Reserves, also known as Alternates or Backups, are names given to BattleBots competitors who are accepted for an event, but only as surplus in case of any dropouts or late withdrawals.
As early seasons of BattleBots were open invitation with only the later rounds being aired on Comedy Central, there was no need for a specified number of competitors, with robots whose opponents could not compete given byes. However, with the revival of the show on ABC in 2015, there was a set total of 24 competitors with the intention for every tournament fight to be filmed, edited and televised. As such, to prevent the need for bye rounds, reserves were accepted to fill in if called upon. It was then up to the teams whether they still wanted to build for the competition with no fights guaranteed.
In recent seasons on Discovery, the field of robots changed, but the need for reserves did not. Teams were typically listed in order of priority: first alternate, second alternate, and so on. However, the order of reserves have rarely been known.
A list of alternates for each BattleBots competition can be found below. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and is subject to change upon discovery of new information.
Cisco Party 2006[]
The first known example of an unused reserve, Bling Bling was a middleweight entry by the Cole family and driven by future Copperhead and Magnitude team member Chad New.
| Unused Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bling Bling | Gary and Dustin Cole |  |
JavaOne 2007[]
The only known reserve robot for this event was Matt Maxham's Devil's Plunger, who won the middleweight division of the NPC Charity Open three years earlier. The team's heavyweight, Sewer Snake, did compete in the JavaOne event.
| Unused Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Devil's Plunger | Team PlumbCrazy |  |
World Championship I[]
Beta is known to have withdrawn from the 2015 season, after a 25kg bag of vital parts were lost in traveling to San Francisco for filming. Team Hurtz were directly replaced by Counter Revolution, who instead fought Tombstone.
Mutant Robots with Lock-Jaw and Root Canal in 2015.
Root Canal was also rumored to be a reserve and was present at filming with the team, though whether its intention to compete alongside Lock-Jaw is not known.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bite Force | Aptyx Designs |  |
| Counter Revolution | Team Boilerbots |  |
| Nightmare | Team Nightmare |  |
| Unused Reserves | ||
| Bull Dog | Team Bigger Brother |  |
| Chronic | Team MAD |  |
| Splatter | Team Fast Electric Robots |  |
| Swamp Thing | Hardcore Robotics |  |
World Championship II[]
The 2016 season saw a record number of withdrawals, with a number of teams instated to replace them at filming. Withdrawals from this season included Ambush, The Dentist, Clockwork L'Orange, Talos, HellaChopper and Preying Mantis.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Captain Shrederator | Team LOGICOM |  |
| Gemini | Team Randicand |  |
| Lucky | Team Lucky Canucky |  |
| ROTATOR | Team Revolution |  |
| Yeti | Team Yeti |  |
| Unused Reserves | ||
| Road Rash | Danger 4 |  |
| Swamp Thing | Hardcore Robotics |  |
| Withdrawn Reserves | ||
| Double Dutch | LungFish Technologies |  |
| M.O.E. | Team Extreme |  |
| Over Easy | Plymouth North High School Robotics Team |
 |
| TALOS | Aberrant Robotics |  |
World Championship III[]
The 2018 season is known to have had two instated competitors, being Basilisk and Parallax. Swamp Thing was again brought to act as a reserve, alongside Hardcore Robotics' flagship robot and then-defending champion, Tombstone. The robot made a brief televised cameo in the opening for Episode 8, shown on a trolley.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Basilisk | MBS Robotics |  |
| Parallax | Aberrant Robotics |  |
| Unused Reserves | ||
| Swamp Thing | Hardcore Robotics |  |
World Championship IV[]
Electric Ray was originally an alternate during the 2019 season, before being promoted to a main season competitor. However, the team were unable to get it running regardless, so had to withdraw.
Jim Smentowski and Team Nightmare competed with Breaker Box, but also attended with Nightmare. It fought in an exhibition battle against Mammoth, but was unused throughout the main tournament.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bloodsport | Bots 'n' Stuff Robotics |  |
| Captain Shrederator | Team LOGICOM |  |
| Electric Ray | Team Robot Revolution |  |
| Railgun MAX | Team Atom |  |
| Unused Reserves | ||
| Nightmare | Team Nightmare |  |
| Sharkoprion | Aquatic Machine Force |  |
World Championship V[]
The 2020 season is not known to have had any alternates, largely due to the competition being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This allowed for numerous teams to build during periods of lockdown, and also forced other teams to withdraw once the new filming dates were announced.
World Championship VI[]
A total of three teams attended filming with reserve robots, two of which competed exclusively in BattleBots: Champions. Triple Crown attended as a reserve, but was later granted a single main season battle against Valkyrie. Perfect Phoenix also only competed in the side series, but was originally accepted for the 2021 season. Team Doom Robotics were forced to withdraw from the main season due to conflicting schedules with Tyler Nguyen's school at the time.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Riptide | Team Break32 |  |
| Triple Crown | Team Irresistible Object |  |
| Unused Reserves | ||
| Big Dill | Team Food Fight |  |
| Double Jeopardy | Team Double Trouble |  |
re:MARS all:STARS BattleBots Challenge (2022)[]
The 2022 re:MARS all:STARS had two unused reserves in addition to the main eight-robot roster, which included an instated reserve in Skorpios. JackPot and Malice would ultimately fight in a mid-competition grudge match.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Skorpios | Bot Bash Party Crew |  |
| Unused Reserves | ||
| JackPot | Vegas Combat Robotics |  |
| Malice | Team Malice |  |
World Championship VII[]
World Championship VII also included several teams accepted as reserves, with some attending filming and others withdrawing upon news of their status. Reserves for this season were typically granted two battles which aired alongside the regular season, and were then eligible to compete in BattleBots: Champions II.
With the full Fight Night schedule being released on January 5, 2023, alternates were purposely not added.[1] Big Dill attended as a reserve, but it later entered the main competition after newcomer DOOM was forced to relinquish its place as a full competitor, whose full Fight Night schedule was instead given to Big Dill.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Big Dill | Team Food Fight |  |
| SHREDDIT BRO! | Team Shreddit |  |
| Confirmed Reserves | ||
| DOOM | Team APT |  |
| Doomba | Team Hot Mess |  |
| Double Tap | Ostrich Air |  |
| Dragon King | Bot Bash Party Crew |  |
| Rusty | Team Iron Force |  |
| Slammo! | Team Danby |  |
| Terrortops | Team Terrortops | 
|
| Withdrawn Reserves | ||
| Dragon Slayer | Wild Side Robotics |  |
| Retrograde | Bots 'n' Stuff Robotics |  |
BattleBots Faceoffs[]
Two reserves were chosen in addition to the 28 competing teams for BattleBots Faceoffs, as confirmed in the July 30 Skorpios Builder Blog episode.[2] One of these was revealed to be Rusty, which replaced UFWoe in the third group. Another was later revealed to be Fireball, which replaced HiJinx in the fifth group.
| Instated Reserves | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rusty | Team Iron Force |  |
| Fireball | Bots 'n' Stuff Robotics |  |
Trivia[]
The first World Champion was an Alternate in World Championship I
References[]
- ↑ Private correspondence between Greg Munson and SFCJack
- ↑ Everything We Know About BATTLEBOTS FACE-OFF!!!