Yesaji

* Season 2
* Season 1.5

**Yesaji** was a heavyweight robot from India which competed in *This is Fighting Robots* and *King of Bots II*, under two completely different guises. Yesaji was built and entered by renowned Indian robot combat team Blanka Botz.

In *This is Fighting Robots*, Yesaji made only fleeting appearances in the 'blind selection' process, along with a preliminary group battle where it was not selected by any of the celebrity team managers. As such, it was eliminated prior to the main competition.

Returning for *King of Bots II*, Yesaji had no working weapon in either of its first two fights, but although this prevented it from defeating Agate, it was able to win a four-way rumble over Bullseye, Iron Rooster and Land Dragon to earn a place on Tu Ziya's team. On this team, Yesaji defeated Flaming Wheel, but lost a two-on-two battle against Vulcan and Xiake. Yesaji also represented Tu Ziya in the Attrition War, where it beat Rhino on a Judges' decision, but lost the use of its spinner and had to stay in the arena to fight The Hounds without making any repairs, and was defeated as a result. In the next round, however, Yesaji earned a prompt victory over Two BBQ and secured Tu Ziya's first victory over another manager. However, Yesaji was beaten soundly by Black Rabbit, which led to Yesaji and the rest of Tu Ziya's team being eliminated from *King of Bots II*.

## Versions of Yesaji

### Yesaji (This is Fighting Robots)

The original version of Yesaji was a black and red, four-wheel drive robot with a low, roughly box-shaped chassis and a lifting/grabbing weapon. The weapon combined a forked lifting plate with a pair of overhead clamping jaws - similar in design to the original 2015 incarnation of Bite Force - which were intended to allow Yesaji to grab and lift opponents. While the robot boasted reasonable ramming power, the extent of its offensive capabilities was not fully demonstrated in its televised appearance.

### Yesaji (King of Bots II)

The second version of Yesaji used a more tried-and-tested design, consisting of a four-wheel driven machine armed with a golden disc, spinning vertically at 4500rpm at the front of the robot. The robot was also capable of running inverted on two of its wheels, albeit without the use of its weapon. The robot was largely colored white, but was decorated with a brick wall design across its front armor panels.

## Etymology

The robot was named after Yesaji Kank, a childhood comrade of Shivaji Maharaj, a warrior king and the founder of the Maratha Empire.

According to a Baidu programme listing for *This is Fighting Robots*, the original incarnation's Chinese name was **魔鬼椒** (romanized **móguǐ jiāo**), which roughly translates to **Devil Pepper**. The Season 2 incarnation went under the name **神殿之力** (romanized as **Shéndiàn zhī lì**), directly translating to **Temple Power** or, according to Zhejiang STV's official translations, **The Power of the Temple**.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

At first, Yesaji was chosen by Zheng Shuang during the 'blind selection' process, provisionally securing its place on the Green team. However, it would later be dropped by Shuang to make room for returning *King of Bots* Season 1 finalist Megabyte, the decision taking Blanka Botz by surprise.
Yesaji was therefore required to fight in a preliminary group battle to demonstrate its capabilities and potentially be selected by a manager for the main competition. At that stage, it fought UK entries Griffin Mk II and Lieutenant Bam, as well as Chinese competitor The Extreme.

Brief highlights of this battle were aired in Episode 2; Yesaji initially began strongly by ramming and getting underneath The Extreme in the opening moments. However, its contributions to the remainder of the battle were not shown in the main episode, as the rest of the highlights focused on its three opponents.

    In the VIP version showing the whole battle process, Yesaji rushed to Griffin Mk II and The Extreme at the beginning. After colliding with Lieutenant Bam briefly, it changed to attack Lieutenant Bam. After a dogfight, Lieutenant Bam stopped moving. It Again redirected the attack to Griffin Mk II and The Extreme, but after pushing The Extreme against the wall, Yesaji stopped moving

By the end of this melee, Yesaji was not selected by any team manager, and would not take part in the main competition of *This is Fighting Robots* as a result.

### King of Bots II (Season 2)

Yesaji received its first fully-aired fight in Season 2, where the new vertical spinner design competed in Episode 3, joining the competition alongside eleven other international entries. It was randomly selected to battle against Agate to take its place on Tu Ziya's team. Before the battle, Yesaji's team proudly declared that they would not even need their weapon to win this battle, and indeed, the whole battle was fought without Yesaji using its vertical spinner, although Team BlankaBotz confirmed after the fight that this was not intentional.

"*I don't even need to spin up my weapon for its full potential!*"
— Team BlankaBotz before the fight

At the start of the fight, Yesaji swerved around the arena, likely attempting to spin up its broken weapon, but eventually charged into Agate regardless, popping it into the air. Agate responded by driving straight into Yesaji, and although the collision altered its alignment, this helped it land an accurate hammer blow on the top of Yesaji. However, the force of this swing was enough to break Agate's hammer mechanism, leaving it in the down position for the remainder of the fight.

Nevertheless, Agate kept its broken weapon in place and used it to guide Yesaji into the Grinder, and then the corner of the arena with a continuous charge. The two robots separated and danced around each other in the center of the arena, with Yesaji nudging Agate back, until it managed to hook its wedges under the front of Agate, and drive it into the arena saws, which visibly buckled the rear armor of Agate.

Yesaji then made another charge, but rode up the side of Agate and knocked its hammer back into place. The two robots engaged in a back-and-forth which resulted in Yesaji driving over the floor flipper, which turned it over. With no working spinner, Yesaji was unsuccessful in its repeated attempts to self-right using the arena wall and the Grinders, while Agate simply kept its distance and watched Yesaji's struggles.

Emerald eventually caught the distracted Yesaji at the start of the second minute, and pressed it against the arena wall. Although Yesaji drove away, it was raised slightly by the floor flipper, and Agate slid Yesaji into the Grinders, which finally righted Yesaji, and allowed it to use its wedges once again, even if the spinner remained inactive.

The upright Yesaji bulldozed into Agate and caused Agate's front shell to completely detach from the robot temporarily, bending up into the air. When Agate's armor fell back into place, it wedged under Yesaji and used the top of its armor to hold Yesaji in place, for a drive into the wall. Upon their collision with the wall, Agate's shell bent up again completely, but one the robots separated, it was clear that Yesaji had lost drive on one side of the robot, with smoke also emerging from the machine. Agate kept its distance and allowed the referee to count out Yesaji, which could not leave its own circumference. Yesaji therefore lost the battle and did not join Tu Ziya's team.

**Huang Jian Xiang**: "*What happened to your weapon? You never really attacked.*"
**Team BlankaBotz**: "*In testing, everything was going good, but I have to find out what happened, I really don't know. ...I'm really disappointed.*"
— A sympathetic post-match interview

Yesaji was relegated to the Redemption Round, where it was required to win a four-way rumble against Bullseye, Iron Rooster and Land Dragon in order to earn a place on a celebrity team of its choosing. Critically, Yesaji's weapon once again failed to spin, although the weaponry of Bullseye was also broken, and Land Dragon was completely immobile from the outset due to a suspected dislodged magnet.

After Yesaji briefly nudged Bullseye, Iron Rooster and Yesaji collided, with Iron Rooster's swinging mace clipping Yesaji as it drove past. Drill Dragon's immobility was highlighted, and it started to be counted out while Yesaji barged Bullseye into the arena wall, which seemed to remove half of its drive. Iron Rooster rolled in for an attack but missed, and Yesaji collected Bullseye and rammed it right into the corner where Drill Dragon was parked, with Bullseye becoming immobile right next to it. Iron Rooster closed in to attack Yesaji but was disrupted by the floor flipper, and the two robots returned to the center of the arena, largely missing attacks.

Iron Rooster swung violently while Yesaji bided its time, measuring up a good attack, and managed to carry Iron Rooster to the side of the arena, but sustained a glancing blow in the process. In a more successful charge, Yesaji knocked Iron Rooster onto one wheel briefly, disorienting it. Yesaji continued its offence, ramming into Iron Rooster's wheel to knock it into the wall, while avoiding several swings from Iron Rooster. Yesaji delivered Iron Rooster to the wall once more, and delivered another ram while narrowly avoiding Iron Rooster's hammer, when time expired on the battle. The judges favored the controlled rams of Yesaji, and declared it the winner. It would subsequently be selected for Tu Ziya's team as a result.

Yesaji was then the first robot to represent Tu Ziya in the next round, battling Flaming Wheel of Huang Jian Xiang's team to earn a point for its team, while also defending its own place on Tu Ziya's roster, as a loss here could have led to its elimination. For the first time in the competition, Yesaji's vertical spinner was finally working in this fight.

Both robots got their spinning weapons up to speed in the opening seconds, marking the first time in the season that Yesaji's spinner had worked. The two robots collided in the sixth seconds and were sent violently recoiling away in a shower of sparks, with Yesaji being thrown into the arena wall. Although Flaming Wheel came off better in the first interaction, this was not the case in the second hit, where Yesaji knocked it across the arena, and into the Grinder.

This hit stopped the momentum of Flaming Wheel's rim spinner, while Yesaji lost the use of its weapon altogether, but Yesaji nevertheless bumped Flaming Wheel into the Grinder which turned it over. Although Flaming Wheel was still spinning at top speed while inverted, it could not turn itself back over, and Yesaji circled around the arena until Flaming Wheel was counted out. Yesaji therefore won the battle and earned a point for Tu Ziya's team.

Although Yesaji had earned a point for Tu Ziya's team, the other four robots on her team were not able to win their two-on-two matches, and Tu Ziya lost the round to Huang Jian Xiang. This put Yesaji's place in the competition in peril, as it and Earth Mover had been nominated for elimination prior to the round, in the event Tu Ziya's team lost. However, Tu Ziya instead removed Earth Mover from her team, and Yesaji remained in the competition.

In the next phase, Tu Ziya's team of four robots took on Zhu Zheng Ting's powerful line-up. Yesaji participated in a two-on-two battle in collaboration with its former opponent Agate, taking on the pair of Snake and Switch.

Agate entered the battle equipped with a large pole attached to its hammer, potentially to snag the drum spinner of Switch, but Agate immediately drove onto the wedge of Snake and was briefly suspended there. However, Switch hit the back of its own teammate Snake, and then Yesaji hit the back of Switch in convoy. Snake then managed to drive under the side of Yesaji, and carried it across the arena until it had been delivered to the Grinder. The impact of the Grinder knocked Yesaji further up the wedge of Snake, and off the back end, causing Yesaji to topple over. Switch clipped the hammer of Agate and then drove under its front armor to knock it loose, also ripping bolts and loose pieces out of Agate's body. The inverted Yesaji had moved over to the Grinder, and turned itself into the hazard blade-first in order to throw itself back onto its wheels, also clipping Snake in the process. Switch had managed to push Agate back towards the wall, inflicting more damage with successive hits from its drum spinner. At the same time, Snake also pushed Yesaji into the arena wall and started lifting it forwards.

The repeated attacks from Switch eventually ripped Agate's armor loose entirely, with it hanging off the side of the robot, and although Agate landed a light hammer blow on Switch, the British robot slammed it into the wall and ripped away the front armor entirely. With Agate's internals completely exposed, Switch was free to drive in and attack the innards, ripping away a wheel while throwing Agate onto its back. Although some of Agate's tattered wheels still spun helplessly, it could not fire its hammer to self-right, and Agate was counted out by the referee. Snake continued to hold Yesaji in place, preventing its escape until Switch closed in and directly hit Yesaji from behind, throwing it over. Switch then hit the top armor of Yesaji again, while Snake was momentarily lifted by the floor flipper. Yesaji could only pivot in place slowly, but when Switch charged in and flipped it back over with another drum spinner attack, Yesaji also clipped one of Switch's front wedges, and Switch then tore its own loose wedge off. Regardless, Yesaji then came to a complete standstill and was counted out, awarding the win by knockout to Switch and Snake.

After this loss, both Yesaji and Agate were at risk of being cut from Tu Ziya's team, but Tu Ziya once again saved Yesaji from danger, and instead cut Agate, leaving Yesaji as one of Tu Ziya's three remaining machines, with Iron Scrap and Doraemon.

Yesaji was then one of two robots from Tu Ziya's team (alongside the newly-enlisted Johnny and the Dinosaur) to represent her, and temporary allies Emma Dumont and Tao Shen, in the 'Attrition War'. When Yesaji entered the arena, its team were already at a major deficit due to a three-match winning streak from Boxing Champion, so Yesaji would need to win several matches in a row to keep the team's hopes alive. First, Yesaji fought against Rhino.

Both robots spun up their blades and soon came into contact, with Rhino accidentally swerving straight into Yesaji's spinner. Rhino was thrown into the air by Yesaji's 4500rpm spinner, but landed upright. Rhino responded with a side-on hit, knocking Yesaji up and pushing it across the arena, but then exposed its backside to Yesaji and the Indian machine pressed it against the arena wall. The two robots then dueled over the top of the floor flipper, with Yesaji wedging under Rhino and carrying it in circles. The robots were stuck together for such a long time that Rhino disabled its spinner, with Yesaji's also naturally coming to a stop.

When the robots finally separated, Rhino turned its spinner back on and charged Yesaji, but in its next attack, rode up the wedges of Yesaji and was slammed into the wall. This was enough to fully disable Rhino's spinner, and the robots circled around each other until they collided with a slam so fierce that Rhino almost toppled over its front upon impact. Yesaji was momentarily clipped by the Grinder, but continued to press against the ramming Rhino. Yesaji was very briefly able to turn its spinner back on, but it gave out only seconds later thanks to a ram from Rhino. The two robots continued to ram and push each other until time expired.

"*I was pretty confident that I can beat him because I've got more weapon power than Rhino.*"
— Team Blanka Botz

The Judges' decision went in Yesaji's favor, but as the team were not allowed to remove their robot from the arena and repair its broken spinner, Yesaji was required to face The Hounds without the use of its weapon.

As a result of its previous fight, Yesaji was competing without the use of its spinner, and also appeared to struggle moving in the opening stages, which allowed The Hounds to power up their drums. Yesaji attempted to push both multibots, scraping across their drums, but managed to push the yellow Hound into the wall twice. Yesaji then attempted to trap the yellow Hound in the corner, but hit the wall itself, and the blue Hound closed in to hit the wedge of Yesaji, throwing itself over in the process. Yesaji edged the yellow Hound back, maintaining a steady lead, while the blue Hound self-righted using its gyroscopic forces.

The yellow Hound was then fed to the Grinder by Yesaji, and the blue Hound followed this up with friendly fire on its teammate, also throwing itself over once again. This allowed Yesaji to drive the yellow Hound into the corner, but the blue Hound caught it by surprise, and hit it straight from behind. Yesaji was thrown directly onto its front, atop the yellow Hound. While the trapped half of The Hounds remained in place, the blue Hound celebrated a come-from-behind victory whilst Yesaji was counted out.

"*We love those guys, and if the weapon was working, it could have gone a very different way.*"
— Ellis Ware on Yesaji

After Yesaji's defeat, Warrior also lost to The Hounds, meaning that Tu Ziya, Emma Dumont and Tao Shen had lost the Attrition War. As a consequence, Tu Ziya was required to cut one of her four robots, but spared Yesaji in order to cut Zonny and Dinosaur. Yesaji advanced to the next round where it faced Two BBQ for the chance to earn a surprise victory for Tu Ziya over Zhu Zheng Ting.

After both robots powered up their vertical spinners, Two BBQ covered more distance and met Yesaji in its starting corner, but rode straight up its wedge, and Yesaji booted Two BBQ onto its back with a powerful hit, much to the delight of Tu Ziya and her team. Two BBQ sped around the arena inverted, and connected its blade with Yesaji, but could do little more than throw sparks, with its spinner now rotating downwards into Yesaji. In response, Yesaji clipped the side of Two BBQ and knocked it onto its side, pinned on its own castors. Although Two BBQ twitched back and forth, it could not get back down onto its wheels, and it was counted out, granting the win to Yesaji, and to Tu Ziya's team as a whole.

Much rode on Yesaji's next battle, as it fought against Black Rabbit of Zhu Zheng Ting's team, with a loss potentially leading to Tu Ziya's entire team being eliminated from the competition.

In the first collision, Black Rabbit appeared to demonstrate its lower ground clearance, but was still thrown back by the vertical spinner of Yesaji. The two separated, and then Yesaji went back in for the attack, but again its own wedge was not low enough, and it rode straight up the front of Black Rabbit, which pushed Yesaji into the wall. In response, Yesaji's disc scraped at the drum of Black Rabbit, which could not start to spin due to Yesaji being in too close a proximity, and Black Rabbit let out a small gust of smoke while being pushed back across the arena by Yesaji, although Black Rabbit soon responded by bashing Yesaji into a Grinder mount.

The two separated again and circled around each other, with Black Rabbit finally able to spin up its drum. After reaching high speeds, Black Rabbit use its lower wedge to drive under Yesaji and slam it into the wall, while making first contact with its drum. A series of consecutive hits from Black Rabbit almost knocked Yesaji over, but it eventually escaped without serious harm. The two robots then collided head-on, bending one of Yesaji's wedges upwards, allowing Black Rabbit to inflict a follow-up blow that threw Yesaji onto its back. Black Rabbit capitalized on this heavily, and delivered a direct blow to Yesaji's weapon which completely shattered the golden spinner, and threw the parts of the broken weapon across the arena. This also caused the now weaponless Yesaji to front-flip through the air and land inverted again, with Black Rabbit now far in the lead.

The hindered Yesaji resorted to evasive measures and fled from Black Rabbit, but was eventually caught and thrown into the wall by Black Rabbit's drum, putting Yesaji back on its wheels. Yesaji was then able to complete a good drive into the arena wall, causing more smoke to emit from Black Rabbit, but with no visible effect on its opponent. After falling back down from an arena spike it was briefly pinned on, Black Rabbit ground down on Yesaji's wedges, and after enough blows, it was able to rip away the loose wedge of Yesaji entirely. This made Black Rabbit's next approach easier, and it slammed Yesaji into the wall hard, blasting it into the air with the combination of the drum spinner and the wall slam. Black Rabbit continued its assault, driving under Yesaji and piggy-backing it over to the Grinder, before delivering another blow to Yesaji's remaining wedge which threw the Indian machine over once again. Due to Yesaji's top panel being bent up earlier in the fight, Yesaji could hardly move while inverted, with even Zhu Zheng Ting encouraging Black Rabbit to stop fighting. Black Rabbit then celebrated its win by knockout whilst the referee counted Yesaji out of the battle.

With Tu Ziya's team falling in defeat in this one-off battle, Yesaji, along with Tu Ziya herself and her remaining robots Doraemon and Iron Scrap, were all eliminated from the competition at this stage, becoming the second team to be eliminated entirely after Tao Shen.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 4
* Losses: 4

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

## Outside King of Bots

Founded in 2011, Blanka Botz Robotics Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the design, development and manufacturing of robots in various disciplines. The club have enjoyed outstanding success in Indian and international robotics competitions – as of December 2017, they have won 90 trophies in domestic events as well as two titles and 63 medals internationally.

* Taanaji
* Dara (left) and Goho (right)
* Khashaba, with the top panels for Goho and Dara
1/3
Blanka Botz have built several robots for domestic and international competitions, a majority of them being equipped with vertical spinners. Their robots include:

* **Taanaji**, a 60kg, invertible drum spinner, which won the 2017 Techfest International Robowars competition and finished runner-up in the 2018 FMB (Fighting My Bots) World Cup 60kg tournament.
* **Dara**, a two-wheeled, 15kg robot armed with a drum spinner, winner of the 2017 FMB World Championship.
* **Goho**, a four-wheel drive, 15kg robot armed with a large drum spinner.
* **Khashaba**, a two-wheel drive middleweight armed with a single-toothed vertical drisc.

The team also competed in fellow Chinese robotics show *Clash Bots* with **Eggbeater**, a heavyweight robot armed with an egg beater spinner. It won its first battle against Nuclear and found reasonable success on the show, but was eliminated halfway through the series. It made a late return in Episode 10, as part of Excalibur's three-in-a-row battle challenge, but Eggbeater was not required to fight after Excalibur was immobilized by Bull Devil.

Blanka Botz would also compete in the 2023 *Bitva Robotov* competition in Russia with heavyweight vertical spinner **Dhanaji 2.0**. Dhanaji 2.0 was reasonably successful, progressing from the qualifier stages into the round of sixteen, where they defeated shell spinner Turbomasha before losing a controversial judge's decision to wedge flipper Barracuda.

## Trivia

* Yesaji was the first robot in Season 2 to compete twice in a single episode on more than one occasion, as it appeared in two fights during both Episode 6 and Episode 8.
* Yesaji had the highest amount of fights in *King of Bots II* out of the robots which did not advance to the final tournament, fighting in eight separate battles.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/blankabotz/posts/959296267580763
2. ↑ https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%BF%99%EF%BC%81%E5%B0%B1%E6%98%AF%E9%93%81%E7%94%B2
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7gdTyL9DPE&lc=UgzMwxz0cyPEr5SxnGp4AaABAg
4. ↑ https://youtu.be/o1i1tHXPQac
5. ↑ Private correspondence between Zassa2 and Bunny Sauriol, July 2021.
6. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/pg/blankabotz/about/?ref=page\_internal

## External Links

* Blanka Botz Facebook page
* anergy bomb VS eggbeater (clash bots )