BattleBots

Robots, activate.

Welcome to "battlebots." hope you cracked open

a cold beverage at home

and you're ready for some carnage.

We've seen some extreme robot warfare already this year,

but tonight the stakes are raised.

That's right, chris. In the battlebots world,

the season gets late pretty quickly.

If you've already lost one bout this season, it's make or break.

It's do or die. It's go big or go home.

Alright, okay, okay, okay, we got it now, pal.

Sorry, I just... I love this sport.

Alright. I'm going to tell you who else loves it.

End game, malice, all the other teams

that are looking to go to 2-0 tonight.

If you come out of this one undefeated,

you're sitting pretty when it comes

to cracking that tournament field of 32.

Yeah, it's time for some bots to establish dominance

and others to be pushed to the brink.

It's put up or shut up time.

Managed to sneak one more in, huh, didn't you?

Sorry. Listen,

there's a lot on the line tonight,

so let's take a look at the fight card.

After a year away from the battlebox, the game-changing

zoe stephenson is back with a much bigger

and badder chomp.

At a massive 500 pounds,

it's one of the biggest bots we have ever seen.

And for their lifter opponent, gamma 9,

let's just hope they've been seriously hitting the gym.

The kids from wpi, ribbot, hope to leapfrog madcatter

to go to 2-0.

And kenny, both of these teams

may not be getting the respect that they deserve.

I think so, chris, david jin and martin mason

have both been here before.

They both have experience in the box.

And yet, if vegas was putting down odds,

both of these guys would probably be underdogs.

And in tonight's main event, after shocking the bot world

with a knockout win over tombstone,

the killer kiwis, end game,

are looking for a repeat performance.

Chris, it's a tough act to follow against

yet another deadly horizontal spinner in bloodsport.

Fresh off of a convincing knockout,

the whirling warrior looks to do

what tombstone couldn't on the path to 2-0.

And speaking of tombstone,

we're kicking this party off with a bang

because the man himself, ray billings,

is about to storm the box

and attempt to avenge his 0-1 start, kenny.

That's right. Ray is coming for blood

against rookie bot slap box

and for brave young builder bryce yankauskas,

he has the chance to open his battlebots career

by sending tombstone to a shallow 0-2 grave.

Alright, enough talking.

Let's watch some robot fighting.

Faruq!

Ladies and gentlemen, it's robot-fighting time!

In the blue square, a tisket, a tasket,

he'll put you in a casket.

One by one, he has broken his foes,

one question about that coffin...

You want it open or closed?

It's tombstone!

The king of chaos himself, ray billings and tombstone,

backs against the wall early after a loss to end game.

I'm not sure what's scarier, kenny, ray right now

or when you miss out on lunch.

Chris, missing lunch is no laughing matter.

But you're absolutely right.

When you get a guy like ray billings behind the eight ball,

you have to imagine he's coming out with guns ablazing.

He knows he can't drop to 0-2.

So it's gonna be trouble for anyone who stands in his way.

In the red square, from indiana, in a small town called knox,

this bot has the power of a bear and the speed of a fox.

It's time for punishment.

So set back your clocks, it's slap box.

14-year-old bryce yankauskas

and his brand-new bot slap box, his dad, dominic, there

is also a member of team gemini,

and his little sister, onika, drives the mini-bot.

The whole family is here.

It's definitely a family affair.

As you can see, the bot is decorated

with the slapped-on handprints of the whole yankauskas family.

With that lifter as his primary weapon,

bryce is looking to get around the blade of tombstone

and flip it on to its side.

This next fight is important

since I started out with a loss,

I have to get wins from this point forward

to get into the tournament.

So I absolutely have to come away from this with a victory.

The way slap box is built

with the exposed tires on the outside,

I'm hoping to get a hold of one of the tires

and see if I can yank it off. That'll be my strategy.

When I found out I was facing ray billings,

I was thinking, "why me?"

my first fight ever with this bot,

still trying to get used to it, and ray's a veteran.

He knows what he's doing.

My strategy just dominate the whole time.

Get him from the beginning. Don't let him go.

Even if we win our next fight,

we still have to dominate into the bracket of 32

to show that we're here for a reason.

Robots, activate.

And now time to bring in former-botbuilder-turned-analyst

pete abrahamson, the bot whisperer.

Pete, how worried is ray going into this one tonight?

Well, ray was having a pretty good look at slap box.

He was noticing things like the armor is rubber mounted

but not bolted through.

So he's pretty sure there's going to be quite a few pieces

scattering about this arena.

So we may want to be ready to dive behind our desks

because I have a feeling slap box is not

going to be duck durable like they believe it is.

Blue team, ready.

Red team, ready.

Ray billings licking his chops

as he looks to make a meal out of the rookie.

Can young bryce shock the world in his "battlebots" debut?

Let the bot battle begin!

Here comes slap box... oh!

He's underneath tombstone!

Keeping the pressure on!

Oh!

Slap box sends tombstone flying!

This crew is showing absolutely no fear.

Yeah, but both of its wedges are gone right now.

All that remains is the lifter,

but it's still working. That's a good sign.

Yeah, but bryce yankauskas now has a problem.

He's made tombstone very, very mad,

and as you can see, his mom is definitely concerned

for the well-being of her little baby

against ray billings.

He is literally tearing apart that box piece by piece.

Yeah, well, he's got one tire left.

Kid, can you still move?

Bryce, how many fingers am I holding up?

Oh, my goodness. Dr. Billings' just surgical out there.

Heads up. Whoa! Whoa!

That's what I was after.

Ray does love to play with his food.

Slap box trying to show it still has some mobility left.

He's doing everything possible to move and tombstone

just kind of watching him die.

10, 9... The countdown has started.

Oh, no, look at this,

tombstone's going after the mini-bot!

Please, no, please, no, please, no!

Ah, the grim reaper backs off.

...1, knockout!

And tombstone is headed for win number one.

Now, who's going to clean up that mess?

I say we make the teenagers do it.

You did such a good job.

That was awesome, that was an awesome fight.

Was a good match, it was a good match.

I'll give team slap box some credit,

they weren't afraid, kenny florian.

Yeah, absolutely. They went right at tombstone,

were aggressive right from the get go

and got off to a great start there,

getting underneath tombstone and tried to get tombstone

to essentially kill itself there.

We have seen that before where tombstone has

so much kinetic energy built up that it just knocked itself out.

So you can't blame him for the strategy,

especially from a 14-year-old kid

who's driving this sort of bot for the very first time.

Peter, what'd you think?

Watch this as ray just completely removes

tire after tire after tire.

I mean, that was rough for your very first fight.

I mean, I would definitely not want to have

been that guy doing that. But, wow, this was unbelievable

with how powerful ray's weapon is here.

So team slap box had one of its four tires remaining,

it could just spin in place pretty much.

And then ray, we're sending you a bill.

Why? Because you did that...

Oh! ...To one of our cameras.

You understand we're on a budget here, billings.

Shame on you.

Ray.

Okay, do I have to be charming?

Don't make me be charming, okay?

You're always charming. What do you mean?

Hey, it feels good after the last match,