The Matador

The Matador
Participation Information
Comedy Central Seasons	Season 4.0 Season 5.0
Team Information
Team	Inertia Labs
Team Members	Alexander Rose Reason Bradley Camron Assadi John Donnavan David Estrich Mike Hall Ethan Hirschfeld Ben Hirshfield Gwen Johnson Mila Maas
From	Sausalito, CA Mill Valley, CA
Other Entries	Toro, T-Minus, Bronco, Rhino, The Butcher
Robot Statistics
Weight	220lbs
Power	2x Intercooled Nickel-Cadmium Battlepacks
Drive	2x NPC 84088 brushed motors
Weapons	Pneumatic flipping arm
Statistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

The Matador was a heavyweight robot built by Inertia Labs, which entered Season 4.0 and 5.0 of Comedy Central BattleBots.

It was a long robot armed with a large titanium flipping arm powered by twin pneumatic rams. Originally four-wheel drive in its debut season, the robot was two-wheel drive for its appearances thereafter. According to the team, The Matador boasted over 20,000lbs of lifting force from its powerful flipping arm.

The Matador in the pits during Season 4.0.

The Matador's frame was also made of titanium, as were its wheelguards protecting two 12" solid foam Carefree tires. It was a relatively unique robot as it used dual battery packs for additional redundancy. In Season 4.0, The Matador picked up early wins in the preliminary rounds, but fell in the Round of 16 to M.O.E. were its wheels were torn off.

The Matador throwing Trippy through the air during RoboJoust IV.

Returning for Season 5.0, The Matador was redesigned, now bearing a resemblance to the team’s highly successful Middleweight, T-Minus. After picking up a win over frenZy, The Matador lost out to the British entry Warhead.

Outside BattleBots

Away from the show, The Matador also competed in RoboJoust IV, held in Las Vegas, Nevada in November 2002.

Robot History

Season 4.0
The Matador vs. CUAD The Unmerciful The Matador's first fight was against CUAD The Unmerciful. Both robots strafed around each other for a while, until The Matador found an opening and catapulted CUAD The Unmerciful into the air, destroying one side of its drive. After a few more flips up and into the wall, followed by being pushed into the spikestrip, CUAD The Unmerciful tapped out and The Matador moved on.
The Matador vs. Leper Messiah The Matador puts Leper Messiah on its side. The Matador throws Leper Messiah through the air. This win put The Matador to the final preliminary round, where it faced Leper Messiah. The Matador had trouble steering at first, and struggled to get Leper Messiah in the ideal position for flipping as a result. After chasing Leper Messiah around for a good long time, The Matador finally got under and tossed its opponent in the air. However, Leper Messiah landed right way up. This happened two more times before Leper Messiah finally landed upside down, where it could not self-right. The Matador won by knockout and advanced to the televised rounds.
The Matador vs. Omega-13 The Matador flips Omega 13. Now in the TV rounds, The Matador faced Omega-13. Initially, just like its previous match, The Matador was unable to gain control and struggled to move across the arena due to a lack of traction. Omega-13 drove around the side of The Matador and rammed it, freeing The Matador and scoring points. The Matador then attempted to land a flip, but missed. Omega-13 then zoomed across the BattleBox before hitting The Matador again and pushing it into the killsaws. Not much happened for a while, before The Matador drove over the killsaws itself. Omega-13 then drove under The Matador and rammed it into the spikestrip, holding it for a while before depositing The Matador near the killsaws. Both robots then manouvered for a while, with Omega-13 spinning in order to prevent a successful flip by The Matador. The 2 robots then hit each other a couple times before inevitably, The Matador scored a flip against Omega-13, sending it flying through the air and landing a couple feet away. Omega-13 resumed spinning once more, but got flipped by The Matador again, directly into the pulverizer where it took a shot. Backing away, Omega-13 then took a massive flip from The Matador, rolling several times in mid-air before coming to a stop right-side up. The Matador then pushed Omega-13 towards a wall, where it flipped it into the Lexan. Omega-13 attempted to retaliate by driving The Matador into the screws, but caused no damage. Omega-13 sped across the arena again, but got caught out by the killsaws. It rammed The Matador again, but was directly on top of the killsaws and took quite a bit of damage from it, as The Matador flipped Omega-13 yet again. Omega-13 then had some more sparks shaved off by the killsaws, before taking one last flip from The Matador. The judges scored a close 25-20 decision for The Matador, advancing it to the Round of 16.
The Matador vs. M.O.E. The Matador fighting M.O.E. The Matador loses a wheel to M.O.E. The Matador advanced to the Round of 16, where it fought M.O.E.. The Inertia Labs robot charged out of its square, attempting to hit and flip M.O.E. before the blade got up to speed but backed off as it reacted too slow. M.O.E. then chased The Matador across the BattleBox, with Matador getting temporarily stuck on a killsaw. More chasing ensued with M.O.E. driving over a killsaw itself, before continuing the chase. The Matador then drove into the front of M.O.E, which split open part of the front right panel of The Matador, which flipped itself into the air before M.O.E. struck the front left panel and caused a similar gash on that side. M.O.E. then hit the Matador on the right side, before charging in and ripping the entire rear right wheel off. The Matador attempted to spin around as M.O.E. began cutting in into The Matador's front left wheel. The Matador ran over the killsaws again, before M.O.E. hit the rear of The Matador and bent one of the tail pieces. M.O.E. hit the rear of The Matador again, spinning it around. M.O.E. charged in once more and took off The Matador's entire front left wheel, whilst the front right was hanging off its axle. M.O.E. began carving into one of the wheel motors of The Matador, before ripping off a tail piece, sending it flying into the air. A direct hit to the front of The Matador opened up the gap on the front of The Matador even more, but flipped M.O.E. onto its back. M.O.E. carved into the rear left tire, taking off some pieces of rubber, before completely removing it. Deciding the fight was over, Neal Muzzy backed up M.O.E. and began performing victory spins as The Matador was counted out in 1:42, knocking it out from the competition.
Heavyweight Royal Rumble The Matador flips Sharkbyte. M.O.E. ripping the wheels off of The Matador again. The Matador returned for the Heavyweight Royal Rumble at the end of the tournament. It performed quite well at the start, incapacitating Sharkbyte by flipping it. However, later on, it came into contact with M.O.E. again, which destroyed The Matador. Due to this knockout, it lost the rumble to Little Sister.
Season 5.0
The Matador vs. frenZy The Matador performs its match-ending flip against FrenZy. Frenzy hits The Matador Due to previously competing in Season 4.0, The Matador was allowed to skip the preliminary rounds of Season 5.0, where it eventually fought frenZy. frenZy had added a bar with a tiny bolt to the front of their robot to catch The Matador. frenZy started off strong, landing several hits on the top of The Matador and pushing it around on its stick. But halfway through the match, frenZy's hammer stopped working as its weapon battery pack had died and The Matador took the opportunity to deliver a huge flip to frenZy, stranding it on its side. The force of the flip also overturned The Matador but it managed to self-right, actually sending itself flying several feet into the air. frenZy was unable to get off its side and The Matador was awarded the win by KO.
The Matador vs. Warhead The Matador is knocked out by Warhead. In the Round of 16, The Matador faced Warhead. After a bit of maneuvering, Warhead struck the side of The Matador, doing negligible damage, but causing an internal component to fly out of Warhead. This stopped Warhead's engine, causing the hydraulic systems to cease working and the dome to stop. Seeing the opportunity, The Matador charged at Warhead in an attempt to flip it, but Reason mistimed the firing of the flipper, causing The Matador to upend itself. The Matador was unable to self-right as one of its two rams did not reset, and Warhead pushed it into the pulverizer where it was counted out.

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 4
• Losses: 2

Competition	Wins	Losses
Season 4.0	CUAD the Unmerciful Leper Messiah Omega-13	M.O.E.
Season 5.0	frenZy	Warhead

Mark Beiro Introductions

"Those screams that you think you're keeping to yourself, well, we're hearing them loud and clear cause it's THE MATADOR!"

"He'll flip you until your butt is sore. And then, he'll flip you even more! Showing no mercy, it's THE MATADOR!"

Trivia

• Both robots that The Matador lost to would face OverKill afterwards and lose.
• The flipping arm on The Matador would later be used as the flipping arm for the 2015 version of its successor, Bronco. Due to this as well as not being present alongside Inertia Labs’ other Comedy Central era robots, it is likely that The Matador has been mostly or completely scrapped.

See Also

• The Matador's profile in Team Inertia Labs' website