Apollo

Apollo was a white, chequered wedge-shaped robot with a powerful flipper, that was invited to participate in the pilot episode of Robot Wars in 2016. It was in fact BattleBots reserve robot Chronic, which was in turn a rebuilt version of former Robot Wars competitor Kronic the Wedgehog.

Apollo was built by Team BlazerBotics, who previously entered Featherweight Championships of Robot Wars with Flybot, Gladiator and Alpha, and the Antweight Championship in Extreme 2 with Chroma and Hades. The team also competed in the 2016 Pilot episode with Merlin. Team captain Alan Young also owns and runs the Robots Live! events in the UK, where Apollo competes under its Chronic guise.

2016 Series
Although Apollo did not qualify for the main series of Robot Wars in 2016, it was invited to participate in the untelevised pilot episode of the 2016 series.

In this "test battle", Apollo was intended to battle Beta, with Dead Metal serving as house robot, in what would have been the first battle to take place in the new arena. For unknown reasons, the battle did not proceed, with only Beta entering the arena.

Despite Apollo's withdrawal, Team BlazerBotics were able to enter the main competition of the pilot episode with Merlin, where they reached the second round.

Series Record

 * Series 1-6: Did not enter
 * Series 7: Withdrew before qualifiers with Merlin, Featherweight Championship with Alpha and G2.
 * 2016 Series: Withdrew from Pilot, Entered Pilot with Merlin.

Outside Robot Wars
Apollo's history is embedded within Robot Wars competitor Kronic the Wedgehog. After Kronic competed in Robot Wars: The Seventh Wars, it was rebuilt by Team Kronic as Kronic 3, with a considerably improved flipper. It enjoyed much success, winning the Roaming Robots Winter Tour in 2005. In May 2010, Kronic 3 was sold to Team BlazerBotics, who earned the robot a place in the, having become the Annihilator Champion in 2010 and 2011.

When a rebooted series of BattleBots was announced for filming in 2015, Team BlazerBotics, under the name of Team Chronic, replicated Kronic 3, building a new machine for the series, Chronic, to avoid issues with exclusivity contracts. Although Chronic was not chosen to compete in the main series, it was the first robot to fight in the new BattleBox, battling Swamp Thing, built by Team Hardcore Robotics of Tombstone fame. This battle was staged as a test for the camera equipment, where Chronic threw Swamp Thing around, causing external damage to it by causing the robot's thwacking tail to fall off, but Chronic eventually broke down and lost the battle. Chronic remained a reserve for the series, but was not required to take part. Chronic was also due to compete in a nine-robot rumble at the end of the series, but due to time restraints in filming, it never took place.

Following on from BattleBots, Chronic competed at various Robots Live! events, and in 2016, travelled to Moscow to participate in Bronebots 2016, where it fought Ripper, Thor, Kan-Opener, and other robots. After Chronic's visual overhaul to Apollo, it has not competed outside of the Robot Wars pilot.

Trivia

 * Apollo participated in the first pilot episode of the rebooted series of BattleBots and Robot Wars, fighting Swamp Thing at BattleBots, and Beta at Robot Wars.
 * Had Apollo have fought Beta at the pilot episode, the match could be considered a rematch of Kronic 2 vs. Terrorhurtz from Heat I of Robot Wars: The Sixth Wars, due to Apollo's origins within Kronic the Wedgehog.