About

How it all started

The story begins as it has for many others: watching Battlebots. Back when Battlebots was on Comedy Central, I watched it alongside the other tech shows of the time namely Robot Wars in the UK, Robotica, Full Metal Challenge, and Junkyard Wars. With all of these hands-on tech shows, I was fascinated by the idea of building my own totally custom machines, specifically for robot combat.

Progress

Starting in 2010, the robots have been slowly getting better through many, many failures. The goal for each event was to avoid a self-inflicted failure and achieve a little deeper into the tournament. Over years worth of events I would gradually grow from 0-2 to 2-2 to 3-2 and so on; no trophies in hand but each time eliminating failure modes and ensuring the robots grew more and more resilient. While some small machines like Play’n Krazy, Atrocious and Ferocious were able to win a handful of trophies across the Mid-Atlantic region until about 2019, the successes were still few and far between especially against an upper echelon of competitors who had proven machines operating at the top of their game. Kerfuffle showed tremendous promise as a solid design for the future in the 1lb Plastic Ant class (and as a base model you can build too!) but it wouldn’t be until the arrival of pandemic in 2020 where the robot game really elevated.

Battlebots

In 2020 I was invited to join the Big Dill team for a incredible fulfillment of a childhood dream. Huge thanks to Bunny & David Liaw for connecting me and a huge thanks to Eman Carillo for teaching me so much over the experience! In 2021 I was recruited by fellow Marylanders Team Mammoth where I’ve enjoyed building and growing ever since. The lessons learned at this level translated to dramatic growth at the smaller level where I compete most of the time.

NHRL

NHRL is the place I most like to compete at due to its frequency, competitivity, and inclusion of up to 30lb robots. The numerous events it runs allows for rapid evolution of each of design allowing me to hone my skills as never before especially due to the high cost and time of running 250lb heavyweights once a year at Battlebots. 30lb Phenomenon and 12lb Demogorgon were two machines I was really able to hone at a larger scale; the smaller insectweight machines could be tested rapidly but the physics wasn’t the same as energy levels and inertia comes into play more at larger scale. Over 3 years, Phenomenon grew to become a very formidable machine but was unable to achieve a 1st place finish, but in its lifetime I gathered incredible knowledge that gave birth to Vorion, the mightiest robot in the fleet. With two event victories (one of which as the inaugural All-Stars 30lb champion!) in its debut year its development alongside other machines remains the beating heart of the team going forward.

Beyond

Beyond NHRL or Battlebots, the goal is to travel and compete against the mightiest machines possible. Though the team is mainly based in Maryland and frequently attend events in the Mid-Atlantic region, the goal is to compete in events all across the United States including at Battlebots and other robot groups across the country. In 2023, Fracas was able to achieve a 3rd place at the Bristol Bot Builders’ BEVS event in Bristol, UK as the first international trophy for the team. Though may factors played into the success of this trip, the vision of competing internationally again is still alive. For now, the work on new robots and new ideas continues!