Sunday, March 31, 2013
No Holds Barred: Mark Setrakian on Robot Combat League
Five of the nine episodes of the Robot Combat League have already aired on Syfy in the U.S. and on Space in Canada. The shows are now featuring the quarterfinal round of the 12-robot tournament.
On the fifth episode, Team Scorpio, with Diana Yang and Chris Hardouin at the controls, sliced in half yet another robot to gain a knockout victory over Team A.X.E., with MMA fighter Andrew Montanez and Ross Mead at the helm.
We spoke by phone Friday with Mark Setrakian about the past, present, and future of robot fighting.
"This show, this season, is my attempt to kick off a whole new genre of fighting: motorized fighting," he said in this interview. Unlike other combat sports, this is "a motor sport of fighting," he said, with "weapons that you cannot use in human fighting."
He stressed, "What we're entering into is a level of combat that you cannot do with human beings but you can do it with robots, because at the end of the day, nobody's hurt. The robots are wrecked, but the human fighters, apart from their egos, are fine."
We discussed what happened on episode five with Scorpio's victory, why he "wouldn't change a thing" about how the robots were designed, the future of Robot Combat League, why robot fighting is the future of combat sports, why he believes that there will be more seasons of this show, the need to keep human athletes controlling the robots, the buildup to the semifinals and finals of this tournament, and much more.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.
No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.
Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.
The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.
No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:
ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.
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American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.
Labels: A.X.E., combat sports, Eddie Goldman, fighting, Mark Setrakian, No Holds Barred, Robot Combat League, Space, Syfy, Team Scorpio
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
No Holds Barred: Ross Mead, Robo-Tech on Robot Combat League
A robo-tech controls the bottom half of the eight-foot tall robots, with the top half controlled by a robo-jockey, as these robots are sent to fight one another in the Robot Combat League.
When Ross Mead is not helping to smash giant robots, he is a PhD research student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, focusing, of course on robotics. While his goal there is to help develop robots which could assist people in their homes and daily lives, his experience in the Robot Combat League has left its mark on him.
"I was Iron Man," he said in this interview, which was recorded Wednesday on Skype. "You can't get away from the superhero aspect of this. I was driving this gigantic robot. No one can really say that. There are 24 people on the planet Earth who can say that right now. That's pretty incredible. That's really freaking awesome."
Adding that he already missed doing the show, whose episodes have already all been filmed, and that he would do it again, he said, "I wish everyone could experience it because it was absolutely incredible. It's a life-changing experience."
We get our first chance to see Ross Mead in action this coming Tuesday, March 12, when he teams with MMA fighter Andrew Montanez on the robot A.X.E. as it battles Game Over. In the other fight on that show, Robo Hammer, with MMA fighter Amanda Lucas as the robo-jockey, fights Drone Strike.
The Robot Combat League is telecast on the Syfy network in the U.S. and on Space in Canada.
Our discussion with him also touched on the relation of human fighting to robot fighting. He has some training in boxing and martial arts and is a fan of MMA, but he explained just how a background in human fighting is both "a blessing and a curse" for developing techniques for robot fighting. We discussed just where the technology is at now for robot fighting, some of the ethical questions of it as this new sport evolves, how many including boxing trainer Freddy Roach believe that robot fighting may one day replace or surpass human fighting in popularity, how he got involved with it, and much more.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.
No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.
Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.
The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.
No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:
ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.
Beezid.com - Penny Auctions. Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions.
American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.
Labels: A.X.E., Andrew Montanez, boxing, Eddie Goldman, fighting, MMA, No Holds Barred, Robot Combat League, Ross Mead, Syfy
