Black Rabbit

**黑兔** (translated as **Black Rabbit**) is a Chinese robot which competed in *King of Bots II*. It was selected by Zhu Zheng Ting during the opening rounds, safeguarding its place on his team by defeating Hold Me Up on a Judges' decision. On this team, it defeated Big Carioca in a head-to-head battle to earn a point for Zhu Zheng Ting, but lost to Iron Scrap of Tu Ziya's team in its next battle. Despite this, Black Rabbit later knocked Tu Ziya out of the tournament entirely after earning a dominant win over Yesaji. In a reverse of fortunate, Black Rabbit's loss to Rhino in its next battle caused it and the rest of Zhu Zheng Ting's team to be eliminated from the competition, despite Black Rabbit being on the verge of victory before it was pinned in place by an arena hazard.

It was the heavyweight counterpart of the same name, with the featherweight Black Rabbit competing in various featherweight events organized by *King of Bots*, leading up to its appearance in the King of Bots 2019 Opening Battle.

## Design

Black Rabbit, like its featherweight predecessor, was an invertible, reverse-wedge shaped robot armed with a front-mounted spinning drum. The red-colored drum was armed with a single heavy tooth covering the length of the weapon, and was capable of inflicting notable damage, and throwing robots over completely. In front of the drum, a large black wedge was mounted, with an additional two red teeth applied for a lower ground clearance. To allow it to drive upside-down, Black Rabbit employed an unusual six-wheel drive system, with four wheels at the bottom and two on top. This arrangement ensured that at least four of the robot’s wheels would maintain contact with the arena floor in either position, without compromising on drive power - indeed, Black Rabbit boasted a high top speed, pushing power, and the ability to drift around the arena, easily pushing robots even when it could not use its primary weapon.

## Robot History

### King of Bots II (Season 2)

Black Rabbit appeared in Season 2, having first competed on *King of Bots* with its featherweight counterpart in the 2019 Opening Battle. Its design impressed Zhu Zheng Ting, and he nominated Black Rabbit to fight against Emma Dumont's Hold Me Up for a place on Zheng Ting's team.

Both robots moved towards each other, but Hold Me Up immediately wedged its forks into the arena saw slots. Although this would generally be disadvantageous, Hold Me Up freed itself just in time to swing Black Rabbit into the corner of the arena, and afterwards, deliver a weapon-to-weapon blow where Hold Me Up threw Black Rabbit into the air. Black Rabbit responded well, and drove around the back of Hold Me Up to charge it straight into the arena wall, where the spikes were lined.

Both spinning weapons had ground to a halt during this sequence of attacks, and the robots circled around each other to spin up their blades, until Black Rabbit broke the silence and struck Hold Me Up into the air. These previous attacks had also damaged Hold Me Up's forked wedges, as Hold Me Up no longer had the ground clearance advantage, charging at the front of Black Rabbit only to be thrown into the air again. This also allowed Black Rabbit to charge into the side of Hold Me Up twice in succession, although its drum was powered down at the time, limiting its damage output. Black Rabbit attempted to power up its drum, but a burst of smoke emerged from the robot, signalling weapon motor issues. Nevertheless, Black Rabbit took advantage of this by feigning immobility until Hold Me Up exposed its backside, and Black Rabbit charged in to deliver a powerful slam.

Black Rabbit missed its next two charges, and still posed little threat when it did ram into the wheels of Hold Me Up due to its broken weaponry, but at this stage, Hold Me Up had not launched an attack in a long time. Black Rabbit quickly drifted around the arena while Hold Me Up remained somewhat stationary, and Black Rabbit bumped it again, managing to scoop up the back end of Hold Me Up in order to box-rush it into the Grinder mount. Another slam into the Grinders also completely overturned Hold Me Up. Quick to respond, Hold Me Up struck the grinder with its eggbeater spinner in order to self-right, but Black Rabbit continued to pressure it, until Black Rabbit suddenly drove over the floor flipper with only 35 seconds left on the clocks.

Hold Me Up was not spinning its eggbeater, and it was struggling to drive with half of its drive system no longer working. However, Black Rabbit could not capitalize on its opponent's issues as it was still attempting to self-right, at first driving into a Grinder to almost flip itself back over. Black Rabbit was also unsuccessful in its next attempt, moving into the mount between the two Grinders, potentially taking damage to itself in the process. Next, it reversed and then drove into the Grinder again, finally righting itself on its third attempt. The passive Hold Me Up had stuck one of its forks into the arena floor, which allowed Black Rabbit to hit it from behind and carry it to the arena saws, although another plume of smoke suddenly started to pour out of Black Rabbit. Indeed, Black Rabbit's drum was once again spinning, likely causing the fire, but Black Rabbit still chipped the back of Hold Me Up, which was also spinning its eggbeater once again. Black Rabbit then drove Hold Me Up into the arena spikes, and released its foe when time expired on the battle at the end of three minutes.

After the battle had ended, both robots were required to drive back to the arena corners, and as Hold Me Up could only use half of its working drive system, Black Rabbit assisted by shoving Hold Me Up towards the corner of the arena. This had no bearing on the Judges' decision, which favored Black Rabbit and allowed it to join Zhu Zheng Ting's team.

Black Rabbit's place on the team was briefly put in danger in the next round, where Zhu Zheng Ting's team took on the five robots of Tao Shen, and if Zhu Zheng Ting were to lose more battles to Tao Shen than he could win, then he would be forced to remove either Black Rabbit or Switch from his team. However, Zhu Zheng Ting was confident enough to let Black Rabbit prove itself in a head-to-head battle against Big Carioca.

Despite a tentative start for both robots, Black Rabbit quickly got round the side of Big Carioca, before getting underneath and flipping the Brazilian machine upside-down. Big Carioca drove towards the red corner and re-righted itself while being rammed by Black Rabbit again; in doing so, Big Carioca tore one of the wall spikes off. The two competitors clashed again by one of the floor flippers; Big Carioca flipped itself over after striking the side of a spinning Black Rabbit, only for the flipper to throw it back upright. Black Rabbit pursued and slammed into Big Carioca once more, only for Big Carioca to land several more blows on it with its vertical spinner. Big Carioca continued to chase Black Rabbit, whose own drum spinner was struggling to get up to speed, before landing another heavy hit which sent Black Rabbit spinning away.

Black Rabbit quickly recovered, dodging then pushing Big Carioca into the wall spikes. Another head-on collision ensued between the two robots, before Black Rabbit resumed its earlier assault by pushing Big Carioca into the spikes again, then the circular saws. For the next few moments, Big Carioca bumped and chased Black Rabbit across the arena, only to be scooped up and steered towards the spikes once more by Black Rabbit. With less than fifty seconds to go, Big Carioca drove off the top of Black Rabbit, only to slam into and attack Black Rabbit's right-rear wheel with its spinner. This attack, however, did not affect Black Rabbit severely, as it proceeded to turn round and drive Big Carioca into the wall spikes yet again. A few more pursuits and rams ensued, with Big Carioca pushing Black Rabbit sideways just before time expired.

The battle went to a Judges' decision, which ruled in favor of Black Rabbit, earning a point for Zhu Zheng Ting and ultimately defending Black Rabbit's position on the team, after Snake and Tánshè later secured an overall victory for Zhu Zheng Ting over Tao Shen in the next battle.

In the next phase of battles, Black Rabbit was once again fighting for survival, as Zhu Zheng Ting was again forced to nominate it for elimination. To try and prevent this, Black Rabbit fought against Iron Scrap of Tu Ziya's team.

Initially, it moved steadily out of the blue corner before turning into the front of Iron Scrap; sparks flew as the two competitors exchanged blows with their drums. Black Rabbit quickly flipped Iron Scrap over as the latter gyrated onto one side, and withstood another blow from its opponent's weapon as it pushed and steered Iron Scrap into the blue corner. More sparks flew as Black Rabbit got underneath and briefly pushed Iron Scrap towards the grinders; it then proceeded to nudge Iron Scrap into a grinder itself, in turn causing Iron Scrap to be flipped back upright.

Black Rabbit proceeded to pressure Iron Scrap for some time, chasing the purple and green machine across the arena, only to be chased around in circles itself. Eventually, it slammed into the front of Iron Scrap again, throwing Team Knock Together's machine into somersaults, but losing one of its wedgelets in the process. Black Rabbit followed Iron Scrap as it spun and gyrated towards the wall spikes, landing another solid hit on its opponent's drum. It chased and flipped Iron Scrap once more after this, although Iron Scrap self-righted almost immediately. As it drove in for another head-on attack, Black Rabbit was thrown sideways by Iron Scrap, losing its remaining wedgelet as it hurtled across the arena perimeter.

Black Rabbit proceeded to dodge and sustain a lighter hit from Iron Scrap, before Iron Scrap responded by landing three bigger blows with its weapon. The second resulted in Black Rabbit being flipped forwards, while the third saw it being catapulted from the red corner upon clipping Iron Scrap's drum. Gyrating through the air, Black Rabbit bounced on its side, then its back, turning quickly away from the bottom corner as it tried unsuccessfully to gyrate itself back over.

Hesitating, Black Rabbit sped into and was flipped over by a grinder as Iron Scrap lunged towards it. In the process, its wedge clipped the top of the grinder, resulting in Black Rabbit landing between the mount and one of the sloped wall panels behind the hazard. With just under a minute remaining, Black Rabbit was left stranded in this position, and counted out. It therefore lost to Iron Scrap via knockout, despite putting on a stronger start to the battle.

While this defeat reduced Black Rabbit's chances of remaining on Zhu Zheng Ting's team, Ting would subsequently win the round following victory in his next battle with Snake and Switch. As a result, Black Rabbit's place was safeguarded once again for future rounds.

Black Rabbit would next fight in Episode 10, where it fought against Tu Ziya's representative Yesaji, with a win potentially knocking Tu Ziya out of the tournament completely.

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 Yesaji and the rest of Tu Ziya's team were eliminated from the competition.

Further into the competition, Zhu Zheng Ting's team captain Two BBQ suffered a defeat to Megabyte, and resigned from the team in order to prevent more successful robots such as Black Rabbit from being eliminated. As a result, it fell to Ding Qian of Black Rabbit's team to be the new team captain for the remainder of the competition.

Black Rabbit had another opportunity to knock a complete team out of the competition if it could defeat Di Yang's team, and its representative Rhino - although a loss would also knock Black Rabbit and Zhu Zheng Ting's team out of the running.

"*Black Rabbit is such a difficult robot to beat, its weapon is very strong, but he hasn't yet met Rhino. When he fights us, he's gonna feel the full force of our driving power and our weapon. I'm planning to shoot that rabbit!*"
— Robert Pickford

Although Rhino was quicker off the mark, it was Black Rabbit that delivered the first hit, tossing Rhino into the air. Black Rabbit followed this up by pursuing Rhino and breaching its opponent's wedge with its own front forks. This allowed Black Rabbit to smash Rhino into the Grinder, causing it to flip through the air, especially after landing spinner-first into the arena hazard. Rhino initially landed on its front end, but Black Rabbit knocked it down, and Rhino used its self-righting mechanism to quickly turn itself back over. Black Rabbit still maintained its advantage, nipping at the sides of Rhino and edging it into a corner, where it became clear that Rhino had lost drive on one side.

Black Rabbit backed off and spun up its drum while Rhino attempted to swerve its way across the arena, giving Black Rabbit ample time to measure up its attacks, pushing Rhino across the floor, and knocking it up with a frontal hit. Rhino did intercept Black Rabbit's next drive, landing a hit with its vertical spinner, although this proved to be its only attack of the match. In a sudden turn of events, Black Rabbit attempted to circle around Rhino, which was turning back and forth over the arena saws, and one of Black Rabbit's front forks fell through the slots for the arena hazards. Black Rabbit was completely stuck in place, and Rhino moved away, waiting for Black Rabbit to be counted out. Rhino and Di Yang then emerged as the all-important winners of this battle against Black Rabbit and Zhu Zheng Ting.

"*I knew we were in trouble, but Paul kept moving around. We had a couple of hits, but nothing major. Wow, that was close. I'm so lucky that he got stuck in the arena.*"
— Robert Pickford

Black Rabbit's very unfortunate defeat at the hands of the arena floor ultimately meant that it, along with celebrity manager Zhu Zheng Ting and fellow teammates Switch and The Hounds, were eliminated from the competition.

## Results

### Wins/Losses

* Wins: 3
* Losses: 2

## Series Record

 Season 2 | **Zhu Zheng Ting's Team**(3-2 record)

*NOTE: The featherweight version of Black Rabbit competed in the 2019 Opening Battle.*

## Trivia

* Along with Anchor and Shield, Black Rabbit is the only heavyweight known to have consistently shared the same name as its featherweight counterpart during *King of Bots* or *This is Fighting Robots* events. Another team, Iron Scrap, named their featherweight Patchwork for the 2019 Opening Battle despite the robot usually carrying the same name as the heavyweight Iron Scrap.