[mechanical voice] Robots, activate!
[crowd cheering]
Now, were...
What's up!
- [Chris Rose] Yes! - Oof!
They're excited.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to BattleBots World Championship VII.
I am Chris Rose.
He, of course, is Kenny Florian
and, Kenny, tonight is the night.
It sure is.
Are you guys ready to crown a champion?
[cheering intensifies]
[Chris] Sounds like to me.
Every win, every loss,
every lesson learnt, every knockout, decision,
celebration and disappointment,
it's all been leading up to this.
Tonight, we're going to see the quarter-finals,
the semi-finals and then the finals.
One team will run the table,
win three fights in one evening
and immortalize themselves by putting their name in the rafters
and winning the Giant Nut!
We kicked off this season
with 50 of the deadliest robots ever assembled,
and now, only these electric eight remain.
And how about this, Kenny?
The tournament's top-four seeds are all still in the game.
[Kenny Florian] That's right and just look at these quarter-final matchups.
Jake Ewert and the four seeded Hydra having re-match
with the most dangerous frog on the planet, Ribbot.
The three seed, the legendary Witch Doctor
will try and catapult themselves towards the trophy
by putting a stop to the dream season of undefeated, Huge.
Huge!
[Kenny] The tournament's number two, Riptide
is on one of the most dominant runs
in the history of the sport.
Can its wave of destruction
sweep up the stone cold-killer, Copperhead?
We're going to find out.
[Chris] But we'll kick off championship night with the number one seed,
the Brazilian bazooka, Minotaur.
Captain Marco Meggiolaro rolling driver Daniel Freitas
into the box like Hannibal Lecter.
He's saying, "Hello, Jamison.
I'm going to eat SawBlaze
with some fava beans and a nice chianti."
- [mimics eating] - [Kenny laughs]
[Chris] We'll see if Jamison Go's eight seed squad
can make this the Silence of the Bull?
- All right, you ready to get going? - I am, let's do it.
- You guys ready to get going? - [audience cheer] Yes!
Faruq, take it away!
[audience cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
It's robot fighting time!
[alarm blaring]
In the red square from Cambridge, Massachusetts...
Remember that FDR quote?
"The only thing we have to fear
is giant spinning blades and flame throwers."
I'm paraphrasing but you get it.
It's SawBlaze!
[Chris] The number eight seed, SawBlaze, led by Jamison Go.
This the team's third straight trip to the quarter-finals.
Remember, they took down Minotaur
to kick-off World Championship VI.
Can they do it again, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, we know Minotaur's drum spinner is a nuclear weapon
but there's no doubt that geometry favors SawBlaze here.
That dustpan plough is designed
to smother bots like Minotaur.
We'll see if Daniel Freitas can lean on his gyro driving skills
to try and negate that advantage.
[crowd cheering] SawBlaze! SawBlaze!
[Faruq Tauheed] In the blue square,
from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
You're trapped in his maze of pain for all of eternity.
Welcome to the stab-rinth,
it's Minotaur!
[Chris] The pride of Brazil, the number one seed,
undefeated Minotaur.
This team has made into the top eight
every year of its career.
Unbelievable.
Stick-man, Daniel Freitas, already in the zone.
We spoke with Marco earlier today.
He said, "Listen, about an hour before the fight,
I just let Daniel go off and kind of do his thing."
[Kenny] Yeah, look at the intensity.
He's already in the match.
He's visualizing every scenario.
He doesn't hear or see anything else happening around him.
Laser-focus.
Our fight against Minotaur in World Championship VI
taught us that SawBlaze is actually a lot more durable
than we initially thought.
We're also surprised at the amount of damage that SawBlaze can do.
We were able to chop through.
We caused a battery fire.
The batteries haven't moved since last year.
They are still in the rear corner.
We know exactly where we need to hit again.
Last time we set Minotaur on fire
and he continued to work.
This time we'd love to set him on fire
and have him burnt to the ground. [chuckles softly]
Fighting SawBlaze is always very tough.
This fight would be a duel about very good drivers,
very aggressive drivers.
We have to stay away from the wall.
Once you're caught in the wall,
Jamison can still hit us several times,
until he's asked to release us,
and it's going to be up to Daniel
to try to get out of the forks, if he gets caught,
before we get stuck on the walls and we are cut.
So we know that Daniel has to be very aggressive
but also very careful.
[crowd chanting] SawBlaze! SawBlaze!
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] It's going to take three wins
to get your hands on the trophy tonight.
We got the fire-breathing SawBlaze,
the bloodthirsty Minotaur.
A berth on the semi-finals is on the line.
- [crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight! - [alarm blaring]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Oh, nice shot, SawBlaze, out of the gate.
[Kenny] Yeah, they ran that fork right into the drum.
So far, that fork is holding up.
They are able to get underneath Minotaur.
[Chris and Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] They're taking the top seed into the screws.
- [Kenny and Chris] Oh! - [Chris] A huge hit!
[Kenny] They're on the hammer saw right through that top armor.
- [Chris] And, whoa! - [Kenny] Nice shot there by Minotaur,
who's starting to land greater shots here, Chris.
[Chris] Yeah, the one seed told us they're going to go right after those forks.
- They're not afraid to come face-to-face. - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] But now, they're up on the screws in the upper deck.
[Kenny] Minotaur's inverted.
[Kenny and Chris] Oh!
[Kenny] Jamison Go with the shot to the underbelly.
The hammer saw wreaking havoc.
Minotaur's back to the center,
and now they're into the rails.
[Chris] This is when SawBlaze is at their best.
A little bit of smoke coming out of Minotaur's wheels.
That is a major issue for Minotaur.
[Kenny] Could this be another fire? It is.
[Chris] It is for the second straight season.
Minotaur on fire against SawBlaze.
[Kenny] Oh, this is a massive shock.
Still, Chris, Minotaur coming back.
- They're on fire but still hitting hard. - [Chris] Whoa!
And now it's a race against time.
Can Minotaur make it another two minutes
fully engulfed in flames?
[Kenny] Well, it's something to handle internal fires
but the pressure is on now for Daniel Freitas
to score a knockout or at least,
take out SawBlaze's weapon.
[Chris] On fire out of the rear
but Daniel Freitas said, "I will never surrender."
Still going face-to-face.
- [audience exclaiming] - [Chris] They're gonna have to...
Jamison Go doing some pressure
but they're taking huge shocks here again.
- [Kenny] Oh! - Still 90 seconds to go
and SawBlaze bumps into the air!
[Kenny and Chris] Oh!
[Kenny] That looked like a direct shot to the weapon
coupling of SawBlaze!
What a comeback this would be by Minotaur.
[Chris] And, oh no! Minotaur, on its head.
Somehow flipped itself back over.
Now he gets pinned against the railing.
[Kenny] Minotaur has turned the tables here, Chris.
They broke that SawBlaze's weapon,
and Jamison cannot afford to get flipped.
An incredible job, driving by Daniel Freitas and Jamison Go,
as they continue to go nose to nose.
[Kenny] This is just a nasty brawl driven by both robots.
[Chris] Great job by SawBlaze pinning his opponent.
Now he gets the screws.
Closing in on 45 to go.
[Kenny] Flames still pouring out of Minotaur.
The Brazilians just have to make it to the closing bell.
This fight is neck and neck.
[speaking Portuguese]
[Chris] Minotaur looks like a piece of burnt toast at this point.
How are they going to get off the screws with 30 to go?
[Kenny] Oh, Minotaur maybe knocked out here, Chris.
- They may have fried their motors. - Yes!
That is it, I think!
- [crowd cheering] - [Kenny] SawBlaze.
And they've done it.
And they pulled off the upset.
- Nine! Eight... - [Chris] The countdown is starting.
The one seed is history!
Jamison Go and SawBlaze, off to the semi-finals.
SawBlaze!
[all cheering]
Oh, my goodness.
[grunts]
- [man] Oh, my God! - [Jamison shouts]
[shouting indistinctly]
[Jamison] That was a close one.
[man 1] That was so close, but you did it, man!
- You did it! - [man 2 cheers] Whoo!
[Chris] Kenny, this was an all-time classic.
[Kenny] What a way to kick off Championship night.
[Chris] A flawless start by Jamison Go
put Minotaur on the defensive,
used the dustpan to pin the bull
and then drop the hammer saw.
[Kenny] Chris, this was poetry in motion.
SawBlaze able to invert Minotaur and strike the underbelly
right where the batteries live.
[Kenny] That was no accident.
Jamison called his shot and he hit paydirt.
Just like in their first fight,
Minotaur then burst into flames
and at that point, things looked pretty grim for the Brazilians.
[Chris] Well, they still had two things going for them.
Their weapon was active
and Daniel Freitas refused to die.
[Kenny] Like a wounded animal
lashing out at its attacker,
Minotaur unleashed an angry series of counter-shots,
the last of which actually broke SawBlaze's weapon.
[Kenny] What a comeback by Minotaur.
Almost drove a stake through SawBlaze's heart
with this final flurry right here.
[Chris] Hey, who knows what would have happened
if they had made it to the closing bell.
But the flames proved to be too much
and the tournament's number one seed dies in a blaze of glory.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Jamison... Jamison Go.
- Congratulations. - Thank you!
Yeah!
One of the greatest fights
we have ever seen in BattleBots.
How the heck did you do it?
Well, I think, things were starting out just as we had planned
and, well, [chuckles] when we got the fire started.
- [crowd laughs] - In more ways than one.
Uh, and then, it took a sudden turn
when they got a really good bite on our forks.
They flipped us over. They got a really good shot.
No one's actually hit us there before,
and you can see the chain flopped out.
The arm took a lot of damage.
We weren't spinning. The arm couldn't articulate.
At that point, I'm sure Daniel knew
that if they could flip us over once, it'd be over.
I think my heart sank a little bit,
'cause I wasn't sure if we're going to be able to hang on.
Their weapon was still going, still going strong.
And we just had to do...
You can't give up. You got to fight to the end.
I mean, this is the World Championship.
You got to keep going. You never know what will happen.
Congratulations on upending the one seed.
We will see you tonight
- in the semi-finals. - Thank you, thank you.
[crowd cheering]
[SawBlaze team cheering]
Marco, for almost two minutes
you made it while you were on fire.
What is it that eventually did you in.
Well, uh, we put some extra thickness on the top armor
but didn't have weight for the bottom one.
Ah, they... He drove very well.
Jamison did good job there
getting a fire right in the beginning.
It's a very tough robot, SawBlaze, so...
Well, uh, we learned a lot.
Next year, we're going to be back
and then we're gonna have
[chuckles] our top and bottom plates
[chuckles] more resistant to that guy there.
- [Chris] Marco, thank you so much. - Thank you.
A great, great run for the number one seed
ends here in the quarter-finals.
Congratulations, still, to team Minotaur.
So Jamison Go and team SawBlaze advance to the semi-finals
where they will face the winner
of Hydra vs Ribbot later tonight.
And with that, it's time to say goodbye oradios to the Brazilians.
A remarkable season for Team Minotaur.
Gave us some of the best fights of the year.
Got a little redemption along the way.
They should be very proud.
Coming up, it's the three seed Witch Doctor
taking on the six seed Huge.
But first, we've got some breaking news involving Team Riptide.
I need it for... It's just a second.
[Chris] We're hearing the team captain Ethan Kurtz
may actually be unavailable
for his quarter-final matchup with Copperhead.
A potentially-devastating turn of events
for the number two overall seed.
Obviously, this is a critical developing story.
We'll tell you everything we know
back when BattleBots continues.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to BattleBots
and before we get to our next matchup,
we have a little bit of breaking news.
And, Kenny, unfortunately, the captain
of Team Riptide, that is, Ethan Kurtz,
he has tested positive for COVID.
That means, he will not be available for the team's
quarter-final matchup against Copperhead.
Here's a look at how Team Riptide
reacted to the news earlier today.
[man speaking]
[Ethan Kurtz on phone]
I'm going to let you know right now...
We're not... We're not quitting.
- We're not forfeiting right now. - You're crazy.
- [Ethan on phone] - [Sid Prabhakaran] We'll get back to you.
[Chris] Everyone Ethan's been in contact with
has tested negative,
but the team is now faced with the daunting task
of finding a new driver for their upcoming fight.
We caught up with Riptide co-captain Sid Prabhakaran
to find out what they're thinking.
So currently we're deliberating
between different choices for our main driver.
Our options are me...
Zach...
Or now, Felix...
So, yeah, we're going to go work through that
and hopefully we can push the match a little bit
to give us more time.
[Chris] Well, this is an awfully big hit to team Riptide.
There's simply no replacing a driver
as skilled and aggressive as Ethan Kurtz.
Either way, the curtain goes up in under an hour.
They got to figure things out quickly.
We will continue to monitor this story
and update you on any developments.
But now we turn our attention
to the three vs six matchup.
We've got two fan favorites ready to throw down,
- Witch Doctor and Huge. - [crowd cheering]
And, Kenny, one of the great stories of the regular season, Huge.
Captain Jonathan Schultz has rattled off six straight wins
and has his team rolling.
But when you talk about Witch Doctor,
you're talking about a completely different class of robot.
[Kenny] There's no doubt.
This is Mike and Andrea Gellatly's seventh
straight tournament appearance.
They are two-time runner's up for the Giant Nut.
Huge may still have some advantage
from a geometry standpoint.
But Witch Doctor's experience and pedigree are as good as it gets.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd booing]
[crowd chanting] Witch Doctor! Witch Doctor!
[Chris] All right, let's hear from the captains
as they get set for this quarter-finals matchup.
A matchup with Witch Doctor is one that favors us.
I'm going to run right out. Be really on the offense,
and try to get them on the backfoot.
They are a robot that's used to getting a hit
and then running in to get three or four more hits.
You can't really do that as easily with Huge.
And what generally happens from there is that people get scared.
They run straight on headlong into the weapon
because they don't know what else to do.
Witch Doctor should be worried
that it's gonna be a short fight.
I think that when we come out in a storm,
really on the offense,
that their weapon will be disabled
before they understand it and know it.
Huge is designed specifically to fight robots like us,
and there's really nothing I can do to hit the body of Huge.
I have to go after the wheel.
We're really going to try to dismember
their wheels one at a time
and immobilize them that way.
The screws, the hammers, anything in the arena,
that he can get stuck on,
we can use that to our advantage.
It is really difficult when you fight an undefeated robot
because we can't look back and see how somebody beat him.
It hasn't been done.
So if we're the first to do that,
we're gonna have to find our own way to do it
and that's extra exciting.
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] A tall task for Team Witch Doctor.
Can Jonathan Schultz and Huge
keep their dream-season alive?
[alarm blaring]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
The bots, deliberate out of the blocks.
- [crowd gasps] - [Kenny] Oh, wait!
[Chris] Mike Gellatly going right in and trying to stop that blade.
[Kenny] Yeah, I just saw a belt come off of
one of those robots.
- [Chris] Oh, it might be Witch Doctor. - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] There's smoke coming out of that one.
[Kenny] Mike going right at that weapon.
[Chris] Oh! Drives Huge right into the screws.
[Kenny] Well, it is a dicey spot for those big wheels of Huge.
And, Chris, Witch Doctor's weapon looks to be disabled!
[Chris] Oh! And that is enormous in the eyes of the judges.
Is your weapon working the full time?
The answer is, no!
[Kenny] And now, Jonathan Schultz can let it rip
and attack without fear.
Can Witch Doctor stand up to the punishment?
[Chris] Mike and Andrea behind the eight ball.
- [Kenny] Oh! Oh, boy. - [Chris] Oh, man!
[Chris] They just took a shot from that S-blade.
[all] Oh!
[Kenny] There goes the ribs off of Witch Doctor!
See you later! They are now vulnerable on that right side, Chris.
[Chris] They don't really have a choice, though, Kenny.
They got to try and stop that weapon.
[Kenny] Clearly that's Mike Gellatly's goal here
as Witch Doctor takes another big shot.
This is the genius of Huge.
Jonathan said it before the fight.
Eventually, you're forced to engage the weapon.
And for six straight matches,
that has been a death-sentence
for the opponents of Huge.
[Chris] Gellatly's fighting to get around to the side
and exert some control here,
but Jonathan Schultz's maneuvering with the grace and skill
that we have seen all season long,
refusing to be pushed around.
[Kenny] The weapon of Huge has come to a stop for the moment, Chris.
Back up and working there,
but has Witch Doctor done some damage
or is Jonathan Schultz just conserving him?
[Chris] Just pass the halfway mark
and one thing is for sure,
Mike Gellatly and Witch Doctor will not back down.
but the weapon of Huge continues to spin.
[Kenny] How about the durability of that weapon on Huge?
[Chris] Unreal. Unreal!
Jonathan Schultz,
who was considering moving on from this engineering design
after season six
went home, rebuilt, became more offensive,
and now, possibly, is less than a minute away
from making it to the semi-final.
[Kenny] This is what makes Huge such a threat.
They can attack from above.
They have a reach advantage
over almost every robot in the world.
And, man, you combine that with the driving skills
of Jonathan Schultz you have a very tough fight.
[Chris] Under 30 to go.
Witch Doctor had been without it's weapon
pretty much since the onset.
Huge's weapon has been running
almost the entire time.
Under 20 to go.
[Kenny] Witch Doctor, though,
not quitting here, continuing to be aggressive.
They are very, very durable.
They've eaten some massive shots here.
[Chris] Under ten.
So this one will end up going the distance.
Between the six seed Huge,
the three seed Witch Doctor,
somebody's moving on to the semifinals.
Quick reminder as we turn to the scorecards,
your judges are
Derek Young, Lisa Winter and Fon Davis,
scoring on to an 11 point system.
Five points can be awarded for damage,
three of these for aggression and control.
Kenny, the turning point to this match
may have come in the first ten seconds.
[Kenny] That's right, Mike Gellatly going straight at that monster blade on Huge
lost the belt.
And without their primary weapon,
Witch Doctor was in serious trouble
right out of the gate.
[Chris] Here's that massive shot
that ripped half of Witch Doctor's ribcage clean-off.
Huge hitting with so much power!
So impressive.
[Kenny] Credit to Witch Doctor for staying aggressive
and continuing to attack.
For a moment it looked like
they may have broken Huge's weapon
but Jonathan Schultz, smartly conserving it,
knowing that Witch Doctor had very few paths to victory.
[Chris] Did Huge do enough
to advance to the semifinals?
Here's Faruq.
The results from the judges are in.
[audience cheering and clapping]
The winner by unanimous decision is...
[audience booing]
Huge!
- [audience cheering and applauding] - Yeah!
[speaking indistinctly]
[all laughing]
[Chris] Jonathan Schultz,
you are two wins away
from hoisting the Giant Nut.
How the heck did you get here?
Ah, one step at a time.
[all laughing]
So, in this one tonight,
were you shocked
that Witch Doctor came right at your blade
right from the onset.
I... I had a feeling there was a...
I've said it a couple times
there's only so many things to hit on the robot
and they usually get bored of hitting the wheels.
- [all chuckling] - So they head for the blade eventually.
And, uh, I'm glad they did.
I think it worked out pretty well for us.
Um, it was an amazing fight.
It won't die.
- I did my best. - [all laughing]
We look forward to seeing you compete tonight
- in the semi-finals. Great job. - Thank you very much.
Great fight.
Took it to us, man, you guys took it to us.
[Chris] Kenny, I am so happy
for Jonathan Schultz and Team Huge.
Seven and O,
no one saw this coming.
As for Witch Doctor,
the career accolades keep piling up,
but it's another trip home
without the Giant Nut.
Are the voodoo children the cursed ones, Kenny?
[Kenny laughs] I don't know.
I think their time will come.
Coming up, the four seed.
Hydra has a date with the fairytale frog,
the 28 seed Ribbot.
Can David Jin keep his wild ride alive?
Or will Jake Ewert send him back to the swamp,
courtesy of Hydra Airlines.
The quarter finals continue next.
[Chris] All right, Kenny. We are back on BattleBots
for quarter finals coming your way
and up next, it is a rematch
from last season's round of 32.
Back then it was Ribbot
that was the number two overall seed.
Jake Ewert and the 31st seed Hydra came in,
punched that frog right in the face
and David Jin has been sitting on this
for a full year.
[Kenny] Yeah, and this time Ribbot's the low seed.
Now they did have a tough start to the season,
but it looks like the do or die nature of the tournament
might have awoken a sleeping giant.
And not only do they have a shot
to advance to the semis
for the first time here,
they've got the chance to get some revenge while doing.
And for Jake Ewert,
tonight is about more than just one fight,
it's about legacy.
A year ago,
he came within two wins of the Nut,
this entire season has been about avenging that performance.
Jake won't stop
until he's got his own banner in the rafters
hanging next to his desk.
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] Hydra! Hydra!
At our last fight against Hydra we learnt
two really important things.
One, Jake is not at all scared
to flip his flipper straight into a spinning weapon.
Number two, we learnt that our rims and our wheels
were not quite robust enough.
Those have both been changed for this... this fight,
so we'll hopefully see those upgrades work
but we know Jake's gonna be really aggressive.
He really is confident in his design.
I think you're gonna see both robots
come out of the box pretty slow to feel each other out.
The first interaction between two robots
is gonna be completely crucial
to the... how the fight goes.
Whoever manages to go under the other one,
really will get the momentum going
for the rest of the match.
Ribbot had a... a tough season
and, uh, they're coming in the tournament
and they're... they're looking to prove themselves.
It's the same Hydra as it was the last year,
which held up really well.
I'm hoping to flip,
break the weapon, and then I can be more aggressive
because there's... there's no worries
of a big weapon ripping me apart.
But you never know,
they could get a lucky hit on the side
and just start disabling stuff
and it could turn in their favor really quickly.
They could outfork me
and with that vert pack
they could start ripping things off.
I gotta be perfect the whole match.
They only need that one time.
[audience cheering]
[electronic voice] Robots, activate.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] All right.
Ribbot went with their horizontal spinning undercutter
when these two first met, Kenny.
They're going with the vert tonight.
[Kenny] Well, I think it's the right move.
The horizontal gave Hydra
a much larger surface area
to get under and attack.
The vert also has a better chance of bending
Jake's flipper tongue.
And if you look at Ribbot's seven pronged fork setup,
you can tell they are not seeding the ground game.
You heard David Jin,
low man wins this fight.
[audience chanting] Hydra! Hydra!
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] Fight! Fight!
[buzzing]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Hydra, trying to get to its center position.
[Kenny] And both robots are so low
looking like they're getting caught on the floor.
That could be a big factor in this fight.
- [Chris] Tryin' to lock horns-- - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Uh, oh!
Hydra taking a little shot
from that vertical disk spinner.
[Kenny] Jake has to be careful firing into the weapon.
Touched my tip.
[Chris] If Hydra's tongue gets bit
that is a big problem.
Oh, okay. Hydra triggers the flipper again.
[Kenny] David Jin needs to think about attacking there.
Hydra is most vulnerable
right after it fires it flipper.
[Chris] 40 seconds into this fight,
we have a classic stalemate.
You can feel the tension building.
Both drivers jocking for low ground
but nobody's been able to get
the clear edge.
Another miss by Jake,
but Ribbot's slow to attack.
And another one.
And again, Ribbot cannot take advantage.
[Kenny] We know it only takes one flip by Hydra
to break a fight wide open.
It's like we got a couple of gun slingers here
with their barrels pointed right at each other's head.
Who's gonna blink first?
[Kenny] And the forks are definitely keeping Hydra at bay.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] There's a mini flip.
David Jin doing an excellent job.
The stakes squared up to Hydra.
[Chris] Hydra just want to fire a flip so far
but now they're underneath Ribbot.
Will Jake pull the trigger?
No. And he resets.
[Kenny] I think the front ends on both the robots
are starting to wear down.
Something's gotta give here.
Well, we're more than halfway through.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] And there's that shot by David Jin.
A driving error by Jake Ewert.
[Kenny] Whoa!
[Chris] Here comes Ribbot now.
[Kenny] Uh-oh!
There's a gash on Hydra's side.
Didn't work.
[Chris] Ribbot now doing on the side.
Now taking Hydra for a spin.
[Kenny] And it looks like one of those shots
damaged Hydra's drive.
Jake Ewert's having trouble moving his bot.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Another.
[Chris] Big role set by Hydra last year.
Can the underfrog return the favor this time?
[Kenny] Ribbot really going to town now.
Oh my goodness.
What an upset this could be here, Chris.
[Chris] Under a minute to go.
The fourth seed
against this 28th seed.
I see inside of Hydra's bot.
That's not a good thing.
[Kenny] Uh, they're not moving.
This is gonna be a knockout.
40 seconds left to this fight.
[Chris] There's not much Jake Ewert can do.
Just sit there.
- [woman] Ten, nine, - [Chris] And there comes the countdown.
- ...eight, seven, six, - [Chris] A precise Ribbot.
- He's gonna end up moving - [woman] ...five,
- [Chris]...on to the semi finals - [woman]...four, three,
- [Chris] ...and avenge last season's playoff loss. - [woman] ...two, one.
Ribbot!
[all cheering]
[indistinct conversation]
[Chris] Kenny, this fight was on a razor's edge to start
but ultimately Ribbot's forking
got it over the line.
[Kenny] No doubt David Jin went all in
on staying squared up to Hydra
and daring Jake
to try and get underneath.
That strategy usually doesn't end well
for Hydra's opponents
but Ribbot's forks held strong.
[Chris] And after a series of near misses with the flipper.
Eventually Jake Ewert made the air and showed Ribbot his side.
[Kenny] Yeah, and credit to David Jin
for the excellent reaction time
to capitalize and attack.
[Chris] That shot seemed to badly damage Hydra's drive.
And after that, Ribbot just took full advantage.
[Kenny] I mean, look at that gash.
Forget what you thought you knew about Ribbot,
they are peaking at exactly the right time.
And now they're off to the semifinals.
[David] I am so stressed.
[Chris] David Jin.
David Jin.
Oh, hi.
Congratulations!
You are off to the semi-finals.
- Yeah! - [all cheering]
[Chris] David, how difficult was it
to be that patient against Hydra?
Um, I mean that's the name of the game.
With Jake, he's the most patient driver
in all of BattleBots.
He knows he needs to pick that perfect shot.
Um, it was extremely stressful.
If you could feel my heart right now,
it is leaving my body.
- [Chris laughs] - But, uh...
I... We... We had to wait.
We knew he would...
He would try to get under us.
We were trying to get under him.
I'm sure we were both staring
at the front edge of our forks
and seeing who is going under who.
Um, and you just gotta wait for the right shot.
At some point he got caught up
when he probably didn't expect to
and I got a nice corner shot.
After that, we just gotta go.
[audience cheering]
Hey, congratulations.
We will see you in the semis.
Thank you so much.
Let's go!
Yeah!
[speaking indistinctly]
I can't believe you guys sat that long.
- Yeah. - That was... That was excellent.
- That was very tense. - [laughing]
[Chris] So this is the end of the line
for the bad boy ofBattleBots .
Jake Ewert won't be satisfied
until he's got his hands on that trophy.
But Hydra certainly had a season to remember, Kenny.
[Kenny] No doubt, but you can't say enough
about the 28 seed Ribbot. Started the year
one in three, and here they are
one of the final 14s. Awesome.
[Chris] David Jin moves on to face his old mentor,
Jamison Go and SawBlaze in the semi-finals.
All right. Up next,
the 10 seed Copperhead is set to collide
with the two seed Riptide.
In the absence of Riptide captain Ethan Kurtz,
we're being told it'll be 17 year old Felix Jing
grabbing the sticks.
[Sid] Felix is the current Vex World Skills champion.
and so he's kind of the optimal choice
just given that he keeps calm
in, uh, tense situations.
[Chris] Can the highschooler handle the pressure
of the biggest stage this sport has to offer?
We're gonna find out
when the World Championship VII finale continues.
[Chris] Welcome back to the final night
of the BattleBots World Championship VII tournament.
And if your bracket ain't busted by now,
well, you must know something we don't
because three of the tournament's top four seeds
have been upset to start the night.
That includes number one ranked Minotaur.
And the trend could very well continue here
as team Riptide prepares to face Copperhead.
Because for the number two seed,
they got some tough news.
Their captain, their driver, Ethan Kurtz
is not around.
Unfortunately,
Ethan's tested positive for COVID
and is currently in quarantine.
Now, the rest of the team
and everyone they've been in contact with has tested negative.
And the decision has been made
to turn the driving duties
over to 17 year old high school student Felix Jing.
He is a championship Vex Robotics driver.
But he has never done anything quite like this.
This has rattled this team to its core.
It's quite a challenge ahead of them.
[Kenny] It's a huge blow,
especially considering Riptide's path to the final
is wide open
with the exit of End Game and Witch Doctor.
Obviously, this is still
an extremely dangerous robot
but Felix Jing has exactly zero seconds
of experience inside the battle box.
This is a huge task for him here.
It's gonna be really difficult,
but he's supposedly a very talented driver.
We'll see how it goes.
Oh, yeah, one other hurdle, kid.
You gotta deal with a number ten overall seed Copperhead.
Captained by Luke Quintal,
a guy that has oozed confidence
through the regular season and now into the playoffs.
[Kenny] Yeah, when we talked to him back in the pits,
he said, "I really wanna fight Riptide."
- I don't think I heard that from any other team. - No.
So he's coming in here very confident.
Cool headed Luke
believes he's got the most durable weapon
in this sport.
Copperhead's drum spinner
has only been shut down once
in 22 career fights.
That is just an insane stat
and we saw it in that upset over End Game.
Luke isn't afraid
to ram it straight down his opponent's throat.
I expect the same here against Riptide.
What happens when both of those weapons collide?
I have no idea.
Get ready for some epic hits.
A lot of unknown ahead of us.
Faruq.
[Faruq] In the red square
from Aurora, Colorado.
He'll put you in a mild hot vegetative state.
It's Copperhead!
[Chris] Team Copperhead.
- Their fearless leader Luke Quintal on the left. - Whoo!
Knocked out ROTATOR in the round of 32
and then the former champs End Game
in the round of 16.
This squad is cooking, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, Copperhead has been hitting so hard.
That drum just doesn't die, like, ever.
And Luke truly believes
if anyone could go toe to toe
with the undefeated Riptide and walk away, it's him.
And of course, it can't be hurting his confidence
that Ethan is out of the picture tonight.
In the blue square,
from Tarzana, California,
all the pool noodles in the world couldn't save you
from Riptide!
[all cheering]
[Chris] Well, Ethan Kurtz's not with the team,
but check this out.
His comrades are carrying him into the arena on FaceTime.
17 year old Felix Jing on the left in the glasses.
He'll be stepping in as the driver.
And Kenny, if this team is nervous
they ain't letting on.
[Kenny] Well, Riptide's put together
six devastating knockouts,
many in under a minute.
Now, how much of that success
can be attributed to the driving
of Ethan Kurtz,
I guess we'll find out in a few minutes.
But the team is fully behind Felix.
They don't think
anything can sink Riptide at this point.
Riptide has just been so dominant.
I mean, they fought a bunch of amazing robots
and the fight was over in a matter of seconds.
The same time, no one is,
they fought so far, is as terrible as Copperhead.
So the safest option for us
is just to go weapon to weapon
and, uh, don't let them hit our backside
and our wheels and our chains.
'Cause that's where Copperhead's vulnerable.
We don't think they're gonna break our weapon,
um, we think, on a mega impact,
we're more likely to break their weapon.
I wish I could be in the stands to watch this
'cause this is gonna be a real slug fest,
you know, it's not going three minutes.
It's gonna be spectacular.
It's gonna be the perfect match for the fans.
This'll be my first time
actually driving Riptide.
I'm carrying the burden of our whole team.
I'm also very confident in myself
and my ability as a driver.
I hope that I will be able to win this match
so that when Ethan comes back,
we can continue our winning streak.
Let's go!
[chanting] Riptide! Riptide!
Yeah! That's it!
That's what I'm talking about, baby. Let's go!
[audience chanting] Copperhead! Copperhead!
[electronic voice] Robots, activate.
[Chris] All right, the last spot
in the semi-finals is on the line.
Can the number two overall seed
rally behind the 17 year old Felix Jing?
Or will Luke Quintal be the first...
to make this Juggernaut stumble.
It's Riptide and Copperhead.
Anything can happen.
because it'sBattlebots, baby.
[Chris] Welcome back to theBattlebots World Championship VII Tournament,
where team Riptide is without their captain, Ethan Kurtz.
Their fate now rests in the hands of 17-year-old, Felix Jing,
Can the high-school senior keep his squad undefeated season
and run for the title of title alive
against the compact killer, Copperhead?
Do not blink!
[crowd cheering]
Felix Jing
making hisBattlebots debut here in the tournament quarter finals,
the veteran, Copperhead looms.
[beeps]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin.
And here comes the box rush by the kid, Felix.
[Kenny] Oh, going face-to-face with Copperhead.
- [Chris] Oh... - [Kenny] And delivered a huge shot out of the upper deck.
In fact, Copperhead is now inverted as it crawls off.
[Chris] Whoa! Good shot there. Uh-oh.
[Kenny] What a start for Felix Jing.
These are knock-out shots, Chris.
Unreal. You can just hear the energy coming off these machines.
- Copperhead has gotta get his way out of there. - [Chris] Ohh.
Huge hit! Riptide launches Copperhead up and to the side of the box.
[Kenny] Oh, look at this. Riptide maybe shot down after that shot.
[Chris] Uh-oh.
[Kenny] The bar is split in half on Riptide...
That Eggbeater is actually splitting in half.
That is enormous news
because Luke can tell that our weapon does not die.
We don't know if the same can be said for theirs.
Unreal.
So after a hot start,
Felix Jing has to survive the next two minutes without weapon,
find a way to stop Copperhead,
or at least exert some control.
The big question, is the 17-year-old up to task?
- You got it Felix. - Push!
Keep pushing. Keep pushing.
[Kenny] Copperhead trusted so much in their durability.
So far, they have been correct.
Riptide, though, pushing them around.
[Chris] Uh-oh.
[Kenny] Copperhead has to stay aggressive
and earn some points in the control category.
- [Chris] There's the shot... - [Kenny] Ohh.
[Chris] ... and now Riptide is on its head.
[Kenny] Riptide was winning the drive train battle
but, right now, they're inverting and very vulnerable here.
[Chris] Riptide is designed to be driven in this inverted position.
But do you think Copperhead will be able to win back some control here?
Riptide's weapon has been out for a minute now.
[Kenny] Copperhead, seeing if they can get around to the side
with a back here, Chris,
but they might want Riptide to stay in this inverted position.
because they're largely ineffective.
[Chris] Oh, taking at Riptide into the rails.
Copperhead's weapon still spinning.
Luke is now in control.
[Kenny] Still a little over a minute to go,
and Copperhead just all over Riptide.
Riptide needs some kind of a miracle to pull this one off.
[Chris] Felix is doing whatever he can to try and get Riptide back over.
- [Kenny] Oh. - [Chris] And in fact his opponent does it for him.
[Kenny] Oh, the rest of that Eggbeater drops off.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Whoa!
Oh, no!
Copperhead just lost a wheel.
[Kenny] Oh, my goodness. The right wheel just fell off.
Maybe it resulted from a violent early collision, who knows?
[Chris] Riptide may have an opening here.
[Kenny and Chris] Oh!
[Chris] This is unbelievable. Still 30 seconds left.
Can Riptide push and shove, and get Copperhead's other wheel off?
Felix Jing has the pin.
I'll play one more.
- Yeah! - [Chris] Trying to get him stuck into the side of the box
is, well, 20 seconds to go about.
- Back it up. - [man] Back up.
[Chris] All Copperhead has to do is get to that 10 second mark
and crab walk around the arena and get to a decision.
[Kenny] Copperhead just so tough, Chris, and their
weapon still spinning.
[Chris] Unbelievable with the force with which it hits.
This one is gonna go to the judges.
What a fight!
[Luke] We're done. We're done. We're done.
Whoo!
Still we have another upset.
Oh, ohh!
Yeah!
Copperhead! Copperhead!
Let's go!
Yeah!
[man] Let's go.
- Yeah! - [man] Whoo!
[Kenny] Luke Quintal at Copperhead told us, "Hey.
"Kenny, we are going nose-to-nose."
"We ain't afraid."
[Chris] And he put his money where his mouth is
went straight at Riptide and lived to tell the tale.
[Kenny] In the first 30 seconds,
this went exactly the way that Riptide wanted it.
And then it was that critical shot
that catapulted Copperhead nearly to the top of the box,
that really changed the complexion of this fight.
[Kenny] It came down to durability.
You see the Eggbeater drum, that nasty drum on Riptide actually split in half.
[Chris] Jeez.
[Kenny] You see that gash, right down the center there.
That's gonna be a difficult image to overcome for Riptide in eyes of the judges.
[Chris] Even without a weapon,
Felix Jing did a phenomenal job driving Riptide.
Showed great control in the middle of this fight.
[Kenny] No doubt, but credit to Luke Quintal for staying aggressive
and not running once he had the lead,
continued to engage,
and showed the judges just how unstoppable his robot really is.
[Chris] Uh, Copperhead got a little dicey for them when they had lost a wheel.
Because if they lose that other one, they ain't moving,
they would've gotten counted out.
Instead, this one goes to the judges.
Let's see who's off to the semis.
The results from the judges are in.
We have a split decision.
[crowd booing]
Judge Lisa,
scored the battle...
for... Copperhead.
Yeah!
Judge Derek scored the battle for...
Riptide.
- Whoo! - Yeah!
Yeah!
Judge Fon scored the battle...
for the winner...
Copperhead!
- [man 1] Oh, yes. - [man 2] Yes.
- [man 1] Oh, my God. - [man 2] Yes!
Holy cow.
Whoo! [laughs]
[Kenny] Luke, Chad, congratulations, guys.
You are one of the few teams, brave enough to say,
"Hey, you know what, we want a shot at Riptide."
Why were you confident heading into this fight?
Yeah, I mean, you know, you know,
the Copperhead's drum is just a, a brick in metal.
We don't think it's going anywhere, um...
Their, their weapon is crazy powerful,
but it has some thin sections around it,
you know, it's a Beater Bar and it stores a lot of energy.
Um, but, it's not as tough as Copperheads.
Well, congratulations. We will see you in the semi-finals.
- All right. Thank you. - Excellent job.
Thank you.
[Chris] Uh, team Riptide...
First of all, round of applause for Felix.
Seventeen-year-old, high-school student,
from Los Angeles.
VEX driving champion, outstanding.
Uh, Sid...
It's very hard to win a fight without your number one driver.
- Yes, it is. - [Chris] Ethan, obviously, could not be here.
What, sort of, shockwaves did that send throughout your team?
You know, uh, Ethan's an integral part of our team.
He brings the energy up in the room, uh, any room.
Uh, and he's amazing driver as well, uh, so...
Hearing the news that he can't make it
was obviously... uh, really hard for us.
Um, but...
We wouldn't be Riptide
if we didn't face adversity every single match.
Uh, being weight three times before, being checked multiple times,
uh, we know what it's like to face adversity.
So we were ready for this.
Uh and, obviously, Felix put on an amazing show for the audience.
Uh, and that's what we're here for.
[Chris] Well, you certainly did your captain and your entire team proud.
Congratulations on a truly unforgettable sophomore season.
Thank you so much. We appreciate it.
- Good fight. - Thank you so much.
Congratulations.
[Chris] There's no doubt there were fans around the world
that had Riptide winning it all in brackets.
No one could've seen things ending quite the way it did tonight.
But, hey! Love 'em or hate 'em,
Ethan Kurtz and company have arrived in a major way.
They will be one of the true favorites
to take home the Giant Nut come next season.
And how about this for a plot twist.
With Copperhead advancing to face Huge,
all four of the tournament's top seeds have fallen to start the night.
Expect the unexpected in the semi-finals, folks.
There's only three fights left before we crown the champion.
Who's it going to be?
Find out whenBattlebots continue.
[Chris] Welcome back toBattlebots World Champion VII Tournament,
where we are all set to kick off the semi-finals.
We've got the articulating Hammer Saw.
The eight seed, SawBlaze.
led by the singularly focused Jamison Go,
who began hisBattlebots career years ago as a student at MIT.
The under frog.
The 28 seed modular spinner, Ribbot, captained by David Jin.
Barely squeaked into the bracket
and is now one win away from the final.
The meta breaking six seed.
The big boy, Huge.
Still undefeated in its comeback season
after Jonathan Schultz considered retiring the robot last year.
And the little bot that could.
- [Faruq] Copperhead! - [Kenny] Luke Quintal's ten seed Copperhead.
One of the toughest machines we have ever seen do battle inside the box.
One of these teams will lay claim
to the most coveted trophy in all of robot combat,
the Giant Nut.
Let's jump right into our first semifinal match up.
It's the winner of quadrant one, SawBlaze,
taking on the winner of quadrant four... Ribbot.
These two teams know each other very well. They've battled back in 2019.
That's, basically, when Ribbot was a tadpole in their infancy.
- [laughs] - Now David Jin and the entire team
they admitted,
this is not the fight we wanted here in the final four.
[Kenny] This is a tough matchup for them. No question about it.
And remember, Jamison was a mentor to David Jin.
early on in his career.
They're now rivals.
Does that relationship give Jamo the upper hand here?
Or does David have the inside track
on what his old friend may be planning?
Fun wrinkle to this one.
[Chris] Well, one of these squads is headed to the championship match.
Let's hear it from the captains.
We have this spreadsheet of all the competitors
And we have the list of configurations of how we would,
basically, handle them and what we expect them to run.
The two enigmas, ironically, were Ribbot and Huge.
Ribbot's known for their modular game.
It's really difficult to strategize
because you never knew which weapon system they're going to take.
And that would really spell disaster
if you pick the wrong defense ability type.
If he gets caught once,
the Hammer Saw will come down and it will come down hard.
And I don't know if there's enough top armor in the world
that can save him from that.
May the best green bot win.
I think Jamo is, probably, the most prepared builder.
I think that makes it so... It's so hard to surprise him.
It's really hard to catch him off guard.
SawBlaze, itself, is somewhat of a glass cannon.
Um, in the sense that, if you land the right hit on the right spot,
you can do a, a ton of damage in one hit.
We need to force an opening somehow.
Um, and if that opening arises,
we need to be ready to pounce on it.
However, if we rush it,
and we end up not waiting for that opening, and going straight into the plough,
probably, not gonna end very well for us.
[automated voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] Kenny, David Jin's going with his vertical spinner here.
And it looks like Jamison chose correctly.
He set up to counter it with his front forks.
What are the keys to victory for Ribbot?
[Kenny] Well, Ribbot needs to strike first and strike hard
When SawBlaze is playing the bully, it's almost unbeatable.
David has to find a way
to put Jamison on the defensive and make him react.
And here's one last nugget to chew on.
Every one of SawBlaze's tournament losses have come at the hands of...
a vertical spinner.
[crowd chanting] Ribbot! Ribbot! Ribbot! Ribbot!
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight!
[beeps]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin.
Jamison Go. Uh-oh. He got around to the side of the frog.
[Kenny] Oh, looks like SawBlaze's fork is hooked under Ribbot's wheel.
And these two aren't slowing down, Chris.
[Chris] Yeah. They're definitely locked in a death spin.
But are they stuck, Kenny? That's the big question.
[Kenny] Think it's less about being stuck
and more about not getting hit.
If one of them pumps the brakes here, they're getting rocked.
If I stop turning, he's gonna hit me.
[Chris] Okay. So Jamison Go confirms what Kenny just said.
Both weapons bully spun up.
And with a spot in the finals on the line,
- neither driver is backing down - [crowd] Ohh!
Just keep him, keep him pointed. Keep him pointed.
You gotta push him. You got this.
[Chris] Davin Jin seems like he's the one steering the ship now.
Bringing it back to the middle.
[Kenny] There we go.
[Chris] All right, 2:12 on the clock.
Time to take the gloves off, boys.
[Kenny] Ribbot's trying to use it's speed advantage here, but...
- [Chris] Excellent timing by Jamison Go. - [Kenny] Uh-oh.
- [Chris] Oh. - [Kenny] Oh. Wow.
[Kenny] That's the frog's suit on top of that Hammer Saw.
[Chris] I am seeing some flame potentially in Ribbot
That shot might have done some internal damage.
Oh, yeah. There is a plume smoke coming out of Ribbot.
And that weapon is not spinning any more either.
[Kenny] Oh, they might just be powering it down because of the smoke.
But let's see if Jamison can take advantage.
[Chris] David Jin doing a really good job holding them off, though.
[Kenny] So far that fork configuration on Ribbot is saving...
[Chris] SawBlaze's trying to take him into the screws of the upper deck
- and we got serious smoke. - [Kenny] Ohh!
[Chris] Here comes the Hammer Saw as well.
[Kenny] Uh-oh.
[Chris] Into the rails.
[Kenny] SawBlaze just bullying Ribbot out there right now.
[Chris] Thankfully, Ribbot's drive is still working,
but that's about it.
[Kenny] And thick white clouds usually means a battery fire, Chris.
This could get ugly.
[Chris] And... Oh, again into the rails next to the upper deck.
And it does look like Ribbot's weapon is out of commission.
But, either way, David Jin has got to get off that plough.
Closing in on the one minute mark.
With under a minute to go, the Kill Saw's will be active.
All right, Kenny.
We're gonna need Sky Chopper seven to start giving us an area.
- [Kenny] Oh. - [Chris] Oh, there we go.
I can see the flames from here.
[Kenny] Oh, boy.
[Chris] Oh.[laughs] No.
Man, onto the upper deck.
[Kenny] Ribbot just looking like a mess out there in the battle box.
[Chris] But somehow Ribbot is still working.
Unbelievable resilience... out of David Jin and his team.
- [Kenny] Wow. - [Chris laughs]
Jamison Go not letting up, doing an incredible job
staying aggressive and keeping Ribbot in a chokehold.
telling his old buddy, "I'm the man up in the this box."
Unreal. Under 20 to go.
SawBlaze's trying to put the finishing touches on the under frog again.
Putting him on the upper deck.
[Kenny] Just pure dominance here from Jamison Go.
[Chris] The final few ticks.
And all that stands between SawBlaze and a berth in the final.
is a judge's decision.
[crowd cheering]
[man] Come on. Let's go.
[Chris] A remarkable job by Ribbot to persevere and make it the distance
but, man, without a weapon,
and on the wrong side of it.
So this first semi-final goes to the judges' scorecard.
Well after the two tangoed for the better part of 40 seconds.
[Kenny laughs]
The frog catch and release program did not benefit Ribbot.
[Kenny] No, it did not.
David Jin went in for a shot right after they separated,
but Jamison read it perfectly.
Trapped Ribbot on the rails and landed this devasting overhead strike.
Look at how deep the Hammer Saw goes.
[Chris] And for the second time in as many fights,
SawBlaze sinks its teeth into a set of batteries,
sends a fight into chaos,
this time disabling his opponents weapon.
[Kenny] Yeah. Once Ribbot's weapon went down, SawBlaze just took over.
Jamo, once again, dominating with the dustpan,
bullied Ribbot around the box.
and even on to the upper deck.
One of the most complete matches we've ever seen from Jamison Go.
[Chris] And now a shot at the Nut awaits,
here's Faruq to make it official.
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is...
SawBlaze.
[all cheering]
Whoo!
- Yeah! - Let's go team.
- Ah! - Ah!
[crowd chanting] SawBlaze! SawBlaze! SawBlaze! SawBlaze! SawBlaze! SawBlaze!
[Chris] Jamison Go, congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you.
[Chris] Dude that was a wild start to that fight.
Tell us what happened out there.
That bit in the beginning where were dancing, I know it was adorable,
but it was really scary actually.
So we're trying to separate, I knew that if I stopped turning,
then he would quickly, like, turn into us and hit us in the side.
So I kept turning and kept going straight
and was like, "I don't know what to do here." Somehow we got out.
Uh, and we're able to, you know, reposition.
The second engagement was when we got a good grip on the side
and then we brought the hammer down.
Jamison, congratulations. We will see you later tonight in the final.
You are one win away from the Giant Nut.
Thank you.
[Chris] So after six seasons of non-stop effort,
Jamison Go breaks on through to the final.
What a moment.
And for David Jin and Ribbot,
a phenomenal run after a very rough start to their season.
[Kenny] Incredible. They never gave up.
They got to the top four robots in the world.
That's amazing.
[Chris] All right. All of you that had SawBlaze doing this
in your bracket are feeling just fine,
thank you very much.
But, who will join Jamison Go on the mountain top?
The semi-finals continue next.
As Huge versus Copperhead Championship night
kicks into high gear.
After the break.
We are back on BattleBots World Championship VII
and we have some news,
after losing by a split decision in the last round.
team Riptide did end up filing an appeal.
The judges reviewed the fight footage,
but the only change was that Derek Young
who originally ruled in favor of Riptide,
actually awarded Copperhead an additional aggression point
which made it a unanimous decision
for Luke Quintal's squad.
Now, Copperhead turns their attention to the semifinals,
in a duel with the 7 and 0, Huge.
[Kenny] Well, when it comes to geometry,
this is about as big of a mismatch as it gets,
but each of these robots, has a superpower, Chris.
For Huge, it's size advantage not only gives it
a unique attack angle,
it helps in the war of attrition.
The chassis of Huge really hasn't been touched this season.
And for Copperhead, it's the weapon that will not die,
it's six-in-one, heading into this fight,
and that drum spinner has looked absolutely invincible.
But, what a moment for both teams,
and the first year Captain Luke,
has taken Copperhead further than it's ever been by slaying giants.
And for Jonathan Schultz, he's legitimized a design
unlike any other in this sport.
[audience cheering]
Ready to find the second finalist?
It's gonna be crazy.
You guys ready?
[crowd cheering]
Let's do this thing.
- Faruq? - [audience cheering]
[Faruq] In the red square,
Luke Quintal is a quick and accurate striker.
Down in the pits, he's a real pit viper.
This snake has a bite for which there's no cure.
He doesn't shed his skin, but he will shred yours.
It's Copperhead!
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Cool-headed Luke Quintal is the captain.
Chad New is the weapons operator rolling out Copperhead,
And the snake has its eyes on the prize, Kenny.
[Kenny] Looking through the eyes of Huge, it may be imagining
it was a bigger boy, but remember the age-old saying,
it's not the size of the snake in the fight,
it's the size of the fight in the snake.
And Copperhead is a killer, one win away from the final.
[audience cheering]
In the blue square, they're kind of a big deal
like Ron Burgundy said, "This anchorman in
a glass box of emotion that'll make you dead."
You'll lose 60% of the time every time,
a trail of bodies where ever they go.
They'll run you over with a friendly,
"Go fix yourself Santiago."
It's Huge!
- [dramatic music playing] - [audience cheering]
[Chris] Captain Jonathan Schultz,
the man trailing Huge.
When he was six years old, he saw an episode
of BattleBots on TV and his life changed forever, Kenny.
[Kenny] That's right, he started by constructing robots out of LEGOs,
built a vertical spinning bot as a 22 year old
for a college project.
But after losing at his first competition,
he said to himself, "I can spend my time copying everyone
or I could build something that could destroy everyone."
He's been obsessed with this design ever since.
There's two robots in this competition
that I was most afraid of.
One was End Game, the other one is Huge.
So, after taking out End Game, I felt you know,
maybe we could go all the way.
Copperhead has exposed chains on the top.
It's really hard for us to cover those up,
so that's a major vulnerability.
Our strategy in this match is actually to
spin our weapon backwards,
and just run into Huge.
When you spin down, while they're spinning up,
you're actually multiplying that impact by two
and very few robots are designed to take
that kind of impact.
Our number one goal is disable their weapon
and if we can accomplish that, I think we can get the win.
We're gonna be changing our strategy to target
the front of Copperhead that are not going to result
in us breaking ourselves ideally.
The wheels are soft and exposed.
They have all these exposed chains that power the drive.
Nobody can hit them, but we hit differently than other people.
Your ability to beat End Game is generally pretty irrelevant
to your ability to beat Huge.
So, I hope they have no experience
fighting something like me and they'll be
fighting it on the fly.
It still hasn't sunken in yet
to be even in that conversation,
to be threatening for the Giant Nut
is...is, I've already won.
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] All right, Kenny, so after 23 career fights,
Team Copperhead's decided to spin its weapon
in a downwards motion for the very first time.
That's the opposite direction of Huge.
Are they onto somethin' here?
[Kenny] Well, check this out, Luke said he got the idea
after Copperhead was flipped on its head against End Game
and then hit the Kiwis in a downward motion.
Because End Game was spinning upwards,
it doubled the force of the impact and ultimately,
broke End Game's weapon.
Luke's betting that he can recreate that magic here
against Huge in the biggest fight of his life.
[audience chanting] Huge! Huge!
[Chris] It's the story of David and Goliath
in robot form.
The small but mighty Copperhead
versus the towering giant Huge.
The winner advances to the promised land,
whenBattleBots continues.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to the BattleBots
World Championship VII semi-finals,
featuring the ten seed, Copperhead,
the six seed, Huge.
We know Luke Quintal isn't afraid to send
his compact killer straight into his opponent's weapon.
The question is, which robot will survive the clash.
[audience cheering]
[robotic crescendo]
[audience chanting] Fight! Fight!
[Chris] Copperhead.
Huge.
The winner meets SawBlaze for a chance at the Giant Nut.
[buzzer sounds]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Here comes Huge on the attack.
They are going weapon to weapon.
Copperhead ends up right under Huge.
Oh, there we go!
[Kenny] That's the impact Luke was looking for.
[grunts] But he can't take too many of those overhead shots.
Copperhead is exposed up there.
[Chris] Copperhead doesn't look good, Kenny.
A little off center.
- Look at that. - [Kenny] Oh, there it is.
Here's the drive chain of Copperhead pulled right off,
after that shot from Huge.
And Copperhead definitely hurt.
It's kinda crab walking now.
Huge continues to attack. His weapon is still spinning.
But, Luke Quintal has lost the drive on the right side.
[Kenny] We've seen this before from Copperhead.
The weapon is virtually indestructible.
But the drive has the tendency to die and die quickly.
[Chris] So, they're just kind of a sitting duck at this point.
Huge is just gonna keep rolling over methodically.
[Kenny] Young may have to be a little bit more precise.
Looks like they're trying to attack the wheels of Copperhead.
That's one of the things they said they would try.
[Chris] We did see the wheel come off against Riptide.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
that's a terrible spot for Copperhead to be in.
Whoa!
Just so much gyroscopic action there from Copperhead, they had no control.
Huge looking to take advantage of.
Huge has... oh no, Copperhead has started smoking.
[Kenny] Uh-oh.
[Chris] Kenny, I think that weapon is dead.
[Kenny] Copperhead in serious trouble.
[Chris] Exactly what Luke Quintal the captain told us would not happen.
[Kenny] Oh man, Huge just looking dominant here against Copperhead.
[Chris] Jonathan Schultz is already cheering with his team against Copperhead.
The drum is dead, the wheels are dead.
Their death is a first in the finals.
Dead. Wow.
Now Huge, a bot which didn't even know they would be
returning for season VII.
It's now one victory away from hoisting the the Giant Nut.
[all cheering]
[crowd booing]
[Chris] Kenny, Copperhead had no choice but to dance with the devil.
That is the blade of Huge, and they paid the price.
[Kenny] Yeah, Luke Quintal had that counter rotational strategy in place,
but these early overhead shots from Huge were just too much.
Got to the drive chain and from there,
it was open season on Copperhead.
[Chris] And neither End Game nor Riptide could accomplish
what Huge did in the end of this match.
Stop the unstoppable, Copperhead's weapon.
[Kenny] Very impressive, Copperhead gyroing
out of control as a result of those drive issues
and Huge with a devastating shot
that disabled the drum spinner
and ended Copperhead's march to the title.
[Chris] What a moment for Jonathan Schultz and his crew.
[audience cheering]
Jonathan Schultz,
congratulations to you and team Huge.
You are one win away
from hoisting the Giant Nut my friend.
[audience cheering]
Good job, guys.
Just a little Huge in the big city, doing its best.
[audience laughing]
Jonathan, how did you get here?
[laughs]
We built a robot that actually works when it got here.
We built a robot that we practiced with.
We built a robot where we knew what we were gonna do
when we went into the fights.
And all of that sounds normal, but it took five years
for us to learn that and do all of it,
'cause we're basically the only people
doing this right now.
We have to place every trail ourselves
and forget how to beat everybody.
This year, it all came together.
[audience cheering]
Jonathan, congratulations.
Once again, let's hear it for team Huge, everybody.
See you in the final.
[audience] Huge!
[audience applauding]
Kenny, you could see the sense of pride
on Jonathan Schultz's face.
- [Kenny] He can't stop laughing. - [Chris] Right.
[Kenny] It's almost like he can't believe it.
But, you are here my friend. You've done amazing,
and again, I don't know if they've made a mistake
all year, it's unbelievable.
[Chris] And what a run it was for team Copperhead.
The little tank came up big this season.
Congratulations to new captain, Luke Quintal.
All right, when we come back,
it's the culmination of the most,
epic season ofBattleBots yet.
It's two designs unlike any other,
in the fight for the Giant Nut.
It's SawBlaze and Huge,
in our World Championship VII Finale,
and it is next onBattleBots.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to the finale
of World Championship VII.
We've got a crowd that is ready to pop,
here in theBattleBots arena and that's because,
Kenny Florian, it is time to crown a new world champion.
After 130 fights, it has all come down to this.
It has been a night full of controversy, upsets,
and some of the greatest fights we have ever seen.
And now our field of 50
is down to just two.
The eight seed, SawBlaze
and the six seed Huge.
One of these meta breaking designs will be the next bot,
with a banner hanging in the rafters,
which could signal a seismic shift to the evolution of the sport.
[Faruq] Nearly 30 years ago,
in the nascent age of robot combat,
an emerging field of heavy weights was dominated by
durable, wide-body machines with oversized weapons.
But, over time, the meta or dominant design,
shifted toward a more mobile and efficient way
to rip a robot to shreds.
The four-wheel drive vertical spinner.
[man] Oh!
[man] Oh, my gosh!
[man] Wow!
[Faruq] The last four world championships
have all been won by four wheel verts.
But with technology and the sport advancing exponentially,
it was only a matter of time,
before the meta was broken.
[Chris] Typically, we don't see a blade
that is that dangerous,
that's a bot to be reckoned with.
You know, in an era where most bots are compact,
and low to the ground,
he's betting that opponents are gonna have a lot of trouble
figuring out how to attack it.
[Faruq] Now, two robots with designs wildly different
from previous winners, will square off in the final fight
of World Championship VII.
For Jamison Go, and the articulating arm of SawBlaze,
it's been a nearly 10-year journey,
defined by hard work,
dedication, and constant improvement.
This is the future of combat robotic Sawblades.
[Chris] This is unbelievable, Kenny.
[Kenny] Sheer domination from Jamison Go.
[all exclaiming]
[Faruq] And for Jonathan Schultz and the colossal wheels of Huge,
this moment is the vindication of an idea some said was too crazy,
to succeed in a 250-pound weight class.
[Chris] Direct hit by Huge.
One of the whackiest designs we've seen in years,
putting on an impressive show.
Yeah!
[all exclaiming]
[Faruq] Both teams have had their failures along the way...
[man] This fight is over.
[Faruq] ...but now, only three minutes
sits between them and the history books.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Both teams are moments away
from entering the battle box.
Kenny, how do these two machines match up?
[Kenny] Well again, very unconventional designs,
Jonathan Schultz's frame sits 19 inches above the ground.
But, SawBlaze is one of the few robots with a weapon
that can reach Huge.
That being said, both captains are making modifications,
for this championship battle.
Jonathan Schultz is switching to the Tegris wheels for this fight.
Tegris is a harder material than UHMW plastic,
and these wheels will be tougher to carve up.
Jamison Go on the other hand is taking more of a risk.
Between fights, Jamo took one of his plows, inverted it,
and then welded it to the front of SawBlaze,
to create sort of a heavy duty cradle.
The idea is that it'll catch
Jonathan's blade like a baseball mitt,
hopefully stop the weapon from spinning.
And then Jamo can use two new eyebrow attachments
to control Huge.
My concern is that when Huge hits the cradle,
SawBlaze is gonna go flying.
It's definitely a gamble in the biggest match of his career,
Jamison Go is winging it.
It has been a remarkable season. You ready?
Let's do it.
Are you guys ready?
[audience cheering]
Let's go find the winner of this season's Giant Nut.
Faruq, take it away.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
[all cheering and applauding]
It's Championship Robot fighting time.
[dramatic music playing]
[Faruq] In the red square,
if you're calling something big,
there's vast amounts of synonyms.
You'll find tons in the tall tales of how extensive
this bot's winning is.
Enormous odds against him when he faced Scorpio's wrath,
but in the stars it was written, that he'd be splitting him in half.
A gigantic underdog to MaDCatTer,
but still he delivered.
He neutered the kitty and threw the body in the river.
To beat Witch Doctor would be a colossal upset,
that's what they heard them say, but he rolled up saying,
"Move Witch, get out the way."
They said the towering power of Copperhead,
would be too much to take,
But he'll be headed to the finals,
'cause he beheaded the snake.
Now, he'll leave SawBlaze, massively battered, scattered, shattered,
'cause there's infinite words for big
but only one word that matters.
It's, Huge!
- [audience cheering] - [dramatic music playing]
[Chris] Nobody better than Faruq,
telling the story of the season of Huge.
[audience] Huge!
[Chris] It's personality as large as its wheels,
the captain, the creator, Jonathan Schultz.
So proud, the man in the middle.
[Kenny] Yeah, we've talked about it, but he almost
retired Huge after last season.
This is why he and his team put all those hours in,
during the off season.
Hard work pays off.
Jonathan's also going with a lighter weight blade here,
which has allowed them to add more armor to the frame.
[Faruq] In the blue square.
It takes precision to be a champion.
It takes a plan to win a title.
First they saw their bracket,
then they blazed the path out to the finals.
The flipper, Blip, got too close
and soon, was filled with dread
when that giant blade dropped and put a hole up in his head.
They had clear skies until they had to face Monsoon.
How would they respond?
The British bot got fried like fish and chips
and sent back across the pond.
With Minotaur on deck, they could've waved the white flag.
But they dodged the bull in the all-time classic
and put 'em in a body bag.
Last up was Ribbot, who was quickly cast aside
when they chopped the frog wide open
and took Mr. Toad on a wild ride.
Now they have a Huge obstacle in their way.
Prepare to be amazed when they chop this
giant bot to the ground and we say, "They came,
they saw, they blazed." Give it up
for SawBlaze!
[cheering]
[Chris] Jamison Go, a man who has been in the top 16,
the top eight a couple of times,
the semi-finals a season ago,
now a step away from the holy grail.
And there's that attachment you were talking about, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, they built it in about 20 minutes.
If it works, Jamo's a genius.
If it doesn't, this is a move we'll be talking about
for a long time.
But it's been incredible to watch both these teams
rise to the top over the years.
Huge is one of those weird robots
that, you know, many people don't have a good answer for.
There's a lot of improv in this build right now.
Basically, it's kind of like a, uh, elevated dust pan per se.
We're gonna have to use the rest of the cradle apparatus
to, uh, move Huge around
and position correctly to deliver the hammer saw.
If Huge can clear our obstacles
and damage our weapon systems,
that's gonna be a victory for Huge.
When I see those banners, I wonder
what each one of those teams, those drivers felt
when they were in their finals.
I look forward to knowing what that feels like.
I fight more random attachments
than I fight normal robots.
I think that it's one of those things where they're gonna see
that their strategy may not be as good as they thought it would be.
Where the arm comes over the top on SawBlaze
is the central hub. It powers the arm,
it runs a belt out to the spinner.
If we can throw our blade up there two or three times
and survive it, we may hit something.
I mean, how do you not take the shot at the self-destruct button?
Even if it's risky, if you hit it, you win.
After years of working so hard on the robot,
it's a validation of everything we've done.
We will be a runner-up or a champion forever.
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] Ladies and gentlemen, this is it.
These two captains have been dreaming about this moment
since they were little kids.
SawBlaze.
Huge.
This sport will change forever.
And we will crown a champion,
next
onBattleBots.
[Chris] Welcome back to the conclusion of theBattleBots
World Championship VII tournament,
where we are now just moments away from finding out
which of our finalists will hoist the Giant Nut.
Jamison Go and SawBlaze are using
an untested and potentially risky attachment,
while Jonathan Schultz and Huge are sticking
with what's kept them perfect all season.
Three minutes stand between them
and the history books.
Here we go.
[crowd cheering] SawBlaze!
[Chris] Years of hard work and perseverance have led
these teams to this moment.
Now one will become a champion.
[beeping]
Let the battle for the Giant Nut begin.
A box rush by SawBlaze as the game--
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Sticking his nose right in there
and doing a 360 is Jamo.
[Kenny] Yeah, Huge able to launch SawBlaze.
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] This was the fear with that attachment.
[Chris] It's already taken three shots, Kenny.
- [Kenny exclaims] - [Chris] And a huge one there.
[man] We've got him locked on the box.
[Chris] What a start for Schultz.
[Kenny] Huge continues to uppercut SawBlaze.
[Chris] And oh! Watch it.
Oh, he landed almost on top of Huge!
[Kenny] Huge is out to a big lead.
[Chris] Oh, my goodness.
That's half dozen shots in the first 30 seconds by Huge.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] And SawBlaze
takes the big fella into the rails.
[Kenny] SawBlaze starting to come back. Chris, look at this.
- [Chris] A push and a shot. - [Kenny exclaims]
[indistinct shouting]
[Kenny] He may have disabled the weapon.
He's trying to go for those weapon belts.
There are some weapon belts on the floor.
Do they belong to SawBlaze or Huge?
[Chris] Well, it looks like both robots' weapons
are fully functional at this point.
What an impressive sequence from SawBlaze nonetheless
as Huge lands a couple of quick jabs.
Jamison Go still looking to make up ground
after that opening barrage from Huge.
Trying to attack those Tegris wheels now
and push him into the upper deck.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Oh, and Huge fights back.
SawBlaze on its head, Able to self-right,
but a dicey moment there for Jamison Go.
[Kenny] SawBlaze continues to feed that cradle attachment
into the weapon of Huge. And now,
using those eyebrows to pin it.
[Chris] SawBlaze utilizing that hammer saw nicely.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] And again!
[Kenny] We had our doubts but this is turning out to be
an effective game plan for Jamison Go.
[Chris] Oh, and the pulverizer gets a shot on SawBlaze.
[Kenny] This is an amazing drivers match here.
Jonathan Schultz trying to get some space,
trying to get that blade up to full speed.
[Chris] Jamison Go right on top of Huge.
Approaching a minute to go in our title fight
and it is neck and neck.
[Kenny] This is very similar to what...
- [Chris exclaims] - ...a grappler would do against
a high-level striker just jamming him up,
giving him no space to breathe, Chris.
[Chris] SawBlaze picking Huge from end to end
in the battle box. Under a minute to go.
- The Kill Saws are active. - [Kenny exclaims]
[Chris] Who will make that final push?
Who will get their hands on the Giant Nut, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, SawBlaze certainly winning the control battle here,
in the back half of this fight as Jamison Go,
lands another shot with the hammer saw.
Huge hanging tough. This one is gonna go down to the wire, Chris.
[Chris] SawBlaze remaining in control
utilizing the battle box to its advantage.
Thirty seconds to go in this season.
[Kenny] This is the first time we've seen Huge slow down
all year. Will it be enough?
[man] You got it, captain. You got it.
[Chris] Jamison Go shoves Huge into the rails.
- [Kenny exclaims] - [Chris] Fifteen seconds to go
as that hammer saw is running wild...
- [Kenny] Oh! - ...and now it's gone in a plume of smoke.
[Kenny] SawBlaze staying aggressive throughout this, Chris.
[Chris] Under ten to go in this season.
[Kenny] Oh, wow!
[Chris] Frontwards shot by SawBlaze, is it enough?
Thunderous applause outside of the box
as the championship fight
now goes to the judges.
Wow.
[Kenny] Both teams spinning their weapons showing the judges
that they are indeed still active.
What a fight.
[Chris] Both veterans emptying their tanks
in pursuit of a title. Who is it gonna be?
[all cheering]
[Chris] Jamison Go celebrating,
while Jonathan Schultz stays focused.
And will you look at this.
We are being told the judges are heading
into the box to assess the damage.
That would actually indicate it's gonna be a very close decision.
They wanna make sure they get this thing right.
- Good job. - [man] We did it, bro.
We made it.
That was good, we've nearly made it.
[Chris] Will Huge be the newest team to hoist the Giant Nut?
Or will it be SawBlaze?
We will have the decision when the season finale
ofBattleBots continues.
[Chris] We are back for the conclusion of theBattleBots season.
Our championship fight between SawBlaze and Huge
went the full three minutes.
And with the Giant Nut on the line,
the judges have been inside the box
during the break assessing the damage firsthand.
[Kenny] I mean, I would be in there as well
assessing the damage because this one, Chris, was so close.
[Chris] So Kenny, we rarely see this type of up close inspection.
What exactly are the judges looking for here?
[Kenny] Well, this was such an even match, Chris,
and details matter. If someone lost a belt,
whose belt was it? Is the damage they're seeing superficial?
Is it critical?
Things like that. Overall, they just wanna make sure
they get this call right. These teams,
obviously, have everything on the line here.
I mean, this was so close, Chris.
[indistinct conversation]
- Good job. - It was awesome.
Thank you.
[Chris] So the three judges, Lisa Winter, Fon Davis,
and Derek Young are now back at their judges scores table.
And now the future of the sport is left in their hands.
Kenny, as we take a look at this title fight,
what a remarkable start by Huge.
[Kenny] It was unbelievable.
The raw power of that weapon was on full display
to start this match.
[Chris] Jonathan Schultz launching SawBlaze
head over heels repeatedly. And if you're a SawBlaze fan,
you were holding your breath for this stretch.
But Jamison Go weathered the storm, Kenny.
[Kenny] No doubt, able to eat those shots with the cradle attachment.
Then pushed back with those Tegris eyebrows.
And it was hard to see in the moment, Chris,
but it was this strike from SawBlaze
that snapped the pair of the weapon belts on Huge.
And I think that changed the complexion of this fight.
[Chris] Well, the giant was unfazed, it was able to stay spinning,
stay aggressive, and keep punching.
[Kenny] Yeah, big upper cut here
that put SawBlaze on its head.
And look how close Jonathan came to taking out SawBlaze's weapon.
Jamison able to pull it out of harm's way just in time.
[Chris] All right, Kenny, a title's on the line.
How are the judges gonna break this down?
[Kenny] Well, listen, we had our doubts
but Jamison's configuration proved to be a stroke of genius.
And I think won SawBlaze the control category.
I can see aggression going to Huge
because of the sheer ferocity of that opening 30 seconds.
But when it comes to damage, although he didn't break it,
I think Jamison took some sting out of Huge's weapon
by snapping those belts. In my opinion,
Huge landed the more memorable shots
but it was SawBlaze that left the judges
with a powerful final impression.
A masterful finish by Jamison Go.
This is going to be close.
[Chris] It is time to crown a champion. Faruq.
The results from the judges are in.
We have a unanimous decision.
Your BattleBots World Champion is...
SawBlaze!
[all shouting and cheering]
[crowd cheering]
[Jonathan] Well done.
[Kenny] Jamison Go.
Congratulations, you are a World Champion.
[screaming]
We are World Champion.
We are Team SawBlaze.
It's not just me, it's everyone.
It's Team SawBlaze right here. [sighs]
- It's a-- - Jamison, what's going through your heart right now?
Energy drinks.
[all laughing]
Well, congratulations.
I know you wanna get your hands on the Giant Nut.
But because this fight was so close,
we do have to ask Jonathan Schultz
whether or not there will be an appeal.
- [crowd exclaims] - [Kenny] Jonathan,
Team Huge, will you be appealing this decision?
The only appeal would be if we had won.
I think it was the right call.
- We will not be appealing the decision. - Oh.
- [crowd cheering] - I will not make you go through that.
[Kenny] Classy maneuver.
When we come back,
we will hand out the Giant Nut to Team SawBlaze.
That and more coming your way on the road to the Giant Nut.
Do not go anywhere.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God, it's real.
- Is it? - It's not a dream.
Is it?
Jonathan, uh, that was obviously a crazy close final.
Went to judges' decision. Uh, what are your emotions right now?
I mean, I'm just so proud, uh, of everything to do with the final.
Proud of my team, proud of getting here,
proud of the season we had, and proud of,
you know, such a unique robot winning the Giant Nut.
Both you guys made modifications in the fight.
It was a close one. What do you think
the difference was, uh, in that fight?
Yeah, I think their modifications eventually worked
like what he was looking for out of it.
It gave us a lot of opportunities to extend
the fight and win it in the beginning.
But in the end, once he took the belts off of our weapon,
slowed it down a lot, and then we just didn't have
the power to swing the fight like we were in the beginning.
But that's the power of SawBlaze, they get one hit
on a critical area and that cut our spinner power in half.
So he just controlled it from there.
Jonathan, you and your team had a brilliant run,
- undefeated heading into the final. - Yeah.
It was very close. You guys almost had it.
Uh, congratulations on a brilliant run.
Thank you very much. It's--
It's just been such a journey.
- So thank you. - You're welcome.
[crowd cheering]
Hey, Daddy, I did-- I did it.
[Chris] We are back onBattleBots
and what a night it's been.
We've just witnessed Jamison Go and Team SawBlaze
take down Huge to become the newest World Champion.
[Jamison] Oh, my goodness.
- [laughs] - Is this real?
Soak it in, dude.
SawBlaze, SawBlaze, SawBlaze!
How long have you been competing in robot competition?
I've honestly lost count.
It's gotta be, like, 18, 19 years.
You were just a teenager when you started, right?
- Oh, yeah. Yeah. - If not younger.
And how long have you been dreaming of this moment?
Since I started. I mean, BattleBots,
that was the thing that I--
that I saw that got me inspired
and to do engineering, period.
So when I first saw BattleBots and the Giant Nut,
that was automatically-- that's what I'm searching for.
The Giant Nut, so...
It took a long time, but you know,
perseverance, determination, all these great things,
I think it paid off. Right, guys?
- [laughs] - [all cheering]
Now we're here.
[Kenny] That's for sure.
All right, so, uh, listen, it's great to be named
a champion and everything else.
Don't you wanna get your hands on the trophy?
- Well, are we ready for it? - I think we are.
Please welcome the creator of BattleBots,
the one and only, Trey Roski.
He has in his hands the Giant Nut.
Come on out here, Trey.
There it is.
Oh, my goodness.
- [screaming] - Oh, my goodness.
[all cheering]
[exclaims] Everyone gotta touch.
Yeah! [cheers]
SawBlaze, SawBlaze, SawBlaze,
SawBlaze, SawBlaze,
SawBlaze, SawBlaze, SawBlaze,
SawBlaze, SawBlaze!
Hey, listen, Jamo, it's great.
You get your hands on the Giant Nut.
But you, of course, will be immortalized forever as well,
because you see all those banners up there?
Next year, season eight, season opener,
SawBlaze's name will be etched up there
forever in BattleBotslore.
Oh, wow.
[Chris] Once again, a round of applause
for our season VII champion, SawBlaze.
[cheering]
For Faruq, for my man, Kenny Florian,
and our amazing crew here at BattleBots.
I am Chris Rose.
Thanks for tuning in.
We will see you again real soon
for the second installment of BattleBotschampions.
Let's take one last look at the unforgettable experience
that was World Championship VII.
We are back.
[crowd cheering]
As we kick off World Championship VII!
[crowd cheering]
[Kenny] This is gonna be a legendary upset.
[all shouting]
This is the win that we needed, this is the win that we needed.
[woman] Yeah, case closed.
[Chris] Wow! Minotaur wins in an epic match.
[cheering]
- [Chris exclaims] - [Kenny laughs] Oh.
I think we are surprising ourselves more than anybody else.
[Chris] The smoke is pouring out.
Twenty flips by Hydra tonight!
[screaming]
[Chris] For the first time, Black Dragon is on the wrong end of the KO.
You ready to start the round of 32?
- I am very ready, my friend. - You guys ready?
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] That was a huge hit!
- [Kenny] Riptide just relentless, unshattered. - No, man.
[Chris] In a all-time classic, RIPperoni is pounded out.
Yeah! Yeah!
Come on, man, be happy. You're in the round of 16.
He's happy.
Here comes SawBlaze.
- [Chris] What is Bales gonna do? - [Kenny exclaims]
[Chris] Ribbot to advance to the round of eight.
Copperhead does the unthinkable.
It is Huge, it is SawBlaze.
Somebody's walking away with the Giant Nut.
[Jamison] This match is validation to people that go beyond
the naysayers that say like, "This-- This shouldn't work."
[Faruq] YourBattleBots World Champion is...
SawBlaze!
It's my lifelong dream to get the Giant Nut.
Don't let your dreams be dreams.
Make them reality.