South Korean robot debuts on 'BattleBots'

Members of Team ORBY pose with their robot, Blade. / Courtesy of BattleBots website

By Jon Dunbar

While everyone's distracted with the Olympics in China, Hwang Cheog-gyu shipped his 113.40-kilogram killer robot to Las Vegas, and led Team ORBY, the first-ever South Korean team to compete in "BattleBots," a long-running robot combat TV series held in the U.S. with competitors from all around the world.

His team fielded Blade, a bright yellow battle robot shaped like a Klingon Bird of Prey starship, with a 27.22-kilogram horizontal bar spinner jutting out the front. Picture a souped-up lawnmower blade, but instead of trimming weeds, this weapon whacks robots.

Blade has fought two battles so far in the still-ongoing sixth season on the Discovery Channel show, both times ending in colossal losses. In match 1, Skorpios' hammer saw took Blade down mercilessly, and match 2 against Canadian bot Lucky didn't go much better, after one end of Blade's primary weapon snapped off and lodged itself in the arena wall. It's known that Blade has at least one more battle on the broadcast to come, reported to be against Kraken, a serpent-headed crusher bot with two big fangs.

Team ORBY's battle robot Blade / Courtesy of BattleBots website

Hwang has long since returned to Korea after filming wrapped last August, but he remains tightlipped about what happens in the remainder of the season, other than to indicate that he had a great time and made friends with some of the world's greatest legends in robot combat.

"Despite my poor English, everyone was really kind," he told The Korea Times, late Monday night after finishing work at his engineering day job.

It was a long road for Hwang to reach?the world's most-watched robot fighting competition.?

Hwang first witnessed robots duking it out back in 1998 when he was in the third grade of middle school, watching episodes of the BBC series "Robot Wars" airing on Korea's E-Channel.

"I remember the first time I made a battle robot when I was in my second year of college," he reminisced. "Since there were no domestic competitions at the time, I made a small robot weighing 5 kilograms and played with it alone striking a pot."

While he was doing his military service in 2005, local education channel EBS started airing "Robot Power," marking the arrival of battle robots in Korea, and he was determined to be a contender once he was discharged. He ended up competing two or three times, but failed to net a single win.

After "Robot Power" went off the air in 2011, the local battle robot scene vanished, without any other major competitions for years.

Then in 2016, Hwang suddenly felt an itch to return to robot combat, so he started a Naver cafe titled Let's Make and began to develop a battle robot community. They held "antweight" competitions with robots weighing up to 454 grams, which are a lot easier to make than the heavyweight death machines seen on TV chopping, flipping and burning the competition.

After hearing about "King of Bots," a Chinese battle robot show that premiered in 2018, Hwang started Team ORBY, a cocky acronym standing for "Our Robot is Better than Yours." He scrambled to apply in time, completing a design on a vertical drum spinner robot in only three days, but didn't make the cut. With a year to go until the second season, he started to work on what would become ORBY Blade mark 1.

"I ended up choosing the horizontal rotating weapon, and added a wedge to the back of the robot to defend as well as attack," Hwang described. "In addition, I added a self-righting system… and made it as thin as possible, and it took on the current shape."

Team ORBY performed admirably in China in two televised competitions, living up to its potential in some matches while losing others. Meanwhile, they also made contacts with battle robot operators from all around the world, so that when Hwang posted on Facebook looking for battle robots to fight in an antweight tournament in Korea in 2019, he was deluged with applications from high-profile competitors.

With help from Seoul National University of Science and Technology, they held an antweight competition as part of the International Robot Contest (IRC) at RobotWorld at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

Foreign and Korean battle robot enthusiasts gather around an enclosed arena at International Robot Contest (IRC) 2019 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Team ORBY

The international competitors included Brian Nave of Captain Shrederator from the U.S. and Dave Moulds of Carbide/Cobalt from the U.K. After Hwang received an application from Bot Bash Party Crew, which operates Skorpios on "BattleBots," he found out they had about 100 antweight robots they were using to hold events in the United States, so he eagerly invited them.

"Cheog-gyu brought us out to the IRC in Korea and was an incredible host," said Zach Lytle, team captain for Skorpios. "He made sure that even though we were in a foreign land and couldn't speak the language that we still got to see all the sites. He made us feel incredibly welcome in his country. Cheog-gyu helped us find a soldering iron that would work on the Korean power grid… Bonds are forged in the pits."

Lytle documented the event in episode 35 and episode 36 of Team Skorpios' Builder Blog on YouTube.

Zach Lytle, team captain for Skorpios, participates in International Robot Contest (IRC) 2019 at RobotWorld at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Team ORBY

Team Food Fight, responsible for the lifter bot Big Dill on "BattleBots," took first place in the IRC event, and Hwang's wife Ju Sang-eun seized second place with ORBY Buzz, a vertical spinner named after the angry buzzing noise of its motor.

"She's so talented," Hwang said of his wife, a professional violinist who plays with orchestras. "In my case, I'm so nervous that my hands tremble when I enter the stadium, but my wife is much calmer than I am because she has a lot of experience performing on stage."

When he proposed to her nine years ago, he made a classical violin as an engagement gift. Last year, he built her a new one, a sleek electric violin with colors matching Blade, which is named ORBY EV.

ORBY EV, an electric violin Hwang Cheog-gyu made for his wife Ju Sang-eun, a professional violinist as well as main driver for their robot Blade / Courtesy of Team ORBY

Sadly, at the following year's Robotworld, there was no more international battle robot competition due to the pandemic. But in 2021, Blade was accepted into season 11 of "BattleBots" and traveled to the U.S. to compete in the sport's largest global platform. Ju was selected as the main driver for Blade, based on her performance in IRC 2019 as well as a small competition organized by the Let's Make online cafe titled "Let's Fight," and a web entertainment show named "Battle Robot."

Domestic teams have a big advantage in "BattleBots," as it's a lot easier for them to transport their robots, as well as spare parts and tools, to the arena in Las Vegas.

Team ORBY's battle robot Blade is seen in Las Vegas last August during participation in "BattleBots." / Courtesy of Team ORBY

"I borrowed a lot from Team Skorpios and he introduced me to other teams that let us borrow parts and tools for maintenance," Hwang said. "I borrowed a lot of tools that I couldn't bring over, such as a hydraulic press, from Tantrum/Blip's Aren Hill, who I'd met in China. And Emmanuel Carrillo of Big Dill, who we met in China and who won first place in the 2019 domestic competition, even helped us work on strengthening our motor."

Lytle released episode 41 of his video series, in which he reciprocates Team ORBY's kindness during their stay in Vegas.

Hwang added, "In the middle of the shoot, there was a chance to have drinks in the hotel room of Brian Nave of Captain Shrederator, with so many other famous teams, including Marc DeVidts of Icewave, Victor Soto of Rotator, the Hypershock team and Ray Billings of Tombstone."

That last name is enough to give any battle robot operator a cold sweat, as Tombstone is an executioner of robots, and its operator Billings has been cast as the big bad villain throughout the show's run for unnerving opponents with his irreverent attitude as he dismantles their hard work with his robot's devastating horizontal spinner. Blade, with a similar style of weapon, is sometimes likened to a "Korean Tombstone," which might be why Hwang seems to have a soft spot for Billings.

"He's always shouting 'Get out of the box!'" Hwang recalled, meaning to move forward into the center of the arena at the start of the match to avoid getting box-rushed.

Hwang Cheog-gyu, left, and his wife Ju Sang-eun pose with Ray Billings, operator of the devastating robot Tombstone. / Courtesy of Team ORBY

"Maybe it's just because we all have the same hobby, but basically, all the teams that participated were really kind and pleasant," Hwang said.

"Robot fighting does have its stressful moments," Lytle said. "Anything you put this much time, money and effort into is guaranteed to have its ups and downs. However, it's the community you meet along the way that makes it all worth it."

Visit teamorby.com or cafe.naver.com/letsmake for more information about Korea's greatest hope in robot combat.