Whirlwind Cut

* TiFR
* Season 1

"*Whirlwind Cut, a unique martial arts skill, must be proud of the world today.*"
— Wang Pengfei's prematch interview (*King of Bots*, translated)
**旋风斩** (romanized as **Xuànfēng zhǎn**, translated as **Whirlwind Cut**) was a robot from Zhengzhou, China, which competed in the first season of *King of Bots*, alongside the 2018 spin-off series *This is Fighting Robots*.

The original *King of Bots* incarnation progressed to the second round of the main competition in the robot's debut, after immobilizing both parts of Stegodon α and Stegodon β in its first battle. Whirlwind Cut would then be eliminated by knockout at that stage by UK entry Spectre.

Despite being completely redesigned for *This is Fighting Robots*, Whirlwind Cut could not build on its promising *King of Bots* form. After not being selected by any team managers to begin with, it was flipped over and unable to self-right while trading blows with Cat King in its preliminary group battle. This knocked Whirlwind Cut out of the battle before it could be selected by a manager, eliminating it, despite again demonstrating a strong early performance.

Team member Shi Lei would later captain Team Cybermark and compete in *King of Bots II* with Iron Rooster.

## Versions of Whirlwind Cut

### *King of Bots*

Whirlwind Cut was initially a black and blue, octagonal box-shaped robot armed with an overhead horizontal spinner. This weapon consisted of three double-ended hammers connected together to form a triangular frame, encircling the robot's body and allowing Whirlwind Cut to concuss and tear into opponents. In addition to this armament, Whirlwind Cut also featured a front wedge with three grooves to lead opponents into its spinner and push them around if the spinner stopped rotating. The robot’s overall design gave it a striking resemblance to former *BattleBots* heavyweight champion Son of Whyachi, which also featured interconnected spinning hammers as its main weapon.

### *This is Fighting Robots*

For *This is Fighting Robots*, Whirlwind Cut underwent a complete redesign retaining the low chassis profile. Among the changes included a white and red paint scheme, an unusual eight-wheel drive system, and a full-width, angled feeder wedge, bearing a face with an X for a mouth. In place of the tri-hammer spinner, a wider, symmetrical overhead bar spinner was adopted, giving the new Whirlwind Cut a resemblance to other similarly-designed heavyweights such as 2009 *BattleBots* Pro Champion Brutality. While powerful, Whirlwind Cut's new weapon did not appear to offer self-righting capabilities, which proved especially costly throughout its appearance.

## Robot History

### King of Bots (Season 1)

Whirlwind Cut made its *King of Bots* debut in Episode 3, where it fought Stegodon α and Stegodon β in the first round.

It initially avoided the multibot to get its spinner up to speed, before smashing into the side of Stegodon β, buckling part of the latter’s armor and causing several bolts to shear off. As both Stegodon segments drove slowly around in its vicinity, Whirlwind Cut slammed into Stegodon β again, tearing its left-hand side clean open and causing it to stop moving seconds later. It left Stegodon β to smoke while it rammed into Stegodon α, immobilizing and causing the latter to roll into the grinders. With this, Stegodon α and Stegodon β forfeited the battle via tap-out, allowing Whirlwind Cut to win by knockout and progress to the second round.

There, it faced British entry Spectre, the eventual champion of the series.

Whirlwind Cut turned away in the opening seconds to try and get its weapon up to speed – however, Spectre immediately rammed, grabbed and pinned it against the wall spikes, before maneuvring it towards a nearby hammer. Despite breaking free, Whirlwind Cut was pushed fully under the hammer by Spectre, sustaining damage to its weapon frame as a result. Seconds later, Spectre dragged it over the flame jets and rammed it into one of the grinders; several more slams into the grinders and walls resulted in Whirlwind Cut ’s weapon frame buckling. Whirlwind Cut’s top armor was also pierced by Spectre; in response, the Shiny team activated a smokescreen in Team Robo Challenge’s control area, but to no avail as Spectre lifted and shuffled Whirlwind Cut back and forth.

Before Whirlwind Cut could evade, Spectre grabbed it by the weapon frame and rammed it into the wall again. Seconds later, it was lifted off the floor by Spectre’s crusher and carried towards one of the grinders. The grinder made contact with Whirlwind Cut ’s underside, tearing its front wedge off and carrying it over onto the upper wall. Whirlwind Cut fell into the gap between the grinder and its mount as a result, leaving it permanently wedged behind the hazard. With this, it instantly lost the battle and was eliminated from the competition, to the team’s dismay.

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

After not being selected by the celebrity team managers during the initial 'blind selection' process, Whirlwind Cut was required to fight in the preliminary group battle stage to impress and be selected to compete in the main competition. This match - broadcast in two parts across the first two episodes - saw it fight American entry Cat King, fellow *King of Bots* returnee Greedy Snake, and Brazilian newcomer Spike Head.

Whirlwind Cut immediately started spinning its blade, and was not drawn into the action until Spike Head was flipped and rendered immobile. Whirlwind Cut then landed a light blow on Cat King, throwing sparks. Afterwards, Whirlwind Cut landed a direct blow to the inverted Spike Head, sending it recoiling away, and Whirlwind Cut also struck Cat King on its escape. Greedy Snake pushed Cat King back into the wall, and Cat King sustained another direct blow from Whirlwind Cut, sending it straight back into Greedy Snake's grip.

Whirlwind Cut continued to capitalize on Greedy Snake's attacks, striking Cat King after it was dropped by Greedy Snake. This time, Cat King retaliated, and used its vertical spinner to trade with Whirlwind Cut's own spinner, throwing the Chinese robot onto its back. Whirlwind Cut had no method of self-righting, and was deemed immobile. As no team manager had picked Whirlwind Cut up to this point, it was eliminated along with Spike Head, and later Cat King, with only Greedy Snake progressing at this stage in the show.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 1
* Losses: 1

*NOTE: Whirlwind Cut's group battle in This is Fighting Robots is not considered to be a win or a loss.*

## Series Record

 Season 2 | Entered with Iron Rooster (Shi Lei)

## Outside King of Bots

The team behind Whirlwind Cut would also compete on *Clash Bots* with a similarly-designed overhead spinner, **Bermuda Triangle** (**百慕大三角**, romanized as **Bǎimùdà sānjiǎo**). This machine adopted an all-over gray paint scheme as well as a Son of Whyachi-type weapon similar to that of the Season 1 incarnation.

Bermuda Triangle faced the lifter/rammer of **Fier Kylin** in its first battle, shown as a brief recap in the second episode. Very little information is known about this fight, though the footage suggests that Bermuda Triangle was overturned by Fier Kylin which later attempted to throw it out of the arena. Fier Kylin won by knockout as Bermuda Triangle was unable to self-right, eliminating Bermuda Triangle from the competition.

## References

1. ↑ https://youtu.be/Kd-o1aRDpII?t=2385
2. ↑ https://youtu.be/4tv\_9WodTio?list=PLB\_lie3fxsamDKZApYlsBMZdUef\_uTrOD&t=3345

## External Links

* Whirlwind Cut on the *King of Bots* website (Chinese, archived)
* KOB Team Bright Weibo (Chinese, scrapped)
* Whirlwind Cut This is Fighting Robots Weibo (Chinese, scrapped)