Mystrsyko

"Hello Everyone, I am Mystrsyko, and welcome back..."

- Mystrsyko's Intro

Mike Stropkovic Jr. (born: November 1, 1988), better known online as Mystrsyko, is an American YouTube Live Reviewer/Reactor known for his satirical reviews of television shows such as Robot Wars and BattleBots. The mystrsyko2 channel has over 4,500 subscribers and 1.3 million views, Mike came up with the name Mystrsyko as a reference to a House Robot form the Robot Wars television show called: Mr Psycho. Mike has also stated that he called himself this as a way to protect himself from legal issues regarding the owners of the show, Mentorn Media and the BBC (British Broadcasting Company).

Outside of his own channel, Mike has made frequent appearances on other peoples YouTube Channels that are a part of the Combat Robot Community as well as podcasts about the previously mentioned combat robot shows, these frequent appearances helped inspire him to create a podcast of his own called Roasting Robots.

On the 13th January 2018, he launched a Patreon page to help support his content as well as help accomplish his dream of creating a combat robot of his own and going to compete with it at live shows, potentially in the future going onto televised show. As a result on the 28th September 2018 through the support of his Patreons he was able to build his first combat robot called: Hit & Run, it has a box-shaped chassis and saw-blades for wheels that double as its weaponry. The robot itself was inspired by a Superheavyweight robot called Ginsu which competed in BattleBots and has a similar design.

About
Mike's parents owned a bowling alley when he was younger and as a teenager/young adult he used to work there, this helped begin his love for bowling and is also what started his career in working at bowling alleys which continues to this very day, sadly the family bowling alley has been closed for sometime and Mike has gone on to work at various different bowling alleys, his current working position is fixing the pin machines that set up the bowling pins and place new ones down after each shot. Mike has gone on record to say that although he doesn't play professionally he is capable of doing so however do to time and budget constraints he is unable to. In his Live Review Review November 2018 Edition video, Mike said he is looking into finsing a new job as sadly the current job he has isn't enough to support himm. In 2014 he proposed to his girfriend and fellow YouTuber DolphinTreasureArt who makes speed paintings and as of recently gaming videos, in 2016 the couple finally married and as of late October 2018 they adopted a dog called: Bandit.

Bowling Videos
"It stopped literally 4 inches from the line!"

- Mike after a bowling pin rolled to the foul line

Before Mike had even created mystrsyko2 he was uploading bowling videos on his now inactive "main channel": mystrsyko, he got his popularity initially uploading Bowling Trickshot videos where he would compile a bunch of clips of him performing amazing stunts using bowling balls and bowling pins. The first of these videos was uploaded on the 30th July 2008 with his final trickshot video being uploaded on the 9th February 2010, just under a full year before he created mystrsyko2. His Bowling Trickshots videos have been quite successful with a total view count of over 3.6 million views with his most popular trickshot video being Bowling Trickshots 5 with 1.5 million views. Mike has created other bowling series on mystrsyko such as: sykos challenge, the International YouTube Open, and the Making of series where he shows how to do trickshots and the process of setting it up.

On the 1st September 2012, Mike began a series on mystrsyko2 called "Game A Day" where he would play a game of bowling every day and record his reactions and scores, seeing how his score fluctuates between games, this series lasted 199 days/episodes with Mike uploading the final video on the 22nd April 2013, after this Mike didn't upload another video on mystrsyko2 for almost 2 years before releasing another Bowling video titled: Lots of Deadwood! This would be the last bowling video uploaded to mystrsyko 2 before Mike began making the Robot Wars Live Reviews.

Robot Wars Live Reviews
"I think in honour of Robot Wars coming back, i am going to go through and watch every episode that i can get my hands on starting with the very first episode..."

- Mike discussing his plans on Season 1 Episode 1 of the Robot Wars Live Reviews

In 2016 when it was announced that Robot Wars would be getting re-booted, Mike decided to make the Live Reviews, a series where he would go through the history of Robot Wars, seeing the evolution of the robots and the show, for the first series he hadn't really developed his style which he became more known for, and at the start of Series 2 it was pretty much the same. However towards the end of Series 2 he started to become more enthusiastic and over the top, this would later develop into his more well-known style of reviewing for series 3 onward where he would make fun of terrible looking/performing robots and annoy fans by making fun of overhyped robots, one example of this is with the robot Razer one of the shows most iconic and hyped up robots, however in Mystrsyko's eyes "it just takes 5 seconds before Razer grabs onto the opponent and the fight is over". Mike has gone on record to say that before filming he will drink caffeine such as: Mountain Dew of Coffee as a way to become more enthusiastic and his reactions be more over the top.

Mike began uploading Robot Wars Live Reviews on the 10th February 2016 and is currently still uploading episodes to this very day. He has reviewed Series 1-6 of Classic Robot Wars, Series 1 & 2 (refereed to as Series 8 & 9 by fans) of Modern Robot Wars, Robot Wars Extreme, Series 1 & 2 of American Robot Wars, is currently reviewing Robot Wars Extreme II with plans to do Series 1 & 2 of Dutch Robot Wars, Series 7 of Classic Robot Wars and potentially even the German Robot Wars series. The Robot Wars Live Review series currently has a total episode count of over 120 episodes.

The Live Reviews sadly arent without their fair share of criticism, as numerous fans have slated Mike and his content, he has even recieved messages from the teams that have competed on the shows with some of them saying how upset they are about his comments not knowing that they are satirical and not his true feelings towards the robots or the teams themselves, this has resulted in Mike having to apologise to the teams and explain to them that it is all a character that he puts on for his audience. However one of the teams captains: Mischa de Graaf of team P.C.P (who won the second series of Dutch Robot Wars) is a big supporter of his show commenting frequently on both his Reviews and Live Reviews, even going as far as to encourage Mike to make fun of Dutch Robot Wars.

BattleBots Live Reviews
"Gentlemen, avert your eyes cause this is one painful BattleBots Live Review!"

- Cold opening to Season 4 Episode 1 of the BattleBots Live Reviews

The Battlebots Live Reviews like Robot Wars before it, are uploaded weekly for each series of the show, Battlebots had a total of 5 season before it went off the air so therefore Battlebots Live Reviews will have 5 series of its own. Mike began uploading Battlebots Live Reviews on the 4th August 2016 after the growing success of his Robot Wars Live Reviews and so far the last episode to be uploaded was the Season 4 finale which was uploaded on the 12th April 2018. Mike has said he will do season 5 eventually he is just spacing it out so it matches up probably with Season 7 of the Robot Wars Live Reviews.

For his 1000 subscriber special, Mike uploaded an uncut, 3-part Live Review series where he reviewed the pay-per-view BattleBots events of: Long Beach 1999 and Las Vegas 1999, the latter being uploaded in two parts due to being far too long to condense into one video.

For his 2000 subscriber special, Mike uploaded an uncut special Live Review series, however unlike his previous 1000 subscriber special, this was only 2 parts and were reviews of the pre-BattleBots and Robot Wars shows called American Robot Wars (not to be confused with the future Robot Wars spin-off), Mike reviewed the 1996 and 1997 events however was unable to do the 1995 event due to the footage not being available publicly.

Robotica Live Reviews
"We're throwing robots at cameramen on today's Robotica Live Review!"

- Cold opening to Season 2 Episode 4 of the Robotica Live Reviews

The Robotica Live Reviews like Robot Wars and BattleBots before it, were uploaded weekly for each series of the show, Robotica had a total of 3 season before it went off the air so therefore Robotica Live Reviews had 3 series of its own. Mike began uploading Robotica Live Reviews on the 20th January 2017 and the series eventually finished on the 15th December 2018 after reviewing the final episode of the show, the series lasted a total of 20 episodes. The Robotica Live Reviews are interesting as it is currently the only series on the channels that has remained incomplete as Robotica Season 2 Episode 2 is not available online therefore Mike has not reviewed the entire series, he has gone on record to say if and when the episode becomes available online then he will go back to the series to review the "missing episode" however until then the series is finished.

Techno Games Live Reviews
"Today on the Techno Games Live Review, we wonder... how in the world this show never got cancelled immediately..."

- Cold opening to Season 1 Episode 5 of the Techno Games Live Reviews

The Techno Games Live Reviews like all the other shows before it, were uploaded weekly for each series of the show, however Mike has only uploaded the first series of Techno Games Live Reviews and has not continued the series due to being focused on other projects and prioritising other shows above it, currently only 5 episodes of Techno Games Live Reviews have been uploaded with no word on when the next series will be upload.

Live Review Review
"Hello Everyone, I am Mystrsyko, and welcome back..."

- Mystrsyko's Intro

The Live Review Review series was concieved by Mike as a way to interact with his audience more and as a way to distinguish his online character/persona from him in real life, this series is uploaded monthly. In this series Mike talks about the future of the channel, what has been going on for him perosnally, he then discusses all the videos that he uploaded that month, giving a quick rundown of what happened in the episode for people who have either not seen it or forgot, then it gets to his favourite part of reading viewers comments where he picks out the best ones from videos that month, reads them out and responds to the comment as if he is talking to the person who wrote it.

Mike began uploading the Live Review Review series on the 6th August 2016 and has continued to do it ever since only taking a small break from it when he was uploading the BattleBots 2018 Reviews as it was the only thing he was uploading.

Robot Wars Reviews
"...I haven't even seen all of them yet and I know this was the best one!"

- Mike discussing the Robot Wars Series 10 Grand Final

For Robot Wars Series 10, Mike decided to experiment with his Live Review series, as a way to avoid being copyright striked and a way to show his audience and teams of the show that his real life persona is more down to earth, honest and less aggravating to fans when compared to his Live Review persona. As a result of this change teams became happier with his content and his subscribers began to drastically increase, and despite an initial disliking of the new format, his audience soon grew to like it and it helped to serve as a template for his Battlebots 2018 Review Series which would become one of his most successful series on the channel.

Mike uploaded the first episode of Robot Wars Reviews on the 17th December 2017 and uploaded the series finale on 8th April 2018 after it was announced that the Robot Wars show would be cancelled for the third time in its life as a show.

BattleBots Reviews
"If you've ever wanted to see BattleBots VS Robot Wars happen, then this was the episode for you!"

- Cold opening to Episode 17 of the Battlebots 2018 Reviews

Following the same format switch-up as the Robot Wars Series 10 Review, Mike uploaded the BattleBots 2018 reviews which has become one of his most popular series on the channel as well as statistically the series that has brought in the most subscribers to his channel. In this series Mike talks about the fights that happened in the episode his thoughts and opinions on what happened in the fight, the judges decisions and for some clips showing his live reactions to major events that happened i the episode.

Mike uploaded the first episode of the Battlebots 2018 Review Series on 16th May 2018 with the final episode being uploaded on the 11th October 2018. This series was popular both amongst fans of the show and teams themselves with one of the teams captains: Paul Ventimiglia of team Aptyx Designs (who won the Series) frequently leaving comments in the episodes thanking Mike for his kind words and going into detail about some of the fights.

Fight Court
"5 robot combat fans take on the role of the arena judges to decide which robots truly deserved to win their fights"

- The description for the Fight Court Series

Mike saw that more and more fights were being commonly argued over who won, and decided to make a series that would attempt to help put these disputes to rest called Fight Court. The first mention of fight court came from the channel Stephen McCulla aka Votesaxon07 in his review of the Hexbug Remote control Toys based off the BattleBots competitors: BETA & Minotaur which was uploaded on the 14th August 2017. Shortly after that video was uploaded on the 20th August 2017, the first Fight Court episode was uploaded, and included guests YouTubers & Podcasters acting as judges giving out points to the bot they believed deserved to win in each category. The categories ranged from: Damage, Agression, Control, Strategy and Spectacle.

Sadly the series has only gone on to have 7 episodes with the last one being uploaded on the 30th June 2018, an 8th episode was in the stages of production however has yet to be finished and possibly never will be due to Mike moving on to another series.

The Special guests that appeared on this show include: Votesaxon07, SamElliot64, Jimjamatic, AlexTheHunted, Daniel Learmoth, A Heap Of Games/Steam Driven, The Seaborg, Coleslaw & The Barangoat and Tale of the Toaster

Roasting Robots
"Holy Copyright Infringement Batman!"

- Comment made by Mike in Episode 6 of the Roasting Robots Podcast

After being supposedly finished with Fight Court, Mike decided to make a brand new series on his channel one the BattleBots 2018 Reviews were finished called the Roasting Robots Podcast. A series that acts both as a Podcast that can be downloaded on various podcast streaming apps and as a "video Podcast" showing clips to the viewers about what robot they are talking about. This Podcast is seen by Mike as a Live Review of sorts as he is making fun of a bunch of robots based on their performance and looks.

The concept of the Roasting Robots Podcast is that Mike along with 2 special guest look through 5 robots from BattleBots Past and present and make fun of them. The first episode of the Roasting Robots Podcast was uploaded to YouTube on the 19th October 2018 with it still going on to this very day currently only having 6 episodes but being a somewhat successful series.

The Special guests that appeared on this show include: TheOrcCorp, The DominusIgnis, Anderson9132, Spinnerproof, SamElliot64, American Killjoy and Jimjamatic, with the list almost certain to expand as the episode continue to come out