Micropolix V5 | Sushobhan Guha | XIMB | Batch Of 2018-20

“If the roads don’t lead to where you want to go, bend the ways to get through.”

During engineering, I was bored with the monotonous curriculum & was dying to venture out and compete. My fascination towards motorsport drove me to try & participate in Formula SAE, but somehow that didn’t work out. Desperately thinking of new avenues, I stumbled upon the niche, almost underground sport of combat robotics. Remotely controlled robots, tearing each other apart inside an enclosed bulletproof arena while the spectators scream in awe? Yes, please! Watched the movie Real Steel? This was exactly like it, just shockingly more real.

But wait a second - from cars to robots? Doesn’t make sense, right? I thought that for a while too. But combat robotics presented a challenge at par, if not greater, to building a racecar, technically speaking. There was so much opportunity to learn, I couldn’t just pass. Most importantly, very few sports had such a boyish vibe to them!

I started Team Shock-n-Awe with 4 trusty teammates. It took a lot of blood, sweat & tears for over a year to get us off the ground. Owing to my tenacity to bend the rules, our machine, Dauntless, was a highly unconventional and untested design & we stirred up quite some talk in the combat community even before our debut. I attended my first event in 2015 and boy, it was nerve-racking! Debut event, the pressure to perform, the underdog to watch out for, I would be shaking after every match due to all the adrenaline! But match by match, we were able to run through the field & beat everybody we came across, taking the championship title. Trust me, nothing tastes better than victory. Fast forward to 2018 & multiple championships later, Team Shock-n-Awe was the #1 team in India in the lightweight category, running undefeated for 2 years straight. We even had the chance to represent India internationally.

But the best part of it all is that spectators think that the teams are hardcore rivals willing to bite each others' heads off, but in reality, the rivalry ends inside the arena. Outside, all of us are very close friends, in fact, combat robotics has given me some of the best friendships even until today. We lend tools to each other, cheer for everyone, heck I’ve even helped repair the robot which I would be facing for the finals minutes later! The comradery is just exceptional. It’s like a dysfunctional family reunion, we meet a few times a year to break each others’ toys.

Although Team Shock-n-Awe retired mid-2018, there hasn’t been a day that I haven’t dreamt of going back. Combat robotics has not just been an integral part of my life but also has been pivotal in shaping me as a person. It has given me immense knowledge, true relationships, endless memories & exhilarating experiences. So if you’ve made it till here, take pride & pleasure in whatever you do. Things will work out just fine.

Sushobhan Guha
Class of 2020
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar