S3E4 - Sitting Down With a Champion Ft Zack Knight

Summary

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The Havoc Rundown S3E4 - "Sitting Down With a Champion" Ft. Zack Knight

Date: March 3, 2026
Host: Hunter Bro Studios & The Havoc Rundown Crew
Guest: Zack Knight (Primehita builder, NHRL 12lb division champion)

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Episode Overview

This packed episode of The Havoc Rundown centers on a deep-dive interview with combat robotics champion and 12lb class driver/building ace, Zack Knight—best known for his fearsome and innovative bot, Primehita. The discussion explores Zack’s approach to building and competition, his philosophy on mentorship and legacy, memories of the combat robotics community, and strategic meta talk leading into the upcoming NHRL event. The episode also features the crew’s usual blend of banter, inside jokes, a community Q&A, updates on the podcast’s fantasy league, and nerdy robot trivia.

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Key Discussion Segments

1. Introductions & Game Corner

[01:02–12:15]

• Full Crew On Deck: Hunter Bro Studios introduces the whole Havoc Rundown team and welcomes guest Zack Knight.
• Fun Fact: This is Zack’s first official appearance, despite being Ashley’s fiancé and long-time "adjacent" to the show.

Ryan’s Game Corner: The Robot Name Game

[02:32–12:15]

• Trivia game based on obscure/funny upcoming NHRL robot names.
• Memorable Quotes:
  • “If you had said Strappy Patty, that would have been wrong, right?” (A, 04:48)
  • “You’re a jerk.” — On Red Herring being the answer (C, 10:21)
• Highlights:
  • Reveals like "Hydrox" (the original 'Oreo' competitor bot).
  • Crew joking about Hydrox being both a cleaning chemical and a failed cookie brand.
  • Playful disputes about who gets points.

2. Deep Dive: Zack Knight Interview (Five in Focus)

[12:49–44:02]

Divided into crew-posed questions for Zack, this segment explores:

A. Goals After Winning the Golden Brett

[13:35]

• Zack: “At the end of the day, why do I have to be the one that’s always on the top? Why can’t I help someone else get there? My next goal is to help somebody else achieve their dreams.” (B, 14:16)
• Discusses transition from personal achievement to mentorship.

B. Weight Class Aspirations

[15:08–16:54]

• Zack’s rule: no 30lb bot until after marriage and homeownership.
• Would build a meta-competitive beater bar if he ever did 250lb.

C. Design Philosophy: Ant-weights & Beatle-weights

[17:09–19:10]

• Zack on beater bars: “They’re disgustingly easy to do well with.”
• Shares fondness for fun/novelty in lighter classes but admits frustration with delicate parts.

D. Mentorship & Legacy

[19:35–21:36]

• Zack recounts mentoring Michael Shore (“That kid’s gonna save Plum Robotics.”)
• Emphasizes teaching life skills & resourcefulness alongside technical guidance:
  • "My goal isn’t to turn them into NHRL world champions. I want them to be the absolute best human being that they can be." (B, 21:31)

E. Youth XP System & New Builder Experience

[22:10–25:38]

• Panel discusses the impact and quirks of NHRL’s new 'XP' bracket for newer builders.
• Zack floats the idea of a split bracket for more balanced matchups.

F. Underrated Parts of the Combat Robotics Scene

[27:13–30:27] (Question from Megan Winter)

• Zack’s favorite “underrated” bit: Small, intimate, outdoor/local events and the nostalgia attached to a more casual, close-knit community.
• “By the end of a small event, you’re gonna know everybody as a normal person just talking.”

G. Secret Questions, Roller Coasters, and Pittsburgh

[31:32–36:12]

• Thomas fires off questions about the robots Carmen and Carmine ("love them"), then pivots to favorite rides at Kennywood Park.
  • Zack: “...Steel Curtain, 100%. As a 28-year-old person...I was giggly coming off that ride.” (B, 31:53)
• Tangent on regional amusement parks and Pittsburgh lore.

H. Taking Risks in Bot Design

[37:47–40:56]

• Zack’s riskiest design decision: switching to UHMW plastic armor on Primehita (“At the time, it didn’t seem logical but man, it’s the right call.”) (B, 39:18)
• Not seeing the anti-slam plan config as risky—“In a sense, the risky option was doing nothing at all.”

I. The Slam Plan Win & Performance Mindset

[41:10–43:38]

• Describes an “out of body” experience during his win over Slam Plan; letting loose and not stressing over outcomes.
• On mindset: “The scariest people in this sport are the little ones that aren’t paying for it...They don’t care...Just having a blast.” (B, 42:52)

3. Fantasy League Segment: League Lock-In

[45:30–55:30]

• Updates on the Havoc Rundown’s NHRL fantasy league (podium points system).
• Roster strategies and draft order discussed.
  • “Anyone not going for a high-rank 3-pounder first is missing points.” (C, 49:07)
• Buzz around stacked fields in all weight classes, especially 3lb.
• Meta notes: 12lb class looking tough; potential dark horses called out.

4. Listener Mailbag

[59:02–74:55]

A. Robot Budgets & Gifts

• “I would probably have been able to pay for a relatively nice wedding for a good amount of people.” (B, 59:53)

B. Dream Project (No Limits)

• “I’d make Pittsburgh a central hub for Combat Robotics outside of BotsIQ.” (B, 62:11)

C. Craziest Robot Concepts

• Recounts a pre-Kiwi drive triangular concept, but admits, “I’m a vert builder.”

D. Wedding Planning Updates

• “I wish I had a date to tell you. Very, very poorly.” (B, 65:30)
• Plans to not build new robots during high wedding-planning years.

E. Starting the Robot Design Process

• “The core thing I do is—get whatever detail I have planned, CAD it...then throw stuff at it over and over.”

F. Beater Bars vs. Verts

• “Driving a beater compared to a disc—just fun, dude...discs need so much more precision. With a beater, you drive straight, they go away.” (B, 70:05)

G. Meta Shifts: Disrupting the 12lb Class

• Blue Cheese called out as the meta-breaker:
  • “Energy dumping 4,000 joules into a 12 pound robot and watch them actually try to move after that—the answer is, they don’t.” (B, 72:18)
• Teases that Blue Cheese may be more “dialed in” now.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Why do I have to be the one that’s always on the top? Why can’t I help someone else get there?” (Zack, 14:16)
• “Mentorship shouldn’t just be me showing these kids the absolute best way to get through things...it’s to prepare them for life.” (B, 21:24)
• “Driving a beater...you just drive straight. You go away.” (B, 70:05)
• “The risky option was doing nothing and expecting a different result. That’s insanity.” (B, 40:56)
• [On Blue Cheese] “If you have to fight Blue Cheese, I hope you bring a spare robot...turn into powder...” (F, 74:04)
• “Just have fun. It’s supposed to be fun. Don’t have fun, what are you doing?” (E, 44:02)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:02 – Episode start, Zack introduction
• 02:32 – Game Corner: Robot Name Game
• 13:35 – Five in Focus: Zack’s Next Goals
• 19:47 – Mentorship & Influence Legacy
• 27:13 – Underrated Event Vibes
• 37:47 – Riskiest Design Decision (UHMW armor)
• 41:10 – The Slam Plan Win: Out-of-Body Fight
• 45:30 – Fantasy League Segment: Draft and Field Discussion
• 59:02 – Listener Mailbag Section
• 72:18 – Disrupting the 12lb Meta: Blue Cheese Meta-Talk
• 75:20 – Outro and episode wrap-up

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Tone & Language

• Friendly, playful, knowledgeable. Episode features plenty of gentle ribbing and deep technical dives, but always in the spirit of camaraderie and community.
• Quotes and discussions maintain the conversational, slightly irreverent style distinctive of the host crew.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a must-listen for both insiders and newcomers to the combat robotics scene: equal parts meta-analysis, builder biography, and community celebration. Whether you’re looking for practical advice, NHRL gossip, or just want to laugh along with some deep-cut bot references and fantasy league drama, this is The Havoc Rundown in full, geeked-out glory.

“Just have fun. It’s supposed to be fun. Don’t have fun, what are you doing?”

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to the HAVOC Rundown. Tonight we're sitting down with one of the most accomplished builders in the 12 pound division. A driver who has seen the meta shift, adapted through rule changes, rebuild, reworked, and continue to stay competitive at the highest level. If you've watched NHRA over the past few seasons, you've seen Primehita, powerful, controlled, and consistently dangerous. A bot that has earned wins, made statements, and helped define what modern 12 pound vertical spinners can look like. And today we're joined by the builder behind it all, Zach Knights. Now. Yes, this episode comes with a fun twist. Zach also happens to be Ashley's fiance, which means technically, he's probably been the closest person to the podcast for years without actually being on it. For two seasons. He's been just one room away while Ashley records, hearing the takes, the debates, maybe even a little bit of strategy talk through the walls. And now we finally brought him onto the studio. We're excited to have him here and dive into everything 12 pound copy robotics. So, Zach, welcome to the Havoc rundown.

[B]

Hooray. Thank you for having me.

[A]

We're very excited to have you on. We've unofficially talked to you a few times, but it's nice to finally have you on and talk. Yeah. Officially do it under actual, you know, recording stuff. So joining me tonight is the full crew, the game master, Ryan Hunter.

[B]

Hooray.

[C]

Well, hello there.

[A]

The community connection, Ashley Beckman.

[B]

Hooray.

[D]

Hello.

[A]

The chaos conduit, Thomas Carroll.

[B]

Hi.

[A]

And of course, our webmaster, Tony Baker.

[B]

Hooray.

[E]

More data. Need more data.

[A]

So before we dive into more design philosophy and whatever, whatever we can throw Zach's way, we want to head to that part of the show where we hand over the controls to the master of games amongst our group. So it is time for Ryan's game corner. Brian, what are we doing tonight?

[C]

All right, for the game quarter, we are going to an old classic. We're doing another few rounds of the robot name game. I have written clues that correspond with names of robots that are coming to the March NHRL event. So this is kind of a little bit of a robots to look for. The fun twist for me is these robot names are not well known heavy hitters. They're relatively unknown. I just really like the names that have been chosen for them. So classic name game. I will read out a clue and everyone can buzz in to guess the robot's name. If everyone goes and cannot give me the proper name, then the house gets a point. However, I have a fun new twist. At any time, any player can Ask for a second clue. However, if you take that second clue and you do not immediately guess the answer correctly, the house gets a point.

[D]

Shot.

[C]

Oh, okay. Shot.

[D]

No.

[A]

Wow.

[F]

How about this?

[C]

You need to the house

[D]

wild.

[C]

The house has two opportunities for points.

[F]

No.

[E]

Do we have two opportunities for points?

[C]

No, you have one opportunity for points.

[E]

See, this is unfair.

[F]

Now in the house.

[D]

This is unfair. Nope.

[C]

All right, so does everyone likes?

[D]

And then gave himself two chances to get points.

[C]

I.

[D]

This just looks fake.

[C]

Just get the names correctly. Okay, so is everyone ready? Does everybody understand the game?

[A]

Yes. Okay, I understand.

[C]

All right, so I'm gonna start easy, and then we're gonna get harder. Okay, the first clue. What is plankton always after?

[F]

Oh, dang.

[C]

Yes, Thomas.

[F]

The Krabby Patty secret formula.

[C]

Yes. The secret formula is the first answer. Thomas gets the first point.

[A]

If we had said Strappy Patty, that would have been wrong, Right?

[C]

The name of the box would have been wrong. The name is secret formula. Yes.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Okay, so the next question. This road. This robot is named after an extremely cute rodent native to the Andes that makes a very lovable bet. They have very soft fur that must be bathed not in water, but dust. D. I think that was Ashley.

[B]

What?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Ashley.

[A]

Ding. But Thomas answered.

[F]

Wait. I must first.

[B]

Wait.

[F]

Okay, give it to Ashley.

[C]

Yes. All right.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Ashley, you got chinchilla. See? They're not bad. They're not bad. Okay, this robot is named after a cookie with two chocolate cookies smothering a cream center. Thomas.

[F]

Oreo.

[C]

It is not Oreo. No.

[A]

Can you say the full what? The full clue again?

[C]

Because, Thomas, this robot is named after a cookie consisting of two chocolate cookies smothering a cream center.

[D]

How is it not Oreo?

[C]

It is not Oreo.

[E]

It's a chip witch.

[C]

Tony, is that your. Ding.

[E]

Sorry, Chip witch.

[C]

It is not chip witch. No, it's not chocolate chip cookies. They're just chocolate cookies.

[F]

Man, this is gonna be some weird cookie that no one's ever heard of.

[C]

People should have heard about it.

[A]

Ding.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Isn't. Isn't there a bot called double stuffed?

[C]

It is not double stuffed. No, that is an Oreo reference, and I don't think double stuff is coming to this event.

[A]

Checked.

[D]

But Oreo is, and so I'm not over this.

[C]

Zach and Ashley, you still have not taken your turns yet.

[F]

This time, we've got to get this right. If the house gets a point, I

[C]

know the house secondary clue is available as well.

[D]

Taking that.

[F]

Wait, wait, wait. What happens if both of the. If everyone gets it wrong? The House gets a point.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

But if you.

[E]

If we take the second clue, he also gets a point. If we don't immediately guess it, one

[F]

person guesses before the last guess. Take the second clue because if it's not gone.

[D]

All right, I'll take your second clue, Ryan.

[C]

Okay. The second clue is while this company and this cookie is not an Oreo, it was a direct. It was actually the first version and a direct competitor that lost to Oreo.

[F]

I really hope this robot.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. I remember there's a. There's a drunk history or.

[C]

No, there is a drunk history about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

I don't know if anyone's going to get this. No.

[D]

And I'm so mad that I'm about

[A]

to give Ryan a brief.

[E]

Well, we're up. We're still beating him. So that's all.

[C]

Zach, do you have a guess?

[B]

Is it double take?

[C]

It is not double take. No.

[A]

Can I say it before you answer, Ryan?

[C]

Ashley. I don't think Ashley has actually made a guess.

[D]

No, I haven't.

[E]

She's quickly going through the matchups.

[D]

Look for anything that this could be.

[C]

If you are looking at the matchups, you don't immediately know what it is. I don't know if you'll get it.

[F]

We'll have to look at the matchups.

[D]

I'm not looking at the matchups. I'm looking at the selected bot.

[A]

So if you don't know this name already from history, Ashley, I don't know if scene it is going to let you know what it is.

[D]

No, I'm.

[A]

It's not a name that you probably recognize unless you, you know the history and you've seen.

[C]

Justin, what is, what is the name?

[A]

It's Hydrox.

[C]

It is Hydrox. Yes. Yeah.

[E]

Like, I just looked it up. Like, yeah, there's no way you're going

[A]

to get this one. Yeah.

[C]

The original Oreo was Hydrox and then Oreo was made and they actually got more market dominance than Hydrox. Kind of isn't.

[A]

Isn't Hydrox. I think Hydrox is still around, isn't it?

[C]

It is still around. Yeah. You can still buy Hydrox. Yeah.

[F]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So you're telling me that both Oreo and Hydrox are in the same event and Oreo's somehow wrong?

[C]

Yes, I am. I'm assuming that they're related.

[F]

That's like there's 12 different bee themed robots and you're like, this one's buzzing into the competition like Beef Force. Be porcelain.

[A]

I will say it was the one

[F]

that you didn't say so.

[A]

Yeah, I will say it's very funny because the Hydrox packaging has in big red bold letters, America's original.

[C]

Yes. After.

[A]

After 70 years, we're still very butthurt

[C]

about us not being the cookie. Okay, okay. This bot is named after the deepest, darkest section of the Greek underworld where the Titans are imprisoned.

[F]

The Titans thing?

[C]

Yes. Tony Tartarus. Yeah.

[E]

Okay, I know my Greek philosophy.

[C]

Thank goodness. Okay, I have two more left. While this robot's name is a synonym for enormous, tremendous, huge, massive even. It is only a 30 pounder robot.

[A]

Only a 30 pounder Ashley.

[D]

Gargantuan.

[C]

It is gargantuan.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

All right, last one. Blue Marlin hasn't been fed at NHRL this year and hasn't fought since October. But I only tell you that as a distraction from the question. You could say that it's this bot's name.

[F]

Wait, I don't even know if this is a bot. Ding. Is it Darlin?

[C]

That is incorrect, Thomas.

[F]

It would be really funny if it was.

[A]

Blue Marlin.

[F]

He's our darlin.

[D]

I'm gonna hate you if this is the answer. Ding.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Red herring.

[C]

It is red herring.

[A]

You're a jerk.

[C]

You're a jerk.

[B]

That's not nice.

[C]

So we end the game with Ashley with three points and Ashley finds something with two points.

[A]

Well, didn't Thomas get points too?

[C]

Thomas and Tony also have one point. Yes.

[E]

So what were the two points you got?

[C]

I got two points because the second. Because nobody got Hydrox. No, you only get one also for that there was a second clue. So I would also.

[A]

He gets double. Okay.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[E]

I don't agree with that one.

[F]

Even with your cheating, you still lost.

[C]

I did. Okay. Well, that's it for the game this week. Those are a few bots that were coming. I'm really looking forward to seeing Hydrox and Oreo and seeing if they're like matching robots or something like that.

[E]

They should fight each other.

[A]

Like scrambled eggs and French toast for John and Hydrox.

[D]

Now

[C]

maybe he should bring a box of Hydrox. That would be very good.

[F]

He can use them to bribe the judges.

[A]

Yes, they're kind of hard to find. You have to get on like Amazon and they're in certain some grocery stores, but they're not very easy to find.

[F]

America's first.

[A]

Yeah. Hydrox 1908. Oreo 1912. And it's very widely believed that Oreo stole its recipe from Hydrox and then changed it. So yeah, that's fun. Very cool. Nice little history lesson there. Is. I think it's like the food that changed America. There's an episode on that. Yeah, I think that's what it is. It wasn't drunk history. It was the food that changed America. Something like that. One of those weird History channel shows. Okay, so that was the game corner. Very cool. We beat the house. That's all that matters. As we know, whenever we play against the house, we're all one team. So it doesn't matter who gets what points as long as the house does not win. That is. That is our philosophy.

[F]

Hydra sounds like a cleaning chemical. It's probably sell that well.

[C]

It does.

[E]

That's why it didn't sell that well.

[A]

The cleaning chemical, I think that's the name is. Is one of the reasons that's cited that it doesn't. Didn't do as well as Oreo, but Oreo also had some, like, backhanded stuff that went into them being the bear cookie.

[F]

Hydraulics taste better. There's no way. I'm like, yeah, man, I got to down some Hydrox later.

[E]

I'm dipping Hydrox in my milk, man.

[A]

Do you want to come over reading Hydrox?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So let us move over. So we had our game corner. Now we're going to move over to the meat and potatoes of the episode. We're going to go into our five in Focus. So this is our signature segment where we each ask a question. In the place of ask this question, we actually have our very good friends and pit crew member Megan, who's sometimes on the show. She has a question for Zach and said because we thought it would be kind of interesting to. For Ashley to ask a five in Focus. So we're having Megan's question. Stand in there. But, Ryan, I have you going first, so why don't you ask Zach the question that you have ready?

[C]

All right. So, Zach, you've accomplished one of the hardest goals in common robotics, which is winning a Golden Brett. What is the next goal in front of you to accomplish in robots or. Yeah, in robots. I mean, like, if you want to do just general.

[B]

I mean, robots. I don't have a goal anymore. Yeah, I accomplished it. There's. The need to continue sitting at the top is not prevalent right now. So, yeah, if that changes in the near future. But honestly, it's think it's going to steer more into a fun and continue leaning on the mentorship side of things. Like, I really enjoy helping people. And like, at the end of the day, why do I have to be the one that's always on the top? Why can't I help somebody get there? So I think that's, I guess the next goal is help somebody else achieve their dreams.

[A]

That's awesome.

[C]

I know you have your team. Do you have any other, like, is this an open call for people for you to mentor or do you have people that you are?

[B]

I mean, yeah, yeah. At the end of the day it doesn't matter who you are. I'm going to help you if I can. Honestly, like at the end of the day I only have so much time I can devote to other people and still get the stuff that I want in life done. So like it's not going to be like, oh yeah, here everybody come seeking advice and help and I'm going to be your number one mentor. It's going to be like I could help one or two at a time and then I have my team that I'm also helping at the same time. And Palm High School.

[F]

Yeah.

[A]

So we're kind of getting into Tony's question, so let me steer it more towards what Ryan was asking. So you don't want to pull off a Jameson and go for the 3 and 30 as well. You're good with just, just the 12.

[B]

3. I have a role. It is meant to be fun. I do not go hunting, event wins and dumpsters. It's. I want to enjoy whatever fight. I want it to be the most entertaining fight I can possibly make. 30s. I have a role. I will not do so until I am married and own a house.

[C]

Not spending that money on the 30th exact.

[A]

Yeah, okay, that's cool.

[C]

So we shouldn't even ask a higher weight classes or anything like that right off.

[E]

I was gonna say redactin bottle bath

[B]

cream for like a month and then I ran away from it real quick.

[F]

What are you making your super heavyweight?

[A]

If you were making it heavyweight, would it be something in the promjita line or is there something else? You said you had the con, you had the idea a month and you run away from it. So during that month did you have like an idea of what you would do for a heavyweight?

[B]

I honestly don't even remember what the idea is anymore. But at the end of the day, if I was going to build, I was going to invest some money in a 250. It would have to be some kind of beater bar style, like a big version of Lunatic which is similar to Links and every other style of robot that's coming. That's at the end of the day. That's if I'm going to Spend the money. I'd want to be building the most meta, ultra competitive robot there is. Or don't spend it at all.

[A]

Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. Go big or go home.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Now, if you go down in weight classes, if three pounds is just for fun, what would you say ant and fairy weight is? Is ant like testing weird things where. This is fun?

[B]

I think the ant idea I've had for a few months is I still want it to be really, really fun. I really have fallen in love with the way that beater bars fight. They're disgustingly easy to do well with. So, like, my idea was, is that. And this is a tip of a cat to Evan and his family. Sir Slicey would be like an ideal £1 robot for me. Just absolute brutal fun that a beater bar has, but cheap and easy to make.

[C]

I do love. I do love the weird, like, can't. I can't think of. I'm making. I'm doing. I'm doing it, but you can't see me because this is an audio medium. The way that the blades are set up.

[B]

Angled drisk setup.

[C]

Yes, yes.

[B]

Each blade, they're symmetrical, but they spin at different locations. So they're actually four contact points instead of two.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I like that. That's cool.

[C]

I do also want to build ant weight this year. I feel like ant weights are really fun and they're more. They're also a bit easier to bring to competitions than even beetles are.

[F]

So ants are fun.

[B]

Yeah. My problem with ants is I feel like just touching any of the components is going to break it.

[C]

Yeah. It must be a lot different because of 12. I mean, like, you could have. I've. I've watched literally you have like eight people all working on prom heat at once. And ant, you'd have to have like two people with. With like needle nose pliers to get in there.

[B]

Some of them, yeah. We have it in the house and I'm looking at the wiring. We bought it off of Bob Lanson, but I've looked at the wiring and everything and then I'm like, why do I have to be absolutely perfect every time I need to solder anything in this robot?

[C]

Oh, man.

[A]

Makes sense. We made. We made ants and brought them to the Harford makerspace thing one time. So, yeah, that was. It's a smaller component. I liked. Mine was a control bot and I actually liked driving a control bot. So I don't know, that might be something that I would do for beetle. But yeah, ants are fun. That's cool. So, Tony we talked about the mentor thing a little bit. Why don't you get into your question? Because that kind of focuses on that.

[E]

Yeah. So we watched a piece. Manitrell was an amazing piece. And you talked about your mentors. And I wanted to know, what do you see your legacy as in the sport, and how are you influencing the next generation of builders?

[B]

So, obviously, like, one of the people that I originally got to mentor was Michael Shore. So when he was. I want to say he was a freshman or sophomore at Plumb, basically, really, really early on, I made a comment. I'm like, that kid's gonna save Plum Robotics. Little did I know, two years later, he was gonna win an event for them. But, like, for whatever reason, at that very moment, I saw it in him that he was going to be, like, the person that kind of. Because at the time, Plum was in what I almost. I refer to as, like, our dark age, where we kind of fell off and we weren't that dominant school that everyone expected us to be. Bedford took over during that time span. But, yeah, so I was able to identify Michael. And so now the kids that are in the club now, I really like just being able to teach them the little things about the sport. Like, at the end of the day, we're fighting robots, but there's so much more to be learned from everything. And, like, the small things of just using your resources properly, like handling a situation a certain way, it's a. It's. At the end of the day, mentorship shouldn't just be me showing these kids the absolute best way to get through things or to build their robot. It's to turn around and prepare the kids for stuff that, like, I've experienced in life. And I want them to know a little bit better how they're going to pursue. Be able to handle that situation. So at the end of the day, it's. For me, my goal isn't that I want to necessarily, for those kids, turn them into NHRL world champions. I want them to be the absolute best human being that they can be.

[E]

That's awesome. And the way it should be.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, this sport exists and grows for the builders that everyone. I mean, everyone always talks about how great this community is. And one part of that is just making sure the next generation continues that on and we get more builders, which is one of the reasons why this, The NHL XP system was a little confusing when it first came out. But there's a lot of competitions that new builders can get their footing and understand what it is to go into this sport. So very cool.

[B]

I really like that XP system. I think it's actually helping curve the amount of need for spots and a drill. Like we've, we've seen the first two events of the year where we're not hitting reg caps and I think there's a level of that XP is going to really help with that. The parents are seeing that they don't have to drive their kids to the most elite event on the east, east coast, America, whatever. They can kind of create that knowledge before throwing them in the most stressful situation.

[C]

I, I found, I found it very interesting the last event too because it's.

[A]

It was.

[C]

At first, I think. I think the only thing that I didn't really like about it was the robots that were put into the XP system. So there was the, the XP people that started the day and it was kind of. It was all those kind of robots. It was like, like first time robots and everything like that. And then halfway through the day people who went 02 were added to that bracket and the people who went 02. Yeah, Gremlin was added to the bracket. It and the bracket like kind of became dominated by the people who were not in the XP system. It was. I'm not sure. I. I think it needs a little bit more like, like work to make it like purely fun. The whole tournament thing was good and it seemed like people really enjoyed it and everybody that was doing it was like super into getting their fights done and everything like that. So. And we didn't really even had to like there was. Most people were ready to go for their fights and.

[A]

Well, Marian did an amazing job with it too.

[C]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Just great at running that stuff now. So yeah, putting that under her plate as part of the freestyle system is really good because she knows what she's doing now. As long as she's got the cages to run stuff, she just runs stuff.

[F]

So.

[C]

Yeah, I don't know if it was said anywhere but yeah, the last XP tournament was won by a robot named Gremlin. It was a horizontal spinner. It was a pretty cool. It was a pretty. Really nicely made horizontal spinner too. It was a very. And it was pretty decently drove.

[A]

So you probably didn't hear it because I recorded it after last episode. But it was said when I did the roundup of all. Yeah. Which is another thing we'll talk about at the end of the episode of our plans doing the, the wrap up weekly wrap up of all the events that have gone and stuff like that. But yeah, no I did record, I did say that Gremlin won the XP, but he was a robot that did go02, was in the normal tournament and then was added to XP and kind of dominated XP after being put in there, which was a little unbalanced. But I could see why they wanted to give someone that went 02 more time to fight because maybe they didn't get the chance in their normal fights.

[C]

But if the point of XP is definitely getting you to be in, getting you fight time and everything like that and getting you back into it Gremlin, I would, I would say that Gremlin is going to be a bot to watch. Maybe it's next event.

[B]

So my nice twist to that might be is splitting the bracket perfectly. So you have like eight in the one half that are true XP robots. You have eight on the other half that are your 02 competitors from the day. And the only way that you face off against the 02 competitors is by being in the winners finals of that.

[C]

I really like that.

[A]

Or you make it like a double

[E]

elimination bracket and all the 0 and 2 bots are automatically in the losers box. So this way those ones that are in that top bracket actually would get two actual fights. They'd be able to fight that. And if they lost, they get an

[F]

extra fight down the bottom.

[A]

I mean we do have plenty of time. They want to devote resources more to prime time after that break goes on. So nothing was running after that break. But there is plenty of time to get something more done. It'll be tweaked. It's something that we've only technically run once. We'll see how it is. And it is giving newer builders a space where they're not going to go in and be like, hey look, my first fight is Meiko.

[C]

Wish me luck.

[B]

You could be my brother. The first event at Norwalk ever after I had run Kronk, I had won a bet with it. I give it to him as a gift. His first fight that day was Jameson Go and Psycho.

[C]

I think I remember that too. What's going on with Krunk? Does Krunk still exist?

[B]

Krunk exists. It's no longer funded by me. Yeah, it's on him to decide when he wants to compete and he is raising a family, so yeah, he's got bigger priorities.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, makes sense. Okay, cool. So let's go over. So Megan asked Megan Winter, who's often has been on the podcast a couple times whenever Ashley was not able to be on or one of us was not Able to be on it says, what's your favorite underrated part of the combat robotic scene?

[B]

Underrated part. But I declare under. See that it's tough for me because I've been around so long that I don't know what even classifies as that anymore. Because, like, my first thought goes to just like the little small out, like outdoor events. Like the random ones were like G Scroll. We were fighting in a. In a greenhouse. Like, yeah, the. I don't know if it's underrated for today's builders, but it's underrated for me is there's a level of just. What's the right word? Nostalgia that comes with these small little outdoorsy events or the events that you don't even have, like a test cage. You're like, you're building a robot, putting in the ring, fighting. Like just thinking about back to like the old days of how we used to fight. We were one robot style. We were one config. We never changed anything. You rebuilt your robot. And so to me, I like that small, very intimate vibe that you get from the little events that make you learn the people around you very. By the end of a small event, you're going to know everybody if just that as a normal person just talking who or whoever.

[A]

Right? Yeah, we. We weren't able to be at the first box of Maintenance this year, but we will be at the next one because that is the, I believe the. The plant and ant1. And then we're competing in the. The March one with the Beatles box of Mania is. Is one of those. That one of the smaller events that you, you know, get used to. We did mass destruction. We were there for mass destruction. That's awesome. Like, we're really trying to concentrate more on those smaller events because that is really where you get your footing and learn the community and all that kind of stuff.

[B]

So I do want to shout out in that regard, High Vistaria.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. It's an event built exclusively for the fact of fighting to have fun and not fighting in any bracket scenario. Like, you get three tokens and you wager your token to start the day to start your fight, and you get to fight whoever in the entire building you want to pick and then can get to keep repeating that all day long. Now, the ones that end up with the most tokens, you get thrown into a final four bracket to declare a winner. But that's ultimately not the purpose of the event. It's to hang out, have fun, fight robots.

[C]

I really would love to go to Hive Hysteria. I really like, really love what Zoe's doing. And that whole community vibe that they have, I'm sure hive hysteria is just like a general. And also they have a moat. The moat is cool.

[B]

Well, next year moat's going away.

[D]

Yeah.

[F]

Oh, why?

[D]

Gonna get rid of it.

[B]

It's just not common in today's combat world. So yeah, why end a fight so prematurely because of a moat. You know, like if it were meant to have fun and just fight fights. Like a moat just ends a fight so prematurely.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

But you could fill it with water and then it would really end the fight really quick.

[A]

So I will note that the way that mass destruction is doing their pit is just such an amazing. When you see it on the stream or when you talk to Brandon about it, about how it works is something very different than actually, I mean, Ryan was driving. But actually being cage side and watching it in action is just such a great idea of just a have a hazard area that doesn't immediately take you out of a fight. It allows you to keep fighting. But it is that additional of like, oh, look, you just got in the pit. That's, you know, points against you or whatever. But yeah, keep fighting. It's not the end of the fight. You're not like done.

[C]

So. And it goes. And everything goes sly.

[A]

Yeah, Very cool. So this is the time that we hand over the microphone to Thomas and he asks his super secret question before I ask my interview level question. So. Go ahead, Thomas.

[F]

Well, it's a multi parter first. It starts with, what do you think about the robot Carmen?

[B]

I love Carmen, but I hate Karmda.

[F]

Okay, what do you think about the robot, Carmine?

[B]

Oh, I love Carmine.

[F]

Carmine's a good robot. And then the last part. Of all the rides that are at Kennywood, which ride is your favorite?

[B]

I've only ever got to ride it twice, but the steel curtains. Actually like as a 28 year old person getting the ride for the first time, I was giggly coming off that ride. So steel curtain, 100% it made.

[F]

Is it true that this ride took how many years to finally open up? Well, like an extra four or something.

[B]

Yeah, it took a while. It had some issues over the years and that was, I think, running clean.

[A]

For any listeners that have not heard Thomas talk about this before, Thomas is a roller coaster aficionado.

[F]

Don't have a problem

[C]

which is where

[A]

this is coming from.

[C]

So

[A]

Thomas, how many roller coasters did you ride last year?

[F]

God, too many.

[A]

Don't you have an app that keeps track?

[F]

I. I do, but like that, that's a difficult one to calculate.

[B]

Did you go to.

[F]

Oh, God, at least 20.

[A]

Oh, that's awesome. I'm assuming that the steel curtains is at a Pennsylvania base park, right?

[B]

Yeah, it's, that's what we're talking about right outside of Kennywood.

[A]

Okay, cool.

[F]

What is the theme of this coaster?

[B]

It's football related. You know, after the steel curse dealers, the Steelers.

[C]

Really? Yep.

[A]

Man.

[E]

See, I would never guess that, you

[F]

know, it's officially licensed.

[B]

You sit in a football, like your seat is made to look like a football.

[C]

I would, I was thinking it was like a, a cold war reference to like steel curtain. Like, I thought it was like a, like East Germany, West Germany. Like, that's what I, I mean, it might be.

[B]

No, no. In Pittsburgh, the Steel Curtain is a way to refer to the Pittsburgh Steelers teams of the 1970s that won more Super Bowls and were on the back of a very hard mouth defense. So.

[C]

Okay, okay, I, I, that is not something, if I walk into an amusement park, I'm looking for like things that are like superheroes or like animals or something like that. Something referencing football would be the weirdest, most mind blowing thing to me it

[E]

is outside of Pittsburgh.

[C]

This is true.

[A]

I know, I know.

[E]

Pittsburgh is known for two things. Steel Steelers. That's it. Yeah.

[B]

Well, here, I'll give you the little tip of the cat there about. So like on your way to the Steel Curtain, the very last roller coaster or the second to last roller coaster you will pass is called the Jackrabbit.

[A]

Okay, okay.

[B]

Animal relate.

[F]

There's an animal coaster there.

[C]

Oh, I was gonna ask. Is that like a soccer team or something like that?

[B]

Like one of the top rated wood coasters in the world.

[C]

Sweet. Cool. Awesome.

[F]

They've also got a water ride called the Pittsburgh Plunge. However, Zach, how do you spell Pittsburgh?

[B]

All right, like this is like a genuine question.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

P I, T T S B U

[F]

R G h. Well, between 1890 and 1911, Pittsburgh was spelt without an H. So the Pittsburgh Plunge is labeled as Pittsburgh P I T T S B U R G Asterisk Plunge. With the asterisk then pointing to the spelling of the time. So there's your Pittsburgh fact of the day, everyone.

[B]

That is blasphemy.

[C]

This is officially the Havoc rundown history podcast. Let's go. Let's do it. Okay, man.

[F]

Blasphemy.

[B]

It's historic blasphemy.

[C]

The Pittsburgh Plunge also just sounds like, I don't know, like an event where you jump into like a cold river or something like that in Pittsburgh. Oh, it is, yeah.

[B]

Yeah, I actually do that. Okay.

[C]

Is Kennywood just like Pittsburgh themed?

[F]

It's. I mean, yeah, dude.

[B]

On some of the coasters you look over and you see a steel mill.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Okay, two things. That's it.

[B]

There's literally like sitting at the top of the family Phantom's Revenge. You look across the river and you see a steel mill.

[C]

See, see I grew up in Connecticut where like our most local. Our most local park is Quasi and Quasi. Well, there's also lake compounds but Quasi is around amusement park. It is an amusement park. It's a little amusement park. It's an amusement park themed around these rides might murder you if you ride them too much. That's what the theme it is outside of Waterbury, so.

[E]

But Lake Compounce really is our actual.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[E]

Well over 100 years old actually there. And their roller coaster will harm you?

[C]

It will.

[E]

Their wooden roller coaster. It is rickety and it.

[C]

Yep.

[E]

You come off with bruises.

[C]

It did, it did actually kill somebody to be fair. To be fair. It did.

[A]

Which one?

[C]

There are the wooden one.

[E]

What's it called?

[A]

Boulder Dash. Boulder Dash, yes.

[C]

Boulder Dash. Which is also one of the fastest if I remember right too.

[A]

Yeah. One of the fastest wooden coasters in the country, if not the world. Yeah. Okay, cool. Let me get us back on track. Thank you Thomas for the coaster based question. Okay, so my question, the final question of the five in focus is, uh, you've evolved designs, adapted to rules and stayed competitive across seasons. What's one decision you made with Promhida that felt risky at the time but ended up being absolutely the right call? Sorry, I. I write interview style questions.

[B]

I mean this seems weird because nowadays this doesn't seem like stupid, but years and years and years ago when I was was creating from Heta V2, we switched over to UHMW armor, which at the time was not comp to use plastics for your arm. That that is spiraled me so much off of that just because at the end of the day, if you're not facing the front of my robot, you're probably never facing a piece of metal at all, whether whatever weight class it is. And like I think back to the time that time we were doing angled titanium pretty much everywhere. Mind you, it wasn't as expensive to get titanium back then, but it was still expensive. And my justification for it was Joe Doerfler just beat the crap out of my robot. Every piece of titanium on it. I'm not putting that stuff back on my roof. I'm a broke college kid, so I don't know if that defines as risky, but at the time it definitely was. It didn't seem logical and it was really interesting to the fact that the side of the armor was mounted to the chassis, but the rear armor was mounted to the side armor and never anywhere else. So it was, it was, it was floating basically in terms of the rear armor.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Like a half inch gap in between the rear cross frame and that armor.

[A]

Interesting.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

I was wondering if you were going to choose the anti big wheel configuration. The anti slam plan configuration.

[B]

See, I don't define that as risky because at the end of the day I was under the thought process of I'm going to lose the fight regardless. Why not gamble? Why not take a shot and try to create something outside the box? It didn't feel risky to me because in, in a sense the risky option was doing nothing at all.

[A]

Okay, yeah, I can see that. Okay. The risky option was not trying to. Yeah. Because it was. It's such an interesting thing to build around. I can see the thought process behind that.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. Because when I was thinking of this question, I was like, you know, the, the thing that won you that fight against slam plan, that configuration. Like, I wasn't sure if that was something you were going to talk about or not or if there was something

[B]

else, but it, it was just so obvious to me that it was a, it was a route that I had to take. So like, no matter what. Yeah. It created possible worst scenarios for the robot to like get stuck in and stuff like that. It ultimately proved that it did. It really hasn't got stuck in any of those scenarios. Knock on wood. And like, I'm very mindful of those scenarios as well. So like, I've done weird things to try to make it work, but yeah, the ultimately the riskiest move would have been doing nothing and expecting a different result. That's. That's. Well, that's insanity.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, I had not thought about that. That's, that's cool. So what was your reaction? I mean, we saw your reaction on camera, but what was going through your head when you saw that start working when you were fighting slant. Like, what was that experience like?

[B]

See, the slant plan fight is one of those. Like it was almost out of body, not because of how the fight was happening and the winning and dominating it was the stress of everything leading up to it getting into the cage that when I got down there, it was the first time in years that I had walked into a fight and said, win or lose, I'm going to drive this like I stole it. And I had no care, no remorse, no thought process. It was literally just fight the fight, find out what happens. So for me, the, the, all the emotions stayed away the entire time. It was just having fun doing what I love in the street. Shock came after when I did that. It's, it's a weird way to think about it, but the combination of events gets you to a point where you're just like, okay, whatever happens, I'm cool with it. I'm here. I also on that day, so that already, I was already good.

[A]

I like that thought process though. It's the, you know, I have this thing, it might give me an edge, but if not, we're going to try it. Slam Plan is like such an amazing bot. Like I'm just gonna go in there and have fun and see what happens. And maybe that. Do you think that looseness kind of helped? Not, you know, stressing like just having fun kind of helped you in that fight?

[B]

Oh, 100%. I mean, I'm gonna use it, I'm gonna use an example here. Look at all the kids running around the sport. Just Evan with Sir Slicey. You think that kid has a care in the world what happens in a fight?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

He is playing with a robot. He's having fun. He.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Is this parents. He has no care what happens. He's fighting to try to win and have fun. And I've made this comment, I'll make it over and over. The scariest people in this sport are the little ones that aren't paying for it. They don't, they don't care. They're having fun. They're having a blast. So when you get your butt kicked by a 14 year old, just look at them and go, nine times out of 10, the loss is on you. Not because they're 14, it's. You were worried about losing this fight while they didn't have a care about losing this fight.

[A]

Yeah, they were just driving their cool robot.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

See when he drove.

[A]

Yeah, that's. I think that's pretty good advice for anything like that. I mean having fought a couple robot fights, the adrenaline that you get going into it that you're like shaking, maybe just like letting go, well, you know, helps a little bit.

[E]

So just have fun. It's supposed to be fun.

[B]

Yep.

[F]

Don't have fun. What are you doing?

[E]

Why on earth are you doing it?

[G]

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[A]

Hey everyone, you're already listening. So you know the fights don't end when the episode does. But the Havoc rundown now lives over@ Havocrund.com again. That's Havocrundown.com that's where we're posting Combat Robotics news, hosting every episode of the show, and running the largest Combat Robotics bot registry that's ever been put together. Stats, history, teams and results all built to grow alongside the sport. We're also curating fight videos, rolling out community games and dropping merch for anyone who wants to disrupt the chaos. And the 2026 fantasy league is live right now. You can create your own fantasy league for a full season or spin one up for a single day event. Draft robots track performance across events and compete in a way that actually fits how Combat Robotics is run. This year our focus is the sport as a whole. If robots are fighting, it belongs in the conversation. All leagues, all formats, all rule sets, from local events to competitions around the world. We have got you covered. Thank you you for listening. Everyone. Let's get you back to the episode and back to the chaos right now. Okay, so that was the five in focus. Before we get to the mail bag, I wanted to do something that I'm going to call the League Lock in. So we're going to take a look at where our Fantasy league is because that is one of the special things that we have is, is the Fantasy League and we now currently have. Well, Thomas isn't playing and Tony's in charge of like the back end stuff. So we have Ryan, Ashley and Zach that are currently in the league and I wanted to get kind of a glimpse of where the league currently is now and kind of do this going each of the NHL events where the league is now and what you guys feel is Your strategy, I don't want you to give away like your special magic or anything, but we'll just go over where the league currently is and what bots are coming and what you're thinking as far as your, your strategy going into draft day, which is going to be on March 3rd. So currently in first place is Brian, in second place is Miles, and in third place is Sam Herman. The new league is such that you're not taking your bots points in, but we're doing podium points. So it's going from 24 points to one point, which is Aiden, who is last year's champion, only has one point coming out of the first event.

[D]

Last year's champion is currently last.

[A]

Yeah, that was insane.

[C]

He.

[A]

He took some risky, risky drafts and it did not pay off for him. Ryan, do you want to tell everyone what place you're in?

[C]

I don't remember. What place am I in? I know it's not high. Yeah, well, it just means I can pick faster.

[A]

Yes. Yes, that's good. It's an opposite way draft. So Ryan is going to have third pick overall for any bot that he wants.

[D]

Zach's going to have fifth pick because he's also down there.

[B]

Yeah, I have some good choices available to me.

[C]

Oh yeah.

[A]

So Zach, what is your strategy to make it so Aiden, Lucas, Ryan, or I don't remember who's team Medusa doesn't pick Pramheda from you?

[B]

I mean

[C]

the end of the day

[B]

is that the robot that's going to get more points. Just saying.

[A]

Okay, I like that.

[C]

I honestly think anyone not going for a second three pounder in their first like going for a high rank three pounder first is missing points.

[D]

Be on the board, are you?

[C]

I mean, yeah, Megatron, but Megatron's gonna fight what, like three times in the day to get you points.

[D]

Yeah, in the championship.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's the. Also the thing that we saw is, is gambling on a 30 and then Ryan, what happens when the draft is rosters are locked in and that I

[C]

was able to get any points. So maybe I should start with a 30 just to get points. But I mean like at the same time, I don't know. I mean like I want to get some, some turbo fiends going. So. Yeah, I mean look, there's some really big names coming supreme. I mean not like, I mean, I don't know how dialed in it is at this point, but Shrapnel Mine is coming back. I'm super excited to see Shrapnel Mine.

[B]

You can also get Moto 2026 winner in impact.

[C]

Yes. Hell yeah.

[B]

CSK.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Sock kitty.

[B]

There's a. There's a very, very competitive three pound field.

[A]

I don't know.

[D]

I just have something to say about the reroll and the fact that Nelson and Tom Parkus ended up in the same group together again.

[F]

Suspicious. I wonder who planned that.

[B]

And they took my possible pipeline punch fight away.

[C]

Oh yeah.

[D]

That would not like round two. No thanks.

[B]

I would have had a blast. Either I was hitting the ceiling or Ian was hitting the ceiling. Nothing else matters after that point.

[E]

I'm sure you're gonna fight him a few other times during this course of this year.

[C]

Oh yeah. You fought Lunatic already a few times. This is just its first nhrl, right?

[B]

It's its second.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

The first NHRL attend is the only time that it is not placed on podium.

[D]

Yeah, well, they come like I don't even know how many.

[B]

It was like six events. Six or seven events with Lunatic last year.

[D]

First place in every one of them pretty much.

[A]

So can I make a suggestion for you first pick, Ryan?

[C]

Sure.

[B]

I would not be picking Lunatic over Impact.

[A]

Just saying so. Well, no, my, my. My suggestion for your first pick was actually going to beat the wall part 2 since it's been pretty freaking dominant this year already.

[D]

Yeah. He won back to back weekends at NHRL and then wpf.

[A]

Yep.

[E]

I don't know. He stacked three pound field this this month.

[C]

It's crazy. It is A. The 12s are decent. The IS as the 30s is stack too. Let's be honest. I mean like Megatron Macabot Waddles.

[A]

Dead Rise.

[C]

Dead Rise. I mean every single one of those is a heavy hitter and is going to be crazy if I'm going to pick 130 to bring you all the way through. It's got to be still Megatron. But I mean like Megatron Dead Rise. Waddles.

[D]

I mean hell, Thomas is going to pick B Force.

[E]

Yeah, but. But as horrible as it sounds, Jamo's been down the past couple events since he's come with his bot.

[C]

He has completely fair for the most part.

[B]

The only issues he's had is revolving around the tread and I'm sure he's fixed that.

[A]

Yeah, well, that's the one thing that you can guarantee about Jameson is he's not going to leave any kind of issue untreated for very long. So.

[B]

And twelves are a lot more stacked than you think.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Being tapped in as much as I am, that's gonna be a scary feel.

[A]

Well, we haven't seen blue cheese. We haven't seen blue cheese in a while.

[F]

Right.

[B]

There's gonna be four pick 12s that are gonna give people some serious amount of points. You just have to pick the right ones.

[A]

Zach says we'll strike against Chin.

[D]

Don't give away our secret. That's our class, man.

[A]

But, yeah, the three pound is stacked. And as we've talked about before, when you go into draft, you can pick any weight class at any time, as long as you fill up the roster with the two threes. 112, 130. So it'd be interesting to see what people are going to choose at what point. So.

[E]

Oh, and on that note, we will also have our single event league going for. For that thing as well. That will be set up and running, and there will be one slight change to the rules for the single event. You must fill your roster. So that won't change will be coming.

[A]

That's been my secret. Sauce is just picking the highest ones and not having to pick one in every weight class. Oh, God.

[E]

So a little more strategy is going to have to go into that now.

[A]

You took away power.

[F]

Yeah.

[E]

The past two weeks, the past two events, the winners have come that did

[A]

not have full rosters.

[E]

So we nerfed that little thing. This is why it's in beta. We play.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's fine. So, Ryan, so you have third pick. Zach, you have fifth. You. You're. You're pretty towards the back. Ashley, because you're sitting at 6. Oh, you're. Yeah, you're in the middle. That's right. Okay. No, no, Rain. I was looking at Rain. Rain is up in ninth place, which is awesome.

[C]

Rain mentioned. Hi, Rain.

[A]

Yes, We.

[C]

We. We. One.

[A]

Rain mentioned an episode. That's how we do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Big fan.

[A]

Our second placer, Dan, is sitting at 14th, which is, again, interesting. Che, Rain's mom, is at 19th. So we have a pretty good field. It's only been one event. We're kind of getting the feeling of how this is going to go. So doing the draft on the third, I'm gonna try and get this episode out before the draft, and then we'll be putting the draft up, like, the next day, or I might try and figure out a way to do it live, but so everyone can experience the draft. Yeah. So that is cool. Any other thoughts on some of the bots that are coming? Like we were saying, the three pound is pretty stacked. I'm pretty excited for that. Equinox is up there. Turbo Demo is competing with turbofiend. Being supreme refried like Julian.

[D]

I don't think it's Dima.

[B]

Yeah, it's Joel.

[A]

Julian is doing Turbofiend. Okay.

[D]

And fun fact. Turbo Fiend's first fight is against TS fof. Which is the sincerest form of flattery. Which is a turbo fiend like robot that fought at wpi. So I'm so excited for that first round matchup. Cannot.

[C]

That's so great.

[A]

That was awesome.

[C]

Could I. Can I point out a few fun named robots that I'm really. I'm really looking forward to just saying?

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

I really like public unsafety. The roach. TM just like international composter is really great.

[A]

You did mention burning money.

[C]

Yeah, burning money is really fun. A king snake is great. I love robot names. I really do.

[F]

And they love you too.

[C]

Well, sometimes. Sometimes they're nuts and I don't want to say them.

[A]

Yeah. Or you don't know. You don't know how to say that. Like T underscore T. How am I supposed to say.

[B]

It's a face.

[C]

I know that.

[A]

But how am I supposed to announce.

[B]

You have to. You have to figure out what that face technically means and then start calling it that.

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

You start flashing your face in the pits. Making that face. Face.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Just stand up and make that face.

[A]

Wait.

[C]

And Kaza. Kaza is registered as Kaza 8.

[D]

Yeah, I don't know what that means.

[B]

I don't know what it means, but I don't know that it's not a multi bot.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

It says four wheel drive.

[B]

It's Joshua this time.

[C]

Nice. Interesting.

[F]

The flame custom.

[A]

And so they'll flamethrower.

[C]

Are all robots flame catchers? If you use the right. If you fight them. Right.

[F]

If you use them long enough.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Fun one for you is the fact that there's three big wheels in the 12 pound class. I didn't know we saw three all of last or four all of last year. We have three in one event. And we're. And we're not talking about huge. And so I have plants. So there's a. I see.

[C]

Carolina Reaper.

[A]

Yeah, I was going to say Carolina Reaper. What's the other one?

[F]

Grand Door boat.

[D]

Biggest of all time.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And if you've been paying attention to the discord. That's a well known builder hiding behind

[C]

that one with a different in kokoto mane.

[B]

Yep.

[D]

That's a WPI bot.

[A]

Very interesting.

[C]

Okay, I might have to pick that one. That is good to know.

[B]

Like I said, there's some four picks that are gonna score some People, a serious amount of points is Ace of

[C]

spades from one of the Vegas teams.

[B]

No, it is Minnesota. Not Minnesota. Missouri.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Ace of Spades School from One Naked Raw last year.

[B]

Yeah. They also brought V1 last year, which was the blue UHMW Four Wheel Drive Vert. That did pretty decent. I think they ended up getting eliminated by Psycho that event. But yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Pretty good rope.

[D]

Cool.

[A]

Okay, so that is the fantasy league section of the March nhrl. We're gonna go to our final segment where we go over and check our voicemail to see what has been left in the listener mailbag.

[B]

You've reached the voicemail of the HAVOC rundown.

[A]

Please leave your message after the tone. So we're gonna start with Nick, as we often do. And Nick, I know that you crossed this question out, but because you did not want me to ask this question, I am going to ask this question because that's how this works, Nick. If you put something in the mailbag, it gets ass. Nick. So the first, first question is. Hi Zach. Could you please provide an exact accounting of exactly how much your robot habit has cost you and express the amount in units of expensive gifts you could have given your significant other instead?

[B]

Nick, I gotta say that's a pretty bold question for someone who's about to be sleeping on my couch in a few weeks.

[D]

So.

[B]

See the beauty of this is is I get to exclude all of the money spent here because then we're in bad shape. But I would probably have been able to pay for a relatively nice wedding for a good amount of people.

[C]

How many, how many, how many cars?

[B]

How about no, no, never. Not enough to bought a full car.

[F]

Yeah, we want like a really cheap car.

[B]

Probably not nowadays. If, if you, if you want to. We want to go buy a bunch of O3 neons. Dude, we can buy like if you really wanted.

[F]

But like with the average, average 30 pound robot budget, you could buy at least a couple dozen Neons.

[B]

No, I mean 30s aren't as expensive as most people think.

[F]

For the most Neons are also like it's a Neon.

[B]

Yeah, but you can't buy a neon for 500 bucks anymore. They're like 15 or 1800 bucks now.

[C]

I, I mean like I feel like that's a separate hobby to get into. That's going to also cost a ton of money in the end to and

[E]

time in the podcast.

[C]

And look mons like you could do lemons with Neons. That'll work. You could do that.

[D]

Hearing is, I should be getting an expensive gift soon.

[F]

I hope you have a big driveway,

[C]

a neon. You get an 03 Neon.

[B]

That's an expensive gift technically.

[F]

I really hope you like Fast and furious.

[A]

It's an O3 Neon with prom heater colors.

[C]

This is prom neon.

[B]

I have a 3 Neon.

[A]

And this is why we ask crosstown questions. But Nick's actual question was. Hi, Zach. As someone who has kind of seen it all, built it all, and won it all, if you could do one thing at Combat Robotics, regardless of the cost or logistics, what would it be?

[B]

I'd make Pittsburgh a central hub for Combat Robotics outside of bots. Iq.

[A]

I like that answer.

[B]

Okay, it's a. It's a dead zone in terms of actual events. Like the closest event that I've attended in the last. Nearly like it. Not doing robots, school based the last time. I've never drove less than three hours for an event.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

ROM was three hours. Akai Bash was three hours. Like, I've never driven to an event for under three hours.

[C]

You must have very good road trip music at this point.

[B]

Oh, no, dude. I am so fatigued of every song I've come across in my entire life.

[C]

Is that just Miku? Is it just Miku? Thomas?

[F]

I'll just send it to you. No, let me know.

[A]

It's just. It's just a playlist of him yelling on every roller coaster. That's all it is. Tony.

[F]

I am not Tony Clifton.

[A]

A Tony Clifton mention he would make.

[D]

I mean, bring my earplugs. Next road.

[B]

Okay, we're taking your car next trip,

[F]

so maybe the next work trip.

[C]

It's just Thomas reading War and peace for like 25 hours.

[F]

It's me reading the Art of War.

[C]

Yes, with little inserts that you added.

[D]

Are sound effects included?

[B]

Can I get a voiceover of Thomas reciting the entire B movie script?

[F]

Yes.

[D]

Oh, heck yeah. I mean, I'd like to.

[C]

Yeah, there you go.

[B]

There you go.

[C]

Thomas, do you like jazz?

[F]

That's my one.

[A]

I'd listen to that. That would be cool. Okay, so we're going to move on to JP Bark from Team Roll for Initiative Said, what is the craziest idea for a combat robot you've ever had and when will you build it?

[B]

See, I'm a vert builder. Crazy ideas are few and far between. The. The craziest idea I've ever had was before I knew about Kiwi Drive and I wanted to build a really triangular robot that was that. The only main contact point you would find was the main weapon. Obviously nowadays I understand better, but that was like a decade Ago, but no, no, not building that ever. The new robots are not. I. I'm actually pretty strict on myself for building robots. So we, we have rules that we must adhere to, meaning no more new 12s. And I can only ever build one new robot a year if I don't, if I choose. So. And promheta revisions are on budget.

[C]

Okay, Sounds fair.

[A]

Yeah, makes sense.

[D]

Rules, by the way. They are not mine.

[C]

Yeah, well, that's good. It's good to have rules like that. I mean, like, budgets can go out of whack pretty quickly in not only in this, in this hobby.

[A]

So staying on the topic of budget a little bit, we're gonna move over to Sam P. From the Reign family. His first question is, hey, Zach, how's the wedding planning going?

[B]

I wish I had a date to tell you. Very, very poorly. So for that reason itself, I will not be building a new robot in 2026 and 2027.

[C]

Wedding planning is one of those things. Wedding plan is one of those things where like, you think it goes through, like, you start it going, oh, this is gonna be fun. This is gonna be a cool thing. And then like halfway through, you're like, this is the biggest hell of my whole entire life. What is going on right now? And then, why is everybody asking me for money? I don't know what's going on. And then at the end, you're like, wow, okay, this turned out all right.

[E]

See, I just drove to Vegas and spent my money on the three week vacation across the country.

[F]

We can get. Get a wedding for like a few hundred dollars.

[E]

Oh, yeah, 300 bucks.

[C]

Yes.

[E]

And no, it wasn't given invite Elvis, but we did get married in our Yankees jerseys. So, you know.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. As someone who's been there, that's. Yeah, I feel you. It's. It can be fun, but it's also not fun at the same time.

[D]

And you're planning teen events. Last year, I didn't have time to wedding.

[C]

Wedding planning. I mean, like, in the end, I mean, we really did a lot of stuff. The number one thing is like, we were like, we're going to do the things that we want and we like. And like, when we found our venue, it was like after we had decided, we were like kind of deciding another one. And then we were like, oh, we'll try one last place. It'll be cool. It looks kind of cool. And then we walked into the space and the face, the face my wife was making was like, okay, never mind. Never mind. Everything we've seen so Far. This is it. This is the place because you want to be here for the rest of your life. So, yeah, this is the place.

[B]

See, wedding planning gets really, really hard when I lock myself in my office for a week before the only come out whenever it's bedtime or it's time for dinner.

[C]

Yeah, I would say my number one also is find somebody, especially find somebody that knows what they're talking about to really, like, get the nitty gritty. Like, there are little details that are stupid. And having somebody that can be like, here, I will handle it. This is what you're gonna need to do for this dumb little detail. I will just take care of it is the number one best thing.

[B]

Because we'll say we figured we found a photographer. Yeah, that's about the only thing we've

[C]

actually successfully done is just go with vibes, you know, and put the little

[E]

cameras on everybody's table and just let them take pictures.

[C]

Yeah, Thomas takes good pictures. Don't worry about it.

[A]

Yeah, he does. So Sam's. Sam's other question was, hey, Zach, when designing a new robot, what's the beginning of your thought process? Like?

[B]

See, the fun part about that is as is, I think about random little, like, attachments or, like, a weapon style that I want, and I'll just build completely from there, and it will change, like, 17 times. So, like, for me, the core thing that I will do is I want to get that, whatever that very specific detail that I have planned, cat it, figure it out, make it in its actual, like, packaging size, and then I'll just start throwing stuff at it, like, over and over and over and seeing what I like and seeing if it fits. So there for me, it's very free flow, obviously. Like, I've been around so long that I have a rough idea of what's going to go into it at the end. Everything else just comes. It's very. It's a very organic process that it's not repetitive and ever. And then when I have a full picture of exactly how I want the whole robot to be, it's the hardest for me to design.

[A]

Okay, let's move over to Julian Papazian said, did you retire from three to four lunatic? If so, why? And how do you like driving a beater compared to a vert?

[B]

Original intentions was that was not supposed to be the case. However, yes, three to has been retired. I have given it to my best friend, Trevor Sommer, and we have rebranded it as Voidland.

[C]

I like that.

[A]

I like that name.

[B]

Driving a beater compared To a disc. Just fun, dude. It's so much fun. It's so easy driving a disc. You have to be so meticulous and you have to pick every shot correctly. Otherwise you're getting punished. And so when you have a beater in your beater bar, it's just like huh. Your robots in front of me. I drive straight. You go away. I'm not trying to pick apart off of your robot to get to the nice stuff. No, it's. I'm gonna energy dump everything I have into you right now. Oh, you've got forks. That's cute. Let me eat them. It's just like they're so easy. Designing them sucks. You're counting every gram. But driving a beater. Easy.

[A]

Okay. And then does lunatic make you want to build a 12 pound beater now?

[B]

No.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

That was quick.

[B]

I've got my namesake in Pravetta and it will forever be my 12 until I get absolutely just insanely sick of it. But no new 12s.

[A]

Okay. His other part of that is win 30 pound prom. But you. You kind of already answered that.

[B]

Wedding and house then Maybe.

[A]

Okay. And our last question for the mailbag is from Alex from Team Pandemonium. What would you bring to disrupt the 12 pound meta and when will you build it? Everyone wants you to build new bots.

[B]

You're gonna be so disappointed, dude. Disrupt the 12 pound meta. So you have to disrupt the verts at what they're very best at because. I'm sorry, you've got some great horizontals and like maximizer and fuzz kill, but most of them get weeded out so quick. Honestly, the answer's out there. And it's another bird which sucks so unoriginal. And one of my best friends has already built it called blue cheese.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Energy dumping 4,000 joules into a 12 pound robot and watch them actually try to move after that. The answer is they don't.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And so you think about cheese and why it always explodes. It's because it's trying to find the limit of what is actually too much for myself to handle. So. Yeah.

[A]

So glass cannon. That's how I've always looked at blue cheese. Is. It's a glass cannon.

[B]

You can. You'll start looking at it slightly different here soon, but.

[C]

Oh, is it more dialed in this time?

[A]

I was gonna ask. I don't want you to divulge his secrets because that's. We don't want to do that. Has there changed without saying details? Has there been changes made to Blue Chase to dial it in more and make it.

[B]

I mean, it got second at high Vistaria last year.

[A]

Well, since last year.

[D]

Yeah. You should watch Hive Hysteria because that was where a lot of the changes kind of.

[B]

He was roofing people at like 30% weapon speed.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

He plays no ground game because his weapon sits below the floor. With any wrong movement, it's going to disrupt the meta because it makes us completely reimagine the way that we think about everything that makes a vert good.

[A]

Okay, that's awesome.

[F]

I'll spill the secrets as someone who knows nothing about this new blue cheese. And I don't know what he's changed. I haven't even seen it fight. Yeah. If you have to fight Blue cheese, I hope you bring a spare robot. Actually, sorry, no. Not just one spirit robot. Bring like three spare robots per fight. You need because you're gonna be turned into dust. You're being turned into powder. Blue cheese is a liquid. Your robot's gonna be like shredded parmesan. You have to sweep it out of a cage, maybe in a vacuum. It's gonna be in there. Remember when the glitter used to be a thing? That's what your robot's gonna be. It's gonna be found inside every single fight that happens in that cage after that event.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Hating on my glitter. Thomas.

[F]

I love this glitter. But it's gonna be found in every robot. The glitter is as long.

[C]

As long as he doesn't bring his three. With that name that I refuse to pronounce Plector I think is fine. He can focus on the blue cheese.

[B]

Collector is such a fun little robot.

[C]

It is. It is. It's an excellent little robot. I really enjoy it. But I do not enjoy the name

[B]

and energy Dom

[D]

have to call Humu fights.

[A]

So we are going to leave on the note of watch out for blue cheese, which will go towards the fantasy as well as anyone watching the stream. But that is going to wrap up this episode of the HAVOC rundown. Huge thanks to Zach for joining us and giving us a deeper look into Brahmahina and his entire portfolio. The evolution of the 12 pound class and what might be coming next. Thank you, Zach. It's been an awesome conversation. Long time coming. Awesome having you on.

[B]

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

[A]

The the March 7 NHL event is right around the corner and whether you're competing, drafting spectator, just watching from home. It's shaping out to be another massive night for the sport. We also have a lot of the other local stuff. I think this weekend is also. Well, this episode is going to be coming out this weekend. Yes. But if you want to follow the show, check standings, join the fantasy league or stay connected to everything we're building or look at all the events because Tony has built an amazing event center that shows on a map. That shows you can zoom into different locations and see what events are happening in different locations. Go over to havocrundown.com and you will see the events tab there. Right? Tab's the right word. Even tab there where you can see any event that is happening, where it's happening, when it's happening. And you can even hit a register link and register for that event if you want to. So that's all over on havocrundown.com thanks for listening to us and we will see you in the pit. Everyone say good night.

[F]

Good night, everyone.

[C]

Guys, you know what? O3neons have airbags. Can't get by them.