Check out this fight in Battlebots Season 3, Episode 19, or here on Facebook.
And just like that, HUGE sneaks into the playoffs as the #14 seed in our rookie season! This exceeded our expectations massively, as our whole goal for the season was just to win a single fight. For our first round matchup, we faced the 2015 champion Bite Force. Bite Force came in as the #3 seed off of a 4-0 season, and was another extremely experienced team for us to fight.
Our strategy for this fight wasn’t complicated, it was to hit Bite Force as hard and as often as we could. We knew that it had never taken many hits to the uprights or weapon area, and figured that we could use that to our advantage to disable it in various ways.
This plan worked quickly in the fight, as we hit through their chain-guard to knock off their weapon chain and disable the weapon. After that, a hit to the side briefly locked up one side of Bite Force’s drive, and HUGE continued to deal damage. But as the hits built up, the accumulated damage from Icewave (and our other fights) caused the mounts to give way, and HUGE split in half again.
This was a heartbreaking way to end the season, with a victory in our grasp against such a formidable opponent. But it was also an amazing “what-if”, as Bite Force would go on to win the 2018 (and 2019) championships undefeated. The most prepared builders tend to have the best luck, and Bite Force earned this win by wearing us down and withstanding the hits. Like with Icewave, we learned a lot from this fight to apply to future versions of HUGE. And unlike with Icewave, we look forwards to this rematch!
Photo credits: Dan Longmire