Orion

Orion
Participation Information
Reboot Seasons	World Championship V (Withdrew) World Championship VI (Withdrew) World Championship VII (Not selected)
Team Information
Team	Team MAD
Team Members	Alan Young Dave Young
From	Lichfield, UK
Other Entries	Chronic
Associated Robots	Photon Storm (Alan Young)
Robot Statistics
Weight	238lbs
Drive	2x AmpFlow A28-400-F48 motors
Weapons	Pneumatic flipper
Statistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

Not to be confused with heavyweight from Season 3.0 of Comedy Central BattleBots.

Orion is a heavyweight robot built by British competitors Team MAD (alternatively Team Robots Live! or Team Apollo) which applied for BattleBots World Championship V and VI. Despite being accepted twice, Orion were forced to withdraw on both occasions. Orion was also not selected to compete in World Championship VII due to a limited number of international places.

It is a four-wheel drive, wedge-shaped robot armed with a powerful pneumatic flipper, described by the team as a 'launcher'. In its original renders, Orion also featured a pair of flamethrower jets at the rear to mimic and reinforce the theme of a space shuttle. Originally using CO² to power its primary weapon, Team MAD had to change this to nitrogen in order to accommodate to BattleBots rules. Orion makes use of identical drive units to their King of Bots entry Vulcan, consisting of two wheels per side situated close together and driven by a single motor.

Co-captain Alan Young joined forces with Team Storm ahead of World Championship II as he fought with Photon Storm, competing alongside former Robot Wars competitors Ed Hoppitt, Tim Bence and Andrew Marchant. Despite boasting experience in the sport with classic era heavyweight robots, and even modern robots in the case of Storm 2, Photon Storm fell in its first and only fight to Team RioBotz's Minotaur and did not return. Having won their two major championships since World Championship I in 2015, Orion was officially accepted ahead of the 2020 season of BattleBots. Due to travel restrictions enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Orion was unable to compete in World Championship V.

"Would have been good to get over to BB but we all know how that turned out! Back in 2020 we weren't sure how we'd fair against the competition, alot [sic] would depend on the draw, I think we could have been competitive but had no expectations and were fully prepared to come back 0-3"

— Dave Young on Team MAD's ill-fated attempt to compete in 2020

Orion also planned to attend World Championship VI, but Team MAD announced they were again unable to compete, this time due to work commitments. The team later stated their intention to apply for and compete in World Championship VII, but ultimately announced in September 2022 that they would not be taking part. In separate Reddit comments, Team MAD confirmed that Orion had not been selected due to a limited number of spaces available for international entries, while expressing uncertainty surrounding its age and the need to potentially rebuild it for future BattleBots events.

In April 2023, a post by the Orion Facebook page implied that Team MAD intended to enter it once again for World Championship VIII. By late June, the team confirmed on Reddit that an application had yet to be submitted, as they awaited further details on the proposed season. However, Dave Young confirmed two years on from the team's initial intention to reapply that they would need to redesign Orion to evolve with the sport, if the opportunity arose to compete in BattleBots.

"If (and atm that's a big IF) BB was to return and we we had the opportunity to attend, I'm not sure where we'd go with it, we can certainly alter the design (maybe move away from pneumatics aswell [sic]) but given the competition structure and arena design, there's not really much point in taking a flipper and we have no interest in building a spinner, so we would have to ask ourselves if it was worth it (we don't have big sponsors or anything to fund it), we've never gone to a competition with the expectation of winning, we want to go and have a good time, I'm not sure if throwing away thousands of pounds each fight in a competition that's stacked against you falls into that category!"

— Dave Young on Orion's future in April 2025

Orion in February 2022.

Orion in November 2021.

Orion posing as a space shuttle in CAD.

Team MAD tease progress on Orion in March 2020.

Confirmation of Orion's original acceptance for the 2020 season.

Outside BattleBots

Orion is the latest member of Team MAD's family of powerful flipper robots which have achieved strong success across the world. In 2016, Alan and Dave Young won Series 8 of Robot Wars with Apollo, and reaching the title fight of Series 9, as well as winning the second series of Chinese show King of Bots with Vulcan. Alan Young of Team MAD had previous attempted to enter Chronic into the 2015 season, but it was relegated to only fighting in an unaired battle against Ray Billings' Swamp Thing to test camera angles and lighting ahead of the season. Team MAD did not apply for the following three BattleBots seasons, instead prioritizing Apollo and Robot Wars.

In November 2021, Orion competed in a Robots Live! event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This event also featured World Championship I competitors Radioactive with their better-known Robot Wars heavyweight Behemoth, and John Reid's Terrorhurtz, who also fought in the BattleBots reboot with Beta. Orion was painted blue and yellow specifically for this competition and beat Terrorhurtz in the first round of the bracket, but ultimately fell in the semi-finals to eventual champions Switch, who themselves were originally accepted for World Championship V with X/Change prior to the season's postponement. It also lost a fight against its older brother Apollo by KO, but finished joint-second with 12 wins overall after the competing robots fought each other in a round robin format.

Apollo at MechMania in July 2024.

Apollo next to Orion.

Apollo during Series 10 of Robot Wars.

Apollo during Series 9 of Robot Wars.

Apollo during Series 8 of Robot Wars.

Trivia

• Orion's name derives from the constellation of the same name.
• If Orion was to win the Giant Nut, Team MAD would become the first team to achieve heavyweight championship wins in the UK, US and China.
• Team MAD host their own live events in the UK called Robots Live!, often showcasing their own heavyweight robots.
  • In 2024, Team MAD were involved in the production of MechMania in association with the streaming service Mech+.

See Also

• Apollo (Robot Wars)
• Kronic the Wedgehog (Robot Wars)
• Vulcan (King of Bots/This is Fighting Robots)
• Team MAD (Robot Wars)