Robots are fighting! So many robots, doing so much fighting, that you’re likely to miss some great fights unless you watch absolutely everything. Here are 5 that didn’t make the main NHRL stream this March.
Sometimes it’s just nice to watch a robot violently become parts again. It’s like videos of people doing maintenance on a big machine, but way faster and less precise.
Fun fact, I was first introduced to this fight via a photo of the aftermath. So much of Public UnSafety’s insides were on the outside that when I watched the fight from the beginning I realized I had no idea what color the bot was.
Play a game with this fight, it’s called “guess how the fight ends”. If you’re like me, not only will your first guess be wrong, but several different times throughout the fight you’ll change your answer, be fairly sure you understand the arc the fight is following, and still be wrong.
Robots are weird.
Some robots are used to being the weirdest thing in the arena in any given fight. When they meet each other, it’s always magical. It’s like when two animals from different continents see each other at the zoo.
Sometimes the bots build even weirder, even rarer configurations to counter each other, like we see happen when hammersaws fight big wheels. Sometimes they just send it. Both Bee-Roll and Project Liftoff decided to just send it.
It’s beautiful.
Sting Operation vs. King Snake
Hammersaws are my favorite archetype to watch overall because of how dynamic their driving is. The way the arm can throw themselves around as well as the damage potential of the spinner on the end just leads to intensely creative driving and geometry decisions all around. Turns out that hammersaw versus hammersaw matches are even more fun to watch. Both bots having that extra dimension to their driving style leads to a ton of crazy sequences that other archetypes just don’t have the means to pull off. They can get out of each other’s pins thanks to their arms, they can flop into the air and go for a hit over the top of the opponent, you still get the engaging face to face drive battle that control bot duos thrive off of- there’s a lot to love.
Honorable mention to Usawgi vs. Mad Gasher for being another banger in the same archetypal vein, I just thought this fight was a little more well paced throughout.
As long as you're spinnin’, you might still be winnin’. Even if you just took one of the hardest shots of the tournament and it torqued your frame rail enough that you can hardly drive. Just keep on spinnin’.