No surprise, he won a $500,000 prize from NASA for building a robot, while still in college!īite Force has a unique construction which allows it to absorb powerful blows and distribute the force throughout the robot. He ended his semi-final with Tombstone with 1 precision hit and with Witch Doctor with 2 precise hits. Paul Ventimiglia knows the weakness of his opponents – the exact weakness. Witch Doctor is able to get around this using the Mike Gellatly strategy and the strength and reliability of Witch Doctor.īite Force uses balance to absorb powerful blows and then delivers precision fatal hits to its opponents. Most bots use a “keep my bot facing forwards” battle strategy because of this. Its difficult to defend your entire robot because it marginalizes your ability to have a more powerful weapon or superior frontal strength (similar to a salary cap in Football). In order to absorb huge hits and deliver huge hits, robots focus most of their 250 lb weight allowance towards the front. Mike Gellatly uses a tenacious style of attack driving: (1) attack head on and hard (2) create collision (3) react faster than opponent after collision (4) deliver powerful direct hits to vulnerable parts of the other robots.Īlmost all robots have vulnerable areas, mostly the back and sides. It has balance between a powerful weapon and the rest of the bot. In converse, it is rarely vulnerable itself. Witch Doctor repeatedly went head to head with its opponents – primary weapon on primary weapon – and was able to react quicker after the collisions and catch the other bot in vulnerable positions to deliver fatal blows. What separates these two from the other bots in the elite field of 8 is (1) balance and (2) better driving. Bite Force and Witch Doctor both displayed the keys to winning throughout the tournament, and these strengths manifested themselves in the final three battles. The BattleBots Championship 2019 ended with the two best bots in the arena for the final, and the best bot winning.