Black Wings of the Day vs White Wings of the Night
The Black Wings of the Day VS White Wings of the Night | Overall Match Record | 3 matches 3 wins 0 losses | Win rate 100% | Overall Set Record | 10 matches 9 wins 1 loss | Win rate 90%. This was the record Diafle Monarch had posted so far. They had already locked in a positive win-loss margin (wins minus losses) and set differential for the first week. For a brand-new team, it was an incredible achievement.
“Today’s opponent is… Wizard Air’s White Witch, right?”
“Looks like they finally realized they can’t win the title with just the Spear Corps.”
Wizard Air White Witch’s squad up to now could be summed up in a single phrase: “Spear Corps.” As the name implied, it was a pure offense squad that could deliver solid results for the money spent. But if either side couldn’t rise above a certain level? A championship was out of the question. They had no robot that could serve as an impenetrable wall when it truly mattered. It was only natural that they fell apart at the most important moments.
“Ah, Yohan went to Wiz, right?”
“Concord was from Wiz’s second team too.”
“Why call him up after seeing that?”
“That was because of the counterfeit screw.”
Starting in 2023, Wizard Air White Witch had become a legitimate championship contender. They were no longer a team that could be satisfied with mid-to-upper-tier finishes or simply reaching the finals. The COVID-19 pandemic had ended, travel restrictions were lifted, and the parent company’s finances had stabilized. So what did they do? They brought in a trustworthy defender.
They signed the quiet veteran Ko Yohan and his robot Avenger, then called up Joo Hwain and KonKoard.
“Naru, your big sister has some bad memories about Wiz. Want to hear?”
“Why’s that, Sau unnie?”
“Their symbol is a huge moth, right? The white witch night moth.”
Thysania agrippina, known in Korea as the white witch moth or white witch night moth. Its wingspan was insanely wide—up to twenty-eight centimeters. But because it was only elongated sideways, the total surface area wasn’t actually that large.
“I saw a live one while I was living in the States. It scared me so badly I couldn’t sleep that night…”
“A moth can’t be that scary, can it, Sau unnie?”
“Now every time I see Wiz, that image pops right back into my head…”
“A moth can’t be that scary, right?”
“Want me to show you the picture? Here—I was shaking when I took it, but the camera corrected everything anyway.”
(This thing’s from South America… so why did it show up in the US?)
The white witch night moth was known for long-distance migration, so it occasionally reached the southern United States.
A white witch night moth had been drawn to the lights in front of the away-team lodging. It was so enormous that the Tinkerbells soldiers usually saw looked cute by comparison. It was easily as long as the empty 1.5-liter cola bottle left over from practice.
“I don’t really get scared of bugs.”
Moon Naru actually liked insects, so she wasn’t particularly startled. But Kang Cheong-hyeon, who had been watching beside her, let out a scream of pure shock. It was a horrified shriek, completely different from Naru’s usual pterodactyl cry.
“What are you guys look— YAAAAA!! What kind of moth is the size of a cola bottle?!”
“Cheong-hyeon unnie, you showed it to Naru and now you’re the one panicking?”
“Just… let me calm down. It wasn’t a real moth, so it wasn’t that bad.”
“It really does fit the image perfectly, though. A flying white witch.”
Control tower callsign: Wizard
IATA code (the abbreviation on plane tickets): OZ
ICAO code (the abbreviation almost nobody sees): WIZ
The airline concept was blatantly ① magic. Like most ② passenger planes, Wizard Air’s ② planes were ③ white. A ③ white ① witch ② night moth. It ① used magic, ② flew, and was ③ white. And of course ① witches also ② flew on broomsticks.
“We’re playing an away match today but they’re still wearing their home uniforms?”
“Wiz’s home uniform is white. The team name itself is ‘White’ Witch, after all.”
They also had a dark-gray alternate uniform that evoked the image of a moth. Since no team in RCLK used white as their home color, it was effectively reserved for international events. Overseas leagues didn’t use it often either, so it only appeared sporadically.
The Michuhol-gu Office Battle Robot Arena. From 2006 to 2011 it had hosted the EBS competition. From 2012 to 2016 it served as an exhibition hall. When the competition returned in 2017, it once again became a battle robot arena.
“The Michuhol arena… I came here to watch the EBS competition back when I was in kindergarten.”
“You were a kindergartener, Na Sau unnie? I was still a baby who had just turned one.”
“They say it’ll only be used through the first half of this year before being converted for low-tier amateur events.”
There were simply too many reasons it wasn’t suitable for professional competition. A replacement arena was under construction on Yeongjong Island and was scheduled to open for the second half of the 2024 season.
Similarities
• Main sponsor is an airline: Space Air & Wizard Air
• Symbol is a lepidopteran insect: Butterfly & Moth
Differences
• Day-active butterfly ↔ Night-active moth
• Black-uniformed Diafle ↔ White-uniformed Wiz
[1st Set, Wiz’s choice is… deferred pick!!]
“Today I’m dropping all the defense and fighting with pure fire!”
1st Set — DFL Lycodon VS WIZ TJ9X.
[TJ9X looks exactly like a three-bladed fan.]
[It also resembles a passenger-plane jet engine.]
TJ9X was a robot with a three-blade assembly mounted on top of its head. This configuration was known as an overhead spinner. A single rod ran between the blades, and the lower edges drooped downward like an animal-catching cage. It sat somewhere between a horizontal spinner and a full-body rotating weapon. The name came from a real turbofan jet engine used in passenger aircraft—famous for having a larger diameter than the fuselage of small jets.
[Lycodon played a very defense-oriented match yesterday.]
[Today it declared it would fight aggressively. How will that turn out?]
[3, 2, 1! Battle—begin!]
The instant the match started, Lycodon lunged forward like a starving king snake hunting another serpent.
[Lycodon is on the offensive right from the start!!]
[For those who don’t know, real king snakes actually eat other snakes.]
Its English name was literally Asian King Snake. Any snake name that included “King” meant it preyed on other snakes.
[TJ9X is knocked backward by the recoil but rises while staying perfectly upright!!]
[It’s fully utilizing the advantage of a body-rotating robot!]
TJ9X floated upward like a UFO, maintaining perfect orientation thanks to the gyroscopic effect. It was a shared strength of all body-spinning designs.
[TJ9X lands a powerful side hit!! That’s not easy to do!!]
The difficulty of targeting only the opponent’s weak points was one of the weaknesses of overhead-spinner designs. Every direction was essentially a weapon.
[Another heavy blow!!]
[From Lycodon’s perspective there aren’t many good targets on TJ9X… wait—!]
Taking advantage of a moment when TJ9X’s acceleration was still building, Lycodon struck at the blade axle. Like trying to pull up deep-rooted grass, the hit only made it rattle.
[TJ9X is starting to shake!! Whoa—!!]
Lycodon’s final strike flipped TJ9X over like a tiddlywink. The spinner hadn’t built up enough speed for the gyroscopic effect to stabilize it.
[It’s not easy to flip a horizontal spinner like that!!]
[Once TJ9X is flipped, it has no way to self-right!!]
[10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! TJ9X KO!! Lycodon wins!!]
“I kept my promise to fight with pure fire today, didn’t I?”
At 1:05, Lycodon had delivered a crushing victory by abandoning defense for all-out aggression.
[2nd Set, Wiz’s choice is… deferred pick again.]
2nd Set — DFL Hapagonis VS WIZ Sky X.
[Vertical versus vertical—a classic but always thrilling matchup!]
[Sky X looks incredibly cool, like a fighter jet from a sci-fi movie!]
[The color scheme even reminds me of an air-show performer.]
Sky X had the sleek, stylish appearance of a fighter jet from a science-fiction film. Sharp wedges ran along both sides all the way to the rear. In the center sat a fairly large vertical spinner. When flipped, it used a self-righting mechanism to return to its feet.
[3, 2, 1! Battle—begin!]
[Sky X is bigger and its blade is larger too.]
[A head-on fight would give Hapagonis almost no chance… whoa!!]
Hapagonis was sent flying by an uppercut-like strike from Sky X. It looked like a stone chip being knocked away by a pickaxe. As expected, a direct frontal clash gave it a zero percent chance of winning.
[Hapagonis tries to counter, but it’s still being pushed back in a head-on fight!!]
[But remember the unchanging law of battle robots: the stronger the weapon, the stronger the recoil!]
Hapagonis deliberately climbed onto Sky X and targeted the weapon axle. It was like letting the opponent grab you on purpose so you could strike a vital point.
[It’s trying to rip the weapon clean off!! But it can’t pull it free!!]
[The impact to the axle knocks it back with the recoil!!]
Only thirty seconds in, Sky X began to vibrate. The shaking was about as strong as a pager at a fast-food restaurant.
[It’s already rattling hard!! But its power still isn’t completely gone!!]
[Another head-on clash!! Even now Sky X is still stronger!!]
After Hapagonis’s counterattack, something strange happened.
[The blade is still spinning… but the robot isn’t moving at all!!]
[10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Sky X KO! Hapagonis wins!!]
At 0:44, the match proved that great power comes with great recoil. Sky X had the stronger weapon, but the recoil had been just as massive.
WIZ — XX??? 0 : 2 OO??? — DFL
1st Set — TJ9X LOSS 1:05 KO WIN Lycodon
2nd Set — Sky X LOSS 0:44 KO WIN Hapagonis
3rd Set — ??? ? ?:?? ??? ? ???
4th Set (if needed) — ??? ? ?:?? ??? ? ???
5th Set (if needed) — ??? ? ?:?? ??? ? ???
Diafle Monarch had taken the match point. Only one more set stood between them and a four-game win streak since their founding.
[3rd Set, Wiz’s choice is… deferred pick!]
3rd Set — DFL V-Killer VS WIZ Baekto.