Calling all mech pilots — Singapore Robo Fight kicks off at Consumer Electronics Exhibition today

A new tournament concept is letting you be the mech warrior you’ve always wanted to be — Singapore’s first Robo Fight competition is kicking off this afternoon in a corner of the Suntec Singapore Convention Centre expo hall as part of this year’s Consumer Electronics Exhibition. 

Thanks to Chinese-based company GJS Robot, players get to pit its battle bots through the power of augmented reality in little arenas. 

The robot itself — called GEIO — looks deceptively simple. It’s a plastic-and-metal droid that moves around on four wheels, with the pilot controlling its omnidirectional movement through a wi-fi connection in a smartphone app. 

Through the app, GEIO transmits what it sees on its onboard camera to your phone. What you see onscreen is something out of BattleTech heads-up display — targeting systems, health percentages and weapon statuses. Pilots will then have to manoeuvre their bots around to gun down their opponents with virtual bullets, while power-ups (cardboard boxes with printed designs placed in the battlefield) can be collected to, say, freeze enemies. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZsgeOZoy-c[/embed]

CEE will see two types of tournaments: A free-for-all deathmatch and a racing bout. The top two winners from today will get to score over $3,000 in cash prizes, which is a pretty decent chunk of change for bot battling. Winners will also have the honour of representing Singapore in the upcoming World Cyber Games in Xi’an, China in July, where they’ll pilot an earlier GJS model called the Ganker, a more melee-oriented mech that can be controlled very much like the Real Steel boxing bots. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTl1hJWstx0[/embed]

See y’all on the battlefield, robo warriors. Those interested in getting one to toy around with can check out the website of GJS Robots local distributor Ban Leong, where it's going for $299.