This Is What Happens When Two Tech Writers Climb Into Robots And Fight

Contrary to what you may have heard, South by Southwest Interactive isn’t just about high-minded panels and keynotes filled with big ideas. No, sometimes startups do fun, goofy promotions like asking people to battle each other from inside the Bionic Bopper Cars offered by Hammacher Schlemmer.

And that is indeed what Distil Networks did over the weekend, challenging attendees to “fight your friends” and offering a few “title match fights” under the dubious premise that they would attract more spectators.

In my case, I took on Tom Cheredar, who writes for my old employer VentureBeat. For some reason, TechCrunch TV producer Steve Long decided to tag along and capture all the intense action, which you can see in the video above.