I realize that I’m beginning at the end of the con–which does seem like an odd direction to go–but this is seriously one of my favorite Dragoncon events. It makes the ever depressing con Monday a little better; partially because of its sheer awesomeness, partially because when you’re not walking the hallways you cant be sad about how empty they’re getting and all the tired looking people walking around with their suitcases.
Robot Battles are a little different than the Robot Wars/Battlebots/etc. you may have seen on TV. These battles(no they’re not really robots, but lets not get technical now, thanks) are a little more restricted by the fact that they take place at a convention and have to use the hotel’s resources without doing injury to the audience or setting the hotel on fire. So, instead of trying to destroy one another(they’d need some sort of protective glass or a cage or something to be able to safely pull that off), they fight sumo wrestler style on a raised platform trying to knock each other off. For the very last battle they bring all of the robots of the weight class up to the platform and have a wonderful little free for all (see the youtube video below, and maybe fast forward to 2:08 because that’s where all the action is).