BattleBots

Robots, activate.

Hi, everybody, and welcome to "battlebots," the show that

lives out your childhood dreams, if your dreams were

watching two robots beat each other

into smoldering heaps of metal.

I'm chris rose.

And speaking of doing a lot of damage, joining me

is former ufc punisher and analyst kenny florian.

Thanks, chris.

As we move closer to the world championship tournament,

the stakes continue to skyrocket.

Every bout tonight has tournament implications.

Some bots are on the brink of making the bracket,

and tonight's fight is do or die.

Others are almost a lock, so they face a dilemma.

How much risk will they take to get

a better seed, knowing one bad hit could

wreak havoc on their season?

And for the rest, it's playing for pride

and letting it all hang out as a potential spoiler,

and maybe make a loud enough statement to shock

the selection committee.

We have an appetite for destruction,

and the table is set.

Let's see the menu.

Tonight's high-stakes fight card...

It's back to the future as the technological wonder

that is chomp meets the high-impact spinner hijinx.

And for hijinx captain jen herchenroeder,

not only are her playoff hopes on the line.

She also has a chance to claim a victory over her idol in chomp

captain zoe stephenson.

We may need an exorcism after this one.

Witch doctor, a finalist last season,

couldn't have had a worse start...

Two losses, no wins.

Tonight may be the one remaining chance to stay alive.

Standing in their way and looking to play spoiler

is the undefeated slammow!

Captain craig danby didn't mince words.

He told us, "this will be the biggest match of my career."

And in tonight's main event, two killers.

Two wins apiece, both looking to stay perfect.

The deadly snake from the mile high state, copperhead

takes on the battle-tested beast from brazil, black dragon.

But first, we're serving up a good one in our opening bout.

Captain shrederator versus shatter!

Two bruisers, each with a 1-1 record.

This ought to be a heck of a fight.

Only one way to find out.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Faruq, let's get this show started.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's robot fighting time!

In the blue square, it's red, white, and blue,

and it's about to make a scrap heap out of you.

It's the unstoppable spinner here to eat you for dinner,

captain shrederator!

Knocked out by lock-jaw

and then a ko of axe backwards.

Brian nave is starting to regain that confidence.

Definitely.

This is a real crossroads moment for this team.

Captain shrederator has been plagued by reliability issues

for years now, but a win tonight over a tough team like shatter!

Could launch them into the tournament

and do wonders for their reputation.

A loss or breakdown would do exactly the opposite.

As brian would say, this is a spin to win-or-go-home

fight for captain shrederator.

Spin to win!

In the red square, with a bright neon

color scheme, he's incredibly flashy

and the most dangerous vehicle from new york

since they invented the taxi!

It's shatter!

Well, check it out...

A very different look for the usually shiny shatter!

What gives, kenny florian?

Different is right, chris.

After shatter's controversial lost

a malice in its last fight, adam wrigley

is pulling out all the stops.

He's removed that decorative shattering armor

he's become known for, for fear that it

cost him his valuable damage points

in his only loss of the season.

Adam clearly knows what's at stake in this fight,

and he isn't taking any chances.

Shatter's one of my favorite robots.

It's a great robot... it's reliable, it's maneuverable,

it hits hard.

It's gonna be a good fight for us.

It'll test our reliability 'cause it's probably

gonna be the whole distance.

We're feeling better this year.

The robot seems to be holding better.

For some reason, it isn't spinning as hard

and spinning as fast, and I think that's actually

giving us more reliability.

It's reducing our hit power a little bit,

but sometimes you gotta give up power for reliability

if you're gonna make it to the end.

In this fight, we're going to be

taking a more typical approach, a more conservative approach.

We'll try and slow him down before we

hit him with the hammer.

So we've gotta be really careful,

try to keep them from getting up to full speed if we can.

And if they do, then try to slow them down gradually.

There's just so much power in that shell

when it gets up to speed.

Robots, activate.

Kenny, it sounds like adam wrigley is gonna play

the waiting game in this one.

Yeah, he's clearly

willing to absorb some punishment if it

means he can break shrederator and then

safely let the hammer fly.

Let's see if he can pull it off.

Blue team ready?

Spin to win!

Red team ready?

Spin to lose, buddy.

Shatter!, shrederator...

A loss here, and it's probably time to pack your bags

and go home.

Let the bot battle begin!

Shatter!

Cautiously inching toward shrederator.

Oh!

Shrederator rips a chunk off shatter!

And lands another jab!

Brian nave draws first blood!

Shatter!

Absorbed that punishment and is still looking patient, chris.

The bots doing a little tango.

Oh!

And shrederator dropped another bomb on shatter!

Adam wrigley has gotta be careful he

doesn't spot brian nave too many points here to start, kenny!

Yeah, clearly adam has

a lot of confidence in shatter!

Oh!

Another pop by shrederator!

Team shatter! Is committed

to this strategy, chris.

They want to try and break shrederator

before they drop the hammer.

But you're right, shrederator is racking up points here.

And any one of these shots could rattle shatter's internals

and end this flight.

We're about a minute into the fight.

Whoa!

Biggest hit of the match!

And captain shrederator's still spinning.

I don't think they want to be over to the side of that box,

though.

The recoil is always the danger with a full body

spinner in where it ends up and if it's still working

after a major hit, even one in which it dished

out some serious punishment.

Shrederator a little out of control here.

Ok!

There's the hammer from shatter!

Uh-oh.

Oh!

And a wild swing!

This is where captain shrederator

has to attack, though!

Except it's smoking!

It's smoking!

So now, for the first time, captain shrederator's

having trouble moving around.

Oh no!

Smoke pouring out of their bot!

This is a perfect time

for shatter! To get a hammerhead hit in, and it does!

Well, the patience

now is paying off for shatter!

They're slowing down, and their strategy is being executed

perfectly at this point.

As predicted, captain shrederator slowing down,

chris.

Adam wrigley called his shot,

and now shatter! Has the opening it was looking for.

Oh!

Oh.

Oh, another one!

Kenny, the big question here is, can

shatter! Dig itself out of the hole it's in on the scorecards?

Definitely has some work to do!

And shrederator backed up against the screws

is a bad spot for it.

The hammerhead once, twice, three, four!

Do we have more?

There's definitely little pieces of shrederator

all over the box!

Shatter!

Is storming back, chris!