Gruff

Gruff's Discovery Season 4 appearance.

Gruff is a heavyweight robot built by the team Ram Robotics which competed in the fourth season of the BattleBots reboot on Discovery and Science. It is a black, 6-wheeled, box-wedge shaped robot armed with a lifting arm and two flamethrowers, as well as other interchangeable weapons.

The robot also competed in the ComBots Cup and RoboGames competitions since 2011. While it did really well at ComBots where it reached the quarterfinals at every single event, it only did average at RoboGames until in 2018 where it had much more success. Gruff's name was inspired by the fictional tale Billy Goat's Gruff as well as team member Sam having been around goats.

Robot History

Discovery Season 4

Gruff's first ever match in 2019 was against Marvin and Gemini as part of a rumble. For this fight, Gruff came in with only one of its flamethrowers on, fearing both may get damaged badly by any of the spinners, and to give less striking positions. When the rumble began, Gruff struggled to get an effective lift on either Marvin or Gemini. However, they managed use their lifting arm to clamp on Marvin and lost some shavings from Marvin's disc. Gruff then started to take control of the fight by throwing the black Gemini twin onto its back. Gruff then took a shot from the red Gemini twin but no damage was dealt. Gruff took the black Gemini twin into the screws before shoving Marvin around again, almost flipping it over. Gruff righted the black Gemini and took a shot from the killsaws before time ran out. The judges awarded Gruff a unanimous 3-0 decision.

Gruff next found itself against the new robot from Caustic Creations, Copperhead. As the match got underway, Gruff was starting to take punishment from Copperhead, both to its lifting arm and from being tossed into the air. Gruff continued to attack and managed to shove Copperhead into the arena barrier. After taking more abuse from its opponent, Gruff shoved Copperhead against the arena barrier where Copperhead looked to be nearly stuck on its back end but Copperhead fell down and continued the fight. Gruff then took more hits from Copperhead before smoke began to pour out. Copperhead was also having drive issues linked directly to its drum's gyroscopic forces. Regardless, the match went to the judges, whom ruled a 2-1 split decision to Copperhead.

Gruff decided to take part in the Desperado Tournament for a shot at the Giant Bolt trophy and a slot in the Top 16 bracket. Since they were the No.5 seed, they were placed against Jack Barker and the No.4 seed, End Game. Gruff went in unchanged and when the match began, things were going well as Gruff wasn't taking much damage at all and managed to get End Game up on its back end, but Gruff was also thrown onto its back, but self-righted. Gruff managed to use its forks to get between End Game's chassis and its weapon, dislodging a weapon belt and pushing End Game into the screws. Unfortunately, in the last minute of the match, Gruff drove right into the slot for the killsaws and its fork got stuck under the polycarbonate cover where the robot had its wheels raised high enough to prevent it from moving. Gruff was counted out, giving End Game the win by KO with just 2 seconds left on the clock.

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 1
• Losses: 3

Competition	Wins	Losses
Discovery Season 4	Marvin and Gemini (Undercard Rumble)	Copperhead (Undercard Match) End Game (Desperado Tournament) Tombstone (Undercard Match)

Faruq Tauheed Introductions

"This bot would make a terrible librarian because when it tries to shush you, it spits out flames. And you can't have fire around books, duh. Here's GRUFF!"

"This bot's got the biggest flame of all. It'll light you up like methanol. It's going to melt you like a crayon in the dryer, like a cheese stick in the deep fryer, and there's nothing you can fon-do. GRUFF!"

"This bot will melt you like Philly cheese steak and for dessert, it'll turn you into chocolate lava cake. It's GRUFF!"

See Also

• Gruff (RoboGames)