Below is a list of the quickest battles in the history of the UK series of Robot Wars, as of Series 10.
The table below lists all battles that were ended after thirty seconds. The battle times below are taken from the moment 'activate' is called to the time when a losing robot is deemed to be "officially" immobilised. The criteria of official immobilisation is only met when:
- A competitor robot is thrown out of the arena.
- The losing robot falls into the pit while not deemed immobilised.
- An immobilised robot is attacked by the House Robots (Series 1 to Series 4), counted out by Refbot (Extreme Series 1 to Series 7), or counted out ten seconds after immobilisation (Series 8 onwards). The quickest immobilisations are listed elsewhere.
The fastest battle in the original run (not quite in its entirety)
The most common means in which a battle can end quickly is if a robot is flipped out of the arena, with twelve of the battles listed below involving a robot being eliminated this way. Less frequently, a fight can end quickly if a robot drives, or is pushed into, the pit. These quick battles often involve robots equipped with a powerful weapon capable of out of the arena flips (e.g. a high pressure flipper), or which feature high pushing power, which enables them to gain sufficient speed, manoeuvrability and traction to push another competitor and swiftly dispatch it into the pit.
NOTE: There are some battles where one robot does not move from the start and is deemed immobilised almost immediately. Dreadnaut vs Rattus Rattus, Evil Weevil vs Panzer, and Spartacus 2 vs Flippa are examples of these, where one robot did not move at all during the battle. There is some debate about whether these bouts count as a conventional "battle", and therefore to aid clarification, these types of battles are not included in the list.
Shortest Battle Record
This record was first set in Series 1. Across seven series of the original UK Robot Wars, as well as both series of Robot Wars Extreme and Series 8-9, there have been five holders of the record:
- Recyclopse (against Scrapper, 0:15)
- Cunning Plan (against Demolisher, 0:14)
- Cerberus (against Griffon, 0:10)
- Dantomkia (against IG-88, 0:09.7)
- Gravity (against Dantomkia, 0:05.8)
- Rapid (against Track-tion, 0:05.6)
Interestingly, Cerberus took the record from the University of Reading by beating one of their machines. Similarly, Gravity set the incumbent record by defeating then-current record holder Dantomkia.
When Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide was published, it incorrectly identified the bout between Spawn Again and Evolution as holding the Shortest Battle Record at that time. In reality, that battle was the ninth quickest, with Cerberus vs Griffon holding the record at that time. The battle between Wheely Big Cheese and Axe-Awe from Series 5 was also described later on in the guide, and while it was not the shortest battle, its battle duration was declared to be shorter than that of Spawn Again vs Evolution.
The Shortest Battles
Note: Few battles, even the very short ones, are shown on TV without any footage cut. Therefore it is impossible to know the true durations of all these battles. For consistency's sake, length is measured based on the TV-edited version of the battle.
- Battles coloured in gold have held the record for shortest battle at any one time.
| Rank | Battle | Winner(s) | Series | Round | Time (in minutes) | Method | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Rapid vs Track-tion | Rapid | Series 10 | Semi Final 1, Round 1 | 00:05.6 | Out of the arena | Rapid, fearing a leaking gas canister, decided to end the battle as soon as possible by flipping Track-tion straight out. |
| #2 | Gravity vs Dantomkia | Gravity | The Seventh Wars | Semi Final 1, Round 1 | 00:05.8 | Out of the arena | Gravity got underneath Dantomkia straight away and simply flipped it out of the arena. Shortest ever battle in the original run. |
| #3 | Eruption vs Cherub | Eruption | Series 9 | Heat Final | 00:06.5 | Out of the arena | Eruption got underneath Cherub straight away and simply threw it out of the arena. |
| #4 | Dantomkia vs IG-88 | Dantomkia | The Seventh Wars | Heat C, Final | 00:09.7 | Out of the arena | Dantomkia ran IG-88 straight into the side wall and flipped it out. Shortest battle in the original series to take place in the Heats. |
| #5 | Griffon vs Cerberus | Cerberus | The Third Wars | Heat N, Round 2 | 00:10 | Pit | Griffon moved sluggishly forward, and Cerberus pitted it without hesitation. This record stood for four main UK series and two series of Extreme. Shortest battle not to involve an out of the arena flip, and shortest battle where one robot pitted the other. |
| #6= | Fire Storm vs Crasha Gnasha | Firestorm | The Third Wars | Heat O, Round 1 | 00:12 | Flipped | In Fire Storm's first ever battle, it slammed the shark-like robot head first into the sidewall, tipping it over and immobilising it almost immediately. Shortest battle to not involve the defeated robot being pitted or flipped out of the arena. |
| #6= | Wheely Big Cheese vs Axe-Awe | Wheely Big Cheese | The Fifth Wars | Heat H, Semi Final | 00:12 | Out of the arena | Wheely Big Cheese flipped Axe-Awe out of the arena from the centre of the arena, the most powerful flip in Robot Wars history. |
| #8= | Kadeena Machina vs Dee | Kadeena Machina | Series 9 | Battle of the Stars, Episode 2 | 00:14 | Breakdown | Dee charged straight into Kadeena Machina, getting its wheel ripped off four seconds into the battle, and was counted out after losing mobility to one side. |
| #8= | Cunning Plan vs Demolisher | Cunning Plan | The First Wars | Heat D, Final | 00:14 | Flipped | Set the Shortest Battle Record until The Third Wars. |
| #10= | Recyclopse vs Scrapper | Recyclopse | The First Wars | Heat B, Semi Final | 00:15 | Flipped | The first battle which was notably short. |
| #10= | Carbide vs Apollo | Carbide | Series 8 | Grand Final, Head to Heads | 00:15 | Breakdown | Carbide knocked Apollo's removable link loose five seconds into the battle, immobilising it. Shortest battle of Series 8. |
| #12 | Dominator 2 vs The Executioner | Dominator 2 | Extreme Series 1 | Wild Card Warriors | 00:17 | Pit | The Executioner attempted to release the Pit a few times before driving straight into it. Shortest battle of either series of Robot Wars Extreme. |
| #13= | Chaos 2 vs Trident | Chaos 2 | The Third Wars | Semi-Final, Round 1 | 00:19 | Flipped | |
| #13= | Tornado vs Terrorhurtz | Tornado | Extreme Series 2 | Challenge Belt, Challenge | 00:19 | Pit | |
| #15 | Razer vs Backstabber | Razer | The Third Wars | Heat C, Round 1 | 00:20 | Pit | |
| #16= | Spawn Again vs Evolution | Spawn Again | The Fifth Wars | Heat G, Semi Final | 00:21 | Out of the arena | Mistakenly identified as the Shortest Battle of the first five series by Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide. |
| #16= | Firestorm 4 vs Bigger Brother vs S3 | Bigger Brother, Firestorm 4 | Extreme Series 2 | All-Stars, Heat A, Round 1 | 00:21 | Out of the arena | The second of Bigger Brother's defeats of S3 to be less than thirty seconds long. |
| #18= | G.B.H. vs Talos | G.B.H. | The Second Wars | Heat J, Arena Semi-Final | 00:22 | Flipped | Both of G.B.H's combat battles took 22 seconds to win by flipping. |
| #18= | G.B.H. vs Ivanhoe | G.B.H. | The Second Wars | Heat J, Heat Final | 00:22 | Flipped | Both of G.B.H's combat battles took 22 seconds to win by flipping. |
| #20= | Chaos 2 vs Firestorm | Chaos 2 | The Third Wars | Grand Final, Round 1 | 00:23 | Out of the arena | First ever out of the arena flip. |
| #20= | Behemoth vs Techno-Lease | Behemoth | The Third Wars | The First World Championship, Eliminator | 00:23 | Flipped | |
| #22= | Bigger Brother vs Tip-Top | Bigger Brother | The Fifth Wars | Heat I, Eliminator | 00:24 | Out of the arena | Bigger Brother's first out of the arena flip. |
| #22= | Napalm vs Panda Monium | Napalm | The Second Wars | Heat A, Arena Semi Final | 00:24 | Flipped | Panda Monium was quickly flipped over by Matilda. |
| #24= | Atomic vs Hellbent | Atomic | The Seventh Wars | Heat G, Semi Final | 00:26 | Out of the arena | The second in a record run of four consecutive out of the arena flips for Atomic. |
| #24= | Apex vs Track-tion | Track-tion | Series 10 | Heat 3, Redemption Round | 00:26 | Malfunction | After hitting the front wedge of Track-tion, Apex tore itself apart through the force of its unbalanced weapon, before being pitted by Sir Killalot. |
| #26= | Bigger Brother vs Lambsy | Bigger Brother | Extreme Series 2 | Minor Meltdown, Final | 00:27 | Pit | |
| #26= | Robot The Bruce vs Wedgehog | Robot The Bruce | The First Wars | Heat C, Final | 00:27 | Grille | Robot The Bruce swiftly pushed the considerably lighter Wedgehog onto the grille, immobilising it. |
| #28 | Iron-Awe 2.1 vs Bigger Brother | Iron-Awe | The Seventh Wars | Heat O, Semi Final | 00:28 | Out of the arena | Bigger Brother was the highest ever seed to be flipped out of the arena. |
| #29= | Bigger Brother vs S3 | Bigger Brother | The Fifth Wars | Semi Final 1, Round 1 | 00:29 | Pit | After trying unsuccessfully to flip S3 out of the arena, Bigger Brother pushed it into the pit instead. Both of S3's losses to Bigger Brother were less than thirty seconds in length. |
| #29= | Pitbull vs Sumpthing | Pitbull | The Third Wars | Heat B, Round 1 | 00:29 | Breakdown | Sumpthing broke down immediately after firing its axe in the opening seconds of the battle. |
| #29= | All Torque vs Crippler | All Torque | The Third Wars | Heat N, Round 1 | 00:29 | Pit | |
| #32= | Chaos 2 vs Tornado | Chaos 2 | The Fourth Wars | Semi Final 1, Round 2 | 00:30 | Out of the arena | The third of three attempts to film this battle, the previous battles being cancelled when both robots broke down. |
| #32= | Ripper vs Daisy-Cutter | Ripper | The Seventh Wars | Heat P, Round 2 | 00:30 | Flipped | One of the quickest immobilisations in Robot Wars, at less than three seconds. |