Characters / BattleBots – ABC Season 2

BattleBots characters index
Classic Era: Comedy Central seasons 1–5
Revival Era:
ABC seasons: 1 | 2
Discovery seasons: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

---

Champion

Tombstone (#1)

Team: Hardcore Robotics

Driver: Ray Billings

Hometown: Placerville, California

Matches: Black Ice (W/KO), Escape Velocity (W/KO), Brutus (W/KO), beta (W/JD), Yeti (W/JD), Bombshell & Short Fuse (W/KO)

• An Arm and a Leg: Inflicted this in some form on beta, Yeti and Bombshell in sequence in its last three battles. It dislodged the hammer mechanism from beta (with the result being compared to a "trailing broken arm" by the commentators) in the Quarter Finals, tore off Yeti's front tyres in the Semi-Finals, and ultimately capped it off by destroying Bombshell's front left wheels in the Final... shortly followed by the rest of the left-hand side.
• Attack Its Weak Point: This was how it defeated beta in the Quarter-Finals. Despite starting off on the back foot thanks to being repeatedly rammed and shoved around by the British machine, it eventually got flipped over— crucially putting its bar at a high enough height to damage beta's more weakly-armoured top half and hammer mechanism, which allowed it to win the resulting decision.
• Boring, but Practical: In a loose kind of sense. It might not be as fancy or elaborate as some of the designs in the field, nor does it utilize gimmicks such as drones or flamethrowers— but as always, it does what it specializes in (blowing 'bots to bits with the bar) very, very well.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Both of its fights against Black Ice and Escape Velocity were quick— ending with their respective defeats with no effort at all. Brutus proved to be somewhat trickier, but the result was ultimately the same. The title match against Bombshell went much the same way.
• The Dreaded: As always, Tombstone is considered the bot to beat.
• Glass Cannon: Much like last time— the weapon's insanely powerful, but it often takes massive knockback from its own kinetic energy when hitting something that can survive a blow from it.
  • Ultimately averted, though- beta threw it around the box, flipping it over and letting the force of its own weapon send it tumbling away, but Tombstone was completely undamaged— and the titanium plate Ray had attached to the top to protect it from beta's hammer worked as well. Ultimately, the only damage Tombstone sustained in the entire tournament was its weapon chain slipping off against Yeti.
• Kick Them While They're Down: After avoiding it for most of the season due to wanting to minimise the number of repairs on Tombstone between rounds as well as the risk of potentially crippling itself like it did against Bronco, Ray Billings finally got his chance to do this to Bombshell after Tombstone immobilized it in the title match.
  Ray: "YOU WANT MORE?!"
• My Greatest Second Chance: Ray Billings has dreamed of holding the Giant Nut for a long time. This is the season that he finally accomplishes that dream by delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle to Bombshell.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Inflicted this on Bombshell at the end of its title match.
• Not So Above It All: Although Tombstone eventually won the Championship, it did still come quite close to losing to both beta and Yeti in Rounds Four and Five— the former being able to tank its initial shots and ram it all around the arena until Tombstone eventually destroyed its hammer, and the latter actually being able to stop its spinning bar and keep fighting even with two of its wheels ripped off.
• Robot Of Mass Destruction: As one could expect from its reputation.
• Spectacular Spinning: Still maintains the classic spinning bar from its previous appearances— which happens to be one of the deadliest of its kind around. Better armor up against it, or you're going home in pieces.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: In the second season, Ray would use different types (long, short, toothed) of spinning blades for different opponents.

Runner-Up

Bombshell & Short Fuse (#19)*

Team: Team Chaos Corps

Driver: Michael Jeffries

Hometown: Norcross, Georgia

Matches: Complete Control (L/KO^*Wild Card), Cobalt (W/KO), Red Devil (W/JD), Poison Arrow (W/KO), Minotaur (W/KO), Tombstone (L/KO)

• Attack Its Weak Point: How it was able to defeat Cobalt. When its opponent attempted to use the armored rear end to stop their spinning blade, Bombshell adjusted the height of its own horizontal blade to just the right height to rip up Cobalt's tires.
  • It ended up on the opposite end of this thanks to Tombstone in the Final. They tried the same tactic and weapon with the intention of damaging Tombstone's wheels or spinner mechanisms, but they missed on their first attempt- and Tombstone didn't let them have another chance, destroying their wheels before swiftly moving on to the rest of them.
• Blown Across the Room: Since Bombshell's vertical spinner broke in a single hit against Red Devil, everyone was taken off-guard by how devastating it actually was when they used it again against Poison Arrow. Poison Arrow got blown clean out of the Battlebox, dropping in down behind the back of the screws like a slice of bread into a toaster.
• Call-Back: During its fight against Complete Control, it went into the arena with a novelty gift box covering the axe head, a snarky reference to Complete Control's infamous Loophole Abuse against Ghost Raptor the previous year.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Although not so much in the damage stakes due to their vertical spinner weapon breaking early on, it inflicted one of these on Red Devil by equipping a ground-scraping wedge to completely nullify their ability to get underneath, and then ramming and flipping them every which way from there. Alas, it got on the other side of one at Tombstone's spinning bar in the title match.
• Death by Irony: After attempting the same weapon and tactic with which they defeated Cobalt in the title match against Tombstone, they fell exactly the same way as their previous opponent after the #1 Seed destroyed their wheels.
• Death from Above: Short Fuse was an aerial drone equipped with a flamethrower that fired downwards. Unfortunately, it had no effect on the battle, firing a few short bursts of flame that came closer to Bombshell than its opponent, Complete Control, before crashing into the side of the arena.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Many had Minotaur down as the series favourites, especially after it had pulverized several robot combat veterans with loads of experience between them— Photon Storm, Blacksmith, Warhead and Bronco— in the previous four rounds, but Bombshell stunned everyone by knocking them out.
• Kill It with Fire: What Short Fuse was intended for; unfortunately that didn't pan out. Instead, Bombshell got picked up by Complete Control and roasted by the flamethrower built into its clamp.
• Mad Scientist: Michael Jeffries was nicknamed "the Mad Genius" by the commentators because of Bombshell's array of different weapons and the variety of strategies it allowed Jeffries to use.
• My Greatest Second Chance: The foremost example. After convincingly losing its first battle to Complete Control, it was given a wildcard place in the Round of 32 and went on to defeat the highly-fancied Cobalt, fellow underdog Red Devil, legend-killer Poison Arrow, and the much-hyped Minotaur to reach the finals, where it lost to Tombstone.
• Nose Art: The paintjobs on both Bombshell and Short Fuse are very clearly influenced by the artwork often found on World War II-era American fighter planes, most notably the camouflage green colors and stylized shark faces.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Took one from Tombstone after they were immobilized in their final match. By the end of it, the bar spinner weapon was destroyed, and the entire left-hand side was simply gone.
• No-Sell: Alongside their vertical spinner, Bombshell equipped a ground-scraping wedge for fighting Red Devil with in the Round of 16. It worked wonders, allowing them to completely wall Red Devil's attacks— despite its own weapon breaking early on— as it was just too low for their opponent to get underneath.
• Put on a Bus: Short Fuse wasn't seen again after the disasterous first battle against Complete Control, largely since Bombshell equipped its heavier spinner weapons for all subsequent fights in place of the ineffectual axe, which used up too much of the weight allowance to allow Short Fuse to enter. Well, that and it was kind of useless anyway.
• Spectacular Spinning: Two of its four weapon options are spinners: a height-adjustable horizontal spinning blade, which it used to destroy Cobalt's tires in its Round Two battle, and a vertical spinning disc, which it used against Red Devil in the Round of 16, Poison Arrow in the quarter-finals and Minotaur in the semifinals.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Has a massive range of interchangeable weaponry: an axe, an adjustable horizontal spinner, a vertical spinner, and a flipping arm.

Semi-Finalists

Minotaur (#7)

Team: Team Riobotz

Driver: Marco Antonio Meggiolaro

Hometown: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Matches: Photon Storm (W/KO), Blacksmith (W/KO), Warhead (W/KO), Bronco (W/KO), Bombshell & Short Fuse (L/KO)

• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: How they beat Warhead in Round Three. After getting the drum up to speed, Minotaur hit Warhead's spinning dome at just the right angle from underneath, ripping it off and sending it literally flying into the air. Then once its opponent was disarmed, Minotaur knocked Warhead around some more until they eventually flipped it on its side.
• Consolation Prize: Although they didn't win the title, they did win the Most Destructive Robot Award at the end of the series— beating off tough competition from guys like Tombstone, Son of Whyachi and Hypershock in the process.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicted them on Photon Storm and Blacksmith in Rounds One and Two respectively- immobilising the former in two blows (the second time hitting it hard enough to completely rupture its hydraulic system and spill fluid all over the arena), and causing the latter to outright explode into flames. It dismembered Warhead's front end in fairly short order too, arguably more easily than it had its first two opponents, but gave its opponent the option of a more dignified end out of respect for both the robot and team.
• The Dreaded: Has quickly become one in the tournament that's comparable to Tombstone.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Minotaur painted on the robot's top panel has lights for eyes.
• Hell Is That Noise: Whenever its spinning drum spun up to full speed, it made a very loud noise that the commentators likened to a 747 Jumbo Jet taking off.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Only very narrowly averted against Blacksmith; knowing that Blacksmith's floor-scraping front wedge would be problematic, the team attached a pair of low chisel-like scoops to the front of Minotaur, hoping they could get below Blacksmith's ground clearance and flip it over. Unfortunately, at first they not only failed, but by sticking out of the front the blades actually prevented Minotaur from reaching Blacksmith's chassis with its spinning drum! Fortunately for them, persistence paid off and they were eventually able to get under the wedge, tear it off, and eviscerate Blacksmith from there.
• Lightning Bruiser: Extraordinarily fast and very well-armored, with a devastating weapon.
• Meaningful Name: Like its mythological namesake, Minotaur pursues its opponents relentlessly, overpowers them, and from there tears them to pieces with sheer brutality.
• Mercy Kill: Inflicted this on Warhead in Round Three. After tearing off their opponent's spinning dome and causing considerable damage to the front end with only a few big hits from the drum, they settled for knocking it on its side to defeat it as opposed to outright destroying it like its previous two opponents.
• Moveset Clone: Remarkably similar to Poison Arrow in almost every way other than that it's slightly bigger and doesn't use a drone. The massive difference in seeding (#7 vs. #27) was likely due to the comparative impressiveness in which they won their fights.
• Off with His Head!: This was how they defeated Warhead in Round Three of the competition, tearing off the British veteran's spinning dome weapon with their drum before eventually flipping it.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: Named after the half-man, half-bull Minotaur of Greek Mythology. Though instead of being sacrificed seven youths and seven maidens each year, it eats robots each time it fights.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Causes complete chaos whenever it's in the ring.
• Screaming Warrior: After knocking out Photon Storm, Blacksmith and Bronco, team captain Marco turned to the camera and roared in triumph. The only ones he didn't do it against were Warhead and Bombshell— in Warhead's case out of respect for the team and robot, and in Bombshell's case because they lost.
• Shocking Elimination: Against Bombshell. One of Minotaur's wheels stopped working, but kept moving thanks to the gyroscopic resonance and the driver's insane skills. Unfortunately, once both wheels came back down on the ground, Minotaur couldn't move, speculated to be because the body had been damaged in such a way that the last functioning wheel couldn't gain any traction.
• Spectacular Spinning: Minotaur's spinning front drum is one of the most powerful weapons of its class ever seen, capable of dismembering robots with shocking ease.
• Sudden Name Change: In other circuits, Minotaur is known as Touro but was changed here. Most likely it was done to avoid confusion with the legendary Toro from the original series.
• Token Minority: The first and currently only representative of Brazil— and by extension, South America— in BattleBots.
• Worthy Opponent: In their post-match interview in Round Three, team captain Marco expressed how much he liked their opponent Warhead, avoiding his usual roaring in favor of commending them on a good fight and expressing regret on having to damage it as badly as they had.

Yeti (#12)

Team: Team Yeti

Driver: Gregory Gibson

Hometown: Wasilla, Alaska

Matches: Lock-Jaw (W/JD), Lucky (W/KO), Mega Tento (W/KO), Chomp (W/KO), Tombstone (L/JD)

• And Then What?: As Yeti was a reserve, Greg Gibson didn't expect to be fighting and didn't bring any spare parts. After getting through to the Round of 32, they had to quickly cobble together a new drum, as the old one had been shredded by Lockjaw's teeth, and apparently borrowed a set of used wheels from Bronco, one of which promptly fell off during the battle against Lucky. This problem grew rapidly ridiculous as Yeti progressed further into the tournament than Greg had even dreamed possible.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Greg Gibson's sole tactic in the early rounds. Once he reached the quarter-finals he realized that a little more strategy was necessary.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Not just named after the latter, but it's armour also had a picture of an actual cyborg-like yeti adorned onto it
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivered one to Lucky in Round 2 despite losing a wheel early on- tearing off the flipper arm with its drum, before immobilizing it by attacking the main chassis repeatedly.
  • Delivered an even faster one to Mega Tento in the Round of 16, damaging a wheel, getting it stuck on the screws, and then smashing the wheel and its single remaining eye to pieces.
• Determinator: Proved itself to be this in its battle against Tombstone in the Semi-Finals. Despite Tombstone disabling the drum weapon and tearing off its front two wheels, it carried on fighting, and even took the eventual champion to a judges' decision after Tombstone's spinner lost its drive chain.
• Glass Cannon: Wields a powerful pair of weapons, but doesn't have much armor to protect it when things go south.
  • Averted during its battle against Chomp, where Greg removed the arms in favour of an armoured top plate, which probably saved Yeti's entire run when Chomp scored several solid hits on it.
• My Greatest Second Chance: The captain had previously made robots for Battlebots, but his previous attempts were failures. He sees Yeti as his chance to make up for those mistakes. The bot itself counts, as it originally didn't qualify before being let in as a reserve and proceeding to make it to the semi-finals.
• Spectacular Spinning: Wields a powerful vertical spinning drum for a weapon, complemented by a set of long lifting spikes that are strong enough to raise Yeti's own front end off the ground if need be.
• Strategy, Schmategy: At first. Greg Gibson remarked before the fight against Mega Tento that while most competitors would adapt their robot's set-up and tactics before each fight, his sole tactic was to just go out there and hit stuff with the drum, even comparing it to a video game player button-mashing. After that fight, Gibson decided that button-mashing wouldn't work at this stage and subverted the trope, bolting on extra armor to protect against Chomp's axe and extending the length of Yeti's forks to try and tip Tombstone over.

Quarter-Finalists

beta (#9)

Team: Team Hurtz

Driver: John Reid

Hometown: Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Matches: Lucky (W/JD), Overhaul (W/KO), Nightmare (W/KO), Tombstone (L/JD)

• Achilles' Heel: Its lightly-armoured top half proved to be this, with both Nightmare and Tombstone attacking it to disable the hammer and quickly deal lots of damage in one go. It wasn't enough to outright kill it, but it did cost it the decision against Tombstone in the Quarter-Finals.
• all lowercase letters: It's beta, not Beta.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: After having their hammer immobilized by Nightmare in Round Three, beta took a different approach to beat the veteran- getting underneath its side with the wedge, ramming them into the wall, and from there exploiting Nightmare's infamous Achilles' Heel by flipping it onto its side.
• Carry a Big Stick: It's armed with an electric-driven hammer so powerful that just firing it causes the robot to leap into the air, forcing them to use powerful electromagnets to hold it to the floor. This is actually what kept it from appearing in Series 5.0, as the magnets tore up the floor panels and prevented beta from moving under its own power.
  • They were removed for this version of the machine, allowing beta to flip itself around with the power of its own weapon on a regular basis— and even if they did still have them, they would likely been ineffective on the Battlebox floor, which was coated with a thick layer of rubberised paint.
• Dance Battler: After knocking out Overhaul, John Reid drove beta out into the middle of the battlebox and fired the hammer while spinning at full power, causing beta to flip itself 540 degrees through the air! Considering how prone beta is to flipping itself in battle, this had to have been deliberate, as a form of victory dance.
• Determinator: Definitely proved itself to be this in its final two battles against Nightmare and Tombstone, carrying on fighting after their opponents had destroyed the hammer mechanism with their powerful spinners. In the former case it was able to come from behind and win— and in the latter, despite losing, it gave Tombstone arguably its toughest battle in this season's competition.
• Down to the Last Play: In Round Three, it defeated Nightmare almost literally at the last second, by tipping it over onto its side and shoving it into the corner, where it was counted out with literally two seconds left of the fight.
• The Klutz: While they were wheeling beta up the ramp into the battlebox for its first battle against Lucky, the robot actually slipped off the trolley and dropped onto the floor, which was pretty embarrassing. Fortunately it didn't turn out to be a bad omen for the battle and the robot performed well. This holds true in battle, as beta is prone to flipping itself over with each swing.
  • At the start of their second battle (against Overhaul) they even flipped themselves over during their opening dance, causing John Reid to grin sheepishly.
• Made of Iron: Its heavily-armored side skirts were definitely this, being able to tank Tombstone with relative ease and keep it under control for a good portion of the fight. However, its much lighter-armoured top (that protected the hammer mechanism) ended up being its downfall when Tombstone destroyed it, allowing it to take the win via the Judges' Decision on damage.
  • According to Team Hurtz, a steel cover was in the works for spinning designs like Tombstone and Nightmare, but it wasn't finished on time.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Was originally due to compete all the way back in season 5 of the Comedy Central show, but dropped out because the team couldn't get it working. It was then supposed to compete in Season One of the ABC revival, where it would've fought Tombstone in Round 1. However, it had to drop out and was replaced by Counter Revolution after customs lost a 25kg bag of important parts en-route to shipping it to the United States.
  • The missing parts were safely recovered after filming however, so they're back again this time— and even got the chance for a proper fight against Tombstone in the Quarter Finals.
• Punny Name: As mentioned above, it's pronounced "bee-tah", not "bay-tah". That is exactly what it does to its opponents with its massive Hammer.
• Expy: Originally designed as one for Team Hurtz' much loved heavyweight robot Killerhurtz, and was due to replace it in the final season of the Comedy Central show before fate intervened.
• Worthy Opponent: John Reid is this to Tombstone driver Ray Billings — When their fight was over, Billings actually hugged him for going the full three minutes with Tombstone, and praised beta and the fight extensively on Reddit.

Bronco (#2)

Team: Inertia Labs

Driver: Reason Bradley

Hometown: Sausalito, California

Matches: Blacksmith (W/KO), Chrome Fly (W/KO), Razorback (W/KO), Minotaur (L/KO)

• Achilles' Heel: The wheels were left unprotected, which allowed Minotaur to attack from the side. Little different from how Tombstone defeated them.
• An Arm and a Leg: This is how they ended up losing to Minotaur in the Quarter-Finals. Although they were able to fend off the Brazilian machine's drum for a little while, they ultimately ended up having all of their tires and wheels stripped off by Minotaur, leaving them completely unable to move.
  • What's worse is that before the fight, Inertia Labs predicted that this specifically was how Minotaur could beat them. They simply hoped that by having six wheels, Bronco could still move if one or two was taken off. They just weren't expecting all of them to go.
• Badass Back: Defeated Chrome Fly by armoring up the backside and ramming directly into Chrome Fly's blade, breaking them with ease. This gets taken to an even bigger extreme against Razorback, where they negated their drum spinner with their backside and them flipped it on its side while completely backwards the whole time.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Beat Chrome Fly without even having to use its primary weapon. Of course, they flipped them anyways. Razorback would suffer a similar fate.
• Determinator: Even as Minotaur took off all of its wheels one by one and caused massive damage to its body, Bronco kept moving until it had no wheels left...and even then, Reason Bradley still tried to get it moving by using its flipper arm. That technique didn't work at all, but it did reveal that Bronco was still working even if it had no way to effectively move itself.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: After Chrome Fly seemingly knocked itself out attacking Bronco's wedge, Bronco proceeded to flip it repeatedly, getting it wedged on top of the rails, before attacking the drone as Chrome Fly was finally counted out.
• Super-Strength: The flipper's powerful enough to toss heavyweight (250lbs) robots around like toys.
• Technical Pacifist: It maintains its trademark powerful flipper arm, complemented by an armoured rear wedge that enables it to fight spinners much more effectively— softening them up long enough for them to bring in the flipper and launch them.

Chomp (#13)

Team: The Machine Corps

Driver: Zoe Stephenson

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Matches: The Disk O' Inferno (W/JD), Captain Shrederator (W/KO), Bite Force (W/JD), Yeti (L/KO)

• Action Girl: Zoe Stephenson is one of the series' female team captains. Very much her intention, as one of her main aims— as stated in her interviews— is to get more girls and women into engineering and robot combat in particular.
• Artifact Title: Sort of. It's ditched the "chomping" jaws for an axe, but the arms of the axe do have small teeth on them, making it resemble a biting jaw.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Prior to their fight against reigning champions Bite Force, Zoe stated that her plan was to strike Bite Force's exposed weapon chain and disable it. Chomp's first axe blow did exactly that.
  • However, it found itself on the other end of the stick against Yeti, after they got flipped over and had their self-righting arms knocked off by Yeti's drum, preventing it from recovering.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Although its hammer is incredibly powerful and has a special automated targeting system, the robot itself is very top-heavy and prone to falling onto its side, as seen in its battle against the Disk O' Inferno. It's apparently supposed to have built-in electromagnets to help keep it upright, similar to beta (another robot tagged as The Klutz, for pretty much exactly the same reasons) but again they failed to grip the Battlebox floor, due to its thick coating of rubberised paint.
• Consolation Prize: Despite losing out to Yeti in the Quarter-Finals, it received a special Founders' Award (that is decided by the Battlebots committee on account of doing something special or unique for the competition) at the end of the series, for their ingenious automated targeting system for the hammer.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: The first robot to defeat Bite Force since the start of the 2015 reboot.
• Diabolus ex Machina: At one point during Chomp's battle against Captain Shrederator, Chomp had knocked itself over on its side after firing the hammer (as usual), and one of the strips of metal attached to the hammer axle to help it self-right apparently slipped down into one of the slots in the floor containing the killsaws, leaving Chomp stuck on its side- rather than pushing itself upright when it fired the hammer, it would just spin around on the floor in circles. Luckily for the team, Captain Shrederator didn't come in to take advantage of their helplessness (possibly assuming that they were trapped and would be counted out) and Chomp was just barely able to shake itself free and right itself again.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Features a flamethrower as its secondary weapon again this year— which ended up being one of the few things they kept from the previous version of Chomp.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: How they went out to Yeti in the Quarter-Finals. After being flipped onto its side (as usual) by one of its missed swings, Yeti took the opportunity to destroy their self-righting arms with the drum, preventing it from putting itself back onto its wheels.
• Humongous-Headed Hammer: Has a massive hammer this year, replacing last season's grabbing jaws.
• The Klutz: Due to its top-heavy chassis and narrow wheelbase, it constantly knocks itself over with missed swings from its own hammer, often causing it to spend what feels like half the time on its side.
• Legacy Character: The Chomp that appears in this season is essentially a completely different robot that shares the same name.
• Made of Iron: One of the key things in their victory over Captain Shrederator in Round Two was their heavily-armored lower ring, which stopped the powerful spinner from causing much in the way of damage. This was one of Zoe's top priorities — they wanted armor that could stop a blade such as Icewave's dead in its tracks should it ever have to fight a robot like that again.
• No-Sell: Captain Shrederator's attacks did virtually no damage to Chomp's armor, allowing it to handily win the fight.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Although Chomp and its team were very unpopular for a while after its controversial win by decision over the Disk O' Inferno in Round One (to the point they were massively booed when the decision was announced), it became more popular after handily tanking Captain Shrederator in Round Two, and then beating them by legitimate knockout.
• Tears of Joy: Zoe broke into this in her post-fight interview after Chomp's first win.
• Took a Level in Badass: Lost both of its matches last season and was torn apart by Icewave, but this season it won three in a row, tanking Captain Shrederator and KO'ing it before defeating the reigning champion, knocking out its weapon in one hit.

Poison Arrow (#27)

Team: Team Caustic Creations

Driver: Zachary Goff

Hometown: Houston, Texas

Matches: Mega Tento (W/JD), Son of Whyachi (W/KO), HyperShock (W/KO), Bombshell & Short Fuse (L/KO)

• Catastrophic Countdown: More like a catastrophic countup. The team mentioned that the drum spinner takes twelve seconds to get up to its full devastating speed, so when they started spinning it one of the team members would stand beside the driver counting from one to twelve out loud so he knew when he ideally had full power to the weapon and was ready to attack. It was actually surprisingly intimidating.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: It took one from Bombshell in the Quarter-Finals. After not being able to get the drum into play, they got repeatedly hit and launched around by their opponent's vertical disc, at one point getting propped up onto the wall and was close to being counted out. Then, after Bombshell took out their drone, they also knocked Poison Arrow back down to continue the match... only to finish them off too by launching them into the walls and causing them to land behind the Screws.
• David Versus Goliath: After a not-terribly-impressive win over Mega Tento in the qualifiers, they were seeded 27th, giving them an unenviable match-up against the fearsome Son of Whyachi. Incredibly, they ended up giving us the second big upset in as many weeks.
• Death from Above: Includes a drone. While we still don't know for certain, it may have contributed to knocking out Hypershock's drive when it rained fire down on it from above while Hypershock was preoccupied pinning Poison Arrow against the wall- while the flames themselves weren't reaching Hypershock, the heat may still have helped overheat its drive, as Hypershock lost drive power very shortly after this. If so, this would be the first instance of a drone actually contributing anything meaningful to a battle in the tournament.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Zig-zagged. After Bombshell stacked it against the arena wall, Poison Arrow was being counted out when its drone deliberately crashed into it in a desperate attempt to free it. It failed, and Bombshell moved in to destroy it, but in the process it knocked Poison Arrow off the wall, meaning that technically, the drone's sacrifice had worked. Of course, Poison Arrow lost anyway.
• Moveset Clone: Remarkably similar to Minotaur in almost every way other than that it's slightly smaller, has a less-powerful weapon, and utilizes a drone. The massive difference in seeding (#27 vs. #7) was likely due to the comparative impressiveness with which they won their initial fights.
• One-Hit Kill: The team predicted in the pre-battle interview that, since they had a vertical rotating drum while their opponents, Son of Whyachi, had a horizontal spinner, if the two weapons met SoW was more likely to be sent flying up and would probably take more impact damage. After that first exchange, the one that was still moving would win. Incredibly, they were 100% correct.
• Poisonous Person: It's named after the Poison Arrow Frog that's native to tropical Central and South America, even having a blotched and brightly-colored paint scheme that references the frogs' poisonous skin.
• Ring Out: It lost to Bombshell after being launched behind the Screws by its opponent's vertical spinner.
• Spectacular Spinning: It's armed with a powerful vertical spinning drum.
• Sudden Name Change: Entered the competition as Growler, but was changed for unknown reasons.

Round of 16

Bite Force (#4)

Team: Aptyx Design

Driver: Paul Ventimiglia

Hometown: Mountain View, California

Matches: Mohawk (W/KO), The Ringmaster (W/JD), Chomp (L/JD)

• Artifact Title: Due to switching from a pair of clamping jaws to a vertical spinner. Downplayed in that it can revert back to the original weapon if needed.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: After losing its weapon in the attack against The Ringmaster, it spent the rest of the fight shoving it around while The Ringmaster did its best to run away.
• Consolation Prize: Despite losing its title this year, it was able to win a Rumble against Witch Doctor & Shaman and Wrecks— delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to both and really getting to show what the new design was capable of.
• Crazy Enough to Work: During the Rumble, Bite Force was at one point knocked upside-down, severely hampering its capabilities (it can drive inverted, but only on two wheels, and with the bar spinning in the wrong direction). How did it right itself? By driving headlong into the wall and using the force of its own spinner to knock itself back onto its wheels. It took a couple of tries, but it looked awesome.
• Demoted to Extra: The winner of the previous season, who had had every fight shown. This season, only one full fight ended up being shown with Bite Force in it, in which it lost. See Dude, Where's My Respect? below. Some have suspected this might have been a meta-revenge by the producers, for having won the last season in a non-flashy way against their darling Tombstone.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: It was the defending champion. It was seeded 4th. The presenters even attempted to justify it, citing its new and untested redesign and the fact that Tombstone, Bronco and Witch Doctor (supposedly) just looked more dangerous.
  • This is particularly egregious because the team was actually seeded lower than they were the previous year, when the robot looked even less threatening.
  • Ultimately subverted when Chomp knocked it out in one blow, leaving them weaponless and leading to their defeat. However, it then got subverted again after it proved to be a big factor in their rumble victory over Witch Doctor & Shaman and Wrecks.
• Irony: In their final battle with Chomp, they lost their spinning bar weapon after one precisely-placed hit from Chomp's axe, reducing them to a wedgebot. They proceeded to once again shove the highly-unstable Chomp around with their wedge, running them into the arena hazards and keeping them on their side more often than their wheels- basically fighting like they had in the 2015 series. And once again, the changes to the rules to favour weapon damage over aggression and control ensured that they lost the judges' decision. Makes you wonder what the point was of swapping out the clamps in the first place.
• Spectacular Spinning: This year it replaced the clamping jaws with a vertical spinning bar. It proved effective enough against Mohawk in Round 1, and was also able to chuck The Ringmaster around with it quite effectively in Round 2— at least, until it broke down.
• Stone Wall: In addition to its blade, a strong wedge can be added to prevent other blades from getting to it. Considering how the rules were changed this season specifically to screw it over, this was a good choice.
• Wimp Fight: Engaged in one with The Ringmaster. After the initial hits, both were unable to use their weapons and Bite Force was reduced to chasing The Ringmaster and shoving it around.

Brutus (#16)

Team: Team Colossus

Driver: Adam Bercu

Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Matches: Moebius Resurrected (W/KO), Lock-Jaw (W/JD), Tombstone (L/KO)

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Inverted. During his time with the Overhaul team in Season 1, Adam Bercu's hair was dyed a distinctive shade of bright red, but after going solo his hair returned to its (presumably) natural colour.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Brutus features two golden guns that fire special effects bullets. They're supremely difficult to aim and mostly just for show and intimidation, though. The few hits that landed on Moebius simply bounced off the bot's armor, although since Moebius was already getting up towards its full speed, this is hardly surprising.
• Born Lucky: Brutus was utterly dominated by Lock-Jaw in its Round of 32 battle and would've lost under any other circumstances, but the rule changes for Season 2 ensured that it was victorious for literally no other reason than that it started its weapon. However...
• Born Unlucky: ...it then got matched up against the #1 seed Tombstone in the next round, who proceeded to destroy the entire front end and eventually flip it after causing massive damage.
• Cool, but Inefficient: The aforementioned guns. Actually enforced by the rulebook - projectile weapons like Brutus' were previously banned altogether, but are now allowed provided they aren't gunpowder-propelled and aren't powerful enough to damage the arena walls (and consequently, anything else). The team actually removed them for the second battle against Lock-Jaw.
• Discard and Draw: To fit the additional armor on the front for their battle against Tombstone within the weight limit, the team had to remove some of the battery packs from Brutus— meaning that they only had enough battery power for two minutes out of the usual three, so it was a big gamble for them in the sense that the fight had to end in a knockout. Sure enough, it did.
• Game-Breaking Injury: It was originally due to fight its former teammates Overhaul and SawBlaze in a special MIT-themed rumble, but it was too badly-damaged from its fight with Tombstone to compete. Non-qualifier and fellow MIT machine Road Rash took their place instead.
• Guns Akimbo: Brutus' twin guns. For bonus points, they're mounted sideways, Gangsta Style.
• Spectacular Spinning: Has a powerful vertical spinner, which it used to effectively flip Moebius in Round One and... well, worked to win the decision against Lock-Jaw despite it not causing any damage to its opponent.
• Start My Own: Brutus is one of three teams that split off from Overhaul after the team broke up.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Much like Escape Velocity before it, Brutus had additional armor fitted onto the front of it for fighting Tombstone, in the hope that they could tank Tombstone's hits and then immobilize it from there with the drum. Turns out that doing this against one of the most powerful spinners in the World wasn't the best approach to take.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Didn't have to lift a finger against Moebius, which tore itself to pieces just by spinning up, but its "victory" over Lock-Jaw in the Round of 32 is one of the most egregious examples in the show's history. It spent the entire match getting shoved around, its disc completely unable to hit Lock-Jaw due to the shape of Lock-Jaw's scoop... and yet it won the judges' decision anyway.
• Wrecked Weapon: Its golden guns were knocked off the top and smashed afterwards by Tombstone in their final match.

Mega Tento (#28)*

Team: Robot Action League

Driver: Lisa Winter

Hometown: Berkeley, California

Matches: Poison Arrow (L/JD^*Wild Card), Stinger (W/JD), Yeti (L/KO)

• Action Girl: Lisa Winter is one of the series' female team captains, and definitely one of the most experienced ones around given that she's been competing since the original series.
• Bilingual Bonus: The word "tentomushi" roughly translates to ladybug in Japanese.
• Cartoony Eyes: Much like its original lightweight version, Mega Tento features a big pair of comedic-looking eyes on its smothering shell. Unlike the old ones however, they're actually angry if you look closely.
• Cool, but Inefficient: As the tournament's only smotherbot, Mega Tento's strategy is to cover its opponents with its ladybug and shred them with its internal blades. This didn't work very well against Poison Arrow, with Poison Arrow doing major damage to Mega Tento while smothered and coming out almost completely unscathed.
  • The team learned from this before going into battle against Stinger, mounting the blade on the back of the robot instead.
• Death Glare: Has a perpetual one going with its big angry eyes.
  • However, it proved to be much more effective against Stinger in Round Two when they moved it outside and onto the back of the chassis to get at its opponent more easily with it. It proved to be one of the crucial factors in their win on damage, even stripping a wheel off of the Killer Bee.
• Eye Scream: It had one of its angry eyes smashed off by Stinger in Round Two, so humorously, it went into its next fight against Yeti sporting an eyepatch. Of course, it then ended up having its other eye destroyed there to really complete the loss.
• Eyepatch of Power: Used as a decoration in its final match, having lost an eye against Stinger.
• Irony: Had its wheels cut off by Yeti after decisively doing the same thing to Stinger only a match earlier.
• I'm Melting!: Had its plastic smothering shell partially melted by Stinger's flamethrower in Round Two.
• Kevlard: In the battle against Stinger the plastic shell functioned this way; with the cutter mounted on the back of the robot instead, the smothering shell was almost ornamental and bent heavily when Stinger grappled Mega Tento from behind and pushed it against the battlebox walls. This meant Mega Tento barely took any impact damage from these attacks.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Lisa Winter was a teenager back in the original series when she piloted Tentomushi. She grew up, and in a way, so did her robot.
• Legacy Character: Remember the cute lightweight Tentomushi from the original series? This one is the bigger, badder heavyweight version.
• Lethal Joke Character: Despite its silly appearance, it was surprisingly able to take out the very experienced and powerful Stinger in Round Two of the competition.
• Spectacular Spinning: Has a set of vertical spinning blades hidden underneath its smothering shell— the idea being to drop the shell on top of its opponent to "gobble them up" as the blades cause damage. However, they weren't terribly effective against Poison Arrow, only ending up with the shell ruined.
• Sudden Name Change: Twice. Originally just named Tentomushi, it was then renamed Tento10. Afterwards, it got changed again, and this one stuck.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Very much the nature of their clash with Stinger in Round Two of the competition. There, it was the Immovable Object, proving to be impossible for Stinger to flip due to its sheer size, and later gained the upper hand in pushing power after cutting off one of its opponents' wheels.

Nightmare (#25)*

Team: Team Nightmare

Driver: Jim Smentowski

Hometown: Bradenton, Florida

Matches: Stinger (L/KO^*Wild Card), Icewave (W/KO), beta (L/KO)

• Achilles' Heel: While good ol' Nightmare ripped one of Stinger's wheels off, it fell prey to the same weakness it's had for the last 17 years when it got flipped and, as always, couldn't self-right. Supposedly it did have a srimech this year, but it failed to work.
  • This was ultimately exploited by beta, who flipped it over.
• Long Runner: Nightmare is still here after 17 years. Would you expect anything less?
• Removed Achilles' Heel: Has a special system this time around designed to prevent it from being immobilised when it's flipped over- the legs supporting the wheels flip around, and the disc begins turning the other way to give it a means of running inverted. However, it failed to work against Stinger, and then broke irreparably during its fight against Icewave, leading to its ultimate demise against beta.
• Spectacular Spinning: Comes packing the legendary giant vertical disc from its previous appearances. It caused serious damage to Stinger in Round One despite Nightmare losing after being tipped over, ruined Icewave's drive in Round Two, and tore up beta's top armor and hammer assembly despite getting tipped over again.
• Victory by Endurance: How they were able to beat Icewave in Round Two. Despite having its vertical spinning disc disabled in the opening moments, the resulting impact damaged Icewave's drive and prevented it from moving under its own power, allowing the old guard to take the win. This is an absolutely exceptional occurrence as Nightmare is normally considered Battlebots' most-infamous Glass Cannon and the robot that usually loses this way— apparently, Icewave will now be supplanting it in this role!
  • On the flipside of this against beta after it got turned over and immobilized by them, getting counted out with literally only two seconds left in the fight.

Razorback (#15)

Team: Team Machinewerx

Driver: Zach Bieber

Hometown: Wellington, Colorado

Matches: SawBlaze (W/KO), Ghost Raptor (W/KO), Bronco (L/KO)

• Born Lucky: Won its fight against SawBlaze on a judges' decision, despite having been pushed around and dominated for the entire match, due to the fact that SawBlaze's weapon wasn't working.
• Full-Boar Action: It's named after the type of feral pig (also known as a Wild Hog) that's native to North America.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: It lost in Round Three in such a manner after Bronco knocked it onto its side with the rear wedge to immobilize it, despite it attempting to use its weapon to get back onto its wheels afterward.
• Spectacular Spinning: One of its interchangeable weapons is a spinning drum. Subverted in that it had absolutely no effect on SawBlaze's front wedge at all. When it changed to the jaws for its fight against Ghost Raptor it proved to be a much more capable machine.
• Suplex Finisher: How it took down Ghost Raptor in Round Two.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Its weapons are interchangeable for either a vertical disc or a hydraulic clamp, both on a moveable chassis.
• Unfortunate Names: Yes, the builder really does share his surname with an infamous teenybopper pop star. Kenny hung a lampshade on it after he beat Ghost Raptor, saying that he is a "Belieber".
• Wrestler in All of Us: Razorback defeated Ghost Raptor in such a fashion by equipping the hydraulic jaws and grappling its opponent's spinning bar weapon before it could get up to speed. It then lifted up Ghost Raptor and deliberately tipped themselves over to perform what was essentially the robot equivalent of a German Suplex on it— and indeed ended up being a Suplex Finisher when Ghost Raptor was unable to right itself afterward.

Red Devil (#30)

Team: Team Duct Tape

Driver: Jerome Miles

Hometown: Spanish Fork, Utah

Matches: Wrecks (W/KO), Witch Doctor & Shaman (W/KO), Bombshell & Short Fuse (L/JD)

• Chainsaw Good: Its main weapon is an enormous sawblade, that works with a pair of grabbing claws to pin opponents down as it slices into them. Surprisingly, these actually worked well enough to immobilize crowd favorite Witch Doctor in Round 2.
• Consolation Prize: Although they weren't able to get beyond Round Three, they were able to win the Best Designed Robot Award at the end of the series, on account of its brilliant engineering, durability and versatility in the arena.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Few expected Red Devil to have a chance at beating the fearsome Witch Doctor due to its rather weak-looking design and extremely low seeding. Then it subsequently proved everyone wrong and set them ablaze with its blade.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivered one to Wrecks, primarily due to the impractical design of the walker bot. Then it faced the #3 Witch Doctor, where they were expected to be on the receiving end of it, but instead delivered another one.
• David Versus Goliath: After winning against Wrecks in a not-so-impressive victory, they were seeded 30th and had to face the new-and-improved Witch Doctor in a fight that almost everyone thought would be a cakewalk. Indeed it was... but not for the robot they were expecting.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Includes a plow option which they can replace the claws with if it were to face a deadly spinner. Interestingly, they did not use it against Witch Doctor — which actually served them well in taking it out.
• Sudden Name Change: Its original name was Hyper Active (in reference to the team's previous Heavyweight from Robot Wars Extreme Warriors), but was later changed- possibly to avoid confusion with the very similarly-named Hypershock.
• Tank Goodness: Runs on a pair of special tank tracks that can flip over either way for additional traction and protection.

HyperShock (#11)

Team: Shenanigans & Co.

Driver: Will Bales

Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Matches: UltraViolent (W/KO), Warrior Clan (W/KO), Poison Arrow (L/KO)

• An Arm and a Leg: Had one of their wheels torn off by Poison Arrow's drum in Round Three.
• Consolation Prize: Although they had an unlucky break with their loss against Poison Arrow, Will Bales won the Best Driver Award at the end of the series— not only for his great control of Hypershock in general, but also for the ingenuity of his anti-drone rake that he used to destroy Warrior Dragon.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Before their battle against Warrior Clan the team made a modification to deal with their aerial drone, Warrior Dragon- an honest-to-goodness garden rake attached to one of its arms. Unbelievably, it worked perfectly— swatting Warrior Dragon out of the air, dragging it to the ground and leaving it for HyperShock to destroy with its discs.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Tore UltraViolent to shreds in the first round, and did the same to Warrior Clan in the second.
• Diabolus ex Machina: In their Round Three battle against Poison Arrow, the discs stopped working after the first few hits exchanged, and then after some time had passed, the drive broke down again, much like it did against Bite Force in Season One.
• Improbable Weapon User: In one of the most interesting examples of this trope in Battlebots history, it attached a rake onto one of its lifting arms for its battle against Warrior Clan in Round Two— for the purpose of swatting the team's drone, Warrior Dragon, out of the sky as it came in to attack. It worked wonders, knocking the drone down long enough for HyperShock to destroy it.
• Lightning Bruiser: A very fast robot with a very powerful weapon— stated by the team to be as a result of "un-suckifying the drive", which cost it badly in the previous year when it broke down against Bite Force. Sadly, the drive once again proved to be their undoing when they broke down against Poison Arrow.
• Rake Take: Inflicted one of these on Warrior Dragon, Warrior Clan's drone, in Round Two. It had a rake attached onto one of the lifting arms, which it used to swat the flying machine out of the air before destroying it.
• Spectacular Spinning: The twin vertical discs it had previously return, alongside a pair of lifting arms for back-up...and sometimes a garden rake, of all things.

Warhead (#23)

Team: Team Razer

Driver: Ian Lewis & Simon Scott

Hometown: Bournemouth, United Kingdom

Matches: The Obwalden Overlord (W/KO), Complete Control (W/KO), Minotaur (L/KO)

• Animal Mecha: Its alternate weapon this time around is a Clamp/Lifter/Flamethrower combination that looks like the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: This was how they went out to Minotaur in Round Three. The Brazilian robot's drum caught their spinning dome at just the right angle from underneath, tearing it off and sending it flying high into the air like a Frisbee. Then once Warhead was disarmed and was left with its front end damaged, Minotaur popped it onto its side to finish it.
• Breath Weapon: Is equipped with a flamethrower in its Dinosaur Jaw Mode, which is hidden inside its nostrils.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Warhead's Dinosaur Jaw mode has glowing blue eyes with reptilian pupils that move around inside its head, adding to the sense that it's almost alive as it fights.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicted one on Obwalden Overlord in Round One, biting down on its arms with the jaws and melting the wiring with its flamethrowers, before ultimately tipping it over onto its back (whilst on fire) to win.
  • It shattered Complete Control in Round 2, reducing it to turning in helpless circles with the first hit, tearing it open with the second and setting it alight with its flamethrowers on the third after destroying its opponents' fuel line for their own flamethrower, and then came in for the most stylish deathblow in Battlebots history by spinning into it while balanced on its own disc!
• Dance Battler: Warhead's final attack against Complete Control resembled nothing more than this; after flipping itself over with the force of its own attack, its self-righting arms failed to work, but its articulated disc was able to lift Warhead's body up until it was balanced on the disc. It then used the disc to spin across the floor whilst effectively standing on its head, smashing into its opponent like a capoeira fighter, or Chun-Li doing a Spinning Bird Kick.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The Dinosaur Jaw mode turns Warhead into a Grimlock-esque fire-breathing T-Rex.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Further adding to the sheer coolness factor from its previous appearances, it's equipped with flamethrowers in both its clamp and spinner forms here, albeit hidden in different areas- either inside the jaws/nostrils of the T-Rex head, or inside the self-righting arms when it has the spinner.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Warhead got flipped on its side by Minotaur after having their spinning dome weapon dismantled in Round Three, they quickly realised that they had nothing left to fight back with— so they appeared to rather wisely lie down and stay down to avoid further damage.
• Mercy Kill: Was given this by Minotaur in its Round Three battle. After having its weapon removed by a well-placed shot from its opponent, Warhead was flipped on its side and allowed to be counted out instead of being completely torn apart like Photon Storm and Blacksmith were.
• Off with His Head!: This essentially happened to it against Minotaur in Round Three, when it had its spinning dome weapon torn off with a particularly hard hit. Amusingly, the dome spun off into the air like a Frisbee, and continued spinning for a few seconds when it hit the ground.
  • This has led to a popular joke among the Battlebots community involving Warhead having to be renamed just "War", after essentially being decapitated in that fight.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Has essentially gone through this since Season 1. After being curbstomped by Bite Force and Stinger there, it lost a lot of its former popularity due to being seen as an outdated, Awesome, but Impractical machine that was no longer suited for full combat. Come Season 2 however, it has regained a good deal of its crowd-favourite status after its incredibly stylish kill against Complete Control.
• Spectacular Spinning: Keeps its original disc around as one of its potential weapon options. Down Played this time however, due to it not being the only option it has unlike last time, and even then it's also accompanied by two flamethrowers hidden inside the tips of the self-righting arms.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Not only does it maintain its spinning dome from its original appearances, but it can also swap it out for a giant dinosaur head-shaped lifter/clamp with a built-in flamethrower for more effectively fighting the Stone Wall Anti-Spinner designs that plagued it previously.
• Took a Level in Badass: When compared to ABC Season 1, definitely. Though some doubted Warhead's initial victory since it went up against what was essentially a Joke Robot, its fight against Complete Control proved that it's not nearly as outdated and weak as many thought it was.
• Worthy Opponent: After their fight with Minotaur in Round Three, the two teams were seen exchanging hugs and congratulations with each other in the booths— then in his post-match interview, Team Riobotz captain Marco Meggiolaro spoke about how much he liked Warhead, commending his opponents on a good fight and expressing regret on having to damage it as badly as he had.

Round of 32

Captain Shrederator (#20)

Team: Team LOGICOM

Driver: Brian Nave

Hometown: Ormond Beach, Florida

Matches: Death Roll (W/KO), Chomp (L/KO)

• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Nave sure acted like this when matched against Chomp, engaging in Trash Talk to not only the robot but the builder and was absolutely certain he was going to win. It came back to bite him, to put it one way.
• Captain Patriotic: As you can expect.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Mangled DeathRoll with ease.
• Heel: Brian Nave talked an incredible amount of trash about his opponents before the fight against Chomp, calling it "overdesigned" and saying that driver Zoe "deserved a butt-whupping" (even Ray Billings of Tombstone, cocky as he is, doesn't directly run down his opponents this much). Unfortunately for him, when Chomp soaked up his best hits and smashed Captain Shrederator with its hammer, knocking it out, he was forced to eat a large slice of Humble Pie.
• Precision F-Strike: Nave dropped one after losing to Chomp. It was censored, of course.
• Spectacular Spinning: It's a low, very destructive full-body spinner, just like its predecessors— The Revolutionist, Phrizbee, and the original Shrederator.
• Unknown Rival: Nave appeared to be one to Zoe, having the attitude that It's Personal due to him being seeded lower and that Chomp was too complicated a design for its own good. Zoe just saw him as another opponent.
• Painting a Flag on your Chassis: Maintains the Stars-and-Stripes paintjob it had last time, which is in turn a reference to their previous Robot Wars Extreme Warriors/Nickelodeon Robot Wars entrant, The Revolutionist.

The Ringmaster (#29)

Team: Team Black & Blue

Driver: Hal Rucker

Hometown: Hillsborough, California

Matches: Ultimo Destructo (W/KO), Bite Force (L/JD)

• Circus of Fear: Its theme is based around the circus, complete with circus tent-like stripes. Even its driver was dressed up like a circus ringmaster to further complement the theme!
• Consolation Prize: Hannah Rucker took the machine to victory in the Daughters exhibition rumble at the end of the series, and in impressive fashion.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivered one to Ultimo Destructo. However, it found itself on the receiving end of one against Bite Force, having gotten hit several times before both lost their weapons, it was reduced to simply running away as Bite Force kept shoving it. Then in the exhibition rumble it delivered one to Overdrive and Bad Kitty.
• Double Meaning: Its name is both a reference to its circus theme, and the fact that its weapon— a powerful horizontal spinner— circles around it like a ring.
• Glass Cannon: The spinner is strong enough on the "destroying things" front, but if it loses said weapon (which can easily happen), it's in major trouble.
• Improbable Age: Its driver is Hannah Rucker, an 11-year-old girl, making her by far the youngest in the competition. She obviously didn't build it, however.
• Little Miss Badass: Unlike in the main competition (where her father Hal drove the robot instead), Hannah Rucker drove Ringmaster in the Daughters exhibition rumble against Overdrive and Bad Kitty. There, she inflicted a one-hit kill on both opponents, immediately cracking open Bad Kitty and trashing Overdrive's weapon and half its drivetrain after hurling it across the arena.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Massively redeemed itself in the Daughters exhibition rumble against Bad Kitty and Overdrive, scoring One Hit Kills on both machines and flinging the latter halfway across the Battlebox.
• One-Hit Kill: In its exhibition rumble against Bad Kitty and Overdrive, it got in precisely two hits. The first immobilized Bad Kitty, and the second disabled Overdrive's drive on one side and threw it across the Battlebox but also caused the ring weapon to break down.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Didn't even try to fight Bite Force after both lost their weapons, likely due to having no offensive capabilities outside of the blade while Bite Force has a strong wedge. Instead, the rest of the match was spent running away while Bite Force chased it.
• Spectacular Spinning: It's an invertible design armed with a powerful horizontal spinning ring around it. Although it worked well enough against Ultimo Destructo, it ended up being easily beaten by Bite Force's spinner.
• Wimp Fight: Engaged in one with Bite Force. After the initial hits, both were unable to use their weapons and they were reduced to running away from Bite Force.

Cobalt (#14)

Team: Team Carbide

Driver: Dave Moulds

Hometown: Bromsgrove, United Kingdom

Matches: Overhaul (W/KO), Bombshell & Short Fuse (L/KO)

• Attack Its Weak Point: This was how it lost to Bombshell in Round Two of the competition. It started with its armored back end facing its opponent to stop their spinner, but this backfired massively when their opponent raised their height-adjustable blade to just the right height to rip right through the tires.
• Badass Back: Heavily averted. It tried to use its armored rear end to block Bombshell's blade long enough for them to bring their own weapon into play much like Bronco, but this only gave its opponent the opportunity to attack its vulnerable tires.
• Cast from Hit Points: During its qualifying match against Overhaul, Cobalt's blows dealt significant damage but the recoil sent it flying back across the Battlebox with each hit, and soon it started to smoke. Fortunately, they managed to knock Overhaul out before the weapon broke down entirely (it appeared to have done so, but really they'd switched it off to conserve energy).
• Charlie Brown from Outta Town: Team Carbide also competed in the 2016 Robot Wars reboot with an almost identical bot called Carbide (Carbide's blade is a straight bar spinner rather than the asymmetrical blade Cobalt uses, the internals are apparently different, and it's painted a different color). This is due to long-running licensing issues that prevent any team from competing on both shows with the same robot.
• Determinator: Even as it was being counted out from having its tires ruined by Bombshell's height-adjustable spinner, its wheels and weapon were still spinning in a very Black Knight-esque fashion, like it was trying to continue the fight despite not being able to move.
• Spectacular Spinning: Has a giant asymmetrical horizontal spinning blade.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Similarly to Ghost Raptor during its fight against Son of Whyachi, Cobalt attempted to tank Bombshell's spinning blade and stop it from moving. Bombshell simply adjusted the height of the spinner and shredded the exposed tops of Cobalt's tires.

Lock-Jaw (#17)*

Team: Mutant Robotics

Driver: Donald Hutson

Hometown: San Diego, California

Matches: Yeti (L/JD^*Wild Card), Brutus (L/JD)

• Boring, but Practical: Lock-Jaw is a pure control bot, with very little real damage potential beyond using the battlebox hazards against its opponent. Unfortunately, the new scoring system in place for ABC Season 2 means that use of a primary weapon is the be-all-end-all factor when it comes to a judges' decision, effectively killing its chances at victory.
• Consolation Award: Despite having two very unlucky breaks in the main competition by losing out on controversial judges' decisions, Lock-Jaw participated in and won a Legends exhibition rumble against Stinger and Ghost Raptor, manhandling both of its opponents throughout.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivered one to both Stinger and Ghost Raptor in the Legends Rumble.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The new rules effectively killed any chance of Lock-Jaw winning due to its design being based around pushing, strategy, and control — three things rendered completely pointless in favor of outright damage.
  • This was subverted in its appearance in the Legends Rumble against Ghost Raptor and Stinger, however— the weapon was fully working, and it was effectively able to curbstomb both its opponents, immobilizing the drive on Ghost Raptor and mixing up flipping Stinger all over the place with ramming and biting down on it to good effect.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Installed a plow to fend off Brutus. It was extremely successful, as they drove Brutus around the BattleBox and caused it to smoke from the exerted energy. Sadly, since it didn't use its primary weapon, and that is the deciding factor in a judges' decision this season (regardless of how effective it actually was), Lock-Jaw lost despite the fact that they would've won under any other ruleset.
• Shocking Elimination: Controlled the entire fight against Brutus and effectively rendered them useless thanks to the plow they attached to the robot. They still lost for literally no other reason than that Brutus turned on its weapon. Fans were not pleased.
• Technical Pacifist: It's armed with a spring-loaded set of clamping/flipping jaws that can be swapped out for a wide scoop to more easily fight horizontal spinners with, which in turn is complimented by it being very fast and powerful. Sadly, due to the new rules that rendered low-damage weapons and driving skill/strategy essentially pointless, this quickly proved to be its downfall.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the Legends Rumble. Although Lock-Jaw was a good machine and very well-built and powerful already, the lack of damage-inflicting capabilities from its semi-reliable spring-loaded jaw weapons quickly established its crucial weakness. Come the Rumble however, and it was not only able to help immobilize Ghost Raptor's drive, but it also caused plenty of damage to Stinger— ramming and flipping it all over, stripping the tyres off and eventually taking off a whole wheel from it, and actively preventing it from self-righting when turned over by forcing its opponent's weapon down with its jaws.

Icewave (#8)

Team: Team Icewave

Driver: Marc DeVidts

Hometown: Sunnyvale, California

Matches: SubZero (W/JD), Nightmare (L/KO)

• Bare-Fisted Monk: Even after the blade weapon broke down against SubZero, Icewave still managed to win without it by shoving its opponent around with the wedge on the front.
• Cast from Hit Points: Recoil shock is a recurring problem for all spinner-based robots, but Icewave takes it up a notch. You can generally count on it delivering between one to three hits before someone dies.
• Demoted to Extra: Compared to the first season, where all of its fights were televised and they had been hyped as a major contender for the Giant Nut. This season, both of its fights were left to highlights and were only seen in full on the internet. This might be due to it losing much of the "badass" factor it originally had.
• Diabolus ex Machina: The blade stopped working after hitting SubZero, which left them as sitting ducks to be flipped over and counted out. Or rather, it would have, had their opponent not had functioning issues with their weapon too.
  • The polar opposite happened in its battle against Nightmare- whilst the blade worked just fine throughout (even managing to break Nightmare's vertical spinner towards the beginning), the force of the impact killed its drive and caused it to be counted out.
• Glass Cannon: After losing a battle of endurance against Nightmare of all robots, Icewave seems to have supplanted the venerable machine as the definitive glass cannon in all of robot combat. It's devastating, but not only can it simply not take a hit, it's prone to destroying itself if its opponent can tank even a few hits.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The engine gave out from exerting too much energy against Nightmare. This wasn't the first time it happened, but it was the first time it proved fatal.
• Icewave Forgot To Level Grind: Brought back this season just as badass as before. Note that "just as" are the operative words here, because Icewave is still as prone to engine failure as it always was, and still lacks a srimech.
• Informed Ability: Despite constantly being touted as a serious contender for the Giant Nut, Icewave lost both of its seasons to two robots that audiences thought it would've had no problems winning against without ever reaching the semi-finals.
• Punny Name: Its name is a pun on the Internal Combustion Engine (or ICE) that powers its weapon.
• Revenge by Proxy: Although Icewave ended up losing to Nightmare in Round Two, the damage they inflicted in the fight irreparably damaged their opponent's new self-righting mechanism. This crucially meant that Nightmare was unable to recover after being flipped by beta in their next fight.
• You Are Too Late: Though not shown, Icewave actually started moving again... after it was already counted out.

Stinger (#5)

Team: Team Plumb Crazy

Driver: Matt Maxham
Hometown: Sacramento, California
Matches: Nightmare (W/KO), Mega Tento (L/JD)

• An Arm and a Leg: Had one of its wheels chopped off by Mega Tento's disc in their Round Two battle.
  • This happened to it again in the Legends Rumble, having its tyres damaged and one wheel stripped off by Lock-Jaw.
• Bee Afraid: Its theme is based on bees, as always.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Received one at the hands of Lock-Jaw in the Legends Rumble. Although it was able to help cause damage to Ghost Raptor early on, they ended up being rammed and flipped all over the Battlebox by Donald Hutson's machine, eventually losing its wheel again and finding itself being repeatedly forced upside-down and prevented from recovering by Lock-Jaw's clamps.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Armed with a flamethrower as a secondary weapon to its usual lifting arms. Additionally, they brought in a minibot for extra firepower in their fight with Mega Tento and in the Legends Rumble.
• Made of Iron: As one of the top spinner-killer designs, this comes as no surprise. In Round 1, they were able to tank a devastating blow from Nightmare that destroyed a wheel and a big chunk of the back end, but still ran on long enough to tip them over and immobilise them.
• Mecha-Mooks: Brought in a fire-breathing minibot named "Flicker" against Mega Tento and then later on against Lock-Jaw and Ghost Raptor in the Legends Rumble. It wasn't much help, however.
• Shocking Elimination: Going out to Mega Tento in Round Two of the competition after its good run last year is definitely this— and even moreso considering that not only was it unable to flip it (it ended up flipping itself when it tried), it lost a wheel and the later pushing matches.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Very much the nature of their clash with Mega Tento in Round Two of the competition, where they were the Unstoppable Force. However, despite having the upper hand early on, it couldn't lift or flip the much larger Mega Tento, and eventually lost a wheel to the spinning blade— leading to it losing the eventual Judges' Decision despite going in as the favourites.

Warrior Clan (#22)

Team: Team Whyachi

Driver: Clint Ewert
Hometown: Abbortsford, Wisconsin
Matches: Splatter (W/JD), HyperShock (L/KO)

• Action Duo: Obviously.
• Artifact Title: Because the two minibots were replaced by a drone, it can't really be described as a "warrior clan" as much as a "warrior duo".
• Death from Above: Warrior Dragon, the team's drone, replacing the two Mecha-Mooks from the first season.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: After Warrior Dragon got swatted out of the air by Hypershock's rake attachment in Round Two, it got hit again by Hypershock's drum before it could recover— whereupon it literally exploded into pieces.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Warrior Dragon was equipped with a set of flamethrowers for flying around and torching opponents from above with.
• Unexpected Character: With the original Son of Whyachi returning for the 2016 series, people assumed Warrior Clan had simply been retired, and were quite surprised to find Team Whyachi had actually entered twice.
• Wall of Weapons: Warrior itself maintains the flipper/full-body spinner combination it had the previous year. However, it didn't seem nearly as effective as it was there, only managing Scratch Damage at best on Splatter.
• Wimp Fight: Engaged in this with Splatter in Round One of the competition. After a long period of getting some intermittent scratches on Splatter's armor, the spinning ring stopped whilst Splatter's weapon also broke, leaving the two slightly nudging and eventually getting stuck on each other towards the end of the fight.

Overhaul (#24)*

Team: Team Equals Zero Robotics

Driver: Charles Guan

Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Matches: Cobalt (L/KO^*Wild Card)), beta (L/KO)

• Achilles' Heel: Although its frontal defence is very good indeed with the giant wedges and the lifting/clamping weaponry, its actual body is more thinly-armored and easy to damage once an opponent can get round the front. Cobalt and beta were able to take advantage of this to technically KO it in both its fights.
• Black Bead Eyes: Referencing the googly eyes it had added to complement the ears in Season One, it had two large round black dots mounted underneath the ears on this version, giving it the appearance of having these.
• Determinator: Despite taking one heck of a beating from beta's electric hammer in Round Two of the competition, it was able to get a few nice attacks in and hang on until the end of the match, despite appearing to succumb to its inflicted injuries right at the end.
• Glass Cannon: Although it's very quick and has some good power behind it, it's not the greatest at receiving punishment— which Cobalt and beta proved in their battles against it.
• Little Bit Beastly: The robot's trademark clamp-mounted "cat ears" returned this year— though colored teal rather than red this time, and even the team were clad in very similar ones. However, they got messed up pretty badly by SawBlaze's cutting disc in the MIT rumble that it partook in alongside it and non-qualifier Road Rash.
• Man on Fire: The middle of the robot briefly caught fire in an all-MIT rumble against SawBlaze and Road Rash. Surprisingly enough, it was able to carry on fighting, despite the fact that flames usually signify a robot's demise.
• My Greatest Second Chance: After being eliminated from the main competition by beta, it later reappeared in a rumble between them and two robots built by their former MIT teammates— Road Rash and SawBlaze. Although it was able to flip Road Rash, it ultimately lost the decision on damage after being repeatedly shoved and cut into by SawBlaze.
• Otaku: The team wear light-up cat-ear headphones, and the robot itself appears to have Hatsune Miku painted on the back - it's even painted in her signature teal-and-black color scheme!
• Surpassed the Teacher: Was surpassed by two of the three teams that split off from it: Brutus went one stage further in the competition and was only stopped by the eventual champion, while SawBlaze curb-stomped Overhaul in the Battle of MIT rumble. The third, Road Rash, didn't even get into the pre-qualifiers and was eliminated from the aforementioned MIT rumble in a matter of seconds.
• Technical Pacifist: Its weapons were an upgraded version of the lifting arms and clamp that it had last year. Despite looking fierce however, they weren't able to do much, not helped by the fact that the rules no longer work in favor of this type of bot.

Son of Whyachi (#6)

Team: Team Whyachi

Driver: Clint Ewert

Hometown: Abbotsford, Wisconsin

Matches: Creepy Crawlies, UltraViolent (W/KO), Ghost Raptor (W/KO), Poison Arrow (L/KO)

• 10-Minute Retirement: Terry Ewert returned as the captain after his supposed retirement last season. The hosts claimed he wouldn't let himself go out like that.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Easily ripped apart the Creepy Crawlies and Ultraviolent in the qualifiers, and then despite some initial setbacks, mangled Ghost Raptor in Round One of the competition.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Whyachi was seen alongside Tombstone, Bronco, and Minotaur as a serious contender for the Giant Nut, only to be taken out in its third fight.
• Legacy Character: To the original Son of Whyachi. It runs on wheels this year rather than the shuffling legs it had in the original series, however.
• Mecha-Mooks: Included a minibot during its fight with Poison Arrow. It was completely useless.
• Punched Across the Room: Upon colliding with Poison Arrow in the Round of 32, Son of Whyachi was sent flying ten feet into the air and halfway across the Battlebox. It did not survive the impact.
• Shocking Elimination: The tournament's second in as many weeks; nobody gave Poison Arrow a prayer against Son of Whyachi, but SoW gave Poison Arrow time to get its drum spinner up to speed and when the two weapons met, Son of Whyachi was hurled ten feet through the air by the impact, knocking it out in one blow.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Terry Ewert had one with Ghost Raptor's Chuck Pitzer, claiming he came out of retirement just to destroy Ghost Raptor after he beat Warrior Clan last season and acted smug about it.
• Spectacular Spinning: Wields its classic rotary hammers from the original series. According to the book Building Bots by William Gurstelle, one builder famously described the aftermath of being hit by them as resembling "a hefty bag of vegetable soup that's just been thrown off a three-storey building".
• Took a Level in Badass: If Whyachi's massacre of the Creepy Crawlies and Ultraviolent was any indication, it looked like a serious contender to reclaim the title after not performing so well in its final appearances. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

Escape Velocity (#32)

Team: Team Ground Control

Driver: Raymond Barsa

Hometown: California, Pennsylvania

Matches: OverDrive (W/KO), Tombstone (L/KO)

• Action Duo: The basic premise of the robot.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Its shtick is that it's two different types of robots fighting as one. Unforunately, it's not effective as a flipper nor a full body spinner. The flipper is weak and can barely lift its opponent, while the full body spinner is ineffective and can easily be flipped over.
• Badass on Paper: In theory, a team working as a flipper and a spinner should be dangerous — after all, having one robot flip you while the other shreds you with its teeth would be a very deadly combo, and supposedly could be highly dangerous by giving the opponent two robots to focus on. But being a team consisting of a middleweight and a lightweight in a heavyweight tournament, this instead led to the team being completely ineffective as one type of robot, let alone two.
• Battle Intro: All bots get one, but Escape Velocity's was especially notable since the in-ring announcer made the booth announcers snicker uncontrollably and comment on how great it was.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Was shredded by Tombstone in no time at all and without doing anything of note.
• The Dividual: A flipper and a full body spinner fighting as a team. Subverted in its fight against Tombstone in which they only entered the flipper half, having significantly beefed up its armor in the belief that one heavily-armored bot would do better than two lighter ones.
• The Dragon: The spinner was meant to serve as a sort of "assistant" to the flipper in combat. In practice however, it was even more ineffective than the main bot.
• Epic Fail: Its battle against OverDrive was a sort of mutual Epic Fail. At the start of the battle, the spinner half of Escape Velocity flipped upside-down Mauler style and span across the arena like a Beyblade, while Overdrive's weapon stopped working after a single hit. The flipper half of Escape Velocity, the only fully-working bot left, repeatedly flipped OverDrive but with nowhere near the power or effectiveness of Bronco, and frequently missed. It was consequently given the 32nd and final seed, meaning it had to face Tombstone in the round of 32 and was promptly shredded.
• Joke Character: As mentioned below, it fails at being two different types of robots due to their low weight and poor weaponry— leaving it as a combatant that's cool in theory, but not in practice.
• Master of None: A flipper and a spinner. Too bad neither robot is particularly effective.
• Spectacular Spinning: Averted. The spinner took itself out of its first fight immediately and was a complete non-factor against OverDrive. It was so worthless that even the team eschewed it for more armor believing it would help them against Tombstone (it didn't).
• Sudden Name Change: Originally named Ground Control after its team (and a line from the David Bowie song Space Oddity), but was changed— possibly in keeping with its "lunar landing" theme.
• Wimp Fight: With OverDrive. Both robots were largely ineffective against each other, due to OverDrive's weapon breaking while Escape Velocity kept trying (and failing) to flip OverDrive, and only succeeded at the very end.

Ghost Raptor (#18)*

Team: Team Raptor

Driver: Chuck Pitzer

Hometown: San Francisco, California

Matches: Son of Whyachi (L/KO^*Wild Card), Razorback (L/KO)

• Curb-Stomp Battle: In both of its matches, against Son of Whyachi and Razorback, Ghost Raptor was on the receiving end of one. It also received one from both Lock-Jaw and Stinger in its appearance in the Legends Rumble— apparently not learning from Warhead in Season 1 about why it's a bad idea to go in with a spinner against two of the top anti-spinners.
• Dented Iron: By the time of its reappearance in the Legends Rumble, its chassis was still badly-twisted from its previous fights against Son of Whyachi and Razorback, it came off as unbalanced (with the blade intermittently hitting the floor when it was trying to spin), and it just couldn't get properly started. Eventually, the drive broke down, leaving it spinning away at thin air with the bar.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In its opening battle against Son of Whyachi, Ghost Raptor chose to sit there soaking up SOW's blows in the hope of jamming up its opponent's weapon. However, by the time Ghost Raptor finally spun its own weapon up, one of its front wedges had been damaged and jammed the blade, preventing it from spinning and leaving Ghost Raptor a sitting duck.
  • In its Round of 32 fight against Razorback, it was defeated when Razorback grabbed onto the spinning bar with its unique movable jaw and suplexed it onto its back, a position from which Ghost Raptor could not self-right.
• Irony: Defeated Icewave last season in a major upset. Here? It loses to Razorback, the robot that was torn apart as Icewave's first victim.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Chuck Pitzer had one with Terry Ewert, due to Ghost Raptor beating Warrior Clan last season and then acted smug about it.
• So Last Season: Verges on being The Chew Toy this season, compared to the impressive run of the last where it made the semi-finals and pulled a massive upset over Icewave.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: They planned to let Son of Whyachi break itself on their powerful armor. However, it turned out that letting one of the most powerful robots in the competition pound you relentlessly isn't the best of strategies.
• Took a Level in Badass: Subverted. The blade was supposed to be much more powerful this season, but in its first match it jammed and Son of Whyachi eviscerated it, in its second match Razorback suplexed it onto its back before it could spin up, and despite mostly working in its Rumble appearance, it barely caused any damage to either Lock-Jaw or Stinger.

Complete Control (#10)

Team: Mission Destruction

Driver: Derek Young

Hometown: San Francisco, Los Angeles

Matches: Bombshell & Short Fuse (W/KO), Warhead (L/KO)

• Curb-Stomp Battle: Found itself on the receiving end of one from fellow veteran Warhead in Round Two. One hit took out its left-hand drive, two hits stopped it completely, another destroyed the flamethrower system and caused it to burst into flames when the escaping propane was ignited, and one last shot was inflicted whilst its opponent was showboating by spinning around upside-down on its weapon.
• Evil Laugh: One of the team members engaged in this whilst firing his dual-wielded arm-mounted flamethrowers for additional effect in their Round One intro against Bombshell.
• Heel: The team styled themselves this way after the controversy from Season One regarding their infamous "birthday present" to Ghost Raptor, and accordingly recieved boos when they entered the stadium.
• Karmic Death: Defeated Bombshell by eviscerating it with flames. Then they subsequently lost to Warhead by a strategic blow that lit the entire robot on fire.
• Kill It with Fire: Wields a blowtorch-like flamethrower in combat, and uses it quite effectively in combination with the lifting/clamping arms— most notably, torching Bombshell and causing parts of it to literally melt. However, it proved to be its downfall against Warhead, when the fuel line to it was damaged... and was then promptly ignited by Warhead's own flamethrowers.
  • One of the team members also comes into the arena Dual Wielding a pair of arm-mounted flamethrowers which he fires into the air during their introduction!
• Man on Fire: This is how it ultimately went out in its fight against Warhead. After having its drive crippled by Warhead's spinning dome, it tried to use the flamethrower— which in turn ended up getting hit as well, destroying the hose to the propane tank which was then immediately ignited by both its own pilot light and Warhead's arm-mounted flamethrowers. It literally exploded into flames.
• Mecha-Mooks: Included one in the first fight, and two in the second. They did nothing.
• Retired Badass: Derek Young confirmed that he's retiring from robot combat and that Complete Control will not return in subsequent seasons, making his defeat at the hands of Warhead a little sadder.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Although the team deliberately styled themselves as the competition Heels on account of their Loophole Abuse last time, giving off maniacal laughs in their intros and receiving (and accordingly soaking up) massive boos both times they entered the arena— the look on Derek Young's face when he's staring at the burning remains of Complete Control at the end of its fight against Warhead is definitely quite sad to see.
  • This became even Harsher in Hindsight with the announcement of Derek Young's retirement from robot combat shortly after the fight aired.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Its trademark party trick. Here, it quite handily lifted, carried, and threw Bombshell around in its Round One battle, burning it with the flamethrower all the while for additional fun.

Witch Doctor & Shaman (#3)

Team: Busted Nuts Robotics

Driver: Audrea Suarez

Hometown: Miami, Florida

Matches: Rotator (W/KO), Red Devil (L/KO)

• Curb-Stomp Battle: Defeated Rotator seconds after their battle began. However, it then found itself on the end of one from Red Devil in the next Round- getting cut into, flipped and eventually left for dead (and on fire) in the middle of the arena.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In its match against Red Devil, it took off a protective front wedge to allow Shaman into the battle. Guess where Red Devil attacked from?
• Informed Ability: Despite being touted as a team to be reckoned with and praised for being an effective multi-bot team, Witch Doctor and Shaman have never advanced far into the tournament on their own merits (they were brought back as a wild card in Season 1) and Shaman has never meaningfully contributed to a battle outside of completely cooking one of Bronco's motors with the flamethrower in Season 1. Also, in the 2016 Rumble, Witch Doctor actually took Shaman out in its rush to take on Biteforce.
• Man on Fire: Suffered a Lipo battery fire after Red Devil's saw cut into it in Round 2, which left it vulnerable to a final flip afterward and caused the arena to fill with smoke as they were being counted out. In the same fight, Shaman had set itself on fire after trying to use its flamethrower while inverted and immobile.
• Mecha-Mooks: Shaman, as always. Though many point out that its inclusion only hinders Witch Doctor, rather than help it— especially considering Witch Doctor had to sacrifice the heavier armor that it had against Rotator to bring it in due to weight restrictions.
• Ring Out: They came back for the Rumble at the end of the series but were double-teamed by Bite Force and Wrecks, and the latter threw them out of the arena.
• Sacrificial Lion: They were hyped and touted both by the show's hosts and by audiences as a team that would go far into the tournament. Then they got taken out in their second fight.
• Shocking Elimination: They went in as one of the favorites, but surprisingly fell to Red Devil in Round 2 after being clamped and having its batteries cut into, causing it to catch fire before eventually getting flipped.
• Took a Level in Badass: According to Suarez, Witch Doctor is four times as powerful as it was in its original incarnation. While that held true enough in its first fight, it remains to be seen how strong it is overall, due to its early Shocking Elimination.
• Underestimating Badassery: This proved to be their downfall in Round 2 against Red Devil. They brought in Shaman at the cost of the strong front armor/wedge that had helped them do well against Rotator, which enabled Red Devil to more easily clamp down on it and get at its vulnerable batteries with their circular saw.

Chrome Fly (#31)

Team: Team Ludicrous

Driver: George Matus

Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah

Matches: Bucktooth Burl (W/JD), Bronco (L/KO)

• And Your Little Dog, Too!: After flipping Chrome Fly out of the arena, Bronco proceeded to destroy its crashed drone afterward, only being foiled from flipping it as well by it getting counted out.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Knocked itself out in just two hits against Bronco, who then decided to flip it around and out of the Battlebox just for good measure.
• Dual Wielding: Had a horizontal spinning bar at each end for its weaponry, along with a drone.
• Epic Fail: Its "fight" with Bucktooth Burl was a mutual epic fail, as explained below. It's telling when the video of the full fight on Youtube has more dislikes than likes.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Against Bronco, the first good hit it got in did no damage to Bronco's wedge but caused Chrome Fly to shred itself in the process, quickly immobilizing it.
• Irony: Considering its name, it literally did end up flying once Bronco got underneath it.
• Made of Plasticine: To the point where it literally tore itself to pieces with its own weapons.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The drone has a weight attached to it that it can drop. Presumably, it's supposed to land on the opponent, but it missed and the drone is unable to retrieve it, meaning the drone can only use this once per match. It's questionable what damage this could've done though.
• Spectacular Spinning: Heavily averted in their case. The spinning bars did precious little damage to anything not named Bucktooth Burl, and in fact proved to be a liability against Bronco when they tore Chrome Fly itself apart after failing to do any damage to their opponent.
• Wimp Fight: With Bucktooth Burl. After the initial attack, both robots lost use of their weapon and were reduced to slow, ineffective machines slightly nudging each other — that is, whenever they even made contact. There's a reason why it wasn't aired, and when shown on the internet was received negatively. It was so bad that live audiences booed at them for their underwhelming performance.

Blacksmith (#26)*

Team: Team Half Fast Astronaut

Driver: Al Kindle

Hometown: Edison, New Jersey

Matches: Basilisk & Afterbyte, Gemini (W/JD), Bronco (L/KO^*Wild Card), Minotaur (L/KO)

• An Arm and a Leg: The head of its hammer fell off twice over the course of the competition- first in the closing stages of the fight against Bronco in Round One, and then again against Minotaur in Round Two.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The flaming hammer. The flamethrower system was unreliable (during the fight against Minotaur it appeared to go out for good at the start of the battle, right after they fired it into the air for intimidation), it was questionable how much damage the flames themselves actually did, and the integration of the system into the hammer clearly weakened it (the head was broken off in two consecutive bouts).
• Born Unlucky: Although it more-or-less romped its way to the main competition (Aside from accidentally setting themselves on fire at the end), it got two very tough draws there against Bronco and Minotaur— the most feared flipper and vertical spinner in the competition, respectively.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: It quite literally smashed Gemini and Basilisk to pieces. Subverted at the end when it actually broke down itself, nearly giving a shocking comeback win to the half of Gemini that was still moving, but it just barely avoided a major subversion when it got moving again just in time to prevent itself being counted out.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: For the battle against Minotaur, Blacksmith put on a heavy front wedge to try and fend Minotaur off. It worked during the early stages of the match, allowing Blacksmith to push Minotaur around, but Minotaur gradually started putting dents in the wedge before tearing it off completely, at which point Blacksmith was almost a sitting duck.
• Defeat Means Explosion: After being steadily ground down by Minotaur's spinning drum, enough armor was removed from the front that Minotaur could grind its drum almost directly against the internals and then slam it against a wall. A second later, Blacksmith's internals exploded into a raging fire.
• Determinator: In its matches against both Bronco and Minotaur, it took several heavy blows and lost the hammer head, but kept on fighting regardless. Against Minotaur it almost held out for the judges' decision, despite having almost its entire front ripped off, but finally succumbed to its injuries in the closing seconds.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Subverted. Blacksmith nearly lost the qualifier melee after dominating the entire time due to its engine overheating. They were literally two seconds away from being counted out, but started moving again just in time to save itself.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: It's armed with a powerful hammer. How do you make that even better? By making it a powerful hammer that shoots flames.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: See Diabolus ex Machina above.
• Man on Fire: Accidentally set itself on fire in the closing stages of the qualifier melee. Then, after taking one hell of a beating from Minotaur in the Round of 32, it caught fire again and was eliminated.

Lucky (#21)*

Team: Lucky Canucky Robotics and Entertainment

Driver: Gary Gin

Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Matches: beta (L/JD^*Wild Card), Yeti (L/KO)

• Achilles' Heel: Whilst the flipper's powerful, it often takes a while to retract— this cost it dearly against both beta and Yeti in its Round One and Two battles, preventing it from fighting back whilst Lucky's opponents went to town on the weapon.
• An Arm and a Leg: Had the top half of its flipper arm torn off by Yeti's vertical drum in their second fight.
• Born Unlucky: Ironically, despite its name it suffered badly from this. Its first match was against beta, who was virtually immune to Lucky's flipper due to its amazing self-righting ability. It earned a wildcard only to be matched against Yeti. The result of that was pretty ugly.
• Determinator: Took an almighty hammering from beta, but went the distance and flipped them several times before losing the judges' decision. It was given a wildcard spot as a reward for its tenacity.
• Discard and Draw: For its fight against beta in Round One, it had one half of its front wedge removed to shed weight for a special hammer-proof shock absorber on the top. In theory, this would allow it to more effectively survive beta's blows— in practice however, it fell off on the first hit.
• Large Ham: Team captain Gary Gin is definitely this, being very loud and hammy whenever he's on-camera. Most notably, there's his excited "YEAH, CANADA!" Battle Cry, and his quips to the opposing drivers during the fights, especially in his Round One match against beta— "ALL DAY LONG, JOHN, ALL DAY LONG!"
• Technical Pacifist: Its weapon is a powerful four-bar flipper, which it can use to chuck opponents around effectively.
• Token Minority: Though the team is from Canada, captain Gary Gin hails from New Hampshire. However, that doesn't stop him from yelling "CANADA!" in celebration of his adopted country. This was pointed out by the hosts, and both Reddit and Battlebots Update essentially turned it into a meme.

Qualifiers

Rotator

Team: Team Revolution

Driver: Victor Soto

Hometown: Doral, Florida

Matches: Witch Doctor & Shaman (L/KO)

• Attack Its Weak Point: Discussed by the commentators after its battle with Witch Doctor, in which Witch Doctor immediately targeted Rotator's vulnerable wheels and tore one of them straight off before putting it under the Pulveriser.
• Consolation Prize: Despite being taken out relatively quickly by Witch Doctor in the main competition and not receiving a Wild Card, it got to prove what it was capable of by winning the Multi-Weapon rumble at the end of the series against Splatter and The Disk-O-Inferno, causing considerable damage to both bots.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Although it was able to inflict major damage to both The Disk-O-Inferno and Splatter in their appearance in the Multi-Weapon rumble, it did have some trouble early on with the latter's lifting arm, being lifted and pushed about before they could land some serious blows with their sole functioning disc.
• Deadly Doctor: Its team consisted of surgeons— so what better weapon to have than powerful blades?
• Dual Wielding: Wields two powerful spinning discs at either end of the machine— rigged up so that one of them always undercuts (mounted low to deal damage to wedges and wheels), and the other overcuts (mounted high to damage the main body and corners), and so that it can spin on the spot with the discs going to defend itself. One of them broke down very early in the Multi-Weapon Rumble, but the other one did enough damage to carry them to victory.
• Not Completely Useless: The exposed wheels— which had cost them in their main competition fight against Witch Doctor— saved them against Splatter in the Multi-Weapon rumble, as they kept contact with the ground when it was flipped onto its side and allowed Rotator to rock itself back down, stopping it from being stranded on the wall like The Disk-O-Inferno was.
• Spectacular Spinning: Has two horizontal spinners, mounted on either side of the robot, in a unique invertible design that allows it to run both ways up just as effectively. Although they weren't seen at all in its main competition appearance, the discs worked well in its appearance in the Multi-Weapon rumble, tearing up its opponents despite one of the discs breaking fairly early in the battle.

Wrecks

Team: Team Wrecks

Driver: Micah Leibowitz

Hometown: Hayward, California

Matches: Red Devil (L/KO)

• Awesome, but Impractical: Once again, its walker design kept it from winning any battles.
• Butt-Monkey: In the three-way exhibition match between it, Witch Doctor, and Bite Force, the other two bots completely ignored it. To add insult to injury, even after Witch Doctor got knocked out of the ring, Bite Force decided to go after Witch Doctor's minibot first. Then again, considering Wreck's spinning blade is absolutely goddamn devastating but can really only threaten you if you're stupid enough to drive into it, this really is the smart thing to do.
• Glass Cannon: One of the most powerful and devastating weapons in the competition... mounted on a frame that can barely move without falling over.
• Handicapped Badass: Again, more emphasis on 'handicapped'. Make no mistake, the spinning blade is very deadly, capable of tearing anything it hits into pieces, but since the robot is slow, can't turn on a dime, and can flip itself over just from moving around, there is basically no hope for them.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Its flywheel was so powerful, and the supporting body so small, that during its fight against Red Devil it flipped itself upside-down, and the disc caught on the arena floor and propelled it into the wall at frightening speed. It survived, but not for long.
• Lethal Joke Character: Its waddling movement has been the butt of many jokes, but its blade is incredibly powerful, as Witch Doctor found out the hard way.
• Not-So Harmless Competitor: Had a definite air of this in its rumble against Witch Doctor & Shaman and Bite Force. Despite mostly flailing around and not doing much of note (as usual), it and Bite Force teamed up briefly to finish off Witch Doctor— ending with Bite Force popping Witch Doctor towards Wrecks, who then promptly launched it out of the arena with its vertical disc.
• Punched Across the Room: Managed to do this to itself in its qualifier match, flipping itself over and then catapulting itself into the wall due to the sheer gyroscopic power of its disc. In the Rumble at the end of the series it managed to punch Witch Doctor not only across the room, but right out of it.
• Ring Out: Inflicted this on Witch Doctor with Bite Force's help in the Rumble.

SawBlaze

Team: Team SawBlaze

Driver: Jamison Go

Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Matches: Razorback (L/JD)

• Bare-Fisted Monk: Although its spinning saw weapon broke early on in its match against Razorback, it was still able to dominate the veteran by resisting the drum and relentlessly ramming and shoving it around. However, it still lost the judges' decision for the sole reason that Razorback's disc was switched on.
• Born Unlucky: Utterly dominated Razorback in its Round 1 fight, shoving it relentlessly around the arena and resisting Razorback's spinning drum like it wasn't even there. It lost the judges' decision because its cutting disc weapon stopped working early on and it couldn't use it.
• Breath Weapon: Like Warhead and Warrior Dragon (Warrior Clan's drone), it had a dragon theme and used a flamethrower for a weapon in a way that resembled a dragon's fiery breath.
• Consolation Prize: Although it lost early on in the main competition, it was able to win an exhibition rumble against its former MIT teammates Overhaul and Road Rash, taking a unanimous decision by shoving Overhaul around constantly and slicing into them with their (now working) saw blade weapon.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicted one on Overhaul in the MIT exhibition rumble, shoving it around the arena relentlessly and really messing up their armour and cat ears with the now-working saw blade arm. It arguably inflicted one on Razorback as well in the main competition, but despite being on top throughout, it lost out because its weapon wasn't working.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Had a flamethrower mounted inside its articulated arm to work in tandem with the cutting disc— shooting flames down onto (and ideally into) a trapped opponent whilst the blade cuts into them.
• Happy Dance: It had a pretty interesting victory dance that it performed after its victory in the rumble against Overhaul and Road Rash, involving it repeatedly flipping itself over and re-righting itself using the weight distribution from its articulated arm.
• Kill It with Fire: In addition to the saw blade, SawBlaze's articulated arm contains a flamethrower. Like the saw blade, it failed to work in its battle against Razorback, but it was seen working in the MIT rumble.
• Punny Name: Its name is a pun on the word "sawblades", referring to both its cutting disc and flamethrower weapons.
• Spectacular Spinning: Its weapon is a large spinning disc mounted on an articulated arm, allowing it to attack opponents in front and behind. It failed to work in its battle against Razorback but worked well in the rumble against Overhaul and Road Rash.
• Start My Own: SawBlaze is one of three teams that split off from Overhaul after the team broke up.
• Surpassed the Teacher: At the end of the series, a "Battle of MIT" exhibition rumble took place between Overhaul, SawBlaze, and fellow splinter team Road Rash^note a reserve brought in to replace Brutus, which had been too badly damaged by Tombstone to take part. SawBlaze dominated Overhaul just as it had Razorback, but this time the weapon was working, and it won by unanimous decision.

Moebius Resurrected

Team: Team Moebius

Driver: Michael Macht

Hometown: Beavercreek, Ohio

Matches: Brutus (L/KO)

• Badass on Paper: A full body spinner made by a veteran builder that spins at over twice the speed of Tombstone's spinning bar. Sounds like a fearsome robot right? Only problem is that it basically destroys itself from its own power.
• Big Entrance: Moebius was wheeled into the arena inside a coffin in a sort of mock gothic funeral ceremony, complete with electric guitar, angle grinders, and the team captain staring bug-eyed into the camera (with special contact lenses to enhance the effect). The entire thing lasted longer than the battle itself.
• Diabolus ex Machina: In a meta sense — Moebius was damaged before they even entered the location and apparently were lucky to even get it moving at all. It basically guaranteed their defeat before the fight even started.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: It shredded its own internals while spinning up to battle speed and parts started smoking and flying before Brutus got close enough for a hit.
• Legacy Character: To the original Moebius.
• Sesquipedalian Smith: Inverted. Referred to as just "Moebius" on the show, likely for this reason.
• Spectacular Spinning: A full-body spinner. Arguably averted considering it was curb-stomped by Brutus.
• Too Powerful to Live: Spins at a speed that's over twice that of Tombstone's bar. Unfortunately, having that much power essentially destroyed its own internals.

The Obwalden Overlord

Team: Team Obwalden Overlord

Driver: Rob Knight

Hometown: Divonne les Bains, France

Matches: Warhead (L/KO)

• Artificial Human: Designed to look like a humanoid robot.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Overlord was an incredible feat of robotic engineering, with arms capable of replicating the full range of motions of a human arm, which the roboteers would control with motion-capture exoskeleton controllers strapped to their own arms. Unfortunately, the resulting robot was almost completely unarmed and, even worse, only one of the arms (the one equipped with a plexiglass "riot shield") was working- if the other arm even had a mounted weapon, we never got to see it, and the Obwalden Overlord promptly got melted by Warhead's flamethrower.
  • As the popular blog Battlebots Update put it:
  Obwalden Overlord is absolutely a gorgeous machine, but I can’t help but feel like it’s grossly out of place here. This is the same event that Tombstone is at. You really think this “what would you do against a robot with arms” nonsense is going to work against something like Tombstone?
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Found itself on the receiving end of one from a new-and-improved Warhead. It got chomped on by its opponent's new hydraulic jaws (which Team Razer Captain Ian Lewis later likened to "a terrier fighting a postman"), set on fire and even partially melted with the flamethrowers, before getting tipped over onto its back by Warhead.
• I'm Melting!: After finding itself on the wrong end of Warhead's flamethrowers, a lot of the Kevlar fishing line "ligaments" in the body and arms ended up melting and/or catching fire, which gave it this appearance.
• Joke Character: The Overlord's arms were slow and fragile, its body was top-heavy and easy to tip over, and it was so slow that it couldn't even ram effectively.
• Man on Fire: This was how it ultimately went out in its fight against Warhead. After being gnawed on by its opponent's hydraulic jaws, its internal fishing line "ligaments" were then set on fire (via Warhead's flamethrowers), and it proceeded to burn spectacularly until the robotic dragon eventually pushed it over to KO it.
• Motion-Capture Mecha: Its driver controlled its upper body via an exoskeleton strapped to his arms.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: The ends of the arms can be swapped out to accommodate numerous attachments, including lances, wedges, polycarbonate riot shields, and giant hammers.

Splatter

Team: Team Fast Electric Robots

Driver: Jeff Vasquez

Hometown: Thousand Oaks, California

Matches: Warrior Clan (L/JD)

• Ascended Extra: Zig-Zagged. Splatter was an alternate in the first season that didn't officially compete, but returned as a bona fide competitor in this season. However, its one fight was reduced to a highlight that was only seen in full on the internet.
  • It did however, make another appearance in the Multi-Weapon rumble against The Disk-O-Inferno and Rotator.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: After a relatively uneventful match against Warrior Clan in which it lost, it redeemed itself somewhat in the Multi-Weapon rumble against The Disk-O-Inferno and Rotator, where despite its blade failing to work, it still put up a much better fight than previously— stranding The Disk-O-Inferno on the wall for most of the fight with its lifting arm, and getting some good lifts and pushes in on Rotator, despite ending up badly torn-up by its undercutting disc by the end.
• Enemy Mine: During the Multi-Weapon Rumble, Splatter drove The Disk-O-Inferno against the wall and flipped them over, leaving them stranded when their flipper wasn't able to self-right them. However Rotator proved to be too much for Splatter to handle, so Splatter actually went and flipped The Disk-O-Inferno right-side up again in the hopes that they'd be able to take Rotator out together. Unfortunately, Rotator trashed them both.
• Made of Plasticine: The armor was torn open fairly easy by Rotator in the Multi-Weapon rumble.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: A lifter that contains a spinning blade. Unfortunately, it's not very effective at either one.
• Technical Pacifist: Although its spinning disc weapon broke early on in the Multi-Weapon rumble, it was still able to put up a good fight by making use of its lifting arm to flip and push its opponents around.
• Wimp Fight: Engaged in this with Warrior Clan. Its weapon was largely ineffective and eventually broke, while Warrior Clan's locomotive spinner stopped working. They were reduced to nudging each other and even got stuck on each other towards the end of the fight.

Bucktooth Burl

Team: The Eh Team

Driver: Julia Chernushevich

Hometown: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Matches: Chrome Fly (L/JD)

• Diabolus ex Machina: Their weapon failed to work, costing them their fight against Chrome Fly.
• Epic Fail: Its "fight" with Chrome Fly was a mutual epic fail (explained below). It's telling when the video of the full fight on Youtube has considerably more dislikes than likes.
• Fragile Speedster: When this thing is actually working as intended, Bucktooth Burl is one of the fastest bots in the entire competition. Too bad it doesn't have much defense or endurance, as was demonstrated in the animal-themed rumble (see link below)—a few hits would cause it to stop moving, though except for the very end, it would start up again after several seconds.
• Off with His Head!: Knocked Death Roll's head off using their drum in the exhibition rumble.
• Slippery Skid: Although it had great speed and acceleration, their wheels evidently had little-to-no traction, as they constantly slipped and slid across the BattleBox floor.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: After a bad fight with Chrome Fly, it redeemed itself to a lot of fans in an untelevised rumble later in the season. It didn't win, but it was finally able to show off both its weapon and driving speed in a match that was a much better showing than its debut.
• Spectacular Spinning: Their weapon is a powerful vertical drum spinner, much like designs such as Minotaur or Poison Arrow. It broke in the first hit in their fight against Chrome Fly, but it was able to put up a better showing in the exhibition rumble against Skorpios and Death Roll, where it caused major damage to the latter.
• Wimp Fight: With Chrome Fly. After the initial attack, both robots lost use of their weapon and were reduced to slow, ineffective machines slightly nudging each other — that is, whenever they even made contact. There's a reason why it wasn't aired, and when shown on the internet was received negatively. It was so bad that live audiences booed at them for their underwhelming performance.

Black Ice

Team: Team Black Ice

Driver: Dan Barry

Hometown: South Hadley, Massachusetts

Matches: Skorpios, Bad Kitty (W/KO), Tombstone (L/KO)

• Boring, but Practical: It's as close to a full-on wedgebot as the rules will allow- its weapons being two tiny blades that are clearly there to appease the active weapon rule. Still, it's a strong wedge that can take punishment, which allowed it to handily win the qualifiers.
• Cool Old Guy: Dan is over 60, a former astronaut, and competing on Battlebots.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Demolished Bad Kitty with zero effort, impressive for a wedge bot going against a spinner. Unfortunately for Dan, he was then matched against Tombstone in the first round and the results were predictably ugly...
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Was able to shove Tombstone around a little, which is more than what could've been said about Escape Velocity. However, all it took was one good hit and it was done.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Unfortunately, even if it managed to somehow beat Tombstone fair and square, it had no chance of winning a judges' decision thanks to the new rules made to counter robots like Black Ice where pushing scores no points.

OverDrive

Team: Team Coolrobots

Driver: Christian Carlberg

Hometown: San Luis Obispo, California

Matches: Escape Velocity (L/KO)

• Achilles' Heel: Being flipped over. If this happens, it becomes unable to use the weapon, and if it's flipped on its front (as seen against Escape Velocity), it can't move at all. This ended up happening to it in both its fights.
• Determinator: Even after having half its drive and the weapon destroyed by The Ringmaster in the Daughters exhibition rumble, it was still trying to move about upside-down as if trying to continue the fight.
• In Name Only: This robot has little in common with the OverDrive of the previous season. Now it's more like a compact Dreadnought.
• Legacy Character: Much like Chomp and Bite Force, it's a completely different robot that carries the name "OverDrive".
• Punched Across the Room: Was thrown halfway across the Battlebox by The Ringmaster during its exhibition rumble.
• One-Hit Kill: Had this inflicted on it by The Ringmaster in the Daughters exhibition rumble. After being flipped by Bad Kitty and avoiding The Ringmaster long enough for it to destroy Bad Kitty first, it finally got hit by the ring— resulting in the weapon being completely ruined, and the drive immobilized on one side. Although one side worked, it was still counted as technically immobile.
• Spectacular Spinning: Had a horizontal spinning bar. Subverted when it failed to work against Escape Velocity, and later on ended up being broken by The Ringmaster and Bad Kitty in the Daughters exhibition rumble.
• Symbol Swearing: Amusingly, it had Q*bert-style "swearing" typography written on its baseplate- which could be seen whenever it got flipped over, referencing its inability to self-right.
• Wimp Fight: With Escape Velocity. Both robots were largely ineffective against each other, due to OverDrive's weapon breaking while Escape Velocity kept trying (and failing) to flip OverDrive, and only succeeded at the very end.

Ultimo Destructo

Team: Team Carnage Robotics

Driver: Sean J. Irvin

Hometown: Valkaria, Florida

Matches: The Ringmaster (L/KO)

• Curb-Stomp Battle: Was on the receiving end of one against The Ringmaster.
• Demoted to Extra: When compared to Techno Destructo from the original series. It was one of the most iconic bots of the original series and always put on a good showing. Here, Ultimo only appeared once, was curb-stomped, and said fight was reduced to a highlight.
• Glory Days: Remember how impressive Techno Destructo was in the original series? Ultimo has yet to prove itself as worthy successor.
• Idiot Ball: Many have questioned Irvin's decision to use a flipper against The Ringmaster, when it was obviously ineffective and wouldn't have worked anyway since their opponent was invertible. It's generally agreed that the fearsome looking spinning bar (as pictured) would've served them much better against such an opponent.
• Legacy Character: Ultimo is the successor to the famous Techno Destructo from the original series. Sadly, it has yet to live up to its predecessor.
• Made of Plasticine: It clearly wasn't very durable.
• Mechanical Evolution: Created to be the "natural evolution" of Techno Destructo. Whereas Techno was limited to its flipper design, Ultimo had multiple configurations consisting of a spinner, hammer, and the classic flipper. There was also going to be an anti-spinner config, but they couldn't make it in time.
• Sketchy Successor: Compared to the legendary Techno, Ultimo has yet to compare.
• Spectacular Spinning: Includes a spinning bar as one of its options. How effective it remains unknown despite its intimidating looks, because they decided not to use it against The Ringmaster over the flipper. It was shredded.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: It has a flipper, spinner, and a hammer as its potential options.
• What Could Have Been: As mentioned, they were originally going to have an anti-spinner configuration but they couldn't complete it in time. Imagine how it would've fared against The Ringmaster with that setup...

SubZero

Team: Team Hammertime & XD

Driver: Jerry Clarkin

Hometown: Malvern, Pennsylvania

Matches: Icewave (L/JD)

• Born Unlucky: Had the perfect chance to flip Icewave over after their weapon stopped working. Unfortunately, the damage had been too great and they were unable to get the flipper underneath it to work.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Took a thrashing from Icewave, but dealt enough to recoil damage to take out its blade and make the fight last long enough to give it to the judges.
• Irony: This isn't the first time SubZero fought Icewave. They fought once before six years prior, and they quite handily won with minimum effort. The same could not be said about their rematch.
• Stone Wall: Lasted long enough to take the fight to the judges, something that Razorback and Chomp weren't able to do.
• Sudden Name Change: Originally entered as Mecha SubZero before dropping the first part of the name.

Mohawk

Team: Team Mohawk

Driver: Greg Bales

Hometown: Miami, Florida

Matches: Lycan, Invader (W/KO), Bite Force (L/KO)

• Dark Horse Victory: Took the win from behind against Invader and Lycan. While they were too busy trying to take each other out, Mohawk waited until the former was incapacitated and the latter was severely damaged to take the victory.
• Kill It with Fire: Its crushing arm had a built-in flamethrower for roasting opponents.
• Man on Fire: A very rare example among combat robots in that this was an intentional design feature rather than the result of an Incendiary Exponent or internal failure. The robot was able to set fire to the mohawk on top of its crushing arm for maximum Rule of Cool, and to intimidate its opponent. Sadly its opponent in Round 1 was reigning champion Bite Force, who wasn't intimidated at all.
• Meaningful Name: The crusher had a mohawk on top that would catch fire.

UltraViolent

Team: Titanium Joe

Driver: Andrew Peterson

Hometown: Blacksburg, Virginia

Matches: Creepy Crawlies, Son of Whyachi (L/KO), HyperShock (L/KO)

• Born Unlucky: Was drawn against two robots with highly destructive weapons.
• Confusion Fu: Due to its ability to lift and flip itself around with its own lifting arms, it would often use them to move around and evade attacks.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Twice in a row: after being mangled by Son of Whyachi in the qualifying round without even being able to move properly, it went up against Hypershock. While its wheels were working properly this time, it spent most of the bout ineffectually throwing itself around the Battlebox on its rotating spike weapons while Hypershock literally eviscerated it. As summed up in the Battlebots Update—
  "This used to be a robot. Not anymore."
• Diabolus ex Machina: Unable to use its own wheels due to functioning problems, which made it even more mismatched against Whyachi.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Despite being mullered by Son of Whyachi in the qualifying round, it was reinstated after Hellachopper was disqualified on safety grounds, and the team rebuilt it in order to face Hypershock. It didn't fare any better the second time round.
• Punny Name: It's a neon-lit bot named Ultraviolent, as a pun on ultraviolet light.
• Shout-Out: Its name is a reference to the "ultra-violence" phrase from A Clockwork Orange.
• Tron Lines: Neon lights around the bot and its wheels.

The Disk O' Inferno

Team: The Inferno Lab

Driver: Jason Bardis

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Matches: Chomp (L/JD)

• Diabolus ex Machina: The disc failed to work in its battle against Chomp, and although it put up a strong fight it consequently lost the judges' decision and wasn't given a wildcard spot. They got the disc working again for the Multi-Weapon rumble against Rotator and Splatter, but it broke again fairly quickly.
• Disco Dan: The over-arcing theme of the robot is 1970s disco— complete with covering the disc in mirrors to resemble a disco ball, painting the chassis and srimech to resemble a light-up dancefloor, and the team dressing up as Tony Manero, John Travolta's character from Saturday Night Fever.
  • In its introduction in the Multi-Weapon rumble, Jason Bardis even performed the classic Saturday Night Fever pose.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: It spent most of the Multi-Weapon rumble stranded on the wall by Splatter's lifting arm, and then once they got off, one side of their drivetrain was crippled by Rotator's undercutting disc, meaning that it could only drive around in circles.
  • Shout-Out: ...which is in turn a reference to the 1976 song of the same name by The Trammps.
• Spectacular Spinning: As well as a flipper/srimech, Disk O' Inferno had a powerful horizontal spinning blade that sadly failed to work in its only main battle, and broke early into the Multi-Weapon rumble.

Photon Storm

Team: Team Storm

Driver: Ed Hoppitt

Hometown: Woodbridge, United Kingdom

Matches: Minotaur (L/KO)

• A Taste of Defeat: Photon Storm's early loss to Minotaur is Team Storm's first convincing televised loss. Storm II previously won virtually everything it participated in, aside from the highly controversial Series 7 Grand Final.
• Born Unlucky: Had a very unlucky draw against Minotaur in Round One, who despite a good start from Photon Storm when they caught it from behind with the piercer, was able to kill the UK veteran with just two big hits.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Photon Storm's only attack on Minotaur counts as this for them. Had it grabbed its opponent's chassis with the crusher instead of the wheel arch, it could have potentially done much more serious damage to them.
• Feathered Fiend: Much like fellow British competitor Warhead and its scorpion-like arms and tail, the feather-shaped decorative panels and the beak-like piercer give Photon Storm a resemblance to a mechanical bird of prey.
• Hope Spot: Survived the initial attack from Minotaur and even managed to get a grip on it. Unfortunately the crusher tip slipped down into the gap between Minotaur's wheel and chassis rather than digging into the armor plating and they weren't able to do any damage before they were forced to release it; Minotaur didn't let them have another chance.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Photon Storm suffered the robot equivalent of this after Minotaur hit the claw weapon from below so hard with their drum that it completely ruptured the hydraulic system, hurling it across the arena and spilling orange fluid everywhere. Played for Laughs by the Battlebots Update—
  "...either that, or Minotaur hit Photon Storm so hard that it pissed itself."
• Power Pincers: Photon Storm's weapon is a powerful hydraulic piercer that runs off up to 12 tonnes of pressure and is designed to crush through the armor of opponents and damage their internals. Sadly, although it was able to catch Minotaur with it in their only fight, it couldn't do much due to it slipping down into the Brazilian machine's wheel arch.

Death Roll

Team: Team DeathRoll

Driver: Erica Hediger

Hometown: Red Hill, Australia

Matches: Captain Shrederator (L/KO)

• Curb-Stomp Battle: Utterly annihilated by Captain Shrederator. There was almost nothing left. Although it was repaired in time to take part in an animal-themed exhibition rumble against Bucktooth Burl and Skorpios, it suffered more damage after getting its head knocked off and eventually being flipped over.
• Epic Flail: Its alternate weapon is a long sectioned tail that can raise up and down or swing side-to-side, allowing it to whack opponents as it turns or to get underneath them.
• Glowing Eyes: It's got a scary-looking red pair inside its head to further complement its reptilian theme.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: During the exhibition rumble it took part in, a blow from Bucktooth Burl's drum spinner flicked it up into the air and caused it to beach itself against the arena wall. Bucktooth Burl and Skorpios then proceeded to ram it into submission, and then rammed it a few more times just to make sure.
• Land Down Under: They're the first and to date only Australian team to compete on Battlebots. Unfortunately, despite being much stronger than previous efforts, it continues the sad trend established in Robot Wars of Australian robots being either pretty useless and/or just not doing well in general.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: As can be expected from their origins, the machine is heavily themed after one of Australia's most famous (and deadly) animals- the saltwater crocodile.
  • Genius Bonus: It's even named after the distinctive move that large crocodiles use to pull potential prey into the water or to wrench off limbs or larger chunks of flesh from their victims to eat.
• Off with His Head!: Had its head knocked off by Captain Shrederator and Bucktooth Burl respectively in both its fights.
• Scary Teeth: It's got a set of small spiky teeth lining its jaws/housing to the vertical spinner, but they're more-or-less there for decoration only.
• Spectacular Spinning: Armed with a very large vertical spinner.

Pre-Qualifiers

Bad Kitty

Team: Team Think Tank

Driver: Bradley Hadstad

Hometown: California

Matches: Skorpios, Black Ice (L/KO)

• Curb-Stomp Battle: Received one from The Ringmaster in the Daughters exhibition rumble.
• Epic Fail: Didn't even make a scratch on Black Ice, and got beaten with ease by said push bot— in a season that tries its damnedest to punish pushing, no less!
• Fluffy the Terrible: Not exactly the most intimidating bot name of the competitors.
• Mecha-Mooks: It was accompanied by a multibot in its initial fight with Skorpios and Black Ice, but it didn't exactly do much— and consequently, did not appear in the Daughters exhibition rumble.
• One-Hit Kill: Had this inflicted on it by The Ringmaster in the Daughters exhibition rumble. Although it succeeded in turning over Overdrive, it then got hit by the spinning ring— completely trashing the drive and flipping it over.
• Real Bots Wear Pink: It's a pink, cat-themed machine with a nasty vertical disc.
• Spectacular Spinning: Includes a vertical spinner. Although it was completely unable to touch Black Ice, it was at least shown to be strong enough to flip Overdrive in the Daughters exhibition rumble.

Skorpios

Team: Team Skorpios

Driver: Orion Beach
Hometown: California
Matches: Bad Kitty, Black Ice (L/KO)

• Awesome McCoolname: Yes, the driver's name really is Orion Beach, as lampshaded by the commentators.
• Epic Fail: It got pushed into the (deactivated) screws right at the start of the match and got wedged underneath them. It spent the entire rest of the battle futilely attempting to saw through them with its own weapon while the other robots ignored it.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: Spent the entirety of its match stuck against the screws, making it more of a part of the scenery than an actual competitor.
• Made of Iron: Both played straight and subverted. Skorpios' front wedge proved to be very tough, resisting Bucktooth Burl's drum with ease, but the disc it used in that match got mangled to the point of uselessness when it tried to hit Bucktooth Burl.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Subverted when it narrowly missed out on replacing Obwalden Overlord, who barely managed to get themselves working in time to face Warhead, but played straight in an exhibition rumble at the end of the series, where it beat Death Roll and Bucktooth Burl.
• Ramming Always Works: In the exhibition rumble it took part in, after its disc got mangled and stopped working, it resorted to ramming Bucktooth Burl around the arena and into the walls with its front wedge until Bucktooth Burl broke down. Skorpios also got in a couple of rams on the already-immobilized Death Roll.
• Scary Scorpions: The theme of the robot.
• Spectacular Spinning: Has a giant saw blade on a pivoting arm, similar to Robot Wars house robot Dead Metal.
• What Could Have Been: Skorpios was almost reinstated, as Obwalden Overlord was having technical problems prior to its fight against Warhead. They went as far as filming Warhead and Skorpios' introductions for that match, only for it to be announced that OB Overlord was now ready, meaning Skorpios ended up missing out. It's fair to say Skorpios probably would have stood up to Warhead slightly better than Obwalden Overlord did.

Lycan

Team: Team All Black Robotics

Driver: Ravi Baboolal

Hometown: Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

Matches: Invader, Mohawk (L/KO)

• Dented Iron: Despite being a tough bot, the shots it took against Invader eventually took its toll, allowing Mohawk to handily win the fight.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Despite Invader clearly being immobilized (there was a shot of one of the Lycan team members commenting "he's dead") but still spinning on the spot at full speed, Lycan's driver neglected to turn his attention to Mohawk and continued to make attacks on the helpless Invader, presumably hoping to score cheap points (since Lycan's front jaw-scoop had proven to be too tough for Invader's spinner to penetrate) rather than taking its chances with the still-active Mohawk's crusher. Unfortunately the last attack was misaimed, with Lycan skidding into Invader sideways, taking the blow on the wheel rather than the scoop and tearing off the drive chain, killing the robot's mobility and handing victory to Mohawk instead.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Considering how tough the front of the robot is, and the fact that it would've won if it weren't for the misaimed attack taking out its drivetrain, it would've been very interesting to see how it would've fared in the tournament against robots like Tombstone and Minotaur.^note To be completely realistic, in the face of the new rules about active weapons, the most likely answer is "extremely poorly".
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Its heavily-armored lower jaw bears an uncanny resemblance to one of these— making it the second robot after Chin-Killa from the original Battlebots to be capable of killing robots using its own chin, as Invader can attest.
• Mutual Kill: With Invader. The former took out its drivetrain from beyond the grave after Lycan dealt several hits to take out its engine. This allowed Mohawk, who was a non-factor for most of the fight, to win.
• Stone Wall: Took quite a beating from Invader, and was able to dish out enough recoil damage to take him out. That said, it came at a heavy cost.
• Technical Pacifist: Its main weapon was a small clamping jaw on the top half of the front, but it was too high up and too weak to really do anything useful— leaving its speed, power and heavily-armored chin as its primary weapons.

Invader

Team: The Robotic Death Company

Driver: John Maldenik

Hometown: Escondido, California

Matches: Lycan, Mohawk (L/KO)

• Alien Invasion: Has an alien theme.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Started off strong, but eventually stopped working because of recoil damage.
  • It also suffered severe stability issues due to the mast on top of the robot being kinked at an angle near the stop, causing centrifugal force issues that made it jump around far longer than it should have after hitting something, making it hard to control.
  • The "kinked" mast is actually an intentional feature designed to self-right the robot, and affects the robot's stability less than the distribution of weight in its chassis. Ordinarily if it were spinning out of control Invader could have turned its weapon off until it was back on its wheels. Unfortunately, the internal switch for the weapon motor welded shut due to the immense current draw, making it impossible to turn off the weapon. In fact, Invader continued to spin for 45 minutes after the match before its batteries ran out and the team could safely shut it down.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: These were the same guys who made Megabyte, the robot that destroyed Battlebots icon Biohazard in 2005. They could've done very well had its engine not failed due to facing against a Stone Wall.
• Mutual Kill: With Lycan. The former took out its engine with repeated hits from its jaws while Invader took out its drivetrain by hitting the side of the bot long after it was taken out of the battle. This allowed Mohawk, who was a non-factor for most of the fight, to win.
• Expy: To Megabyte, a bot that didn't make the televised rounds of the original series but later became one of the most successful robots of all time after the show ended. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its predecessor.
• Taking You with Me: While Invader was the first one out of the fight, due to its engine breaking down, the spinner kept working. Lycan kept hitting it still, likely hoping to score more points. This proved to be a fatal mistake — one misaimed hit led Invader taking out its drivetrain, rendering Lycan helpless despite having a massive lead.

Gemini

Team: Radicand

Driver: Augustus "Ace" Shelander

Hometown: San Francisco, California

Matches: Basilisk & Afterbyte, Blacksmith (L/KO)

• Determinator: The red robot, despite being a clusterbot and therefore half the size of the other competitors, took an outright pasting from Blacksmith's flaming hammer, yet was still going at the end (and very nearly won when Blacksmith almost broke down itself).
• Deus ex Machina: Subverted. They very nearly won against Blacksmith by default after being dominated the whole match. Blacksmith had engine problems, and was almost counted out until it started moving again.
• Mecha-Mooks: Both robots could be considered this.
• Spectacular Spinning: Armed with a pair of horizontal spinning discs.
• Sudden Name Change: Originally entered as Free Radicals, but this name was rejected.
• The Dividual: Two robots counted as a single entry.

Basilisk & Afterbyte

Team: Team MBS Robotics

Driver: Lucas Sloan

Hometown: Alberta, Canada

Matches: Gemini, Blacksmith (L/KO)

• Action Duo: Obviously.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Received one from Blacksmith in their only battle. Basilisk was the first of the three main machines to be immobilized after being hammered repeatedly, and Afterbyte in particular was annihilated by Blacksmith after it clipped its own teammate, crashed into the floor, and then got completely flattened by the flaming hammer.
• Death from Above: The team's drone, Afterbyte. Instead of the flamethrowers that the other drones had for the most part, it was instead meant to latch onto and drill into their opponent after landing on them.
• Joke Weapon: The drone served no real purpose, with the plan for it being to land on the underside of an overturned bot and drill into it. This overlooks the fact that if the robot can self-right, it will (which would destabilize and probably crash the drone if it got in the way), and if it can't self-right then it's knocked out anyway (rendering the drone's drill redundant). In the actual battle, it flew in too close to Blacksmith and crashed to the floor after merely clipping against it. Then it got introduced to the business end of Mr. Flaming Hammer.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Basilisk is named and themed after a European mythological monster— a giant serpentine creature that had incredibly potent venom and the ability to kill living beings by looking into their eyes.
• Technical Pacifist: Basilisk's weapon is a large flipper, designed to work in tandem with Afterbyte's drill by flipping opponents over and getting them into a position where the drone can effectively use its drill.
• This Is a Drill: Afterbyte was the only machine in the competition that used a drill for a weapon— with the intention of landing on stuck opponents, latching onto them, and drilling into their vulnerable internals. However, it really didn't work out for them the one time they tried to use it.

Creepy Crawlies

Team: Team Creepy Crawlies

Driver: Kelly Smith

Hometown: United Kingdom

Matches: UltraViolent, Son of Whyachi (L/KO)

• Action Girl: Kelly Smith is one of the few female Team Captains in the series.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Sure, five robots as one entry is cool on paper, but there's a reason why people don't generally use it- as demonstrated by their fight with Son of Whyachi.
• Back from the Dead: After all but one of the machines ended up being obliterated by Son of Whyachi in their only fight, they remarkably ended up being completely repaired afterward (albeit having their pincers replaced with plows), and now sit on display in Ian Watts' office at the University of Brighton.
• The Dividual: Five bots as one entry.
• Joke Character: They're small, ineffective, and easily destructible. The fact that their only fight was against Son of Whyachi only made them look that much worse.
• Made of Plasticine: All the robots are lightweights, going up against a heavyweight champion. All but one of them were blown to bits in less than a minute.
• Man on Fire: One of the robots shorted out and caught fire after being smashed open by Son of Whyachi's spinning hammers, causing the Battlebox to literally fill with smoke.
• Mecha-Mooks: To a ridiculous level.
• Punny Name: The five clusterbots were called Fearwig, Cogroach, Buzzbot, Ladybite and Stag.
• Sole Survivor: The yellow-and-black striped robot (Buzzbot) was the only one of the Creepy Crawlies to not be destroyed by Son of Whyachi, and was still seen scurrying about after the fight had already ended.
  • However, it didn't count as "alive" due to only three of the robots needing to be incapacitated for the whole team to be eliminated, as per the rule on Multibots. Credit for trying, though.
• What Could Have Been: In its original plan, Creepy Crawlies also would have included a flying Dragonfly-based unit, but this was shelved early on due to weight/budget constraints and being too complicated.

Others

Road Rash

Team: Team Danger 4

Driver: Dane Kouttron

Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Matches: None^note Only took part in an exhibition rumble against Overhaul and SawBlaze.

• Epic Fail: In its only appearance in the Battle of MIT exhibition rumble, it was flipped by Overhaul in the opening seconds and spent the entire match upside-down, ineffectually waggling its claws and occasionally being pushed and cut into by SawBlaze.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: After being flipped immediately by Overhaul in their appearance in the MIT exhibition rumble, it spent most of the time stuck on its back and ineffectually firing the claws at thin air.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Twice over.
  • Its weaponry is a set of horizontal claws that grab opponents while its saw cuts into them, similar to Robot Wars house robot Dead Metal.
  • It also has a unique magnetic drive system, which can be swapped out for traditional wheels.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Road Rash was an unused substitute and didn't take part in the main competition, but was invited to take part in the Battle of MIT exhibition rumble when Brutus had to drop out. Sadly it was flipped by Overhaul in the opening seconds and spent the entire match upside-down.
• Power Pincers: Its secondary weapon was a pair of grappling/piercing claws designed to grab hold of opponents and keep them pinned whilst the saw blade comes down onto them to deal damage.
• Shout-Out: The name actually comes from the Sega Genesis game of the same name.
• Spectacular Spinning: Has two saw blades to cut into opponents with while they're being held in place with the claws. Subverted, as they never got a chance to do anything with them.
• Start My Own: One of the three teams that split off from Overhaul after their Season 1 defeat, along with Brutus and SawBlaze. By far the least successful of the three.
• Vehicular Theme Naming: Named after the friction burn that motorcyclists receive after falling off their bike and skidding across the road. To complement the theme, it has a tire as part of its rear armor and tread patterns on the saw blade arm.