Check out this fight in BattleBots Season 4, Episode 15.

For the second year in a row, we've fought our way into the Top 16! This year we fought tougher competition than we ever imagined, plus needed to win our play-in fight to make it. We had a great winning streak going into this fight so we were hopeful against Whiplash that it could keep going! We cut out that new wheel and put it onto the hub, and made the adjustment to raise our drive current limiting a bit more. Everything had seemed cool to the touch and reliable from all of our fights so far, and we finished with plenty of drive battery left in the tank after Bronco, Gigabyte, and HyperShock. So it was time to let HUGE stretch it’s legs because we would need all the speed we could get against Whiplash! All was ready, and we headed into the arena for the Top 16!

Whiplash brought a new wedge configuration out that gave us pause. These taller wedges are an interesting strategy, but did not much change our typical plan of doing our best to reach somewhere unprotected and soft, and hit it from a new angle. For Whiplash, this meant first treating them like a small vertical spinner, doing what we can to get the spinner disabled. We did not want to find out what that spinner could do to our frame! Then, focus on getting around to the side, and hitting the body or hitting wheels. This strategy pretty much matches our fights against Bronco and HyperShock, but there isn’t anybody else out there who’s as good at keeping you away from their wheels. Plus, Whiplash fully protects their wheels with the wedge, unlike HyperShock who’s wedge thins out towards the wheels, giving us an angle to attack from.

The fight starts, and bang! We get a wheel off. Bang! We take out the spinner pulley. This is going great! And from there, we just cannot get a hit on them. He keeps the wedges at us, no matter what, every hit, for the rest of the fight. It’s maddening. We’re moving great, and driving as fast as we’ve ever been. And we just can’t get through or around their armor. They lift and hold us a few times but it doesn’t hurt us, and this fast paced and tactical fight ends up going to the judges. HUGE clearly wins the Damage points, while Whiplash rightly earns the Control points. Who earns the Aggression points more? Or are they split, resulting in HUGE still winning due to Damage being worth more than Control? Do inconsequential spinner hits, or lifts and holds count more in the eyes of the judges for Aggression?

The judges closely decided for Whiplash, and we can’t blame them on such a coin flip of a decision. We were sad to not get a chance at fighting Tombstone, but feel we put up a hell of a fight in the Round of 16, and are proud at the feeling that we would hold our own against the vast majority of robots in the tournament. We have high hopes for next season, and are already working to patch over the few flaws we saw in this year’s robot, while making it significantly easier to work on. Due to the time it takes to swap our weapon motors, the expected damage internally, and the cost of replacement, we didn’t take part in any exhibition fights after our season ended. We’re proud of our final record of 4-2 and excited for the changes that we plan to make! Great season, good luck to everyone left, and we’ll see you next year!

HUGE's amazing season was made possible by Mouser Electronics and TTI, Inc. Thanks for your support and lets do it all over again next year!

Photo Gallery

Whiplash Battlebot during the 2019 season — Whiplash during the 2019 season

HUGE Battlebot pre-fight — Notice anybody out of place? We swapped our teammate Peter Lombardo for Matt Vasquez of Whiplash, since they look almost identical! Production didn’t notice until they swapped clothes back, and made us re-film our intros. We’ll never forgive them for not using the switcheroo intro.

Photo credit: Dan Longmire

HUGE and Whiplash fight at Battlebots 2019 — Whiplash drives remarkably well missing a wheel.

Photo credit: JCRB Photography

HUGE and Whiplash split Judge's Decision Battlebots 2019 — One of the closest fights we've ever seen.

Photo credit: JCRB Photography