Marc Thorpe, the founder of the popular Robot Wars competition, was entangled in legal battles over the Robot Wars brand. The Start of BattleBotsĪs I discussed in the first installment, the late 1990s were a turbulent time for robot combat. Whatever the reason for the appeal, it is certainly true that the BattleBots television show brought huge mainstream popularity to robot combat.
History agrees robot combat is really just a slightly more humane version of gladiator fights in ancient Rome. What led to the show’s success? In an online Q&A session with fans of the show on the Washington Post’s website in 2000, cofounder Greg Munson chalked it up to pure human nature: “People like to see things get destroyed,” he said in an answer to one question. Television audiences had never seen anything like it BattleBots was a complete novelty - and Americans could not get enough. In the course of less than two years, however, the BattleBots™ competition grew from another middle sized competition to a nationally broadcast show on Comedy Central. This time, we examine the transformation of the sport into a nationwide phenomenon.įor years, robot combat in the United States was a niche sport reserved for relatively small groups of builders. Last time, we discussed the birth of robot combat with Critter Crunch at MileHiCon, and the sport’s growth into the popular Robot Wars competition and British television series.
0 kommentar(er)
