Dark Knight

Dark Knight with its team

"*To participate in King of Bots is to regain confidence to prove himself.*"
— The King of Bots website on the team captain (Translated)

**黑暗骑士** (romanized as **hēi àn qí shì**, translating to **Dark Knight**) is a robot from Shenzen, China which competed in the first season of *King of Bots*. In the main competition, it lost its first-round battle to the British Tánshè, after getting flipped onto the wall spikes and left stranded. Dark Knight also fought in a nine-robot Rumble shown at the end of Season 1, which it lost to Nuclear Bomb.

## Design

Dark Knight was an invertible four-wheel drive robot, somewhat box-shaped with indentations in the side. Its primary weapon was a small drum spinner, which could reach a top speed of 8,000rpm. Dark Knight was described by the official *King of Bots* website as a 'shovel roller', in part referring to the presence of a hinged front wedge immediately ahead of its drum. The wedge was designed to always provide it with a constant ramming surface against the floor, even when flipped over and running inverted. However, this was at the cost of the wedge's effectiveness overall, and it was exploited in Dark Knight's only battle.

## The Team

The Super Trojan (Mech+: Trojan Horse) team was lead by then 25-year-old software engineer Du Guangqian, who competed in multiple college-level robot competitions with some success. Dark Knight marked his first entry into a robotics competition of any kind since graduation, with the aim to make up for a malfunction and subsequent defeat in Guangqian's last college event.

## Robot History

### King of Bots (Season 1)

"*Our tactics are very simple, attack, attack and attack until the opponent is destroyed. I came for the championship. This time, I will have no regrets. I must do my best!*"
— Du Guangqian (Mech+ subtitles)

In the first round, Dark Knight fought the British representative, Tánshè, built by UK *Robot Wars* competitors Team Legion and Team Hurtz. While having earlier expressed his ambition to win the competition outright, Du Guangqian openly acknowledged his opposing team's experience along with the power of their machine's pneumatic flipper.

"*We knew before the game that they were very powerful. After all, they are master-level opponents.*"
— Du Guangqian weighs his thoughts on Tánshè (Mech+ subtitles)

It started the battle much more slowly, and Tánshè drove under Dark Knight to reach its back end. Dark Knight was then into the spikes on the wall. Tánshè drove under the drum of Dark Knight, and sparks were thrown as the wedge made contact with the spinner, but Tánshè flipped Dark Knight back into the spikes. Dark Knight meandered in the center of the arena, so Tánshè circled around and then rammed into the side of it. It was evident that Tánshè had the lower ground clearance, as it breached the wedge of Dark Knight, and later flipped it over, albeit not with a full-pressure flip.

Dark Knight landed on Tánshè and made contact with its drum, as Tánshè pushed it towards the spiked walls, sustaining damage. Tánshè flicked the Dark Knight up, but not over. Finally, Tánshè moved into a position where it could launch Dark Knight into the arena wall with a full-pressure flip. Dark Knight could not break free from the rail where it had been stranded, and so it was counted out, and eliminated in the first round.

"*I think my weapons and equipment did work. But we failed to bring our superiority into full play. I lack some consideration of control and power. Although I participated in King of Bots to make up for my previous regrets, after competing with these master-level teams, I actually learned a lot. So, I feel quite relaxed and have no regrets. If they come again, I would like to compete with them again.*"
— Du Guangqian reflects upon his experience fighting Tánshè, as Dark Knight is eliminated (Mech+ subtitles)

Dark Knight also fought in a nine-robot Rumble at the end of Season 1, alongside Blue, Crossfire, Griffin, Ink Thorns, Nuclear Bomb, Steel Dragon, The Grubs and Violent Dragon.

As with most of its opponents, it started the battle tentatively, before attacking Ink Thorns and Banger, the bi-wedge-shaped part of The Grubs. Moments later, Dark Knight rammed Violent Dragon into the bar spinner Chop, causing Violent Dragon to topple over and its head to detach. After causing more damage to Violent Dragon’s head with its drum, it proceeded to throw Griffin onto its side with another powerful charge, eliminating the British machine. Dark Knight then pushed Crossfire into the wall and Ink Thorns, leaving the Scottish robot vulnerable to an axe blow from Blue – although not without getting lifted upwards by the floor rods. After this, it pushed and dragged Ink Thorns across the arena, getting underneath the latter in the process and at one point pushing it into one of the stationary grinders. A collision with Chop’s spinner enabled Dark Knight to deflect it into the wall, the recoil immobilizing Chop and therefore eliminating The Grubs as a whole.

Dark Knight continued to pursue its remaining opponents across the arena, eventually getting underneath and pushing Steel Dragon into Blue. It proceeded to drag Steel Dragon back towards and onto the circular saws, although not without accidentally driving into one of the saws in the process. Seconds later, Dark Knight forced Blue into the saws, although in doing so it again drove itself into and was carried over by one of the saws. The attack resulted in Blue getting wedged on a piece of Violent Dragon’s debris; Dark Knight rammed Blue over the circular saw mounts in an apparent attempt to free its American opponent, albeit without success. After reversing into one of the grinders, Dark Knight pushed and dragged Steel Dragon across the arena once again, pushing the overhead spinner into the largest remaining piece of Violent Dragon’s head. It met and nudged Crossfire again some time after, before getting underneath Steel Dragon once again and pushing it forwards.

However, Dark Knight crawled to a stand as it tried to push past the inverted Griffin; it shuttled back and forth near the defeated pile of the latter, Crossfire and Violent Dragon, before it was suddenly thrown over by the nearby floor flipper. Landing on one of Griffin’s wings, Dark Knight’s wheels were suspended off the floor, leaving it with no way to drive forwards. As a result, it was eliminated from the Rumble, which was eventually won by Nuclear Bomb.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 2

## Trivia

* Though quoted on the official *King of Bots* website as originating from Shenzhen, captain Du Guangqian actually lived in Jingzhou, Hubei, at the time of Dark Knight's televised appearances.
* The team captain entered the arena holding an illuminated sign reading 'Hello World' before Dark Knight's battle.

## External Links

* Dark Knight's profile on the *King of Bots* website (Chinese, archived)