Blue Flame (Combat)

* BattleBots IQ 2011
* NPC Charity Open 2004

## Overview

**Blue Flame** was a middleweight robot built by **Volatile Robotics** which competed in the *BattleBots* NPC Charity Open 2004 and *BattleBots IQ 2011*.

It was an invertible, two-wheel drive robot armed with a large undercutting disc with teeth bolted to the weapon. In 2011, this was interchangeable with a bar spinner.

Blue Flame performed well in untelevised *BattleBots* events, placing second overall in its *BattleBots IQ* competition.

Victor Soto previously fought in the earliest *BattleBots IQ* competitions with Nightstalker before designing a 120lb shell spinner called The Revenant and competing with his father.

Alongside Marc DeVidts of Icewave fame, Victor Soto competed with 220lb pneumatic flipper Vault during the *BattleBots* Pro Championship 2009.

With the return of *BattleBots* on ABC, Victor Soto was among the *BattleBots IQ* competitors contacted to gauge interest for possible competitors ahead of World Championship I. He applied with a 250lb version of Blue Flame, but was not selected to compete. Just a year later, Soto would make his televised debut in BattleBots World Championship II with 250lb bot ROTATOR.

## Robot History

### BattleBots NPC Charity Open 2004

After receiving a bye in the first round, Blue Flame went up against Floor Jack. The two robots drove at each other with Blue Flame tearing into Floor Jack and tearing a panel. Floor Jack raised its lifter eventually and Blue Flame lost drive, allowing Floor Jack to push its opponent under the pulverizer. Floor Jack won the match by KO and Blue Flame was now in the losers bracket.

Next up for Blue Flame was a weaponless Icewave, who tore its own internal combustion engine in its previous match against Major Punishment and used a wedge and plow for this fight. As the match began, the two bots circled one other before Blue Flame charged in and gave a shot to the plow. This move resulted in one of its teeth breaking off, making the disc unbalanced. After moving away for a bit, Blue Flame and Icewave charged each other and made contact once again, this time disabling Icewave's right side drivetrain. Blue Flame continued to dish out blows to the wedge before riding up its wedge and getting its disc stuck through the weapon mount on Icewave. At this point, smoke from the weapon began to pour out. The match was soon paused to separate the bots. When the match restarted, Blue Flame's weapon couldn't spin back up, as the earlier sticking through the weapon mount may have either caused or been caused by the weapon motor burning out. The rest of the match was pretty much a pushing match, with Blue Flame sitting and spinning at some points to try and cause damage, while Icewave was still crabwalking. At one point, Blue Flame rode up the wedge and got pinned by Icewave for several seconds, before getting off and starting to sit and spin. That pin by Icewave appeared to have broken something in it, as it was barely twitching after that, so Blue Flame started to continuously ram into the crippled, twitching Icewave until the match ended. Due to the fact that it was still fully functional, Blue Flame won the judges' decision and advanced to the next round.

Next up for Blue Flame was Easty Beast. When the match began, Blue Flame tried to turn away as Easty Beast started advancing towards it, but it wound up hitting the wall with its disc, losing one of its teeth and making the disc unbalanced. Blue Flame tried to turn around to land a shot on Easty Beast, but instead it got pushed into the wall, disc first, pinned, and lifted. when it got free, its disc stopped working, leaving it vulnerable to getting pushed around and lifted. Blue Flame tried to make up for the loss of its weapon by becoming a makeshift thwackbot, hitting Easty Beast with its disc by constantly spinning itself around. While this worked to some degree, it did not stop Easty Beast from trying to push and bully Blue Flame around. The fight ultimately went the distance and Easty Beast won the judges' decision, eliminating Blue Flame from the tournament.

### BattleBots IQ 2011

In the first round, it went up against Miracle Max. After a few clashes with Miracle Max's disc, it managed to get around to the back, where it ripped off the rear wheels along with some wiring. Miracle Max was still working and dancing on its giant disc, so Blue Flame went in to dish out some more hits. After a few more clashes with the dancing Miracle Max, Blue Flame managed to get under and tear off the remaining wheels, immobilizing Miracle Max with only its disc still working. Blue Flame won by KO and moved to the next round, where it faced Witch Doctor.

When the match began, the two bots advanced towards each other before Witch Doctor got caught on a floor seam, which appeared to have affected its driving. Blue Flame took advantage of this and hit Witch Doctor on that side and damaging the wheels on that side. After Witch Doctor hit another floor seam, Blue Flame dished out one more gigantic hit to the wedge that sent Witch Doctor gyro-dancing out of control and onto its back near the wall, where its drum drove the robot the entire width of the arena before coming to a stop on the opposite wall. With Witch Doctor upside down on the wall with no way of self-righting, it tapped out, giving Blue Flame a win by TKO and advancing it to the quarter-finals, where it faced Category 5.

For this match, Blue Flame swapped the bar for its disc, with the intention of reaching under the shell and damaging its wheels or internals. When the match began, Blue Flame chased after Category 5 and started dishing shots to the shell, creating tons of sparks. When Category 5 moved to the center of the arena to get back up to speed, Blue Flame came in for another shot, ricocheting into the wall and bouncing off with its disc. Category 5 was soon up to full speed, and when Blue Flame attacked once more, it sent Blue Flame in the air momentarily. Blue Flame continued slashing both on and under Category 5's shell with its disc. While the first three shots did very little apart from sending sparks, the fourth one sent Category 5 in the air, and the fifth one sent Category 5 flying into the walls and bouncing off them. After the second bounce off the wall, Blue Flame immediately delivered shots at the shell before it got up to speed again. Blue Flame continued slashing at the fullbody spinner, the first two shots not doing much, but the third one managing to get under the shell, and the fourth one sending it to the red square close to the wall. This appeared to have killed part of the drive train on Category 5, but Blue Flame did not relent, coming in and delivering shots that made it grind the wall before giving out a final hit that caused both bots to bounce off and Category 5's shell to stop spinning momentarily. Category 5 started spinning again, but the very last hit appeared to have immobilized it fully, so it did not move. Category 5 was counted out, giving Blue Flame the win by KO and advancing it into the semi-finals, where it faced another fullbody spinner in The Blender.

For this match, Blue Flame started upside down to avoid chassis damage in weapon-to-weapon clashes. When the match began, both bots charged in and clashed weapon to weapon, throwing Blue Flame into the wall. Blue Flame came back and clashed again, throwing The Blender into the wall as well. Blue Flame tried to strike The Blender before it could spin up, but it was too late, and the resulting impact threw both bots to the opposite sides. After another weapon to weapon clash, Blue Flame got hit in the right wheelguard. When it charged in for another weapon to weapon clash, it got hit again, causing it to fly into the wall before landing upright. Blue Flame continued to take hits to the disc as well as both wheel guards before moving out of the corner, where The Blender hit and knocked off the black metal barriers protecting the lexan wall. The match was paused so that the crew could reposition the metal barriers before the match restarted. When the match restarted, the two bots got their weapons up to speed. Blue Flame accidentally hit the wall with its disc, ricocheting into The Blender, which hits the wheel guard. The two continued to clash weapons until The Blender committed a critical drive blunder and drove itself into the arena walls, causing it to ricochet off the corner of the box. The impact bent the shell of The Blender, disabling it for the remainder of the fight. Blue Flame grew in confidence, delivering three shots to The Blender and its shell before driving into the wall. The Blender attempted to ram Blue Flame at certain points, but was not designed for pushing and resorted to absorbing more attacks from Blue Flame. This led to the ring-shaped part of their shell flying away, exposing The Blender’s internals and forcing the team to tap out. This gave Blue Flame the win by TKO and moved it onto the finals, where it faced Witch Doctor in a rematch.

For this match, Blue Flame reverted back to its spinning bar. When the match began, both robots met at the center of the arena and clashed weapons. Blue Flame shaved sparks off of Witch Doctor's wedge, but otherwise not causing much damage. Blue Flame soon was kicked away in a weapon to weapon collision and kicked in the air before it could spin back up, flipping it upside down. After taking a shot from Witch Doctor again, Blue Flame tried to move away to get its weapon up to speed, before turning around and colliding weapon to weapon again. Blue Flame soon ran into a wall, stopping its own blade, when Witch Doctor came in and dished out shots to the front and the right wheel guard before Blue Flame got its blade back up to speed. However, Blue Flame made the mistake of swinging into the wall with the blade, leaving it vulnerable to a Witch Doctor attack. Blue Flame was first kicked in the air with a hit to the rear, then a weapon-to-weapon hit sent it flying and bouncing into a corner, leaving it with a still working but broken bar. Due to its weapon breaking in half, Blue Flame tapped out, giving Witch Doctor the win by TKO as well as the championship, with Victor Soto and Blue Flame finishing as the runner-up.

### BattleBots World Championship I

Blue Flame applied for the first season of the reboot, but was ultimately not selected to participate.

## Results

* Wins: 5
* Losses: 3