Team Gruff, formerly known as Ram Robotics, are an active BattleBots team who debuted in World Championship IV with their heavyweight entry Gruff.
Led by Sam McAmis, the team's best success came in 2020 where Gruff broke into the Top 32 and reached the final of its BattleBots: Bounty Hunters bracket, losing only to Bounty boss Tombstone.
Outside BattleBots[]
Outside of BattleBots, the team have also competed in ComBots Cup and RoboGames competitions since 2010. While it did very well at ComBots, never failing to make the quarter-finals at every single event, it struggled to replicate this success in its early years at RoboGames. However their fortune changed in 2018, beating Hardcore Robotics' Swamp Thing, Cataclysm (a renamed WAR Hawk) and Team RioBotz's Touro Maximus en route to the Winner's Final, but lost to Gary Gin and Original Sin, which would later enter BattleBots as Free Shipping.
Team Members[]
Sam McAmis[]
An engineering teacher by day, Sam McAmis is captain of Team Gruff and has conducted many of the pre and post-fight interviews. He was the lead designer for Gruff and also drives the robot.
Previously, Sam McAmis was president of the USF Robotics Interest Group (RIG), whose team members entered Quasar into the 15lb division of the 2009 BattleBots IQ event, and competed with Gruff in Combots Cup V a year later. He has mentored the Royal Robotics FIRST Robotics Competition team, and guest judged the Frontier Challenge robotics competition in August 2020.
Robots[]
| Robots | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Gruff | Heavyweight | World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII BattleBots: Champions II |
Win/Loss Record[]
- Wins: 9
- Losses: 14