UnMakerBot's pilot Zach Goff, a buff dude with short dark hair and a nice leather jacket, is standing right up against the glass on a riser. 

"Good luck," Rucker says to Goff. "See you on the outside."

Goff nods. He knows Blue is built to take exactly the kind of beating his team designed UnMakerBot to dish out. Blue is a tank; if UnMakerbot's whirling tube whacks it a good one, Goff's baby might just seize up from the shock. Then Blue would just ram it for a while.

The referee counts down, "3… 2… 1," and the robots charge. They dance around for a bit, angling, sizing each other up, before Goff makes his move. UnMakerBot slams into Blue and sends it flying through the air. The noise, like a car crash from inside a car, hits me in the ears and chest and rattles around in my brain.

More posturing and angling. UnMakerBot zips back and forth. Then Goff makes another move, slamming his bot into Blue and sending it soaring into the polycarbonate. Blue lodges five feet from my face, stuck between the transparent sheet and the I-beams that line the edge of the ring. Much applause, and much praise for Goff from his comrades.