Greg Munson

Greg Munson
Personal Information
Born	March 18
Years Active	1999-Present
BattleBots Information
Role	Co-Founder
Seasons	Long Beach 1999-Present

Greg Munson is one of the co-founders of BattleBots alongside cousin and fellow executive producer, Trey Roski.

Before the creation of BattleBots, he, Trey Roski and Gage Cauchois competed in the last three US Robot Wars events with the very successful La Machine. With several competitions under his belt, Munson had asked Trey Roski if he wanted to drive the robot for the 1995 UK event, and this got his cousin on board. After a legal divide, the event's name would remain within the United Kingdom and the first series of Robot Wars on the BBC was produced in 1998.

"...in 1994, at the behest of my friends, I attended a small event called Robot Wars in San Francisco (created by Marc Thorpe). It was there that I experienced the wonderful world of remote control machines made for the express purpose of beating the crap out of each other."

— Greg Munson explains his introduction to robot combat in an April 2020 interview

A year later, Greg Munson and Trey Roski organized two events of their own to facilitate the new wave of American robot builders, under the name BattleBots. These were held in Las Vegas and Long Beach respectively in 1999, testing the waters for how big these events could become. After much communication between networks, Comedy Central got in touch with Greg Munson and Season 1.0 of BattleBots was given the green light. Throughout the five season run on Comedy Central, Greg Munson was rarely seen on camera. He would often communicate online, notably conducting a question and answer style piece with The Washington Post ahead of Season 2.0's premiere. However, he upgraded Ginsu for various exhibition matches and built different sized variations of it too - notably Mini-Ginsu and Super Ginsu.

However, Comedy Central did not renew BattleBots for a sixth season. In that time, Greg Munson co-founded BattleBots IQ, a stopgap and educational program which set to inspire students into engineering through robot combat. After years of failed negotiations, Greg Munson and Trey Roski struck up a deal with ABC to revive BattleBots in 2015. Ahead of its premiere, Greg appeared on The New Screen Savers to discuss and promote the show. He has remained a pivotal part of the show's success ever since, appearing on fan-run podcasts such as Behind the Bots and Adam Savage's Tested podcast to discuss BattleBots and the wider sport.

In 2022, he and Trey Roski announced the first two inductees into the BattleBots Hall of Fame following the conclusion of filming for World Championship VII - Marc Thorpe and Mark Setrakian.

Munson and Pete Abrahamson co-hosted a BattleBots panel during the July 2023 Open Sauce event. They would return to host a panel of BattleBots Giant Nut winners in 2024.

Greg Munson, Trey Roski and Tom Gutteridge (right to left) on the set for the 2016 season.

Greg Munson with showrunner Aaron Catling.

Greg Munson and Trey Roski with several Giant Bolt awards.

Greg Munson and Trey Roski photographed with a young Paul Ventimiglia during BattleBots IQ in 2002.

Greg Munson (left) and Trey Roski with Ginsu.

Greg Munson (right) in the La Machine team's workshop during an underground event in 1999.

Greg Munson working on La Machine, with Ginsu beside him.

Outside BattleBots

Greg Munson served as vice president and executive producer for four years with Gamecaster, an eSports television show which also specialized in gaming technology. He consulted on the design and development of the Gamecaster Cybercam, and oversaw the company's 2007 eSports event concerning Battlefield 2142, which was sponsored by EA Sports.

See Also

• Greg Munson on X
• Greg Munson on Instagram

Trivia

• Greg Munson was vocally critical of Comedy Central's insistence upon hiring Playboy models in favor of pit reporters with legitimate interest in the STEM aspect of BattleBots.
  • Although his suggestion was ignored throughout the entirety of its five season run, this was remedied ahead of the ABC BattleBots revival in 2015, and in future seasons on Discovery.
• Greg Munson owns a custom LEGO Spinner inspired by the film Blade Runner as well as two replica lightsabers from Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back respectively.
• He also owns several custom electric guitars, painted by former BattleBots competitor, judge and behind-the-scenes crew member Mark Setrakian.