The long awaited giant robot battle between the U.S. and Japan is finally happening, and it is scheduled to be broadcasted next week.
The Boston-based company MegaBots and its robot Eagle Prime will be dueling against Japanese team Suidobashi Heavy Industry and their robot named Kuratas. The fight will be broadcasted on Twitch on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EDT.
However, the event will not be broadcasted live, as the entire competition consisted of multiple rounds spread over a number of days. This was done to give engineers time to repair the robots in between rounds.
The fight was held at an abandoned steel mill in Japan without any live spectators, aside from the team from both sides. Mike Goldberg, known has the voice behind Mixed Martial Arts commentary, and robotics expert Saura Naderi will provide commentary on the bout.
The match was fought on a knockout system, without any point scoring. A robot wins a round once the opponent has been knocked over or disabled.
Both teams were given liberty in the weight, size, power, and weapons included in the robots. Each side chose weapons that do not cut through metal, but damage it instead.
The face-off between the mechanical titans has been in the works for two years. Back in 2015, the MegaBots challenged their Japanese rivals to a giant robot duel. This challenge was promptly accepted by the Japanese team. The difficulty of finding a venue to host this extraordinary fight proved to be a challenge, but it provided more time for both sides to upgrade their robots and refine their combat abilities.
The American engineers' Eagle Prime is a huge robot, towering at 16 feet and weighing a massive 12 tons. On the other hand, the Japanese Kuratas is a little bit on the lighter side, measuring 13 feet in height and 6.5 tons in weight. Will the American robot's power and size prevail, or will the crafty Japanese robot deliver a surprising knockout?
