- "It collides, it roars, it lets the enemy fly, it is from the Yunnan border - EarthShaker."
- — King of Bots website (translated from Chinese)
撼地奔牛 (known in English as EarthShaker) is a heavyweight robot from Red River, Yunnan, which inspired the team's name. It competed in the first season of King of Bots as well as Season 1.5, the debut season of This is Fighting Robots. The original robot was openly based on the American Bronco, before resembling T-Minus more heavily in Season 1.5, and both were built by Thomas Lau, who was not a televised team member.
In Season 1, EarthShaker faced the American entry Blue in the first round, but lost a fairly close battle. After impressing the producers in this battle, EarthShaker was reinstated via the wildcard, but it lost to another American entry in Megabyte during the third round. In Season 1.5, it was selected by Sa Beining, and threw Switch around the arena in its rumble, but lost a wheel after an attack from Stealth, losing the battle overall as a result. As a result, EarthShaker was dropped from Sa Beining's yellow team.
Design
EarthShaker with its team in Season 1
EarthShaker is a box-shaped 110kg robot driven by four exposed wheels. Its design was heavily inspired by competitors built by the BattleBots team Inertia Labs, such as Toro, T-Minus and Bronco. As such, EarthShaker resembled a bull with its large horns, and featured a central flipper. This was one of the strongest in the competition, operating at 800psi, powered by its 8 inch cylinder with 4 inch bore. This could throw other competitors high into the air, and also allow the robot to self-right, but the weapon suffered from retracting slowly. EarthShaker's speed controller was a 4 M2 50v 80A Esc.
EarthShaker in Season 1.5
For This is Fighting Robots, EarthShaker was completely redesigned from the ground up. The robot again was heavily inspired by Inertia Labs designs., more specifically their BattleBots Season 5.0 Middleweight champion T-Minus, and was painted black and white. Instead of four wheels, the robot was now driven by two exposed wheels.
- "I like Inertia Lab robots, such as Toro, T minus and Bronco, I learn a lot of things from them!"
- — Thomas Lau[1]
Robot History
King of Bots (Season 1)
EarthShaker sustains early damage
EarthShaker throws Blue high into the air
EarthShaker appeared in Episode 3, where it fought the American entry Blue in the first round. It quickly left its starting position, and caught Blue side-on to push it into the arena well. Blue bumped into EarthShaker, striking the latter’s top panel with its axe before reversing and strafing towards EarthShaker once again. EarthShaker’s flipper was axed by Blue after some misses, but EarthShaker retaliated and pushed back before it flipped itself over. Capitalising on EarthShaker’s mistake, Blue drove round and attempted to hammer its baseplate, pushing EarthShaker sideways as it self-righted.
EarthShaker's flipper is struck by Blue
EarthShaker mistimes a flip
Blue continued to strafe across the arena, at one point collecting EarthShaker from the side and striking it once again. EarthShaker got underneath Blue and attempted to flip, but mistimed its attack, and received two axe blows in return. However, EarthShaker quickly got underneath Blue again and tossed it into the air; Blue retracted its axe to say upright, landing back on its wheels near the blue square and losing a bolt from its axe head in the process. It recovered to axe EarthShaker’s flipper once again, but missed its next few axe blows, and was pushed sideways across the arena by EarthShaker before it could land its next blow. The two robots lingered near the grinders, but separated and eventually met again, with EarthShaker again mistiming a flip before its weapon was pounded by Blue.
EarthShaker flips Blue over
EarthShaker's final flip on Blue
After sustaining one more blow, EarthShaker finally achieved a second flip, putting Blue on its back. However, Blue immediately self-righted before striking EarthShaker’s top-right panel. Blue hit EarthShaker’s flipper once more, but was lifted by a floor flipper and thrown over by EarthShaker again, requiring it to self-right a second time. Towards the end of the battle, EarthShaker achieved a third flip and turned Blue over, but the latter self-righted before time expired on the match. As both robots were still mobile, the battle went to a Judges’ decision – the decision ruled in favour of Blue, and EarthShaker lost the battle.
Despite this, EarthShaker's strong effort in the first round led to its reinstatement during the third round, after being awarded one of four wildcards by the producers. For its third-round opponent, EarthShaker fought another American entry, Megabyte.
EarthShaker deflects Megabyte with its initial charge
EarthShaker flips Megabyte over
Immediately, EarthShaker drove into Megabyte, the collision throwing the latter off-balance. It followed this attack by driving underneath Megabyte and causing it to wobble towards the grinders – EarthShaker promptly threw Megabyte over, but without being able to leave it upside-down. It backed away, then charged into Megabyte again as the latter got its spinner up to speed; struggling to retract its flipper, it pursued and hit Megabyte twice more, only to be deflected away. The second collision enabled EarthShaker to knock Megabyte off-balance; it pursued and bumped into Megabyte yet again, but was unable to flip it over as both teams activated smokescreens to obscure each other’s vision.
EarthShaker is sent spinning by Megabyte...
...and proceeds to have one of its armor panels torn off
EarthShaker catches fire as a result of Megabyte's last attack
Again, EarthShaker was unable to retract its flipper quickly enough, and was thrown across the arena by a powerful hit from Megabyte’s spinner. Its front armor was torn apart by two more head-on collisions with Megabyte; the front-right section was ripped off completely, exposing EarthShaker’s internals. EarthShaker retreated to the right-most grinders, before driving tentatively into Megabyte once again – the final impact threw EarthShaker violently into the wall, sheared three of its wheels off and caused the robot itself to catch fire. With this, it was instantly eliminated via knockout, finally ending Team Red River’s Season 1 campaign.
This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)
During the celebrities’ initial selection process, a redesigned EarthShaker was chosen by Sa Beining, and participated in the main competition as part of the Yellow team. It first fought in the second round of the competition, when Beining selected it to fight against Stealth, Switch and Thunder and Lightning in a four-way melee.
EarthShaker throws Switch into the air
EarthShaker attacks both Thunder and Switch as all five robots converge
EarthShaker get underneath Switch again as the latter takes damage from Stealth
EarthShaker's left wheel is ripped off
Immediately, EarthShaker turned towards and eventually succeeded in getting underneath Switch, surviving a hammer blow as it threw the British machine into the air. It flipped Switch back onto its wheels after the latter inadvertently threw itself upside-down with its hammer, before sustaining a hit from Stealth which momentarily destabilized the South Korean machine. After briefly bumping into Lightning, EarthShaker reversed and spun round, before driving into Thunder and Switch and flipping the latter over. Moments later, it was pushed sideways by Lightning, although this enabled EarhtShaker to flip Switch over a second time, to enthusiasm from the team and Sa Beining.
EarthShaker, immobile and defeated
From that point, EarthShaker retreated to the corner, spinning and driving within range of an approaching Stealth. This resulted in Stealth ripping its left wheel clean off, instantly immobilizing EarthShaker and eliminating it from the battle, much to Beining’s disappointment. With this, EarthShaker was unable to score a point for Beining’s team, leaving Beining without a point at this stage of the second round. At the end of the round, Sa Beining was required to drop one robot from his yellow team, and after a motivational speech to the rest of his team, Beining removed EarthShaker from his selection, eliminating it from the competition.
Results
| EARTHSHAKER - RESULTS | ||
| King of Bots (Season 1) | ||
| Main Championship Third Round | ||
| Round 1 | vs. Blue | Lost |
| NOTE: EarthShaker received one of the wildcards into Round 3 | ||
| Round 3 | vs. Megabyte | Lost |
| This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5) | ||
| Main Championship | ||
| Rumble | vs. Stealth, Switch, Thunder and Lightning | Lost |
Wins/Losses
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 3
Series Record
| Series | EarthShaker Series Record |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | Round 3 |
| Season 1.5 | Selected by celebrity, no wins |
| Season 2 | Did not enter |
Trivia
- Rough translations of the robot's Chinese name commonly led to the robot being referred to as Raging Bull. Some translations also referred to the robot as Shake to Cattle.
- In Season 1.5, the robot's name more closely translated to "Big Iron Bull", but was still known as EarthShaker by its builder.
- Also in Season 1.5, the members of Team Red River reinforced EarthShaker's theme by wearing cowboy costumes. The robot was also accompanied by mascots in the form of stuffed toy cows, some of which were given to audience members and other roboteers.
- EarthShaker was one of several competitors to be built by Thomas Lau, alongside WU66 and Mighty Crossbow and Steel Shield.
References
External Links
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