BattleBots headed to an ESPN near you -- now with less suck

Maybe we'll never know how Comedy Central could run a show like "BattleBots" and not have it be the greatest thing ever. Lucky for us, the concept is getting another shot at life thanks to the fine folks at ESPN 2 and ESPNU. The new show format will have an increased emphasis on the behind-the-scenes nerdmergencies in the "pits" when the bots need tweaking or full on repairs. They're also going to do away with the annoying wedgebots (similar in principle to this Microsoft bot up above, just more annoying), beef up the arena hazards and add a new experimental class for featuring other bot types competing in what are hopefully equally destructive forms. The show was going to start up in June, but is being held back a bit while the 150 or so participating college teams prep entries, and the mayhem is now slated to begin in November.

[Giancarlo @ Mar 14th 2008 8:17AM]

funny, i was just thinking about battlebots the other day.

[tcc3 @ Mar 14th 2008 8:20AM]

When I first heard about this show years ago i was excited: I thought they would be autonomous.

They're glorified RC cars. Whoop te doo.

[BluesK1d @ Mar 14th 2008 9:27AM]

Yeah lets make them autonomous so we can have a grand total of 3 teams with enough money to develop such a machine in the first place and be willing to have it potentially destroyed.

[M @ Mar 14th 2008 9:39AM]

Dean Kamen runs an autonomous battle bot competition among highschool students - not sure where the money is coming from, but it's not expensive on the order of auto racing or anything like that.

[StarManta @ Mar 14th 2008 10:20AM]

@M: Dean Kamen runs FIRST, which is NOT autonomous. There's usually a brief autonomous period at the beginning of a match (the game rules change every year), and in the years I was a part of it, 99% of robots sucked at that part - like "drive into a wall" sucked.

And if you think they're "glorified RC cars", attach a sawblade to your RC car and see how well it drives (or cuts anything; hint: it'll suck). Autonomous or not, there is a LOT of creativity, engineering work, and cleverness required for designing and building them.

....and seriously, it's robots smashing the fuck out of each other. who do you think you are, arguing with that?

[Phil Perman @ Mar 14th 2008 8:28AM]

I saw a couple episodes if Blattlebots when I went on holiday over to the States a good few years ago. It was ok, but the arena hazards seemed to get in the way of the action a lot of the time, especially the buzz saws that came up from the floor, doing absolutely no damage.

I loved the UK version Robot Wars, even if it was slightly dominated by bots with pneumatic flippers

[ehisforadam @ Mar 14th 2008 8:51AM]

Seriously dude, how can you complain about the arena hazards in BattleBots when Robot Wars had way more (especially those stupid pits that meant you automatically lost) and those stupid "House Robots."

I enjoyed BattleBots quite a bit, but the show did get stale after a while, because it a lot of the same thing every year.

[SimonRichards @ Mar 14th 2008 9:04AM]

Robot Wars absolutely pwn3d BattleBots. In every way possible. lol

[SimonRichards @ Mar 14th 2008 9:05AM]

and while im on the subject

British engineering FTW!

[Jack @ Mar 14th 2008 9:18AM]

wooh, go hypnodisc! that robot was a legend

[SimonRichards @ Mar 14th 2008 9:33AM]

oh yes hypnodisc was mental but also razer was badass :D and roadblock, oddly enough, i seem to recall won it one year ???

[Za @ Mar 16th 2008 9:48PM]

Founders of BattleBots were the original founders of RobotWars. Company from the UK stole the concept, hired lawyers, and sued the shit out of Trey Roski and Greg whatshisname. The UK version of RobotWars is okay, until you find out the behind-the-scenes politics of the situation.

[Jack @ Mar 14th 2008 11:26AM]

iirc roadblock won the first year, then chaos 2 won the second year, beyond that I cant remember :p

[Rick @ Mar 14th 2008 1:02PM]

Actually those were both entertaining shows to watch, but I definately enjoyed battlebots ALOT more..

Battlebots was more about completely destroying the other ROV til it couldn't physically move at all. The hazards were more entertaining and challenging by adding in things that would tear into the ROVs rather than simply ending the match, or things that would interrupt the match and make the drivers have to think more, somewhat mixing things up for the better.

Robot wars got really boring because it was basically just throw the other bot out of the ring, or have it drive into the gay pit, or have the whole match ruined by lame ass robots with completely pointless things like flamethrowers. Seriously, what the hell is the point of throwing flame on something shrouded in metal? I seriously don't even recall a single episode where any of the bots in robot wars were even destroyed by the other competetors, it was either thrown out, or smashed by something stupid like a washing machine.. Not only were the house bots lame, but it made it unfair. If they both were to drive by the same bot at the same time, the operator of the house bot would basically right there choose who is going to win, and defeat the purpose of the match.

[Hafk @ Mar 17th 2008 2:47AM]

Robot Wars got annoying because 90% of the battles tended to end in the pit, which just got boring.

[Sir Fatty @ Mar 14th 2008 8:28AM]

Not robots. Seriously boring.

Now, if they were large scale, then maybe.

[Chris @ Mar 14th 2008 8:29AM]

Oh God, you have got to be kidding me....

Not this again!

I'd rather watch "Madden Nation".

[Mike @ Mar 14th 2008 8:30AM]

even if they are RC, let's see you

A) build one

B) not run away like a 3rd grade girl if someone drove their little 'rc car' at you

[Mike @ Mar 14th 2008 8:31AM]

and why the hell doesn't 'reply' ever freaking work.

this was at tcc3

[tcc3 @ Mar 14th 2008 8:57AM]

If it was man vs bot, then you might have an argument. Otherwise its just rc cars.

[ChrisKazoo @ Mar 14th 2008 8:35AM]

They should get Grant Imahara (Mythbusters) to he one of the hosts. He won the original show!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Imahara

[mushrooshi @ Mar 14th 2008 8:54AM]

DEADBLOW WAS FTW!!!!!!!

It was so powerful, its hammer kept on getting ripped off!

I HAVE OVER 50 VIDEO TAPES OF ROBOT WARS AND BATTLE BOTS, PAL AND NTSC!

I LOVE ROBOTS!

[Deez @ Mar 14th 2008 11:44AM]

so i herd u liek robotkips?

[Craig @ Mar 14th 2008 8:44AM]

I still think the rules should require the losing robot to self-destruct in a violent fireball from its on-board explosive pack, remotely detonated by the winning bot's driver, of course.

[zachwd @ Mar 14th 2008 9:47AM]

second!

[tlarkin79 @ Mar 14th 2008 8:50AM]

First up, the Jason Taylor bot.

http://deadspin.com/sports/the-jason-taylor-robot/jason-taylor-is-attacking-london-314038.php

[wud_e @ Mar 14th 2008 8:51AM]

Man I miss Battlebots. I loved it until all the wedges started winning all the time. Althought the Jay Leno Chin Bot was sweet and also Mouser Mecha-Catbot because of the name alone. :p There were some really creative bots. I hope this incarnation limits the wedges.

[mushrooshi @ Mar 14th 2008 8:53AM]

TES YES YES!!!!

IT HAS BEEN MY DREAM TO COMPETE ON ONE OF THESE SHOWS!!!!!!

I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS A WEE LITTLE TOT OF 3 YEARS OLD!


This may sound stupid, but I think my smartness is attributed to this. Ive written several school essays and stuff over this matter:

When I was 3, I saw my first Robot Wars episode, skipping through channels. Because of this, I now have an unhealthy obsession with robots!!!!!!

I have at least 200 pounds of KNEX, and used to have tons of lego (but my mom threw it away i udnno why),

Anyways, I have been making robots forever. I am now in a highschool engineering program, It has been VERY fun! I really enjoy it!

Sorry for this crappy rant, I am 5 minutes late for school!

But I really love robots! I hope this will offer me a chance to fight!

[Jesse S @ Mar 14th 2008 12:09PM]

lol, 12 year old.

[josh @ Mar 14th 2008 8:56AM]

The best part of the old show was the trash talk before the battle...nothing like seeing techies trying to talk trash!

[Andrew @ Mar 14th 2008 9:04AM]

Why? Just why? We can get flippin battle bots on ESPN, but we can't get something decent like hockey?

I'm sorry, I'm a gadget nerd as much as the next guy here, and building a robot like this might be fun, but watching robots fight each other on TV is worse than wrestling.

[Bryan T @ Mar 14th 2008 1:34PM]

Because ESPN is only concerned with Poker and Nascar, d'uh.

But, look what ESPN did to poker. If stuff is on ESPN, people will watch it. Is this robot action going to be in HD?

[WalkingAGH @ Mar 14th 2008 9:05AM]

Does anyone remember the awesome silver crushing robot Razer? It was a scorpion like creature that was un-freakin-believable.

http://www.razer.co.uk/

This robot alone made the 5th season of battle bots worth watching. Really. You have to to see it. Just try you-tubing it.

[MechaDEVO @ Mar 14th 2008 9:07AM]

Technically they aren't robots, but if you don't like R/C machines + intentional destruction...then you're just a dummy. That is all.

[Lewis Miller @ Mar 14th 2008 11:05AM]

Do you not know what a robot is? Yes they are robots, for that matter so are RC cars. Or my favorite to play with a CNC router/mill.

[MechaDEVO @ Mar 14th 2008 12:13PM]

well, according to my mechatronics course, they are not. These things have zero ability to make decisions, humans still control every aspect of their movements. Awesome electromechanical devices, yes. True robots? I say no. I also don't think R/C cars or CNC mills are robots, we still tell them exactly what to do.

A few semesters ago we made what basically amounted to a tank style battlebot without any weapons. Our project advisor advised us to change all instances of "robot" to "remotely operated vehicle" for the reasons mentioned above.

Anyway, arguing this is useless. The real point is...BattleBots is awesome and I can't wait for it to come back to my TV set.

[julz007 @ Mar 14th 2008 9:11AM]

ROBOT WARS FOR EVER!!!!

i loved killahertz, mortis and razer!! chaos 2 was pretty funny to watch when it flipped em over.. and hypnodisk.. lol :P

ahhh the memoriiiiiiieeeeeeeesssss :))))))

[Andrew Pollack @ Mar 14th 2008 9:20AM]

When the remote control cars are given the require to operate without guidance from the sidelines, they'll be interesting robots. In the mean time, they're fancy RC cars. Yawn.

[Das @ Mar 14th 2008 5:43PM]

If it's so damn simple why don't you produce a competition winning bot?
Oh right! It's because you probably lack the knowledge of electronics/wiring, welding, machining, CADing, and physics to get build something from scratch.

In case you haven't figured it out, this is an engineering competition, which probably puts it up there with poker as the most intellectual thing on ESPN.

[Andrew Pollack @ Mar 15th 2008 11:47AM]

Hm., nice try. I'm a 20 year + I.T. industry person who has been making a living writing software, doing security reviews, and building networks as the principal consulting of my own firm for more than 13 of those years. I'm also a volunteer firefighter, and in my "spare" time I build things -- like a super sized iPod remote control for a visually impaired man that was featured on Hack A Day a couple of years back (http://tinyurl.com/myo92). I also have a new business based on an invention that ties VoIP, SMS, SOAP-XML, thin client embedded pc's, a web site, and Digital Signal Processing together into an application that is helping save lives by getting volunteer firefighters to scenes during the day. (http://www.secondsignal.com)

Other than that -- you're dead spot on.

[Lucien @ Mar 14th 2008 9:29AM]

I was in a Battlebots team in college, we went to Florida and competed with two bots one a titanium tank and another a wedge fun times,there was talk about Battlebots going on ESPN back in '05, glad to see it finally take some action

[Bob S. @ Mar 14th 2008 10:10AM]

Robot Wars could've been good but you couldn't make out a word those guys were saying with their weird accents.

I'm pumped about the return of BattleBots. Can't believe I've never been able to find torrents of the original run. (P.S.: No one *listened* to Carmen Electra.)

Props to ESPN for finally running a second sport worth watching, after poker. (Which gets all of six weeks in the summer.)

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 14th 2008 10:10AM]

What the Hell is with the negative comments? Even if they are just "glorified RC cars" (even though those kick ass, too [hobby grade]), destruction kicks ass.

[Dave @ Mar 14th 2008 10:23AM]

Here are some weapons I'd like to see allowed in the next competition:

1) Flamethrowers
2) Guns
3) EMPs

Yeah, I know... That'd make it "dangerous".

[Jack @ Mar 14th 2008 11:25AM]

lasers too!

[mike @ Mar 14th 2008 11:20AM]

okay since nobody else has mentioned it, i stopped watching battlebots when it stopped being about robots fighting and started being about the bimbo hostess and the two stupid idiot hosts droning on and on and on.

i'm thinking espn means there's just gonna be more stupid droning. sadly.

[Blaktornado @ Mar 14th 2008 12:07PM]

I loved Robot Wars =]

Hope they bring that back too.

[webmonkees @ Mar 14th 2008 12:40PM]

3/5 of the Mythbusters team were on battlebots in the day. Wonder if they'll make a cameo or two?

[Ian @ Mar 14th 2008 2:41PM]

i want to see the giant mountain dew robot come in and just start throwing cans of mountain dew at the other robots, thus causing short circuits and then winning!!!!

[Adam Conus @ Mar 14th 2008 1:46PM]

First, everyone involved in the sport knows they aren't technically robots. It's just a more convenient term. When people get all up in my grill about it, I use the term 'fighting machines'. Ironically, the major problem with robotic combat since BB went off the air is that the machines have become too destructive, and we've started running out of robots (and people willing to completely rebuild after every event.) A superheavyweight called Super Megabyte was so dominate the division was essentially extinct until it retired. Just search for "super megabyte" on youtube.