BattleBots

robots, activate.

rose: Hey, everybody, and welcome

to another exciting night of battlebots.

I'm chris rose and with me is our analyst,

my man-crush Monday even on a Friday,

ufc legend, kenny florian.

Chris, thank you very much.

I guess I'll take that as a compliment,

and there's gonna be a lot of things

crushed here tonight, mostly robots and some dreams.

That's right, kenny.

For some, the party is coming to an end.

For others, tonight is the last chance

to impress the selection committee

and earn a place in the top 16.

Every single fight tonight has tournament implications,

and the competition is stiff with some of the best robots

from around the world --

son of whyachi, witch doctor,

whiplash, and the list goes on.

Also, we've got the battle for chinese bragging rights.

All the way from shanghai -- rail gun max is here!

They're facing off against another bot

from the people's republic, wan hoo,

and both these teams are in search of their third

win of the year.

And in our main event,

we've got two of the competition's

heaviest hitters.

It's bronco taking on huge.

for bronco, they're oh and two and in desperate need of a win

if they want any change of making the tournament

while huge, on the other hand,

has had back-to-back ws sitting at two and one

and looking to continue that winning streak.

So without further ado, let's send it back to jenny taft

for more on that matchup.

Taft: Thanks, chris.

Jonathan schultz told me that huge

is feeling weirdly confident ahead of their next fight,

and that is because bronco's backs are against the wall.

They're winless on the year,

but zander rose and reason bradley

do have a little trick up their sleeve.

Bronco designed a secret weapon

just in case they went up against huge.

That's because they were so impressed with them last season.

Guys, no one in the pits has seen this thing.

The wouldn't even let me take any kind of peek.

They're calling it the unicorn horn.

Bronco is desperate for a win, but these guys are veterans.

This is not their first rodeo. They'll be ready.

Rose: And you know what, jenny? We are ready as well.

Kicking things off tonight, it is the brazilian bull

minotaur versus the up-and-coming hammer

from brooklyn, shatter.

Minotaur dropped their first two fights of the season

before entering the desperado tournament.

Took another tough loss in the final round

but they sit at two and three coming into tonight's fight

and are looking to make a late-season push

for the top-six team.

Standing in their way -- adam wrigley and shatter,

two and one on the year

and hoping to shatter expectations tonight.

Will the bot from brooklyn shock the world,

or will the bull from brazil return to their winning ways?

There's only one way to find out?

Faruq, do your thing!

Ladies and gentlemen,

are you ready?

It's robot-fighting time!

in the red square, who gave this bot a visa?

It'll charge you like a south american express

all the way from brazil.

It'll cost you an arm and a leg for the bill.

It's minotaur!

kenny, kind of strange to see minotaur with a losing record.

Another loss and they could be in real danger

of missing out on the top-six team.

Chris, marco meggiolaro is very concerned

about the sharpened hammer on shatter,

so they're going with the strongest top armor

that they have -- a 1/2-inch piece of aluminum

to protect from shatter's overhead shots.

in the blue square, mirror, mirror on this bot,

who's the deadliest of the lot?

With an ax to grind and an omni drive,

you'll be lucky to leave the box alive.

Here to leave you in tatters -- shatter.

and shatter on the other side, kenny,

it's primary weapon is that sharpened hammer.

It's also got those omnidirectional wheels.

That's right, and those wheels

could be the difference here tonight.

Shatter is able to move in any direction at any time,

which should help to guard against the aggressive

driving of daniel freitas.

our strategy is similar to our strategy with anyone else --

try to get around inside, try to get around behind.

It's a vertical spinner, so we've gone back

to our vertical-spinner configuration.

Hopefully, we can poke some holes in him

and keep him away with the nice blade of armor on the front.

If we win this fight, I think we're in the top 16,

so let's go out there and win this fight.

For this fight, we're using our thickest top plate.

It's 1/2-inch aluminum.

Shatter is very strong, very resistant,

so we gonna have to make sure that the drum keeps spinning.

We're gonna be very offensive.

We're gonna go straight at him.

It's really important for us, this third win,

really want to go to the top 16.

robots, activate.

Rose: All right, it's our first fight of the evening.

The brazilian bull, minotaur,

taking on brooklyn's shatter.

Red team, ready?

blue team, ready?

rose: That's adam wrigley and shatter

representing the hipsters

and minotaur led my marco meggiolaro,

who's been building combat robots

since way before it was cool.

Audience: Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!

Rose: Let the bot battle begin!

That shiny blade of armor on shatter

is as much cosmetic as anything, meant to shed on contact,

and it's already started to come off.

Yeah, we might see a lot of that in the battlebox

after this is all said and done.

Minotaur getting underneath.

Oh, yeah, and creating sparks, too.

Shatter has landed a few shots

to the top of minotaur but no real damage.

Minotaur again with a nice little bite.

Oh, they have to be careful attacking from the front.

They almost got nailed with that hammer there.

We're 30 seconds in,

and remember, adam wrigley told us

that hammer can fire up to 50 times in a match

but right now not with much velocity.

Yeah, it's not looking very fast right now, chris. There!

They're speeding it up a little bit.

Nice.

They're trying to get their timing on it.

Well, minotaur was right in front of him,

and he didn't take advantage of the opportunity,

but he did there.

Minotaur needs to respect that hammer.

They have to be very careful there.

They don't want a direct hit to their drum.

Oh, man.

Kenny, are you surprised daniel freitas

is attacking from the front as much as he is?

I am a little bit. He's taking a risk.

If that hammer gets stuck in a wheel or in their weapon,

that could be catastrophic for them.

Now minotaur looking to reload.

That got daniel freitas determined to get underneath

shatter and deliver a kill shot

but shatter doing a nice job of holding him off.

Well, at this point, that hammer really isn't firing very fast,

chris, so I think they're probably safe

to attack from the front at this point.

Here comes minotaur.

Minotaur chewing now on nice angles,

and he's got shatter pinned against the rails.

Oh, they try to let the pulverizer

do some damage as well.

-Oh! -Oh, no.

Is that the front of the pulverizer again?

Minotaur just ripped the tip of the pulverizer

clean off with that shot.

That drum is mean. Whoo!

You can hear that drum spinner

with that jet-sounding propulsion. Wow.

Closing in on a minute and minotaur sends

shatter into the rails.

He does a little welding as a side job.

Yeah. Minotaur doing some work on

shatter right now, chris -- -oh!

There's the biggest hit of the match,

and I'm not so sure

shatter can recover from this, kenny.

I don't think they're gonna be able

to self-right after that knockout shot,

and they're gonna count it off.

7, 6, 5...

Minotaur with a huge hit!

...4...

And the bull from brazil will once again be victorious.

Knockout!

kenny, we were both surprised

that minotaur showed such little caution in attacking

shatter with that big hammer looming.

Yeah, I mean, clearly minotaur's game plan was to stay on