Battlebots Is The Coolest Sport On TV
Discovery Inc. is best known at the moment for merging with Warner Bros and cutting costs everywhere by canceling movies and series and cutting employees everywhere. But I would like to highlight a Discovery Channel creation that is making my world a better place, and you might have heard of it before. BattleBots is a remote-controlled robot fighting sports show with a regular season and yearly tournament.
There is a wide variety of robots, including ones that flip other robots up to fifteen feet into the air (mind you, these robots weigh hundreds of pounds), ones that use hammers to smash the opponent, some that crush other robots with a pointed beak, even drones that fly and shoot flames. But the vast majority of bots use spinning drums that fling things around the arena, whether they spin vertically or horizontally. Those are just a sliver of the variety of robots I've seen in the arena, and people are always innovating and incorporating new technologies and ideas.
Every fight lasts 3 minutes or until knockout and is judged by three official judges, and they base their decisions on three different categories: Damage, Control, and Aggression. The fight is also commented on by two longtime sports experts playing off each other well. Kenny Florien, who used to be a mixed martial artist who used to fight in the UFC, and Chris Rose, a sportscaster for the NFL. Kenny is a little bit more down to earth and…normal compared to Chris, who is insane and over the top most of the time. Then there is Faruq Tauheed, the fan-favorite announcer that introduces robots before each fight. Sure, all of these people can be goofy and a little out there, but I think that's one of the show's main appeals, the charm they give to it.
Other than those mainstays, a new set of crews build bots every year, with a few that come back annually. Every year the rules are updated, too, with new complications that the bot builders have to work around. The builders and their relationships with each other are interesting, considering some really dislike each other, and some teams work very closely with each other.
But what everyone ultimately comes to the show for is the action. When you get a spinner bot like Deep Six, which spins its 110-pound blade at 207 miles per hour, to hit another hunk of steel, something explosive is bound to happen. Gas tanks have exploded before, blades have gotten stuck in other bots, and metal chunks have ended up stuck in the thick glass of the enclosed arena called the Battlebox. You also see a lot of interesting strategies involved in certain fights. For example, sometimes, a driver uses only his driving abilities to win a fight, despite having a worse weapon than the opponent.
This current airing season is really good so far and hasn't even reached the final tournament yet. I urge you to check this show out if you find yourself scrolling for something to watch; it's well worth your time.