BattleBots

Robots activate!

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the final countdown,

leave it all on the table, tournament selection episode of BattleBots.

I'm Chris Rose, joined as always by UFC legend

and the best damned robot combat analyst in the entire world,

say hello to Kenny Florian.

Thanks, Chris. Tonight is do or die,

because the final spots in this year's tournament are on the line.

These teams have to leave it all on the box,

or they may walk out of the arena with a difficult seeding,

or worse, their BattleBots dreams in the rear-view mirror.

That's right, our machine-melting, bot-busting season

has all been building up to this.

It's the final qualifying fight card,

and at the end of the night, we will show you the tournament bracket

and announce who's in and who's out

of the 2021 BattleBots world championship.

The historic single-elimination competition is where legends are made,

as the world's top teams go head to head

for a chance to hoist the most geometrically correct trophy in all of sports,

the giant nut.

Now, there are only 32 spots available,

and so far, 25 teams are sporting records with at least two wins.

You have to imagine we'll see them in the tournament,

which means there are precious few spots left up for grabs.

Now, bots that ended their season at one and two,

like last year's top seed, Hydra,

Aren't necessarily out, but they are certainly on the tournament bubble.

And that brings us to tonight's fight card.

These seven matchups

will help determine the final spots in this year's bracket.

That's right, Chris.

Of the 14 bots fighting tonight, ten are 1-1.

For those teams, that means it's win and you're in.

We'll get into each matchup as the night goes on,

but we have a high-stakes brawl on deck to kick things off.

Justin Marple, and the viciously violent Bloodsport,

will try to hunt down and destroy

the fastest robot in the field, Claw Viper.

The winner secures their spot in the round of 32.

You guys ready?

Faruq, take it away!

Ladies and gentlemen,

are you ready? It's robot-fighting time!

In the red square,

when his bar crushes you, you'll land with a thud.

You'll be dead, but he may be positive we can donate your blood.

Who does he wanna face?

Don't even sweat it, his blood type's o negative,

which means anybody can get it.

Give it up for Bloodsport!

Here's Justin Marple and Bloodsport

looking to punch their way into the tournament with a big win tonight.

You like the blade choice for this one, Kenny?

I do. At 48 inches, this is Bloodsport's longest bar,

and it's designed to carve out chunks of an opponent's armor.

The extra reach should come in handy tonight, though,

because for Claw Viper to attack, they need to get close to Bloodsport.

So, Justin Marple just needs to get spun up before that happens.

In the blue square,

let's get to the next fight. I know you all wanna.

This bot's from Seattle, the home of nirvana.

Come as you are, and he'll kick your behind.

When it's your turn to face him, you'll say, "never mind."

When the lights go on, he's more dangerous.

It's Claw Viper!

Team Claw Viper.

Captain Kevin Milczewski on the right there, with the goatee.

Knocked out the rookie, pardon my French, and got KO'd by black dragon.

How do they matchup with Bloodsport, Kenny?

Well, they need a win to get in the round of 32,

and this matchup is made for Claw Viper.

They're one of the few bots quick enough

to actually track down and control Bloodsport.

However, Claw Viper's arms are made from UHMW plastic,

so, if Bloodsport's able to spin up,

we're looking at a warm knife-through-butter situation here.

Tonight's match we're gonna use a traditional, uh, just two wedgelets in the front.

We did play around with some forks,

but we think it might just be... It might not allow us to self-right.

We've never really fought anyone like this before

so, it's gonna be an interesting challenge.

They are a really fast-grabbing robot.

It's gonna be a challenging, uh, driving match.

We think we're gonna beat Bloodsport, because our armor is shock mounted to the robot.

It's not direct-attached.

We're gonna have to take a hit from him, to stop his blade,

but it's not directly connected to our electronics or motors.

There's things that can give, flex, and keep it from breaking our robot.

So, we can come back for another hit and suplex him just like everybody else.

Robots activate!

And you can see claw vipers' minibot, hatchling there.

Kenny, they think it could be a real factor tonight, huh?

Yeah, it's lower than Bloodsport's blade and heavily magnetized.

So, they think they can actually use it to get under their opponent,

and set up Claw Viper for a grab and suplex.

Big dreams for a little bot.

Make sure you've got the right direction set.

Blue team ready?

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Bloodsport.

Claw Viper.

A ticket to the world championship tournament is on the line.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Let the bot battle begin!

Both bots circling around.

Whoa! The minibot hatchling gets slapped into the screws.

It's chopped and claw back just lost an arm.

Garbage grappling system, I believe, Kenny.

That's his kick, Chris.

Oh, gosh! This movie may no longer be suitable

for children under the age of 13.

Yeah, that grabber is gone.

Not a good way to start here.

Claw Viper reduced to being a push bot here.

Still has those front forks.

That is bad, bad news.

That means he's gotta stay at Bloodsport,

before Bloodsport fires up that weapon to full capacity.

- But that's already happened. -

Boom! More of it just hit one of the lights.

- It's on the bar. Oh, gosh! -

Oh, my goodness.

He is chopping Claw Viper to bits, piece by piece.

Huge head-on collision, but great wedgework by Claw Viper.

You know Claw Viper is very fast, but Bloodsport isn't slow, man.

Its arm's going around pretty quickly as well.

- But here comes - Claw Viper... -

Pushing Bloodsport, driving it into the corner,

saying, "I don't need that stinking lifter to mix it up with you, pal."

Great bit of control there.

Wow! What a great job by Claw Viper,

almost knocking Bloodsport out of the arena.

Kevin staying very aggressive with that wedge.

Trying to take out that primary weapon of Bloodsport.

And Kenny, even though that grappler is gone,

Claw Viper's speed has become a weapon.

Yeah, no question about it. And Chris, it looks to me

like Kevin is purposely giving Bloodsport space to spin up now.

Maybe looking to try and break that weapon

by upending the bot at full speed.

Closing in on the one-minute Mark.

That top bomber now on Claw Viper is being chewed away.

You can see the electronics exposed there.

But look at this.

Claw Viper right on top of Bloodsport, trying to take him for a ride.

Does so into the screws.

Claw Viper staying aggressive and showing some insane durability.

Can Claw Viper overcome the loss of its primary weapon?

Always a major contributing factor on the judges' scorecards,

and remember, a spot in this year's tournament is on the line.

Come on! Give me more!

Thirty seconds to go.

Another big shot from Claw Viper.

Bloodsport has taken out Claw Viper's lifter, its minibot,

and peeled back that top armor

and its spinner is still cranking, Kenny Florian.

Yeah, Claw Viper doing everything it can to try and break that weapon,

but no luck so far.

There's ten seconds to go in this.

So, the bots will go the distance.

Absolutely impressive performance by both robots.

With so much on the line.

Oh! All right. So, now we turn things over to the judges.

All three are former BattleBots participants.

You got Derek young, Jason Bardis and Lisa Winter.

That was nuts!

Kenny, this fight did not disappoint.

No. Both drivers really went for it here.

That horizontal spinning blade from Bloodsport... ah!

Off with his head.

You know they say to kill a snake you gotta cut off the head?

That's not true, apparently.

Not in BattleBots it's not.

My goodness, the durability of Claw Viper was something to watch here.

That shock-mounted armor really paid off.

Claw Viper able to take a ton of punishment from Bloodsport.

Even without its primary weapon,

Claw Viper used its speed to keep the pressure on.

It nearly knocked Bloodsport over the rails and out of the arena.

Somehow, Bloodsport righted itself and was actually ready for more.

Yeah, both bots so aggressive in this one,

but this really was a nightmare matchup for Bloodsport.

Claw Viper dictated the action for long stretches,

but when you consider the loss of that primary weapon,

Bloodsport is probably going to win the damage category.

Will that be enough to put them over the top?

Let's find out. Here's Faruq.

The results from the judges are in.

The winner by unanimous decision is...

Bloodsport!

All right, Justin, you can exhale.

Were you sweatin' it out?