Drift

Drift
Participation Information
Series	S2 (King of Bots)
Team Information
Team Members	Ye Hong Li ("Leo")
Associated Robots	Snake 2.0 (original identity)
Robot Statistics
Weapons	Front-hinged flipping panel

Drift was a Chinese competitor robot which fought in the second season of King of Bots. It was originally built by Wang Xi as the newest version of Greedy Snake, and fought in the King of Bots 2019 Opening Battle under the name Snake 2.0, but was passed onto a new team for King of Bots II and rebranded as Drift, while Wang Xi competed with a new version of Snake.

Drift's design impressed Emma Dumont in the first episode, and she selected it for her team, and Drift secured this position by defeating The Doctor in its debut battle. Drift would then become the leader of Emma Dumont's team, and it teamed up with Storm Cut to defeat Saber in a two-on-one battle, before executive a near-perfect driving display to take down Po Feng in a head-to-head. After Emma Dumont left the series part-way through filming, Drift's driver Ye Hong Li ("Leo") took over her role as the manager of their team.

Design

Drift with its team captain

Rear view of Drift

Drift first competed on King of Bots as Snake 2.0, and was functionally still the same robot as Wang Xi's original machine, with the main differences being the change in color scheme to red and black, the addition of five black wedgelets along the front of the robot's broader wedge, and likely some internal differences.

Snake 2.0, the original basis for Drift

Drift's weapon is a front-hinged electric flipper mounted in the center of the robot, which the original builder Wang Xi confirmed to be inspired by the electric flipper of Amnesia. The electric nature of the weapon allows the weapon to be fired an unlimited number of times in battle, and provides an effective self-righting mechanism, while also being capable of overturning robots in combination with a strong forward drive. The robot's armor provided good protection, and its four-wheel drive system gave the robot a high top speed, and the ability to 'drift' around the arena, hence the name.

Robot History

King of Bots II (Season 2)

Before the main filming of the series took place, Drift participated in a mandatory "warm-up battle", not included as part of the main series. Many roboteers in attendance were against the idea of these warm-up battles, and refused to use their weaponry in protest, including Drift's opponent Switch, and potentially Drift itself. Nevertheless, Drift won the battle on a Judges' decision.

Drift made its broadcast debut in Episode 1 of Season 2, where Emma Dumont selected it to compete for a place on her team. To earn this position, Drift fought a head-to-head battle against The Doctor.

Drift lifts The Doctor against the spikes

Another shove from Drift

The two competitors sized each other up in the opening moments, with Drift quickly getting around the side of The Doctor before pushing and lifting it against the wall spikes. The Doctor eventually broke free, trying to get its clamping spike into action as it briefly targeted Drift’s side. Drift outmaneuvered The Doctor again, proceeding to twice push it into the grinders. The second attack resulted in the tip of The Doctor’s weapon being torn clean off by the grinder itself.

Drift causes The Doctor's baseplate and internals to come loose

The Doctor is thrown by the floor flipper, minus baseplate

At this point, The Doctor lost mobility altogether, with its baseplate noticeably buckled following Drift’s attacks. Drift got underneath and pushed The Doctor into the spikes again, causing The Doctor’s baseplate to detach completely and its internals to come loose. With much of its components left dangling beneath its bodyshell or laying on the arena floor, The Doctor was pushed onto a nearby floor flipper and thrown over, unable to self-right. Drift emerged victorious by knockout, becoming the first robot to secure a place on Emma Dumont’s team.

Drift would later be joined on Emma Dumont's team by Spectre, Megabyte, Cat King and Storm Cut. In a surprising yet unanimous decision, Drift was granted the role of team captain, in part because the team could speak both English and Chinese. After Megabyte and the combined team of Spectre and Cat King earned two points for Emma Dumont's team, Drift and Storm Cut would be able to gain a third point by defeating Saber, which represented Di Yang's team alone.

Drift pushes Saber into Storm Cut's blade

Saber drives Storm Cut into its partner Drift

Initially, Drift and Saber approached each other, with Drift repeatedly getting underneath and steering Saber towards the hazards. Under pressure from Drift, Saber twice drove within reach of Storm Cut's spinner, the first hit resulting in one of its sidepods being torn open. Saber drove head-on into and underneath Storm Cut, steering it into Drift before spectacularly throwing it across the arena. Drift retreated to the blue corner, at which point Saber rammed Drift again, but Drift instead steered Saber into the side wall. Storm Cut got its spinner rotating again, staying out of trouble while Drift drove on top of Saber's flipper and unsuccessfully tried to throw it against the corner. For some time, Saber remained in the blue corner, its front-left wheel buckled and the robot seemingly hesitant to drive away. Eventually, it reversed into Storm Cut, whose spinner ruptured Saber's CO₂ supply and immobilized it completely. With its electronics, right-rear wheel and back panel also seriously damaged, Saber was promptly counted out, allowing Drift and Storm Cut to earn a third point for Emma Dumont's team, securing her victory over Di Yang.

In the next round, all of the team captains faced off in head-to-head battles, with Drift representing Emma Dumont against Po Feng of Tao Shen's team.

Drift demonstrates its low-ground advantage

Drift guides Po Feng into the Grinder mount

Both robots circled around each other in the center of the arena, with the first contact seeing Po Feng drive over Drift's wedge. Drift kept up the pressure, bumping into Po Feng, while taking only a slight knock from the opponent's spinner afterwards. Drift then drove under Po Feng, and managed to drag it a slight distance across the arena until the robots separated. Drift then made evasive maneuvers, baiting out an approach from Po Feng while running over the wedge-shaped minibot. Po Feng again drove over the top of Drift, and was corraled into the Grinder mount by Drift, causing its spinner to throw sparks off the arena surface.

Drift catches the arena saws

Drift lifts Po Feng into the corner wall

Po Feng recovered, and attempted to utilize the flamethrower of its drone, but the main robot simply drove over the top of Drift again. Driving capably, Drift circled around Po Feng again, exposing its wedge and luring it into the same Grinder mount as before. After two more head-to-head collisions, Drift made a slight mistake in driving over the arena saws, but Po Feng made the same error on a larger scale, ramping over the already-raised saws to throw itself over entirely, landing on its vertical spinner and coming to a rest inverted. Drift capitalized on its inverted foe, pushing it into a corner while firing its lifter, although Po Feng successfully used the wedge shape of Drift to self-right.

Drift is knocked into the air by Po Feng

Drift wedges Po Feng onto its front end

Drift wedged under Po Feng briefly, but then suffered its first direct attack of the match, with Po Feng delivering a side-on hit to Drift, tossing it into the air but without causing visible damage. Po Feng followed this up by hitting the front of Drift, but when Drift fell back onto its wheels, it wedged straight back under the front of Po Feng and caused it to fall over. Although Po Feng attempted to self-right using its gyroscopic forces, Drift did not let up, and pushed it into the arena wall.

Drift presses Po Feng against the Grinder mount

Drift continues to execute its driving strategy

Here, Drift fired its lifter to briefly strand Po Feng against the wall, although it soon fell back down. Po Feng was still attempting to self-right using its spinner, driving in circles, eventually doing so by bringing its vertical spinner into the Grinder, somersaulting Po Feng back onto its wheels - Drift, meanwhile, was briefly raised by the floor flipper. Nevertheless, Drift drove Po Feng back into the arena wall, and the two robots then separated. Meeting again in the center of the arena, Po Feng grazed the side of Drift with its spinner, ripping away loose parts, but Drift otherwise kept its front end towards Po Feng, and negated its attacks for the final ten seconds of the match. The battle was sent to a Judges' decision, and Drift's good driving was awarded with a victory for Emma Dumont's team.

After the end of the Attrition Battle in Episode 8, Emma Dumont's team suffered their first loss. Emma Dumont was required to cut a robot from her team at this stage, but instead, she revealed that she would be leaving the series at this stage of filming. Based on this decision, Ye Hong Li ("Leo") of Drift's team took over Emma Dumont's position as the manager of the team, and Leo captained his line-up for the remainder of the series. This also left him with the difficult decision of cutting one of his team members after losing the Attrition War, with Leo ultimately cutting Storm Cut from his team.

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 3
• Losses: 0

NOTE: Drift's warm-up battle with Switch is not included

Series Record

Series	Drift Series Record
Season 1	Did not enter
Season 1.5	Did not enter
Season 2	Part of team, three wins

NOTE: Drift had competed in the 2019 Opening Battle under its original team, as Snake 2.0.

Trivia

• Outside of the show, Drift's captain is a professional racecar driver.
• Drift was the first robot in King of Bots to have previously competed under a different identity and team before debuting under a new team and name.
  • Despite Wang Xi building a third version of Snake for the same season that Drift entered, using much the same design but with further updates, it was Drift which won a battle in Episode 1 of King of Bots II, rather than Snake itself.