How long is a humanoid robot fight? Round and bout lengths, league by league, and where leagues have not said
SCL says up to 15 minutes a bout, URKL reportedly five five-minute rounds, ARC 150-second rounds, REK 2 two-minute rounds. UFB, RFC, CMG2026 and CyberHero have not published a round length we could read.
There is no standard length for a humanoid robot fight. Each league sets its own clock, and several have not published one. This is what each source says, and where the record is blank.
Shadow Combat League (Kuala Lumpur). Before its New Dawn night on 3 October, SCL told the Malaysian news agency Bernama that each bout would run for up to 15 minutes, or until a machine stops getting back up. That is the longest single-bout limit we have found. It is a pre-event statement, not a timing of what happened on the night, and it comes from a single outlet relaying the league's own release.
URKL (EngineAI, Shenzhen). Science and Technology Daily and ITHome, reporting the 16 July opening night, describe five rounds of five minutes, with three tactical timeouts per team of up to two minutes each, only one usable per round. That makes up to 25 minutes of fighting time, the longest total clock among the leagues that publish one, though the winner is decided by rounds won, not by the clock. These are media accounts of the format; we have not read an EngineAI rule document.
REK. Japanese coverage of REK 2 in San Francisco on 15 August (Denfaminicogamer, Real Sound) reports two-minute rounds in an octagonal cage; Real Sound also mentions an extra round, which we have not been able to place. REK has not published a rule sheet we could read, so this rests on those reports.
ARC (Katena). ARC's gameplay page, as we read it on 27 October, says rounds last 150 seconds and a match is best of three. A round can end sooner if a robot's health reaches zero or it falls. The page did not load on 6 November, so we have not re-checked it.
Ultimate Bots. UFB's rule book describes matches played over rounds, with Round 3 the last it mentions, and scoring by strikes, a score zone and knockouts. The text we read does not give a round length, so we do not state one.
RFC. The Robot Fighting Championship site describes piloted bouts over three rounds. We have not seen a round length.
CMG2026 and CyberHero. Neither league has published a bout clock that we have found. CyberHero's first night was reported as a team contest with seven rounds, which is a different structure from a single bout between two fighters.
What the numbers mean. A 150-second round, a two-minute round and a five-minute round are not comparable without the scoring rules and the knockout rules around them. In UFB a knockout ends the round but not the match; in SCL's description a bout can run until a machine stays down. Fight length also reflects how long a battery, a pilot and a torso can last, which the leagues do not publish either.
We will fill in the blanks as promoters publish them. Open items: UFB round length, RFC round length, and any CMG2026 rules.