Team Bad Kitty are an active team who have competed in every BattleBots season since World Championship IV. They are best known for their heavyweight entry MadCatter.
Not to be confused with the 2016 entrant Bad Kitty, which competed under Team Think Tank, Team Bad Kitty have competed with MadCatter since 2019 BattleBots season. Originally built with modular weaponry in mind, the team have since honed in on optimizing MadCatter's damaging vertical spinner, achieving a career-best Top 16 finish during World Championship VII.
The team fought in the 2022 all:STARS re:MARS event, where it lost its opening match to Hydra. It performed better in BattleBots: Champions I, defeating Triple Crown and Claw Viper before losing to eventual bracket winner HyperShock. Throughout this event, Team Bad Kitty advocated for the adoption of foster kittens through the installation of a back plate with the words "Adopt Don't Shop" and attaching a picture of a kitten named Alfie, who passed away in 2021, to the bottom of MadCatter.
For BattleBots Proving Ground in 2023, the team joined forces with Hardcore Robotics as their middleweights catKong and Mortician took on heavyweight DOOM.
Outside BattleBots[]
Outside of BattleBots, the team fought in the Chinese show King of Bots with Cat King, joined by Emmanuel Carrillo of Big Dill fame and, for the second series, Bunny Liaw of Malice.
Their middleweight, catKong, competed at RoboGames 2017 under the Team Bad Kitty name. catKong first beat MANDiii in the first round but had to forfeit to The Blender in Round 2. catKong then earned five consecutive wins, including getting revenge on The Blender, before falling in the loser's semi-finals to NIGHTHAWK.
The team entered Cataclysm into RoboGames 2018 in the heavyweight division. After receiving a first round bye, Cataclysm beat Shape-Shifter in Round 2 before losing out to Gruff. It entered the loser's bracket and earned wins over Khaos and Ragin Scotsman, but a loss to Lucky sealed its exit from the competition.
In mid-2022, Team Bad Kitty entered the Robotica event in Houston, Texas with HappyCatter, a sportsman-legal version of MadCatter.[1] HappyCatter finished fifth overall after losing to Lil Pip Resurrected, but beating Orly and NEUMATIK. HappyCatter then suffered a loss to Deferred Maintenance, but defeated Slammo! before losing one last time to Team Toad's Avalanche.
The team applied for the return of RoboGames in 2023, with Cataclysm, the original name of the team's Chinese entry Cat King, designed in collaboration with Team Food Fight. After beating The Emporer in Round 1, it then defeated Ziggy Jr. in a rematch from RoboGames 2018 and took out Ragin Scotsman. After defeating White Rabbit in the semi-finals, Cataclysm fell at the final hurdle to RoboGames 2023 heavyweight champion Manta.
Thomas Thomas also entered catKong into the 120lb division under the Team Bad Kitty name, defeating BMF in its opening battle before defeating Wolverine in destructive fashion. However, it lost to Copyright Infringement and fell into the loser's bracket, where it lost to eventual champion BMF in a rematch from Round 1.
Team Members[]
Martin Mason[]
Captain of the team, Martin Mason is an engineering professor by day who previously competed as part of Team Think Tank and Bad Kitty during World Championship II, as well as Western Allied Robotics and WAR Hawk in 2019. He teaches engineering at Mt. San Antonio College with Team Bad Kitty consisting of former and current students.
He is best known for his on-camera character reflecting a professional wrestler, as seen in interviews and promotional material. Martin Mason also organizes and commentates over lower weight class combat robot events in the Southern California area. During Episode 10 of World Championship VII, Martin Mason provided guest commentary for Emulsifier vs. Banshee.
Calvin Iba[]
Calvin Iba is the driver of MadCatter and an ever-present member of the team. As well as general engineering duties, he notably designed a custom anti-spark safety switch for MadCatter ahead of the 2021 season. Outside of BattleBots, he is a regular National Havoc Robot League competitor as founder and captain of Iba Labs. He is best known for his 3lb eggbeater Lynx, which earned 1st place finishes in 2020 and 2021. Other smaller robots include Mixtape, Slipstream and 1lb antweight Splinter among others. In December 2022, he piloted Lynx to first place finish in the NHRL Championship finals, marking his second beetleweight world championship title. At the same event, he won Best Driver, Most Fun Bot and Fight of the Year, the latter shared with Team Shreddit.[2]
Ahead of MadCatter's World Championship VII Main Event against Riptide, Calvin Iba took the spotlight as controversy over whether Ethan Kurtz copied Lynx's design to create his 250lb BattleBots entry arose. In reality, the controversy stemmed from Kurtz's own 3lb robot Rival, which Iba claimed to be more than just inspired by his championship-winning Lynx.
Emmanuel Carrillo[]
Perhaps best known for his involvement as captain of Team Food Fight and Big Dill, Emmanuel Carrillo was officially part of the team for MadCatter's debut season and was credited with design work for its 2021 season build. He was absent from the team during 2020 as he entered the main competition with his pickle-themed bot, and assisted with the driving of multibot Jäger due to shortages within their team. Previously, like team captain Martin Mason, Emmanuel Carrillo was listed as part of Western Allied Robotics.
Thomas Thomas[]
Thomas Thomas has been with Team Bad Kitty since their 2019 season debut and is the current operator of MadCatter's minibot, Gassy Cat.
Ryan Lau[]
Ryan Lau is the flamethrower operator of Gassy Cat. He featured in a July 2024 episode of the Skorpios Builder Blog, where he spoke to Zach Lytle about the team's unique repair van and his logistical role within Team Bad Kitty.[3]
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| MadCatter | Heavyweight | World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I re:MARS all:STARS 2022 World Championship VII BattleBots: Champions II BattleBots Proving Ground BattleBots Faceoffs |
| CatKong | Middleweight | BattleBots Proving Ground BattleBots Faceoffs |
Win/Loss Record[]
- Wins: 16
- Losses: 14
* Two of these losses are attributed to CatKong following its losses in a 2v1 battle with Mortician against DOOM at [[BattleBots Proving Ground
BattleBots Faceoffs|BattleBots Proving Ground]].
See Also[]
References[]
[[Category:BattleBots Proving Ground
BattleBots Faceoffs Competitors]]