One of the strongest features of Malice is our Vulcanized Rubber Tires from The Black Dragon team. I think they’re the reason Malice has had as much success as it has.
Malice has exposed wheels, but our tires are a form of armor that has held up to the tests. They absorb huge amounts of force from the hits and keep on running. We haven’t lost a single tire, even after our fight with gigabyte when one of our tires had been a bit ripped, we used shoe goo to repair it, and still run it today.
There are many forms of tires, polymer cast tires, go-kart tires, Meccanum tires, wheelbarrow tires, Colson tire, and more we can’t list, but the grip provided by the Black Dragon’s vulcanized rubber tires is (again, in my very limited opinion) unparalleled. The specialty paint used by Battlebots to coat the Battlebox is immensely slippery. You can see a lot of teams go out and lose a ton of their velocity just gripping the floor, whereas Malice’s drive is one of the most reliable for grip!
Why don’t more teams use Black Dragon’s tires if they’re so amazing? Cost. Our size tire cost this year was a lot per tire, granted, we use a large diameter 12” tire, and most teams can get that cost less due to their smaller 5-6” tire, but it’s still in the hundreds per tire price. In addition, the black dragon teams can only produce a small number of tires for the competition every year.
For our team, the cost is worth the investment. The grip on the Box floor, combined with the shock dampening rubber makes them the perfect choice for our exposed tire.