[audience cheering]
[Faruq] Over it's 25 year history,
excellence atBattleBots
has been measured in hardware,
punctuated by the ultimate prize,
the Giant Nut.
Tonight...
the quest for another one of the sports' crown jewels...
[Chris] ... End Game
wins the first ever Golden Bolt.
[Faruq] ...enters it's second chapter.
Five nights of single elimination fights...
[shouting indistinctly]
[Faruq] ...culminating in a merciless,
winner take all tournament.
I'm gonna take that!
[Faruq] Welcome to robot combat
-at its most raw. -Let's go!
[Faruq] This isBattleBots: Champions,
the race for the Golden Bolt.
[robotic voice] Robots, activate.
[crowd cheering]
Welcome to BattleBots: Champions Sin City Slugfest.
How we doing, Las Vegas?
[crowd cheering]
I am Chris Rose,
joining as always, it's UFC legend,
robot combat analyst extraordinaire,
the one and only Kenny Florian.
[Kenny] It's great to be here as we get into
the heart of this incredible tournament.
[Chris] Tonight, eight fighters will enter the box
but only one will punch their ticket
to the tournament of Champions.
There they'll face other bots
who claw their way through the Slugfest
as well as several BattleBots champions
in a winner take all fight to the death.
If they can survive that,
they'll win of the sport's most coveted pieces of hardware,
-the Golden Bolt! -[crowd cheering]
[Kenny] BattleBots: Champions is where chaos reigns supreme.
And that was proven again last week
in qualifier number one,
where SHREDDIT BRO!, 18, at risk of relegation
after World Championship VII,
defied all odds,
mowed through the competition
and earned a spot
in the Golden Bolt championship field.
[Chris] SHREDDIT BRO! joins
the three most recent Giant Nut winners,
End Game, Tantrum and SawBlaze,
all of whom received automatic bids.
But four spots are still up for grabs.
Well, the bots are definitely hungry for glory.
So let's see what's in store for tonight.
Reese Ewert
and the ambidextrous assassin, Fusion
will collide with one of the most iconic robots in the sport,
the king of control, Whiplash.
[Kenny] The nutty professor Martin Mason
has MaDCatTer ready to bare it's claws
against the horizontal horror show, Bloodsport.
[Chris] They all love to brawl.
Bunny Sauriol and Malice
will face a pink and yellow bot
that will turn you black and blue,
HiJinx.
[Kenny] But we kick things off
with champion designer Aren Hill
and his ferocious flywheel flipper, Blip.
Taking on the bulletproof Brazilians,
the incinerator from south of the equator
Black Dragon.
Let's get it on!
Faruq, take it away.
Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?
It's robot fighting time!
In the red square,
from Mountain View, California,
forget a mountain view,
he'll throw you so high,
you'll be able to see the curvature of the earth.
It's Blip!
[audience cheering]
[Chris] The flipper bot, Blip!
Captain Aren Hill,
of course, the original architect
of the Giant Nut winner Tantrum,
which has an automatic bid to the Golden Bolt tournament.
But when it comes to Aren's younger killer creation,
what are you hoping to see here Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, hopefully, a little more of the magic
from its rookie season where Blip made the top eight.
The flywheel tech is so cool,
it allows Blip to fire
an unlimited number of flips,
but it failed to live up to expectations
at World Championship VII.
To make a deep run tonight,
Aren's gotta let it rip.
In the blue square,
from Itajuba, Brazil,
don't be fooled by their cute stuffed duck.
They came here to quack you upside in.
It's Black Dragon!
[Chris] If there's ten members on their team,
we're gonna see probably 12 smiles
as they enter through the tunnel.
Julio Cortez the man waving on the right
is their team Captain.
-I got you! -[Chris] So what team spirit they've got, huh?
[Kenny] These guys are the party, Chris,
and this is the exact type of tournament
where they can shine.
Black Dragon's durability
is nearly unmatched.
-Last season, they almost tied -[man] Whoa!
[Kenny] Bite Force's streak
of most career fights
without getting knocked out.
They've got the goods to go deep here.
Blip's first fight is the near indestructible Black Dragon.
We feel like we have an advantage
on the ground game side of things.
We're also very durable.
But it's basically gonna be driving,
take control and keep 'em in the air most of the match.
Blip's very much, I would say,
a control bot that we... we can launch people.
It's hard to actually get... get a KO from that.
So we might not win the damage category,
but we wanna, just, hands down,
have aggression and control taken care of.
The main strategy is to try to control
the middle of the bots.
We got these pointy... pointy little forks
right next to the egg beater.
And it's... has a lower ground clearance.
If they try to get their forks beneath us,
we're gonna toss 'em up
and try to...to win the ground game.
We are come there to fight against Blip.
Blip could be... could be cute,
but Mano duck is more.
-There's nothing can be cuter than, better than... -There's not gonna be cuter...
-Yeah. -And the luck is always with us. [chuckles]
[audience cheering] Black Dragon! Black Dragon!
[robotic voice] Robots, activate.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Okay, Kenny. This is Sin City
and being the wise guy that you are,
you put together some odds for tonight's fights.
So what are we looking at
with Black Dragon versus Blip?
[Kenny] Well, either team could win this Slugfest tonight,
but I've got the Brazilians
as a slight favorite in this one.
Both bots are so tough.
Collectively, they've only been KO'd three times,
so, to me, the question is
which weapon will do more damage?
A ceiling scraping flip
could change things at any time,
but I like Black Dragon's prong here.
-Blip! Blip! Blip! -[Chris] We have three straight fights
and punch your ticket to the Golden Bolt tournament.
Who's gonna get win number one here?
[buzzing]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Little saunter out by both teams.
Uh-oh! Blip almost got under Black Dragon.
Wanna get around to the side.
-[Kenny] Oh! -[Chris] Now going head on.
Nice spinny flip.
Double flip.
[Kenny] Let's see if Blip can follow it up.
There Black Dragon pinned in the corner.
Doesn't seem like they have
quite the right angle there, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, this is one of those limitations of this robot.
Without momentum to push it's opponent
up onto its flipper,
it just can't get a solid flip.
And Blip releases.
[Chris] Black Dragon had a little trouble
with the floor.
Gabriel Bertozzi looking to engage.
-Oh! -[Kenny] Oh!
[Chris] There's that weapon,
that 45 pound, eight gear drum.
[Kenny] Black Dragon taking over here.
[Chris] Uh-oh, but it looks like
the weapon on Black Dragon has stopped momentarily.
Oh, there comes a 100 pound hammerhead
in on the head of Blip.
[Kenny] It is, it's back on now Chris.
That egg beater spinning up to full speed.
[Chris] Gosh, these two bots are so dense,
you forget they weigh 250 pounds.
-[Kenny] Uh-oh, Blip is on fire! -[Chris] Oh, no!
I don't know if we've ever seen that
the few seasons that Blip's been around.
[Kenny] Yeah, that looks like a bad internal fire.
That's not good.
[Kenny] Blip struggling with its left side drive.
[Chris] The question is can it survive now at all?
And hope that maybe Black Dragon
catches itself on fire,
but they... That flipper still works.
[Kenny] It does, but it just took a big shot
from that egg beater, Chris.
Blip is still very much in this fight,
but can't make it to the closing bell.
[Chris] Great aerial acrobatics
by Black Dragon to get itself uninverted.
Blip, has it's face peel back a bit...
just passed the halfway mark
in tonight's Slugfest opener.
Black Dragon is circling.
-[Chris] Whoa! -[Kenny] Look at that.
[Chris] And another big shot.
[Kenny] Blip just kinda waited for him,
got a flip off.
[both] Whoa!
[Kenny] Blip racking up points.
[Chris] I mean, this is fascinating
because of the new rules entered in the battle last season.
Black Dragon can't just lay back,
it has to continue the attack.
[Kenny] Let's see if Black Dragon can get around
to the back side of Blip.
That's where they can really take advantage.
-There it is. -[Chris] There you go, Kenny.
[shouting indistinctly]
[Chris] Under a minute remaining.
Is there anymore life in Blip?
[Kenny] They think Blip is gonna get knocked down.
Here they could be right.
-[shouting indistinctly] -[Chris] This is it.
-Aren Hill's flipper stopped in its tracks -[man] Five...
-[Chris] ...as Black Dragon now advances -[man] four... three...
-[Chris] ...to the second round. -two, one.
That's a knock out.
[all cheering]
We're on.
[indistinct conversation]
[Chris] Well, a nice start by Blip
f lipping the Brazilians head over heels
and into the corner, Kenny.
[Kenny] That's right. But Aren Hill
just couldn't get the leverage
to land a follow up shot,
something he struggled mightily with
as it relates to this design.
[Chris] Both teams stayed aggressive,
but eventually,
Black Dragon started dishing out
the pain with that egg beater weapon
and it all started to go wrong for Blip.
[Kenny] Yeah, you could see the fire erupt there,
a shocking moment really.
Lost drive on that left side and started crab walking.
[Chris] Credit to Black Dragon
for continuing to engage and attack.
Blip landed a few more nice flips
put the Brazilians on their head, in fact.
But Gabriel Bertozzi, the driver of Black Dragon
was not to be denied.
Got around to the back side
and said, "That's gonna be a knockout."
[indistinct conversation]
-[Chris] Julio. -Hello, guys.
-[chuckles] -Good morning.
Congratulations!
Thank you. Thank you.
Uh, was it nice to see
-somebody else's robot catch on fire -Yeah, yeah.
...for a change?
-Yeah. -That's the first time
we ripped with a hurl but on fire,
-so, yeah. -Yeah.
It's always nicer to be them, not us.
-[all laughing] -The first time
that Black Dragon doesn't fire
and the other robot so, thanks God.
[chuckles]
Mateus, we talk about this all the time,
whenever you guys come out of the tunnel,
-[chuckles] -...your entire team is so happy.
All you ever...
What's going on back there that we don't know?
We... We can't tell to you.
[all laughing]
-'Cause we... It's our secret is all. -It's our secret.
A Brazilian secret,
to you... I can't tell to you.
[Chris] Dare it up,
we can't wait to see your smiling faces
in the semi-finals.
Let's go.
Let's go! [laughs]
-[Chris] Hi, Aren. -Hey, guys.
I... I know it's obviously
a bit disappointing.
How shocked were you
that you're the one that caught on fire in this fight?
-Uh, a little based on their past history. -[all laughing]
Blip has now been around for a couple of seasons.
Where is this robot in its BattleBots growth?
Uh, if it's back next year
you're gonna see some decent size changes to it.
This is a second round of just rev up hardware
with some small tweaks,
but, uh, we, uh, see what we can get...
get back to happy with during the off seasons.
-[audience cheering] -Well, we all support you.
We look forward to seeing what you bring next season.
Thank you. Congrats to these guys.
[all] Blip! Blip! Blip! Blip!
[Aren] Awesome move.
-I don't like being on fire. -[laughing]
You'll get used to it when it's...
[Aren] I don't wanna get used to it.
-it's a lot of times. Thank you, guys. -[man] Had a lot of fun.
[Chris] I gotta tell you, looking back at last season,
including the playoffs,
and now once match through the Sin City Slugfest,
that was as complete a match
I thought that Black Dragon has put together.
[Kenny] Absolutely. And that's only the second time ever
that Blip's been knocked out. Impressive.
[Chris] So the Brazilians move one step closer
to a berth in the Golden Bolt tournament.
They will face the winner
of MaDCatTer versus Bloodsport,
which is coming up after the break.
That's right.
When we return,
it's one of the biggest characters
in all of robot combat,
Professor Martin Mason,
taking on a heavy hitting horizontal
that is all about the headshot.
MoreBattleBots: Champions , next.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to tonight's Sin City Slugfest,
where fan favorites and rising stars
are duking it out
in hopes of earning a spot
in the second annual Golden Bolt tournament.
Whichever team survives tonight's gauntlet
will join End Game, Tantrum, SawBlaze,
and last week's winner SHREDDIT BRO!
in the exclusive field.
All right. The first round continues right now
with a matchup between MaDCatTer and Bloodsport.
-[audience cheering] - A pair of fourth year teams
who both made the playoffs last season
but MaDCatTer was the only one
who managed to get a win,
making it to the round of 16 for their first time ever.
Martin Mason and his college kids,
they're more than just...
"Yeah!"
They got a ferocious bot.
They definitely do.
World Championship VII was a breakout year
for this team and especially driver Calvin Iba.
MaDCatTer's a four wheel drive, vertical spinner.
It's quick, scrappy and packs a punch.
But this is a tough matchup here,
against one of the hardest hitting horizontals in the sports.
Yeah, Bloodsport always a fun one to watch
but I don't know exactly what I'm gonna get out of 'em,
like, they could go down in, like, 30 seconds.
Or they could hang three minutes
or destroy their opponent in a minute.
[Kenny] Yeah, before their World Championship VII season,
they completely redesigned the robot's insides,
and that's produced some misses
but it also gave us some hits.
This bot could win this entire tournament
or it could get knocked out in thirty seconds.
It's like robot roulette with Bloodsport
but that also makes it a scary bot to fight.
[audience cheering]
Let's check it out.
Faruq.
[Faruq] In the red square,
from Pomona, California,
he'll draw a chalk feline
around your dead body.
It's MaDCatTer!
-[Chris] And there's the wild man -[all cheering]
...Martin Mason and team MaDCatTer.
Big time fan favorite
that always puts on a show.
-What setup are they going with tonight, Kenny? -[man] Oh, yeah!
[Kenny] Well, this is an anti-horizontal configuration
that Tombstone's Ray Billings
actually helped Martin develop.
[Kenny] He built it using motor mounts from a jeep
-to hang the armor and said it's designed -[all cheering]
[Kenny] ...to feed Bloodsport
up into their 45 pound weapon.
Tonight...
is its first road test.
[Faruq] In the blue square,
from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
he is scheming
and hoping to steal your hemoglobin.
It's Bloodsport!
[Chris] Team Bloodsport
led by 26 year old Justin Marple.
This is one of four horizontal weapons
that we will see this evening.
Kenny, tell our viewers
what the team is bringing to the bots.
[Kenny] That's their 72 pound classic bar.
It has the best reach
of any weapon in their arsenal.
It is powerful enough
to end this fight in just one shot.
But against a big wedge,
Justin really has to pick and choose his spots.
Connecting with the sides of MaDCatTer
will be key.
Bloodsport, they got that big, scary spinner.
You know what? We're gonna show 'em
what a little bit of geometry does.
Calvin has spent a lot of time on the off season
analyzing the geometry
and that's what we're gonna take advantage of.
We armored up with a big plow.
We got an extra 40 pounds AR.
We're gonna send them sailing way up in the air.
Bloodsport's gonna be on life support.
So we had the long bar for this matchup.
Um, the long bar is our most...
Like, the longest and the, uh, most aggressive,
uh, weapon that we have.
So we're really gonna aim, just,
try not to go over straight to the weapon
and try to, like, see if we... They can make a mistake.
We always look for mistakes in the... in the opposing driver.
You know, do they turn a little bit too much?
Do they expose a wheel in a certain way?
Do they... Maybe they box rush we can kinda get around them
at, like, an unexpected time?
So we're just looking for that mistake, looking for that opening.
Um, and if we can get that one good hit,
I think the... the match is ours after that.
We have the nose and whiskers too.
[man] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[robotic voice] Robots, activate.
[all cheering]
[Chris] Both teams made deep runs
in this event last season, Kenny.
But you're giving MaDCatTer the slight edge here.
[Kenny] Yeah, Bloodsport definitely has
the power advantage here
but I think MaDCatTer has proven to be
a little bit more consistent.
And while I do love
Calvin Iba's aggressive driving style,
he's gotta make sure he's not too aggressive.
That can get you in trouble
especially against a robot
with one-shot knockout power.
[robotic voice] Red team, ready.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Please don't lead with your head.
We have new rules enforcing that.
[robotic voice] Blue team, ready.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] And that big, white tube
is Bloodsport's self-righter,
added a flame to it for this fight
in order to look,
"more badass."
[all cheering] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[buzzing]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Uh, MaDCatTer, that thing can scoot around the box.
Bloodsport's weapon up to full speed.
-[Chris] Oh, heavenly shot! -[Kenny laughing]
[Chris] Let's see if Bloodsport can get up
with that self-righter. No, it's smokin'.
Wow.
Oh, they're not gonna touch it, are they?
Grab it with the arm.
[Chris] Teasing. Got a little tease.
-Okay. -[man imitating a cat]
-Let's go! -[Chris] Come on, get up big boy.
I got you. Oh my gosh!
-[man] Seven, six... -[Chris] That was unbelievable.
-five, four -[Kenny] MaDCatTer waving goodbye
-to Bloodsport. -[man] ...three...
-[Kenny] Thanks for playing. -[man] ...two
-...one. -[Kenny] Oh, man.
Knockout!
[audience cheering]
[Chris] And MaDCatTer's moving on
in 37 seconds.
Oh, yeah!
Whoo!
[Chris] Kenny, counter to what we are used to seeing against horizontals,
MaDCatTer actually avoided the box rush here.
They wanted Bloodsport to spin up,
so they could use the geometry of that new plow,
and bada bing, bada boom, bada bang!
- Whoo! -[Kenny] All it takes is one...
All it takes is one shot.
What a nasty one, right on the corner.
You see the blade on Bloodsport connects there
and it just sends them flying.
You see the difference in stability there,
between MaDCatTer and Bloodsport.
Just one little shot
and it sends Bloodsport flying right into the corner.
- My goodness. -[Chris] Yeah, I was thinking that
Bloodsport would be able to self-right,
then I saw the smoke and I said, "God, you're dumb Chris."
[Kenny laughs]
[crowd cheering]
-Man. -[Chris] Hey, Martin!
Thirty-seven seconds.
That's awesome, dude.
You know what?
I'm so proud of these kids.
You know and man, I'll tell you what that weapon,
it was spinning hard,
but we brought the hard armor, folks.
That's what it takes.
You know what? We want to put on a good show.
You're gonna see us again tonight.
-[voice croaks] You bet on that! -[Chris laughs]
[crowd cheering]
Martin, an exciting fight as always.
Did you expect to get an early knock-out like that?
You know what? I was telling Calvin right before the fight,
take it slow, take it strategic.
You got to be careful with these big hitters.
But you know what? It just went right the way we wanted.
We got 'em up in the air,
there was a big hit on their head that's a little bit fragile.
And you know what?
Bloodsport? They're gonna be helping the blood bank.
[Chris and Kenny laugh]
[Chris] I love it.
Martin, rest your robot and rest your voice.
We'll see you later tonight in the semis.
Thank you, whoo!
[crowd cheering]
Martin, 37 seconds?
He couldn't lasted, like, 90 or something for us?
-What's he doing? -People forget how hard MaDCatTer hits.
You know, they're known for their durability, but man, what a shot.
And just got the better of Bloodsport,
who hits extremely hard as well.
They have actually destroyed themselves.
So, Martin Mason and his gritty kitty
advance to the second round on tonight's Slugfest,
where they'll need to sharpen their claws
for a date with Black Dragon.
And up next, get ready for some fireworks
as two more horizontal spinners go head-to-head.
We got a couple of veteran squads
with Malice taking on HiJinx.
And Malice captain, Bunny Sauriol
is sporting a secret weapon tonight.
That's right, Ray Billings and Tombstone
is adding some firepower to her pit crew.
We'll see what kind of death and destruction
the king of kinetic energy brings
when we return on BattleBots: Champions.
[crowd cheering]
We continue on with more BattleBots: Champions.
Again, to punch a ticket to the Golden Bolt Tournament,
these teams have to run the gauntlet
and win three straight fights on a quick turnaround.
That makes the war of attrition a big factor
as they advance through the bracket.
So let's catch up with the nutty professor, Martin Mason
to see what kind of shape MaDCatTer is in
after winning their first round fight.
We just finished our fight with Bloodsport.
You know what? It was a one-hit knockout
but that doesn't mean we didn't have a crazy amount of damage.
I'll tell you what? Those kids, they are working right now,
back in the pit, they're grinding,
they're welding, they are putting it together.
And you know what? We're gonna be at a 100%.
Let me tell you who we are fighting next.
MaDCatTer vs Black Dragon.
It's a rematch this year
and they took it last time in a very close decision.
But I'll tell you what? We've upped our ground game,
we're gonna show that we are the beast.
[Chris] And it looks like MaDCatTer's next opponent, Black Dragon,
is already in the test box passing safety.
It's a race against time in the Slugfests.
We'll see that match-up later tonight
but let's keep the action rolling along
with a pair of deadly horizontal spinners.
It is Malice versus HiJinx.
Both teams have been competing for three years now.
But let's start with the squad led by Bunny Sauriol.
She had a great Season VII.
She was so happy,
even though she lost in the Round of 16,
because they fell to Minotaur.
She really feels like her robot has made some significant leaps.
[Kenny] Absolutely. Early in World Championship VII,
we were questioning this team's position in the sport.
They ended up making the tournament,
advancing to the Round of 16 for the first time
and then went three minutes
with the top-seeded Minotaur.
-Minotaur! -[Kenny] They lost the decision
but Malice proved it can dance with the big boys.
And just like in the play-offs,
Ray Billings, yes, the king of kinetic energy
is helping Bunny again tonight.
That's a big confidence booster,
having that guy in your corner.
Hi-five, guys, let's do it.
[Chris] In the meantime, it's been a few months
since we've checked in on Jen Herchenroeder and HiJinx.
And hopefully, over that time,
they have been able to dial in their bot,
because things were not great for them last season.
[Kenny] Yeah, they went one in three
and missed the Round of 32
for the first time in their career.
The Slugfest is the perfect opportunity
to stack some wins and start climbing back up
theBattleBots pecking order.
A spot in the World Championship VIII
may depend on Jen and the team's performance tonight.
[Chris] All right. Well, let's hear from both captains.
A couple of familiar faces
as they get their robots into place.
What makes HiJinx a tough opponent for Malice
is that we are both huge horizontal hitters. That's what we do.
Whenever you get horizontal vs horizontal,
you're gonna have big sparks.
You don't know what's gonna happen.
We're gonna go ahead and do everything we can to protect our nuts
because they are very exposed.
So we're gonna build... put a big steel plate in front of 'em
in the hope that HiJinx can't get to our nuts
before we can take them out.
Last season was the first time
HiJinx did not make it to the Round of 32
and, honestly, that didn't sit right with me.
Going into this tournament,
we definitely want to come out with some wins.
You're gonna see a more aggressive driving strategy.
I think that's gonna pay off.
We have a newly-reinforced horizontal tail.
We learnt some lessons from our fight with Captain Shrederator.
And we're bringing back our iconic long bar.
So, in theory, we should be able to hit them
before they hit us in every exchange.
We're ready to do some damage.
[man] Okay.
[referee] Is everything good?
-Yeah. -All right.
All right.
Oh, you're good?
[metal clanging]
[robotic voice] Robots, activate.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Okay, robot anatomy time.
Where are Malice's nuts and why do they need protecting, Kenny?
[Kenny chuckles] Well, Malice has nuts
on both the top and bottom of its frame.
They hold the chassis together and make it easier
to take the robot apart,
but with HiJinx's undercutter and its tail,
which they'll use as a wedge,
those nuts could be in the line of fire tonight.
-So, you know, you got to protect them. -[Chris] Fair enough.
And while Bunny and Jen lead their teams,
Malice's driven by Bunny's husband, David Liaw.
HiJinx by veteran builder Orion Beach.
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[chanting continues]
[alarm beeps]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
[Chris] Oh, that broke down. Malice already up to speed,
taking it right to HiJinx.
[Kevin] Yeah, Malice with a quick spin-up and box rush there.
-[Chris] Orion B, you gotta get out of that corner. -[Kenny] Oh!
Piece of HiJinx's wheel went flying there.
[Chris] Oh, nice counter-shot by HiJinx.
But the wheel on the right side of the robot's
hanging on for dear life now, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yup, that is a big problem.
-[Chris] Oh! -And Malice's going after the other tire now!
[Chris] Veteran driver David Liaw working it for Malice.
[Kenny] Both wheels in big trouble there, Chris.
[Chris] Oh, yeah. Those don't look great for mobility, Kenny.
[Kenny] No and Malice's gonna have to speed it and David Liaw--
-Oh! -[Chris] Oh! A huge hit.
Yeah, that's right. Right on their frame.
[Kenny] That was a great job by Orion Beach.
He used the tail to full turn Malice into their weapon,
trying to do it again here.
[Chris] Well, we're coming up on the one-minute mark
and despite HiJinx's wheels looking kinda like a chew toy,
they've been holding their own, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, but they are really struggling to move now.
All Malice needs is another shot or two on the wheel.
[Chris] Oh, boy!
[Kenny] Malice took a big bite out of HiJinx's wheel there.
[Chris] And that bite has done it.
This one might be over.
Great work by Malice just saying, "You know what?
We're gonna make you incapacitated."
[Kenny] I think HiJinx's weapon is stuck to the floor now!
-That will make it tough to move. -[referee] Ten! Nine!
-Eight! Seven! -[Chris] Makes it very, very challenging.
-I'm no engineer. -[Kenny laughs]
-[referee] Four! Three! -[Chris] So Bunny Sauriol's team opens the Slugfest
-with a very pragmatic performance. -Two! One! Knockout!
[Chris] And Malice's moving onto the second round.
Jen!
I love you.
I wish you could save her.
[Chris] Kenny, HiJinx thought it could keep Malice at bay
by leaning with its tail.
But driver David Liaw had other ideas.
[Kenny] Yeah, we saw a very patient approach from Malice.
Didn't force any shots.
Waited for HiJinx to expose its wheels, then pounced.
[Chris] And that was the shot
that really put the nail in the coffin.
Basically grinded those exposed wheels down to the axle.
[Kenny] Yeah and that lowered the chassis so much
the weapon was touching the floor.
And no traction [chuckles] means no action.
Strong start for Bunny Sauriol's team.
-[Chris] Bunny... -Yes! Hi!
Hi, congratulations!
Oh, thank you.
It was a great fight, you know, HiJinx is such a great robot,
and you never know how it's gonna go with two horizontals.
Especially one as hard-hitting as HiJinx.
Well, you took them on quite a ride
in part because they couldn't move.
Your husband did a masterful job
of chopping up the wheels on the other robot.
-Right? -My husband's a great driver
and I'm very proud of him.
[Chris] All right, well, we'll find out
which team you will face in a bit.
Congratulations, excellent work.
Thank you.
Unquestionably, Season VII was a great run for Malice
and they have continued things here in the Sin City Slugfest.
That's right. Ray Billings is a good luck charm, man.
I don't think that's what he likes to be called.
-[chuckles] -I think that's too cute for him.
And so Malice moves onto the second round
to take on the winner of our next match-up.
One of the best drivers in the sport,
faces off against one of the surliest.
It's Matt Vasquez and Whiplash
taking on Reese Ewert and Fusion.
That is next onBattleBots: Champions.
[crowd cheering]
This is BattleBots: Champions, Sin City Slugfest
and we just saw Malice deliver the third knock-out of the night
against fellow horizontal spinner, HiJinx.
And we caught up with Captain Bunny Sauriol
to see how her bot held up during that fight.
In our fight against HiJinx,
we took very little damage.
She did get our weapon, our main weapon
but we'll get that welded up and screwed down
and ready to go again.
This is absolutely a tournament of grueling attrition.
You have to have parts ready.
You have to have them prepared.
We are ready. We have prepared for this.
We have done what we needed to do.
We've done all the preparation.
Now it's just getting through it.
[Chris] Well, Bunny Sauriol will be watching our next fight closely
as she will face the winner in the second round.
We're taking about Whiplash and Fusion.
Two teams led by families
who have helped build the world of robot combat.
After years of coming up just short,
Matt Vasquez is hoping to win tonight's bracket
and put himself to position in finally snag
someBattleBots hardware.
While Reese Ewert, part of the storied Whyachi clan
is hungry to show off the full potential
of his dual-weapon death machine.
[crowd cheering]
[Faruq] Fusion!
I'm ready to tear some [bleep] up
and get my shot at the Golden Bolt.
Same old Fusion, just, you know,
trying not start on fire.
[Chris] It is a barbeque here onBattleBots.
The best way to not start on fire is to not take damage.
-[Kenny] Oh! -[Chris] Oh, MaDCatTer taking it to Fusion
which is on fire!
Better yet would be to hit them with your weapon.
So they are the ones getting beat up.
[Matthew] Fusion will deal massive amounts of damage.
We have seen robots they lost to
come out into in a bucket of parts.
[Chris] More chunks coming off of Witch Doctor.
[Matthew] Win or lose, we're gonna have a messed up robot
by the end of this flight.
[Reese] Matt is a pretty good driver. I'm a bad one.
That's why I have a lot of weapons though
it makes up for my driving.
[Chris] Oh!
[Reese] I'm sure he's gonna come out of the box-rush,
so it's probably gonna be a situation where
right away, I get backed-up to the wall.
I'm gonna have to try and turn and hit them with the horizontal.
[Matthew] Good strategy for this match is to get them flipped over.
'Cause if they're upside down,
their vertical spinner is completely ineffective
and they can only rely on the horizontal spinner.
So we're gonna run our plow for horizontal spinners.
Try to get him flipped over.
Maybe we'll have to take some hits from the vertical.
[Kenny and Chris] Oh!
But once we get him flipped over, we can go to town on him.
[crowd cheering]
Have you checked the tunnel to see if
Reese Ewert's bot's on fire yet.
-[chuckles] -'Cause I mean, that's...
It's basically a coin-flip with him every time.
I know. It seems like they can't get it right.
Listen, the god news is, their robot is very dangerous.
-Mm-hmm. -Those two weapons work extremely well.
They're always a threat.
Um, you know, it's a hard robot to plan for.
However, many times Fusion ends up defeating itself.
Let's see if it happens tonight. Faruq...
[crowd cheering]
[Faruq] In the red square,
from Dorchester, Wisconsin...
He's just a hunka, hunka burning rage.
It's Fusion!
[Chris] The always entertaining Reese Ewert, pushing out his bot.
I'm just looking forward to the post-fight chat.
[Kenny] Yeah, never know what's gonna come out of this guy's mouth,
and that's, kind of, his robot's MO, too.
With a dual-weapon set-up,
he's just trying to harness so much power
that it's caused his system to overheat in the past.
But, say it with me now folks.
If Reese can get it dialed in tonight though, watch out.
[Chris laughs]
[Faruq] In the blue square,
from Thousand Oaks, California...
Watch you back 'cause this bot turns vertebrae into hurt-brae.
It's Whiplash!
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] And here is, the Vasquez family.
Dad Jeff, mom Debbie
and the driver and captain Matt there on the right.
They actually got knocked out of the WC VII Tournament
by Reese's brother Jake.
So, Kenny, how does Matthew Vasquez avoid dropping
two-straight to the Ewerts?
[Kenny] Well, as Matt said,
he's ditched his vertical spinner and front forks
for a heavily armored plow, which you could see there.
He wants to ram that into Fusion's horizontal spinner,
knock the bot off-balance
and get it to destroy itself.
Look for Matt to attack that side of Fusion.
[Chris] All right, well this is a matchup
between two completely opposing philosophies.
While Fusion is a weapon on wheels,
Whiplash is relying solely on its lifter
and that means Matt Vasquez
is gonna have to be perfect.
There's only one spot left in the second round.
Which team's gonna take it?
It's Fusion, it's Whiplash
and it's next on BattleBots: Champions.
[robotic voice] Robots, activate.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to BattleBots: Champions
where Whiplash and Fusion are ready to clash.
Winner advances to the second round of tonight's Slugfest.
Kenny, what's gonna be the difference in this one?
[Kenny] All about driving.
If Reese Ewert can keep his vertical weapon squared up,
he's got a shot to do some real damage.
But look for Matt Vasquez to be very aggressive here.
He wants to get Reese to make unforced errors.
[crowd chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[chanting continues]
[Chris] A pair of power-players going at it in this one.
Vasquez, Whyachi...
Who'll move one step closer to the field of champions?
[alarm buzzing]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
Oh, shot by Whiplash! That was a huge hit!
[Kenny and Chris] Oh!
-[Kenny] See ya later! -[Chris] We got flames already
and it looks like a family barbeque
starting early tonight, Kenny.
-[Kenny chuckles] -[Chris] Can Fusion even move?
Wow. Or is con-fusion just confused?
[Kenny] Well, at least Fusion has been consistent.
Consistently on fire.
[Chris] Ah, and here is Whiplash looking to clean the grill.
[Kenny] I mean, there's... Matt Vasquez just placing Fusion--
[Chris] "Well, I'm gonna put you over here like a little baby.
Just go on that top shelf and hang out there."
[Kenny laughs]
[Chris] Need a smoke break? Hit the corner.
-And he's waving goodbye! He's taunting him! -[referee] Ten!
-Nine! Eight! Seven! -[Chris] Here comes the countdown!
-[referee] Six! five! -[Kenny] Oh, boy.
-[referee] Four! three! -[Chris] All right, let's get ready...
-Two! One! Knockout! -...for a Reese Ewert post-game interview.
-[Kenny] Yeah. -Great job.
[crowd cheering]
[Chris] Kenny, look out, here comes Whiplash.
[Kenny] Boom! A perfect box rush from Matty Vasquez.
Reese never knew what hit him right on top of Fusion
with that follow-up shot
and we've seen this movie before,
but this was more like a short film.
[Chris] Yeah, Fusion ends up inverted in the first 10 seconds,
in flames within 12,
and then starts to go for a ride
courtesy of one of the best drivers around, Matt Vasquez,
who's like, "Ooh, have you seen our nifty little BattleBox?"
[Kenny] Yeah, and again, he is just an artist with Whiplash.
Look at how he places him in the corner.
Scoops him up and stay there.
-[Chris] Hi, Matt. -Hey.
Did you just taunt Reese Ewert and wave goodbye to him
after you put him up on that top?
Uh, yeah. Honestly wasn't too sure of my strategy should be for this fight.
Uh, Fusion's got a vertical on one side,
horizontal on the other side.
Both are equally scary.
But, yeah, we just got to him up before they spun up
and that's all we needed to do, apparently.
We got little bit lucky.
It was a great choice on the configuration, man.
I know you also wanted to flip him. Is that why?
Uh, [chuckles] yeah.
Well, the things about Fusion is, once you...
when are they right side up,
the vertical is deadly and the horizontal is deadly.
When they are upside down,
it's really just the horizontal you got to worry about.
And our plow is good at fighting horizontals.
So once I got him flipped over once,
I was like, "Okay, they gotta stay like this,
otherwise, we could be in trouble."
And, when I got him flipped on the wall, I just had to be
very careful that they were actually stuck,
'cause they could've very easily landed back on their wheels,
and that could've been a different story, but yeah,
we're happy we got a little lucky and, great fight.
Sounds great. Congrats.
Thank you.
[crowd cheering]
-[Chris] Hi, Reese. -Howdy.
Um...
were you surprised that your robot,
caught on fire in 10 seconds?
Uh, you know it seems it happens more frequently
that I would like it to, but, uh...
he's such a good driver,
he was on me in like a half a second.
-Back home I go. -[chuckles softly]
[crowd laughing]
[Reese] It's funny, my dad built this wood shed
and he said, uh, "Reese if you come back with a nut or a bolt
you can stay in this wood shed.
Otherwise, you're staying in a van down by the river."
[all laughing]
I was a little confused,
'cause that doesn't sound too bad to me,
but I think he wanted me to win.
Oh, Reese, you are one of a kind.
Thank you so much for the entertainment this season.
-We will catch you in season VIII, brother. -Pleasure.
[Chris] Okay, so, with Whiplash,
advancing to face Malice,
the second round of tonight's Slugfest is all set.
Up next, MaDCatTer and Black Dragon will kick things off.
It's gonna take two more wins to join
End Game, Tantrum, SawBlaze, and SHREDDIT BRO!
in the Golden Bolt Tournament.
Who's gonna punch their ticket tonight.
We will find out
as BattleBots Champions continues.
[audience applauding and cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to BattleBots Champions.
We are just three fights away from finding out,
which team will earn the second at-large bid,
to this year's Golden Bolt Tournament.
And it's survival of the fittest here
in the second round of tonight's Slugfest.
Still alive are the unbreakable Brazilians,
Black Dragon.
The college professor, Martin Mason and his
versatile vertical spinner, MaDCatTer.
Bunny Sauriol's Malice, a team that's been on a tear
since the end of last season.
And Whiplash, led by Matt Vasquez who nearly made it
to the Golden Bolt Tournament a season ago.
So, let's get to our first match-up.
This is a good one.
Black Dragon, MaDCatTer, Martin Mason,
one-hit wonder in his quarter final victory over Bloodsport.
But, in addition to a spot in the final being on the line here,
this fight is also about revenge.
Black Dragon eliminated Martin and his crew of college kids
from the World Championship VI Tournament.
And Kenny, apparently the gritty kitty,
does hold a grudge.
[Kenny] Yeah, 100%, but it's a,
"I want to smash your bot into tiny pieces in a loving kind of way" grudge.
Now, an X-factor in this rematch is that
current Black Dragon driver, Gabriel Bertozzi
was not with the team the first time they met.
The 23-year-old was a rock star at World Championship VII.
And looked great in their first fight tonight,
but maybe MaDCatTer driver, Calvin Iba,
-can catch him off guard here. -[crowd cheering]
[Calvin] Ooh, yeah.
[whooping]
This is the big rematch we've been waiting for,
and I'll tell you what folks,
we're gonna go weapon to weapon with them,
and I'll tell you what's gonna happen folks,
they're gonna make a mistake because they can't help it.
MaDCatTer and Santa Claus have something in common,
When we hit 'em, they're slayed.
We're gonna take it, all the way.
We want to get into that Golden Bolt
and I'll tell you what folks, this cat,
it's got eight lives left folks.
You're gonna see it keep coming.
We know about MaDCatTer that
we need to hit him a lot
because MaDCatTer doesn't stop.
In my opinion, when you get there
and control the center of the arena,
it's much easier to win the fight, so
I will try to do that and always point the
front of our robot to them, so
they hit us only in the front and not in the back
or in the wheels,
and I think that we will... we'll handle well.
[audience chanting] MaDCatTer, MaDCatTer, MaDCatTer, MaDCatTer,
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[Chris] Kenny, for MaDCatTer, we know about that weapon,
called Small Fry what about the attachments in front?
[Kenny] Well, they call those their kitten heels.
Calvin Iba wants to get around to the sides
and get under Black Dragon.
These little wedges should help them do that.
[Chris] They also have the minibot, "Gassy Cat"
along for the ride.
For Black Dragon, same old, same old.
[Kenny] Yeah, that's right. No changes.
They're gonna go right at MaDCatTer as well.
[Chris] I think we're gonna have another classic.
[robotic voice] Red Team, ready.
[all] Oh, yeah.
[audience exclaiming]
[robotic voice] Blue Team, ready.
[all] Yeah.
Let's go!
[Chris laughs]
[robotic crescendo]
[audience chanting] Fight, fight, fight, fight.
[Chris] MaDCatTer.
Black Dragon.
One of these teams is heading to the final.
The other is heading home.
[buzzer sounds]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
MaDCatTer going face-to-face with Black Dragon
and tossing it in the air, twice.
[Kenny] This is what we expected, a nasty one from the get-go.
[Chris] And then shove it into the upper deck.
[Kenny] Oh this is just a brawl here.
But so far, MaDCatTer is the one landing most of the shots.
[Chris] Black Dragon's drum isn't spinning now either.
-And MaDCatTer is taking advantage... -[Kenny] Oh.
[Chris] ...slams it into the rails and is just shot
with that 100-pound pulverizer.
[Kenny] Well, looks like the Brazilian's weapon is fine.
Black Dragon going on the offence here.
-Trying to look for a shot. -[Chris] Oh.
Oh, they went up to the minibot.
[Chris] Oh, Gassy Cat still working though, don't worry, he'll be back, meow, meow.
Get your gas outta here.
Brazilians are starting to punch back here,
landed a few good shotsto that drum .
Oh, here we go, face-to-face.
-Uh-oh, thank God. -[Kenny] O h.
[Kenny] And that's the thing with Black Dragon, Chris,
they are never out of a fight.
Oh, ran into the kill saw slit there.
[Chris] Black Dragon's trying to gnaw away
at the sides of MaDCatTer.
-[Kenny] Oh, look out. -[Chris] Shifty move from Calvin Iba.
[Kenny] MaDCatTer's been impressive so far.
[Chris] Yeah, but it's weapon is not functional right now Kenny.
I don't know if it's been cut down by choice or not.
[all exclaiming]
[Kenny] A handstand there from the gritty kitty.
I do think you're right Chris MaDCatTer's weapon
might be out of commission.
[Chris] And in the meantime, Black Dragon taking advantage
at the 90-second mark.
Ah, but Calvin Iba says, not so fast.
Nice job pinning Black Dragon.
MaDCatTer is still very much alive.
[Kenny] Yup, those kitten heels are holding up well for him.
He's gotta be very aggressive here for the rest of this fight.
Little over a minute to go.
MaDCatTer has some work to do here.
-Chris? -[Chris] Yeah, let's remember that on the judges' scorecard,
a big portion of it, is the fact that,
if your weapon is not working, that'll cost you points.
[Kenny] Yeah, that's gonna show damage...
[Chris] Oh, right now MaDCatTer is going
face-to-face against Black Dragon, my goodness.
And I think that wheel rolling around the arena right now,
is the MaDCatTer's minibot.
Gassy Cat got sandwiched in that last collision.
But, there are parts all over the box right now.
[Kenny] And I'm not cleaning up.
I'll tell you that right now.
[Chris chuckles] You're still in charge of making sure
our sign doesn't fall down.
But okay roughly 40 seconds to go, can the Brazilians close this out.
[Kenny] Black Dragon, that egg beater still spinning, Chris.
[Chris] Well you can hear it, just chew into MaDCatTer.
[Kenny] Oh, man.
[Chris] Well, it's been an uphill battle for MaDCatTer without their weapon.
But hey, they are refusing to give up in this.
[Kenny] Wow, look at that MaDCatTer,
showing the power of their drivetrain now.
[Chris] Another 15 to go.
MaDCatTer takes another shot right to the Killsaw.
So, this will be the first fight in the night to go the distance.
MaDCatTer dazed, confused and now...
Oh my goodness. They didn't expect to come back to life,
Well, well, well.
What do we have here in the final few ticks.
[Kenny] Very interesting.
[Chris] How will the judges see that?
Now that MaDCatTer's weapon was,
functional at the end of this fight.
Bravo!
[Chris] Of course, all three judges are
former BattleBots participants.
Fon Davis, Lisa Winter, and Derek Young.
Scoring on an 11-point system.
Up to five points can be awarded for damage.
Three for aggression and three for control...
Good job, guys.
[congratulating each other]
[Chris] Well, Kenny, a lot of aggression right out of the gate.
MaDCatTer seemed to have the edge in the first minute of the fight.
But then this shot disabled their weapon
at least for the time being.
[Kenny] That's right and the Brazilians took full advantage
landed some huge shots,
and obliterated Gassy Cat in the process.
[Chris] Knowing MaDCatTer's weapon did start spinning
again in the final moments,
how would you score this, Kenny?
[Kenny] Well, in my opinion, it doesn't matter that
their weapon wasn't totally disabled.
In the two minutes it was down, Black Dragon dominated
the damage category.
Calvin Iba did a hell of a job trying to keep MaDCatTer
in the fight over that span.
But, I'm not sure it was enough to offset
all the visible damage caused by Black Dragon's drum.
[Chris] All right, well,
let's find out how the judges saw it.
Faruq?
[audience cheering]
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is,
Black Dragon.
[audience chanting] Black Dragon, Black Dragon, Black Dragon, Black Dragon,
-Oh, my God. -[Chris] You excited, Julio?
Here we go again.
[laughs]
All right, I know we have a lot of work to do, because
I saw Black Dragon and some parts are broken,
-but oh, my God. -[laughs]
Well, how nice was it that your bot continued to run,
that egg beater drum continued to work,
and you shut down your opponent's weapon.
Yeah, we have some problems with the
speed of our egg beater in the beginning of the tournament.
So, we fixed it for the Sin City Slugfest
and I believe that works very... pretty well.
MaDCatTer is an amazing bot we fought one time last year.
And it was an amazing fight,
something like this year.
So, congratulations, guys.
-And our weapon works very well... -[chuckles]
-[Chris] That's the best part. -That's the best part.
And you guys didn't go up in flames. That was good.
Yeah, yeah.
So, we like flames, but...
-not every time, every fight. -[laughs]
-So, maybe in the next one. -[chuckles]
Not in this one.
That's it.
Guys, congratulations, where's the duck, dude.
I gotta, we gotta...
He's definitely not taking a bath.
He's watching the fight, yet.
-There he is, lucky ducky. -Lucky ducky.
Let's go.
Congratulations MaDCatTer.
We'll see you in a few minutes in the final.
-Congratulations team Black Dragon. -Thank you.
-Let's go! Let's go! -[audience cheering]
[Chris] Hi, Martin.
I know it's tough when you lose your weapon,
about a minute into this fight.
How proud are you though of you and your kids,
that you were able to make it to full three?
You know what folks, nothing else is true,
that was claw-some folks.
-[laughs] -That was an amazing fight,
Full credit to these guys. They brought it.
I want the students in the front though folks,
I want you guys to recognize what they did
and I want you to recognize, that these guys
are the beast bot here today folks.
Oh, yeah.
Whoo!
[applause]
[Chris] Martin, you're always super entertaining,
we can't wait to see you in your next job as the Kool-Aid dude.
[laughing]
Congratulations to you and your entire squad.
Thank you. And folks, you will find the perfect animal
in your local shelter, folks.
Keep your eye on that.
Take care, folks.
[whooping triumphantly]
[Chris] Well, Kenny one thing we always know about
the Black Dragon, it is certainly durable.
They are so tough. Never out of a fight
and again, this type of grind it out tournament
is exactly what Black Dragon is built for.
[Chris] Well, MaDCatTer gives us a couple of
entertaining fights, but their night is done.
Black Dragon advances to the final where,
they'll have a chance to punch their ticket
to the Golden Bolt Tournament.
They'll take on the winner of our next match between
Whiplash and Malice which is right around the corner.
There is Whiplash captain, Matt Vasquez and his dad Jeff.
They managed to get out of that Fusion fight without taking much damage.
But, that probably won't be the case against the
massive spin around, Malice.
The single elimination mayhem continues...
next on BattleBots: Champions.
All right, it's time right now for our second semi final
of evening and up next,
it's gonna be Malice taking on Whiplash.
And you dialed it back the last season, season VII.
Remember, Whiplash lost its first few fights.
Matty Vasquez and his entire family had to work on that bot
just to get it into the Round of 32.
But man, where it's one night, and winner takes all,
that is a tough robot to beat.
Yeah, absolutely. This is one of the most storied teams
in the modern era.
And their victory over Fusion was actually their 25th career win,
tying them with SawBlaze for number two all time.
If they can get past Malice,
not only will they advance to the Slugfest Final,
they'll own the two-spot outright.
History on the line here for Matt Vasquez.
Taking on Malice and this is a robot that in seasons past,
solid but I wouldn't say spectacular.
I thought during last season, in season VII,
it made significant jumps.
[Kenny] Oh, no question about it.
They made big strides in reliability and in offensive fire power.
So, that first round win over HiJinx was no surprise.
And a victory over a team like Whiplash, would be a
nice feather in their cap as they look towards World Championship VIII.
[cheering and applauding]
What makes me nervous about Whiplash
is they are very precise.
They know exactly how to get in and get us flipped over.
They're gonna box rush us.
And we need to be able to get away to spin our weapon up.
We've chosen the mayhem configuration to go up against Whiplash,
which means we're running the drumstick weapon,
which is a little lighter than Big Red,
but it allows us to run forks.
And the forks are very important for Whiplash
'cause we need to get under them,
and get them flipped over, so we have time
to get away to spin up.
So, we hope to keep them on their back,
to give us enough time to get spun up and do some big hits.
Malice has a big horizontal spinner on the front.
It's pretty hard. It's very reliable.
Um, so, we're not gonna run our vertical spinner.
We're gonna run just the lifter with the
big plow on the front.
That way we can just run straight into their weapon,
as hard as we want, whenever we want.
Not worrying too much about damage,
and just worry about controlling the fight.
So, if I drive well, we should just be flipping them over,
pushing them into walls, slamming them into the corners.
And if we can do that for three minutes,
we're gonna win.
Have fun Matt. Go get 'em. Good luck.
[whooping]
[robotic voice] Robots activate.
[audience cheering]
[robotic voice] Red team, ready.
[Chris] That's 19-year-old, Nick Dobrikov,
in his third season with Malice.
But, his robot, Manta has been making a ton of noise,
on the combat robotic circuit.
That kid is a rising star.
[robotic voice] Blue team, ready.
-[audience cheering] -Whoo!
[robotic crescendo]
[audience chanting] Fight, fight, fight, fight.
[Chris] One spot left in the Slugfest Final.
Who's gonna earn a date with Black Dragon?
[buzzer sounds]
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin!
- Quick box rush by Whiplash, doesn't connect. -[Kenny] Oh.
But does there.
[Chris] Nice work, using the energy of Malice's weapon against itself.
[Kenny] Yeah, that's right. Matt Vasquez now taking Malice for a ride.
-[Chris] Oh, Man. -[Kenny] And remember, Chris, he doesn't have a weapon here.
So, he's gotta control every exchange.
-[Chris] And... oh. -[Kenny] That's a big one.
-[Kenny] Oh, boy. -[Chris] Oh, no and here comes the 100-pound hammer,
too on top of everything else, pulverizing Malice.
-[Kenny] Look at the speed of Whiplash. -[Chris] Oh.
That's carrying a 250-pound robot across the BattleBox.
[Chris] And now, David Liaw starting to fight back
on the sticks for team Malice.
[Kenny] And they've gotta figure out a way,
to connect with the sides of Whiplash.
Put together some combos like this,
to get that bot out of the way.
[Chris] Matt Vasquez putting a quick end to that rally.
It tosses Malice over its shoulder.
Beautiful counter there.
Oh, there's the 100-pound hammer on top of Malice.
And Whiplash is dipping against it.
Nice work by David trying to escape but oh...
I think Malice has gotta get to the center of the box.
[Kenny] Oh, woah, woah, woah.
Yeah, that's right.
Once Whiplash has you off balance,
it's very difficult recover.
Matt Vasquez stays on you.
[Chris] A nd now, Malice is inverted
certainly can drive this way, but doesn't like
having it's weapon up high.
Would rather have it down low.
[Kenny] Another issue with being inverted, Chris,
is that it negates their force.
Whiplash should be able to dominate the ground game,
while Malice is upside down.
[Chris] Well, Whiplash has been in control
for most of this fight.
Let's see if Matt Vasquez can close the deal here.
Under 90 to go.
David Liaw, an excellent driver for Team Malice.
Boy, he's facing a challenge here.
[Kenny] Yeah, Malice has to find a way to flip back over.
[Chris] Uh-oh.
-Uh-oh, Kenny. -[Kenny] Matt Vasquez might not give them the chance to.
[Chris] Oh, boy.
Look at that placement!
Wow, right on the corner of the rails and Whiplash is waving goodbye.
Once again, it's taunting its opponent saying,
"I'm off to the finals, you're off to the off season,"
"Beat it kid!"
Ten, nine...
-[Chris] The countdown has started. -eight...
-[Chris] A magnificent job, Kenny. -seven, six...
-[Kenny] Look at that. Wheels off the floor. -[man] five, four, three...
-[Kenny] Have a good night, Malice. -[man] two, one.
-Knockout! -[audience cheering]
[Chris] Whiplash is off to the final.
[Matt] All right.
Congratulations.
Great job.
Excellent job, swinging them,
Love your shoes.
[indistinct chatter]
It was so good. It was so good.
-Awesome fight. -[Bunny] Yeah me too.
[Chris] Kenny, Matt Vasquez on you from the word go.
[Kenny] Yeah, no weapon,
no problem for Whiplash.
Matt used that plow like a blast shield
to knock Malice off balance
and then dominate the ground game.
[Chris] Gave Malice a nice little tour of the BattleBox,
slamming it into the rails repeatedly.
Bunny Sauriol's squad did put together one nice flurry,
but Matt Vasquez, again, showed the world
why he's the best at what he does.
[Kenny] Absolutely.
He just understands angles better than 99%
of the drivers out there.
Credit to David Liaw for staying aggressive.
But once Malice got inverted, it was over.
[Chris] Yeah, that was the finishing move.
Just the right touch,
and good night now.
[Kenny] Absolutely. So good at getting his knockouts
but just placing you right in the perfect little spot.
[audience cheering]
Matty Vasquez, congratulations.
Thank you.
In a sport, where power is king,
your touch and ability to place a robot
exactly where you want it is unmatched.
How in the world do you do that?
I... I don't know. I like that you used the word touch,
'cause that's kind of the same word I use.
It's, uh... I feel like we're one of the only few robots
that really just kind of, like...
We don't win by destroying 'em,
we win by very carefully placing you
where you don't wanna be. [laughs]
So... but, yeah. No, we were able to do it.
I don't know how.
And, um... We, uh...
We have a lot of damage.
Like, uh, I don't know.
Halfway through that fight,
I think we were probably running on, like,
two of our four wheels is what it felt like,
and maybe three out of our four wheels.
So we definitely broke a couple of chains in there.
But, uh, yeah, we got 'em stuck in the nick of time,
'cause we were starting...
We were hurting at the end of that fight for sure.
[cheering and applause]
-Jeff, we haven't talked a lot to you. -[chuckles]
But you introduced both your sons to this sport,
they have both excelled.
How much joy are you and Debbie getting
watching your sons do what they love?
Yeah, it's really the joy of our lives,
uh, 'cause it's really brought our family together.
It's... it's something that they love.
We've never forced them to do it.
I mean, Matt is a student
-and has the love of the sport, so to-- -Well, was a student.
Yeah, was a student, but he's a student of the sport.
-[all laughing] -Uh, you know, they...
They just love it
and... and they'll...
You know, our robots all hate each other
but all the... the teams love each other.
So, you know, it's just been a great environment.
And we're blessed.
I mean, it truly is a blessing
that Trey and Greg have been able to keep this thing going.
-And our family is... is... We're... -Forever grateful.
-Yeah. -Forever grateful. Truly.
It's been a wonderful experience, so...
Hey, Matt, by the way, keep playing that student card,
'cause when you say you're no longer a student,
guess who's paying his own bills, brother.
[all laughing]
-Yeah. -No more fun.
All right, we'll see you in a few minutes in the final.
-Congratulations. -Thank you.
-[Matt] Whoo! -[cheering and applause]
[Jeff] Yeah.
-All right. -Love you so much.
-I love it. -Oh, it was so good.
[indistinct chatter]
[Chris] All right.
So with that victory,
Whiplash overtakes the reigning world champ, SawBlaze,
for the second most wins inBattleBots' history.
Gives you a sense of just how good Matt Vasquez has been
over the course of his career,
and he's still only 23 years old, people.
And, Kenny, Malice might be a team to watch
heading into World Championship VIII?
[Kenny] No doubt. Between how they finished last season
and tonight's performance,
Malice is looking durable, powerful and well-driven.
Well done, Bunny.
And now, coming up at the final,
-Whiplash against Black Dragon for the third time. -[Kenny] Ooh.
Whiplash has won twice.
This is gonna be great, isn't it?
[Kenny] Yes. Extreme durability
versus the ultimate tactician.
These teams have given us some classics in the past.
Whiplash, Black Dragon III is a robot combat fan's dream.
And, hey, I'd love to see either of these bots square off
with an End Game or a SawBlaze in a few weeks.
Can't wait to see which one gets there.
That's right.
A berth in The Golden Bolt tournament is on the line.
Who's gonna snag it?
Whiplash or Black Dragon?
Find out right after this.
[cheering and applause]
[audience cheering]
[Chris] We are back on BattleBots Champions: Sin City Slugfest.
And what a final we have for you tonight.
We've got two teams
that are household names in the robot combat universe.
The unkillable Black Dragon
and the supremely surgical Whiplash.
The winner earns a ticket to our Tournament of Champions
and a shot at The Golden Bolt.
[Faruq] It's Whiplash!
[Matt] You know, we fought Black Dragon twice,
we've won twice.
They have a very tough vertical spinner.
You know, they're almost impossible to knock out.
[Chris] Black Dragon getting put up on the screws.
Whiplash is trying to put him out of the box.
But they also thrive on fighting other big spinning robots.
We are not a big spinner.
We're a control robot.
So we might be kind of their kryptonite in a lot of ways.
[Faruq] It's Black Dragon!
[Julio] Whiplash won two times
and we have lost two times for Whiplash,
but not this time
because we have a secret,
not secret weapon but a secret agent just for you, Matthew.
[chuckles] That's right.
[Matt] For this fight, it's not a horizontal spinner,
so we're putting our vertical spinner back in the robot.
We're gonna run some of the longest forks we have for this match.
Right when this match starts,
we are gonna go straight at them,
try to scoop 'em up as fast as possible.
This is a fight where it's gonna be super aggressive,
go all out.
[Gabriel] Matthew drives pretty well
so it's always a hard fight to go against Whiplash.
Our strategy, we need to hit him
and hit and hit and don't stop.
We want to get revenge against Whiplash.
It'll be a hard fight but Black Dragon can do it.
[Matt] I think we're feeling as confident as ever,
but, uh, Black Dragon just had a great win.
But I think they're feeling rather confident as well.
So, uh, I don't know.
We're gonna have to let the robots do the talking
and see what happens.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Kenny, you'll have more on Black Dragon's strategy in just a bit.
But just an amazing job by both these squads
to get ready in such a quick turnaround.
And, you know, for a team like Whiplash,
which has craved the Giant Nut for so long,
that didn't happen yet again in season seven.
How important is it for the Vasquez family
to punch its ticket to The Golden Bolt tournament?
[Kenny] Uh, this would be huge.
Uh, again, this is a very prestigious trophy,
I think, for them and many of these bots in this tournament.
It is very much coveted.
So this would be a big achievement for 'em.
All right, it's time us to shut up.
We are so excited for the final.
Let's get to it.
Faruq.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
[cheering and applause]
It's time for the main event!
[audience cheering]
In the red square...
This ain't no game, the dragon wants the throne.
Better keep that thing shiny.
He'll cut you down so small,
even Tyrion will think you're tiny.
He's no Targaryen but he'll be burying you.
To go against him is treason.
He'll screw you up worse than
HBO screwed up the last season.
It's Black Dragon!
[cheering and applause]
Yeah!
[Chris] And here come the Brazilians.
Kenny, we heard 'em say
they've got a secret weapon for Whiplash.
So what is it?
[Kenny] Okay. So the team's added some weight
to their front weapon mounts
and placed forks on both sides of the bot.
It's a configuration they've never used before,
and breaking it out here in the final is definitely a risk.
But they believe these forks
are going to give them the edge they need
in the ground game to finally takedown Whiplash.
[cheering and applause]
[Faruq] In the blue square...
Matt Vasquez is still a student of the game
but he's no longer in school.
He'll sign your casket like a yearbook.
Have a great summer. Stay cool.
He'll divide your ribs and add two black eyes.
Subtract your arms and legs.
He'll get an A-plus in murdering bots
and celebrate with two kegs.
It's Whiplash!
[cheering and applause]
[Chris] Whiplash. Matty Vasquez looking confident.
He loves these high-pressure moments.
Black Dragon will be the first vertical spinner
they face tonight, though, Kenny.
[Kenny] Yeah, and because of that,
they went back to their standard lifter vert configuration,
also using their longest forks.
A little more offensive firepower in a fight
they know will almost certainly go the distance.
[cheering and applause]
[audience chanting] Whiplash! Whiplash! Whiplash!
[Chris] Well, Black Dragon is 0-2 all-time against Whiplash,
but Kenny put his bookie hat back on during the break,
and he has the Brazilians' favored in this one.
Tell us why, Kenny.
[Kenny] Well, beating a great team three straight times
is just not something we see very often.
And to me, the difference is Black Dragon driver, Gabriel Bertozzi.
He wasn't with the team when they lost to Whiplash.
He is uber-aggressive.
If he can put Matt Vasquez on his back foot early,
that's a good sign for the Brazilians.
[automated voice] Robots, activate.
[Chris] All right. It is win or go home.
A victory here secures a spot at The Golden Bolt tournament.
And Black Dragon is gonna have to do it against a team
that's always had their number.
Can Matt Vasquez make it
a perfect 3-0 against the Brazilians?
Or will Black Dragon finally break through?
We will find out next on BattleBots: Champions.
[Chris] After advancing to the final of tonight'sSlugfest,
we went under the hood
with Whiplash and Black Dragon
as they prepared to square off against each other.
I think we're in a great place right now.
I mean, we beat Fusion in a quick knockout.
We beat Malice in a...
It was a more difficult fight.
The damage they did really affected the performance of our robot.
You know, they hit us hard enough
where we lost two of our front drive chains.
So we for... A lot of that fight,
we were only driving on our two rear wheels,
which makes it difficult to control the fight.
Even though that damage really affected that fight,
It's not all that hard to fix.
And we should be able to put it back together
and get it back to the Box relatively soon.
Well, MaDCatTer hit us pretty hard.
So we had a lot of... of uh, pieces that we had to change.
We had a lot of damage in the drive system
but it's still working.
then took out one of our forks.
But, fortunately, we brought a lot of spare parts
So we will be fine for the next fight.
[audience cheering]
[Chris] Welcome back to the final of tonight's Sin City Slugfest,
a fight that'll decide the second at-large bid
into The Golden Bolt tournament.
Whiplash and Black Dragon have mowed through the competition to get here.
But the Brazilians are 0-2 all-time against Matt Vasquez.
Can they finally take down the game's top driver?
Or will Whiplash earn the chance to add
some hardware to its trophy case?
Time to find out.
[audience chanting] Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Chris] Let the bot battle begin.
Quick rush by Whiplash.
[Kenny] Matty said he was gonna go
right at Black Dragon.
Whiplash, the lower bot to start.
[Chris] Face to face combat out of the gates.
[Kenny] Those two spinning weapons searching for the right angle.
Let's see if Whiplash could get their lifter involved.
[Chris] Had a chance to get to the side
or even behind Black Dragon.
Didn't work out for Whiplash.
[Kenny] The forks on Whiplash
giving them the reach they need.
Actually can't knock at those forks,
eaten by Black Dragon.
Great job by the Brazilians.
[Chris] That new configuration on Black Dragon
looking awfully effective there.
[Kenny] Matt Vasquez do a... does a good job
of driving off of Black Dragon.
Now goes right back to work, nose to nose.
[Chris] You know, Whiplash makes its money
by keeping the pressure on its opponents.
And here is Vasquez, smothering Black Dragon,
looking to regain control of this fight.
[Kenny] Nice defensive driving there by Bertozzi.
[Chris] Oh, look at the job that eggbeater drum
is doing on the face of Whiplash.
Oh, now Whiplash scooped up Black Dragon.
Good work.
Scoring some points with that vertical disc.
Whiplash bent back the forks on Black Dragon's right side with that shot.
More than a minute in.
We got a close one here in the Slugfest finals.
Oh, huge shot.
Black Dragon's on its head.
[Kenny] That's a mistake there by Black Dragon.
This is where Matt Vasquez can take over the fight.
[Chris] Has Black Dragon pinned now.
The Brazilians desperately searching
for the space to self-right.
Oh, nice little flip there.
Three, four good hits by Whiplash in a row on Black Dragon.
[Kenny] Matt Vasquez with a dominant 30-second stretch there.
Black Dragon has some work to do.
[Chris] More than 90 seconds in.
Remember, Black Dragon has fallen to Whiplash twice before.
The Brazilians hungry for some revenge
as well as that ticket to The Golden Bolt tourney.
[Kenny] The one thing you could rely on
is the durability of the Brazilians.
[Chris] Whiplash pinning Black Dragon against the rails
but good driving by Bertozzi to get out of there.
[Kenny] Okay, that lifter is in play for Whiplash.
Great job. There's another lift.
[Chris] Ooh, a good hit by Black Dragon,
dishing it out to Whiplash.
Uh-oh.
Under a minute to go,
so the Killsaws are now active, too.
[Kenny] Black Dragon starting to come back here, Chris.
Getting underneath Whiplash.
Bertozzi dictating the action.
Matty looking to stay squared off.
[Chris] Oh, Black Dragon winning that war.
Chalk one up for the Brazilians
to taking Whiplash... on half a run.
[Kenny] Great job by Black Dragon,
getting underneath Whiplash.
Whiplash has some work to do.
They may have an issue with their drive, Chris.
-Wow. -[Chris] Oh.
Yeah, they have a major issue with their drive.
What sort of impression will that leave on the judges
in the final 30 seconds?
And for Black Dragon,
it looks like they've lost function in their weapon.
That's also gonna have a huge impact on the scorecard.
Both bots limping to the finish line.
Wow, that is huge,
and it officially goes to the judges.
[audience cheering]
[speaking indistinctly]
[Chris] One of their key criteria is,
is your weapon working
throughout the duration of the fight?
The eggbeater drum was not.
[Kenny] And... and that is absolutely true
but also Whiplash dealing with some drivetrain issues.
So they're gonna take that into consideration as well.
This is going to be close.
Whoo. Nice job.
[indistinct chatter]
[Chris] I gotta tell you, Kenny,
this is as tough a fight to judge as we have seen.
[Kenny] Chris, so much happened in these three minutes.
It was crazy.
Back and forth they went
from the very beginning of this fight.
They went right at each other.
[Chris] Yeah, I don't know how you'd call it,
because the three categories
are damage, aggression and control.
They were both uber-aggressive.
At times, each of them took control of this match.
[Kenny] Both drivers did a remarkable job,
battling for the low ground.
Whiplash did manage to invert the Brazilians, though.
Landed this power shot
as Black Dragon was gyroing out of control.
That may give Matt Vasquez the edge in that category.
[Chris] Okay. So where do you stand on the damage scores?
[Kenny] Again, very tough to call.
Whiplash lost half its drive.
But you can't ignore the fact
that they took out Black Dragon's weapon.
All of that will play into this decision.
I'm glad I'm not a judge tonight.
[Chris] A legendary fight.
Let's get a result
with a berth in The Golden Bolt tournament on the line.
Faruq.
The results from the judges are in.
The winner by unanimous decision is...
Whiplash!
Yeah!
[cheering and applause]
Congratulations.
[indistinct chatter]
-Congratulations. -[Chris] Matt.
[Matt chuckles]
Congratulations.
-Thank you. -Well done.
All right.
Listen to that sound, Matt.
It doesn't get old, does it?
Uh, I don't know. [chuckles]
I don't know. What can I say?
I kind of thought I lost that one, if I'm being totally honest.
Um, I was totally expecting them to call out Black Dragon.
But we got some good hits, our disc was working pretty well.
Normally, our disc doesn't do too much.
We actually were able to flip 'em with it
and toss 'em with it.
So, yeah, it was... it was a very close fight.
I'm glad we won.
Yeah.
[Matt laughs]
[cheering and applause]
Matt, what does it mean to you and your family
to now move on to The Golden Bolt tournament?
Uh, it is awesome.
Last year, you know, we fought them in our Bounty final last year
and we won that one.
Then we lost to the Bounty Boss just barely.
So, um, yeah, if we're in The Golden Bolt, that's awesome.
We want to fight all the best people
and we're excited. Yeah.
Congratulations, man.
-Job well done. -Thank you.
[Matt chuckles]
-[Chris] Hello, Julio. -Hello, my friends. How are you?
-[all laughing] -Well, how are you?
Are you shocked with the judges' decision?
Yeah, it's difficult to... to judge.
That fight is pretty close, I... I believe.
So that... that's it.
It's the third time against Whiplash.
-Oh, my God. -Yeah.
When will we win against Whiplash?
[all laughing]
[Chris] Well, I'm sorry it didn't go your way,
but it was a great, legendary fight.
-Yeah. -Thanks so much for the entertainment.
Thank you.
[audience cheering]
[indistinct chatter]
[Chris] Kenny, that was two great teams,
literally slugging it out here in the Slugfest.
Yeah, that was crazy.
Just back and forth.
It was everything we hoped it would be.
It would've been fun to watch Black Dragon in The Golden Bolt,
because that thing is like the T-1000 Terminator of combat robots.
It just doesn't die.
And it proved that again tonight.
But Whiplash with a dangerous vertical spinner,
could be a very tough out in The Golden Bolt tournament,
even against a field of Champions.
And with Matt Vasquez on the sticks,
they are never out of the fight.
[Chris] Well, all the scorecards had Whiplash by a single point.
And we are now being told
Black Dragon filed an appeal a moment ago.
So while the judges review the tape,
let's take a look at the bracket
for next week'sSlugfest.
It's got a little bit of everything.
Massive horizontal spinners,
a battle for the commonwealth
and the headliner in the first round.
It's the man, the myth, the legend,
Gary Gin and his robot, Free Shipping,
taking on Ricky Willems' towering terrors, Mammoth.
Can't wait.
Okay. We just got word
that the decision in the Black Dragon and Whiplash fight will stand.
So Whiplash officially becomes the second at-large team
to punch their ticket to The Golden Bolt tournament.
They join SHREDDIT BRO! in an exclusive group
that already features our three most recent Giant Nut winners,
End Game, Tantrum and SawBlaze.
It's gonna be fun to see how it all shakes out.
For Faruq, my man, Kenny Florian,
I am Chris Rose.
We'll see you next time here on BattleBots.
[audience cheering]