Gabriel

Gabriel is a heavyweight thwackbot, that competed in the 2016 series of Robot Wars. Gabriel is armed with a variety of interchangeable blades and weapons, which it swings overhead by overturning the robot. These weapons include the team’s signature sword, which Dara Ó Briain remarked was his favourite, a pickaxe, a battleaxe, and a sledgehammer. The robot is armoured in 25mm of High Density Polyethylene, with a 6.2mm steel armour plate.

By attacking purely with torque reaction, Gabriel was in violation of the series’ active weapon policy, introduced in Series 7 to stop robots without a moving weapon from qualifying, although this rule was likely disregarded at a later stage, as robots such as Chimera and Nuts also lack an official moving weapon.

Gabriel is the successor to a smaller thwackbot, armed with a thinner sword, The Saint, from which the team derived their name. The Saint is still active today, and occasionally fights alongside Gabriel.

The name Gabriel is likely derived from the angel Gabriel, sent by God as a messenger to other biblical figures, hence the robot’s white colour scheme, and passive manner towards defeated robots, the team claiming that they want to be one of the ‘good guys instead of a bad guy.’

2016 series
Gabriel will compete in Episode 5.

Results

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Robot Wars Live Events
Gabriel, along with Team Saint’s other heavyweights The Saint and Cherub, are regular competitors at the live events, with the team in attendance at all events. Of the three robots, Gabriel enjoys the most success currently, with a mixture of wins, although Saint had previously earned the title of Tag Team Champion in 2014.

Gabriel’s biggest success was at the Robot Wars World Championship 2015, where it placed third. It passed the first round through a Judges’ decision over Luzifer, qualifying alongside Dystopia after Toon Raider drove into the pit. Gabriel won its second round match on a Judges’ decision, based on aggression and damage caused to Tough As Nails after the latter had already pitted Beast. Gabriel fought a close match with Gravity in the quarter-finals, sustaining flips but also attacking with its sword. Eventually, Gravity flipped itself over, and did not have enough power to fully self-right, leading to a third win via Judges’ decision for Gabriel, as Gravity was not counted out in time. Gabriel was finally eliminated after a close match with Thor, where Gabriel received more damage and lost its fourth Judges’ decision.

Gabriel made its 2016 live Robot Wars debut at Manchester, although it was thrown out of the arena by Behemoth and Ripper in its two battles.