Orion (Classic)

Not to be confused with heavyweight from Season 3.0 of Comedy Central BattleBots.
Orion was a British robot built by Team MAD (alternatively Team Robots Live! or Team Apollo) which applied for BattleBots World Championship V and VI. Despite being accepted twice, Orion were forced to withdraw on both occasions. Orion was also not selected to compete in World Championship VII due to a limited number of international places.
It is a four-wheel drive, wedge-shaped robot armed with a powerful pneumatic flipper, described by the team as a "launcher". Orion also featured a pair of flamethrowers at the rear to mimic and reinforce the theme of a space shuttle. Originally using CO2 to power its primary weapon, Team MAD had to change this to nitrogen in order to accommodate to BattleBots rules. Orion makes use of identical drive units to their King of Bots entry Vulcan, consisting of two wheels per side situated close together and driven by a single motor. Co-captain Alan Young joined forces with Team Storm ahead of World Championship II as he fought with Photon Storm, competing alongside former Robot Wars competitors Ed Hoppitt, Tim Bence and Andrew Marchant. Despite boasting experience in the sport with classic era heavyweight robots, and even modern robots in the case of Storm 2, Photon Storm fell in its first and only fight to Team RioBotz's Minotaur and did not return.
BUILD A WALL.png|Team Orion's confirmation of acceptance ahead of World Championship V.
Orion2020.png|Orion posing as a space shuttle in CAD.
Orion20201.jpg|Team MAD tease progress on Orion in March 2020.
Orionapollo.jpg|Orion next to its predecessor, Apollo.
Having won their two major championships since World Championship I in 2015, Orion was officially accepted ahead of the 2020 season of BattleBots. Due to travel restrictions enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Orion was unable to compete in World Championship V.https://twitter.com/apollorobot/status/1300112106231132161
==Results==
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=== Competitive Wins/Losses===
*Wins: 20
*Losses: 10
Orion also planned to attend World Championship VI, but Team MAD announced they were again unable to compete, this time due to work commitments.https://m.facebook.com/106729364139085/posts/385684562910229/?sfnsn=scwspmo The team later stated their intention to apply for and compete in World Championship VII,https://www.facebook.com/106729364139085/posts/385684562910229/ but ultimately announced in September 2022 that they would not be taking part.https://twitter.com/apollorobot/status/1574504814301569049https://www.facebook.com/100057267617051/posts/pfbid04odFhsHKcWq58dhge4EAS7bwvzFRU47aM3oynzjMFGLUs9SXD9oU8WghUzNUD2H6l/ In a separate Reddit comment published the same month, Team MAD confirmed that Orion had not been selected for the forthcoming season, along with uncertainty surrounding its age and the need to potentially rebuild it for future BattleBots events.https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/u793wp/comment/iq0lp3c/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 According to Jack Tweedy, their application had been postponed due to filming dates being pushed backwards. By the time Team MAD contacted BattleBots about the possibility of competing, the field had already been selected.https://imgur.com/a/j3hdlyD
In April 2023, a post by the Orion Facebook page confirmed that Team MAD intend to enter it once again for the proposed World Championship VIII.https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=727436595841921&set=a.561745605744355
==Outside BattleBots==
Orion is the latest member of Team MAD's family of powerful flipper robots which have achieved strong success across the world. In 2016, Alan and Dave Young won Series 8 of Robot Wars with Apollo, and reaching the title fight of Series 9, as well as winning the second series of Chinese show King of Bots with Vulcan. Alan Young of Team MAD had previous attempted to enter Chronic into the 2015 season, but it was relegated to only fighting in an unaired battle against Ray Billings' Swamp Thing to test camera angles and lighting ahead of the season. Team MAD did not apply for the following three BattleBots seasons, instead prioritizing Apollo and Robot Wars.
In November 2021, Orion competed in a Robots Live! event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This event also featured World Championship I competitors Radioactive with their better-known Robot Wars heavyweight Behemoth, and John Reid's Terrorhurtz, who also fought in the BattleBots reboot with Beta. Orion was painted blue and yellow specifically for this competition and beat Terrorhurtz in the first round of the bracket, but ultimately fell in the semi-finals to eventual champions Switch, who themselves were originally accepted for World Championship V of BattleBots with X/Change prior to the season's postponement. It also lost a fight against its older brother Apollo by KO, but finished joint-second with 12 wins overall after the competing robots fought each other in a round robin format.
==Trivia== 
*Orion's name derives from the constellation of the same name.
*If Orion was to win the Giant Nut, Team MAD would become the first team to achieve heavyweight championship wins in the UK, US and China.
*Team MAD host their own live events in the UK called Robots Live!, often showcasing their own heavyweight robots.
==References==
== See Also ==
*Apollo (Robot Wars)
*Kronic the Wedgehog (Robot Wars)
*Vulcan (King of Bots/This is Fighting Robots)
* Team MAD (Robot Wars)
==Navigation==
Category:Heavyweight Robots
Category:BattleBots Competitors
Category:Foreign Robots
Category:British Robots
Category:Robots armed with flipping weapons
Category:Robot Wars Competitors
Category:King of Bots Competitors
Category:Robots that dropped out
Category:Robots that could self-right
Category:Robots that were rejected