Team Shock

Team Shock are a team from Reading that competed in the 2016 Series of Robot Wars. The team are a father and son team, captained by Will Thomas, a university student studying for Phd in Cybernetics who also designed the robots. While his father Ian, a marketer worked as the mechanic and the robot builder.

Team Shock first debuted in the 2016 series of Robot Wars with their entry Shockwave, which was a four-wheel driven robot armed with a rotating arm with scoop attachments that could rotate at 360 degrees which made is currently through to the finals of the competition.

Although Team Shock only got involved in the TV Show once, they have also been widely known by the roboteering community for their other two robots Manta & Maelstrom which even though failed to qualify for the 2016 Series, have both done very well in the live event circuit during the 12 year hiatus of Robot Wars, including the recently rebranded Robot Wars Live Events.

Wins/Losses
Wins: 4 Losses: 1

Series Record

 * Series 1-7: Did not enter
 * Extreme 1-2: Did not enter
 * 2016 Series: Grand-Finalist with Shockwave

Robot Wars Live Events
Team Shock are regular competitors at the recently rebranded Robot Wars Live Events, particularly with all three of their heavyweights Shockwave, Manta & Maelstrom. Shockwave has only been fighting in the "retro battles" while Manta & Maelstrom have fought in the competitions with various degrees of success. Maelstrom won the first Robot Wars Live Event at Barnsley 2013, reached the finals at Portsmouth 2013 & finished runner-up at Widnes 2013.

Manta's debut was at the 2013 Robot Wars Event at Guildford where it reached the finals finishing runners-up to Thor, and also managed to win the Robot Wars 2013 Winter Tour. It also reached the semi-finals of the Robot Wars World Championships 2015 held at Colchester losing to eventual winner Toxic 2 where at this event it finished fourth overall.

Manta is also one of the two main mascots of Robot Wars live tours, as there is a regular part of the show where half of the audience will be told to cheer for Team Ripper, while the other half cheer for Team Manta. Audience members on Team Manta have the opportunity to win a Team Manta cap, or any audience member can purchase one from the merchandise stall.

Outside Robot Wars
Team Shock have competed in live events hosted by Roaming Robots & Robots Live! since 2007. The team first of all started competing with featherweights. Near late 2008, they purchased Robot Wars Competitor, St. Agro and it has since been rebuilt and renamed to Maelstrom. Under Team Shock's wing, it has done very well in live events reaching the final of the 2009 UK Championships losing to Terrorhurtz and also finishing runner-up in the 2012 UK Championships to Big Nipper.

In 2013, the team built Manta which has done well in major competitions such as finishing as runner-up in the 2013 UK Championships, 3rd in the 2014 UK Championships and finishing as runner-up to Toxic 2 in the European Championships 2013.

In April 2016, the team also purchased White Knight (formerly Iron-Awe 3) from Team Wind-Power before renaming it to Earthquake.

In addition to their heavyweights, Team Shock have competed with various featherweight robots over the years, they are listed below.


 * 4 Baa 4: Built by Team Lambsy originally, the team bought it from them in 2007. But they didn't have very much success with it so it was sold again to Team Toon.
 * Aftershock: The first version was previously an upgraded version of Cutlet, it was purchased by Team Lambsy in 2007. During the times it has been rebuilt it has done very well in events winning the Roaming Robots 2008 Winter Tour and finishing as runner-up to Beauty 2 in the 2009 UK Championships.
 * Hammerhead: A small two-wheel driven featherweight armed with a low-pressure hammer.
 * Heatwave: A black wedge-shaped robot armed with a flipping arm.
 * Inertia XL: A two-wheeled driven featherweight armed with a vertical spinning disc.
 * Lambda: A two-wheel driven featherweight armed with a vertical spinning bar.
 * Shockwave: A clear polycarbonate-armoured wedge-shaped robot armed with a low-pressure flipper which the team claimed could flip a featherweight out of a heavyweight arena. This robot was since sold to Glasgow based roboteer, Tony Smith.
 * Tidal Wave: A black wedge-shaped featherweight armed with a flipper, this robot was built for one of Will Thomas's Exam projects at school in 2007.
 * Whirlpool: A flat invertible four-wheel driven rambot.