The BattleBots.
This is where strategy meets reality.
The 28 feet between the red and blue squares.
Three minutes for all the marvels.
[thrilling music playing]
[narrator] Tonight, 16 teams
are fighting for their tournament lives.
They'll dance on this boulevard of broken dreams
paved with the greatest intentions.
[man] Just cut me over.
[narrator] In the air, is the magic dust of possibility
because this road leads to glory.
[man] Oh, no!
[crowd cheering]
[narrators] Only eight teams will survive.
Fates will change in a moment.
And that moment...
is now.
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[crowd cheering]
Welcome to Battle Bots. I am Chris Rose.
I'm joined, as always, by UFC legend
and the best damn robot-combat analyst
in the entire world. Say hello to Kenny Florian.
[all cheering]
[Florian] Thanks, Chris. I am amped up for tonight.
We are so close to the end of the marathon
that is World Championship VII and tonight...
it's the best of the best.
We are down to the final mean 16.
This is the gateway to the Championship round.
[Chris] Only eight teams will advance.
And for those that do,
they'll move one step closer to claiming
the most glorious prize in all of robot combat,
the Giant Nut!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Taking a look at the bracket,
Kenny, step us through this exceptional Round of 16 field.
[Kenny] With pleasure, Chris.
All four of the top seeds
are still in the running,
including, of course,
the apex predator, Minotaur,
who faces Malice tonight.
Marco, Daniel and Co are foaming at the mouth
to bring the trophy back to Brazil for the first time.
Former champion, End Game
is still on the hunt for its second title in three years.
We'll see the dark horse, Monsoon,
fresh off its stunning upset
over the ninth seed, Cobalt.
The undefeated, Huge,
will try and keep the fires burning
on its green season.
And to close out the action,
the tectonic plates of the Battlebots universe will shift
when Will Bales in HyperShock
meet the terrifying two seed with a target on its back,
Ethan Kurtz and Riptide!
[Chris] And remember, we'll discuss the aftermath
of all of tonight's fights on our post-game show,
Road to the Giant Nut.
But we'll kick things off
with two teams coming off big first round upsets.
And boy, do they have history.
Black Dragon and Ribbot.
Their first fight gave us
one of the sport's greatest playoff moments
of back and forth brawl.
We saw the Brazilians survive
and win a judge's decision
after being on fire for more than two minutes.
What does the rematch have in store?
It's time to find out.
Faruq, let's kick this thing off in style.
[Faruq] Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?
It's robot-fighting time!
[crowd cheering]
In the red square, from Weston, Massachusetts,
step to him and you'll get some...
It's Ribbot!
- Let's go! - Whoo!
[Chris] Ribbots, captained by David Jin, they're on the right,
took down the 5th seed Quantum in the first round.
A big upset on paper,
but when this frog is firing on all cylinders,
it is as dangerous as they come.
[Kevin] No doubt. Squeaked in as the 28th seed
after struggling in the qualifiers.
But the team is rounding into form
at just the right time, Chris.
Going with their vertical spinner tonight
which has knockout power.
But as we know, Black Dragon has only been KO'd once
in 26 career fights.
So David Jin has to be super aggressive
and rack up damage points in case this does go to the judges.
In the blue square, from Itajuba, Brazil.
This Brazilian spits so much fire,
he doesn't speak Portuguese,
he speaks Scortchuguese.
It's Black Dragon!
[Chris] Black Dragon.
The joyful college crew
led by captain, Julio Cortez.
The legend of this robot's toughness has reached new heights
after a jaw-dropping performance
in the Round of 32, Kenny.
[Kenny] Absolutely. Got that last second KO
over RIPperoni while engulfed in flames.
Just outlasted them.
And that's what they plan to do again tonight, Chris.
Thanks to their world-class durability,
Black Dragon loves to play rope-a-dope,
take hits, wear down their opponent
and wait for just the right moment to strike.
I'm feeling pretty confident that we have a much better robot
that is much better prepared to fight Black Dragon
than we did a few years ago.
We know that they don't really commit to the ground game that often.
So we're going with a double four configuration against Black Dragon.
We're hoping to be able to get under their front armor
and tee them up with a big hit from our vertical spinner.
The forks in the front of our robot
will make the difference in this match.
If they go under us, we're gonna get teed up and hit really hard.
If we go under them, vice-versa.
If it's anything like our last match-up,
there'll be a lot of fire, a lot of sparks
and some really big hits.
He's a very good driver.
So it's gonna be, uh,
a very difficult match.
He's gonna try the most to win this fight
because they lost the last one.
They have, uh, very durable robots too.
So I think it's gonna be, uh, just this... just this season.
I think it's gonna be a great show to watch.
[speaking indistinctly]
Robots activate.
[Chris] Kenny, the first time that these two met,
Black Dragon was on fire for nearly two minutes,
ended up winning the fight.
What should we expect tonight?
[Kenny] Well, when Black Dragon caught on fire in that match,
David Jin backed off and waited for it to die.
That really hurt Ribbot on the scorecard.
So don't expect a repeat of that strategy.
And while Ribbot is using the same
35 pound disk they did
in that first fight,
the Brazilians are going with a heavier
forty pound eggbeater drum.
Look for them to go weapon to weapon with the frog here.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight!
[Chris] It's gonna take four victories from this point
to claim the Giant Nut.
Ribbot.
Black Dragon...
Who wants a spot in the Quarter Finals?
Let the bot battle begin!
[Kenny] Oh, face to face.
These two are gonna stand and trade early here, Chris.
Look out.
[Chris] Whoa! Black Dragon getting underneath Ribbot,
letting some nice shot with Ribbot coming right back.
Black Dragon inverted...
- [both] Oh! - [Kenny] What a shot by Ribbot!
Wow.
Backwards. Backwards.
[Kenny] You have 'em inverted, Chris. This is a good opportunity for Ribbot.
Oh!
[Chris] And now, they're back on their belly
After that latent shot by Ribbot.
And Black Dragon has delivered a shot.
What a nasty brawl so far, Chris.
Just 30 seconds into the fight.
- [Kenny] Uh-oh. - [Chris] Oh, boy.
[Kenny] Ribbot pushing Black Dragon into the screws of the upper deck.
Can he get 'em up?
Can he get him up?
[Chris] Ribbot continues to play the aggressor.
David Jin is looking for a knockout here.
Black Dragon won't go down easy.
Oh, my goodness.
David Jin talked about his confidence.
Did they understand why?
[both] Oh!
[Chris] Big time counter shot by Black Dragon.
[Kenny] Their drive is compromised on that left side, Chris.
Ribbot needs to put them away.
You cannot let Black Dragon hang around.
They will make you pay.
[Chris] Only been knocked out once in 26 career fights.
That Black Dragon weapon is still spinning.
And it is still dangerous.
[Kenny] Absolutely. With the power of these two weapons,
one shot can change this fight in an instant.
[Chris] Ribbot trying to get a good angle.
Oh, another shot by Ribbot!
- [Kenny laughs] - [Chris] Oh. And a follow up.
Black Dragon is stunned by that shot.
It's neck is teetering on Ribbot's tire.
The Brazilian's tire's no longer spinning, Kenny.
Have they lost the drive altogether?
That's the big question.
[Kenny] Yeah, Black Dragon is hurt.
Their weapon is still spinning.
Ribbot backs away.
They think they have the knock out.
[Chris] They are not moving.
[David JIn] Countdown! Countdown!
[Chris] David Jin calling for a countdown.
Whether Black Dragon's stuck or incapacitated,
they are simply running out of time.
Ten! Nine!
[Chris] The countdown has started.
Black Dragon's still unable to move.
- [referee] Five, four... - [Chris] Ribbot, within seconds, straight upset
to advance to the Round of 8.
[all cheering, exclaiming]
[Chris] Black Dragon's tough luck runs out.
[all cheering]
[Chris] Whoa. Kenny, this one had the feel
of a back-alley bare knuckle brawl.
Both teams eager to stand in and trade shots,
but it was Ribbot that imposed its will early.
[Kenny] My, goodness. Some monstrous shots from Ribbot.
But, of course, Black Dragon just kept on coming.
How about this counter shot by the Brazilians
over body, upper deck? Nasty.
[Chris] Black Dragon lost half its drive in that exchange.
It kept on punching
and eventually the frogs
struck the death blow.
[Kenny] Yeah, this shot in the corner
was the one that did it. KO'd Black Dragon
for only the second time in its career.
And sent Ribbot into the Quarter Finals.
- [crowd cheering] - [David] Yeah!
[Chris] David Jin.
Whoo! Hello.
Congratulations, man. Holy smokes.
What the hell has gone on here the last couple of fights?
Um, well, we seem to have turn our season around
pretty successfully at this point.
Um, seems like we're all systems go.
Weapon was ripping. Drive was going.
That's all we can ask for.
David talk us through this fight, man. It was wild.
Um, so at the beginning we had some even trade-offs.
Um, and then I think we were able to
successfully get under their forks and start
ripping up their front end.
After we got under a couple of times,
I think we were able to land a pretty big hit in there.
I remember looking up at some point.
Not really much passed out. I don't know how much more detail I can provide.
Why are you so supremely confident in your robot
after and one in three regular season?
Um, well, we started 0-3,
and since then we've only been winning.
So that usually feels pretty good.
It builds momentum. I think the team's feeling pretty great now.
And, uh, yeah, we gotta carry it on.
David, congratulations. It's been fun to watch your journey
here in the post season.
- Great job. - Thank you.
[David] Let's go!
[Chris] Kenny, you dial it back several weeks in the regular season,
Ribbot is sitting here at 0-3 after three matches.
And they're going, "What the heck is wrong with this thing?"
- [chuckles] - They've now ripped off three wins in a row.
- And they are cruising. - Yeah, absolutely.
You know, they were in struggle town in their first couple of fights here.
But they didn't get bogged down in defeat.
They leaned on their experience.
Stayed diligent and now they have to be taken seriously
as contenders for the Giant Nut.
[Chris] The rejuvenated Ribbot moves on to the Round of 8,
where it'll face the winner of Whiplash vs Hydra.
And with that, it is time now
to say goodbye to Black Dragon.
Julio, we're gonna miss you and your crew.
From the dancing to the duck,
to the fiery finishes.
Adios.
Coming up... a showdown between two of our most tenured teams.
Almost ten years in the making.
Their first ever meeting will decide
which one advances to the Quarter Finals.
It's Witch Doctor versus Lock-Jaw.
And it is next onBattlebots.
[Chris] Welcome back to the Round of 16 here at Battlebots
World Championship tournament.
We just saw Ribbot become the first team in the night
to advance to the Quarter Finals.
And up next, we're heading on over to Quadrant 3
for a match-up that's been years in the making.
It's the three seed Witch Doctor
taking on 14 seed Lock Jaw
in the clash of two of the most tenured teams.
Witch Doctor and Lock-Jaw
have fought a combined 78 matches
Since World Championship I.
And this is amazing.
They have never fought each other on this show.
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
It's so cool to see the evolution of these two robots over time.
And watch the influence they've had on the sport grow.
And here we are nearly a decade later.
And both teams are still going strong.
[Chris] And both are coming off knock out victories.
Witch Doctor hit Jackpot so hard,
I think they heard it all the way in Reno.
While Lock-Jaw avoided disaster
after Bloodsport couldn't self-right.
So what's the x-factor for you tonight, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, while Lock-Jaw appeared to get beat up in its first-round fight,
the damage was mostly cosmetic.
Witch Doctor on the other hand,
looked like it left the Jack Pot fight completely unscathed,
but the final shot actually ended up frying its weapon motors
which is a fear the teams had
with their new brushless system.
Brushless motors are more powerful,
but they're also more buggy.
Every time Witch Doctor lands its shot,
the same force that goes into their opponent
also goes into them.
Now they were able to get everything fixed for tonight's match,
but with four fights still ahead, the question is,
has all the damage they've inflicted to this point,
placed too much stress on their system?
And will it start to catch up to them here in the tournament?
[Chris] Let's hear what the captains are thinking
as they get their bots into place.
Normally, and in a lot of other matches,
we see a lot of robots, you know, worry about the wedges.
But Witch Doctor doesn't normally play that.
Their weapon is, um, pretty dangerous.
And that's how they drive. They come right at you.
We're gonna have to be very maneuverable,
and we have to be spot on our targeting.
They've been outstanding in the rest of their matches.
So, uh, I plan to use a lot of voodoo on this one.
Uh, to get myself past and into the top eight.
So this year, we switched to a brushless weapons system.
We have been chasing electrical issues this whole tournament.
We're learning for the first time doing this.
You know, we're scrambling right up to the last minute here.
So we're running our forks one on each side
just like we did against Gruff and against, uh, Jack Pot.
We're also running our heaviest top armor.
A win, not only to advance would be amazing,
but to defeat a legend like Donald would also be a honor.
[audience cheering]
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Now remember, Donald Hutson
chose a drone, Spitfire, as a nuisance bot.
Nice little flamethrower on that thing.
Both bots have been hit like trucks though, this season.
So what do you think for an over-under
on a knockout here, Kenny?
Maybe 90 seconds?
[Kenny] Whoo, give me the under.
Six KOs between these two teams this year.
[audience chanting] Lock-Jaw, Lock-Jaw, Lock-Jaw, Lock-Jaw.
[audience chanting] Fight, fight, fight, fight...
[Chris] Lock-Jaw.
Witch Doctor.
Which of these legends will continue their journey
into the Round of 8?
Let the bot battle begin.
Oooh, what a move by Mike Gellatly.
- Getting the drop on Lock-Jaw. - [Kenny] Whoa!
[Chris] And oh, no! Lock-Jaw!
Already with two of its wheels off.
That is a huge problem for Donald Hutson-- Oh!
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] That drone just got taken out too.
[Kenny] Mike Gellatly attacking those wheels early.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] More than just the wheel.
- [Kenny] Oh, man and-- - [Chris] Oh--
- [Kenny] Lock-Jaw's weapon is down, Chris. - [Chris] Yep.
[Kenny] I just saw the weapon belt hanging out
and that might be it.
- We've got three-- [continues indistinctly] - [Chris exclaims]
[Kenny] Wow!
Mike Gellatly leaves no doubt.
And Donald Hutson knows that Lock-Jaw is definitely done.
- [Chris laughs] - [John] Ten,
nine, eight...
[Chris] The voodoo children in less than a minute.
[John] ...five, four...
[Chris] Witch Doctor is gonna advance to the Quarter Finals.
Knockout!
[indistinct cheering]
[intense music playing]
[Chris] Wow.
Look out, Kenny.
Witch Doctor's coming through.
[Kenny] It's just unbelievable
the amount of power that Witch Doctor can hit you with.
Mike Gellatly got to Lock-Jaw's exposed tires
in the first five seconds of this fight.
Stripped one off and then never took his foot off the gas.
Bye-bye, Spitfire.
[Chris] And talk about lightning striking twice,
Witch Doctor took out Spitfire once before in a Bounty final.
What a bully!
Hey, leave that little guy alone, huh?
[Kenny laughs]
[Chris] In the end, Lock-Jaw was just severely out-matched in this one.
Here's the finishing blow that brought the crowd
to its feet.
The Voodoo Children, now onto the Round of 8.
Unscathed.
[audience cheering]
Andrea and Mike.
Congratulations to you and your squad.
Andrea, does your husband have somewhere to be?
- [Kenny chuckles] - I mean, are you kidding me?
What was going on?
It's dinner time.
- [Kenny chuckles] - You know, that's Lock-Jaw.
Like, any second extra that you're in the arena
is a risk that our robot's gonna get annihilated.
This is Donald Hutson we're talking about.
So, we could not take any chances.
- [audience cheering] - I mean, if we're not knocking them out,
they're knocking us out.
So, it's a race to the finish line.
With the way that Mike drives and you control the weapons,
you guys are not gonna get a lot of double dates.
- [crew laughs] - People are gonna be very afraid of you.
Well, congratulations.
That was amazing artwork out there inside the box.
- We'll see you at the Round of 8. - Thank you.
- Thanks.
[audience cheering]
[intense music playing]
[Chris] All right, Kenny.
Witch Doctor in 57 seconds.
You win your bet and we say goodbye for now
to one of the sports great ambassadors, Donald Hutson.
But that right there is the difference between
a quality robot and a true title contender.
Witch Doctor just clearly in an another league
at the moment.
The team returns to the Quarter Finals
for the fourth time in their career.
Familiar territory at this point.
They will now face the winner of MaDCatTer versus HUGE.
All right. Coming up.
Bunny Sauriol and Malice defeated Switchback in the last round.
Now, she moves from the Texans
to the long horn himself, Minotaur.
Can the number one seed continue mowing through the competition?
Or will Malice pull off an all-time upset?
Find out next here on BattleBots.
[audience cheering]
I'm scared as we return here on BattleBots,
because the number one seed is about to enter the box.
It's the Brazilian bull, Minotaur
taking on the number 17 seed, Malice.
And even with Fusion putting a quick scare
into the Brazilians in Round 1,
Minotaur has looked like the favorite to win
the Giant Nut since the start of World Championship VII.
Which is why when Bunny Sauriol and Malice
started prepping for this fight, they said,
"We're gonna need a little help."
Right, Kenny?
[Kenny] Yeah, Bunny's had the king of kinetic energy,
Tombstone's Ray Billings
helping her throughout the playoffs.
But for an extra edge tonight,
she also picked the brain of three-time Giant Nut winner,
Paul Ventimiglia of Bite Force.
Both legendary captains have had success against Minotaur
and both said, "Fight fire with fire,
use your biggest weapon."
So, that's what she's doing.
Going with her sixty-pound drum, Big Red,
which she feels has the best chance
at breaking Minotaur's weapon.
The hard part would be finding time to spin up
against the most tenacious driver here, Daniel Freitas.
[Chris] All right.
Let's head on down to the driver's deck.
[audience cheering]
[Bunny] Whoo!
That's awesome.
Whoo!
[audience chanting] Minotaur, minotaur, minotaur.
[robotic voice] Bots ready?
Ready to rock and roll?
[audience cheering]
[Kenny] Yeah, right.
[Chris] The king of kinetic energy's
been a good luck charm for Team Malice so far.
But tonight, the pressure's all on the man
holding the controller.
Bunny's husband and the driver of Malice,
David Liaw.
[Kenny] Yeah and he's going to use a similar strategy
to the one Ray used against Minotaur.
Go weapon to weapon and try to break their drum.
Fully spun up, Big Red is actually close to Tombstone
in terms of kinetic energy.
A big-time shot will send both of these bots
flying across the box.
So, we'll see which one can survive longer.
[robotic voice] Blue team ready?
[Chris] The Brazilians have never been eliminated
before the Round of 8, Kenny.
Driver Daniel Freitas, of course, a big reason for that.
So, how does he deliver another trip
to the Quarter Finals tonight?
[Kenny] Well, look for Daniel to target the wheels on Malice
and given Malice's history of weapons reliability issues,
the Brazilians say they're not afraid
to go straight at that sixty-pound drum.
This should be fun.
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] Fight, fight, fight, fight...
[Chris] Malice.
Minotaur.
A spot in the Quarter Finals is on the line.
Let the bot battle begin.
Both weapons up to speed.
[both Chris and Kenny] Whoa!
[Chris] Big Red delivers a shock to Minotaur.
[Kenny] Wow!
[Chris] Minotaur's inverted.
Malice once more.
[Kenny exclaims]
[Chris] David Liaw means business.
- And uh-oh, there's the-- - [Kenny exclaims]
[Chris] And the one teeth gets taken out.
Can Malice follow it up?
Minotaur still upside down and trying to right itself.
[audience cheering]
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] So far, Mike Britton, Ray Billings, Paul Ventimiglia
paying off big time for Bunny.
[Kenny] Yeah and Minotaur having a little trouble
getting away from Malice.
Starting a gyro-- Oooh!
Nice juke and a counter shot.
What a move by Daniel Freitas.
[Chris] And Minotaur back in the right direction.
[Kenny] It's still early, but Minotaur fighting from behind.
They had an incredible comeback
against Cobalt earlier this season.
Gonna have to do it again here tonight.
[Chris] Minotaur separates, spins back up.
[Kenny] But look at Big Red.
That looks like that might be shut down, Chris.
- [Chris] Yeah. That is really in sticks. - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Minotaur shoving Malice
up on the screws of the upper deck.
[Kenny] And look at Big Red.
That tooth.
[Chris] Oh, God.
Now, you can pin an opponent for ten seconds
then you have to let go.
[Kenny] Daniel Freitas, just so good at controlling
the fight in this situation.
[Chris] Oh, nice.
Almost half-way through it,
Minotaur still has some serious work to do.
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] But you can feel Daniel Freitas
starting to grab this fight by the horns, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, and look at him.
Just dropping the shoulder right into Malice here.
He's got so many tricks in his bag, Chris.
[Chris] Well, hundred pounds pulverized on top of Malice, too.
But Kenny, if his weapon's out of commission,
what in the world can Malice driver, David Liaw
still do to actually win this fight?
[Kenny] Right now, he's just got to get some separation and reset.
Can't do anything if Minotaur's got him in a chokehold.
[Chris] Approaching the one-minute mark.
Malice landed some huge shots in the first 30 seconds,
but it's been all Minotaur since then.
[Kenny] Such a powerful, little stealth bot that is.
[Chris] David Liaw's been trying to push back,
but now Minotaur finally gives him some space.
Full of kiss with that drum there.
Oh, and there comes Malice
but Daniel Freitas turns it around yet again.
- No! - [Bunny] Get him!
Get him! Get him!
[Kenny] I know Malice is trying to show aggression
by not backing down.
But I think the only shot they've got to win this fight
is to let Minotaur spin up
and then try to break the weapon.
[Chris] And that might be, Kenny,
but check out Daniel Freitas saying,
"Nuh-uh. Not on my watch."
Or whatever that translates into in Portuguese.
[Kenny] It is this tenacity,
this control, that is exactly why this team
continues to be the favorite to win it all, Chris.
[Chris] Malice trying to cut the distance
against the number one overall seed.
But this one, speaking of distance,
will go the full three-minutes between the 1 and 17 seeds.
[buzzer sounds]
What?
[overlapping chatter]
[Chris] Really a nice job by David Liaw,
the driver of Malice.
Basically without his weapon for the final 90-plus seconds.
And still be able to go the distance
against the number one seed.
Kenny, Ray Billings and Paul Ventimiglia thought
Malice had a puncher's chance coming into this fight.
And, oh boy, did that weapon deliver some serious pain.
[Kenny] My goodness, Malice landed three
big-time shots in the first 20 seconds
with that sixty pound drum.
Had Minotaur sweating early on.
[Chris] But with Minotaur up against the screws,
David Liaw could not capitalize
and that's really where the momentum shifted.
[Kenny] Well, it was this ridiculous move by Daniel Freitas
the matador juke and follow-up shot
that broke Malice's weapon
and put Minotaur back in the driver's seat.
From there, Daniel just took the air out of the arena,
slowed things down and dominated the rest of this fight.
[Chris] Hey, hats off to Malice for a heck of an effort.
But the Brazilians proved once again,
"If you come for the bull, you best not miss."
Here's Faruq.
[audience cheering]
The results from the judges are in.
[suspenseful music playing]
The winner by unanimous decision is...
Minotaur!
- [high-pitched screaming] - [audience cheering]
[intense music playing]
[Chris] Marco.
[Marco] Yeah.
Oh, God.
[Kenny chuckles]
You can exhale now.
[Kenny chuckles]
That was a tough fight.
I hate fighting horizontal spinners.
- Especially [laughs] with Jane by my side. - [Bunny laughs]
[Marco] Last time, it was not so good.
[Kenny] Well, Marco, the first part of this fight,
it seemed like Malice had landed some huge shots,
had Minotaur in trouble a little bit.
How nervous were you?
I was expecting that because when you have
a horizontal spinner at full speed,
something's gonna go flying.
We knew that would happen.
Hopefully, we were trying to see if we could slow it down
and then start doing our job.
Congratulations, Daniel, Marco, your entire team.
- Daniel, go grab a nap. - [audience cheering]
- We'll see you in the Round of 8. - [Kenny chuckles softly]
[indistinct shouting]
Kenny, you often look at Minotaur,
you're like, "Oh, man. That thing is gonna kick
everybody's butt in about 30 seconds."
Hey, sometimes, you gotta be able to outlast your opponents.
- It's that simple. - 100 percent.
We need multiple ways to win.
It hasn't been the cleanest tournament run for them so far
but Minotaur continues to prove
they can overpower or outlast any opponent
and that 6-0 record speaks for itself.
[Chris] And Marco's squad will find out who they face
in the next round.
Either SawBlaze or Monsoon later tonight.
Five out of five years that Minotaur has made
the Quarter Finals though.
What a run.
And with that, we say goodbye to Malice.
Just had their best season to date.
They got their first win in the tournament.
They went three minutes with the number one seed.
Things are looking up for Bunny Sauriol.
Coming up... two of the world's most explosive weapons
come face-to-face.
It's another one of the favorites to win it all this year.
The seventh seed, End Game
taking on the number ten seed, Copperhead.
Both teams are heading into the arena as we speak.
Will End Game continue its journey
toward a second Giant Nut?
Or will Copperhead break the Top Eight
for the first time in its career?
Find out right after this here on BattleBots.
[audience cheering]
We got more BattleBots right now
Round of 16.
It's the seven-ten matchup.
We're up in Quadrant 2
where Giant Nut and Golden Bolt winners, End Game
are taking on the tiny, but mighty drum of Copperhead.
Outside of a flukey qualifying loss,
the banner boys of End Game have been on a tear this year.
But to continue their march toward a second Nut,
they'll have to go through Copperhead.
A bot that does match up well with the Kiwis.
[Faruq] It's Copperhead!
[Luke] It's fantastic to be in the Round of 16.
I don't think Copperhead has ever made it past the Round of 16.
In our fight with ROTATOR, we did lots of damage.
It didn't look like we had taken a lot of damage.
So, this is a big moment for our team.
We really wanna get Top Eight
but unfortunately, we're facing End Game.
They have an extremely powerful weapon.
And they got all sorts of attachments they can put on their robot.
We're fighting one of the best robots ever made.
It won't be easy.
They're quite a compact, solid robot.
We've had problems with drums in the past.
Facing Minotaur.
But I don't think they can take as many hits as we can.
So we should be able to come out on top.
[Luke] Because of End Game's modularity and configurations
we don't really know what they're gonna do.
And that unknown makes me a little worried.
[Jack] Seen a lot of fights where complicators
taking a hit or hit people and they've stopped working.
So we'll reconfigure our front
so that we can get underneath them.
Then we can take control of the match from there.
Our greatest strength is our durability at the front of the robot.
The front of the robot is literally one inch thick steel.
So, you know, we don't wanna expose the weak parts of the robot.
We wanna hit them head on where the robot's strongest,
and just hope that something breaks.
Going into Round 16, I feel confident
this is the best End Game we've ever seen.
[Nick Mabey] I don't see this match going for three minutes.
Yeah, Copperhead won't last three minutes with us.
No. No.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] So much power between these two.
And fun little fact,
both teams also went 3 and 1 during the regular season.
They each shared a loss to RIPeroni.
Let's see who's gonna win this one.
Faruq?
[crowd cheering]
[Faruq] In the red square,
dearly beloved, we are gathered here to meet
the true and perfect union of your backside and this bot's teeth.
Its quick and fatal venom will go directly to your heart.
There's no divorcing this serpent's fangs.
It's till death do you part.
It's Copperhead!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Well, you heard new captain, Luke Quintal, saying,
despite being a top 10 seed every year they made the tournament,
Copperhead has never made it past the Round of 16.
And Kenny, are those forks for real?
[Kenny] No. That's just a bit of gamesmanship.
You can practically see them blowing in the wind.
What I'm focusing on is that 55-pound drum.
All else being equal, drums have more kinetic energy than disks.
And Luke Quintal is going to go face first into the disk on End Game.
In the blue square,
they could fight for days on end,
until you're at the end of your rope.
Facing them is a dead-end,
it won't end on a positive note.
They've gone off the deep end,
it's your end of days.
So, please be guarded,
'cause you won't in their ring.
It's endless, and it's just getting started.
Give it up for End Game!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] You can hear the cheers
for Season 5 champion, End Game.
Nick Mabey with his hand up, waving to the crowd.
Jack Barker just behind him,
their ace driver.
[Kenny] Yeah, this is a team no one wants to see in the tournament.
[Chris] Uh-oh.
Looks like they got a tone of their own with those gummy snakes.
Gotta get that blood sugar up before the big fight, I guess.
[Kenny] I think it just shows you how loose these guys are
even in a do-or-die situation.
They've been here before.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] All right. Well, looks like Team Copperhead is ditching those forks.
Good call there, Kenny.
I mentioned they've never made it past the Round of 16 before.
Why do you think that is?
[Kenny] Well, like we were saying earlier with Minotaur,
you need multiple ways to win.
And Copperhead's design is a little one-dimensional.
The frame is durable and the drum hits like a ton of bricks,
but its compact, two-wheel body isn't very agile.
If it catches you square with momentum,
it's devastating.
But if it has to track down a moving target,
it's much less effective.
And against one of the best drivers in the biz,
Luke Quintal has his work cut out for him.
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] All right.
End Game's on the prowl,
hungry for its second title in three seasons.
Can the compact killer, Copperhead, cut it down
and kick-start its own championship run?
Only one of these teams can advance to the quarter-finals.
We will have the fight,
whenBattleBots continues.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back toBattleBots,
where another Round of 16 matchup is about to pop off.
It's the number 7th seed End Game
versus the 10th seed Copperhead.
It's a do-or-die fight between two of our heaviest hitters.
Let's go.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
[Kenny] The bot... Oh!
[Chris] They're now going face to face. Copperhead is inverted.
Uh-oh. I don't think that's a great...
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] That's even worse.
[Kenny] End Game has the low ground.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Wow!
[Chris] The Kiwi's not scared to go weapon-to-weapon with Copperhead.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Oh, God!
[Kenny] Copperhead's sent flying to the opposite side of the Battlebox.
[Chris] And then, Copperhead getting treated like a basketball
the first 30 seconds.
[Kenny] Well, look at this. It just keeps on coming.
Copperhead is one of the most durable robots in the field,
and this team backs down to no one.
[Chris] Copperhead's started to chip away at the front end of End Game.
And Kenny, there's currently no light from End Game's weapon.
The question is, did they shut it down or has Copperhead broken it?
[Kenny] Hard to say, but it does not look good.
You can see them trying to get it spun up.
Uh, no luck. And here's Copperhead getting underneath End Game.
[Chris] Driving the Kiwis into the corner.
That drum spinner still going strong.
Those piano key on the front end
of End Game have been decimated.
Oh! Copperhead taking control in this fight.
[Kenny] Jack Barker and Nick Mabey, the veteran duo,
fighting from behind now.
Can they find a way back?
[Chris] Look at Copperhead with the drive and the push back.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Huge shot!
Yeah!
[Kenny] What an upset this would be
against one of the favorites.
Oh!
Another! Copperhead tearing the former champ apart!
[Chris] And one of the lights just came crashing down inside the box.
Just past the halfway point and End Game's fighting for its life.
The 7th seed, it feels like it's really in trouble.
[Kenny] Oh, my goodness!
[Chris] Copperhead puts End Game on its head,
drives it toward the upper deck.
Shrapnel flying everywhere.
[Kenny] End Game able to self-right though, hanging in there.
But without their weapon, they are a sitting duck.
[Chris] Yeah, they just look like a rectangular box at this point.
They started with teeth,
they started with forks,
they started with an able weapon,
they have none of that right now.
[Kenny] And they have under a minute
to try to get something going here against Copperhead,
which has been dominant.
[Chris] End Game finally trying to get around to the sides.
Can they find a way to break Copperhead's weapon
or score a late KO?
The Season 5 champion
hanging by a thread at this point.
Copperhead looking for one more huge hit,
thinking of putting an end to End Game.
[Kenny] The Kiwis are not backing down.
- [Chris] And 20 more seconds to get it right. - [Kenny] Oh!
[Kenny] What a time to get it all together for Team Copperhead.
My goodness.
[Chris] And time is running out for End Game.
Closing in on the ten-second mark,
- and End Game... - [Kenny] Oh!
...up on its side.
[Kenny] This could be it!
[Chris] Unfortunately for them,
that game has less than ten seconds to go.
It'll go the distance,
but what an indelible image in the minds of the judges
that Copperhead has just thrown out here.
Wow!
What a remarkable
- performance... - [man] Yeah!
[Chris] ...by the 10th seed Copperhead.
[man] Yeah.
[Chris] The former champs are stunned.
You can see Team Copperhead celebrate as though
they would be the ones victorious.
But it now goes to the judges.
Woah! [laughs]
[Chris] Kenny, that was a shocking turn of events.
[Kenny] Chris, I doubt they'd ever admit it,
but I think End Game made a major tactical error
in choosing to go weapon-to-weapon to start this fight.
They played right into Copperhead's hands.
[Chris] Hey, I hear you.
The Kiwis may have been better off just trying to out-drive Copperhead,
then attack from the sides.
Because those early shots cost them their weapon,
put them on the defensive for the rest of this match.
[Kenny] Luke Quintal's been saying it all season long.
He wants the contact,
because Copperhead's weapon just does not die.
The snake ate up all 16 of those fork attachments on End Game,
and absolutely dominated this fight.
[Chris] By the time End Game tried to adjust its game plan,
it was game over.
Here's Faruq with the decision.
[crowd cheering]
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is...
Copperhead!
Whoo!
Yeah!
Luke, congratulations to you
and Team Copperhead.
Why did you believe
when few others would give you a chance?
I mean, Copperhead is just a brick of a robot.
Um, we just want to play to the strengths
of what we have available to us,
you know? We don't have a powerful drive
but the weapon has never stopped spinning.
We just tried to play it really safe,
line up the hits and, you know, we weren't afraid to go weapon-to-weapon.
And I think that's what does it for us.
So, I'm so happy. This is the farthest we've ever made it.
And we're gonna go all the way.
[crowd cheering]
Luke, congratulations.
We will see you in the Round of 8.
Thank you.
Nick, uh, second straight year Round of 16.
This is where your dream ends.
What went wrong for your squad tonight?
We fought a drum.
And our weapon stopped.
How do you combat that in the future?
Because we know that you're Giant Nut-worthy.
We get that but,
it's just a question of, at some point,
you might face one of those bots
when it really counts, Jack.
Yeah, I think there's a lot to learn from this fight as well,
like we learned from last year.
Um, so yeah,
we have to go back to the drawing board
and see what we got.
[Chris] All right, guys. Listen,
it was a great, great season.
I know it's not exactly
the road you wanted to take here,
but you're always super-entertaining,
super-classy and you will always be a champion.
Thank you very much.
- Thanks. - Thanks.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] So, Copperhead throws a wrench in a whole lot of brackets,
as they advance to the quarterfinals
to face the winner of Riptide vs Hypershock.
And this is the beauty and curse
of single elimination.
One mistake or one bad matchup can end the dream in a hurry.
It is hard to win the Nut.
And nobody knows that better than the Kiwis.
But they will have a chance at some more hardware later this year,
during the second annual Golden Bolt Tournament.
Comin' up,
Jamison Go and Sawblaze have steadily improved
from top 16 to top 8 to top 4 last year.
But to continue that trend,
they'll have to take down the biggest murk
left in the competition,
Monsoon.
Stick around.
More BattleBotscoming your way right after this.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to the Round of 16,
where we just saw Copperhead
pull off an insane upset over former Giant Nut winners, Endgame.
Luke Quintal's squad will take on either Riptide or Hypershock
next week in the quarterfinals.
And earlier tonight,
there were plenty of eyes on Team Riptide,
as they went through their final safety checks.
Remember, two weeks ago,
their opponent Shatter had BattleBots officials reweigh
and reinspect their robot.
Everything checked out okay,
they went on to take care of business.
But as you can see, Will Bales and his squad
are keeping a close eye on them again tonight.
But let's get back to the action up in quadrant 1,
where we are about to find out who Minotaur will take on in the quarterfinals.
It's another rematch from playoffs past.
The eighth seed Sawblaze and the 24th seed Monsoon.
Jamison Go does not hold a grudge.
Right?
Uh, that's wrong.
That is wrong.
This one's been boiling for four years.
Back in World Championship 3,
Monsoon defeated Sawblaze
after Jamison Go made a crucial driving error.
[Kenny] Monsoon driving to the backside of Sawblaze.
[Chris] Whoa!
[Kenny] Huge driving error from Jamison.
[Chris] And when Jamo makes a mistake, he does not forget.
He's almost got a photographic memory for them.
So, where's his head at comin' into this match, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, with 25 fights under his belt since then,
Jamison's a much more confident and competent driver.
So, I don't think we'll see a mistake like that again tonight.
But he does have a lot more pressure on him this time around.
He's the higher seed,
he made the quarters or better in three straight seasons.
The onus is on him to perform here.
[Chris] And Monsoon also happens to be coming off a huge upset over Cobalt.
Captain Tom Brewster drove masterfully in that fight.
And after, he said he's beginning to believe that they can win it all, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, not only do they have the biggest fork left,
which gives them that big reach advantage,
they have that rotating chassis,
which Tom used to perfection against Cobalt.
The ability to flip around makes them difficult to control
and scoop up, which is exactly what Jamison Go wants to do.
If I were setting the odds,
I'd give Monsoon a pretty good chance here.
Maybe, a plus 1.30,
or only like a 2-point underdog in basketball.
[crowd cheering]
[robotic voice] Three, two, one.
[Chris] It's the British squad Monsoon.
They are all smiles, as always.
Again, they tipped down the number nine seed, Cobalt, last week.
How do they go two for two on tournament upsets, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, they've added almost half inch-thick armor
to bolt in the top and bottom of their robot.
They're prepared to take some shots,
but the key here will be staying square to Jamison's forks.
If Tom keeps that 42-pound blade pointed forward,
it'll be hard for Jamo to scoop him up.
[robotic voice] Blue Team, ready?
- [Jamison] Ready. - [all] Ready!
[Chris] Sawblaze trying to make it back to the Round of 8
for the fourth straight year.
And check out the bunny ears here.
What in the world is going on with that?
[Kenny] Yeah, Jamison's actually calling them eyelashes.
They are made out of UHMW plastic,
and are designed to prevent Monsoon
from riding up over Sawblaze's dust pan,
which would put its arm at risk of getting destroyed.
Jamison's gotta try to suffocate Monsoon here.
The less it spins out, the better.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Tom Brewster shoves Sawblaze to the side,
gets scooped up.
Let's see how slippery Monsoon is.
[Kenny] Oh!
Great countershot by Monsoon.
[Chris] That did some damage, it looks like.
Sawblaze took a shot.
[Kenny] And this is where Sawblaze has to hold back on that weapon.
If they go weapon-to-weapon with Monsoon right now,
they will be in big trouble.
This is a game of inches,
with Sawblaze trying to land a strike,
and dodge Monsoon's disks.
[Chris] Uh-oh.
Looks like Monsoon almost got caught in the air.
- [Kenny] Whoa! - [Chris] And now he gets shoved
right into the screws.
[Kenny] Well, what a strike by Jamison Go.
Dropped the hammer-saw, avoided Monsoon's weapon.
That is precision offense.
[Chris] Nice jam by Monsoon, but here comes Sawblaze.
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Takin' them into the upper deck.
[Kenny] Sawblaze doing what Sawblaze does,
dictating the action.
But you can see some damage to those bunny ear attachments.
[Chris] Yeah, Monsoon didn't even--
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] But-- Uh-oh!
- It's caught in the Kill Claw out! - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Perfect timing for the Hammer Saw,
with the blade of Monsoon turned the opposite way!
[Kenny] Oh! That's a big one!
[Chris] A power shot to Monsoon's right side,
- but here SawBlaze is driving him right into the rail! - [Kenny] Oh!
SawBlaze doing a number on Monsoon right now,
trying to get Monsoon's weapon to destroy itself.
[Chris] Jamison Go in control,
taking Monsoon into the corner.
Tom Brewster did such a masterful job
at driving at his upset at Cobalt.
But here's SawBlaze spinning it off!
[Kenny] Ohh!
[Chris] And Monsoon takes some friendly fire from the pulverizer!
[Kenny] And Monsoon looks rocked,
their weapon is no longer spinning!
That pulverizer shot may have taken it out!
- [audience exclaiming] - [Chris] Whoa!
- [Kenny] Uh-oh! - [Chris] Now this is just horrible
for the British front.
- [Chris] It's now right now here - [team cheering]
[Chris] where SawBlaze pulls back to the center.
- I'm trying, I'm trying. - Five... I'm gonna have--
- [Kenny] They're going... - [Chris] Wild!
One, two, three, oh!
- [Chris] They can't! - [shouting] Ten, nine, eight,
- seven, six, - [Chris] Instead they're being counted out.
- [referee] five, four, three, - [Chris] And SawBlaze is onto the Round of 8!
- ...two, one knockout! - [buzzer buzzing]
- [man] That's right! - [cheering]
- That is a win right there. That's right. - [Chris] Oh!
[audience cheering]
[thrilling instrumental music playing]
[Chris] Well Kenny, it was Tom Brewster that made the driving error
this time around.
But Monsoon's weapon was inches away
from scoring a crippling shot.
[Kenny] That's right, look how close the Brits came
to ripping into SawBlaze's tire during this exchange.
That would have changed the course of the fight.
[Chris] The game of inches continued
as SawBlaze landed a series of bombs with that Hammer Saw,
all while avoiding Monsoon's big-time blade.
[Kenny] This is why this team is so special Chris.
Jamison can't roll in there and smash away,
like we just saw Copperhead do,
he has to use SawBlaze as a precision tool.
Create his opportunities with the dustpan,
and then strike with the Hammer Saw.
And when it's all clicking, this is the result.
[Chris] Monsoon took some friendly fire from its pulverizer,
and once it's weapon was down,
General Go took command and ended the fight.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Jamison,
is that a scream you've been waiting to unleash
- for four years since you lost to them? - Absolutely.
- [giggles] - [audience laughs]
- [laughs] - I'm glad it's out. Confidently, yes.
- [laughs] - And how did it feel?
Oh, it hurts my throat a little bit.
- [chuckles] - But get some honey for that,
I'll take care of that later,
but right now it's celebrate time! [chuckles]
- [audience cheering] - [team cheering] Come on! Come on!
Uh, somebody's very emotional here. What's going on?
- [Jamison] Uh-- - Jamo?
This is our teammate Aaron, he's joined our team this season,
- and... - [audience cheering]
- [all cheering] - [all] Aaron!
The motor selection, the speed controller tuning,
he did a lot of customization things,
that I don't actually know how to do.
He's just so happy that it's all paying off.
- All his hard work. - It's--It's such a relief to see it all come together,
[voice shaking] and work beautifully.
[all cheering]
[sobs]
Well, Aaron listen, you did a remarkable job.
You should be very, very proud.
You know, we don't see everything that goes on behind the scenes,
but we certainly understand your emotion
and guess what, my man?
You are off to the Round of 8,
and you get to face off against Minotaur.
- We can't wait to see it. - [all cheering]
- Great job. - Thank you, thank you.
Yeah!
[thrilling instrumental music playing]
[both grunt]
[all speaking indistinctly]
Dude, that's what sports is all about,
it's about raw emotion.
Yeah, 100%, I mean again these guys all worked so hard back there.
[Kenny] There's a lot on the line,
you make certain decisions that can make or break you,
uh and that could be very stressful
and to see it pay off is--is pretty cool.
[Chris] SawBlaze advances to the Round of 8 for the third straight season.
It should be noted they have beaten Minotaur once before.
This time they'll try to do it to advance to the semi-finals.
Meantime we saw goodbye to a very classy team.
Motorseas, Monsoon and Tom Brewster,
and it was just great to have them back here after several years.
Oh they're a great team. I hope we see them back for sure.
[Chris] When we come back,
we're heading to Quadrant Four to find out
who Ribbot's going to face in the quarterfinals.
It's the 20th seed Whiplash
taking on the number four seed HYDRA,
it's a rematch two years in the making.
And just a programming note,
we are being told that we're going to be joined
by World Championship Five winners,
Nick Mabey and Jack Barker of End Game,
later on the road to the giant nut.
We'll get a first-hand look
at how much damage Copperhead did to their robot,
as well as get their take on who can win it all.
You know those Kiwis,
they like to party.
So stick around 'cause it's gonna be fun!
[theme music playing]
[audience cheering]
[Chris] For the Round of 16 continues
with a pair of veteran squads out there.
Down in quadrant number four,
it is the 20th seed Whiplash,
taking on the number four overall seed HYDRA.
Two teams from robot royalty, the Vasquezes and the Ewerts.
This is a rematch from the 2020 quarters,
in which Whiplash won
but if you ask Jake Ewert,
he felt like he lost it in the last ten seconds of that fight.
[Kenny] Yeah, Jake let his guard down at the very end of that match,
let Matt Vasquez get behind him.
Matty landed a shot with his disk, ramped HYDRA into the screws,
- and left an impression on the judges, - [buzzer buzzing]
- who awarded Whiplash the win in a split decision. - [muted] Whiplash!
[Chris] Of course that was two years ago,
and this season's been a very different story for both teams.
Who do you think has the edge in this one?
You know HYDRA has had way less problems.
[Kenny] We've seen Jake set two personal flip records this season,
number of flips in a match with 20 against Free Shipping,
- and then flip height, which happened last week, - [audience exclaiming]
when he turned Death Roll into a ballistic missile.
The Aussie bot nearly hit the ceiling,
something that's never been done before.
HYDRA is dialed in.
[Chris] For Whiplash it's been a rollercoaster of a season.
After a rough 0 and 2 start,
- they've rattled off three straight wins, - [buzzing]
and Matt Vasquez is starting to get that twinkle in his eye, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, you can see the confidence coming back,
the robot looked like the Whiplash of old.
In its first round fight with Beta,
it was quick, nimble, and the lifter arm was surgical.
Expecting to see the Whiplash we saw at the qualifiers,
would be a costly mistake here for Jake Ewert.
- [audience cheering] - [applauding]
[Chris] All right! Let's hear from these two captains,
as they get their bots into position.
[suspenseful music playing]
We have beat HYDRA before, but it was such a close match.
I think we need that extra edge this time,
and we're going to have to figure out what that is.
I think what will tip the scales
is how improved our spinner is from the last time we fought them.
I know HYDRA's armor is relatively the same.
It only takes one or two hits on its wedglets,
to bend him out of shape,
and once his front end is bent,
just a little bit out of shape,
that means we can go to town on him,
and just get hit after hit after hit.
If we can score some damage points, I think we got this.
[audience cheering]
The Vasquez family, the Ewert family, we--
long time, we have been in this Bots,
probably the longest between the two of us.
I thought it was pretty close the first time,
um but that was with a really disabled HYDRA technically.
The hydraulics wasn't particularly working up--up to snuff.
I only got like one, two, three foot flips.
So I'm hoping it's a big-- big change this year.
Uh, we're going to go with our sawblade configure,
or we go with the--the piano key Wedglets.
I'm gonna have to be, try to--
try to sideswipe 'em or get to 'em
before he can come around my side.
I'm hoping to break that arm so he can't self-right anymore.
[audience] [clapping] Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!
[thrilling music playing]
[crowd chanting] Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! Fight, fight, fight!
[Chris] Ewert.
Vasquez.
Two names that have helped built the BattleBotsuniverse,
but only one can move on.
[audience continues chanting]
[alarm beeping]
Let the Bot battle begin!
Both Bots taking their time getting out of the square,
having a little trouble with the floor.
Swing and a miss by HYDRA.
[Kenny] Matty Vasquez had a little wobble there.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Oh! There's your first flip!
- And second and on Vasquez's weapon. - [Kenny] Oh!
That was a hard impact with the floor,
- Whiplash going on the counter-offensive now. - [Chris] Oh!
Another miss by HYDRA, Matty has to capitalize there.
- [both commentators] Oh! - [audience exclaiming]
[Chris] Didn't miss that time!
Whiplash self-rights, but that was flip number three.
[Kenny] And every time Whiplash gets flipped
that's more stress on its lifting arm, Chris.
[Chris] Well, Matty Vasquez looks to be dealing
with some mobility and weapon issues now,
trying to get that vertical disk to spin back up.
[Kenny] Let's see if Jake Ewert can take advantage.
[Chris] Oh whoa! What the hell was that?
[Kenny] That looked like a piece of Whiplash's top armor.
[Chris] Oh that was really strange.
[Kenny] Oh!
- [Chris] Struck it at a height. - [Kenny] Ah!
[Chris] Kenny, this is quite the technique.
Oh, no!
[Kenny] HYDRA with the quick counterstrike
and Whiplash is on its head.
[Chris] This could be it!
[Kenny] Did Hydra break that lifting arm?
- [referee] I don't see any-- [continues indistinctly] - [Chris] If so,
- that's gonna be it for Matt Vasquez. - You got a weapon?
[Chris] He's gonna get a couple seconds reprieve
- before countdown starts. - [audience yelling]
- [referee] Ten! - Did I break your car?
- [Jake chuckles] - [Chris] There goes the countdown!
- [referee] Eight, seven, six, - [Chris] Jake Ewert and HYDRA!
- five, four, three... - [Chris] gonna advance to the Round of 8,
- three, two, one, knockout! - [Chris] as Whiplash is done.
- [buzzer sounds] - [audience cheering]
[Chris] What a disappointing finish to the season,
for Whiplash and Matt Vasquez.
But Jake Ewert,
keeping his dream of the giant nut alive.
Well Kenny, uh Matt Vasquez knew
he was going to get flipped around that box,
it happened a couple of times right out of the gate.
[Kenny] Yes it did. HYDRA, definitely the lower Bot in this match.
Matt did have some opportunities to counterstrike though.
Easier said than done against HYDRA.
[Chris] It was this flip that seemed to rock Whiplash.
Shaked loose a piece of its top armor,
and jam up its weapon.
[Kenny] Yeah, the disk was struggling to spin after that shot.
Nice work by Whiplash
to tear that plate off and free the weapon though.
And check out this backhanded strike from Whiplash.
What a move!
[Chris] But Jake Ewert says, "Not so fast, old pal!"
Hit Vasquez with the counter,
Whiplash lands hard on that lifting arm
and was unable to self-right.
Hydra now into the Round of 8.
[audience cheering]
[Jake] Come on! Come on!
Come over, Vasquez!
- Let's go. - [Matt] Dude, congratulations.
[Jake] You better win the pot.
[speaking indistinctly]
Oh no, I'm good.
[Chris] So after an 0 and 2 start at the quarterfinals,
what a turnaround it was for Team Whiplash.
Making their fifth trip to the Round of 16,
the Vasquez family remains
one of the most highly respected groups of builders
in the sport.
But it is Jake Ewert that advances to the quarterfinals
for a date with Ribbots!
Remember, Hydra took out the frog
at last year's Round of 32,
so buckle up for the rematch!
All right, coming up, things are about to get even bigger and louder.
Because we've got the sixth seed HUGE,
taking on the nutty professor, Martin Mason and MaDCatTer.
These two fan favorites are going to square off
in just a few minutes.
Don't go anywhere!
[audience cheering]
All right, we continue on in here at the Round of 16.
Good one next. The sixth seed HUGE
taking on the 22 seed in MaDCatTer,
which upended Claw Viper in the Round of 32.
Taking down the fastest robot in the field
- was a pleasant way to start the tournament. - [all cheering]
- Won't you say, Kenny? - Yeah, absolutely.
They also are trying to get their hands on HUGE,
- which is gonna be really far away, - Right.
it's gonna be like me trying to jab Shaq.
[Kenny] And if you recall what Martin Mason
told us last week on our post-game show,
he's designed a harpoon attached he calls the "Huge-poon",
specifically for this fight
in order to try and stab and jam up HUGE's wheels.
We've seen plenty of teams
use attachments with varying levels of success against HUGE.
Is this a desperate move by an outmatched MaDCatTer
or a genius solution to a tall task?
We're about to find out.
[Kenny] Well, no one's really been able to stop the squad
led by Jonathan Schultz this season.
They are a perfect 5 and 0.
And this robot's looking like an optimized version
of the meta-breaking Bot that debuted four seasons ago.
[Chris] Yeah, we always knew this design had the potential
to turn the world of robot combat on its head.
It was just never durable or reliable enough.
But that's all changed this season.
If Jonathan Schultz can keep his weapon spinning,
HUGE has a chance to do something special here
in the tournament.
[audience cheering]
[Kenny] A spot in the quarter-finals on the line,
let's hear from the captains.
This is our first time in the Round of 16,
folks, this is a huge achievement for us.
But you know what? We're facing HUGE.
Let me tell you our plan to beat them.
We've built a special attachment,
we're a little tiny bot, we're a little guy,
they're a great big guy,
but you know what? David vs Goliath, you know how that ends!
This is gonna be about control,
and you're gonna see if MaDCatTer can get out there
and move mountains!
A robot like MaDCatTer,
we're gonna run a flexible wheel so they can't bite it
and we're going to run the longest reaching
hardest-hitting, really sharp blade
- and try and just kind of keep them away from us. - [clangs]
They've never fought something like HUGE before,
and that works so much to our benefit.
The problem is,
everyone when forced to come up with a unique solution
comes up with something we haven't seen before.
I need to dodge whatever they start with.
They're an incredibly fast robot
and they're incredibly aggressive.
So I need to make sure they're not on me immediately,
I need to get the blade all the way around up,
and then go in and attack them.
[Martin] Are you ready out there?
- [audience cheering] - Are you ready?
Are you ready? Are you?
- [men] Whoo! Whoo! - [Martin] Yeah!
Yeah, yeah!
[laser sounds]
[crowd chanting] Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!
[Chris] MaDCatTer.
HUGE.
Two fan favorites looking to make their first foray
into the Round of 8.
- [audience chanting continues] - [buzzing]
Let the Bot battle begin!
Oh, and that's a plate of kitty!
Oh, wow!
- [audience exclaiming] - Gotta get that weapon out of Huge!
- [Kenny] That Catter lost that--Oh! - [Chris] Oh!
But what a countershot by Catter there!
[Kenny] Whoa! What was that?
[Chris] Looks like some compressed air.
I think it was part of MaDCatTer's top armor that got knocked off,
but look at the wheel on Huge!
- Remnants of the piece... - [Kenny] And look at Martin Mason's pod,
they don't mind getting their nose in there.
[Chris] [groaning] Ohhh!
A flight just evaporated at the top of the BattleBots.
[Kenny] That blade on HUGE is just nasty.
[Chris] Oh yes! MaDCatTer trying to get to the side.
- It is literally a cat's shelf game at this point. - [Kenny] Oh!
MaDCatTer takes another big shot there, Chris.
And you can see how frustrating it is to fight Huge.
He was trying to attack different angles
but Huge is so big, it doesn't really matter.
[Chris] It's like watching a fighter jet take down King Kong.
- [metal clanks] - [Chris] And Catter trying to take
it's opponent for a ride.
- Kenny are you shocked... - [audience booing]
...that MaDCatTer spends as much time in the wheels as we've seen?
[Kenny] I mean, MaDCatTer one of the toughest robots.
[Kenny and Chris] Oh!
- [Kenny] There goes the harpoon. - [audience cheering]
[Chris] Well, MaDCatTer is getting beat up here.
Lost its flamethrower, its harpoon.
- I'm not sure it's weapons working anymore, Kenny. - [man] Come on, Huge.
[Chris] So, now what do you do?
- There's still basically half a fight left. - [man 2] I'm going, I'm going.
[Kenny] Well, they've got to maintain this level of aggression.
A lot can happen down the stretch here.
And I'm not sure if that S plate on Huge is working.
With Jonathan Schultz just power it down but
if MaDCatTer wants to win this fight,
- they gotta stay on them. - [hammer bangs]
[Chris] And if Jonathan Schultz is playing pause with the weapon
that makes it even harder for MaDCatTer.
I mean, all you can do is kinda push Huge around.
The Nutty professor is in dire need of a break here
with his team seizing on the line.
[Kenny] Yeah, I mean, we've seen some crazy things happen with Huge in the past.
The wheels getting stuck on the sides of the arena, the frame collapsing.
But every fight we've seen this season would lead you to believe that
the weakness has left the robot.
Even if this goes to the judges, Chris,
Jonathan Schultz is comfortably ahead in both damage and control.
- [Chris] Under a minute to go! - [audience cheering]
[Chris] Huge's weapon is back up spinning.
Well, now it's not.
[Kenny] Might just be showing the judges it still works.
[Chris] All right, 30 seconds to go.
A berth in the Round of 8 on the line.
MaDCatTer, Huge.
Trying to leave some sort of indelible image
on the brains of the judges.
[Kenny] And an incredible effort by Calvin Iba
to try and make something happen down the stretch here.
Huge proving again though they are gonna be
- a tough out in this tournament. - [audience cheering]
[Chris] So this one will go the distance.
MaDCatTer's weapon is dead.
Not sure about Huge.
- [buzzer buzzing] - [Chris] But both bots still did well
after three minutes of carnage.
[Kenny] Oh, and there it is, Huge
spinning the weapon back up, showing the judges
it is a-ok.
- [Chris] Wow. - [man 2] Nice job, guys.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Well, earlier on MaDCatTer just went nose to nose.
[Kenny] Yeah, and they really had to, they made it a nasty fight here
but getting stuck underneath that blade of Huge is never gonna be good.
[Chris] Yeah, there's no question that MaDCatTer took some serious hits
in the early going but their weapon was still spinning,
that arm was still on there until it wasn't.
[Kenny] Yeah that weapon of Huge has just been
so devastating all season.
Jonathan Schultz was able to rack up damage points
in the first half of this fight
and then maintain control from there.
Dominant performance.
[Chris] Let's find out if it was enough to send Jonathan Schultz
into the Round of 8.
- Faruq? - [audience cheering]
The results from the Judges are in.
- [dramatic music playing] - [audience cheering]
The winner by unanimous decision is...
Huge.
[audience cheering]
[man 3] Whoo!
[Chris] Jonathan Schultz.
- Congratulations. Are those tears I see in your eyes? - They're about to be.
Why so emotional?
- Top eight Huge. - [man 4 chuckling]
- [woman screaming] - It's... it's just huge.
- It's the same old Huge, it's always been Huge... - [Chris chuckles]
It's like... It's the highest we've ever been.
I mean, we've been coming so many years here,
we've been working so hard for so long, they've been working so hard for so long,
team members who aren't here have been working so hard for so long.
It's amazing. I'm just so proud of everything.
[Chris] Jonathan, a few seasons ago you were questioning whether
Huge would ever have a shot at the giant Nut.
You're now a step closer.
What are your emotions?
A step higher.
It's just a little bit more nervous 'cause,
you know like I said it's just Huge.
We never imagine ourselves standing in the top eight really with it and, uh,
the closer we get, the higher the pressure,
the higher the stakes but also just the prouder I get.
Like, what an amazing season it's already been so far.
I can't hate that.
Well, congratulations. You are now three wins away from hoisting the giant Nut.
God. Thank you, guys.
[Jonathan] Thank you, guys. Thank you for putting on a great show.
Thank you. Come on, guys.
[Chris] So, Huge moves to a perfect 6-0 and advances to the quarterfinals
for the first time in their career.
But up next they got the biggest threat
to their fairytale season so far.
The Wicked Witch of Miami, Witch Doctor.
But man I gotta give it up for team MaDCatTer.
Such an impressive season for them.
We love you Martin. We can't wait to see you
and hear you next year.
Coming up, it's the fight we've all been waiting for,
the number two seed, Riptide.
We got a season full of destruction,
controversy but most importantly perfection.
But standing in Ethan Kurtz's way is maybe
the only other captain that can match his level of chaos.
Will Bales.
[Will] We're 5 and 0, all knockouts.
Massive shots.
Just relentless.
But what happens when someone punches them in the face?
- [audience cheering] - [Will] Our goal is to at least find out.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] We are back on BattleBots
and forget the cold before the storm.
Listen to this crowd here at Caesars Entertainment Studios.
They know what time it is.
We are about to lock in the last spot
in our World Championship set of quarterfinals.
It's last year's most destructive award winner HyperShock
versus the notorious RIP, Riptide.
This BattleBox is safe, right?
- We're good on this thing here? - Oh, yeah. I checked it.
- Okay, just making sure. - I checked it. If you trust me then you're good.
We're gonna see some crazy hits.
Just the way that both of these guys drive,
both of their weapons are just nasty.
I'll be very surprised if it goes the distance but
you know, if there's someone who can solve the riddle of Riptide
maybe it's Will Bales and his driving.
[Chris] Well, thankfully there's no controversy surrounding this fight
but it is true that while Riptide's
left a trail of broken bot parts on their path to a perfect season,
they also haven't really taken a hit yet.
So, let's hear what both captains have to say about this match up.
Let's go!
[Will] Riptide has been on a fantastic run so far.
They feel very confident coming into our fight.
They've earned a fair amount of cockiness.
One day, a humbling event will come.
I wouldn't mind being the person to bring it.
[Ethan] I think there's a pride to how we've done this year.
I truly believe that Riptide is the Mike Tyson of BattleBots right now.
We're having 30 second knockouts left and right, left and right.
I think when a new team kinda rolls up
and starts kicking people on the face
there's gonna be some uncertainty and fear.
[bleep] the haters.
[Will] Riptide has knocked out all their opponents
by just being relentless with their driving.
We know we can do the same.
What we haven't seen is what happens to them
when they do get hit.
My hope is that we can get those solid shots in early on
and make them flinch.
[Ethan] I think HyperShock punches on the level that we punch to some extent.
What we're gonna do is try to bring out the forks that disorient them,
keep them away and we're gonna just kinda go for their side.
We land one good hit,
take advantage of the one opening and just
keep hitting that opening till that opening
stops moving.
[Will] One way or another, someone's getting obliterated.
Hopefully we can put an end to their reign right now.
[Ethan] It's the two most destructive robots
in the world going head to head.
Why wouldn't wanna watch this match up?
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Whoo!
Two of the baddest bots,
two of the biggest personalities.
You can feel the fabric of he BattleBots universe
ready to rip apart.
[Kenny] Riptide has looked absolutely invincible
but HyperShock has seen it all, Chris.
And again when Will Bales gets in the groove man, watch out.
Let's round up the Round of 8.
Faruq.
[Faruq] In Red Square.
Welcome to the Home Shopping Network.
Here's our next product for sale.
It says here, It's a murderous robot
that we can ship you in the mail.
It's a beauty yellowish shiny, makes a great gift
for girlfriend or wife and it'll only cost you
three easy payments of your life.
Call now and we'll also throw the free tote bag.
Give it up for HyperShock!
[audience cheering]
[Chris] HyperShock.
Coming off a dominant first round performance over Lucky.
Hey, I know Will Bales likes to keep things loose, Kenny
but is this the biggest fight of his career?
[Kenny] Well, Will's never made the quarterfinals,
so by definition I'd say, yes.
But you know, we've watched him grow from just
a fun character to a serious contender
and as we've seen from other sports
taking down a seemingly unstoppable force
immediately etches your name into the history books.
[Faruq] And the blue square,
he'll take you under the sea
but you won't meet Flounder or Ariel.
Your poor, unfortunate soul receiving an aquatic burial.
Pain's part of your world if you make this Ocean King lose it.
He's got gadgets and gizmos
to tear your what's it from your who's it.
He's gonna kill. What's that word again?
You! It's Riptide.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Yo! Think fast.
Get Riptide's 5 and 0 in this season and five knockout,
eviscerated Shatter in the last round.
And Kenny, every time these guys step in the arena,
it feels like the fight of the century.
[Kenny] Well, we've seen robots dominate before.
I don't think anyone has done it like this
but with that comes pressure.
Every one of the team still standing
would love to be the one that knocks out Riptide.
If Ethan Kurtz makes a driving mistake
someone will make him pay
but so far the 20 year old has just been perfect.
[audience] HyperShock! HyperShock!
[Chris] Ah, listen to the cheers.
Half HyperShock, half Riptide.
You can feel the tension about to boil over here.
And listen, not everyone thinks Riptide's the favorite.
In fact more than 60 percent of the builders are taking HyperShock here, Kenny.
[Kenny] Well, HyperShock is without a doubt
the toughest match up for Riptide's so far this season.
And the key will be making it turn.
Riptide's gyroscopic forces are so high
that quick turns have the potential to knock it off balance.
If Will Bales can dictate the action,
he can win this fight.
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Whoa! Look at Riptide almost touching HyperShock there.
Mind games are already starting.
Well, this fight is to get into the quarterfinals
but it kinda feels like a championship.
Can Ethan Kurtz continue his reign of terror
or will that man Will Bales be the one to take down the giant?
It is Riptide and HyperShock
in one of our most anticipated fights of the season.
It is next onBattleBots .
And I can't wait.
[Chris] Welcome back toBattleBots
where one of the most dominant young team in years, Riptide
is about to throw down with fan favorite HyperShock.
Can anyone put a stop to Riptide captain Ethan Kurtz's reign of destruction?
Will Bales thinks he has what it takes to crack the code.
[audience] Fight! Fight!
Ha-ha.
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin.
Uh-oh. There's the first shot and clip off by Riptide.
And Will Bale's bot is inverted.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Here comes Riptide on the attack.
- [Kenny] Oh! Oh! - [Chris] Oh, my goodness! Are you kidding me?
Riptide's flip HyperShock 12 feet in the air!
- HyperShock touched the damn ceiling! - [audience cheering]
[Kenny] And Ethan Kurtz isn't done yet.
Riptide is out for blood.
[Chris] HyperShock goes right side up and is still ticking
but its short one of its wheels.
Now they've got two of its wheels.
Wow.
Good drive. Dwindling away the side of HyperShock.
[Kenny] Oh! How has HyperShock survived these shots?
That may be the last they did survive.
[Chris] Yeah, I don't know if they could push off the rails,
they're crying like...
to bounce themselves and connect to the arena.
If Will is gonna die, he wants to die with honor.
Did HyperShock even move?
[Kenny] Now, they're a sitting duck, right now.
The chains all tied up, I think they're jamming up the wheels.
They're not going anywhere. That's a parking spot, Chris.
[Chris] The countdown is starting.
Make it six fights and six knockouts
for the number two overall seed.
[Kenny] That was a dismantling.
- [referee] Knockout! - [buzzer buzzing]
[audience cheering]
[Ethan] Yeah [bleep] yeah.
Yes [bleep] yes.
[bleep]
[all] Whoo!
[Ethan] [bleep]
- [bleep] - [man 5] Whoo!
[Chris] So, a big time driving error by Will Bales right out of the gate
turning into Riptide and in about
three seconds, Ethan Kurtz was onto him and here we go.
Get ready to go for a ride.
- [Kenny] Ooh! - [Chris] Oh![chuckles] Oh, my God.
[Kenny] Wow.
That's insane. You just don't see a vertical spinner do that
here in theBattleBox .
- That's wild. - [Chris] There he is.
- [Chris chuckles] - [Kenny] Wow.
[Chris] And by the way the fact that, uh, HyperShock
was not dead after it dropped 20 feet to the floor.
[Kenny] That's what I'm saying. It was crazy.
Chains flying everywhere, tires flying everywhere.
[Chris] Riptide, you nasty.
Even Will Bales no match for the raw power of Riptide.
Got him into the corner and said, "Hey, you want more?
How about one more?
- [Kenny] Boom! - [Chris] Ethan Kurtz puts HyperShock
into the Kurtz locker.
[Riptide] Yeah! Yeah!
Let's do it! Come on, let's do it!
Ethan.
That's one bad weapon you've got on there.
Riptide is the first robot in history,
that hit another robot into the ceiling.
[crowd roaring]
[Kenny] Ethan... Ethan, what makes that weapon so powerful?
I don't know!
I mean, it's unbelievable.
So HyperShock has won the Most Destructive Robot Award last year.
They're really one of the most powerful hitting vertical spinners in the game.
Riptide is one of the most powerful vertical spinners in the game.
They were up-side-down,
which means their weapon was spinning down and ours was spinning up.
So that's the maximum bite engagement you're ever gonna get in this sport,
which meant they hit the ceiling.
So it was a combination of both robots being pretty awesome, if you ask me.
[Chris] Hey, Ethan,
if Copperhead, your next opponent was watching that back in the pits,
what do you think they're thinking?
They're thinking, uh... [bleep].
Uh... Uh... I don't know.
I... I think they're hoping, I think they're wishing that End Game won the fight.
They don't wanna fight us.
Well, we will all be looking forward to it in the Round of 8.
Great job and congratulations.
Thank you very much.
[Ethan] So proud of you guys.
[Chris] Well, Will, you knew it was a possibility
facing that sort of energetic weapon,
but could you believe that he did that to your robot?
Yeah, well, I figured if we just like hangout on the ceiling,
I could run away and hide long enough.
Um, that thing hits hard and you can't make any mistakes.
I made a mistake and he took advantage of it and he won, he deserves it.
[crowd cheering]
You provided ton of entertainment. We love your squad.
- Great job this year, Will Bales. - Thanks, Chris.
[Will] Great job.
[Chris] So Will Bales and HyperShock became the 16th in a row
to fall victim to Riptide's march of destruction?
Ethan Kurtz and crew advanced to the Round of 8 to face Copperhead.
And we are not done yet folks.
As we've been doing throughout the post season,
we have a post-game show coming your way.
It is the road to the Giant Nut.
So we've got guests, we're gonna break down the final eight.
We got a ton of fun.
We got to get going, so we got to get out of our headsets.
We will see you right after commercial break
for the Road To The Giant Nut, hold tight.
[speaking indistinctly]
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Hey, get in here. Come on!
It's The Road To The Giant Nut.
Get closer, we love you.
That's right. We're here wrapping it up.
We have got just eight robots remaining.
Kenny Florian, is that unreal or what?
It is unreal. Did you just kiss the camera, by the way?
No I didn't get quite that close.
But I got about this far away or so.
What do you think tonight, unreal, huh?
Again, surprises, you know, favorites moving through, crazy upsets,
what a ride.
[Chris] Take a look at the bracket.
Our top four seeds, they all survived the night,
advanced to the quarter finals.
Jonathan Schultz's squad kept their perfect season alive.
And Huge is looking like it's gonna be very tough out in this tournament.
But our top stories had to be Copperhead's incredible upset over End Game
and, of course, Riptide versus HyperShock,
where we saw the first ever clean shot into the ceiling.
Look at that.
That is like launching a washing machine over a basketball hoop, people.
Good Lord! What was that?
[Chris] Flat out insane night.
In fact, the guy that delivered that hit to HyperShock,
Ethan Kurtz from team Riptide, will be joining us, so too will Jake Ewert of Hydra.
They're sticking around for the Round of 8.
But right now, let's welcome in a former winner of the Giant Nut.
Unfortunately, their road came to an end tonight.
Please welcome End Game.
Nick Mabey, Jack Barker, come on in, boys.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Here, you can put that up here.
- [Chris] All right! - [Kenny] Oh!
Uh, wow, uh... unfortunately, your road came to an end against Copperhead.
First of all, show and tell. Do tell, what do you got?
Well, we have a broken robot.
We have that first off. [laughs]
Basically, everything on the inside is okay.
Everything on the outside...
- [Jack] Is not okay. - [Nick] ...is not okay.
How demoralizing is it when a robot does something like this to you?
I mean...
we all love the sport, for like, to see stuff like that in the BattleBox, like...
That's why everyone is here, that's why we're here.
We love it. This is why we're fans of the show to begin with.
- I mean... - [Jack laughs]
There's only so many things that will do this kind of thing
and it's just amazing to be a part of it.
[crowd clapping]
[Chris] We're doing a little bit of a thing called "bottopsy" here.
Uh, Jack, tell us what happened to your weapon because I don't--
I mean, I'm shocked there's a big chunk.
- [Chris] And by the way don't... - [Jack] Oh, yeah.
[Chris]... don't use that without gloves, Jack. What are you doing?
[Jack] This chunk, what's happening is,
this chunk was not here, not missing.
We've never seen like this amount of material taken out of it.
[Chris] So this is a second straight post season,
where a drum spinner has done you in, right?
Last year, it was Minotaur. This time, it is Copperhead.
How does it compare, Jack?
Yeah, I think this year, it's not quite as hard to take.
You know, last year, we were coming in as the favorites.
This year, you know, we lost to a pizza early on.
So I, kind of sit and see, so...
We'll reevaluate and come back.
We haven't lost a single drive motor, single drive ESC.
Or with the motor... [speaking indistinctly]
So the internals are rock solid.
- [Nick] We can have a look. - [Jack] Yeah.
Oh, we got internals?
- [Jack] Yeah, yeah, yeah. - [Nick] We have internals.
[Chris] Okay.
Oh, gosh.
What's going on in here?
[Nick] Well, so these are the...
These are the motors.
You can see they all still function.
If I can spin the weapon?
[Chris] Oh, yeah. Why not?
It's functions are a little loose now.
The motors are fine.
In here is not.
You could hear that.
The rollers inside the weapon actually shattered and that's what stopped it.
[Chris] Well, you have company in terms of
other robots leaving the competition.
There were seven other ones that were eliminated tonight as well.
We have one more that's actually standing by.
Will Bales,
HyperShock.
[Nick] I think their robot might be worse off.
[Chris] Maybe, yeah.
Right here, come on.
And good.
[Chris] Hi, Will.
[Will] How's it going?
- Good. Here, step on up here for second. - [Will] Oh, yeah, yeah.
I'm just happy to see you...
not in the sky anymore.
Is that the hardest hit you've ever taken?
[Will] Um, yeah...
I mean, I think it's the hardest hit anyone's ever seen.
I mean, it looked like we were gonna dangle on the ceiling for a moment.
[Chris] Explain to us what happened to your robot when it hit the floor.
I mean, surprisingly, motors seem to still be working.
That's a miracle.
But everything just kept coming up.
There was this blue blur.
There was this blue and black blur that kept, like, ripping parts off
and then throwing it this way
and then this came off and this looks important.
And this was bent a different way than it was before.
[Chris] And what about the front part,
that bronze-colored stuff? What is that?
Ah, well, that's the aluminum uprights for the weapon.
- It still spins, which is amazing... - [Nick] Yeah?
[Will] ...given that hit.
[Chris] Where are we going with this sport?
Because if we were to go back and watch, like, episode one, from season one,
we'd probably all be laughing at the fights
and what we were saying back then and all sorts of stuff.
But in seven years that we've been doing this now,
we get robots that end up looking like this
and really, really good, high-skilled bot builders
that are like, "I can't believe that happened to my robot."
So where are we gonna be in five years in this sport?
[Will] Uh...
I will need a bigger bank account, first off.
We need more sponsors.
Um, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens.
I think we're starting to come to a head where forks are not the answer to everything.
Ah, big wide weapons on Minotaur, Copperhead, Riptide,
no-nonsense frontends of robots are becoming a dominant force.
Verticals are obviously the scariest, I think, that they have ever been
and the scariest of any meta that has been.
I'd like to see something else coming and, you know, pee in the punch bowl here.
It'd be fun to see something new come in and change the game.
You did just say "pee in the punch bowl", right?
- [Will] Yeah, it was a nice way to say it. - Yeah.
[Jack] Never go to any of his parties.
[Chris] Do you guys see it the same way?
[Jack] Yeah, for me, it's, you know, we're looking at the smaller weight classes.
They seem to develop a lot faster. You know, the three pounds, the 30 pounds.
So we're seeing, like,
Riptide coming through and just clean everyone out.
Um, yeah I think just more weapon, more power
and the teams are going to get better and better.
I know that you guys wanted to win Giant Nut, I get it.
If there is a silver lining,
you finally get to sleep.
- [all three together] Yeah. - [Chris] So that's really good.
That's really good.
Guys, thanks for taking us through your respective bottopsy.
You guys were all amazing throughout this season
and provided a ton of entertainment.
Let's hear it for Will Bales of HyperShock,
Jack Barker and Nick Mabey of End Game.
Gentleman, thank you very, very much.
[Chris] All right, still ahead when we come back, we will talk to the captain that this
to Will Bales' bot, Ethan Kurtz of Riptide
and also Jake Ewert of Hydra.
They're still alive in the Round of 8.
That and more as we continue on here with The Road To The Giant Nut.
Don't go anywhere.
[Chris] With the Round of 16 giving us eight more dearly departed death machines,
let's pause for a moment of remembrance
as they find their way to the great scrap heap in the sky.
[Adrian Liaw] I'm literally like
fangirling out here, cause it was just so amazing to watch.
It was so fun.
[Julio Cortez] We're happy.
We're the 16 best robots in the world.
[Matthew Vasquez] It was a great fight for Hydra.
I hope they, you know, go all the way.
[Tom Brewster] If I'm gonna lose to you, you better go all the way and win it.
I wanna lose to the champion.
[Jake] I think there's a lot to learn from this fight as well,
like we learned from last year.
So yeah, we have to go back to the drawing board and see what we got.
[Martin Mason] We showed you this robot, it can go three minutes with anybody.
[Donald Hutson] Those robots were gonna put everything on the table,
you know, and they did.
[Will] You can't make any mistakes.
I made a mistake, he won and deserves it.
[Chris] Hey, we love hanging out with our friends
here on The Road To The Giant Nut.
Hard to believe, Kenny Florian, we're one week away finding out
who's gonna hoist the Giant Nut.
I can't wait to see who ends it all.
All right, so there are eight robots remaining.
Let's take a look at the bracket.
Remember, next week is our biggest night of the year.
You're gonna see it all
the quarters,
the semi's,
and the championship final.
Now, Kenny just updated his odds to win the title,
so let's take a look.
[Kenny] Yeah, and for these odds, it's no longer just about pedigree.
You have to take a team's match ups
and path to the trophy into consideration.
Call me a prisoner of the moment,
but I'm a full-on Riptide believer now.
I think it's very possible
we see Riptide and Minotaur in the finals.
I also think having the only flipper at this point in the game
puts Jake Ewert and Hydra in a unique position.
One other team I'd keep an eye on is Huge.
The only bot left with the reach to damage their frame
is SawBlaze.
But Jamo might have the toughest road of anyone
to get to the finals.
Can't call Huge a dark horse at this point,
but that would be my best bang for your buck pick.
[Chris] Okay, we're fortunate enough to have two of the eight remaining captains
with us right now.
Let's welcome in the number 2 seed from Riptide, Ethan Kurtz,
the number 4 seed from Hydra, Jake Ewert.
- Put your hands together for them. - Yay!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Come on!
[Chris] Ethan, park that bad boy right here next to the table, right here.
Bring it in.
You delivered a hit never seen before in the seven seasons of this show.
Yeah.
That is lethal, is it not?
Just alone it just looks like a big block of steel,
but attached to a robot, it's pretty lethal.
And what does that thing weigh?
Uh, so this is Riptide's weapon bar, it weighs 55 pounds.
Fifty-five.
And what speed does it spin?
Uh, 250 miles per hour, around that.
Okay, now, where's your weapon?
Right here.
Oh,
and this is not 55 pounds.
It is five.
- [Chris] Five pounds? - Five pounds.
[Chris] So this is the thing that flips all those robots like 16 feet in the air?
[Jake] Absolutely, yes.
- [Kenny] What's it made out of? - [Jake] Uh, it's S7.
It's just a steel, that's all it is.
[Chris] Where did you come up with the idea of wanting to do a flipper?
Um, well, we wanted to hit the ceiling, that was the biggest thing.
I think we might have at one point this season.
So it was really great to be able to see a bot fly that high.
Of course, he just did it now, so it was like,
"Wow, okay, he did it."
But I did it with that little thing, right.
Not that big thing, this little guy here.
Were you watching his match back in the pits?
I did, yes, and it was very impressive.
And I don't want any part of that.
So you're telling me that he's on the other side of the bracket right now?
Yeah, yeah, I have to beat him in the finals, I guess.
- [Chris] Well... - Yeah, we'll see about that.
What made you wanna create something that could do this much damage?
I like building robots that are competitive.
And It think it was pretty obvious to me
that the best way to do that is build a robot that's highly maneuverable,
but also is the most energy dense.
So the whole idea of Riptide is how wide could we get the drum and how long.
Our weapon's diameter is actually less than most teams here, it's only 13 inches.
Most teams are running 14, 15, 16.
Our width gives us the ability to just always pretty much land hits.
And since our weapon is so small but still storing insane amount of mass,
we're still packing tons and tons and tons of energy like upper cut is packing
with a small package.
And we're able to do hits like that because we're maneuverable.
So that's what we wanted
and that's what we're getting.
Can I just get to the emotional side of this?
It's been a lot of talk about S7s and 55-pound weights and stuff.
You guys are one week away from maybe hoisting the Giant Nut.
Is there anything that scares you about Copperhead?
I think their reliability is quite scary.
Their low-ground plough things are a little nerve wracking.
But yeah, I think we just need to play our game and I think we'll be okay against them.
And with you, Ribbot?
Oh, I'll send the frog flying like I did last season, right?
No, it's gonna be a little tougher this year.
They got a bot that's pretty dialed in and...
I mean, I've been pretty dialed in this season, too.
So it's gonna be a good fight, I think.
- Did they use their horizontal spinner against you last year? - They did, yeah.
I think this season they might try the vertical, just to try something different.
But it's gonna end up hopefully the same.
Last season, you came in as the 31 seed.
They were the number two seed.
They were unbeaten, you took it to them.
You don't think that they've been sitting on this for a year?
They might've had some hard feelings after that fight, yeah.
I think so.
But I'm gonna hopefully stay in my number four seed
and keep it where it's supposed to be.
[Chris] Okay, it was great hanging out with you.
We really appreciate it as always.
We wish you the best of luck in your fight against Copperhead
and in yours against Ribbot.
You can take your weapons home
- and get your bot ready, man. - Okay.
- This will be really exciting. - Mine will be really harder to lug off the stage.
If you need help, we have somebody that can help.
Bob, come on out here.
[crowd chanting] Bob! Bob! Bob!
You're taking that cart, help him out, Bob.
Come on, Bob.
Jake Ewert, thank you, thank you.
Ah, they're good guys.
- You psyched for next week? - I can't wait.
Are you guys ready to crown a champion next week?
- [crowd cheering] - [Chris] Of course, you are.
So a big shoutout and a thank you to Jake Ewert, to Ethan Kurtz, to Nick Mabey
and Jack Barker of End Game
and also to Will Bales of HyperShock.
This is Kenny Florian,
our man Faruq as well,
I am Chris Rose.
We will see you next week
when we crown a champion here
on BattleBotsWorld Championship Season Seven.
Thanks for tuning in, everybody.