Wall Breaker

"*We understand that this is a variety show, not a pure competition. But before coming to the competition, I still had the illusion of being objective and fair. Some people don't understand this, and we do, because you're not the unlucky one. Because easier said than done.*"
— Wang Chao's comment on This is Fighting Robots in zhihu

**破壁者** (romanized as **Pò bì zhě**, translated as **Wall Breaker**, **Wallbreaker** or **Wall Breakers**) was a Chinese robot which competed in the one-off 2018 series *This is Fighting Robots*. It survived until the end of its preliminary group battle, but ultimately would not be selected by a celebrity team manager, an outcome which prompted captain Wang Chao to criticize the initial selection process for competitor machines.

Wall Breaker was the successor to the team's *King of Bots* Season 1 entry Nuclear Bomb, and would itself be succeeded in Season 2 by The Martian.

## Design

"*We are the robot with the thickest titanium alloy armor on the field.. so it will not be destroyed... Our chassis has electromagnets that can restrain the American champion Megabyte and other spinners. Will the team manager know this?*"
— Wang Chao's comment on This is Fighting Robots in zhihu

Wall Breaker is a box-shaped robot with armor made of almost 35mm titanium alloy, with angled sides and electromagnets on the bottom of its body to stabilize the machine on the ground, which makes him very good against spinners. It is powered by two wheels and equipped with vertically operating elevated gripping forks, which can grip opponents with a force of 2 tons. These weapons also allow the robot to self-correct, albeit at a slow rate. Its additional weapons are a flamethrower and two prongs, designed to ground competitors in place before using its primary weapon.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

Wall Breaker was not chosen by any celebrity managers during the initial 'blind selection' process. It was therefore required to fight a preliminary group battle against three robots from successful *King of Bots* Season 1 teams; Blue, Saber II, and **Polar Opposite**, an updated incarnation of fourth-placed multibot Thunder and Lightning.

At the beginning of the match, Wall Breaker drove up the wedge of Saber II, but reversed away, causing Saber II to fire at the air. Wall Breaker fired its flamethrower and paraded around the arena, while Saber II mistimed another flip. Ultimately, this proved to be Wall Breaker's main tactic, lighting up the arena without direction. Half of Thunder and Lightning became stuck under Blue, and Wall Breaker attempted to grab the smaller multibot. However, this allowed Saber II to drive under Wall Breaker and toss it across the arena. Although Wall Breaker landed on its wheels, Saber II followed this up with a flip which turned Blue and Wall Breaker over with a single attack. Wall Breaker attempted to self-right using its forks, but was harassed by Thunder and Lightning. Later into the battle, Wall Breaker was revealed to have been righted, but it made no further impact, and time expired without Wall Breaker being selected by any team manager.

Wall Breaker was thus eliminated at that stage, but not without captain Wang Chao criticizing the preliminary selection processes onscreen. Chao reentered the arena to air his grieveances to the audience, specifically concerning the notion of robots advancing to the main competition despite being immobilized in battle. Wall Breaker's group battle performance was highlighted, before co-presenter Wang Cong and Yellow team manager Sa Beining attempted to explain the differences between the team-focused *This is Fighting Robots* format, and the elimination-based structure of a typical robot combat event. Beining added to his response that, at this point in the series, robot selections were not being judged entirely on overall performances in battle.

"*...right now, our rules are no longer the rules of the competition. Right now, the rules are that of the TV program. And the rules of the TV program [are] laid down for the four of us celebrity managers. Meaning right now we... might not be giving too much consideration to how you perform in the competition at the end. Perhaps it would be one of the considerations. But in the end, we will combine all factors. We can see that a certain machine will fit a certain position in the future battles.*"
— Sa Beining addresses a complaint from Wall Breaker's captain, surrounding the initial selection processes

Wang Chao politely accepted Beining's response upon exiting the arena, but still disagreed with and criticized Beining for his 'unprofessional' selection approach, along with the selection process itself.

After being eliminated, Wall Breaker once expressed to the program group that he wanted to challenge Megabyte or Shrederator Tiger Claw to prove himself, but was rejected

"*After we were eliminated, we told the program team that we wanted to challenge Megabyte or the former American champion Shrederator Tiger Claw, but we were rejected.. It's a pity.*"
— Wang Chao's comment on This is Fighting Robots in zhihu

## Results

*NOTE: Wall Breaker's group battle is not considered to be a win or loss.*

## Series Record

* Wall Breaker's statistics board
* team entry
* Top-down CAD render of Wall Breaker
* Wall Breaker on the sidelines
1/4

*NOTE: Team member Zhang Chongbing also entered King of Bots II with his own robot, Giraffe*.

## Trivia

* When entering the arena, the team enters the arena with this shield that says "防暴"(romanized as Fángbào) written on it，The word on the shield means **Antiriot**
* Because there were too few contestants in King of Bots S2, Wall Breaker was remodeled as The Doctor and Lian Tong was replaced as the new operator to participate in the competition

## References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/8fqw03/quick\_question\_regarding\_formula/dy63bhn/?context=1
2. ↑ https://www.zhihu.com/question/271145364/answer/365927246

## External Links

* Team steel fist's weibo (Chinese)
* Wang Chao's comment on This is Fighting Robots in zhihu (Chinese)