Chronos

* BattleBots World Championship VII
* BattleBots Discovery Season 5
* BattleBots Discovery Season 4
* This is Fighting Robots

## Overview

"*Times up!*"
— Bradley Warren Hanstad
**Chronos** (Chinese: **滴答滴**, romanized as **Dīdā dī**, meaning **Tick Tock**) was a robot from California in the United States of America, which competed in Season 1.5, the debut of *This is Fighting Robots*. It was built by Team Ghetto Logic Robotics whom were joined by Bradley Warren Hanstad from the Megabyte team at *King of Bots*. In Season 1.5, Chronos was selected to participate in the main competition after impressing celebrity captain Sa Beining during a preliminary battle. As part of the Yellow team, it lost to Sandstorm on a Judges' decision, before being eliminated by Tánshè when Chronos was thrown out of the arena.

Chronos then entered BattleBots, but failed to perform as intended during its debut season, finishing the 2019 season's Fight Night with a 1-2 record due to unreliability concerning their primary weapon's rigidity, spin-up speed and power.

Following their exit from the main competition, the minibot was loaned to Team Valkyrie for a grudge match against Ribbot, where it was painted black and blue and given blue flags for the battle.

Returning for Discovery Season 5, Chronos had some revisions done mainly to its ring, now being an angled shape like Captain Shrederator in an attempt to deflect spinning opponents. It also sported new teeth, and bore additional decorations on the top of the bot and its ring. Chronos fared no better in the 2020 season as its weapon was still struggling to cause any real damage. It was flipped against the BattleBox in a loss to P1, though it was at least shown to be durable in its subsequent loss to Bloodsport. Chronos did not do any better in the Son of Whyachi bracket of *BattleBots: Bounty Hunters*, losing a rematch to Copperhead in the opening round.

Chronos did not compete in the 2021 season of *BattleBots* as Jerry Serafin has joined Robotic Death Company to assist with Gigabyte and Cobalt. Team member Bradley Hanstad also assisted with Deep Six during the competition, and later spearheaded Triton in 2022.

However, Chronos submitted an application for *BattleBots* World Championship VII. The team appeared largely the same with Jerry Serafin and Johnny Melgoza still present, though they have picked up a new female team member called Jennifer, whose full name was not mentioned in the application, but attended an event hosted by Jerry Serafin and was inspired to join the team. Trent Wilson returned to the team having joined ahead of the 2020 season, explaining the intention to manufacture multiple shells to decrease repair time.

## Design

Chronos is themed after the Ancient Greek god of time, with an exposed gear pattern representing the clockwork. It is an invertible, green and black, two-wheeled, circular robot. For weaponry, Chronos was armed with a spinning ring surrounding the entire body of the robot. Chronos could be stranded on its side or against the wall, but the force of its spinner can eventually break the robot free. However, Chronos suffered throughout the competition from a very slow spin-up time, allowing quicker robots to shepherd it, and prevent the spinner from reaching top speed. The robot is complete with a logo designed by Bradley Warren Hanstad on a livestream. On BattleBots, it was accompanied by 3lb minibot called **Hand of Time** (also known as **Time Line**) which was a a nine-foot long pole capable of spinning on a dime.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots

Chronos was not selected to bypass the preliminary rounds by a celebrity, and thus needed to battle for its qualification. Its four-way preliminary round saw it fight Blue Demon, Bonfire, and Sandstorm. Chronos started the battle tentatively, and was immediately rammed by Sandstorm, the impact briefly launching it into the air. It struggled to get its rim spinner rotating as all four robots converged in the corner; however, Chronos drove straight into Blue Demon, sparks flying as the Mexican machine’s spinners hit its rim. This impressed Sa Beining sufficiently for him to select Chronos to join the Yellow team; however, after briefly nudging Bonfire aside, Chronos drove away, avoiding its opponents as its rim spinner remained motionless. After driving and stopping in various places around the arena, it was eventually pushed and flipped into one of the grinders by Sandstorm; the attack also resulted in Sandstorm flipping itself over. Rolling a full 360 degrees, Chronos landed upright, and spun hastily before advancing to the other side of the arena. It survived to the end of the battle, and qualified for the main competition through being selected by Beining.

Chronos’ first battle in the main competition occurred during the second round, where it was selected by Sa Beining to face Sandstorm for the second time. Immediately, it retreated towards the corner to get its rim up to speed, allowing Sa Beining to activate a floor flipper to lift and block Sandstorm’s initial charge. However, it was quickly shepherded and pushed against the spikes by Sandstorm, and was repeatedly knocked off-balance as the British machine rammed and attempted to flip it a few times. As it finally got its spinner up to speed again, Chronos drove towards Sandstorm as it drove into a set of rising floor rods, only to bump into the rods itself in the process. Moments later, Chronos was launched off the floor several times as Sandstorm drove into its now-rotating rim, but escaped being flipped over completely as Sandstorm drove underneath it and in between the circular saws. Evading Sandstorm yet again, Chronos finally got its rim spinner up to full speed as both machines circled around each other. It sustained a head-on collision with the latter’s wedge, which launched it several feet into the air before Sandstorm deflected it again into the wall spikes. Chronos lost speed in its weapon as Sandstorm continued to ram and deflect it upwards – moments later, it was sent speeding into the wall spikes following another push from Sandstorm. As it struggled to escape from the spikes, Chronos was scooped underneath and tipped against the wall by Sandstorm, where it immediately spun its body up to try and free itself. However, it initially remained motionless, resulting in it nearly being counted out. With one second before it was due to be eliminated, Chronos shook itself off the wall and gradually positioned itself back onto its wheels, to Sa Beining’s delight and in spite of Sandstorm’s attempt to hold it in place with its lifter. Chronos continued to evade and weather Sandstorm’s rams for the remainder of the battle, even as the latter pushed it into the grinders. It was launched into the air by Sandstorm one last time before time ran out, with both competitors surviving to a Judges’ decision. However, Chronos lost the decision, and thus did not score a point for Sa Beining and the Yellow team.

"*During the fight with Chronos, we knew that we had to get on them very fast. If we let them spin up, we could take damage. So we went straight over to them, and started to worry them, like a dog with a bone!*"
— Gabriel Stroud of Team Legion
In its next battle, Chronos fought the UK flipper of Tánshè. Immediately, Tánshè charged directly towards Chronos to prevent it from powering up its spinning rim, causing it to recoil into the air. Tánshè then edged Chronos towards the Grinder, and bounced the spinning robot off its flipper repeatedly. Chronos tried in vain to spin up its weapon, grinding on the side of Tánshè, but caused no damage, and was pushed towards the corner of the arena. Tánshè attempted to flip Chronos out of the arena, but was not fully underneath it, and instead flipped Chronos onto the side of the arena wall, hanging from the protruding spikes.

"*Oh god damn it!*"
— Team Ghetto Logic Robotics as their robot is stranded on the wall
Held in place, Chronos could only spin its outer rim in an effort to break free from the wall. Tánshè held off, hoping to claim a win by knockout, while the referee started to count Chronos out. Halfway through the referee's count, Chronos started to jump through the air, sliding along the wall, but did not reach its wheels. Straight after the referee delivered the '9' of the count, Chronos finally fell back to its wheels and rejoined the battle. However, this relapse was short-lived, as Tánshè drove straight back under Chronos, delivered it to the other corner of the arena, and flipped it straight over the wall, winning the battle by knockout. This eliminated Chronos from the competition.

"*It was really tough because when we tested Chronos, it did a great job in our test, and it looked very formidable and strong. And then, we entered and it just wasn't performing like it should.*"
— Team Ghetto Logic Robotics
### BattleBots World Championship IV

Chronos started off the 2019 season with a match against Gigabyte. When the match began, both robots were off to a relatively poor start as neither was able to spin up without becoming unbalanced. Chronos ultimately took the first hit, which was relatively mild. Chronos spun back up but took another hit, this time sending both robots flying in opposite directions of the BattleBox. After a third hit, both robots were sent flying again. However, by the fourth hit, Chronos was no longer moving and eventually spun down. Chronos' team worked hard to try and get going, but it was no use. Chronos was counted out, giving Gigabyte the KO win.

Next for Chronos was a match against Copperhead. Chronos returned to work on the bot after their previous loss to try and improve reliability issues, installing a much more powerful motor for the weapon. Chronos hung back to get itself up to full speed while its minibot Time Line distracted Copperhead momentarily. Once both spinners got up to speed, Chronos was able to pop Copperhead into a wheelie, but no major damage was caused. The second hit threwboth bots in opposite directions and broke both primary weapons. Chronos was still able to move around, but its magnesium ring had been cracked badly, preventing it from spinning. However, this impact had done more to its opponent as their drum was dislodged on one side and Copperhead could now only crab walk. This was not deemed translational movement by the referees, who counted Copperhead out, giving Chronos their first *BattleBots* victory.

Chronos also fought with MadCatter in a Tag Team match against Monsoon and Ragnarök. Chronos was accompanied by its minibot Time Line for this match once again. Throughout the fight, outside of several light hits on Ragnarök and Monsoon, Chronos did very little in the match as it took a hit from Monsoon that damaged its ring spinner and left it off-balance for the remainder of the battle. Time Line was eventually also tossed into the air, but Chronos returned to the battle towards the end after its weapon was turned off. For the remainder of the match, Chronos made several attempts to take control of Monsoon, but struggled to play a big part overall. Chronos managed to survive to a judges' decision, but they awarded Monsoon and Ragnarök a unanimous 3-0 decision.

### BattleBots World Championship V

    Chronos' first match in Discovery Season 5 was against P1, an untelevised match only released in full as part of the Basement Tapes. The fight started with Chronos spinning up and P1 losing its spoiler. Chronos sunk its shell into P1's wedge, but had stopped spinning, allowing P1 to attempt a flip. Chronos had space and time to spin up once again, but was no longer spinning to the same speed. P1 appeared to be struggling with drive however managed to slide underneath Chronos and throw it against the side wall, beaching its opponent in the process. Chronos was counted out and P1 won by KO.

Chronos next fought Bloodsport, who had quickly dispatched of End Game in their previous match. Chronos had a terrible start as their weapon was quickly disabled on the first impact. Luckily, Bloodsport did not continue using its weapon for much of the fight, intending to reduce the damage to its own weapon and banking on winning the resulting pushing match. The rounded shell of Chronos did not lend itself well to trying to bully Bloodsport and though it managed to survive for a judges' decision, they ruled unanimously in favor of Bloodsport.

### BattleBots: Bounty Hunters

Chronos competed in the Son of Whyachi Bounty Hunters bracket, where it began with a rematch against Copperhead. Though Chronos tried to spin up to speed, Copperhead hunted it down and landed a glancing hit to slow the ring spinner. Chronos then tried to escape, but Copperhead's next attack send it flying across the length of the box, immobilizing it in the process. Chronos was counted out, and Copperhead advanced in the bracket.

### BattleBots World Championship VII

However, Chronos submitted an application for *BattleBots* World Championship VII. The team appeared largely the same with Jerry Serafin and Johnny Melgoza still present, though they have picked up a new female team member called Jennifer, whose full name was not mentioned in the application, but attended an event hosted by Jerry Serafin and was inspired to join the team. Trent Wilson returned to the team having joined ahead of the 2020 season, explaining the intention to manufacture multiple shells to decrease repair time.

## Results

* Wins: 1
* Losses: 7

*NOTE: Chronos' **This is Fighting Robots** preliminary rumble is not considered to be a win or a loss.*

## See Also

* Chronos (King of Bots)
* Chronos (BattleBots)