Gladiatorial combat
One of the less reputable aspects of Cybertron before the Great War was the fact gladiatorial combat was one of the most popular sports. Though many of these games were officially illegal, they often thrived with Transformers battling each other to the death. Knowledge of this circled among way up-top government officials but they tended to turn blind optics to the bloodsport.
They should have paid better attention, for within these arenas many Megatrons first arose... and found many similarly-minded individuals.
Fiction
Generation 1
Marvel The Transformers comics
The gladiatorial games of Cybertron were ancient athletic contests meant to demonstrate the combatants' skills and abilities. Gladiators usually wore battle masks and fought with shields and hand-to-hand Energon weapons.
During the reign of the final Overlord of Cybertron the planet was experiencing much political strife. Overpopulation had led to a fuel shortage. The larger cities of Cybertron had become sovereign city-states, and the Overlords had become little more than figureheads. In an attempt to garner some good will between city-states, the last of the Overlords had revived the Games as an inter-city competition. The attempt backfired and it seemed to excite rivalries, especially between Iacon and Tarn.
During the last Games of this era a Tarn gladiator named Megatron brutalized his Iacon opponent Sunstreaker, threatening to kill him. Optimus Prime entered the arena to put a stop to this. Despite an axe to the chest Prime managed to get Megatron to stop with his photon pistol. This altercation caused the Overlord to postpone the awards ceremony for this games.
At the same time saboteurs from Vos were using the games as cover for an operation to destroy Tarn's main power plant and frame Iacon for the deed. They were caught by a technician from Tarn who recognized them as members of the Vos gladiatorial team. The power plant was still destroyed bringing Vos and Tarn to war instead. State Games
When Smokescreen was introduced to Earth's demolition derbies he considered it a form of gladiatorial combat and went to participate as soon as he knew he was allowed to. Devastation Derby!
The games on Cybertron did not surface for another 4 million years. The Decepticons revived the gladiatorial combat in an alliance with the alien known as Zabra but they were closed down by Ultra Magnus and the Sparkler Mini-Bots. Deadly Games!
It amused the ruling Triumvirate to pit their warriors against Autobot prisoners in arena fights rather than actually go out and fight the war. They even pitted Decepticons against Decepticons when the returning Straxus-Megatron clone challenged their leadership forcing him to fight his own troops, but a rousing speech rallied them back to his side and they overthrew the Triumvirate ending the arena matches seemingly for good. The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire.
The Transformers cartoon
Millions of years in the past when Cybertron was still a Quintesson-ruled factory world the planet's robot slaves were often forced to battle each other in gladiatorial combat for the amusement of their masters. Some of the robots forced to compete in these sadistic games grew tired of it and attempted to fight against their masters. Although this initial revolt failed it would plant the seeds of rebellion that would eventually prove successful and one of the participants hold the Matrix of Leadership. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4
Dreamwave Generation One continuity
There were several gladiatorial combats staged in city-states far from Iacon, such as in Kaon. For some such as Grimlock it was a good outlet for anger and aggression. Megatron was a participant of these games. As his victories mounted he realized that they were a simple conspiracy by the Council of Ancients to keep the masses distracted. Megatron began using the matches to find similarly-minded Transformers. For over half a million years Megatron used the games to recruit the Decepticon army, bribing Emirate Xeon to remain quiet. Finally however, they struck. The War Within
Descent into Evil
The Insecticon Buzzclaw used to be a fighter in the gladatorial pits of Polyhex. BotCon 2005 Buzzclaw profile card
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Gladiatorial combat was a popular pastime in the barbaric ages predating the first unification of Cybertron. In the arenas of Protohex, a pair of siblings named Galvatron and Arcee carved out a reputation for themselves as "The Twins." In the ensuing war that precipitated the first gathering of the Thirteen, the Twins would go on to serve in the vanguard of Megatronus' army after slaughtering their old master Septimus. Origin Myths
Gladiatorial combat continued on as a forbidden, though alluring, bloodsport, surviving into the modern era of Transformer civilization. Four million years ago, Megatron, Rumble and Frenzy escaped to Kaon after a prison riot, where they joined Clench's illegal gladiatorial circuit. Megatron's star began to rise, attracting the attention of Sentinel Prime and Senator Ratbat. In Megatron's first victory the crowd chanted "'Til all are one". They liked saying that when people died. Megatron Origin #2 As Megatron's power grew he used the games to recruit his army of Decepticons. Megatron Origin #3
Much later on the Garrus-9 penitentiary Overlord hosted gladiatorial fights, the most prominent featuring crazed Autobot Kick-Off ripping off Borehole's head. Last Stand of the Wreckers #1
Animated toy bios
Lugnut was a gladiator before he joined the Decepticons. His title was "the Kaon Krusher". Lugnut's toy bio
Revenge of the Fallen toy bios
Before the war Cybertron thrilled to the gladiatorial games. Sideswipe trained for years to take part in them and became a master at fencing. Robot Replica Sideswipe
Aligned continuity family
The gladiatorial games emerged in places such as Kaon and Slaughter City, low-caste areas where workers sought a distraction from the drudgery of their lives. The High Council, aware of why the games began blatantly did nothing to stop them. One gladiator known as Groundpounder proved popular with fans but was arrested alongside his coach Headlock after going on a violent rampage due to being correctly accused of cheating and thrown out of the ring. The Champ From the pits rose a virtually unbeatable champion who took the name "Megatronus" which was later shortened to "Megatron". He killed the gladiatorial bosses and took control of their establishments, merging it into what became an anti-caste movement that attracted followers in other cities. The business even spread to the cleaner city of Iacon. During the civil war Megatron's former gladiators were the core of Decepticons and formed the Decepticon Gladiator Corps. Exodus Transformers: Prime
List of gladiators
Beast Wars: Uprising
In his glory days before the Great War, Double Punch was a celebrated gladiator. Identity Politics
When the Autobots and Decepticons grew too decrepit to continue the Great War these Builders constructed the Maximals and Predacons, who competed in the Games. While the Games encompassed a variety of different sports, gladiatorial combat between teams was always a favorite. Typically these matches would take place in Cybertron's ruined cities which had been gutted and repurposed as arenas. Any Maximal or Predacon could be called to fight in the Games at a moment's notice; only those in the Maximal Command Security Force or Predacon Secret Police were immune to random selection.
Lio Convoy, the Maximal Guardian of Order oversaw these matches from behind the scenes, rigging the results so they would never end and the Builders would never run out of amusement. Broken Windshields
