Robots, activate.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications
♪♪
welcome to "battlebots." hope you cracked open
a cold beverage at home
and you're ready for some carnage.
We've seen some extreme robot warfare already this year,
but tonight the stakes are raised.
That's right, chris. In the battlebots world,
the season gets late pretty quickly.
If you've already lost one bout this season, it's make or break.
It's do or die. It's go big or go home.
Alright, okay, okay, okay, we got it now, pal.
Sorry, I just -- I love this sport.
Alright. I'm going to tell you who else loves it.
End game, malice, all the other teams
that are looking to go to 2-0 tonight.
If you come out of this one undefeated,
you're sitting pretty when it comes
to cracking that tournament field of 32.
Yeah, it's time for some bots to establish dominance
and others to be pushed to the brink.
It's put up or shut up time.
Managed to sneak one more in, huh, didn't you?
Sorry. Listen,
there's a lot on the line tonight,
so let's take a look at the fight card.
After a year away from the battlebox, the game-changing
zoe stephenson is back with a much bigger
and badder chomp.
At a massive 500 pounds,
it's one of the biggest bots we have ever seen.
And for their lifter opponent, gamma 9,
let's just hope they've been seriously hitting the gym.
The kids from wpi, ribbot, hope to leapfrog madcatter
to go to 2-0.
And kenny, both of these teams
may not be getting the respect that they deserve.
I think so, chris, david jin and martin mason
have both been here before.
They both have experience in the box.
And yet, if vegas was putting down odds,
both of these guys would probably be underdogs.
And in tonight's main event, after shocking the bot world
with a knockout win over tombstone,
the killer kiwis, end game,
are looking for a repeat performance.
Chris, it's a tough act to follow against
yet another deadly horizontal spinner in bloodsport.
Fresh off of a convincing knockout,
the whirling warrior looks to do
what tombstone couldn't on the path to 2-0.
And speaking of tombstone,
we're kicking this party off with a bang
because the man himself, ray billings,
is about to storm the box
and attempt to avenge his 0-1 start, kenny.
That's right. Ray is coming for blood
against rookie bot slap box
and for brave young builder bryce yankauskas,
he has the chance to open his battlebots career
by sending tombstone to a shallow 0-2 grave.
Alright, enough talking.
Let's watch some robot fighting.
Faruq!
Ladies and gentlemen, it's robot-fighting time!
♪♪
in the blue square, a tisket, a tasket,
he'll put you in a casket.
One by one, he has broken his foes,
one question about that coffin --
you want it open or closed?
It's tombstone!
♪♪
the king of chaos himself, ray billings and tombstone,
backs against the wall early after a loss to end game.
I'm not sure what's scarier, kenny, ray right now
or when you miss out on lunch.
Chris, missing lunch is no laughing matter.
But you're absolutely right.
When you get a guy like ray billings behind the eight ball,
you have to imagine he's coming out with guns ablazing.
He knows he can't drop to 0-2.
So it's gonna be trouble for anyone who stands in his way.
In the red square, from indiana, in a small town called knox,
this bot has the power of a bear and the speed of a fox.
It's time for punishment.
So set back your clocks, it's slap box.
♪♪
14-year-old bryce yankauskas
and his brand-new bot slap box, his dad, dominic, there
is also a member of team gemini,
and his little sister, onika, drives the mini-bot.
The whole family is here.
It's definitely a family affair.
As you can see, the bot is decorated
with the slapped-on handprints of the whole yankauskas family.
With that lifter as his primary weapon,
bryce is looking to get around the blade of tombstone
and flip it on to its side.
♪♪
this next fight is important
since I started out with a loss,
I have to get wins from this point forward
to get into the tournament.
So I absolutely have to come away from this with a victory.
The way slap box is built
with the exposed tires on the outside,
I'm hoping to get a hold of one of the tires
and see if I can yank it off. That'll be my strategy.
When I found out I was facing ray billings,
I was thinking, "why me?"
my first fight ever with this bot,
still trying to get used to it, and ray's a veteran.
He knows what he's doing.
My strategy just dominate the whole time.
Get him from the beginning. Don't let him go.
Even if we win our next fight,
we still have to dominate into the bracket of 32
to show that we're here for a reason.
Robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
and now time to bring in former-botbuilder-turned-analyst
pete abrahamson, the bot whisperer.
Pete, how worried is ray going into this one tonight?
Well, ray was having a pretty good look at slap box.
He was noticing things like the armor is rubber mounted
but not bolted through.
So he's pretty sure there's going to be quite a few pieces
scattering about this arena.
So we may want to be ready to dive behind our desks
because I have a feeling slap box is not
going to be duck durable like they believe it is.
Blue team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
red team, ready.
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
ray billings licking his chops
as he looks to make a meal out of the rookie.
Can young bryce shock the world in his "battlebots" debut?
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
let the bot battle begin!
Here comes slap box -- oh!
He's underneath tombstone!
Keeping the pressure on!
Oh!
Slap box sends tombstone flying!
This crew is showing absolutely no fear.
Yeah, but both of its wedges are gone right now.
All that remains is the lifter,
but it's still working. That's a good sign.
Yeah, but bryce yankauskas now has a problem.
He's made tombstone very, very mad,
and as you can see, his mom is definitely concerned
for the well-being of her little baby
against ray billings.
He is literally tearing apart that box piece by piece.
Yeah, well, he's got one tire left.
Kid, can you still move?
Bryce, how many fingers am I holding up?
Oh, my goodness. Dr. Billings' just surgical out there.
Heads up. Whoa! Whoa!
That's what I was after.
Ray does love to play with his food.
Slap box trying to show it still has some mobility left.
He's doing everything possible to move and tombstone
just kind of watching him die.
10, 9... The countdown has started.
Oh, no, look at this,
tombstone's going after the mini-bot!
Please, no, please, no, please, no!
Ah, the grim reaper backs off.
Referee: ...1, knockout!
And tombstone is headed for win number one.
Now, who's going to clean up that mess?
I say we make the teenagers do it.
Cynthia: You did such a good job.
That was awesome, that was an awesome fight.
Was a good match, it was a good match.
I'll give team slap box some credit,
they weren't afraid, kenny florian.
Florian: Yeah, absolutely. They went right at tombstone,
were aggressive right from the get go
and got off to a great start there,
getting underneath tombstone and tried to get tombstone
to essentially kill itself there.
We have seen that before where tombstone has
so much kinetic energy built up that it just knocked itself out.
So you can't blame him for the strategy,
especially from a 14-year-old kid
who's driving this sort of bot for the very first time.
Peter, what'd you think?
Abrahamson: Watch this as ray just completely removes
tire after tire after tire.
I mean, that was rough for your very first fight.
I mean, I would definitely not want to have
been that guy doing that. But, wow, this was unbelievable
with how powerful ray's weapon is here.
So team slap box had one of its four tires remaining,
it could just spin in place pretty much.
And then ray, we're sending you a bill.
Why? Because you did that...
Oh! ...To one of our cameras.
You understand we're on a budget here, billings.
Shame on you.
Ray.
Okay, do I have to be charming?
[ laughter ]
don't make me be charming, okay?
You're always charming. What do you mean?
Hey, it feels good after the last match,
this one feels a lot better.
Ray, that was some impressive open-bot surgery there.
Can you take us through that fight?
[ laughs ] well, that sloped armor
they had in the front did have me worried.
I knew I could slide up that and whatnot,
but I managed to get a hold of one and yank it off.
And as soon as you can get that armor off,
then at that point in time, then it's just a matter
of getting the right hit
at the right time to pull wheels off.
It's sloppy work there, doctor.
You didn't do any sewing. But anyways,
are you happy now that you got your win back?
I know you were real frustrated after that last loss.
Yeah. You know, the last match was --
it happens. It happens to everybody.
You know, we're okay from it.
It's good to see the robot working like it's supposed to.
And so now we're ready to charge forward
and get that giant nut.
Ray, does the rest of the pit still fear you and tombstone?
They'd be silly not to.
I mean, you know, it is the big hitter.
So, yeah, obviously I'm still the guy
that everybody's gunning for.
Ray billings, congratulations.
I'm sure we will see you down the road.
And you were very charming, just for the record.
[ laughs ] so are you guys. So are you.
Whew! Ray killings is not going to go winless this season.
I was worried. [ laughs ]
I was not.
You know, his bot is still an absolute beast.
Sometimes you see ray as the hammer out there,
he just kind of smashes everything.
But he was more of a scalpel this time out.
And, man, was he surgical.
You know, team slap box, I actually loved their strategy.
You talked about it during the replays
that ray is sometimes his own worst enemy.
And if you are stout enough, if you are well-built,
you can go in there and take that chance
by going face to face, right?
Yes. No easy feat. You better be well-built.
But even then, you could still get destroyed.
Did you end up leading with your nose in a few fights?
Yeah, got hit. I didn't notice.
Alright, coming up, two bots
making their season debuts.
It's pain train facing slammow!
And buckle up for tonight's main event,
tombstone-killer end game squares up with bloodsport.
That's later tonight on "battlebots".
♪♪
we are back on "battlebots fight night,"
where we've already checked one explosive
fight off the list on tonight's fight card.
Up next, it's a veteran against a newbie.
Let's start with the vet, craig danby,
who is bringing with him his third different robot
in the last three years,
and he admitted to us, kenny, that foxtrot and predator,
they were, "pieces of crap."
he feels differently about slammow!
Florian: He's very optimistic and he's pretty fearless
as a botbuilder, and he likes his chances.
I'm curious to see what he brought this season.
Alright. In the meantime, let's focus on the rookie
and all aboard a -- hoo hoo! -- Pain train
brought to you by evan arias.
And if there's a guy who's train you want to hop on,
it's him because he's an amazing feel-good story.
He grew up in the projects in new york city,
always loved robotics,
but his single mom didn't have the financial
wherewithal to get him into a club to get him started.
So that's what he wants to do here.
He wants to raise the awareness of robotics
back in new york city and give all those kids
the opportunity that he didn't have as a child.
That's somebody you can root for.
Yeah, absolutely. A former marine as well.
This guy, he just came across
as just the biggest "battlebots" fan ever.
He so excited to be here.
I think this is a perfect kind of measurement
to see what kind of bots we have here.
Let's check them out inside the box.
Faruq, do your thing.
In the blue square, from new york city,
watch out for the closing doors, it's pain train.
[ cheers and applause ]
so what sort of bot is pain train, kenny florian?
Well, it's a vertical spinner with that eggbeater style weapon
that will spin at 250 miles an hour.
What's the strategy for it?
Well, he believes he has an incredibly intense robot,
wants to go right at them, very aggressive driving style,
and take them apart piece by piece.
In the red square, it's the weed-whacking,
whip-cracking slammow!
♪♪
there we are, the third different design for craig danby
in the last three years.
Why should we believe in him this time, kenny florian?
Well, it's a slick design, it looks very solid.
And, you know, it's a grapper lifter bot,
so, well, that's always exciting.
Says he can lift 1,000 pounds.
He might have to prove it to us.
♪♪
what makes my weapon different from every other robot
is that it's a hybrid between a beater bar and a drum spinner.
The weapon spins at 250 miles per hour.
So I'm going to go after his wheels, go after his back.
I'm going to rip that robot piece by piece.
The main strategy is going to be box him into a corner,
pin him against the wall,
get it to the point where I can turn him over
where his weapon is less dangerous
and get that grip on him so that I can suplex him.
I need to prove really that I am a good builder.
If I don't win this year even at least once,
then all of the effort, all of the money,
all of the time that we put into it
is absolutely useless.
♪♪
robots, activate.
♪♪
blue team, ready.
♪♪
bring the pain!
♪♪
red team, ready.
Do it.
♪♪
I'm taking those wheels, baby.
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
let the bot battle begin!
Pain train having some trouble,
slammow!'s all over it, delivers them into the screws.
This is exactly what he wanted, chris.
Yeah, trying to lift pain train
and he flips him. Almost had a hold of him.
Pain train manages to escape,
but some less than stellar driving by evan arias here
to start this match, can't seem to get any traction.
Oh! Oh!
It's slammow! Taking advantage.
He's got a bend.
Slammow! Doing a nice job lifting, remember
craig danby told us it can lift 1,000 pounds,
so a 250-pound robot should be no problem.
Get out of there, evan.
Uh-oh. You can feel slammow! Probing.
Just kind of looking for that
right grip point here to take control.
Oh!
Some nice hits by pain train.
Yep, slammow! Backs off,
catching his breath now, back into the action.
No question there's a big problem
for evan arias and his crew. This thing is not driving
the right way, kenny. Well, you know what?
The design of it is kind of making it very wobbly.
It's not getting very good stability
to the floor right now.
Uh-oh.
There's a pick-up suplex.
Oh!
Aw, yeah!
Slammow! Looking like hulk hogan
in wrestlemania iii, kenny.
Living up to its name.
That is officially one of the coolest things
I've ever seen a robot do.
Pain train fired up now,
but can't seem to get a good bite on slammow!
Who is suddenly lying on its back.
Might be struggling a little bit himself.
Oh, there are some nice shots.
I think pain train needs to attack the sides.
He's going right up the wedge of slammow!
And that's playing right into craig danby's game plan.
Oh, here goes slammow!
Oh, wow! And all of a sudden,
I don't hear that weapon anymore on pain train.
You ate the belt.
You can see a belt right there on the floor, chris.
I think that just disabled
that eggbeater style weapon from pain train,
and it's not moving. That's not good.
Under a minute to go, pain train,
which has has trouble moving throughout the match,
now is immobile.
You got to imagine the countdown is going to start
any minute.
10, 9... Here it goes.
Now pain train's moving a little bit.
That stops, at least momentarily,
the countdown.
Get him in the corner.
And now slammow!,
only one of those forky arms, not to get too technical on you,
is working. [ laughs ] forky arms.
Nice, chris. Thank you.
10, 9... But another countdown
has started. ...8
and this time it could be doa
for the pain train in its first fight.
Well done, slammow!
Pain train is knocked out!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
good job.
That was rough.
Rose: Kenny, what an impressive performance by slammow!
In its "battlebots" debut.
Yeah, a brilliant start there from craig danby
and team slammow! Attacking the back side of pain train.
Excellent control there from the grappler staying on pain train
and asserting its dominance.
And of course, craig danby dropping the suplex,
executing his game plan to perfection
in truly one of the most impressive moves
I've seen of the battlebox.
Evan arias and pain train
on the receiving end of that vicious suplex.
A tough first outing for the bot from the big apple.
But the story tonight is craig danby
and slammow! Flat out getting it done.
Rose: Craig danby, over here, bud.
Hey, man!
Yeah, craig,
the previous two years you told us
that you brought with you robots that were "crappy."
yeah.
So how frustrating has it been
and how do you feel now in comparison?
So I've been doing this for like 20 years.
It's my third year here. I always come here
hoping that there's going to be something new.
I'm going to do something different.
But at the end of the day,
it's always -- something little goes wrong.
And this year, I brought a really good team with me,
with the new team and with mowbot, the sponsor.
Without them, I couldn't be here.
I couldn't have built this robot.
I won. I got a fight. I won!
By knockout!
Guys, congratulations on win number one.
Thanks for an entertaining fight.
Thank you.
Kenny, I think sometimes we lose a little perspective, you know,
we focus on witch doctor and whiplash and tombstone
and hydra and these great bots and it seems so easy for them.
Then there's a botbuilder like craig danby who pours his
heart and soul for two decades into this.
It means so much to him, and he finally gets a win.
We have to look at it, I think, from a different perspective.
Absolutely. I feel great for him.
You know, so much goes into this, so much goes into this.
There's a lot of hard work and a lot of trial and error.
He's certainly experienced a lot of adversity here at battlebots.
But finally getting a win and getting a quality win
has to feel good for them and their team.
Is he going to impress the selection committee enough
to make it into the top 32? Who knows?
But this is a brilliant first step for him.
Alright. Coming up, it's going to end
like some kind of greek tragedy.
Perfect phoenix, skorpios,
their legendary war is next.
♪♪
rose: We are back on "battlebots"
and we are off to the races
with two fights already in the books.
And up next, zach lytle looks to avoid an 0-2 start.
Standing in his way 11-year-old tyler nguyen.
It is perfect phoenix and skorpios.
Faruq, let's roll.
In the blue square, bring 'em out, perfect phoenix.
Back again with his buddy sawyer on the left there,
it is whiz kid tyler nguyen, and kenny,
he made a serious statement in his first fight.
Florian: He sure did. It was a relatively quick knockout,
but the field is well aware of how skilled a driver tyler is.
And now they know his bot works, too.
It'll be interesting to see how he does here.
In the red square, get ready for skorpios!
♪♪
oh, okay. Show-offs.
Skorpios knocked out by bloodsport
in its first round match,
and kenny, zach told us he knows he has to be the bad guy here.
He's either about to beat an 11-year-old
or lose to an 11-year-old.
Well, something tells me he'll go with the former.
At 0-1, zach knows he'll be in far worse shape at 0-2.
He also knows how good of a driver tyler is
and plans to use skorpios' infamous wedge
to disable the blade of perfect phoenix.
♪♪
I know everyone at home is like, "oh, look,
a little kid is driving,"
but the truth is he is a monster.
A monster behind the radio.
Already witnessed him beat so many adults.
I do not want to be added to that list.
I'm pretty confident since I worked on a strategy for him.
Attack when he does a wheelie and destroy tires.
If I beat skorpios, there's actually a good chance
that I'll make it to the round of 32.
That's really good.
♪♪
robots, activate.
Well, you heard zach say it, tyler nguyen,
no slouch when it comes to punching above his weight class.
He has medaled at other top robot
competitions such as bugglebots and robogames.
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
♪♪
let the bot battle begin!
And skorpios out of the box, rushing nguyen.
Oh! And he got
perfect phoenix in the air,
perfect phoenix up to full speed,
does a nice hit on skorpios.
Skorpios has him right where he wants him,
see if he can slow down that blade of perfect phoenix.
Tyler nguyen, he's only 11 years old,
but he knows he has to stay in space,
uh-oh, he has started this.
This is terrible. You're far too young, tyler,
quit it while you can, buddy.
No! Ugh!
Zach lytle's getting nasty over here.
Kenny, skorpios is inflicting all sorts of damage here.
Yeah, he's trying to go for that primary weapon.
The question is does perfect phoenix have enough power
to get away. It does.
My motor's smoking! Still with the smoking?
Seriously, tyler!
Most importantly, that weapon ain't working.
Oh! Skorpios, the veteran driver,
zach lytle, taking advantage of the youngster.
But tyler showing tremendous courage under fire, kenny.
Incredible driving skills from the youngster, chris.
A minute in.
Zach lytle doing a great job
of just staying right on top of perfect phoenix,
and obviously perfect phoenix in a tough spot.
Their weapon is down, skorpios's primary weapon is not.
Whew!
And skorpios doing a great job
getting to the side of perfect phoenix
so he can get under the bonnet
and he's on the screws!
This is the danger zone for tyler nguyen!
Little shoeshine for perfect phoenix.
Ow, perfect phoenix is back on the ground,
but it seems like it might be stuck on the screws.
Whoo! And it might be the wedge
underneath, chris, that's stuck
underneath the screws. I can't really tell from this angle.
Well, either way, tyler nguyen and perfect phoenix
is getting counted out!
...5, 4...
This is going to do it!
The little man is done.
Knockout!
[ cheers and applause ]
a valiant effort from the 11 year old,
but zach lytle with a resounding victory
as skorpios picks up win number one on the season.
Let's go.
You know, kenny, we know that tyler nguyen
has experience in robot fighting,
but zach lytle and his team obviously had a game plan
and stuck to it. No doubt about it.
I mean, they tried to box rush him
right from the start of the match
and you could see their aggressive game plan
really paid off. Skorpios kept on top.
And even though that weapon was not as effective
as they would have liked, it did enough damage
to wear down their opponent.
Disabled the weapon
and eventually put them up in the screws.
And that was it for 11-year-old tyler nguyen.
♪♪
[ cheers and applause ]
congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.
Put it down. Oh.
My bad!
-Zach lytle! -Yes.
Over here, bud.
Oh, here? No, there you go.
Alright. Hi there.
Well, you told us before the fight that either way
you're going to be kind of the bad guy
if you, you know, beat up an 11-year-old
and everybody's going to look at you like you're a jerk.
Do you feel like a jerk?
Well, we decided, this is a bennett funk,
he's one of the kids from my summer camp program.
He's worked his way up to be here on the team.
And we thought we'd go kid to kid.
Were you guys nervous for this matchup a little bit
based on tyler's driving skills?
We were incredibly nervous.
We've been talking about it and sweating about it for two days.
He's won robogames.
He's won so many competitions, I can't even list them all.
I was the judge the year
he showed up and won the junior league,
and then he brought a little stepstool to get up on to
so he could then win the adult league as well.
Zach and bennett, congratulations.
Bennett, is this like the best day of your life?
This is a great day. I'm loving it.
Go celebrate with the rest of your team.
Congratulations, guys.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
alright, coming up, it's a torrid affair
between cat and frog, it's ribbot and madcatter.
But first, let's check in with jenny taft,
who caught up with ribbot earlier tonight.
Something really interesting we have learned
about ribbot this season,
you guys are doing some diagnostic testing.
Take me through it, nick.
Yeah. So on top of our weapons control,
we have a seven-inch touch screen
that communicates with the robot back and forth.
It displays during the match all of the information
that's important for david and I
to diagnose all the motors, all the speed controllers,
and we get temperature of voltage current,
the things we want to know in real time.
It's been huge for our confidence.
We know we can get through every match
without blowing up our electronics.
Last year we had tons of issues
where drive motors and drive vscs were cooking themselves.
He can quickly glance down at the tablet
and know whether or not we're like seconds away
from blowing up. Wow.
It's also nice to know what happens in these machines
as they're competing.
So we can spin the weapon. You'll be able to see
that the graphics are moving.
Oh!
♪♪
hits it every time!
It's really cool, guys.
It's a big advantage in a lot of ways.
I can drive as hard as I want pretty much for the entire match
without worrying.
It's more so that the weapon, after continuous hard spin ups
will start to overheat.
It will go from green to yellow
during the middle of the match
and then red if we're spinning up for a long time.
And what about your fight specifically against tracer,
how was this technology able to kind of help you?
Florian: Big head on collision out of the gate!
We lost the wheel early on and our weapon
was actually driving on the ground.
I asked nick, like how we're doing on temps,
and he was able to determine exactly how much current
we were pulling with our weapon dragging on the ground.
The second we determined that we were all good,
we decided keep hitting him.
Rose: Tracer on its back!
[ cheers and applause ]
well, clearly, no shortage of technological advancements.
This is impressive,
really pushing this sport in a new direction.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
The innovation here at battlebots
never ceases to amaze. Good stuff, jenny taft.
We'll see ribbot taking on madcatter.
And it's coming your way next.
♪♪
we are back on "battlebots," and up next,
a pair of robots with impressive knockouts
in their first fights of the season.
Let's start with madcatter.
They are captained by the energetic,
entertaining martin mason.
This was his reaction after they pulled off the win.
-Oh! -Yeah!
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah!
Ooh, okay, brother, I'm with you.
Now, kenny, he's got the whole schtick thing down,
but this is a very impressive bot.
Florian: It's a very impressive bot and this guy really is coming
in here with a chip on his shoulder.
He wants to face all the best teams
and really prove a point here.
He's got one from wpi.
Of course, they're the leaders of ribbot.
And you know what?
They're playing some interesting mind games.
And so it goes with two modular bots,
both teams trying to peek at the other's configuration
to get an upper hand in this one.
That's right. Where two bots have multiple weapons,
both are always going to look to outmatch
the other, vertical bar spinner,
horizontal spinner, hammer? We're about to find out.
But you never did the gamesmanship thing
as you were getting ready to go into the octagon, did you?
Not really. I always brought the same body to my fights.
Oh, I thought you were like mr. Potato head.
You'd put on a different nose, different ears.
I wish. It'd be nice.
If so, you picked the wrong ones.
Just gonna let you know.
Alright, faruq, take it away.
In the blue square from worcester, mass,
the felonious frog, ribbot!
Alright. Oh, look at this, kenny.
They are still holding out on everybody, including madcatter.
Wouldn't it be hilarious if they take that dropcloth off
and all of a sudden it's a kangaroo instead of a frog?
[ laughs ]
and, oh! There we go.
So if you played the vertical disk game at home,
congratulations, you're a winner.
Well, we're all winners, chris,
because that vertical spinner packs a wallop.
They've also got these wedgelets on the front of ribbot
to help feed madcatter right into their weapon.
In the red square from pomona, california,
here to make 'em say "me-ow!" it's madcatter!
♪♪
plug your ears, it's mr. Showtime,
matin mason and team madcatter
walking the catwalk with their vertical disk there, kenny.
Yeah, lots of gamesmanship between these two teams all day,
but they've also decided to go
with their very destructive vertical weapon.
As a team from a community college,
martin said he's excited to show that his program
can go toe-to-toe with the kids from the revered wpi.
♪♪
let me tell you we're going up against tonight.
We're going up against ribbot,
and I made up a nice big bag of egg batter.
I tell you what, we're going to be frying some frog legs.
We're going to see what they're going to run.
And we're going to put in what is best suited
to just make them totally frog-gotten.
For madcatter, we're going to prepare our vertical spinner
that we primarily used last season.
Our strategy going into this fight
is we want to use our newfound speed and mobility.
If we can start this tournament going 2-0,
I think that puts us in a really,
really good position going into the bracket.
I'm expecting to see some fireworks.
♪♪
robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
and there's madcatter's mini-bot toebiter,
they're hoping he can take out the wheels of ribbot
and tee it up for a clean shot.
Blue team, ready.
♪♪
red team, ready.
-Yeah! -Yeah!
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
♪♪
let the bot battle begin!
Oh! Oh!
Ribbot draws first blood attacking from the side.
A standoff now and boom. Another shot.
Ribbot on the offensive early,
he's lighting them up.
Oh! Ribbot dominating early, now goes after the mini-bot!
Oh! What a hit by madcatter!
And in fact, part of that prog's face
is deformed now and it's smoking.
We're going to have cooked toad here momentarily.
Yeah, ribbot is really slowing down now, chris.
And I think the fact that madcatter
is so low to the ground is giving them
a huge advantage here!
And he puts ribbot on its head,
now, ribbot can still drive, but look at this.
45 seconds in, it's already smoking.
And oh, no!
The face of ribbot! It's gone!
Turn away at home!
Actually, don't, our ratings will go down.
[ laughs ] madcatter is trying to finish the job here.
I think their primary weapon might be shut down.
Weapons. Weapons are down.
And you hear that, ribbot's weapon is definitely toast.
And there are pieces of frog all over the battlebox.
[ in deep voice ] you know what they call this,
a good old-fashioned battlebox pushing match.
That's right. And it's challenging
to win a pushing match
when you're upside down like ribbot is right now, chris.
The wpi boys are at a disadvantage here.
[ normal voice ] so much energy dished out
inside that battlebox
with a couple of huge hits in the first 30 seconds.
Now, who can survive?
Uh-oh, now that primary weapon of madcatter's
is starting to get going again. This is not good for ribbot.
Here we go. Here we go.
This is it. Oh!
Big shot by madcatter flips ribbot over.
Good news for ribbot, but no,
it is stuck on the mini-bot.
It looks like he's high centered on that thing, chris.
He can't go anywhere.
He's a sitting duck now.
For the second time of this fight,
that darn mini-bot makes its presence known.
Madcatter's weapon up to speed.
Looking for a knockout.
Another nice shot there by madcatter.
Yeah, madcatter's weapon is working again.
We got fireworks over here!
Totally. Right in front of us.
And these two have locked horns.
And it looks like they might actually be stuck together
with 30 seconds to go.
David, reverse!
Ribbot trying to dislodge itself
and does an outstanding job of doing so.
Good pin, good pin.
Florian: Well, as I see it right now,
these primary weapons shots from madcatter
are going to be a huge advantage for them.
That's exactly what the judges are looking for.
Just the fact that it's working
is going to be a big advantage for them.
Under 10 to go,
so this one will go the distance as madcatter
looks to finish off a very impressive
performance against ribbot.
[ buzzer ]
♪♪
one of these teams is about to start their season 2-0.
It's decision time next.
♪♪
rose: We are right back into it on "battlebots"
as the judges decide if ribbot or madcatter
get to celebrate an all-important 2-0 start.
Peter, it certainly looks like madcatter
had complete control of that fight.
What did you see?
I'm looking at it the same way you did.
I mean, there was that one pop that basically nearly put
ribbot in my lap over here. I mean, it was amazing.
That was, I think, the one when the weapon died.
God, this was a tough, brutal fight.
But I'm going to go with the judges
and believe that they're going to go with madcatter.
Well, the three judges are scoring on an 11 point system.
They can award five points for damage, three for aggression,
and three for control. And they don't have to give
total point values to a particular team.
They can split points if they deem necessary.
We gave them a show. Yeah.
Rose: Kenny, ribbot came flying out of the box
looking to attack. Florian: That's right, chris,
ribbot landed a couple of big shots
to the side of mattcatter in the first 15 seconds.
And they looked dominant,
but a dangerous lapse in judgment from team ribbot
as they turned the bot's back to mattcatter
to focus their attention on the mini-bot.
Yeah, this could have cost them the fight.
You could see mattcatter capitalized
and landed a monster shot
that almost knocked ribbot out of the box.
And how about the little guy high centering ribbot
later in the match?
What a performance by the mini-bot.
And although madcatter couldn't score the k.O.,
it finished the fight with a functioning primary weapon
while ribbot's was fried.
Martin mason making a strong case to the judges for the win.
The results from the judges are in.
And your winner by unanimous decision is...
Madcatter!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
alright, martin mason, two matches, two wins,
where's your head at?
You know what? I tell you what, we're feeling good.
I got some batter back at the pit.
We we're going to cook up some frog legs.
They're going to be so tasty. I'll tell you what.
We're really looking forward to that.
Man, I told you after this fight
they were going to be frog-gotten.
Man, we're moving on. We're hoping to get mit next!
We want uppercut. We're going to take down that next goal.
You give them to us. We're going to keep going up the ladder.
Is that your goal? You want to take out
all the college teams, huh, martin?
You know what? We're going to prove
what a community college can do.
That's what we're here for. These kids know how to build.
They know how to fight.
And we came right back with a great robot
that could take it to a tough competitor.
If you don't at least make the final four,
are you going to be disappointed?
You know what? Just being here is a privilege.
I'll tell you that, completely honestly.
So anything we can do to show you what these kids can do,
we're going to bring that.
Very, very nice. By the way,
a quick show of hands -- all these people
are your former students, is that correct?
That's right. Alright.
Raise your hand if you think that you're former
or current teacher is certifiably nuts.
Yeah!
Awesome.
Job well done. Team madchatter,
you guys are now 2-0, congratulations.
Keep plugging along. Thank you.
You'll see us again!
Whoo!
Kenny, uh, my throat hurts after interviewing him.
He's so much fun to interview.
And I tell you what, that is a serious bot.
I mean, it's durable, it hits hard. He could go very far.
And by the way, don't sleep on the little fact
that they just beat the kids from wpi, right?
Absolutely. The same school that produced three-time
giant nut winner paul ventimiglia and bite force.
Very impressive stuff. It's a big deal.
That is a big deal. Absolutely.
Congratulations to all those kids and to martin mason.
Alright, coming up later tonight, throw on your scrubs,
because this one's going to be messy.
It's end game versus bloodsport in our main event.
But next. One of the most innovative robots
in battlebots history...
Oh, my goodness!
...Returns to push the sport to its outer limits.
That is it!
Chomp...Has...Evolved!
Zoe stephenson will walk chomp into the battlebox
when we return.
That's next.
♪♪
we are back on "battlebots."
this is kenny florian, it is chris rose.
Four fights down in what's turned out
to be a scintillating fight card so far.
And up next, a pair of veteran botbuilders.
And welcome back to the party, zoe stephenson.
Ever the innovator, we last saw her
with a very different looking chomp
in the 2018 season.
But this bot's been hitting the gym.
Now, everybody at home, you know the weight limit rule.
250 pounds per robot.
Unless you are a verified walker.
Please explain what we're about to see.
Listen, there is nothing easy about building
a true walking robot
because of the additional machinery required
and natural sacrifice of speed
automatically puts a walker at a disadvantage.
It's only fair to reward such impressive engineering
by leveling the playing field.
Can't wait to see what kind of damage it does.
So it weighs 500 pounds.
And let me get this straight, it doesn't walk very fast.
It weighs 500 pounds. How are you doing?
Alright. It's going to be taking on gamma 9.
And a veteran botbuilder in curtis nemeth.
Haven't seen him in a few years,
didn't win a fight a few years ago.
He's like, "I got to win one of these
just for my confidence."
and now he's going to take on a behemoth.
Well, he's totally redesigned gamma 9
since we last saw bronco tossing it into a dumpster
in 2018. Formerly a grappler,
curtis has decided to go with a lifter here this time.
It's the new design's first fight.
So we're going to see what happens.
I'm going to take my little legs, my heavy body,
and send it over to my man, faruq.
In the blue square, from burbank, california,
the vaporizer of the valley, chomp!
Alright. Whoa.
Let's see this thing,
don't worry. That's not a john deere
that's about to drive inside the battlebox,
although, man, we've never seen anything like this.
Yeah, you definitely don't want to drive that around your lawn.
That thing is way more dangerous than a tractor
unless, of course, your tractor also has a weaponized hammer.
♪♪
in the red square, from westminster, california,
the red and black attack, it's gamma 9!
Alright, kenny, curtis nemeth making his way to the box
for the first time since 2018.
His goal here is to lift the giant,
terrifying robot that smarter than the both of us.
Speak for yourself, chris.
But, uh, yes, he says that lifting arm
is up to the challenge and plans to get underneath
chomp in order to immobilize it.
Godspeed.
I'm going to fight a 500-pound walker
that's made by one of the best teams.
If the hammer was to hit me in the wrong spot,
fight's over. If he doesn't get a good shot,
I got a chance of giving him a hard time.
This was built in a garage by a couple of guys to beat
that beautiful, big, expensive robot.
I mean, I would like to do that.
So gamma 9 is sort of a wedge and lifter,
the thing that will be bad for us
is if they get us under one of the hammers
and hammer down on us.
We're not trying to be the fastest.
We're not trying to outrun them.
Our goal is to be controlled with our motion
and we can just focus on hammering.
Are you ready? Weapons operate.
[ laughs ] and a flamethrower!
Spared no expense.
A flamethrower. Oh [bleep].
Robots, activate.
Alright, let's bring in our bot whisperer, peter.
Uh, pete, you have to explain to everybody at home
what we're going to see with chomp.
I don't have an hour, so that's going to be tough
because the engineering complexity within this bot,
it's two bots, like the turret itself is its own robot.
Then there's six full legs of walking with,
I think three to four points of articulation each.
We have an insane walker here about at battlebots.
I mean, this is what we've been dying for.
This thing's freaking me out, I got to tell you.
Okay. Oh, my goodness.
Alright. I see you.
Oh, my goodness!
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
♪♪
let the bot battle begin!
Gamma 9 taking a slow strategic approach,
chomp only has one speed and that's slow.
It's got those six walking legs.
Now, the question is, kenny, can it get close enough
to gamma 9 to do some damage with that hammer?
Well, at some point gamma 9's
got to try to get close and get underneath it.
So that's when chomp is going to strike.
You see that turret always aligning itself up with gamma 9.
Whoa! Whoa!
Holy smokes, good job by gamma 9 getting under chomp.
Yeah, that was tremendous timing there, chris.
Excellent driving by curtis.
And actually one of those forks is stuck under chomp's lip.
And both bots get free.
Job well done by both drivers there.
Right up a little bit.
Yeah, I think that patience
is paying off right now for gamma 9.
Yeah, no rush against the big bot.
Once again, weighs 500 pounds, which is legal
if you are a full walking bot.
No wheels on this baby.
Oh, if you're this powerful, why do you leave?
Chomp waiting for its strike,
and it just missed.
Now chomp has got to know
it's not going to get too many swings in.
Ooh! Nice shot there by chomp!
And nice shot by gamma 9, it got under it,
but couldn't quite flip chomp over.
And gamma 9 able to withstand so far.
Nice! And gamma 9 is taking chomp for a ride.
The question is, does it have enough power
to push it around the battlebox?
Oh!
[ laughs ]
it just did some damage to those forks, chris,
that lifter is in trouble.
Now in the damage category, the judges do heavily value the --
whoa! -- The damage done by an active weapon,
so it's not just good enough for gamma 9 to push chomp around,
as impressive as it is to you at home.
There's another shot from chomp.
Did some damage to the top of gamma 9.
See that armor kind of hanging on there.
Can't lift him, dude.
Yeah, that armor is definitely dented on top.
And now, uh-oh, chomp is turned around,
but it's not at the right angle to use that hammer.
Maybe it is! Yeah, chomp is
actually using the hammer to try to jump off of gamma 9.
See if they could do it again.
Oh! Oh! Nice shot!
Gamma 9 putting chomp in the screws.
Got it, hit him. That's a great angle,
that's a great angle. Oh, man, I'm hurting.
Florian: Great driving there by curtis,
but that is a very heavy bot.
You can see chomp really starting to eat away
and do some damage to the top of gamma 9.
Under 30 seconds to go in a very strategic
and interesting match.
And look at gamma 9 taking chomp for a spin.
Whoa!
And now chomp's hammer is caught in gamma 9.
This is a real problem now.
They may need to be unstuck
and that may have finished gamma 9.
I'll take your unstuck, kenny.
And deliver one more shot.
And that'll do it.
A historic event as chomp and gamma 9
go the distance.
Give me that last one.
Well, we knew that speed was not going to be
the name of the game for chomp, but gamma 9,
I actually loved its strategy, kenny.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they were very strategic.
They were very patient.
They were kind of looking for a vulnerability in chomp
and they did a great job of getting underneath it.
You know, it started off a little slow,
kind of built up to this beautiful crescendo.
And man, there was a lot of damage dealt out by chomp
at the end, though, gamma 9 does not look the same way
than when it started. You know,
with older versions of chomp, they would utilize that hammer
and then chomp would just be all over the place.
And in early seasons it couldn't self-right.
This is a totally different bot.
It seems like they're on to something here.
No doubt about it. I think that extra weight
helped keep it way more stable to the battlebox floor, chris.
And then the last few seconds,
we saw that hammer deliver a crushing blow,
and look at the damage it did to the cranium of gamma 9.
That disabled gamma 9.
I don't think it was moving after that.
What a shot.
Let's go down to faruq with the judges' decision.
[ cheers and applause ]
the results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is...
♪♪
chomp!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
rose: Zoe, congratulations to you and team chomp.
How exciting was it for you to watch history unfold
right in front of your eyes?
That's so generous of you.
It was really great to see this robot work.
This robot is actually two robots that we have built.
Both of them are really, really complicated.
And I have this big team, some of whom you see here,
many of whom you actually don't even see,
and everyone has worked so, so hard to get to this point.
So even just to see the robot walking and hammering
and working is really validating.
But to get that win is special.
Zoe, I'm curious, was there an animal or something
that you seen that kind of inspired this design?
We've been interested to make a walker,
especially my teammate, jascha little,
who did a huge amount of really hard engineering on those legs.
Early on when we were playing with armor designs,
we thought about the horseshoe crab.
And I do think it's still got
some of that when it's going side to side.
I like that. Can you do that for us again?
That was very good. [ laughs ]
I like that, everybody on the team.
That's nice. That's nice.
Congratulations to you and your entire team.
A job well done. Thanks for the entertainment today.
♪♪
40-yard dash between chomp and chris rose, who wins?
[ laughs ] I don't know. That's a good question.
Stop asking on twitter. You're a little faster.
Stop asking on -- I'm getting killed
on social media right now. A little faster.
Alright. Coming up, bunny sauriol
takes on her former teammate, adam wrigley,
one of this season's newest rivalries.
It's malice versus shatter! And that's next.
♪♪
welcome back to "battlebots" as malice and shatter!
Get locked in for their grudge match.
Let's take a look at the killer main event
we have coming your way later tonight.
Two very impressive bots from the first round of battles
will be going head-to-head as end game
and bloodsport tear each other apart.
Tauheed: End game!
Tombstone!
The tombstone fight pretty much went exactly
how we wanted it to.
And he's back for more.
What a shot by end game!
I think that might be the highest I've ever seen tombstone
go under someone else's power.
Oh, my god, it got thrown out of the arena?
And just slotted perfectly in front of the judges.
3, 2, 1, it's a knockout!
End game has done the unthinkable!
Mabey: It was clearly an amazing feeling beating tombstone.
But there's still a lot more to go,
bloodsport's not a pushover.
Marple: So in our fight against skorpios...
Holy smokes. What just happened?
...We really showed that the new bloodsport
is the real deal.
Tauheed: Bloodsport. Whoa!
So last year was our first year,
we really didn't know what we're doing.
Team bloodsport.
Turns out when we got it into the box,
it was actually really strong
and delivered a lot of really powerful hits.
Oh! There it goes!
You guys have another win.
Feels so good. It's way beyond anything
we could have ever imagined.
This year we come with a different approach.
We have three new blades that increases the stability
and the power of bloodsport
and this new bar that we have is 77 pounds.
It hits harder than last year,
goes at 1,900 rpm. Spin, spin, spin.
It should deliver huge hits.
Rose: Oh! Bloodsport on the attack!
What concerns us about bloodsport
is that his weapon is just as big as tombstone,
but with tombstone, there's an opening somewhere.
But with bloodsport, he's all weapon.
Marple: End game, on the other hand,
has this huge, huge vertical disk,
it's one of the biggest ones in the field.
Oh! Another big hit!
We want to avoid it at all costs.
Oh, huge shot by end game!
I think the plan with bloodsport
is very similar to the plan with tombstone.
Pop him into the air and see what happens.
Marple: This is our first main event.
This is our chance to really prove
that we can be a real contender with the other top bots.
Like, being 1-0 is just the beginning.
Justin and I are good friends.
But once the doors lock in the box,
there's no mercy.
Marple: One way or another...
This could be it!
...This is going to end with a knockout.
Always exciting to see any bot coming off a victory
over tombstone. That one's going to be nuts.
But right now we turn our attention
to a fight where the winner not only achieves a 2-0 start,
but some all-important bragging rights as well.
It's malice taking on shatter!
And let's start with malice.
In her first match as captain of malice,
the unabashedly emotional bunny sauriol
tallied 1 in the win column.
Nice shot by malice, which is going right for the tires!
Oh, my gosh, we have a huge bot flaming!
Whoa! Unbelievable!
That's how you do it!
And now for her next trick,
she's gunning to take down her former team.
Oh! Big hit by shatter!
That's right, bunny spent last season as a member of
team shatter! Which you have to think
gives her an advantage
since she knows her opponent so well.
And while her leaving shatter wasn't on
bad terms, suffice to say
bunny has some serious incentive to stick it to her old team.
And of course, there's shatter! And adam wrigley
coming off a knockout win over ghost raptor
in their first fight.
Shatter!
Everything looks all systems go
for the bot from brooklyn, kenny.
It sure does, chris. It looks like their
off-season adjustments have paid off for them.
They have a bot that they're very confident in,
and I can't wait to see these guys battle.
Should be a good matchup.
Faruq, sound the battle cry.
In the blue square, from san jose,
the bay area bomber, malice.
Kenny, bunny sauriol,
so emotional after her first battlebots win as captain.
I'll be curious to see if she can channel those emotions
and get refocused for her next fight.
That's the thing. I mean, she had an amazing win
in her last fight. She's going to have to get focused
and really get composed so she can put out
her best effort as a driver here.
Kenny, she's going with her lighter weapon.
Tell us about it. That's right.
That's the 50 pound purple pain.
And so the idea of that is use less weight with the weapon
to put more armor on top?
That's right. That's exactly what she wants to do
against that hammer bot in shatter!
In the red square, from brooklyn, new york,
the brawler from bk, shatter!
Adam wrigley and team shatter! K.O.'d ghost raptor
their first time out, and if this is your first time
seeing this bot, it's shiny.
You might see that shiny plastic break off as well.
Not going to be a lot of damage to the bot.
That's just the way it's designed.
Getting a good look at shatter!
Of course, the head of the hammer is called old rusty.
They're going with the shorter arm,
which is called a little stubs.
Yeah, that's correct. And he's also adding magnets
as well to give it better connection to the floor here.
♪♪
tonight, we are fighting
against my old teammate, shatter!
We're going to be putting the purple pain weapon on,
which is lighter, which means we can add more armor.
They go through titanium like it's nothing.
And so we layered uhmw over top of titanium.
Hopefully we can absorb the shocks from those hits.
This fight specifically is the most important
to me to bring home a win because this is a real
competitive robot
that I personally worked on. Bunny's coming for you.
You want to get in up close, have the armor do its work,
and use the shorter arm
to be more precise with close-in hits.
Bunny was on our team last season.
You know if you lose to your friend,
you're going to be hearing about it for a long time.
So I think, you know, we want to win.
So she'll be hearing about it for a long time and not us.
Robots, activate.
♪♪
two former teammates face off for eternal bragging rights.
That's next on "battlebots fight night."
♪♪
rose: We are back on "battlebots fight night."
two former teammates getting ready to duke it out...
Right now.
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
♪♪
let the bot battle begin!
Malice says hello with its spinner.
Fire it next time.
Those little pieces of plastic on shatter!
Are supposed to fly.
Florian: Oh! Holy smokes!
Parts all over the battlebox!
Chris, the hammer head on shatter! Is history.
One of the biggest weapon on weapon hits
we've seen this year, kenny.
And malice looks like its weapon might be history, too.
Yeah, I think they lost a belt in that exchange.
Shatter!'s axe is swinging, but the head is gone.
So this really has come down to a driving contest
for adam wrigley and team shatter!,
their weapon has been sprayed all over the battlebox.
But still got to give them credit, kenny,
they're trying with that arm.
Yeah, just staying aggressive.
I mean, both teams here have to be thinking
try to survive the next two minutes
and get it to the judges,
they're going to do anything they can to score points.
So really, it might come down to driving now
over the next two minutes.
Well, this is what happens when you have two
very dangerous primary weapons.
Both took a lot of damage on those collisions
and on those strikes.
This is going to be a fascinating chess match
to watch unfold as both bots try to score points in the control
and aggression categories, kenny.
That's right. You can see malice
trying to use its drivetrain to control shatter! Here.
Keep hitting it, keep hitting it.
All that, said, chris, how many fights have we seen
come down to what the judges think of damage?
Who is able to do dole out more damage,
it looks like shatter! Might be burning up as well, chris.
Yeah, definitely smoking a little bit.
Something to keep your eye on.
Oh, they're really burning out those motors
trying to push malice around the battlebox.
Well, that's what you have to do at this point.
When you have lost your primary weapon,
the only weapon you have is the battlebox.
Can you get somebody into the screws?
Can you get them into the corner
and drop a 100 pound pulverizer on their head?
Shatter! Might be slowing down a little bit here, chris.
Under a minute to go.
It's a test of wills at this point.
Can both these bots make it the full three minutes
and force a judges' decision?
Malice trying to get around to the side
or the back of shatter! Right now.
You've got him, rush, you got him. Kill him.
And right now, adam wrigley isn't having it.
Doing a good job with some defensive driving.
Rose: Adam wrigley trying to use that little stubs arm.
But it's really not doing much damage at all
as we are under 20 seconds to go.
Bunny: Keep at him!
The pulverizer are just missed shatter!
Slaughter him!
You can hear bunny coaching her team to victory here.
We'll see.
Final few ticks and this one's going to the judges.
[ buzzer ]
good job. Good job.
Rose: And once again, the judges are scoring on an 11 point scale.
They can divvy up the points as they deem necessary
in three different categories, five points awarded for damage,
three for aggression, and three for control.
Your judges are all former battlebots participants,
derek young, lisa winter, jason bardis.
So let's show you exactly how this whole thing unfolded.
It really was one big hit early on.
Florian: There's that shot right there.
You see the belt fly off of malice.
And at the same time, that hammer came off
and basically it became a shoving match
for the remainder of this fight.
You see the damage done to the front wedge of shatter!
It could come down to that.
Peter, how would you score it?
Abrahamson: Oh, I would not want to be a judge for this one.
I would probably score three points to malice
due to the fact that they knocked the hammerhead
completely off.
Malice only really lost the belt of their weapon,
so weren't as heavily damaged,
even though they did incapacitate the weapon.
I see you, pete, you are a tv veteran.
You want no part of the judges' chambers.
I want no part of the internet at this point.
Let's throw it down to faruq, who has the decision.
The results from the judges are in.
We have a split decision.
[ crowd shouting ]
judge lisa scored the battle for malice.
Judge jason scored the battle for shatter!
♪♪
judge derek scored the battle for the winner...
Malice!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
rose: Alright, bunny.
I'm sorry.
Bunny, can you take us through the fight?
Yes, so we got out there and that very first hit,
we're pretty sure his hammer went right through
our belt that drives our weapon. But we took out his head,
and that's exactly what we're supposed to do.
And he just -- after that is what it is, you know?
And he's -- look at rush, drive amazing.
I mean, adam is an amazing driver
with those omniwheels, it's a lot harder than it looks, guys.
Trust me, I've been there.
So you kind of expected that to happen?
You knew that was a vulnerability of your robot.
That wasn't just a lucky shot from shatter!?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
I mean, you can't protect for everything, so.
Bunny, you started the year
and you didn't know exactly what to expect.
You said you were a bundle of nerves
and excited and emotional.
Don't tell these guys that.
Now you have two wins through two matches.
Is the top 32 a real possibility?
I think so. I think we're going to go
all the way to the top.
I think we're going to be, you know, finals with tombstone.
Bring it. Bunny, you be you.
I'mma be me.
Congratulations on your second win as team captain.
Thank you.
[ cheers and applause ]
adam wrigley and team shatter!
When you heard the announcement, we have a split decision.
What was going through your head?
Well, I mean, first off, I just want to say
congrats to bunny for the win.
Great job on their part to take it home.
When the split decision was announced,
I was surprised because I thought that we would get
a unanimous decision in our favor.
And I was even more surprised when it was
a split decision in their favor. I'll have to go watch the tape
because maybe I watched a different fight.
Alright. So why did you think
you should have won it unanimously?
So as we set out to do, first swing of the hammer,
we broke their weapon. Their weapon didn't work
at all the rest of the fight and ours did.
The hammerhead came off, but the arm was still firing.
Weapon was still working. Drive was still working.
We got him in the screws. We toyed with him in the arena.
We got him where we wanted him to be.
They couldn't push us where they were trying to push us.
So I don't know how the scorecard broke down.
I'd love to see it so I can fix it next time.
You know, we always want to improve.
So if the judges saw something else,
we want to figure out what it was
so we can go back and fix it.
Because we did exactly what we wanted to do and it didn't work.
Adam wrigley, as always, we appreciate the time
you guys fall to 1-1.
But you're still very much in this thing
because the selection committee is always watching.
[ laughs ] thanks, guys.
Alright, coming up...
Will blood spill or will it be game over?
It's bloodsport versus end game.
It's our main event, and it's next.
So the current situation is ribbot is against madcatter
for our next matchup.
Yes. We have two robots
with two different weapon types.
They have two robots with two different configurations.
They can set themselves up for an advantage
on us, but we can also set ourselves up
for an advantage over them, right?
So we can't think of a nice, fair way to decide who chooses
first and who can react to the other choice.
Alright. So we're gonna do
a bicycle race, right?
We brought two little mini bikes.
We're putting our champion up against their champion.
Whoever wins the race gets to choose second
to respond to the other team's robot.
Alright? Are you guys ready to race?
What are you waiting for?
Are you guys ready? Are you set?
3, 2, 1! Go!
[ indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
[ applause ]
good effort. Congratulations.
Mason: We'll see you out there! Whoo!
Get to work! Get to work! Go, go, go!
♪♪
we are back on "battlebots," and kenny florian,
a really fun one between a pair of 20-somethings
to wrap up the night, and for the second
straight time end game fights in the main event.
And they are certainly worthy.
Now, last time they were strictly along for the ride
or so we thought,
because the big bad bot on the planet
tombstone was the headliner.
And what happened? End game goes pow
in less than a minute.
But the big question for me, was it one lucky punch
or is this a sign of things to come?
Florian: You know, I don't think it was a lucky punch.
I think, really, it was the brilliant driving
of jack barker. I think he's that good.
You could see he did some amazing defensive driving,
hit a counter shot just perfectly.
Yeah, I think these guys are good
and I think both these teams could be
the future of the sport.
So jack barker and nick mabey, they came out and said,
"we're actually more worried about tonight's fight
than we were about the previous one."
I don't know if I'm buying it, but when we saw bloodsport
k.O. Skorpios, we went, "okay, this thing is for real."
well, listen, I think they definitely have respect
for bloodsport, no doubt about it.
But I also think they're kind of feeling the pressure
of the fact that they just knocked out tombstone.
But bloodsport is a terrific bot.
They have a lot of options with their blades.
These guys are for real.
Got your seatbelt?
Uh, I better -- I better get one.
I don't have one. Buckle up. Let's go.
Let's do it. Faruq, bring 'em in.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's robot-fighting time!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
in the blue square, this next bot was born
in new zealand, like the great russell crowe.
But tonight he's an american gangster,
here to crush his foes.
His engineers have a beautiful mind,
they dream of torture and pain.
Give the thumbs down, and he'll kill the opponent.
Are you not entertained?
It's end game!
♪♪
for years, we've waited for end game to take that next step.
Maybe they have, kenny florian.
They've always been missing something here or there.
So far, so good for this team from new zealand.
12 career fights in battlebots.
They are six and 6-6 and all 12 have ended in knockout.
These guys are still very young.
And look at that big armor at the front.
In the red square, this bot's bringing the action
like he's patrick swayze.
Like steven seagal, some would say he's going crazy.
He's tougher than tough like chuck norris's beard.
And like arnold as conan, he's universally feared.
Like harrison ford aboard air force one,
if you mess with this bot, you'll be jean-claude van done.
It's bloodsport!
♪♪
justin marple and his team admitted, "a year ago
when we were rookies, we had no idea what we were doing."
I think they've got a grasp of things now.
Yeah, no doubt. We get a look at the bar
that they're going with. That is a 77 pound bar.
The limit, chris, is 80 pounds.
Wow. And any time you get
a high-energy horizontal weapon
going against a high-energy vertical disk,
I mean, we're going to have some epic hits.
We're in for a classic fight.
Alright, let's bring in our bot whisperer.
Pete, what are you keeping your eye on?
Well, bloodsport is using two different tire compounds.
The front are soft and the rears are a little harder
with a medium stickiness.
So they're kind of hoping to be able to maybe slide the back end
around and kind of drift a bit.
The thing that is really sort of interesting to me,
though, is on end game,
they've still got their old self-righting mechanism.
They haven't been able to upgrade yet
to the new one. So what does that mean?
They won't be able to get back over at all?
They might be able to get one self-right over.
But if they get hit on the self-righter
while it's up, it's done.
Basically, it would be end of game.
Yes.
Robots, activate.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
blue team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
red team, ready.
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
[ audience chanting "fight" ]
♪♪
let the bot battle begin!
And here comes end game on the chase game.
But bloodsport gets away, it centers itself up.
Oh! Huge impact! Weapon on weapon!
End game right back on the attack,
trying to stop bloodsport's blade.
And they're hunting bloodsport like a cheetah
chasing a gazelle, kenny.
But end game hung up on something, chris.
Bloodsport firing up that weapon.
Whoa! Whoa!
Come on!
Bloodsport, they just missed it, what they hit the wedge
instead of the side of end game.
Uh-oh, I see a belt coming off end game.
That is not good, chris.
No, it is a sitting duck at this point.
And so bloodsport's going to be very measured in how it attacks.
Uh-oh, this patience is paying off for bloodsport,
just kind of circling end game like a shark right now.
Can you go in for the kill?
Bloodsport taking its time,
but if end game moves, they will pounce.
And end game is smoking, chris.
They're burning out their motors.
They've been counting down.
5, 4... End game took a shot.
And now it's doa!
Knockout!
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
I have no idea what happened. Is that our wheel?
It's our wheel, yeah, that popped out.
[ cheering ]
kenny, you heard both drivers
talk about the importance of bloodsport
getting out of the way to dodge that huge hit at the onset.
Florian: Yeah, I mean, look at that. That's just brilliant driving
right there from justin marple.
Kind of really read what end game was trying to do,
able to circle away from that pressure,
not really allowing end game to get a big hit on them.
Instead, it was them with a very big hit.
And I think that was the shot that really ended up disabling
that primary weapon of end game.
A lot of people at home see that shot
and they see bloodsport going the other way
because of the energy.
They don't realize the sort of damage
it causes to the other robot.
Justin marple.
Justin marple, I heard you asking your team
what just happened. What did just happen?
I don't know.
There's a few hits, our weapon was going great,
but then they just started smoking
and it was just chaos.
Unbelievable fight there, justin.
You know, I know you have a lot of respect
for jack barker as a driver,
but, man, you're being very humble.
You're an excellent driver yourself.
That was unbelievable. Thank you.
No, jack is by far the most underrated driver of battlebots,
so it's just a pleasure to be fighting against them for sure.
You know, you're an underdog against skorpios.
Did you consider yourself an underdog here?
100%. I told everyone before this match
that I was going to lose this so, it's beyond me.
Well, the bad news is I don't think anyone is going
to consider you an underdog anymore.
You're 2-0, you're undefeated in battlebots.
Thank you, chris. [ laughs ]
or kenny! That's alright.
Hey, listen, your head's all over the place,
so I want to know where your head is at.
By the way, he's been called much worse.
I'm much better looking than this guy. Come on!
I want to know where your head is at in terms
of the selection committee. You don't have a lot of matches
to prove yourself during the regular season
before they pick the top 32.
You think you've done enough now through two matches to say,
"hey, we're part of that party?"
yeah, for sure. I think we're in the top 32.
I'm hoping for top eight seeding.
We'll see.
Alright, justin. Well, congratulations.
You've got a big old smile on your face.
Well-deserved. Thank you.
♪♪
rose: Alright, so, kenny, as expected,
tombstone took care of business upending slap box,
but the big story of tonight,
I think, was the unveiling of that 500-pound monster,
chomp. It's unbelievable.
You know, we are basically looking into the future.
The amount of genius, the amount of manpower,
the amount of creativity that goes into building
a bot like that is just mind boggling.
Are they going to win the whole thing? Probably not.
But that's a bot that is just amazing.
I thought another huge storyline in addition to chomp
was the fact that end game, which knocked out
tombstone in its first match, gets upended by bloodsport.
Now I don't know what to think about end game.
I mean, again, all of these bots are so good,
but who you match up against and at the certain time,
you know, in the season really matters.
Here's what we learned about battlebots --
when do you think you know, you really don't know.
So that'll do it for tonight.
For faruq and our bot whisperer pete
and jenny taft back in the pits
and my man, kenny florian, I am chris rose.
Will see you next time on "battlebots."
♪♪