Check out this fight in BattleBots World Championship VII (marked “Season 8” on most platforms), Episode 16. Also catch more pre-fight and post-fight coverage on the amazing Skorpios Builder Blog: Pre-Fight Video, Post-Fight Video.

Since the debut of the “Fight Nights” format in 2018 (coinciding with HUGE’s rookie season), only 4 robots have reached the playoff bracket in every single season. Witch Doctor, Sawblaze, Whiplash, and, quietly, HUGE. In all of our seasons, HUGE had never been seeded above the bottom quadrant of the bracket, leading to a string of tough Round 1 matchups against Bite Force, Whiplash, Whiplash (again), and Uppercut. As a result, we came into the 2022 season with a “curse” that we were determined to break, of losing in the first round of the playoffs. Beyond all functionality-based goals, this was our final goal for the 2022 season: get beyond the first round of the bracket.

To reach our goal of making it through the first round, the most helpful step was to have a 4-0 clean sweep of the regular season to get a high seed. Our first 4-0 regular season brought the reward of the 6th-overall seed, setting us up for a match against 27th-seeded Skorpios. It’s nice to be the high seed in a matchup for once, and come in with more momentum than usual! Seeding aside, Skorpios is a legendary robot that is very well-armed to take out HUGE, and we were still nervous at the thought of fighting them. They are a two-time bounty winner and sport one of the highest win totals in Battlebots history - 20 wins! They know this sport, and they know how to face HUGE.

There’s no time like the present to see if our hammer-saw armor works, because we’ve never fought one before in the 250lb weight class. HUGE gained some tegris front-panels on the body for extra armor, quickly named the “sunglasses” config after running out of time to paint the newly-cut pieces. We also ran a shorter blade to try and avoid the lower, tougher parts of Skorpios’ crazy-tough armor. Skorpios is a robot known for tanking some of the hardest-hitting weapons in the sport, and we had no reason to try to rip apart a plow that Tombstone could barely scratch. Skorpios ran with their classic hammer-saw and T-rex blade, as well as their taller wedge which last fought Bloodsport in 2021.

HUGE’s “sunglasses” configuration for the fight with Skorpios. It wasn’t pretty.

Our history with the Skorpios team dates back to our rookie season in 2018, when they had the utter misfortune of being involuntarily pitted next to the largest and silliest robot in the building. Back in those days, pit areas were a single table wide for EVERYTHING. The robot, the spares, the tools, the people, everything. HUGE was constantly leaking into the Skorpios pit, and they were stuck bumping into the wheel outriggers (which we couldn’t remove easily in those days!). We also spent the entire event harassing Skorpios about every question under the sun: Motors, foam, Loctite, re-engineering our frames (repeatedly), tactical tips, power tools, nuts & bolts, sandpaper, v-belt dressing, snacks, and anything else that can be imagined. Through it all, they were so kind and understanding and ready to teach us what we needed to learn to have success at the Battlebots level. Our teams have been great friends ever since.

A picture taken during HUGE’s frantic rebuild post-Icewave fight (an excuse for the mess). Note Skorpios’ stripped frame on the right side of the image. This was our entire pit!

In Battlebots though, it is an inevitability that you will someday have to fight your friends. We all understand and expect it, but hate to see it in such a crucial match. Skorpios, with all their success, has also never broken past the first round of the main tournament playoffs. The silver lining that we all agreed upon was that either way, the winner is achieving a major goal and high-water-mark for their team, and that was something which both teams could be happy about. Friends or not, we’re still going to try to kill each other!

The fight started with Skorpios targeting our outrigger “pokey dingle” poles, to try to get us stuck on our side. Zach and Diana have good aim.

As best as we can tell, this pole was forced into Skorpios’ weapon arm, bending the arm and damaging the chain somehow. Because on the following hit by HUGE, Skorpios’ chain fell off without being directly touched. You can see in this photo how the sparks are on the ground, as the disc is still spinning and the pole has already been removed. This was followed by…

…SPARK BARF. The pole was dragged up into Skorpios’ weapon here (we think).

You can see Skorpios’ weapon chain ejecting here when looking at the front of their wedge. Otherwise, this was a quick hit to the wheel from HUGE, which didn’t do much meaningful damage. Because the chain was ejected at speed, the disc stayed spinning.

Since Skorpios was already spun up to full speed when the chain ejected, they still had enough energy to run in and hit the other pole. Titanium isn’t cheap guys, quit hitting all of it!

Right after the death of pole #2, Skorpios’ plow became lodged in our wheel. This gave us the ability to hit their tire without bouncing them away. Destroying this wheel and drive assembly would end up locking Skorpios’ side of drive, and slowing them down enough for us to end the fight.

The final hit of the match, once Skorpios began crab-walking and exposed their side.

With one side locked up and smoking, HUGE peeled open the top plate from the other side to finish off Skorpios for the KO.

The adrenaline of a Battlebots fight is hard to describe. This fight started with the momentum going for Skorpios, scoring multiple hits and removing pieces while HUGE just bounced off their armor. But momentum can shift so fast, and losing a weapon through something random like a lost chain put momentum back into our hands. HUGE’s changes for 2021 and 2022 were designed to have enough offensive power to capitalize on this momentum — to not give the opponent enough time to reset or catch their breath. The total time from the lost chain to a fully-stopped Skorpios was just fourteen seconds. To go from losing, to a finished win, in just fourteen seconds is intense! In many ways, we’re still getting used to fighting at this pace, but it’s great to see it paying off as we escape the first round of the tournament for the first time in our careers!

Let’s take a look at the damage.

This is where HUGE cut into Skorpios’ frame. An inch deeper would’ve hit the batteries, so probably best that the fight ended when it did.

A third view of the frame damage, incl. the top plate bent up.

A close-up on Skorpios’ destroyed wheel. This locked up the gearbox, and ended up overloading and burning out the drive controller on that side. This was only possible because Skorpios’ wedge was tangled in our wheel, meaning that they couldn’t bounce away when hit.

For comparison, this is a normal hit to the wheel where Skorpios is free to bounce away. This is the design working as intended, as a hit like this won’t slow down Skorpios.

A very crispy speed controller from powering the locked wheel on Skorpios.

Skorpios took a good chunk out of the wheel while cutting off the pole on this side. This also bent the threads inside the drive axle, and we haven’t been able to get the chunk out yet…

Not just broken off at the end, but also very bent! Skorpios has a lot of power in that blade.

With 5 wins, HUGE sets a personal best for the most fights we have ever won in a single season. And by getting past the first round of the tournament, we’ve achieved our last big personal goal for the year. From here on out the goal is simple: Just Win!

We learned a lot here from our first fight against a hammer-saw, and we think that a faster spinup would help a lot for future fights. It took a while for HUGE to spin up and it’s hard to find space against an opponent like Skorpios. Luckily everything worked out in our favor, and set us up for a matchup against the winner of either MadCatter or Claw Viper. Considering past tournament fights against Uppercut and Whiplash, and a Battlebots: Champions fight against Deep Six, it’s been a long time since HUGE has had an elimination fight against a robot that can’t whack HUGE’s body with a spinning blade. MadCatter and Claw Viper both have one other thing in common too: we need to be ready for a fight against a very fast opponent!

Thanks to HUGE’s sponsors, Mouser Electronics and TTI, Inc. Whenever you need electronic components next, either for hobby or professionally, remember that Mouser and TTI make it possible for HUGE to compete at Battlebots. We couldn’t do it without them!

If you’re interested, also check out our merch store to pick up HUGE gear, or your own pair of angry eyes!

Photo Credits: Dan Longmire, JCRB Photography, and the Skorpios team