BattleBots

Robots, activate.

Welcome back to "battlebots" and what a season so far.

It has been a roller coaster ride

of some serious upsets and exciting new robots.

And we're just getting started.

And there's nobody I'd rather be doing it with than

ufc legend and a robot fighting analyst, kenny florian.

Chris, thank you very much.

So let's kick off another night

of over-the-top robot bashing insanity.

It sounds like a plan, my man.

Let's take a look at the fight card.

We've got an all star lineup of "battlebots" rookies

and veterans alike

looking to get the season started off with a bang.

Tonight, we'll see the return of one of the hardest-hitting

hammer bots in robot fighting history.

John reid is back with beta.

Yeah, chris, it's been four long years

since we've seen this legendary bot.

And tonight he'll get back in the box to face victor soto.

And one of the most dangerous horizontal spinners

on the planet rotator.

We'll also see the screaming goddess

versus the angry toddler as valkyrie

takes on a tantrum.

Now in its third year of competition,

builder leanne cushing feels like she finally has

valkyrie totally dialed in.

And she's hoping it brings her glory

as she faces off against aren hill's tantrum.

It's one of the sturdiest bots in this competition.

This thing can take a punch and deliver one, too.

And all that action is leading up

to tonight's absolutely electric main event.

It's gruff versus hypershock.

This is a battle between a couple of teams

looking to prove that this season

they are two of the top contenders for the giant nut.

Gruff is a fearless firebreather,

still smarting from his razor close match

with tombstone last season, known for his aggressive,

some would say, gruff driving

plan is to bring the match right to his opponent.

And hypershock is a "battlebots" veteran.

In a main event fight last season,

they nearly took the bite out of bite force.

When he's on his game, hypershock can go

wheel the wheel with some of the best bots in the world.

When he's not, it's gotten robot

guts spilled all over the battle box floor.

We'll see which hypershock shows up tonight, chris.

For more, let's send it back to our eyes and ears in the pits,

jenny taft.

Will bales and hypershock are literally at it again.

They are still building their bot,

and this is a race to the start,

as it always is, for hypershock,

some of their parts were late to come in.

They're still working on the robot behind us.

Yes, they're still working, guys.

But will told me this about gruff.

He said sam is a good driver.

I expect this fight go to the very end.

I mean, look at gruff, this thing is built like a tank.

I had a chance to talk to sam.

He told me that he's excited about his two flame throwers,

a bit concerned about the drive train.

But how about this dynamic in the pit?

These guys are side by side.

There are no secrets here. - Thank you, jenny.

We'll keep an eye on hypershock as the night progresses.

But we start things off right now with copperhead

and gigabyte.

So that we send it on over to faruq.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's robot fighting time!

In the blue square,

this is a full-body spinner it's totally true,

with more bite than a tiger in joe exotic's zoo.

Hits you so hard it will make your bot sting,

proclaim itself the new tiger king.

Hey, there, all you cool cats and kits.

It's gigabyte!

gigabyte 4-4 all time, it's got three knockouts,

it's been knocked out three times.

Jenny, we know these full-body spinners

can dish out the damage,

but at times they can be their own worst enemy as well.

That's right. This will be john mladenik's

third season with gigabyte.

And he's upgraded the robot with a new and improved shell

and a shock resistant motor.

He's hoping to avoid some of the self-inflicted wounds

that have been its achilles heel.

in the red square, this bot's one of our best,

but I know what you're thinking,

the best copperheads on the penny,

and his name is abe lincoln.

Well, let's grab a coin and play a game.

You choose a side, flip it up and catch it.

Heads, he wins tails, you die.

It's copperhead!

zach goff and copperhead two and three a year ago,

this thing could pack a punch, it can take one as well.

Yeah, and he believes in this first fight

is really going to define whether his bot is legit or not.

Zach told us he doubled the power

of that drum speed out in front,

gets to speed in four seconds instead of the seven or eight

that it took a year ago.

And chris, if he can get this bot to work the way he wants,

he believes he's got a top eight bot.

We did all sit and watch all five fights

that we can find for the last season of.

He has bigger exposed. I like the big expose reels

because if we hit him and he spins

and he gets more hits from the shell,

we can knock wheels off or tweak those wheels.

And once we do that, I think that's over.

So what we've done for this gigabyte match

is welded on a new front wedge piece

that kind of ties the force together.

And it'll make it a lot less likely to break open

one of our side rails like you saw in the kronos

fight from last year. Now, I noticed

they actually increased the height of their teeth,

so they're not going to be hitting low anymore.

Kind of gave us a nice little grab bar

because it's right at the right for us

to catch a tooth and send them through the air.

So I'm kind of wondering why they did that,

but maybe they'll have some more surprises for us.

Robots, activate.

Rose: You can see copperhead has a couple of mini snakes

slithering around down there.

We'll see if those nuisance bots can distract gigabyte.

A few seasons ago, zach goff made it to the quarter finals.

So what does 2020 have in store?

Well, chris, both of these bots have the potential

to move into that elite class of teams this season.

Both have a lot to prove.

Blue team, ready.

red team, ready.

Let the bot battle begin! And oh!

Big-time box rush by copperhead

and the self-righting mechanism on gigabyte is now off

oh. That is amazing!

Without that attachment, gigabyte is now

driving blind, chris.

That was their directional indicator.

The floor is ice.

Both these teams are having trouble

with traction on the battle box floor.

I think it was a big mistake.

Gigabyte stayed over close to the edge of the box there,

chris, but can comprehend take advantage,

gigabyte still spinning,

swatting away those nuisance bots,

but in big trouble

and trying to line them up for another big shot.

that was a massive hit!

The shell is off of gigabyte. This fight is over.

This is unbelievable.

The box might be over two.

We've got glass shards all over the box.

We've got gigabyte's head in one area

it's body in another.

Unbelievable! Somebody call the ame!

That happened right in front of us

gigabyte's head is gone. I'm glad we still have our heads.

Whoa. We are going to have to take that

to the battlebots morgue.

Gigabyte is knocked out, winner is copperhead.

An unbelievable performance by copperhead.

[imitating speaking over p.A. System] we're going to need cleanup in aisle six, please,

aisle six. We have glass shards. Thank you.

kenny, you said, do you think gigabyte made a mental error?

Yeah, I mean, I thought they were way

too close to the edge of the box.

I thought they should have been positioned

at the center of the box.

They were kind of a sitting duck there.

Copperhead once it got control over their bot,

they went in for the kill.

And here's that kill shot right there,

right into your living room, folks.

Unbelievable. There goes the head.

There goes some lights in the battle box. What a shot.

If you blinked, you missed it.

That's how much energy is inside that battle box.

Copperhead, what a beast.

We talked about the amount of energy

that would be on display inside the battle box you saw it.

zach goff.

Zach, what is it like to decapitate another robot?

Feels good, it feels great.

This was the match that we were all scared about.

It kind of sets our trajectory, I think,

for the rest of the fights.

So I'm so stoked that that, god just came right off, didn't it?