BattleBots NPC Charity Open 2004

NPC Charity Open 2004

Champion

Tombstone
(Super Heavyweight)
Karcas 2
(Heavyweight)
Devil's Plunger
(Middleweight)
Goosfraba Steel
(Lightweight)
Morpheus
(30lb/Featherweight)
Ricochet
(12lb/Hobbyweight)
MicroNightmare
(Beetleweight)
One Fierce Upper-Cut
(Antweight)

Runner-up

The Judge
(Super Heavyweight)
Verbal Abuse
(Heavyweight)
Falconizer
(Middleweight)
Wipe Out Number 2
(Lightweight)
Doom
(30lb/Featherweight)
Chigger
(12lb/Hobbyweight)
Shazbot
(Beetleweight)
Buzzkill
(Antweight)

Third place

Shovelhead
(Super Heavyweight)
Megabyte
(Heavyweight)
Z.I.P.
(Middleweight)
Rotato
(Lightweight)
Totally Offensive
(30lb/Featherweight)
VBT12
(12lb/Hobbyweight)
One Fierce Beer Coaster
(Beetleweight)
Wallop
(Antweight)

Premiere Date

Unaired

Filming Dates

June 29-July 4, 2004

Location

Minneapolis, MN

The NPC Charity Open was a 2004 BattleBots-sanctioned live event organized by the Minnesota Manufacturing Educational Resource (MMER). Open to as many as eight individual weight classes, it took place between June 29 and July 4, 2004 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, running largely to newer versions of the standard BattleBots technical and tournament regulations.^[1]

As well as being a charity event – with proceeds supporting educational activities run by the MMER - the NPC Charity Open was also filmed by BattleBots in preparation for a proposed televised event to be held at the end of 2004. Footage from this was to be used to promote and secure a network deal for the latter event – tentatively dubbed 'BattleBots 6.0' – though this ultimately did not materialize.^[1]

Weight Divisions[]

A total of 131 robots were registered for the NPC Charity Open across eight combat classes/weight divisions – the most divisions out of any BattleBots-sanctioned event to date.^[2] Of these, four would form the 'main event' classes – these being the returning Lightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight and Super Heavyweight divisions respectively. Updated Technical Regulations outlined a 30% weight allowance for walking/StompBot designs across all four of the aforementioned classes.^[3]

Main Event Class	Minimum Weight (Non-walker)	Maximum Weight (Non-walker)	Minimum Weight (Walker/StompBot)	Maximum Weight (Walker/StompBot)
Lightweight	30lbs	60lbs	39.0lbs	78.0lbs
Middleweight	60lbs	120lbs	78.0lbs	156.0lbs
Heavyweight	120lbs	220lbs	156.0lbs	286.0lbs
Super Heavyweight	220lbs	340lbs	286.0lbs	442.0lbs

In addition to the main classes, robots for the four 'Sub-light' categories – Featherweight, Hobbyweight, Beetleweight, Antweight – were accepted into their own 'builder-only' tournament brackets.^[4] This made the NPC Charity Open the first BattleBots event known to have hosted the former three weight classes. All 'Sub-light' divisions followed a separate set of Technical Regulations issued by the MMER, with the following upper limits being set:

Sub-light Class	Weight
Antweight	1lb
Beetleweight	3lbs
Hobbyweight	12lbs
Featherweight	30lbs

A Megaweight Walker (alternately Mega Walker) class was also introduced, with a maximum weight limit of 500lbs and largely based on the existing BattleBots regulations. Allowances were also made for robots with hopping mechanisms to compete in this division, the only restriction being that such designs were not allowed to touch the 12ft-high arena roof.^[1]^[5] The Builders Database entry for the NPC Charity Open alludes to the Megaweight Walker class forming a 'Walkers-Only' event, with the possibility of both combat and 'non-combat' exhibition events being mentioned in official sources such as the MMER website.^[2]^[5] One Super Heavyweight walker, Russell's Paradigm, was known to have performed solo demonstrations and taken part in a Rumble match during the event.^[6]