Brutus (US)

**Brutus** is a robot that competed in the second season of ABC's BattleBots reboot. It is armed with two guns which shoot special effects bullets. However, its primary weapon is its large vertical spinning disc. It performed well in the competition as it reached the round of 16 before losing to Tombstone.

It was built by Adam Bercu who also competed with Overhaul in the first season of ABC's BattleBots, which reached the quarterfinals.

Brutus did very well in Season 2, knocking Moebius out of the qualifying rounds and defeating Lock-Jaw by a controversial 2-1 split decision in the round of 32. But in the round of 16, Brutus lost by a devastating knock-out in 59 seconds to the eventual champion of the season, Tombstone.

## Robot History

### Battlebots

#### World Championship II

Brutus was drawn against a completely redesigned Moebius for their first battle. In the beginning of the match, Brutus fired its projectiles causing sparks to fly around the BattleBox but doing no damage. Meanwhile, Moebius tried spinning up its shell but became unbalanced, likely from one of the lower-mounted teeth hitting a divot in the floor, causing the robot to wobble. The rocking caused some of its batteries to be expelled through a gap between the shell and the body. Brutus slowly approached Moebius and hit it, causing Moebius to flip completely, landing on its wheels but spewing smoke from the batteries that power the shell. A second shot from Brutus put Moebius on its back and cracked the shell before Moebius was counted out. Brutus won the match by KO at 47 seconds and advanced to the round of 32 with its No.16 seeding, where it faced the No.17 seed Lock-Jaw.

Brutus approached Lock-Jaw with its drum up to speed. Neither robot was able to deal damage as Lock-Jaw was using its rear plow to shield itself. Both robots continued moving around, Brutus spinning away each time but unable to reach Lock-Jaw's wheels. Lock-Jaw managed to get underneath Brutus and push it weapon-first into the screws, causing the hazard to stop temporarily. Brutus' weapon motor began overheating, allowing Lock-Jaw some control in the final seconds. Lock-Jaw then attempted twice to clamp Brutus, with the latter escaping the first attempt unharmed and pushing Lock-Jaw back against the screws on the second attempt. Time ran out and the judges awarded a 2-1 split decision for Brutus, allowing it to advance to the round of 16, where it faced the feared No.1 seed Tombstone.

At the start of the match, Brutus seemed to be holding out against Tombstone's blade. However, not long into the match, Brutus had one of its armor plates torn off by Tombstone. Not long after that, Brutus lost drive on the right side, leaving it vulnerable to further attacks from Tombstone. Eventually Brutus was flipped over but not before sending Tombstone flying from one of the impacts. Brutus could no longer move and was counted out. Tombstone won by KO at 59 seconds and Brutus was eliminated from the tournament.

Brutus was originally going to take part in the MIT rumble, were it would've faced Overhaul and SawBlaze. However, due to damage caused by Tombstone and due to Adam wanting to give Dane a chance, Brutus pulled out and was replaced by Road Rash.

#### World Championship III

Brutus' first match was against Red Devil. For this battle, Brutus was equipped with an additional titanium plate to protect from Red Devil's overhead attacks. Brutus started poorly, however, as its weapon motor controller fried almost immediately, causing its weapon to spin down. Red Devil used its weaponry to get underneath Brutus, but was not able to cause major damage. Brutus continued to try and attack, but could not get underneath and found itself under the saw arm of Red Devil. The saw continued to work into the wedge of Brutus, causing visible scars in its front. By this point, Brutus' drive motor controller had also died, which left the robot unable to move. Brutus was counted out and Red Devil won by KO.

In its second fight of the season, Brutus had to fight former heavyweight BattleBots champion, Son of Whyachi. In the beginning of the match, both robots spun up their weapons, but Brutus was quicker and got the first hit, sending both robots flying. Both robots recovered but Brutus got another attack in. Son of Whyachi did get a hit on Brutus' wedge that spun the bot around, but it hit the killsaws slot and stopped, facing SOW. When the third attack came, Brutus launched Son of Whyachi into the air and eventually on to its top. Son of Whyachi tried to spin up and maybe self-right, but it only managed to spin its body in place. Brutus opted to hold back any further attacks and Son of Whyachi was counted out, giving Brutus a quick and shocking knockout victory.

Brutus' next opponent was WAR Hawk and made a subtle modification in response. The match began poorly for Brutus as they were immediately flipped over after colliding weapon-to-weapon with WAR Hawk. However, Brutus still had full drive power whereas their opponent could only drive in circles. Brutus worked hard to try and right itself, eventually succeeding by driving into the far wall on the other side of the box, far away from its opponent. It then drove WAR Hawk hard into the arena barrier, flipping its opponent but receiving a pop to its back in the process, stopping its weapon. Luckily, after pushing WAR Hawk into the wall again, Brutus managed to get its weapon spinning again and sent WAR Hawk flying. Brutus held back as the count out began, but WAR Hawk showed some movement again so Brutus attacked it once more, getting the win by KO as WAR Hawk's final twitches of movement weren't enough, as they couldn't move away from the wall.

Next up for Brutus was Gigabyte. Brutus went into this fight, opting not to spin up its weapon until they disabled Gigabyte's spinning shell. The match got underway and Brutus put the first half its plan into action, successfully keeping Gigabyte from causing too much damage and at times, stopping Gigabyte's shell from spinning. Gigabyte continued to attack, not really able to do much, but the repeated impacts eventually caused the spinning shell to stop working. Brutus took advantage by spinning up its weapon and continued to attack, but this didn't last long as they managed to drive up the shell of Gigabyte and flipped itself over. Despite being invertible, they had lost one of the two feet meant to allow for invertibility from one of the earlier attacks, which meant they were not really able to drive away and were left struggling to even drive in circles. Brutus was counted out, giving Gigabyte the win by KO.

This proved to be Brutus' final BattleBots fight, as it did not return for future competitions.

## Wins/Losses

* Wins: 2
* Losses: 1