This past Sunday night was the first really frigid night of the year, a night with the kind of weather that left the streets barren and delayed flights at O’Hare. But folks of all sorts, many even in costume—including a guy in a full-on purple-velvet Mad Hatter suit and top hat—crammed into Emporium Arcade Bar in Wicker Park to witness the return of Robot Riot, an event that its organizers describe as “the backyard wrestling of robot fighting.”
There was a lot of ingenuity on display on the battle table at Emporium. Robots used wedges, nets, hammers, and glitter cannons to incapacitate their foes. But no fighter used advanced technology quite like Cheat Day, a tower-shaped bot topped with a doughnut. Cheat Day’s movements weren’t steered by a remote control like the rest of his competitors, but by wires attached to a pint of beer and a doughnut held by its creator. When the snacks reached the operator’s mouth, Cheat Day would move.
