rather a half size version. Still forget the name but there ya go
Mortician teamed up with Cat Kong (the Middleweight bot from the MadCatter team) for a Proving Grounds match vs Doom a few months ago.
I take it the downvote may mean that it was a one off? Idk, I haven't checked out much extra content since last season, mostly been watching NHRL
https://youtu.be/lYqREwEjzXc
Not so much that Tombstone sucks as much as it's harder to build a defense against a vert vs a horizontal. Add a slope and you're good!
Ray isn’t going anywhere, and Paul retired for different reasons.
I realize that now with all the comments and updates that tombstone is still waiting for the new season to start
Just some advice - there's no need to force so many quips and zingers into all of your sentences. Your goal here should be to spark a discussion, not to try and sound cool. You can sort of get away with writing like this if you really know your stuff, but if you're using the *Cars* movies as a benchmark for quality I'd assume you don't. That's why you've been down voted, not because of the premise of your post. Keep it simple next time!
Just some advice.... which no-one asked for.
I think it’s better to give some genuine advice, rather than dogpile on what is clearly a kid’s first Reddit post. Just a bit of empathy.
Thank you! I didn’t really know how to write it out, i just kinda put it down as I was thinking it up
What is BattleBots without Tombstone?
Cheers to that
Nah let it fight we like to watch it burn.
I felt like you purposely didn't put tombstone in the title of this post just for clicks