DEATH BATTLE!

"Pitting pop culture's deadliest characters in a duel to the death! Experts Wiz and Boomstick analyze each fighter's weapons, armor, and skills... and then the battle begins! Who will win? Who will die?"

- Tagline

DEATH BATTLE! is a popular web-based video show hosted by "Wizard" (Ben Singer) and "Boomstick" (Chad James) presented by ScrewAttack. The show pits two or more fictional characters from different medias such as movies, comics, manga, television programs, literature and video games, and create a simulated battle to the death. The characters are analyzed with their respective powers, strengths, and weaknesses, to determine a winner.

The show's first season has 25 episodes. The first 18 episodes were featured exclusively on ScrewAttack's YouTube account, and starting with episode 19 the series is now posted to the redesigned Screwattack.com, with a delayed posting of past fights to their YouTube page.

The second season of DEATH BATTLE premiered on May 31, 2013, more than four months after the first season finale. The season ended on December 15, 2015, with a total of 32 episodes for the season, bringing the total number of DEATH BATTLE episodes to 57.

Season 3 premiered on March 16, 2016 in order to focus on finding more staff to expand their series. The season ended on December 21st, 2016, with a total of 14 episodes for the season, the shortest season so far, bringing the total number of DEATH BATTLE episodes to 71.

Season 4 premiered in February 1, 2017 with the first fight revealed in January 2017.

Format Overview
The idea of the show is to pit two or more fictional characters and pit them against each other in a simulated "death battle". Before the start of the battle, an analysis of the character's powers are listed together with their other stats such as strengths, weaknesses, physicality (weight, height, age, intellect), and weapons. This is done by extensive research of each of the characters, and taking notes from various known experts, collaboration from various conventions (e.g. Comic-Con), official websites, and franchise encyclopedias. People and fans are sometimes interviewed in these conventions to know their opinions about the battle.[2]  All other traits will be represented with accuracy based on the character's canon universes. If the characters has multiple versions, the most well-known and modern version will be the one chosen. After studying the characters, a conclusion is made to who is the winner and the reason he/she is triumphant. This is shown in a form of a virtual battle in either 2D sprites or 3D CGI. Many of the characters involved are voiced by many YouTube personalities such as MasakoX and ItsJustSomeRandomGuy.

Because the show is entitled "DEATH BATTLE!" and its idea is to create a virtual "fight to the death", characters in the virtual simulation kill their opponents, even though many of them are canonically indifferent to killing (such as Batman, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rebecca Black). These are made as a "What If" scenario for entertainment purposes, and does not go against the accuracy of the analysis of the respective winner. In the case of Justin Bieber versus Rebecca Black however, the battle was satirically made for comedic purpose. As of episode 51, 2D battles are animated by Mali and Zack and 3D battles are animated by Torrian Crawford.

Scheduling
ScrewAttack! typically releases a new DEATH BATTLE! three weeks after the current DEATH BATTLE!. In the first two weeks they release a teaser about each combatant, primarily about their background and in the third week the DEATH BATTLE! is released at various times. After the battle ScrewAttack! will reveal the next combatant(s) for the next match-up, and the process restarts again.

On Tuesdays, starting with Boba Fett VS Samus Aran Remastered, a special live-stream, dubbed DEATH BATTLE! Live, is ocassionally hosted on Twitch and Youtube at 8:00 pm Central Time by Ben Singer, Chad James, and Craig Skistimas. During the live-stream they answer questions about their plans for the show and the actual battle, and a live poll of the current battle is featured. The battle that usually holds the livestream typically holds some significance. So far, only four live-streams have been hosted.

Merchandise
In order to promote DEATH BATTLE!, ScrewAttack! has released merchandise, primarily T-Shirts to help spread the word about the show. Due to merging with RoosterTeeth and its family, most T-Shirts are available on the RoosterTeeth store.
 * The first one known as DEATH BATTLE! T-Shirt is a black T-Shirt with the logo in the center, with blood splatters behind the logo to illustrate the bloody motif of the show. To promote it, ScrewAttack! released a joke DEATH BATTLE! known as DEATH BATTLE! VS The World, in which the T-Shirt was analyzed and was put in a fight with all T-Shirts, but emerged victorious.
 * The second shirt known as ScrewAttack DEATH BATTLE Shirt features a grey T-Shirt with the grey logo in the centered. This shirt greatly resembles the first one, albeit the blood splatters. This shirt has frequently been worn by DEATH BATTLE! staff members at ScrewAttack!
 * The third one known as First Fallen, is so far the most graphically designed T-Shirt. Unlike the previous two, the DEATH BATTLE! logo is moved to the bottom, with the entire center of the shirt showing 60 skulls. As the name of the shirt implies, the skulls represent the first 60 DEATH BATTLE! combatants who lost (and were subsequently killed), with each skull showing some iconic trait of the character (Boba Fett with half of his helmet, Goku with his hair, and Goomba and Koopa's skulls being shaped to resemble them as opposed to standard human skulls).

Rules
Note: While some rules have been officially stated, some are generally implied during DEATH BATTLE!
 * The combatants can only know of each other if they do know each other in canon in both official universes. Otherwise, they cannot know each other's move-sets. Even if they do know of each other in canon, no one is allowed to prepare for the fight. Although they are allowed to know the other combatents name. As shown in Iron Man VS Lex Luthor.
 * A Death Battle, as entitled, has to end with the loser dying (though not necessarily at the hands of the winner, as shown when Dan Hibiki accidentally ingested one of Hercule Satan's capsules), or at least "dead" as far as physical forms are concerned (for example, being reduced to little more than a ghost, or gods and similar characters left with no working mortal avatar to continue fighting with).
 * Pacifist combatants will not have their peaceful nature interrupt the fight, and both combatants will have any personality restraints from killing removed.
 * All other traits will be represented with accuracy based on the combatants' canon universes. In addition, all consistent and canon sources available during the time of the episode's release will be examined by the hosts.
 * Characters with multiple incarnations, such as Link, Spider-Man, Deadpool, and Godzilla, will be composites combining the best aspects of their various incarnations, unless said incarnation is drastically different from other incarnations. If a specific incarnation of a character is chosen, the canon used will most likely be the most popular depiction.
 * To get as many common abilities as possible, the warrior will be shown at their latest depictions or their oldest age as an active combatant.
 * To ensure fairness, no player influences can be present during the battle. This includes player-customized move-sets (in the case of Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda) as well special combatant training from player (in the case of Pokemon).

Trivia

 * It's been stated that the series had been inspired by the VS. Battle Series
 * However, as the show actually didn't pit fighters against each other, Ben Singer decided to do an actual series with actual fighting.
 * The original series' name was going to be Who Would Win?, and the original first episode (done completely by Ben Singer) even used that title.
 * However, it was later changed to the current name along with Chad James joining the show.


 * Season 3 is (so far) the only Season that doesn't feature a Battle Royale.