REK Deathmatch: an eyewitness report of the blade fight, per The San Francisco Standard
The San Francisco Standard says Rektile and T-REK fought with steel blades on 9 October, a camera lens was pierced and the cage was gouged. No winner named; here is what the report does and does not establish.
The first eyewitness report of REK's Deathmatch night in San Francisco says the blade fight between Rektile and T-REK took place on Friday 9 October, that a camera lens was pierced and the cage panels were cracked and gouged, and that around 100 people attended. It does not name a winner. This is one account, by a named reporter at The San Francisco Standard, published on 11 October; everything below is attributed to it.
WHAT THE REPORTER SAW
Per the Standard, photographers were ordered to back away from the cage as two blade-wielding humanoid robots entered the ring. Rektile is described as 6 feet 2 inches and 180 pounds, with steel claws; T-REK as 190 pounds, with Spartan-style blades. Each had a reach of more than 6 feet. The organiser worried that the weapons might slice through the viewing holes set into the octagonal cage panels and injure spectators.
The Standard reports that the warning protected people but not equipment: a camera lens was pierced, and deep gouges and cracks appeared in the panels during the fight. This is the Standard's report; REK has not commented on it in anything we have read.
THE WEAPONS
Cix Liv, REK's founder, called the night "the first humanoid death match" and said "it'll be the first fight to the death", per the Standard. He said the blades were chosen for their intimidation factor: "Aesthetically very scary, but it won't instantly break the robot", so the fight would not be over too quickly.
Nick Dobrikov, REK's 24-year-old lead hardware engineer and a former BattleBots engineer, developed the blades, which the Standard says ranged from around 10 to 20 inches long and were made from AR500, a hardened steel. "We just want more damage," he said.
THE ROOM AND THE CROWD
Around 100 people packed the venue, many paying $69, the Standard says. REK leases a permanent arena on Van Ness Avenue inside a former mattress showroom. Liv told the Standard he originally planned a combined retail store, workshop and fight club but scaled that back, and that recent US administration restrictions on foreign-made robots complicated the retail side. The machines are Chinese-made, modified for combat and remotely piloted by humans; Liv said "we're still a way out from autonomous fighting".
Liv said the goal for the space is regular bouts and that he is "very close" to making that happen. No dates have been published that we can read.
REGULATORS
The Standard recalls that in September REK staged a human-versus-robot cage match that drew a cease-and-desist from the California State Athletic Commission. Liv told the paper "what we're doing is not technically illegal", arguing that the law applies to fights between two people, not robots. The commission did not respond to the Standard's request for comment.
WHAT THIS CHANGES, AND WHAT IT DOES NOT
Our answer page on the night said it was not known whether the main event, Rektile against T-REK, was held. The Standard's account is evidence that a Rektile against T-REK blade fight did take place that night. It does not say how the fight ended, in what order the bouts ran, or who piloted either machine. The Standard mentions a winning bot posing for photographs afterwards without naming it. REK has still published no winner on its own channels as far as we can verify, so no result is recorded on Roboxing.
The full card, REK's two clips and the unconfirmed attendee account are on the answer page at roboxing.tv/news/rek-deathmatch-9-oct-2026-card-clips-and-what-is-known-about-the-results. The event record is at roboxing.tv/events/rek-deathmatch-sf-2026, REK's league page is at roboxing.tv/competitions/rek, and every upcoming fight is at roboxing.tv/schedule.