- "Dragon King has been considered the most well-designed robot in ‘This Is Fighting Robots’ by most of the competitors. Its beautiful structure and the gold coating make the robot perfectly match the name. With its crawler-mounted structure and a dual-saw weapon system, Dragon King attracted everyone's attention at the scene of the competition and has given the audience a new understanding of the innovation of robot combat."
- — Official King of Bots Facebook page on Dragon King's design[1]
Dragon King was a robot from Utah, in the United States of America, which competed in Season 1.5, the debut of This is Fighting Robots. Built and entered by DT Robotics, formerly Team Duct Tape, it participated on the show as a 'challenger', fighting for its position in the competition during Episode 7. However, Dragon King lost its battle to ORBY Blade via knockout, and did not join Wu Chun's team as was intended.
Following the original broadcast of Season 1.5, Dragon King received the 'Best Design' award for that series, owing to its distinctive appearance, locomotion and armament.[1]
Design
Dragon King's statistics
Dragon King is an improved version of Jerome Miles' design for BattleBots, Red Devil. Much like Red Devil, it runs on tracks, attached to the robot be separate detachable pods, which could articulate up and down For weaponry, the robot is equipped with two yellow circular saws on moving arms, allowing them to be brought down onto the surface of other robots at an angle. Additionally, the front of the robot is armed with a 'dragon head', serving as a wedge to hold other robots in place for attacks, in combination with the actuated crushing jaw atop it, giving the robot a pincer weapon. However, the robot is weak to horizontal spinners and full-body spinners.
Robot History
This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)
As a 'challenger', Jerome Miles had the option of choosing several celebrity teams, including those of Wu Chun and Zheng Shuang. Team DT opted to join Wu Chun's team, but in order to do so, Dragon King needed to defeat ORBY Blade, the South Korean bar spinner on Chun's team.
Dragon King loses one of its tracks
Dragon King charged towards its opponent, and immediately clashed with ORBY Blade, and pushed it towards a wall. However, a quick turn by the latter meant that Dragon King didn't have any time to use either of its weapons. Getting back out to the middle of arena, the two machines spent several seconds driving in circles around each other, neither initially getting an advantage. This stalemate lasted until ORBY Blade, now at full speed, managed to get in a massive hit onto the side of Dragon King that dislodged its entire track module.
Dragon King, still mobile after having its track ripped off
The hit that finally knocked Dragon King out
Capable of driving without its left track, Dragon King made another assault at ORBY Blade, taking another hit that sent both robots flying in opposite directions. By now the lost track was obviously causing Dragon King control issues, as it drove around in circles for a short while before bumping into a wall. Managing to stabilize itself enough for a final attack, it took yet another hit from ORBY Blade head-on, but this seemed to have been too much for the machine as it didn't move afterwards, and was subsequently declared immobile, costing its chance to enter the competition.
Despite its brief run, Dragon King won the 'Best Design' award at the end of Season 1.5, with its weaponry, construction and color scheme attracting considerable attention and praise from other competitors.[1]
Results
| DRAGON KING - RESULTS | ||
| This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5) | ||
| Main Championship | ||
| Challenger Round | vs. Orby Blade | Lost |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 1
Series Record
| Series | Dragon King Series Record |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | Did not enter |
| Season 1.5 | Lost challenge |
| Season 2 | Did not enter |
Outside King of Bots
DT Robotics, under their former name of Team Duct Tape, competed in BattleBots. They first did this with Knome at the first ever live event in 1999, armed with a side-mounted axe to make the robot a thwackbot, as well as an active axe at the rear. However, it lost to Stinger and W.L.O.W.. The team competed in Series 1.0 with Knome II, a comedic design armed with a static scoop, but it lost to the British Killerhurtz.
Team Duct Tape then competed in three different seasons with Sublime. In Season 2.0, Sublime lost its only battle to Hammerhead on a 45-0 Judges' decision. Sublime's experience on television allowed it to skip the preliminary rounds in Season 3.0, and it advanced over Whirl Wep X25 on a 23-22 Judges' decision, but it then lost to Sallad. Sublime was much more successful in Season 5.0, defeating Das Bot, Wedge-O-Matic, Robo Master and SnowFlake in sequence to reach the Round of 32, where it was defeated by Death by Monkeys.
Team Duct Tape also competed in both seasons of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors. For Season 1, the team competed with Unibite, an invertible robot armed with a horizontal saw blade and a rear lifter, but Unibite did not win its opening melee in the US Championship, and fell in the second round of the Annihilator. Unibite returned for Season 2 as Unibite 2.0 with more success, winning its opening melee over Texas Tornado, also winning its semi-final against Brute, which drove itself into the pit. In the Heat Final, it was able to disable one wheel of Conquering Clown 2, but Unibite 2.0 mysteriously broke down, and lost the battle. The team also entered the Annihilator and the Tag Team Terror with a vertical spinner named Hyperactive, yet in spite of immobilizing Thor's Hammer in the first round of the Annihilator to collect a win, it lost its other two battles.
Hot Stuff
Hyperactive in 2015
Jerome Miles has competed at RoboGames with lightweight robot Hot Stuff, a rebuilt Sublime. Miles also converted his Hyperactive design into a featherweight, completing two separate builds of the machine in 2014 and 2015. At RoboGames in 2015, Jerome Miles built a heavyweight named HyperBite, which lost to Touro Maximus and Ragin Scotsman.
Red Devil in the 2016 season of BattleBots
Team Duct Tape entered the 2016 series of BattleBots with Red Devil. Red Devil defeated Wrecks in the first round, although this victory required little input from Red Devil, so it was given the third-lowest seed in the Round of 32, drawing it against the highly favored Witch Doctor. In one of the biggest upsets of the series, Red Devil used its saw to cut through the batteries of Witch Doctor and flip its opponent over, allowing it to progress to the Round of 16. At this stage, Red Devil survived a full 3-minute bout with the eventual runner-up Bombshell, but did not win the resulting Judges' decision, and was eliminated at this stage.
Red Devil in the 2018 season of BattleBots
Red Devil returned to the 2018 season of BattleBots, although Jerome Miles was absent due to filming clashes with This is Fighting Robots, and entrusted the robot to Ravi Baboolal, who competed in the previous season with Lycan. In Red Devil's first battle, it fought Brutus, and earned a relatively easy win, after Brutus burned out its weapon motor, allowing Red Devil to saw into its opponent, which lost mobility due to its internal fire. In its second battle, it took significant damage from the vertical spinner of Monsoon, losing its saw blade from the attacks, but Red Devil managed to disable Monsoon's own weapon, and attempted to control the remainder of the match. The battle resulted in a split decision from the judges, although this went in favour of Monsoon. After this narrow loss, Red Devil recovered by winning a Judges' decision against SubZero, cutting into its armour and maintaining a grip during the second half of the match. However, Red Devil lost its fourth battle to Valkyrie on a Judges' decision, after one of its track modules was ripped away from the robot, limiting full control. Red Devil would go onto fight Kraken in the USA vs The World special representing Canada and lost on a Judges' Decision and in a rumble with Bombshell, Gigabyte, DUCK, Valkyrie and Lucky it lost because Bombshell ripped off Red Devil's track immobilising it.
References
External Links
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