BattleBots (2015–…): Season 6, Episode 9 - Put Up or Shut Up - full transcript
Robots, activate.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Welcome to battlebots.
The leading name in both
explosive mechanical fights
and complaints from the robot
humane society of america.
Hi, everybody, I'm chris rose,
joined as always by ufc legend
and robot combat analyst
extraordinaire, kenny florian.
Thanks, chris, we know the action
in the box can get pretty intense.
And we're at the point in the season
where every match comes with dire stakes.
For most of the teams entering
the box tonight, it's do or die.
That's right, the round
of 32 is fast approaching
and as we near the end
of the qualifying rounds,
these bots wanna make
the most of their last chance
to impress the
selection committee.
You said it, chris.
This is when these teams
need to pull out all the stops.
With just 32 spots up for grabs
in the world championship
tournament bracket,
if they want in, it's time
to make a statement.
And here are the 14 squads
that'll be looking to make
that statement tonight.
Kenny, what jumps out to you?
So many great
matchups on this card, chris.
How about minotaur and deep six?
Both checking in at one and
one with a tournament berth
likely on the line.
After a year away
from robot combat,
phenom driver, daniel freitas,
will wear his heart on his sleeve
as he looks to crush the
murderous windmill, deep six,
in hopes of making another
serious run at the giant nut.
We'll also see the rookie,
blip, try to finish the season
with an undefeated record.
Standing in its way, one of
the greatest builders in history.
Donald hutson and lock-jaw.
The winless veteran isn't
going to go down quietly.
This will be a huge
test for aren hill and blip.
And it's all leading to
an incredible main event,
as zach lytle's skorpios
tries to plant his stinger
in greg gibson and
christian carlberg's yeti.
Two of the field's
most relentless drivers
will feel the pressure of a high
stakes win and you're in brawl.
Look for that to be an
old-fashion dog fight.
But it all starts with
our first matchup
and this one's gonna be brutal.
A cataclysmic clash
of one to one bots
looking to stake their
claim in the round of 32.
It's the elemental
nightmare, cobalt,
versus a robot that is abrasive
and often taciturn in manner, gruff.
It is a huge night of fights. Kenny,
let's not waste any more time.
Faruq, the floor is all yours.
Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?
It's robot fightin' time!
In the red square,
his parents always said
that this bot played too rough,
it killed all the bots
at summer camp.
But being away
from home is tough.
It played killer kumbaya
and ate sacrificial s'mores,
but it was hard to play tetherball
when the bots were tethered to the floor.
Grenade ain't camp
granada, it's gruff!
Sam mcamis, the man with the
curly q, he says how you do, how you do?
Ko'ed, switched back, knocked
out by hydra so far in winter back.
Yeah, it sure is and that
toughness going to be crucial here
against an insanely
powerful vertical weapon.
We're about to find
out if gruff is the bot
that got tossed out
of the ring by hydra
or the one that torched
switchback in a blaze of glory.
Huge fight here.
In the blue square,
this team's from a place
called pleasant garden.
Man, that sounds nice.
Let me guess. Low crime rate,
good schools, just a wonderful life?
Then again, how pleasant
could it actually be?
When its most famous resident
is this robotic killing machine.
Give it up for cobalt!
There's the green
menace marching to the box.
And no, I'm not
talking about cobalt,
I'm talking about matt maxham
pushing the bot out there.
One of the most energetic and
intense drivers in the entire sport.
No doubt, matt is as much of a
machine as the bot he's pushing there.
Struggled out of the gate against
fusion but left nobody in doubt
after dismantling ghost raptor.
A win here would almost
certainly lock them into a spot
in the world
championship tournament.
Cobalt has a deadly combination
of a high powered
weapon and a great driver.
We're going with a
little bit longer forks, uh,
just to hopefully make sure we
have the reach advantage on him.
Um, but other than that, it's pretty
much just our standard packet.
I think a win here would
guarantee us a spot in round of 32.
Uh, I think a close loss, we might
still have a chance of getting in,
uh, but a win would
definitely secure, uh, us a spot.
So matt, he's our driver.
His importance to this
team has been crucial.
He's getting more and more stick
time and you can tell the difference
between the first fight
and the second fight
that's he's really
coming into this machine.
I think there's gonna be a
couple of slamming into each other
and flying everywhere until
matt figures out an approach
that he can get
up underneath him,
try to get onto his side of him.
In order for us to win,
we've got to get
him up to our blade.
And he's an iron box,
so even if you hit him,
I don't think you can hurt him.
So it's gonna be
a really good fight.
Robots, activate.
Gruff's gonna come at you
with plenty of flame and a sturdy gib.
And for more on gruff, we
bring in our bot whisperer pete.
Gentlemen, there are many
beautiful machined parts
here on these robots, but I'm going to
show you one of my all-time favorites
because it relates to fire.
This.
This is a manifold, nozzle
and venturi system all in one.
This is the key to giving gruff the
power of that fire that they have.
This venturi system's
allowing to put so much oxygen
intermixed with that
propane and burn, baby, burn.
You didn't put one of those
in your car, did you, pete?
No, but I put one in yours.
Ha! That's funny.
Robot, robot, robot, robot!
Red team, ready?
Blue team, ready?
Fight, fight,
fight, fight, fight, fight!
Let the bot battle begin.
Here comes gruff and
taking a serious shot from cobalt.
Uh-oh, uh-oh, he better
work your way back over, gruff.
Its forks are stuck in a kill
saw slot, but he gets out.
Gruff. Fortunate
to survive there.
Oh!
Wow!
That was a shot that
sent gruff 12 feet in the air.
Cobalt, an
absolute destroyer out there.
But it looks like gruff
barely felt that thing...
get your pride, that's shot two.
Unbelievable how
gruff can take these shots.
Oh, my goodness!
That mad max of a
driver of cobalt shooting gruff
right into the driver side window
so he can get a good look at it.
Yeah, so far, matt maxham
looking like he's one with cobalt.
Hanging back now is gruff, looks to
be having problems with his drive, chris.
You know, gruff's
durability has been its super power,
but cobalt looks... Oh! Determined
to put that to the test tonight.
Oh, I think he got the
propane tank, chris, look out!
Wow!
Cobalt just sent
gruff straight to hell!
That is filet mig-gruff.
A tasty delicacy here in vegas.
I'm not seeing any
control, not seeing control.
Does gruff have control?
I think that's
gonna be it, chris.
- Nine!
- There it is, kenny florian.
- Seven, six...
- The countdown has started and cobalt is gonna
- wrap up its qualifying action in style.
- Three, two, one.
A fantastic
performance by cobalt,
which has been
resurrected by brett rieker
and matt maxham.
- Kenny, cobalt's no joke.
- No, not at all.
- This is a very serious robot.
- Wow!
Look at that launch.
I mean, that's one of the highest
flips we have seen here at battlebots.
Just ridiculous power.
And to do it against
a bot that is as stout
and as tough and
as durable as gruff.
Then you throw in a little
pulverizer shot on top of it.
- Perfect ingredients.
- My goodness.
I mean, right now, cobalt is
hitting as hard as uppercut and end game.
They're able to get underneath
their opponents repeatedly.
They're showing durability.
I mean, look at that!
Then gruff
wanted more, it got more.
That is sensational.
Hey, matt, can
we just cut right to it?
What's it like throwing another
robot 15 feet in the air on fire?
It's kinda cool!
It's something I haven't experienced
much and so I'm beginning to like it.
Now I see what
ray gets out of this.
You guys were both
1-1 heading into this.
This was such
an important fight,
not only to win, but
to win impressively.
What do you think this
does for your team here?
We'll let the committee
figure that out.
The team itself, we're happy.
We're feeling the bot. We're
comfortable with the bot.
But where they
put us, they put us.
It's just gonna be a hard
road from here on out.
I mean, it was a
hard road to get here.
It's just gonna get harder.
Congrats, guys.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Well, in case
there were any doubters,
let it be known that cobalt
is indeed the real deal.
It wraps the qualifiers
with a record of 2-1
and will most certainly move
on to fight for the giant nut.
As for gruff, at 1-2 they will now
be stuck watching and waiting
as the rest of the
qualifying action shakes out.
Coming up, don't
go chasing oceans.
Please stick to the ponds and
the lakes that you're used to.
Will duck! Need a little tlc
as he floats into the
dangerous waters of riptide?
That's next on battlebots.
We are back on battlebots
and up next it's one of the
cooler rookies out there, riptide,
led by a bunch of college kids.
The captain there
is ethan kurtz,
who is so excited just
to be a part of battlebots.
Then he won his first
fight out of the gate,
knocking out huge
in less than a minute.
Lost his last fight,
so he checks in at 1-1.
This is of uber importance to him
as he takes on hal rucker and duck!.
Listen, this is a crossroads
moment for team riptide here
with just two career
fights under their belt,
they need a convincing win to prove
they can truly compete with the big dogs.
They struggled in
their loss to defender,
so the story of their season is
about to be defined here tonight.
It hasn't gone as
planned for hal rucker this year.
He was so excited because he
brought duck! Back, and a bigger beak
and it makes like 10
different quack sounds
- whatever the heck "duckese" is.
- That was good.
It hasn't made much noise
inside the box. That's been the problem.
Yeah, they're in a tough spot.
You know, they took
a loss to witch doctor.
Can't really hold
that against them.
But losing to a
rookie in its first fight,
not a good look for
a veteran like duck!.
If they can do what they do best
and use duck!'s durability
to break riptide's weapon,
they might still have a chance
of making the tournament.
Faruq, take it away.
In the red square from
palo alto, california,
not even goldberg can save you when
you get put on ice by the mighty duck!
Here is the rucker clan
with hal escorting duck!
And it's big old schnoz.
Kenny, is it just me or does
that nose keep getting bigger?
Are you
talking about mine or duck!'s?
Oh, stop. I
would never ever...
- well, I might say it, but I'm talking about duck!
- Okay.
Well, the beak is the same.
What's different is that new
winged plow on the back of duck!,
but hal told us he had to sacrifice
one of the bot's drive motors
in order to make weight,
a risky move against a spinner that
could take off any number of wheels
and incapacitate duck!
In the blue square
from tarzana, california,
sure, he'll drag
you to your doom,
but there's no use fighting it,
so you might as well
just go with the flow,
it's riptide!
Well, captain ethan kurtz jokingly
called his squad "a bunch of idiots."
I think it's far from it.
It's a bunch of college kids, even
a high schooler at the age of 15.
So, kenny, what do you
think of this bot so far?
Well, these guys have to
be the smartest idiots I've ever met.
But I'm definitely impressed by what
this team has accomplished so far.
But I'm a little surprised they
haven't added a self-righter.
That cost them their last
match against defender.
Let's see how they fare here if duck!
Manages to flip them onto their head.
So, our third match is critical because
we haven't done very well so far.
We're gonna have to
not just win the match,
but look good doing it because
we're gonna have to justify
that a 1-2 team deserves
to be in the top 32.
So, we're gonna be aggressive. We're gonna
try and ram directly into their weapon,
try and break it.
And if we can do that, then
we're gonna try and use our lifter
to lift them and
manipulate them.
Here at team riptide,
we're really focused on
learning really as fast as we can,
failing as fast as we can, and
moving forward as fast as we can.
We've been studying,
reading, watching matches,
looking at the way things fail,
so we can catch up to the
pros as soon as possible.
Duck! And hal rucker
have been fighting robots
longer than I've been
on the earth and alive.
I have not been training for
battlebots since I was zero years old,
so we definitely have the
experience disadvantage.
However, we hit really hard and
that's what we're gonna do to them.
- Switch.
- I got it.
Okay, cool.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Yeah, I got it.
- Let the bot battle begin!
- Oh!
A couple of
shots there from riptide.
All right, duck! Almost
got flipped over and it did!
Put in a corner and again!
Right in the beak!
I love what the rookie's doing.
Look at this
aggression that's... Oh!
Part of the beak is off.
- Oh!
- Oh, and the pulverizer!
Oh, my goodness!
Don't forget that's a 100-pound
hammer dropping on top of duck!
And that weapon is
still spinning for riptide, chris.
Very impressive so far.
Whoa, riptide spinning
duck! Like pizza dough!
And more shrapnel in the box.
And now duck! Getting
chewed up in the screws, too.
Duck! Lost it's right
front tire in that exchange.
Hal rucker under assault here.
Oh! Those corners are
getting chewed up by riptide.
Beautiful shot there.
Duck! Still has three
of his four wheels,
but I'm not sure he has
much pride left in him.
Come on, you got it.
Is duck! Incapacitated?
That's the question.
They've still got some movement.
Riptide continuing to engage.
Well, duck! Has been
turned into a turtle at best.
It is slow.
Yeah, those back
rear wheels trying to get going.
Riptide is spun up.
Oh, what a hit! Wow!
About eight feet up on
the glass inside the box.
Man, does riptide hit hard.
Can duck! Even
get out of the corner?
Keep going no matter what.
Duck! Is
starting to smoke
and now riptide putting
it under the pulverizer.
There's a shot.
- Nathaniel, hit him!
- Yeah!
The pulverizers
might finish the job here, chris.
Duck! Is trying
to get out of the corner,
but the rookie's
right on top of him.
All right, duck!, I'm gonna
have to count you out.
- Ten, nine, eight...
- the countdown is starting
and I don't think anything's gonna
save the veteran hal rucker here tonight.
- Three, two, one!
- That will do it.
That's a knock out!
Let's go!
Duck! Will finish
with a winless season.
Let's go!
Kenny, you know when
team riptide steps into the arena
they aren't just looking to win.
They want to destroy you.
I tell you what.
Every fight feels personal
when ethan kurtz
is on the sticks.
Riptide came in here and just
undressed the veteran duck!.
All offense all the time.
Sent it up into the
air, ripped a wheel off,
sprayed shrapnel
all over the battlebox.
Just sheer brutality
from riptide.
And how about riptide launching
duck! Up into the driver's window
and perhaps giving young
hannah rucker nightmares
for the rest of
her natural life.
Absolutely. This fight was
most likely won in the pits, right?
I mean, their weapon
was spinning very fast.
They were hitting very hard.
They stayed right
on top of duck!
- Well, there were shots all over the battlebox.
- Whoa!
That was the best
one. High over the pulverizer.
And there is no question that riptide
and ethan kurtz said, "duck! Is served."
whoo!
- Let's go, let's go, let's go.
- Go ahead, go ahead.
Ethan!
Hey, congratulations.
Thank you.
Let's go!
Ethan, if I had told you at
the beginning of the year
that you would knock
out both huge and duck!,
what would your
reaction have been?
I'd be like, "what?
Wow! That's so cool!"
you guys
were absolutely reliable.
What did you learn
about your robot tonight?
I learned the drive
is freakishly reliable,
so I'm quite happy about that.
Our weapon is
also really reliable.
It hit duck! Like 20
times before it went down.
We've still got to figure out why it
went down, but we'll figure that out.
We hit duck! Like 25 times.
We were expecting it to maybe
go on like the first three blows
like it did with
the other robots,
but we got our weapon tuned.
It's really coming together.
We are a contender.
I'm ready to go to the top
32 and just pound everyone.
- Let's go!
- And I'm just ready.
- All right, so you're ready.
- Yeah!
But ethan, what is the
battlebots dream at this point?
We're gonna with the nut at
some point, so that is the dream.
Well, it might become
a reality here in 2021.
- Congratulations to you and your team.
- Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Yeah! Let's go!
So, at 2-1 you have
to imagine the rookie riptide
may have just punched its
ticket into the round of 32.
Ethan kurtz looking like he's ready to
take on the field with his bare hands.
And for hal rucker, it looks like
hunting season got the better of him
as he and duck!
Close out the year
with a disappointing 0-3 record.
Coming up, the bot with
the most polite name here
goes against one that will
unapologetically tear you limb from limb.
Sparks and swearwords will fly when
pardon my french goes against valkyrie.
That's next here on battlebots.
We are back on battlebots
and, kenny, up next a
fan favorite in valkyrie.
Sitting at 1-1 this season, their
tournament hopes hang in the balance here
as they face newcomer from canada,
the drum spinner pardon my french.
Well, the teams
are out of the tunnel,
they have made
their final prep work.
Let's get you
right to the fight.
Red team, ready?
Valkyrie led by leanne
cushing and her driver fred moore.
Took a loss to p1 and
even-upped their record
with a win over rookie triple
crown. In an unaired fight, kenny.
Yeah, they haven't had a very
difficult strength of schedule this season.
I think they need
a knockout here
to have any chance of
breaking into the top 32.
Missing the tournament
would be a huge disappointment
for last year's most
destructive bot.
Blue team, ready?
Pardon my french
out of quebec, canada
and captained by 22-year-old
philippe voyer, there in the jersey.
This is a big, big
drum spinner, kenny.
73 pounds to be exact and a
max tip speed of 250 miles per hour,
but the bot struggled
to function properly
in an unaired
loss to claw viper.
This is a huge moment for this
rookie squad to prove they belong here
at the highest
level of the sport.
A lot of people pulling for
them back home in quebec.
Whoo!
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
Pardon my french and its
minibot giving valkyrie a wide berth.
Valkyrie looking to mix it up.
There's a little
weapon on weapon.
Oh! Huge shot.
Both bots go flying!
Can the canadian shake it off?
There's no life from that
primary weapon, kenny.
No, I don't think that drum
spinner can handle that kind of energy.
Nope.
Valkyrie now going
to work with the undercutter
targeting those wheels
on pardon my french.
Uh-oh.
And I think they may have
gotten to them right there, chris.
Here comes valkyrie.
Uh-oh, disposes of the minibot.
Pardon my french looks
like its soul has left its body.
- And the countdown has started.
- Eight, seven, six...
a piece of pardon
my french flew over here
and just took out a gash
right in front of me, chris.
- Are you okay, kenny?
- I am, thankfully.
I karate-chopped it.
Leanne cushing
all smiles as she should be
with a second
straight ko victory.
Well, kenny, we had two big
weapons going at each other in this one,
but it's often reliability that's the
deciding factor inside the battlebox.
No doubt. You see that
giant spinner-on-spinner hit right there.
A massive amount of energy
being traded in that collision.
Valkyrie was
able to shake it off,
but the rookie just
couldn't handle it.
Valkyrie getting sent into
the screws and almost upside down,
but they kept it together and went
right back to work with that undercutter.
And this is exactly what
that weapon was designed to do, chris.
Get to the underbelly of
the robot, disable its wheels,
and leave it for dead.
Just perfect execution
right there from valkyrie.
Leanne.
Hey, how's it going?
Congratulations. You just
killed us-canada relations. Thank you.
This is for 1812!
Also, we're already in boston.
Montreal and quebec hate us as it is.
All right, leanne.
The last two fights
have been knockouts,
each under a minute.
Are you happy or did you want
the fights to last a little longer,
so you could see how
the robot was working?
I mean, well,
like, it's working.
I got scared for a second
when we stopped spinning
'cause, like, we
still are, you know,
making sure all the new
changes are good to go.
Where would you rank valkyrie?
Lesser than last
year, but still pretty good.
I don't know. Like,
we're all nerds,
so, like, if we're not doing a+ then,
like, we're not doing good enough.
And I'd say we're around a b right
now and so, improvement needed.
Can you improve enough
to go win that giant nut?
All depends on who we see and
how hard we hit and how hard they hit.
Well, we know
you hit pretty hard.
You can ask your neighbor
over there, pardon my french.
Congratulations, leanne.
Thank you.
Okay, so valkyrie handles
business tonight with a convincing ko,
and they move to 2-1.
However, with wins
over lower tier rookies,
it'll certainly be
interesting to see
where 2020's most destructive
bot lands in the tournament mix.
Coming up, here's a phrase
you don't hear very much,
donald hutson is in trouble.
He needs a win to
avoid an 0-3 season
and he's gonna be going up against
a very impressive rookie in blip.
That fight coming your
way next on battlebots.
We continue here on battlebots
and up next it is another pair of teens
with one final opportunity to
capture a win here in the qualifiers
as the rookie blip faces
the vaunted lock-jaw.
Raise your hand at home if you
thought through two regular season fights
that lock-jaw would be 0-2.
Yeah. Didn't think
there's a soul out there.
It is incredible what has
happened to donald hutson's robot
here in 2021. What
do you make of it?
Well, sometimes he
does get off to a slow start.
We see him come back and
he gets stronger as it goes.
But this year, he's clearly
wrestling with this bot
even though his two losses came
at the hands of very solid teams
in copperhead and hypershock.
This is still a huge fight.
Donald has strength
of schedule on his side,
not to mention he's
a legend in this sport.
Can that status help him in the
eyes of the selection committee?
Absolutely.
You look at blip. He's 2-0.
I mean, that would
be a huge win.
So, yes, taking on blip,
which is a rookie bot,
but not a rookie bot builder.
Of course, that's aren
hill who took tantrum
all the way to the
semifinals a season ago.
He made a quick work of the
junkyard bot rusty in his first fight
and got his second
win against overhaul.
Safe to say this
is the first real test
for this new high
tech flipper, kenny.
Absolutely.
Record aside, lock-jaw is still
one of the most experienced teams
in this competition,
so aren and his crew are going
to have to bring their a game here.
I think there's
more at stake here
than just a trip
to the tournament.
This fight is about making a statement
and showing the battlebots community
that blip is the real deal.
Lots on the line.
Let's take you inside the box.
But first, faruq.
In the red square, facing off with
this bot, you might end up in a coma
because he packs
one hell of punch.
Call him locky balboa.
But you won't
need a corner, man,
to yell "cut me, mick,"
because this bot
has a vertical spinner
that will totally do the trick.
Tonight will be a
heavyweight fight
and all these fans bought a ticket
to watch him score a knockout
and scream, "yo, adrian,
I did it!"
give it up for lock-jaw!
Donald hutson and lock-jaw
cornered like a rabid raccoon at 0-2.
How's the legend going to claw
his way out of this one, kenny?
Listen, you can
never count out donald hutson
and he's once again
showing us why.
For the first time in
25 years of competing,
donald is bringing a
minibot into the fray.
We see his teammate wally maksimow
showing it off in all of its glory.
It has two
counter-rotating screws
to drive itself underneath blip
and high-center
it for a big hit.
In the blue square, he'll flip you
from cali over to the east coast,
from alaska down to texas,
from frozen to toast.
He will run you cross-country
with no tourist tips.
He owns the whole map.
Now, he's tossed out your trip.
It's blip!
Aren hill and
rookie sensation blip.
Kenny, what do they have to do
to shut down lock-jaw's season?
Well, aren is putting an emphasis
on the ground game for this match.
Under that front safety block is
a series of piano key wedgelets
that are meant to prevent lock-jaw
from getting underneath blip.
Aren told us his plan is
to target some small flips
to get lock-jaw off balance,
then try and score the big one.
We have a new
minibot called screw job.
In all my 25 years, I've
never used a second robot.
We haven't even practiced it.
We're hoping to
get that in the match
to kind of throw him off on
his driving game a little bit.
Give him a little bit of
something else to worry about
besides the weapon.
Aren's a fast driver.
He's very good.
He's very nimble.
I have to be prepared
to fly through the air a lot.
Even if I'm doing well,
it's more than likely he's
gonna get a couple flips on me.
Tonight we're fighting one
of the legends of this sport,
donald hutson with lock-jaw.
We also got a new
frontend armor set up
to try getting cleanly
underneath him
and hopefully avoid any hits
from that big, angry vertical spinner.
We're feeling pretty
confident in making the top 32.
Blip's in at 2-0 as a
completely new rookie robot.
Really want to make that a 3-0.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
And uh-oh. Donald hutson gets
caught up on the floor out of the gate.
We've seen that before.
Blip going right after lock-jaw.
Trying to get under the veteran.
And he does!
Nice little flip there.
And this is what
he's gonna start off with.
Just little flips to get him off
balance then get underneath.
- Uh-oh!
- Donald hutson's on fire!
- Oh, boy.
- Donald hutson's on fire.
We have seen him
drive like this before
but you have to wonder what is
that going to do to the main weapon.
He may have to shut it down
and blip's gonna take
advantage of that if that's the case.
So, aren hill draws first blood.
The veteran lock-jaw trying
to shake it off and reset.
Come back here, donald.
And donald hutson now knows
he has to use the battlebox as his weapon
don't bet against it.
Excellent driving
by aren hill and his team.
Doing a great job of
keeping lock-jaw off balance.
Uh-oh, he's got donald hutson
against the screws of the upper deck.
Trying to maybe flip
him up on the upper deck.
- Yes, he does!
- Whoa!
And hutson has to
find his way off, which he does.
Blip continuing to dominate
the battle for low ground here.
Blip is so compact, so
low to the ground, just like tantrum.
They are pushing
lock-jaw around right now.
Oh, lock-jaw's turn!
Lock-jaw proving it's
still mobile and willing to engage.
Ninety seconds to go.
The veteran dealing
with a fire inside the robot.
The weapon still inactive.
Basically, screw
job doing no job.
Yeah, chris. I mean, the only
thing that's keeping lock-jaw alive is
the driving of donald hutson.
Lock-jaw inverted now.
And the pulverizer
takes a little swing at it.
- Oh!
- Holy smokes!
These flips are
getting bigger, chris.
Now the little guy
is trying to be a nuisance.
Let's see if that
affects blip at all.
And that weapon
is back on for lock-jaw.
Under a minute to go, lock-jaw
takes another flip, but sticks the landing.
Can donald hutson find a
way to even the scorecards?
Lock-jaw winning the
low ground on blip now.
Those front forks getting
underneath the flipper bot.
Oh, look at that.
Lock-jaw takes
blip into the screws.
That's a great display
of control right there.
Donald hutson
looking to make a move here
in the final
chapter of this fight.
And here comes the minibot
screw job getting underneath blip,
and lock-jaw carried
blip coast to coast.
What an impressive move!
And screw job has
blip high-centered now, chris.
How about the late-game
heroics from this little guy?
Oh, and it looks
like blip is starting to smoke.
They're firing that
flipper to try to free itself.
Lock-jaw keeping
the pressure on.
This match is gonna
go the distance!
Both bots staying impressive
to the very, very end.
Whoo!
All right, three
hard-fought minutes
and now we turn
to the scorecards.
So, is donald
hutson's season over?
Will the rookie blip go
undefeated in the qualifiers?
The replay, the decision,
next on battlebots.
Welcome back to battlebots
where we just witnessed lock-jaw and
blip take it all the way down to the wire.
The judges'
decision is incoming,
but first, let's
revisit the action.
Kenny, early on,
blip really had it working.
Yeah, they
got off to a great start
getting underneath
lock-jaw repeatedly
and did exactly what they
said they wanted to do.
Got those little flips
early, got him off balance.
Lock-jaw lost control. Its weapon
collided with the battlebox floor
and the bot went up in flames.
But somehow, donald
hutson, the legend that he is,
was able to continue
running his bot.
Did get in trouble here on the
upper deck as blip with the great flip.
Hutson got back into the action
and never stopped fighting.
No doubt. Lock-jaw
took a trip to the moon
on this flip right here,
but donald stayed aggressive and
even got the minibot involved late.
Yes, screw job
able to get underneath blip
as lock-jaw took it for a
ride into the next zip code.
Blip may have had this match
by the reins for the first half,
but lock-jaw left the judges
with something to think about
as aren hill's bot started
smoking at the closing bell.
Was it enough?
Here's faruq.
The results from
the judges are in.
The winner by
unanimous decision is...
Blip!
- Aren.
- Hi, guys.
Aren, if I had told you at
the beginning of the season
that your rookie robot
would be 3-0 after three fights,
you would have said...
Well, I'm pretty confident
generally, so, "sure! Yeah!"
well, why aren't you surprised?
We put a ton of work in and I've got a
fantastic team keeping that thing alive.
So what does it mean for you
to upend a legend like donald hutson?
Donald's one of the most creative,
innovative people in the sport,
and I'm happy to
share the box with him.
And, in this case, very
happy to take the victory.
Well, aren, congratulations
on a remarkable regular season.
3-0 this year.
Thank you.
Thank you, guys. Thank you.
Donald, you've been around
this sport an awfully long time.
You know anything
can happen at any time,
but, big picture,
how shocked are you
that you were unable to get a
win during the regular season?
Uh, you know, it is a little
disappointing, of course.
As a matter of fact, I think
it's the first time in my history
I haven't actually
made it very well,
at least had one win
in the regular season.
So, yeah, it's disappointing,
but at the same time,
I support this sport
to help foster, you
know, great engineers.
He's a talented engineer and it's
a pleasure to be destroyed by him.
Always classy, donald hutson.
Thank you very
much. We appreciate it.
Yeah.
Kenny, I don't like to make
too much of it all the time,
but are we seeing a
changing of the guard
right in front of
our very eyes here?
I mean, again, aren's one of those
very talented and creative young builders.
Donald hutson's been in
the game for a very long time.
You know, we stand on
the shoulders of giants,
and I think aren hill has learned so
much from the previous engineers
that have come before him.
One of those people
is donald hutson.
You know, aren
hill's other robot, tantrum,
secured the 18th seat going
into last year's tournament.
Kenny, you gotta think that
blip will be ranked even higher.
I agree. I mean,
3-0. What else can you say?
He's gotta be top 10.
No question. And he does
have that playoff experience,
taking tantrum all the way
to the semis a season ago.
Okay, coming up.
The bulldozer from
brazil, minotaur will collide
with the bombastic
blade of deep six.
Two 1-1 teams desperately needing
a win to keep their seasons alive.
And later, it's a battle of two of the
sport's most dangerous tacticians
as skorpios faces
off against yeti.
Let's take a closer look
at tonight's main event.
Here we come!
Last fight was a close match.
We went three minutes with
the second seed from last year.
This one is going the distance!
And he didn't knock me out. He
didn't throw me out of the arena.
He didn't get me up on the deck.
How about a taste
of your own medicine?
We brawled for three minutes and that
looks great to the selection committee.
And that's what makes zach lytle
one of the best drivers in this sport.
I got a lot of
important data back.
I know what works
and what doesn't work.
And I now have a much better idea of how
to tackle some of the bigger names here.
Oh! Yeti is back
and better than ever!
I'm feeling really good
about the driving this year.
One of the changes is
a variable speed drum.
In the past with yeti, the drum only
goes one speed. It's either on or off.
It makes it to where I
almost have no control over it.
Poor yeti, it gets so
amped up that it's all over the place.
Now we can control it.
So we can dial it up when
we want to do that kill shot
or keep it low to keep
his maneuverability high.
Now I'm actually able to
drive for the first time in years.
- Yeti is hungry tonight, chris. Wow!
- Whoa!
Skorpios, one of it's biggest
strengths is the driving.
Zach lytle is
getting nasty over here.
We need to worry about the
saw, but I think more than anything,
we need to worry about the
aggression and control categories.
We can probably
get ahead on damage
but if they spend the whole
time pushing us around.
We're not going to be able
to do anything about that.
Skorpios
refusing to let up, kenny!
Greg and I are both
feeling pressure.
We're both 1-1. We need a win
tonight if we want to be in the 32.
I know he's known as a
tank, he's known as a bruiser.
He's a force
to be reckoned with.
That's a knockout!
I'm switching to what I
used during the orby match:
Big blade, big power.
And I'm going to try to
see if I can lay yeti out.
Skorpios is inflicting
all sorts of damage here.
Zach is as aggressive as I am,
so he's not going to just sit
back and let me dictate the fight.
Get back here and
stop running away!
He's got the big armor. I need to try
to get around to his side or his back.
He doesn't really
need to do that to me.
He's happy to be
coming straight on.
And skorpios
right back on the attack!
I know he's gonna
bring everything he's got.
We're gonna target
the weapon belts.
We're gonna target the tires.
They're very hard to knock out.
We're very hard to knock out.
I want a knockout. I don't want
any more judges' decisions.
I can't rely on the judges.
I really expect this
to be a 3-minute fight.
-Ahhh! -Let the carnage begin!
Welcome back to battlebots,
coming to you from
the desert of destruction
here in las vegas where we are four matches
into tonight's high stakes fight card.
There you see aren hill and team
blip watching us live from the pits,
fresh off their win over
the legend donald hutson.
Can't wait to see where
they land in the round of 32.
But right now, we turn our
attention to another pair of 1-1 teams
in dire need of a victory.
It's the pride of brazil,
minotaur taking on deep six.
Now, deep six is easily one of
the most intimidating weapons
in the entire competition,
but to this point,
it's been looked at as
somewhat of a novelty, kenny.
I mean, I know I'm terrified
of that blade every time it fires up
and I can assure you its
opponents feel the same.
But a giant weapon is only as
dangerous as the bot it's attached to,
and deep six hasn't
exactly made waves
in the effectiveness department.
If this team wants
to be taken seriously,
holding its own against
minotaur would be a great start.
The beast from brazil,
minotaur checks into this match
with a quality loss to sawblaze
in what became
an instant classic,
and a dominant win
over rookie dragon slayer.
But at 1-1, do we really have a good
idea of who minotaur is this season?
I mean, it's a
fair question for sure.
A good loss and an easy victory
essentially takes them
back to square one.
In order to really make a
statement to the selection committee,
minotaur and their ferociously passionate
and effective driver daniel freitas
need to prove that they're
back to being the minotaur of old
with a big win here tonight.
Let's check it out. Faruq?
In the red square, a
minotaur has the head of a bull
and the body of man,
which means you
can get the horns,
and you can catch these hands,
so step right up.
I'm calling all matadors to shout ole
and get gored through the battlebox floor.
It's minotaur!
Minotaur and
their spiritual leader
daniel freitas leading them out.
He has dedicated this season to
his mother and his grandmother,
both of whom passed away
shortly before the competition,
so he is fighting
with a heavy heart.
As for this fight, which weapon
are they going with, kenny?
They brought in a
bunch of new drums this season,
but they decided to go
with a drum from 2019.
It's a heavier drum.
That will equal more
inertia on those hits.
It's a 3-tooth drum.
In the blue square, this next
bot is deep like a classical poem.
Opponents "shakesfear"
him, the second they know him.
When he's "e.E.
Cumming" to the box,
your butt's getting
a kicking, son.
He'll punch you right
in the emily dickinson.
He's the bot that goes hard.
It's deep six!
Deep six captained
by navy seal dustin esswein.
Arguably the biggest
fight of his career here.
Now, this team took
out a similarly sized bot
in pain train in
their first fight,
but can they make waves
here against minotaur?
That's the question.
Yeah. I mean, they're
gonna have to drive well here
against minotaur.
They're a big bot.
They could be a little awkward.
Hard to stay stable
on the battlebox floor,
but they can have
some serious hits
if they go weapon to
weapon with minotaur.
They could disable their weapon.
About 6 feet tall, has trouble
moving around, a little awkward.
Sounds like you're
describing me.
We are very confident
about the next fight.
We always go for
the win, you know.
Minotaur against deep six, you guys
are probably going to see a lot of sparks.
Like, we're gonna go grind them
and hit them as hard as we can.
They are strong.
They can easily, like, get
a big chunk off minotaur
and put us in a bad situation.
Whenever they
close the arena doors,
everything can happen.
It will be a fun fight
to watch for sure.
This is gonna be the biggest
match we've ever had, you know.
Minotaur is a legend.
If we could pull out a win,
that would be incredible.
We have to drive
perfectly the entire fight
'cause they are one of
the best, if not the best,
drivers in the competition.
Our goal is to keep going
at him the whole time
and, you know, try
and fend them off.
I am not getting into the
round of 32 unless I win this.
Robots, activate.
Red team, ready?
Daniel freitas locked, loaded and ready
to bull rush his way to the tournament.
Blue team, ready?
Rock and roll.
Oh, gosh, that means
they're turning
this thing on again.
We need a medic on standby!
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
Minotaur's drum
already up to full speed.
Oh! Taking a run... Oh, god!
Oh, gosh!
Oh!
What a hit to start this fight.
- My goodness.
- Well, minotaur's captain told us
he wanted to make a statement.
They have. And deep six is on his feet.
Oh, and it's smoking.
Right in front of
one of the judges,
lisa winter who
gets a great look at it.
Hit me! Hit me!
The weapon,
stuck behind the rails.
Minotaur just staring him down.
"you want more of
this, bro? Come on!"
oh, let's see.
Let's see if deep six can
get loose from the rails.
Oh? Oh?
And junior said,
"hey, let's see.
There might be more.
I'm ready to pounce."
oh, deep six is now smoking.
Hit me! Hit me!
The countdown has started.
And dustin esswein
still begging for more.
He's chewed away his leg.
That's unbelievable.
Oh, what a shot.
He's just finishing him off.
That'll do it.
Oh, the brazilians
celebrating what's most likely
their return to the world
championship tournament.
Kenny, that weapon
on deep six is so powerful
that it can destroy
it's opponents,
or it can destroy itself.
Yeah, check this out.
Minotaur doing what it does best
threating with
that drum spinner.
Backing deep six down
and then deep six actually
catches its blade
on the top of the rail
and sends itself flying, crazy!
You know, people
forget, that is a 250 pound robot
that just got
flung up in the air.
Minotaur finishing the job by
chopping off one of deep six's legs.
And the brazilians
they improved to 2-1
and look to be tournament bound.
Yeah!
Minotaur!
Minotaur! Minotaur! Minotaur!
Junior.
Junior, I know you
guys missed last season.
How nice is it to
hear an entire stadium
full of people chanting
minotaur's name?
There are some things that...
You can just look here, so.
We are so happy to be back.
And, it was really tough for
us not being here last year.
And we are coming
for the nut, for sure.
Well, go wave to your fans.
They love and adore you.
Congratulations on the win.
Thank you, guys. Thank you!
Kenny, I certainly understand why
the crowd loves the robot, minotaur.
I mean, it may be small, but
that thing has the heart of a lion.
You know, listen,
they're the giant slayer.
That little compact
brazilian bot
went out there
against the monster,
took him out real
quick, amazing.
You know, there's some teams that
say, hey, we're coming for the giant nut.
And you're like, yep, I'm
sure, we'll see ya there.
And then there's teams
like that, that are saying,
yeah the giant nuts gonna
be ours. We're like, yep.
- You know? I'm good.
- We believe you. We believe you, man.
Very impressive showing
and now a 2-1 record.
Coming up, the
whirling wonder hijinx,
will look to notch
a vital second win,
when it takes on the
frigid flipper of subzero.
That's next, on battlebots.
We are back on battlebots.
And the world of robot combat
has evolved dramatically
since the early
days of the sport.
The bots, they hit harder.
They take hits that were
previously unimaginable.
And are exponentially
more impressive.
As a result, competing
here at battlebots
is a more formidable
challenge than ever before.
I've been fighting
robots close to 25 years.
But the reality
is, over the years
things have gotten
quite a bit better.
When I started this work
there were maybe 24 robots.
And everybody was
doing it for the first time
and they didn't have their
machines really well dialed in.
You had one crate
with all your tools
and all the robot stuff
in it, and that was good.
I have 10 people here.
Everybody that we know,
that we know can turn a wrench,
they're here to help us.
And it's what you
need to be competitive.
It's getting a little
ridiculous how much stuff
you actually gotta
bring to a competition.
Thirteen wheels, we've got
seven bars, we got two full frames.
Engineering drawings,
diagrams, schematics.
Spare parts, and extra motors, and extra
gearboxes, there's even more electronics
and more computing power, and all
that stuff being built into these robots.
And so now the
robots are lighter, faster,
but definitely the main thing that's
changed is they're more destructive.
- Oh!
- Oh!
It used to be only one or
two real big heavy hitters.
And now there's
dozens that I would say
have the power to
knock you out in one hit.
The overall level of competition
is much higher this time around.
Oh, my goodness! Wow!
Every season is an evolution.
Every year the robots are
getting that much better.
Whoa! That was a
huge strike from sawblaze.
All the robots
are hitting way harder,
they're staying
in fights longer,
which means they
take more damage.
Oh! Another huge hit!
We've already gone through
more spare parts than we usually do
half way through the tournament.
And we haven't even started the
tournament. This field is insane.
You can see it in the
damage. You can see it in the arena.
You can see it in the way
people are acting in the pits.
It's a higher level of competition
than we've seen before.
Oh! Oh, my god!
What will the action here at
battlebots look like in the years to come?
It's gonna be awfully fun
to watch it all shake out.
But, let's get back
to the present.
Where hijinx is
prepared to clash
with the frozen
flipper, subzero.
And, let's start with hijinx.
They sit at 1-1 and this team
led by jen herchenroeder knows
they need a win tonight to
impress the selection committee.
Or, they're probably gonna
be on the outside looking in.
Absolutely, after a
knockout loss to mammoth.
They were able to squeak out a decision
over kraken to get them back to even.
Now, here tonight against
a veteran bot like subzero,
hijinx has to notch a win.
Maybe they need to go even further
and impress with a knockout win,
so, there's definitely
some pressure on their side.
Taking on a very
tough bot in subzero.
I get it, they're
0-2, but still,
nobody wants to face logan
davis's bot with so much on the line.
For sure. Subzero may not
be having the season they hoped for.
But I think they may be
able to turn it around here.
If you look back to last season,
they were able to defeat a
very similar opponent in valkyrie.
So they know how to contend
with the horizontal spinner.
And not to mention,
these guys are from texas.
There's a lot of
pride on that team.
They're not just gonna go
out without swinging, come on.
- Or at least without flipping.
- Yeah. That's true.
Faruq, take it away.
In the red square,
from dallas, texas, the lone
launching great from the lone star state.
It's subzero!
I told you they're winless.
But those l's are against shatter!
And bloodsport, no joke there.
Logan davis with his toolkit
and his beard, still smiling.
Oh, he loves this.
But he has certainly had
a very serious schedule.
And he doesn't want to
leave battlebots without a win.
He wants a big
win here over hijinx.
In the blue square,
from oakland, california,
it's all fun and games
until someone gets hurt.
Then, it's really fun!
It's hijinx!
Jen herchenroeder
getting ready to fight
to keep her tournament
hopes alive here.
So, what's the key
for hijinx, kenny?
Well, the key
has to be driving here.
Orion beach bringing
up the rear there.
Put an absolute driving
clinic in their win over kraken.
Against subzero, he'll need
to time his hits perfectly.
All without getting
tossed on his head.
Going into this match against
hijinx I am very concerned.
I do not have the kind of armor
I need to really win this fight.
The only thing I can do is try to
capitalize on their slow spin up.
They have a massive bar,
it's probably taller than I am.
So I have just this small
chance to get over there
and put them upside down.
In the last fight hijinx spent a
little bit of time on the upper deck.
I think if we can put her up
there she's not going anywhere.
She'll get counted out
and we'll take the w.
I think that subzero
is a veteran robot.
I think logan davis is doing a
fantastic job leading that team right now.
I think it's gotten better
over time and that's evident.
Uh, also, subzero took
on valkyrie twice last year,
and was a decisive victor
in the second encounter.
So, we know that they know how
to handle a heavy horizontal spinner.
We're gonna take
that very seriously.
Robots, activate.
If you thought you were
excited for this one, just look at subzero.
Hey, save it for the
fight, ya show off.
Don't forget about
subzero's drone, spitfire,
which is operated by
logan davis's dad, brady.
Red team, ready?
Blue team, ready?
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin.
Subzero on a charge,
gets under hijinx.
And trying to get at him from the side,
and the behind, and everywhere in between.
- Whoa!
- Flip there by subzero.
Very fortunate for
hijinx there, landing upright.
Oh, hijinx has to be
careful near those screws.
See if it can get some
space and fire up that weapon.
Uh-oh, subzero,
I don't know if that lifter
can go all the way down, kenny.
Nope. It is a mouth
breather at the moment.
It is agape at this point.
Yep, that's gonna render
the flipper pretty useless.
And we haven't seen that primary
weapon fire up again for hijinx.
This is real...
There it goes now.
Question is, can orion beach
the driver get away from subzero.
Look out, hijinx is spun up now.
Wow - whoa! That
was more than cosmetics.
Yes! Good hit!
Yeah, there
goes that front wedge,
the other one's about
to go as well, chris.
If hijinx can get that weapon
up to full speed again.
There it goes.
- Oh, almost.
- Oh!
More and more
pieces of... - whoa!
Subzero just
ending up around the box.
Hijinx ripped the back bumper off of
logan davis's bot with that last shot.
I'm not sure the spin up time
on hijinx is where jen wants it to be.
But it is definitely
hitting hard.
Subzero looks like it's
been in a bar fight, chris,
and it's barely hanging on.
- Here comes that spinner.
- There we go.
Let's see if it can
do more damage to subzero
which is starting to
smoke a little bit as well.
On top of everything else.
Now choking, gagging,
just gasping for air.
You gotta show me
you got some kind of control here.
Looks like subzero's
battling a severe case of emphysema.
- Ten, nine...
- there it is!
The ref has seen enough.
The countdown has started
and hijinx is gonna move to 2-1.
Two, one, knockout!
Kenny, subzero looked
flipping great to start this matchup.
Yeah, well, I figured
they'd be able to get underneath
with that ground
clearance on hijinx.
They were able to get underneath
and had some good flips there.
That was one of them.
Hijinx very lucky to land
right-side up after that exchange.
Subzero's flipper got
stuck in that open position.
And the horizontal
spinner then went to work.
Yeah, absolutely, and
hijinx just stayed on subzero,
they were aggressive.
And once they sensed that
weakness they went for the kill.
And that's exactly
what they did.
And here finishing it up
you can see the plume of
smoke coming out of subzero.
One more shot
and that will do it.
- Jen.
- Yes, hi.
Did you get that deep
calming breath in?
Yes, thank you.
- Did you need it?
- Yes, thank you.
Were you a little panicky the
first 20 seconds of this one?
Because it looked
like it took a while
for your weapon
to really get going.
We have had an amount of
electrical gremlins in no short supply.
Partially due to us
being in a desert now.
And the air being much dryer,
we're getting static as a problem.
We've done everything
we can to mitigate that.
But it has increased our
concern about getting ready,
very carefully.
So, I think the first few
seconds of every fight
are probably gonna be a little
hard on my heart from here out.
What was the strategy
here against subzero?
Uh, the usual.
Yeah, try to get under them with our
tail wedge, show them the tailfeather.
And then just do as
much damage as we can.
I think it worked out.
Yeah.
- Thanks, jen.
- Thank you.
So, hijinx breaks the tape on the
qualifiers with an impressive 2-1 record.
And you have to think, we'll be
seeing them in the round of 32, kenny.
I'd say so, this team's
only been trending upwards
since they debuted in 2020.
And with the win
tonight to go along with
their very impressive
performance against kraken.
Things are looking
good for hijinx.
Yeah, and a tough
role this reason for subzero,
which made so many
great strides in 2020.
- I think they're better than that.
- Yep.
I think there were a lot
of gremlins in that robot
that was causing
a lot of problems.
So that is unfortunate
for that team.
All right, coming up,
two heavyweight brawlers
will square off with their seasons
and reputations on the line.
It's skorpios, it's yeti.
The main event is next.
We are back on battlebots,
it is time right now
for our main event.
And it is a tasty one,
a pair of 1-1 bots.
Skorpios taking on yeti, you
talk to both these sets of captains,
they both feel the same way.
Winner, guaranteed a spot in
the round of 32, the other one,
enjoy watching
the playoffs on tv.
Now, as far as yeti, they're
still trying to find their groove
after a season off.
Took a loss to a
top-tier bot in madcatter.
And then dominated pain train.
I would say greg gibson
and christian carlberg
are trending in
the right direction.
We're us to seeing greg
go into matchups guns blazing.
But he brought a much more
composed mindset into his last fight
and came away with a victory.
He'll need to harness that
technical approach here
against a very
calculated skorpios.
Team skorpios coming off
a split decision loss to whiplash.
And you have to think
zach lytle feels a little
backed into a
corner in this one.
Yeah, he understands
the gravity of this matchup.
Came into this season
with high expectations,
after a very successful
2020. And told us,
"you guys called me
a legend last year,
and I need to
live up to that."
who do you give the
edge to in this one, kenny?
Jeez, you know, with yeti
he's pretty new coming in here,
it's a completely different bot.
Uh, skorpios had some
issues in its last fight.
They said they're
gonna go back to basics,
to what they brought
in their win over blade.
So, I don't know. We've
seen a lot from both these bots.
Translation, rose,
don't put me on the spot.
- Let's just watch the fight.
- Watch the fight.
Let's go for it. Faruq?
Ladies and
gentlemen, are you ready?
It's time for the main event!
In the red square...
This big wheel keeps on turning.
Like tina turner once said.
And when that big arm lowers,
the wheel goes right
through your head.
Protect your armor because
this giant saw will ruin it,
and you'll be all cut up screaming,
"what's blood got to do with it?"
give it up for skorpios!
- Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
- Skorpios!
- Skorpios! Skorpios!
- Oh, zach lytle
and his wife, diana tarlson,
clearly hyped up for this one.
They're bringing out a skorpios we
know and love here tonight, kenny.
Yeah, they removed the
front forks that hindered their driving
in their loss to whiplash,
and are going back to that
trademark scoop configuration
that's been so
successful in the past.
Zach wants to use
it to break yeti's drum
and attack with their new,
powerful hammer saw.
In the blue square...
Four gores and seven fears
ago, he put other bots in distress.
Now, he's back with
a new proclamation.
Call it "the
yeti-sburg address."
he makes other bots weep, like
they were abe's wife, mary todd.
When he fires up his engine and
emancipates their souls from their bod.
It's yeti!
Team yeti, locked and loaded
for the biggest
fight of their season.
And greg gibson said he's never
had this much control over yeti,
and it's all thanks to christian
carlberg on the right, there.
Yeah, one of christian's
biggest contributions to the bot
this year was installing a variable
weapon motor into yeti's drum.
It allows christian to throttle
down the speed of the weapon
when greg needs more control.
And dial it up to 11, when it's time
for that patented yeti knockout punch.
Skorpios will be
looking at dish-out damage
with that upgraded
hammer saw, kenny.
But zach lytle
needs to be precise.
No doubt. The last thing
he wants is to drop that weapon
directly into yeti's
spinning drum.
Yeti! Yeti! Yeti!
Yeti! Yeti! Yeti!
Robots, activate.
Red team, ready?
Blue team, ready?
- Fight! Fight! Fight!
- A must-win situation
for a pair of
veteran bot-builders.
Winner looking to secure
its spot in the round of 32.
The loser will have to sit and
wait for the selection committee.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
Skorpios!
Skorpios got caught up on
the floor. Took a shot to the beak.
Yeti got
underneath skorpios there.
You could hear that hammer saw.
- It's already rolling.
- Oh, great shot by skorpios!
Looks like a belt has
come off on the floor, kenny.
That was one of yeti's
belts, but the drum is still spinning.
And yeti slams skorpios
into the rail and ruins our sign!
You better... Put that back up there!
Oh, my goodness. How
about greg gibson and yeti?
- Going right through those tires.
- Big hit!
And, kenny, does it look like
skorpios is smoking a little bit?
It might be, chris.
There might be
a... -
a fire going on inside of
skorpios, but not in a good way.
- - oh!
- Another great strike from skorpios.
Oh, gosh! Something
got shot up through the lights,
and one just exploded
inside the box. Wow!
Both weapons still active.
Zach lytle looking for an
angle with that hammer saw.
Well, it just took out one of the tires...
yep. Skorpios saying, "I
know what I'm doing, chris rose,
just let me operate!"
nice work by yeti
to get skorpios up and over!
Well, right now, yeti doing a
great job of winning the ground battle.
Look at skorpios, chris.
Yeah, it is smoking, and it looks
like the weapon is starting to sputter.
It's slowed down just a bit.
Yeti has delivered
the power shot so far,
but skorpios has been
precise with that saw.
90 seconds in.
Skorpios starting to go
to work on that left
front tire of yeti now.
Been a very strategic
fight from both drivers here,
but yeti has been more
aggressive, in my opinion... Whoa!
The pulverizer lands a shot.
Wow.
Closing in on the 1-minute mark.
Yeti, another shot at skorpios.
It just hit the front...
- great job!
- What a hit!
Is it...
It is stuck in the screws!
Is it stuck for good?
Uh-oh!
Oh, it flipped back over. Wow!
Greg gibson is having
the fight of his life right now.
He is driving so well
here against zach lytle.
But has that primary weapon
on yeti stopped spinning, kenny?
No lights there.
It looks like it may be
down, and that is gonna win skorpios
some points on the
scorecards, chris.
- 30 seconds to go.
- What a fight.
Unbelievable action
between these two legendary drivers.
Greg gibson of yeti. Zach lytle
of skorpios. Look at them work!
And you see
some damage to one of the tires...
The wheel of skorpios.
Yeti gets off the upper deck!
We have been
treated to 3 minutes of mayhem.
Shot after shot! Shattered
glass! Belts on the floor.
Tires throwing around.
What an amazing main event!
Thank you!
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
is what battlebots is all about.
Who will the judges send into the
world championship tournament?
The decision, when we continue.
That was so good!
Boy, that was a fun one.
What a good fight.
- Well, the drum was dead.
- The drum's dead.
- Yeah. Something killed the drum.
- Okay.
Whoo! That was unbelievable!
- All right, good work. Nice work.
- That was awesome!
Whew!
Hopefully, we left a...
Left that in the judges' hearts.
- I think it's split.
- Yeah, for sure.
I think it's split.
- Let's not... Let's not...
- He did have a lot of control.
We gave them a lot to talk about.
Let's get it going.
Welcome back to battlebots, where
skorpios and yeti just treated the fans
to 3 minutes of "holy cow!"
the judges' decision
is mere moments away,
and while the teams await their
fates, let's take a look at the replay.
Kenny, break this
high-stakes brawl down for us.
Man, both teams
came to play tonight.
Check out this beautiful strike by
skorpios severing yeti's weapon belt.
But then, greg gibson
unleashed hell with that drop spin.
Who would you give
the aggression points to?
Because I really thought
both of them did a great job.
Both were very aggressive,
but I think yeti might have
been a little bit more so.
I think they landed
some more shots.
Their ability to get
underneath with those forks,
I think, was a huge
advantage for them.
Skorpios able to
survive blow after blow...
that is one tough robot.
But in the end, it was yeti's primary
weapon that couldn't go the distance, kenny.
Yeah, let's see how
the judges break this down.
The loss of a primary weapon
always has an impact on scoring.
For my money, yeti dictated the action
in this fight. It's gonna be interesting.
Here's faruq with the decision.
The results from
the judges are in.
We have a split decision.
Judge derek scored the battle
for skorpios!
Judge lisa scored the battle
for yeti!
Judge jason scored the
battle for the winner...
yeti!
Yeti! Yeti! Yeti!
Greg and christian.
Hey, congratulations. When you hear
the words, "we have a split decision,"
how nervous do you get, greg?
Little bit. I... I knew that
one could be a coin toss.
- Uh... But it was a fun fight, right?
- Yeah!
Okay.
Greg, have you ever
been in a bar fight?
- Uh, no comment.
- Uh, me either. Me either.
- Okay.
- That was what that was like.
It was like a bar fight.
You said you were gonna, uh,
drive a more technical, uh, you know...
Have a more technical fight.
To me, that seemed
like a wild brawl.
Well, I can
make all the plans I want,
but then zach comes
in and drives like hell.
There's only so much I can do, so...
- whoo!
- We just kind of mashed and did it.
Greg, you guys
missed last season.
It took you a fight to kind of
get your sea legs under you.
Now, we've seen supreme
driving and action in the last two.
Can yeti be a giant
nut contender?
I'd like to think so.
More important is that
we put on the good fights.
I want that every time.
Christian, you've been around
this sport an awfully long time.
I'm gonna let you
answer the question.
Is this a giant nut contender?
Look, I'm having a great time.
This is the most exciting fight
I've been a part of in a long time.
It's fantastic. And
great job, skorpios.
And great job, yeti!
Well, I'm sure we will see
you guys in the round of 32.
Congratulations. Go
check out your bot.
Thanks, guys.
Zach and diana,
I, uh... I don't even wanna
call you guys
the losers tonight.
Because I just... I just feel
like you didn't win the fight.
-Um... -the audience
won tonight, for sure.
That was...
I know we took down
a couple signs in there.
Sorry about your arena, guys.
Zach, you know... Again, you went
out there and had an amazing fight.
You may have lost, but
the way that you fought,
do you think you still have
a chance to get into top 32?
Well, I think this selection
committee needs to realize...
We just went 3 minutes with yeti.
We went 3 minutes with whiplash,
- and every second of that was awesome television.
- Yeah!
So if you want more of that,
- you gotta put us in the 32!
- We got more!
We got some more for you, guys!
Let's go!
Guys, we look forward to hearing
from the selection committee.
- Great show. Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Yes.
Skorpios!
So, congratulations to
greg gibson, christian carlberg,
and the abominable
yeti for notching a win
that should all but guarantee
them a spot in the round of 32.
Great comeback
season for them so far.
And for zach lytle
and team skorpios
they're gonna have
to hold their breath
and hope that their strength of
schedule and overall pedigree
are enough to sneak them into
the bracket with a record of 1-2.
There were some amazing fights
tonight, and incredible storylines.
Valkyrie and minotaur
both improved to 2-1.
Blip now sits at 3-0 after flipping
veteran donald hutson out of the running.
Gruff's season hangs
in the balance after
it was made into minced
meat by the now 2-1 cobalt.
And riptide notched
a statement win
that should have the
rookie tournament-bound.
And, buckle up, folks,
because next week,
it is the final qualifying
fight card of the season,
leading to the epic reveal
of the 32 teams that will be
competing in this year's world
championship tournament.
It does not get much
better than that.
So, for faruq, our bot whisperer,
pete, my man, kenny florian...
I'm chris rose. We're gonna see
you next time, here on battlebots!
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Welcome to battlebots.
The leading name in both
explosive mechanical fights
and complaints from the robot
humane society of america.
Hi, everybody, I'm chris rose,
joined as always by ufc legend
and robot combat analyst
extraordinaire, kenny florian.
Thanks, chris, we know the action
in the box can get pretty intense.
And we're at the point in the season
where every match comes with dire stakes.
For most of the teams entering
the box tonight, it's do or die.
That's right, the round
of 32 is fast approaching
and as we near the end
of the qualifying rounds,
these bots wanna make
the most of their last chance
to impress the
selection committee.
You said it, chris.
This is when these teams
need to pull out all the stops.
With just 32 spots up for grabs
in the world championship
tournament bracket,
if they want in, it's time
to make a statement.
And here are the 14 squads
that'll be looking to make
that statement tonight.
Kenny, what jumps out to you?
So many great
matchups on this card, chris.
How about minotaur and deep six?
Both checking in at one and
one with a tournament berth
likely on the line.
After a year away
from robot combat,
phenom driver, daniel freitas,
will wear his heart on his sleeve
as he looks to crush the
murderous windmill, deep six,
in hopes of making another
serious run at the giant nut.
We'll also see the rookie,
blip, try to finish the season
with an undefeated record.
Standing in its way, one of
the greatest builders in history.
Donald hutson and lock-jaw.
The winless veteran isn't
going to go down quietly.
This will be a huge
test for aren hill and blip.
And it's all leading to
an incredible main event,
as zach lytle's skorpios
tries to plant his stinger
in greg gibson and
christian carlberg's yeti.
Two of the field's
most relentless drivers
will feel the pressure of a high
stakes win and you're in brawl.
Look for that to be an
old-fashion dog fight.
But it all starts with
our first matchup
and this one's gonna be brutal.
A cataclysmic clash
of one to one bots
looking to stake their
claim in the round of 32.
It's the elemental
nightmare, cobalt,
versus a robot that is abrasive
and often taciturn in manner, gruff.
It is a huge night of fights. Kenny,
let's not waste any more time.
Faruq, the floor is all yours.
Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready?
It's robot fightin' time!
In the red square,
his parents always said
that this bot played too rough,
it killed all the bots
at summer camp.
But being away
from home is tough.
It played killer kumbaya
and ate sacrificial s'mores,
but it was hard to play tetherball
when the bots were tethered to the floor.
Grenade ain't camp
granada, it's gruff!
Sam mcamis, the man with the
curly q, he says how you do, how you do?
Ko'ed, switched back, knocked
out by hydra so far in winter back.
Yeah, it sure is and that
toughness going to be crucial here
against an insanely
powerful vertical weapon.
We're about to find
out if gruff is the bot
that got tossed out
of the ring by hydra
or the one that torched
switchback in a blaze of glory.
Huge fight here.
In the blue square,
this team's from a place
called pleasant garden.
Man, that sounds nice.
Let me guess. Low crime rate,
good schools, just a wonderful life?
Then again, how pleasant
could it actually be?
When its most famous resident
is this robotic killing machine.
Give it up for cobalt!
There's the green
menace marching to the box.
And no, I'm not
talking about cobalt,
I'm talking about matt maxham
pushing the bot out there.
One of the most energetic and
intense drivers in the entire sport.
No doubt, matt is as much of a
machine as the bot he's pushing there.
Struggled out of the gate against
fusion but left nobody in doubt
after dismantling ghost raptor.
A win here would almost
certainly lock them into a spot
in the world
championship tournament.
Cobalt has a deadly combination
of a high powered
weapon and a great driver.
We're going with a
little bit longer forks, uh,
just to hopefully make sure we
have the reach advantage on him.
Um, but other than that, it's pretty
much just our standard packet.
I think a win here would
guarantee us a spot in round of 32.
Uh, I think a close loss, we might
still have a chance of getting in,
uh, but a win would
definitely secure, uh, us a spot.
So matt, he's our driver.
His importance to this
team has been crucial.
He's getting more and more stick
time and you can tell the difference
between the first fight
and the second fight
that's he's really
coming into this machine.
I think there's gonna be a
couple of slamming into each other
and flying everywhere until
matt figures out an approach
that he can get
up underneath him,
try to get onto his side of him.
In order for us to win,
we've got to get
him up to our blade.
And he's an iron box,
so even if you hit him,
I don't think you can hurt him.
So it's gonna be
a really good fight.
Robots, activate.
Gruff's gonna come at you
with plenty of flame and a sturdy gib.
And for more on gruff, we
bring in our bot whisperer pete.
Gentlemen, there are many
beautiful machined parts
here on these robots, but I'm going to
show you one of my all-time favorites
because it relates to fire.
This.
This is a manifold, nozzle
and venturi system all in one.
This is the key to giving gruff the
power of that fire that they have.
This venturi system's
allowing to put so much oxygen
intermixed with that
propane and burn, baby, burn.
You didn't put one of those
in your car, did you, pete?
No, but I put one in yours.
Ha! That's funny.
Robot, robot, robot, robot!
Red team, ready?
Blue team, ready?
Fight, fight,
fight, fight, fight, fight!
Let the bot battle begin.
Here comes gruff and
taking a serious shot from cobalt.
Uh-oh, uh-oh, he better
work your way back over, gruff.
Its forks are stuck in a kill
saw slot, but he gets out.
Gruff. Fortunate
to survive there.
Oh!
Wow!
That was a shot that
sent gruff 12 feet in the air.
Cobalt, an
absolute destroyer out there.
But it looks like gruff
barely felt that thing...
get your pride, that's shot two.
Unbelievable how
gruff can take these shots.
Oh, my goodness!
That mad max of a
driver of cobalt shooting gruff
right into the driver side window
so he can get a good look at it.
Yeah, so far, matt maxham
looking like he's one with cobalt.
Hanging back now is gruff, looks to
be having problems with his drive, chris.
You know, gruff's
durability has been its super power,
but cobalt looks... Oh! Determined
to put that to the test tonight.
Oh, I think he got the
propane tank, chris, look out!
Wow!
Cobalt just sent
gruff straight to hell!
That is filet mig-gruff.
A tasty delicacy here in vegas.
I'm not seeing any
control, not seeing control.
Does gruff have control?
I think that's
gonna be it, chris.
- Nine!
- There it is, kenny florian.
- Seven, six...
- The countdown has started and cobalt is gonna
- wrap up its qualifying action in style.
- Three, two, one.
A fantastic
performance by cobalt,
which has been
resurrected by brett rieker
and matt maxham.
- Kenny, cobalt's no joke.
- No, not at all.
- This is a very serious robot.
- Wow!
Look at that launch.
I mean, that's one of the highest
flips we have seen here at battlebots.
Just ridiculous power.
And to do it against
a bot that is as stout
and as tough and
as durable as gruff.
Then you throw in a little
pulverizer shot on top of it.
- Perfect ingredients.
- My goodness.
I mean, right now, cobalt is
hitting as hard as uppercut and end game.
They're able to get underneath
their opponents repeatedly.
They're showing durability.
I mean, look at that!
Then gruff
wanted more, it got more.
That is sensational.
Hey, matt, can
we just cut right to it?
What's it like throwing another
robot 15 feet in the air on fire?
It's kinda cool!
It's something I haven't experienced
much and so I'm beginning to like it.
Now I see what
ray gets out of this.
You guys were both
1-1 heading into this.
This was such
an important fight,
not only to win, but
to win impressively.
What do you think this
does for your team here?
We'll let the committee
figure that out.
The team itself, we're happy.
We're feeling the bot. We're
comfortable with the bot.
But where they
put us, they put us.
It's just gonna be a hard
road from here on out.
I mean, it was a
hard road to get here.
It's just gonna get harder.
Congrats, guys.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Well, in case
there were any doubters,
let it be known that cobalt
is indeed the real deal.
It wraps the qualifiers
with a record of 2-1
and will most certainly move
on to fight for the giant nut.
As for gruff, at 1-2 they will now
be stuck watching and waiting
as the rest of the
qualifying action shakes out.
Coming up, don't
go chasing oceans.
Please stick to the ponds and
the lakes that you're used to.
Will duck! Need a little tlc
as he floats into the
dangerous waters of riptide?
That's next on battlebots.
We are back on battlebots
and up next it's one of the
cooler rookies out there, riptide,
led by a bunch of college kids.
The captain there
is ethan kurtz,
who is so excited just
to be a part of battlebots.
Then he won his first
fight out of the gate,
knocking out huge
in less than a minute.
Lost his last fight,
so he checks in at 1-1.
This is of uber importance to him
as he takes on hal rucker and duck!.
Listen, this is a crossroads
moment for team riptide here
with just two career
fights under their belt,
they need a convincing win to prove
they can truly compete with the big dogs.
They struggled in
their loss to defender,
so the story of their season is
about to be defined here tonight.
It hasn't gone as
planned for hal rucker this year.
He was so excited because he
brought duck! Back, and a bigger beak
and it makes like 10
different quack sounds
- whatever the heck "duckese" is.
- That was good.
It hasn't made much noise
inside the box. That's been the problem.
Yeah, they're in a tough spot.
You know, they took
a loss to witch doctor.
Can't really hold
that against them.
But losing to a
rookie in its first fight,
not a good look for
a veteran like duck!.
If they can do what they do best
and use duck!'s durability
to break riptide's weapon,
they might still have a chance
of making the tournament.
Faruq, take it away.
In the red square from
palo alto, california,
not even goldberg can save you when
you get put on ice by the mighty duck!
Here is the rucker clan
with hal escorting duck!
And it's big old schnoz.
Kenny, is it just me or does
that nose keep getting bigger?
Are you
talking about mine or duck!'s?
Oh, stop. I
would never ever...
- well, I might say it, but I'm talking about duck!
- Okay.
Well, the beak is the same.
What's different is that new
winged plow on the back of duck!,
but hal told us he had to sacrifice
one of the bot's drive motors
in order to make weight,
a risky move against a spinner that
could take off any number of wheels
and incapacitate duck!
In the blue square
from tarzana, california,
sure, he'll drag
you to your doom,
but there's no use fighting it,
so you might as well
just go with the flow,
it's riptide!
Well, captain ethan kurtz jokingly
called his squad "a bunch of idiots."
I think it's far from it.
It's a bunch of college kids, even
a high schooler at the age of 15.
So, kenny, what do you
think of this bot so far?
Well, these guys have to
be the smartest idiots I've ever met.
But I'm definitely impressed by what
this team has accomplished so far.
But I'm a little surprised they
haven't added a self-righter.
That cost them their last
match against defender.
Let's see how they fare here if duck!
Manages to flip them onto their head.
So, our third match is critical because
we haven't done very well so far.
We're gonna have to
not just win the match,
but look good doing it because
we're gonna have to justify
that a 1-2 team deserves
to be in the top 32.
So, we're gonna be aggressive. We're gonna
try and ram directly into their weapon,
try and break it.
And if we can do that, then
we're gonna try and use our lifter
to lift them and
manipulate them.
Here at team riptide,
we're really focused on
learning really as fast as we can,
failing as fast as we can, and
moving forward as fast as we can.
We've been studying,
reading, watching matches,
looking at the way things fail,
so we can catch up to the
pros as soon as possible.
Duck! And hal rucker
have been fighting robots
longer than I've been
on the earth and alive.
I have not been training for
battlebots since I was zero years old,
so we definitely have the
experience disadvantage.
However, we hit really hard and
that's what we're gonna do to them.
- Switch.
- I got it.
Okay, cool.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Yeah, I got it.
- Let the bot battle begin!
- Oh!
A couple of
shots there from riptide.
All right, duck! Almost
got flipped over and it did!
Put in a corner and again!
Right in the beak!
I love what the rookie's doing.
Look at this
aggression that's... Oh!
Part of the beak is off.
- Oh!
- Oh, and the pulverizer!
Oh, my goodness!
Don't forget that's a 100-pound
hammer dropping on top of duck!
And that weapon is
still spinning for riptide, chris.
Very impressive so far.
Whoa, riptide spinning
duck! Like pizza dough!
And more shrapnel in the box.
And now duck! Getting
chewed up in the screws, too.
Duck! Lost it's right
front tire in that exchange.
Hal rucker under assault here.
Oh! Those corners are
getting chewed up by riptide.
Beautiful shot there.
Duck! Still has three
of his four wheels,
but I'm not sure he has
much pride left in him.
Come on, you got it.
Is duck! Incapacitated?
That's the question.
They've still got some movement.
Riptide continuing to engage.
Well, duck! Has been
turned into a turtle at best.
It is slow.
Yeah, those back
rear wheels trying to get going.
Riptide is spun up.
Oh, what a hit! Wow!
About eight feet up on
the glass inside the box.
Man, does riptide hit hard.
Can duck! Even
get out of the corner?
Keep going no matter what.
Duck! Is
starting to smoke
and now riptide putting
it under the pulverizer.
There's a shot.
- Nathaniel, hit him!
- Yeah!
The pulverizers
might finish the job here, chris.
Duck! Is trying
to get out of the corner,
but the rookie's
right on top of him.
All right, duck!, I'm gonna
have to count you out.
- Ten, nine, eight...
- the countdown is starting
and I don't think anything's gonna
save the veteran hal rucker here tonight.
- Three, two, one!
- That will do it.
That's a knock out!
Let's go!
Duck! Will finish
with a winless season.
Let's go!
Kenny, you know when
team riptide steps into the arena
they aren't just looking to win.
They want to destroy you.
I tell you what.
Every fight feels personal
when ethan kurtz
is on the sticks.
Riptide came in here and just
undressed the veteran duck!.
All offense all the time.
Sent it up into the
air, ripped a wheel off,
sprayed shrapnel
all over the battlebox.
Just sheer brutality
from riptide.
And how about riptide launching
duck! Up into the driver's window
and perhaps giving young
hannah rucker nightmares
for the rest of
her natural life.
Absolutely. This fight was
most likely won in the pits, right?
I mean, their weapon
was spinning very fast.
They were hitting very hard.
They stayed right
on top of duck!
- Well, there were shots all over the battlebox.
- Whoa!
That was the best
one. High over the pulverizer.
And there is no question that riptide
and ethan kurtz said, "duck! Is served."
whoo!
- Let's go, let's go, let's go.
- Go ahead, go ahead.
Ethan!
Hey, congratulations.
Thank you.
Let's go!
Ethan, if I had told you at
the beginning of the year
that you would knock
out both huge and duck!,
what would your
reaction have been?
I'd be like, "what?
Wow! That's so cool!"
you guys
were absolutely reliable.
What did you learn
about your robot tonight?
I learned the drive
is freakishly reliable,
so I'm quite happy about that.
Our weapon is
also really reliable.
It hit duck! Like 20
times before it went down.
We've still got to figure out why it
went down, but we'll figure that out.
We hit duck! Like 25 times.
We were expecting it to maybe
go on like the first three blows
like it did with
the other robots,
but we got our weapon tuned.
It's really coming together.
We are a contender.
I'm ready to go to the top
32 and just pound everyone.
- Let's go!
- And I'm just ready.
- All right, so you're ready.
- Yeah!
But ethan, what is the
battlebots dream at this point?
We're gonna with the nut at
some point, so that is the dream.
Well, it might become
a reality here in 2021.
- Congratulations to you and your team.
- Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Yeah! Let's go!
So, at 2-1 you have
to imagine the rookie riptide
may have just punched its
ticket into the round of 32.
Ethan kurtz looking like he's ready to
take on the field with his bare hands.
And for hal rucker, it looks like
hunting season got the better of him
as he and duck!
Close out the year
with a disappointing 0-3 record.
Coming up, the bot with
the most polite name here
goes against one that will
unapologetically tear you limb from limb.
Sparks and swearwords will fly when
pardon my french goes against valkyrie.
That's next here on battlebots.
We are back on battlebots
and, kenny, up next a
fan favorite in valkyrie.
Sitting at 1-1 this season, their
tournament hopes hang in the balance here
as they face newcomer from canada,
the drum spinner pardon my french.
Well, the teams
are out of the tunnel,
they have made
their final prep work.
Let's get you
right to the fight.
Red team, ready?
Valkyrie led by leanne
cushing and her driver fred moore.
Took a loss to p1 and
even-upped their record
with a win over rookie triple
crown. In an unaired fight, kenny.
Yeah, they haven't had a very
difficult strength of schedule this season.
I think they need
a knockout here
to have any chance of
breaking into the top 32.
Missing the tournament
would be a huge disappointment
for last year's most
destructive bot.
Blue team, ready?
Pardon my french
out of quebec, canada
and captained by 22-year-old
philippe voyer, there in the jersey.
This is a big, big
drum spinner, kenny.
73 pounds to be exact and a
max tip speed of 250 miles per hour,
but the bot struggled
to function properly
in an unaired
loss to claw viper.
This is a huge moment for this
rookie squad to prove they belong here
at the highest
level of the sport.
A lot of people pulling for
them back home in quebec.
Whoo!
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
Pardon my french and its
minibot giving valkyrie a wide berth.
Valkyrie looking to mix it up.
There's a little
weapon on weapon.
Oh! Huge shot.
Both bots go flying!
Can the canadian shake it off?
There's no life from that
primary weapon, kenny.
No, I don't think that drum
spinner can handle that kind of energy.
Nope.
Valkyrie now going
to work with the undercutter
targeting those wheels
on pardon my french.
Uh-oh.
And I think they may have
gotten to them right there, chris.
Here comes valkyrie.
Uh-oh, disposes of the minibot.
Pardon my french looks
like its soul has left its body.
- And the countdown has started.
- Eight, seven, six...
a piece of pardon
my french flew over here
and just took out a gash
right in front of me, chris.
- Are you okay, kenny?
- I am, thankfully.
I karate-chopped it.
Leanne cushing
all smiles as she should be
with a second
straight ko victory.
Well, kenny, we had two big
weapons going at each other in this one,
but it's often reliability that's the
deciding factor inside the battlebox.
No doubt. You see that
giant spinner-on-spinner hit right there.
A massive amount of energy
being traded in that collision.
Valkyrie was
able to shake it off,
but the rookie just
couldn't handle it.
Valkyrie getting sent into
the screws and almost upside down,
but they kept it together and went
right back to work with that undercutter.
And this is exactly what
that weapon was designed to do, chris.
Get to the underbelly of
the robot, disable its wheels,
and leave it for dead.
Just perfect execution
right there from valkyrie.
Leanne.
Hey, how's it going?
Congratulations. You just
killed us-canada relations. Thank you.
This is for 1812!
Also, we're already in boston.
Montreal and quebec hate us as it is.
All right, leanne.
The last two fights
have been knockouts,
each under a minute.
Are you happy or did you want
the fights to last a little longer,
so you could see how
the robot was working?
I mean, well,
like, it's working.
I got scared for a second
when we stopped spinning
'cause, like, we
still are, you know,
making sure all the new
changes are good to go.
Where would you rank valkyrie?
Lesser than last
year, but still pretty good.
I don't know. Like,
we're all nerds,
so, like, if we're not doing a+ then,
like, we're not doing good enough.
And I'd say we're around a b right
now and so, improvement needed.
Can you improve enough
to go win that giant nut?
All depends on who we see and
how hard we hit and how hard they hit.
Well, we know
you hit pretty hard.
You can ask your neighbor
over there, pardon my french.
Congratulations, leanne.
Thank you.
Okay, so valkyrie handles
business tonight with a convincing ko,
and they move to 2-1.
However, with wins
over lower tier rookies,
it'll certainly be
interesting to see
where 2020's most destructive
bot lands in the tournament mix.
Coming up, here's a phrase
you don't hear very much,
donald hutson is in trouble.
He needs a win to
avoid an 0-3 season
and he's gonna be going up against
a very impressive rookie in blip.
That fight coming your
way next on battlebots.
We continue here on battlebots
and up next it is another pair of teens
with one final opportunity to
capture a win here in the qualifiers
as the rookie blip faces
the vaunted lock-jaw.
Raise your hand at home if you
thought through two regular season fights
that lock-jaw would be 0-2.
Yeah. Didn't think
there's a soul out there.
It is incredible what has
happened to donald hutson's robot
here in 2021. What
do you make of it?
Well, sometimes he
does get off to a slow start.
We see him come back and
he gets stronger as it goes.
But this year, he's clearly
wrestling with this bot
even though his two losses came
at the hands of very solid teams
in copperhead and hypershock.
This is still a huge fight.
Donald has strength
of schedule on his side,
not to mention he's
a legend in this sport.
Can that status help him in the
eyes of the selection committee?
Absolutely.
You look at blip. He's 2-0.
I mean, that would
be a huge win.
So, yes, taking on blip,
which is a rookie bot,
but not a rookie bot builder.
Of course, that's aren
hill who took tantrum
all the way to the
semifinals a season ago.
He made a quick work of the
junkyard bot rusty in his first fight
and got his second
win against overhaul.
Safe to say this
is the first real test
for this new high
tech flipper, kenny.
Absolutely.
Record aside, lock-jaw is still
one of the most experienced teams
in this competition,
so aren and his crew are going
to have to bring their a game here.
I think there's
more at stake here
than just a trip
to the tournament.
This fight is about making a statement
and showing the battlebots community
that blip is the real deal.
Lots on the line.
Let's take you inside the box.
But first, faruq.
In the red square, facing off with
this bot, you might end up in a coma
because he packs
one hell of punch.
Call him locky balboa.
But you won't
need a corner, man,
to yell "cut me, mick,"
because this bot
has a vertical spinner
that will totally do the trick.
Tonight will be a
heavyweight fight
and all these fans bought a ticket
to watch him score a knockout
and scream, "yo, adrian,
I did it!"
give it up for lock-jaw!
Donald hutson and lock-jaw
cornered like a rabid raccoon at 0-2.
How's the legend going to claw
his way out of this one, kenny?
Listen, you can
never count out donald hutson
and he's once again
showing us why.
For the first time in
25 years of competing,
donald is bringing a
minibot into the fray.
We see his teammate wally maksimow
showing it off in all of its glory.
It has two
counter-rotating screws
to drive itself underneath blip
and high-center
it for a big hit.
In the blue square, he'll flip you
from cali over to the east coast,
from alaska down to texas,
from frozen to toast.
He will run you cross-country
with no tourist tips.
He owns the whole map.
Now, he's tossed out your trip.
It's blip!
Aren hill and
rookie sensation blip.
Kenny, what do they have to do
to shut down lock-jaw's season?
Well, aren is putting an emphasis
on the ground game for this match.
Under that front safety block is
a series of piano key wedgelets
that are meant to prevent lock-jaw
from getting underneath blip.
Aren told us his plan is
to target some small flips
to get lock-jaw off balance,
then try and score the big one.
We have a new
minibot called screw job.
In all my 25 years, I've
never used a second robot.
We haven't even practiced it.
We're hoping to
get that in the match
to kind of throw him off on
his driving game a little bit.
Give him a little bit of
something else to worry about
besides the weapon.
Aren's a fast driver.
He's very good.
He's very nimble.
I have to be prepared
to fly through the air a lot.
Even if I'm doing well,
it's more than likely he's
gonna get a couple flips on me.
Tonight we're fighting one
of the legends of this sport,
donald hutson with lock-jaw.
We also got a new
frontend armor set up
to try getting cleanly
underneath him
and hopefully avoid any hits
from that big, angry vertical spinner.
We're feeling pretty
confident in making the top 32.
Blip's in at 2-0 as a
completely new rookie robot.
Really want to make that a 3-0.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
And uh-oh. Donald hutson gets
caught up on the floor out of the gate.
We've seen that before.
Blip going right after lock-jaw.
Trying to get under the veteran.
And he does!
Nice little flip there.
And this is what
he's gonna start off with.
Just little flips to get him off
balance then get underneath.
- Uh-oh!
- Donald hutson's on fire!
- Oh, boy.
- Donald hutson's on fire.
We have seen him
drive like this before
but you have to wonder what is
that going to do to the main weapon.
He may have to shut it down
and blip's gonna take
advantage of that if that's the case.
So, aren hill draws first blood.
The veteran lock-jaw trying
to shake it off and reset.
Come back here, donald.
And donald hutson now knows
he has to use the battlebox as his weapon
don't bet against it.
Excellent driving
by aren hill and his team.
Doing a great job of
keeping lock-jaw off balance.
Uh-oh, he's got donald hutson
against the screws of the upper deck.
Trying to maybe flip
him up on the upper deck.
- Yes, he does!
- Whoa!
And hutson has to
find his way off, which he does.
Blip continuing to dominate
the battle for low ground here.
Blip is so compact, so
low to the ground, just like tantrum.
They are pushing
lock-jaw around right now.
Oh, lock-jaw's turn!
Lock-jaw proving it's
still mobile and willing to engage.
Ninety seconds to go.
The veteran dealing
with a fire inside the robot.
The weapon still inactive.
Basically, screw
job doing no job.
Yeah, chris. I mean, the only
thing that's keeping lock-jaw alive is
the driving of donald hutson.
Lock-jaw inverted now.
And the pulverizer
takes a little swing at it.
- Oh!
- Holy smokes!
These flips are
getting bigger, chris.
Now the little guy
is trying to be a nuisance.
Let's see if that
affects blip at all.
And that weapon
is back on for lock-jaw.
Under a minute to go, lock-jaw
takes another flip, but sticks the landing.
Can donald hutson find a
way to even the scorecards?
Lock-jaw winning the
low ground on blip now.
Those front forks getting
underneath the flipper bot.
Oh, look at that.
Lock-jaw takes
blip into the screws.
That's a great display
of control right there.
Donald hutson
looking to make a move here
in the final
chapter of this fight.
And here comes the minibot
screw job getting underneath blip,
and lock-jaw carried
blip coast to coast.
What an impressive move!
And screw job has
blip high-centered now, chris.
How about the late-game
heroics from this little guy?
Oh, and it looks
like blip is starting to smoke.
They're firing that
flipper to try to free itself.
Lock-jaw keeping
the pressure on.
This match is gonna
go the distance!
Both bots staying impressive
to the very, very end.
Whoo!
All right, three
hard-fought minutes
and now we turn
to the scorecards.
So, is donald
hutson's season over?
Will the rookie blip go
undefeated in the qualifiers?
The replay, the decision,
next on battlebots.
Welcome back to battlebots
where we just witnessed lock-jaw and
blip take it all the way down to the wire.
The judges'
decision is incoming,
but first, let's
revisit the action.
Kenny, early on,
blip really had it working.
Yeah, they
got off to a great start
getting underneath
lock-jaw repeatedly
and did exactly what they
said they wanted to do.
Got those little flips
early, got him off balance.
Lock-jaw lost control. Its weapon
collided with the battlebox floor
and the bot went up in flames.
But somehow, donald
hutson, the legend that he is,
was able to continue
running his bot.
Did get in trouble here on the
upper deck as blip with the great flip.
Hutson got back into the action
and never stopped fighting.
No doubt. Lock-jaw
took a trip to the moon
on this flip right here,
but donald stayed aggressive and
even got the minibot involved late.
Yes, screw job
able to get underneath blip
as lock-jaw took it for a
ride into the next zip code.
Blip may have had this match
by the reins for the first half,
but lock-jaw left the judges
with something to think about
as aren hill's bot started
smoking at the closing bell.
Was it enough?
Here's faruq.
The results from
the judges are in.
The winner by
unanimous decision is...
Blip!
- Aren.
- Hi, guys.
Aren, if I had told you at
the beginning of the season
that your rookie robot
would be 3-0 after three fights,
you would have said...
Well, I'm pretty confident
generally, so, "sure! Yeah!"
well, why aren't you surprised?
We put a ton of work in and I've got a
fantastic team keeping that thing alive.
So what does it mean for you
to upend a legend like donald hutson?
Donald's one of the most creative,
innovative people in the sport,
and I'm happy to
share the box with him.
And, in this case, very
happy to take the victory.
Well, aren, congratulations
on a remarkable regular season.
3-0 this year.
Thank you.
Thank you, guys. Thank you.
Donald, you've been around
this sport an awfully long time.
You know anything
can happen at any time,
but, big picture,
how shocked are you
that you were unable to get a
win during the regular season?
Uh, you know, it is a little
disappointing, of course.
As a matter of fact, I think
it's the first time in my history
I haven't actually
made it very well,
at least had one win
in the regular season.
So, yeah, it's disappointing,
but at the same time,
I support this sport
to help foster, you
know, great engineers.
He's a talented engineer and it's
a pleasure to be destroyed by him.
Always classy, donald hutson.
Thank you very
much. We appreciate it.
Yeah.
Kenny, I don't like to make
too much of it all the time,
but are we seeing a
changing of the guard
right in front of
our very eyes here?
I mean, again, aren's one of those
very talented and creative young builders.
Donald hutson's been in
the game for a very long time.
You know, we stand on
the shoulders of giants,
and I think aren hill has learned so
much from the previous engineers
that have come before him.
One of those people
is donald hutson.
You know, aren
hill's other robot, tantrum,
secured the 18th seat going
into last year's tournament.
Kenny, you gotta think that
blip will be ranked even higher.
I agree. I mean,
3-0. What else can you say?
He's gotta be top 10.
No question. And he does
have that playoff experience,
taking tantrum all the way
to the semis a season ago.
Okay, coming up.
The bulldozer from
brazil, minotaur will collide
with the bombastic
blade of deep six.
Two 1-1 teams desperately needing
a win to keep their seasons alive.
And later, it's a battle of two of the
sport's most dangerous tacticians
as skorpios faces
off against yeti.
Let's take a closer look
at tonight's main event.
Here we come!
Last fight was a close match.
We went three minutes with
the second seed from last year.
This one is going the distance!
And he didn't knock me out. He
didn't throw me out of the arena.
He didn't get me up on the deck.
How about a taste
of your own medicine?
We brawled for three minutes and that
looks great to the selection committee.
And that's what makes zach lytle
one of the best drivers in this sport.
I got a lot of
important data back.
I know what works
and what doesn't work.
And I now have a much better idea of how
to tackle some of the bigger names here.
Oh! Yeti is back
and better than ever!
I'm feeling really good
about the driving this year.
One of the changes is
a variable speed drum.
In the past with yeti, the drum only
goes one speed. It's either on or off.
It makes it to where I
almost have no control over it.
Poor yeti, it gets so
amped up that it's all over the place.
Now we can control it.
So we can dial it up when
we want to do that kill shot
or keep it low to keep
his maneuverability high.
Now I'm actually able to
drive for the first time in years.
- Yeti is hungry tonight, chris. Wow!
- Whoa!
Skorpios, one of it's biggest
strengths is the driving.
Zach lytle is
getting nasty over here.
We need to worry about the
saw, but I think more than anything,
we need to worry about the
aggression and control categories.
We can probably
get ahead on damage
but if they spend the whole
time pushing us around.
We're not going to be able
to do anything about that.
Skorpios
refusing to let up, kenny!
Greg and I are both
feeling pressure.
We're both 1-1. We need a win
tonight if we want to be in the 32.
I know he's known as a
tank, he's known as a bruiser.
He's a force
to be reckoned with.
That's a knockout!
I'm switching to what I
used during the orby match:
Big blade, big power.
And I'm going to try to
see if I can lay yeti out.
Skorpios is inflicting
all sorts of damage here.
Zach is as aggressive as I am,
so he's not going to just sit
back and let me dictate the fight.
Get back here and
stop running away!
He's got the big armor. I need to try
to get around to his side or his back.
He doesn't really
need to do that to me.
He's happy to be
coming straight on.
And skorpios
right back on the attack!
I know he's gonna
bring everything he's got.
We're gonna target
the weapon belts.
We're gonna target the tires.
They're very hard to knock out.
We're very hard to knock out.
I want a knockout. I don't want
any more judges' decisions.
I can't rely on the judges.
I really expect this
to be a 3-minute fight.
-Ahhh! -Let the carnage begin!
Welcome back to battlebots,
coming to you from
the desert of destruction
here in las vegas where we are four matches
into tonight's high stakes fight card.
There you see aren hill and team
blip watching us live from the pits,
fresh off their win over
the legend donald hutson.
Can't wait to see where
they land in the round of 32.
But right now, we turn our
attention to another pair of 1-1 teams
in dire need of a victory.
It's the pride of brazil,
minotaur taking on deep six.
Now, deep six is easily one of
the most intimidating weapons
in the entire competition,
but to this point,
it's been looked at as
somewhat of a novelty, kenny.
I mean, I know I'm terrified
of that blade every time it fires up
and I can assure you its
opponents feel the same.
But a giant weapon is only as
dangerous as the bot it's attached to,
and deep six hasn't
exactly made waves
in the effectiveness department.
If this team wants
to be taken seriously,
holding its own against
minotaur would be a great start.
The beast from brazil,
minotaur checks into this match
with a quality loss to sawblaze
in what became
an instant classic,
and a dominant win
over rookie dragon slayer.
But at 1-1, do we really have a good
idea of who minotaur is this season?
I mean, it's a
fair question for sure.
A good loss and an easy victory
essentially takes them
back to square one.
In order to really make a
statement to the selection committee,
minotaur and their ferociously passionate
and effective driver daniel freitas
need to prove that they're
back to being the minotaur of old
with a big win here tonight.
Let's check it out. Faruq?
In the red square, a
minotaur has the head of a bull
and the body of man,
which means you
can get the horns,
and you can catch these hands,
so step right up.
I'm calling all matadors to shout ole
and get gored through the battlebox floor.
It's minotaur!
Minotaur and
their spiritual leader
daniel freitas leading them out.
He has dedicated this season to
his mother and his grandmother,
both of whom passed away
shortly before the competition,
so he is fighting
with a heavy heart.
As for this fight, which weapon
are they going with, kenny?
They brought in a
bunch of new drums this season,
but they decided to go
with a drum from 2019.
It's a heavier drum.
That will equal more
inertia on those hits.
It's a 3-tooth drum.
In the blue square, this next
bot is deep like a classical poem.
Opponents "shakesfear"
him, the second they know him.
When he's "e.E.
Cumming" to the box,
your butt's getting
a kicking, son.
He'll punch you right
in the emily dickinson.
He's the bot that goes hard.
It's deep six!
Deep six captained
by navy seal dustin esswein.
Arguably the biggest
fight of his career here.
Now, this team took
out a similarly sized bot
in pain train in
their first fight,
but can they make waves
here against minotaur?
That's the question.
Yeah. I mean, they're
gonna have to drive well here
against minotaur.
They're a big bot.
They could be a little awkward.
Hard to stay stable
on the battlebox floor,
but they can have
some serious hits
if they go weapon to
weapon with minotaur.
They could disable their weapon.
About 6 feet tall, has trouble
moving around, a little awkward.
Sounds like you're
describing me.
We are very confident
about the next fight.
We always go for
the win, you know.
Minotaur against deep six, you guys
are probably going to see a lot of sparks.
Like, we're gonna go grind them
and hit them as hard as we can.
They are strong.
They can easily, like, get
a big chunk off minotaur
and put us in a bad situation.
Whenever they
close the arena doors,
everything can happen.
It will be a fun fight
to watch for sure.
This is gonna be the biggest
match we've ever had, you know.
Minotaur is a legend.
If we could pull out a win,
that would be incredible.
We have to drive
perfectly the entire fight
'cause they are one of
the best, if not the best,
drivers in the competition.
Our goal is to keep going
at him the whole time
and, you know, try
and fend them off.
I am not getting into the
round of 32 unless I win this.
Robots, activate.
Red team, ready?
Daniel freitas locked, loaded and ready
to bull rush his way to the tournament.
Blue team, ready?
Rock and roll.
Oh, gosh, that means
they're turning
this thing on again.
We need a medic on standby!
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
Minotaur's drum
already up to full speed.
Oh! Taking a run... Oh, god!
Oh, gosh!
Oh!
What a hit to start this fight.
- My goodness.
- Well, minotaur's captain told us
he wanted to make a statement.
They have. And deep six is on his feet.
Oh, and it's smoking.
Right in front of
one of the judges,
lisa winter who
gets a great look at it.
Hit me! Hit me!
The weapon,
stuck behind the rails.
Minotaur just staring him down.
"you want more of
this, bro? Come on!"
oh, let's see.
Let's see if deep six can
get loose from the rails.
Oh? Oh?
And junior said,
"hey, let's see.
There might be more.
I'm ready to pounce."
oh, deep six is now smoking.
Hit me! Hit me!
The countdown has started.
And dustin esswein
still begging for more.
He's chewed away his leg.
That's unbelievable.
Oh, what a shot.
He's just finishing him off.
That'll do it.
Oh, the brazilians
celebrating what's most likely
their return to the world
championship tournament.
Kenny, that weapon
on deep six is so powerful
that it can destroy
it's opponents,
or it can destroy itself.
Yeah, check this out.
Minotaur doing what it does best
threating with
that drum spinner.
Backing deep six down
and then deep six actually
catches its blade
on the top of the rail
and sends itself flying, crazy!
You know, people
forget, that is a 250 pound robot
that just got
flung up in the air.
Minotaur finishing the job by
chopping off one of deep six's legs.
And the brazilians
they improved to 2-1
and look to be tournament bound.
Yeah!
Minotaur!
Minotaur! Minotaur! Minotaur!
Junior.
Junior, I know you
guys missed last season.
How nice is it to
hear an entire stadium
full of people chanting
minotaur's name?
There are some things that...
You can just look here, so.
We are so happy to be back.
And, it was really tough for
us not being here last year.
And we are coming
for the nut, for sure.
Well, go wave to your fans.
They love and adore you.
Congratulations on the win.
Thank you, guys. Thank you!
Kenny, I certainly understand why
the crowd loves the robot, minotaur.
I mean, it may be small, but
that thing has the heart of a lion.
You know, listen,
they're the giant slayer.
That little compact
brazilian bot
went out there
against the monster,
took him out real
quick, amazing.
You know, there's some teams that
say, hey, we're coming for the giant nut.
And you're like, yep, I'm
sure, we'll see ya there.
And then there's teams
like that, that are saying,
yeah the giant nuts gonna
be ours. We're like, yep.
- You know? I'm good.
- We believe you. We believe you, man.
Very impressive showing
and now a 2-1 record.
Coming up, the
whirling wonder hijinx,
will look to notch
a vital second win,
when it takes on the
frigid flipper of subzero.
That's next, on battlebots.
We are back on battlebots.
And the world of robot combat
has evolved dramatically
since the early
days of the sport.
The bots, they hit harder.
They take hits that were
previously unimaginable.
And are exponentially
more impressive.
As a result, competing
here at battlebots
is a more formidable
challenge than ever before.
I've been fighting
robots close to 25 years.
But the reality
is, over the years
things have gotten
quite a bit better.
When I started this work
there were maybe 24 robots.
And everybody was
doing it for the first time
and they didn't have their
machines really well dialed in.
You had one crate
with all your tools
and all the robot stuff
in it, and that was good.
I have 10 people here.
Everybody that we know,
that we know can turn a wrench,
they're here to help us.
And it's what you
need to be competitive.
It's getting a little
ridiculous how much stuff
you actually gotta
bring to a competition.
Thirteen wheels, we've got
seven bars, we got two full frames.
Engineering drawings,
diagrams, schematics.
Spare parts, and extra motors, and extra
gearboxes, there's even more electronics
and more computing power, and all
that stuff being built into these robots.
And so now the
robots are lighter, faster,
but definitely the main thing that's
changed is they're more destructive.
- Oh!
- Oh!
It used to be only one or
two real big heavy hitters.
And now there's
dozens that I would say
have the power to
knock you out in one hit.
The overall level of competition
is much higher this time around.
Oh, my goodness! Wow!
Every season is an evolution.
Every year the robots are
getting that much better.
Whoa! That was a
huge strike from sawblaze.
All the robots
are hitting way harder,
they're staying
in fights longer,
which means they
take more damage.
Oh! Another huge hit!
We've already gone through
more spare parts than we usually do
half way through the tournament.
And we haven't even started the
tournament. This field is insane.
You can see it in the
damage. You can see it in the arena.
You can see it in the way
people are acting in the pits.
It's a higher level of competition
than we've seen before.
Oh! Oh, my god!
What will the action here at
battlebots look like in the years to come?
It's gonna be awfully fun
to watch it all shake out.
But, let's get back
to the present.
Where hijinx is
prepared to clash
with the frozen
flipper, subzero.
And, let's start with hijinx.
They sit at 1-1 and this team
led by jen herchenroeder knows
they need a win tonight to
impress the selection committee.
Or, they're probably gonna
be on the outside looking in.
Absolutely, after a
knockout loss to mammoth.
They were able to squeak out a decision
over kraken to get them back to even.
Now, here tonight against
a veteran bot like subzero,
hijinx has to notch a win.
Maybe they need to go even further
and impress with a knockout win,
so, there's definitely
some pressure on their side.
Taking on a very
tough bot in subzero.
I get it, they're
0-2, but still,
nobody wants to face logan
davis's bot with so much on the line.
For sure. Subzero may not
be having the season they hoped for.
But I think they may be
able to turn it around here.
If you look back to last season,
they were able to defeat a
very similar opponent in valkyrie.
So they know how to contend
with the horizontal spinner.
And not to mention,
these guys are from texas.
There's a lot of
pride on that team.
They're not just gonna go
out without swinging, come on.
- Or at least without flipping.
- Yeah. That's true.
Faruq, take it away.
In the red square,
from dallas, texas, the lone
launching great from the lone star state.
It's subzero!
I told you they're winless.
But those l's are against shatter!
And bloodsport, no joke there.
Logan davis with his toolkit
and his beard, still smiling.
Oh, he loves this.
But he has certainly had
a very serious schedule.
And he doesn't want to
leave battlebots without a win.
He wants a big
win here over hijinx.
In the blue square,
from oakland, california,
it's all fun and games
until someone gets hurt.
Then, it's really fun!
It's hijinx!
Jen herchenroeder
getting ready to fight
to keep her tournament
hopes alive here.
So, what's the key
for hijinx, kenny?
Well, the key
has to be driving here.
Orion beach bringing
up the rear there.
Put an absolute driving
clinic in their win over kraken.
Against subzero, he'll need
to time his hits perfectly.
All without getting
tossed on his head.
Going into this match against
hijinx I am very concerned.
I do not have the kind of armor
I need to really win this fight.
The only thing I can do is try to
capitalize on their slow spin up.
They have a massive bar,
it's probably taller than I am.
So I have just this small
chance to get over there
and put them upside down.
In the last fight hijinx spent a
little bit of time on the upper deck.
I think if we can put her up
there she's not going anywhere.
She'll get counted out
and we'll take the w.
I think that subzero
is a veteran robot.
I think logan davis is doing a
fantastic job leading that team right now.
I think it's gotten better
over time and that's evident.
Uh, also, subzero took
on valkyrie twice last year,
and was a decisive victor
in the second encounter.
So, we know that they know how
to handle a heavy horizontal spinner.
We're gonna take
that very seriously.
Robots, activate.
If you thought you were
excited for this one, just look at subzero.
Hey, save it for the
fight, ya show off.
Don't forget about
subzero's drone, spitfire,
which is operated by
logan davis's dad, brady.
Red team, ready?
Blue team, ready?
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin.
Subzero on a charge,
gets under hijinx.
And trying to get at him from the side,
and the behind, and everywhere in between.
- Whoa!
- Flip there by subzero.
Very fortunate for
hijinx there, landing upright.
Oh, hijinx has to be
careful near those screws.
See if it can get some
space and fire up that weapon.
Uh-oh, subzero,
I don't know if that lifter
can go all the way down, kenny.
Nope. It is a mouth
breather at the moment.
It is agape at this point.
Yep, that's gonna render
the flipper pretty useless.
And we haven't seen that primary
weapon fire up again for hijinx.
This is real...
There it goes now.
Question is, can orion beach
the driver get away from subzero.
Look out, hijinx is spun up now.
Wow - whoa! That
was more than cosmetics.
Yes! Good hit!
Yeah, there
goes that front wedge,
the other one's about
to go as well, chris.
If hijinx can get that weapon
up to full speed again.
There it goes.
- Oh, almost.
- Oh!
More and more
pieces of... - whoa!
Subzero just
ending up around the box.
Hijinx ripped the back bumper off of
logan davis's bot with that last shot.
I'm not sure the spin up time
on hijinx is where jen wants it to be.
But it is definitely
hitting hard.
Subzero looks like it's
been in a bar fight, chris,
and it's barely hanging on.
- Here comes that spinner.
- There we go.
Let's see if it can
do more damage to subzero
which is starting to
smoke a little bit as well.
On top of everything else.
Now choking, gagging,
just gasping for air.
You gotta show me
you got some kind of control here.
Looks like subzero's
battling a severe case of emphysema.
- Ten, nine...
- there it is!
The ref has seen enough.
The countdown has started
and hijinx is gonna move to 2-1.
Two, one, knockout!
Kenny, subzero looked
flipping great to start this matchup.
Yeah, well, I figured
they'd be able to get underneath
with that ground
clearance on hijinx.
They were able to get underneath
and had some good flips there.
That was one of them.
Hijinx very lucky to land
right-side up after that exchange.
Subzero's flipper got
stuck in that open position.
And the horizontal
spinner then went to work.
Yeah, absolutely, and
hijinx just stayed on subzero,
they were aggressive.
And once they sensed that
weakness they went for the kill.
And that's exactly
what they did.
And here finishing it up
you can see the plume of
smoke coming out of subzero.
One more shot
and that will do it.
- Jen.
- Yes, hi.
Did you get that deep
calming breath in?
Yes, thank you.
- Did you need it?
- Yes, thank you.
Were you a little panicky the
first 20 seconds of this one?
Because it looked
like it took a while
for your weapon
to really get going.
We have had an amount of
electrical gremlins in no short supply.
Partially due to us
being in a desert now.
And the air being much dryer,
we're getting static as a problem.
We've done everything
we can to mitigate that.
But it has increased our
concern about getting ready,
very carefully.
So, I think the first few
seconds of every fight
are probably gonna be a little
hard on my heart from here out.
What was the strategy
here against subzero?
Uh, the usual.
Yeah, try to get under them with our
tail wedge, show them the tailfeather.
And then just do as
much damage as we can.
I think it worked out.
Yeah.
- Thanks, jen.
- Thank you.
So, hijinx breaks the tape on the
qualifiers with an impressive 2-1 record.
And you have to think, we'll be
seeing them in the round of 32, kenny.
I'd say so, this team's
only been trending upwards
since they debuted in 2020.
And with the win
tonight to go along with
their very impressive
performance against kraken.
Things are looking
good for hijinx.
Yeah, and a tough
role this reason for subzero,
which made so many
great strides in 2020.
- I think they're better than that.
- Yep.
I think there were a lot
of gremlins in that robot
that was causing
a lot of problems.
So that is unfortunate
for that team.
All right, coming up,
two heavyweight brawlers
will square off with their seasons
and reputations on the line.
It's skorpios, it's yeti.
The main event is next.
We are back on battlebots,
it is time right now
for our main event.
And it is a tasty one,
a pair of 1-1 bots.
Skorpios taking on yeti, you
talk to both these sets of captains,
they both feel the same way.
Winner, guaranteed a spot in
the round of 32, the other one,
enjoy watching
the playoffs on tv.
Now, as far as yeti, they're
still trying to find their groove
after a season off.
Took a loss to a
top-tier bot in madcatter.
And then dominated pain train.
I would say greg gibson
and christian carlberg
are trending in
the right direction.
We're us to seeing greg
go into matchups guns blazing.
But he brought a much more
composed mindset into his last fight
and came away with a victory.
He'll need to harness that
technical approach here
against a very
calculated skorpios.
Team skorpios coming off
a split decision loss to whiplash.
And you have to think
zach lytle feels a little
backed into a
corner in this one.
Yeah, he understands
the gravity of this matchup.
Came into this season
with high expectations,
after a very successful
2020. And told us,
"you guys called me
a legend last year,
and I need to
live up to that."
who do you give the
edge to in this one, kenny?
Jeez, you know, with yeti
he's pretty new coming in here,
it's a completely different bot.
Uh, skorpios had some
issues in its last fight.
They said they're
gonna go back to basics,
to what they brought
in their win over blade.
So, I don't know. We've
seen a lot from both these bots.
Translation, rose,
don't put me on the spot.
- Let's just watch the fight.
- Watch the fight.
Let's go for it. Faruq?
Ladies and
gentlemen, are you ready?
It's time for the main event!
In the red square...
This big wheel keeps on turning.
Like tina turner once said.
And when that big arm lowers,
the wheel goes right
through your head.
Protect your armor because
this giant saw will ruin it,
and you'll be all cut up screaming,
"what's blood got to do with it?"
give it up for skorpios!
- Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?
- Skorpios!
- Skorpios! Skorpios!
- Oh, zach lytle
and his wife, diana tarlson,
clearly hyped up for this one.
They're bringing out a skorpios we
know and love here tonight, kenny.
Yeah, they removed the
front forks that hindered their driving
in their loss to whiplash,
and are going back to that
trademark scoop configuration
that's been so
successful in the past.
Zach wants to use
it to break yeti's drum
and attack with their new,
powerful hammer saw.
In the blue square...
Four gores and seven fears
ago, he put other bots in distress.
Now, he's back with
a new proclamation.
Call it "the
yeti-sburg address."
he makes other bots weep, like
they were abe's wife, mary todd.
When he fires up his engine and
emancipates their souls from their bod.
It's yeti!
Team yeti, locked and loaded
for the biggest
fight of their season.
And greg gibson said he's never
had this much control over yeti,
and it's all thanks to christian
carlberg on the right, there.
Yeah, one of christian's
biggest contributions to the bot
this year was installing a variable
weapon motor into yeti's drum.
It allows christian to throttle
down the speed of the weapon
when greg needs more control.
And dial it up to 11, when it's time
for that patented yeti knockout punch.
Skorpios will be
looking at dish-out damage
with that upgraded
hammer saw, kenny.
But zach lytle
needs to be precise.
No doubt. The last thing
he wants is to drop that weapon
directly into yeti's
spinning drum.
Yeti! Yeti! Yeti!
Yeti! Yeti! Yeti!
Robots, activate.
Red team, ready?
Blue team, ready?
- Fight! Fight! Fight!
- A must-win situation
for a pair of
veteran bot-builders.
Winner looking to secure
its spot in the round of 32.
The loser will have to sit and
wait for the selection committee.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Let the bot battle begin!
Skorpios!
Skorpios got caught up on
the floor. Took a shot to the beak.
Yeti got
underneath skorpios there.
You could hear that hammer saw.
- It's already rolling.
- Oh, great shot by skorpios!
Looks like a belt has
come off on the floor, kenny.
That was one of yeti's
belts, but the drum is still spinning.
And yeti slams skorpios
into the rail and ruins our sign!
You better... Put that back up there!
Oh, my goodness. How
about greg gibson and yeti?
- Going right through those tires.
- Big hit!
And, kenny, does it look like
skorpios is smoking a little bit?
It might be, chris.
There might be
a... -
a fire going on inside of
skorpios, but not in a good way.
- - oh!
- Another great strike from skorpios.
Oh, gosh! Something
got shot up through the lights,
and one just exploded
inside the box. Wow!
Both weapons still active.
Zach lytle looking for an
angle with that hammer saw.
Well, it just took out one of the tires...
yep. Skorpios saying, "I
know what I'm doing, chris rose,
just let me operate!"
nice work by yeti
to get skorpios up and over!
Well, right now, yeti doing a
great job of winning the ground battle.
Look at skorpios, chris.
Yeah, it is smoking, and it looks
like the weapon is starting to sputter.
It's slowed down just a bit.
Yeti has delivered
the power shot so far,
but skorpios has been
precise with that saw.
90 seconds in.
Skorpios starting to go
to work on that left
front tire of yeti now.
Been a very strategic
fight from both drivers here,
but yeti has been more
aggressive, in my opinion... Whoa!
The pulverizer lands a shot.
Wow.
Closing in on the 1-minute mark.
Yeti, another shot at skorpios.
It just hit the front...
- great job!
- What a hit!
Is it...
It is stuck in the screws!
Is it stuck for good?
Uh-oh!
Oh, it flipped back over. Wow!
Greg gibson is having
the fight of his life right now.
He is driving so well
here against zach lytle.
But has that primary weapon
on yeti stopped spinning, kenny?
No lights there.
It looks like it may be
down, and that is gonna win skorpios
some points on the
scorecards, chris.
- 30 seconds to go.
- What a fight.
Unbelievable action
between these two legendary drivers.
Greg gibson of yeti. Zach lytle
of skorpios. Look at them work!
And you see
some damage to one of the tires...
The wheel of skorpios.
Yeti gets off the upper deck!
We have been
treated to 3 minutes of mayhem.
Shot after shot! Shattered
glass! Belts on the floor.
Tires throwing around.
What an amazing main event!
Thank you!
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
is what battlebots is all about.
Who will the judges send into the
world championship tournament?
The decision, when we continue.
That was so good!
Boy, that was a fun one.
What a good fight.
- Well, the drum was dead.
- The drum's dead.
- Yeah. Something killed the drum.
- Okay.
Whoo! That was unbelievable!
- All right, good work. Nice work.
- That was awesome!
Whew!
Hopefully, we left a...
Left that in the judges' hearts.
- I think it's split.
- Yeah, for sure.
I think it's split.
- Let's not... Let's not...
- He did have a lot of control.
We gave them a lot to talk about.
Let's get it going.
Welcome back to battlebots, where
skorpios and yeti just treated the fans
to 3 minutes of "holy cow!"
the judges' decision
is mere moments away,
and while the teams await their
fates, let's take a look at the replay.
Kenny, break this
high-stakes brawl down for us.
Man, both teams
came to play tonight.
Check out this beautiful strike by
skorpios severing yeti's weapon belt.
But then, greg gibson
unleashed hell with that drop spin.
Who would you give
the aggression points to?
Because I really thought
both of them did a great job.
Both were very aggressive,
but I think yeti might have
been a little bit more so.
I think they landed
some more shots.
Their ability to get
underneath with those forks,
I think, was a huge
advantage for them.
Skorpios able to
survive blow after blow...
that is one tough robot.
But in the end, it was yeti's primary
weapon that couldn't go the distance, kenny.
Yeah, let's see how
the judges break this down.
The loss of a primary weapon
always has an impact on scoring.
For my money, yeti dictated the action
in this fight. It's gonna be interesting.
Here's faruq with the decision.
The results from
the judges are in.
We have a split decision.
Judge derek scored the battle
for skorpios!
Judge lisa scored the battle
for yeti!
Judge jason scored the
battle for the winner...
yeti!
Yeti! Yeti! Yeti!
Greg and christian.
Hey, congratulations. When you hear
the words, "we have a split decision,"
how nervous do you get, greg?
Little bit. I... I knew that
one could be a coin toss.
- Uh... But it was a fun fight, right?
- Yeah!
Okay.
Greg, have you ever
been in a bar fight?
- Uh, no comment.
- Uh, me either. Me either.
- Okay.
- That was what that was like.
It was like a bar fight.
You said you were gonna, uh,
drive a more technical, uh, you know...
Have a more technical fight.
To me, that seemed
like a wild brawl.
Well, I can
make all the plans I want,
but then zach comes
in and drives like hell.
There's only so much I can do, so...
- whoo!
- We just kind of mashed and did it.
Greg, you guys
missed last season.
It took you a fight to kind of
get your sea legs under you.
Now, we've seen supreme
driving and action in the last two.
Can yeti be a giant
nut contender?
I'd like to think so.
More important is that
we put on the good fights.
I want that every time.
Christian, you've been around
this sport an awfully long time.
I'm gonna let you
answer the question.
Is this a giant nut contender?
Look, I'm having a great time.
This is the most exciting fight
I've been a part of in a long time.
It's fantastic. And
great job, skorpios.
And great job, yeti!
Well, I'm sure we will see
you guys in the round of 32.
Congratulations. Go
check out your bot.
Thanks, guys.
Zach and diana,
I, uh... I don't even wanna
call you guys
the losers tonight.
Because I just... I just feel
like you didn't win the fight.
-Um... -the audience
won tonight, for sure.
That was...
I know we took down
a couple signs in there.
Sorry about your arena, guys.
Zach, you know... Again, you went
out there and had an amazing fight.
You may have lost, but
the way that you fought,
do you think you still have
a chance to get into top 32?
Well, I think this selection
committee needs to realize...
We just went 3 minutes with yeti.
We went 3 minutes with whiplash,
- and every second of that was awesome television.
- Yeah!
So if you want more of that,
- you gotta put us in the 32!
- We got more!
We got some more for you, guys!
Let's go!
Guys, we look forward to hearing
from the selection committee.
- Great show. Congratulations.
- Thank you.
Yes.
Skorpios!
So, congratulations to
greg gibson, christian carlberg,
and the abominable
yeti for notching a win
that should all but guarantee
them a spot in the round of 32.
Great comeback
season for them so far.
And for zach lytle
and team skorpios
they're gonna have
to hold their breath
and hope that their strength of
schedule and overall pedigree
are enough to sneak them into
the bracket with a record of 1-2.
There were some amazing fights
tonight, and incredible storylines.
Valkyrie and minotaur
both improved to 2-1.
Blip now sits at 3-0 after flipping
veteran donald hutson out of the running.
Gruff's season hangs
in the balance after
it was made into minced
meat by the now 2-1 cobalt.
And riptide notched
a statement win
that should have the
rookie tournament-bound.
And, buckle up, folks,
because next week,
it is the final qualifying
fight card of the season,
leading to the epic reveal
of the 32 teams that will be
competing in this year's world
championship tournament.
It does not get much
better than that.
So, for faruq, our bot whisperer,
pete, my man, kenny florian...
I'm chris rose. We're gonna see
you next time, here on battlebots!
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.