BattleBots: Champions is the name given to two BattleBots spin-off series, separate to the main World Championship season.
The spin-off has currently run for two seasons, both consisting of six episodes. The first five episodes, known as Sin City Slugfests, consisted of a straight knockout bracket between eight robots. There would be four Round 1 battles, followed by semi-finals and a Slugfest final. Winners of each of the first five episodes qualified for a final eight robot tournament alongside three former Giant Nut winners to determine a Golden Bolt champion.
In the first iteration, the Slugfest winner would then have to take on a gatekeeper robot in order to advance to the Golden Bolt tournament. This was a competitor who had either successfully defended their honor in BattleBots: Bounty Hunters, or dethroned the previous holder during the 2020 spin-off. However, there were no gatekeepers for the spin-off's second run as Sin City Slugfest bracket winners advanced to the Golden Bolt tournament without the need to fight for a fourth time.
On both occasions thus far, BattleBots: Champions fights have been filmed concurrently with the latter stages of the World Championship tournament, hence the exclusion of those who reached the quarter-finals and beyond, with the exception of the newly crowned BattleBots champion in both seasons.
BattleBots: Champions I[]
Main article: BattleBots: Champions I
For the inaugural BattleBots: Champions series, the five Bounty winners from 2020 returned in an attempt to defend their crowns in a similar knockout format to BattleBots: Bounty Hunters - Gigabyte, Lock-Jaw, ROTATOR, Skorpios and Witch Doctor. These made up five of the six confirmed episodes. In the final episode, the five winners of their respective qualifier episodes were joined by former Giant Nut winners Tantrum, End Game and Tombstone to form an eight robot tournament, with the overall winner taking home the Golden Bolt trophy.[1]
Following a 30-second trailer being revealed on July 20, 2022, BattleBots: Champions I premiered on August 4, 2022 on Discovery and discovery+.
BattleBots: Champions II[]
Main article: BattleBots: Champions II
As BattleBots: Champions returned in 2022, it was revealed that the sequel series would follow a very similar format. The main difference concerned the lack of gatekeeper rounds in each Sin City Slugfest episode. BattleBots: Champions II is set to include alternates as well as all main season competitors, with the exception of Top 8 finishers. The only exception to this was SawBlaze, who qualified for the Golden Bolt tournament as the World Championship VII Giant Nut winner. SawBlaze would be joined by former Giant Nut winners Tantrum and End Game, the latter of whom would be defending their Golden Bolt title.
The second season of BattleBots: Champions premiered on October 5, 2023 on Discovery and is available to stream on Max.[2]
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