The 2018 Season of Battlebots greatly expanded the competitive field of robots and brought with it new fighters that the show has never seen before.  Some of these robots became critical successes like Whiplash and Monsoon and some were total failures like Battle Royale with Cheese.  But there were some robots that were lovable underdogs, the kind you hope would win despite the odds.  These were the robots that won battles but fell to titans.  These robots were the breakout stars of Battlebots and I’m of course talking about Duck! and Huge.

These robots are completely different from each other.  Duck! is a bot whose weapons is a lifting plow with a duck beak wedge at the end.  It is a tank that was built to handle attacks from Tombstone and vertical spinners.  It can even self-right itself by using its plow as a skip rope which is great.  Meanwhile, Huge is an aptly named bot.  It sits on two, flexible and durable wheels that are a meter tall and are joined by a small body with angry eyes.  Its weapon is a very long vertical bar spinner that uppercuts its opponents.

Both of these bots have became indie darlings in the arena for their own reasons.  Duck! for its sheer durability and aggression, Huge for its towering figure and funky fighting style.  But so far in their young career they have never fought each other before and I have to ask the question, which of these underdogs would win??

This is honestly a really tricky question to answer mainly because Huge is such a wildcard.  There are very few other bots like it and it basically started a recent trend of towering bots in the arena like Deep Six and Mammoth.  Its wheels are also crazy.  They are made of a material called high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and is the same material that plastic bottles are made of.  If you watch Huge’s fights in 2018, enemy weapon attacks would just glance off the wheels (which is incredible) and the wheels bounce back when he gets pushed around.

These wheels and Huge’s size honestly gives him a weird advantage over Duck!.  Duck is used to taking hits from the side but trying to fight upwards for Duck! may be challenging.  I can totally imagine Duck! trying to flip Huge over or push him around but the wheels would bend away and Duck! would get a face full of metal from that vertical bar spinner.  The most recent episode of Battlebots (2019 season, Episode 5) had Huge fight Jasper, a hammerbot, who tried to mess up Huge’s wheels but ended up pummeled.

HOWEVER, Huge is not one for KOing his opponents.  As of this writing, out of the seven fights Huge had, he won four and only one of those was by KO (the Jasper fight).  Huge mainly wins by absorbing hits (or straight up avoiding them) and delivering a steady stream of attacks to wear down his opponent.  Even so, the times Huge lost were from very powerful horizontal spinners (Icewave and SOW) and a loss against Biteforce (which was probably because it didn’t fully recover from the Icewave fight).

Duck!, on the other hand, has won from sheer endurance and will to live.  It has won five out of eight battles so far and its losses are interesting as one was by being flipped out of the arena (Bronco), a controversial Judges Decision in the Last Chance Rumble (Bombshell), and be torn apart (Tombstone).  What’s funny is that in the battles it won, it has been mangled, twisted, and wrecked but still come out with a win when the other bot would just stop moving.  Even when its missing tires it can still drive around the Battlebox with no problem!  The latest fight against Cobalt is an excellent example of this.  It completely lost its plow yet it kept fighting until Cobalt just shut down after hitting a jagged floorpiece.

So in this battle we have a tenacious bot vs a large, funky bot.

Okay, so how will this play out?

Duck!’s Strategy
Duck! would either want Huge to knock itself off by recoil or by pushing it into the arena hazards.  If Duck takes the hits fine, it can win by Judges Decision.

Huge’s Strategy
The best way to incapacitate Duck! would be taking out its exposed wheels; however, Huge is planning a 3 minute battle.  It knows it has a slim chance of actually KOing Duck! so it wants to impress the judges by getting points for damage and aggression.

The Battle

As soon as the buzzer rings, Duck! rushes to the other side of the arena and slams into one of Huge’s wheels from the side.  Duck tries to lift the wheel but instead the wheel bends under and Duck goes forward into Huge’s blade.  The blade clips Duck from the side but Duck shrugs it off and retreats.

Huge faces Duck and goes forward but Duck easily maneuvers around his slow speed and attacks the wheels again.  Duck tries to lift again but manages to just skirt the wheels.  Huge rotates around and this time knocks Duck squarely from the side launching Duck a foot in the air before landing again.

Duck shrugs off the attack and this time goes at Huge head on.  Huge responds in the same and the two collide.  The vertical bar slams into Duck’s face and scrapes upward causing the plow to rotate.  Duck survives the attack and pushes forward again completely stopping Huge’s blade.  Duck tries to push Huge from underneath but manages to only stop him.  The two struggle in a shoving match before Duck retreats allowing Huge to spin up again.

After a few more brief clashes, Duck lifts its plow and slams into Huge’s side.  Miraculously, Duck pushes Huge and gains speed.  Huge is pushed to the wall where the screws begin to gnaw on him.  Huge is in trouble and Chris is dancing on his seat, anticipating a possible KO by Duck!.  Huge dances on the screws as the wheels constantly bend under the large, rotating hazard.  Duck! falls back but races towards Huge again, hoping to tip him over the arena’s walls.

But Duck! fails.  Despite its effort, Huge manages to bounce off the screws and climb over Duck!.  The large bot drives forward, his weapon spinning again.  Duck! faces Huge and drives forward, lifting its plow up.  BAM!  The vertical bar hits the upward plow and delivers moderate damage.  The plow is now bent at an angle and Duck! can’t rotate it back down.

“Duck!’s in trouble!” shouts Kenny as Duck!’s bent arm rubs against the exposed wheel and slowing it down.  It’s semi-rotating on the spot, trying to drive straight.  Huge sees his chance and glides forward, it’s bar spinning like a helicopter.  The bar bounces off Duck! once, twice, and then thrice with that final hit taking off a wheel which goes flying and rolls dramatically across the arena.

But one of those hits had further bent Duck!’s plow’s but this time, relieving pressure off the exposed wheel.  Duck! can move.  And it turns around and pushes Huge.  The vertical bar glancing off the plow, still in the air, before stopping completely again.  Duck! awkwardly pushes the large bot and tries to take it to the walls like last time.  But it fails and Huge slips by.

The last 20 seconds of the fight continues with both bots, now bruised and weakened, trying desperately to look good in the judges’ eyes.  Some mild hits and desperate shoving continue until the buzzer rings.

Just looking at the bots you can tell you got the worst treatment.  Although there are some scratches and nicks on Huge’s wheels and maybe a chipped blade, he looks better off than Duck! whose plow is limply raised in a janky slant and is missing an entire wheel.

The results are in, and by split decision, the Judges reward Huge as the winner of the fight due to Damage and Control.  Although Duck! had good aggression, it’s strategy worked about half the time due to Huge’s size and bendable wheels.  Meanwhile, Huge scored high on damage thanks to the missing wheel and injured plow.

Final Result: Huge by Split Decision

Percentage Chance of Huge Winning: 70%

Fight Explanation: Looking at all their previous fights, I couldn’t honestly see Duck! winning unless Huge just stopped working.  However, I have yet to see any evidence of Huge malfunctioning during a battle so I don’t see that happening.  It’s also difficult to push Huge around and it would be very hard to KO Huge by shoving him out of the arena.  Finally, Huge has yet to lose to an opponent like Duck!.  To beat Huge, you got to tear up those wheels which Duck doesn’t have an effective way of doing that.

Huge falters from a weak weapon as its very easy to slow down after one hit.  I again honestly don’t see Huge KOing Duck! unless it strikes gold with Duck!’s wheels and even then this hardy bot is a fast and tough bird.  It can still drive with just two wheels which is crazy!

As such, this fight will likely go the full three minute round.  Duck will likely get injured (because that’s its deal) and will have to look as pretty as it can if it wants to win.  It’s very possible it will come out unscathed and if it does then I would think the judges would give the victory to Duck!.

Final Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed this article!  This was the first of its kind I written.  If you would like me to write more you can request it and I can do an analysis.  What are your thoughts on these two robots??  Do you agree or disagree with me?  Looking forward to your comments!

Also, Battlebots!  If you’re reading this PLEASE make this a main event!  Everyone would go nuts if the two best underdogs go head to head with each other!