It's Robot Fighting Time!

One of the things we've learned, living here in SoCal, is that there are tons of opportunities to attend tapings for a great variety of live television shows.  On one of Mom's visits, we got tickets to see The Price is Right (we didn't end up going, due to the massive amount of time they want you to dedicate to the process), Dad and Risa have seen America's Got Talent and American Ninja Warrior, and I routinely get updates about audience announcements for shows like So You Think You Can Dance.  While these are cool events to attend, most of them are in Hollywood or northern LA, and particularly if they occur on a weeknight (or in the middle of the dang day), that's a bit too far away for us to see them on the regular.

Imagine my excitement, then, when I got an email about a show we geekily love, filming right here in Long Beach, only 4 miles away from our house!

That's right!  We went to see Battlebots!

In talking to some fellow nerds about the upcoming taping, what I often heard was surprise that Battlebots was still on the air - most of us remember watching it about 10 years ago (and loving it, of course), but not as many folks know that it relaunched a few seasons back, and we cottoned on to the revival last year.  I put myself on the email list then, and when I got a note about a month ago with the upcoming taping schedule, I jumped right on a date and time that worked for us.  As it turned out, we would be attending the taping of the quarterfinals, in the evening session on the second Saturday night of the run of the show.  

The instructions with our tickets (most tapings are free, but our tickets were $20 each - still a bargain) said that the taping would start at 7pm, and it could potentially last until 11pm.  While the day-before event email mentioned that food trucks would be on the premises, we still decided to eat before we went, to avoid any issues; as it turned out, it was a good thing we did, because the "food trucks" turned into "vending machines" - fine for snacks, but not so much for a true meal.  Since I'd done an 18-miler that morning, Chris and I figured it was time for burgers, so on our way to the show, we headed to our favorite local spot, Hashtag Burgers, to satisfy our meat cravings.  We've eaten at Hashtag a few times now, and it's always totally delicious - the prices are reasonable, too - and the staff is always friendly and welcoming.  A total win!

Chris with his Hot Mess burger and fries

My Blu Ribbon burger

Totally full and satisfied, we headed to the parking lot for the show.  The main Battlebots area of operation was set up in a warehouse near the Long Beach Airport; there are tons of big buildings out that way, as companies like Boeing and Virgin Galactic have facilities, and it seemed like this served the BB team quite well.  Since we arrived around 5:45, and the show didn't start until 7, we decided to take a short wander to Timeless Pints, a local brewery just down the street.  Since I'm off drinking until after Big Sur (only a week left to go!), I took just a sip of Chris' "A Taste of Fate," Timeless Pints' rye IPA and enjoyed my glass of water (me to the lady working the tap handles: "may I please have a glass of water?" Her: "yeah, we have tons of water...make some good beer out of it, too!"  Yes, I know, ma'am - I'll be back after the race, I promise).

When the time was right, we wandered back to the car, grabbed our portable seat cushions (those Coleman's have served us quite well over the years) and water bottles, and we headed inside the building.

Getting ready to head inside

We all lined up outside, had our tickets scanned, and read through the confidentiality agreement.  Since BB runs an elimination tournament format, and we were seeing the quarterfinals, any notes or images we'd post from inside the building could spoil the upcoming shows for folks, and nobody wants that.  While in line, we made conversations with the fans around us, including a father and son wearing Tampa Bay Lightning attire (the Bolts had just beaten the Devils in Game 2 earlier in the afternoon); while they were originally from Tampa, they were now living in Colorado and had flown in for the taping.  As it turned out, most folks had traveled to Long Beach from somewhere else to see BB; about half of the cars in the parking lot had Arizona tags!

We headed inside, past the port-o-loo's and vending machines, and were escorted to the stands where our seats would be.  The minute we entered the building, I had a full-blown geek-out; even seeing the back of the bleachers was exciting!

See!  So intriguing!

Although we didn't take photos of the competitors or anything that could be considered spoilery, we did grab some shots of the stage and our seats.

Can you tell how hard I'm nerding out?

As we were in our seats, I had a total fan-girl moment when I recognized one of the folks on the judging panel - Simone Giertz, the self-proclaimed "Queen of Sh*tty Robots."  When I told Chris this, he gave me a "honey, really?" look, and I quickly clarified that this was her name for herself, not the moniker I'd given her.

Simone, all the way on our left.

Seriously, check out her robot videos -

they are outstanding.

Before the show started, we noticed that the BB folks were allowing fans to pose and take pictures with the Giant Nut, and of course, we decided to jump in the line, too.

Right around 7pm, the taping began in earnest, and the gentleman I named the Hype Guy (as I missed his actual name) gave us the low-down on what would happen that night.  Our job, as the audience, was to create a loud, fun atmosphere, and I think we were more than up for it.  Folks brought signs and wore costumes, some to support their favorite teams and some, just because (I see you, guy in the Pope outfit).  Although we didn't do that, we were ready to add our voices to the general noise in the arena.  The first segment taped was the show intro by hosts Kenny Florian and Chris Rose, and we cheered and clapped and hollered as needed.

Official BB shots from this point on...

While we would be seeing four quarterfinal matches with the Elite Eight robots, our show started with two "grudge match" fights between other competitors, and they were great.  One of the best parts of the revamped BB shows is the ring announcer, Faruq Tauheed; Faruq and his team (we saw one guy with him wearing a "It's Robot Writing Time" shirt, which was awesome) put together rhyming couplets announcing each battle, and he's quite obviously the crowd's favorite part of the show.  Here's a compilation of some of his work from prior seasons, and you seriously need to take a few moments to see this.

Official Faruq shot

As each match would get ready to start, the hosts would give an intro from their chairs on the main stage, and we'd cheer as each team would emerge from the tunnel and bring their robots into the arena.  The teams would get posed on each side of the arena (a giant Plexiglas box, essentially), and Faruq would do his announcement.  At that point, we'd all sit down and wait for the 2-3 minutes it would take for the crews to secure the arena and power up the robots.  We'd stand up again (generally cued by Hype Guy - he was British, I believe, and frequently encouraged us to "give it a good welly!") and cheer as the Red Team and Blue Team robots were activated, as well as chant "fight! fight! fight!" while the white lights were flashing.

After that point, we'd stay on our feet while all hell would break loose inside the arena - robots caught on fire, robots were sawed in half, parts flew up in the air (quite literally - a huge blade came flying directly at our side of the audience and left a scratch on the inside of the Plexiglas at one point) - it was true robot carnage, and we loved every second of it.

During breaks in the taping, the camera operators would get things set up, makeup artists would do touch-ups on the cast (it was toasty warm in Long Beach this night, so those poor folks were pretty sweaty), and the Hype Guy and his team would keep the crowd engaged by playing fun music and handing out t-shirts and towels.

My BB swag!

Although the crew needed to do a few shots more than once, you could tell all of these folks were true professionals, and almost everything went off just fine on the first take (after doing audio recordings for work stuff over the past few years, I can tell you just how hard this is); after each match, the camera guys would review their footage for instant replays, and the hosts would give color commentary.  It was all really impressive to watch.

Shooting wrapped up for the entire series last week, and it looks like it should premiere on May 11th, on both the Discovery and Science channels.  If we were watching the quarterfinals, I think we should be the third show from the end of the run.  Once I find the date, I'll be sure to post it on Facebook, but if you're looking for us during the show, here are some tips:

• We were sitting in the second row from the bottom of the bleachers, right on the aisle, on the "blue team" side of the arena, in the final section of stands before the end of the stadium closest to the hosts.  Chris was on the aisle wearing the red checked shirt in the photos above, and I was next to him in my green striped v-neck.  About halfway through, I got my little white towel, and I was waving that dude like a maniac. You might see us in random shots from that side of the arena and during the "blue side" team intros.

So, if you see an arena shot,

we're about where the yellow arrow is.

During the "blue side" team introductions,

we'd be about here.

• When the hosts are sitting in their chairs with the arena box behind them doing their fight intros, you can sometimes see us behind them (or at least, we could on the in-house monitors).  When we were standing, you can clearly see my shirt but not my head, and when we were sitting, you can probably see the very top of my head, near one of the vertical bars that appears in the shot.  At some points, I would wiggle my towel around or hop up a bit to get my face in the shot, and Chris would lean over for the same reason.

So, you might see us in the stands behind these guys,

when they're in this formation.

• The family directly behind us was comprised of a Mom, Dad, and their tween-aged daughter; Dad and daughter were in bright red "Battlebots" t-shirts and were seated right on the aisle, so they might be easy to find in shots.  Also, in the first of the ranked fights, one of the teams entering the arena on the blue side handed the daughter a gray sign bearing their team name, and we probably ended up in shots from that fight, since we were right in front of them.

Overall, we had an amazing time at the Battlebots filming; it was so neat watching all of the behind the scenes magic, and everyone - from the crew to the other audience members - were as nice as they could be (we saw the folks in front of us retrieve the wallet of another guy in our section who lost on his trip to the loo's and get it back to his buddy right away).  It was a really fun, family-friendly atmosphere, and we felt united with our fellow nerds in robot carnage solidarity.  Of course, watching the robots tear each other apart was super fun, too, and even though the information said filming could last until 11pm, we were done by about 9:15.  We even had time for a quick trip to the Creamery for dessert!

Now that's a win!

Look for a follow-up post in a few weeks, once the show airs, with screengrabs and all that!

Later!

Amy