Edward Roski III, known as Trey Roski (born April 4, 1965) is one of the co-founders of BattleBots and serves as executive producer alongside cousin Greg Munson.
His involvement with the sport began as Greg Munson asked Trey Roski if he wanted to drive La Machine for the 1995 UK Open Competition, which also featured several US teams and robots. For the robotic soccer event, La Machine teamed up and was victorious with The Master, built and driven by Mark Setrakian. From then, Trey Roski was convinced that this was something he wanted to bring to television for the first time. He met with Marc Thorpe, who had initially orchestrated the 1995 UK event, and a second event took place the following year. More builders gathered to compete in the 1996 US Robot Wars event, including several who are still active in and around the sport to this day: Donald Hutson, Al Kindle, Curtis Nemeth and The Bot Whisperer, Pete Abrahamson. As well as competing, Trey Roski assisted in the production of the arena hazards, and alongside Greg Munson, developed the earliest Robot Wars website and produced brochures for the event.[1] After much work and effort, the first series of Robot Wars launched in the UK, and the US got to see BattleBots soon after.
As the show developed in popularity on Comedy Central, Trey Roski largely remained behind-the-scenes. However, he made a rare cameo in Season 3.0 as La Machine returned for an exhibition rumble, partnered by Christian Carlberg's Dreadnought and their own superheavyweight Ginsu, who all faced Chinkilla. Ahead of the fight, Trey Roski gave on-camera driving advice to celebrity guests Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, who operated Ginsu's drive and weapons respectively. Chinkilla was ultimately deemed the winner of the 3v1 fight. With the show's sudden drop from Comedy Central after its fifth season, Trey Roski worked with Greg Munson for over a decade to bring it back to television screens, sanctioning a number of events under the BattleBots name in the years between Season 5.0 and World Championship I. This era of darkness birthed many of the drivers and builders in the modern era, some like Ray Billings and Tombstone had considerably a considerably more modest entry in the classic televised era, but became one of the stars of the reboot.
- "We could have given it away almost immediately after we were off the air on Comedy Central. Would that have been the smart thing to do? No. It's important that you stick in there for the right tone, the right people, to let us do our dream correctly. And I say that very openly - it's not only Greg and my dream, but the contestants. You have to remember - we started as contestants. And always looked after the contestants as we would want to be looked after, if we were in their shoes."
- — Trey Roski explains in detail the thought process behind biding his time with getting BattleBots back on TV
In 2015, BattleBots returned to television and Trey Roski retained his role as one of the show's executive producers. Ahead of the season's premiere, he and Greg Munson took to Reddit to perform an AMA, where he spoke passionately about the future of the show. Trey's role spread to being part of the Selection Committee, who not only chose fights but in later seasons with the Fight Night format, selected the Top 32 (16 in World Championship III) to make the tournament bracket.
- "In general, motors have gotten better. Metals are more accessible - you can actually buy some forms of Titanium that 20 years ago was impossible to get for most people, and now you can go online and find it at a somewhat reasonable price. Computers, servos, the technology has gotten incredible that didn't exist 10 years ago. And it's gotten to a price where most people can afford it."
- — Trey Roski on the development of BattleBots and its potential moving forward
Trey (and Greg) notably pushed for builders of old to return for World Championship I, most notably Jim Smentowski and Nightmare, who was a poster bot of the Comedy Central era and even featured on some promotional material for early reboot seasons of the show.
- "They [ABC] are letting us do it right. And there's nothing but positive feedback from everybody who's seen the show. And everybody's really happy. All we need now is people to watch it."
- — Trey Roski expresses his delight at the return of BattleBots to television screens
His status as co-founder and executive producer meant he also had a large say in changes to the rules over the seasons, notable examples including the 250mph tip speed restriction, rules preventing and many others. At the end of each season, The Founder's Award was presented to teams who had best embodied the spirit of BattleBots, and was awarded by Trey Roski and Greg Munson themselves.
Ahead of the 2020 season, Trey Roski spearheaded the decision to replace the old BattleBox floor, which had not been replaced over the years the show had been off air. As such, there were several instances during the previous season where damaged sections had affected the outcomes of fights. Therefore, a brand new steel floor was fitted for World Championship V, adorned with the show's new logo in the center. Trey Roski also presented Team End Game with the Giant Nut after their title-deciding win over Whiplash.
As BattleBots officially reached a sixth season for the first time in 2021, Trey Roski headlined the latest addition to the BattleBox - the Upper Deck, a 16" x 8" raised platform with flat sides and a pair of screws protruding from the front. Though many of the hazards had been maintained, upgraded or removed across the previous five seasons, the Upper Deck marked the first time Trey had orchestrated a brand new hazard for the BattleBox.
In 2022, he and Greg Munson announced the first two inductees into the BattleBots Hall of Fame following the conclusion of filming for World Championship VII - Marc Thorpe and Mark Setrakian.
With the introduction of BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon, Roski lent himself to drive several ShowBots under the nickname 'Red Hot Roski'. He can often be seen wearing a red jacket and Stetson hat.
.png "Paul Ventimiglia with Trey Roski and Greg Munson (Battlebots IQ 2002).png (5.66 MB)")
Outside BattleBots[]
The son of American businessman Ed Roski Jr., Trey Roski was brought up near Take Toluca, Los Angeles. As a child, he enjoyed placing with remote control cars and boats, something BattleBots would later become a natural extension of. Early in life, his passions revolved around playing with remote control cars and boats, and felt his diagnosis of dyslexia meant he would struggle to find similar success to his father and grandfather. In spite of this, he ultimately co-founded BattleBots alongside cousin Greg Munson, who he also grew up with.
In 2014, as a student of Gow School, Trey Roski visited to meet with their robotics team, who had previously fought in years past during the high school and college BattleBots IQ events.
Trivia[]
- Ahead of the 2015 season's premiere, Trey Roski cited Warhead and Warrior Clan as his two favorite BattleBots competitors from the field of 24, even banking on Warhead to win the entire season. As such, it was won by Bite Force.
- Trey Roski owns a collection of physical tapes of unaired BattleBots fights from the Comedy Central era, though they require mass digitization in order to be archived.
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