Red River Xiongfeng

**红河雄风** (translated as **Red River Xiongfeng** or **Red River Glory**) was a Chinese featherweight robot which competed in the *King of Bots* 2019 Opening Battle. Representing the red team, it fought one head-to-head battle against horizontal spinner Beast; despite ripping one of Beast’s wheels off early on, Red River Xiongfeng lost the battle on a Judges’ decision after suffering numerous mobility issues throughout.

The builder of Red River Xiongfeng had previously competed in Seasons 1 and 1.5 with Wild Beast and Red River Hong respectively, also entering *King of Bots II* with Mist Lion.

## Design

Red River Xiongfeng was a compact, two-wheel drive robot with an orange and white color scheme. Its weapon was a large asymmetrical bar spinner, mounted vertically and flanked by two fork-like wedgelets at the center of the robot’s front wedge. In common with other vertical spinner designs seen during the 2019 Opening Battle, Red River Xiongfeng featured two castors on the top of its weapon mount, with the intention of allowing the robot to drive while inverted.

## Robot History

### 2019 Opening Battle

Red River Xiongfeng was one of eight featherweight robots to take part in the 2019 Opening Battle, held to promote the upcoming second season. Representing the red team, it fought horizontal spinner Beast in its solitary head-to-head battle.

At the start, Red River Xiongfeng darted out of its starting position, weaving its way towards the center of the arena and exchanging a blow with Beast’s spinner. Immediately, it turned and drove into Beast again; the attack sent both robots recoiling and ripped Beast’s right wheel off. Ending up near one of the grinders, Red River Xiongfeng turned and drove forwards, but briefly stopped and shuffled its way over the floor rods. As it did so, it briefly powered its spinner down, then back up again; by this point, a countdown began, and it became clear that neither robot was showing full signs of mobility. Red River Xiongfeng reversed itself over one of the floor rods as Beast was thrust towards it by one of the grinders. It briefly clipped the side of Beast before being lifted twice by the floor rods, having lost full mobility as a result of a seized left wheel. Despite this, Red River Xiongfeng again attacked Beast, sending the black and blue machine spinning away with another weapon-on-weapon hit.

Seconds later, Red River Xiongfeng sustained a hit to its right wheel from Beast, although this was not enough to immobilize it completely. It continued to spin and shuffle towards the center for several seconds, then towards Beast, while the referee began his second countdown. Red River Xiongfeng withstood a front-on blow from a spinning Beast, which was enough to destabilize and throw Beast onto its remaining wheel. It continued to spin and weave towards Beast as the latter drove and was thrown by a nearby grinder, but was unable to land another attack before suddenly stopping. Red River Xiongfeng twitched as the referee began counting it out, turning to face Beast again as the latter hit its front wedge twice. The second collision briefly threw Beast into the air again; Red River Xiongfeng was then pushed back by Beast, and continued to twitch before again stopping altogether, despite yet another countdown from the referee.

Red River Xiongfeng proceeded to weave towards the center again, while Beast was catapulted a great distance after hitting one of the grinder mounts. Briefly getting lifted and caught between the floor rods, it weaved across the arena and towards Beast one more time, but was unable to land another attack on the latter before time ran out. As a result, both robots survived to a Judges’ decision. Despite the damage it inflicted to Beast in the early stages, the decision ruled against Red River Xiongfeng, resulting in a loss for the red team.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 1

## Trivia

* Despite the naming similarity, it is unknown whether Red River Xiongfeng is related to Season 2 competitor Red River Bull.