The Blur
RobotChallenge 2025 in Oradea came just one week before BattleLab Robotica, and for us it turned into a blur of solder fumes, sleepless nights, and hasty decisions. We arrived with three machines in tow: Shobolinsky EVO MAX, Noctyss, and the ever-reliable Shobolinsky MINI. On paper that sounded like an army. In reality two of them were born overnight, stitched together in a rush, and barely functional when the matches began.
EVO MAX & Noctyss
EVO MAX and Noctyss were the wild cards. Both were assembled in a single manic sprint, the kind of “we can finish it by morning” optimism that always ends in disaster. The designs were solid, the ambition was real, but no robot built in a single night ever has the polish needed for combat. They entered the arena more as proof-of-concepts than competitors, experimental shells with electronics held together by willpower and caffeine. Predictably, they stumbled. Neither managed to put up the kind of fight we had hoped for, their flaws showing the moment real stress hit.
“We try, we fail in public, and we learn by burning.”
In hindsight it was madness to think we could build two heavyweights in the span of hours and expect them to dominate. But that is also Shobolinsky: the willingness to gamble, even if it means falling apart under the lights.
Shobolinsky MINI
MINI carried the banner with pride. Entered into the mini-sumo championship, it faced a field of more than fifty robots. Almost every single one of them was a kit, mass-produced designs polished to reliability. MINI stood out as the only fully custom build, handmade down to the chassis and sensors. That alone was an achievement, but MINI went further. Once again it carved its way through the brackets, scrapping and pushing until it reached the semifinals.
It was lighter than many of its rivals, rougher around the edges, but smarter in the way it was built. Every win was a vindication of the idea that custom engineering, even at a disadvantage, can still match and beat standardized designs.
“In a sea of kits, MINI stood out as the only custom rat.”
What It Meant
RobotChallenge 2025 was not a tournament of trophies for us. EVO MAX and Noctyss never really got their chance, crippled by their rushed births. But MINI’s run was a highlight, a reminder that even in a field dominated by kits, a custom Shobolinsky machine can stand out and fight its way into the top tier. It was the kind of achievement that mattered more than medals: proof that our robots carry an identity all their own. And it set the stage for what came next, when those same rushed designs were dragged into BLR a week later, ready or not.