[automated voice] robots, activate.
[theme music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
hey, everybody,
and welcome once again to week two of battlebots,
the only sport actively precipitating the eventual robot takeover.
Hi, everyone, I'm chris rose, joined by ufc legend,
master of cage and screen.
The number one ranked robot fighting analyst in the world,
because of course there is only one.
Say hello to kenny florian!
[audience cheering and applauding]
that's right, chris. It's like we've got a room full of terminators,
but sarah connor has the controls.
And speaking of terminators, kenny,
on deck, we have an incredible sequel to week one
that some say might actually be better than the original.
Terminator 2 is better.
Oh, that's a matter of opinion.
Ah, it's definitely better. [audience laughing]
okay, why don't we get back to the matchups?
Ken, kenny?
It's just undeniably a better film.
[audience laughing]
all right. More importantly, we have a vicious lineup of teams fighting to qualify
for the greatest tournament this side of judgment day.
[chris] let's take a look at tonight's fight card.
From the big and tall department,
we'll see a clash of the titans,
as the nearly six-foot tall mammoth
squares off against the biggest horizontal spinner in the competition,
hijinx!
[kenny] we've also got the moment
that battlebots universe has been waiting a year for.
It's the return of the little bot that could,
rusty.
[chris] this is the cutest robot we've ever seen,
and it will not die!
[kenny] everyone's favorite junkyard bot
will kick off its sophomore season against aren hill's
game-changing new flipper,
blip.
[chris] and it all leads up to a main event
that could potentially be a preview of this year's championship.
We'll see bloodsport
trying to carve up last season's runner up,
whiplash!
[kenny] that's right, it's one of the hardest hitting bots...
[chris] whoa!
[kenny] ...Against one of the best drivers in the world.
And after falling just short of the giant nut last season,
matt vasquez tells us
he has unfinished business to attend to.
[chris] but we're kicking the night off
with a matchup between a couple of 250-pound monster trucks.
Greg gibson
and the legendary yeti are back out of retirement
and ready to rumble with the man,
the myth, the maniac,
martin mason and the gritty, kitty,
madcatter.
You guys ready?
[audience cheering and applauding]
I think they're ready.
Faruq, take it away!
Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?
It's robot fighting time!
[audience cheering]
[faruq] in the red square,
he's got his game face on.
He's armed and ready.
Enemy's knees weak, their palms are sweaty.
There's vomit on their controller already, bot spaghetti.
You only get one shot to die
at the hands of the yeti!
[audience cheering]
[chris] yeti is back,
but this bot looks like it's been on a diet.
To bring yeti out of retirement,
greg gibson teamed up with battlebox veteran
christian carlberg,
and together they made some
big changes for its comeback tour.
[kenny] yeah, you can really see the christian carlberg influence here.
Yeti is now about 20% more compact,
still 250 pounds,
just crammed into a smaller package.
But they've also had major power upgrades
so that 40-pound drum
can now actually hit about 25% harder.
[faruq] in the blue square,
alice and the queen can paint roses red.
This cat's got one job,
to make robots dead.
He's traveled to the battlebox through looking glasses,
but the one thing he's not through with,
kicking your asses.
It's the metal survivor with the lunatic driver,
madcatter!
[audience cheering]
yeah!
[chris] ooh, here they come.
Martin mason,
he's like if "macho man" randy savage had a master's
in mechanical engineering, kenny.
[kenny] he's a wild man. Look at him.
And I think one reason martin is so excited
is this new 48-pound weapon.
It's the most powerful vertical spinner madcatter has ever had.
Looking for them to test that early and often
against yeti.
[audience cheering]
[chris chuckles]
we're about to fight yeti,
they've got an experienced build team,
they've got a solid driver,
but you know what? We're going to go in there.
We're going to spin faster.
We're going to drive faster.
We're going to be more aggressive.
We're just going to be more!
They're likely going to be running a vertical disc.
They're... They're fast. They're agile.
I think we'll probably be pretty evenly matched on on the weapon to weapon.
So I think it's going to come down to driving.
Win or lose, it's going to be very hard to... To knock us out.
So if this can turn into a bar brawl, I like our chances.
Yeah.
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[chris] a reminder that the new 16x8-foot
upper deck has reshaped the geometry of the battlebox.
It's created potentially deadly short corners,
and launching an opponent up there is a fresh new way to impress the judges.
It can create more contact and potentially
more knockouts this season.
For more on this fight and in particular,
madcatter's opponent,
our bot whisperer, pete, what do you have?
Gentlemen, I am predicting a deep run for yeti.
-[chris] hmm. -Putting that out there right now.
Bringing in christian carlberg
and his genius ability to take
ten pounds of electronics and fit it into a five-pound bag,
he is going to take yeti,
which still is the same dna,
and take it further with this new version.
[chris] you heard it here first.
Maybe.
[all laughing]
[chris] well, we are in vegas.
Anybody know if the casinos are taking bets on robot combat yet?
[automated voice] red team, ready?
-Mash it. -Mash it.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] blue team, ready?
[chris] that's madcatter's, calvin iba, standing next to martin mason,
led them to a 3-0 start last season.
[audience cheering]
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
Robots doing a little tango here to start.
Yeti on the attack, but madcatter gets the low ground out of the gate.
Yeti says, "I don't care. I'm just here to smash!"
[kenny] this is greg gibson's first time
in the box with the new version of yeti.
[chris] oh!
Well, it can still pack the punch. My goodness!
And how about yeti looking like an olympic gymnast there?
[kenny] well, I'll tell you what, this is exactly what yeti used to do.
They would drive on top of your opponents and smash.
[chris] oh! Oh! That's a big one.
[kenny] it's just amazing to see a 250-pound bot fly in the air.
-My goodness. -[chris] and you got to keep an eye on yeti's weapon.
It is not spinning right now.
Oh, gosh! [kenny] uh-oh.
There goes one of those tires. That's not good for yeti.
[chris] no, that is not a positive development,
as madcatter hanging back now,
looking to see if yeti had waved that white flag.
[kenny] no, I think martin mason knows who he is dealing with.
We've seen yeti come back
from the dead in previous seasons.
Can it do it here against a devastating bot madcatter, though?
This is a whole different beast.
[chris] and you might be thinking,
"well, if its drum spinner isn't working, it only has three wheels, why keep going?"
well, just in case
something fails on its opponent.
[kenny] spot on, chris.
This is what yeti is designed to do.
Be durable, stick and fight,
and be hard to kill. Madcatter can't mess around here. Oh!
[chris] that shot has had yeti guts flying all across the battlebox.
Madcatter keeping the pressure on.
Can yeti resurrect itself?
Or is it night, night time?
Madcatter is picking yeti apart, literally, and I think that's going to be it.
[referee] seven,...
[chris] the countdown is on.
Greg gibson and christian carlberg in disbelief.
[referee] that's a knockout win! Madcatter.
[chris] martin mason gets the job done!
[audience cheering]
yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
[chris] kenny, you gotta love the way this fight started.
Both bots were on the attack.
[kenny] unless the way that both of these bots
matched up, you knew that one was going to get finished.
These guys are so aggressive.
There's so much power
in both of these bots.
And dare I say that madcatter
out-yeti'd yeti.
[chris] we'll give a ton of credit to yeti for sticking around.
It looks like they lost the belt early on
and eventually lost that wheel,
but just too much destructive power
from martin mason and his entire crew.
[kenny] I think martin mason knows who he's dealing with.
It may take team yeti
a fight or two to get their sea legs with this new version of the bot,
but the first step is to rebuild
after this undressing by madcatter.
[chris] martin mason, on a scale of one to ten,
how pumped are you right now?
Let me tell you what. The scale right now goes to 11!
-Oh, yeah! -[chris laughs]
martin, martin, take us through that fight, man.
You know what?
This was a little bit strategic for us.
You saw us both go at each other.
But you know what? We wanted to make sure the box is a little bit smaller.
Calvin made a little twist
that let us get to full speed.
You know what? And from there, we had it.
Let me tell you what, folks?
They come from the alpine,
but we brought the al-pain!
Oh, yeah!
[audience cheering]
martin, is a giant nut in this team's future?
Let me tell you what's going to happen.
We're going to claw our way up through this competition,
one step at a time, until we get to the top.
Martin mason, team madcatter, congratulations.
Whoo! Yeah! Yeah! Whoo!
[audience cheering]
[chris] so madcatter comes out foaming at the mouth
and starts its season off with a win,
while yeti gets put on ice in its return to action.
We are just getting started with a fight card
chock-full of heavy hitters.
Up next, a battlebots' rookie makes its debut,
as jason vasquez's defender
throws down with the most furious frog on the planet,
ribbot!
Don't go anywhere.
We continue on here on battlebots.
[chris] in tonight's main event,
we'll see whiplash and captain matty vasquez enter the arena.
But right now, it's all about younger bro, jason,
as he makes his battlebots debut
against david jin and his fearsome frog, ribbot.
Jason's been a critical part of team whiplash over the years,
helping that robot make it all the way to the championship match just last season.
And while we've always seen the older brother,
matt vasquez, with the controller in hand,
jason has been building and fighting robots
for nearly the same amount of time.
And this season, he finally decided to spread his wings
and become the captain of his own robot, defender.
That's right. Listen, he wanted more action.
-Yep. -He's a tremendous driver in his own right,
but it really takes some cojones to step away from a title contender, chris.
Not to mention,
building the type of robot jason did,
defender is a defensive control bot,
which is a risky design in a damaged-based sport.
Tonight's going to be a big first test for the 19-year-old
against an incredibly dangerous vertical spinner.
[chris] that's right, his opponent tonight is ribbot,
led by david jin,
and what a remarkable run they had in 2020,
all the way to the quarterfinals.
Can they repeat that and even better their finish this year?
They always surprise us every single season.
They're a tremendous team,
and they've matured, 50% of their team are
still at wpi, 50% are out in the real world with real jobs.
He said building this new bot
was very difficult because of that situation,
but they like to be underestimated.
So don't be surprised if they go out there and have a tremendous bot.
By the way, is this a real job or no?
-Yeah, of course it is. -It is?
-Of course, it is, yes. -Oh, it's not that tough.
Faruq, take it away.
[audience cheering]
[faruq] in the red square,
from thousand oaks, california,
the bot from to that'll deliver a ko,
it's defender!
[audience cheering]
whoo!
[chris] for the first time ever,
jason vasquez walks out as the team captain,
has the support of the entire family.
Mom and pops are there.
Rob masek, formerly of bite force is on the team too, kenny.
This robot has a better pedigree than a quarterback
in the manning family.
[kenny] yeah, and defender has huge front forks.
It'll try to use those to scoop up ribbot
and then clamp down with that big arm in the middle.
Jason's going to need to ram ribbot
into the screws and get it onto the upper deck
to score points.
[audience cheering]
[faruq] in the blue square,
from worcester, massachusetts,
the only frog that'll make you croak,
it's ribbot!
[chris] team ribbot,
last year, a defining win in the round of 16 against uppercut.
Let's see if this team
has the ability to take another step, kenny.
[kenny] yeah, going with the vertical disc for this fight,
but they did switch to brushless weapon motors during the offseason.
That's what uppercut uses.
They have a much greater power to weight ratio,
but they're less reliable.
So this upgrade is a bit of a gamble, but we are in vegas.
[audience cheering]
I'm feeling pretty confident about this first fight.
We got a pretty good matchup.
I think our ground game is a little bit better than them.
So hopefully we can just control the match
and keep them in the air and run them into stuff.
It's a little weird being separated from my brother,
but I think it's for the best,
and it's giving me room to grow.
And I fought before and I'm ready to fight again.
For our fight against defender,
we decided to go with our vertical spinner
because we believe that our wedgelets
will be able to get under theirs.
Whereas if we ran the undercutter,
we'd have to beat their giant plough.
And we took a look at it before the match.
And that thing is built really well,
and we have no confidence that we'll be able to get through it.
We're super excited to take on
a legendary family in combat robotics.
The vasquezes are one of the founding families
of this entire sport,
and it's a huge honor for us to get the chance to fight them in the box.
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[chris] kenny, what else do you have on defender?
[kenny] get this. Jason vasquez has six different
things to control on his remote,
their movement in each direction,
the lifter arm, the self-righter,
the flamethrower,
freakin' gen z kids need constant stimulation, chris.
[chris laughs]
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] fight! Fight! Fight!
[chris] jason vasquez takes his first step as a battlebox captain.
Let the bot battle begin!
-[kenny] oh! -[chris] defender on the offensive out of the gate.
He's got ribbot backed up into the upper deck.
Oh, man!
Ribbot grinding away with that vertical spinner,
but jason vasquez keeping it at bay.
[kenny] now, those forks are getting underneath ribbot
-and taking away their... -[chris] oh!
[chris] defender is shedding some metal there,
and now going head on with ribbot. Again! Oh, no!
Look at that fork on the rookie,
bent backwards now. Ouch!
[kenny] yeah, it sure is.
Defender having trouble with that grab.
[chris] oh! Great hit by ribbot.
[kenny] oh!
[chris] ribbot has got defender on its head,
and that frog looks angry,
backing it down into the corner now.
[kenny] defender in big trouble here, chris.
They are seeing stars.
Back off, back off, back off.
[chris] can defender work its way off?
Look at that demonic crowd waving goodbye
as that countdown has officially started.
Ribbot's going to kick their season off with a victory.
[referee] that's a knockout. Winner, ribbot.
[audience cheering]
[indistinct chatter]
[chris] kenny, its name is defender,
but jason vasquez's bot
came out on the offensive to start off the fight.
[kenny] it sure did, and those forks on the front of defender
did their job and got underneath ribbot to start.
It looked like defender was going to keep ribbot on the outside,
but eventually david jin found an opening,
he capitalized and absolutely destroyed the rookie.
[chris] so, ribbot leaps out to a 1-0 start,
leaving the 19-year-old jason vasquez
in search of his first career win as a captain.
Up next, we've got a battle of the behemoths,
as mammoth is taking on hijinx.
And later tonight,
it's the return of rusty and dave eaton,
who in his rookie season took the battlebots world by storm.
[chris] that bot is tough.
[dave] the return of rusty for revenge.
We are back on battlebots. And up next, are you ready for some excitement?
Well, you better be
because ricky willems
is moments away from marching mammoth,
the biggest robot in the competition
back into the box.
Now, everybody loves a unique design here at battlebots,
but builders like ricky aren't breaking the mold
just to put on a show.
I think most people want to see something exciting,
and they want to see something unpredictable.
And the weirder your robot design is,
the more you dial that up to a left.
[chris] now you look at this bot, it's unlike anything we've ever seen before.
I think it's awesome to try to bring about change in the field
by building something special.
A lot of people try to step outside the boundaries
because they want to find a hole in the competition.
They want to find a way they can win,
the robots haven't figured out yet.
[chris] unbelievable! What a shot by smeeeeeeeeeeeee!
You're starting to see a lot of new designs coming in.
They're pretty unique like blip.
Switchback is pretty neat.
Fusion is way up there for me
not only be a vertical
and a horizontal robot.
I mean, those are tough things to pull off.
[chris] it's the first of its kind in battlebots' history.
[kenny] oh!
[chris] fusion rips a chunk outta madcatter,
going right into the cat's meow.
[ricky] on the one hand, we have a lot of new designs
coming out in battlebots,
but on the other hand, the competitive "metagame"
is getting more and more narrow as time goes along.
I mean, it's really focusing down on four-wheel drive,
vertical spinners with wedgelets at the front.
Trouble for them is, is it more narrow
that... That metal becomes,
the easier it is for someone to come along and disrupt it.
[chris] oh! Look at that shot.
Bite force has to be careful.
We know huge has knock-out ability.
[jonathan] a lot of the robots here are all
based on getting under somebody.
If they get under you, they win.
If they don't get under you, they lose.
[audience cheering]
it's hard to beat them at their own game,
but they're not going to see it coming if I try something
they have no experience with.
[chris] mammoth on the attack.
[kenny] and landed another blow. How about mammoth?
[chris] oh, my goodness!
Wow!
There's more people coming who you won't see
until they're there.
[donald] it's a type of robot darwinism that's going on.
They're evolving based on what they see.
[marc] the robot that won last year or this year
may not be the design that wins next year.
It's going to be something that
catches everybody off guard.
[ricky] I know we're going to see that.
That's going to happen in battlebots near future,
and we're not going to be able to know until it comes along
and surprises us all in the battlebots.
[chris] whoa-ho! Look at that move!
-Whoa! -[kenny] this fight was ridiculous.
[jonathan] we let the meta do what it does for other people,
but we always need to stay here
and kind of stake our claim in it
that if you sleep on us, we're going to wreck you.
[chris] they say fortune favors the bold, kenny,
and ricky willems is clearly one of the boldest.
[kenny] absolutely. He's so passionate about what he does,
and, you know, his robot is so unique, it's so unorthodox
and he's going against hijinx,
the largest horizontal spinner in the competition.
We've got ourselves a real clash of the titans here, chris.
You ready for some fun and some energy?
Let's take you inside the box. But first,
our man, faruq.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[faruq] in the red square,
from oakland, california,
this '80s themed robot will leave you pretty instinct.
It's hijinx!
[audience cheering]
[chris] hijinx's one of three rookie bots
to make the tournament last year,
captained by jen herchenroeder.
Kenny, it's deadly,
but this might be the most beautiful bot in the competition.
Sorry about that hyper shot.
[kenny] yeah, and jen was an art major
at the university of maryland,
so no surprise there.
And on the inside, it's an entirely new bot.
Everything, including the speed controller,
has been upgraded so that 68-pound blade
can now hit its top speed in less than five seconds.
[faruq] in the blue square,
from baltimore, maryland,
the prehistoric bully
that is as bad as it is wooly,
it's mammoth.
[audience cheering]
[chris] watch out, pardon me, excuse me, big boy coming through.
Mammoth had that epic
upset over copperhead in the tournament last year,
but ricky's bot is looking a little different now,
kenny. Don't you think?
[kenny] yeah, it went from 6'4" to 5'6" this season.
Still about the height of your typical refrigerator, though,
and that weapon is certainly different.
It's made of high-density plastic,
that same stuff huge's wheels are made from,
which should bend but not break against hijinx.
We're facing hijinx tonight.
What I think they're going to do is go after our wheels.
It's up to me as a driver
to make sure that they cannot do that.
I never learned my lesson here.
And again, the robot is completely different.
The biggest thing is we've got this new weapon.
I'm super excited for hijinx to fight it.
It's floppy in this direction.
They can keep hitting it and it just
springs out of the way.
But it's strong in the other direction and we can throw them out.
Mammoth is a very large, vertical flip spinner.
The very shape of our armor is sloped
upward on front and back
that makes it much more difficult for a vertical spinner
to get a good purchase under the robot
to find a place to lift.
They're more likely to hit the front of the armor
and be deflected off.
Mammoth is huge,
but they beat huge.
So we have to take the fight very seriously.
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[chris] kenny, hijinx looking kind of vicious.
[kenny] jen said that thing is built like a tank,
and they are incredibly confident
in the skills of driver/designer
orion beach, with the controller in his hands, chris.
[chris] and another big upgrade from mammoth,
they've gone from one weapon chain to two.
Last season, that single chain left them awfully vulnerable,
but now they're twice as nice,
or as we like to say, two chains.
And I think you want the weapon here
-before we make contact. -Yes.
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
Mammoth with a fox rush,
trying to prevent hijinx with spin it up.
Hijinx retreats,
looking for some space.
Oh!
[kenny] mammoth is all over hijinx here, impressive mobility from that giant bot.
[chris] now, bullying hijinx into that short corner.
Hijinx pushing back, the bots locking horns,
preventing one another from spinning up.
We got a good old-fashioned standoff here.
[kenny] hijinx has to find a way to get out of that corner, chris.
[chris] now, we've got some movement from these two spinners.
Oh!
Mammoth puts hijinx into the screws.
[kenny] uh-oh. They lost a wheel.
[chris] oh, my gosh!
[kenny] and hijinx only has two of them.
Yeah!
[chris] now, listen to ricky willems.
-You want another hit? -[chris] wow!
Hijinx's blade is still in the game,,
but here comes the countdown.
[referee] ...Eight, seven, six...
[chris] their driver, orion beach, having some kind of
movement and, oh!
[referee] ...Three, two, one. That's a knockout. Winner is mammoth.
[chris] he cannot.
Ricky willes and mammoth out of the box in a hurry here in 2021!
Kenny, mammoth just did an amazing job
being on top of its opponent all fight long.
[kenny] absolutely. Mammoth used its size
to back hijinx into one of the new short corners
created by the upper deck,
and it used that corner
to help it do its dirty work.
That strike right there flipped hijinx.
It lost one of its two wheels,
and that was game over.
Mammoth is going to be fun to watch this season.
-Huh! -[chris] ricky.
Are you okay, buddy?
No. Well, I mean,
I guess I'm better than them.
[all laughing]
-[kenny] you're just digging yourself deeper, buddy. -I... I know, I...
It's been a long, long road to get here.
We've screwed it up last night.
We built the robot up twice,
including last night and midnight.
It's amazing just to get in the box
and the fact that we survived.
I'm still on edge. I'm still shaking.
With... With all that that happened, what does this do for your morale as a team,
knowing that you can deal with this kind of adversity?
Oh, it... I mean, it just
galvanizes my faith
in everybody on this team. They've all worked so hard
and just put in the hours and the effort
and the, the heart,
and I'm just so thrilled, a third year
with a win in our first fight.
Congratulations, ricky willems and team mammoth.
[audience cheering]
[chris] okay, folks,
team mammoth kicks off another season with a record of 1-0.
Are they primed to make a deep run
this year with that weird and wonderful robot?
Coming up, the crusher bot from the deep,
kraken will try and sink its teeth
into the always hard-to-kill, rotator.
And don't forget about tonight's
blockbuster main event,
where the tri-bar terror,
bloodsport, will square off with last season's runner-up,
whiplash.
Its driver, matty vasquez,
he's a man on a mission.
[matthew] I have never actually said that
this will be our year to win the nut.
This season, I think it is our year to win the nut.
We are back on battlebots, and up next,
a fight you can definitely sink your
teeth into, because kraken
is going to try and take a bite out of one of the most
kinetic bots here, rotator.
[chris] but let's start with the sea monster.
Captained by matt spurk, and I love it.
The entire family,
they get dressed up in the pirates garb.
They get into it, and kraken with that crusher,
big-time devastation.
This year, they've upped the ante.
Yeah, that's right. It's even
more powerful this season.
And, you know, I was really
impressed with the advancements
that they had in their robot last season.
[kenny] they didn't have the best record,
but I thought they were always exciting.
They were aggressive.
I thought they were one of those candidates
for most improved bot.
So I'm excited to see what they've got.
And it'll be facing off against rotator
and victor soto, one of the smartest
guys working back in the pits.
[chris] last season,
it ended in the round of 16,
lost a split decision to the eventual
champion, end game. And he said
he talked to nick mabey and jack barker of end game
afterward and they said,
"hey, look at all the damage you did to our robot,
here and here and here." and victor was like,
"wait a second, if I did so much damage,
why did I lose the fight and went home early?"
listen, victor, I think, is a team
to watch with rotator. There's no question about it.
[kenny] and I kind of feel like he's due for a breakthrough.
-[chris] yeah. -[kenny] because he's always been
right there on the cusp.
Last year, rotator took down legendary bot
bronco in the championship match
of their bounty tournament.
But one thing victor's never done
is win his first fight of the season.
Kraken is a tough bot to kill.
So could a win tonight be a sign of things to come?
Let's see.
Two parts of the florida bot
mafia ready to square off
inside the box. Faruq, take it away.
In the red square,
crack is whack,
that's where we should begin.
But this team will crack a bottle
when they celebrate their win.
This bot has giant metal teeth
that can break you in two.
So if you ask him what's cracking,
it's probably you.
Give it up for kraken!
[audience cheering]
[chris] that is so cute.
The whole family is back this season.
The kraken really earned its stripes last season,
kenny, going three minutes with
black dragon, with witch doctor with huge
and with sawblaze. What a run!
[kenny] yeah, this bot is as tough as they come, chris.
Kraken's teeth are even stronger this year,
and you can see they've gone from a
rounded shape to more of a blade,
and matthew spurk told us
he's not afraid to sink those daggers
straight into rotator,
even if it's running it's blade on top.
[audience cheering]
[faruq] in the blue square,
this bot has a rap sheet,
a record. He's criminal.
You're a goner, is his message.
It's overt
and it's subliminal.
He'll leave you with wounds
and he'll leave you with scars.
So just pray that these rhymes
put him behind bars.
It's rotator!
[audience cheering]
[chris] always love to see the get-up
with victor soto and rotator,
so flashy that they can definitely
back it up, kenny.
[kenny] yeah, it's durable and destructive, chris,
and we talked about the brushless weapon
motors ribbot switched to.
Well, rotator did the same thing this offseason,
so more power for less weight.
We'll see what that does to what was already
one of the baddest bots here.
[audience cheering]
kraken is a very tough robot,
and I hear now that they're even more powerful
in terms of crushing force. We're going to actually
try to use the sport designs that we've had in the past,
but we've optimized them
so we can actually
use them to full efficiency, full potential
and push other robots around.
So I expect this to be a
three-minute match, but we're going to try to sink kraken.
We've increased the crushing power
from 60,000 pounds last year
to over 100,000 pounds of force.
That's kind of like having
a humpback whale sitting on the front of kraken's mouth.
We've been scouting videos for rotator.
We think he's going to run his
bar spinner on the top to try and protect...
Protect him from the teeth coming down.
The great thing about kraken is just
always the same strategy.
Attack as fast as possible,
blade as many times as possible,
and as soon as you get a hold of him,
light the fire.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] red team, ready?
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] blue team, ready?
Winner, winner... Golden spinner.
Whoo!
[chris] that's victor's wife, bianca.
The first time she's joined him here at battlebots.
Let's see if she brings him some good luck tonight.
[audience chanting] fight! Fight! Fight!
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
Oh, yeah, kraken trying to go in for that first bite,
almost takes out its own narwhal.
Rotator fires a warning shot.
Oh, and another. That horizontal blade of rotator,
it's so dangerous.
[kenny] oh!
[chris] oh! Trying to bite, he's got it.
Kraken has rotator in its jaws,
and now it bursts into flames.
There's fire pouring out of the top of matthew spurk's bot!
[kenny] ooh!
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
[chris] if you've never seen a mechanical sea monster
at fire before, "hey, welcome to battlebots!"
kraken though not showing any signs of
letting go of rotator, kenny.
What's going on?
[kenny] no, but kraken just has to hold that fire,
doesn't fry anything vital inside the bot.
[chris] okay, now, per the rulebook,
kraken will have to release rotator after 30 seconds.
-[referee] you got to start releasing him. -He's... He's
released it, the jaw is open either way.
[referee] you got to start releasing him.
[chris] the ref is issuing a warning,
but I'm not so sure that matt spurk can get
kraken to shake rotator loose.
[kenny] yeah, he looks pretty stuck on there.
[chris] you got to release him, you got to release him.
He's already released. He's stuck in the lower teeth or stuck in the tire.
-[referee] you can't pull out, you're stuck? -[kenny] wow!
[referee] all right. Timeout, timeout, timeout.
[chris] we are just over a minute in here, folks.
[referee] timeout, guys. Time. Time.
Everybody put their transmitters down.
[chris] here's what's happened. We officially have a stoppage
of this match.
Kenny, you're going to have to clean this up. Dial us in here.
[kenny] well, chris, the crew bots
are going to try to dislodge rotator.
According to the rulebook,
if they can't separate these two,
this is going to the judges,
and rotator cannot afford for that to happen.
[victor] unstick. Unstick. Unstick.
[chris] all right, we're going to take a break, but something tells me,
carnage awaits on the other side.
The fate of these bots will be decided when we return
on battlebots.
[chris] welcome back to battlebots, where before the break,
we saw rotator and kraken become entangled
a little over a minute into their fight.
The referee had to stop the match
and let the crew bots try to separate these two.
Now, this would have gone to the judges
if the robots couldn't be pulled apart,
but the fans, they're in luck
because the carnage is about to re-commence.
[audience chanting] fight! Fight! Fight!
[chris] and as soon as these drivers hear the buzzer, it is go time.
[kenny] rotator has got some work to do here, chris.
[chris] let the bot battle, uh, resume.
[audience cheering]
[kenny] uh-oh.
Oh!
[chris] oh! Rotator rips the teeth right out of kraken's grill.
[kenny] that's not good, took two in one shot.
[chris] whoa!
[kenny] now, remember, kraken was in control
of this match before the entanglement.
You are now looking at a desperate
victor soto and rotator here,
and maybe a desperate match for kraken
after losing those teeth.
[chris] that left wheel on kraken hanging out for dear life now.
Rotator continuing its all-out assault.
[kenny] brilliant driving there for victor soto.
[chris] oh! There goes the tire.
[kenny] oh, he is dissecting kraken right now.
[chris] kraken toothless,
limping out on one wheel
and gasping for air here in the final minute of this fight.
Can rotator finish the job now?
[kenny] rotator has been great here after the restart,
but if you're victor soto, you do not
want this going to the judges.
He has an abysmal record when it comes to decisions.
[chris] and kraken showing just enough
movement to hold off a countdown.
Oh!
[kenny] i felt that
in my stomach. That's how
powerful that hit was.
[chris] that is kraken guts all over the place.
-[kenny] wow! -[chris] but somehow matt spurk is
still squirming his way around the battlebox.
[kenny] yeah, the durability of kraken is just insane.
[chris] oh! Oh, my gosh.
[kenny] what hasn't rotator cut up? That's what I want to know.
How is kraken still moving out there?
[chris] this is unbelievable.
Kraken is refusing to die
as the final seconds tick away.
Rotator leaving it all out on the floor.
But this one will be decided by the panel of judges.
And that group includes derek young,
lisa winter and jason bardis,
the three former battlebots participants
will be scoring on an 11-point system.
Five points can be awarded for damage,
three for aggression and three for control.
[man] bro.
Whoa!
Holy... Shenanigans!
[chris] yeah, what he said.
Kenny, kraken was hungry to start
this match and sunk its teeth deep into rotator,
but after a quick stoppage in play to untangle the robots,
this one actually turned in rotator's favor.
[kenny] yeah, it's amazing
how rotator was able to adapt, and
this was the technique of the match right there.
They've kind of beat their tail with those forks.
They jam up kraken,
one quick spin, and in one shot
they took out two teeth.
[chris] so they went after the
ivories and then they went after the tires,
and kraken was pretty much doomed at that point.
[kenny] that's right. Hard to do any damage
after your primary weapon was taken out,
and that's the one I felt in my gut.
That shot was just brutal there.
What a performance there from rotator.
[chris] here's faruq with the decision.
The results from the judges are in.
[audience cheering]
the winner by unanimous decision is...
Rotator!
[audience cheering]
[chris] victor soto?
Hey, victor?
Hello, chris.
How cool is it when you get to dismantle your opponent
piece by piece by piece?
I really didn't expect that.
My strategy was actually to try to stay away from the mouth of kraken
because I didn't really think we could
really pierce that.
So I was trying to get a little bit of control.
I was, I wasn't really getting there, and we got stuck.
Oh, man, I just didn't expect it at all.
And we finally won our first match ever.
Whoo!
Of the season. Of the season.
[victor] of the season. We've never won our first match of the season.
My wife brought good luck.
[chris] yes. Isn't it nice having your wife here
-for the first time ever as well? -Yes.
Yes. Yes.
[chris] yeah. You better say yes.
There you go. Victor, congratulations.
-Thank you. -To your team rotator.
Thank you.
[audience cheering]
[chris] so rotator comes out on the right side of the judges' decision,
while kraken again goes three
full minutes in what ended up
being a blood bath of a battle.
That thing just will not die.
Up next, it's a bot who last season
won over the hearts of the crowd,
the competitors and pretty much anyone on the planet
who's interested in combat robotics.
That's right. We'll see the little bot that could,
rusty,
when we return on battlebots.
[audience cheering]
we are back on battlebots, and
do you know who's back?
You see who's getting ready to come to the box?
I do. I'm very excited.
It's a fan-favorite,
rusty is here!
[audience cheering]
[chris] and he's going to be facing a fancy new
rookie bot named blip.
But listen to those chants
for the little bot that could, kenny.
[audience chanting] rusty! Rusty! Rusty!
[kenny] wow!
[chris] coming up, a rookie of the year season,
dave eaton. What a remarkable story!
Found a bunch of junk on his parents' farm in illinois.
His word about the junk, not mine.
And he just won over the crowd.
-[kenny] yeah. -[chris] it wasn't like he had this
miraculous season inside the box,
but there's just something about
dave and this robot you can't help but love.
I mean, look at him eating, popcorn out of rusty's helmet.
They're like turner & hooch,
scooby and shaggy...
[mimics scooby]
...Han and chewie. Insert your favorite best buddy duo here.
Exactly. Very sentimental about rusty.
I think everybody loves rusty, right?
It's that combination of homeliness
and heart that makes you just want to
root for this robot.
But rusty can really take a hit too, chris.
He went the full three minutes with sawblaze,
something no one thought he'd be able to do.
But he's never fought a true flipper
like the one he's about to.
So will he be able to take that kind of punishment in tonight's matchup?
[chris] that's a good question,
because on the opposite end of the technology spectrum,
we have aren hill's new flipper bot, blip.
Aren, of course, made a run all the way to the semifinals
with tantrum last season,
and while he's still helping his old team,
this year, he's got a brand-new bot
that uses a weapon technology
that we have never seen before.
[kenny] that's right. Blip is a flywheel flipper,
and this is an oversimplification,
but it kind of works like a medieval
weapon called a trebuchet.
Inside blip, there's a metal wheel that rapidly
twists a synthetic rope.
As it twists, it gets shorter.
Now where a trebuchet's arm
fires when it's pulled by a counterweight,
blip's flipper
fires when it's pulled by that shortening rope.
It's worked in testing, but we've seen
plenty of new designs struggle in their maiden voyage
inside the box, and rusty
is a tough bot to kill.
So don't underestimate the challenge here for blip.
Should be a ton of fun. Faruq, take it away.
[audience cheering]
[faruq] in the red square,
experts doubted this bot last year,
they called him a junker.
Now he's a star and all the hot single bots
are asking for his number.
Tmz keeps hounding him with
questions 'cause they're curious,
like, "hey, over here, over here.
Is it true you're replacing vin diesel in fast and the furious?"
signing autographs and taking selfies
is the embodiment of greatness,
and everyone back on the farm is like,
"don't forget us when you're famous."
give it up for rusty!
[audience cheering]
[chris] oh, the one-man working crew, rusty.
He's got a construction cone on his beak.
Really?
[kenny] oh, I love it.
Rusty running with the hammer configuration under that cone,
but dave eaton really tries to win fights by surviving them,
and rusty is as tough as they come, chris.
Duct tape is a nice touch to this, too.
[faruq] in the blue square,
when he clears you for takeoff, get ready to fly.
He'll send you on a trip
through the unfriendly skies.
The flight's a bit bumpy, but the landing is a calamity.
When you go kaboom, like the hindenburg.
Oh, the bot-manity!
It's blip!
[audience cheering]
[chris] there is the beautifully compact blip.
Again, captain aren hill had tantrum within
two wins from the giant nut last season.
But, like you said, kenny, first fights
for brand-new bots can be a total tossup,
no matter who the captain is.
[kenny] yeah, I don't think blip will have any trouble
getting under rusty, but will that
flywheel flipper actually work
and will it be able to do enough
damage to a 250-pound robot, chris?
Time to find out.
[audience cheering]
I'm leading out blip this year. It's a flywheel flipper,
which gives us a lot of fun advantages over
traditional flippers.
Its armor is on par with tantrum
and maneuverability, et cetera,
but the flipper power is on par with hydra and some of the other...
Other big boy flippers.
Blip's first fight is against rusty.
You can't get any more endearing than rusty.
Rusty has usually been someone who just keeps on tanking.
So being able to make sure we can last the full
three minutes and not have any issues ourselves,
this is going to be key, but we're hoping to
send rusty flying a few times.
They're a well... Well-established team
and everything, right? And he builds really good robots.
He's got his new kinetic
system for the flipper and stuff, so he...
It'll be interesting to see how that works and how well it flips the robot.
If I'm not blowing him around the box
and if he's blowing me around the box,
I know who's going to win, who's going to lose.
I am a little more concerned this time going around.
Obviously, there's more expectation for me being a second year.
I'm propping as much as I can for this fight because I need to win it.
Hell yeah.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[audience cheering]
[chris] kenny, with rusty, it is so cute.
I just want to run up to him and pinch its little cheeks.
[kenny] I think everybody's back at the pits to sign that thing.
It's got plenty of duct tape as well.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] red team, ready?
Yeah!
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] blue team, ready?
[audience cheering]
[chris] ah, look at aren hill, he's already apologizing
-to rusty. -Pre-snap. That's funny.
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] fight! Fight! Fight!
[chris] it's the high-tech rook versus
the junkyard vet.
Rusty, blip,
who's it going to be?
Let the bot battle begin.
Blip trying to get its bearing straight, circles around rusty,
getting under rusty. Whoa!
Whoa! Great height, great distance.
That was definitely a nine out of ten.
Rusty pops back though,
tracking the junkyard bot again.
Oh!
[chris] can rusty fix itself?
Come on, rusty.
[kenny] he didn't stick the landing.
I'm going to give rusty a 3.0 on that one, chris.
[chris] yep, yep, yep. Judge really deducted points.
I don't know if blip is trying to help rusty get up
or what.
Whoa! Right, there we go.
[chris] all right.
[kenny] uh-oh. Rusty, your clothes are falling off.
[chris] oh, god! Can we get him a towel or something?
We're going to have to blur this out.
[kenny] it's very revealing.
Rusty, stab him. Rusty, stab him.
Aren hill is playing with his food now.
Rusty, totally shell-shocked
and without a shell.
Is this the end for the junkyard bot?
[referee] ten, nine...
[indistinct chattering]
[chris] yeah, rusty is not moving.
-[kenny] yeah. -[chris] this is it. Blip gest win number one.
[referee] one! That's a knockout.
[audience cheering]
[chris] man.
I knew it was gonna be a rough one.
[chris] well, we knew it was going to be a long shot for rusty, kenny.
[kenny] oh, jeez! Speaking of long shot,
my goodness, so quick and so powerful.
Rusty was hanging in there, though.
[chris] yeah. Was able to self-right after that
first big shot, but, man, you get in the short corner next to the upper deck,
it's tough. And then here he comes, right at you, folks.
-[chris] oh! -[kenny] and the pulverizer, jeez.
-[chris] exactly. -[kenny] two for one deal.
[chris] yeah.
[chris] aren hill.
-[chris] hi, aren. -Hi, guys.
So we saw you mouthed the words right before
the fight started, "I'm sorry, rusty."
[all laughing]
-[chris] do you, do you feel bad? -We do feel bad.
I love rusty,
but I am beyond stoked.
First match out, new robot,
working exactly like we want it to.
[audience cheering]
aren, you guys made it all the way to the semifinals
a season ago with tantrum.
You decided to branch off and start a new season with a flipper bot.
Can you make a judgment after just a minute inside the box
as to how potent your robot can be?
Yeah, I don't, I don't see any reason why we make it just this far.
So you're calling your shot right now
at least a semifinal appearance with a rookie robot?
That's the goal.
[audience cheering]
[chris] impressive. I love the confidence.
Aren hill, we'll see you and team blip down the line.
Thank you, guys.
[audience cheering]
-[chris] dave? -It'll bump out.
We can fix it, make it straight. Hey, guys.
Rusty is naked right now.
Yeah, yeah.
He kind of flew by the seat of his pants there, didn't he?
[all laughing]
oh, yeah.
Is rusty okay? Chris has tylenol.
I have some duct tape. If you need anything, let us know.
I was going to say duct tape and tylenol is about what I'm going to need.
I need the tylenol. He needs the duct tape.
Dave, all kidding aside, what are
the last ten months been like for you?
I mean, you exploded on the scene. You become a battlebots cult hero.
I mean, listen to what the audience,
you come out here, they're chanting rusty's name.
What the heck is all this like?
[audience cheering]
thanks, guys. Thank you.
[audience chanting] rusty! Rusty! Rusty!
Whoo! Oh, you guys are way too nice to me.
Thank you.
Whoo! I mean, I know, you know what?
I love this, because at the end of the day, I'm going to build this beautiful machine.
I get to come out here and be with you guys. And I love it. I really do.
[audience cheering]
[dave] thanks, guys. Thank you. Oh, man.
You guys are so nice to me.
Dave eaton and rusty, you are one of a kind.
-Thank you. -We'll see in your next match.
Once again, let's hear it for rusty!
Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Whoo-hoo!
[audience cheering]
[chris] well, dave eaton didn't get the win
inside the battlebox, but he is a winner in life, no question.
And, kenny, how about blip?
He only had a minute of game tape, what do you see?
Listen, I saw a bot that is extremely powerful.
Again, new technology, we weren't sure
what was going to happen out there, but the fact that it looked that good
and that sharp, I think it's a really good sign for team blip.
[chris] up next,
it's the return of the team aren hill, took to the semifinals last year.
Tantrum.
New captains, alex grant and ginger schmidt,
will throw down with bunny sauriol
and malice when we return on battlebots.
[audience cheering]
[chris] welcome back to las vegas and week two
of the battlebots 2021 season.
We've already been treated to a handful of
robot destruction here tonight,
and the main event of the evening is just around the corner.
We'll see bloodsport
face off with the 2020 runner-up whiplash.
In fact, here is matt vasquez
moments ago putting the finishing touches on whiplash.
Remember, he fell just short of winning the title last year.
Matt tells us he intends to finish the job
this time around, and that journey begins tonight.
But right now, we've got bunny sauriol's
malice taking on a team that came out of nowhere
to make a run to the semifinals just last season,
tantrum.
And when you make that monumental leap, usually you don't
make a lot of changes to your team.
[kenny] unless you are tantrum.
[chris] as we just saw,
former captain aren hill has a new flipper bot,
blip, and it certainly looks like the real deal.
Now he's still involved with tantrum,
the two bots are actually sharing a 16-person crew back in the pits.
But after last season, aren felt like
tantrum was in such a good place,
he handed the reins to new captains, ginger schmidt
and alex grant.
They both admitted they're a little nervous to be the captain,
but they feel like this is a giant nut winning bot still.
[kenny] yeah, no question about it.
They're kind of like one giant team that has two bots, right?
But tantrum was just amazing last season.
They feel they have a stronger bot.
The ability to not die in combat
is a real superpower,
and that's what they're all about.
They use their defense as offense, so
whether they're ramming themselves into another bot
or getting hit,
they feel that they can destroy the other bot just by doing that.
[kenny] and it is a true... [continues indistinctly ]
and tonight they are taking on malice,
captained by bunny sauriol.
Who's just bouncing around here with a ton of energy,
and she said sometimes
people would rip on me on the internet
for being too emotional. She said,
"I'm not going to change the way I am."
bunny, you do you.
You be exactly who you are.
Now she looked at the matchup
tonight, she said, "yeah, that thing is a brick over there.
This is not a good matchup, but it doesn't matter
because we just want to ram him, face first.
-[chris] we're all right with that." -[kenny] exactly.
She's here to have a fun time.
She wants to have great fights. She wants to
hit other bots as hard as she can,
and malice has one of the biggest disc spinners in this competition.
But is it big enough
to take down a bot with an iron chin like tantrum?
Let's see if she can pull that off.
Faruq, take it away.
[audience cheering]
in the red square,
this bot packs a punch
like bottomless mimosas at brunch.
It's tantrum!
[audience cheering]
[chris] and there's the new team tantrum
about to start their own chapter here at battlebots,
and, boy, can that bot punch hard.
[kenny] yeah, the design of tantrum is so unique and effective.
Its weapon sits on a rail system,
so when the disc is pulled back,
it's protected from contact.
But when the time is right,
it can launch forward
to punch its opponent
with 18 pounds of steel
rotating at about 8,500 rpm.
[faruq] in the blue square,
from san jose, california,
this bunny ain't from energizer,
but when it's time to kill you,
she keeps going
and going
and going.
Give it up for malice!
[audience cheerinig]
[chris] there is bunny sauriol, the
always excitable team captain of malice.
How's your bot looking, kenny?
That's what I want to know.
[kenny] the bot looks great.
One of the biggest issues they've addressed
coming into this season is weapon reliability.
Malice was consistently able
to survive three minutes of punishment,
but it was often after losing their weapon early.
If they can keep that disc spinning,
malice is a very dangerous bot.
[audience chanting] malice! Malice! Malice!
Malice has a giant spinning horizontal weapon
at the front of its robot,
but tantrum has strong armor,
so we're hoping, in the beginning of the match,
to get at them from an angle and absorb
the energy from their disc into our strong armor
and slow them down. And once their disc is slowed down,
we're going to go around the sides, around the front
to scoop them up and deliver a punch.
So tantrum is a big box.
Unfortunately, the only way that we can actually
deal with tantrum, hit him as hard as we can,
throw him across the arena.
Our new weapon is called the rolling blackout,
and you can throw a tantrum as much as you want,
but you're not going to beat the rolling blackouts.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[chris] and, kenny, tell us about that little bunny tale
that's now on malice's backside?
[kenny] last year, they actually lost a few fights
because they got tipped up onto their backside
and then couldn't tip back over.
[chris] will tantrum pick up where they left off last season,
or can malice give these rookie captains
the welcome to the big leagues moment?
We'll find out when we return...
On battlebots!
[audience cheering]
[chris] we are back on battlebots,
and we have two teams in the box ready to rumble.
It's semifinalists from last season,
tantrum squaring off with bunny sauriol and malice.
We got this, guys.
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] fight! Fight! Fight!
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
And tantrum
goes right after malice and delivers the shot to the beak.
[kenny] that was a big hit.
You can see it. Part of their strategy
is certainly to box rush malice.
They don't want that weapon to get started.
[chris] so far so good, kenny.
At the moment, malice's weapon
doesn't look to be moving,
and here's tantrum
firing up that... [continues indistinctly ]
[kenny] and one thing that really stands out right now
is the speed of tantrum.
They are all over malice.
[chris] tantrum chasing them around the battlebox.
Malice so slipping away.
[kenny] david rush, the driver of malice,
doing an excellent job of staying squared up to tantrum
ever since that weapon weighed down.
That is not an easy task
to maneuver a bot as big as malice.
Tantrum is so compact and so fast.
[chris] and so loud, too,
I mean, listen to that weapon.
It's like a jet engine, kenny.
Kind of reminds me of minotaur.
[kenny] yeah. And you see tantrum
winning that ground game,
getting underneath malice repeatedly.
[chris] nice little pop by tantrum
to the underbelly of malice.
Under two minutes to go in this match now.
Malice gritting its teeth to stay in this fight.
-[chris] oh! -[kenny] oh! What a hit!
What a beautiful hit done by tantrum.
[chris] tantrum underneath malice again here
and driving it into the rails,
landing a couple of shots and now pinning it into the corner.
Malice has been on the defensive and now...
-[kenny] uh-oh. -[chris] uh-oh. Is it stuck, stuck under the rails?
Can they move it all?
[audience cheering]
[kenny] oh, how about tantrum,
they want to keep the fight going, chris.
Dislodging malice there, and we are back in business.
[chris] but tantrum go right back after malice
and just alluded the pulverizer.
Tantrum has got malice pinned yet again in the corner.
-[chris] oh! -[kenny] oh, my goodness!
[chris] tantrum is scoring major points on the judges' scorecard.
[kenny] I think they took some pieces off of malice with those hits, too.
[chris] and don't look now, but for at least a moment,
tantrum's weapon appears to be no longer working.
Malice, of course, has been dormant
since the very first seconds of this fight.
[kenny] well, I tell you what, you know, malice is taking a beating out there,
but I'm impressed with its durability.
The team has got to figure out these weapon issues, though.
Hard to win if you can't do damage.
[chris] forty seconds left to go.
Now it's pretty much just a pushing match,
as we say, and you got to credit malice
for stopping tantrum's weapon,
but they still have a ton of ground
to make up on the scorecards
as tantrum has been in total control.
Tantrum driving malice backwards.
Oh! Into the rails for good measure,
refusing to let up down the stretch.
[kenny] tantrum has been lower,
they've been faster, they've been better, chris.
[chris] even so, this fight is going to go the distance
as tantrum, very impressive in their opening match...
But malice hangs in and
will force a decision by the judges,
a remarkable feat nonetheless.
Kenny, a huge head-to-head collision,
and I don't know if that did something to rolling blackout,
the weapon of malice.
[kenny] yeah, well, listen, tantrum did not want that
devastating weapon of malice to get fired up,
so they went right at them.
Did a great job of attacking it, staying aggressive.
And for me, I think
the story really was the ground game.
What a hit right there from tantrum,
but they got underneath malice repeatedly.
So they were not taking any force out there.
They were able to get underneath and do the hitting,
the whole fight.
[chris] and malice did get pinned in the corner momentarily,
but tantrum with some solid sportsmanship
after flipping it, which wasn't exactly the nice part,
but tantrum did do a nice job
of allowing malice to get back in this fight,
but malice just didn't have much.
[kenny] no, they didn't. And of course,
we have to highlight, the driving
of team tantrum as well.
They were just all over him,
so aggressive and so well-built.
Look at that thing.
The results from the judges are in.
[audience cheering]
and the winner by unanimous decision is...
Tantrum!
[audience cheering]
whoo! Yeah!
Whoo!
[indistinct chattering]
ginger and alex,
-congratulations on your first win as co-captains. -Thank you.
Ginger, was it really that first shot
that kind of set the tone of this fight?
Yes, coming after last season
where we made it all the way to the semifinals,
lost to end game, the champions,
there was a lot of pressure riding on this fight.
Our first fight, there are high expectations.
We wanted to come out and have a really strong match
to prove that. Last year was not a fluke.
Tantrum is strong and we're ready
to take it all the way again this year.
[audience cheering]
so what did you see
from that first shot that you gave malice, alex?
Uh, we saw a huge hit
and then their weapon stopped moving.
That was awesome. That's exactly what we wanted.
Well, we didn't skunk the match, right?
Like, that was the big thing. We got our first win. It's huge.
What do you think aren's going to tell you back in the pits?
He's going to, he's going to give me a solid pat on the back.
Pat on the back and, you know,
say, "good job," you know, "make it to the top four
and then talk to me."
nice. Hey, congratulations, team tantrum.
You are 1-0.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Kenny, tantrum ain't joking around.
That thing is a solid brick.
Listen, that's why they were a final four bot last season.
They're even better this season.
I just love the way that thing is moving,
driving, they're on point.
[chris] all right. Coming up,
it's the moment we've all been waiting for,
tonight's main event.
Back from a runner-up finish last year
with whiplash being another March to the final?
Or will bloodsport and its punishing spin
hand them a second, devastating loss in a row?
Let's take a closer look at this matchup.
[chris] oh! Whiplash right on the attack.
[faruq] whiplash!
[chris] and here comes whiplash again.
Whiplash!
[chris] whiplash says, "is that all you got?"
[faruq] whiplash!
Last season, we got closer
than we have ever gotten to winning the giant nut.
[chris] it is championship time.
And that final match, it was just so close, yet so far.
-[chris] oh. Whoa! -[kenny] uh-oh!
[chris] can whiplash recover?
I just couldn't pull it out.
-[kenny] oh! -[chris] oh, my gosh! That is it! That is it!
I have never actually said
that this will be our year to win the nut.
It is our year to win the nut.
But I need to test the robot
as hard as I can for the tournament.
And I think that bloodsport is a great opponent to do that with.
[faruq] it's bloodsport!
Last season, we had one of the hardest hitting weapons.
[chris] oh!
[kenny] that may have been the death blow, chris.
And this year, I think we really have the chance to go all the way.
We got two new weapon blades, which are brand-new.
Ar500 blades,
different material, much stronger,
that should be able to hit even harder than last year.
[chris] big-time energy release on that.
Bloodsport is definitely one of the most
deadly horizontal spinners here.
But to beat us, they need to stay away from me.
They need to get spun up.
[chris] oh, you could really hear that thing humming.
And I don't think I'm going to let them do that.
-[chris] whiplash in a... -[kenny] oh!
...Huge box rush!
[matt] I don't think I've ever let anyone do that.
Whiplash is a very, very good control bot.
But can they take our hits?
No way.
[chris] oh!
Having the upper deck in the arena
really gives us that extra edge.
We will get them on top of that.
To the judges, that'll be huge.
[man] we're a top contender.
Bloodsport can deliver so much damage.
[chris] oh! Huge impact!
We really need to aim for its wheels, aim for the edges.
If we just hit one thing in their bot that's critical, then
whiplash will get destroyed.
[chris] look at this!
May the better robot win.
I am peter abrahamson and I am the bot whisperer.
Combat robotics has been around for a long time
and so have I.
I've been in it since 1994.
My robot ronin from way back when
was a heavyweight with treads
I machined myself all the way round the robot.
[announcer] ronin!
I actually started in special effects for film, television,
making creatures, monsters, robots
for movies and tv.
As the bot whisperer, one of my biggest jobs
is coming around in the pits,
being with the builders, looking at the changes,
the adaptations they're making for each fight.
I nerd out when I see certain things.
I get very excited by these robots.
Check this out. This is one of the discs from switchback.
The ability to sort of translate the technical
into what goes on in that arena
is so enjoyable and fun for me.
This is pretty damn close to a dream job.
I mean, it's pretty hard to beat.
[audience cheering]
[chris] we are back on battlebots.
-Are you ready for our main event of the evening? -Ooh, I can't wait.
[chris] kenny, when we talk to these teams before the season starts,
a lot of them say, "hey, I'd be happy to make
it into the round of 16 or the quarterfinals."
when we talk with matty vasquez,
the captain of whiplash, he said,
"chris and kenny, there's one place for me to go,
that is back to the championship,
but this time I need to hoist the giant nut."
-it's pretty simple for him. -[kenny] that's right.
And listen, they're always looking to try to progress
and do better each time out.
But matt vasquez told us the geometry changes
inside the battlebox could be exactly what he needs
to give them the edge this season.
With his driving skills, he is more than capable
of trapping opponents in the short corner
or throwing them on top of the upper deck.
Will he be able to do that tonight?
And now they're taking on a team that was
really a surprise in 2020,
bloodsport, led by justin marple.
A season ago, a perfect regular season,
a number two overall seed heading into the playoffs.
They made it to the round of 16,
a couple of tightening of the screws and bolts
and all sorts of stuff
that's technical jargon for you people at home.
-They might advance... -Good job.
...All the way. Who knows?
[kenny] yeah. Listen, I think they have a devastating weapon,
but we saw it snap in half last year,
most notably in the tournament against gruff.
Justin said they switched from s7 tool steel to ar500,
a much more durable metal.
Does that make him an even bigger knockout threat?
Let's see what they got.
Should be a good one.
Faruq, take it away.
[audience cheering]
[faruq] ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?
It's time for the main event.
In the red square,
this plasma donation program is legally binding,
and you'll be spilling blood like that elevator scene
in the shining.
So sit back, relax and prepare for the pain
as he uses that giant bar
to try and find a vein.
It's bloodsport!
[audience cheering]
[chris] bloodsport returning for its third season,
led by justin marple,
who's pushing out that nasty, nasty robot.
[kenny] nasty is a good word, chris.
They're using their new 75-pound tri-bar tonight.
At top speed,
a collision with that thing is equivalent to getting hit
by a 12-pound bowling ball, moving it about
300 miles per hour.
[chris] justin marple going for the 7:10 split tonight, kenny?
[kenny] I think he's looking for a strike, chris.
[faruq] in the blue square,
like a young michael jackson,
our next bot is a thriller.
This thing is bad,
and last season it won the silver.
You want to beat it?
I don't know how to say this any clearer,
but if you want to see its next victim,
better look at the bot in the mirror.
It's whiplash!
[chris] that a way, my man, faruq, way to bring it.
Of course, he just pulled a hammy
and he's going to end up on the injured list
for the next ten days. That's fine.
Well, we've already seen the vasquez clan once tonight,
but now it's big brother's turn.
Twenty-two-year-old captain matty vasquez on the right there.
He is, of course, widely regarded as
one of the best drivers in the entire sport.
[kenny] he is surgical, chris, but take a look
at those new piano key wedgelets.
Those are designed to get under bloodsport,
which should make his lift even more effective.
To win this, matt needs to sweep the control category,
and he's hoping those wedgelets help him do that.
[chris] kenny, you talked about the nastiness
of bloodsport's weapon.
The key justin marple said
it's got to work a full three minutes.
[kenny] exactly, and to do that, they're not
going to be constantly spinning their tri-bar.
They're going to pick and choose
their spots to spin up.
So if it's not spinning,
that doesn't mean it's not working.
[chris] and one thing to keep in mind with whiplash,
they had six wins last season.
All six were judges' decisions.
This bot is tough to knock out.
[automated voice] robots, activate.
[audience cheering]
[automated voice] red team, ready?
[automated voice] blue team, ready?
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting] fight! Fight! Fight!
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
A box rush from whiplash. Bloodsport... [icontinues indistinctly ]
...Spin up, lands a shot,
but whiplash says, "that's enough out of you, pal."
[kenny] now whiplash is trying to stay right on bloodsport.
[chris] oh!
But, kenny, bloodsport doing a great job so far,
creating space to attack here against matt vasquez,
and whiplash just chipping away at the wedge.
[kenny] it sure is, and that is no easy task, chris.
And here you go again,
that tri-bar spinner really going now.
[chris] yeah, nice little sparks,
but here's whiplash on the attack.
[kenny] this is where, this is where matt vasquez wants to be.
Let's see if he uses the upper deck here.
[chris] bloodsport sheds a tire, but slips away.
Masterful driving by both of these captains so far.
-[kenny] uh-oh. -[chris] here's matt vasquez,
pushing bloodsport into the rails,
giving it a nice little tour of the battlebox.
[kenny] but how about bloodsport
throttling that weapon down to avoid damage?
And now cracking away backup.
[chris] bloodsport fighting an aggressive
and intelligent match so far.
But here's last year's runner-up in control.
Jam him up into the screws.
[chris] ladies and gentlemen, that is a 250-pound robot.
Oh! Bloodsport slips away.
[kenny] this is becoming a pattern, chris.
Whiplash just hit with the twitch on his teeth.
[chris] oh! Another big shot.
[kenny] bloodsport is beating up that wedge on whiplash.
Give credit to matty for staying squared up
and protecting the wheels.
But I think to this point, in this fight,
we've got to give most of the damage points to bloodsport.
[chris] closing in on a minute to go.
Can matt vasquez find a way to even the scorecard
here down the stretch?
Kenny, this is going to help whiplash.
Bloodsport on its head over by the upper deck. Impressive!
[kenny] wow! Their self-righter
is hung up in those screws, chris.
[chris] bloodsport frees itself, but whiplash gets
right back on top of it.
There is bloodsport, back on its head,
that is some incredible control.
[kenny] he's trying to get him on top of the upper deck, chris.
Can he do it?
[audience cheering]
[chris] there's your answer.
Can bloodsport find a way
to get off of there, kenny?
That's like a fish out of water.
Can it work its way out?
[kenny] they're doing their best to try to get
that weapon, to try to self-right, but...
I don't think they're going to be able to, chris.
This is just matt vasquez at a different level right now.
[chris] so they're going to avoid the...
They are not.
Matty vasquez and whiplash,
last season's runner-up has
a ko in its first go-around.
[referee] ...One. That's a knockout!
[audience cheering]
nice job. Great job.
You're a wizard. That was awesome.
[chris] kenny, we're used to seeing matt vasquez
dominate matches with his world-class driving.
However, we are not accustomed to seeing
one of his opponents go toe to toe
with him in that department.
[kenny] no way. Justin marple was in the zone tonight.
He found the space bloodsport needed to spin up
and land a bunch of clean shots.
[chris] did whiplash actually need this knockout?
[kenny] listen, I thought bloodsport was ahead
on damage near the end of the fight.
This could have been dicey for whiplash
if it had gone to the judges.
But the bottom line is,
matt made sure that didn't happen
and proved why he's the best driver in the world.
[chris] and you know what? Few guys can stick to a plant better
than matty vasquez. It's as simple as that.
[kenny] yeah, I mean, he could place
that bot wherever he wants,
and even worse, he could place
the other bot wherever he wants.
[chris] and that was bad news for bloodsport,
which unfortunately got a really nice tour
of our brand-new upper deck.
Do you like the view up there?
[kenny] unbelievable. Matty called this shot.
[chris] it's the one time you don't want to hang out in the penthouse suite.
-[chris] matt. -Hey.
Hey, your dad just called you a wizard.
Do you understand why?
Uh, I guess.
What do you mean, you guess?
I mean, that was a masterclass in driving, was it not?
Yeah, I felt like I did exactly what I needed to.
I've had a lot of fights really similar to this.
I fought, you know, son of whyachi, really similar robot.
I did the same thing in this fight that I did in that fight.
Every time I hit them,
they're taking pieces off of me,
so I need to get them over and out
as soon as possible
because if this fight goes to three minutes,
they're just going to wear me down till I'm done. Yeah.
So I got to knock them out. That's the only way to do it.
Matt, you actually made history.
You are the first bot to deliver a knockout
on the upper deck. Whoo!
Yeah, right.
-That... That was actually-- -great job.
Yeah.
-Hey, congratulations. -That's a bucket list.
That's a bucket list. You can check that one off.
Congratulations, guys.
-We'll see you in your next fight. -Thank you.
Thank you.
Kenny, listen, people come and watch battlebots
'cause they love to see the explosions, the fire and all that,
but sometimes the display of driving like we just saw
from these two teams,
can be just as exciting.
That was some great stuff.
And it was another incredible slate of qualifying action
here in las vegas.
It is going to be an all-out dogfight
as the field continues to duke it out
for the coveted 32 spots
in this year's world championship tournament.
So, enjoy the ride.
-Did you have fun tonight? -Oh, I had a blast.
-You wouldn't lie to me, right? -Huh?
-You wouldn't lie to me. -No, no,
-I wouldn't, of course not. -No, no.
So for faruq and our bot whisperer, pete,
and my man, kenny florian, who never lies to me apparently,
I am chris rose.
We'll see you next time on battlebots.
[audience cheering]
[theme music playing]