[robotic voice] robots activate.
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
welcome to battlebots, a sports so intense,
gary busey once referred to it
as "a little too much for my taste".
I'm chris rose and this isn't the human olympics.
This is the robot games.
And I'm here with ufc legend
and olympic level robot combat analyst,
say hello once again to kenny florian.
[audience cheering]
[kenny] thanks, chris.
We may not have any gold medals to hand out,
but we do have the greatest trophy
in all of sports waiting for this year's champion,
the giant nut.
[audience cheering]
[chris] let's take a look at tonight's fight card,
where a handful of teams are already facing
the daunting prospect of a dreaded 0-2 start
to their season,
hydra captain, jake ewert finds himself
in unfamiliar territory
after a loss in his opening fight.
Can last year's number one tournament seed
flip back into the win column
or will the ferocious flame of gruff
torch his chances of making another run
at the giant nut?
[kenny] we'll also see a battle of the full body spinners
gigabyte and captain john mladenik
are in the danger zone
as they face the iconic captain shrederator fresh off
of its gigantic upset win over tombstone.
Sparks will fly in that one.
[chris] and in our main event,
two of the sport's most violent weapons
prepare to do battle.
It's end game versus witch doctor.
These two teams are in the business
of knocking robots out
and business is booming so much
so we may actually send the judge's home a bit early.
But right now,
we kick things off in a blaze of glory
with the flame throwing free shipping
backed into a corner after a loss
in its opening match,
the madman gary gin.
He's going to need to put his legendary driving skills
to the test to save his season.
[kenny] standing in his way
one of the most devastating vertical spinners
in the world uppercut
after starting the year
with a dominant win over gigabyte,
captain alex hattori
looks to add yet another impressive knockout
to his already stunning highlight reel.
[chris] oh, my goodness! My gosh!
Are you guys ready?
[audience cheering and applauding]
I love hearing that sound. Faruq, it's your world.
[audience cheering and applauding]
ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
It is robot fighting time.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
in the red square,
moving to hassle that's never the best,
but give this bot a wrestle and he'll do the rest.
He'll lift you and drop you until your bots brittle.
Then he'll wrap you up
and send you straight to the hospital.
It's free shipping.
[audience cheering]
[music playing]
[chris] gary gin and free shipping
looking to break even on the season here tonight.
So how do they deal
with one of the most violent weapons in the sport,
kenny florian?
[kenny] as a control driver going up
against a knockout artist,
free shipping needs to use its front wedges
to get underneath uppercut
and try to break that spear as quickly as possible.
So I put all my chips on a box rush
from gary gin right out of the gate here.
[faruq] and the blue square,
ding, ding rang the bell.
There's going to be a rumble tonight.
This guy is like conor mcgregor,
if he actually won his last fight.
He's putting up his dukes and like muhammad ali,
he's going to float like a butterfly
and sting like
getting punched in the face by 250 pound robot.
They're not all going to run.
It's uppercut!
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
[chris] oh, yes.
Faruq bringing the heat, as always,
as we welcome uppercut and captain alex hattori,
a seven time national yo-yo champion
showing off his skills there as well.
The man looks ultra confident coming into this one.
[kenny] well, he's definitely confident,
but alex admitted that uppercut
took a lot of internal damage in its win over gigabyte.
He and his team have made a real push
to get the bot back into fighting shape,
but won't feel a 100% confident
until they see uppercut dish out that first powerful punch.
[audience applauding]
uppercut is a pretty powerful vertical spinner,
if he gets a good hit on us, he can do quite a bit of damage.
The key to our success against uppercut
is just going out at him fast, going at him hard,
hopefully get under him
and maybe take some control over him.
Who knows what's going to happen.
Since our record is now zero wins and one loss,
it's even more important that we get a win
in this next fight.
Yeah, so with free shipping,
we're mostly worried about him getting underneath us
and pushing us around.
So we're hoping to use our attachments
to get under him early on in the match
and then be able to throw him around as possible.
Last year, one of our biggest moments
was when we fought sawblaze, he also had a flamethrower
and I believe free shipping's flamethrower
is even bigger,
so we'll see if we can get a good hit
and a good exposure out of their flame thrower.
Uppercut is incredibly destructive
in a large volume,
so we're hoping that at some point
throughout the three minutes we'll be able to land at least one good hit on them.
[robotic voice] robots activate.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] red team ready.
Ready.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] blue team ready.
[audience cheering]
[chris] free shipping,
looking to avoid an 0-2.
Uppercut, looking to put a hole in free shipping
and climb to 2-0.
Buckle up.
[audience cheering]
let the bot battle begin...
Wow, uppercut kind of whiffed on that one.
Here comes free shipping getting underneath uppercut
and now lets him off the hook.
[kenny] that's...
Trying to do, what a shot by uppercut.
[chris] oh! Incredible power.
I think it's got the heat off of this one.
[kenny] unbelievable.
[chris] look at the wedges.
Look at the wedges of free shipping.
[chris] did you say about the front wedges.
[kenny] oh, my goodness.
[chris] it is skidding back and sideward.
Gary, you're on the wrong side of road.
Oh, my gosh.
Did he get back over, he's lost the tire,
he's trying to get back onto the playing surface.
Oh my goodness.
[referee] ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
[chris] the countdown is going on.
Gary gin can't get off the rail.
[referee] three, two, one. That's a knockout!
[kenny] what a devastating moment.
[chris] that is a knockout by uppercut.
[audience cheering]
[chris] kenny, free shipping did a nice job
- getting under uppercut at the onset but after that, -[kenny] oh!
[chris] man, oh man,
hopefully you're wearing your sunglasses to this event.
[kenny] yeah, that was just ridiculous.
I think I felt the heat off of that one.
Just a ridiculous shot there by uppercut.
[chris] forget about feeling the heat.
Kenny, I think he got a tan during that match.
[kenny] we may need to alert the fire department
the next time uppercut steps into the box.
That was the biggest explosion I have ever seen here
at battlebots.
[chris] uppercut just dismantling free shipping
from that point on.
Absolute mayhem here to start the night.
Wow.
[chris] alex hattori,
great balls of fire.
Was that as much fun as it looked like?
It was quite scary again,
kind of brought us flashbacks to the sawblaze fight.
Alex, you told us at the beginning of the season
that you wanted to be more entertaining
than championship caliber.
Don't you think you're on your way
to being both?
Oh, we certainly hope so.
[audience cheering and applauding]
by the way, if you're scared watching
what's happening, what do you think is going
through your opponent's mind?
Well, they actually got under us,
so I feel like they might have felt pretty good
in the beginning.
In the beginning and then what?
Then stuff happened.
[laughter]
alex hattori, congratulations
on your amazing 2-0, start.
Thank you.
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
alex hattori doesn't like to say much.
His bot definitely does the talking.
Coming up, it's always a good time
to get hammered in vegas,
blacksmith and shatter!,
they duke it out for hammer supremacy.
That's next on battlebots.
[music playing]
[chris] welcome back to battlebots
and up next, yeah, it's hammer time
as blacksmith throws down with shatter!
Let's start with the metallic mafia
from new jersey, blacksmith.
After taking a year off from combat robotics,
al kindle and team blacksmith
came surging back onto the scene this season.
So the big question
of what is blacksmith sealing this year?
[kenny] well, it's tough to say with such a small sample size,
but that power hammer upgrade al gave to his weapon
seems to be making a big difference.
In a very close fight against free shipping,
blacksmith managed to deal out just enough damage
in the eyes of the judges to take the w.
[faruq] blacksmith.
[kenny] interested to see what kind of statement
he makes here in its second fight.
[chris] and from across the hudson,
we have brooklyn's adam wrigley and shatter!
Coming in with a record of 1-0
after winning a judge's decision
against subzero in an unaired fight,
another w here could send them into the round of 32
for the second consecutive season.
[kenny] yeah, even though shatter! Made it
all the way to the quarter finals,
only to lose to eventual champs end game last year,
adam actually told us he was disappointed
in what he called an early exit
and is hell bent on making a serious run
at the giant nut in 2021.
Let's check it out. Faruq?
[audience cheering and applauding]
in the red square from edison, new jersey,
home of menlo park,
this box force to be stronger than the armor of tony stark.
You'll be dust when his hammer is fired
and slams at the box are like tin foil
but he's the iron man.
It's blacksmith.
[music playing]
[chris] here comes blacksmith
sporting that new and improved weapon.
How does al kindle come out on top in the battle of hammers,
kenny?
[kenny] well, shatter! Is going to have to reach advantage
in this fight, so al will need to find a way
to get around to the size of shatter! Here.
If he could do that,
blacksmith has the power
to disable their weapon and move to 2-0.
In the blue square,
this disco ball bar looks like it listens to abba,
but with its powerful acts, it's more of a stabber.
The box is his dance floor and he's ready to drive
and when he comes for you, you won't be staying alive,
giving other bots a case of the heebie-jeebies,
it's shatter!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] shatter! Sporting and medieval looking at hammer arm,
they call the mary special.
Oh, mary, mary, that thing's sharp.
Stay away from that. Mary, be careful!
[kenny] I definitely wouldn't want to hug that thing,
but yes, what better opportunity to debut a brand new hammer
than in the battle of the hammers?
Adam wrigley always such a show.
[audience cheering and applauding]
shatter is possibly the best hammer out there.
Hits very hard.
The most dangerous part of shatter!
Is actually the reach.
For us to win this fight,
we're going to have to avoid the front of his robot somehow.
We need to try to get around to a side
and if we can do that, we could really do some damage.
It's important for us to do well and get a win,
we can go up 2 and 0.
You know, we're almost guaranteed
to get into the round of 32, so it's critical to get a good start.
So we looked at blacksmith's last fight
and the hammer saw is working well.
It's a scary weapon,
so we're taking out a whole new configuration
we haven't used before.
We have stronger top panels,
we have a different front configuration
and an all new hammer arm that we call the mary special.
We're very excited to take them on.
I think the fans have wanted to see blacksmith shatter!
For a while now.
You know, we had some banter online,
so we've been looking forward to this one.
It'll be a lot of fun.
[audience applauding]
[robotic voice] robots activate.
[chris] for more on shatter's strategy
in this fight, let's toss it out over to our bot whisperer,
pete abrahamson.
A couple of things on top of shatter!
Is some impact absorbing armor that they've built onto it,
of course, with the mary special.
You'll notice all the wonderful points there.
Those are meant to be able to come down
and go into the chains on blacksmith
and take out this chain.
But really, the key to this strategy
is their longest social distancing forks.
They hope to hold a blacksmith back
while their longer hammer
will reach out and get blacksmith.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
Big swing there by shatter!.
Gosh, look at the reach on that weapon kenny.
[kenny] yeah, that is very impressive.
[chris] oh! That's terrific. Huge shot to shatter!
[kenny] what a shot.
That was a direct hit to shatter's weapon chris.
Oh.
[chris] here is shatter! With a big power shot
laying into blacksmith's weapon now.
- Wow! -[inaudible] go on.
[kenny] shatter! May have gotten the blacksmith's weapon belts
in that exchange.
You could see one flapping around now.
[chris] blacksmith still swing it away.
Oh, what a shot.
Good shot right there by shatter!
With the mary special and you called it kenny,
the disc on the end of blacksmith's hammer
no longer appears to be functional,
a heck of a shot by adam wrigley and shatter! Wow.
[kenny] the speed of that hammer is impressive to watch one, chris.
[chris] and those long spiked saws
on the front of shatter!
Has worked to perfection hooking blacksmith here.
[kenny] oh.
[chris] shatter! Continues its onslaught with the mary special
playing into the top of blacksmith's
with that long scaffold weapon.
Here comes blacksmith pushing shatter!
Into the screws.
[kenny] without the ability to do damage
with his weapon, al,
is going to have to drive his way back
into this fight, chris.
[chris] you can see blacksmith trying
to get around to the sides of shatter!
And avoid that weapon
about 90 seconds remaining here.
[kenny] oh, and here shatter! Caught in a kilt zone.
Black reverse tail.
And shatter! Is going every shot, it reverse now.
[chris] unbelievable, no matter what blacksmith does,
it can't seem to avoid that giant weapon,
just too much reach from that bot brooklyn
and blacksmith seems unable to fire its hammer arm at all.
[kenny] oh, that was a beautiful hit
and another.
[chris] shatter! Pushing blacksmith to the [inaudible].
Has shot, holy smokes.
Again, it's combination shots as well as not just one.
[kenny] oh, look how precise that is.
[chris] but under a minute to go those kill saw.
[kenny] nice job there from blacksmith
by attacking with planks.
Something that's been hard to do here
against a bot as athletic as shatter!
With its omni-directional wheels.
[chris] oh, nice job by blacksmith
because you enter into the rails.
[kenny] blacksmith making a push in the control category
down the stretch here, but shatter!
Not letting up for a second.
[chris] adam wrigley continues to throw that mary special.
But now here's blacksmith suddenly finding
on the right angle
showing off that real [inaudible] right in shutting shatter!
All around the battlebots.
[kenny] great effort by al kindle to end this battle.
[chris] oh, [inaudible] arms of mary special,
shatter! Swinging away as time expires.
And this is one is going to go into the judges.
They are derek young.
Jason bardis and lisa winter scoring on an 11 point system,
five points can be awarded for damage,
three a piece for aggression and control.
Kenny, I have two words for you,
mary special.
[kenny] oh, man, you got to love it
when a plan comes together.
Adam wrigley designed this weapon
for maximum reach and precision.
And boy, did it perform perfectly
taking out blacksmith's weapon belts,
disabling the hammer and, in my opinion,
delivering shatter! The victory.
[chris] blacksmith was able to land a shot
to the mary special very early in this fight,
it almost changed the course of the entire match,
but shatter! Survived,
it simply went on to dominate as well.
Let's see how the judges broke this one down.
Here is faruq with the decision.
The results from the judges are in.
[audience cheering]
the winner by unanimous decision is...
Shatter!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[music playing]
[applauding]
[chris] adam wrigley.
I'm guessing that's the way
the mary special is supposed to work?
The mary special did its job. [laughs]
mary, what's it like
having a destructive killer weapon named after you?
[chuckles]
it feels right.
[laughing]
adam, is this the start you envisioned
when you joined us here for the 2021 season?
I try not to envision anything, so I don't jinx it,
but this is great. [chuckles]
and very quickly, what do you think of 2 and 0,
impressive start like this says to the selection committee?
Undefeated, I mean,
that makes us the number one seed right now, right.
-I think we're pretty excited. -[audience cheering and applauding]
that says it all. Congratulations to team shatter!
[audience cheering]
[applauding]
[chris] adam wrigley all smiles
as his weapon works to perfection,
shatter! Off to a very impressive
2 and 0 start,
and is looking like a shoo-in for the tournament.
Up next, p1 upset valkyrie
in its first match of the season,
but can he survive a tag team beat down for rookie jager?
And stay tuned
for the main event of the evening
where defending champion, end game,
will look to get underneath the skin
of the wily witch doctor.
That's later tonight on battlebots.
[applause]
we continue on here on battlebots
and p1 steps inside the box for the second time this season,
and they will be taking on jager,
a rookie bot out of germany.
As for p1 captain brandon zalinsky,
this is a crossroads moment.
After an upset victory
over last season's most destructive bot, valkyrie,
brandon's coming off arguably the biggest win of his career.
So, the question can he make it a trend and go 2 an 0, kenny?
[kenny] well, we know brandon came into this season
with a huge chip on his shoulder after not making the round of 32
due to a week strict of schedule but with the win here
to match his impressive debut,
he would put himself in a great position
to make this year's tournament
and prove p1 is a team to be reckoned with.
Taking on a rookie bot named jager, it's very interesting.
It's a multi-bot, meaning it's 2 separate robots
in this case, both weighing in around 125 pounds.
The idea here is that fighting 2 bots
and a variety of weapons
is more difficult than dealing with just one.
But the truth is,
multi bots haven't enjoyed much success here
at battlebots, kenny.
[kenny] yeah, it's a really cool idea in theory.
We've seen similar teams like gemini
and the four horsemen in years past,
but ultimately a 150 pound robot
getting hit by a 250 pound robot,
you don't need to be an engineer to guess how that usually ends.
Let's see if rookie captain, ralf schneider,
can crack the code with jager.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] both teams are all wrapped up
and ready to go on the driver's deck.
Let's get you straight into the action.
[robot] red team, ready.
[chris] and there is jager captain ralf schneider
and kenny.
He actually has three robots in the mix tonight.
[kenny] that's right,
he brought an under cutter named toe kicker,
a hammer saw called arm muscle,
and a wedge mini bot
that apparently didn't deserve a cool name.
If battlebots is a game of rock, paper, scissors,
jager is trying to be all three.
[robot] blue team, ready.
[chris] kenny, brandon zalinsky built p1
to look kind of like a race car
and it looked as the fastest one in that win over valkyrie.
[kenny] no doubt the one two punch of p1's speed
and low profile allowed it to dominate
the ground game in that match.
Brandon plan to take the same approach here.
Let's see how he handles the chaos
of fighting a multi-bot.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[audience chanting]
[buzzer]
[chris] let the bot battles begin. Oh!
P1 takes out the mini bot,
but the little guy comes bouncing back
and gets underneath p1.
[kenny] uh-oh. That mini-bot has high center p1.
[chris] oh, uh-oh!
[kenny] and that hammer saw has made him fire!
[chris] how about jager
using the mini-bot to perfection there.
[thud]
-[kenny] oh! Ho-ho. -[chris] the undercutter getting in on the action
but here is p1 battling back,
always a challenge to decide which robot to attack
when facing a multi-bot, tough decision.
[kenny] p1 able to get under jager's hammer saw
with ease there.
[chris] oh! P1 rocks the advance by the undercutter,
it kind of put it in the friend zone.
[kenny] looks like jager's hammer saw
is having trouble riding itself
as p1 drives the undercutter toe kicker
into the screws, chris.
[audience cheering]
[chris] let's remember, p1 has got to dismantle
both of the 125 pound bots in order to register a knockout.
[kenny] yeah, let's see if toe kicker can try
to bring his other buddy here back to life.
Oh, get him up on the upper deck.
-Oh, let's go! -Tow them out.
-[chris] that is impressive. -[kenny] brilliant!
[chris] and I am not too sure if that robot can work its way
off of the upper deck.
[kenny] brandon zalinsky is driving on fire tonight.
[chris] as he talks jager's mini-bot there
and now drives it into the screws.
Five, four...
The ref is counting out the team from germany.
-[referee] two... -[kenny] oh, he's back... He's back.
[chris] oh, jager, slips off the upper deck.
And stops the countdown just in time. That was amazing.
[kenny] check out the mini-bot stuck to the front of p1.
[chris] but not anymore as toe kicker
goes from reeling into both bots,
p1 right back on top of it.
[kenny] wow.
[chris] so only one of the two big bots has been dismantled.
So now it's about half the size of p1
- that is going to try and... -[kenny] oh.
[chris] ...Stick around for another minute.
[kenny] now this is a problem, you know,
when you're having mass versus mass,
you have 125 pound robot going to get a 250 pounds robot,
it's kind of like manny pacquiao
trying to contend with mike tyson.
Good luck.
[chris] and look at p1 doing yeoman's work,
trying to get that bot back up on the upper deck.
[kenny] all over him.
[chris] can he do it? Oh, uh-oh.
Little smoke, good use of the flipper.
[kenny] look at that placement there, chris.
[chris] so impressive.
Toe kicker, though, is back down on the floor
trying to do whatever it can
to get its wheels back on the ground,
even utilizing its own weapon.
Ten, nine, eight, seven...
[chris] now the countdown has started again.
-Six, five, four, three, -[chris] and this time.
-Two, one. -That's a knockout! [kenny] wow.
[audience cheering]
[chris] p1 has done it.
Nice job by brandon zalinsky
who improves to 2-0 on this season.
I got to give p1 some serious credit,
if that was me in the center of that box,
my head would be spinning.
I wouldn't know which one to go after.
[kenny] no doubt about it.
And jager got off to a great start in this fight
high centering p1 with its mini-bot
and then landing a shot with arm muscle,
its hammer saw.
[chris] but from that point on, it was all p1
utilizing its signature speed
and ground scraping wedge to get underneath arm muscle
and even its lifter to punch jager's undercut toe kicker
onto the upper deck.
[kenny] a great display of control
by brandon zalinsky in this fight.
Jager hung in there
and almost made it to the full three minutes,
but in the end, you saw the danger
of bringing a multi-bot to the party, chris.
[chris] yeah, once you lose that first bot,
it's only a matter of time.
You know, jager means hunter in german, kenny,
but it was p1's prey in this one.
[audience cheering]
[chris] brandon zelinsky.
[laughs]
brandon zelinsky, you're all smiles.
Is that the best driving you've ever done?
Um, I want the best...
I want the best driving I've ever done
to be in my next fight.
Just get better every single fight.
So what was it like facing multiple bots at the same time?
Was it a little confusing?
Uh. It was hard.
I was trying to focus on the horizontal initially,
but you have a plan and then you start fighting
and then it's like, oh, the robot is over here,
so I'm going to start hitting him.
The lift by his mini-bot I did not see coming.
It's an incredibly powerful little robot.
I was scared for quite a bit there
that they would be able to take a wheel off
or something like that.
But once we got off,
we were able to kind of control the fight.
We were able to get the... The top attack knocked over
and we... We were able
to kind of just maybe get the horizontal
onto the shelf and not quite.
You guys keep getting better. Congratulations.
Thank you so much.
[audience cheering]
[chris] okay, so p1 notches win number two
in what's quickly becoming a breakout season.
Keep an eye out for whether the committee rewards them
with a marquee match up in their third and final fight.
Coming up,
the most feared flipper in the galaxy.
Hydra is backed into a corner and desperate for a victory.
Standing in its way about the hard to kill
and will melt your grill, that's gruff.
And that's next on battlebots.
[audience cheering]
[chris] welcome back to battlebots.
We've got three matches in the books here
on tonight's fight card.
And up next it is hydra versus gruff.
[audience cheering]
last year's number one seed, hydra
and captain jake ewert make their money
dominating what builders like to refer to
as the ground game, kenny.
[kenny] it's crucial for their success,
but not just for them.
So many bots in the field depend
on getting under their opponents.
It's an engineering challenge
that comes down to not inches, but millimeters.
For 50% of the bots, the game is played
on the front edge of your weapon.
Forks, wedge, there's a lot of advantages
to being able to get underneath another robot.
[jack] if you can get under the opponent,
you can control them.
[chris] oh!
[kenny] hydra is just so low to the ground chris,
they're dominating this fight right now.
You can lift them off the ground,
drive them around, take them wherever you want.
If you're a vertical spinner,
then you're placing them right at the sweet spot.
-[chris] my gosh! -[kenny] end game showing the low-end wins.
Whoever is the lowest, whoever makes that first contact
is going to win the rest of the match.
It could be easily decide in 10 seconds.
[kenny] jamison go told us
this will be a battle for low ground, it is.
What do you got chris?
[jack] if you don't have a ground game,
you're going to be in a world of hurt usually.
This wedge we grind this flat angle
across the front of it.
And hopefully anything that comes in at it
will just be lifted up.
[chris] jack barker on the attack,
a nice shot on rotator.
[victor] rotator was not really designed to like
use forks or be able to push other robots around.
It was just to meant to do damage.
[chris] rotator retreat and that blade still spinning
and now going for a ride.
[victor] last year, we had beta
just giving us a ride around the arena.
Now how do we fix that?
If you prevent the robot from getting underneath you,
they can't control you.
So now there's this kind of escalation
of ground scraping claws and forks.
Fork extremity is getting longer and longer
and sharper and sharper.
Every match we have curls of the arena floor
that we have to actually peel off the ends of our forks
just because we plain that thing so smooth.
[angle grinding]
there are definitely some risks in trying to play the low game.
[kenny] end game hung up on something chris.
[chris] no, it is a sitting duck at this point.
[jack] the kill saws, the hell raises,
even the floor seems
you can get stuck in them if you're not careful.
We've really tried to resist the ground game
with witch doctor as long as we can.
Some of our best characteristics
are that we're super maneuverable and super aggressive,
and we don't want to lose that with the forks.
This is battlebots, we want to fight with weapons.
[chris] sawblaze winning the low ground battle.
Witch doctor doesn't care. They've just going on attack.
[andrea] but at the same time,
we can be eliminated from the tournament
because we don't have forks,
so we're not watching what's happening,
so we have to react to that.
It's a delicate balance you've got to ride.
Too much if you go too far,
it's going to be really difficult for you.
[chris] hydra getting stuck on the floor a bit,
now looking to engage, gets underneath end game.
Oh, look at that!
[jake] I don't care if I can't make it
off the four by four square.
I don't want to lose that war.
I'm going to have to keep on sharper and sharper
and then eventually I won't be able to get out of my starting blocks,
but he is still got to try to beat me there.
[audience cheering]
[chris] over the last few seasons
hydra laid claim to being the lowest bot in the field,
but last year it was end game
who used their ground game
to March all the way to the giant nut.
And after the defending champ put hydra in an 0-1 hole
to start the season,
captain jake ewert now turns his attention
to tonight's opponent, gruff.
[kenny] yeah, jake is definitely not impressed
with how hydra performed in that first fight,
and he's certainly not okay with going 0-2.
He wants to use hydra's advantage in the ground game
to get under gruff
and flip his way to a victory in this matchup.
[chris] gruff, of course, the lifter bot
built kind of like a bomb shelter
off to a 1-0 start
with a win over rookie switchback.
Captain sam mcamis, he's got to know that a win
against last year's number one tournament seed
would put him in the fast lane
toward a spot in the round of 32.
[kenny] oh for sure.
After a debut win over a rookie team,
gruff is now facing the cream of the crop in hydra,
but it is an opportunity here to put hydra to the test
after the flipper faced mechanical issues
in that first fight.
We know gruff is built to go the full three minutes.
Can it outlast hydra here? Should be a good one.
Let's get to it. Faruq.
[audience cheering and applauding]
in the red square. Hey, everyone.
It's your captain faruq here.
Wanted to thank you guys for flying hydra airlines.
We're going to be getting loves here in a second
and then we'll be cruising at about 35,000 feet.
It's going to be a bumpy ride, so buckle up.
Flight attendants will be around to take your orders
for your last meal
and in the very likely event of a crash landing,
sit back, relax and enjoy your demise.
You're now free to move about your coffin.
Thanks again for flying the deadly skies with hydra!
[audience cheering]
[chris] we're gonna crush it, faruq.
Plenty of bots out there have
frequent flier miles on this airline.
Jake ewert all smiles despite the losing start
and says his flipper's looking better than last year.
[kenny] yeah, jake said his pup burned out in that last fight
and took the electronics out with it.
But he's basically rebuilt the weapons system
and says not only is he going to be able to flip,
he might even set a new battlebots record for flips.
[chris] they better breakout that abacus for this one.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[faruq] in the blue square,
this bot is named after a kid's book
that's pretty legendary.
Oh, the places you'll go like inside the cemetery.
Going against him, you're definitely going to perish,
you must have one fish, two fish, bluefish, death wish.
Give it up for gruff!
[audience cheering]
[chris] here is sam mcamis and team.
Gruff, a pair of oven mitts covering the robot there,
because that's just how powerful its flamethrower is.
How's it going to handle being airborne, though, kenny?
[kenny] well, we've said it over and over
that gruff is built like a tank,
but this should be a very different test
of the bot's durability.
We know it can survive massive collisions,
but that only matters
if they're not flipped onto their head.
Sam will have to make sure
those forks are equally as useful as a self-righter,
as they are as a primary weapon.
[audience cheering]
we're going against gruff today,
and although he's not a big spinner,
which I'm usually going to have to go against,
it could be a driving battle today.
So it's going to be a little bit of a fun one.
Last fight against end game was bad.
Our pump went out right away, so I gave him a freebie
but hopefully this time our pump works the whole time
and we can just, you know,
go for the record number of flips.
We're going to go for 30 this match.
We're one and 0 right now. Basically, if we win, we're in.
Our plan is to try to position ourselves between hydra
and the upper deck so that if he does flip us,
we go on that and we have a chance
to kind of recover and reposition.
Whereas if he not launches us
against like one of the regular walls of the arena,
those new guards are going to basically just knock us down
and let him flip, keep flipping us.
If he gets us on the upper deck,
it give us a chance to kind of regroup
and go for another attack.
[audience cheering]
[robotic voice] robots, activate.
[audience cheering]
[chris] last year's number one tournament seed
has its back against the wall, folks.
Can hydra avoid the dreaded 0-2 start to a season
or will gruff send its dreams of a giant nut up in flames.
Find out next when battlebots continues.
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
[chris] welcome back to battlebots.
The carnage continues
as last year's number one seed, hydra,
looks to avoid an 0-2 to start
against the flaming forks of gruff.
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting]
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
The bots meet in the center of the dance floor
and gruff already looking to turn the temperature up
inside the box.
[kenny] hydra just missed an opportunity
to get underneath gruff there.
[chris] the battle for low ground on display right there.
Oh, there's a mini... Mini flip.
Oh, gruff on its head now.
And he stop right under this, not so fast my friend.
Here is another.
[chris] hydra putting the pressure on gruff right now.
[kenny] he is finding his grove now.
There's another good opportunity to get him on the upper deck
[chris] oh and gruff grinding nuggets.
His crew is trying to avoid
getting caught on the upper deck.
[kenny] fire leaking from more than
just gruff's flame thrower now chris
[chris] hydra trying to take gruff,
like it didn't quite work.
Oh, yeah,
nice shot there.
[kenny] oh, he tumbles towards the screws.
[chris] oh, yeah, he has got right on the screws.
That'll drag him up
and then eventually spit him out.
Hydra is trying to get under it.
[kenny] he is chewed and screwed right now
in the battlebots.
[chris] that sounds nasty kenny, keep that to yourself.
[chris] oh, that's a big one.
Went right off the glass.
Kenny, hydra is racking up the flips,
but it's going to take more than this to knockout gruff.
[kenny] chris, hydra flipper doesn't have anywhere near
its max power right now.
And the longer jake ewert, let's gruff hang around,
the more likely hydra is to get in trouble here.
[chris] gruff super durable.
- Even with fire, hydra tried out, -[kenny] oh!
Run it out of the side line.
[chris] he did it.
Yeah.
He did it.
[kenny] are you kidding me.
[chris] the countdown has started.
-[referee] eight, seven, six, five... -[chris] my goodness.
-[chris] and sam, the game has got only one, -four, three,
-two, one. - His dreams got dumped in flames.
[referee] knockout.
[chris] hydra evens in season record
at one and one.
[kenny laughs]
[chris] so, kenny, no doubt
hydra was all over gruff in this one,
but I have the feeling
jake ewert isn't going to be satisfied
with his performance.
Will he?
[kenny] I'm not so sure chris.
Hydra connected on a ton of flips in this match,
16 to be exact.
But to your point,
that weapon is still lacking the pop
that made it such a force to be reckoned with last season.
[chris] either way, jake ewert did an excellent job of using
the box hazards to his advantage and drove one heck of a fight.
[kenny] tossed gruff around the box into the screws
and just when it looked like
this one was going to go the distance
hydra ended it in dramatic fashion.
[chris] flipping gruff right out of the arena.
Now that's how you make a statement.
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
[chris] all right, jake, congratulations
on win number one of the season.
Kenny and I have a little bet.
Kenny thinks you're thrilled.
I think you're not,
because that's... Explain to me why I won.
It needs to be way up here. Yeah.
We don't know why it wasn't flipping.
It flipped before on the test box,
so, I mean, it's glad I could control him enough
during the match,
but I really wanted to get him at least up on the shelf
or at least, you know,
eight foot high, it would have been nicer, but
I'm glad I made you guys wait, wait.
I'm going to be that guy. Oh, yeah, I'm not.
Does this... Does this concern you a little bit?
Well, hopefully we can figure it out, right?
I mean, it still works
the way it is but I'd like to be able to damage people when they come down.
I use gravity to beat them, so.
And based on the performance. How would you grade your robot?
It's like an f right now.
-Really? -Oh.
Yeah, it's pretty low. It's really is.
Wow. Okay. Very unhappy.
You know you won, right?
Doesn't matter, you got to be the best, right?
Okay. All right, jake. Get back in the workshop.
-We'll see you down the line. -Okay, thank you, guys. See you.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] jake ewert said he'd give himself an f.
I think that was a little harsh. Well, I mean, he won.
He got a bunch of flips off
and he just used to these flawless performances
where he's launching robots like 20 feet up in the air.
So, he's a little harder himself.
But this is why he's one of the best robots in the world as well.
But what did he tell us at the beginning of the season?
He said this bot is even better than the one
that went unbeaten in the regular season a year ago.
[kenny] he's having issues,
and I think that's why he's so frustrated.
He put a lot of work into this robot
thinking he was making it better,
but he hasn't quite seen it fulfill its potential.
Both robots, hydra and gruff are now 1-1.
Coming up both teams will choose to spin.
It's the wheel of misfortune as gigabyte
takes on captain shrederator.
That's next here on battlebots.
[music playing] [audience cheering]
[chris] welcome back to battlebots
coming to you
from the second most dangerous place in las vegas.
The first being between kenny florian
and the all-you-can-eat buffet.
[kenny laughs]
[chris] and there you see, jake ewert headed back
to his pit area fresh off that critical win over gruff.
No doubt he will have hydra flipping sky high
in no time.
Kenny, you ever feel like
your life is just running around in circles?
Well, you have arrived safely at the right place
because we have the rare spinner on spinner fight for you.
And let's start with captain shrederator,
which christened the 2021 season
with a knockout of the legendary tombstone.
Dare I say that brian nave has his swag back.
[kenny] swag all day for brian nave and for a bot
that's often struggled with reliability,
captain shrederator looked very durable
in that first match
and is riding high after knocking out
one of the most dangerous bots in the entire field.
Now brian is on cloud nine,
but he's got another tough matchup here
against gigabyte.
[chris] yeah, the other side of the swag spectrum
sits gigabyte and john mladenik,
and I think they're still stunned
based on what happened to them
in their first fight against uppercut.
There's no shame in losing that fight,
but let's not forget that gigabyte no stranger
to taking on full body spinners, kenny.
[kenny] dead on chris.
Last year, gigabyte tore
through the son of whyachi bounty tournament
and dethroned the legendary spinner.
[chris] oh, my goodness.
John mladenik spun,
it's going to take down a legend.
[kenny] this bot made a huge jump in durability last season.
Regardless of that loss to uppercut,
john has a lot of faith in gigabyte's ability
to trade shots and keep on spinning.
We'll see if he stays aggressive here
against shrederator.
Let's find out. Faruq?
[audience cheering]
in the red square,
this fighter has got fight like the great white
from jaws when there's blood in the water,
he's the most likely cause.
Other teams hit him with all that they've got,
but it's never enough,
you're going to need a bigger bot,
it's gigabyte.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] john mladenik, team gigabyte,
hoping to shake off that brutal knockout loss
to uppercut,
but it is worth remembering they kicked off last season
with a tough loss as well, kenny.
[kenny] they did.
Gigabyte got destroyed by copperhead
in their first fight last year
and then went on a knockout spree that didn't end
until they met hydra in the round of 16.
This is arguably
the best full body spinner in the world.
Let's see if it can ride the ship here
against shrederator.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[faruq] in the blue square,
this next bot spins at 2,200 rpms.
You will die on his shield.
You're not avengers. You're not even friends.
It doesn't matter your rank for the money you spent.
You're getting discharged from the box,
call it corporal punishment.
It's captain shrederator.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] the patriotic crew of captain shrederator
led by brian nave
saluting his fans
and there is the famed full body spinner,
which has a unique advantage in this one.
[kenny] it does.
Brian has the ability to decide which direction he wants
captain shrederator to spin in this fight,
and he's gone with the sloped shell
in order to act as a 360 degree wedge
to try and get underneath gigabyte.
It's been a long time since we had a season
where we're going forward with a winning record,
so we're 1-0 right now.
We're going against gigabyte. They are 0-1.
We're looking to make it 2-0
and 0-2 for them.
To get ready for gigabyte what we've been doing
is going out a lot at night gambling, drinking, partying.
No, we've been working on the robot
the whole time getting ready.
We've got a couple of things we want to play with.
We've got a few surprises in store and, you know,
hopefully it turns out, all right.
Going into our match with captain shrederator,
our strategy is just outlast him.
It is just keep hitting him and hitting him
and hitting him until he dies
and that's typically how he loses.
I like brian, he has a great design
and I like to get to show people that we are more reliable.
His design, if you look at it, technically might look better,
but it doesn't do better and this will show that.
We're 0-1.
This is really an important fight,
we can't go 0-2.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] robots activate.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] and for more on shrederator spin strategy,
let's go to the bot whisperer.
Which way is shred going to spin here, pete?
[pete] well, spinning in the same direction
as gigabyte
will result in more violent collisions,
but spinning in the opposite direction
means the two shells will mesh together like gears,
leading to more stable impacts and giving brian more control.
[chris] fascinating stuff there, pete. Thank you.
Let's see what the captain goes with.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] shrederator,
gigabyte, only one can claim the crown of king spinner.
Who's it going to be?
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
Shrederator choosing to spin
in the opposite direction of gigabytes
going with the conservative play here off the top.
Oh, it will pop in the air, captain shrederator.
-[kenny] oh. -[chris] that make one, two.
[kenny] nice controlled shot there
by shrederator.
[chris] here is gigabyte wanting to reengage.
Oh, big collision
that sends shrederator flying backwards
and into the side of the box.
[kenny] but look at this, captain shrederator
looks like a sitting duck here.
[chris] oh, my goodness, shrederator no longer spinning.
Gigabyte now backing off.
Thank you very much.
[referee] you don't have to count you out.
[chris] oh, no. Oh yes, the countdown has started.
[referee] ...Seven, six,
[chris] you can see the frustration
- on brian nave's face. -...Four, three,
- two hits and he's done. - Two, one
[referee] it is a knockout.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
another unbelievable.
-Great job. -Thanks, dave.
That's the worst thing that can happen.
Just unexplainable to death. Just like everybody expects.
[chris] well, kenny,
as the wise philosopher brian nave once said
"you've got to spin to win".
And at the end of this match, captain shrederator
neither spun
nor won.
[kenny] no, listen, the captain was in control
to start this fight.
Brian landed a couple of quality shots on gigabyte,
but then the ghost of shrederator's past
came back to haunt it.
[chris] kind of hard to tell exactly what happened,
but after a shot from gigabyte
captain shrederator simply froze up
and then got counted out.
Brian nave, he goes from beating tombstone
to beating himself inside the battlebots.
Gigabyte moves to 1-1.
[audience cheering and applauding]
well, john, that felt a little bit better
the second time around, didn't it?
It did.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] so what went right this time?
Well, I knew this would be a fight of attrition
who-who...Who breaks first and I think historically
we are more reliable and that's pretty much
how I expected it to go.
You're usually so cheery, you're usually so smiley.
What's going on here?
You just won a match in battlebots. Come on!
[laughs]
okay, I'll take it as something different.
[laughs]
still thinking about that loss? That's perfectly fine.
We wish you the best of luck in your next match,
john, thank you.
Thank you.
[audience cheering and applauding]
brian, we thought we had gotten rid of
-the reliability bugaboo. -Yeah.
What do you think happened here?
Yeah, well, I know what happened.
I mean, it happens to us a lot.
The radio died on us again. I have no idea.
Once we lose the telemetry we know the radio is at,
but you know, our plan was working perfectly.
We were slam...We were getting ready to hit him in the wall.
As soon as we got the control and got him up,
we were going in ham underneath and, you know,
just didn't get a chance to execute
because of electronics again.
At battlebots, you can experience
the highest highs and the lowest lows here.
Coming off maybe one of the biggest wins
you guys have had against tombstone,
how are you feeling right now?
Yeah, lowest lows is probably a good way to explain it.
Yeah. We really expected to win this one.
I think we had the right strategy,
but once again, our equipment lets us down.
So what are you going to do? Come back and win again right?
Well, you are 1-1.
1-1, could be worse.
Another victory might catapult you into the round of 32.
How much pressure
is there on captain shrederator moving forward?
Yeah, well, there would be a lot less pressure if we'd have won,
but now we're under the gun again and we got to
just get out there and work hard and get another win under our belt.
No question you can handle it.
Brian nave, thank you very much.
-Thank you, guys. -[audience cheering and applauding]
[instrumental music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] so gigabyte gets a much needed w,
but clearly john mladenik
not satisfied with that performance at all, kenny.
[kenny] listen in this sport,
these teams get such precious little time
to impress the committee
and make their case for the top 32.
And it almost felt like gigabyte won that fight by default.
John wanted to put on a show here tonight,
and he didn't have the chance to do that,
regardless, gigabyte is 1-1.
[chris] coming up. Sure, you could slay dragons,
but what about ducks!?
It's dragon slayer versus duck! And that's next on battlebots.
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] welcome back to battlebots,
where the cavalcade of robot carnage continues.
Up next, duck! Prepares to show
battlebots rookie dragon slayer the ropes.
And later tonight,
it's a showdown
of two of the heaviest hitters in the sport
as defending champion end game
goes weapon-to-weapon with fan favorite, witch doctor.
Let's take a closer look at tonight's main event.
Oh, huge hit by witch doctor.
We knew against duck! That it was going to be three minutes,
[chris] oh, nice shot.
Cause duck! Doesn't die.
Unfortunately, we found out after that
we actually read that entire match was just one weapon motor.
[chris] with that spinner slow
and this one's going to have to go to judges.
Witch doctor!
Going into our end game match,
this is the first time, we're going to be a full power.
So you're going to see twice the level power from us
and all that reliability will be back.
[chris] are you kidding me! What a shot by witch doctor.
[electric music playing]
[faruq] end game
[chris] world champion.
After taking out the number one seed from last year,
[kenny] oh, that might have been a knockout blow, chris.
We're fairly certain that we're going to make the tournament already.
[chris] they got that world championship swagger.
We have a few things up our sleeve.
We think it's going to be enough to take down witch doctor.
[music playing]
our plan is always to just stick pointing at our opponent.
[chris] end game stalking its prey.
[jack] yeah, try feed the weapon into them.
There's nowhere for them to run.
[kenny] it is a knockout.
I think end game sits in the middle of the arena really well
and points his weapon at you.
So I'm going to try to outdrive him, make him make a mistake.
I try to capitalize on those mistakes.
[chris] oh, another smashing shot by witch doctor.
Getting the previous champion for our second fight card
is a tough draw, but if we win this match,
I think we're a shoo-in for the tournament.
[chris] oh-ho, I'm feeling that voodoo magic.
[nick] you've got witch doctor, finalists from the 2019 season.
[faruq] witch doctor!
[nick] end game, the 2020 champion.
[faruq] end game!
This is going to be an explosive match.
[commentator] oh, what a shot by end game.
This fight is going to be two of the biggest hitters.
[commentator] oh, another big hit by witch doctor.
Someone's going to be going into the air a lot.
[commentator] oh, my god, it got thrown out of the arena.
One of the two robots is going to go home in a pile of parts.
Hopefully, it's witch doctor.
-Hopefully it is not us. -Hopefully it is not us.
[music playing]
there's just no way to avoid that.
There's gonna be carnage.
[chris] are you kidding me?
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] two of the best robots
in the solar system in tonight's main event.
Do not miss that fight.
But right now,
it's the veteran duck!
Versus a newcomer to battlebots, dragon slayer.
And if you take a look at duck!,
which doesn't have a traditional weapon,
hal rucker's approach is always pretty simple.
He wants to break his opponent's fist with his face.
It's a strategy that almost worked against witch doctor
when duck! Took out their weapon in its first fight,
but ended up losing a decision after
what became a lame duck! Pushing match.
[faruq] witch doctor.
[chris] so how does it rebound tonight?
It's probably one of the most defensively sound robots
we have here at battlebots.
It's one of those bots
that you're probably going to have to go to decision with.
Look for duck! To use its durability,
to do what it always does, and that's absorb shots,
try and jam up its opponent's weapon
and ideally be the last bot standing.
Curious to see if they can do better.
All right. So duck! Is squaring
off against a rookie bot named dragon slayer
engineered by jordan neal, who got into battlebots
by watching old vhs tapes at his grandparents' house.
He built his first robot while working at a walmart
in 2018, he actually used that as a resume
to eventually become a machinist.
He is super excited to be here.
[kenny] he is and he said this bot is like three years
in the making, he's been, being mentored
by jonathan schultz of team huge
and also will bales of team hypershock
and he is so excited to be here.
Let's see what dragon slayers got against duck! Faruq?
[audience cheering and applauding]
in the red square, from dayton, texas,
he came to slay.
So get on your knees and pray.
It's dragon slayer.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] kenny, we talked about
the advantages of the ground game earlier,
and it looks like jordan neal was certainly taking notes.
[kenny] well, sometimes
we know what we're talking about, chris,
but yeah, dragon slayer is another addition
to the popular vertical spinner family,
and their goal is to get underneath their opponent
and feed them right into that spinner.
They've also engineered the bot to be on the wider side
to prevent their opponents from sneaking around behind them.
In the blue square from atherton, california,
while his friends fly south for the winter,
he flies straight for your jugular, it's duck!.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] here is team duck! Hal rucker, the captain,
his daughter, hannah rucker, the weapon operator.
So how do they avoid the dreaded 0-2 start?
[kenny] well, listen, they have experience on their side
and hal is very comfortable on the sticks.
He was piloting duck!
Way before jordan neal got bit by the bot bug,
so you have to think he has the edge here,
and get this, hal tells us that duck!
Is actually set up to quack out loud tonight.
[chris] kenny, can it also say, must win fight?
[kenny laughing]
whenever we go against a robot that has a big kinetic weapon,
our goal is to use their energy against them,
so we'll use our duck! Beak to try and get underneath them
and lift them enough so that they start gyro scoping
or we can get them off their wheels a bit
so we can shove them into one of the arena hazards.
If we lose this one, we're 0-2.
So this match is critical. We have to win it.
I'm pretty nervous. This is my first fight ever.
First time at battlebots. First time at combat robotics.
Never done it before in my life. But I'm here to show
that I am the man and I can run with them.
Today for our fight against duck!
We're going to be running our wedges that scoop in,
that are nice and shallow on the bottom, got a nice, smooth angle
to get under their beak, and the wedgelets.
Dragon slayer is going to kick butt,
and it's gonna send that duck! Flying south for the winter.
[audience applauding and cheering]
[robotic voice] robots, activate!
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robots charging]
[chris] okay. Rookie versus veteran,
spinner versus beak,
only one can be victorious.
The fight when battlebots continues.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] welcome back to battlebots,
where the rookie dragon slayer
is facing off against a desperate duck!
Looking to avoid an 0 and 2 start.
Yippee ki yay, hal rucker.
[music playing]
[audience cheering]
[chris] let the bot battle begin.
[chris laughing]
oh, dragon slayer lands its shot out of the gate,
the rookie just cut duck's! Beak in half.
[kenny] what?
[chris] oh, dragon slayer has another chock of the duck!
[audience cheering]
[kenny] I think his quacks may be a cry for help, chris.
[laughing]
[chris] duck! Leaning on the rookie now.
[kenny] oh.
[chris] but dragon slayer not backing down,
nice little pop there, kenny.
[kenny] credit to team dragon slayer
showing no fear in their battlebots debut.
[chris] oh!
Nice pulverizer shot
used by duck! On top of dragon slayer.
The two bots continue to ram horns here.
Duck! Always looking to throw itself into its opponent
and try and break their weapon.
Can it even things up here just by doing that,
that's the big question.
[kenny laughing]
[chris] more than a minute in.
- Whoa. -[kenny] oh!
[chris] so far, dragon slayer making a meal out of duck!
[kenny] barbecued duck! Broiled, duck!
Duck! Fat fries, peking duck!.
[chris laughing]
[kenny] there's just so many ways to cook it, chris.
So delicious.
An underrated member of the poultry family, really.
[chris laughing]
[chris] not a fan at all.
So as you can see, we now have what it looks like
a pushing match on our hands.
Dragon slayer scoring big time,
damage points out of the gate
and manhandling the veteran hal rucker
in the opening stretch, but pretty much since then,
both bots look at it like they need a corner man here.
They're just... I don't know,
they're pretty much leaning on each other right now.
[kenny] yeah, clearly, duck! Is having trouble
with its drive train after those early exchanges
and dragon slayers weapon motor
feels like it's dying a slow death, chris.
[chris] but how about the rookie controlling the control bot,
pushing duck! Into the kills saws. Wow.
[audience cheering]
[kenny] prepare the duck! Chris, medium rare.
I will be in the dining room.
[chris] just about 30 seconds left to go.
Dragon slayer trying to secure a victory
in its first ever big league match.
Duck! Just quacking for its life
and kenny florian checking to see
when the caesar's buffet closes.
[kenny laughing]
[chris] welcome to battlebots, boys and girls.
[kenny] this has been the longest three minutes
of my stomach's life.
[chris] hey, when you're a robot,
you don't think three minutes is all that long
till you get inside this box.
And dragon slayer in its first time out,
rather impressive,
going the distance against the veteran.
[music playing]
[chris] kenny, duck! Came out quacking,
but dragon slayer came out attacking to start this one.
[kenny] yeah, how about the rookie carving up
duck!'s beak in the first 10 seconds?
Nice shot there by jordan neal.
[chris] dragon slayer had its way with duck!
For the first minute or so, chipping away at the veteran
but then both bots just kind of hit a wall.
[kenny] that's right.
We didn't see the same speedy, powerful duck! We're used to.
And for dragon slayer,
its weapon definitely lost some juice down the stretch,
but unfortunately for duck!, the damage had been done.
[chris] duck! Kept on quacking,
but hal rucker wasn't able to find
any momentum here against the rookie.
Let's see how the judges broke it down.
Here is faruq with the decision.
The results from the judges are in.
[audience cheering and applauding]
the winner by unanimous decision is
dragon slayer!
[triumphant music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[triumphant music playing]
jordan neal, did you ever think
that you would get one of those medallions here at battlebots?
Absolutely not.
[kenny laughing]
oh.
How happy are you right now?
Oh, I've been nervous all day,
haven't been feeling right past eight hours,
just butterflies on top of butterflies, man.
I had no idea what to expect.
They told me it was like riding a bike,
that was the best bike ride of my life.
[audience cheering and applauding]
you said your main goal was to have fun out there.
Now you're at 1-0 here at battlebots,
how does that feel?
-That's one way to have fun. -Amazing.
Thataway.
Hey, congratulations on your first ever battlebot victory.
Thank you.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] how great is that to see?
Jordan neal, for years in the making,
he told us,
and now he has realized his dream?
Yeah, absolutely.
Getting a win like that, about as good as it gets.
[chris] and for hal rucker and duck!,
they sink to 0-2
but with a loss
to the formidable witch doctor on their resume,
the book isn't closed just yet.
But a chance to salvage their season
in the third and final fight,
a lot of pressure going into that one.
[music playing]
[chris] all right, folks, the time has finally arrived
for the main event of the evening,
a showdown between two of the deadliest
vertical spinners in the sport,
the defending champion, end game
versus 2019 runner up, witch doctor.
Only one will walk away undefeated.
That is next as battlebots continues.
[music playing]
adam, one of a piece that makes shatter!
Very different than all the rest of these bots is omni-wheels,
all directional wheels.
Sideways, as well as forward and back and turning.
Why did you choose such a complex item?
So that extra maneuverability for us is key.
Hammer robots have one square inch
where they can hit,
and we need to put that square inch exactly
where the opponent's fragile components are.
[chris] oh! Look that hammer! Uh-oh!
Oh, what a shock.
And the sideways ability of the omni-directional drive
is what allows us to achieve our pinpoint precision
[kenny] shatter! Is just so precise with that hammer, chris.
[adam] and it's been working great for us.
That ability to pinpoint our shots
without relying on tank drive has been a huge advantage.
I can't go back to driving the old way.
[laughs]
did you change your car's wheels out to be on omni-wheels, too?
Every time I'm on the highway,
I'm a little bit annoyed, I can't just go sideways.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] we are back on battlebots for our grand finale
and shout out to the schedule makers for giving us this gem.
[chris] let's hear it for defending champion,
end game taking on witch doctor.
[cheering and applauding]
[chris] yeah, fans, soak it all in.
Let's start with the champ, jack barker and nick mabey.
They came out of the shoot in style in 2021
taking it to hydra first time out.
Is that weapon even more devastating than a season ago?
[kenny] I think so again, these guys are on fire so far.
They're taking on another very difficult opponent
in witch doctor, but, you know,
beating hydra like they did, very impressive.
You know, witch doctor at the beginning of the season said,
listen, the expectations were so high for us in 2020
because we made it all the way to the championship
a season ago.
Last year, we kind of stumbled,
even though he made it to the round of 16.
Now people are going to kind of forget about us.
That's not true.
You're 1-0.
You have a chance to improve to 2-0
with a notch on your belt of taking down the champ.
This is a big matchup for them.
[kenny] nice try guys trying to slip in there as underdogs.
You are not underdogs.
You're still very dangerous and this is an insane fight.
Let's get to it.
All right, faruq, take it away.
[faruq] ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
[audience cheering and applauding]
it is time for the the main event.
[music playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
in the red square,
he comes from the land where the zelin is new.
He's traveled across ocean and he's coming for you.
It's not the maid or colonel mustard.
It doesn't matter what room.
The only clue that you need
is that his name spells your doom.
It's end game!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] defending champions, end game looking
sharp enough to attend a tugs wedding,
and it looks like those forks
have been dialed back a little bit, kenny florian.
[kenny] they went with their longest forks ever
to try and get underneath hydra in their first fight,
but they kept getting caught on the box floor.
These new shorter forks should be able
to get underneath witch doctor
while still giving jack the mobility to try and manage
the exceptional driving of michael gellatly.
[audience cheering and applauding]
in the blue square,
here comes the dark wizard who can't be ignored,
she'll slither into the battle box
and leave the other bots griffinsore.
She's stronger than strong.
She's tougher than tufflepuff.
She'll put you in your gravenclaw.
Okay, okay, no more puns.
That's enough!
It's the harry potter of slaughter,
witch doctor!
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] andrea and mike gellatly and team witch doctor,
not participating in the ground game escalation here, kenny.
[kenny] they sure aren't.
Andre said this is battlebots, we want to fight with weapons
and they are holding true to their word.
They're going with their trident true wedge
in hopes of deflecting end game's in for the spinner.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] now, you may notice the frame on witch doctor
is longer than in season's past.
The bot whisper has some info for us.
Pete, why the long bot?
Well, mainly that was to accommodate
a special dual motor system that is redundant to allow
two belts on either side of the disc as opposed
to what they used to have, which was belts in the middle.
This should give them a lot more reliability
to be able to continue to fight
even if they lose one motor or one belt,
the whole system should still stay running.
[chris] thank you, pete. When you're facing a dangerous weapon like
end game has, reliability, it's got to be the key.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] robots activate.
[chris] this is a possible final's preview.
These bots are that good.
End game, the defending champ.
Witch doctor made the title game two seasons ago.
[robotic voice] red team ready.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[robotic voice] blue team ready.
[audience cheering]
[chris] let the bots battle begin.
End game throwing that big weapon at witch doctor.
Witch doctor trying to get away from end game
playing the angle game.
Trying the weapons.
[kenny] oh.
[chris] witch doctor not scared to go head to head.
[kenny] witch doctor trying to attack, it looks like the corner
oh, that's a nice hit there by end game.
[chris] looks like those forks are
in the up position on end game right now.
[kenny] yeah, end game still playing the aggressor
though here, chris.
[chris] oh!
Big shot.
[bots crashing]
[chris] oh, witch doctor pops end game in the air.
Michael gellatly had an opportunity there.
[kenny] had end game teed up but couldn't capitalize.
[chris] end game trying to chew on the rib cage of witch doctor.
[kenny] this may come down to which bot can land
that first big shot, chris.
You see both teams being very intentional
about their movement.
[bots crashing]
[chris] oh, wow!
You got him.
[chris] let's see if witch doctor can...
[kenny] oh, wow!
[chris] witch doctor getting taken for a ride by end game.
[kenny] now, patience paid off for end game right now, chris.
[chris] and it's gliding so much...
Look at end game,
just getting right at witch doctor,
really chewing it that rib cage seeing
if there's any meat left on that bot.
[kenny] oh.
[chris] [inaudible]
[kenny] wow.
[chris] a brutal attack by end game.
Witch doctors on its head, can it self-right?
You have to watch it out.
[chris] michael gellatly mashing his controller,
but no life from witch doctor.
[kenny] typically, those ribs on the back
of witch doctor able to self-right.
I'm not sure they're going to be able to pull it off.
[chris] end game standing over its prey, saying,
- don't you dare get up. -Four, three, two, one,
that's is a knockout.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] a ton of action in this one tonight, kenny.
[kenny] yeah, no doubt about it.
These guys went right at each other,
two of the best drivers in the game,
two of the best bots in the game.
They have competed at the highest levels
and this was technical and it was brutal as well.
[chris] you know, michael gellatly had a couple of windows
to land a kill shot on end game,
but could not seal the deal.
[kenny] yeah, echoes of that championship loss against
bite force in 2019.
Mike's going to be replaying this one
in his sleep tonight, I guarantee it.
[chris] endgame is now tallied knockouts against hydra
and witch doctor to start its season.
And unless thanos is next,
the defending champ is looking like the favorite
to secure the number one overall seed
in this year's tournament.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chris] nick and jack,
oh.
[chris] here's a scary thought.
Are you guys better than last season, nick?
We might be a little bit, yeah.
We plan to be, but we're yet to see
if it's actually worked out, so yeah.
Hey, like we've never gone like a proper smash fest before.
Honestly, like, most of our fights have ended
pretty quickly and that was like at each other constantly.
That was excellent.
Jack, how much fun is it
when you're attacking a team like witch doctor,
that, you know, is that legendary,
that decorated
and you're taking them all through the box?
It's... It's too stressful
to think about the fun, but like when you see
them flying across the arena,
you just got to keep chasing them.
And that's... That's probably the best part.
Trying to line up the second shots, yeah.
Finally, jack, what does it say about end game
that in your first two matches you took down hydra,
which was the number one seed heading
into the round of 32 a season ago
and then the 2019 runner up in witch doctor?
Yeah, I think it says good things.
We're back and you know,
we got the nut last year and that felt pretty good,
so we're going to try to get a second one this year.
Yeah, you think it says good things about you?
-Yeah, I, I do agree. -I think so, yeah.
Yeah. All right, guys. Go party on.
Congratulations with your 2-0 start.
Yes.
[audience cheering and applauding]
andrea and mike, you guys have been around
this game an awfully long time.
What are your impressions of end game so far?
I mean, end game is a robot that went
from never making it to the tournament
to going all the way last year.
So we were taking them very, very seriously.
We know they made a lot of improvements.
We really wanted to win this match
proving that we didn't need forks to win
because forks have gotten really popular in the sport.
We did make forks, so maybe it's time
to reevaluate that decision.
[kenny] early on, it seemed like it was a really close fight.
Can you take us through that fight and tell us
kind of what happened at the end there?
Yeah, of course. I mean, when we fought bite force in 2019,
obviously he has hinged forks in the front,
so that was our primary focus to stay off of those
or to damage them to the point where they couldn't get under us anymore.
And we were doing pretty good at the beginning,
but obviously end game has got a pretty terrifying weapon.
So they were able to get a few hits on us and flip us,
obviously changing the kind of the dynamic
of the match at that point.
I did lose drive about halfway through on one side,
so that made maneuvering pretty difficult after that
and they pretty much had their way with us, I think at that point.
There is no shame in losing to the champ at all,
but andrea explain to the people at home.
Is it a helpless feeling
when you're going against a bot like end game
and they're kind of having their way with you
for a few seconds there?
I mean, we're here to put on a show.
What we don't want is for our robot
to get in there and not work.
That was spectacular. I think it was edge of their seat.
I mean, it was for me. I'm sure it was for everybody else.
So I'm happy with that fight.
You still feel good about where you are in 2021.
I mean, we're... We're 1-1 now.
So it all comes down to the third fight, card fight.
That's a lot of pressure.
I was hoping that it would turn out a little differently,
but we'll have the robot ready to go.
You're always a ton of fun to watch.
Thanks, andrea and michael gellatly
-and team witch doctor. -Thank you.
Thanks guys.
[audience cheering and applauding]
you know, kenny, when they give you one of these
like end game earned a season ago,
everybody is coming after you
and you know, what's happened so far, took care of hydra
and now has taken care of witch doctor.
That's pretty impressive.
Absolutely, considering the level of those opponents too,
very impressive.
But a couple other bots have made some noise tonight.
[chris] we saw shatter! Improve to 2-0, with a win
over blacksmith on a hammer on hammer crime.
Uppercut continued an explosive trend
of taking its anger out on fuel tanks,
and hydra got off the schneid
and knocked one into that all important win column.
So for faruq, the bot whisperer, pete,
my man, kenny florian, I'm chris rose,
we'll see you next time on battlebots.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[music playing]