Robot Combat League on SyFy

The Robot Combat League on SyFy Tuesday Nights at 10pm (EST) is a really awesome new show.  It features full humanoid size robots which were all prebuilt by the same robot designer.

http://www.syfy.com/robotcombatleague

The robots are given to teams of two who then have to pilot the robots in a combat arena to fight them.  The teams are pitted against each other in elimination style matches. 

My favorite team is Team Crash fighting the robot named Crash.
http://www.syfy.com/robotcombatleague/crews/crash

The team features Intel engineer Dave Shinsel who also built the Loki robot.  http://www.dshinsel.com/ one of the most sophisticated hobby robots in the world.  It also features his daughter Amber.  Team Crash lost the first robot contest on the show and had to fight an elimination match; thankfully they won their match after a broken arm on Crash.  My fingers are crossed they win every match!  Go Dave and Amber!!

I love the show and the concept of the show.  However, to achieve the fighting effects in the shows I perceive that the robots are all built with certain physical design limitations that allow them to break more easily in certain sports.  The robots use hydraulics which no doubt carry a lot of force, but the sparks produced during hits appear to be from placed explosive charges.  Each robot seems to have "sweet" spots where if hit correctly will render the robot a pile of junk. 

I don't think the show is "fake" but the added theatrical effects of the robots fighting take a little of the sense of magic away.  It would be like watching a magician do a card trick but you know how the trick was done.  But I understand the added theatrics keep the non-robot builders watching.  It does seem like a real life "Real Steel", which is totally awesome.  The robot builders behind it all should feel very proud.

What would be really awesome is if it turned into a real sport where teams built their own robots to fight.  I know that already happens in robots wars, but fighting full size humanoid robots is totally different.