The vice president, Kalino, retells his past with battle bots and his fight to bring the action to the members of MXR.
When I was very young, my parents took me to ROBOGAMES, an event that used to be held in San Mateo where hundreds of bots from dozens of countries squared off in events from robot hockey, to robot soccer, to its main attraction combat robots. These ranged from small 50 gram fleas to 250 pound behemoths that ripped other robots to shreds and made the entire building tremble from the sound of metal on metal mayhem.
I was instantly hooked, but it was not until years after when my dad asked me if I wanted to help start our own little fledgling team fighting, and I knew from the get-go it was going to be an amazing ride. Every single builder we met in the sport was the most friendly person you could ever imagine, oftering support, words of advice, excitement for fights, and part/tool sharing. Fighting itself was a rush for me, every single battle felt like an eternity as I could hardly hear the crowd over my own excitement and concentration.
Even with the workload, I knew that combat robotics was an experience I couldn't just keep to myself, and that I had to at least try and implement it into the club. Over the summer me and my family went on a trip down to LA for a combat robot competition and to visit family, and there we learned about what NRL (National Robot League) was. Since a competition was in the works back up north in the bay area, I sprung at the chance to fully implement a combat robot team into MXR!
Written by Kalino R (2019-20 Combat Robotics Lead and Vice President)
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