[ clank ] [ electricity crackles ]
robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
welcome to battle.
Where taking your aggression out on your opponent
is perfectly fine,
as long as an opponent is a military grade,
fully weaponized robot of mass destruction,
not exceeding 250 pounds.
I'm chris rose here with the man
who has finally learned to control his anger,
ufc legend and our analyst, kenny florian.
Chris, I'm a man of peace now. These arms are only for hugs.
Ah, that is so sweet.
Well, we won't see any hugging tonight
as we've got some new blood and returning favorites,
all looking for their first win of the season.
For tonight's spots, their battle to the top
begins right now, it's time for some full metal carnage.
Alright. Let's get to our fight card.
We've got a handful of brand new bots
ready to leave their mark in the box tonight.
That's right. Four rookie bots
brandishing four terrifying weapons,
tracer looks to break in its deadly vertical spinner
while the aptly named grappler, claw viper, faces off
against fellow newbie hijinx.
One of two new horizontal spinners here tonight
alongside perfect phoenix, driven by tyler nguyen.
And at just 11 years old,
we've heard tyler has the potential
to be one of the better drivers in the competition
and is a disciple of the king of chaos himself, ray billings.
And if you like big bots and who doesn't?
Boy, do we have a super-sized match up for you.
It's the return of an even taller mammoth
taking on fan favorite huge.
A true clash of the titans that has us wondering
how are they both going to fit in the box?
It literally couldn't get any bigger.
And in our main event, its last season's runner up,
witch doctor and andrea gellatly,
who hopes to finish the job
and finally take home the giant nut.
But on the path to potential victory,
their first step is quite a doozy.
A doozy is right, chris.
They're up against the whyachi clan's fearsome flipper hydra --
a second-year bot that already took the scene by storm
when they literally tossed the legendary bronco aside
to claim their throne as current king of the flippers.
That's all coming up later tonight.
But right now, let's kick things off with some style.
After a hiatus from robot combat, the tough-as-nails,
chuck pitzer is back with his bot ghost raptor.
Looking to shake off the rust against shiny second-year
hammer bot shatter!
That night is going to be all-out insane.
Faruq, let's fire this baby up.
[ cheers and applause ]
ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
It's robot-fighting time!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
in the blue square, boo! Did I scare you?
I'm just trying to prepare you for a terrifying apparition
here to win the war of attrition.
You can't walk away even though you're aghast.
Its back, the ghost of "battlebots" past.
Its ghost raptor!
[ cheers and applause ]
there he is, chuck pitzer, and ghost raptor,
all the way back in season one,
a surprise semifinalist after a notable victory over icewave.
The next year, he got pounded by razor back
and hasn't competed since. That's right.
Chuck is an emotional guy who fights
with his heart on his sleeve. It was actually his teammates
who convinced him to dust off his controller
and come back for another season.
We know he's dangerous,
so I'm curious to see how he comes out here tonight.
[ cheers and applause ]
in the red square, this bot is from brooklyn,
home of the jigga baby,
and his hammer will drop beats like his name was jay-z
hammer, ax, spike, whatever you're calling them,
you've got 99 problems, and this bot is all of 'em.
[ vocalizes ]
it's shatter!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
there's adam wrigley and his shimmering
hammer bot shatter!
Last year, bringing more bark than bite with a 2-2 record.
Now he's back and ready to get down to business, kenny.
He absolutely is, chris.
Adam was disappointed in his showing last season,
and he's on a mission to prove
that he's more than just a pretty bot
they brought back that ablative armor,
which is designed to shear off the bot
while absorbing incoming kinetic energy.
Pitzer: It's my first time back.
In some ways I feel like a stranger.
In some ways I feel like I'm coming home.
The robot that you're seeing in today's fight
is not the same robot, really, that fought,
you know, back in season 1 and season 2.
In order for shatter! To get a good shot at me,
he's got to go through the weapon.
But if he does hit me and I'm spun up,
he's going to pay for it. So I think it'll do pretty well.
Wrigley: Ghost raptor is an interesting robot
because it's a horizontal spinner
that can adjust the height that it hits that.
We're just going to jam the hammer into their weapon.
So if you've ever seen someone jam a twig
into someone's bicycle wheel, that's what we're going to try
and do with their bar and our hammer.
We really want to come out the game with a win.
And a win against ghost raptor,
you know, a legacy team from the original run of "battlebots"
that would be huge.
♪♪
time now to check in with peter abrahamson
our all-knowing bot whisper.
Peter, what's going on with this fight?
I'm really torn because there's two bots here
that I love, both of.
Ghost raptor being driven by chuck.
He's really brought what looks like
a pretty beefy bot this time
and can probably deliver a pretty good punch
and then he's going against shatter! Who's got omni-wheels
that allow it to not only roll in the direction
that the wheel normally goes,
but to track sideways and really aim that hammer.
So this is going to be a fun fight.
Man: Fire.
The 2020 season continues in -- oh!
Shatter! Tests that hammer
some of their ablative armor falls off.
Of course, that's all by design.
Is adam wrigley getting a little chuckle.
Who's going to clean that up?
Blue team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
red team, ready.
Go!
Rose: Adam wrigley ready and set.
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
♪♪
let the bot battle begin!
Here goes that horizontal spinner from ghost raptor.
Oh! Shatter! Drops the hammer.
A shot to the top of ghost raptor.
Now ghost raptor, looking to take shatter! For a ride.
Adam wrigley's bot firing away here
at the start of the fight, landing series of blows.
Shatter! The aggressor here
in the opening minute of this fight, chris.
Did ghost raptor suffer some damage
to that primary weapon, in those exchanges?
That's better, looks like it may have gone down.
Shatter! Just refusing to let up with that hammer.
These are violent swings.
Well, there's a big piece of shatter! That has
already come off.
And now that ghost raptor seems to have lost
that primary weapon, chris, chuck pitzer is faced
with trying to win a control battle here.
You can see ghost raptor to trying to use the battle box
to its advantage. Once again, it's been four years
since we saw this bot in competition.
Oh, there you go. There's a shot.
Shatter! Playing a little opossum there.
Now ghost raptor looking to find some space to breathe.
Right now, chris, the difference is
the driving of chuck pitzer,
I think the speed of ghost raptor
giving shatter! A lot of problems out there.
Some smoke coming from ghost raptor right now.
That is not a good sign. Closing in on 90 second fast.
I saw a fire.
Uh-oh, and now, now some fire.
And once again, we have flames inside the battle box.
Ghost raptor in serious trouble, but, oh, shatter!
Also seems to be incapacitated, kenny.
Wow! After a back and forth fight,
could we now be headed for a double k.O.?
Referee: Can you show me any kind of movement?
No. Shatter! Wiggles free. Ghost raptor still not moving.
Ghost raptor, I've got to see some movement.
I'm not seeing any movement on you.
I think that's going to be it.
And there it is, the countdown has begun.
Shatter! Will be able to celebrate
its first win of the year. ...Three, two, one.
Ghost raptor is knocked out, winner is shatter!
[ cheering ] [ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
and after a four-year hiatus,
it is heartbreak city for chuck pitzer
and his return to the battle box.
Kenny, this thing basically ended
after 10 or 15 seconds of two critical hits.
Yeah, but give some credit to ghost raptor
in his first fight back. Chuck never said die.
He lost his primary weapon early,
but he got in there with that lifter and stayed in the fight.
But that hammer of shatter! Came to work.
Adam wrigley landing blow after blow after blow.
Ghost raptor eventually caught fire.
For a moment, both bots looked like they were cooked.
But shatter! Managed to find its legs
and secure the victory in its 2020 debut.
[ cheers and applause ]
man: Go get 'em!
Adam wrigley, turn around. [ laughs ]
yeah, you're all smiles. How are you feeling out there?
Pretty good. Pretty good.
Most of the upgrades were working pretty good.
So it looked nice.
Adam, there was a huge hit early on that
was either the first or second one.
Do you think that's where the match turned?
Yeah, I mean, that's what we were trying to do,
we wanted to come out, jam that weapon up
to make a big explosion.
We thought their weapon was kind of directly linked.
Not a lot of shock mounting in between the motor
and the weapon bar.
So if we could get in there, get that big impact,
something would blow up inside. Seems like that's what happened.
Yeah, we were pretty excited with that.
Florian: There are some nice hits from both bots there.
It seems like it came down to durability.
Are you pleased with the durability of your to?
We're going to take a look at some things.
I thought it was going a little slow at the end there,
and we don't want that to happen.
I want to be driving fast, the whole match.
So we're going to take it apart,
find out what was slowing us down.
But I'm happy the hammer worked the whole time.
I'm happy we could take those hits,
dish them out, and I thought it looked good.
I know you got long hair.
You can go let your hair down now after your win.
No, really. You can -- can you let your hair down?
It's pulling a little tight.
But you know, maybe if we win a few more
I'll take my hair down.
Oh, you're going to tease us like that.
Oh, I see it. I see it.
Okay, adam wrigley and shatter!, congratulations.
Thank you.
[ cheers and applause ]
rose: He's got the hair, he's got the confidence,
and now he's got his first win, kenny.
Yeah, well, listen, I think he's pretty confident
from last season, but what he did out there
I think he's definitely a team to watch.
And for our friend chuck pitzer and ghost raptor,
it's not the start they were looking for,
but it's great to know they are back in action.
Alright. Coming up, things are getting sketchy.
Tracer takes on the mean, green fighting machine ribbot.
And later tonight, it's the battle of the beasts --
mammoth takes on huge. Let's take a closer look.
♪♪
tauheed: It's huge!
-Ah! -Oh!
Yeah!
Tauheed: It's mammoth!
-Whoa! -Yeah, we got him!
Huge and mammoth are both such unique robots,
rose: Huge, really throwing his weight around.
Willems: Simply because no one's faced something like them before.
-Uh-oh. Uh-oh. -Huge is lining up the weapon.
When the two of them come together...
-Oh! -Oh!
Nobody knows what's going to happen.
-Holy smokes. -When we look at the robots,
we don't know what we're going to hit.
Mammoth on the attack.
We don't know what we can reach.
Foxtrot's caught in there.
But we don't know how the other one works.
Misery.
And we're not prepared for each other.
Hit him, hit him! Yeah!
We are back on "battlebots: Fight night"
and we are just getting started with tonight's
heavy hitting fight card.
Right now it's the return of the crew from wpi, ribbot,
who will be facing off against rookie bot tracer.
And let's start with tracer.
We've got jason woods. He is the captain of tracer,
a first-time captain here at "battlebots"
looking to make a splash in his debut fight.
He's bringing some heat with a mean-looking vertical spinner.
And a lot of people in the pits better be careful
because this guy could fight.
Florian: He can for sure. And even though he's driving
an untested bot, a lot of people believe
he's one of the dark horses in this tournament.
Last year, a new robot to the fight was ribbot,
captained by david jin.
Of course, they're all the kids from wpi.
He actually just got his degree
had a solid first season at 3-3,
but they have higher hopes for this season.
How do you like these guys, kenny?
Well, I tell you what, they're proof
that you can really do a lot of damage
and be successful in your very first season
in "battlebots," if you do things right.
They're coming into their second season
with a wealth of experience and a whole lot to prove.
So look out for these guys as well.
By the way, david jin did graduate.
There's a few team members that are taking quizzes
and have a proctor here during the tournament.
Can you help them study or...? No. No.
No, no. Me neither. Faruq, it's all yours.
[ cheers and applause ]
in the blue square, from gold river, california
it's tracer!
[ cheers and applause ]
thirty-six-year-old jason woods, he said,
"you better look out because my bot
could definitely take a punch."
that's right. He's confident that his bot
is one of the sturdiest built bots in the field.
And you better believe he has full faith
in that 50-pound vertical spinner on offense.
A good looking bot.
And the red square from worcester, mass.
Ribbot!
[ cheers and applause ]
kenny, where did the foam frog legs go?
Ah, yeah, they had to switch things up.
It was really messy in the battle box last season
and I had to clean it up, so I didn't want any part of it.
And they've got their choice of four weapons.
They're going with...? The undercutter.
You see that red undercutter right there.
They're going to look to try to attack the back of tracer
and try to get to the wheels.
♪♪
woods: It's funny, in years past, they were always the fun team,
they got their robot foam sprayed everywhere.
But make no mistake,
we were sneaking on them in the box last night
and that thing is fired up.
It's going to be kind of a full frontal attack.
Not a lot of jujitsu going on.
We got a lot of armor, pretty scary weapons.
So I'm glad I'm driving ours.
If everything works as it should,
it should be pretty invulnerable.
Jin: It'd be really great for our morale
and our momentum going into the rest of the season,
if we can get a win against tracer.
Because we're a horizontal spinner,
and we don't have any gyroscopic possession,
which means that our robot is at its maximum maneuverability.
If we can get tracer to the middle of the arena,
then we'll be able to hopefully drive circles around them
and pick and choose when to hit them.
We're expecting to can see a lot of sparks this match.
Robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
tracer looks ready to go.
He's also going to use a mini bot called clean cut,
which looks like a little vacuum out there.
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
the frog lives. Mm-hmm.
Let the bot battle begin!
Both weapons firing.
Oh, big hit and a collision right out of the gate!
And look out, ribbot throws a wheel.
But right back in it.
Oh! Tracer's on it's back.
The frog is alive!
Now, he's going after the mini bot.
Man: Bye!
Oh, yeah!
Kenny, tracer has no self-righting mechanism.
Can it get that weapon kicked back and flip himself over?
If not, it's game over.
Referee: ...Counting you out in 10...
Oh, the count down has already started, no!
Tracer still spinning those wheels in desperation.
That's gonna do it. ...Three, two, one.
Tracer is knocked out. Winner, ribbot.
An unbelievable job by ribbot and the kid from wpi.
My goodness.
How's this for a welcoming to "battlebots"?
Kenny, tracer's plan was to box rush ribbot
and go weapon to weapon,
which looked like a great idea for about three seconds.
Yeah, there's nothing like that first hit
to get you to the fight.
And clearly, ribbot woke up after that,
wheeling around to deliver a one-and-done strike.
And without any kind of self-righting mechanism,
tracer didn't have a hope.
And just like my old grandpappy used to tell me,
if you want to win in the battle box,
you've got to be able to self-right.
♪♪
you've got a guy on him.
Chris has got his eye on him.
David jin, is that exactly the way you thought it would go?
Not entirely.
They were a little more mobile than I was hoping,
but we got a bit of a bad hit on the first one.
But the second hit was great.
I mean, they're fast. We wanted to go around them,
but I don't think that was going to happen.
So we decided to go to the backup plan,
which just straight for the weapon.
Florian: You know, this season you said confidence
was going to be big for you guys.
How confident are you right now?
I think we feel very good. Do we feel pretty good?
-Yeah! -Alright.
Well, I don't want to be the downer.
David, you've already graduated,
ryan, let's see the wide shot real quick here.
Raise your hands, guys. If you have a quiz or an exam
coming up in the next week or so.
[ laughs ] aw, man.
Man, does any -- raise your hand if you want kenny's help
preparing.
Oh, okay. Alright. See? They like me, chris.
That's nice. Guys --
I can't help you, but they like me.
Just remember, guys, kenny's not a judge.
He's just a broadcaster, you don't have to brown nose him.
Best of luck in the exams.
And david jin and team ribbot.
Best of luck in the future. Thanks for the time.
Rose: Alright, coming up,
it's the battle of the mythical beasts
as black dragon takes on kraken.
But first, let's check in with jenny taft,
who caught up with black dragon earlier tonight.
Man: Black dragon just stalking his prey.
Well, safe to say, gabriel, black dragon
came prepared for this season of "battlebots,"
what's new about the robot?
When the season ended last year,
we lost to lock jaw in a tough match.
Oh, this is tony. Domination by lockjaw right now.
But it's time to think about what we could do
to win the giant nut.
Well, it seems like you've been doing more than thinking.
With everything you've got here, tell me about a few of these.
So this is the lightest weight that we have.
We used against somewhat like kraken
because we don't need a lot of protection in our front.
So this weight can go underneath them and use armor
and other things in the top. The other ways we designed it
because we lost against lockjaw last season.
So we need something that can have this protection up front
and have some things go underneath them.
This other one we had some guess
after the fight against captain shrederator.
-Oh! -Whoa!
-Direct hit! -Wow!
We did not manage to get good hits with our weapon,
so we designed this one
so we can expose more our a weapon
facing shallow spinners so we have different options
for different robots to go against.
I think every bot we came more prepared so
black dragon is like -- you're going for the nut?
Yeah. It's a dream for us.
So good to catch up, gabriel.
I know you guys have to get back to work,
but to be honest, you look very prepared.
Best of luck. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Good luck, guys.
Rose: What a performance from black dragon.
Rose: Alright, thank you, jenny.
You got to love the enthusiasm black dragon brings to the pits.
He'll step inside the battle box to face kraken, next.
And all roads lead to our main event.
Furious flipper hydra
takes on last year's runner up witch doctor
as "battlebots: Fight night" continues.
Rose: We are back on "battlebots: Fight night."
up next, we've got the winners
of last season's desperado tournament,
the bad boys from brazil, black dragon
facing off against the clingy grappler kraken.
And let's start with kraken.
The feisty floridian matt spurk
returns for his third season here at "battlebots."
and what is kenny florian have in common with kraken, you ask?
It's not just his love for dressing up like a pirate.
Kenny was something of a grappler himself.
Florian: I do love the puffy-shirt look, chris, but that's right.
I have nothing but respect for the grapple game.
The control approach isn't the flashiest,
but matt and kraken come prepared every year
to dirty it up in the box in the hunt
for those valuable control points
and they'll be squaring off
against the brazilians and black dragon.
It was a long road to get here
this season for gabriel and his team,
but not even a global pandemic can hold these guys back.
Yeah, I can't say enough about the enthusiasm
this team brings to the battle box.
You saw them showing jenny earlier
how prepared they are for every fight.
They're going up against a stellar bot in kraken.
I can't wait to see these guys battle
should be a good match up.
Faruq sound the battle cry.
Tauheed: In the blue square from itajubá, brazil, its black dragon!
[ cheers and applause ]
kenny, this bot's so impressive, a year ago,
it won the desperado, lost to lockjaw in a round of 16
but gained a ton of fans. And you'll notice, kenny,
they're not saying that eggbeater,
they're going with the double disc as the weapon.
That's right. They're double disc
is actually their lightest weapon configuration,
which lets them add some extra top armor to the bot,
to protect against kraken's jaws,
but don't let that fool you.
This bot still packs a huge punch.
In the red square from titusville, florida,
it's kraken!
[ cheers and applause ]
matt spurk changed the tooth structure in the off season,
kenny, this thing can now clamp down 12 times.
Yeah, and that's a huge advantage for a control bot
like kraken, more clamps means a little more room for error,
especially when trying to get ahold of a feisty
bot like black dragon.
Here we go, let's do this.
Teles: We expect a great fight against kraken.
I think that the fight will depend on
who has the most control over the three minutes,
we are trying to prove that we can make deeper in the top 16.
We want the top 16.
We want to go back top eight, top four,
even the giant nut this year.
Spurk: This is the battle of the beasts.
It's black dragon versus kraken.
We've got a distinct advantage
because our very narrow bottom jaw
can just slide right between their two front forks.
And as soon as we get that bottom jaw in there,
we're shoving our teeth down through their weapon.
We've done it before against ribbot.
We're going to do it again with black dragon.
We're going to bite them and drag them underwater.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
whoo! Here we go. It's game time, fellas.
♪♪
and there's kraken's mini bot, narwhal.
Let's see if it can avoid being dragon food.
Remember, bite is primary.
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
let the bot battle begin!
Looks like kraken wants to attack
black dragon head on.
Dragon almost had him here.
Oh, there we go, there we go!
He has bitten down.
This is exactly what kraken wants to do.
Chris, kraken got this clamp down before black dragon
can fire up its weapon.
Alright. Ready? Flame now. Play now.
Oh, and we've got flames inside the battle box.
Kraken releasing that fiery breath.
And this is up close and personal.
Black dragon, though, has got to be careful
not to get their internal scorched at all.
So he's really got his teeth stuck into black dragon.
And once again, he can carry him
around the battle box for 30 seconds.
Then it's a catch and release program
and it's become a power battle right now.
These guys have to be careful to not burn out their motors.
Uh-oh!
I see a belt coming off of black dragon, chris.
That's not good. Yeah.
Kraken jumps out to the early lead in this fight.
Oh, my gosh, he just drove right into the teeth of kraken again.
And kraken's tooth, that left tooth has been bent a bit.
Yeah, remember black dragon
has the more destructive primary weapon
between these two.
Oh, kraken almost swallowed up its own mini bot, narwhal.
Oh, nice shot by black dragon, who put kraken on it's dome.
Team black dragon, says we're not done yet.
Spurk: Press the bite.
Keep biting keep biting. Bite, bite, bite!
Oh, he's got black dragon in the corner.
He's just going to try and pound him into the rail,
but now black dragon pushing back.
Well, I think kraken needs some braces.
His teeth are a little crooked.
The black dragon has managed
to punch their way back into this match.
But kraken has been in control of a large stretch of this one,
will these teams go the distance?
Very technical fight so far.
Black dragon hasn't been displaying
the same kind of driving skills.
-Oh! -Whoa!
Well, he took one tooth off.
Something definitely happened to kraken's teeth.
That left tooth is a goner.
And now kraken is popped in it's head.
Under a minute to go.
The brazilians are mounting quite the comeback
right now, chris.
Kraken chasing after black dragon.
Get in here, I'm hungry.
Under 30 seconds to go and kraken cannot bite down.
He cannot clamp down all the way on black dragon.
But he does have a solid hold of his opponent.
There it is, there it is, there it is!
There's is some nice shots from the hammer.
Showing some excellent control right now, chris.
Closing in on 10 seconds, so this one
will go the distance.
Kraken impressive.
Black dragon nailed his opponent a few times
as this one goes, the full three minutes.
There it is! Yeah!
That's what I'm talking about!
That's a fight!
[ cheers and applause ]
so this one indeed goes to the judges,
a very competent looking matt spurk and team kraken.
We'll see if the judges
share their enthusiasm when we come back.
Rose: Welcome back to "battlebots," where we have black dragon
and kraken eagerly awaiting a decision
after three minutes of robot combat.
Their fate now lies in the hands of the judges.
This year, they're scoring on an 11 point scale.
The biggest category is damage.
You can award up to five points for a single bot
or split the points as well.
Three points for aggression and three for control.
We saw a very confident looking team kraken before the break,
but you can't earn points for that.
Kenny, kraken's game plan executed
to perfection in the early going.
Florian: Yeah, no doubt about it.
There's an early clamp there from kraken
as it bites down on black dragon
showing its power off there. And there's the flame.
I mean, you can't get much better of a start there.
But kenny, as you mentioned before
the fight that grapple strategy isn't the flashiest,
definitely not the flashiest,
which is always a danger when you let it go to the judges.
It's no secret that kraken had full control of the match.
But you can't forget that damage this season
is worth more than control.
Even without their spinner ever reaching full speed,
black dragon was able to flip kraken
land some effective shots
and even ripped out one of kraken's teeth.
Kraken with the toothless grin of a hockey player after this one.
Time to find out what the judges saw. Here's faruq.
The results from the judges are in.
We have a split decision.
Come on, come on.
Judge derek scored the battle for...
Kraken. Yes! Yes.
Judge lisa scored the battle for black dragon.
Yeah!
Judge jason scored the battle for the winner.
♪♪
black dragon!
[ cheering ]
♪♪
[ audience boos ]
gabriel, it's chris and kenny, are you shocked?
Oh, it was awesome fight, man back and forth fight.
We flip them sometimes they grab us a bunch of time of the fight.
So could gone either way. Oh, awesome fight.
Winning the fight is awesome. So we are happy. Very happy.
You know, when you look at the rules this season,
a damage obviously plays a big part in how many points you get,
particularly when you use your primary weapon.
Do you think that's why you got the nod from the judges?
Yeah, I think the points were pretty close
and we go out and they tooth out,
but they they were amazing team, amazing match. So very good.
Gabriel, how frustrating is it when your robot is caught
in the teeth of a kraken?
Oh, it's hard. It's hard to be controlled.
They have a strong bite. So it's oh,
I can't describe the emotion is what I'm feeling right now.
Lack, lack of words for that.
Let me see that smile, gabriel.
Let me see it. Yeah. There you go.
Congratulations to you and black dragon
on win number one this year. Thank you. Thank you.
Bring them on.
All right, there's a winner, there is also a loser,
so we bring in matt spurk, the captain of kraken.
Matt, are you shocked?
Oh, yeah, I am.
I thought we really took it to him in that match.
That was the kind of fight we were looking for.
Three minutes, fire, fighting, big sparks,
and we got all of that. But we still thought we won
and obviously disappointed that we lost,
but not disappointed with how kraken did that match.
We'll get her fixed up. We'll come back out
in the next one'll be better than ever.
Once again. How many teeth did you bring with you?
We had the over under at 9 teeth. We lost one big one.
I'm not sure how many of the little ones we lost.
We'll have to go back to the pits and count them.
But we brought spares. We'll, weld 'em on.
Like I said, we'll be back in here ready for the next fight.
Yeah, we've got kind of an odd new rule
in the 2020 version of "battlebots."
with every tooth that your bot loses,
we have to pull a tooth out of the captain's mouth.
So you have to go see our orthodontist
will go take care of that before your next fight, okay buddy?
I've been needing some dental work done so that's alright.
Matt spurk, thanks for being such a good sport.
Thanks, guys. It's always great to be here.
[ cheers and applause ]
alright, it's never easy being a judge,
black dragon literally snatching their first win of the season
out of kraken's mouth. And if you're kraken,
you have to wonder what more you have to do
to impress the judges moving forward.
You hear that, kenny? You hear that?
That's people typing on their keyboard at home,
lighting -- lighting up the decision right there.
Hey, that's what you signed up for when you're a judge
in "battlebots." the internet is undefeated.
As always.
Alright. Coming up, it is a clash, bash and crash
of the titans.
And the bigger they are, the bigger the scars.
The big boys, mammoth and huge.
Face off, that's next.
We are back on "battlebots" and it's time right now
to prove that size does indeed matter.
And it is time for mammoth versus huge.
Let's kick things off with huge and jonathan schultz.
This is a bot that's made an impression
in each of its first two years,
making it safely into the top 16 but not advancing any further.
As for jonathan schultz, how big is his celebrity?
Well, he actually saw a Halloween costume
not made of huge made of jonathan schultz.
He said he was taken aback by that.
But this is a team on the rise, kenny.
No doubt about it.
And they really feel like they're at home now
and they deserve to be here, which is a great sign.
But, you know, I think when we first saw it,
we were impressed, obviously, by the size of the bot.
But this thing can do some serious damage.
It's a brilliant design. And here we have
the perfect match up against another gigantic bot.
By the way, I'm going as kenny florian
next year, Halloween. I've already ordered my costume
to giant satellite dishes
as my ears and I'll throw a beard on, should be fun.
Alright. Let's move on to mammoth and ricky willems.
It's year two for this project.
And you know how, like, you go to school
and then you come back after the summer,
you're like god, that kid grew?
Well, the same thing can be said for mammoth,
which has grown from six feet tall to six foot four.
I don't know if it's going through bot puberty
or what is happening here.
Last year was kind of a carnival act,
like a look at the bot with the beard.
Now it's saying, "you know what? I'm here to stay."
when in doubt, just go bigger.
You know, ricky is an interesting guy.
And I love his creativity
and how he really is thinking outside the box
literally, in order to,
you know, build something new and different.
And I just love this match up. It's perfect.
It's going to be awesome. Faruq, bring out the big boys.
[ cheers and applause ]
in the blue square from baltimore, maryland.
They're incredible bulk, mammoth!
[ cheers and applause ]
ricky willems told us this bot can now throw refrigerators
10 feet in the air and 25 feet away.
Did you check to make sure your fridge
is still ok in the trailer? Oh, my goodness.
You know, first thing I notice, it's a little bit wider, chris.
So it looks like that bot's
going to get better stability on the battlebots floor.
♪♪
in the red square from south windsor, connecticut,
it's hell on wheels, it's huge!
[ cheers and applause ]
kenny, obviously, whenever you talk about huge,
you want to mention the wheels, but it's the spinning bar
in the middle that will get them points
in the judges' eyes. Yeah, that's right.
And that bar is actually 10 pounds heavier.
It's longer than last season.
And they now have a switch to actually turn the bar around.
They can hit up like an uppercut or they can hit down.
So one little switch will change that.
That is very different from last season.
♪♪
willems: Mammoth looks kind of the same, but it is 100 percent new.
Everything is bigger, better, stronger.
We're pretty excited. Our front legs,
as they stick out, they're new this year,
they are wider than huge is.
So if we funnel them in there,
we should be able to walk them around
wherever we want in the arena, get it ready and chuck them out.
Where we hit them, they're going to do weird things
as they fly through the air.
I'm really excited to see what happens.
They're finally going to get a taste of their own medicine.
This is the biggest match up, literally and figuratively,
that battlebots has ever seen.
Schultz: You need to look at all the things that mammoth can hit
that no one else can.
We realized that this is how everybody else feels
when they're going to fight us.
We're going to spin downwards and run towards them.
And every time we hit them,
it'll push us a little deeper into mammoth.
It's the fight of two very different robots,
but also two robots that are just embracing the same idea.
We'll see if bigger is better or not.
Are you spinning down? Yep.
Robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
blue team, ready.
Let's do this!
Come on, pip squeak!
Red team, ready.
[indistinct speech]
rose: The two biggest bots of entire field
and only one could start the season out with a victory.
Big time, do-see-do.
And how's that for a self-right, for mammoth?
But it looks like they're repertoire maybe bent.
-Whoa! And move! -Whoa!
Wow, yeah, kenny, these two are now intertwined.
It looks like a pair of moose in mating season.
That huge blade is millimeters away from mammoth's wheel
and that would be lights out for mammoth.
Mammoth trying to politely excuse itself from the table.
Finally they are able to separate.
Well done, gentlemen.
Right now, it seems like the length and size of mammoth
is kind of standing it right now, chris.
It's amazing because mammoth,
it looks like a -- whoa!
Mammoth head over heels in the battle box.
How is that thing able to do that?
Unbelievable acrobatics!
You don't see that out of an athlete that's 6'4" usually.
It's crazy. Now, the question is,
are the main weapons doing any damage so far?
I think huge is confused as to how to attack maybe.
Whoa. Wow.
The pulverizer coming down to maybe try to do some damage.
Hammer! Hammer!
Those are controlled by the teams and look at mammoth,
trying to push huge out of the battle box.
And in fact, look at the interesting strategy.
The pulverizer is down on one of huge's wheels.
I don't know if he's able to get out of there right now
because it's kind of pinned by mammoth mammoth
cutting off the battle box like a boxer.
Together: Whoa!
He just knocked him out of the box!
Mammoth, are you kidding me?!
Oh, we did it!
One wheel in, one wheel out.
It's sounds kind of like the hokey pokey, kenny,
but what it really all means is huge is in some serious trouble.
And mammoth taking a ride and hops in celebration.
What a shot! Mammoth had just won this fight, chris.
Ten, nine, eight, seven... Huge cannot free itself.
...Six, five, four, three... Mammoth starts off 2020...
...Two, one. ...With a knock out win!
Huge is knocked out. Winner, mammoth.
[ cheers and applause ]
what a knockout by mammoth.
Yes!
Rickey willems screaming into the heavens in celebration,
and so he should.
What a knockout.
[ yelling ]
kenny, were you shocked with the way that mammoth took control
of this fight from the outset?
Absolutely. I was shocked.
This fight was ridiculous,
but getting stuck up against the battle box
and not being able to get out of there is one of the things
that huge has been able to avoid in previous seasons.
Mammoth showed us a lot of things
that we have never seen before, the battle box.
And I just I salivate when I think about
a lot of the future match ups for that bot.
Yeah. So ricky willems and mammoth,
they had a game plan, it was to basically pop a wheel
over the railing. That's what happened.
♪♪
okay.
Rose: Ricky is that the design mammoth celebration?
Yeah, we planned that for weeks, every every choreographed move.
No. Oh. Oh my god. Why are you so out of breath?
Did you see that? Backflips, frontflips?
Ricky, you look surprised.
From our standpoint, it looked like a huge upset here,
no pun intended.
Did you see it going down this way?
Oh, I mean, I thought
that that was what was going to happen,
but I didn't think it was going to look
that spectacular in the process. Holy crap.
I mean, I knew we would pop up in the air when we hit them.
I knew they'd pop up in the air.
I didn't know we'd be flipping on top of ourselves,
flipping on top of them.
I didn't know our weapon was going to bend in half like that.
I had no idea, apparently.
I thought I knew I was not prepared.
Jonathan schultz and team huge,
they're no joke, man. They're a legit team.
Knowing what you know now, how far can you go?
Oh, top 16.
Top eight, the championship. I don't think there's a limit.
Rose: Hey, ricky, here's the good news.
We do have oxygen and a medic on standby if you need it.
Are you okay? Thank you guys. I will be.
I am more than okay. I'm spectacular.
I could not be better. Thank you all.
Florian: Congratulations. We'll see you for your next fight.
Kenny, we've been doing this five seasons now,
I ain't never witnessed something like that before.
That fight was ridiculous. Godzilla versus king kong,
whatever it is you want to compare it to.
Yeah, I was just speechless. Alright.
Coming up, winner, winner. Two beginners, kind of.
Its claw viper and hijinx, their breakout bout, next.
Rose: We are back on "battlebots: Fight night,"
we're four fights into an action packed fight card here tonight.
Right now, we got a pair of brand new bots
led by familiar faces.
And let's start with claw viper, led by kevin milczewski.
He used to drive the mini bot for team warhawk.
Now spreading his wings, he's got his own team
and he's bringing a ton of confidence into the box.
He told us "this is a top-four robot," okay.
Yeah, this guy knew his bot inside and out.
I mean, any question we had for him, he had the answer.
He could win this fight.
He'll be taking on team hijinx led by jen herchenroeder.
She's spent time since 2016 with team scorpius.
She moves from the assistant's chair and now is the lead dog.
She said, "listen, I got to be honest with you.
I'm a little anxious. I'm a little nervous.
I'm a lot excited."
that's what you like to hear out of a first-time captain.
Definitely.
But she does have a lot of responsibility being a captain.
She said it's like juggling 100 balls in the air.
And, you know, this is definitely
an experimental bot here.
And she says, you know, to have that first fight
and we're going to learn a lot about our bot
and what it could do.
And by the way, it's an announcer's nightmare.
It's herchenroeder and milczewski
got it out of the system. Faruq, take it away.
[ cheers and applause ]
in the blue square from seattle, washington.
Here to reign, it's claw viper!
[ cheers and applause ]
kevin milczewski, a software engineer from seattle,
kenny, he told us his bot can go from 0 to 20 in a half second.
Yeah, that's really impressive, if it's true.
I believe that would make it the fastest accelerating
to in the history of battlebots.
Combined with that strong front wedge and a powerful lifter,
this could be a very impressive bot, chris.
♪♪
in the red square from santa rosa, california,
the spinnister of offense hijinx!
[ cheers and applause ]
jen is actually a former art major
at the university of maryland,
and that is a good looking bot, kenny.
It's a great looking bot and jen's hoping
more than just looks can kill. Hijinx has that devastating
sixty-eight-pound horizontal bar,
but it takes about three seconds to spin up to full speed.
So she'll have to drive smart
if she's going to bank her first "w" here tonight.
[ cheers and applause ]
herchenroeder: Right now in tonight's fight,
we've swapped from the long-bladed stout blade
the stout blade has no lightning holes
and performs better under load.
It also has a slightly lower moment of inertia.
So we can spin it up faster, which is important
because claw viper is a very fast robot on its wheels.
Our strategy is to fend off claw viper
while they box rush us, 'cause they're gonna,
and give ourselves enough time to spin up to full
and then turn around and go in full hard.
Milczewski: So hijinx has a whole lot of kinetic energy in their weapon.
So we've bolted like 35 pound big hunk of steel
to the front of the robot that we're going to throw into there
with spinner, get it to stop so we can
bring our lifter into play and throw him out of the arena.
It's absolutely critical for us to get to win this fight
because we want to impress the selection committee.
If we could beat them, beat them convincingly,
I think it sets us up on the right stage
to move forward in the rest of the tournament.
Robots, activate.
Kenny claw viper can do 0 to 20 in a half second,
that's versus a three second spin up for hijinx.
Sounds like a race to the start here.
Absolutely. If claw viper is as fast as kevin says,
hijinx need to avoid the box rush
to give itself time to spin up.
Alright. Let's bring in our bot whisperer.
Peter, how do you see it?
Abrahamson: Well, with hijinx, they're using their shorter blade.
That is a much faster spin up time.
So they're definitely planning on giving a couple of good
knocks to claw viper.
But claw viper, you know, he's a brick.
If he stops that blade and gets a good grab in the middle,
boom, that's up and over in a suplex.
Blue team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
red team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
let the bot battle begin!
Whoa, no joke. That claw viper getting up to speed in a hurry.
[ audience "oh's" ] wow!
It actually crossed the battle box in 1.1 second,
according to kevin.
Oh, man, he gets right under.
Now trying to use that claw to its advantage.
Hijinx, kind of a sitting duck takes one right in the kisser.
Yeah, right now, you could see that speed is a major factor.
Major advantage here for claw viper.
Hijinx has got to get out of the corner,
that is a terrible spot for it. You got to get moving,
take those little wheels, get out of the corner.
You're going to be in trouble. Heads up!
Big hit, and that's where that width is really
a big-time disadvantage, is not able to turn as quickly
as say claw viper right now. Oh! Huge hit there.
You see the pulverize with 100 pound hammerhead
dropping down on it lands one right on the noggin.
And this is just tremendous control here from claw viper.
Orion beach, the driver of hijinx, has got to do something
like get out of the claw of claw viper
who's found his ticket hijinx for a spin around the box.
He's trying to make him a dizzy, chris.
And now he's just popping that bot around the box at will.
Oh-no, a sitting duck.
Yeah, its weapon is working, but hijinx is not moving.
Referee: Ten, nine, eight... Oh, no that countdown
is started. ...Seven, six, five...
This is gonna do it. ...Four, three...
Claw viper with... ...Two...
The impressive k.O. ...One.
Knockout!
Yes, yeah!
[ cheers and applause ]
alright. That's what we got.
Rose: Kenny claw viper wasn't joking when it said
it might be the fastest bot here.
Rose: Yeah, that thing is lightning fast,
just going underneath,
going over the top, hitting it from the side.
Really, it was all claw viper in this fight.
He's got a lot of toys to play with.
It sure does.
Again, speed really was the deciding factor in this one
and the fact that it was so low to the ground.
Yeah, that really was the finishing blow right there,
you see the primary weapon of hijinx is working,
but when the bot's not moving the fight's over.
♪♪
[ cheers and applause ]
kevin, you all smiles there after win number one.
Oh, heck, yeah, that was great.
Lifter didn't -- lifter got knocked out on
I think, the first hit, because his weapon is insane,
but drive kept working and was able to beat them up
and my robot lasted longer than his.
So I'm walking away with the win.
You know, you said you probably had
the fastest spot in the competition.
It seemed like speed really was the key to winning this fight.
Yeah, I was trying to go out and fast and hard to stop him
from getting that blade up the full speed.
Just keep on him. You know, every time we hit,
I just spun back around, came back, hit him again.
He wanted to not let him get up to full speed.
Kevin, what's your heart rate right now?
I don't know, but I should probably check a doctor
because it's going real fast.
But that's a good thing, isn't it?
It's great. I won!
Kevin, congratulations on win number one.
Thank you so much, chris.
Rose: And for hijinx it's better luck next time.
That weapon's going to be scary once they get it all dialed in.
Coming up, the kid gloves, they come off.
Two juveniles get delinquent as perfect phoenix
meets extinguisher. That's next.
Welcome back to "battlebots."
we've got two bots ready to rattle,
it's a youth movement in the battle box
as perfect phoenix makes its debut against extinguisher,
but while they're getting dialed in,
our own jenny taft caught up with ricky willems
to get his take on mammoth's giant victory over huge.
Ricky, team mammoth, you guys wanted huge,
you got huge. What a fight, right?
It felt like you could have lost multiple times.
Three, in my estimation.
We had no idea how close we came to losing.
Rose: Mammoth gets put on its head!
There are big chunks missing out of this robot.
Show me, please, yeah. What are you looking at?
The first one that we saw is just there's like
half a fist sized hole here in this upright.
I knew they wanted to come in here and decapitate us.
-Whoa! -Whoa!
If this tube gets blasted in half, we collapse.
You're done? There's no strength
if that's not a triangle. Yeah.
These tubes have to not get hit.
There's no armor here. It's just structural strength.
What really terrified us, jonathan, is a good driver.
He's got a lot of spinners. He was going to go for our chain.
Yes. Look how close he came here.
Less than an inch. Half an inch.
If it was a half an inch over,
our chain would have exploded. We would've been dead.
No weapon which would let him get as close as he wanted,
do whatever he wanted to do. How you pull it off?
Oh, I mean, clearly size, right? Exactly.
No our drive speed. I'm just learning how to drive
this thing in the arena with how fast it is.
And you have made so many improvements to the speed.
Everything is different.
And we weren't even half speed in that fight.
So we've got a long way to go to make sure that I am
as nimble as the robot can be.
I know you guys respect huge you respect jonathan
and what he's done.
What does it mean to you to beat him?
Jonathan, and huge they are the original metabreakers, right?
They are the team that came in and shook everything up
by doing something completely outside of the box.
We wanted to do that again, turned up to 11.
This just validates that we did what we came for.
If we want to prove ourselves. We need to come back
and we need to take out serious, normal competitors,
vertical spinners, horizontal spinners.
I want to take out half the top a6.
If we can do that, we have established ourselves.
We're here, we're enormous, but we're serious.
Just realized I'm literally standing...
Under the robot.
This is not the right place to be.
Titanium tootsies worrisome. Congrats, guys.
-Thanks. -Thank you.
Rose: So it came down to mere inches in a fight between giants,
great stuff, jenny. Alright.
Coming up, perfect phoenix and extinguisher
prepare to make their way into the box.
But as they power their pistons,
let's take a look at tonight's epic main event,
its hydra and witch doctor.
It's witch doctor!
Yeah.
The other seasons, we were kind of an up and comer
who had some potential.
Rose: Oh, no! Red devil trying to
cut into the top of witch doctor here.
Looks like witch doctor's going to make it the distance.
Advancing to the final...
Witch doctor!
Gellatly: But now, after our amazing run last season,
witch doctor has a gigantic target on its back.
Florian: Witch doctor on fire right now.
Gellatly: Love us or hate us, I think we've earned respect
as a top competitor here this year.
Witch doctor is well overrated.
-Whoa! -Hydra!
I mean, proven yourself one year
when you don't do that great every other year?
Rose: Unbelievable.
It seems like a fluke.
You built an amazing robot, very impressive run.
Next year should be better.
Ewert: This year, hydra is going to be more powerful than last year.
We have a new front end,
so hopefully nobody can get underneath us.
And it's got twice as much power as it had last year.
Florian: Oh, there's no mercy from hydra!
I'm hoping to wreck the battle box floor
with the bot landing on it.
Rose: Uh-oh, here comes witch doctor.
Together: Oh!
Rose: It just flew up 15 feet up into the air.
We don't have enough armor to really take a big attack,
but for a flipper, the easiest way to do anything
is just to get them out of the arena.
Then you win automatically.
-Oh! -Oh!
Witch doctor could survive a million flips.
But it can't fall out of the arena.
Rose: And it just broke the clock monitor!
This match against hydra's is going to set the tone
for the whole tournament.
-Oh! -Another huge hit!
It seems like it should be a slam dunk for me.
Florian: Hydra just might be the most powerful flipper of the game.
We win this match, we're definitely primed
to be that top seed.
That's going to be critical to winning the giant nut.
Rose: Hits are devastating.
This is the match that we have to prove everything.
-And there's the flip. -If we can go at it,
people are going to be shaking in their boots.
Because they have to go matched up against hydra.
We are back on "battlebots: Fight night" and kenny florian,
and I cannot wait for this next bout
because here is where dreams come true.
We've got tyler nguyen.
He is the captain of the bot perfect phoenix.
He says he's been dreaming of this moment
ever since he was five years old.
He waited for years and years
to finally safely arrive inside the battle box.
Did I mention that tyler is 11 years old?
He has been mensa since the age of four.
It is nothing short of remarkable.
I mean, the kid has been driving,
bots since he was five and he has a world champion.
In ray billings in his corner. Talk about the right stuff.
Truth be told, tyler's mom, juli johnson,
has been dating ray billings for several years.
And so tyler was always infatuated with "battlebots."
and ray, as you said, has been a mentor.
He told us he might be the smartest person
in the entire building,
like no joke, iq of 156 and off the charts.
We can't wait to see him.
Now, by comparison, his opponent tonight
should be checking the mail for his aarp card.
John flaacke is an 18 year old freshman
at the university of florida.
His body is called extinguisher. That's right.
Now, we saw him last season.
Struggled a little bit with his robot, of course,
but he believes he's rectified a lot of the issues.
That hammer is going to be swinging much harder.
It's a 20-pound hammer.
It's going to be more durable, more reliable.
So I can't wait to see what kind of bought
he brought this season.
Should be a ton of fun to watch. Faruq, show us how it's done.
In the blue square from herndon, virginia,
the baby faced thriller, perfect phoenix!
[ cheers and applause ]
there he is on the right, 11-year-old tyler nguyen,
about to make his dream of competing here
at battlebots come true. Kenny,
and I'm not so sure I could even even spell battlebots
when I was his age, let alone build one.
Spelling can be tough, chris,
but this kid is truly impressive.
He's actually been gifted the base of his bot
three-time world champion paul ventimiglia
and hopes to use his aggressive driving style to drive
that newly upgraded ar500 blade right into extinguisher.
And there with him is his buddy sawyer,
whose dad, roy, is a member of team tombstone.
In the red square from tampa, florida.
I need this bot because I'm on fire --
it's extinguisher!
[ cheers and applause ]
john flaacke went 1-3 in his debut season
a year ago, already this bot looks better, kenny.
Much better, chris, the flaackes made a ton of upgrades
to the bot in the off season,
including ramping up its top speed to an impressive
23 miles per hour.
And the bot also has a new 20-pound hammer
that john hopes can disable the primary weapon
of perfect phoenix.
Nguyen: Well, tonight, I'm battling extinguisher,
and I'm pretty nervous since my first fight,
but it should be a pretty good even match up for both of us.
I'm using the default the, uh, floppy,
lower wedge configuration as opposed to the hard
anti-spinner wedge configuration.
So I'm on I'm still only like 11,
but I'm ready to be --
but I'm ready to smash up the competition
and try to go all the way to the finals.
Flaacke: Perfect phoenix doesn't have a lot of top armor
under their spinning bar,
so we're using our hammer module along with our heaviest wedge
so that we can box rush them off the start.
Our drive train is capped at about 35 miles an hour.
So we're just going to use that drive speed
and torque to stay right on them
and not let them get away from us to spin up at all.
[ cheers and applause ]
okay, alright. I'm excited. Let's do this.
Alright.
Robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
rose: Here we go.
11-year-old tyler nguyen.
18-year-old john flaacke.
Anybody else feeling old?
Blue team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ] man: Alright. There you go.
Red team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
rose: Let the bot battle begin!
Here comes extinguisher. Whoa big shot early on.
Yeah, that is a very speedy bot and extinguisher...
And I think extinguisher may be extinguished at this point.
Holy smokes. Perfect phoenix is just sitting back
and wondering if extinguisher can even move.
His weapon is working,
but he has lost his drive train ability.
Here we can't lose, come on.
Rose: He's trying to do whatever he can to show
some sort of transitional movement.
Referee: I need to see some movement.
You got to show me you got some kind of control.
We're trying to move.
Ten, nine... Yeah, the countdown has started.
...Eight, seven, six... Extinguisher cannot move.
...Five, four... And just like that,
11-year-old tyler nguyen has his first battlebots victory.
Yeah!
♪♪
well, first fight, first victory,
dreams do come true for tyler nguyen.
Kenny, do not blink, this one was a quick one.
Florian: Yeah, tyler went out there and kind of played the bullfighter,
just got out of the way,
extinguisher rammed into the side of the box.
And then it was that counter shot one
and done for perfect phoenix. And it was a perfect knockout.
All it takes is one solid knock and it is over.
Wow.
Rose: Tyler nguyen, over here.
No, your left there.
No, to your right, turn right there. Right there. Yes!
Double thumbs up, buddy. How excited are you?
I'm very excited for that battle.
I won. I mean. I mean, like, I was going to be
I was I thought I was going to be I mean,
like, I was like,
really, like, surprise at, like, the power of my weapon.
They're like beating them in one hit.
What was your strategy coming into this fight tyler?
Well, my strategy -- I knew they would box rush me
because I'm a horizontal spinner
and, like, I thought they would do like
in season 1 bite force versus tombstone
is where they like straight to boxers me.
So I left the square at an angle
and they did just what I thought they would do.
So then what happened is I turned around and hit them
and looks like that hit was big enough
so that their bot turned off and cut out and that was it.
Did we keep you up past your bedtime?
Are you still good to go?
I'm good to go. I go to bed at a reasonable hour every night
because I have to do online school.
Tyler, you are. You are amazing.
Congratulations to you and sawyer.
Rest up because you've got ap chemistry
in the morning and precalc.
So enjoy that and we will talk to you soon.
You're 1-0, buddy, that sounds pretty good.
Give it a thumbs up. Celebrate. Celebrate!
Yeah!
[ laughter ]
that was nothing short of sensational, no joke.
Ray billings told us this kid is a good enough driver
and obviously he's smart enough
where he could win the giant nut in two years.
He might be selling himself short on something like that.
Again, it was a spectacular win.
Obviously shows a lot of promise.
I can't wait to see more. Alright.
Coming up, it's the fight we've been waiting for.
It's the main event as witch doctor
looks to cast her destructive spell on hydra,
one of the most dangerous bots here, jenny taft.
How are our builders doing back in the pits?
Witch doctor is well aware
that there's a target on their back,
given the runner up finish last year,
and andrea told me they didn't want to make a lot of changes
to the bot because the bot is already functioning well.
But she did make the self brighter faster,
which doctor's prepared to win.
They want to win, and even though their team is smaller,
they're not going to let that get in the way.
And as for jake and hydra, he made it very clear
he is here to win the nut.
And frankly, he said witch doctor is a bit overrated.
We'll see about that.
Rose: Hydra, witch doctor, next.
Rose: Here we go. 11-year-old tyler nguyen.
This is my first fight, I, I just knocked out extinguisher.
Whoa, big shot early on.
I think I got a good hit.
The wheel axles, we're kind of like bent out of shape,
but other than that damage, the shock from the impact
you might have like gone into the other robot,
hit a critical component like the speed controller
or a battery. And that was lights out.
-That's a knockout! -Yeah!
I'm feeling quite confident.
I have no damage whatsoever to the battle bot.
It came out of the arena like it came into the arena.
You good? I'm excited.
Let's do this. Alright.
Ray was like standing right here,
like right here and right then.
And he's like, kind of, like, mentored, like, me
through this battlebots process.
And it's like, help me like starting the battle.
Fighting the battle. Finishing the battle.
Rose: And just like that, 11-year-old tyler nguyen
has his first battlebots victory!
We are back on "battlebots: Fight night" and kenny florian,
it is time right now for our main event
and oh, it is so tasty.
Let's start with last year's runner up witch doctor
andrea and mike gellatly.
Lately they are back and they said,
"listen, we're not going to make the same mistake
that other past runners up like bombshell and minotaur did.
We're not going to totally change our weapons
and our configuration and everything else
just to make that next leap."
they're like, "we've got a great bot. We should be okay."
florian: Witch doctor, it was pretty unstoppable last season.
They just fell short in that final.
But they have made just a few tweaks to witch doctor.
I mean, it's even better this season.
Nice draw right out of the gate.
You get hydra, which was so impressive a year ago,
making its "battlebots" debut.
Jake ewert told us, listen, the loss last year
in the round of 16 to minotaur is still with him to this point.
It is going to drive him
hopefully all the way to the giant nut.
Yeah, he has redesigned the whole front end
he has many more configurations as far as armor goes.
And it's even more powerful as a flipper
than it was last season, which is hard to imagine.
You ready to check this fight out it's gonna be a good one.
One faruq, take it away.
In the blue square, he's launched bots all over
from london to boston, get too close
and he'll stun you like stone cold steve austin
and that's the bottom line because hydra said so.
It's hydra!
[ cheers and applause ]
hydra 4-0 a year ago, before being k.O.D by minotaur,
just 42 seconds in the round of 16.
And kenny, he's got now five different configurations
for his weapon based on his opponent.
I mean, look at that thing. That thing is very intimidating.
And it's not just all looks.
That thing is devastating as well.
♪♪
in the red square, fire burn and cauldron bubble
witch doctor's here, and you're in trouble
'cause when you meet this doctor eye to eye
life's a witch and then you die.
It's witch doctor!
[ cheers and applause ]
what a great 2019 for this crew, 7-1 overall.
That lone loss in the final against bite force,
they still got that voodoo working.
We'll see if they've got the good mojo as well.
Absolutely. They say they have a better self-righting mechanism
this season. They are ready to go.
♪♪
two great drivers to aggressive teams,
it should be an amazing main event, pete.
All four of hydra's victories came via the knockout.
So would it be safe to say that witch doctor wants a longer,
more drawn out fight?
Yes, but it's going to be tough for hydra
because witch doctor is a very stout bot.
They've really got the ability to sort of
probably survive some of these flying in the air,
landing hard on corners so they might outlast hydra
and then at least start chewing on the top.
Well, it's time to find out who's best in the early part
of the 2020 season.
Hello, there, mikey boy. You ready for this?
-Yeah, are you? -You better be.
Alright. Hope you brought extra frames, bud.
Robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
blue team, ready.
Red team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
rose: We are ready for the main event.
I hope you are, too.
Hydra...
And witch doctor.
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
let the bot battle begin!
Whoa! Holy smokes, witch doctor goes 15 feet in the air
courtesy of hydra. Florian: Wow!
And again.
Mike gellatly, one of the best drivers in "battlebots"
has got to get out of the corner
he's taking shots to the pulverizer.
And he pops himself to get himself free.
Way to go, way to go. You got his arm.
Florian: Witch doctor's going to have to battle back here
hydra starting off amazingly well.
And the key for witch doctor getting free of hydra.
And you do some damage just like that.
That was the shot witch doctor wanted.
Uh-oh. Witch doctor's a bit troubled though.
That's okay. That's okay.
Oh, no, it's having problems staying on track here.
-Oh. -Whoa!
Another huge flip and witch doctor lands on hydra.
And another. And another!
And another baby flip.
That self-righting mechanism for witch doctor is working,
so that's a good sign.
Hydra, does it have enough oomph in its lifter
and its flipper, to do more damage to witch doctor?
Yes! This is not a good sign because they're wobbling,
they cannot stay low to the floor,
hydra is just dominating right now.
And this is even worse news for witch doctor.
It is smoking.
It is overheating 100 seconds into this fight.
Oh!
Witch doctor gets put on its head ut still rights itself!
This has the makings of an instant classic.
Man: Get in there!
Uh-oh, witch doctor already got hit after hit from hydra,
but look at this.
Oh, my goodness. Showing such heart!
Oh, no witch doctor's up on the screws!
Can it free itself?
Hydra's coiled and ready to strike.
And there we go, witch doctor's spit out by the screws.
It's not over till it's over. It's not over till it's over.
Unbelievable.
Florian: There's been a lot of knock out shots here from hydra.
I mean, how about the chin from witch doctor, huh?
But, kenny hydra now suddenly seems to be
having trouble moving. I mean, jake ewert's bot
is just crab walking in the blue square there.
This would be a disaster for team hydra.
Referee: Hydra, I need to see some real controlled movement here.
I'm gonna have to count you out.
I'm not sure if they're hung up or they hurt.
We're getting out of there.
Witch doctor, still leaking smoke from every crevice,
but very much mobile. It's still alive.
Oh, my goodness, this would be
absolutely heartbreaking for hydra,
he's dead, he's dead. Count him down!
Ten, nine, eight -- rose: Oh, no he's moving.
He just went forward. And the countdown is now stopped.
Hydra with new life and witch doctor back on the attack.
Is hydra going to make it the distance he is indeed!
And when the smoke settles,
these two have gone the distance.
An amazing fight between hydra and witch doctor,
as this one goes to the judges.
Whew.
Holy crap.
Well, that went about how I expected it.
Rose: A tough call for derek young, lisa winter, and jason bardis,
they will have tremendous insight
because they are all former battlebots participants.
I got to tell you, kenny, from the get go,
hydra did exactly what it wanted.
This is what happens when you get
two legendary teams involved.
It was hydra landing what would have knocked out
many teams out of the competition.
I mean, look at the flips
and how robust is witch doctor to take all that damage?
Unreal. And then witch doctor
delivered a major shot of its own.
A major shot is right, but it comes at a cost.
You could see that belt break loose
from witch doctor's primary weapon
and the bot just never looked right after that,
witch doctor started wobbling and smoking limping in the box.
The flips they just kept on coming from hydra.
Witch doctor even got caught
momentarily in the screws, as well.
And then this is where things got interesting.
Hydra apparently got caught on something in the blue square.
It had trouble moving.
There was actually a ten second countdown that started happening
and then all of a sudden hydra started moving yet again,
kenny. Yeah, that's right.
I think I could tell if it was a motor issue.
I mean, clearly there was something going on
because it's so low to the ground.
And that's kind of the nature of what you want in a flipper.
It was also getting stuck in the battle box as well.
What a tough, tough call for the judges.
[ cheers and applause ]
the results from the judges are in.
[ cheers and applause ]
we have a split decision.
Judge lisa scored the battle for hydra.
[ cheers and applause ]
judge jason scored the battle for witch doctor.
[ cheers and applause ]
judge derek scored the battle for the winner.
Hydra!
Yes! Let's do this! Yeah!
♪♪
now, the camera's in my face -- look at these two guys.
These two guys. Hi, jake ewert, congratulations.
What's up? You guys knew I'd be back here, right?
We did.
Were you nervous when you heard there is a split decision?
Of course. I mean, it was battle. It was back and forth.
I mean, I got enough flips in hopefully to have the battle.
But, I mean, they were smoking.
So hopefully that was enough to make the split decision.
Jake, there was a lot that happened in that fight.
So please do your best at taking taking us through this fight.
The worst part was I knew they were going to be
dangerous upside down, worse than when they were up
right side up, because when they flip upside down,
they're going to hit me on the top
and do more damage and whatnot.
But my front end worked most of the time.
So, I mean, I could get underneath.
I should have been a little more trigger happy, I think.
And flip earlier that way,
the weapon didn't get too close to me,
but they took some good chunks out of me
and we were just going to have to get it ready for next night.
So, jake, when you are "caught" and you could not move
and the referee starts to count you out
after you had been so dominant throughout the fight,
what goes through your mind? What goes through my mind?
I knew exactly what was happening.
My speed controllers were overheating.
All I had to do is wait, let them cool down,
and then I could start moving again at that second.
And just to show movement is all you needed to do
to get that jump decision, I would guess.
Alright. So finally, what happens if you walk back
into that ewert household in the great state of wisconsin
and you're not holding the giant nut?
Yeah, if I don't win that giant nut I'm going
to get slack for the next year until we come back again.
So it better be not a bust.
Yeah, well, congratulations, team hydra.
You are off to an amazing start, a job well done
against a very worthy foe. Thanks, guys.
[ cheers and applause ]
you always do good work, too, I guess.
[ laughs ]
[ cheers and applause continue ]
andrea, you are wearing that mask,
I can't tell if you're smiling at all
because that fight was unbelievable.
Is there any satisfaction, even though there was a loss?
I mean, how can you not be smiling after a match like that?
We had a great season last year,
so they threw us to the big dogs right away.
We knew what witch doctor had to be 100%.
Obviously, hydra was 100%. They drove an incredible fight.
And this stuff happens. I think it was a 50/50.
Either way, hopefully we get a rematch
once the robot is back together.
For my money. That was one of the best fights
in battlebots history.
Mike, your driving was on full display there.
Were you nervous when he got flipped up
in the air to start that fight?
Yeah, of course. I mean, thank you for the kind words,
but I think I drove pretty poorly
and I think it showed there.
Jake took full advantage of, you know, after that first flip,
jake was on us the whole time
and really didn't let us recover.
I think one of the disc's broke after the first or second flip.
And, you know, the weapon really had to be 100 percent for us
to be able to take on hydra.
I don't know a whole lot of drivers
that would have been able to come back from that,
though, man, defensively you showed some excellent driving.
What does this say about your bot, though?
I mean, it's tremendously durable.
Yeah, and, you know, witch doctor's kind of known
for having a little bit of a rough start.
We always pull it together this season going to be no different.
So it's just because we didn't win our first fight,
don't count us out yet.
Andrea and mike gellatly and team witch doctor.
I know it didn't go the way that you wanted, here on night one,
but it was awfully entertaining.
Thanks for the thrills. Thank you.
Rose: Alright, kenny, after watching that display of power,
is hydra the bot to beat this season?
Man alison, based on what we saw last season in hydra
and based on what we saw tonight,
hydra has to be one of the favorites right now.
No question.
Remember, they went undefeated in the regular season
before bowing out in the round of 16 a season ago.
That is a story to watch throughout the night.
So that's going to do it for us, for jenny taft and faruq
and our bot whisperer peter, and my man, kenny florian,
I'm chris rose.
We'll see you next time on "battlebots."
-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications