BattleBots

Robots, activate.

[audience cheering and applauding]

Hey, everybody,

and welcome once again to week two of BattleBots,

the only sport actively precipitating the eventual robot takeover.

Hi, everyone, I'm Chris Rose, joined by UFC legend,

master of cage and screen.

The number one ranked robot fighting analyst in the world,

because of course there is only one.

Say hello to Kenny Florian!

[audience cheering and applauding]

that's right, Chris. It's like we've got a room full of terminators,

but Sarah Connor has the controls.

And speaking of terminators, Kenny,

on deck, we have an incredible sequel to week one

that some say might actually be better than the original.

Terminator 2 is better.

Oh, that's a Matter of opinion.

Ah, it's definitely better.

okay, why don't we get back to the matchups?

Ken, Kenny?

It's just undeniably a better film.

all right. More importantly, we have a vicious lineup of teams fighting to qualify

for the greatest tournament this side of judgment day.

let's take a look at tonight's fight card.

From the big and tall department,

we'll see a clash of the titans,

as the nearly six-foot tall mammoth

squares off against the biggest horizontal spinner in the competition,

hiJinx!

we've also got the moment

that BattleBots universe has been waiting a year for.

It's the return of the little bot that could,

Rusty.

this is the cutest robot we've ever seen,

and it will not die!

everyone's favorite junkyard bot

will kick off its sophomore season against Aren Hill's

game-changing new flipper,

blip.

and it all leads up to a main event

that could potentially be a preview of this year's championship.

We'll see Bloodsport

trying to carve up last season's runner up,

Whiplash!

that's right, it's one of the hardest hitting bots...

whoa!

...Against one of the best drivers in the world.

And after falling just short of the giant nut last season,

Matt Vasquez tells us

he has unfinished business to attend to.

but we're kicking the night off

with a matchup between a couple of 250-pound monster trucks.

Greg Gibson

and the legendary yeti are back out of retirement

and ready to rumble with the man,

the myth, the maniac,

Martin Mason and the gritty, kitty,

MadCatter.

You guys ready?

[audience cheering and applauding]

I think they're ready.

Faruq, take it away!

Ladies and gentlemen,

are you ready?

It's robot fighting time!

in the red square,

he's got his game face on.

He's armed and ready.

Enemy's knees weak, their palms are sweaty.

There's vomit on their controller already, bot spaghetti.

You only get one shot to die

at the hands of the yeti!

yeti is back,

but this bot looks like it's been on a diet.

To bring yeti out of retirement,

Greg Gibson teamed up with battlebox veteran

Christian Carlberg,

and together they made some

big changes for its comeback tour.

yeah, you can really see the Christian Carlberg influence here.

Yeti is now about 20% more compact,

still 250 pounds,

just crammed into a smaller package.

But they've also had major power upgrades

so that 40-pound drum

can now actually hit about 25% harder.

in the blue square,

Alice and the queen can paint roses red.

This cat's got one job,

to make robots dead.

He's traveled to the battlebox through looking glasses,

but the one thing he's not through with,

kicking your asses.

It's the metal survivor with the lunatic driver,

MadCatter!

yeah!

ooh, here they come.

Martin Mason,

he's like if "macho man" randy savage had a master's

in mechanical engineering, Kenny.

he's a wild man. Look at him.

And I think one reason Martin is so excited

is this new 48-pound weapon.

It's the most powerful vertical spinner MadCatter has ever had.

Looking for them to test that early and often

against yeti.

we're about to fight yeti,

they've got an experienced build team,

they've got a solid driver,

but you know what? We're going to go in there.

We're going to spin faster.

We're going to drive faster.

We're going to be more aggressive.

We're just going to be more!

They're likely going to be running a vertical disc.

They're... They're fast. They're agile.

I think we'll probably be pretty evenly matched on on the weapon to weapon.

So I think it's going to come down to driving.

Win or lose, it's going to be very hard to... To knock us out.

So if this can turn into a bar brawl, I like our chances.

Yeah.

robots, activate.

a reminder that the new 16x8-foot

upper deck has reshaped the geometry of the battlebox.

It's created potentially deadly short corners,

and launching an opponent up there is a fresh new way to impress the judges.

It can create more contact and potentially

more knockouts this season.

For more on this fight and in particular,

MadCatter's opponent,

our bot whisperer, Pete, what do you have?

Gentlemen, I am predicting a deep run for yeti.

- hmm. - Putting that out - there right now.

Bringing in Christian Carlberg

and his genius ability to take

ten pounds of electronics and fit it into a five-pound bag,

he is going to take yeti,

which still is the same DNA,

and take it further with this new version.

you heard it here first.

Maybe.

well, we are in Vegas.

Anybody know if the casinos are taking bets on robot combat yet?

red team, ready?

- Mash it. - Mash it.

blue team, ready?

that's MadCatter's driver, Calvin Iba, standing next to Martin Mason,

led them to a 3-0 start last season.

let the bot battle begin.

Robots doing a little tango here to start.

Yeti on the attack, but MadCatter gets the low ground out of the gate.

Yeti says, "I don't care. I'm just here to smash!"

this is Greg Gibson's first time

in the box with the new version of yeti.

oh!

Well, it can still pack the punch. My goodness!

And how about yeti looking like an Olympic gymnast there?

well, I'll tell you what, this is exactly what yeti used to do.

They would drive on top of your opponents and smash.

oh! Oh! That's a big one.

it's just amazing to see a 250-pound bot fly in the air.

- My goodness. - and you got to keep - an eye on yeti's weapon.

It is not spinning right now.

Oh, gosh! uh-oh.

There goes one of those tires. That's not good for yeti.

no, that is not a positive development,

as MadCatter hanging back now,

looking to see if yeti had waved that white flag.

no, I think Martin Mason knows who he is dealing with.

We've seen yeti come back

from the dead in previous seasons.

Can it do it here against a devastating bot MadCatter, though?

This is a whole different beast.

and you might be thinking,

"well, if its drum spinner isn't working, it only has three wheels, why keep going?"

well, just in case

something fails on its opponent.

spot on, Chris.

This is what yeti is designed to do.

Be durable, stick and fight,

and be hard to kill. Madcatter can't mess around here. Oh!

that shot has had yeti guts flying all across the battlebox.

Madcatter keeping the pressure on.

Can yeti resurrect itself?

Or is it night, night time?

Madcatter is picking yeti apart, literally, and I think that's going to be it.

seven...

the countdown is on.

Greg Gibson and Christian Carlberg in disbelief.

that's a knockout win! Madcatter.

Martin Mason gets the job done!

yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Kenny, you gotta love the way this fight started.

Both bots were on the attack.

unless the way that both of these bots

matched up, you knew that one was going to get finished.

These guys are so aggressive.

There's so much power

in both of these bots.