BattleBots is a show that airs on the Discovery Channel on Thursday nights. Two robots get into what is known as the battle box to duke it out. Each fight is a one-round three-minute slugfest, so on any given night, an upset could happen. Tantrum was a No. 11 seed, and they went on to win the championship last season. Hydra was a No. 31 seed and they made it to the semifinals last season, where they lost to Tantrum.

BattleBots is in the midst of Season 7 right now. As we approach the end of the regular season, teams are trying to put together strong resumes and pick up key wins in an effort to impress the selection committee and be included in the Round of 32.  Once a robot gets into the Round of 32, they’ve got to win five fights in order to win the Giant Nut and be named champion.

Tantrum is the reigning champion after defeating Witch Doctor in the Finals last year. The defending champs are 1-2 on the season, and they only have one more fight to show the selection committee they deserve a chance to defend their championship. In their final fight on April 27th, Tantrum will face Whiplash, an opponent who is also 1-2 and trying to prove that they also belong in the tournament.

The fourth fight on the BattleBots schedule tends to have the most at stake, as it determines seeding and who gets left out. As a rookie bot, Ripperoni is 2-1, so it looks like they’re in good shape to get to the Round of 32, but in their fourth fight on April 13th, Ripperoni is facing one of the most dangerous bots in the field in Copperhead, who is undefeated at 3-0 and has scored a knockout (KO) in two of their three fights this season.

In their sophomore year, Riptide is absolutely wrecking the opposition. They’ve KO’d all three of the bots who have been on the opposite side of the battle box in a minute or less, but they’re facing a bot in Black Dragon who hardly ever gets KO’d. Black Dragon is 2-1 and Riptide is 3-0, so this has all the pieces to be an epic matchup when they go at it on April 20th.

Witch Doctor has made it to the championship twice, but they came up short in their efforts to win the Giant Nut. At this point, they’re tired of finishing as the runner-up. They’ve become a perennial powerhouse in BattleBots, and they want to cement their status by winning the Giant Nut this season. Witch Doctor is 3-0, and they look poised to grab a high seed in this year’s tournament. Since they’re undefeated, Witch Doctor has a great chance at capturing the No. 1 seed in the tournament, but on April 27th, Witch Doctor is facing a fellow 3-0 team who also could be in contention for the No. 1 seed, Minotaur.

In the UFC, you’ve got many different kinds of fighters. There are strikers, wrestlers, submission specialists, muay Thai specialists, jiu-jitsu specialists, and many others. The same thing can be said about BattleBots, where there’s a wide variety of weapons the robots use. There are hammer saws, vertical spinners, horizontal spinners, full-body spinners, egg beaters, flippers, lifters, and others. It creates for really exciting matchups because you could have three-minute slugfests that are absolute nail-biters, 30-second knockouts, a fight where one bot is in complete control, but the opponent mounts a comeback and wins, as well as many other exciting paths to victory.