ESPN & BattleBots: Gearing Up For College And Pro Competitions

[MikeJ675]

Most won't care, but for those that would, here's some interesting news.

http://www.battlebots.com/news_home.asp#espn

ESPN has made BattleBots an offer: BattleBots will hold a Collegiate BattleBots Championship, featuring robots built by students enrolled in institutions of Higher Education. The Collegiate BattleBots competition will air as a series on ESPNU and ESPN2. This competition will be open to Colleges and Universities, and Student Teams who are enrolled in institutions of Higher Education. This will be a middleweight (120 pound) competition as governed under the current BattleBots rule set -- But, BattleBots is allowing an additional 40 pounds to be added as bonus weight, thus making the total weight 160 pounds! So get creative.

We would like to film this competition in the San Francisco Bay Area as soon a June 2008, but we need your input before any final dates are set. See questions below.

Lots more info at the link, but this'll keep the post from getting massive.

[Drew Hopman]

I want to make one! Where do I sign up?!?!

[Branden Ghena]

You mentioned a link... where is it?

[Koko Ed]

I hope it's more organized than the one I went to a couple of years ago with Greg. It was really disjointed and came off as more of an exhibition. Considering that I paid $22 to attend that wasn't so great.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I hope it's more organized than the one I went to a couple of years ago with Greg. It was really disjointed and came off as more of an exhibition. Considering that I paid $22 to attend that wasn't so great.

Ed, the event in rochester actually was an exhibition, the tool and die administration paid BB to put on a show. As for this one it is a return to the roots of televised robot combat. I have already started sketching some ideas for Tetracide 2 (faster, more powerful, etc)...

The event is going to be sometime in the june-july time frame, good thing I didn't work with a team this year because now I have my own 16week build period

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

Ed, the event in rochester actually was an exhibition, the tool and die administration paid BB to put on a show. As for this one it is a return to the roots of televised robot combat. I have already started sketching some ideas for Tetracide 2 (faster, more powerful, etc)...

The event is going to be sometime in the june-july time frame, good thing I didn't work with a team this year because now I have my own 16week build period

$22 for an exhibition is a bit much. So what weight class is 220 lbs?

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

$22 for an exhibition is a bit much. So what weight class is 220 lbs?

heavyweight

[Ryan Foley]

http://www.battlebots.com/news_home.asp

Sounds like fun.

[Dan Richardson]

Hrmm, I've always wanted to do one of these competitions, and its in the summer so thats nice. I attended a BB competition about a year ago and to be honest, it was kind of boring.

There was one fantastic crash and then the bot was disabled and as they say in the south "Dun fur" It definitely would be fun to get some college guys together to do this tho.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Holy smoke, yeah this sounds pretty interesting. I'm sure we could get a team or two together from Indiana

[stupid0123]

That does sound pretty cool id like to be on a team (bo was here)

[bduddy]

Too bad it's only for college teams, as my team is in the SF Bay Area and we usually don't do much with our old robots anyway...

[Kyle Love]

So...I might be able to drive a robot again.....interesting.....

[Richard McClellan]

I just read the rules, and was trying to think of a design I'd be okay with building, and then came to the realization - the point of this competition is to HURT other robots The thought of destroying any robot is just......depressing

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by richardmcc2

I just read the rules, and was trying to think of a design I'd be okay with building, and then came to the realization - the point of this competition is to HURT other robots The thought of destroying any robot is just......depressing

Well, you can think about i differently.

When I design for robot combat, I think of trying to make the most durable machine I can (on top of the usual ease of manufacturing, cost, good practices, etc...) because I want my skills tested. Now, to get those tested, the other guy has to be able to lay some smack down; so, he's expecting me to return the favor.

But, I can admit, It's also nice to see some good robot on robot combat sometimes.