The Critter Crunch is a combat robot competition that takes place annually at the MileHiCon science fiction convention. With the first event held in 1989, it has been credited as the first robot combat competition.Oct. 28, 1989: Critter Crunch, Mother of All Robot Battles. Written By Chris Baker, Published by WIRED on 28 Oct 2011
History
The competition was proposed by the Denver Mad Scientists Club and organized by member Bill Llewellin. Prior to the first Critter Crunch event, the club produced a set of rules which were distributed without copyright restriction, allowing other organizations to use or extend them for their own competitions.
The first Critter Crunch event was competed in by "five or 10" competitors. These included "Fluffy Bunny", built by Bill Llewellin, armed with a forklift, and "Big Punch", built by Bill Lemieux and Mike Bakula, armed with a Pneumatic spike. The winner of the first Critter Crunch was "Thing One" built by Pat Thompson, armed with a can of silly string.
In 2020, Milehicon announced the Critter Crunch would not be held that year due to the global pandemic.
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