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Watch the Championship Round of Japanese Hobby Robot Wrestling

And to think these are just the robots people build in their spare time…
Image: ROBO-ONE

Last weekend hundreds of Japanese robot enthusiasts descended upon Tsukuba Capio Cyberdyne Arena in Ibaraki, Japan to participate in a robot wrestling tournament for a chance at winning 500,000 Yen (approximately $4,440 USD).

The competition was organized by ROBO-ONE, a robot competition group founded in 2002 specifically catering to bipedal hobby robots. This was the 28th robot wrestling tournament attracted 120 competitors. Eligible robots had to abide by a number of rules, although the most important were that the robot weighed under 3 kilograms and was bipedal.

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After meeting these initial requirements, the robots participated in a footrace which required the bot to cover 4.5 meters in under a minute. The foot race winner was Frosty, which managed to cover this distance in 3.79 seconds.

Only 66 robots were able to cover the distance in under a minute, and from these finalists the 49 fastest robots were selected for participation in the wrestling tournament. After two days of wrestling matches, the competition came down to Leghorn (the one that looks like a rooster) and Gargoyle KID.

Gargoyle KID ultimately won the championship, which aside from all the glory that entails also meant 500,000 Yen for its owner.

The next ROBO-ONE championship has yet to be announced, but until that time you can satisfy your craving for robot death matches by falling into ROBO-ONE's rabbit hole of a Youtube channel.