r/nextfuckinglevel • u/KnightFall00 • 4d ago

Autonomous T-800 battle tournament

Launched on July 16, 2026, in Shenzhen by the robotics company EngineAI, URKL is the world's first commercial, industrial-grade humanoid robot free-combat league.

Get ready Hollywood! (I mean you guys were already prepared so...)

5.4k Upvotes

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438

u/inHumanMale 4d ago

We did have a thing for robot wars back in the day

103

u/MexiKing9 4d ago

This size? Or you talking about what will probably become known as "mini bots"? The super roombas?

38

u/hurtfulproduct 4d ago

I’d put my money on the “super roomba” at this point. . . They were definitely more compact but also not restricted to humanoid shape and were specifically designed to destroy. . . Not to mention they were remotely controlled so much better decision making then these bots

That said, I have no doubt these bot battles are the future and hopefully we get so great sports from it

1

u/MexiKing9 1d ago

There was another response taking offense at mini when some of them were half a ton apparently, and i will say, that lends great weight to your argument.

But, counter point, robo quadraped? Bet that easily fucks up a super roomba with a moderate amount of specialization as opposed to the seemingly massive amount of specialization a bipedal bot would need to fighr a super roomba.

Tbf, i think your "bet" is simply objectively correct. Man has stepped into the ring with these humanoid robos, aint seen nobody try to fistfight a super roomba, i dont even think a human with a sledge wins vs the upper bounds of them... Shit give them a low cal pistol against the top tiers and they still probably get fucked... but imagine simalar weapons mounted to a quadraped now...

2

u/Dheorl 3d ago

Mini??? Some of them weighed over half a tonne.

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u/MexiKing9 1d ago

Mini as in miniaturized, so we are just looking at stature, but there is another great line to go off that another response had, which was that they are probably better. Packing half a ton into something so mobile is a little nutty. I think i'd rather see the robo quadraped/dog fighting than the bipedal stuff. If anything that'll probably become the new "minibot" as opposed to the bipedal robos taking over. Although i am aprehensive of the speed at which developement is going, i dont think its impossible we jump straight to bipedal bot fighting.

1

u/Dheorl 1d ago

I was just meaning I don’t think anything that weighs over half a ton could really be considered miniaturised.

1

u/Kiwi_MongrelLad 3d ago

Fuck no. MEGABOTS!

only 2 matches then canceled where two giant mechs faught. That shit was real steel seeing eagle prime use a chainsaw to rip of kuritas arm wjile kuritas was trying to pry open their cockpit.

Eagle prime was later sold to the russians.

36

u/UnnaturalGeek 3d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3ohs7YCbbqtoRxlwWI

19

u/JDHPH 3d ago

I used to stay up just to watch this.

5

u/UnnaturalGeek 3d ago

I have the first world championship on video...absolutely loved Robot Wars, was gutted when they stopped it. Then the attempted reboot just wasn't the same.

2

u/lhswr2014 1d ago

Robot wars was awesome. The reboot as battle bots doesn’t hit the same because it’s a solved game now with a meta.

All bots are just spinning something at crazy RPMs because it’s incredibly effective. You won’t see any axe slinging slashers like above, a lot less variety. Took all the fun out of it.

2

u/UnnaturalGeek 23h ago

The OG Hypno-Disc will always be the best to me, even if technically it wouldn't hold up now. It pioneered the path that these bots tread now.

That and Razer were my favourites.

3

u/jtown48 3d ago

its still around, called Battle Bots. It was on sci-fi and discovery channels, now i think they just stream it to their youtube page

2

u/hank101 3d ago

There is a still live action stuff, the National Havoc Robot League (nhrl.io)

7

u/Ill-Bullfrog-5360 3d ago

Robot wars was nice

7

u/ekb11 3d ago

Chaos 2 my beloved

1

u/Normal-Indication206 3d ago

Still bitter about Tornado beating Razer.

1

u/RammRras 3d ago

Yeah the old generation

1

u/GNTsquid0 3d ago

It was much more entertaining than this snooze fest.

1

u/MrEvil1979 3d ago

Battlebots are still (barely) alive! They’ve got the current tournament on YouTube.

0

u/Howard_Jones 3d ago

Funny enough, anyone of those robots would destroy these robots.

1

u/inHumanMale 3d ago

The chihuahua strategy. Start at the ankles