Zen Oh

Zen Oh with its team

**Zen Oh** (Chinese: **全王**, romanized as **Quán wáng**, meaning **Full King**) was a robot from Portugal which competed in the one-off series *This is Fighting Robots*.

In its preliminary group battle, it was chosen by Zhang Yishan after shattering Mad Moustache in a devastating one-hit knockout blow, advancing to the main competition as a member of the Blue team. There, Zen Oh lost a Freestyle Combat melee against Vulcan and Firefox, and would be eliminated from the competition after pitting itself during an Alliance War battle against Sandstorm and White Tiger Guardian.

## Design

Zen Oh was an invertible robot driven by two wheels, featuring a low-profile chassis and a blue, purple and yellow color scheme. Its primary weapon was a large horizontal bar spinner, with a high top speed of 2,600rpm, which was used to inflict severe damage upon its opponents.

## Robot History

### This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

Zen Oh was not chosen by any of the celebrity team managers during their initial 'blind selection' process, requiring it to take part in a preliminary group battle in order to impress them. There, it fought the Indian Firefox, the Turkish Mad Moustache and Stealth from South Korea.

At the beginning of the melee, all four robots attempted to get their spinning weapons up to full speed. Immediately after Mad Moustache was chosen by Sa Beining, Zen Oh slammed its bar spinner directly into it. This instantly destroyed Mad Moustache's entire armor, sending large shards of it flying across the arena, while also removing one of its opponent's wheels and some of its internals. Impressed with this display of damage and control - which lead to Mad Moustache being immobilized on the spot - Zhang Yishan quickly selected Zen Oh to join the Blue team.

"*I feel that it is very impactful and precise. Its controller is very skilled.*"
— Zhang Yishan's verdict on Zen Oh, following its devastating attack on Mad Moustache

However, while Zen Oh was coasting around the arena, it lost the use of its bar spinner, rendering it weaponless. It bumped into the side of Firefox, causing the Indian machine to prop back into the air. Firefox would later lose part of its wheel to Stealth, so Zen Oh rammed into the side of it. As a result of these attacks, Firefox lost the remainder of another damaged wheel, and stopped moving.

With only Zen Oh and Stealth active, Zen Oh was struck by Stealth's spinner, which sent the Portuguese robot recoiling into a Grinder and almost overturned the robot. Zen Oh crashed back down, and took evasive measures, having already qualified. Regardless, Stealth pursued its opponent and struck it with another strong blow, causing Zen Oh's drive belt to fall out. Zen Oh slammed into the wall in its efforts to flee from the South Korean machine, although it managed to avoid Stealth until time expired on a match where all four robots had qualified. The damage inflicted by Zen Oh, however, was severe enough to force Mad Moustache to forfeit its place.

In the main competition, Zen Oh was first chosen to represent the Blue team in the second round of the Freestyle Combat stage, where it faced Firefox again as well as British entry Vulcan. Before the battle, Blue team manager Zhang Yishan conferred and agreed to make a pact with Wu Chun of the Red team, in an attempt to eliminate Vulcan together. As part of this, Team REC were instructed to avoid Firefox until this occurred.

"*It is a good choice, I cannot say that it is the best, but it is a good choice.*"
— Guilherme Ferreira on Zen Oh's selection to battle Vulcan

Immediately, Zen Oh avoided Vulcan as it got its bar spinner up to speed. However, it drove into one of the maces, and was deflected twice by Vulcan, although not without escaping the latter’s axe blows and damaging its wedge. The Portuguese machine continued to be pursued, pushed and deflected into the corner, but survived Vulcan’s first successful axe blow as it was being shepherded towards Firefox.

To Yishan’s despair, Zen Oh turned sharply into the side of Firefox, ripping its opponent’s left-front wheel off and nearly causing it to turn over. Zen Oh continued to be deflected and pushed by Vulcan as the Indian machine’s left-rear wheel collapsed; Zen Oh spun round and hit Firefox one more time, destroying its electronics and throwing the entire Indian robot upside-down into the wall.

**Xiao Cang**: "*Firefox was demolished! It is an unexpected disaster!*"
**Wang Tao**: "*Zen Oh knocks down Firefox by accident.*"
— The aftermath as Zen Oh eliminates Firefox (Mech+ subtitles, edited)

Zen Oh continued to avoid Vulcan for some time after, only to be deflected and pushed spinner-first into the wall spikes. It sustained two more axe blows and was repeatedly nudged into the spikes as Vulcan tried to prevent its bar spinner from rotating again. Eventually, after more pushing and dodging, Zen Oh got its weapon up to speed again, spinning into and knocking Vulcan onto the electric saws with the spinner.

"*Vulcan chases after Zen Oh, and Zen Oh has no way to hide. Vulcan moves quickly with strong fighting power. Finally realize why it's called "Vulcan". It's so powerful.*"
— Wang Tao as Zen Oh is pressured into the wall spikes by Vulcan

Seconds later, Zen Oh drove head-on into Vulcan’s wedge, the collision launching it into the air and seemingly disabling its bar spinner. Zen Oh attempted to dodge Vulcan again, only to be pinned against another set of wall spikes and repeatedly axed by the British machine. These attacks immobilized Zen Oh completely, resulting in it and Firefox losing the battle to Vulcan.

Zen Oh would next appear in the Alliance War stage, where it was Zhang Yishan's last available robot for the 2v2 stage. Along with Sa Beining's Golden Hoops (Yellow), it fought Sandstorm of the Green team and White Tiger Guardian of the Red team in the final 2v2 match of this stage.

"*The game starts now. Zen Oh struck first. White Tiger had its butt beaten, which is quite embarassing.*"
— Wang Tao as Zen Oh immediately damages White Tiger Guardian (Mech+ subtitles)

Immediately, Zen Oh drove around the pit and hit the back of White Tiger Guardian, tearing the latter’s rear panel open and causing it to shed several pieces of debris. It proceeded to hit White Tiger Guardian a second time – this time targeting its vertical spinner – but was deflected upwards and pushed into the wall spikes by a charging Sandstorm.

Once freed, Zen Oh drove round in circles in pursuit of Sandstorm, only to be deflected again by the latter’s lifting wedge. The early attacks seemed to disable Zen Oh’s bar spinner; undeterred, it rammed Sandstorm against the wall spikes, enabling Golden Hoops to escape from the British machine. However, as it tried to drive away, Zen Oh drove itself into the spikes, allowing Sandstorm to slam, lift and carry it towards the open trap. Zen Oh slid off Sandstorm’s lifting bars as the latter turned, hitting the bottom of the trap and sliding fully in.

Under the Alliance War rules, the Team REC machine was rendered out of play for the next minute, before rejoining the battle once the trap was raised back up. As soon as it did, however, it was deflected upwards as it tried to ram Sandstorm. By this time, Zhang Yishan and Sa Beining both identified White Tiger Guardian as a vulnerable target, the former calling for Zen Oh to dispatch it into the trap. However, Zen Oh struggled to avoid Sandstorm once again, the latter proceeding to push it towards the corner. It attempted to retreat, but was pinned against the spikes and lifted by Ellis Ware's machine.

Zen Oh was pushed and steered across the arena a few more times by Sandstorm, all while sustaining hits from Golden Hoops’ hammer. It was later revealed that both the Blue and Yellow team machines were trying to 'contain' their dominant opponent, despite Yishan and Beining's calls for them to focus on White Tiger Guardian. Spinning round near the fire pit, Zen Oh dodged a few more lunges from Sandstorm, all while getting its bar spinner rotating at a very slow speed. While evading Sandstorm, it turned round and proceeded to ram White Tiger Guardian twice using its spinner. Smoke poured from one of Zen Oh’s wheel spacings as it reversed over the flame jets. Suddenly, it drove straight into the trap while avoiding Sandstorm, while receiving a light tap from one of Golden Hoops’ hammers.

"*It’s not a good feeling, and I expected more from me driving that robot. And this was very silly – the robot was working good, and then I just throw the robot to the pit. I was very disappointed with that.*"
— Guilherme Ferreira laments Zen Oh's costly error

Crucially, this mistake eliminated Zen Oh from the battle, which, in turn, automatically gave Sandstorm and White Tiger Guardian the win once the full three minutes expired. As a result, it and Golden Hoops were both eliminated from the competition; unlike the latter, Zen Oh would not be reinstated in any later rounds.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 0
* Losses: 2

*NOTE: Zen Oh's group battle is not considered to be a win or a loss.*

## Outside King of Bots

* Rabid M6 (centre) in battle
* Rabid M8, featherweight competitor
* The featherweight Rabid M8 in late 2017
* Galactus and Rabid M8 (featherweight)
* Galactus in a combat arena
1/5
**Team REC** originally started competing in the featherweight division. Their first robot was **Rabid M6**, a box-shaped robot with four wheels, also armed with a crusher. This was succeeded by **Rabid M8**, a two-wheel driven wedge-shaped robot, armed with a small vertical crusher. The team also compete with the featherweight **Galactus**, an invertible robot armed with a spinning drum. It competed at each UK Featherweight Championship held across 2012-15, reaching the fourth round in its peak performance in 2014, collecting wins over Conker 3 and Loki.

Based on this prior experience, Team REC were invited to compete in *Robot Wars: World Series*, an international special aired during the British show's tenth series. Team REC were unable to build their own heavyweight competitor, but borrowed a thwackbot previously known as Dee, and modified the robot, renaming it Rabid M8 after their featherweight competitor. In its opening Tag Team battle, it fought alongside the Irish Diotoir, but after this was immobilized by Terrorhurtz, Rabid M8 fought Sabretooth and was promptly immobilized by the drum spinner. In its head-to-head battle against Gabriel 2, Rabid M8 held off the fellow thwackbot until a Judges' decision, which was won by the Portuguese team on a split decision.

## Trivia

* Zen Oh was the only Portuguese machine to compete in *This is Fighting Robots*.
* Zen Oh was the team's first heavyweight robot that they built from scratch.

## External Links

* Team REC website
* Zen Oh - This is Fighing Robots Facebook page
* Robot Extreme Competition Facebook page
* Robot Extreme Twitter