Hemel man explains why he walked off in Robot Wars video that went viral

A man who went viral online for his reaction to losing a contest against children on Robot Wars has said he was '˜frustrated' when the show was filmed.
Ant Pritchard (centre) appeared on Robot Wars as part of Team Behemoth. Picture by Alan Peebles.Ant Pritchard (centre) appeared on Robot Wars as part of Team Behemoth. Picture by Alan Peebles.
Ant Pritchard (centre) appeared on Robot Wars as part of Team Behemoth. Picture by Alan Peebles.

Ant Pritchard is a member of the respected Team Behemoth, which has contested in every series of the show since 1998.

But footage shown on the BBC Two programme on Sunday went viral after it showed Ant walking off in frustration after his team’s robot lost out to the Cherub team - three of whom were children.

Anthony, a computer-aided design engineer, came in for some criticism from social media viewers who took his reaction to be sulking after losing against the youngsters.

But Robot Wars bosses defended Ant, and he himself has said the whole situation has been misunderstood.

Ant said: “I am incredibly passionate about Robot Wars and it is something I take very seriously.

“I want to clarify that in Sunday’s episode I didn’t walk off because I was beaten by children I walked off because I was very frustrated by the decision we made for Behemoth’s weapon for the battle.

“I respect Cherub as competitors and age is not something I took into account, as such I would have acted the same way with any other competitor.

“I apologised to the Cherub Team and Angela after the cameras stopped rolling for that moment.”

Robot Wars tweeted: “Everyone’s been talking about the Behemoth walkout, but remember he was upset with his own team and not the opposition.

“Teams like Behemoth work incredibly hard to create their brilliant robots, and we love them for it.

“The frustration stems from passion and care.”

Related topics: