Robot Wars: Series 8/Heat 1

Episode 1 was the first of five qualification episodes which determined the Grand Finalists of the 2016 series of Robot Wars.


 * Despite the lack of seedings or reference to the previous series, all five heats of the 2016 series see a single robot/team which won a heat in the Seventh Wars compete. In Episode 1, it was Bonk, new machine from Team Mute.
 * This episode features the only instance of two former UK Grand Finalists meeting in a heat first-round melee, specifically Razer and Terrorhurtz.
 * Although Bigger Brother and Typhoon 2 had fought in a first-round melee before this, Typhoon 2 had not become a Grand Finalist at the time.
 * If Carbide is considered the successor to Tiberius, Nuts was the only robot in this heat to have no previous experience on Robot Wars. However, The General had never fought in combat either.

Kill-E-Crank-E vs Nuts vs Razer vs Terrorhurtz
As the battle started, Terrorhurtz immediately started chasing Nuts, missing with it's first axe blow. Meanwhile, Razer moved in to attack Kill-E-Crank-E, grappling onto the robot with the crushing claw. Kill-E-Crank-E escaped from Razer's grip and opened the pit, just as Nuts was driving over it. Nuts escaped the descending pit by a fraction of a second.

Razer caught one of Nuts' minibots and spent some time parading around the arena with it stuck on its claw. Nuts started spinning, using the flail to deflect Terrorhurtz and its axe. Razer, started to focus on Kill-E-Crank-E more, and took some time to get a good grip of the robot. They drove them towards the pit to drop them down, but as Razer got to the edge of the pit, one of Kill-E-Crank-E's wheels was still on the ground. The wheel was fired into drive, which pivoted Razer around and into the pit with them.

"Oh No! Look at this. The mighty have fallen. They took Kill-E-Crank-E out and went themselves."

- Jonathan Pearce as Kill-E-Crank-E and Razer fall in the pit.

Qualified: Nuts & Terrorhurtz

Behemoth vs Bonk vs Carbide vs The General
Bonk started off well, immediately chasing after Carbide and landing an axe blow on the black and green machine, as it tried to stay away and spin up its weapon. Behemoth flipped The General over as Carbide launched an attack on the tyres of The General. Behemoth moved in towards Bonk, who had their axe stuck in the 'fired' position, and they were then trapped on the Arena Spikes. Behemoth hit the spinning discs of The General and were flipped over by it, before self-righting spectacularly.



Behemoth ran away to press the pit release button as Carbide stayed away to spin up their weapon. Bonk and The General were close together as Carbide came in with their blade at a reasonable speed and slammed into The General's side, ripping one of their wheels clean off. A one-wheeled The General was pushed onto the flame pit and left there, while Behemoth flipped Bonk over. Bonk were venting gasses, and Carbide made sure Bonk weren't coming back by hitting the immobilised robot a few times with their blade at full speed.

Qualified: Behemoth & Carbide

Carbide vs Terrorhurtz
Terrorhurtz drove straight into Carbide's blade at the start of the battle. The blade deflected off the armoured and angled front of Terrorhurtz, which sent Carbide flying through the air. It landed upside down, and Terrorhurtz utilised the now-upturned wedge at the back of Carbide to get good purchase on their opponent and push them around. Carbide managed to get 3 good hits on the front of Terrorhurtz, but it only caused superficial damage. Terrorhurtz pushed Carbide into the wall, the pit release button and Sir Killalot in quick succession. Carbide escaped Killalot, but got stuck on the flame pit. Sir Killalot pushed Carbide off the flame pit, so Terrorhurtz pushed them into a wall, before driving them across the arena and into the pit. Terrorhurtz's axe stopped working after the first hit, but they still managed to get a knockout victory and the 3 points.

Winner: Terrorhurtz via KO (3 points)

Behemoth vs Nuts
Behemoth started on the front foot by slamming into Nuts and flipping the invertible robot on the flame pit. Nuts escaped to the middle of the Arena and started to spin, getting the flails into play. One of their minibots strayed too close and were hit by their own flail. Behemoth chose their moment and drove in, stopping the spinning of Nuts without taking much damage. Behemoth made another charge, and after avoiding the Arena spikes, flipped Nuts into the clutches of Dead Metal.

"We don't want to be there, no no no!"

- The Nuts team after being flipped into Dead Metal

Behemoth were pushing Nuts around again and slammed them into the pit release button. They went near the floor flipper, which fired but missed both robots, but as it came down, trapped Nuts by gripping onto one of the flails. Behemoth then drove into one of the cluserbots and flipped it really high. The clusterbots survived as Behemoth went too near Matilda, who flipped Behemoth clean over by hitting them with the flywheel. Nuts escaped the flipper, as Behemoth self-righted, and started spinning again. Nuts also took a hit and flight from Matilda's flywheel, while Behemoth missed a flip on the other clusterbot. Behemoth kept flipping Nuts, and eventually got one of the clusterbots again, flipping them halfway across the arena. Both kept avoiding each other for the last few moments. The judges awarded the 2 points for victory to Behemoth.

Winner: Behemoth via Judges' decision (2 points)

Behemoth vs Terrorhurtz
Winner: Behemoth via KO (3 points)

Carbide vs Nuts
Winner: Carbide via KO (3 points)

Behemoth vs Carbide
Winner: Carbide via KO (3 points)

Nuts vs Terrorhurtz
Winner: Terrorhurtz via Judges' decision (2 points)

Behemoth vs Carbide
Episode Winner: Carbide