ABC has renewed “BattleBots,” the epic robot fighting tournament that stunned viewers during its 2015 revival. The series comes from Whalerock Industries and the creators of the original “BattleBots” franchise, Ed Roski and Greg Munson.

During its first season, ABC’s “BattleBots” ranked as the No. 1 series in its time period in Total Viewers (5.4 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.7/5), as well as across all key Men demos (M18-34/M18-49/M25-54). “BattleBots” improved its hour year to year by double-digit percentages with Total Viewers (+10%), Adults 18-49 (+31%), Men 18-34 (+63%), Men 18-49 (+73%), Men 25-54 (+69%). In addition, the broad-appealing unscripted series was Sunday’s top-rated broadcast show of the summer with Kids 2-11.

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To me, the star of ABC’s shiny new BattleBots reboot is neither Nightmare, nor Warhead, nor any of the engineers who grip the controller with white-knuckle intensity and pound on the plexiglass in anger. To me, the star is Wrecks, a robot that’s little more than a red buzzsaw and a pair of awkwardly waddling duck legs. In last Sunday’s series premiere, Wrecks went up against Plan X, a complicated contraption twice its size that came with all the accoutrements of a classic boss fight—two “minibot” clones of itself and a glowing brain. Plan X dominated for most of the match, flipping Wrecks over in classic BattleBots tradition and forcing it to use the saw to move around, its pointless legs pumping helplessly like a flipped-over garden turtle. But then our hero made a huge comeback. “And it looks like Wrecks must have righted itself using the screws to its advantage, Kenny,” one of the announcers enthused. Plan X got stuck for a moment, its minibots swarming frantically; Wrecks slowly loped from the other side of the BattleBox to knock off a huge chunk of aluminum plate armor. Had I been one of the judges, I would’ve given it points for pluck. fulmira But pluck is not what they judge, nor does it seem to be what the show or its intended audience are looking for. The categories, in this brutally rational incarnation of the series, are “aggression, damage, strategy, and control.”

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Angie Bamblett is one of the few female engineers who will compete on Battlebots. Speaking on behalf of Team Icewave, Bamblett says their battling bot is unique because instead of an electric motor it has a combustion engine. Plus, that five-inch spinning blade should do a lot of damage across any plane.

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ABC aired the first of six episodes in its updated BattleBots tournament. Once again, teams wired together some parts, and worked together to ruin another team’s hard work. I finally got around to watching this afternoon, and the big question was: Does BattleBots hold up after all these years?

The answer is oh god yes. This thing is absurd, ridiculous and kind of amazing, and none of that has anything to do with the robots.

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