Hi, I'm Anna Zolnikov, owner of RIPperoni Pizza,
America's number one robot pizza shop.
[man] Number one Robot Pizza shop.
Sure, we've got advanced degrees in robotics,
but that doesn't mean we can't also build a mean pie.
We've got anything you want.
Cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms,
slice chaos, spicy violence.
- Cla... Cla... - Clams.
I guess if you want, if you want.
Each pizza is cut with a highly sophisticated,
incredibly powerful vertical spinning blade.
Blade, blade.
Just like Ma used to do it.
I think there's a bolt in there.
So call RIPeroni Pizza today.
Thank you! Please die again!
Die again! Die again! Die again! Die again!
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to BattleBots.
I am Chris Rose.
With me, as always, is the legend of UFC,
the icon of robot combat analysis
and the man with the best beard in town.
Say hello to Kenny Florian.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Chris, this is always my favorite night of the week.
What better way to spend evening
than kicking back and watching a bunch of robots
pound each other into oblivion.
[Chris] It really is awesome, Kenny.
And speaking of awesome, you gotta hear
what we have in store for you tonight.
Let's check out the fight card.
[Chris] It is week nine of the qualifiers
and all of tonight's competitors are ready
for the third fights on their schedules.
And with the playoffs fast approaching,
it is time to let it loose
and start making a case to the selection committee.
Hey, we belong in that tournament
and we've got two bots in our main event
who we expect to make deep runs
for the Giant Nut this year, End Game.
Coming off that knockout loss to the pizza bot,
they need to shake it off
because they've got HyperShock
coming in hot.
Will Bales wants to follow up
his KO of Whiplash and bury the Kiwis.
[Kenny] But how about a little first fight magic?
It's Gruff versus Witch Doctor.
Mike and Andrea Gellatly survived a blood bath
to earn a split decision victory over Fusion.
They sit at 2-0.
Gruff got chewed up by Quantum,
but still in a good position at 1-1
with a win over RIPeroni on its resume.
Couple of veterans hungry for a win.
Let's kick things off.
Faruq, start this baby up.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
It's robot fighting time.
[audience cheering and applauding]
In the Red Square, from Palm Harbor,
Florida, offering free cremations box on,
it's GRUFF!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Sam McAmis,
the high school engineering teacher,
the family man, missed out on the postseason
in World Championship VI,
does not want that to happen again, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, he's gotta feel good about his season so far...
a win over RIPeroni,
who just beat End Game-- that's big.
Quantum has looked fantastic.
So that loss doesn't look as bad.
Definitely the underdog in this one,
but Gruff is tough and a win here
should easily lock up a spot in the tournament.
[audience cheering]
In the Blue Square from Miami Springs, Florida,
it took the Hippocratic Oath with his fingers crossed,
it's Witch Doctor.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] The wife and husband tandem
of Andrea and Mike Gellatly flanking Witch Doctor,
certainly one of the most popular teams inBattleBots history.
[Kenny] And they are having one of the best seasons
already showing off insane power.
That last match with Fusion
was a fight of the year candidate.
And look at that,
they're putting a curse on you, Chris.
[Chris] Yeah, that's all right. Get in line.
[audience cheering and applauding]
We're a little nervous going up against the Witch Doctor tonight.
They're like one of the top three bots in the world,
and it's gonna be a real tough fight.
Our weapon is our armor.
Our plan is just try to tank as many hits as we can
and try to outlast them in this fight.
Our only real advantage
against Witch Doctor is our reach.
We've got long forks that we can use
basically get underneath them and lift them up
before they can hopefully make contact with their discs.
Gruff is an absolute tank.
He never stops working
and we have a pretty new weapon system here.
So we're actually gonna be
running our weapon at a lower speed than normal.
We're not gonna go full power,
so we're not like damaging ourselves
basically in that fight.
Our weapon system this year
has an extra 50-mile per hour
tip speed than it ever has before.
So we're obviously hitting the opponent much, much harder.
But we also have to take that same energy
because everything you deliver,
you take back or try to ease our way in
and kind of figure out how much
of that damage we could take
and how much we need to dish out to get the knockout.
[audience cheering and applauding]
No love at all for Gruff...
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] And for the first time ever,
Witch Doctor is using utensils.
[Kenny] Yeah, that's right.
They're going with their forks configuration here.
They want to test it out
before they get into the tournament,
so let's see if it works.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Gruff looking to mix it up.
[Kenny] And, oh! Wow!
[Chris] Oh, Witch Doctor already taking apart Gruff.
[Kenny] That was a nasty shot.
Ripped off one of Gruff's front wedges.
[Chris] Gruff still spitting hot fire.
There's Gruff getting underneath Witch Doctor.
[Kenny] Yeah, couldn't capitalize,
though, Chris.
[Chris] Oh!
Whoo-ho! Ho!
Shaky driving by Gruff.
Sam has got to stay squared up.
Witch Doctor backing Gruff down toward the driver's deck.
There goes theBattleBot sign.
Kenny, we decided every time that thing comes down,
we're gonna knock 1% off your paycheck.
[Kenny] I may be flirting with minimum wage
by the end of the season.
[Chris] Almost admitted it now.
The flame is still cooking and Witch Doctor on the attack.
Oh!
Big hit with a follow-up shot.
Oh, my goodness!
Gruff throwed up by the... Oh!
[Kenny] What a hit!
[Chris] Unreal!
A fireball!
It's getting toasty over here!
- [Chris] Oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
Unbelievable.
[Kenny] Where did that strength come from?
- [Chris] No idea. - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Are you kidding me?
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Witch Doctor winning... the kick ass contest!
[Kenny] That was a dismantling.
[Chris] Unbelievable!
That's it. That's it.
- Woah. - [laughter]
[Chris] Quite the Gruff outing for Sam McAmis,
as Witch Doctor says, "I am the team to beat."
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Kenny, Witch Doctor just sent a message
to the rest of the field.
[Kenny] My goodness, you know,
Gruff is as tough as they come,
but I don't think we've ever seen it,
beat up this badly.
[Chris] Sam McAmis had trouble keeping
Gruff squared up from the start,
and if you leave yourself exposed
against the voodooed children,
they are going to make you pay.
[Kenny] They were relentless.
It was shot after shot on Gruff,
whose flamethrower was active all fight long.
And here's the big one. Boom!
Witch Doctor ripped open the gas tank.
Wow!
Gruff basically went supernova.
[Chris] Mike and Andrea said they dialed the weapons speed
down for this one, and that was the result.
That is a scary, scary thought.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Andrea and Mike Gellatly,
what the heck was that, Andrea?
[audience cheering and applauding]
I think we're surprising ourselves
more than anybody else.
I think my face was just like in shock the whole match.
Like I said before, we're trying out a new weapon system,
so I don't really know what we have in us.
And when we're showing it to you,
we're showing it to ourselves, too.
That was crazy.
You guys ran those forks for the first time.
Are you satisfied with the result?
Yeah.
We didn't get... [laughter]
We didn't get stuck in the sauce a lot,
so, I'll call that a win.
Hey, forget about the forks.
What about the frickin' fireball?
[laughter]
I mean, have you ever done
that to somebody, Andrea?
I think SawBlaze might remind us of that.
[laughs]
Now, you are 3-0.
You have thrown everybody by the wayside.
Does it feel like you might be the team to beat?
I'm so scared to say that.
We've said that before.
And, you know, it's every season is so different.
The field is absolutely ridiculous this year.
But we've taken huge risk.
We've never taken so many risks at once like this,
and we're just so happy it's paying off.
How excited are you to face Minotaur
in the next round?
I'm really happy to face them at 3-0.
I'm hoping with a 3-0 record so far,
we secured a spot in the tournament.
The fight with Minotaur is gonna be for a top seed,
if we can win that one.
So there's a lot on the line still,
but I'm glad we're at 3-0 before we go into that.
Yeah, Kenny and I don't work on
the selection committee.
I think you're good.
[laughter]
Congratulations, guys.
Awesome performance.
- Thank you. - Thanks, Chris.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[indistinct chatter]
Are you worried that your beard
was gonna get singed a little bit?
- That came pretty close. - I thought about it.
- Yeah. - I thought about it.
[Chris] So that is another highlight real victory
in the books for the two-time Giant Nut runner-up.
The squad just keeps on rolling.
All right.
Coming up, will Bunny Sauriol and Malice
get their second win of the season?
Or can Valkyrie and Lucy Du soar to victory?
We'll find out next here on BattleBots.
[audience cheering]
We are back onBattleBots
and a couple of one and one teams
are warming up inside the box,
that's Malice and Valkyrie.
The tournament is coming up fast
and both teams still looking for a signature moment
here at World Championship VII.
These two bots are ready to fight.
Let's dive right into the action.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] Red team, ready?
[indistinct] go very badly... For them!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Kenny, Malice is gonna use its 55-pound drumstick
as its weapon, and they've added
a little bit of protective gear, too.
[Kenny] Yeah, you can see those shiny corners there.
That's actually AR500.
They call those nut protectors.
They're guarding some large nuts,
which are basically the glue
that holds Malice's frame together.
[robotic voice] Blue team, ready?
[Chris] It looks like Valkyrie is going back to the basics, Kenny.
[Kenny] That's right.
They're going with their classic blade glory
and gives Valkyrie a big reach advantage,
and the team thinks it can get underneath Malice's disc,
while avoiding any weapon on weapon contact.
Two horizontals hitting at full speed
can kill both robots.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Malice, captained by Bunny Sauriol
there in the background.
Lucy Du, her season at the helm of Valkyrie.
Let the bot battle begin!
Malice flies across the box invading Valkyrie's square.
[Kenny] Oh, Malice a little out of control there.
Ran itself into the screws.
[Chris] Both weapons up to speed.
Nice jab by Valkyrie to the wheel of Malice.
These two bots have plenty of firepower.
The challenge, of course, with Malice
has been weapon reliability
as it delivers a shot to Valkyrie, and another.
And for Valkyrie, it's been all about driving.
Lucy Du, only her third final here on the sticks.
[Kenny] A very technical fight so far.
[Chris] Valkyrie trying to stay squared up.
Ooh, takes a step jab.
Oh!
[Kenny] Malice just lost the weapon.
Glory is gone.
[Chris] That is going to be an issue.
[Kenny] What a shot.
Both of these robots are rocked, though, Chris.
Let's see if they can shake it off.
Looks like Malice's has lost drive on its right side.
[Chris] Thankfully, its primary weapon still attached.
Still spinning and able to deliver a shot to Valkyrie's tire.
Really nice job there by Malice.
[Kenny] No life for Malice's weapon now though, Chris,
not sure if the team has shut it down or if they've lost it.
[Chris] Both squads having big time mobility issues.
[Kenny] Yeah.
[Chris] The rules this season do allow
for what they call crab-walking,
which is pretty much what you're seeing.
But Kenny, these teams do have to show they can engage
- with their opponent. - [Kenny] Yeah, that's right.
The refs won't just let these two flounder like this forever.
If they don't have the mobility to engage,
we could see a double count out
which would force a judges' decision.
[Chris] Kenny, this looks like you after your bachelor party
stumbling around and you don't have everything
you came with.
[Kenny] Yeah, I've seen a lot of people here
in Vegas walk this way.
[Chris] Okay, so here we go.
Both teams being counted out.
Technically, the robots can still move,
but the refs have seen enough.
[Kenny] Wow.
[Chris] Team Malice thinks they have it,
but due to a lack of engagement,
we are gonna turn this one on over to the judges.
All three are former BattleBots participants.
Derek Young, Lisa Winter, Fon Davis.
They are scoring on an 11-point system.
Up to five points can be awarded for damage,
three for aggression and three for control.
[Chris] All right.
So after a brief feeling-out period,
Malice really went to work, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah.
You know, I thought both weapons looked
dangerous and durable to start this fight.
Malice did a nice job
of dictating the action and then... boom,
a thunderclap from Malice.
[Chris] Put this one on the career highlight reel.
Malice ripping Valkyrie's blade,
clean off.
Look out. There goes Glory...
[Kenny] Insane shot.
Both robots really feeling it after that.
[Kenny] Malice taking one final bite
out of Valkyrie's tire before its weapons seemed
to beat her out and the refs deciding
to halt the action due to lack of engagement.
The judges have turned over their scorecards.
Here's Faruq.
[audience cheering and applauding]
The results from the judges are in.
We have a split decision.
Judge Derek scored the battle for Malice.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Judge Fon scored the battle in favor of Valkyrie.
Judge Lisa scored the battle for the winner,
Valkyrie!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[indistinct chatter]
Sorry, guys. It's... we have to...
We were not only functional,
we had our weapon spinning.
We love you guys though. Good job.
Lucy Du,
you heard the reaction from the crowd.
Are you as surprised
as they are that you were named the winner here?
Um... A little bit.
I mean, I think it was a pretty close one,
but I know, like our weapon fell off and everything.
So, you know, it is what it is,
but it was a pretty good fight.
There were some big hits.
I think we both kind of did what we do best.
So we'll see.
If you were on the other side of this,
would you have appealed?
The appeal process is, is tricky, um, but we'll see.
- Yeah, we'll see. - [Chris] Okay. Thank you.
It's like, you only get one chance.
That's true. Hey, congratulations.
As you improve to 2-1.
[applause]
Bunny, are you shocked?
I am a little shocked.
We were... They told us that we were allowed to crab-walk this year,
so we were able to transitionally move towards them
and our weapon was still spinning.
We, uh... Yeah, exactly.
[audience cheering]
It's one thing to disagree with the decision.
It's another thing to use your only appeal of the season.
My only appeal.
I do, I think that I have the right idea,
because according to the rules,
we were transitionally moving towards them
and our weapon was spinning.
So I just don't think it's the wrong choice.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] All right. We will see how it goes for you, Bunny.
[Bunny] Thank you.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Well, first of all,
so now that Bunny has enacted the appeal,
let's get a refresher on the rules.
[Chris] The judges are gonna review the footage
based on her arguments
and take another close look at their scorecards.
Now, remember, if Bunny is unsuccessful,
she won't be able to appeal again this season.
In your opinion, does she have a case?
I actually think this is the right call.
You know, why not?
[Kenny] If the judges thought Malice's weapon went down,
that impact how they scored the damage category for Valkyrie.
And check this out.
It does look like Drumstick
had light at the end of the fight.
We'll have to break down the scorecards,
but if that was a factor,
it could absolutely swing the decision in Malice's favor.
[Chris] We will check in on that once
we have more information.
All right.
Coming up... Will Martin Mason and MaDCatTer
come back stronger
after tasting defeat against Riptide?
They got Big Dill waiting and the community college team
is hoping to avoid more of this.
[audience cheering]
[audience cheering and applauding]
We are back on Battlebots and Kenny, before the break,
Malice Captain Bunny Sauriol made
a quick decision to appeal her loss to Team Valkyrie.
At the end of the fight, and hers was off of the robot.
[Chris] You could see just moments ago,
Bunny making her case to our match steward Mike Jeffries.
He's the liaison between the builders and judges.
And, Kenny, you wanted the scorecards.
Here they are.
[Kenny] Yeah, Valkyrie got two damage points
on two of the three cards.
We know that taking out an opponent's weapon weighs
heavily in that category.
If Bunny is right and Lisa Winter
and Von Davis didn't see that drumstick
was active at the end of the fight,
we could see our first successful appeal.
[Chris] Well, while that is going down,
how about this?
[Kenny] We've got another fight ready to roll.
[Chris] MaDCatTer and Big Dill are inside the box.
Let's get ready to go.
Oh, yeah.
Whoo!
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] Both teams going all in on this fight,
bringing out the mini bots,
MaDCatTer with toe biter and a cat toy,
Big Dill with nacho supreme.
[Kenny] They'll go after tires and be a nuisance out there.
Kind of looks like an old school rumble.
[robotic voice] Red team, ready?
Good!
[Chris] Professor Martin Mason at the helm of MaDCatTer,
a one and one record,
but coming off a brutal loss to Riptide.
How you're liking their postseason chances
right now, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, a win here would put them
in a great spot at two and one.
This is the kind of matchup team
MaDCatTer looks forward to.
It's a real chance for them to play the bully
and prove they can dominate the mid-tier robot.
[robotic voice] Blue team, ready?
[Chris] Captain Emmanuel Carrillo
there flipping the hat backwards,
debuted a vertical spinner last fight against Skorpios
and opened a lot of eyes with its power.
He's running it back in this one.
What's the key for Big Dill, Kenny?
[Kenny] I think it's gonna come down to durability.
Those flashes of power are great,
but they won't always lead to wins
if the bot can't last the full three minutes.
We'll see if Big Dill could go punch for punch
with one of the most aggressive bots in the field.
[Chris] Worth noting that Emmanuel Carrillo
is a former team member and driver of MaDCatTer.
Can he use that knowledge to get his first win
of the season?
Let the bot battle begin!
Oh, look at that little guys going after each other.
That was cute. Oh!
[Kenny] Looks like the big boys came to play, too.
Oh!
[Chris] Big Dill gets undermanned now, flips
it and oh, MaDCatTer goes airborne.
[Kenny] What a shot by Big Dill.
[Chris] The Kitty loses [indistinct] but lands on its feet.
And gets pushed around now,
but able to square back up nicely.
[Kenny] Those forks on Big Dill are working beautifully,
Chris.
They've gotten underneath MaDCatTer
on every exchange.
[Chris] MaDCatTer driver Calvin
Iba looking for an opening.
But it's Big Dill who attacks
and pushes MaDCatTer now into the corner.
[Kenny] Yeah, Big Dill has been doing an excellent job
staying square here, Chris.
[Chris] Calvin Iba trying to turn it around now.
[Kenny] Yeah, he's hungry and he's angry
and he's going after Big Dill now.
It seems like he's a little more focused.
He's attacking at the right angles now.
[Chris] Well, both weapons are humming.
MaDCatTer just can't get around those forks.
Oh!
Here goes Emmanuel Carrillo
taking MaDCatTer for a series ride.
[Kenny] Yeah, Big Dill doing some great work,
not just squaring up to MaDCatTer,
but controlling him after a collision.
[Chris] Uh-oh! Little bit of smoke.
[Kenny] Yeah, I think that was smoke from the tires there, Chris.
- [Chris] Oh! - Nice shot.
Nice face-to-face with the big Kitty.
[Chris] This is a great fight.
Excellent driving by both men here.
MaDCatTer looks like they're on the hunt now,
playing a little cat and mouse.
But Big Dill won't back down.
Look at the little bot, I got to play.
Go back to your room, kid.
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] There we go.
[Kenny] Those were a couple of great shots by MaDCatTer.
A few more of those could really turn this fight
in their favor.
[Chris] Another little plume of smoke.
But MaDCatTer's got the momentum here.
Closing in on the one-minute mark.
But look at Big Dill.
Still has some serious drive.
[Kenny] Yeah, absolutely.
And remember, this is only their
second fight using that vertical disk.
It's been very impressive.
But will it be able to hold up down the stretch?
[Chris] Under a minute to go,
the kill saws are active...
Very...that's a good fight... good hit by MaDCatTer.
[Kenny] Oh, and how about another reversal
from Big Dill and the palms of Calvin Iba
have got to be getting sweaty.
[Chris] MaDCatTer's face ain't so pretty right now.
Uh-oh!
Big Dill's got some smoke coming out of it.
[Kenny] I mean, those motors are working overtime there.
[Chris] Under 40 to go.
[Kenny] Yeah, and I think MaDCatTer
is starting to smell blood.
They do not want to let this one go to the judges.
[Chris] Both bots looking a little punch drunk now.
MaDCatTer does seem to be a little more active.
Big Dill's weapon might be losing steam.
[Kenny] Big Dill significantly slowing down here.
- They might be stopped. - [Chris] Yeah.
Big Dill is stuck in the kill saws.
Now it gets free.
It still has smoke coming out of it.
[Kenny] Oh, and there goes one of Big Dill's wheels.
[Chris] Under ten to go.
So this one will go the distance.
Who can get one last hit to impress the judges?
The answer is MaDCatTer.
What a fight.
MaDCatTer, Big Dill... big shots and lots of power.
I'll tell you, Big Dill showed MaDCatTer
it meant business.
[Kenny] Yeah, no question about it.
No hesitation on the part of Emmanuel Carrillo.
Just went right at MaDCatTer.
And that's really MaDCatTer's game.
[Chris] Well, these two captains
know each other very well.
Big Dill set up perfectly
with those long front forks
able to keep MaDCatTer's bird at bay
for long stretches of the match.
[Kenny] Yeah, I mean, this is a very close fight.
This could go either way.
What an upset this would be for Big Dill.
[Chris] Big time hits on both sides.
Neither team backing down.
Calvin Iba and MaDCatTer
definitely got stronger as the fight went on.
Took a wheel off of Big Dill as time was expiring.
But you can't say enough about the tenacity of Big Dill.
[Kenny] Yeah, I mean this fight was a lot of fun, Chris.
This was back and forth.
There's MaDCatTer getting some hits in.
Big Dill got a bunch of licks of his own
and had a great start to this fight
and it was a great finish as well.
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is,
MaDCatTer!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Well, I guess an amazing job
there by MaDCatTer,
just making to three minutes
because they were taking a ton of shots
in the first half of that fight.
[Kenny] Yeah, this was another solid showing from Big Dill.
Major props to Emmanuel Carrillo
for making this a close fight,
something I don't think MaDCatTer was expecting.
And for Martin Mason's squad,
they moved to 2-1.
And winning a slugfest like this always looks good
to the selection committee.
[Chris] All right.
Coming up, it is Ribbot versus JackPot,
two winless squads looking to turn their seasons around.
And we'll also get the results back
from Malice's appeal of its loss to Valkyrie.
The judges are, in fact,
reviewing whether Malice's weapon was up
and running at the end of the match,
something Bunny feels they overlooked.
Let's listen in on the judges' review.
[indistinct chatter]
- [Lisa] There's. - [Derek] Yes.
[audience cheering and applauding]
We are back on BattleBots and Kenny Florian,
we have history.
For the first time ever, an appeal has been overturned.
[Chris] Earlier this evening you saw Bunny Sauriol
and Malice essentially use her challenge
flag and appeal.
She said, "I think we beat Valkyrie and Lucy Du."
So the judges got together with our steward, Mike Jeffries.
They all looked at the videotape.
And upon further review, we have a reversal.
So there you go.
This is the beauty of the appeal.
[Kenny] You know, Bunny made her case.
The judges agreed.
We can see the updated scorecards right here.
The damage points Valkyrie earned
from disabling Malice's weapon,
get wiped away and Malice gets the win.
[Chris] So Malice goes from 1-2,
to 2-1 and is perhaps now in control of its own
postseason destiny
heading into its final qualifying fight with Gruff.
This successful appeal was really clutch for Bunny Sauriol,
who's gonna join us as a guest analyst
later tonight, by the way.
And because she won it,
she will hang on to her challenge
and she will still have one more appeal to utilize
throughout the rest of the season.
[Chris] All right.
We continue on here
with a pair of teams in dire need of a victory.
We've got JackPot,
captained by Jeff Waters, 0-2.
Ribbot led by David Jin, also 0-2.
Those are surprising records for a pair of bots
viewed in the pre-season as legitimate contenders.
Their backs are against the wall.
And these two captains know this might be their last shot.
[David] Last season we had such a strong start
going 3-0, all the knockouts as well.
We have a lot of work to do to turn the momentum around.
We really want to start winning
and not just winning close matches.
We want to really have dominant performances,
to make sure that the selection committee
knows that we're still here to compete and that Ribbot
is just as good as ever.
We just have some tough matchups,
but we're still able to push forward.
[announcer] JackPot!
Going into World Championship VII,
we've had never lost in the qualifier matches.
Now we're sitting at 0-2.
If we can make it 2-2 by the end of the event,
I feel like we can get ourselves a mid-level
seating position going into the World Championship.
[David] So JackPot presents the big vertical spinner challenge.
It's just the conundrum that everybody has to deal with.
My problem is reach.
That's all it comes down to, as their weapon
is so much bigger than our vertical spinner.
If we ever go head on against JackPot,
we're gonna lose that reach battle.
They're gonna hit something on us
before we can touch anything on them.
[David] Fortunately, we were able to get
our undercutter back into commission
and we're gonna be running it in this matchup.
I'm a little worried about Ribbot going into this fight.
I saw that they're getting
the horizontal configuration going.
That's the most dangerous robot.
That's the robot that ended up top two last season
for overall seed.
Ribbot likes to fully send it. We like to fully send it.
They're gonna be a lot of fast driving.
A lot of big hits. It's gonna be great.
Somebody's getting win number one.
I can't wait to see which bot it is. Faruq,
take it away.
[audience cheering and applauding]
In the Red Square,
it's got a crazy long tongue to catch lots of flies
and everyone who sees it gets chopped and dies.
So don't get too close or next could be you.
And your last words will be, "Hey, what did that tongue do?
Give it up for Ribbot!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Well, despite being winless on the season,
David Jin over there on the right and his team
is still as enthusiastic as ever.
Kenny, Ribbot is welcoming back an old friend.
[Kenny] Yeah, they're bringing out
the undercutter for the first time this season.
David thinks he can use it to knock JackPot off of its axis.
Keep it from squaring up and attack the sides.
Something they saw Rotator do successfully
to JackPot in its last fight.
In the Blue Square,
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
That's a sweet Las Vegas sound.
It means you're in the money.
unless this deadly bot's around.
You're never walking out of here like a pirate
with his plunder
because this only offers a single bet.
The line's at six feet, and you're taking the under.
It's JackPot!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] The blue-collar bot JackPot led by its tradesmen,
Captain Jeff Waters, and they're bringing out
the mini bot for this one, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, that's ace.
It could definitely impact the fight
if it gets underneath Ribbot.
And that blade on JackPot is 52 pounds
with a ton of reach.
A whole lot of firepower on the Vegas local.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Two squads on the brink of disaster.
Dreams of the Giant
Nut disappearing like a Kill Saw into its slot.
Will it be Ribbot or JackPot that snaps out of its funk,
and delivers a show stopping performance?
We're gonna find out whenBattleBots continues.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] We are back onBattleBots.
It is Ribbot and JackPot.
Two pre-season Giant Nut contenders
on the verge of collapse.
Which squad can turn its season around
and launch itself
back into the tournament conversation?
It is time to find out.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Horizontal versus vertical spinner.
Ribbot draws first blood, the undercutter is back.
The head, however is not.
[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Say good goodnight to the minibot.
[Kenny] These two weapons so powerful, Chris.
[Chris] Oh.
And there goes Ribbot's left front tire.
Ribbot with the counter shot.
JackPot in trouble but self-rights.
[Kenny] Oh, another big hit.
That one took off one of JackPot's wedges.
What a start to this fight.
[Chris] Hey, now.
Boy, did Ribbot missed that undercutter, huh?
[Kenny] Oh, boy.
[Chris] Oh, another huge shot.
[Kenny] Ribbot doing a fantastic job,
driving on three wheels.
[Chris] Oh, look out there. Uh-oh!
[Kenny] They've got two wheels, Chris.
[Chris] Team JackPot going crazy
and this is gonna be a problem for the frog.
[Kenny] Big time damage points for JackPot.
Let's see what Ribbot has left.
[Chris] Well, that undercutter is really doing a job
on theBattleBots floor.
JackPot's trying to bully it into the rail and does.
Sends Ribbot flying.
The undercutter, though, still spinning.
[Kenny] What a sequence from JackPot.
Using Ribbot's energy against itself.
[Chris] It's also inverted on top of everything else now.
Now this is good enough to be considered movement.
[Kenny] That is correct.
JackPot needs to be careful still with that weapon
that undercutter.
Not an undercutter anymore, but still very dangerous.
[Chris] Oh, Ribbot ends up in the screws.
Now JackPot has to continue to be aggressive.
Can't just sit back and wait
unless Ribbot is not moving like now.
[Kenny] Yeah.
Chris, that back wheel
is not making much contact with the floor.
[Chris] But here's David Jin willing his bot forward, inch by inch.
[indistinct]
JackPot's on its head, but it self-rights.
[Kenny] That might have been a mistake by JackPot.
[Chris] Well, Jeff Waters and company
looking to impress the committee and score
a knockout here against a wounded Ribbot.
David Jin somehow managing to keep his weapon
pointed in the right direction.
Hit it. Come on.
- [Chris] Uh-oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] Oh.
Nice little flip there.
JackPot continues to engage
even at the risk of destroying itself
and somehow Ribbot's weapon's still spinning.
You cannot kill this bot.
It's awesome!
[Kenny] Both robots barely hanging on.
[Chris] Under 30 to go.
Could David Jin's bot move at all?
[Kenny] Just kind of spinning in circles now, Chris.
This may be the end for Ribbot.
Jackpot's still trying to engage.
[indistinct]
[Chris] Oh, the countdown has started.
Team Ribbot begging for one more hit,
trying to get there, bot going again.
And here we go.
The ref holds the count.
And how about this?
Ribbot, saved by the bell.
Wow!
Well, somehow, David Jin survived.
Jeff Waters celebrates like he's got the W,
but this one will indeed go to the judges.
[Chris] Kenny, something about Ribbot and an undercutter,
it just feels right, man.
[Kenny] Absolutely!
Both weapons look dangerous out there.
This was a back and forth brawl.
Early on, JackPot got a tire,
but Ribbot landed some huge counter shots
and really started to pour it on
even on three wheels.
[Chris] Once JackPot found tire number two,
it started to take control.
Another big shot sent Ribbot tumbling,
got inverted, got screwed,
and the frog was in trouble, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, JackPot continue to engage though.
These 0-2 teams
need statement wins to land a spot in the post-season.
Jeff Waters drove JackPot face first into Ribbot. Wow!
Nearly gave away the win there.
That self-righter didn't just save them this fight,
it may have saved their season, Chris.
[Chris] Scary moment for JackPot.
And speaking of scary,
Ribbot was a bit of a zombie out there
just refusing to die.
JackPot also took a beating.
Let's find out who got the dub.
Here's Faruq.
[audience cheering and applauding]
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is,
JackPot!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Jeff Waters, is that a huge sigh of relief for you?
Oh, yeah.
We're going into this 0-2.
We've had the monkey on our back
to get this thing ready to go.
We... first two losses of the regular season.
It's never happened before.
Every season, we always go in we have
two losses every season.
We've already got our two losses out of the way
for the rest of the season.
So we're going straight to that Nut.
Jeff, you know, coming in here,
you guys have never been
in this type of situation coming in 0-2.
Seems like it was gonna go one of two ways.
You're either gonna come in here maybe gun shy
and hesitant or being aggressive.
It seems like you chose the latter.
I had to be very aggressive.
I fight with David Jin on the off seasons
at various robot events.
I know he's also a very aggressive driver.
We also like to play a lot of games
and you don't want to play games in Vegas
when the house is rigged.
[laughter]
[audience cheering and applauding]
Well said.
[Chris] Jeff, congratulations.
Way to get off this tonight. Good job.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] David, a wide range of emotions
throughout that fight.
For the first minute everything looked great
for Ribbot and then what happened?
At some point, I must have made a mistake.
We got the entire left-side drive cleaved off.
At that point, we were kind of just hobbling.
We thought the weapon-to-weapon hits
would eventually disable JackPot's weapon.
It looked a little tilted by the end of the match,
but it kept going.
The drive kept going, too.
So can't do anything about that.
[Chris] So now you're 0-3.
But the three opponents
you've lost to are pretty damn impressive.
Do you feel like if you get a win in your last fight,
it might be enough to squeak into the tournament?
Well, our fourth fight doesn't really get any easier.
It's against Skorpios.
So we expect a really tough fight there, too.
If we're able to pull off a win there,
I think there's still a chance.
Our first two opponents are still undefeated.
That's obviously looks good for us.
I think we put on a good show
in every one of our fights so far,
win or lose, in this case, all losses.
But I hope that's enough for the selection committee
to put us into the tournament.
[audience cheering and applauding]
All right, man, we'll see you
for your last fight against Skorpios.
Thank you.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[indistinct]
[Chris] Dude, that epitomize the ebbs
and flows of the fight game right there, huh?
Unbelievable.
I mean, those are two great teams.
Both coming in here 0-2. They needed that one.
And that's why we saw the brawl that we did.
Yeah, I think that JackPot, I love Jeff Waters' confidence
like, we'd gotten our losses out of the way.
We're gonna make a run all the way to the Giant Nut.
[Kenny] Well, he's got a path there now after this big win.
And for David Jin, he falls to 0-3.
But this was a sensational fight.
The bot refused to die.
Felt like it would have been dangerous on no wheels.
But now Ribbot has a literal must win fight
against Skorpios.
[Chris] Yeah, we're gonna see them next.
That'll be a tough match up to cap off
a hard luck season for Ribbot.
But as you said, the selection committee
loves seeing this kind of effort in the box.
All right, on deck...
It's a match up years in the making.
Two lethal hammer saws.
Two fearless drivers.
A combined record of 4-0 it's Skorpios versus SawBlaze.
That is coming up next here on BattleBots.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] We are back on BattleBots
World Championship VII.
This is Kenny Florian. I am Chris Rose.
And up next, it's one of the fights out there
that all you people have been clamoring for for years.
So guess what?
We are listening to you.
It is time for the first ever meeting
between SawBlaze and Skorpios.
And Kenny these are two well-rounded robots.
[Kenny] That's right.
Both teams take pride in their defense
as much as their offense.
The driving styles of Zach Lytle and Jamison
Go are very similar.
They love to get close, frustrate you,
beat you up with their weapons.
Battle of the hammer saws.
Very cool.
But SawBlaze has established themself
as probably the best one in the world.
[Chris] Well, both squads coming
into this fight undefeated at 2-0.
SawBlaze has definitely had the tougher schedule.
Even so, a 3-0 record puts you
on a path to a top seed in the tournament, Kenny.
There is no question about it.
[Kenny] That's right.
And a top seed is just so valuable,
especially this season.
This is shaping up to be the most talented round of 32
we've ever had, so any edge of the bracket is huge.
[Chris] Which one of these squads
is gonna make a statement tonight?
Let's find out. Faruq.
[audience cheering and applauding]
In the Red Square,
this bot's got a sting like that guy
who slaps the base.
Every little thing he does is tragic for your face.
Don't stay in so close to him.
He's not police,
but he'll read your last rites.
Write your will on a message in a bottle,
because he's turning on shred light.
It's Skorpios!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] The husband and wife tandem
of Zach Lytle and Diana Tarlson.
Hold on a seconds.
What am I looking at here, Kenny Florian?
[Chris] I heard this was a possibility,
but I didn't believe it.
That plate is from OverKill,
a top ranked bot from the Comedy Central DayZ,
designed by Christian Carlberg.
We're actually gonna see OverKill in theBattleBot's
live show Destruct-A-Thon.
This is like a preview.
[Kenny] Well, so much for the battle of the hammer saws.
In the Blue Square this means got the green light.
No time to stop.
Let's Jamison Go.
His trigger finger must be a green thumb,
because look at your terror run.
You'll be green around the gills
when his six saw starts to shred.
And when you see what he's done to your body,
you'll be green with envy for the day.
It's SawBlaze!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] The ever popular SawBlaze,
a pair of wins over HyperShock
and Lock-Jaw Jamison Go
there to the right fired up.
Feels like this is his season.
Kenny, is he set up to deal with this sword on Skorpios?
[Kenny] Well, those white ears
are UHMW armor designed for overhead attacks.
They'll work just as well against a sword.
All right... [indistinct].
[audience cheering and applauding]
In order to win tonight's fight,
we need to be different.
We need to have a strategy
nobody's tried against Jamison, and that's this.
Tonight, one of us is going to 3-0.
One of us is going to 2-1.
And if we can manage to beat Jamison Go
with the OverKill Sword from the '90s,
it will be a legendary moment
that will live in BattleBotshistory.
Every time Jamison pins your robot,
he wins the fight.
If he pins us to the wall, we're gonna smash the wall
with the sword and hop out.
Since Skorpios changed to the knife blade,
I think that our hammer saw
is definitely going to do more damage than theirs.
They still have the potential to disrupt
some of our weaponry and anything on top.
So we want to avoid a direct hit.
But you know, a few hits from them compared
to a few hits from ours is gonna be completely different.
So the decisions they make speak for themselves.
They are saying to us, your weapon is formidable
and that's a big honor for us.
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] All right. Got to be honest,
I'm a bit perplexed by this weapon choice.
I mean, seriously, this was supposed to be
the battle of the Hammer Saws here.
[Kenny] Yeah, but Skorpios's hammer saw
hasn't been 100% reliable.
And they know SawBlaze is at the top of its game.
They want any edge they can find.
If Skorpios can hack at a belt
or knock something loose on SawBlaze's weapon,
this might be genius.
We've seen crazier things work in theBattleBox.
[Chris] Well, we're about to find out.
The dream of an undefeated season
ends right here for one of these teams.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Whoa.
Skorpios already tipping over because of that blade.
[Kenny] SawBlaze's so fast.
[Chris] Oh, Skorpios through the uprights.
But SawBlaze seems unconcerned.
I mean, if anything, it's throwing
Skorpios out of balance, Kenny...
[Kenny] Yeah, I think that's what's happening.
And SawBlaze already on this score field.
They're upside down.
Are they gonna be able to self-right here?
[indistinct chatter] Can you get out of there?
I want a new sword, baby.
[Chris] Uh-oh! Oh! Boy.
I certainly hope Christian Carlberg
didn't expect that blade back in one piece.
[Kenny] Yeah.
My saw is better than your blade.
[Chris] Oh, my gosh.
Oh, Skorpios got the corner, got stuck,
and now it's getting counted out.
[Kenny] Exclamation point there from Jamison Go.
Knockout!
[Chris] That'll do it.
And SawBlaze moves to 3-0 with the 49-second KO.
[indistinct]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[indistinct]
[Chris] All right, well, I don't think Jamison Go
was scared of that weapon, huh?
[Kenny] No, he wasn't.
And for Skorpios, he looked like a little kid,
you know, picking up a big baseball bat or something.
It was just thrown him completely off balance.
Well, we get to see some brilliant things here
atBattleBots.
And sometimes we get this.
[Chris] Skorpios only landed that one shot,
and it was a mosquito bite.
The OverKill blade is cool.
This performance was not.
SawBlaze to make matters worse,
continually getting underneath Skorpios
nailing them with that saw.
[Kenny] One final slice of the sword.
Zack, Diana, we ain't mad.
We're just disappointed.
[laughter]
[audience cheering and applauding]
Jamison, congratulations.
As you and your team improved to 3-0.
It looked like you were salivating
over that sword, huh?
I was a little bit.
OverKill has been one of my favorite robots
of the entire BattleBots for all time, really.
So I really wanted a piece of that sword.
Does that mean you wanted to cut it off completely?
Oh, yeah.
- [laughter] - [Kenny] Okay.
You've been really dominant all season.
You know how far can your bot go?
Well, so far, so good. I'm not gonna jinx it.
And we're gonna go one match at a time.
So we're just gonna... We're gonna have to see.
Wait and see just how far this bot's gonna go.
Well, that next match
is against Hydra and Jake Ewert.
No. That's a different question.
That's how high the robot can go.
I see.
How important is it for you to finish up
the regular season with a perfect record?
That'd be fantastic.
We've never gone undefeated in the fight night area,
so we're gonna try for it for sure.
But we're happy just to get in.
So we're gonna say that.
We want to get into the tournament,
4-0 would be great.
But how much greater would it be
if you were the number one seed?
We'll let the hammer saw do the talking.
You usually do. And it speaks loudly.
Jamison congratulations to you and your crew.
Thank you.
[audience cheering and applauding]
All right. Well, you're still kind of all smiles, Zach,
what was the thought process behind that sword?
So all hammer saws do have one great weakness.
And it's our idler.
It's that little round piece at the base of the arm.
Mine's very far forward.
People hit it all the time.
Jamison's way far back.
And so we were trying to use the sword to reach over
and cut his belts.
I think he figured it out, though,
because you didn't spin your blade up in the beginning.
[laughter]
Which was a very smart counter.
So, to Jamison, I'd like to congratulate you.
- That was an excellent fight. - Thank you!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Kenny, I love it when teams try something new.
I saw that sword. I was like, that is awesome.
And then the match start and I was like, that's not awesome.
[Kenny] There's a lot of great ideas
that work in theory, but in application, totally different.
Got to be honest, this feels like a wasted opportunity
for Skorpios.
I mean, we still haven't seen Skorpios versus SawBlaze.
The fans wanted that hammer saw
versus hammer saw match up.
[Chris] Yeah.
You know, when you're talking about things
like the post-season and the selection committee,
a non-competitive fight like this really stands out.
I think Skorpios didn't just lose the fight.
They also dug themselves a bit of a hole
heading into their final qualifying match
despite having a 2-1 mark.
[Kenny] These third round fights are really incredible.
Your season can turn on a dime.
[Chris] On deck, we have the comeback kid.
RIPeroni, fresh off a huge win against End Game,
facing off against the bot that could still be dangerous
if it returns to peak form in HiJinx
and Malice Captain Bunny Sauriol
is gonna join us as a special guest panelist.
We could hear all about her successful appeal
earlier this evening.
[Chris] And later in our star-studded main event,
End Game will have its chance to put
that knockout in the rear view
against Will Bales and his powerhouse HyperShock.
Let's dive into tonight's marquee matchup.
[announcer] End Game!
Only two losses
since World Championship five.
Let the bot battle begin.
So in the [indistinct].
Jack drove right into the kill saws.
- Hey. Hey. - Instantly.
It might have been a technical issue.
- We don't know. - [Chris] End Game is stuck.
I am pretty sure you just went
straight down those kill saws.
Well, think about how many fights
we won from me driving.
[Chris] The former champions getting counted out.
A legendary upset.
We messed up.
It was our fault. We caused it.
But as far as confidence and the ability of End Game.
[Chris] Wow!
[man] I'm not worried at all.
HyperShock.
Whiplash on fire.
[man] What a comeback by HyperShock.
[Will] Right now, we're 1-1.
I feel pretty good.
End Game is not doing super hot right now,
which should be good for us.
If you're too preoccupied,
focused on the saw slots and gaps in the floor
and making sure you don't mess up.
That gives me the opportunity to just drive around you
and do the berserker barrage mode.
[man] Will Bales just destroyed everything in his path.
HyperShock too fast.
So HyperShock have really stepped it up
in the last season.
Their weapon is like
absolutely top notch right now.
[man] Shell goes one way, the bot goes the other.
[man] But the biggest weakness is that Will loves to drive
- too much. - [man] Uh-oh.
HyperShock inverted.
[man] They're really strong at the start of the fight.
Didn't do a lot of damage to themselves.
Towards the end of the fight, we definitely have the advantage.
[man] Oh!
[man] You can never sleep on End Game.
I'm not fighting some newbie off the block
who doesn't know how a motor works.
I'm fighting World Champion Golden Bolt Winner End Game.
They're the robot to beat.
If we could win,
it would be a massive warning shot
for everybody else in the room.
Our weapon, our robot is really hard to beat.
[man] For him to really prove that he's one of the top robots
and he can fight for the drive at night.
He's gonna have to come through us.
There'll be fast-paced action,
robots will be flying.
Bots will be hurt.
And HyperShock is gonna die.
HyperShock will die!
We are back on BattleBotsseason seven.
You know this guy Kenny Florian.
I am Chris Rose,
joining us as a guest analyst for our next fight.
Nice round of applause for Malice captain,
Bunny Sauriol!
[audience cheering]
[Chris] All right, Bunny.
So earlier this evening, we saw you win
the first ever appeal here at BattleBots.
How did that whole process work out for you?
It worked great.
We got the decision that we should have gotten.
Yep.
You made your case to match Steward,
Mike Jeffries about the weapons still working.
[Chris] The judges looked at the tape and they agreed with you.
Are you thinking about becoming a lawyer now?
[laughter]
My mother was a lawyer. I don't want to do that.
- [Chris] No. - [laughter]
All right, so as for this next fight
we're about to see,
it's RIPeroni taking on HiJinx.
First of all, RIPeroni had a huge win
in his last match against End Game.
Were you watching back in the pits at the time?
And if so, what was your reaction?
Absolutely! What a great fight.
And, you know, that's what you get for playing
the ground game, End Game,
you got to, you got to watch your forks.
You got to, you know, make sure
they're pointed the right direction.
Bunny, how do you break down this fight?
Gosh, this is gonna be such an amazing fight.
You know, whenever a horizontal
goes against a vertical, there's just gonna be so many sparks
and there's just gonna so many robots
thrown across the arena.
HiJinx, it's such a big hitter and such a hard hitter.
And then RIPeroni has come out of nowhere
and just proven that they belong here.
Yeah, I know pizza could be a little heavy on the stomach,
but a 70-pound pizza that could do
some serious damage to your system.
- You ready to check it out? - I'm ready to see it.
Faruq?
[audience cheering and applauding]
And the Red Square from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
it buried Papa John's
under a Pizza Hut, it's RIPperoni!
[audience cheering]
[Chris] RIPperoni, riding the high and slaying a giant.
The fans simply can't get enough of this team.
How can they get to 2-1 here tonight, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, we saw what that weapon could do against End Game.
It all comes down to control.
If that flywheel that counters the force of the weapon works as designed,
the bot can stay grounded and do serious damage.
[all cheering and applauding]
And the Blue Square from Oakland, California,
leaving Oakland for Vegas, but planning on returning, it's HiJinx!
Yeah!
[Chris] All right. So, Bunny, we've been waiting
for this weapon on HiJinx to work.
When it is working, what can it do?
[Bunny] When it is working, it can toss for miles.
Uh, it will transfer every ounce of energy it has
into the other robot and rip it apart.
And so I hope it can rip apart RIPperoni. [Bunny laughs]
[Chris] What did you tell me,
Bunny, that you... you go rollercoastering with Jen Herchenroeder?
[Bunny] Yes. I love her so much.
She's such a great person and such a great captain.
Who's the bigger scaredy cat?
Oh. Oh, me, by far... oh, by far.
I knew that without asking. [laughs]
If their weapon is fully spun up,
we need to avoid it
because our weapon does not take side loads very well.
We don't want their weapon to hit our weapon
as we think that our weapon might unseat.
So if their weapon is fully spun up,
we're gonna go around and hit a wheel.
But if we see that the front is open,
we're gonna hit 'em square on.
For this battle, we completely changed our body.
This is the last configuration that we brought.
And we're really excited to test it.
You'll see that in the front.
We have our big horizontal plow.
We're calling it the calzone.
And that is our horizontal attachment.
RIPperoni was an absolute science project.
We stuffed so many different systems in there
that have never been done before.
And the fact that they all work together seamlessly is fantastic.
And what you saw in End Game
is how RIPperoni should perform in the rest of this season.
Right now, I think everyone in the building expects us to lose?
But in a way, being the underdog takes the pressure off,
I think we're gonna be fine.
They had a wonderful showing against End Game recently,
World Champion, they took that.
RIPperoni is just a chaotic object.
They only have a wedge on one side of their robot.
So there's a very good chance that we can get under them
and get to critical places like the bottoms of their wheels
or even the undercarriage of their robot.
So what we're gonna do is play actually kind of conservative.
We're gonna use the tail to get under them.
We're gonna use the weapon to take out their wheels.
We're gonna do everything we can to end this match quickly.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[crowd chanting] RIPperoni! RIPperoni!
[bot] Robots activate.
[Chris] Well, let's see if Jen Herchenroeder's instincts were right.
[Kenny] Yeah.
HiJinx, definitely the underdog in this one,
according to the team's back in the pits.
[Chris] I think that's what happens
when you knock out the number one ranked bot in the world.
[Bunny] I'm getting nervous, guys.
You got the best seat in the house, Bunny Sauriol.
- Let's go. - I got the best seat. I got the best seat.
[audience cheering and chanting]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
RIPperoni up to full speed.
- [Kenny] Oh! - [Chris] Oh!
- [Bunny] Oh, my God. - [Chris] Whoa!
[Kenny] What a hit to start this fight.
My goodness!
[Chris] Oh-oh, HiJinx back into the action, gets inverted.
RIPperoni bumps it right side up.
But HiJinx, here we go, getting under RIPperoni, Kenny.
HiJinx taking some big shots in some critical areas.
And it looks to me like that weapon is down, Bunny.
[Bunny] It's definitely down.
It looks like the gear was separated.
Like you can see it pulled apart right there.
Oh, man!
That's right. That's right. It can self-right any time.
[Chris] HiJinx finds its feet.
But RIPperoni keeping the pressure on.
All right, now, you can see fire.
Uh-oh. That is not what you wanna see if you're Jen Herchenroeder.
HiJinx is kinda crab walking in the corner right now.
[Kenny] RIPperoni needs to finish this fight right here, Chris.
HiJinx is really feeling it.
[Chris] Well, we got debris raining down here in the battle box.
HiJinx, its armor is mangled.
But this robot doesn't look ready to say die just yet.
Keep working. Keep working.
[Kenny] RIPperoni does have issues with control.
And here's HiJinx getting underneath with that big tail.
- [Chris] Oh, man. - [Kenny] This is what they need to do.
Try and knock the pizza off balance.
[Bunny] Oh, it's just... Oh, it's spinning. It's spinning.
[Kenny] Look! Seems the weapon is still spinning.
It was, anyway.
- [Chris] Oh. - [Kenny] How was that possible?
[Chris] HiJinx digging deep.
But has that horizontal spinner had enough?
- [crowd chanting] - [Bunny] Oh, man.
[Chris] Wow!
Oh, the countdown has started.
Oh!
I think RIPperoni can't even control itself.
So much for being conservative, Fred.
Oh, God!
[all cheering]
[Chris chuckles]
[Chris] Well, we wondered which RIPperoni we'd get in this fight,
and the pizza bot didn't waste any time delivering an answer.
This opening shot was nasty.
[Kenny] Yeah.
Launched HiJinx up into the window.
Even had... backing up, this was the RIPperoni
we saw against End Game.
When that flywheel is working and Fred Moore can control the bot,
they're the real deal.
[Chris] Bunny, when you're going against a bot like that,
what the heck do you try and do?
[Bunny] With RIPperoni, it's brand new technology.
I mean, you... that's one of those ones
we... we all are gonna have to figure out.
That's the truth. They are such hard hitters.
This isn't a normal vertical.
[Chris] Credit to HiJinx for hanging in,
showed some real toughness out there.
But in terms of pure power, RIPperoni clearly a class above.
Anna, congratulations on your second straight win.
What are we learning about that ferocious pizza?
Well, uh...
That flywheel made a lot of noise this time.
We think that it was really going even faster than before,
which helped us out a lot.
And Fred, I hear you wanted to be
a little bit more methodical for this fight.
Use a little more strategy, not be so aggressive.
Are you happy with your performance?
We were really debating, did we wanna go systematically with this fight
or did we want that Florida Man-energy
like we've seen the last two fights?
[laughter]
Unfortunately, strategy one, this time
we're gonna have to save Florida Man for our next fight.
- [audience laughing] - [chuckles]
And two straight wins over two worthy opponents,
including a former Giant Nut champion,
what does it say about you as a rookie bot?
RIPperoni is a top quality bot.
We're really excited about it.
And thank you so much everyone for supporting us.
Thank you, HiJinx, for a great match.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Congratulations, team RIPperoni,
as you improve to 2-1.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Kenny, forget about Rookie of the Year.
I think RIPperoni has bigger ideas.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a team
that can really make a deep run.
Bunny, what do you think overall?
I think they're a great team.
And I think they're definitely going to be a contender for the Nut.
Uh, looking forward to your next fight,
you will face Gruff in your fourth and final regular season bout.
You currently sit at 2-1.
It feels like the playoffs start right now for you.
- Is that accurate? - Absolutely.
This is when we have to bring our A-game.
This is when we have to do our best to prove
that we belong in the round of 32 with bots like that.
Did you have fun sitting here with us?
Oh, my gosh. This is the best.
I... I wanna sit here all the time.
Nice round of applause for Bunny Sauriol,
the captain of Team Malice.
Thanks as always for joining us.
All right. Coming up next in our main event, End Game,
coming off a rare loss, maybe looking to assert its dominance,
but the speed and versatility of HyperShock are a nightmare
for even the best bots.
You will not wanna miss this fight.
That's when we return here onBattleBots.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] We are back onBattleBots World Championship VII.
It is time right now for our main event
and it is a tasty one, Kenny Florian, a pair of 1-1 teams.
It is End Game versus Hypershock.
Let's start with End Game, which is coming off
not only a loss against RIPperoni,
which is a rookie bot, but man,
it was tough for them.
Jack Barker right out of the gate,
got stuck in the kill saw floor.
And then they just took shot after shot.
How did they rebound from that?
[Kenny] Well, you know, uh, obviously they had, uh,
a big problem there in the Battle Box.
Uh, I don't think they were overconfident or anything like that.
Uh, I just think they're gonna be that much more careful
as they move on, uh, throughout the season.
And I think they'll be that much more dangerous as well.
And they're taking on the always energetic Will Bales
and team HyperShock also sitting at 1-1.
This is a really important fight for them.
Because they wanna step up their game to the next level.
You could show something against a former winner of the Giant Nut.
[Kenny] This would be a huge win for Will Bales.
You can say this could be the biggest win of his career.
[Chris] Yeah. Really important.
Because if he falls to 1-2 tonight,
he has only one regular season fight
and that is against a 3-0 team in Claw Viper.
[Kenny] And for End Game, they could also end up
at 1-2 with the final matchup against Gigabyte,
which we know has knockout power.
Both of these bots have incredible pedigrees.
A win tonight will have drastic effects
on tournament seeding.
[Chris] Now, these teams last met in World Championship V.
Not much of a contest as End Game
knocked out HyperShock in under a minute.
[Kenny] Well, back then, Will Bales' squad had a reputation
for not being ready, this is now one of the most prepared teams.
And this version of HyperShock
is one of the most feared robots in the game.
Let's see what happens.
Faruq?
[audience cheering and applauding]
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
[audience cheering and applauding]
It's time for the main event!
[audience cheering and applauding]
And the Red Square hailing from New Zealand,
where the hobbits call home.
It's the mechanical magician, call him Gandalf the Crow,
the reigning world champion, the head of the class.
And if he's your match up, you shall not pass.
The bot who calls the Giant Nut its precious.
It's End Game!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] Deep lipped to start out its season,
K.O.-ed by RIPperoni in its last match, Jack Barker on the left,
Nick Mabey on the right, they're ready for battle.
[Kenny] They're using those piano key wedge lifts on the front.
Only two forks this time out.
They don't want a repeat of that disastrous mistake
against RIPperoni.
[audience cheering and applauding]
And the Blue Square, there isn't anything
that's more shocking than this bot.
This ends in your death.
That's the big twist in this plot.
Luke, I'm your father.
Was surprising, no doubt.
But who's your daddy now?
You're about to find out.
It's HyperShock!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] HyperShock kicked off its season with a loss to SawBlaze,
bounced back with a K.O. of Whiplash,
Will Bales could make a big time statement here, Kenny.
[Kenny] Back to back wins over Whiplash and End Game,
that's a ticket to a top tournament seat.
Oh-oh. Uh oh.
Don't mock 'em.
[Kenny laughs]
That's awesome.
Very colorful.
[indistinct]
Let's go!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] All right, Kenny.
I am sure everybody at home circled this match up
on the schedule two accomplished teams,
two Giant Nut favorites.
Let's take a look at how they stack up.
[Kenny] Well, similar to End Game's fight against Blip,
there's a big gap in drive power here.
But for me, this fight is all about the weapons.
Both of these vertical discs are heavy,
both spin up ridiculously fast.
And it won't just be about one shot.
It'll come down to who lands those critical follow up shots
and puts their opponent away for good.
[crowd chanting] HyperShock! HyperShock!
HyperShock! HyperShock!
[bot] Robots activate.
[Chris] End Game, a true giant of the sport,
coming off the most shocking loss of its career.
HyperShock wants to kick the Kiwis while they're down.
A top tournament seed could be
on the line in this matchup of superstars.
It is the main event.
And it is next onBattleBots.
Big time main event coming up.
And remember, End Game and HyperShock
first fought back in World Championship V.
And the New Zealanders delivered the hurt to HyperShock
and Kenny Florian.
[Faruq] It's robot fighting time.
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin.
[Kenny] Oh, what a shot by End Game!
There goes a piece of HyperShock.
[Chris] Oh, gosh, and End Game's put it up on the screws.
No movement by HyperShock, who is being counted out.
[referee] ...seven...
six... five--
[Chris] An unbelievable shot by End Game.
[Kenny] Oh, jeez!
- Hey... - [referee] ...two-
...what the hell?
HyperShock is knocked out. Winner...
[Chris] End Game makes quick work on the HyperShock
and almost takes us out in the process.
Jeez!
[Kenny] This thing hit me in the face.
- Wow. - God!
Um... it's okay.
I'm alive. [chuckles]
Is that your lightsaber?
Dude.
[Chris] Hey, Obi-Wan.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Chris] We are back onBattleBots
for what is a true marquee matchup,
arguably the best bot on the planet, End Game,
last season's most destructive bot HyperShock.
This is the kind of fight the builders,
back in the pit, stop and watch.
Kenny, how did the other squad see this going down?
[Kenny] Narrow edge for End Game.
Gotta think Will Bales loves seeing that.
They're putting some respect on his name.
A lot of folks still wondering how End Game
will respond to getting knocked out.
[Chris] Big time main event here.
One of these Goliaths is gonna fall to one and two
with just one qualifying match remaining.
[audience cheering and chanting]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin.
And... Oh-oh, End Game
had a little issue with the floor,
back peeling off some of the paint down there.
End Game got under HyperShock.
Oh, no.
Will Bales just gotta get out of that corner.
[Kenny] Oh, they're trying to go for those tires, too, Chris.
[Chris] Oh, yeah, they're yummy. They're juicy.
- They're succulent. - [Kenny] He's out of there.
But some sloppy driving by Will Bales to start.
[Chris] Yep. He's inverted.
Will Bales can't drive that way.
Because... Oh!
Well, now he's back to form.
[Kenny] Yeah, but he's got one left wheel.
[Chris] Yeah. Well, let's see if he can drive a tricycle.
[Kenny] Oh, I think he got rid of one of the forks on End Game.
[Kenny] HyperShock looking for some space.
[Chris] Oh! Bales going face to face.
[Kenny] End Game dominating the low ground,
even with one fork.
And that right front tire on HyperShock
barely hanging on, Chris.
[Chris] Yep.
You know, the former champs have their eyes on that bad boy.
HyperShock's weapon still active, though.
[Kenny] Oh-oh.
Oh-oh, there's a nice shot to the flank of HyperShock.
- And another. - [Chris] And another.
Jack Barker just staying on HyperShock.
[Kenny] Oh, there it goes, Chris.
[Chris] HyperShock in a world of trouble now,
down to just two tires.
Will Bales thoroughly outdriven in this match.
HyperShock got inside now staring into the great beyond.
And look at this. End Game just waiting for him saying, "I dare you.
Get back to your wheels."
[Kenny] Yeah.
- [referee] ...ten-- - [Chris] That's it.
The countdown is started.
[Kenny] Wow!
[Chris] End Game rebounds from a knockout loss
to RIPperoni with one K.O. of their own.
Knock out!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[indistinct chatter]
[Chris] Kenny, in their last fight,
End Game's forks led to their demise.
The former champs flip the script tonight.
[Kenny] And absolutely I thought their fork game
was brilliant in this one.
Got underneath HyperShock with ease
and fed them directly into their weapon.
[Chris] And then how about this move?
- Oh! - [Kenny] Oh!
- [Chris] And here he comes. - [Kenny chuckles]
Several times Will Bales had to stick the landing
because he was flying through the air.
[Kenny] Yeah, we know Will lives on the edge in the driving department.
But he didn't do himself any favors tonight.
If you're reckless on the sticks against the Kiwis,
you're gonna die, end of story.
[Chris] Yeah. At this point,
HyperShock is down to three wheels.
Oh! And...
Sorry, make it two.
And that'll finish the job.
You might just be stuck again.
- Hey, guys. - Hey, guys.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
Thank you.
All right. Nick,
what went better this time around?
Uh, well, we didn't fall into the floor.
[laughter]
That was a good start.
Uh, well, we controlled the fire a lot better this time.
Uh, we had a good strategy.
Uh, we executed it properly this time.
So... Yeah, it went our way.
And guys, what was the strategy?
Uh, the strategy for that one
was to just keep the face pointing at HyperShock, as we always do.
We know we had the bit of front
and we didn't think they'd be able to get underneath us.
So we just keep facing at them
and wait for them to come to us and wait for an opportunity.
Yeah, we know he likes to drive.
We thought we'd let him.
[Chris chuckles]
Nick, you told us after winning your first fight of the season
that you were the team to beat.
Then you had the...
the bad run against RIPperoni.
But now you improved to two and one.
Are you still the team to beat?
Oh, yeah. Like, of all the losses
we've ever had over our career,
I think our fight with RIPperoni was actually the one
that worries me the least.
[chuckles] Like...
Yeah, we got like, beat pretty bad.
But it was kind of our fault.
[laughter] We know what to not do.
So you're still supremely confident?
Oh, yeah.
That never changes. Congratulations, guys.
Thank you.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Hey, man, good stuff.
Will, I know you were a little worried.
Uh, heading into this one, you...
you knew it was a great opportunity
to kind of put your imprint on BattleBots.
What went wrong there?
Uh, well, you see, when your parts start
not being your parts anymore...
- Right. - ...things don't go well.
Yeah. You don't...
So you're saying that you can't drive a bicycle
'cause you ended up with two wheels still?
Well, at first hit, um, took off one of the...
the front wheels.
And I could see the chain getting stuck periodically.
So sometimes I could go forwards
and sometimes I could go backwards
and sometimes it would stick.
So I was trying to balance that with trying to not die.
And... and apparently you can't do both.
[laughter]
All right. So now you sit at 1-2.
You have one regular season fight remaining.
It is against 3-0 Claw Viper
who can really run around the arena.
Yeah. Kevin's been just blowing it out of the park.
Kudos to him.
Hopefully, we beat that run.
We'd like to finish the...
the qualifiers with a two and two record
rather than a one and three.
Um, but so far, you know, all things considered,
losing to End Game's, uh...
it could be a lot worse. [laughs]
Where is your confidence level right now?
We're right here. It's like, it looks pretty good.
Excellent sound effects. [laughs]
All right, Will, thanks as always.
Awesome. Thanks, guys.
All right, Will, we'll fix it. [indistinct]
Kenny, I had a feeling that End Game was gonna rebound
in a big way tonight.
Yeah, absolutely.
They wanted to try to make an example out of HyperShock.
When you knock around a top tier opponent like that with ease,
it reminds everyone why you're the number one ranked team in the world.
And for Will Bales and his squad,
this is one they'll wish they had back.
At the very least, they wanted to hang in there
with End Game, make it tough on them.
All of a sudden, the bot that many thought
had a real shot at the Giant Nut
is sitting at one and two
with Claw Viper coming up fast.
Literally, the ripple effects of this loss
could be disastrous for HyperShock.
Tonight, we saw a ton of elite teams,
not only a former Giant Nut winner and End Game,
but SawBlaze remained unbeaten.
RIPperoni continues to wow the world.
But what about the new and improved Witch Doctor?
You know, Witch Doctor, it looks like
one of the best teams in the world right now.
And that rematch we've been talking about
all season is about to go down.
Witch Doctor and Minotaur meeting in their fourth qualifying fight.
Witch Doctor knocked Minotaur out of the tournament last season
in a controversial decision.
Now they meet again with both bots sitting at 3-0.
It'll be a matchup that may very well determine
the number one overall seed in the tournament, my goodness.
[Chris] There is gonna be some serious competition
for that top seed and some serious work on the horizon
for the selection committee.
Take a look at this collection of 3-0 teams.
Witch Doctor, Minotaur, SawBlaze, Huge.
Some of the best in the entire sport
joined by a couple of surprising names,
Quantum, Claw Viper, masterful starts to their seasons.
[Kenny] Absolutely.
And next week Copperhead and Riptide
will try to join the 3-0 club.
The talent this season is sky high.
I can't wait for this push to the post-season.
For Faruq, my man, Kenny Florian, I am Chris Rose,
we will see you next time here on BattleBots.