Po Feng

**破锋** (romanized as **Po Feng**, alternatively known as **Broken Edge**) was a Chinese competitor robot which fought in Season 2 of *King of Bots*. A multibot entered by Team Pro-fun, the builders of successful featherweight Calabash Bros, it was selected by a celebrity in the opening episode, but endured a destructive and dramatic loss against Cracked Sword at the start of its season run. Nevertheless, Po Feng recovered by winning a four-way rumble over Twin Panthers, Fat-Head Fish and Pot of Love to successfully join Tao Shen's team, a team which Po Feng soon became the captain of. Po Feng first battled under this team in a head-to-head against Drift, but lost on a Judges' decision, and ultimately led to the team's final defeat after Po Feng was defeated by Spectre, knocking Tao Shen's team out of the competition.

Po Feng was not the first heavyweight machine built by Team Pro-fun, as Wang Jiaqing had previously competed in Season 1 with Residual Wind, and team captain Hong Jing had previously finished as the runners-up in the Chinese TV show *Clash Bots* with **Toxic Fangs**.

## Design

Po Feng was a three-part multibot, featuring a set of robots with completely different forms of armament. The main robot was an orange and black, two-wheel drive machine armed with a powerful asymmetrical vertical spinner. Po Feng also featured a large plough-like front end for optimal defence, and was designed to run inverted through a set of castors on top of its weapon mount. The robot's large wheels were completely exposed, but its powerful spinner and experienced team makes Po Feng a highly regarded machine.

Accompanying the main robot were a two-wheeled minibot with a low static plough, used to breach opponents' ground clearances, and a modified remote-control helicopter equipped with a flamethrower. Both of these were painted orange and silver, and white and yellow respectively.

## Robot History

### King of Bots 2 (Season 2)

Po Feng debuted in Episode 1 of Season 2, where it was the third robot to be selected by Huang Jian Xiang for the opening rounds. Appearing in the third set of one-on-one battles, it was drawn to face a horizontal spinner in the form of Cracked Sword.

Immediately, the main part of Po Feng sped across the arena in pursuit of Cracked Sword, sliding past the blue corner and charging towards its opponent. However, the bar spinner of Broke Blades clipped Po Feng’s side, sending it spinning on one side into the red corner. Po Feng slammed into the spikes before flipping over next to the grinders, its own spinner making contact with the floor in the process. The main robot spun round and hopped over the circular saws, while its minibot briefly got underneath Cracked Sword before driving over one of the flame jets. Po Feng’s helicopter also attempted to pressure Cracked Sword, but could not inflict a meaningful attack.

Struggling to get itself moving away from the grinders, the main part of Po Feng took two more hits from Cracked Sword, the second throwing it off-balance and shredding its right tire. Po Feng attempted to gyro-dance its way back into the upright position; however, its left axle sheared, causing the affected wheel to fall off and the robot to suddenly become immobilized completely. Smoke briefly poured from within Po Feng’s weapon mount before Cracked Sword came in for another blow. The force of this attack caused Po Feng to recoil into a nearby grinder, which threw the main robot upwards and back upright.

While this happened, Po Feng’s minibot had also lost full mobility, resting near the blue corner on one wheel. Replays later showed the minibot to have had a wheel ripped off by Cracked Sword, and to have been driven over by its dark green opponent. With two parts now incapacitated – to the disappointment of Huang Jian Xiang – Po Feng’s helicopter attempted to swoop down and blast flames at Cracked Sword, although these attacks were unsuccessful. Ironically, the main part of Po Feng caught fire as it was being counted out, with the entire multibot subsequently being eliminated by knockout. As a result of its defeat, Po Feng would not join Jian Xiang’s team at this stage of the competition.

"*What a great fight tonight! Congratulation for Cracked Sword Lee! Although we have lost the first melee and entered to be determined, we are still working and waiting for the fight in the next round. Come on, team Pro-fun!*"
— Team Pro-fun Facebook page

In the Redemption Round, Po Feng was required to win a four-way rumble against Fat-Head Fish, Pot of Love and Twin Panthers outright in order to join a celebrity team of its choosing.

Po Feng spun up its vertical blade at the start of the battle, while its minibot swarmed the arena, but Po Feng generally kept out of the action until Twin Panthers and Fat-Head Fish disabled the shell spinner on Pot of Love. Here, Po Feng crept in to overturn the weaponless Pot of Love in a single attack, securing an instant knockout. The main body of Po Feng and its minibot then turned their attention to Fat-Head Fish, with a blow from Po Feng's vertical spinner throwing sparks off Fat-Head Fish's wedge, and despite the lack of visible damage, this attack was enough to KO Fat-Head Fish.

With only two robots still active, Po Feng drove into the back of Twin Panthers, and quickly landed a side-on attack, with Twin Panthers mainly running away and losing one side of drive to the second attack. The larger half of Twin Panthers did turn its wedge into Po Feng in a hard slam, moving only on one wheel, but this would prove to be its final attack, as it suddenly lost mobility altogether. The wedge-shaped minibot of Po Feng slid under the back of Twin Panthers, but this was ultimately not needed, as Po Feng had already won by KO, later joining the team of Tao Shen.

In the next round, Po Feng's captain Hong Jing was nominated to become the captain of Tao Shen's team, although the team were unsuccessful in their attempts to defeat Zhu Zheng Ting's seemingly stronger lineup. Although Po Feng had the opportunity to face Two BBQ and Switch in a one-versus-two matchup, it did not enter this risky battle, and Tao Shen's team were soundly defeated by Zhu Zheng Ting, losing Pixel Hunter from the team in the process.

Po Feng's first battle under Tao Shen's team was a captain-against-captain fight against Drift of Emma Dumont's team.

Both robots circled around each other in the center of the arena, with the first contact seeing Po Feng drive over Drift's wedge. Drift kept up the pressure, bumping into Po Feng, while taking only a slight knock from the opponent's spinner afterwards. Drift then drove under Po Feng, and managed to drag it a slight distance across the arena until the robots separated. Drift then made evasive maneuvers, baiting out an approach from Po Feng while running over the wedge-shaped minibot. Po Feng again drove over the top of Drift, and was corraled into the Grinder mount by Drift, causing its spinner to throw sparks off the arena surface.

Po Feng recovered, and attempted to utilize the flamethrower of its drone, but the main robot simply drove over the top of Drift again. Driving capably, Drift circled around Po Feng again, exposing its wedge and luring it into the same Grinder mount as before. After two more head-to-head collisions, Drift made a slight mistake in driving over the arena saws, but Po Feng made the same error on a larger scale, ramping over the already-raised saws to throw itself over entirely, landing on its vertical spinner and coming to a rest inverted. Drift capitalized on its inverted foe, pushing it into a corner while firing its lifter, although Po Feng successfully used the wedge shape of Drift to self-right.

Drift wedged under Po Feng briefly, but then suffered its first direct attack of the match, with Po Feng delivering a side-on hit to Drift, tossing it into the air but without causing visible damage. Po Feng followed this up by hitting the front of Drift, but when Drift fell back onto its wheels, it wedged straight back under the front of Po Feng and caused it to fall over. Although Po Feng attempted to self-right using its gyroscopic forces, Drift did not let up, and pushed it into the arena wall, using its lifter to momentarily strand Po Feng against the wall.

Po Feng was still attempting to self-right using its spinner, driving in circles, eventually doing so by bringing its vertical spinner into the Grinder, somersaulting Po Feng back onto its wheels - Drift, meanwhile, was briefly raised by the floor flipper. Nevertheless, Drift drove Po Feng back into the arena wall, and the two robots then separated. Meeting again in the center of the arena, Po Feng grazed the side of Drift with its spinner, ripping away loose parts, but Drift otherwise kept its front end towards Po Feng, and negated its attacks for the final ten seconds of the match. The battle was sent to a Judges' decision, and Po Feng ultimately lost the decision to Drift, to the disadvantage of Tao Shen.

"*In the battle with Drift, we knew we couldn't face the front wedge of Drift, so we tried to attack from the side and avoid the Drift's front, but we failed. We all enjoyed the driving experience in this battle. Congratulations to Drift!*"
— Team Pro-fun Facebook page

Po Feng's second and final battle on behalf of Tao Shen was a head-to-head against Spectre. Po Feng was outfitted with additional armor, front forks, and two wedge-shaped minibots for the fight.

"*Our team had modified something for Spectre before the battle. We increased the top armor from 10mm to 20mm, and also used 10mm 3D printing rubber to increase the thickness. We also added metal sheets to the front fork to enhance the ground contact (unfortunately, they fell off during the first crash). We tried to use Emerald's fork (Emerald's lucky bonus) to avoid the Spectre head-to-head conflict, but if the fork was used, there would be no extra weight to use the minibot. Our team had different opinions on using the fork. In the end, we did not think it was a good decision to install the fork. We chose the minibot instead of the fork and tried to use the minibot to hinder the distance of Spectre from the ground.*"
— Po Feng's plans before the fight

Po Feng entered the battle with two minibots, but drove straight onto the wedge of Spectre, allowing the crusher to immediately force its way into the spinner mounting of Po Feng, silencing the weapon while Spectre slammed Po Feng into the wall, breaking the added front wedges of Po Feng, although Po Feng fought back, slamming Spectre into the wall from within its opponent's bite. The tires of Po Feng started to release smoke from rubbing against the arena floor, and Spectre lightened its grip so that its next slam into the arena wall would cause both robots to fly off in different directions.

Po Feng was inverted, but Spectre slammed it into the wall and turned it back over, but used this chance to bite down on Po Feng from behind and drive it into a Grinder with three separate slams, and then another corner of the arena. Here, Spectre attempted to tighten its grip, but missed the armor of Po Feng, instead biting only into empty space where the blade would spin. Spectre attempted to reposition its claw and cause critical damage, while pressing Po Feng's spinner against the arena wall, but did not make any further purchase, so it settled for overturning one of Po Feng's minibots, and slamming the main robot into the wall.

Po Feng circled around the arena, but Spectre showed more composure, and caught it from behind again, pressing it back into the arena walls and Grinders, again biting only into empty space. Spectre momentarily lifted Po Feng into the air while retracting its claw, but Po Feng fell back down before it was bashed into yet another Grinder, also landing on one of its minibots, pulling its wheel off. One of Po Feng's two weapon belts also came loose as a result of this bite. The two robots separated, but Spectre soon got under the front of Po Feng again, and pierced the additional armor added to the top of Po Feng, although it did not bite through the robot's main armor.

Po Feng was still gripped tightly, and Spectre slammed Po Feng back into the Grinder mount wheel-first, also causing another gust of smoke to emerge from the overworked wheels. Spectre raised Po Feng off the floor with its crusher, dropping it onto the Grinder to turn Po Feng over. Spectre then repeatedly jammed Po Feng into the Grinder, causing it to pop up and even somersault over, although Po Feng did manage to escape and finally landed a hit with its weapon, striking the side of Spectre's wedge and throwing sparks from it. Po Feng then attempted to retreat for the remainder of the match, only briefly being caught on Spectre's lip, and landing a second light blow on its opponent when Spectre chased it down in the closing seconds. Time expired on the three-minute battle, and the Judges voted firmly in favour of Spectre, resulting in defeat for Po Feng.

"*We were amazed at the power and operation of Spectre. We also tried to attack the side of Spectre, but it didn't work. In several frontal conflicts, the position of the front armor exactly resist the location of the Spectre puncture and made it not bite the weapon motor. The prepared space for a bite was relatively large, which was located in the middle of the two weapon motors. We did not expect Spectre to choose to attack from behind us, but the bite positions were exactly between the two main beams, and the bite broke a belt without any other damage, luckily.*"
— Team Pro-fun on the battle

With this loss, Tao Shen had been defeated by Ye Hong Li in a series of three battles, with Po Feng's defeat being the decider. No team could continue in the competition with less than three robots, so Tao Shen, along with Po Feng, Dragon King and Earth Shovel, were all eliminated at this stage.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 1
* Losses: 3

## Series Record

 Season 2 | **Tao Shen's team**(1-3 record)

*NOTE: Team Pro-fun also entered the 2019 Opening Battle with Calabash Bros.*

## Outside King of Bots

The main part of Po Feng bears a striking resemblance to Team Pro-fun's previous heavyweight vertical spinner, **Toxic Fangs**, which competed in fellow Chinese robot combat show *Clash Bots*. Toxic Fangs enjoyed a very successful run on this show, collecting wins over competitors such as Flame T Rex, AU Thumper and eventual champion Dark Wolf, and ultimately finishing second overall to the latter.

## Trivia

* Po Feng was the only robot to be nominated as a team captain in Season 2 without boasting any head-to-head victories at that stage of the competition.

## References

1. ↑ Facebook post by Team Pro-fun
2. ↑ Facebook post by Team Pro-fun https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story\_fbid=678337719351599&id=462230377629002
3. ↑ Facebook post by Team Pro-fun https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story\_fbid=678337719351599&id=462230377629002

## External Links

* Team Pro-fun Combat Robots Facebook page