Robot Rampage Recap with Team USA!

Summary

Behind the Bots – “Robot Rampage Recap with Team USA!”

Podcast: Behind the Bots
Episode Date: March 20, 2026
Episode Theme: An in-depth look at Team USA’s journey to New Zealand for Robot Rampage, featuring a roundtable with the builders, fights analysis, travel chaos, inside stories, and post-event reflections.

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Episode Overview

The hosts, Jake and Brandon, are joined by a large panel from Team USA, who represented the United States in the international Robot Rampage tournament in New Zealand. The episode dives into the team’s travel hurdles, robot packing challenges, strategic analyses of their battles against teams from Australia and Brazil, tech innovations, emotional highs and lows, and the camaraderie and trials that come from fighting robots on the big stage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Team Introductions & Backgrounds

[02:12–06:46]

• Each panelist introduces themselves and their robot combat background.
  • Johnny: ~5 years, brought Spartan 30, favorite color: "anything with black"
  • Aki: From New Zealand, driver for Bad Blood, purple enthusiast (“Everything needs to be purple.” – Aki, 04:19)
  • Corey: 11 years, nurse by day/nerd by night, likes all weight classes, favorite color: orange
  • Colin: 15 years, favors non-spinning designs, art-tech crossover, favorite color: blue
  • Sam: Competing since 2002, National Havoc Robot League, "I won a trophy—most destroyed—that’s the best I’ve ever done” (05:57)

Memorable quote:

“I like green.” – Sam [06:08]

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2. Format & Essence of Robot Rampage

[06:46–08:57]

• Teams battle “Pokemon style”: each picks 5 robots of unique archetypes.
• Secret picks for lineup order foster strategy, with only 8 minutes between fights for repairs.
• The format encourages counter-picking, sacrifice, rapid on-the-fly strategy, and is easy to follow.

  “It led to some cool dynamics...adapting on the fly as well based on how the matches are going.” – Sam [08:40]

Team USA Lineup:

• Synth 30, Spartan 30, Bad Blood (Aki), Multibot “Pain and Panic” (Synthesis 12 + Stop Hitting Yourself half), and Jump Rope (lifter).

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3. Robot Stories & Prep Chaos

[11:21–16:52]

• Bad Blood:

  • Was rebuilt from a box of parts 3 weeks before event; group effort to assemble (“literal box of parts and 0% assembled” – Aki [11:22])

• Spartan 30:

  • Recent debut, still a v1, looks “pretty” but builder sees the “inside out version” with flaws (“If it loses, it has to look good losing and if it wins, it has to look good winning.” – Johnny [13:22])

• Synth 30 & 12:

  • Synth 30 didn’t need major work after December event; Pain and Panic’s purple palette is a nod to Disney’s Hercules. [15:10]

• Jump Rope:

  • Entirely rebuilt after December Champs, drive motors switched last minute (“we were still machining parts Monday before our flight on Tuesday.” – Colin [16:44])

Tech Insight:

• “Spider coupling” used to isolate shocks, avoid direct motor damage; drivetrain switched from Magnums to Zomboxes, “totally worth it because those zomboxes are the truth.” [18:39]

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4. The Logistic Nightmare: Traveling with Robots

[19:51–26:25]

• 16–18 hour flights, packing wars with airline weight limits, last-minute duffel bag and suitcase acquisitions.

• Smuggling robot parts:

  “They thought you were smuggling vapes, I remember.” – Johnny [21:59] “My laptop bag had probably brushless motors...They don’t check the weight of your carry-ons.” – Corey [21:47]

• Tools and spares left behind due to weight.

• Doordashing a suitcase at midnight before departure.

• “Foreshadowing” moment: not bringing a drill, and then desperately needing one.

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5. On the Ground in New Zealand

[26:25–31:11]

• Some team members arrived weeks early, combining travel with robot work and media content for NHRL.
• Filming long days, assembling bots at night.
• Jump Rope Demo:
  • Famous behind-the-scenes clip: Jump Rope launches 20 feet, then catches fire (“It caught on fire after that.” – Colin [30:29])
  • “Me and Corey thought they like aied it or something because it’s just so...It accelerated so fast.” – Johnny [30:46]

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6. Fights Against Australia

[32:14–55:24]

• Synth 30 dominates.

  • Strategic pick: “Seemed like our best robot.” – Colin [33:05]
  • Blazing through Australian robots, often in seconds (“...Synth 30 was looking like a God, basically.” – Johnny [40:27])
  • Outright 5-0 sweep, hardly needing lineup depth.
  • Fork/floor seam issues discussed; for Brazil, marking box seams as part of advanced driving.

  Fight Details:

  • Synthesis 30 disables opponents in seconds. E.g. on Tempest:

    “This match is the reason why you don’t run a link.” – Corey [47:50]

  • Notable tech/strategy themes:

    • Learning from Australian configs (“Four out of five were all brand new 30s so I mean it was definitely a lot of teething issues.” – Corey [49:05])
    • Comparing philosophies in control vs spinner-dominated regions.

  • Aftermath:

    “Team USA Five zero sweep over Australia. We’re doing great going into the finals.” – Jake [59:33]

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7. The Brazilian Challenge (Grand Finals)

[74:24–126:33]

• Brazil enters as heavy favorites, most robots with many combat seasons under their belt.
• Team USA started strong against Australia but faced adversity with Brazil.

1st Fight: Bad Blood vs Dark Chaos

• “I was just like, I’m going to have to try out drive Brazilians. And that is a ask and a half.” – Aki [76:32]
• Bad Blood manages to disable Dark Chaos’s weapon but is ultimately outdriven.
• Battle damage: Aki shatters the magnets in the opponent’s hub [80:19]
• Repairs and repair discipline from Brazil: “Everyone has one job during the repair time.” – Corey [89:43]

2nd Fight: Spartan 30 vs Jubaloo

• Mirror match, horizontal vs horizontal.
• Johnny’s “aesthetic wheel guards” collapse; loses when focused on troubleshooting weapon over driving.

3rd Fight: Synth 30 vs Jubaloo

• Blows both weapon belts on first impact (steel floor has zero give, frame flexes, belts pop off); turns into a pushing match but wins on control.

Strategic Planning:

• The team walks through an “if/then” matchup chart for best counterpicks [96:09]

MultiBot, Jump Rope, Pain and Panic:

• MultiBot struggles against Toro Feather, rapid losses;
• Jump Rope–innovative control bot–almost upsets Toro Feather but dies in last 10 seconds from battery under-sizing.

Final Showdown: Synthesis 30 vs Toro Feather

• Synthesis 30 comes back for the anchor slot.

  “The weight of a nation coming down.” – Host [120:39]

• Again, weapon belts fly off vs the drum.
• Brazil wins; USA gutted (“It was the most nervous I’ve ever been before any fight ever. It was so...Because you’re repping the team as well...” – Johnny [122:23])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “I won a trophy—most destroyed—that’s the best I’ve ever done.” – Sam [05:57]
• “If it loses, it has to look good losing and if it wins, it has to look good winning.” – Johnny [13:22]
• “They thought you were smuggling vapes.” – Johnny [21:59]
• “We just started cramming it in...They don’t check the weight of your carry-ons.” – Corey [21:51]
• “It led to some cool dynamics...adapting on the fly as well based on how the matches are going.” – Sam [08:40]
• “Me and Corey thought they like aied it or something because it’s just so...It accelerated so fast.” – Johnny [30:46]
• “It’s a little rough. Don’t sell yourself short...” – Brandon [06:08]
• On strategy: “I made two charts and we just asked each person, oh, who are you good, who are you bad, this was the if/then chart...You could check them off as robots got eliminated.” – Johnny [96:03]

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Key Timestamps & Segments

• 02:12: Panelist introductions
• 06:46: “Essence” of Robot Rampage format explained
• 11:21–16:52: Rebuilding and prepping the USA robots for travel
• 19:51–26:25: Travel chaos—packing, luggage, airport stories
• 31:11: Teasing “Jump Rope” viral content
• 32:31–59:33: Battles vs Australia; sweep, Synthesis 30 dominates
• 74:24–126:33: Grand Finals vs Brazil – dramatic breakdown of every fight, repair scenes, emotional swings, strategic revelations

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Innovations, Lessons, and Takeaways

Technical Takeaways

• Flex in plastic (e.g. TPU forks) is surprisingly effective at absorbing hits from spinners.
• Spider couplings, modular multi-bots, gyros, drive innovations.
• Packing tools and spares is critical; plan for the full tool ecosystem, not just the robot.
• Teams from different countries bring unique philosophies—Brazil’s repair discipline is unmatched, Australia’s designs still finding footing, NZ and US favor versatility and innovation.

Strategic Takeaways

• “If/then” matchups in team format teach new ways to think about robot combat competitions.
• Rapid adaptation, communication, and flexibility are as important as raw power.
• Even the best robots with the best experience lose to logistics and simple mechanical issues.
• Control bots (when driven at peak) can still win against heavy spinners with good strategy.

Emotional Takeaways

• The camaraderie, hustle, and mutual support shines—helping “enemy” teams repair, lending spares, and forming international friendships.
• Raw heartbreak on team weight—“The most nervous I’ve ever been before any fight ever.”
• Embracing losses and celebrating the “battle patina” (damage) as part of robot combat’s appeal.

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Final Reflections

• Brazil triumphs, but Team USA’s journey is a model of international builder spirit and sportsmanship.
• Synthesis 30’s dominance over new robots highlights the power of iteration; Brazil’s experience and discipline shines.
• Jump Rope’s innovative design has a strong future—“Just be good, you know, just don’t get hit, you’re gonna be fine.” – Brandon [114:42]
• “Hopefully we'll get them next year.” – Jake [127:08]

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For Further Viewing

• Check out Robot Rampage on YouTube for full battle streams, especially “Black Rose vs Dark Chaos,” “Chef Woody,” and other dramatic Demo fights.
• Follow Team USA teams at National Havoc Robot League (NHRL).

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[A]

From Cincinnati, Ohio and Bowie, Maryland, this is behind the Bots. I just dropped my pen. The podcast that brings you the stories and the people behind the bot. I'm Jake.

[B]

And I'm Brandon and we are so

[A]

happy to have you. This week we are going to be interviewing Team usa. There were a bunch of people who came who went from United States all the way down to New Zealand down under to fight robots. We're going to be interviewing them today. If you like our show, join us on the stream, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Tunein, Castbox Player FM and podbean. And follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Behindthebots. Tell a friend. Come to the stream. We really appreciate your support, Brandon. What's going on in the calendar before we get going? What's going on this month?

[B]

All right, so for this month, there are lots of events happening all around the world, most notably of events going on in the us, the uk, Lithuania, Netherlands, Latvia, Czechia, Austria and Italy. Robot combat's very, very global. So notable events I want to spike out Here is the SCAR March mechanical mayhem that's happening in Los Los Alamos, California. 95 robots registered in the fairy weights, ant weights and plastic ant weight classes. And as wanted, also shout out to Bristol bot builders for the Beetle Bash. That event happened last weekend, I believe, but they were featured as part of BBC's piece about robot combat. And so I really wanted to shout them out because they're going to be featured upcoming story on BBC at some point. So look out for any of their stuff on the socials about their story. Congratulations to them. Get details on this event and many more@robocom events.com builders, db.com and bristotbuilders.com so now we enter our interview with Team USA. Team USA.

[A]

Say hi, Team USA. Welcome to behind the. There's a lot of you guys here. Thanks for coming out.

[B]

Yeah, thank you.

[C]

Thanks for having us.

[D]

For having us.

[B]

It's phenomenal. So many different people, so many different places, so many different things.

[D]

All right, Everyone can be heard. It's. It's truly phenomenal.

[B]

Phenomenal, you say? Say that again. Good stuff for a robot. Wait a minute. That might work. All right, so this is probably our biggest amount of people we ever had in the pod already. So we're already going to be doing a bit of work for balancing it out. So bear with us, dear viewers. We're going to try to try to do introductions. We're going to go around sort of in a circle following the screen. Everyone gets to introduce themselves, sort of give like a brief background with their history in robot combat and favorite color. So we're gonna start I guess directly above us in the, in the stream there with Johnny. Johnny, who are you?

[C]

I'm Johnny. I've been doing robot combat for oh I think about like five years now, which sounds like a lot but really isn't compared to like Most people

[B]

watch

[C]

BattleBots as a kid. Love it. And yeah, I brought Spartan 30 to New Zealand. And my favorite color, I think

[E]

it's

[C]

a bit of like I'm quirky of an answer but I think anything with black is cool. Like black and blue, black and red, black and white. Like all my robots are like black with some other color. I think black makes other colors look really cool, honestly.

[B]

So.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

All right, all right, thank you Johnny. Excuse me. Going across, you have Aki. Hey.

[E]

So I'm the sub from New Zealand that was working with the Americans and honestly it was great. I've been in robot combat for probably about two years, the New Zealand scene, doing mainly the 150 grams or fairy weight. I've been doing a bit more three pound as well the beetle weights and I was the driver for Bad Blood. And my favorite color is purple. Everything needs to be purple. If it's, if it's my team or my rocks. It's kind of iconic at this point.

[B]

Very good, very cool. Moving over, Corey.

[F]

Hey, I'm Corey, a nurse by day, nerd by night. I've been doing this for probably about 11 years now and I like all the weight losses. My favorite color is solid stuff.

[B]

Speaking of orange, someone else on the stream is also wearing orange. Going to you, Colin.

[G]

That's about yourself, Colin Foster. I've been fighting robots for about 15 years now. Most weight classes but usually non spinning designs so like flippers, spring hammers, pneumatic hammers and I got in through Sam from like an art background. So I did like art and technology and now I'm doing this and right now my favorite color is blue.

[B]

Wait, what? One more time.

[E]

Blue.

[B]

I like blue.

[G]

I mean I have it down. Yeah, I just think it's a very

[D]

serene color and Hi, I'm, I'm Sam. I'm the, I'm an evil henchman at the National HAVOC Robot League and I've been fighting robots. My first tournament was in 2002. It was I think the very first three pounder tournament stateside and I, I won a trophy and the trophy was most destroyed and, and that's about the, the Best I've ever done for 20 some years. I like green.

[B]

First of all, excellent choice of color. Second of all, man, that's a little rough. Little rough. Don't tell yourself short there. I hear you've made very cool stuff as well. I made a jet. In fact, I also heard that you made along with Colin, jump rope alongside everyone else here going down to New Zealand for the event, Robot rampage. So first of all, I'll do a free open volunteer in this one. Anyone want to sort of describe or think they can capture the essence of Robot Rampage? For people who are curious, you can raise your hand so I can point at you. Yeah, there you go.

[E]

All right.

[D]

It was a teams battle and the style of teams battle that it was was, was pretty Pokemon inspired. So each team got five robots and they had to all be a different archetype with the exception of one. So they could double up on one archetype. So that's like vertical spinner, that's like flipper, that's Hammer, that's multibot. And then there's some other ones that it could be, but it wasn't ever anything else for the most part. And the teams in secret choose their, their first robot to go head to head with the other team they're facing. So it's like one team on another. So like USA versus Australia. And once that, that first blind selection is revealed, the robots fight. And they fight for like a standard three minutes in a steel floored cage. And the fight ends the normal way a fight ends like they're knockout or it goes the full three minutes. And then the winning robot has to stay on for the most part unless they get pulled. And if they get pulled, they can come back at the very end. But you can only pull one robot from your group of five. And so it's like a strategic side to that. It's strategic to like whether you're going to counter someone's archetype or you're going to kind of sacrifice one of your robots to just get through them. And you have a very limited amount of time in between fights. You get eight minutes to repair if you stay on. And that's pretty much just enough to swap a battery, maybe bend a fork back or something. But it led to some cool dynamics. The strategies were different. It was cool to think about who we would put in when and who's going to counter this robot, and then just adapting on the fly as well based on how the matches are going. And I think it's pretty easy to follow. It's One on one. And it was a blast.

[A]

So who were the. The five USA bots were Synth 30, Spartan 30. And then who were the three others?

[D]

So we had Bad Blood from Aki.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

And we put together a multi bot called Pain and panic, which was synthesis 12 alongside of 1 half of Stop Hitting Yourself, the Dominicowskis bot.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

And that. That was kind of like, there's no other options. Everyone that we reached out to said, no, we can't go to New Zealand on short notice, or no, you can't borrow our 4000$30 robot and bring it to New Zealand to fight Brazilians. So we. We just made do with what we had, which was that 18 pounder from the museum and. And Johnny's 12 pounder. Or excuse me, Corey's 12 pounder might be.

[A]

And then jump rope, too, was jump rope. Okay, okay.

[D]

And jump rope.

[G]

And jump rope.

[D]

So jump rope was our lifter. We had two verts in bad blood and synth 30. And then the horizontal and Spartan and the multi bot with Pain and Panic.

[B]

Where.

[A]

Which one's Pain and Pain? Which one is Pain and Panic? Is it the Spanish?

[G]

No, it's. It's not. Pictured the other half, if you go,

[D]

it's like a blue horizontal and a purple vert.

[B]

So you see on the far. It's like in the team photo for Team USA and the nearest robot.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Lewis, top and then opposite of Spartan 30 on purple and 12.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

Looks like. Okay, cool.

[C]

Cool.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Awesome. That's a good lineup.

[B]

Yeah, it's a lineup. Listen, listen. Okay. It's the one that represented the United States of America.

[A]

So it's country.

[B]

The line.

[A]

Yes, we can send.

[B]

This is the country right here. Okay.

[F]

Okay.

[B]

We will get to jump rope in a second. But I am curious about one part specifically. So, Aki, so you had bad. You're running bad blood with Team usa. So first of all, thank you for the defection. Second of all, second of all, what was the story of cobbling it together? Like, how did that work out? Because bad blood, I know, is native to New Zealand. So how is it given up?

[E]

Bad Blood was originally Jack Barker, who is the driver in Endgame. His bot, he's the one that's running the event. And through Jack being very busy, it got basically passed along. And three weeks before the event, I got given a box of bad blood parts and said, have at it. And then like, less. I think it was only a few days before the event that I was asked, oh, can you go for Team usa? And I accepted. And it was a mad Rush at the very end because I came with literal box of parts and 0% assembled. And I was like, I know this will go together, but it needs to go together. And it was really cool having Corey and Sam and Colin and Johnny just all just pitch in to get this bot ready for the first round against the Australians. And to be honest, I mean it came together in the last second and it was really awesome. And then for the the next round against the Brazilians, it was, it was in more tip top shape and still wasn't. Three weeks isn't quite enough to reverse engineer an entire feather and get it to the point where I was happy with it, but I mean it was still leagues ahead of what it used to be. So I was pretty proud of that.

[B]

Nice. That's pretty cool. So we're walking down the list of the US competitors. So as far as, let me think, I guess Spartan 30. Because Johnny, I don't think. When was the last time you ran Spartan 30? Before New Zealand event. Before Rampage.

[C]

Yeah. It only had its debut comp at November NHRL and it's still basically a V1. It sucks pretty bad, but looks so pretty.

[B]

Johnny.

[C]

I am, I'm glad people think that because I, I feel like it's like, you know, like when a sock is inside out, all the stitching is like really yucky. But when it's the right way, like you see the logo nice and clean. Does that make sense? Analogy. Like as the builder of a robot, you always see the inside out version because you catted it and you. It won't look as pretty, I feel like as other people apparently think Spartan are. Which makes me feel really good because that's really important. It has to look. If it loses, it has to look good losing and if it wins, it has to look good winning. But yeah, this was basically still v1. I just changed like the weapon shaft because it snapped. Genadi from Team Shredded hooked me up like last second. Literally like two days before I left. He stayed overnight in his machine shop and machined me 3:40, 3:40. I think weapon shafts, tapped them and sent them to me like woke up early next day. So I have to shout him out. He's the goat for that. And yeah, it was pretty fun.

[B]

Yeah, shout out to him. That's pretty sick. Really glad for that. So then Corey, anything big on sin 30 that you're looking forward to for the event?

[F]

I had prepared a lot in December and I didn't take a lot of damage. So going into this event I definitely had enough stuff Prepared so I didn't really have much to change. I was happy with how the bot over overall performed in December and so there wasn't really anything I needed to do outside of getting spares of everything.

[B]

I think 12 since I.

[F]

Since both of them came since 12. Not really same thing. Just kind of make it look the part. Originally it was green and black for Pain and Panic. We stuck to it's actually. It's a reference to Hercules. The two henchmen of Hades is Pain and Panic.

[E]

Oh, I like that.

[F]

Since sin 12 took on the role of Pain, which is a purple character. So I made the bot change from green to purple.

[B]

Sounds solid. Then looping back around Colin, I was jump rope.

[G]

Jump rope was completely destroyed at December Champs after the. After a couple of fights. But it had been completely redesigned like prior to champs. So we basically wanted to keep all those changes because while the robot was completely destroyed, the arms didn't fly off as they had before. But we had to switch drive motors for availability primarily. So that required very last second changes which we were able to eek out before we left. But it was like we were still machining parts Monday before our flight on Tuesday. So.

[B]

Man.

[D]

And that was the Monday after the. The February tournament here.

[C]

February.

[D]

Ooh, nice.

[A]

Nice.

[G]

It was. We were burning the wires on both ends.

[B]

So I guess real fast since we're on jump rope and we'll come back of course later on. But like what were the big changes on it? Because first of all it's already really cool just like as a concept having like two very strong arms going up and down. So like how does that work? And then what changes did you make it going into the robot rampage?

[G]

So the motors that drive the arms are still the exact same, but there's basically a spider coupling in between them and a bunch of that. Like there's some thrust washers that's basically. It's like all captured and then the arm can shift and move without the weapon assembly. So that just kept everything from ripping apart. Because before we were just bolting directly onto the shaft of the motor, which was not sufficiently. It's not meant for what we were asking it to do. So you can kind of peek into the inside and there's like these six black rubber things showing. And that's our spider coupling. So before that it was really a like a one hit KO on jump rope. If a spinner touched it.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

It's PEBA couplings in there. And then for the drivetrain we. We switched from magnums to the just Cause zomboxes. And in doing so, those are a bit bigger. So it meant we had to adjust the carbon fiber base plate and top armor. And then the 3D prints for the front and the middle, the middle and the top.

[B]

I'm noticing a pattern.

[E]

Everything.

[D]

A lot of downstream BS from switching the drive motors, but totally worth it because those zomboxes are. Are the truth. We switched to cast wheels as well. Ran 60A for the steel floors over there.

[A]

So.

[B]

And I. I had a question.

[A]

It's a steel floor. Did anyone, like, throw magnets on or were magnets not allowed?

[D]

Illegal. Yeah.

[B]

Illegal I could do, which is what you're saying as well.

[E]

No, electromagnets are legal, though, so do that.

[G]

Oh, you could use an electromagnet.

[B]

Interesting. Okay, that's pretty cool. All right, so, Team usa. So we got all of our robots here. You've got our lineup. Everyone's prepared. Down to the wire, apparently. Goodness gracious. Down to the wire. So now you get to do the very fun travel bit here. This photo of Johnny and Cory getting ready. All right, so I also want to sort of go around, and I'll also ask you. So you're flying halfway across the world. Like, New Zealand is about as far away in the United States that you could expect to go to. Like, it's.

[F]

How.

[B]

How long was the flight? Like, 13 hours.

[C]

You go from like, 16.

[B]

16 hours? Yeah.

[D]

So that's like the fourth longest flight, I think, in the world.

[G]

16 hours is the return. It takes longer to get.

[A]

Get there.

[C]

Yeah, it was like 18, I think.

[G]

Yeah.

[C]

Or something.

[F]

I mean, I was asleep, so I don't know.

[B]

How'd you travel? I was out. Oh, wow. Okay. So that's a lot. So they have the time element already there. Definitely. Jet lag probably kicking in too. How is it, like, transporting featherweights across the world like that? I know a lot of people always are curious, even just in the United States, going from, like, west coast to east Coast. Like, how is it, like, shipping featherweights? And how did you prepare for that, going to a different country?

[D]

It's not super simple with. With the weight limit for bags. How is it for you, Corey?

[F]

Yeah, so when I was accounting for everything, I didn't actually account for. I didn't account. There's my stuff.

[A]

Oh, my gosh.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

So for the.

[B]

For the audio listeners, like, incredible money spread of all the parts between the sets. 12:30.

[A]

So cool.

[F]

I didn't account for the bags physically having weight.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Oh, no.

[F]

My luggage. The luggage that I planned on bringing were 12 pounds each. And I was like, this is not gonna work. So probably about three or four days before we had to leave, I went on to Amazon and said, what's the lightest duffel bag that may survive an 18 hour flight? I found one of these two. They're like less than 2 pounds each. And I just started cramming it in and I'm gonna keep this one on the DL, but you. They don't check the weight of your carry ons. And I think my laptop bag had probably brushless motors. It had all my dry motors jammed in there so I could get everything else there.

[C]

They thought you were smuggling vapes, I remember.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

The woman was like, how many vapes are you bringing? They're not actually vapes. Those are brushless motors. And she didn't care after that.

[A]

She was like, sure, buddy. That's what they all

[F]

the. The best part was when I pulled into JFK, we had to be at Terminal 1 for Air New Zealand. They said, oh, Terminal 1 is closed down. You have to go park in Terminal 8. So I think I had a. I had to walk a quarter of a mile from where I parked my truck, the tram. Altogether, I think I had like £180 worth of stuff. And by the time I got on the tram, I was like, my back is done. Oh, Corey.

[B]

Ah, for the love of the game.

[E]

Some dedication.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh my gosh. What about you, Johnny? Sorry, go ahead, Corey.

[F]

Last thing. I also rationalized how little of clothing,

[C]

Toy packing.

[F]

Oh, no, go ahead, Johnny.

[C]

Yeah, it came. It came down to the point where I was like, I cannot even bring power tools, they're too heavy. And yeah, it came down where I was like, do I need this drill more or do I need like this spare weapon pulley more?

[D]

Foreshadowing.

[A]

Oh, no.

[C]

Yeah, big foreshadowing. Because I was like, oh, everyone has drills. Like, I don't. I'm not gonna bring a drill. Who literally, I can just borrow one. For that whole week I was on this quest to search for a drill as, by the way, at the tournament, I just. I couldn't. There was like one that might. Might have worked for Spartan 30 for the top. It's an impact driver and I have these like specific bits for the. The. I think they're like 5, 18 nuts on the top. And yeah, I wish I had an impact driver because I was basically just on like hand tools. But yeah, the packing, I had those two. I had to. I didn't know you could do this. You can. Doordash a suitcase. And that came in really handy because the night before I was like, oh my God, I don't have a carry on. Which meant I was, I was probably not gonna like, I don't know what, I wouldn't bring like clothes. Maybe I would just wash my clothes every day. I don't know. So I had to doordash a carry on at like midnight, which is really cool. And, and yeah, it's in my mind. I was like, oh, it's 50 pounds per bag, right? So I was like, oh, 100 pounds to bring a 30 pound robot. That, that should be easy. But then it's like, no, you have spares, tools. The suitcases also weigh like 10 pounds and you need clothes. So yeah, it, it got eaten up very quickly.

[A]

But is Spartan 30 in this can bag here. I don't understand this photo. Why does Cory have everything?

[C]

No, no.

[A]

So this looks like you forgot to pack.

[D]

He forgot, he forgot that bag at the Airbnb. He went to the airport to go home without his bag, by the way.

[B]

Yeah, man, I had to bring my bag.

[G]

He left early because he forgot something at the venue.

[B]

Yeah, that's true, Johnny.

[C]

No, no, those two big blue ones are mine.

[A]

And okay. Yeah, okay, okay.

[C]

Yeah, but you're making. Corey was pushing it all and I just took my little like Dinsey carry on. Yeah, the doordash carry on,

[B]

man. Man, what a time. Okay, so, so we're packing up robots. We're fighting against the weight restrictions. We managed to survive. We braved the, the long distance flight and we arrive in New Zealand. So once you're in New Zealand, did you have some time before the event? Did you just wake up and say we ball do it live and just did right to the event. Like what was the arrival like? I guess I'll start with Sam and Colin and then work back to Corey and Johnny.

[D]

Yeah, we, we, I think we timed it right with falling asleep on the plane to not really have too much jet lag. So it really wasn't that bad going there. But Colin and I, along with Danielle, we arrived about two weeks prior to the start of the tournament and.

[B]

Two weeks.

[D]

Yeah, about two weeks prior. And went, went all over around Auckland and filmed some stuff for NHRL and visited some companies.

[A]

How beautiful this is.

[D]

Just had some fun.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Wow, that's your, your job, that was your job was to fly to New Zealand and do all that even before the competition?

[D]

Yeah. And don't get me wrong, at points, it certainly felt like a job. It was like long Days of filming, I think we did. We averaged like 14 hour days. And then we would come back home and work on jump rope. Because it, it wasn't fully all together when we left. So we would, we would film till about, I don't know, 11. With processing clips.

[G]

Yeah, it was like, because we would film each day basically until there was no more sunlight, which was very late. I think it was like 8 o' clock. Ish Sunset, something like that.

[D]

It felt good.

[G]

And then we would kind of process things and figure out what else we needed to do and eat dinner sometimes. Sometimes. And then we would. Yeah, just like on the living room floor of the Airbnb. Just like work on jump rope. The first night we got there, we went to jack the endgame driver again. He's also a like drift car. Like not a drift car.

[D]

Quarter scale.

[G]

Quarter scale. Midget. Yeah. So they're like a. I didn't know anything about car racing.

[B]

Saying that he's a. Or that he races. He races.

[G]

He races textile.

[D]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. You say he's a class of cars.

[A]

Okay, he's a driver.

[C]

Got it.

[G]

He's a driver. So he went to his car race

[D]

and this car was number 95

[B]

and

[D]

he came second to last. But it was so cool. That was like our first time at a outdoor dirt track car thing. And they whip around the bends and they like shoot out dirt clods at the audience.

[A]

So do you have any content that is coming that you can tease on here?

[D]

I mean, I, I sent something to show to Corey personally, exclusive to him, and he sent it to so many different people.

[F]

I don't know about that, if that's true enough because I had people coming up to me asking if they've seen jump rope fly. And I said, oh, you mean this clip? I think people. I think it was leaked before I had a chance, but.

[C]

Okay, well, I think a word went around.

[A]

Can I play it on stream here today?

[B]

Is that.

[D]

Is that this one that you have is the worst clip of it ever? So awesome.

[A]

So it's like shaky.

[D]

It's a filming of a screen.

[G]

So it's how you know it's behind the scenes.

[B]

I know it's real.

[A]

It's filming of a screen. Oh, this is horrible.

[D]

That's jump rope.

[B]

Whoa. So for the audio viewers, jump rope just launched like a good, what, 20ft?

[D]

Yeah, I think it was like pipe that he launched off the top or quarter pipe.

[B]

Yeah, that's sick.

[G]

We did some stuff like that.

[D]

That was the second take too. The first one he landed the cleanest 540 back into the transition.

[F]

Didn't it also land on concrete too?

[D]

It landed somewhere. We couldn't really see it. But it. It didn't work as well afterwards.

[B]

Oh no.

[G]

It caught on fire after that.

[B]

That. No.

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

Not immediately.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. Okay. That'd be kind of awkward. Like right at a skate park. We started a fire there.

[A]

It's like, all right, it looks like cgi.

[F]

That's what we thought when we first saw the video.

[C]

Yeah. Me and Corey thought they like aied it or something because it's just so. It accelerated so fast. It was wild.

[B]

30s are nuts, man.

[G]

Those.

[F]

You gotta. You have to give context. It has four of the zomboxes driving it. So it's moving two 30 pound drives in a 30 pound robot really fast.

[A]

There you go. Okay, we're gonna hit a quick break real quick. When we come back. I'm glad we got this. Tease the jump rope content. When we come back, we're gonna be watching some fights. Seeing how the day went. We. We've gotten to New Zealand and we've done a bunch of random filming. That's where we are in the story. Awesome. We'll be right back, guys. And we're back with Team usa. It just got back from New Zealand. We're going to be watching some of their fights. I'm excited about it. Cool.

[D]

Choose some good ones.

[A]

Choose some good ones.

[D]

Yeah. From your favorites, from what you've seen before already.

[A]

So let's making fun of me right now because I haven't watched any of these yet. I'm going in blind with the audience because. Because I forgot.

[B]

Let's make the scene for everybody at home who doesn't know about it. USA Australia, first nation v nation matchup for our good old Team USA Bay here.

[A]

So why did you.

[B]

What are we thinking?

[A]

Pick synthesis? Yeah, why did you pick synthesis here?

[D]

I think it's because we figured it could be every single one of their robots. Not all of them at once, but like, you know, in a one on one with any of them, it seemed well suited to win.

[G]

It seemed like our best robot.

[B]

Okay, you can play Corey also.

[F]

I mean out of all the robots that went, it has the most iterations. So I'd say that in that regard. Sure.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Geez.

[B]

All right. So now we're looking at. Since first fight. What's this bot's name? The blue called Red Knot. Okay.

[D]

Didn't exist like the day before.

[C]

He.

[D]

He finished it right down to the line.

[F]

This. There's actually damage of the lid that it's high centered on

[A]

in the pictures.

[G]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

So that's like a quarter inch piece of aluminum that's just like can.

[E]

So that's actually stainless.

[F]

That. That's stainless.

[D]

Cool.

[A]

That's crazy.

[E]

Get the hot dog sometimes. So it was stainless as a sort of substitute and then. Yeah.

[B]

Wait, so the. So the chassis looks to be like lots of keyed pieces. Is it also quarter inch stainless?

[E]

So no, the. The chassis outside is hard ox and so is the other side. But that one side was. Was stainless.

[A]

The side that Corey happened to hit.

[E]

And fun fact, the wheels that Dreadnought uses is also ones that I cast for them like a few days before the event. So

[B]

you're fixing Dreadnought bad blood. You mentioned to us before you're also working on Mjolnir, which also competed there too.

[C]

So I had.

[E]

I unironically had a hand in three different. Of the four teams, the only team I didn't have some sort of contribution was Brazil.

[B]

Incredible. So first of all, thank you for your efforts and carrying the event apparently, because that's a really solid stuff. So does that mean that you were also personally, was it also part of plan where in the worst case scenario you would try to always win? As long as Brazil lost, could you then argue that you were also always a winner?

[E]

Yeah, I mean, kind of. It was. It was more like just go at it by the day because, you know, like I could try plan for what happens when New Zealand fights America, which didn't end up happening. But I mean, like I had a rough idea. I was like, I'll probably just give the controller for bad blood to Corey or something. One of the more experienced vert drivers of America. But it didn't get that way. And honestly I just gave it my all the entire time and had a hell of a lot of fun with it. It was great.

[B]

Nice. Sweet.

[F]

So going into. Into higher author. So Phil is an amazing builder person there. He is.

[A]

Phil just.

[F]

Oh yeah, Phil right there. He's amazing. Him and I, we still chat. He had this chat how if we fight, he's gonna spin it up in boxer. So I waited for him to box Rush and he never actually box

[B]

Mind games. That's a pretty cool robot.

[A]

It's got like. That's a huge nut on it.

[C]

Damn.

[A]

Wow, that is prominent. Wow. Okay, that's cool right there. Okay,

[E]

so we're looking at for an excavator. So he was saying he didn't have a. A lot of machine shops or like general Supply shops. Whereas in Australia, but they did have a heavy equipment shop for like excavators and stuff. And he just bought a gigantic. I think it's like a 30 millimeter bolt or something. It weighs a ton.

[B]

Oh my gosh.

[C]

So such a pretty.

[B]

So actually even before this point, Corey. So did you have to do anything to synth before between Dreadnought to high orbit? Like it was, it was very fast, like 15 second fight or so. But like was there any sort of activity between.

[F]

We kept changing the batteries just to make sure they were fresh. But what I was finding was the plastic forks, they kept bending down. So after every match we would just bend them back into shape and get ready for the next match. But no, no real prep between the, the first and second match.

[A]

Were they getting caught on the floor or were they getting caught on the other robot?

[F]

I want to say probably getting caught on the floor because the seams, they weren't aligned up well. And like, yeah, the Brazilians, what they would do is when they were testing, they would mark basically every seam that they would catch so they would know not to drive near them. But I wasn't really worried about my forks catching the seams.

[B]

But wait, what do you mean by like marked? They like go into the box, the like a silver Sharpie and just like

[F]

draw a circle more. More mentally. Like when they would drive around, you could, you could tell where they knew where every seam was. So they would try to avoid driving near there in their matches.

[A]

That's so cool.

[B]

That's hardcore. I respect that. That's pretty locked in. Okay, so then like in this case here, so you knocked out higher Thorbit pretty fast. So, you know, hard luck. But it looks like since currently 2 0, so now that you've had maybe like what, 30 seconds total fight time or so like with synthesis. 30. Are you all. It's like, what's, what's the Team America vibe right now? Like, now you're 20 against Australia. How are you all, are you all thinking?

[F]

So for me, the body did not want to fight. Was the melty. I don't like melties because they're very unpredictable. And one thing you don't really know about the event is you. You can't reconfigure your robot. Whatever your robot is put in as going into it, you can't change, you can remove. Like if you break a fork and you don't have a replacement, you can remove it, but you can't go from forks to wedge. So my robot was more geared for vert control and control bots, but no horizontals. So the horizontals were kind of like my fear. But after taking out the melty, it was a lot less stress on my back. But, I mean, I don't know. I'll let the other aspects of Team America talk.

[G]

We were feeling pretty confident.

[D]

I. I think we're torn about whether we should sweep with synth or not.

[B]

We just use the biggest sword, like, doing the damage. Excuse me.

[D]

Yeah, it's like, how. How comfortable did we feel being that rude? I think, to both, like, the paying audience and the other team. And I just see Johnny wincing at me saying that because Johnny's the biggest little sweetheart, and he didn't want to do that. Anything spicy or. Or, like, unsportsman. Like. Johnny's, like, such a decent guy.

[B]

What were you thinking, Johnny?

[C]

Well, I was. I was worried we were gonna get swept five zero before the event. I don't know. I lose all confident in my robot. But, yeah, I mean, I. At that point, at 2 0, I was like, okay, this. We're in a really good spot because 10 is like, okay, it can still swing either way. But 20 felt much better. And synthesis was looking like a God, basically, so. But yeah, and like, heo High Earth orbit. It didn't spin up in the second fight either, which sucked. So wasn't. Wasn't even like, a fight. Corey just, like, smacked him in the face since. Since Reach is so cool now. I love his new forks, by the way, how they're just like, basically xenomorph method. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

What are those called?

[B]

It's the corralling outriggers.

[A]

Corralling?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Sort of the same idea.

[C]

I've been thinking of doing something like that for Vapor Trail. Just go in reach mode, if not

[F]

to cut you off. Johnny. If you go to the pictures, there's actually a really cool damage picture of Heo I. I sent. It just shows the speed and reach of the weapon. It's the other picture, if you have it, of the other side. Maybe it's before the.

[A]

I'm looking.

[B]

He'll get there.

[F]

He'll get there.

[A]

I'll get there.

[B]

Like, could you, like, would you describe it?

[A]

Describe it to us?

[F]

So. So in colliding into. So I hit to the left side of his weapon. So his weapon went to my right. I went to his right face on I. The disc came around three times, and every time it would step over just a little bit. So first I carved through his armor. The second one, I carved through the frame. And Then the third one actually smacked the pulley all within a very, very short one impact.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. It's just cratered like a different. It's like.

[F]

Yes.

[B]

Oh, like a. Like a boil or something. Like it looks.

[F]

So you can see, I hit. I hit to the outside of the fork, and then I came around, hit the inside of the fork with the. That little bracing plate. And if you look on the pulley, not the part near the belt, the flange that mounts to the blade, there's a scuff mark that you could see the blade came in a third time.

[B]

Yeah, bottom left.

[A]

Bottom left.

[B]

Yeah, there it is right there.

[F]

So the blade hit him three times in that one engagement.

[B]

Gosh.

[A]

Hey, that. That bolt held on, though. That bolt's fine.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Okay. Hell yeah.

[F]

Phil is that. Phil is actually carrying over that bolt to the. The next iteration too.

[B]

Let's go.

[A]

So.

[B]

As he should. As he should.

[E]

But that is so much weight.

[B]

So. So then, Aki, as you're. As you're now seeing one of A's finest, currently 2o the the beginning of Australia. What are you thinking about these American.

[E]

I mean, to be fair, I've followed NHRL for basically the entire time that I've been doing combat robotics. They're a. A decent part of why I started. And so it was kind of like knowing, like seeing the streams, I knew what Corey and Synth 30 was capable of. But being there for it was totally different. It was like, oh, my God, this robot will kill anything if given the chance. And I mean, like, that's the thing with 30s. Like, you have to be there to feel the. The presence they have with Mjolnir, the other robot that I'm on a team with, it's got a death hum that that weapon creates that just rumbles through everything. And it's like, you don't get that respect for all those big bots until you're there.

[A]

So remind me again, how is this scored? So you. You just. You just did two fights. Is it best three of five or.

[D]

No, it's like it's. You gotta knock out or beat all your opponents. So now we're. We're 2, 0.

[A]

Wait, so what if they would have

[B]

gone like a potential. Like, would have gone to five.

[G]

Three robots left.

[A]

Okay, okay.

[G]

Robots left more than okay.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. So at most it's nine fights.

[B]

Yeah, Four or five, like, kind of setup. Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Which it was on the first night of New Zealand versus Brazil. And that. That was a night to watch it Went to the final, final round and it.

[C]

That was crazy.

[D]

That was a good night.

[A]

That's awesome.

[C]

So good.

[E]

Especially the. I mean I'm biased, but that first fight against Dark Chaos and that was crazy from the moment.

[B]

Yeah, no, I gotta hand it to him, like, especially Black Roads. Like I'm not sure I caught all the rest of the other New Zealand fights. I definitely saw Black Rose, Dark Chaos, but that was like a full three minute slug fest of just like two powerful machines trading blows over and over again. It was solid. I gotta respect that a ton. Yeah, that's pretty good.

[A]

So viewer question. Alex Pick says, what is your ideal full strength USA, Team USA lineup? You're just saying 5 cent 30s. Is that the answer?

[B]

Megatron?

[D]

If only they have that pesky archetype rule.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[C]

I forgot about realistic.

[F]

I think if we just swapped out the multi, I think we would. Would have done a lot better. I think Aki definitely came key into definitely helping us do how we did. I mean, Dark Chaos, even though Dark Chaos won and Bad Blood lost, Dark Chaos wasn't repaired for the rest of the. Of that match. The rest of the day basically. I don't think he would have been able to go back in in any caliber with a full weapon and full drive. So even though Bad Blood lost, it was definitely at the cost of a full rebuild.

[B]

Oh man, I don't.

[G]

I don't think we've watched that fight yet. But Dark Chaos, we met in the Brazil fights and that's like a super strong hub motor vert. I don't know if it's come to NHRL before. I don't think so.

[B]

No, not yet. I've been following at Robocor. It's very solid machine, but not to. Not to the US yet.

[G]

Yeah, it's. It's pretty brutal. Watch out for that one.

[E]

You're in the. You're in the right stream. It's in the description.

[A]

We're working our way through spoilers. Some of us haven't watched this. Some of us forgot to watch this before this.

[D]

Yeah, we forgot.

[A]

Yeah. Come on, man.

[F]

All right.

[A]

This is Synth 30 versus Tempest.

[F]

This match is the reason why you don't run a link.

[A]

Okay.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh man.

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

I don't know if that was the biggest issue that they faced.

[B]

Oh no.

[A]

Oh no.

[B]

Is that it?

[E]

That was.

[B]

Oh, buddy.

[F]

And you could see the link fly out of the robot.

[B]

The Tempest just turned. It just turned off like one shot. It actually tipped you back. This is. It tipped synthesis 30 backwards. I just stopped.

[F]

I Call that my. That's a. That's a celebration dance before the match even ended.

[A]

So.

[B]

USA. USA.

[D]

USA 303030 almost a minute's worth of fights,

[B]

man. Yeah, we're. That's pretty good right there. Oh yeah. It's like you kind of strike high. Yeah.

[A]

Why is the link in the front of the robot?

[B]

Yeah, I guess just how the designer wanted it to go.

[A]

Oh, no.

[B]

A lot of the.

[F]

A lot of The Australian bots, four out of five were all brand new 30s, so I mean it was definitely a lot of teething issues.

[B]

Interesting. Yeah. I mean we'll probably come back to

[A]

this yellow thing here that is gone in the next frame. I see.

[B]

I'll probably come back to this. This point as well later on too. But definitely people are interested as well. Like different ideas or philosophies designs that you were seeing coming up. It's like between. So obviously you said like there's four out of five new Australian robots who are fighting here. Were there any ideas that you saw on those machines that really like create some sort of thoughts or create some creativity for you, like what you might want to think of later on?

[G]

Yeah, absolutely. The last bot that we'll see is incredible. Is also great vibes.

[A]

I like this. Got a little face.

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

In a tour. Is that last one in the tour.

[G]

Yes, that one is.

[B]

I read it as a Nader. I'm with you, Colin. I understand. I also thought phineas and Ferb, Dr. D finish merge personally, but. Okay, okay. So this is now fourth fight. Okay. Big.

[A]

Okay, we gotta fight now.

[B]

Interesting.

[F]

Kind of.

[B]

Okay, so that was a really strong first shot since throwing backwards or shots and throws frog ish backwards. Interesting. So it's like.

[F]

So when I. We went weapon to weapon in the first engagement, I. I broke his weapon and the right side of drive. When I was able to restabilized, we went face on and I. I cut through his front armor and you can actually see in one of the pictures I detached his gearbox from his drive motor right there.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

I went through.

[C]

Through the.

[F]

The ar and I just reinked it and split it.

[B]

Cheese and bread.

[A]

That's a. That's a little bevel gear on the weapon they got going on there.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[E]

So it's basically. It's grinder be able gear set up

[C]

like from an angle Grinder.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Hey C. Aren't bad sometimes.

[F]

After. After this match, it was having weird drive issues. I could have swapped out the ESC and been fine in eight minutes, but we made the decision. We're going to pull synthesis so that way Johnny could get a chance in the cage out of. Out of. Out of all of us. Aki has driven in the robot rampage cage. So we figured Johnny would probably go next. So that right there broke his weapon and his right side of drive. I'm kind of a little starstruck. And then I come in and this is where the drive on the left side dies.

[B]

Bang. There it goes.

[A]

So now we're gonna get a chance. We're gonna.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

This is the coolest 30 pounder. It's a treaded hammer saw. That's a turret that it can turn the angle of his arm.

[A]

It's a turret.

[B]

So it's a turreted hammer saw with tracks with trap man.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I really hope James an HRL vibe. Yeah. That's crazy. So he's able to. So all he has to do is just get the hammer saw in some position. Like get you in some area near the robot. And he could just say, all right, move the hammer saw. Choose the exact angling once. Like cut down across and just hit you.

[D]

That's all he has to do. That's sick.

[G]

You know, which is a lot of controls.

[A]

Yeah, it is.

[B]

Oh, my gosh.

[A]

So it's a hub motor up here and then the hammers run off of a bevel and then the turret is this little motor over here. That's crazy.

[C]

I think that's just an encoder.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

Oh, yeah. It's a giant gear. Yeah, the giant gear in the middle there that everything sits.

[A]

Wow. Really? It's closed loop.

[B]

Gosh. Yeah. This is sick. I love it so much.

[E]

Has some teething issues. It hadn't had much.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Johnny opened the loop.

[B]

Oh, no. Let's see. It goes.

[A]

All right, Spoilers box rush. Oh, immediately stuck. Excellent.

[B]

Beautiful.

[E]

Beautiful pirouette there.

[B]

All right, Johnny's free.

[G]

Wait, you were.

[F]

Johnny's like.

[G]

Oh, Johnny, you put yourself in upside down for this, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

What?

[A]

Why?

[F]

Because an AR plate on the bottom plate.

[C]

Yeah. My top plate is polycarb with the logo because it's pretty. But if he got anywhere near that, he would kill the like 200 weapon motor and all of my electronics. So it's gotta look ugly.

[F]

But I could drive so in it. In NATO was knocked out in America with 50 against.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Australia. That's awesome.

[E]

Who is such a sweet we? I mean, I've seen the Australians fight with a different set of bots and it's a shame that obliterator wasn't there is all I'm Going to say, if you want to see what obliterator can do, there's previous streams on robot rampages, YouTube, because, yeah, if they brought a Bellator, it would have been scary.

[G]

That's the boogie.

[B]

Do you think you could. You think that you have been able to take that Corey with synth?

[F]

I feel confident. The TPU is miracle material. And now I'm finding it can take a lot of hits in the 30s because you'll see later on, I took hits from at least two of the. The Brazilian feathers and it did.

[C]

Yeah, it's like, solid.

[B]

Interesting. Okay, that's good notes.

[C]

All right. It's almost solid.

[F]

No, it's 10 and 10. 10 walls. 10.

[C]

Oh, feel solid.

[A]

And walls.

[B]

Well, that's the secret of the 10 walls. It only moves just a little bit because of that little infill, but it's so stiff otherwise that it will want to not allow anything to penetrate.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, taste the peak out of the impact, which is what you did to a Nader here in a tour.

[C]

Yeah. So the first hit. There are some pictures. I. I speared the wheel guard. It's funny, it left just a bunch of, like, extrudes. Like, it looked like I drew a sketch with a rectangle and just, like, extruded it. There were just like, little rectangle holes. It was really funny.

[F]

It was the exact thickness of the blade. So you knew exactly where Johnny hit.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Wait. Yeah. Wait, this is. That's so clean.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

That's hilarious. That's so crazy.

[F]

Do you have the. Do you have the front picture? That's.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

He gave me his fork. I was really giddy about it.

[F]

The crazy part. Crazy part is the motors literally sit right behind that. But Johnny somehow did not hit the drive motors.

[B]

I respect that. Johnny. That's my Kanye.

[D]

Told you.

[A]

Johnny is decent. Johnny is decent.

[B]

What were you saying, Johnny, we contacted you.

[C]

I. That shot to the front sent all the shock into his chassis, and it blew both of the outrunner like, bells, I think off the motors. It was a big hit. I felt really bad because it's like the prettiest robot, like, top 10 ever. It's so good. And he gave me this fork, so. Thanks, Hayden. He's so funny. When we were like, 40 and they interviewed him, he was like, we have been severely outclassed.

[B]

We're just.

[C]

Because he was our team captain. Inator just looks like it came from NHL, though. Like, it has the NHL logo colors as well. And it's, like, really creative and cool, and I think The. We were just talking about all these like other gimmicks we can add to it because it's already a treaded turreted hammer saw. We're like, what if we had an FPV camera with auto tracking and electromagnets? Like how. How many more gimmicks are we putting it? Oh my gosh. But it could be really scary with a bit. I mean, I was pretty scared going into it, to be honest.

[B]

Yeah, it was.

[F]

It was on my list of not one.

[A]

You almost drove into the weapon there.

[C]

I was trying.

[B]

So like Johnny, I also see at the end here, so blades off that just because you wanted to turn it off or. Yeah, he was.

[C]

He was dead. I was trying to drive into the.

[E]

The.

[C]

His blade so he could at least like hit me. But I. I was upside down and I. I had like. I'm still learning how to drive the robot. I figured out, especially in New Zealand, like I drove so badly. I really need to. It's so different than the three. It's like, well, I have to relearn everything and vapor trail doesn't help with practice. So.

[B]

Yeah, I mean it's other side of the equator already. So you're already like different hemisphere pull. It spins differently, drives different magnets.

[A]

What is that thing where the toilet bowl does? The toilet bowl actually goes the other direction. Did anyone check?

[F]

It hasn't.

[G]

It just goes straight out.

[D]

Yeah, I'll send you a video.

[A]

You got to be kidding me. Dude.

[B]

Lies and problems. What is this?

[A]

That is so serious.

[D]

They're all like eco toilets or something. They. They care about their. Their land, health and their water and stuff. In New Zealand it's.

[A]

So the toilet doesn't spin.

[G]

No.

[A]

What's that got to do with the environment?

[C]

Explodes.

[G]

It uses less water because it doesn't take.

[A]

It's not enough water to.

[D]

Because it's not showboating. You know, like doing a little

[A]

just

[B]

performative toilet spinning as opposed to honest and econ Austin economical water flushing.

[G]

Exactly.

[B]

Never thought to say that line for a robot competition.

[A]

Did you fill up a tub?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I don't know.

[B]

I was like now after the five. Oh, sweet. Give us. So like Team USA Five zero sweep over Australia. We're doing great going into the finals. How is everybody's vibes like Aki, starting with you? What are you thinking?

[E]

I mean, I was really. I mean, part of me was disappointed after all the work that the rest of the team put in to get bad blood ready. It didn't get to do anything. But I Was also really happy because there were some last minute changes that I did in that gap, that one day gap that we had on bad blood that made it like that just extra bit better for Brazil which I mean it was intense because like Brazil is. Brazil doesn't bring anything less than 100% and that, that just means that you really have to be on your A game. And so I'm just a little nervous for that honestly because I mean I fought them once with New Zealand team and like I knew they, they really do not mess around. So

[B]

what about Sam, Sam and Colin? What are you thinking about Team USA about now?

[D]

Oh, it was, we don't, we didn't have to repair anything after that match so we were feeling pretty good that we didn't have to work on jump rope that night.

[G]

Yeah, we went shopping the next day.

[D]

It was lovely. It was really nice.

[B]

Is, is New Zealand dollar weaker than American dollar? Like did you ever buy some nice souvenirs and stuff?

[F]

Yeah, two to one basically.

[B]

Oh sweet. I know where to go.

[G]

Really expensive.

[D]

Yeah, some stuff is hard to get there. The shipping game not as fast in, in New Zealand for sure. We like had a lot of drama prior to the tournament with, with batteries for a robot dog that we brought all the way to New Zealand for some reason. Got to go the dog. Got to go. Benji the dog and what, what an adventure Benji had or didn't have. You're just gonna have to tune in to see if the, if we figured out its battery situation.

[B]

Wow. Wow.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Corey, what are you thinking about Team USA about now?

[F]

So even though we clean swept Australia, I didn't want to think that was the best they would have given us because I mean go back three years or however long your first iteration of your robot is going to have a lot of bugs. And so hearing that they this was all of their first robots outside of Inator. But even Inator was having a lot of issues with the clutch on the arm. So I wasn't thinking, oh, we're very dominant. We're going to dominate the Brazilians because they come to NHL so often and so frequently and Brazil was bringing some of their best robots and so I definitely wasn't going into the final day as in an absolute clean sweep. I knew it was definitely going to come down to us using all of our robots. I was stressed out but I mean we took the day before as a fun day. I wanted to make sure that Australia at least had a all working robot. So even though we weren't fighting, I was still Trying to help out in the pits to anyone that needed a help. A hand, because Australia was giving us a hand the following day. So probably some of the best folks you'll ever meet.

[B]

Excellent. How about you, Johnny?

[G]

Decent. Yeah.

[D]

I feel guilty about going shopping.

[B]

What are you thinking?

[C]

I'm happy Corey let me play because he could have. He could have had a re. I think he pro. He was probably favored against Inator, especially because Inators kept blowing its turret gearboxes. And it's a. It's a giant vert. You know, there's. If the turret was working, like, at 100% and he got a pin, he could aim it. But I. I think it wasn't really 100%. I was pretty happy. I felt kind of, like, bad because it looks bad for Australia. But Those were all V1s of their robots, except for Anator, which was like a V1 2, which is what Spartan was as well. Our fight also wasn't like that fair, because you're only allowed one config. So he had forks. If he had a wedge, could have been a completely different story. And I'm lucky that my robot's just, like, one config. But it was funny that we spent, like, so long getting Bad Blood ready. Like a crazy panic rush just for Corey to, like, sweep everyone. Yeah. I remember when Aki got there, I was like, where's the robot?

[E]

Like, why?

[C]

I see all these spares here? But the spares were. That was the robot. Like, there were just parts all over the table. And then Corey was like, that is the robot. And Corey is sarcastic a lot. So I just, like, brushed it off. I was like, oh, okay. Funny. Funny, Corey. But, yeah, we built Bad Blood for nothing, I think. Isn't that why we ran synthesis instead? Because I think we were planning Bad Blood originally, but it wasn't ready.

[F]

Possibly, however, we need to fill the most important detail. Originally, our other verb was gonna be Rippo Saw. Ripo saw showed up at 1. About one hour prior.

[C]

No, no, less.

[F]

Less than an hour prior.

[C]

It was like 20 minutes.

[F]

Yeah. But we found out the day before. So that's when we started to scramble to see who we could get. And luckily, Jack reached out to Aki and we were able to pull it off. I mean, even though Bad Blood was in parts, I knew there was enough of us to really pull it together. And I knew we were going to get it together. There wasn't a thought in my mind that, no, we can't get this, man.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

All right.

[D]

No.

[B]

Excellent stuff, guys. Like, excellent work. Congratulations to USA1 and A. Woo. Yo.

[D]

Thank you. Also for what it's worth, the night before was a three hour tournament where it went. All nine fights in our tournament was less than an hour.

[C]

Our socks.

[D]

We did some demo.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, is that where you got to see Chef Woody? I've heard about the famous Woody.

[F]

Yeah. Johnny. Johnny got to. Johnny got to see what happens when he fights Chef Woody or lose.

[C]

I got demolished. I got demolished by Chef Woody. I got bodied so hard, guys.

[B]

Oh man. This is.

[C]

I didn't tape my connectors though to be fair, so they just came off. But he, he actually like bodied me.

[B]

Interesting. Okay.

[E]

This is a cool fight.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Jump rope versus jumper versus a barrel.

[A]

So you guys just had times like after the tournament. So you just.

[D]

Yeah, the. The audience paid for a full, full. So we gave it to them. Nice.

[G]

This was a New Zealand.

[B]

Wow. It's so much faster.

[G]

Jamie, who built this beautiful little vertical that.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Flipped around and we got to visit the company that he worked for as well. This, this cow collar company called Halter, which can steer cows with a collar. It's pretty cool.

[G]

Cows bovine mind control.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

What? Okay. We're clipping that by the way. 100. Thank you very much.

[D]

All right.

[B]

I mean Deborah looks pretty clean. That's already good. So you have to do some tests.

[A]

That is so cool.

[C]

Serious seeing it like again because the last time I saw it was its arms getting ripped off and catching on fire on stream. So like seeing this here, it's like it's a very competitive robot. It can. I feel like it could knock me out just with its drive. Honestly, it's driving so powerful.

[G]

That's all it has.

[D]

So no, Colin, it's got arms.

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

It's got arms that can single handedly flip a shuffler.

[A]

And it's got a soul.

[B]

A lot of it does have eyes. Eyes mean it can see and air force sentience. So keep that in mind.

[A]

It's got. Yeah, it's got self awareness.

[G]

I just mean that like in terms of KOing.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, Johnny and Corey going over their damage picks. We're never gonna have that.

[G]

We've never been going to have that though.

[E]

But our.

[D]

The robot that we built always looks damaged and it looks cooler because of it.

[E]

Gotta love that battle patina. Yeah.

[A]

True.

[B]

100%. Sweet. Well, it's feeling good.

[F]

Yep.

[B]

Yeah, that's feeling good. Feeling great.

[D]

The drive and the arms were split. So Colin was on drive on an ELRS system and I was on the arms using A Bluetooth system and literally

[G]

an Xbox controller by eight bit.

[A]

What?

[D]

Yep.

[E]

That's wild.

[D]

And we tested it. We turned on like every radio we had and all our DJI drone stuff to try and overwhelm it in some way. And it worked. It worked well in testing. It worked in the cage, so. Seems viable.

[B]

I mean, it looks great. Like, I never would have known that just looking at the. The fight here against Blue Blur. It's driving seamlessly. The arms look very, like fluid.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, the timing is very nice. Like, it's like you get the robot up there and like in motion, you're already throwing. The arm there isn't like, like the get stop and then move. It's like one continuous push the barrel.

[A]

Why did you end up going with that?

[D]

With the Bluetooth?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Because Austin was in the mix.

[G]

Well, Austin does a lot of the. He, like will build the layout and then we'll tune it. So that's one reason. The other reason is we're using ESP32 microcontroller and those have onboard Bluetooth, so. And WI fi. So it's less layers before you get to the arm drive, like our motors. So in a way it makes sense. We tried to run it entirely on the Bluetooth first. So when. When we first got to New Zealand, it was all Bluetooth, just two controller or one controller that drove both things. And it was just a little too latent. It just didn't have the crispness that you need to fight.

[D]

The drive felt goopy.

[A]

Yeah, it was. It had time.

[G]

Exactly.

[B]

Yeah.

[G]

Like. Yeah, you just can't have that. So this.

[F]

The steel floors are also the magic sauce. Because driving on steel is amazing and NHRL needs to eventually put steel floors.

[G]

The noise is also. They're really thunders loud.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

It was like in a small room as well. Like, they do a really good job of having the right amount of people in the room. The right. The cage is really takes up most of the room, so it feels. It's visceral. At Robot Rampage, it is like everybody in the room is closer than like the furthest. The closest people at NHL, like you

[A]

start because they're like right up on the cave.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. You guys are like. Are they like on one side and you guys are opposite sides so the driver doesn't interfere with their vision.

[G]

Exactly. Yeah. We're around the corner.

[F]

We're off. Yeah, we're off to the. The right. The left side of the cage. That's the one thing I don't like. Both drivers Stand side by side. And it's not side by side. So one person's driving towards the competitors and the other one's driving away. So it was very difficult. And we were always away, so we'd always have to trail, try to line up our shots. And it's difficult when you're trying to. You're driving at yourself.

[B]

Also, like, home team versus away team, like, had a very real impact, you could say, because now you're literally having to go away from.

[G]

Yeah, it's a little strange at first. There's also a little bit more because of the way that their angle, you can see it, like, can't in. So you have a little bit more blind spot than an nhrl, which can. Takes a little adjusting to. But, you know, both people, once the fight really starts, you're both dealing with the same thing because you're four feet away from each other, which is also kind of cool to be driving directly next to your opponent.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

They can hear you, though.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What do you say? What do you say to them?

[B]

I've always.

[G]

Sam. What Sam likes to do is he shouts his suggestions loud enough so that they hear the suggestion.

[D]

Yeah. And then they adapt to the suggestion.

[B]

Go for the slide. Well, now I'm gonna switch away, I think.

[D]

I think Colin and I said maybe one or two words between the two of us during our match.

[G]

They're mostly curses.

[D]

I was like, slam. I said slam one time and he slammed them. And then the rest were afterwards.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, this is great. No, excellent stuff. This is cool for now. We're gonna push to a break, then we come back, we'll go look at the grand finals.

[D]

Sounds good. We'll see you on the other side of the break, y', all soon.

[A]

Thanks, guys.

[C]

Sa.

[E]

Foreign,

[A]

Welcome back from the break. Guys, we are going to be breaking down the. Is. Is this the last day, the second day of fighting in New Zealand against Brazil?

[C]

And.

[A]

And this is not just your typical synthesis. 30 sweep. We got everybody fighting night. Is that. Is that right? Okay.

[F]

Yes.

[C]

Yep.

[D]

This is day four of the tournament. So.

[A]

Okay. Okay.

[B]

So.

[A]

So the bracket. So how many. How many teams started? It was usa, Australia, Australia, New Zealand

[D]

and Brazil and Brazil.

[A]

So Enzy in Brazil fought on the first night.

[D]

Brazil took it.

[A]

Brazil took it. And then the second night was USA and Australia.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Yeah. And then there was a break that.

[D]

Then it was the third place match. So Australia.

[B]

Oh, New Zealand. Australia.

[A]

Okay.

[F]

Who won that?

[B]

Oh, there you go.

[A]

There you go.

[E]

New Zealand won that.

[A]

And then this is for the we're going to start with Bad Blood versus Dark Chaos. What's going on here?

[D]

So we banger we wanted to throw, throw Bad Blood at at Brazil and see what happened. I think was, was the idea soften up Dark Chaos as best as we could.

[A]

We assumed that they would be crazy

[D]

running that one first.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Aki, tell us about the config you have here. They have like a.

[E]

So this was like Sword and Shield. Sword and Shield sort of idea so that we could do. We had something viable, both vert and a horizontal. Because that was kind of the idea is that Bad Blood is actually one of the few like generalists that can quite happily go against any of them. You can see there the Bad Blood writing mechanism of just run the weapon into the ground and hoping you land on your else.

[B]

Gosh, it's violent.

[E]

Yes. No. And honestly the, it was during this, before this fight. I was just like I'm going to have to try out drive Brazilians. And that is a ask and a half.

[B]

It's quite the dog fight though because like we're now a minute in the fight. There's some damage on Bad Blood from the first shot took off one of the forks. But you've both traded shots. Like you've definitely hit parts of Dark Chaos. Dark Chaos is throwing Bad blood. Both robots still spinning, slow driving, still very quick like they're darting. It's. It's aggressive.

[E]

What you don't didn't see is that previous hit ripped the entire front like chassis member off, including the wedge. So the, the TPU that holds the inside of Bad Blood is just showing through a hole and it was just still full send.

[B]

It's, it's still punching at this point.

[E]

I killed Dark Chaos's weapon.

[B]

Oh wow.

[E]

So no weapon versus one side of drive and full weapons still.

[A]

You're driving the hell out of this robot. By the way. The drifting is excellent. Same.

[C]

You know what, I, I was talking about this before but I still think Sword and Shield was the best play all around. But if she had full forks she would have I think won this because she hit made contact with their wheels multiple times but the wedge kept her from actually biting. Yeah, like she, she very like certainly out out drove them on some of these exchanges and just kind of couldn't get them up the wedge. Yeah, but still she, she, she did what she needed to do and broke the, she took the weapon out for the rest of the night.

[B]

Yeah, because like we noticed like I've said earlier as well, Dark Chaos doesn't have any gearboxes. Like, I'm pretty sure it's tangent drive with four wheels and then a hub motor weapon.

[F]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah, that's really beefy. Yeah, it's really stout.

[G]

Like.

[B]

Like the whole robot is trying to just eliminate all potential failure modes as much as possible. Honestly, it remind. What is it? Sombra tried the tangent drive as well. We saw that nhrl. That was pretty good for it. But we've also seen what B definitely B force. I tried a little bit of phenomenon like a hub motor 30 weapon.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

So it's interesting seeing how much power being able to put into Dark Chaos weapon. It's more like a drisk like or like a very stout drum. It's not like as big diameter. I wonder if that is a better play for a hub motor because your diameter is smaller. But you still got all this area to hit stuff with though.

[F]

So what you don't see as well too is they had a secondary hub system that was a drum that had a lot less reach, but he never played it.

[D]

They also spent a majority of their time in New Zealand fixing that weapon system.

[C]

Oh, really?

[B]

Okay.

[F]

After. After each fight that it would have. They would have to strategically pull it because it's very. Well, it's very built, but it's very. You have to take half the robot apart to get to certain areas. So in certain regard, it's very tanky, but in. In maintainability, it's all.

[E]

It's actually in. If you rewind that replay, you can see the exact moment.

[B]

Yes.

[E]

That the weapon goes down.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Yeah. So like just. I don't know, like in this replay right here, I'm for. Oh, no, this one.

[F]

I think he was upside down.

[B]

I think it was in Europe tumbling around. It smacks down onto it.

[A]

Yeah, it's totally seen.

[C]

I never showed you Aki. I forgot to send it to you, but because you had left already. But I took a video of what you did to the magnets you shattered. Like all of them.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like the entire. Yeah, that's all crap.

[C]

Yeah. I forgot to say I'll send it to you. But they're like. It looks like almost half. More than half of them are like actually like broken into probably the side that impacted, basically.

[E]

Yeah. It's just. That was. It was very fortunate. But yeah, I was really happy with the drive. And unfortunately the. The thing that let me down was even though I locked I did the magnums, the motors to the magnums, they still came undone on one side.

[B]

So. Ah, that's rough.

[E]

That's just kind of how it goes.

[B]

Sounds like some Zomb boxes in your future, baby.

[E]

Yeah, eventually, right?

[F]

So. So right now, I think his. His name is Mateus. Had decided to strategically pull Dark Chaos because I think repairability. And so we. They decided to put in Jubaloo.

[D]

And then.

[F]

Sam, I'll let you talk about how we decided on what we were pulling. Put it in.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I think we assumed that they were gonna put Jubaloo in, and we. We chose Spartan 30 for the mirror match. We. We figured Johnny could outreach Jubaloo and that would be advantageous for us, or they would go weapon to weapon and they spin opposite ways. I forget our exact reason for choosing Spartan for that one. Do you remember, Johnny?

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

I go when I'm told. I hit robot hard.

[C]

I thought we. I thought, like, visually, I should outreach them. But the funny thing is, we compared because I was thinking I could run upside down. So I sniped their pulley. But when looking at them, we actually have the same reach because their pulley is way smaller than mine. It's, like, half the size. So we actually. It would have been way too risky. Maybe we should have, because I lost. But.

[A]

Wow. Spoilers.

[C]

Yeah, spoilers. I do. You can see the size of their hub. I didn't take the. But don't spoil it, Johnny.

[F]

Don't.

[A]

Some of us forgot to watch, bro. Some of us forgot to watch before the stream.

[C]

All right, we can watch me get John because redacted.

[F]

You might have won. You might have won this, Johnny. You don't know. We don't know.

[A]

We don't know yet.

[B]

We have the mirror match going horizontally horizontal.

[A]

Oh, my gosh.

[B]

You're jumping around Jubaloo, though. Like, you stabilized it. Got some glancing shots. Oh, very good.

[A]

How did you not rip the wheel off there? That's crazy.

[C]

I didn't hit. Hit the idea. I thought I did.

[F]

And then Jubaloo hits his pulley.

[B]

Yeah, I got the wheel first and then the pulley.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Or is it the same shot?

[C]

I was against the wall, so I was spun down, and they just got a free shot, basically because they're upside down now after they were bouncing, so they just. I was spun down. They hit the pulley and then. Yeah, those were my paper wheel guards because I forgot to bring my actual ones. Those were the, like, oh, shit, I'm overweight. Let me put these, like, air wheel guards on. Aesthetic wheel guards, I guess I would call them.

[D]

You said you did origami to make those yeah.

[E]

Yes.

[C]

I tp. I made it manually.

[B]

Something on the flight.

[D]

Yeah, something to do.

[C]

So, yeah, they. They went straight through. But it. That was one of their. I was really kicking myself because if I had just driven a little bit, like when. When I was against the wall there, I was so focused. I was troubleshooting my weapon this entire time. My weapon esc. And trying to get it spin up fast and not cut out. And when I was against the wall, I was so focused on trying to, like, feather the weapon back up that I did not like. I guess I had tunnel vision and I didn't see Jubaloo, like, fl. Flying into me. So that. That was very, like, frustrating to look back on to be like, oh, that was. That was entirely like me as well.

[B]

I'm.

[C]

I'm for June NHL. I'm gonna have someone else run weapon and see how that is so I can actually just like, try to drive.

[B]

What's the controller you have for it?

[C]

I have a Zorro.

[B]

I mean, like the weapon esc. Sorry. Oh. Oh.

[F]

Sequoia Speedy 200.

[B]

Oh, like the one you had, Corey. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay.

[C]

And I shouldn't. I just need to figure out how to program it because the. I shouldn't have spin up issues with this weapon motor.

[B]

I mean, this thing is like a 62 something.

[C]

Yeah. 6230 or something.

[B]

There you go.

[C]

It's like 200kV.

[B]

Very fat motor. Very fat motor.

[C]

Yeah. It's huge.

[B]

Yeah.

[G]

So sorry.

[C]

Yeah, I'm yapping, but I. I have a lot to yap about.

[B]

Well, this is your fight. Like, this is. This is Spartan's moment because now it's down.

[A]

So

[B]

like now. Now we say Jubilee's sniping it.

[A]

Jubilee's got the small pulley because they've got the 90 degree gearbox in it. So they're doing the reduction on the gearbox. Gives them additional read. Yeah, I didn't think about that.

[C]

So when they were. When they were bouncing there.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I was like, this is my chance. I dove in for the wheel and they bounced over me. Yeah, I was like. I didn't even notice. I was like, did I like, what. Why did we. I like, phased through them. Like, what. What just happened? So I just turned around and on the hit, I hit them. I literally hit their pulley and dang. I should have belt sniped them because I hit the belt, but I guess it was just like 2mil too high. Should have cut a woulda because I still got my butt kicked, but.

[B]

Oh, I think you actually did hit it. Like, it definitely, like torqued.

[A]

That's brutal. It's so close.

[B]

Very strong machine, though, because I think you hit it, but I think you just sort of moved the robot over. It didn't like cut into it, you think?

[C]

Really?

[B]

Yeah, I think it hit like the wheel, because the wheel was the lowest part and it's rotating over. So I think, like you slap the wheel because the wheel's like solid vulcanized rubber. It just rotated the robot about itself again.

[C]

Yeah, that's my titanium bolt.

[A]

Your titanium bolt turning into ash.

[C]

Yes. Like, that's $14.

[A]

Yeah, yeah,

[B]

yeah.

[F]

I think you see a spark when the next time they collide, I want to say you see more sparks.

[A]

Jeez.

[B]

Oh, no. There you go.

[C]

Yeah. I didn't hit it.

[G]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't understand.

[A]

I think you're right.

[B]

I think it just. I think he just danced over to you. I think he just.

[C]

It was so close. I got.

[A]

The truth is crazy.

[C]

I can say I can cope about it being a 50 50, but, like, I got out class. I got out class. That robot is so cool. It's almost as old. It's like,

[A]

it's almost 14 years old,

[B]

I think. Yeah, it's ancient. It is like one of these staples of Brazilian robot combat. It's definitely the warrior team who's behind Black Dragon Day. We didn't know. So, like, they've got experience. And this robot is just like version 25 or whatever, you know? Yeah, they mentioned before, like all the Australian robots, like version 1.1.2. This one's like so far down the evolutionary tree, it's just pretty well lined up for its life.

[F]

I remember during this match, Johnny turned around and said, who are we sending out next? I said, johnny, finish the math.

[B]

I do.

[C]

I yap during my fights. Like, I usually have Lars next to me and we'll have like full on conversations, like it's a podcast about what's happening, like, while I drive. I. I don't know why. I just. I really talk a lot during the fights. I'll be like, oh, this is funny. My wheels. Like, oh, the motor's still spinning.

[E]

Oh, blah, blah.

[C]

Who are we putting in next? But yeah, Jubaloo is cool. I've never fought a Brazilian in my life and Corey's fought them like 200 times. I don't know how that happened, but it was. It was fun

[B]

stuff.

[F]

I don't know if you got after this match, I don't know if you want to highlight the special part of this type of event where you have to repair on camera. I don't know if you guys wanted to.

[B]

Oh, yeah, definitely bring it out.

[A]

What's going on there?

[B]

You mentioned before, but bring it now.

[C]

The eight minute repair time after the fight.

[F]

So what happens is at the end of your match, they put a table in the cage and you. They start eight minutes. And effectively you have to have your robot ready for the next match within the eight minutes. And it. It's filling the dead time and it's kind of giving the people the insight of how much. What does it take to fix a robot to go into the next fight? Which is pretty awesome, honestly. It's.

[A]

Yeah, this is cool.

[B]

So these Brazilians are clever. Like, you have one guy who's like, starting the thread like he broke. Break the connection. Second, like, coming back with the driver. Take it all off.

[F]

And another thing is, I must say, the Brazilians definitely have the repair, like, unit down packed. Like, everyone has one, one job during the repair time. And it really helps get things done quick.

[A]

Adds that, like, team coordination element, not just like in the ring, but also like outside of the ring. That's cool.

[B]

Yeah, that's a big part that we really like to see. Like, it's the special y' all did with that, like a year, two years ago with Primehead after finding the airbag. That was like a great example of like, yeah, he's Russian. Like, he like, yes, you saw prime head of fight in the morning. Yes, you say it fate in the afternoon. But like three hours in between that man and all defective is like, hard on that machine. Figuring it all out.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Same with Brazil here with the Jubaloo, which is interesting because you would have thought, oh, like, the robot didn't do obvious damage. But you sort of know implicitly as a rock builder, like, any number of things could have happened that you just didn't see right now that could happen later on. You have to just have that kind of discipline. Just be like, all right, let's give it a once over. Let's give it a test box twitch test, stuff like that.

[A]

This is beautiful. This is. This is a labeled. It's got zip ties and loctite in it and tape, and then it's labeled Toro, but they're using it for this one. And then this is labeled. These discs are labeled. Oh, yeah. I love that.

[B]

They're pros.

[A]

They're pros.

[F]

So, yeah, so now we're down 2, 0. We lost bad blood, and then we just lost Spartan 30. I definitely wanted a piece of Jubaloo because I lost kind of poorly to them in December. I got stuck on the wall.

[B]

Oh, that. That sucked. Yeah.

[F]

I was also nervous because you can't change configs. I can't run a wedge. So I'm like, okay. The worst case scenario is they catch the inside of my upright and start to splay it. So I really need to be on top of them. And you'll see what happens.

[A]

All right, Here we go. Synthesis 30 versus Jubalo. Yeah. That. The fact that you had the long outbreak.

[F]

Oh, hold on, hold on. Right here.

[B]

Oh, yeah, it was great. Full cross arena launch. Very nice.

[F]

Yes. So the problem is I was finding on the steel, anytime I would come, I would hit someone, I would impact them. The steel has zero give, so my frame would flex a lot. And how hard I hit him, it flexed it to where both belts just fell right off.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The H and W versus like aluminum or steel construction. The plastic can give. Yeah.

[F]

The nice part was when I hit him, I broke the nose off the top plate and ripped his belts off. So he was also down weapon. So it was kind of a pushing match. And my robots more ideal. And the corralling forks actually would get inside side of his like the nose of his robot. So I had full control him as well too, if you can.

[B]

So in theory, if you could tank with the belts, as it doesn't like flex off, you're thinking that you might actually only want to like have a little bit of wedge bracing against the horizontal. Like you're thinking that you're going to want to invite more impacts between blade to blade shots against horizontals. And future.

[F]

I think going with so learning that this config actually works against mid cutters and probably overheads. I feel like I don't necessarily need a wedge anymore, only for like undercutters because he. He hit me a couple times and the TPU didn't care. I think he scuffed it up a little bit.

[B]

Wow.

[F]

Took took the hits like a champ. Like, I still sustained zero damage from outside the belt falling off.

[B]

I'm curious because synth is just so big. Like the blade just made impossible to go beyond.

[C]

Could be.

[F]

Absolutely.

[B]

But that is still interesting tech though. I mean, definitely try it. Like, I think NHL, our main horizontals are like anxiety and emperor.

[C]

And

[B]

I know there's an undercutter module on quack, I think, but I think generally speaking, like the amount of undercutters at NHRL is very small. The amount of horizontals on HRL and 30 pounders is still generally small. So I'M kind of curious if you can almost do that if for no other reason, because it minimizes your work time and gives you like, that much more ability to lean into a potential control matchup. Like a Waddles.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Where they have like both. You have the ability to not be like, okay, I can do a wedge against Waddles by allowing corralling force forks, maybe. I think that they're still useful.

[F]

What I found too was because of the. The height of the four. The corralling forks and how long they were whenever they would get hit. Like, you could see against Dreadnought. You could just see the forks themselves quivering as they were getting hit. But they weren't sustaining major damage. They would just kind of absorb the hits and then kind of go back to the. The original shape.

[B]

Yeah. Plastic is magic.

[F]

Yeah. So as of right now, we both want to. Went to the three minutes.

[B]

We.

[F]

We took the win. So we got back one of our. Our points. The one big deciding fact. Now this, this, the chart.

[A]

What is this? Johnny just sent this. What is this?

[C]

I made spreadsheets. I felt fancy.

[F]

We tried to strategically and who we wanted versus who we didn't. And Jubaloo was my. I could take it, but it could go really bad. So it's a 50, 50.

[C]

Look at Corey's good matchups.

[F]

The one thing that we wanted to do was to make sure we had one of the big hitters left AF at the very end, kind of to clean things up. So after this match, we immediately pulled. Pulled synthesis 30. So that way we knew it had to come in at the very end. So we decided to pull it right after this match. So that way, outside of the belts popping off, there was no other damage, so we would save it. But. Yeah, Johnny, explain the chart.

[C]

Yeah, I made two. I made one preliminary one. That one the good bad 50, 50. And then the other one I sent. And this is what. What we did is we just asked each, like, person, oh, who are you good? Who you're bad. This was the if then chart. This is what we use during the tournament. I really like this one because it's very much like, okay, Dark Chaos, who's good? Like, from best to worst. Not like that.

[B]

The multi is the worst in most of them.

[D]

The multi was the worst robot we brought.

[C]

Yeah. And so, I mean, some, like. It doesn't mean exact because some were like. Like even. You know what I mean? Like, some. It was like the bottom three were all kind of meh. But it was cool because you could check them off. As robots got eliminated. So you could, like, update it based on your options.

[B]

Ah, so there's like. So that's. So I know people have done, like, pre NHRL brackets, figuring out what their best setup would be. Jake knows very well. But it's interesting seeing the team play element coming out here, especially because I think that that is already a big difference. Because, you know, like, in most competitions, especially United States, obviously, we generally think of our robots very individual. Like, it's you versus the world. But in this case, because it's like 5, 3, 5, you kind of have a bit. You now have to sort of do a bit more flexible calculus anyway, because, like.

[C]

Yeah, really?

[B]

Especially in this Brazilian fight. Whereas in Dark Chaos, both had to be pulled because they're thinking. They kind of want you to stay around just in case you've already changed the calculus now, especially if you can't change up your configurations. So it's kind of funny seeing that all play out in real time, not just on, like, your own personal level, but, like, any other level. Like, imagine how much. Imagine how crazy a chart would get.

[A]

Dang.

[B]

Jake's chart is absolutely.

[A]

Yeah. This is the Max Champs 2025 config chart. So it's, you know, it's got drop downs, which lets me build. So I can. I can build config in here.

[F]

What?

[B]

Because, like.

[A]

Because, like, I have, you know, so many tails, I have so many weapons, I have so many plows, I have so many motors, I have so many batteries. Right. And then I can mix and match these, like, in my head and then build them IRL to confirm, like, that they are what I want. And so, like, I had, like, six main ones that I was going in. The thing with side tangent, not. Not part of this podcast, but yeah. So you end up with something that looks like this.

[F]

That's amazing.

[B]

This is a great example of Jake, like, as a person. Yeah. All this.

[A]

And I went 02. Can you believe it?

[B]

No, no.

[A]

Can you believe it?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Don't spoil it, Johnny. Some people haven't watched the stream.

[C]

Oh, I was joking. I didn't know you went Owen 2.

[A]

I went Owen 2.

[E]

Champs.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Rewatch it in HRL.

[A]

Oh, that's.

[F]

Now we wanted to do jump rope, so Colin and Sam get the spotlight.

[D]

Yeah. We figured they were gonna throw out something soft, which they had two soft robots. Their hammer saw and their lifter were both built specifically for this tournament because no one in Brazil runs anything other than a spinner for the most part.

[G]

No, no. They told me that this was actually the first hammer saw and lifter built in Brazil.

[F]

I don't know if that's true. What I mean, technically these weren't even built in Brazil. These were. One was built in Texas, the other one was built in New Zealand.

[G]

Yeah.

[B]

So really what I'm hearing is say all you want about four wheel drive vert meta nature. L. But yeah, we at least have more lifters and hammer slaws existing casually than most of Brazil. That's nuts.

[C]

Wow.

[G]

And I think that I can kind

[B]

of see that DNA in the robot shape though.

[G]

Yeah, I was gonna say that it's just robots all were running the same tangent drive as Dark Chaos or these two newer robots, the lifter and the Hammersaw.

[C]

So one was belted, actually. Oh, really?

[G]

Was the lifter.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. That's just a Dark Chaos.

[F]

So the hand. It's this one. So this is actually one of the old Dark Chaos chassis and they just retrofitted the. The hammer saw module onto the top. You can see the bells right there.

[B]

That makes sense. That makes sense. So like, how you thinking as far as this fight's going? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

[D]

We just mostly didn't want to get hit by the hammer saw.

[G]

We're being a little ginger.

[D]

Yeah. It was also our first fight together when with both of us driving. Oh, no, it's not. It's our first real fight.

[B]

There you go.

[G]

Our first fight with jump rope.

[D]

Oh, Blue blur.

[B]

The.

[D]

Yeah, before. Yeah,

[E]

yeah.

[B]

But that's. That's really good. Drive fight. Like you guys are controlling really well.

[C]

They cooked so hard. I was so excited during this fight.

[E]

It was great.

[A]

So good.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I love jump bro.

[G]

With split drive and weapon in ire also in 2021. So it's our first time doing that.

[D]

We also are good friends and

[A]

are

[D]

on the same wavelength for the most part about all lot of things.

[A]

So is that one movie Pacific Rim?

[D]

Yeah, we're.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[B]

Like the two people probably in the one giant mech.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[E]

Drift compatible.

[D]

Oh, this part was cool. Colin found the seam and then hid behind it.

[A]

That's so mean. That's crazy.

[B]

I mean, you're playing Brazil. Like I understand.

[C]

Can we replay that? Colin and Sam's backwards bait throw. Look at this. Can we appreciate how sick this was? He goes back and they flip him as they chase him. It was so cool. Yeah, there's the seam, dude.

[A]

It's so fast too. Oh, that was sick.

[C]

That was sick when that happened.

[D]

The fade away jumper.

[A]

That was so. That was so cool.

[G]

And we were pretty.

[B]

Just with a joy. Go on.

[G]

Yeah. Oh, we were pretty pleased. Like, I mean, jump rope's got, you know, a pretty wide wedge, and it's tpu, so you wouldn't think it would be good against something with forks, but it worked out pretty well in this fight and the minotaur fight.

[F]

What fight?

[D]

I don't know.

[G]

Or.

[B]

Sorry. Hey, hey, hey.

[D]

We could have flipped minotaur, too. I'm sure we could. If we can flip that barrel.

[B]

I want to watch Mantari jumper up when they're too afraid. Haven't heard back from since, but, yeah, they didn't.

[D]

They didn't hit us once with their hammer saw. We got a bunch of flips on them. This one went all the way to the judges, and we took it.

[C]

Right.

[E]

There's one point where you bait them so hard with the hammer saw, and they, like, come down and you're just gone. And they just slam into the floor once. Like, it was so well played.

[A]

Hiding behind the scene at one point.

[F]

It doesn't even look like you're afraid of them because you hit their forks like a jump, and you fly over their saw.

[B]

Is there any sort of damage on jump rope? Like, even in the glancing shots where you started going over the top, did they ever nick into the base plate or a side plater? No.

[G]

Somehow. No.

[D]

Like, they missed there. That was their best shot.

[B]

Gosh, I love it.

[F]

It's definitely a robot that needs two. Two people operating it, that's for sure.

[D]

Especially as we. We program more moves and stuff because we're using just the. The Xbox controller, so you could do

[B]

a lot of things.

[D]

One button for a soft flip and one button for a hard flip. And then we can also manually control each arm. We can lock the arms together and manually control them as a pair of. We still need to.

[G]

Yeah. So just like on that, I guess the arms are closed loop, so you basically can reset zero on the arms throughout the match. Like, if something gets weird, which it typically doesn't within a match, but, you know, if you wanted to say your wedge got half ripped off and you wanted to press into the ground more, you can trim the arms down, re hit zero, and then your back to, like, all of your macros are moving in radians away from zero, so.

[B]

Nice.

[G]

Kind of the beauty of, like, a really well encoded motor is being able to set up a little bit more in the software than you can with just like a typical combat robot.

[B]

I really hope Cody from Tony Crack is watching this, especially because he's a huge robotics guy. Like, he loves programming and he raised to get software and.

[E]

Yeah, right there. Exactly. So hard with the bait.

[A]

That was awesome.

[B]

But like, this is. It's really cool hearing the ways that you're already thinking of. Like, one intuitively would say, oh, arm go up, arm go down. But like, the different levels within that. I appreciate the bad jump rope, the solid machine.

[F]

Hey, there's Jack.

[G]

I definitely dream of jumping vertically over a charging robot.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I just want a jump button. You press a button and it jumps.

[A]

Johnny, what happened?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Would you like to share what happened to your hands?

[D]

Yeah, what happened? That's crazy. How'd you get so hurt?

[G]

Can I.

[C]

Well, yeah, it wasn't on. It wasn't. So rippo saw arrived 20 minutes before our first fight. All right, this is going to be a little yap, guys. There's going to be a little storytelling.

[A]

Okay?

[D]

We're just changing the. We're putting a wrong battery in jump rope right now, so.

[C]

Oh, that's haunting. Yeah. And then everyone was like, oh, my God, it's. It's rippo saw. It's here. And they're like, wait, it's not even ready. We can't do it. And some people were making fun of it, and it was kind of like my goofy child. I kind of adopted it. I. I was a big fan of.

[B]

Of the rip

[C]

and I had it. I basically. And core, we all pitched in, obviously, but I. For the day when New Zealand and Brazil was fight or Sorry, New Zealand and Australia were fighting for third, we were just chilling. Spartan was basically ready. So we did some grudges or like the show matches basically with ripo saw. And I was trying to get the weapon working, and there's this AR sprocket that goes on the weapon motor. And it was on there, but it wasn't held on. Like, it was just kind of like slip fit on, basically. And I was had it wheels up. There was no chain attached to the weapon. It was perfectly safe. And I was just testing the drive and. And I was like, oh, the weapon's not working. That's weird. Turns out the weapon ESC was also a drive esc. So it's bi directional. So as I brought the stick up to zero, it armed at zero. And as I brought it back down, it went to negative 100. So the weapon motor spun this little sprocket at like 200 billion miles an hour. And I watched in slow motion as it walked off the weapon motor, like slowly.

[B]

And I was like, no.

[C]

Yep. And it Went and.

[B]

Like a Beyblade.

[C]

Yeah, like a Beyblade bounce. I don't know. I guess out of Rippo Saw. I still have, like, a little scar from. It sliced my hand, then kept spinning, like, while spinning into my chest. And then it got my neck as well. So it was like a.

[F]

It was Johnny. No.

[C]

Terrifying. Yeah.

[B]

Johnny Gore.

[C]

The funny thing is, it wasn't. I wasn't doing anything unsafe. Like, the weapon chain was off. It was wheels up. It was just this, like, freak thing. Yeah. The robot was not that dog bites. That dog bites hard.

[B]

Oh, my gosh.

[C]

But I also made it worse because I immediately ran into the bathroom to, like, go, like, clean it. I just went to, like. I have to, like, clean. Seeing this dirty, rusty ar. Sprocket stuff out of my body. So everyone was like, what the hell just happened? And then I came back, like, wrapped up. Sorry. Big yap session. But that's. That's the story.

[B]

Well, you're killing.

[F]

You're killing the repair time, so it's okay.

[B]

That's true. We were with the audience right now. We were watching Jump Rope in a nice hair dryer blowjob. And so we were hair drying, let it.

[G]

Trying to cool the robots down. But the thing about combat robots is they're not meant to let air in, so there's not a lot of good places to cool the robot from. So that's why it's like, everyone that sees it thinks, like, oh, why are you cooling the wheels? It's. Well, that's the part that's closest to the boat.

[D]

There's holes in the wheels.

[A]

So, okay, so chillin is the multi synth and. And jump rope. And then they've got Dark Chaos, the creature clone. What was that called?

[D]

Dark Raise or Ghost Razor.

[A]

Ghost Razor. It looks exactly like creature and then. Or a feather.

[B]

Yeah, this. Here we go. Also sleeper.

[A]

Yeah. This is jump rope versus Goliath.

[D]

Yeah, we. We knew they were gonna put this one in against jump rope, and then they did. But I wasn't scared. Were you scared, Colin? We weren't scared. We were just ready to do it.

[B]

Sound. Beat him up.

[D]

Locked in at this point.

[B]

Yeah. So both robots are fast. Poros kind of going nuts trying to get an angle on jump rope. Jump rope. Chasing down toro. We all think, okay, toro, giant drum. But jump rope, like, you have, like. Yeah, the curved semicircle hooks in the, like, wedges in the front. It slides right underneath the drum. Like, it catches the front of the robot.

[G]

It just works.

[F]

And if you watch the driving style of Toro feather. What he's does is he just kind of shoot straight towards the end of the arena. Then he'll turn, realign and just. Just keep shooting.

[B]

That was a big shot, though.

[F]

He'll never really stop in the middle and try to adjust.

[B]

No perpetual motion.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The name of the game. Because they want to have like this sort of shark in the water dive, dive, dive kind of idea.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Well, they get way better bite if they're blasting at you.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

They need the full speed of the robot.

[G]

If you add the speed of the robot, it's fast, you know.

[A]

Yeah. The same way they drove the 12

[D]

and it tanked that wheel shot like

[B]

it changed both shots direct to the.

[D]

The wheel. The wheel held up fine and the. The gear motor inside the Zombox held up fine. If that was any of the previous gearboxes we were running, it would have been blown to bits.

[A]

Sponsored by the way

[D]

P60s be blowing up. And so does somebody the other ones.

[B]

If Seth's sponsored, I would not not sponsor that. Not sponsored. But, But Seth, if you're listening, please. Yeah, I also did help him, you know, design that. I'm always that right here as well too.

[D]

Thank you, Brandon. You. You made it all possible.

[C]

You're the goat, Brandon. When Jubaloo hit my wheel directly, they ripped the Zombox out of the frame and it was still moving. It took no damage.

[B]

That's what I do for my country.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Thank you.

[A]

You guys are winning this, by the way. I. I don't know. Yeah, I think you guys are winning.

[B]

Yeah. Like control guys are winning. You've got a lot of damage, dude.

[C]

They're bodying them.

[E]

They're.

[C]

It's so.

[E]

I love this bodying.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I loved the. The control of this fight. Like this, this kind of. This is one of those fights where you show it to someone and say this is why control bots still have a spot in a. In a spinner heavy world. Because if you do stuff right, you can do stuff like this. And it's an excellent match to watch and to compete in.

[D]

And we pin them zero times, by the way.

[B]

Zero.

[C]

That's crazy.

[A]

That's really interesting.

[D]

No.

[B]

Oh, no.

[D]

But this is when the sad damage came. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Wait, what's happening? No, what's happening?

[D]

1400 milliamp hour battery on the drivetrain. What's needed an 1800 milliamp hour battery

[C]

in the final 10 seconds.

[B]

It's so sad. It's so. It's. It's the tragedy of the event. It's so Sad.

[G]

So basically our arms run 48 volts, so we're running 12s. Yeah, we're getting that with two successes and one of the successes is pulled off for the drive and it just wasn't large enough.

[B]

Wait, you've. So the one battery does double duty?

[G]

Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[D]

Yeah. Live and learn.

[G]

It's just like finishing a couple days

[D]

before an event, never driving it for a full three minutes.

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

Except the fight before with a slightly. Slightly larger battery.

[G]

Slightly better larger. Way worse battery though. Like Amazon special, it was big enough.

[B]

Honestly though, like to say that your main failure mode against Toro Feather with the control bot is the battery just didn't survive the full time is a credit. Incredible statement to make. So I still really like it.

[D]

Yeah, that's a statement. The best statement we wanted to say.

[A]

But it was bright side. We.

[D]

Yeah, the bright side is jump rope is good and.

[A]

Yes.

[D]

And it has a future and it. The majority of the damage it took in that fight was after the battery died and they wailed on us. So if it's driven flawlessly and then it. There's no stopping it.

[B]

I mean, just be good, you know, just don't get hit. You're gonna be fine.

[G]

Yeah. I think any control bot in a modern fighting robot like battle is. You just can't make.

[D]

You can't make mistakes. Yeah.

[E]

The driving skill floor is so high for control bots.

[B]

Absolutely. I still love them. Yeah, it's good. It's good ideas now on like how to fight it because

[A]

bigger.

[B]

What is it? Bigger blade against bigger blade was like rock against spinner against it. Whatever. You still have the option of another option which is still control bots. And it's good to remember that like Red Storm's great example. Of course. Big forks, strong forks able to like bounce the energy of the spinner back into itself and control it. Still a great machine.

[F]

I'm so mad about this.

[B]

Match Pain Pan against Toro Feather. So the multi's now in jump jump ropes. So.

[A]

So yeah. So you're just down to. So all you've got left is

[B]

this

[A]

thing and Spartan 30.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sin 30. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay.

[B]

Okay, so we're down synthesis erasure in real time. So.

[A]

Okay, but this is pretty close. They've got three robots, right?

[D]

Yeah, they've only got three.

[G]

Yeah.

[D]

That's not horrible.

[C]

But our robot is.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

That's not bad. That's not bad.

[C]

I have a question, Sam and Colin, is it still haunting you?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

For the next NHL where I forget about it and that NHL will haunt me instead. And it'll be much less like, it'll be whatever. But it's still. I still think about it and I get a little, like, hang in my heart. Like, what if. Because you would have ran through Toro, you would have beat the lifter easy. And then Dark Chaos might not have had their weapon. Sorry, I'm. I'm opening. I'm opening.

[B]

Healed wounds. Oh, Johnny, how's that salt? I bet it's great.

[C]

I'm coping.

[E]

I'm wondering what would have happened if my. My motor screws didn't come out and if I had a little bit more time to get bad blood.

[D]

Ready?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

This was one of those where Corey's belts slip off like it was one out of all these little things didn't happen. It could have gone differently

[F]

if Pain and Panic was a different robot as well too.

[G]

We don't even know why to wish that yet. We gotta watch them.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

This could go the way some of us. Please don't spoil it for the audience.

[G]

Jake.

[C]

Jake. The audience.

[D]

All right, don't blink.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

All right.

[B]

You have two robots against one.

[A]

Oh, and they both weighed 12 pounds. Oh, okay.

[B]

Since 12's dead.

[A]

So it's just a horizontal versus. Why are you running? Why are you running? Why are you running? Use your weapon. Oh, no, wait, who is driving?

[B]

Driving? The other half of shy here.

[C]

I was driving, unfortunately.

[F]

So one issue that. One issue that that robot has is the weapon doesn't want to immediately kick over. Oh, hit me while I'm down. The blade doesn't want to spin up on. Stop hitting yourself immediately. So we went in with two drivers for that half.

[C]

Why did both my fights go exactly the same way? My weapon went down and I lost one sided drive on the horizontal. Colin, were you on weapon for this?

[G]

Yeah, I was. It's the first spinner I've ever spun.

[C]

You did a really good job because you really had to feather it under pressure.

[G]

I made a stick for a second. It was exciting.

[A]

Is this an old litter box frame? Is that what this is?

[B]

No, it's so stop hitting yourself. 30 pound multi. It's designed like litter box, but it's scaled down slightly. So that way it could be half a multibot. That's why it's the same shape.

[D]

One of the first even split multis that used the weight bonus and did decently.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

They're one of Phenomenon's first matches ever. Yeah, Brandon fought it and way back when.

[D]

And what happened?

[B]

Well, I made and I made YouTube highlights. What happened? It smoked itself out and I impaled him in the wall. I like, I planted him like Aries. I just stuck said all right. One half douche right in front of the glass. But anyway, that's cool.

[A]

Panic. Okay, so now you're down to just sin 30 versus actually Corey.

[B]

What happened to synth 12? That was literally not even visible long enough.

[A]

Yeah,

[F]

it got fully charged by Toro feather and then immediately died. So I think he hit the back plate and that's where the main power sits.

[D]

Oh, that's why you gotta run a removable link

[C]

checks itself.

[B]

I love it. That's. That's sad though. Like, it just sort of. It seemed like it was tumbling around its own gyro. And then Toro just caught you while the charging edges.

[F]

Yeah, it drove really well prior to everything. So it just got a really bad hit. Yeah, we knew Toro. We know Toro was coming for me first.

[C]

Anyways,

[B]

so now we get sin 30 back in the game. So our tactical reset had occurred. We're making sure that all of our belt. I guess the belts have been like added readjusted. Like what. How. How fix the belts?

[F]

So the. All the belts are really old and tired, so we tr. I picked the two best that I had, hoping that they would stay on. And you'll just have to see what happens.

[B]

There we go.

[C]

All right.

[D]

I think I. I have a picture right before this.

[A]

The weight of a nation coming down.

[F]

Yeah, we're praying over the robot.

[D]

That's what it looks like.

[A]

Oh, this is it.

[B]

It really does. It really looks like it.

[A]

All the weight of a nation is on your shoulders.

[D]

Huh?

[A]

Okay.

[B]

All right, so Taurosin spinning up. Tactical speed. Movement.

[A]

Okay. Outreaching. Oh, my gosh.

[B]

Oh, I saw that. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, no belts.

[B]

This guy. Very sad.

[C]

Oh, this hurts my heart. Do we have to watch?

[B]

Really does.

[E]

It's the recoil from that steel force are as brutal.

[B]

That's a shame.

[C]

Walls more as a horizontal.

[B]

Well, yeah.

[F]

And then it's over.

[B]

Oh, no, that's annoying because I like to. First of all, driving great. Second of all, outreach, obviously. So I think in a longer term fight, I mean, the belts are to stay on. Very good chance. Synth would have like just kept punching the face of Torah over and over again. Yeah, dude.

[D]

Imagine if they had it though. We would still be in this.

[B]

So if. So if end game was Brett. Yeah. It could have been so simple.

[A]

Johnny use a little tail.

[E]

I look really sad.

[B]

Johnny depressed. Oh, my gosh.

[A]

It was Johnny's like, killed her.

[B]

It's the world Cup. Man, we just lost the nation's let down.

[C]

Yeah. It was different. It was the most nervous I've ever been before any fight ever. It was so. Because you're repping the team as well and. Oh, God. Are you Screech. Oh, my God.

[E]

That's brutal.

[A]

Brutal.

[C]

Oh, is that gonna be an emote?

[B]

Making a live emote.

[A]

I'm clapping that.

[D]

It's better with them dancing in the background though.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They could have cut this shot completely differently.

[B]

Now they want you to know they want. That's another thing about being like next to the opponent. Like now you see them do the dance right next.

[A]

Zero out of five mods remaining. Yeah. That's kind of intimate. I don't know if I like that.

[E]

That was the second time the Brazilians did that dance next to us. Oh, to me, because I was. And that was a bitter fight to the end because. Just tangent. The first fight between New Zealand and Brazil was Dark Chaos and Mia and we absolutely tore out their frame. We completely sheared off like a humongous ax wheel axle and unfortunately our frame just came unvaulted. But like, they literally spent the entire time the rest of their robots were fighting trying to deck Dark Chaos back together. Angle grinding the wheels. Like, we got given like their frame rail in two different pieces because we just. Oh, man, you know, sheared it in half. So like, if it weren't for the fact that it could. The rest of those fights got so drawn out, it would have been Dark Chaos just would have been out. And it also meant that for New versus America, Dark Chaos actually only had one frame. They didn't have their spare frame anymore.

[C]

So I guess.

[B]

So you were shaping the world in real time, Aki. I'm hearing a lot powerful.

[E]

No, that's. That's going a bit fun 4D gaming.

[B]

I appreciate it. That's pretty smart. I like it. I like it.

[E]

But I'm pretty sure the, like. Yeah. New Zealand versus Brazil. We went just back and forth all the way until the very end. It was the most drawn out of all of the rounds. And it was so intense.

[B]

Yeah. At some point we're gonna have to bring in. It's Connor, right? Who built Black Rose. Yeah.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

We can figure at some point now that we need to bring them in because between like the Aussie scene and the New Zealand scene and like they're overlapping stuff, it's some really banger fights. Certainly been watching them down. Down there for sure sometime in the future. But I. I still looking on the American side. Team usa. I still appreciate, first of all, y' all showing up. Like you were saying, it was very much like we have to sort of scramble to get all together. Hopefully stuff will work out next time around. So support Robot Rampage and hope, make sure that happens. But also like, it fought really well. And especially with the showcase against Australia with synthesis. It was a testament to the importance of being able to test often and rapidly in the learning that comes with it. Because seeing synthesis with its experience playing out so well against before, like version one robots and then Brazil coming in, like you could tell Poro dark chaos. Well honed, like tuned machines put up tremendous fights. And then even New Zealand Brazilian fight. Especially of like Black Rose, that thing. I think I saw Black Rose fight them like a couple times, right? They had multiple fights against Brazil. Like you. You under. Like, you see the exact reason that Comet Robots teaches you over time, as you're learning in real time, as you're refining each design idea, making it better and better, and it really creates like a. Well, a better product by the end of it. Because, you know, banger fights are what everyone likes to see. Yeah,

[C]

well said.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you all for joining us here. That's the stream.

[A]

Thank you guys so much for coming. Thank you for. From Bowie, Maryland and the San Diego over the Midwest, Cincinnati, Ohio. This has been behind the Bots. Thank you to Team usa. We appreciate you guys coming out. That this was a great story. Hopefully we'll get it next year. We'll get them next year.

[D]

Yeah, we are.

[A]

We'll get him next. We'll get them next time.

[B]

Definitely.