Team Boilerbots, formerly known as Operation Boilermaker, are a team from California who entered all five seasons of Comedy Central BattleBots, and most recently competed in World Championship I.
Captained by Curt Meyers, the team entered Kill-O-Amp and Jaws of Death into the heavyweight and superheavyweight divisions respectively, achieving modest success throughout.
Dallas Goecker, best known for creating Sallad, would also enter Pokey into the final three seasons of Comedy Central BattleBots under his own team name, Team Sallad. This denoted the absence of Curt Meyers, who remained captain of Operation Boilermaker.[1]
Team members Alec Aizner and Eugene Meydbray would also enter the final Comedy Central season as Team Cerebral Machines with a heavyweight called BOT-3.141592653589793238462643383279. However, it did not compete for unknown reasons, and very little information is known about the robot.
Outside BattleBots[]
The team, then comprised of Curt Meyers and Dallas Goecker, originally entered Pokey into the 1996 Robot Wars event. It was originally built under the name Bounty for the 1995 UIUC Engineering Open House Wasteland Competition.[2] Pokey lost its opening fight to Scrappy and was immediately eliminated from the competition. Pokey returned for the six-way Megabot rumble, but was immobilized and lost to Dan Danknick's Agamemnon.
Pokey again competed in the 1997 Robot Wars event, with considerably more success. It first defeated Vicious-1, built by future Giant Nut winner Mike Regan, before chalking up a second win against Satoro Special IV. However, it lost its third battle to Alexander and was eliminated at this stage.[3]
Counter Revolution being flipped over by Sewer Snake.
Following the construction of Counter Revolution, Team Boilerbots entered it into RoboGames 2009. It first took on a Mexican heavyweight called Yaotl, which broke down and suffered damage from the vertical spinning discs. Counter Revolution advanced to fight Sewer Snake, but was bullied around the arena and ultimately was left stranded. In the losers bracket, Counter Revolution received a bye as VD6 was unable to return following a destructive loss to Tombstone - a fate Team Boilerbots faced six years later. As a result, the team instead fought SJ, a revised version of the Comedy Central era competitor SlamJob. It was flipped over during the fight, however, and lost by knockout, ultimately exiting the tournament at this stage.
The team entered Jaws of Death into Combots Cup III and the 2008 edition of RoboGames. Though it would find success and win the superheavyweight division at Combots Cup, Jaws of Death suffered three consecutive losses at RoboGames and was promptly eliminated.
Counter Revolution is attacked by Whoops! during the 2015 event.
Returning for RoboGames 2015, Counter Revolution was scheduled to fight Gruff. However, Sam McAmis' team withdrew and Team Boilerbots moved on to face Whoops!. Having been pushed around for much of the match, Whoops! was able to overturn Counter Revolution and it was counted out. In the loser's bracket again, it defeated FunsDeads, Pump and Prometheus in succession before having its electronics scorched by The Great Pumpkin.
Team Members[]
Curt Meyers[]
Team captain and the only member present for each and every BattleBots appearance, Curt Meyers is a computer and electrical engineer from California.
Having graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, he came up with the team name as the university's sports team's nickname is the "Boilermakers", referencing their reputation of teaching engineering.
In 2018 he built a smaller version of Counter Revolution named Baby Counter Revolution for RoboGames.[4]
Dallas Goecker[]
Dallas Goecker's involvement with Team Boilerbots dates back to the 1990s, as he accompanied Curt Meyers during the team's earliest competitions. He accompanied the team as they entered Jaws of Death and Kill-O-Amp under the tean mame Operation Boilermaker.
der the Operation Boilermaker name, but also captained Team Sallad, where he entered both Sallad and a revised Pokey. He returned to Team Boilerbots in 2015, for their brief stint in ABC's first BattleBots season.
Goecker built a smaller robot armed with a vertical spinner named Chopped Salad, and has remained involved in promoting and competing in the sport as recently as April 2021.[5]
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Counter Revolution | Heavyweight | 2009 Pro Championship World Championship I World Championship II (Not selected) |
| Jaws of Death | Superheavyweight | Season 3.0 Season 4.0 Season 5.0 |
| Kill-O-Amp | Heavyweight | Long Beach 1999 Las Vegas 1999 Season 1.0 Season 2.0 Season 3.0 |
Win/Loss Record[]
- Wins: 7
- Losses: 12
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20030222111849/http://www.battlebots.com/meet_the_robots3/meet_results.asp?p=28&pg=11
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/19991106021732/http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1436/waste.html
- ↑ http://runamok.tech/whowon/rw97.html
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10156259988730295&set=ecnf.716670294
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EomnJFpB6l8