It's fun when creativity and know-how can join forces with total destruction and violence (in a harmless way!), as they did at the 11th annual RoboGames.

Held at the San Mateo County Event Center last weekend, the RoboGames made their triumphant return after taking a year off—brought back to life with a successful Kickstarter campaign. The self-proclaimed "Olympics of Robots" is unlike the invite-only BattleBots (which, by the way, comes back in June) because it's, as proud RoboGames champ Zachary Lytle says, the "last open-sourced contest" that brings out the true garage hobbyists. "I feel that's the real spirit of the sport," he says in the video.

Make: was on hand to take photos and shoot footage, and they have some pretty sweet photos up on their site. According to Laughing Squid, a DVD or downloadable video will be available for purchase soon.