All about NHRL Pro Tour 2026

NHRL is building the biggest stage robot fighting has ever seen, and you are among the first builders to make it there. By competing in the NHRL Pro Tour, you are helping define the competitive edge of a new category of sport that blends advanced engineering, strategy, and grit in a way no other sport has done before.

The 2026 NHRL Pro Tour will be 3 high-stakes, best-in-class events, culminating in the NHRL Pro World Championships in December.

The first Pro Tour Event is May 16th hosted in Norwalk, CT at The House of Havoc, where the best fighting robots from February, March, and April's Open Tournament will come to earn their spot in the World Champs. Be ready to fight and ready to win, because this will be NHRL's biggest show yet. And this is just the beginning.

What is the NHRL Pro Tour? 

NHRL Pro Tour is the next step in positioning robot combat as a popular national and international sport. 

Each event, 24 of the best 3lb, 12lb, and 30lb robots (72 total) are invited to compete for a chance to qualify for NHRL’s Pro World Championships in December, a large cash prize, and most importantly, The Pro Tour Trophy. 

What are the rules of Pro Tour? Do they differ from NHRL Open Rules? 

NHRL Pro Tour will have the same Rules and Judging Criteria as NHRL Open events. Click HERE to be brought to NHRL's Rules. 

How do robots qualify for Pro Tour events? What is the difference between qualifying for Pro Tour and Pro World Championships? 

To be invited to a Pro Tour Event, you must first qualify at an NHRL Open, held monthly at The House of Havoc. To qualify, you must advance to a quarterfinals fight at an Open. If you forfeit that fight, we may decide to withhold the invitation.

If you make it to the semifinals/Top 4 in your weight class at an Open or Pro Tour Event, you just punched your ticket to NHRL’s Pro World Championships held in December. 

NHRL reserves the right to withhold invitations to competitors for any reason. It is up to discretion, but potential reasons may include:

  1. Sportsmanship issues
  2. Competitors having a history of forfeits

As a builder, how do I register for Pro Tour Events?

There is no public registration for Pro Tour. NHRL will send out official invites to qualified builders. 

What is the prize structure for Pro Tour? 

Up to $30,000 in prizes will be awarded at each event. Show up prepared to win, and make sure Every. Single. Fight. is an absolute banger. While everyone who makes their first fight walks away with cash, the more you fight - and win - the more you earn. Deliver an especially brutal K.O.? That could earn you a sweet bonus. Deliver an instant classic? Two drivers will split the $1,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus. 

As a reminder: Pro Tour runs group stages feeding into a single-elimination bracket. Every bot fights three times in the group stages. From there, some advance directly to the bracket, while others go through a “play-in” fight to earn their spot.

The more you fight, the more you earn. Amounts below are what you walk away with based on when you’re eliminated:

* You get paid for each group stage fight you compete in ($25 for 3lb, $50 for 12lb, $65 for 30lb). If you do not make any fights, you do not get paid.

** 8 robots in a 24-bot field will have a Play-In Fight.

It gets better if you win, and even better than that if you deliver amazing fights and K.O.s. Below are the bonus prizes on the table:

Okay, so I’m competing in Pro Tour. What should I expect? 

The biggest difference between Pro Tour and Open, outside of the elevated competition, is how you qualify to enter the bracket. Pro Tour will have group stages. Each weight class will have six groups of 4 robots, who will fight each other in a Round Robin Format (everyone fights each other in the group / 3 fights total). The bottom two robots in the group are eliminated, the top two move on to the 12-Bot Bracket.

Once we enter the 12-Bot Bracket, bots will be seeded 1-12 based on how well they fought during Group Stages. Seeds 1-4 will get a BYE into Prime Time. The remaining 8 robots will compete in one Play-In fight to further earn their spot in Prime Time. 

After the Play-Ins, we will take a short break as builders move to The Prime Time Pits and continue to repair their robots, and go LIVE for Prime Time as we show every single fight from Quarterfinals through the Finals. 

What is Pro Tour Rank? 

The Groups for May Pro Tour Event will be formed based on a robot's NHRL Open World Ranking.

After May's Pro Tour Event, there will be TWO RANKING SYSTEMS - Open Ranking and Pro Ranking. 

Pro Ranking will only be for bots who participate in Pro Tour Events.

Competing at Pro Tour Events will improve your Pro Tour Rank, which will determine your seed at World Championships. 

Details on how Pro Tour Ranking is determined will be shared publicly soon. 

What is a Wild Card?

Wild Card Invitations are used to help us complete the 24-bot field. 

How do Wild Cards get chosen?

Wild Cards will be selected based on NHRL discretion. Some potentials reasons will be:

  1. Higher ranked NHRL bots who missed qualifying
  2. Bot who won other local or international Robot Combat Events
  3. Robots who did not receive an invitation due to forfeits
  4. A competitive team paired with a well-known influencer

NHRL Pro Tour Events will be the best of the best robots, so we will reach out to the best robots and invite them to compete.

QUALIFIED BOTS SO FAR

(Bots also qualified for World Championships are in bold)

3LB:

  1. Anubis
  2. BRZRKR
  3. Chainsaw Kitty
  4. Colossus
  5. Pinevictus
  6. Tera-BITE (qualified under the name Shadi's Girlfriend)
  7. The Wall PT2
  8. War?HARD!
  9. Lunatic
  10. Pipeline Punch
  11. power on
  12. Showtime!
  13. Sting Operation
  14. usawgi
  15. Who's Earl?
  16. Blunder
  17. Chippy
  18. Fragment X
  19. Rhino
  20. Syrnik
  21. TurboFIEND

12LB:

  1. Bigheera
  2. Buzzzz-Kill
  3. Caldera 12
  4. Carolina Reaper
  5. Grim Ripper (12lb)
  6. Robo-Cat
  7. That's a lot of TPU
  8. Xenomorph
  9. Grandeur
  10. Modus
  11. Pramheda
  12. V.1
  13. Void
  14. Infrared
  15. Lotteri
  16. Luna
  17. Maximizer
  18. Supernova
  19. Torrent
  20. Twelvespeed

30LB:

  1. Gored
  2. KaZaA Lite
  3. Killswitch
  4. maccabot
  5. Phenomenon
  6. quack.
  7. ARES
  8. Deadrise
  9. Gargantuan
  10. KaZaA Eins
  11. MegatRON
  12. Overlord
  13. Waddles!
  14. Alan
  15. Operation Mincemeat
  16. Salimander
  17. Synthesis 30
  18. Termigator

The stage is set. Make it count. We’ll see you in the cage.