by Trent Murray
Rivals of Aether had a phenomenal 2017. Although the calendar year is over, there’s still one matter left to resolve–crowning the RCS champion. At Genesis 5, we’ll not only see the best talent from around the United States fighting for the title, there will be challengers from all over the world.
For Australia, all hopes lie with a player who recently dethroned fan-favorite Gabe as the AUS regional champion. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Australia’s new star, SNC.
Tell us a bit about your competitive gaming history before Rivals?
SNC: Rivals is actually my first look at competitive gaming. I had been watching a lot of Melee and Smash 4 in the year leading up to Rivals early access release, so when I saw it’s release on steam early access I instantly bought 2 copies, one for myself and one for a close friend of mine. We eventually discovered the Aus Smash discord server was running tournaments and both decided to give it a go, which lead us to our local scene.
The first event we attended my mate knocked me out in Winners Round 1, but I somehow managed to make the losers run all the way to Grand Finals to place 2nd losing to local legend Dreadtech. That little taste of the top left me wanting more and pushed me to stay in the scene and learn as much as possible.
How did you choose your main?
SNC: Despite being known for it, I actually didn’t start with Kragg. When I sat down to play my first local tournament I realised I had to decide who to play and settled on Zetterburn. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted with Zetterburn though and the longer I played him the more I felt that he didn’t suit me, so after 6 months of practicing Zetterburn I started looking elsewhere for a new main.
MSB had been releasing combo videos at the time and locally our best player was Dreadtech, Australia’s first Kragg main. I thought Kragg was still relatively unexplored and used them both as inspiration to learn as much as I could about the character.
Outside of the singles bracket, what are you most excited to do during your time in the States?
SNC: Unfortunately, my trip to the states isn’t going to be as long as I initially hoped, as I’ll need to be coming back home to work. Luckily for me, the week I have there is going to be so jam-packed that I can’t possibly be disappointed. To meet all of the players and community figures, the developers, housing with the TSMSB boys and just being a part of Rivals history–being at G5 is honestly a dream come true.
When you’re not playing Rivals, how do you spend your time?
SNC: I’ve had the past year off from Uni, so I’ve been mostly working part-time, spending a lot of time with my loving girlfriend and playing plenty of video-games! I adopted a dog in the last six months as well, which has been a huge challenge in itself, but I’ve loved having a pet in the house.
How did your family react when you told them you’d be travelling to the US to compete in a video game tournament?
SNC: They’re all honestly very supportive. They’ve known about it for a long time now, so they knew how badly I wanted to win the RCS series and have my shot over there. My girlfriend has even watched some of the streams for majors that I’ve entered in the past, such as BAM 9. Some of my old high school and Uni mates were a bit surprised when I told them, as most of them had no idea I was even playing video games competitively in the first place, but they’re all really excited for me now.
What does it mean to you to be representing your region at the biggest Rivals tournament as the AUS champion?
SNC: Nerve-wracking [laughs]! The best part about the Australian scene is that we’re a real tight knit community, everyone has met each other at local events, been to each other’s places for practice and travelled together for tournaments. We’re not just random usernames competing in tournaments anymore, in fact most of the scene call each other by their first names!
Travelling out to G5, it’s definitely a comfort to have their support, and I know that when I’m sitting down to play that the Aus scene will be back home cheering me on. So, as much I want to do well for myself I just want to make all those boys proud.
With a smaller practice pool in AUS, what have you been doing to prepare for the new DLC characters, since there’s less tournament footage of them played at the highest level?
SNC: Thankfully a couple of decent players picked up Clairen here, so I was able to lab out some setups and figure out a nice tempo to play against her, but in the case of Ranno I spent a long time practising the character myself.
Some of my findings can be found in the Ranno homework channel on the academy server, but after a solid month of only Ranno I had a pretty good feel for what he could do and how I had to approach fighting one. I haven’t decided whether my Ranno will be up to scratch to bring out in bracket though, so I’m putting all my efforts into Kragg now.
Who are you most looking forward to facing in bracket at Genesis?
SNC: I’d really like the opportunity to play either MSB or AZCards and flex my stuff in the Kragg ditto. It’s a relatively simple matchup, but there’s so many crazy things that the character can do that I would love to fight it out with one of NA’s best Kragg mains. RiskyCB is another player I would love to come up against in bracket, I really love his approach to the game and have learned a lot from watching him.
As the game continues to grow, how do think AUS compares to other regions in overall strength?
SNC: It’s difficult for me to say. I think there’s a really defined gap in skill in Australia, where our top 5 or so are being left unchallenged for the most part. Being a smaller scene makes it difficult for those players, I think, as we won’t have access to the same level of experience, matchups or even resources in some cases. Any of our top players could have success in America if they worked hard enough to overcome those problems.
I’ve personally made a real effort this RCS season to learn as much as I can about the game, being added to the Beta Team and becoming a mentor on the Rivals of Aether Academy Discord. I also spent four months writing a full Kragg guide, which definitely helped me as a player, and I hope some of you as well!
Two players I would really like to see travel to America for a national would be Neeson or Dave. Neeson has mained 6 characters in his time as a player, most at the highest level of play. If he were to travel to a major I know he would put everything he had into it. Dave has the most defined neutral of any player in Australia, and I’d love to see that stack up against the best talent that NA has to offer.
Anything else you’d like to share with readers?
SNC: Last week we released the latest Australian Power Rankings, so definitely check that out and share some love for our boys.
I also want to reach out to any Australian players out there who may not be in our community yet. If you’re from Australia and you want to play Rivals, you need to be in our discord. We’re always welcoming to new players, so join us at http://discord.gg/smash and introduce yourself in the #competitive-roa channel.
Our thanks to SNC for the interview, be sure to follow him on Twitter, and support all of our top players as they compete for the RCS championship at Genesis 5 on January 20th and 21st. Don’t forget to follow Rivals of Aether as well for more player interviews as we continue on the Road to Genesis.