The thing is, Blip wasn't "stuck" as in wedged. Witch Doctor was actually wedged into the arena and had to be levered out, while Blip was merely hung up die tp bad geometry.
Bit stopping the match so soon after Witch Doctor got stuck was unusual. I suspect maybe Minotaur complained about it which is why the referees gave Minotaur a lot more leeway at the end. (We don't know how long the pause was - it looks like it might have taken a few minutes to unstick Witch Doctor, during which Minotaur might have lodged a complaint about it).
Hydra and Tantrum was a split decision, and it was basically damage and aggression. Hydra may have flipped Tantrum around a lot, but Tantrum kept moving just fine, showing it accumulated very little damage. Hydra on the other hand had problems with their primary weapon leading it to not go down properly near the end. Whether this was from normal use or damage that Tantrum caused, it was considered to be more heavily damaged because the primary weapon wasn't working as well, while Tantrum's weapon was fine.
And then there was aggression - Hydra's basic strategy is go to the center and let the opponent approach. Aggression is where you see out the opponent to use your weapon on them, and Hydra didn't do it. Tantrum though was circling around looking for point to attack and even making a few moves. Add in the attack when Hydra's weapon failed and that is considered aggressive play.
Remember, the goal is to knock out your opponent so a KO is the desired outcome. Once you have to go to the judges, the outcome is far more variable as good strategic play might not be play the judges are looking for. Battlebots is primarily a spectator sport - and the criteria are such that the more exciting the battle the better, so the bot that makes the round exciting will generally score better than the bot that plays strategically but doesn't really show off anything impressive.
That's why there were changes - the arena added more covers to make it much harder to flip a bot out of the arena (this was giving flippers too much of an advantage, plus, a random powerful flip out isn't that exciting a win - so now you have to flip it out while aiming at the corners (which aren't covered).
Now, the fun battle was Witch Doctor and SawBlaze. There's always something fun when a flamethrower bot suddenly bursts into flame because something got punctured or ripped or whatever, and what started as basically just the flamethrower engulfed the whole bot in the end. And I'm surprised we didn't get more than a quick glimpse of the finished statue that was created from the broken off pieces.
