- "It collides, it roars, it lets the enemy fly, it is from the Yunnan border - EarthShaker."
- — King of Bots website (translated from Chinese)
撼地奔牛 (romanized Hàn dì bēn niú, meaning Running the Bull, known in English as EarthShaker and in Mech+ translations of Season 1 as Roaring Bull) is a heavyweight robot from Red River, Yunnan, which inspired the team's name. It competed in the first season of King of Bots as well as the 2018 spin-off series This is Fighting Robots. Both incarnations were built by Thomas Lau (who did not appear with Team Red River on television) and openly inspired by machines built by American BattleBots competitors Inertia Labs.
In Season 1, EarthShaker faced the American entry Blue in the first round, but lost a fairly close battle. After impressing the producers in this battle, EarthShaker was reinstated via the wildcard, but it lost to another American entry in Megabyte during the third round.
In This is Fighting Robots, EarthShaker was referred to by the Chinese name 大铁牛 (Dà tiě niú, translated to Big Iron Bull), and was selected by Sa Beining to join the Yellow team. Despite performing strongly in its first Freestyle Combat melee, by throwing Switch around the arena, it lost a wheel following an attack from Stealth and eventually lost the battle overall as a result. EarthShaker's team thus elected to withdraw their machine from Beining's team at this stage, allowing his other robots a stronger chance in later rounds.
EarthShaker was succeeded by the similar Bullfighter in King of Bots II.
Design[]
- "I like Inertia Lab robots, such as Toro, T minus and Bronco, I learn a lot of things from them!"
- — Thomas Lau[1]
EarthShaker in Season 1
EarthShaker was originally a box-shaped, 110kg robot driven by four exposed wheels. Its design was heavily inspired by competitors built by BattleBots veterans Inertia Labs, including Toro, T-Minus and Bronco. Team captain Wang Cheng also cited bullfighting - itself a custom among Honghe people - as a direct inspiration for the robot.
- "The most famous custom of the Honghe people is bullfighting. I just want to build a robot as passionate as a bullfight."
- — Wang Cheng on EarthShaker's bull-inspired design (Mech+ subtitles)
As such, EarthShaker resembled a bull with its large horns, and featured a centrally-mounted flipper. This was one of the strongest in the competition, operating at 800psi, powered by its 8 inch cylinder with a 4-inch bore. This could throw other competitors high into the air, and also allow the robot to self-right, with maximum pressures of 5.8MPA for the buffer tank and 15MPA for the storage canister. However, the weapon itself often suffered from slow retraction. EarthShaker's speed controller was a 4 M2 50v 80A Esc.
EarthShaker official photo
EarthShaker in This is Fighting Robots
For This is Fighting Robots, EarthShaker was completely redesigned from the ground-up, with a more heavily-armored front end. The robot again was heavily inspired by Inertia Labs designs, more specifically their BattleBots Season 5.0 middleweight champion T-Minus, and was painted white and red. Instead of four wheels, the robot was now driven by two exposed wheels at the rear.
The Team[]
Team captain Wang Cheng, residing in Honghe at the time of Season 1, entered the show with a prior career in geological mapping. Cheng's profession involved the use of flying drones to survey outdoor environments for this purpose, as seen in EarthShaker's original VT for this season.
Robot History[]
King of Bots (Season 1)[]
- "No matter how powerful the opponent is, it will take the initiative to charge. This time I will take my Roaring Bull to fight with other robots. Roaring Bull, shake the whole arena."
- — Wang Cheng prior to EarthShaker's combat debut (Mech+ subtitles)
EarthShaker appeared in Episode 3, where it fought the American entry Blue in the first round.
EarthShaker sustains early damage
EarthShaker throws Blue high into the air
It quickly left its starting position, and caught Blue side-on to push it into the arena well. Blue bumped into EarthShaker, striking the latter’s top panel with its axe before reversing and strafing towards EarthShaker once again. EarthShaker’s flipper was axed by Blue after some misses, but EarthShaker retaliated and pushed back before it flipped itself over. Capitalising on EarthShaker’s mistake, Blue drove round and attempted to hammer its baseplate, pushing EarthShaker sideways as it self-righted.
EarthShaker's flipper is struck by Blue
EarthShaker mistimes a flip
Blue continued to strafe across the arena, at one point collecting EarthShaker from the side and striking it once again. EarthShaker got underneath Blue and attempted to flip, but mistimed its attack, and received two axe blows in return. However, EarthShaker quickly got underneath Blue again and tossed it into the air; Blue retracted its axe to say upright, landing back on its wheels near the blue square and losing a bolt from its axe head in the process. It recovered to axe EarthShaker’s flipper once again, but missed its next few axe blows, and was pushed sideways across the arena by EarthShaker before it could land its next blow. The two robots lingered near the grinders, but separated and eventually met again, with EarthShaker again mistiming a flip before its weapon was pounded by Blue.
EarthShaker flips Blue over
EarthShaker's final flip on Blue
After sustaining one more blow, EarthShaker finally achieved a second flip, putting Blue on its back. However, Blue immediately self-righted before striking EarthShaker’s top-right panel. Blue hit EarthShaker’s flipper once more, but was lifted by a floor flipper and thrown over by EarthShaker again, requiring it to self-right a second time. Towards the end of the battle, EarthShaker achieved a third flip and turned Blue over, but the latter self-righted before time expired on the match. As both robots were still mobile, the battle went to a Judges' decision - the decision ruled in favour of Blue, and EarthShaker lost the battle. Wang Cheng admitted afterwards that his 'nervous' disposition going into this fight, along with a few 'operation' errors, had set EarthShaker back throughout.
- "I'm a bit lost. Because domestic players are looking forward to our victory. But we lost. In the future, we will continue to accumulate experience and improve the machine so it can exert its strongest strength."
- — Wang Cheng following EarthShaker's Round 1 loss (Mech+ subtitles)
Despite this, EarthShaker's strong effort in the first round led to its reinstatement during the third round, after being awarded one of four wildcards by the producers. For its third-round opponent, EarthShaker fought another American entry, Megabyte.
EarthShaker deflects Megabyte with its initial charge
EarthShaker flips Megabyte over
Immediately, EarthShaker drove into Megabyte, the collision throwing the latter off-balance. It followed this attack by driving underneath Megabyte and causing it to wobble towards the grinders – EarthShaker promptly threw Megabyte over, but without being able to leave it upside-down. It backed away, then charged into Megabyte again as the latter got its spinner up to speed; struggling to retract its flipper, it pursued and hit Megabyte twice more, only to be deflected away. The second collision enabled EarthShaker to knock Megabyte off-balance; it pursued and bumped into Megabyte yet again, but was unable to flip it over as both teams activated smokescreens to obscure each other’s vision.
EarthShaker is sent spinning by Megabyte...
...and proceeds to have one of its armor panels torn off
EarthShaker catches fire as a result of Megabyte's last attack
Again, EarthShaker was unable to retract its flipper quickly enough, and was thrown across the arena by a powerful hit from Megabyte’s spinner. Its front armor was torn apart by two more head-on collisions with Megabyte; the front-right section was ripped off completely, exposing EarthShaker’s internals. EarthShaker retreated to the right-most grinders, before driving tentatively into Megabyte once again – the final impact threw EarthShaker violently into the wall, sheared three of its wheels off and caused the robot itself to catch fire. With this, it was instantly eliminated via knockout, finally ending Team Red River’s Season 1 campaign.
This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)[]
During the initial 'blind selection' process, a redesigned EarthShaker was chosen by Yellow team manager Sa Beining, and participated in the main competition as part of his initial line-up. It first fought in the second round of the Freestyle Combat stage, when Beining selected it to fight against Polar Opposite, Stealth and Switch in a four-way melee.
EarthShaker throws Switch into the air
EarthShaker attacks Negative Charge (Polar Opposite) and Switch as all five robots converge
EarthShaker get underneath Switch again as the latter takes damage from Stealth
EarthShaker's left wheel is ripped off by Stealth
Immediately, EarthShaker turned towards and eventually succeeded in getting underneath Switch, surviving a hammer blow as it threw the British machine into the air. It flipped Switch back onto its wheels after the latter inadvertently threw itself upside-down with its hammer, before sustaining a hit from Stealth which momentarily destabilized the South Korean machine. After briefly bumping into Positive Charge (Polar Opposite), EarthShaker reversed and spun round, before driving into Negative Charge and Switch, flipping the latter over. Moments later, it was pushed sideways by Positive Charge, although this enabled EarthShaker to flip Switch over a second time, to excited responses from the team and Sa Beining.
EarthShaker, laying immobile and defeated
From that point, EarthShaker retreated to the corner, spinning and driving within range of an approaching Stealth. This resulted in Stealth ripping its left wheel clean off, instantly immobilizing EarthShaker and eliminating it from the battle, much to Beining's disappointment. With this, EarthShaker was unable to score a point for the Yellow team, leaving Beining without a point at this stage of the second round.
At the end of the second Freestyle Combat round, Sa Beining was required to drop one robot from his Yellow team roster. Team Red River immediately elected to retire their machine at this stage, in light of its exposed wheels and their preference to allow other members of the team to fight on in later rounds.
Results[]
| EARTHSHAKER - RESULTS | ||
| King of Bots (Season 1) | ||
| Main Championship Third Round | ||
| Round 1 | vs. Blue | Lost |
| NOTE: EarthShaker received one of the wildcards into Round 3. | ||
| Round 3 | vs. Megabyte | Lost |
| This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5) | ||
| Main Championship Part of Sa Beining's team | ||
| Freestyle Combat, Round 2 | vs. Polar Opposite, Stealth, Switch | Lost |
| NOTE: Team Red River voluntarily withdrew EarthShaker following its Freestyle Combat loss. | ||
Wins/Losses[]
- Wins: 0
- Losses: 3
Series Record[]
| Series | EarthShaker Series Record |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | Round 3 (0-2 record) |
| Season 1.5 | Sa Beining's team (0-1 record) |
| Season 2 | Entered with Bullfighter |
Trivia[]
- Rough translations of the robot's Chinese name commonly led to the robot being referred to as Raging Bull. Some translations also referred to the robot as Shake to Cattle.
- In This is Fighting Robots the robot's name more closely translated to "Big Iron Bull", but was still known as EarthShaker by its builder and in Mech+ subtitles.
- Also in This is Fighting Robots, the members of Team Red River reinforced EarthShaker's theme by wearing cowboy costumes. The robot was also accompanied by mascots in the form of stuffed toy cows, some of which were given to audience members and other roboteers.
- EarthShaker was one of several competitors to be built by Thomas Lau, alongside WU66 and Mighty Crossbow and Steel Shield.
- After Mad Moustache, EarthShaker was the second robot to withdraw from This is Fighting Robots, as a result of its team's voluntary decision following the Freestyle Combat rounds.
References[]
External Links[]
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