King of Bots (Season 2)/Episode 1

Season 2 title card

The **first episode of *King of Bots* Season 2** aired on 14th July 2019. It marked the launch of the second season of the show, where two groups of celebrities selected robots for their representative teams, ahead of a series of one-on-one battles.

The end of the episode also featured *Robo Genius*, an educational segment exploring different aspects of robot building and combat.

## Competing robots

* Agate
* Bullseye
* Button Lee
* Cracked Sword
* Deep-Sea Shark
* Drift
* Greedy Snake
* Iron Scrap
* Magic Windmill
* Mist Lion
* Ocean Waves
* Pixel Hunter
* Po Feng
* Saber
* The Doctor
* The Martian
* Two BBQ
* Xiake

## Setup

At the start of the episode, six celebrities - Huang Jian Xiang, Zhu Zheng Ting, Di Yang, Tu Ziya, Emma Dumont and Tao Shen - were paired into groups of three, and tasked with selecting one robot each for the first round. Once the selection process was completed, the chosen robots would be randomly drawn to fight each other in a series of three one-on-one battles per round. Winning robots at this stage would automatically earn a place on their respective celebrity's team. The selection process would then be repeated for the second and third rounds, each with different robots.

## Battles

### Two BBQ vs Xiake

Xiake circled around the arena while avoiding its opponent, with both spinners accelerating to full speeds, until the first minor contact saw Two BBQ bump into Xiake. It was then Xiake which landed the first real exchange of the battle, churning away at Two BBQ's wedgelets and driving it back across the arena, which also caused a belt to slip from Two BBQ.

Xiake was holding onto a comfortable lead until Two BBQ suddenly swung its vertical spinner into the wedgelets of Xiake, completely ripping one out of place. Although this threatened Xiake's effectiveness, Two BBQ immediately halted after driving over its own loose belt. With Two BBQ suspended above the arena floor, it could no longer move, and Xiake kept its distance until Two BBQ was counted out. The win by knockout was awarded to Xiake, allowing it to secure the first place on Huang Jian Xiang's team.

**Winner: Xiake**

### The Martian vs Pixel Hunter

This battle was the first to use the flamethrower drone, a new hazard introduced for the Season 2 incarnation of the arena.

Both robots started tentatively, with The Martian moving its arms and strafing to the top-left on its ‘feet’, and Pixel Hunter getting its symmetrical bar spinner up to speed. Pixel Hunter cautiously approached The Martian, landing two quick blows on each of its opponent’s ‘feet’, albeit without any immediate effect. After briefly being nudged by Pixel Hunter, The Martian spouted flames and pivoted on its left ‘foot’, eventually rotating its body and flails as Pixel Hunter loomed nearby. The Martian lowered its flails onto the top of Pixel Hunter, although without causing any significant damage. In response, Pixel Hunter hit The Martian’s right ‘foot’ once more, sending the white and red robot tumbling down onto the floor.

After a few moments, The Martian raised its flail arm a few times, astonishing Tao Shen by using the arm to lever itself back onto its ‘feet’. However, it accidentally lifted itself off its ‘feet’ a few seconds later, while Pixel Hunter seemed to suffer from drive issues. The Martian pivoted its lower body and eventually righted itself once again, to further amazement from the audience and celebrities. Smoke poured from The Martian as it moved its upper body and flail arm, its ‘feet’ no longer showing signs of mobility.

While Pixel Hunter began moving towards the other side of the arena, the flamethrower drone swooped in and attempted to position an attack on The Martian. This attempt proved unsuccessful, as the drone dived sharply and crash-landed right next to The Martian, briefly spouting smoke and fire. The Martian spun, lowered and swung its flails, using them to rip out much of the drone’s internals before swatting it away. As it raised the flails once more, The Martian suddenly shook backwards, causing one of its arms – and part of its electronics – to pop out of position.

Pixel Hunter drove around the immobile Martian as it was being counted out, winning the battle by knockout and securing the first place on Tao Shen’s team. Despite emerging with the winning machine, Shen expressed further admiration towards The Martian’s design and self-righting capabilities in his post-battle interview.

**Winner: Pixel Hunter**

### Iron Scrap vs Ocean Waves

Iron Scrap immediately darted across the arena, slamming into and inflicting significant damage to the front of the much slower Ocean Waves. Ocean Waves appeared to have difficulty moving forwards, and sustained more damage while being pushed back into the red corner by Iron Scrap. Briefly, Iron Scrap retreated and drove around Ocean Waves as the blue machine briefly moved forward, tearing a large chunk of armor from Ocean Waves’s right-rear corner. Ocean Waves shuttled back and forth, then sustained another blow from Iron Scrap’s drum which further damaged its front end.

Seconds later, the two robots collided head-on once more; Iron Scrap threw Ocean Waves upwards on contact, tearing another piece of armor off and immobilizing Ocean Waves completely. With its front end badly damaged, Ocean Waves was counted out, awarding Iron Scrap a knockout victory and the first place on Tu Ziya’s team. Following Ocean Waves' loss, Emma Dumont visited the team’s young members, giving them hugs and motivational advice ahead of future battles.

"*This is just the beginning for you, okay? You have your whole lives ahead of you, you’re so… ahead of everything for your age. You’re so great, you’re so smart, you’re so creative and amazing… and you can do anything!*"
— Emma Dumont’s words of encouragement to the young Ocean Waves team

**Winner: Iron Scrap**

### Agate vs Snake

Snake was quicker out of the gates, bumping into Agate and then driving underneath it completely, while Agate was left swinging at thin air. Snake fired its flipping panel forward, which hooked under the front armor of Agate, and allowed it to lift its weapon system up, but lost its grip on Agate in the process. Agate swung its hammer towards Snake, but missed and struck the floor - meanwhile, Snake was having difficulty retracting its weapon.

Snake pushed Agate over the saw slots, and Snake's raised weapon also clattered into Agate, but remained open. Snake's wedgelets then held Agate in place as Snake swung itself around with Agate still on top of it, but a hammer blow from Agate disrupted Snake's attack. The two robots separated, only for Agate to swing at the arena floor, and drive into the spiked wall. Snake backed away and finally managed to retract its weapon, while Agate's front armor was visibly loose after driving into the wall.

However, having comfortably led the match up until this point, Snake swerved into a corner of the arena and stopped moving completely. Agate capitalized, and despite missing some swings, Agate landed a number of hammer blows on the motionless Snake, and backed away as the referee counted Snake out, leaving Agate as the turnaround victor.

**Winner: Agate**

### Bullseye vs Deep-Sea Shark

Deep-Sea Shark began by advancing slowly towards Bullseye, which initially did not move away from the red corner. Eventually, Bullseye showed mobility, and dodged a charge from Deep-Sea Shark, only to sustain a front-on blow from the latter’s spinner. Moments passed before Deep-Sea Shark attacked Bullseye again, at which point its weapon stopped working, and the blue and white machine darted across the arena. Deep-Sea Shark and Bullseye proceeded to ram each other head-on while their spinners were not rotating; it became clear that Bullseye’s drum had also malfunctioned as Deep-Sea-Shark shoved it into the wall spikes.

Again, Deep-Sea Shark and Bullseye rammed each other, with Deep-Sea Shark proceeding to push the black and white machine into the wall spikes again. Bullseye sped away in an attempt to evade Deep-Sea Shark, but drove into and was launched upwards by the circular saws. Smoke poured from the right-hand side of Bullseye before Deep-Sea Shark pushed it into a grinder, then the circular saws; contact with the latter sent sparks flying and Bullseye spinning violently into the air. Towards the end of the battle, Bullseye was seen to have lost mobility on one side, while Deep-Sea Shark returned to the blue corner just as the timer expired. The resulting Judges’ decision ruled in favor of Deep-Sea Shark, securing it the second place on Huang Jian Xiang's team.

**Winner: Deep-Sea Shark**

### Mist Lion vs Button Lee

Immediately, Mist Lion charged across the arena while Button Lee got its flails up to speed. The two robots eventually met each other, with Mist Lion proceeding to throw Button Lee upwards with its spinner. As it spun in recoil, one of Button Lee’s wheels buckled, severely compromising its mobility as Mist Lion charged into it once more. However, Mist Lion was having its own issues, as a fire began spreading immediately behind its weapon mount.

A burning Mist Lion momentarily destabilized Button Lee while pushing the blue axlebot towards a grinder and the red corner, which immobilized Button Lee for the rest of the battle. However, in doing so, Mist Lion drove head-on into a spike strip, and was promptly hit by a nearby hammer as smoke poured from Mist Lion, which was also now immobile. Both robots were eventually counted out simultaneously, despite Button Lee’s attempts to keep its flails, body and unbuckled wheel rotating. As a result, the battle went to a Judges’ decision, which ruled in favor of Mist Lion, securing it the first place on Di Yang's team.

**Winner: Mist Lion**

### Drift vs The Doctor

The two competitors sized each other up in the opening moments, with Drift quickly getting around the side of The Doctor before pushing and lifting it against the wall spikes. The Doctor eventually broke free, trying to get its clamping spike into action as it briefly targeted Drift’s side. Drift outmaneuvered The Doctor again, proceeding to twice push the white and red machine into the grinders. The second attack resulted in the tip of The Doctor’s weapon being torn clean off by the grinder itself.

At this point, The Doctor lost mobility altogether, with its baseplate noticeably buckled following Drift’s attacks. Drift got underneath and pushed The Doctor into the spikes again, causing The Doctor’s baseplate to detach completely and its internals to come loose. With much of its components left dangling beneath its bodyshell or laying on the arena floor, The Doctor was pushed onto a nearby floor flipper and thrown over, unable to self-right. Drift emerged victorious by knockout, becoming the first robot to secure a place on Emma Dumont’s team.

**Winner: Drift**

### Cracked Sword vs Po Feng

Po Feng sped towards Cracked Sword in the first few seconds, sliding across the arena in pursuit of its green opponent. As it charged, the bar spinner of Cracked Sword clipped Po Feng’s side, sending both competitors recoiling towards opposite ends of the arena. While Cracked Sword simply spun round, Po Feng gyrated on one wheel into the red corner, slamming into the spikes and turning upside-down near the grinders. As Po Feng’s minibot and helicopter tried to attack Cracked Sword, the main robot spun round and hopped over the circular saws. Cracked Sword attacked the front of Po Feng twice more, throwing it off-balance and shredding its right tire with the second. Following these blows, Po Feng attempted to gyro-dance back into the upright position. However, the left axle sheared upon landing, causing the affected wheel to detach and Po Feng to suddenly become immobilized.

After tearing one of the wheels off Po Feng's minibot, Cracked Sword capitalized on the main robot's woes by slamming it into the nearby grinder, in turn re-righting it. The recoil of this hit caused Cracked Sword to spin and flip itself over violently; sparks flew as the green machine’s electronics shorted out and its bar spinner clipped the pit panel a few times. Despite the damage done to its internals and weapon mount, Cracked Sword survived largely intact, and resisted attacks from Po Feng’s flame-throwing helicopter. Having ironically caught fire during this time, the main part of Po Feng was counted out, therefore eliminating the entire multibot. This gifted Cracked Sword a spectacular knockout victory, and the first place on Zhu Zheng Ting’s team.

**Winner: Cracked Sword**

### Magic Windmill vs Saber

Magic Windmill began by driving towards the other side of the arena while getting its weapon up to speed. While trying to dodge Saber, Magic Windmill ended up driving flywheel-first into the spikes near the former’s control booth. Sparks flew as it hopped and reversed; seconds later, Saber got underneath and catapulted Magic Windmill across the arena. Magic Windmill somersaulted back onto its wheels as its flywheel touched the floor; after catching the edges of the pit, it responded by tearing Saber’s left sidepod open and breaking one of its drive chains.

The two competitors bumped each other, at which point Saber threw Magic Windmill onto its back. Amidst a shower of sparks, Magic Windmill kicked itself back onto its wheels a second time, momentarily coming to rest in the red corner. Immediately, it darted into the side of Saber, ripping off its right-front wheel and buckling part of its front armor. Despite this strong challenge, problems began to set in for Magic Windmill. As it dodged another attempted flip from Saber, its flywheel suddenly stopped spinning, rendering it weaponless and without any self-righting capabilities.

Saber met Magic Windmill again near the center of the arena, launching a third flip which threw Magic Windmill a full 360 degrees. Seconds later, Saber threw it onto its back yet again, the attack also causing Magic Windmill’s right-hand drive chain to break. Magic Windmill attempted to move with its left wheels, but could not gain any purchase to drive upside-down. As a result, it was counted out and eliminated from the battle via knockout, and Saber won the battle.

**Winner: Saber**

## References

1. ↑ https://m.weibo.cn/status/4392837782744246?