Robotica @ Comicpalooza

Event Description

Houston Area Combat Robotics presents, in cooperation with Innovation Spark and Texas' largest pop culture festival, Robotica @ Comicpalooza! 2 full days of vicious and entertaining robot combat featuring competitors from around the entire country fighting it out in front of tens of thousands of convention goers at the largest event in the southwest! For the first time in 20 years, there will be a Robotica champion as bots from the biggest behemoths to the smallest scuttlers fight it out at an event with stakes unlike any other. Robotica is guaranteed to be the largest competition in Texas in nearly a decade and a half!

The Place:

George R. Brown Convention Center

1001 Avenida de las Americas

Houston, TX 77010

We should have a table set up for you, along with chairs. There will be a dedicated charging area for batteries. If you want to bring more chairs, we recommend it.

The convention center is located directly across from the Hilton Americas - Houston and Marriott Marquis - Houston, both of which have connecting walkways to the venue itself. Please use this link to get a hotel at the best possible price for the event. These hotels are the ones we have convention discounts for through Comicpalooza.

The Arenas:

Heavyweight Sportsman/Featherweight/Hobbyweight Arena: 16ft x 32ft, no pits.

Beetleweight/Antweight Arena: 6ft x 6ft, no pits.

Fairyweights: 4ft x 4ft, has corner pits.

The Fights and Tournaments:

Fights in all weight classes will be 3 minutes.

All weight classes will compete in a double elimination tournament to decide the respective champions in their weight classes. In the event there are 5 or less robots in a class, the robots will fight round robin. Each robot will be guaranteed 2 fights at the minimum presuming they stay functional. If time permits on Sunday, grudge matches, rumbles, and/or other special exhibitions may occur. If fights do not end in a knockout, a team of judges will judge accordingly. Standard SPARC judging rules apply.

The tournaments will have cash prizes for the winners. Prizes from sponsors will be announced as they are made available. Our insect class tournaments have had prizes sponsored by ItGresa Robotics.

Entry Fees:

Thanks to an influx of sponsorship money, entry fees for all weight classes have been waived.

Each team member will need a weekend pass from Comicpalooza in order to be able to compete. A discount code has been made available to all Robotica teams. Please use the code ROBOTICA when buying passes here. As a suggestion, we encourage all teams purchase their badges as soon as possible in order to minimize team costs. IF YOU REGISTER A HEAVYWEIGHT ROBOT, PLEASE NOTE THAT UP TO 4 MEMBERS OF YOUR TEAM WILL RECEIVE COMPLIMENTARY WEEKEND PASSES COURTESY OF ROBOTICA.

Safety and Rules:

Weigh-in and safety checks will take place FRIDAY, JULY 15, from 12PM to 8PM. Pit access opens up FRIDAY, JULY 15, at 10AM.

All robots will be run through safety and weigh-in before being approved to compete. 150g-30lb robots must comply with the SPARC Robot Construction Specifications, latest revision. 250lb robots will need to comply with the Robot Ruckus version of the SPARC rules for 250lb heavyweight sportsman* robots. If you are competing with a heavyweight sportsman robot, we recommend that you make sure your robot is in compliance with the latest edition of the BattleBots rules, but want to make clear it is not mandatory to compete. Please note that flame weapons are not allowed at this event. Additionally, there is no active weapon requirement for this event in any weight class.

*clarification: “sportsman” in the context of the 250lb class means robots may not have kinetically destructive spinning weapons (spinning bars, spinning discs, etc). Weapons such as sawblades or tires replacing spinner mechanisms are perfectly acceptable, and spinning weapons may be acceptable if they are spun at a low enough speed to be approved by the event organizer.

Combat Time:

Fights will tentatively take place during Comicpalooza as follows:

Sat: 10am-8pm

Sun: 10am-5pm

Fights will be run in multiple weight classes at the same time. We will do our best to prevent time conflicts across weight classes, but they may be unavoidable. Teams will be responsible for getting their own food and drink at the event.

Questions

If you have any current questions regarding the event, feel free to contact us at battlebot@innovation-spark.org and one of our team will get back with you as soon as possible. We are also still looking for donations to help cover anything as needed - our donation link is here.

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