The Desperado Tournament, also known as the Desperado Flash Tournament, was a knockout tournament held mid-season during World Championship III and IV.
It consisted of an eight robot, single-elimination bracket with the winner granted automatic access to the World Championship tournament, irrespective of their Fight Night record up to that point. As the tournament expanded from a Top 16 to a Top 32 from World Championship V onwards, the Desperado Tournament concept was shelved and has not been seen since 2019.
Teams willingly volunteered themselves towards the competition, often those with poor showings in their Fight Night battles to date. These included rookie teams whose wins had been unconvincing or untelevised, mid-tier robots who fancied the chances at a guaranteed Top 16 place, and Giant Nut hopefuls who had racked up several early losses to their name.
The first Desperado Tournament was won by veteran Donald Hutson and Lock-Jaw, who entered with a negative 1-2 record. Lock-Jaw was the top seed going into the tournament, defeating Kraken, Valkyrie and Lucky to seal a place in the World Championship bracket. Hutson's team would make it all the way to the semi-finals before losing out to Minotaur.
Lock-Jaw did not enter the second Desperado Tournament as it finished Fight Night with a 3-1 record, defeating Skorpios in a play-in battle to earn a Top 16 place. The 2019 Desperado Tournament was won by BattleBots rookies Team Uai!rrior and Black Dragon, who defeated Captain Shrederator, WAR Hawk and fellow Brazilians Minotaur to guarantee their place in the World Championship tournament. Despite its promising run, defeating both the No.2 and No.1 Desperado Tournament seeds, Black Dragon's run was abruptly ended by the previous year's Desperado Tournament winner, Lock-Jaw.
The Desperado Tournament sign-up whiteboard, note the humorous inclusion of Chinkilla.
The inaugural Desperado Tournament was held in 2018, during Episode 11 of World Championship III. Each robot was seeded, with the highest seed facing the lowest seed, and so on, much like a World Championship bracket. With other play-in battles such as the Last Chance Rumble determining other guaranteed places in the Top 16, the overall winner of the Desperado Tournament was granted the No.9 seed, where it would face the Ewert family and Son of Whyachi.
The knockout bracket for the first Desperado Tournament.
Donald Hutson and Lock-Jaw hoist the first Giant Bolt trophy.
World Championship IV[]
World Championship IV in 2019 saw the return of the Desperado Tournament in Episode 8, dubbed TheDesperado Tournament II, as per the episode name. Again, the eight competing robots were seeded and matchmaking was done accordingly. In addition to the bracket, two additional fights were aired: an exhibition battle between Deep Six and Axe Backwards, and a Science Channel Bonus Battle between Extinguisher and The Four Horsemen. The Desperado Tournament winner this time took the No.8 seed, where the previous season's Desperado Tournament winner, No.9 seed Lock-Jaw awaited.
