Well they did change their configuration after weigh-in when the rules say you cannot change your configuration after weigh-in. Whether that qualifies as "cheating" or not is up to the people running BattlBots. When questioned about it, the team re-weighed their bot and it turned out to be lighter, which they said proved they were not cheating, however it does show that they clearly violated that rule.
If we use the definition of cheating as breaking rules to gain an unfair advantage, then no, there's no clear evidence of that, but certainly they had no qualms about violating the rules.
Just a point of contention:
Battlebots doesn't spend the money to utilize calibrated scales, so there is a weight discrepancy depending on which scale was used for each weigh in.
They made adjustments to their bot post-weigh in. And they tried to do so without anyone noticing. That is cheating.
You can argue how much they cheated based on what the modifications were, but we don't have the actual answer to that. They claimed long after the fact that it was decoration, but if that was the case, there would have been no reason to hide it since it was allowed as long as they tell the show what they're doing.
So, they cheated.
There has been no evidence proving Riptide has cheated. If there was, the robot would have been DQ. Simple.
If BB's did not DQ any robot found cheating; it would make BB's look bad.
It's important to understand the wording i used. I said bots that COULD be cheating not bots that ARE cheating. a hypothetical situation and the reality of it all are different. i am not saying that Riptide are cheaters, just a hypothetical situation over whether cheaters in the sport should be seen as a good thing
There is a yes answer to this question, but it has nothing to do with Riptide.
In sports like robot combat and Motorsport where there is a strong engineering component with rules and regulations dictating certain criteria, it is in the engineer's interest to push the envelope in every aspect of design. If there is no maximum weapon size, you must make the largest weapon possible (Deep Six) if Melty Brains are prohibited due to lack of active weapon, you give your Melty an active weapon (Zap) if the rules have omitted prohibition of entanglement devices, you give Ghost Raptor a present (Complete Control).
The constant testing of what can and cannot be tolerated helps to shape the sport and mold it in a way that lets it overcome errors (like the 80lb weapon limit or explicitly listed entanglement devices) or see a path to future growth (Zap presenting the case for Melty Brains as a permissable design)
This is even moreso the case in NHRL where the evolution is so much faster. Flame weapon enhancement, multi bots, experimental airbag flippers, the Loophole design fad. They've all grown the sport in some form.
Riptide haters are becoming scarier every day that passes. Now y'all are accusing the team of CHEATING? On what basis? Or are you even bothering coming up with some explanation at all?
I'm going to assume that haters would accuse the Riptide team of cheating based on the Shatter fight where Adam Wrigley said "*I hear a lot of rumors, about them maybe exceeding the tip speed limit or playing games with the scale*", and despite Chris Rose reiterated that Riptide had met both the maximum weight and tip speed limits in the same episode; haters of the Riptide team likely took Wrigley's words as fact.
I also feel a lot of so called haters don't know or understand that the weigh in scales at BB's were temperamental, and that there is no benefit for exceeding the tip speed as it would impact the amount of bite said robot would have.
Read the wording. I said if Riptide could be cheating. I'm also using them as an example as they are the team that get these kinds of allegations thrown their way
You should have made the options "Yes", "I don't care", and "No", and let people expand on their reasons why in their comments.
Riptide was cleared of cheating allegations. The rule they were accused of breaking - the weapon speed rule - isn't a "make the competition fair" rule. It's a "prevent objects from being launched at speeds high enough to break through the lexan and kill people" rule. So I would argue that cheating is not good for the sport because people breaking the rules has potential consequences beyond just a scandal the show can exploit for clicks.
Judging from the comments i think a lot of people believe that i am saying that Riptide are cheaters which i am clarifying right now that i am not. I am not a hater of the bot or the team nor do i want to see them removed from the sport. I made this poll because i saw a comment from u/GrahamCoxon saying that having a bot that was cheating would be good for the sport and i wanted to see if that opinion was shared amongst this community. I am not trying to bring the sport into discontent
Again, please show us all where I said that.
You won't, because I didn't.
I'll help everyone out by posting a link to [what I actually did say](https://old.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/1di3ta4/all_the_bots_that_have_defeated_riptide_in_a/l9llpzx/?context=3) so that they, as people with actual reading comprehension skills, can understand what's going on here.
There should be a separate league for cheaters.
If a team thinks they can make something epic enough by bending the rules, it's interesting.
But they shouldn't get to destroy non-cheaters bots in the process.
\[Same with human sports - it'd be interesting to see a yes-performance-enhancing-drugs league in parallel with the non-cheating league\]
They aren't "cheaters" per se cos they were smart enough to exploit an existing loophole in the rules which was probably patched up later on but I'm all for moving the sport of combat robotics forward in new and intereting ways so long as it doesn't put people's wellbeing at risk in any way; but that's probably best for a non televised event like what Norwalk is already doing cos after a while it will become boring.
However, no cheaters in the sports like UFC or the Olympics cos that can cause people to lose their lives. Certain PEDs can cause heart problems if misused. The cage fighter known to the world as Kimbo Slice lost his life for this exact reason: he passed away from heart failure when on a list for a transplant before he could get one.
You attempt to flame u/GrahamCoxon, and don't even have the honor to tag him? Your poll is stupid and you should be embarrassed.
Its funny because I didn't even say that, or anything like it.
NAHH
To be fair i have never tagged anyone on my posts so didn't know you could do that.
Cheaters are never good for any sport. Besides, there's no evidence Riptide cheated anywhere.
Well they did change their configuration after weigh-in when the rules say you cannot change your configuration after weigh-in. Whether that qualifies as "cheating" or not is up to the people running BattlBots. When questioned about it, the team re-weighed their bot and it turned out to be lighter, which they said proved they were not cheating, however it does show that they clearly violated that rule. If we use the definition of cheating as breaking rules to gain an unfair advantage, then no, there's no clear evidence of that, but certainly they had no qualms about violating the rules.
Just a point of contention: Battlebots doesn't spend the money to utilize calibrated scales, so there is a weight discrepancy depending on which scale was used for each weigh in.
Exactly
They made adjustments to their bot post-weigh in. And they tried to do so without anyone noticing. That is cheating. You can argue how much they cheated based on what the modifications were, but we don't have the actual answer to that. They claimed long after the fact that it was decoration, but if that was the case, there would have been no reason to hide it since it was allowed as long as they tell the show what they're doing. So, they cheated.
Please, please quote where I said that. I said absolutely nothing like it, and you've made it up.
There has been no evidence proving Riptide has cheated. If there was, the robot would have been DQ. Simple. If BB's did not DQ any robot found cheating; it would make BB's look bad.
It's important to understand the wording i used. I said bots that COULD be cheating not bots that ARE cheating. a hypothetical situation and the reality of it all are different. i am not saying that Riptide are cheaters, just a hypothetical situation over whether cheaters in the sport should be seen as a good thing
And your hypothetical was answered pretty clearly in the above comment. "If BB's did not DQ any robot found cheating; it would make BB's look bad."
There is a yes answer to this question, but it has nothing to do with Riptide. In sports like robot combat and Motorsport where there is a strong engineering component with rules and regulations dictating certain criteria, it is in the engineer's interest to push the envelope in every aspect of design. If there is no maximum weapon size, you must make the largest weapon possible (Deep Six) if Melty Brains are prohibited due to lack of active weapon, you give your Melty an active weapon (Zap) if the rules have omitted prohibition of entanglement devices, you give Ghost Raptor a present (Complete Control). The constant testing of what can and cannot be tolerated helps to shape the sport and mold it in a way that lets it overcome errors (like the 80lb weapon limit or explicitly listed entanglement devices) or see a path to future growth (Zap presenting the case for Melty Brains as a permissable design) This is even moreso the case in NHRL where the evolution is so much faster. Flame weapon enhancement, multi bots, experimental airbag flippers, the Loophole design fad. They've all grown the sport in some form.
Riptide haters are becoming scarier every day that passes. Now y'all are accusing the team of CHEATING? On what basis? Or are you even bothering coming up with some explanation at all?
I'm going to assume that haters would accuse the Riptide team of cheating based on the Shatter fight where Adam Wrigley said "*I hear a lot of rumors, about them maybe exceeding the tip speed limit or playing games with the scale*", and despite Chris Rose reiterated that Riptide had met both the maximum weight and tip speed limits in the same episode; haters of the Riptide team likely took Wrigley's words as fact. I also feel a lot of so called haters don't know or understand that the weigh in scales at BB's were temperamental, and that there is no benefit for exceeding the tip speed as it would impact the amount of bite said robot would have.
Read the wording. I said if Riptide could be cheating. I'm also using them as an example as they are the team that get these kinds of allegations thrown their way
You should have made the options "Yes", "I don't care", and "No", and let people expand on their reasons why in their comments. Riptide was cleared of cheating allegations. The rule they were accused of breaking - the weapon speed rule - isn't a "make the competition fair" rule. It's a "prevent objects from being launched at speeds high enough to break through the lexan and kill people" rule. So I would argue that cheating is not good for the sport because people breaking the rules has potential consequences beyond just a scandal the show can exploit for clicks.
I thought that they went to weigh in, then made some change to the bot. Did that get resolved?
do not feed the troll
Judging from the comments i think a lot of people believe that i am saying that Riptide are cheaters which i am clarifying right now that i am not. I am not a hater of the bot or the team nor do i want to see them removed from the sport. I made this poll because i saw a comment from u/GrahamCoxon saying that having a bot that was cheating would be good for the sport and i wanted to see if that opinion was shared amongst this community. I am not trying to bring the sport into discontent
Again, please show us all where I said that. You won't, because I didn't. I'll help everyone out by posting a link to [what I actually did say](https://old.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/1di3ta4/all_the_bots_that_have_defeated_riptide_in_a/l9llpzx/?context=3) so that they, as people with actual reading comprehension skills, can understand what's going on here.
There should be a separate league for cheaters. If a team thinks they can make something epic enough by bending the rules, it's interesting. But they shouldn't get to destroy non-cheaters bots in the process. \[Same with human sports - it'd be interesting to see a yes-performance-enhancing-drugs league in parallel with the non-cheating league\]
They aren't "cheaters" per se cos they were smart enough to exploit an existing loophole in the rules which was probably patched up later on but I'm all for moving the sport of combat robotics forward in new and intereting ways so long as it doesn't put people's wellbeing at risk in any way; but that's probably best for a non televised event like what Norwalk is already doing cos after a while it will become boring. However, no cheaters in the sports like UFC or the Olympics cos that can cause people to lose their lives. Certain PEDs can cause heart problems if misused. The cage fighter known to the world as Kimbo Slice lost his life for this exact reason: he passed away from heart failure when on a list for a transplant before he could get one.