You may recall the madcap roboticists at MegaBots who challenged a Japan mech to a duel in 2015. And after a lot of buildup, and several stories appearing here, the rivals clashed in Japan with MegaBots' Eagle Prime emerging victorious.
Read: USA Wins Giant Robot Brawl, Leaves People Wanting More
The fight was really a proof-of-concept for kicking off a giant robot sports league that could someday far in the future raise the profile of engineers and manufacturers to that of athletes. Alas, all the people excited to watch two human filled death machines tear each other apart were not satisfied with the production value and fact that the fight was not live nor was it to the death. As these mechs cost several million dollars, it made sense that they called the fight after Eagle Prime started shredding its opponent Kuratas with its chainsaw hand.
MegaBots tried to retain its huge fanbase gained from a few viral videos and a web series, but interest dwindled as did the cash flow. Co-founder Gui Cavalcanti left and Matt Oehrlein has been holding the company together with sheer willpower and probably duct tape.
Now a glimmer of hope appears out of the north, in the form of an unfeeling giant dragon, not unlike the one controlled by the Night King in Game of Thrones. This one is steered by a Canadian named Barry Parkin who felt let down by MegaBots' "staged" fight and wants a shot at the title. And the fight has to be live.
The fire-breathing RoboDragon, which Parkin says he has piloted for two years, is 6 meters tall, or to people who don’t confuse bacon with ham, about 20 feet. Eagle Prime is 16 feet and does not have giant metal chompers.
MegaBots has nothing to lose at this point, except a humiliating defeat to Canada. Here's the challenge video, which we can only hope reignites MegaBots' pilot light. We'll continue to follow this story as it progresses.
