The National Havoc Robot League (NHRL), formerly known as the Norwalk Havoc Robot League, is a robot combat organization headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Founded in 2018 by entrepreneur Austin McChord, NHRL hosts a series of open-registration tournaments each year in which hobbyist and professional builders compete in one-on-one cage matches across three weight classes. The organization is a subsidiary of Havoc Robotics Inc., and Kelly Biderman has served as its chief executive officer since 2021.
Since its founding, NHRL has grown from a regional competition to what it describes as the world's largest robot fighting tournament, drawing thousands of competitors from nearly every continent and accumulating a reported billion organic social media views annually as of 2025. In 2026, the organization launched the NHRL Pro Tour, billed as the world's first professional robot fighting league. As of June 2026, the plan is to expand the Pro Tour into a full league-style format in the 2027 season.
History
Founding (2018) Austin McChord founded NHRL in 2018 shortly after departing Datto, the data backup company he had previously started. The inaugural event, held in December 2018, attracted only 18 competitors and operated on an informal basis with minimal broadcast infrastructure. The organization was originally named the Norwalk Havoc Robot League, reflecting its roots in Norwalk, Connecticut, before being rebranded as its reach expanded nationally and internationally.
Early events were small enough that official brackets were not always preserved, and formal livestream coverage had not yet been established.
Growth and relocation (2020–2021) In 2020, McChord acquired a warehouse space to provide NHRL with a permanent home for its events. The COVID-19 pandemic briefly disrupted the 2020 schedule but NHRL resumed operations with health and safety mitigation in place later the same year. In 2021, McChord relocated the organization to a larger facility on Water Street in South Norwalk, which remains NHRL's headquarters. The new facility expanded the number of competition arenas, upgraded broadcast capabilities, and added a museum gallery of combat robots.
Kelly Biderman joined as CEO in 2021 and is credited with significantly expanding the organization's social media strategy, particularly on YouTube and TikTok, and overseeing the introduction of professional-level broadcast production. That same year, NHRL held its first-ever end-of-year World Championship in December, establishing the format of qualifying events followed by an annual championship that has continued since.
Mainstream recognition (2022–present) The 2022 season saw substantial facility expansions and a sharp increase in competitor enrollment. In November 2022, McChord announced a donation of $1 million to STEM charities selected by that year's championship finalists, with an additional $1 million in grants directed toward collegiate robotics programs in 2023.
The 2023 season proved a turning point in the organization's public profile. Viewership increased by approximately 13,000 percent compared to the prior year, with the league accumulating over 400 million social media views during the year. Live events sold out, and NHRL received mainstream media coverage including appearances on NBC's Today and in the Sports Business Journal. By 2024, competitors were regularly traveling from regions including Brazil, New Zealand, and across Europe.
In August 2025, NHRL announced a broadcast partnership with Cheddar, a streaming and cable network, through which event coverage from its Prime Time series would air on Cheddar's national feed. That same year, NHRL's combined audience was reported to generate approximately a billion organic social media views annually.
On May 15, 2026, NHRL and DAZN signed a multi-year streaming deal, effective immediately ahead of the very first NHRL Pro Tour event on May 16, 2026. The current deal exists for all Pro Tour events and the Pro World Championships at the end of each season, and all NHRL World Championship Pro Tour events will be available to watch for free. Havoc Robotics CEO Kelly Biderman stated about the deal that it "is the final piece: a full media ecosystem that unlocks our flagship broadcasts at the Pro World Championships, now streaming to the biggest sports audience in the world – who are about to discover their next favorite sport.”
On June 29, 2026, Biderman made a press release looking towards the remainder of the season and into the future of NHRL. In the announcement, NHRL announces they plan to award qualifying points and wildcard slots in Pro Tour events for winners and high performers at outside events, such as the Brazilian RCX & RSM, the New Zealand Robot Rampage, and future international slots planned for the next season. Additionally, NHRL also announced an expansion of their XP point system, used to help rank newer bots, into several "minor league" events, GrowingSTEMS and Texas Robot Combat. Additionally, they announced the launch of an academy system in partnership with GrowingSTEMS, as well as expanding the availability of the Brettzone open-source broadcaster that, until this point, had only been used at NHRL. This is part of the planned decentralization of NHRL events with plans to "also explor[e] ways to empower others to run NHRL Open events in their own communities," while also "building a league finder on our [NHRL's] website, so anyone, anywhere can find their local community and get started." Additionally, the second Pro Tour event was moved from July to replace the planned September Open Qualifier, and will be located at Terminal 5, in New York City.
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 2026, this schedule has shifted to a planned 9 Open Qualifying events a year, three championship seeding Pro Tour events, and the December World Championships.
Champion 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. +2018/19 3-lb CompetitionsDate (Event Name)3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracketDecember 2018Silent SpringUnknown (presumed <25)LostJanuary 2019SquishyMarch 2019Mondo BizarroMay 2019Silent Spring (2)August 2019Tiny HugeSeptember 2019 (Fall Fury 2019)Silent Spring (3)26November 2019 (Turkey Tumble)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. +2018/19 12-lb Sportsman CompetitionsDate (Event Name)Sportsman Champion# of competitorsBracketMarch 2019Grudge Matches Only (No Bracket Run)2N/ASeptember 2019 (Fall Fury)Tuskin' Raider8
2020 Season For the first time, NHRL declares an end-of-year championship, usually held in December each year moving forward (with one exception). 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 (as of the 2025 season) only back-to-back competition days (a full-weekend competition would occur in future seasons, but never two different competitions on two consecutive 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. +2020 3-lb CompetitionsDate (Event Name)3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracketJanuary 2020Silent Spring (4)27July 18, 2020Shreddit BroUnknown (likely <20)LostJuly 19, 2020Shreddit Bro (2)27September 2020Billy23November 2020Lynx49December 2020 (NHRL 2020 Finals)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. +2021 3-lb CompetitionsDate (Event Name)3-lb Champion# of competitorsBracketFeb 6, 2021Shreddit Bro (3)34March 20, 2021Polywog55May 15, 2021Silent Spring (5)67July 24-25, 2021Silent X86September 18, 2021Project LiftOff58November 13, 2021Lynx (2)90December 2021 (2021 NHRL World Championships)Lynx (3)27 Tuskin' Raider caps the Sportsman calendar by becoming the first, and only, robot to win multiple official Sportsman brackets. +2021 12-lb Sportsman CompetitionsDate (Event Name)12-lb Sportsman Champion# of competitorsBracketFebruary 6, 2021P124July 24, 2021RAM PLAN4November 13, 2021Tuskin' Raider (2)5 Hot Leaf Juice (later stylized as HotLeafJuice) 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. +2021 12-lb Full Combat CompetitionsDate (Event Name)12-lb Champion# of competitorsBracketFeb 6, 2021Kitten Mittens4March 20, 2021CaulkUnknown (likely <10)UnavailableMay 15, 2021Ugee10July 24-25, 2021Hot Leaf Juice16September 18, 2021Pramheda7November 13, 2021Hot Leaf Juice (2)9December 2021 (2021 NHRL World Championships)Hot Leaf Juice (3)22