Undercutters are a variation of horizontal spinners where the spinning mass is positioned as low to the BattleBox floor as possible without compromising the robot's ability to drive.
Design and History[]
Valkyrie's weapon breaks against Lock-Jaw.
The idea behind undercutters is to hit as low as possible on an opponent, potentially targeting tires on robots with a particularly high ground clearance. This was first seen on Team Loki's heavyweight Surgeon General. A disadvantage of undercutters, as is the case with many horizontal spinners, is that the robot will suddenly become unbalanced if the disk or bar is broken, as was seen in Valkyrie's 2018 season loss to Lock-Jaw.
ROTATOR attacks Kraken high up.
Robots with undercutters are typically also able to run inverted so they can attack higher up on opponents when flipped, to add more unpredictability to their attacks. Notably, Surgeon General began the Season 2.0 Heavyweight Consolation Rumble inverted, allowing it to hit higher up on opponents from the get-go. It repeated this for numerous other battles across its BattleBots career.
In more recent years, Victor Soto's ROTATOR has taken advantage of this since its debut, initially dual-wielding disk spinners at the front and back, having one undercutter and one 'overcutter' before focusing on a single undercutting disk. ROTATOR became particularly effective at hitting high up on robots when turned over, notably causing visible destruction to Icewave and Kraken, among others. Valkyrie and HiJinx are two other undercutters which debuted in the 2018 and 2020 seasons respectively. Both are invertible by design and able to operate with an 'overcutter' if deemed necessary. Although the team do not always opt to use it, the modular Ribbot featured an undercutting disk in the official shot for its first four seasons.
Notable Competitors[]
| Robot | Seasons | Image |
|---|---|---|
| HiJinx | World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII BattleBots: Champions II |
 |
| Ribbot | World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII |
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| ROTATOR | World Championship II World Championship III World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII BattleBots: Champions II |
 |
| Roundhouse | BattleBots Proving Ground BattleBots FaceOffs |
 |
| Samurai | World Championship VII (Exhibition only) |  |
| SMEEEEEEEEEEEEE | World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I |
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| Surgeon General | Season 2.0 Season 3.0 Season 4.0 Season 5.0 |
 |
| Texas Twister | World Championship IV |  |
| Valkyrie | World Championship III World Championship IV World Championship V BattleBots: Bounty Hunters World Championship VI BattleBots: Champions I World Championship VII BattleBots: Champions II BattleBots FaceOffs |
 |
Trivia[]
- Team Toad captain Fuzzy Mauldin credited Team Loki's Surgeon General as being his main inspiration for building Texas Twister ahead of the 2019 BattleBots season.
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