Shortly after the season 2 finale, season 3 was announced on Spike.com, followed shortly after by a live Aftermath featuring new host Richard “Mack” Machowicz answering fan questions. On October 13 the show announced the start of production for the season. Over the course of several weeks, Spike revealed the Season 3 match ups. The battle simulator now simulates 5,000 battles as opposed to the previous 1,000. The new format is a squad on squad battle of 5 vs. 5. An average of 100 different X-factors are now factored into each simulation, each being rated on a scale from 1 to 100. Season 3 premiered on July 20, 2011 at 10 pm EDT.