#Battlebots announcer full#

All around The Pit, women and girls as young as pre-teen are hard at work, getting ready for combat. As cofounder Munson put it, there are multiple teams led by women, or that have women playing key roles.

With our five-inch blade, itвЂ™ll be tough to reach us.вЂќ With our five-inch blade, itвЂ™ll be tough to reach us.ДЄlthough women are in the minority at BattleBots, the gender disparity is not what you might imagine.

#Battlebots announcer full#

She knows Icewave faces tough competition for the BattleBots crown, but sheвЂ™s full of confidence when she tells me, вЂњI think we have a good chance. That gives it more torque, and itвЂ™s also more fun to work on. Icewave may be unique among the battling bots, she says, with its actual combustion engine, instead of an electric motor. Last month, standing next to a jumble of large ventilation pipes inside a giant warehouse in Vellejo, Calif., about 45 minutes northeast of San Francisco, the 50-year-old Roski, with red curly hair and wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt, recalled how he and Munson, his cousin, вЂњfell in loveвЂќ with robot combat.Д«ack in 1994, he told me the day before the BattleBots competition was taped, the two went to a Robot Wars event in San Francisco, bringing along their hastily built featherweight robot, the 80-pound вЂњLa Machine.вЂќ вЂњWe went up against robots twice our weight,вЂќ and won. We couldnвЂ™t wait to see their journey and find out who would be able to go the distance.вЂќ We were immediately captivated by these mechanical gladiators and the passion behind their builders.

вЂњIt kept us at the edge of our seats capturing all of the savory tenets of great sports and reality competition: high stakes, compelling storytelling, and pure spectacle. вЂњWhen BattleBots was first pitched to ABC, we were intrigued right away,вЂќ Robert Mills, ABCвЂ™s senior vice president for Alternative Series, Specials, and Late Night, tells Fast Company. ItвЂ™s also, as one of the showвЂ™s announcers says in the official BattleBots teaser video, вЂњthe intersection of design and destruction.вЂќ It is, Roski and Munson hope, the beginning of big things to come. And this Sunday, boosted by regular promos during the just-completed NBA Finals, BattleBots will be reborn, kicking off a six-episode run where 30 teams will vie for more than $100,000 in prizes. Although Roski said the Disney-owned network laughed a little bit as well, it ultimately gave BattleBots the green light. They just didnвЂ™t get us.вЂќ Everybody was chanting, вЂLa Machine, La Machine.вЂ™ We were hooked. Producers вЂњlaughed at us, even though weвЂ™d done good on Comedy Central. вЂњTVвЂ™s a hellacious business,вЂќ Roski says. For years afterwards, the showвЂ™s founders, Ed Roski and Greg Munson, вЂњpitched and pitched and pitched,вЂќ Roski, (known as Trey), recalled, even as they kept on producing robot combat events. But when the network was sold to MTV in 2002, BattleBots, like so many of the defeated robots that went to the mat on the show, was dead. For the record, Icewave knocked out Razorback in like a minute, which wasnвЂ™t nearly as entertaining as a man in a referee shirt yelling вЂњ WeвЂ™re doneвЂќ as if he was genuinely concerned for the health of this robot.From 2000 through 2002, over 94 episodes, Comedy CentralвЂ™s BattleBots showcased the gnarly and exciting world of robot wars, becoming one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable, averaging 1.5 million viewers per episode in its initial season. Another, Razorback, gets this priceless gem of an introduction: вЂњGet ready to ROCKY MOUNTAIN DIE!вЂќ One robot, Icewave, is described as having an вЂњunquenchableВ thirst for destruction, thatвЂ™s only served in one way. One small child in particular has an absolute fucking conniption, as if the one dream he has harboredВ in his short life was to see these two robots bump into each other again and again. Without robot fighting the lives of these crowd members are meaningless. Every fight is proceeded by Tauheed-I want to say announcing but itвЂ™s more like screaming-the phrase вЂњAER YOU READY?В ITвЂ™S ROBOT FIGHTING TIME.вЂќ This is when the crowd hits peak oil-lust. Ring AnnouncerВ Faruq Tauheed is tasked with speaking some of the greatest sentences ever uttered, in front of a rabid crowd that is apparently fueled by the sight of robots fighting. Then, there are the intros for the fights themselves.