Mortis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article.
Please improve it or discuss changes on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.

Mortis was a robot that competed in the U.K version of the television show Robot Wars between 1997 and 2000, or the first four series. It was a robot armed with a rapidly-firing axe with a tanto style blade in the first and second series, but in the third series was given an additional lifting arm to overturn other robots. The total amount of money invested into this robot is rumoured to have been £40,000 but in fact the cost to the team was only £100, the figure quoted was actually the value of goods and services donated by sponsors. Its victories include the title of Best Engineered robot of Series I, and victory in the "War of Independence" special during Series 4. The name was taken from a judge in the Judge Dredd comic series (prior to the film of the same name), it was originally given the name Oedipus Illagittum (work it out), but the BBC would not permit it to be called that as the show was destined for early an evening time slot.

The robot also appears as one of the pre-built machines in the Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction game.

1 Series I
2 Series II
3 Series III
4 Series IV
5 Mortis in Battlebots
6 Mortis in other areas

[edit] Series I

In Series 1 they entered with armour made of 26 layers of carbon fibre and Kevlar. Their axe mechanism was damaged after hammering too hard on Leighbot in the heat semi and lost a judges decision against Recyclops in the Heat Final. Despite this, Mortis won the Best Engineered Award. The leader of the team has several patents on his name and is involved with many others of his employer.

[edit] Series II

The Mortis team wanted to prove that they belonged in the semi-final. Step one would be to survive the Gauntlet. Mortis blasted through the brick wall before driving over the ramp, past Sgt. Bash and through Matilda to complete the course. Afterward, Mortis attacked Matilda and popped the lens out of Matilda's camera before Shunt came to Matilda's aid. Matilda and Shunt then teamed up to shove Mortis into the pit. Mortis still went through.

Mortis was second to take on Matilda (again) in the joust and met the house robot less than halfway along the course. Matilda lifted Mortis but couldn't push the heat favorite off. Mortis then pushed Matilda almost off but settled for a stalemate after 6.1 metres.

Killalot was still holding onto his souvenir from the last battle when Mortis and Rameses II went at it. Mortis was 3 times as fast as Rameses II and had a much deadlier weapon, both of which were used to its advantage. Mortis drove in quickly and put the tanto blade to Rameses II's hammer mechanism over and over and over again. Rameses II's hammer came down but did little damage to Mortis' titanium/kevlar laminated shell so Rameses II used its power instead. Rameses II proved that it was not to be taken lightly as it pushed Mortis clear into the PPZ where Shunt got a few good hits in with its own hammering weapon and dented the front armor of Mortis. Then came Rameses II's one mistake. While it was holding Mortis in the PPZ, Rameses II was throttled by the arena spike and Mortis escaped leaving Rameses at the PPZ. The House Robots showed no mercy on this night and Sir Killalot picked up Rameses II and fried it over the flame pit. Once again, the polyethylene shell passed the test and Rameses was virtually unscathed. Mortis advanced despite an excellent effort by the obvious underdog Rameses II that saw Mortis take more damage than its opponent which is a rarity indeed. If Mortis had the edge in weaponry against Rameses II, they had the whole cliff against Oblivion. Oblivion may have been faster but was 20 kg lighter than Mortis was. Oblivion's best (and only chance) was to avoid Mortis' tanto blade. Sadly, they couldn't and Mortis immediately proceeded to make Swiss cheese out of Oblivion's top aluminum armor. Mortis tried to use its weight to its advantage and push Oblivion into the pit of the same name but eventually gave up and went back to work with the tanto blade. Suddenly, Oblivion began pushing Mortis backwards and into the waiting pincers of Dead Metal which was missing its saw for some reason. Mortis escaped and eventually time expired. It was only after this fight that the Oblivion team revealed that the Mortis team had given them some 3 mm titanium sheet to protect Oblivion electronics from the Mortis axe and helped them fit it in 2 layers.

In the semis Mortis went over the ramp, but whizzed off, turned in the air, and landed upside down. It used its blade to hook onto one of the House Robots and right itself, and then reversed to the end and hit the Matilda Cam.

Now, here comes the controversy. After the Gauntlet trial came the Pinball trial. Mortis went first - and seconds after it had started moving, the arena spikes came out of the ground and damaged the robot's tracks, stopping it from moving, meaning it didn't go through and it scored 0 points. The Mortis team were upset because in the drivers briefing all the teams were told the spikes would not be used in the Pinball. However, somebody on the technical team had the bright idea of letting Mortis run again. The usual Mortis driver refused to this, so another teammate took over from him, thus explaining how poorly Mortis did on the televised version. It knocked down some barrels and bricks, and the House Robots scored some more for it before Sir Killalot drove into the pit, taking six men to get him out! Mortis scored 35 points, meaning it would go out anyway. BUT When the pinball scoresheet came into view, it said that Mortis had scored 100 points. Somebody on the technical team wanted Mortis to win no matter what, so Napalm would go out instead. Mentorn edited out the original run and only ever showed the second one.

In the battling round it was outclassed and pitted by eventual winners Panic Attack anyway.

After the series, some 'grudge matches' were filmed as a 'special' episode, not unlike the Annihilators and Tag Team Terror episodes we see in later series. Mortis took on Cassius as part of a series 1 grudge and won. To sort out the earlier pinball controversy, it then took on Napalm and won too. 4 other robots were challenged by Mortis but all declined to fight.

[edit] Series III

In their first fight against Ming they used the arm well and when Ming landed on the floor their disc flew out the arena. In their second fight against Gravedigger they were flipped into the pit.

In the pinball game, they tied second-to-last place with Killerhurtz at 90 points.

[edit] Series IV

Mortis immediately rammed Mazakari into a Corner Patrol Zone and then went after Iron Awe. Mazakari escaped from the CPZ, but Mortis flipped him and then Iron Awe axed him. Mortis then dragged him to Sir Killalot's Corner Patrol Zone. The pit opened. Mortis dragged Mazakari to Shunt, while Dead Metal and Sir Killalot grabbed Iron Awe. The clock counted down and then the judges decided to eliminate Mazakari, letting Iron Awe and Mortis go through.

Mortis started out by evading. Crusader 2 lifted Mortis, but then Mortis rammed and axed him. He penetrated him and grabbed on. Crusader 2 got out of that, but Mortis pushed him towards Shunt. Pieces started falling off of Crusader 2. The pit opened up. Sir Killalot grabbed Crsuader 2 and Dead Metal sawed him. Finally, Crusader 2 was pinned up against the wall and declared dead, putting Mortis through to the final round.

Mortis immediately went after Steg 2. Steg 2 tried his lifting arm, but it didn't seem to work. Mortis then tried to get Steg 2 into a Corner Patrol Zone, but Steg 2 evaded. Steg 2 rammed Mortis against the wall. Then Steg 2 got underneath the flame grill and Mortis axed him. Steg 2 flipped Mortis with his lifting arm. Mortis was stuck upside-down and his self-righting mechanism wasn't working. The audience called for the pit and the pit opened. Steg 2 then rammed Mortis twice and pitted him , getting the surprise win.

Their final appearance was in the Series IV "War of Independence" special, USA V UK, which ended in their victory. In the final Mortis met the American robot Frenzy which they flipped over and then proceeded to punch hundreds of holes in the underside of. Quote of the series was the commentator saying that "Frenzy seems to be suffering electrical problems", these electrical problems were caused by the Mortis axe punching a hole in the motor of Frenzy!

[edit] Mortis in Battlebots

Mortis first competed in the Battlebots Heavyweight Division in its 1999 pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. It defeated the Heavyweights Monster and Tazbot before losing to Voltarc in the semi-finals, although it was the usual controversy problem for Mortis, on points it was 19-17 in favour of Mortis but the judges gave the victory to Voltarc . Mortis won the title of Most Aggressive Robot for the event.

In the November 2000 tournament in Las Vegas (also known as Season 2.0 on Comedy Central Mortis returned. Its first round was a BYE pass, its second a forfeit from opponent Berzerker 2000, and finally the third a KO from Battlebots favorite Nightmare. It has not appeared in any future Battlebots events since.

Mortis' Battlebots page