Roy Hellen (born 1965) is a former Chief Warrant Officer in the US Armed Forces who served as the ring announcer for the preliminary rounds of Season 5.0 of Comedy Central BattleBots.
In the absence of Mark Beiro for the untelevised rounds of Season 5.0, Roy Hellen was drafted in for ring announcing duties. He also worked as part of the Crewbot team during this time.
Roy Hellen (right) during a Season 5.0 preliminary fight.
Although footage containing Hellen is scarce, he can be heard in several purchased videos of preliminary fights from that season, including one between Towering Inferno and Ripkin where he can be heard introducing the latter.[1]
- "It's not the fighting robots. It's that everyone who comes to these events - they really want to build one. It really sparks the imagination."
- — Roy Hellen on BattleBots in November 1999.[2]
Roy Hellen (right) with Hardcore Robotics in 2020.
He was also part of Hardcore Robotics and Tombstone during BattleBots World Championship V in 2020.
Outside BattleBots[]
Roy Hellen (center) at RoboGames in full attire.
Since its inception, Roy Hellen served as emcee for RoboGames and often wore knight's armor in doing so.[3] He also featured as list master for RoboJoust events, and provided color commentary for fights held at Team Toad's Robot Club & Grille, whose fights were released onto DVD in the early 2000s.
He adopted the nickname BotGladiator in part due to his attire.
Trivia[]
- Roy Hellen is the only ring announcer to then land a competing role in BattleBots.