Beta

beta's Season 2 appearance.

beta (pronounced Beeta) is a heavyweight robot that was entered in Season 5.0 of BattleBots, built by John Reid of Team Hurtz to replace KillerHurtz after Season 4.0. The robot was built especially for BattleBots, armored in polycarbonate with stainless steel corner panels and armed with a large geared hammer that was so powerful it needed incredibly powerful magnets to keep it from unstabilizing whenever it hit something. Unfortunately,  the magnets pulled the floor panels up, meaning beta could not move under its own power in the BattleBots test arena. Team Hurtz was going to remedy this and enter beta in Season 6.0 but the show was cancelled after Season 5.0.

Beta returned to BattleBots for Season 1 of the ABC reboot, with Reid being assisted by Grant Cooper and David Moulds of Team RoboChallenge. Multiple changes had been made to beta in order to bring it up-to-date, including a new hammer arm which was bent so it could strike opponents even when mid-air and a suction fan system to replace the magnets. Unfortunately, despite multiple attempts to get it working, they were forced to forfeit their first match. This was due to American Airlines losing a 25kg bag of important parts for Beta on its way to San Francisco. This bag had beta's custom weapon controller, wiring harness, armor mounting, wheel bearings, chargers and more in it. The bag was eventually found eight weeks later. Finally in season 2 of the reboot they got the bot in the arena and won a close match against Lucky Canucky

After Robot Wars had ended, beta was taken to a barbecue and placed it on a friend's lawn by John who tied it to 2 foot long rods that were driven into the ground. When John gave demonstration of beta's power, the force of its hammer pulled the pegs right out of the ground and beta jumped in the air.

beta also participated in the pilot episode of the 2016 series of Robot Wars as Basher. However, it couldn't compete in the main competition due to its exclusivity contract with BattleBots.

Robot History

Season 5.0

beta before Season 5.0.

beta was meant to fight Bender but failed to move under its own power and thus forfeited the fight.

ABC Season 1

beta's appearance in Season 1 of the ABC reboot.

beta returned to BattleBots for the 2015 reboot, and was slated to battle Tombstone. However, due to the circumstances noted above, they were unable to get running and had to forfeit. They were replaced in the competition by alternate Counter Revolution.

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 1
• Losses: 2

Competition	Wins	Losses
Season 5.0	None	Bender (Forfeit)
ABC Season 1	None	Tombstone (Forfeit)
ABC Season 2	Lucky Canucky	N/A

• beta backstage during BattleBots Season 5.0.
• beta hanging off a 1/8" steel sheet with Dominic standing on top.
• beta in the arena at a live Robot Wars event in 2015.
• beta in the BattleBox before fighting Tombstone in Season 1.
• beta backstage during BattleBots 2015

1/5

Trivia

• Team Hurtz was the only British team to attend every season of BattleBots. Had beta been able to compete, then it would have been the only British robot to have competed in each season.
• In the pits of Season 5.0, beta hung off a 1/8" steel sheet with Dominic (who weighed 80kg) standing on the base of beta (who weighed 100kg) without falling off, showing how powerful the magnets of beta were.
• The two robots that beta were meant to fight were equipped with spinning weapons.
• beta also entered a Robot Wars live event after the first season of ABC's BattleBots reboot had ended.
• When entering the arena for their first battle beta fell off the trolly that was carrying it in.