[robot voice] Robots activate.
[Chris Rose] Yeah!
Love it.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to BattleBots.
It is tournament time and last week we kicked off
the round of 32 with a bang.
And tonight we're gonna dive into the other side
of this loaded bracket full of absolute, stone cold killers.
I am Chris Rose,
joined as always by my main man, Kenny Florian.
[crowd cheering]
Aw, Chris, this is insane,
these fans have come from all over the globe
to watch some of the most vicious robots in the game
tear each other apart here at World Championship VII.
[Chris] There is nothing quite like the tournament.
The right side of the bracket's
been whittled down to just eight teams.
And Kenny, some big names have already fallen.
ROTATOR, Bloodsport, and the 11th seed, Claw Viper,
which is our biggest upset so far.
And we said goodbye to our reigning champion, Tantrum,
taken out by former champ, End Game.
Ginger Schmidt and Alex Grant won't be taking home
the trophy again this year.
You know, every team on Earth dreams of winning it all,
and for eight of our teams tonight,
the dream will come to a sudden end.
And for the other eight, they'll cheat robot death
for one more day and move one step closer
to winning the Giant Nut!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Kenny, let's take a look
at our tournament matchups.
[Kenny Florian] Tonight we're focused in
on quadrants one and four,
and they are overflowing with talent.
We've got Monsoon and Cobalt,
a couple of violent verticals going at it.
Then it'll be Reese Ewert and Fusion,
who squeaked into the tournament as the last seed
duking it out with number one ranked Minotaur.
[Chris] The Aussie squad, DeathRoll
features the other Ewert, Jake, and HYDRA.
And how about 1-3 Ribbot getting the invite?
They've got an awfully tough matchup
with the undefeated British bot, Quantum.
[Kenny] We'll also see a couple of tanks
in Switchback and Malice, that's sure to be a brawl.
Matty Vasquez and Whiplash taking on John Reid and Beta.
And at the end of the evening, Aren Hill and Blip
have the chance to eliminate a title favorite,
Jamison Go and SawBlaze.
[Chris] But up first, we head to the bottom of quadrant four
for a matchup between the 21st seed, Black Dragon,
and the presumed Rookie of the Year, RIPperoni!
Black Dragon might be a little rattled
coming off its first ever knockout loss
in 25 career fights.
We'll see if the Brazilian bot can hold up against the punishing pizza.
And remember to join us after the fight
for our post-game show, the Road to the Giant Nut,
where we will preview the round of 16
with some of the premier builders in the sport.
All right, Faruq, the world is yours. Let's go!
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
[crowd cheering]
It's robot fighting time!
In the red square, from Itajuba, Brazil,
their flamethrower reminds me of Nelly
'cause it's about to get hot in here.
You're gonna need a Band-Aid for your face
thanks to Black Dragon!
[Chris] Here we go, Black Dragon
coming off that beat down courtesy of Riptide.
You know what, they look just fine.
Get these kids the duck, and they'll take on the world.
So how do they advance to the round of 16, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, RIPperoni's armor is a mix of steel and plastic,
so they're gonna hunt for the vulnerable spot
with that cutting tooth egg beater drum.
Can't take too many shots from the 70-pound pizza blade though,
or the Brazilians could go down for the count a second time.
In the blue square, from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
uh, yeah, hi, can I get a large pizza,
half pepperoni, half 70-pound vertical spinner
with 250-mile-per-hour tip speed?
Yeah, thanks. It's RIPperoni!
[Chris] It's RIPperoni!
Tossing dough, taking names all season long.
They certainly got that swag,
they got that killer robot, and it looks like
they're delivering a flywheel, Kenny,
[Kenny] Fresh out of the oven, that flywheel tech
has been a revelation, Chris.
The ability to counteract the gyroscopic force
of that 70-pound weapon and stay balanced
has been the secret sauce to their success.
Driver Fred Moore's been on fire
and they love their reach advantage
in just about any fight.
Black Dragon does not die easily,
they're a really durable bot, and they're also really low.
Because we used all of our weight
for the weapon and the flywheel,
we had very limited armor configurations
and as we found out in our match against Gruff,
our lightest wedges are just, they don't work, they're bad.
So we had to go with our medium and our heavy wedges
to be able to drive and compete.
We want to feed them into our right side
where the weapon is totally exposed.
We armored the front left side,
but we're gonna try to keep that away from them
and just keep the weapon pointed towards them
and maybe get a top attack.
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] Black Dragon...
...RIPperoni,
the chase for the Giant Nut continues.
Game on!
- Game day! - Let's go!
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Black Dragon with a box run,
- nice driving by Fred Moore, early hit. - [Kenny] Oh.
Nasty shot there.
[Chris] And we have an inverted Black Dragon,
but now we have a flying Black Dragon
or duck, or whatever the hell that thing is today.
[Kenny] Oh, boy, RIPperoni just taking over here, Chris.
[Chris] I mean, just lining it up in the middle,
- and going weapon-to-weapon with that egg beater. - [Kenny] Oh!
Look at the size difference between these weapons.
Who needs forks when you have that type of reach advantage RIPperoni does?
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Oh! Black Dragon continues to attack.
[Chris] Black Dragon again inverted.
- Oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
Head towards the center, get into the center of the box.
[Chris] Black Dragon starting to come back,
- but they are inverted... - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] ...they are not where they want to be.
Oh! The 100-pound pulverizer
dishing out some pain to Black Dragon.
- [Kenny] RIPperoni, so stable to the ground, Chris. - [Chris exclaims]
- [Kenny] It's amazing. - [Chris] It really...
Whoa! Whoa!
[both exclaiming]
[Chris] Huge shot that sends Black Dragon flying across the box.
But the Brazilian's right back in there for more.
[Kenny] And they are right side up now, Chris.
Black Dragon is as tough as they come.
- RIPperoni's gonna have to... - [Chris exclaims]
[Kenny] ...rip this bot's heart out
if they want to stop him.
[Chris] Black Dragon in pursuit.
[Kenny] Whoa!
- Hey now. - [Chris] That little gyroscopic dance by RIPperoni.
Black Dragon has the pin.
- [Kenny exclaims] - [Chris] Oh, man! Nice shot!
[Kenny] Black Dragon's playing the aggressor,
but Chris, their weapon is toast.
- Oh! - [Chris] Yeah, that's massive trouble.
The Brazilians are gonna have to break RIPperoni's weapon
if they want to even things up
in the damage category now.
[crowd chanting] Pizza! Pizza!
[Chris] You can hear the crowd chanting pizza, pizza!
Oh! Nice shot by Black Dragon!
[speaking Portuguese]
[Chris] RIPperoni just has to hang on here.
Black Dragon's all over him.
Big counter-shot from RIPperoni!
[Kenny] RIPperoni still has the lead.
- [Chris exclaims] - [Kenny] They may want to think about playing
a little keep away.
[Chris] Whoa.
- [both exclaiming] - [Chris] Oh! Black Dragon's on fire!
And that came out of nowhere!
But we have seen this robot last
for several minutes on fire.
[Kenny] And that is correct, Black Dragon...
[Chris laughing]
[Kenny] They've been on fire before,
they continue to attack!
[Chris] Under a minute remaining.
It is RIPperoni now having mobility issues.
Can they make it to the closing bell?
Oh! Big impact!
This is gonna be a race to the finish!
- [exclaims] - [Kenny] RIPperoni starting to slow down here, Chris.
[Chris] There's no question about it.
- Stuck on the upper deck. - [Kenny] Oh, my goodness!
[Chris] They might not be able to move.
All they have to do is make it to the 10 second mark,
but they've got to do some sort of movement.
[Kenny] What an upset this would be!
The durability of Black Dragon.
- [referee] 10, 9... - [Chris] The countdown has started!
- ...eight, seven... - [Kenny exclaims]
[Chris] They can't move!
Fred Moore doing everything he can
to resurrect their robot!
- Can he make it to the closing bell? - [referee] ...two, one!
- Knockout! - [all exclaiming]
[Chris] They cannot! Black Dragon has done it!
[all exclaiming]
[Chris] With just three seconds to go,
RIPperoni is counted out!
An all-time classic!
[Kenny laughing] Oh, my goodness.
Let's go!
- Congratulations, guys. - Thanks.
Congratulations.
[Chris] Well, Kenny, there's no question
that this rookie packs a punch.
[Kenny] This fight was crazy.
RIPperoni got off to an amazing start,
used its reach to land some huge shots,
invert Black Dragon and eventually disable its weapon.
[Chris] You know, Black Dragon isn't the biggest or the fastest,
or the most deadly bot in the field,
but it may just be the toughest one we've ever seen.
[Kenny] Durability is this team's super power.
Black Dragon is never out of the fight,
they knew they could outlast RIPperoni.
- And they just kept going right at them... - [Chris] Wow.
[Kenny] ...even as they were on fire.
[Chris] The Brazilian spent the last minute
engulfed in flames,
but it was RIPperoni that was feeling the heat
down the stretch.
They lost the motor to their flywheel,
they lost control of the bot,
and in the end, Black Dragon left them disabled
on the upper deck,
scoring a knockout with just three seconds remaining.
What a moment!
[indistinct conversation]
- [Kenny] Julio. - [Julio Cortez] Oh, sorry. Sorry.
Sorry, sorry.
Obviously a ton of excitement there on the driver's deck.
Julio, congratulations!
- Oh, my God! - [crowd cheering]
- [laughs] - Congratulations, everyone!
Let's go!
Oh, my God.
My hands are shaking more than the last fight.
Julio, how the heck did you guys survive?
You turned into a fireball,
- you were getting thrown all around the BattleBox. - Yeah.
How did you win?
Oh, my God. I don't know.
- [all laughing] - It's Black Dragon.
- So... - This is luck.
We gotta get on fire every year.
So even though we were on fire, it was...
This man! Lucky Ducky!
[crowd cheering]
Luck is always on our side.
Yeah.
How does it feel for you guys to come back?
You know, you guys got knocked out
in your last fight for the first time ever here at BattleBots,
and now you've come back.
It looked like you guys, you know, your weapon was down,
you guys were on fire, and you come back
to win this fight with three seconds left.
- [laughing] - Yeah.
So I believe I have an amazing team,
these guys
and Amanda, our girl,
is the much amazing team that I have...
That I could have!
So I'm sorry for my bad English now
- because I can't thinking. - [laughing]
But thank you, everyone. Congratulations, RIPperoni.
And that's it!
Just...
Just one more thing.
Weapons can stop Black Dragon, but fire, never.
- So... - [all laughing]
Congratulations, Julio.
You and your team are onto the round of 16.
- [exclaiming] - Let's go! Let's go!
You know, Black Dragon epitomizes survival mode.
Yeah, I mean, they just never say die attitude.
You know, RIPperoni, they're a pizza history now.
They pasta way.
[crowd exclaims]
- Cannoli do so much, guys, - [crowd booing]
- Come on. - More boos, more boos.
- [Kenny] Oh, really? - [Chris] More.
Uh, let's bid adieu though to the unquestionable
Rookie of the Year, the only rookie that made the top 32,
a remarkable job by Anna and her entire squad.
But the moment is Black Dragon's
as they move on to the round of 16
and will face the winner of Quantum versus Ribbot,
who we will see a little bit later.
All right, coming up, it's kinetic warfare at its finest,
two of the nastiest vertical spinners
in the business will clash.
The 24 seed, Monsoon, the 9 seed, Cobalt.
Man, this is fun!
The tournament continues next onBattleBots.
This is for the round of 32 on BattleBots World Championship VII,
the action continues right now in quadrant number one,
where we've got the nine seed, Cobalt,
taking on the 24 seed, Monsoon,
and this one could get nasty, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, two incredibly violent vertical spinners here.
Cobalt's one of the most feared robots in the field.
Its only loss was a Fight of the Year candidate against Minotaur.
And taking a look at this quadrant,
we could see a rematch of that fight
in the quarter finals if Cobalt can make a run.
Up first though, it's Monsoon.
[Chris] The popular vertical spinner from the UK
has been on its comeback tour this season.
Went 2-2 in the qualifying rounds
and is coming off a convincing knockout victory over death roll.
So the squad is certainly not shying away from this challenge.
The teams are prepped and ready,
let's hear from the captains as the bots get all set.
It's gonna be a messy one. [laughs]
So the good news is we're in the top 32, ranked at 24.
Bad news is we're fighting Cobalt.
Um, they're a historically very nasty robot.
Their weapon is definitely not something to be taken lightly.
The trick with Cobalt though is that they only win
because they've got that ground game at the front.
If we can knock off those front forks
and those wedglets, we should have the advantage.
We're also going to be using our new longer forks.
So if we can out-reach them
and get under them before they get under us,
I think we've got a fair chance.
If we can beat Cobalt then I think that proves once and for all
that Monsoon is one of the big dogs.
For me personally,
that being the other big English spinner,
I'd really like to take it out.
I feel the same. I mean, it'll really show
which is the top UK spinner.
Yeah, I think we probably spin up a bit faster,
we probably got a bigger punch,
but none of that really matters.
What matters is how it's delivered.
I think we should be able to out-drive Monsoon pretty easily.
I don't think their chassis is particularly well-designed
for taking impact.
If we can get a couple of big hits on them guys,
they'll be out pretty quick.
[Tim Rackley] Monsoon!
[crowd exclaiming]
Yeah!
[robot voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] Kenny, an awful lot of forks
in the mix for this one.
[Kenny] Yeah, one clean shot
could be disastrous for either team.
So the battle for low ground is going to be
absolutely critical.
Cobalt has the longer forks,
but Monsoon has that dual set.
Whoever gets underneath their opponent first
will have the upper hand here.
And Chris, Tim Rackley of team Monsoon
told us flat out
Tom Brewster can out-drive Dave Moulds.
[Chris] Yeah, I think these Brits take their tea
with a lump of wraith and a spoonful of fury.
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Kenny] Cobalt going with their larger disk they call the skull,
designed to withstand weapon-on-weapon hits.
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
The teams meet in the center of the box.
- [Kenny exclaims] - [Chris] Cobalt trying to get underneath Monsoon and does.
They're both dictating the action here early.
[Kenny] This fight's gonna come down to who wins the battle for low ground.
[Chris exclaims]
[Kenny] So far, advantage Cobalt.
[Chris] Nice move by monsoon to square back up there.
Both weapons still humming.
- [exclaims] - [Kenny] Oh, now Monsoon getting under Cobalt.
[Chris] Monsoon with a big reach advantage here.
Remember we saw that come into play
with RIPperoni earlier.
[both exclaiming]
[Chris] Oh, Monsoon took a double hit!
Nice follow-up on Cobalt.
[Kenny] Tom Brewster starting to take over here, Chris.
[Chris] Oh, and Cobalt takes another shot
- right to the face! - Ah.
Right in our face, come on, Tom!
[Chris] Uh-oh, look at the stalemate, the pushing.
Both teams searching for an angle to deliver their weapons.
And here's Monsoon chipping away,
targeting those long front forks on Cobalt, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, it seems like that's what it's coming down to here.
Cobalt's forks are the only thing
keeping Monsoon's weapon at bay.
[Chris] Here's Tom Brewster
backing Cobalt into the corner.
Oh, but a nifty piece of driving
by Dave Moulds to escape.
- [Kenny exclaims] - [Chris] Good shot by Cobalt
but can't connect on the follow-up.
- Whoa! - [Kenny] And there it is!
Monsoon takes one of Cobalt's forks off.
[Chris] Uh-oh, Cobalt's exposed on that left side now.
[all exclaiming]
[Chris] And now it's having trouble with its machine
after Monsoon sends it skyward.
Wow! Cobalt's in trouble, Kenny!
[Kenny] I don't think they're gonna be able to self-right.
This could be over!
Come on! Come on!
[Chris] A monumental upset!
[referee] 10, 9...
[Chris] The countdown has started!
[referee] ...seven, six...
[Chris] A top 10 seed is down for the count
as Monsoon is moving on!
[referee] Knockout!
- [all exclaiming] - [buzzer sounds]
[Kenny] What a performance by Tom Brewster!
[exclaiming]
Yes! We did it! Yes! Yes!
[exclaiming]
[Chris] Boy, this was a tense, tactical back and forth match, Kenny.
[Kenny] What a fight.
Incredible driving by both captains.
Cobalt used those long front forks
to land some early shots, but my goodness,
look at this move by Tom Brewster,
squaring up Monsoon in open space,
using that unique pivoting design.
What an advantage to be able to keep your weapon
pointed at your opponent at all times,
especially against a bot as dangerous as Cobalt.
[Chris] The 24 seed able to get underneath Cobalt,
chip away, eventually removing one of its front forks.
[Kenny] And that was the turning point, Chris.
Monsoon had the reach advantage here,
and after losing that fork,
Cobalt couldn't keep them at bay.
And there it is, the knockout shot.
[Chris] The nine seed, no self-righter,
no movement,
and no Giant Nut
in its trophy case this season.
[laughing]
- [sighs] - Congratulations, brother.
- Fantastic driving. - We made it, we made it.
- [Chris] Tom Brewster... - Yep.
...congratulations on the upset!
Yeah, what upset?
- No. - [laughing]
Thank you, um, incredible.
Cobalt is probably the most terrifying machine here.
So, uh, just getting into the arena with Dave
and that robot is an absolute honor.
Um, fantastic driver, fantastic robot of course.
Um, so cracking fight.
- I'm just ecstatic to have... - We are.
To have gotten the win at this point. So...
[Kenny] When we were in the pits, Tom,
that big guy back there, Tim, we asked him,
"What was gonna be the difference?"
And he said he was super calm,
and he said it with a lot of confidence, he said,
"The driving."
- He said, "I have the utmost confidence... - Every time, every time.
...and that's gonna be the difference."
And that may have been the difference, man.
Amazing job there.
The biggest difference for me just having Tim here,
he gets me so amped up for every fight.
- I am... I'm so calm. - But it's the audience that get us going.
- It's these guys. - And it's the audience, it's...
You know, I think half the battle is won in there,
but half of it is won, you know, in the mind...
- You know what? - ...before you get here. So...
The best bit for me
is that I keep telling Tom he's a great driver.
And that guy there, Dave Moulds,
is one of the best drivers the UK's ever seen.
- Thanks, man. - [Tim] And for this young man to do that,
it's really big.
[Chris] Tom.
Yeah? [laughs]
Keeping it together.
No, you know what? Man, we get it.
It was emotional when you got your first win...
- Yeah. - ...since 2019.
- Yeah. - What's in your heart right now?
I think this is probably our biggest win yet.
I think it proves that we've been away for three years,
and we've come back with a fierce machine, and, uh,
I think Monsoon is back with a vengeance.
[laughing]
Yeah!
Tom, congratulations to you and your entire team.
- Thank you so much. - You're gonna take on the winner
of SawBlaze and Blip.
- Job well done. - Bring it on. Thank you.
Bring it on.
[indistinct conversation]
[Chris] I think that Cobalt is stunned.
- I really... You can see it in their eyes... - Yeah
[Chris] ...of both Dave and John.
I think they felt like they had a real shot to win this thing.
You know, we don't often throw up pit polls after a fight,
but I want you to take a look at this.
95% of the builders had Cobalt winning this one, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, huge credit to team Monsoon,
what a way to kickstart their run for the Nut.
But it's only gonna get tougher.
They'll be waiting on the winner
of Blip and SawBlaze.
[Chris] All right, coming up,
it is the top overall seed, Minotaur.
The Brazilians capped off a perfect qualifying round
with a very narrow victory over Witch Doctor.
- [exclaiming] - [Chris] But they have drawn a dangerous 32 seed
in Reese Ewert and Fusion.
The tournament action continues after the break.
We got more BattleBots World Championship VII coming your way.
In round of 32, we had two monster upsets to start the night.
And if you're hungry for another one,
this would be the biggest of all.
It is the 32 seed, Fusion, taking on
the number one seed, Minotaur.
And the Brazilian bull is on a rampage this season.
You talk to that entire crew,
you could see it in their eyes, they are focused.
[Kenny] Well, after that narrow victory over Witch Doctor
they can check redemption off their to-do list.
Now their attention is squarely on winning the Giant Nut.
And this robot is the number one seed for a reason, Chris.
Minotaur is balanced personified,
offensively, defensively, it's a juggernaut.
It attacks with the power and precision of the bull,
then dodges and dances with the grace of the bull fighter.
The team has a 10-4 career post-season record,
truly one of the greatest to ever put it on the line inside the BattleBox.
So now, they have to deal with the 32nd seed, Fusion, engineered by Reese Ewert.
It weird 'cause they only have one win this year,
but I feel like they've actually been pretty good.
They have so much potential,
it is such an interesting robot.
Both weapons hit so hard.
The problem is it tends to catch fire and destroy itself.
But do not underestimate that weapon.
The other thing that Reese has going for him
is that he's got nothing to lose.
You know, he says, "It's kill or be killed.
Let's do this, come and get me."
[Chris] All right, these two power punchers are all set.
Let's hear from the captains.
I'm very happy for getting number one, we worked very hard for that.
Uh, we've faced very tough bots.
But now we have to look ahead.
Fusion is a very good robot and got 32,
uh, so we're never gonna underestimate it.
I think Fusion needs to be very aggressive,
needs to try to outdrive Daniel, uh, try to hit our sides.
If it goes weapon-to-weapon, survive it and keep hitting
to see which weapon breaks first.
This might be a very explosive matchup
because we have three weapons [chuckling] fighting at the same time.
Well, I have two nicknames in my family.
One of them's Weasel, I've got that since I was a kid.
And the other one's The Bull, we're gonna see what happens when two bulls lock horns.
We're gonna meet in the middle,
it's gonna be one hit, they're gonna go flying into the corner,
and then they're just gonna start driving differently.
'Cause that first hit, that sets the tone of the whole fight.
I love being the 32 seed, underdog stories are the greatest.
[robot voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] The second post-season appearance for Fusion,
but Reese Ewert is up against it in this one.
[Kenny] No doubt. Still, he has Team Minotaur's full attention.
They watched him take Witch Doctor the distance earlier this season.
They know Fusion can rain on their parade.
[Chris] So, what are you watching here for, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, Minotaur is debuting
that two tooth drum that can cut right into Fusion.
From what I hear, they're going to challenge Reese's weapons early.
This is gonna be a brawl, Chris.
[audience chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] It's been a night of upsets so far,
can the number one seed, Minotaur, finally buck the trend?
Let the BotBattle begin!
Fusion leading with the bird.
You can hear the sounds of those weapons--
Oh! Fusion draws first blood. Huge shot at Minotaur.
[Kenny] Minotaur's inverted.
[Chris] Oh, another nice jab from Fusion.
Wow! And a belt goes flying.
- Is the number one seed in trouble? - [Kenny] Oh, no!
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] It is on fire!
[Chris] Oh, no, of course it is.
[Kenny] The Fusion inferno has returned.
Not like this, Chris!
Not like this!
[Chris] Reese Ewert is getting counted out.
- Six, five, four... - [Chris] The number one seed is moving on.
- ...three, two, one. - [Chris] Wow.
Knock out!
Whoo!
[audience chanting] Minotaur! Minotaur! Minotaur!
- Good job, bro. - You're awesome, man.
[Chris] Hey, Kenny, Reese called his shot.
He won the first two exchanges and had Minotaur definitely on the ropes.
[Kenny] There's nothing quite like a Fusion fight, Chris,
you never know what's gonna happen.
Except, of course, you kinda do.
Check out this second collision,
that belt goes flying out of Minotaur.
But Fusion's part also jams from the shock of that impact.
Minotaur able to follow it up, but I think Fusion was already on fire at that point.
[Chris] Here's the start of the Fusion inferno on our thermal camera.
Reese Ewert gives the number one seed a huge scare
for, like, 10 seconds or so.
Minotaur is moving on.
[audience chanting] Minotaur! Minotaur! Minotaur!
- [Chris] Marco. - Polo.
[both laughing]
[Chris] Marco, hey, it seemed like Fusion
had you against the ropes there at the start.
Yeah, that's right, yeah. They have a very high top speed.
So the high skip speeds usually win, they have a good bite there.
So we knew it had to go head-to-head,
we're always afraid of the horizontal bar.
We knew they would try to get to our side, to the wheels.
So it's tough to manage when they have two weapons.
Marco, it seems like you and your team have built a robot that is unkillable,
what makes it so strong?
Uh, we try to balance defense and offense, very thick chassis.
Aluminum, so we can be a blade if we lose,
uh, instead of bending it.
Uh, and we have a very powerful weapon that,
hopefully, is gonna [chuckles] stay spinning.
Uh, it's working fine this year.
Uh, we hope that if it can continue spinning, we can win.
- Soak it in, listen to this crowd. - Thank you.
Thank you.
[audience chanting] Minotaur! Minotaur! Minotaur!
- [Chris] Hi, Reese. - Howdy.
Reese, you caught on fire again.
- [audience laughing] - Yeah, uh...
I'm starting to see a trend.
But if you look overall at this season,
can't you call it a success?
It was a pretty good season.
Uh, I would've liked to go longer than 10 seconds.
- I don't know what happened there. - [all laughing]
- Wait a minute, where have I heard that before? - [all laughing]
[Kenny] Oh, man.
Hey, Reese, you at least got a nice shot there on the bolt.
Yeah, I winning the first 5 seconds.
First 5 seconds you were winning!
- I'll take that home. - [Kenny] Yeah.
What'd you think your pops, Terry's gonna say when you get back to the pits?
- "What the hell was that?" - [all laughing]
Reese, you're one of a kind, man.
- Thanks for providing some entertainment this year. - [Reese] Thank you.
[Chris] So it's back to the lab for Fusion.
And the Brazilian bazooka, Minotaur, advances to the round of 16
to face the winner of Switchback versus Malice.
Coming up, Reese Ewert's brother, Jake,
marching the fourth seeded, Hydra, into the box.
The former semifinalist has a date from down under, the 29th seed, DeathRoll.
TheBattleBots World Championship Tournament continues...
next.
More BattleBots coming your way as we roll on with the round of 32.
Three teams have already punched their tickets to the round of 16.
Next up, in quadrant number four, is it Hydra versus DeathRoll.
The number four seed, bot engineered by Jake Ewert,
of course, is the number one flipper in the entire business, Hydra.
Solid regular season, 3-1.
The only loss was to last season's Giant Nut winner in Tantrum.
I can never get a straight answer out of Jake.
I feel like he's uberconfident,
but he's never willing to tell us that he's the best bot here.
I'm seeing a more mature Jake Ewert.
- What even... I don't like that. - I'm telling you!
- I think that he is taking DeathRoll very seriously. - [Chris] Mmm-hmm.
[Kenny] He doesn't wanna get ahead of himself.
Sometimes he has gone, "Oh, I'm taking this whole thing,
it's gonna be easy, there is no challenge."
I think he understands that he has to be on his game for every single fight.
[Chris] DeathRoll checks in as the 29th seed.
An up and down season for the Aussies
who are back here for the first time since 2019.
Captain Steven Martin lead this former semifinalist to a 2-2 record.
They're KO of Switchback definitely the highlight of their season.
They're coming off a thorough beatdown curiosity of Monsoon.
And, hey, didn't we just see Monsoon get that upset over Cobalt earlier?
So maybe, just maybe, that takes more of the sting away for team DeathRoll.
- This is an excellent robot. - 100%.
And they are so nice, you know.
- They're so easy to talk to. - Yep.
[Kenny] But, man, that robot is mean. It hits extremely hard.
DeathRoll's reach causes a lot of problems.
The weapon is almost unavoidable.
One mistake from Jake, one misflip, DeathRoll can put Hydra to sleep.
[Chris] Is Jake Ewert taking that first step to the elusive Giant Nut?
Or will we have an upset?
Let's find out, Faruq.
[Faruq] In the red square,
it's a true crime scene when his spinner makes you history.
How could you possibly beat him? That's an unsolved mystery.
Eats other bots like cereal, you'll be gone with no recovery.
Such a killer, they're air this fight on Investigation Discovery.
Prepare to be his favorite murder, it's DeathRoll!
[Steven] Whoo!
[Chris] Representing Australia, Team DeathRoll.
Steven Martin pushing out his mean, green machine.
What's he gotta do to croco-dialup a win here, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, throw the seed out the window
because DeathRoll has power to spare with that 50 pound vertical spinner.
It's also faster than you'd expect.
Steven needs to use that speed to attack the sides of Hydra.
[Faruq] In the blue square,
if you or a loved one have been diagnosed with ego inflation
you may be entitled to a broken spine and full decapitation.
If you think exposure to competition puts you at risk for talking smack
call 555-Demolition and he'll put you on your flippin' back.
It's Hydra!
[Chris] Enter Jake Ewert and Hydra.
Some boos from the crowd.
[Jake] Mmm.
[Chris] He's pumped up, like, "Yeah, whatever."
Hydra's statically one of the best bots in the sports history,
but it is missing the coveted Giant Nut.
[Kenny] Well, Jake isn't having issue with the bot like last season.
Gonna have plenty of opportunities for flips in this one.
He wants to act as a ramp for DeathRoll,
get it to land on its weapon and destroy itself.
We have a blade that hangs well out the front.
And potentially going into the front of Hydra, we might be able to hit him.
He's really low on the front so we're never gonna win the wedge game.
But with our weapon hanging so far out maybe we can get some hits in.
DeathRoll's 29th seed, but they're no slouch, absolutely not.
That thing does not stop spinning.
If I can get underneath him, I can probably toss him a lot.
But he's fast, so it might be a little bit tricky
to get a lot of flips in on him while he's still running around.
Really, he only needs one shot. I have to win every engagement.
He only needs to win a few and then he can, you know,
turn the tide on this match very quickly.
[robot voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] Hydra, the top dog of Team Whyachi.
A family decades removed from its last world title.
Is this their best chance to kick start a new era and hoist the Giant Nut?
Their path runs through the Aussie crawler, DeathRoll.
We will have the fight whenBattleBots continues.
[Chris] Welcome back to the World Championship Tournaments
and it has been a night of incredible upsets.
Now it's the fourth seed, Hydra, that's vulnerable.
Jake Ewert staring down a real predator, the 29th seed, DeathRoll.
The Aussies wanna shock the world
and land a spot in the round of 16.
[audience chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] Let the BotBattle begin!
It begins and there's the--
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Whoa!
[Kenny] That's a big one.
[Chris] That was, like, 17-feet, I brought my tape measure.
[Kenny] DeathRoll shakes it off,
the weapon is still spinning and the croc is still looking to sink it into Hydra.
[Chris] Oh, well, that's a mini flip.
But, ooh, that was a lot of damage.
Oh! What? Oh!
[Kenny] Are those two of the biggest flips we've ever seen?
[Chris] I think so.
- [Kenny] Oh, my goodness, DeathRoll... - [Chris] Unreal.
[Kenny] ...taking a beating there.
- Still coming though. - [Chris] Yep.
And Steven Martin told us this, he said,
"I'm not gonna stop. What do you think? I'm gonna run away?"
Bloody hell.
[Chris] It's not how I DeathRoll.
[Kenny] Yeah, Jake Ewert had a lot of respect for DeathRoll.
- They know it only takes one shot. - [Chris] Wow!
[Kenny] Oh, man. When he gets underneath his opponent like that,
see, that's where he needs to be careful.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Almost took a shot on the top of Hydra.
[Chris] Great driving by Jake Ewert,
putting DeathRoll into the glass.
But the croc is still kicking, the clock's still ticking,
and the weapon is still active.
Which means the Aussies are still in this fight.
[Kenny] Oh, see, that's a big shot by DeathRoll.
[Chris] Oh, wow.
[Kenny] Sunk that blade deep into Hydra.
[Chris] Oh, in fact, he's stuck in the crevice. Man!
[Kenny] Yeah, you can see DeathRoll trying to pull away, that is a nasty stick, Chris.
They may have to stop this down.
[Steven] Can you get outta there?
[Chris] We are just past the half way point
here in this round of 32 fight.
I'm no doctor, but these two are stuck.
[Kenny] And I'll tell you what, DeathRoll hit him in a perfect spot there.
[man] Jake, you got any movement in there?
- Got nothing, man. - Got nothing?
- [whistle blows] - [John] All right, guys, time out, time out.
We got two robots that are stuck,
we're gonna try to separate em,
if not it's gonna be a judge's decision.
[Chris] There, you just heard it from referee John,
they're gonna try and unstick them.
If they cannot do it, it'll go to the judges scorecard.
[Kenny] Well, this would obviously be advantage Hydra,
if they're unable to separate these two
as Jake Ewert has dominated the fight to this point.
[chuckling] Whoa, bloody hell.
[Chris] There's no doubt, DeathRoll's rooting for an unstick here.
And for Jake Ewert,
maybe he's a little nervous concerning where that blade ate into Hydra, Kenny.
[Kenny] Oh, absolutely.
There's no telling what a shot like that can do to the internals of a robot.
[Chris] There you see it, that violent collision,
did that shot potentially change the course of this match?
[Kenny] Oh, I think they're gonna do it!
Here we go.
- [audience cheering] - [Chris] Yes.
Yes!
That is awesome.
[John] All right, guys, listen up.
The light tree goes green, we're gonna back off 4-feet,
and then we're gonna fight, okay?
[audience chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] All right, it's time to let these two animals go at it again.
[audience] Four, three, two, one!
[Chris] Let the BotBattle restart!
DeathRoll trying to get its weapon back up to speed.
And it looks like it may be having some issues here.
We did all that just to not drive at me.
[Chris] Jake Ewert's saying, bring it on.
But both of these bots are just kinda crab walking.
[Kenny] There's a nice flip from Jake.
We'll see if DeathRoll can self-right.
- But, Chris, Hydra looks hurt. - [Chris] Yeah.
[Kenny] It's got a nasty gash in its frame,
and something is catching on its left side there, on the BattleBox floor.
Okay, you're gonna have to come to me, or we're going to judges.
[Chris] Well, Jake's still trying to bait DeathRoll into coming to him.
There's under a minute to go, which means the KillSaws are now active.
Now, Hydra's got...
Well, there he goes. Look out! Wow!
[Kenny] Wow.
[Chris] DeathRoll just walked straight into the rocket launcher there.
But Hydra's still just pivoting in place.
It's kinda reminiscent of the strategy
that lost Jake last year's controversial fight
against Tantrum in last season's semifinals, Kenny.
Oh!
[Kenny] Yeah, that's not gonna help Jake in the aggression category
as he flips DeathRoll again.
But the Aussies are in serious trouble here, Chris.
There weapon is down, and this one looks like it's going the distance.
All right, going with the arm. Knife him!
[Chris] No, DeathRoll just circling him.
Oh! DeathRoll's flying through the air and crashing into the ground yet again.
Slice me. Get me. Come on.
[Chris] All right, so we're approaching the 10 second mark.
DeathRoll will make it the distance,
but it took a beating, no question about that.
[Kenny] Oh.
[Chris] And one last flip to finish the job.
[John] Live fight, both ends.
[Chris] Kenny, the game plan for Hydra pretty simple,
and it played out just the way Jake Ewert had hoped.
[Kenny] Yeah, get underneath DeathRoll and launch it into outer space.
Thirteen flips for Hydra in this fight.
[Chris] And these were some of the biggest flips
we've ever seen inside the BattleBox.
Somehow DeathRoll survived the onslaught, kept on coming,
and found a way to take a bite outta Hydra.
[Kenny] That's right, and clearly that shot
had a negative effect on both bots.
After the unstick, DeathRoll's weapon never worked again,
and Hydra was battling some serious mobility issues.
[Chris] Still, Jake Ewert managed to send DeathRoll
skyward a few more times before the bell.
Let's see if the judges sent him to the round of 16.
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is...
- Hydra! - [audience cheering]
[Chris] Jake, congratulations.
A top four seeding after the regular season,
how confident are you that this is your season?
No. Not at all. Don't worry about this. Seeding doesn't matter.
Uh, I'd rather be lower so I can rock everybody's brackets again,
that was a lot funner last year.
- I tell ya that. - [all laughing]
But what's the confidence in your bot? Because it looks pretty darn special.
- Uh, it's actually been going a lot higher than we expected. - [Chris] Uh-huh.
Like, ever season. It's, like, 4-feet higher than usual.
It's... I think he might have been pretty close
to the ceiling on that hit, so.
I don't quite weigh 250 pounds,
but how high could you shoot me in the air?
Uh, you're femurs would be through your back, so I don't know.
- Oh. - [all laughing]
Yeah.
- We should do that sometime. - I'll stay right here, thanks.
Jake, congratulations.
- We'll see you in the round of 16. - Thank you, guys.
Hey, thank you fans, thank you. Whoo! Come on!
- Let's go! - [audience cheering]
Yeah, thank you!
- [Steven] Dude, thank you. - Yeah.
We almost got Jake Ewert to say, "Yeah, this bot's really good."
Almost.
Sorry, I was just thinking about your femurs going through your back.
Is that 'cause you're wishing for it to happen?
No. No, no, no. No, of course not.
[Chris] All right then, with DeathRoll heading home
Hydra advances to the round of 16
to face the winner of Beta versus Whiplash.
And coming up, it's the bot that's turned theBattleBots beta on its head,
Quantum!
The British bot's literally been crushing it all season long.
It's got an opening round matchup with the ferocious frog, Ribbot.
The World Championship continues next onBattleBots.
[Chris] We are back for more World Championship action.
And that's what everybody's fighting for, the Giant Nut.
Now, somebody in this field is going on the run of a lifetime
and taking that trophy home.
Right there, next to the recently fallen champion, Tantrum,
their banner will hang for all time.
Up next though it is Quantum versus Ribbot.
And it's time right now to check in with the five seed Quantum,
that ran through the regular season 4-0.
They are built by the brothers Cooper, James and Grant.
Grant, of course, is the driver.
It's truly game-changing that a crusher bot
went undefeated during the regular season.
The design, of course, is beautiful.
But let's be honest, this is more than just a pretty bot.
Oh, it is beautiful and it is very destructive.
However, in terms of pedigree,
Ribbot is far and away the toughest opponent Quantum's faced this season.
[Chris] They really barely got into this tournament.
They lost their first three fights of the regular season,
they had to scratch and claw, if that's what frogs do,
just in order to get in here by winning their last match against Skorpios.
But, remember, this is an accomplished, experienced squad
with a highly destructive robot.
Ribbot made the round of eight in World Championship V,
was the two seed last season,
all of its fights this year have highlight reel moments.
Win or lose, this bot definitely puts on a show.
[Kenny] Yeah, and whether this team goes horizontal or vertical with their weapon,
they're hitting incredibly hard.
But the durability hasn't been there this season
and the drive isn't as reliable.
Grant Cooper is an underrated driver,
he's gonna challenge David early on,
so they have their work cut out for them,
but, um, I do have faith in that weapon.
Lot of talk back in the pits about Quantum hoisting the Giant Nut
at the end of this road.
Let's see what happens, Faruq.
In the red square,
a beast from the swamp like Shrek,he's bringing scarytail destruction.
Run tell the muffin man he's coming from far far away
to eat you and your gumdrop buttons.
Like the first Shrek, he's really good.
Like the sequels, you'll feel awful.
This all-star's gonna smash your mouth
and in the morning he's making waffles.
It's Ribbot!
[Chris] Here's 1-3 Ribbot in the World Championship Tournament.
And now you get to throw the record away, which is a good thing.
Ribbot can do a lot of damage in this quadrant of the bracket, Kenny.
[Kenny] It's one of the heaviest hitters in the game.
You said it, they were the number two seed last season,
and ran into Hydra in the first Round.
Another huge Round of 32 challenge for this team.
Going with the vertical disc in this one.
[crowd chanting] Ribbot! Ribbot! Ribbot!
[crowd cheering]
[Faruq] In the Blue Square!
He'll be fanging with Mr. Cooper,
and these dudes should really scare you
when he sings those sister-sister fangs.
Tia, you won't live to see Tamera.
No Tyler Perry in this House of Payne,
just the scariest bot you've ever seena.
He'll go all smackers till your smart and yelling,
"Damn! Machina!"
It's Quantum!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] The British bot, Quantum,
helmed by James and Grant Cooper.
The control bot is firmly in control of its own destiny, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, but the Cooper's are the first to admit Quantum
isn't designed to take on verticals.
Still, as we've seen all season,
one bite from those powerful jaws
is all it takes for the Brits to swing a fight their way.
And they're not shy about playing the aggressor.
[crowd cheering]
There are no mistakes to be had now.
Right, if you lose, you're out, you're done.
There's no more, there's no second chances,
um, especially against a robot like Quantum.
They only need that one, uh, perfect pinch and the match is over.
The name of the game right now is low and slow.
We can't move very quickly because of how sharp our forks are.
However, the trade off of mobility
is the fact that we're hopefully lower than they are.
We opted to go with our vertical spinner for this matchup.
We think that that gives us the best chance to get under them
and, uh, really mangle that way.
This thing's a tenacious little thing.
Um, we've seen its previous four fights,
and it's just so quick and nimble,
and it... it just doesn't stop, does it?
- Yeah, it's... - It just keeps on going, that disc keeps going.
For us, every spinner is a huge concern,
and that's why we have such an aggressive strategy with all the robots
of just getting the jaw on them as quickly as possible.
Get that disc to stop because the consequence
of getting just the lightest lick
on the side of the robot is pretty catastrophic.
Win or lose, if we go out there and we terrify the opponent,
that's the... that's the big win for us.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[lights buzzing]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Quantum with those powerful jaws wide open looking for a bite.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Oh, no, Ribbot caught up
- in the killsaw-slot. - No, no, go, go go!
- Turn, turn, turn! - [Kenny] Oh, no!
[Chris] That is a major issue.
Oh, now Quantum's gonna sink its teeth!
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Just sitting there like a dead frog!
[Kenny] An anaconda trying to swallow a deer.
- Look at that thing! - [Chris] Quantum, though, choosing to release.
Repositions.
Okay, should we leave him there?
Let's just leave him there.
[Chris] It had a solid bite.
I'm not so sure what they were thinking.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] There you go, the frog gets out of there!
And Ribbot's weapon is still active as well!
Wow, Kenny!
[Kenny] That is a big
missed opportunity for Quantum.
They had Ribbot completely exposed and vulnerable there.
Let's see if they can find a way to get back inside, maybe get another bite.
[Chris] Well, you can definitely hear Ribbot's vertical spinner humming.
They're catching that wedge on Quantum.
Can Ribbot get underneath?
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Yes, they can!
- [Kenny] Wow! - [Chris] Quantum, can it fix itself? Yes.
[Kenny] And it was a nasty shock to the underbelly.
You saw the underbelly exposed there on Quantum.
- [Chris] Oh! Oh! - [Kenny] Oh! And another!
[Chris] Oh, my gosh!
What did Ribbot's weapon do to Quantum?
- That must be it! - Do you mind if I get you?
I'm gonna get you to move.
Can you back off?
[Chris] Look at the gash in the bottom of that thing!
- [Kenny] Yep, that was the first one. - [referee] Ten!
- [Kenny] You see another one there. - [referee] Nine!
- [Kenny] That was the second shot. - Eight! Seven!
- [Chris] This is gonna do it. - Six!
- Five! Four! - [Chris] It is a monumental upset
- as the 28th seed Ribbot... - [referee] Three! Two!
- ...that's moving onto the Round of 16! - [referee] One! Knockout!
[cheering]
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God!
[cheering, laughing]
[Chris] Well, Kenny, right in the beginning,
Ribbot with its 1,000,000 forks
- got stuck in the floor. - [Kenny laughs]
[Kenny] Yeah, I mean, that's the risk you run when you're, you know,
having all those forks at the front of your robot.
And, you know, Quantum had their opportunity there to take out Ribbot early,
uh, let him go, and, uh,
Ribbot ended up making him pay for that.
[Chris] Yeah, because once Ribbot got free,
man, that weapon just took over.
[Kenny] Yeah, I mean, that vertical disc
is gonna be a problem for any crusher bot.
And once they had him inverted,
it was just... there was just too much damage to Quantum at that point.
[Chris] You see the bottom of Quantum,
couldn't self-right,
and it was nighty-night.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] David Jin.
- Oh. - Congratulations.
Thank you so much. Oh, man.
How the heck did you pull that off?
Uh, took some getting stuck.
I think that kind of, uh, embodies our season so far,
- started off not so good. - [chuckles]
We had some... [chuckles]
Uh, we were panicking for a little bit.
I thought, for sure, we were done
once we got stuck in the killsaws.
Um, fortunately, I don't know what they caught on,
but it didn't quite go through our armor,
we still kept driving, we were able to back out of it.
After that, we got straight under, tore up the wedge,
- and then the rest is history. - [crowd cheering]
David, what's it like getting ready to face a crusher bot like Quantum?
Very scary.
This... The potential for a very expensive loss
is super high.
We knew that we might come out of this with a pile of charcoal.
Were you surprised that when you were stuck in the killsaw slits
that they didn't come over, sink their teeth into you, and take you for a ride?
[David] Uh, they... they tried to.
Um, they got us right over the wheel
and very close to our drive motors.
But, uh, clearly didn't hit anything.
Um, we were still working afterwards,
so that's really good to see.
We'll see you soon in the Round of 16. Congratulations.
- Thank you. - [crowd cheering]
Yeah!
- Good job. - Thanks, man.
[muffled speaking]
[Chris] So the five seed goes out
much earlier than expected, Kenny.
Kinda shocking Quantum would lay off Ribott there early in the fight.
[Kenny] There's no question it was a mistake.
When Ribbot had their chance to take advantage of Quantum,
they certainly did, and Ribbot's moving on.
- [Chris] Certainly are. - [Kenny] Yeah.
[Chris] Okay. So our first Round of 16 match is set here
on the left side of the bracket.
A couple of Cinderella stories
as Ribbot's got a date with the pizza slayer, Black Dragon.
And speaking of pizza,
remember to join us after tonight's fights
for our post-game show Road to the Giant Nut,
where we will be joined by Captain Anna Zolnikov
for a botopsy of RIPperoni,
and we'll look ahead to next week's tournament action.
But first, it doesn't get much closer
than the 16 versus 17 matchup.
Who you got between Switchback and Malice?
Hey, everybody, grab your brackets, make your pick.
- We will have the fight whenBattleBots continues. - [crowd cheering]
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] We are back on BattleBots
for more Round of 32 action.
And look at this!
The grim reaper's in the house, Kenny,
Mr. Ray Billings of Tombstone.
[Kenny] Yes, sir. He's here supporting his friend "Bunny" Sauriol
and Team Malice.
It's one of the coolest things in this sport,
no idle hands back in the pits,
especially here in the tournament.
Builders are always lending their knowledge and support to other teams.
Ray, an absolute legend.
[Chris] Okay. Up first for Malice here in quadrant number one
is the 16th seed Switchback.
The winner's gonna face top seed Minotaur in the Round of 16,
so a very tough road ahead.
Let's get right into it.
[crowd cheering]
All right, the bots are locked and loaded inside the Box.
Winner moves on, loser goes home.
Let's get this thing going.
[crowd cheering]
[robotic voice] Read Team, ready?
Jonathan La Plain from Shrederator joining Bunny and Ray.
David Rush, the weapons op there on the right.
David Liaw, the driver on the left,
and a partridge in a pear tree.
So what is the 16th seed all about, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, Malice is a heavy hitter,
but it only has four career knockouts to its name,
so it's not gonna sweep through the bracket with 30-second matches.
It's all gonna come down to reliability.
That's the book on this team.
Can that weapon stay active?
And can Malice give as good as it gets?
[robotic voice] Blue team, ready?
Switchback time!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Team Switchback,
wins over Banshee, Ominous, and HiJinx in the qualifiers.
Captain Greg Needel running the show.
Kenny, this is one tough son of a bot.
[Kenny] There's no question that durability is this team's calling card.
But the robot's versatility is really what sets it apart.
That articulating arm allows the weapon to strike from so many angles.
I'm expecting Switchback to test Malice's weapon early and try to break it.
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] The 16th seed Switchback.
The 17th seed Malice.
Three minutes to disable or destroy your opponent
and move one step closer to the Giant Nut.
[lights buzzing]
Let the bot battle begin!
- Switchback on the backfoot - [Kenny] Oh!
- [Chris] Weapon to weapon with Malice. - [Kenny] Oh.
[Chris] Malice had him pinned.
Oh, Switchback inverts its arm and lands a shot!
[Kenny] Yeah, good spatial awareness there by Switchback.
[Chris] And you can hear that drum spinning up.
But it's Malice who lands another shot.
[Kenny] Yeah, I love the aggression
- from Malice driver David Liaw so far. - [Chris] Oh.
Yeah, but there's a big shot out of Switchback.
- [Kenny] Oh. - [Chris] Good shot there.
Malice now taking Switchback right in front of the judges.
Racking up some control points.
Remember, you can hold your opponent for 20 seconds,
then you have to let go.
Greg Needel does the Texas two-step and breaks free.
But David Liaw,
he's playing some serious press coverage tonight.
[Kenny] And, Chris, I'm not really hearing Switchback's drum anymore.
Oh!
[Chris] In the meantime,
the drumstick on Malice is just fine thanks.
[Kenny] Well, so far this fight has been pretty even
when it comes to damage.
And Switchback's built like a brick house.
So even if they're having weapon issues, they're not out.
[Chris] Looks like that weapon starts to fire up and then it stops.
And if their drum is down, what's that mean for Team Switchback?
[Kenny] Well, they're gonna have to turn their robot into a battering ram
and try to break Malice's weapon.
- But Switchback does have the frame to do it. - Driving funny.
[Chris] Well, Switchback kinda trapped in the corner,
and Greg Needel definitely doesn't like it.
[Kenny] Oh!
Huge combo shot to Team Malice's arm
with that hundred-pound pulverizer.
Malice getting some space,
trying to reset their attack.
[Chris] There's another shot.
Got his chain, we got his chain.
[Chris] Sound like Malice might have clipped one of Switchback's chains.
Oh, there it is!
That's gotta be one of the weapon chains
on Switchback, don't you think, Kenny?
[Kenny] Yeah, you can see they're still moving well,
so it's gotta be from their drum.
That is not good, though, Chris.
[Chris] And it looks like the other half of that chain's falling out now!
So about a minute left in this fight.
Switchback's weapon is out of commission.
They have an awfully big hole to climb out of here.
[Kenny] Well, don't count them out yet.
We've seen it time and time again,
fights can turn in an instant.
- [Chris] Malice back-- Whoa! Got nailed by a hazard. - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Wow. Looked like it was going in for the kill shot too.
[Kenny] And a few more hits like that
and Malice might stop working, Chris.
Switchback is not out of this fight.
That front and side armor is really saving Switchback.
They would have been knocked out a long time ago.
[Chris] David Liaw seems to be backing up trying to measure--
- Oh! Nice little shot. - [Kenny] Oh!
Under 30 to go.
[Kenny] Greg Needel needs to go pedal to the metal here, Chris.
[Chris] Okay, well, look at this!
Switchback rams Malice into the wall.
What does Greg Needel's bot have left in the tank?
[Kenny] Well, that weapon on Malice
looks like it's starting to slow down too.
- Switchback might just need one more big shot... - [timer beeping]
...but they might be out of time.
[Chris] Well, with each one of those beeps,
Switchback's season comes closer to ending.
- And Malice looks closer to a date with Minotaur! - [crowd cheering]
- Show me some-- - [Chris] So the matchup
between the 16th and 17th seeds
is now in the hands of the judges.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] They are Derek Young,
Lisa Winter, and Fon Davis.
That was awesome. That was so good, guys. So good.
- Nice match, guys. - Nice match.
[Chris] Well, both bots came out swinging, Kenny.
But it was one of those early shots
that disabled Switchback's weapon and turned this fight.
[Kenny] Yeah, you could hear when that drum stopped spinning at full power,
and at that point, Switchback basically became a ram bot.
[Chris] Greg Needel did what he could,
but an awful lot of credit to Team Malice,
they never stopped attacking.
[Kenny] Absolutely. A dominant performance from Malice.
They were aggressive, their weapon was effective,
and it never really stopped working.
And when we saw those chains on Switchback fall off,
we knew it was over.
[Chris] Yeah, if you're without your two chains,
it's not gonna be sweet music for your robot.
[chuckles] And Malice was gonna go in for the kill.
But the killsaws got him.
[crowd cheering]
The results from the judges are in!
[crowd cheering]
[Faruq] The winner by unanimous decision is...
- ...Malice! - [crowd cheering]
[laughs]
Nice job.
Hi, Chris and Kenny.
- Hello, Bunny, congratulations. - Thank you.
This must be incredibly uplifting
after not making it to the Round of 32 a season ago, is it not?
It's the best. I've never made it to the Round of 16.
I have my team to thank. I'm so excited.
Is that cheating having a superpower back there in Ray Billings?
- Is that... Is that cheating? - No, no, no.
Is that within the rule book?
- I think it's good. I think it's fine. - Okay, okay.
How do you think your robot performed overall?
I think it did great. I think it performed exactly how we wanted it to.
We spun up, we got 'em,
and we ripped off their plough,
which was our problem last year,
we couldn't take on the wedges.
We'll see you in the Round of 16, congrats.
- Whoo! - Thank you.
[crowd cheering]
Thank you.
[Chris] Kenny, what did you think
of Switchback's sophomore season?
[Kenny] Well, they were better in year two than they were in year one.
Made the tournament. I'm buying Switchback stock.
[Chris] As for Team Malice,
they now advance to the Round of 16
to face the number one overall seed, Minotaur.
And maybe Bunny can get some advice from Ray Billings.
[Kenny] That's right. Tombstone has some experience riding the bull.
[Chris] All right, up next,
we have got Matty Vasquez and Whiplash
squaring off with John Reid and his hammerbot, Beta.
And in our final matchup of the evening,
Team SawBlaze has a challenging first-round test ahead of them
in Aren Hill and Blip.
Earlier, Captain Jamison Go had his squad
actually pull SawBlaze out of the test box.
We caught up with him to find out why.
One of our ports wasn't quite contacting the floor
at the right position.
When it's not contacting the floor
at the right position, there's a small gap.
And that's... that's room that, uh,
really any opponent's wedge can get underneath us.
And if we're gonna need to get underneath Blip,
we need to have our tips all touching the floor
at the correct position
no matter where we are on the floor panel.
When you battle against Aren Hill...
...attention to detail wins.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] We are back on BattleBots World Championship VII.
And we are now just two fights away
from wrapping up the Round of 32.
Now, last week, some controversy broke out,
the fight between Shatter! and Riptide,
with the sophomore squad facing accusations of rules violations.
Let's take a look at how it all went down.
Give it up for Riptide!
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] A one shot wonder from Riptide!
Let's go!
I think this year, we're doing so well
that a lot of people don't know how to counter us,
and they always just wanna keep taking us down
with whatever means necessary,
even though we've done nothing wrong.
In the fight against Shatter!,
Adam was pretty rude the whole time to be honest.
[Adam] I hear a lot of rumors about them maybe exceeding the tip-speed limit,
or playing games with the scale.
So I'm gonna make sure to follow up on that.
His cheap chatter was just trying to drain us.
They kept tip-speed checking us and weighing us
over and over and over again.
[woman speaking]
[Ethan] He was getting really obsessive.
You have no evidence, like, why are you wasting our time?
[lights buzzing]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
- [Kenny] Whoa! - [Chris] Oh!
[Ethan] Honestly,
I really thought that fight would be way harder than it actually was.
- [Kenny] Oh, gosh! - [Chris] Oh!
[Kenny laughs]
They lost their stuff and they lost the fight.
[cheering]
Clearly, Adam's paranoia cannot stop us,
so I don't think anything can stop us.
Wow!
- Here you go. - No, man.
Okay.
I extended my hand 'cause I was like,
"Bro, like, now the fight's over we can be friends again."
He was like, "No." And that's his fault.
[Chris] So now up next in the Round of 16
Will Bales and HyperShock.
- [Chris and Kenny] Oh! - [Ethan] I think HyperShock
will be a very tough fight for us.
[Kenny] What a shot! Unbelievable.
But Riptide hits harder than, like, any other robot here.
[Kenny] Oh!
- Oh! - [Chris] Bot parts everywhere.
[Kenny] Oh!
Let's see who's the most destructive robot
this year, HyperShock. [laughs]
Someone's going to the ceiling,
and hopefully it's not us. [laughing]
[Kenny] Oh! Oh, it's all over!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Riptide's Round of 16 matchup with HyperShock
is gonna be must-see TV,
do not miss it.
All right, back now to tonight's action.
We're checking in with a 13 v 20 matchup,
Beta and John Reid against Whiplash and Matt Vasquez.
[Kenny] For the hammerbot, a strong 3-1 run in the qualifiers.
Worth noting though, that in World Championship V,
Beta was also the 13th seed, and got upset by Ribbot in the first round.
That'll give Matty Vasquez some extra confidence,
not that he's needing it.
2-2 for Whiplash in the qualifiers.
But coming into this fight on the heels of back-to-back wins.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Both bots are ready inside the BattleBox.
Let's hear from the captains.
So we're up against Matt,
one of the best drivers in the sport.
The big thing for us is he's got extra on the wheels.
That means he's probably impossible to pin.
His wheels can always grip on something
and always escape.
So he's probably never gonna stop.
We have to really be accurate with our hits.
He's gonna be constantly moving and trying to evade us
We've got more reach than them,
so if we stay out of range and hit them...
hit them when they can't hit us,
it's gonna be an interesting fight.
Every fight is the best Whiplash we have had this season.
Uh, I'm hoping that trend continues.
Uh, we have learned a lot.
Our first four fights,
everything is finally coming together
just in the nick of time for when it really, really counts.
Beta is very, very tough.
They don't play the ground game,
they don't try to scoop us up.
They have very, very tough armor,
so we're probably not gonna damage them too much.
We're probably just gonna have to rely on controlling them
and just try our best not to get hit.
'Cause, uh, you know, a few of those hits
could really, they could take us out.
[crowd vocalizing]
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Okay, Kenny, set us up.
[Kenny] Well, Whiplash has doubled up on the top armor.
Matty Vasquez knows he needs to get in close to put the lifter
and vertical disc to work.
For Beta, that's a 16-pound thin-steel hammer.
A solid shot to Whiplash's lifting arm
could cripple its offensive ability.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] Forget the seeding, no one is safe tonight.
Can Beta hold off former runner-up for the Giant Nut, Whiplash?
[lights buzzing]
Let the bot battle begin!
Oh, how about the box rush from Beta.
But you gotta wake up pretty early in the morning to outrun Matty Vasquez.
He gets underneath Beta, pops him up and said,
"I'm the one in control, John Reid.
I'm the one in control."
[Kenny] Oh, nice counter shot by Beta.
[Chris] So is that, courtesy of Whiplash.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Uh-oh, uh-oh,
Beta gets thrown to the upper deck.
Oh, [bleep]!
[Chris] Oh, no, don't tell me it can't move up there.
[Kenny] Are you kidding me?
You saw John Reid react.
Beta's weapon is firing,
but the bot is frozen stiff, Chris.
[Chris] Look at Whiplash peering over the top,
looking at its prey, like,
- "Hey, do you wanna come down here and play?" - [referee] Ten!
- Nine! - [Chris] Oh.
- Eight! Seven! - [Kenny] Yeah, this is gonna be a knockout.
- My goodness. - [referee] Six!
- [Chris] Oh, what a disaster... - [referee] Five!
- Four! - ...for Beta.
- That is gonna be... - [referee] Three!
- ...a long flight home. - [referee] Two! One!
Knockout!
- Whiplash, winners. - [crowd cheering]
All right, let's kick out.
[Chris] Well, Kenny, the number 13 seed's soul
just left its body there in the BattleBox.
What the heck happened to Beta?
[Kenny] Oh, boy, what a way to go.
Credit to Matty Vasquez for a perfect start,
dodged the box rush,
got underneath Beta and bullied it onto the upper deck.
And I'm not sure if it was a signal issue
or a result of that hard shot from Whiplash,
but Beta just died, Chris.
That's my professional analysis, Beta just died.
I'm not sure how else to say it.
[Chris] Well, a pretty shocking exit
for John Reid and his iconic hammerbot.
Whiplash is moving on.
[crowd cheering]
You guys can do this.
All right, it was nice to finally meet you as well.
And you too.
[Chris] So, Matty Vasquez handles his business,
and Whiplash advances to the Round of 16 completely unscathed,
where it will face Hydra, Kenny.
That one ought to be a good one.
[Kenny] A legendary flipper, a legendary control bot.
That's my kind of matchup.
In the meantime, it ends so abruptly for John Reid and Beta.
[Kenny] I know we both admire his passion for the sport, 63-years young.
Hopefully, he's back next season.
[Chris] Okay, coming up, it is the final fight of the evening,
and the final puzzle piece of the opening round,
a clash between a quarterfinalist and semifinalist
from last season.
Two of the most brilliant builders in the field.
Only one will survive.
Aren Hill and Blip
- collide with Jamison Go and SawBlaze. - [crowd cheers]
[Chris] That's next.
[crowd cheers]
We are back on BattleBots World Championship VII,
and we have officially reached the final fight of the round of 32.
It's the 25 seed, Blip, versus the 8 seed, SawBlaze.
For two years, Jamison Go, the captain of SawBlaze, has been waiting,
waiting to get back at Aren Hill.
Of course, Aren Hill has created Blip,
but we're talking about a fight against Tantrum in the quarterfinals.
A lot of people thought SawBlaze was gonna win it.
Instead, it was Tantrum.
That catapult was them on their amazing run.
A year later, they end up hoisting the Giant Nut,
and Jamison's been sitting there
- going, "Really? Really? - [chuckles]
Could have been me."
Yeah, Jamison Go holding a grudge over losing? No.
Listen, he got bullied around in that fight with Tantrum.
Now he's coming off that loss to HYDRA.
In fact, Jamison has never beaten a flipper in his career
so this is a major hurdle,
but SawBlaze has looked unstoppable for most of this season.
Blip needs to channel its inner Tantrum
and have a championship-caliber fight.
I love the first version of Blip.
I mean, what a great run they went on.
Their flipper bot, it's a ton of fun to watch.
I haven't felt like we've seen the best of Blip this year.
You know, it is durable, it's very stocky, it's low to the ground,
and, remember, it's nearly identical to Tantrum.
In fact, the drive is even more powerful,
but it's a flipper and it's supposed to flip.
Haven't really [chuckling] seen the big flip that we saw last season, so...
- Still waiting. - Yeah.
- See if we get something tonight. Faruq? - [crowd cheers]
In the red square, from Mountain View, California,
how you gonna beat this robot?
How, Sway?
You ain't got the answers, man.
You ain't got the answers.
Prepare to flip with Blip!
[crowd cheers]
- Woo! Woo! - [crowd continues cheering]
[Chris] A 2-and-2 record and an unexpected 25 seed for Team Blip,
Captain Aren Hill hoping this is the moment
his little blue bot returns to form.
[Kenny] Absolutely.
Remember, Blip won the award
for best design last season because of its flywheel flipper.
Just hasn't matched last year's output.
Added those sharp piano key forks
Aren mentioned in last week's post-show.
If Blip can get under SawBlaze, anything can happen.
[crowd chanting] Blip! Blip! Blip!
In the blue square, from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
he came, he saw, he sawed some more.
- Give it up for SawBlaze! - [crowd cheers]
[cheers]
[Chris] SawBlaze...
- ...always on the cusp of greatness. - [cheering continues]
A tremendous qualifying round at 3-and-1,
the lone loss to HYDRA.
Kenny, I'm asking, is this J-mo's year?
[Kenny] He's definitely got the bot to do it.
SawBlaze drives with precision.
Its hammer saw literally rips holes in bots.
The configurations are so smart, purposeful.
- If Jamison can take down - [all chanting] SawBlaze! SawBlaze!
something as well engineered as Blip,
that's a hell of a way to kick off his run for the night.
[chanting continues] SawBlaze! SawBlaze!
[man shouting] Come on!
[crowd cheers]
I've faced Jamison Go before when I was driving Tantrum back in season five.
Got the better of him then.
Gonna try to get the better of him this time.
I'm really looking forward to using
the straight-up maneuverability and acceleration of Blip.
I think we have one of the best drive trains in the entire field,
so I want to avoid those head-to-heads
and manage to get a side scoop,
an angle scoop on SawBlaze to get that first flip in.
Once I get the first flip in, it gets him off kilter, gets him on the back foot,
and just never let him get planted again.
We have a strong feeling they're going to run their piano hinge forks.
We equipped our sharpest set,
which is a, actually, a very narrow fork as opposed to our wider foot.
It should give us the best chance
of actually getting underneath theirs,
and actually, potentially, damaging theirs simply by contacting it.
That's how durable, that's how sharp these are.
The blade is brand new and it's very, very sharp.
We're putting on our best clothes
for our first outing in the round of 32.
- Good to go. - Good to go.
- Okie-dokie. - [man] Good to go.
- [robot voice] Robots activate. - [crowd cheers]
[Chris] Aren Hill, Jamison Go. A big name is about to fall.
Can Blip find the Championship mojo
that led its sister team, Tantrum, all the way to the Giant Nut?
Or will SawBlaze slash and burn its way to the round of 16?
We will have the fight asBattleBots continues.
[crowd cheers]
[Chris] Welcome back to theBattleBots
World Championship VII Tournament,
where there is only one final spot in the round of 16
waiting to be claimed.
Will Blip rediscover its magic,
or is this just the first stop on the SawBlaze Express?
[crowd continues cheering]
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[alarm beeps]
- [Chris] Let the bot battle begin! - [crowd cheers]
Both teams feeling each other out.
Blip tries to get under SawBlaze but can't.
Successful that time, though, but doesn't have the chance to flip Jamison Go's bot.
[Kenny] Yeah, good job by J-mo to free himself there.
Gonna be tough for Aren Hill to get under those long forks on SawBlaze.
[Chris] Blip tried to attack J-mo's flank.
- Now rams him into the side of the arena... - [crowd exclaims]
but takes a shot from that 100lbs pulverize, too.
[Kenny] Neither team's fired their weapon yet.
Both drivers very selective...
- ...but, uh-oh... - [crowd cheers]
- ...SawBlaze gets flipped on its... Wow! - [Chris] Oh!
[Kenny] Great shot there by Jamison Go.
[Chris] I don't think he's done, Kenny.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Oh, there comes that hammer saw.
- [crowd cheers] - [Chris] Uh-oh, Blip is mangled.
- [Chris] Oh, brutal! - [Kenny] Oh!
[Kenny] Yeah, this is not good.
- You do not want Jamison Go to get underneath you. - [Chris] Oh!
[Chris] SawBlaze's getting that flamethrower fired up.
- Went after another shot with that hammer saw instead. - [crowd exclaims]
[Kenny] Jamison Go doing a good job
keeping that dustpan squared up to Blip.
Really controlling the fight so far.
[Chris] Blip just doesn't look normal.
[Kenny] Aren Hill just can't seem to find an edge.
- Uh-oh. - [Chris] Oh, man, SawBlaze...
- [Kenny] Oh! - the great control bot
- [man shouting] Yeah! - using that hammer saw right in front of us.
[Kenny] He may start to get that flame going as well.
How about Blip coming back there, though?
[Chris] Blip has just got to get under him. He's got him.
- [crowd exclaims] - [Chris] Can he get a flip?
He cannot.
[Kenny] And he'll have to capitalize
on that situation, Chris.
He's playing from behind.
A single flip could disable Jamison Go's hammer saw,
so Aren can't be shy with that trigger finger.
[Chris] He said part of his goal
- is to upright Jamison Go... - [Kenny] Oh!
but Go's not flipped.
- Oh, he takes him into the screws on the upper deck - [crowd exclaims]
and continues to deliver shots.
[Kenny] Blip has yet to get a significant flip on SawBlaze.
- SawBlaze is dominating the weapon game here. - [Chris] Oh!
[Chris] Approaching the one minute mark.
[Kenny] Well, Aren Hill, clearly, has got the more nimble bot,
but Jamison Go just won't let him get around to the sides.
- [Chris] Blip trying to spin out of damage's way. - [crowd exclaims]
[Chris] Oh, man!
[Kenny] Blip has taken some huge overhead shots.
Their top armor is all torn up.
[Chris] But, here we go.
Oh, being moved by Jamison Go to get off Blip's launchpad.
- [Kenny] Aren Hill has to stop hesitating. - [Chris] Oh!
[Kenny] Jamison Go is gonna keep making him pay for those mistakes.
- [crowd exclaims] - [Chris] Oh, look at that shot.
SawBlaze just throwing his opponent around the box.
Now, this is really impressive.
The fact that Aren Hill's still around
with less than 30 seconds to go, but what can he do?
- [shouting] Yeah! Yeah! - [Kenny] Well, the flipper hasn't worked the way
he's wanted it to, Chris,
but I do know that Jamison Go is taking advantage of his opportunities.
Aren Hill has not.
[Chris] Those are just brutal shots,
- in the meantime, by SawBlaze. - [timer beeps]
This one's gonna end up going the distance.
Anything from Blip? Anything?
- [crowd] Four, three... - [Chris] Not one flip in this one...
- [crowd] ...two, one! [cheers] - [Chris] ...and SawBlaze dominated
from start to finish.
[indistinct]
[Chris] So, after three minutes of action,
we will head to the judge's scorecards.
- [crowd chanting] SawBlaze! SawBlaze! - Good luck, guys.
J-mo.
[Chris] Well, Kenny,
about a dozen strikes
with the hammer saw for SawBlaze,
and a total of zero flips for Blip.
[Kenny] Yeah, and watching some of these shots again in slow-motion,
I think Blip may have lost function to that flipper earlier
than we gave Aren credit for.
Look at how deep J-mo's weapon goes.
No amount of a plate of armor is going to stop that.
[Chris] And, hey, functional flipper or not,
Jamison Go didn't really give Aren Hill many opportunities
to even fire his weapon.
[Kenny] Yeah, utilized those long forks masterfully,
and even used the retracted hammer saw as protection
when Blip did get around to his backside.
Just a dominant performance from Jamison Go
and the number eight seed, SawBlaze.
- [crowd cheers] - [Chris] Let's make it official.
The results from the judges are in.
[crowd cheers]
The winner, by unanimous decision, is...
[crowd murmurs]
- SawBlaze! - [crowd cheers]
Yeah! Yeah!
- Whoo! - Yeah!
Whoo!
Jamison Go, congratulations.
Was that as dominant as you have been this season,
from start to finish, against a really good robot?
Well, I feel like we needed a really strong win
to pick us up after the HYDRA loss,
so I think this is a great start
to the tournament,
and my voice is completely gone.
- [all chuckle] - [crowd cheers]
[Chris] Well, you're now on to the round of 16 to face Monsoon...
- ...which upset Cobalt earlier tonight. - [crowd cheers]
What has you worried about that at first blush?
I don't know, I'm kind of looking forward to that one
because I have a bone to pick with them in 2018.
- [crowd exclaims] - Oh, do tell!
Oh, simply, they beat us...
- ...so we're gonna beat 'em back. - [chuckles]
- Oh, I-- - Not too complicated.
- Not that complicated. - Okay, good. I mean, I--
Just like fighting Aren, where he beat me, like, two years ago,
and so, fighting Aren, of course, and his whole team, really ingenious designers,
and they prepared very, very well,
so now we're 1-and-1.
[all laugh]
Well, congratulations.
We'll see you in the round of 16, Jamison.
- [crowd cheers] - Thank you.
[Chris] Yeah, Kenny, this was a rough matchup for Blip.
SawBlaze is just so fast and so dominant.
[Kenny] The weapon, the armor, the drive,
everything is working right now for Jamison Go and his squad.
The SawBlaze Express rolls on, Chris.
[Chris] Next stop, a round of 16 matchup
- where the surging Monsoon awaits. - [crowd cheers]
All right, make sure you don't go anywhere
because, coming up next, it is our post-game show here at the round of 32
as we continue on with the Road To The Giant Nut.
That's right, Anna Zolnikov, the captain of team RIPperoni,
which was eliminated tonight,
will join us as we do a bot-topsy on her pizza,
and also, we'll look ahead to the round of 16...
- ...as HUGE will be taking on MaDCatTer. - [crowd cheers]
That means that Jonathan Schultz and Martin Mason
will be joining us for a live interview
to talk trash about each other.
- [crowd cheers] - That and more coming your way
on the Road To The Giant Nut.
- It's our post-game show. Don't go anywhere. - [crowd cheers]
[crowd cheers]
Come on.
Welcome back to the BattleBots Road To The Giant Nut,
as we officially have wrapped up
the round of 32.
What a night it was, Kenny, right?
We had five of the eight fights were decided,
and won by the lower.
- It was crazy out there. - Yeah, unbelievable.
When you have the hardest hitting machines in the world
that weigh 250lbs, anything can happen.
- You guys ready for a crazy post-game show? - [crowd cheers]
We've got Anna Zolnikov.
She's, of course, the captain of RIPperoni,
which was, unfortunately, eliminated tonight.
- We've got Jonathan Schultz, the captain of HUGE... - [crowd murmurs]
...Martin Mason, the captain of MaDCatTer.
Yeah!
They're ready to join us.
They'll talk about their round of 16 matchup.
But first,
Kenny, talk to us about who impressed you tonight.
[Kenny] Definitely Minotaur,
holding strong as the number one seed.
They've got a championship aura around them.
How about Monsoon
- with the biggest win of its career? - [Chris] Oh, yeah.
[Kenny] HYDRA nearly launching DeathRoll into the ceiling.
Ribbot looks like it's back,
but, Chris, Black Dragon.
- [crowd cheers] - [Chris] Yeah, what a performance.
Kenny Florian, you tell us all the time,
these fights are won back in the pits.
Our cameras caught up with the Brazilians a little earlier.
[man chuckles]
- [man 2] It's on fire! - [man] Yeah!
[Chris] Massive win for Black Dragon
as they sent the pizza packing,
but before RIPperoni departs, we want one final word with the captain.
She built this amazing bot,
in part, because the first time I saw it
I wanted to sink my teeth into it.
I love pizza, and I love RIPperoni.
- Put your hands together for Anna Zolnikov. - [crowd applauds]
- [Chris] Delivery time! - [chuckles]
- [Chris] Hello, Anna! - Hi. You guys ordered a pizza?
- We did. - [chuckles]
- I sure as hell don't want to eat that thing, though. - [chuckles]
Okay, so, unfortunately, your season came to an end against Black Dragon.
First of all, how's the bot feeling? Are you okay in there?
The bot is feeling okay.
The firmware needs a little bit of an update
and a few connectors got unplugged...
- ...but, otherwise, the bot's in really good shape. - [Chris] I know.
I got to tell you, it doesn't look like it was in a fight,
and it certainly didn't look like it lost.
- So, we're gonna do a bot-topsy. - [Anna chuckles]
- I'm not a doctor. I don't play one on TV. - [chuckles]
I'm actually just, kind of, a mediocre television host anyway...
- [all chuckle] - ...but if there's one thing that we can look at
that you say, "That's not working," what are you pointing toward?
Um... Well, we all saw that the motor came off of the flywheel,
but the flywheel concept itself
was working really well during the fight.
So, basically, the way RIPperoni works
is this hoop spins in this direction,
but the flywheel spins in the opposite direction,
so we're cancelling the angular momentum
by spinning a smaller flywheel very fast
- in the opposite direction from the weapon. - [man cheers]
[Kenny] We were talking to Nick Mabey from team End Game,
and he said that your flywheel is, like, a massive innovation,
and he said that he sees that being used
by a lot of other teams in the future.
What do you say to that?
I definitely think it's a possibility.
The reason that it hasn't really been done before
is that it's hard to find 25lbs of weight
to come out of your robot somewhere else.
But we were able to do it by having a steel skeleton
and billet machine UHMW chassis...
- ...so it's a very bouncy, tough plastic... - [Kenny] Wow.
...and that's how we got the 25lbs for the flywheel.
What got you interested in wanting to do this stuff?
Seeing big hits on BattleBots.
- [Kenny chuckles] - [crowd cheers]
[Chris] Is that what it was?
- You were like, "I got to do this." - Yeah.
My high school robotics club did BattleBots,
and I walked in one day, saw how cool it was, and never left.
- So, did you watch the show in high school? - Yeah.
Did you think Kenny was not funny then, too?
- [all laugh] - Right?
Think he's a little funnier than you.
- Oh, okay! That's it, have a great night, everybody. - [crowd and Kenny] Oh!
- Boom! Boom! - Have a great night.
- That is awesome. - [laughs]
- I'll see you next week, maybe. - [all laugh]
What did you learn this year?
We learned that the bot is really durable.
We were really worried about this brand new construction
using steel and plastic together,
but we went three minutes in every fight that we lost...
- ...and I'm really proud of that. - [crowd applauds]
So, I heard that you've got, like, a secret weapon
that you used with this machine.
- What is it? - Yes, it's dry ice.
So, the motor uses a lot of power,
and in order to keep it from overheating
we have to cool it with dry ice before every fight.
- [Chris] Do we have any dry ice? - [crowd cheers]
- Oh, Bob the Builder'sback! - [crowd cheers]
- Yeah! - [Kenny laughs]
[crowd chanting] Bob, Bob, Bob!
- [Kenny] What have we got? Put those on. - [Chris] Yeah.
- Should I do this? - Yeah, yeah.
- Absolutely. Let's do the experiment. - Chris, don't get so excited.
This isn't a lunch, or a dinner...
- ...or anything like that. - Okay...
- It's just dry, okay? - ...you're funny.
- You guys are a wonderful team. - [Kenny] There you go.
- Oh! - So, my ice
- What do I do? - is normally stored
- at about -100 degrees Fahrenheit. - Right.
So when you put it in a little bit of water
it's gonna immediately sublimate, or skip the liquid phase,
and turn directly into a gas.
So, do I take a smaller piece, or...
Uh, just put the whole piece in there... and it should start--
- Yeah! - Oh!
[crowd cheers]
- Mmm, that smells great. - So, instead of melting
like normal ice would,
it just becomes a gas right away,
and it's gonna super-cool this container here,
so don't touch the container without gloves.
It's gonna be really, really cold.
[Kenny] Oh, so it super-cools the robot before a fight?
- [Anna] Yeah. - So, it's like I'm baking banana bread.
- This is great. What do I do with this? - [chuckles]
- A freezing banana bread. - What do I do with this now?
So, normally, well, we would usually have a top plate on for this...
- ...so, basically, our motor is exposed up here. - Right.
So if we just stack dry ice on top of it,
the aluminum of the motor just gets really, really cold.
[Chris] Do you want me to take the ice out and put it on there,
or is that a stupid thing?
- No, not with everything exposed like this - Okay.
- because there's water in there. - Oh, okay, all right.
- [crowd laughs] - So, yeah, because...
But we just wanted to show you what happens when you put it in water.
- [Kenny chuckles] - [Chris] Round of applause
for the dry ice. Look at this.
- Good job. - [crowd applauds]
- This really is wonderful. - Very dry, very icy.
- [Chris] How much fun did you have this season? - [Anna] All the fun.
You had all of it?
- [chuckles] - All of it.
Like, you didn't leave any
- for anybody else? - Definitely not. [chuckles]
And you're, this is coming back for season 8, right?
I sure hope so.
Would you have us back?
- Would you like the pizza back? - [Kenny] Yes!
[crowd cheers]
- [crowd chanting] Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! - [Anna chuckles]
- Oh, yeah! - Yay!
- Now, this is what - Hey...
- I'm talking about. - ...don't touch it with gloves.
- Ohh, it's fresh! - Oh.
[Chris] This is pepperoni.
- Where's my dry ice topping that I ordered? - [Kenny and Anna laugh]
[Chris] That would have been way better.
- Let's hear for Anna Zolnikov, the captain of RIPperoni. - [crowd cheers]
- You were amazing this year. Congratulations. - Thank you.
[Chris] Hey, we got much more coming your way.
We're gonna be joined by Martin Mason of MaDCatTer,
getting ready to take on Jonathan Schultz of HUGE.
They're gonna square off in the round of 16.
They're gonna talk a ton of trash, I promise.
- [chuckles] - Yeah!
- Don't go anywhere. - [crowd cheering continues]
It is time, right now, for our Bot in Memoriam.
[crowd titters]
[Chris] On mechanical wings,
our fallen friends now soar to the great scrap heap in the sky,
It's so much more rewarding to do something different.
When it works, that is an immense reward.
- There's nothing that can beat that. - [crowd applauds]
- We made it to the top 32. - [crowd cheers]
We're really proud of our team.
Thank you, guys, for an amazing season.
Son of a bitch.
[chuckles]
[crowd cheers]
[Chris] We are back here. We're continuing on with The Road To The Giant Nut.
Eight amazing matchups coming your way next week in the round of 16.
We have two of the captains who will vie for a spot in the round of eight
joining us right now.
They'll be squaring off next week.
- Jonathan Schultz from HUGE, Martin Mason from MaDCatTer. - [crowd cheers]
- Round of applause for these good people. - [crowd applauds]
- [Chris] Oh, my God. - [crowd continues cheering]
[Kenny laughs]
- Hey, how you guys doing? - How are you?
- Yeah! - Hi, Jonathan.
- How are you guys doing? - All right.
So, you brought props. What do you have, Martin?
You know what? This is one of MaDCatTer's wheels, folks.
And you know what?
This is what a normal size wheel likes.
Maybe somebody's compensating...
- ...that's all I've gotta say here, folks. - [all laugh]
All right, Jonathan, what did you bring?
Well, I brought a normal size wheel for an abnormally sized robot.
- [Chris and Kenny chuckle] - Uh...
Well, why don't you, you know what,
hand that over to the two of us
- for just a second. - [groans]
How much does this weigh? Give us the...
- That is about 26lbs, yeah. - Hello.
- Uh-huh. - Bigger than the table.
It's unreal, and what's the size of this thing?
- 40 inches, or 1 meter for the metric among us. - Wow. Yeah.
- So, you guys are gonna square off next week. - Yes.
We want a little bit of a strategic breakdown, okay?
And it's not fair for you to hear the strategy
- of the other captain... - Yes.
- ...so we're gonna put you in the cone of silence. - Mmm.
Actually, we're really cheap around here
- so we got $5.99 headset over here. - [chuckles]
- Bob is back! - [crowd cheers]
Nice job, Bob. Thank you.
[crowd chanting] Bob, Bob, Bob!
So, we are gonna do something we thought we'd never be able to do here at BattleBots...
- ...quiet Martin Mason. - [chuckles]
- Here. - [crowd exclaims]
- Put those on. - [man] Oh, yeah!
[all laugh]
Come on over here.
- You just stand right here in the corner... - [laughs]
and we'll talk to Jonathan.
No, no, no, he's not in trouble. Just stay there.
- All right, so, Jonathan... - Yes.
...how do you beat that bot?
How I beat that bot is that right there.
I am so much taller than he is,
I'm so much taller than anything that he can reach.
We have those big wheels. They're flexible.
He can punt a robot half way to the ceiling when he hits something solid,
but I have five things that touch the ground,
and none of them are solid besides my left.
So all I'm gonna do is hit him with that first,
and he's gonna explode from there.
I'm noticing that you're using these massive wheels
almost as a shield.
- Like, you kind of turn to do... - Yeah.
Is that a new thing this season,
or have you been doing that before?
It's something we've gotten more into
as we've gotten more confident in the wheels,
but also in the ability to then swing the weapon around
- and do something. - [Kenny] Yeah.
I describe HUGE a lot as a grappling robot.
You can see it a lot in our fight last week with Skorpios.
Once I got them cornered, that was when we did all the damage in the fight.
- You said his bot is a grappler... - Right.
- ...and that just made me happy. - Oh, of course it would.
- [Kenny] Yeah. - [Chris] Of course it would.
I don't know if you're into meditation or not,
but you want to take a couple of minutes
- and just hang out in the silent world? - I definitely can.
[Jonathan] That's actually something that's been helping me a ton
this year with my driving,
meditating before the fights...
- ...and I wear earplugs during the fights now. - Wow.
Is that because you don't like listening to him?
- Yeah, yeah, it's too loud... - [Kenny laughs]
...you know, you guys shouting and stuff.
- That's what we do. - That's cool. Interesting.
- But actually, yeah, it's something where... - That's great.
...in past seasons, I'd get myself way worked up,
and now I'm trying to calm myself down before fights.
And I think it's showing a lot in my driving...
- ...as things have been going... - Definitely.
- ...so it's one of our keys to success this year. - Namaste.
- Absolutely. - [crowd cheers]
- [laughs] - All right, let's come on over here.
[crowd applauds]
- Hi. Okay. - [chuckles]
- You can give those to him. - Okay.
- There we go. - Did you hear a thing?
- He probably heard everything. - Not a thing, not a thing.
- He's going with big wheels. - [laughs]
- All right, I'm gonna have to rethink everything now. - Anyway...
- [Kenny laughs] - [Chris] How do you fight up against HUGE?
[Martin] You know what? The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
It's that simple, folks.
And we're gonna be, of course,
coming with an attachment for 'em.
And I'll tell you what, folks, you know, HUGE is big.
They're like a whale,
they're like a great white whale,
but we don't have the harpoon, we have the HUGEpoon...
- [all laugh heartily] - ...and it's gonna take 'em down, folks.
I'll tell you what, you know what,
we're gonna take that, we're gonna stick it in their weapon.
- Once that's broken... - [all continue laughing]
...then we're gonna control...
What sort of class do you teach in college?
- What's the matter with you? - It's a thing you stick into the weapon.
- [Kenny] Yeah. - [crowd laughs]
- It's a special attachment. - It's a huge poon.
- [snickers]
- Yeah. - Yeah, not a harpoon.
- Thank you for joining us on BattleBotsAfter Dark. - [all laugh]
- This has been, uh... - I don't, I don't understand.
[Martin] Yeah, so, you know,
we've got this special attachment.
Once we've got their weapon taken out
then we control the fight, right?
Our lifting arm is gonna be key for us.
You know, the weapon is a lot less important
because it just can't reach 'em.
It's gonna be about control,
it's gonna be about using that arm,
and just getting it exactly where it needs to go.
[Chris] Really cool, really cool.
- Let's bring Jonathan back in here - [crowd cheer]
and finish this up.
I hate to break up your relaxation.
Hey, guys, it was great hanging out with you.
We really appreciate it, as always.
We wish you the best of luck.
Let's hear it for Martin Mason and Jonathan Schultz.
- [crowd applauds] - We look forward to your matchup next week.
Here you go, boys.
- Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! - [Kenny chuckles]
Whoo!
- Here, we got some parting gifts for you. - Roll on out of here.
There they go.
- Thank you, gentlemen. - Thank you very much.
Bye, guys. Jonathan Schultz, Mark Mason.
[applause continues]
So, a special thanks to all our amazing guests tonight.
Jonathan Schultz and HUGE, Martin Mason and MaDCatTer...
- and Kenny's new BFF... - My new best friend.
...Anna Zolnikov
- of RIPperoni. - [crowd cheers]
We can't wait for it to continue next week,
when we narrow it down to eight.
That's is unbelievable.
We'll see you next time
here on BattleBots.
[crowd cheers]