Robot Death Matches: A New Sport for the 21st Century – Wall Street Journal

IN A WAREHOUSE OUTSIDE Oakland, Calif., a massive chain saw is chewing through a washing machine, tearing and crumpling the white metal frame like paper, rattling the skid-steer loader to which it’s attached. For the next demonstration, we are advised to take cover.

“I have high hopes for this one,” Matt Oehrlein, the 30-year-old co-founder of MegaBots, says with a grin.

We crouch behind bulletproof plexiglass as a burly…