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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

In 2015, a team of American engineers created the MegaBots Mk. II [arstechnica.co.uk], a 15-foot-tall, 5,400kg, paintball cannon-armed mech of nightmarish proportions. Which is impressive and all, but the question was: why? The answer came in the form of a fight-to-the-death challenge issued to Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industries, which had built its own 13-foot-tall mech called Kuratas, complete with touchscreen UI, Kinect-based interface, and twin BB Gatling guns (customers could even order one for a cool $1.35 million).

One successful $500,000 Kickstarter campaign [arstechnica.co.uk] later—launched to get the Mk. II combat-ready—the battle to end all robot battles is finally happening, albeit a year later than originally planned. This August, the revamped MegaBots Mk. III will battle Kuratas at an as yet undisclosed location. The delay to the original duel was due to problems with the venue, according to MegaBots, so the location is being kept a secret for now.

The competition is essential [arstechnica.com] if we're to be prepared for the arrival of the kaiju [wikia.com].

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