Rivals 1 Community Rankings 2025: Introduction, Methodology, and #25 – #16

Introduction

In the 18-month period since the conclusion of the RCS in season 8, community members have continued to participate in and host many tournaments for Rivals of Aether (Rivals 1). Although Aether Studios’ competitive attention is now focused on Rivals of Aether II (Rivals 2), many hoped to also see a continuation of the yearly rankings for a game close to our hearts. To that end, we would like to officially introduce the Rivals Community Rankings, or RCR — a yearly ranking of the top 25 Rivals 1 players in North America.

Though it takes inspiration from previous seasons of the official RCS circuit, because of the different circumstances of the competitive scene, these rankings differ from them in many ways. Nevertheless, 2025 had countless dedicated TOs that gave players the opportunity to show off the skill they were honing year-round, and gave this project plenty of data to work with. Their efforts are a testament to the enduring dedication and passion within the community, even after many have moved on from the original Rivals of Aether in favor of its sequel. Without them, this project would not have been possible.

For future updates on the Rivals Community Rankings and archives of previous years’ rankings, please visit:
https://rivalscommunityrankings.com.

Panelists: OldManSpidey, Meechole, Willow, windy, TheViralMelon, 2bootz, Alto
Writing: TheViralMelon, Meechole, OldManSpidey, windy
Graphics: Willow

Tournament Qualifications

Without any official tournaments or previously-announced standards, a post hoc baseline had to be decided on to select which events would qualify. Ultimately, the requirement was simple: all North American tournaments hosted in 2025 with 25 or more entrants (after DQs), online or offline, would have their results be considered for the RCR rankings. All 2025 tournaments were considered, rather than having an off-season period as in RCS. In chronological order, these tournaments were:

Although this general benchmark led to a somewhat messy list of tournaments, it gave us ample data to work with, and, importantly, could be measured objectively.

Player Qualifications

While circumstances of the competitive scene are different now, we decided that emulating what official RCS seasons have done before was the most straightforward way to form a list of dedicated competitors with a workable amount of results. Initially, players would qualify if they had attended at least three qualifying tournaments, with at least two being offline. Towards the end of the year, however, requirements were loosened to allow players with only one offline attendance to qualify if they had attended five total tournaments — as many dedicated players wouldn’t have qualified otherwise, or weren’t aware that end-of-year rankings would happen.

This gave us a good list of players to work with, but there were inevitably some competitors that didn’t qualify despite strong performances at multiple online events. In particular, we’d like to highlight three powerful players with impressive performances:

Gremlin, Sethie, Link of Origin

Methodology

After deciding on qualification requirements, we built a panel of seven knowledgeable community members, akin to the system established since season 3 of RCS. Our panelists were: OldManSpidey, Willow, windy, Meechole, TheViralMelon, Alto, and 2bootz. Five of these panelists were already involved with the RCR project, while the latter two were brought in specifically to help with the panel.

With the list of qualifying players and data on qualifying tournaments, each panelist was instructed to create a top 25 list of their own independent of the others’. Panelists were given specific encouragement not to factor in recency for how tournaments were weighed, and to rank players irrespective of their results or perceived strength outside of the qualifying tournaments. Otherwise, they were allowed to decide on their own ranking methodology.

After all of the panelists had finished their lists, they met to compare and discuss the placements of the qualifying players, only moving on to the next placement once at least five of the seven panelists had agreed on their position. At each point of non-unanimity, panelists were allowed to discuss options amongst themselves, even if the five out of seven benchmark had already been reached. Players were argued for or against based on their placements at qualifying events and their wins and losses within those events, against both ranked and unranked players. Once 25 players had been chosen, the list was given a pass-through by all panelists before being finalized.

Special Thanks

Though they weren’t a part of the panel, a special thanks is owed to Link of Origin, who greatly assisted the ranking process by creating a spreadsheet compiling all the data from the qualifying tournaments and organizing it in a fashion digestible to our panelists. Without their efforts, creating the final rankings would have been much harder and taken much longer. Thank you, Link! 💙

Lastly, thank you to SBS and Aether Studios for allowing the use of the official dev blog to announce these rankings, as well as heartfelt gratitude for his contributions to the competitive scene as a whole over the years!

Players

25. Giga

“All I know is I’m behind the wheel so it’s my party now.” -JP

Starting out with a familiar face on the NA rankings, although Giga’s attendance was low this season, he managed to qualify with three offline showings. His win over HitTheGriddyForUkraine at Hitfall 3.5 especially allowed him to snag a Top 25 ranking. Giga is no longer as interested in serious competition, but plans to continue attending tournaments (and their side brackets) for fun.

Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo).

24. Alto

“One step at a time”

Our first panelist to make the list! Alto had a solid showing at 6 events this season, 4 of which were at separate installations of the Super Midoff series. His standout wins were at other brackets, however. He managed to score a win over abruh at Hitfall 4, and a last minute win on Link of Origin at Okay, Last One to secure 5th at both events, and this spot on the rankings. Alto has always been a technical wizard on Absa and can’t wait to go to more events to both meet more of the community and show off his tech on the big stage.

23. HenArten

“You have a co-dependent relationship with Sylvanos Dair.” – Starfury

HenArten is our second Sylvanos player to make the Top 25! A long-time player, commentator, and the head TO of Upstate New York, she secured a spot on the rankings thanks to her landmark 7th place performance at Hitfall 4, with wins over Alto, Willow, and Julie along the way. Now living in Boston, HenArten hopes to start a stronger Rivals scene there.

Photo credit: Hitfall 4 stream

22. Dilettante

“nice full time job dude” -TheViralMelon

Our first, but very much not the last representative of the Workshop 4 to make the list, Dilettante has a laundry list of results to pull from. With impressively consistent results across all of his attended events, Dilettante notably managed to pick up a 4th place finish at Platfight Online, taking down jenova and Kelly. However, easily his best set win came from Super Midoff 5, beating Gremlin in a game 5 set. He was most proud of his 2nd place offline performance at the Heat Wave 8 amateur bracket, and hopes to travel to more majors going forward.

Photo credit: Riley Matheson (sunlust)

21. Julie

“Rivals is about coaching your brainworms to outplay your opponent’s brainworms. Remember to be kind, yet firm, to your worms. They’re a little stupid sometimes but so are you, and that’s the beauty of fighting games.”

The star player of Upstate New York on this year’s top 25, Julie has been Pomme’s best representative following RCS season 8. Wowing spectators with her fast and aggressive gameplay, Julie secured solid placements during the year, getting 7th place at Full Stack and 9th place at Hitfall 4. The latter included an upset over The Real Man, which she expresses particular pride in. Julie hopes to improve her play going forward to become a consistent threat to top players.

Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo).

20. MSB

“wow this is a cool video game https://itsmsb.itch.io/pipsqueak”

MSB has been a household name in the community since the beta days and continues to travel, competing at three offline events this year. Attending the West Coast’s very own Heat Wave 8, he managed a 9th place finish, beating the aforementioned Dilettante. Meanwhile at Full Stack 2, his best performance, he took down Jubilo and Bucketfullabiscuits and landed a 4th place finish. He hopes to get better at his lesser-seen Olympia going forward.

Photo credit: Pantch

19. abruh

“The Incredible Hulk : 0CFF-0000-FF08-1CFF-00A1-00CF-942E-9800-FF14-21FF-0142”

One of the most active competitors of the year, abruh is one of the most successful up-and-coming Mollo players of the year, also sporting a powerful Maypul secondary. Attending a plethora of events, abruh secured an impressive 2-0 record over Jubilo, alongside a win over Gremlin at Super Midoff 5. Going forward, abruh hopes to continue running Midoff, the most active Rivals of Aether online weekly, gain excessive amounts of wealth, and beat everyone.

Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)

18. 2bootz

“Some people reflect light, some deflect it, you by some miracle, seem to collect it.” – Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves

2bootz was the premiere Etalus player of the year, and a king of consistency. Without undergoing a significant upset the whole year, he claimed wins over the likes of Bucketfullabiscuits, Jubilo, and abruh at Last One and Midoff 131. 2bootz expressed his appreciation for those he met through the Rivals community, and hopes to attend more out-of-state events to challenge more players.

Photo credit: Mrs. bootz

17. Jubilo

“Crumb Neutral”

Whether it’s tearing through doubles brackets with Bucketfullabiscuits, or setting fire to the competition, Jubilo clawed through his opponents all the way to the number 17 spot on our list. He achieved this through repeated victories over Willow at both installments of Hitfall, as well as other scattered wins on Rice, Alto, and humanlime at BMS 195 and Super Midoff 4. Going forward, Jubilo would like to get a handle on his in-region threats in Bicycle and HitTheGriddyForUkraine. Congrats on getting 17th, Jubilo!

Photo credit: Bucketfullabiscuits

16. Bucketfullabiscuits

“The problem is that I recover like I want to be onstage”

Whether it’s tearing through doubles brackets with Jubilo, or giving electrifying performances on stage, Bucketfullabiscuits showed how determined study can lead to impressive results. Most prominently, he boasted a 7th place at both Hitfalls, with wins over The Real Man, Julie, and starbos at Hitfall 3.5, which he expresses particular pride in. He also sported wins over humanlime and Bicycle at BMS 195 and his own tournament, Bracketfullabiscuits Supernova, respectively. Beloved TO of the grassroots tournament Bracketfullabiscuits, he intends to continue supporting his local scene and travel to more events.