National Havoc Robot League


National Havoc Robot League , formerly the Norwalk Havoc Robot League, is a robot combat organization in Norwalk, Connecticut, which holds tournaments of cage match fights between hobbyist competitors. Kelly Biderman is the current CEO of the organization.

Event Rules & Schedule

NHRL hosts multiple tournaments each year which are open to all competitors. Robots are separated into weight classes of 3, 12, and 30 pounds - the traditional Beetleweight, Hobbyweight, and Featherweight robot combat divisions. They compete in 1 versus 1 matches in enclosed arenas with double-layered polycarbonate walls and a negative pressure fire suppression system. Common weapons used by the competing robots include spinning blades, flipping devices, butane flamethrowers, and hammers. More unorthodox weaponry includes liquid nitrogen, airbags, and jet engines. Winners at each tournament receive cash prizes and are invited to a championship event held at the end of each year.
NHRL maintains an "active weapon" rule, meaning that robots need some kind of an active mechanism in addition to the robot's drive systems. This has led in the past to miniature 3D printed "steel" chairs or sand shovels used as active weapons on robots designed to control their opponents, rather than deal damage.
NHRL also features unique rules relevant to their "House Bots", designed to get combatants out of situations where they are stuck. If, during the match, a robot is able to turn off the house bot's power switch, located on the rear of the robot, that driver wins $1000 on the spot. Initially, it also automatically won the fight for that driver, too, but that subsection was removed following a controversy in 2021.
As of 2025, this schedule has shifted to 7 qualifying events a year and the December World Championships.

History

All champion data gathered from NHRL's official statistics.
Austin McChord founded NHRL shortly after leaving Datto in 2018. 18 competitors participated in the first event later that year. In 2021, McChord moved the organization to its current headquarters in South Norwalk, along Water St. The facility also hosts a museum collection of past combat robots from multiple weight classes.

2018/19 Season

Many brackets from this time are either no longer available or not public, due to the informal nature of many of the earlier events. Many of these early events did not have official long-form broadcast livestreams, however the fight records are still available via NRHL's YouTube.
Date 3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracket
December 2018Silent SpringUnknown
Lost
January 2019SquishyUnknown
Lost
March 2019Mondo BizarroUnknown
Lost
May 2019Silent Spring Unknown
Lost
August 2019Tiny HugeUnknown
Lost
September 2019
Silent Spring 26
November 2019
Narsil21

2018/19 12-lb Sportsman Competitions
The sportsman events were much smaller, more controlled events, that were largely exhibition matches, rather than anything competitive. As such, data for many sportsman events appears in very few official records.
Date Sportsman Champion# of competitorsBracket
March 2019Grudge Matches Only2N/A
September 2019
Tuskin' Raider8

2020 Season

For the first time, NHRL declares an end-of-year championship, usually held in December each year moving forward. This causes the competitions earlier in the year to become qualifying events for that end-of-year championship. As with everything else in the year 2020, the season suffered mightily from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the cancellation or rescheduling of multiple events.
NHRL also hosts its only back-to-back competition days as a result of the pandemic, and Shreddit Bro dominates, winning both competitions.
Droopy becomes the first World Champion, beating out 18 other robots to take home the initial title, in its first ever event win at NHRL.
Date 3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracket
January 2020Silent Spring 27
July 18, 2020Shreddit BroUnknown Lost
July 19, 2020Shreddit Bro 27
September 2020Billy23
November 2020Lynx49
December 2020
Droopy19

2020 12-lb Sportsman Event
There was only one event with recorded Sportsman activity in 2020, the July 18, 2020 event. However, due to there being only 3 competitors, no bracket was made nor champion crowned.

2021 Season

NHRL moves into the new, larger Water St. facility, and upgrades their facilities from 1 box, designed for 3-lb and 12-lb Sportsman fights up to 3 boxes - one new larger box for Full-Combat 12- and 30-lb robot fights, and 2 for 3-lb and 12-lb Sportsman fights.
Lynx became the first 3-lb robot to have multiple event championships and a World title, winning two events to finish the year. Project LiftOff also becomes the first Melty-Brain, named due to the complex electronics and sensors, to win an NHRL event.
Date 3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracket
Feb 6, 2021Shreddit Bro 34
March 20, 2021Polywog55
May 15, 2021Silent Spring 67
July 24-25, 2021Silent X86
September 18, 2021Project LiftOff58
November 13, 2021Lynx 90
December 2021
Lynx 27

Tuskin' Raider caps the Sportsman calendar by becoming the first, and only, robot to win multiple official Sportsman brackets.
Date 12-lb Sportsman
Champion		# of competitorsBracket
February 6, 2021P124
July 24, 2021RAM PLAN4
November 13, 2021Tuskin' Raider 5

Hot Leaf Juice dominates the back half of the 2021 12-lb schedule, winning three of the final four events, including the World Championship. Caulk also makes history as the first multi-bot to win an NHRL event as a collection of 3-lb robots punching above their weight class in the 12-lb division.
Date 12-lb Champion# of competitorsBracket
Feb 6, 2021Kitten Mittens4
March 20, 2021CaulkUnknown Lost
May 15, 2021Ugee10
July 24-25, 2021Hot Leaf Juice16
September 18, 2021Pramheda7
November 13, 2021Hot Leaf Juice 9
December 2021
Hot Leaf Juice 22

MegatRON wins the first and last competitions of the year, both at debut of the 30-lb competition in February and at the debut of the professional broadcasts with the World Championships. The 30-lb division established itself as a division with heavy parity between the robots, without a clear top-ranked robot at NHRL during the 2021 season.
Date 30-lb Champion# of competitorsBracket
Feb 6, 2021MegatRON7
March 20, 2021Stop Hitting Yourself7
May 15, 2021Other Disko8
July 24-25, 2021Yahoo5
September 18, 2021Emulsifier6
November 13, 2021Tryhard12
December 2021
MegatRON 19

2022 Season

2022 saw facility expansions across the board, ranging from pit expansions to extra boxes to accommodate even more robots, as the competition exploded in popularity this year, especially in the 3-lb division. 2022 also sees the opening of the bot museum, a collection of heavyweight robots primarily from builders operating at NHRL and competing at the larger BattleBots competition.
This also marks the last year with any kind of substantial Sportsman combat, as many competitors moved towards the more heavy-hitting Full Combat division instead.
In November 2022, McChord announced that he would donate $1 million to STEM charities chosen by that year's finalists in the championship tournament. Keeping with that tradition, an additional $1 million of grants were made to collegiate robotics teams in 2023.
In the 3-lb division, Lynx takes two more titles, including a defense of their World Championship title. Crashfest becomes the first robot to win an NHRL event without a traditional weapon, instead using a plastic shovel as a "thwacker", technically allowed as an active weapon under NHRL rules, while operating in practice as a control bot.
Date 3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracket
March 26, 2022Silent Spring 79
April 23, 2022Lynx 58
May 14, 2022
Crashfest50
July 16-17, 2022Eruption77
September 17, 2022Malice86
November 12, 2022Fully Defined99
December 17, 2022
Lynx 24