Team HUGE are an active team which have competed in every season of BattleBots since World Championship III with their unique heavyweight, HUGE.
Originally known as Gold Team (Rules), referencing an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, Team HUGE began designing their BattleBots entry in 2016, and developed a working prototype a year later before debuting in the 2018 season. HUGE has since become a favorite among fans, and has been ever-present in the Discovery era.
The team's biggest success to date came in World Championship VII, where HUGE went undefeated in eight consecutive fights to make the title decider against SawBlaze. In a close encounter which saw the judges enter the BattleBox to inspect for damage, SawBlaze was declared the victor and HUGE finished runner-up.
Outside BattleBots[]
Jonathan Schultz's team have also fought at the sportsman Robot Ruckus event with a thwacking arm replacing HUGE's bar spinner. To differentiate this from its typical look, the sportsman version was called HUGH. He has continued to fight in various US events with Tiny HUGE as well as its 30lb counterpart under the original team name.
Team Members[]
Jonathan Schultz[]
- "I've built three 30lb Huges, two 3lb Tiny Huges, and five 250lb HUGEs, and at this point I kind of want to build something normally-sized."
- — Jonathan Schultz[1]
Team captain and co-founder of Team HUGE, Jonathan Schultz's first combat robot was a vertical spinner built in 2016 called Duck Yeah as a college project, which fought in that year's NERC 30lb division.[2] He met several future teammates in 2017 US events, including Maddie Thuma and Peter Lombardo, and designed the first prototypes for what would become HUGE soon after.
Jonathan Schultz is a research and development engineer by trade, having worked for Domovi, founded by Valkyrie captain Leanne Cushing.
In May 2022, Schultz won the 30lb division of National Havoc Robot League with a smaller version of HUGE.
Don Doerfler[]
Upon joining the team in 2019, Don Doerfler already had a decade of experience with combat robots to his name. He has since competed in various US events under the name Brutus Robotics with robots such as Circuit Breaker, Disko, Other Disko and Not Disko.
He also built a smaller version of HUGE called Ugee, which won the National Havoc Robot League 2022 finals, and regularly judges events when not competing.
Peter Lombardo[]
Known for his 30lb robot BEEESS??, with which he has achieved Top 3 finishes at consecutive Motorama events between 2017 and 2019, Peter Lombardo specializes in the electronics of HUGE and fabrication of its unique UMHW wheels.
Maddie Thumma[]
Partner to team captain Jonathan Schultz, Maddie Thumma has been part of the team since HUGE's BattleBots debut. She is listed as the "unofficial team manager" and leads HUGE's graphic design.[3]
Brendan Steele[]
Joining the team ahead of World Championship VII, Brendan Steele has also competed in the NHRL with a 12lb robot named Ram Plan. Initially a sportsman competitor, it was entered into full combat events, where it became one of only a handful of competitors to successfully disable the house robot, earning a $1000 bonus prize for doing so. Ram Plan now resides as part of the NHRL robot museum alongside the 2018 build of HUGE and Tiny HUGE.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| HUGE | Heavyweight | World Championship III
World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII |
Win/Loss Record[]
- Wins: 20
- Losses: 12
See Also[]
Trivia[]
- Prior to building his first combat robot, Jonathan Schultz was part of the Robot Arena 2 community.