Season 3.0 was the third televised season of BattleBots. Filmed at Treasure Island in San Francisco, it marked the show's third filming location in as many seasons. However, BattleBots would find its home there for the remainder of its run on Comedy Central.
The show again showcased competitions with robots spread across four different weight classes. Season 2.0 Giant Nut winners Diesector, BioHazard and Ziggo attempted to defend their titles as Team Vicious' new middleweight THWAK! picked up where Spaz left off. Former champions Minion, Hazard and Backlash fought to earn a second title as Vladiator also looked to live up to the success of its predecessor.
There were no alterations to the weight restrictions for wheeled and walking robots for Season 3.0, and the limits remained as follows:
The BattleBox received several upgrades for Season 3.0.
First of which were The Screws, a new hazard consisting of rotating metal spirals designed to bite at robots and carry them off the arena floor. According to Peter Lambertson, their primary use was to drag opponents onto to the corner where a Pulverizer was housed, but they rarely proved effective at this.
One of the Pulverizers during Season 3.0.
The Pulverizers were also made from steel and were heavier for Season 3.0, in order to land heavier and more damaging hits on competing robots.
Also debuting this season were the Pistons, which were metal cylinders that would rise from the floor and lift opponents, or disrupt anything driving over them. They were able to cause notable damage from being run into due to their high tensile strength, but were scrapped after Season 3.0.
One of the Pistons during Season 3.0.
Outside of these upgrades, the Killsaws were given more powerful motors and the saws themselves were replaced and used for the final three seasons of the show on Comedy Central. The roof of the BattleBox was reinforced with Lexan sheets and aluminum trusses to make for a sturdier arena.
Another view of the Season 3.0 pits.
Gage Cauchois earned his second BattleBots title in a new division with Vladiator, whereas Son of Whyachi controversially stood in the way of Carlo Bertocchini and BioHazard to earn a first heavyweight title for the Ewert family. Deadly horizontal bar spinner Hazard took the middleweight championship whereas Jason Bardis and Dr. Inferno Jr. took home a first Giant Nut in the lightweight division.
* Winners of each weight class also received a Lincoln Electric SP 125 Welding Machine on top of prize money and the Giant Nut.[2]
Rumbles
Weight Class
1st Place
Lightweight
$1000
Middleweight
$1000
Heavyweight
$2000
Superheavyweight
$2000
Awards given out to the Coolest Robot, Best Engineered Robot and Most Aggressive Robot were also accompanied by $1000 of prize money.
Seedings[]
For this Season, almost every robot that had previously competed in past BattleBots events was awarded a seed. Seeds were determined by the official BattleBots leaderboards Comedy Central used to host on the original BattleBots website in 2001.[3] Depending on how high a robot's seed was, they were permitted to skip a certain number of preliminary rounds. There were a total of 17 seeded Superheavyweights, 25 seeded Heavyweights, 16 seeded Middleweights, and 25 seeded Lightweights.
The top 14 seeded Superheavyweight robots were allowed to skip directly to the round of 28. Except for Toro and Atomic Wedgie, which were allowed to skip directly to the round of 16.
The top 9 seeded Heavyweight robots were allowed to skip directly to the round of 32.
All 16 of the seeded Middleweights were allowed to skip directly to the round of 32.
The unseeded Lightweight robot Shockwave was awarded a bye into the round of 64, being treated as though it was a seeded robot.
The rookie Middleweight Can Opener was somehow seeded as 19th in the Heavyweight division.
The event brochure listed the seeds using the incorrect all-time Historical Rankings displayed on the original BattleBots website. While the actual event and seedings displayed on TV used the correct and official Active Rankings.
