Rivals Championship Series Mid-Season Review

A look at the North American league as we near the finish line.

Last month we crossed off yet another event in our elemental themed RCS Season 5. So far, a few familiar faces have emerged victorious in our first three online majors. Each event saw over 400 entrants, with a record setting 536 competitors in November vying for the crown with several fierce competitors making repeat appearances in both Top 8s. Coming up on the 12th , we have our next installment of the series, RCS Water. Let’s take a look at how our season has gone thus far.

RCS Fire

After the first ever online focused series, it was clear that the online meta was only just developing. A lot of questions remained unanswered, and with the Rivals of Aether Definitive Edition around the corner, the first ever an entirely online RCS Season was ready to take off. RCS Fire saw a familiar battle, as top players Penguin, CakeAssault, Xaro, and Kusi made appearances in Winners’ Semi Finals. CakeAssault’s patented fire characters appeared unstoppable, beating Penguin 3-1 and shutting out Xaro to punch his way into Grand Finals. Xaro however did not stay down for long, with a 3-2 Losers’ Finals win over Penguin, and a grueling 3-2 victory over CakeAssault to force a bracket reset.  Xaro was able to ride a wave of momentum into the second set of Grand Finals, where he was able to return the favor from Winners’ Finals, and shut out CakeAssault in a decisive 3-0. Xaro had finally triumphed over both CakeAssault and Penguin to win a Major.

Tournament Champion: Xaro

Elemental Champion of Fire: CakeAssault

Check out RCS Fire replays here:

RCS Air

With Definitive Edition finally out, we set our sites on the first RCS event since the release. Heat Wave 3 Champion, Blue, made his first online major appearance after entering the previous day’s weekly, winning the event without dropping a set. As the Air Major progressed, 6 of the same top 8 players from the Fire Major had punched their return tickets, with some key differences. Winners’ Semi Finals had been noticeably shaken up with Xaro, Blue, ZeeBee, and CakeAssault in the running. Kusi and Penguin both found themselves playing for 7th place after suffering early upsets to Blue and GoTE | Flarey respectively. Top 8 of the Air Major turned into the most exciting event of the season, with 5 of 10 sets going to their final game, and only one shutout. Winners’ Finals consisted of two entirely new competitors, Blue and ZeeBee, who were both fresh off of game 5 victories over the Fire Major’s Top 2. Blue was able to replicate his Air Weekly’s success, and beat ZeeBee to appear in Grand Finals from the Winners’ side. Meanwhile, Losers’ bracket was teeming with intensity, as the Fire Champion began an impossible run. Xaro beat Squanto 3-1, Penguin 3-2, and ZeeBee 3-2 to claw his way back to Grand Finals. Xaro once again emerged victorious from losers’ to fight an elemental terror, but this time, there was no reset. Blue’s immaculate Wrastor displayed a punish game unlike anything we have ever seen, winning the Air Major without dropping a single set.

Tournament Champion: Blue

Elemental Champion of Air: Blue

Check out RCS Air replays here:

RCS Earth

As RCS Earth approached, a lot of questions loomed. Blue’s sudden appearance shook up the Rivals Online culture considerably, and it was clear that his dominating performance at RCS Air was no fluke. In addition to community excitement and player speculation, major upgrades were made to our streaming experience. This month coupled the Steam Fighting Game Sale over the same weekend of our event, and we introduced our first ever multi-broadcast to Steam and Twitch! RCS Earth broke our record entrants at a stunning 536, with top tier talent once again flooding the event for a chance at a $2000 prize pool.

It seems that each previous Elemental Major has motivated a new champion to make a deep run – RCS Fire with CakeAssault, and RCS Air with Blue. RCS Earth was no different, as top player MSB broke free of his online bracket woes and took his signature Kragg all the way to Winners’ Semi-Finals, where he would eventually fall to Kusi and Xaro for a 5th place finish. While MSB may have proven Earth dominance in bracket, all eyes were on Blue and Xaro to have a hotly anticipated rematch of the Air Major’s Finals. What no one expected was a series of upsets to send three of the tournament’s top 4 seeds into losers before Top 8 even began. Blue fell to Levin to place 17th, CakeAssault lost to Kusi in Winners’ Quarters, and Xaro fell to ZeeBee in a last hit stunner in Winners’ Quarters. The fated rematch would have to wait.

Top 8 of RCS Earth noted considerable shake-ups with MSB, Kusi, ZeeBee, and Penguin in Winners’ Semi-Finals, and CakeAssault, Levin, Xaro, and hoppyKnitz in Losers’ Round 1. Penguin held strong and yet again proved his strength to deny both ZeeBee a second trip to Winners’ Finals and Kusi a Top 2 finish. With Penguin waiting comfortably in Grand Finals, it was once again Xaro’s turn to storm through Losers’ bracket, winning five straight sets over Seggo, hoppyKnitz, MSB, CakeAssault, and Kusi to meet Penguin in yet another elimination match. While Penguin aimed to secure his first RCS victory of the season, Xaro’s resolve proved infallible as he completed the bracket reset and the decisive Grand Finals reset over Penguin with set scores of 3-1 and 3-1. Xaro’s Earth Major win mark’s his second RCS victory in Season 5 and continues his Grand Finals appearance streak in official events, dating back to ROCS 6 in June of this year.

Tournament Champion: Xaro

Elemental Champion of Earth: MSB

Check out RCS Earth replays here:

Where Do We Go From Here?

These tremendous stories have set the stage for a wild ride to close out the season. There will be one final major before we reach our RCS Finals in January. Let’s take a look at what’s to come!

RCS Water

December 12th promises to be yet another exiting tournament, as our Water Major is poised to bring back the best competition in the world. Players will have one last chance to earn RCS points towards skipping Phase One of our Finals event and an all new name color and trim. As it approaches, Xaro looks to bear a clear favorite to hit the jackpot as Blue did in the Air Major, but it won’t be easy. Penguin is fresh off a second place at RCS Earth and is surely looking for revenge.  Blue recently won Kingpin 4 from Winners’ side with the debut of his fabled Zetterburn, beating Penguin for the first time while also collecting wins over ZeeBee and Kusi. The list of threats goes on, and the event is teeming with possibilities, be sure to check out the details and sign up here to join the action. If watching top Rivals gameplay is more your speed, you can check out our livestream on our Twitch and on our Steam Store page on December 12th at 4 P.M. PT / 7 P.M. ET!

RCS Finals

While we won’t have our signature Genesis season finale, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a lot on the line. At the time of writing this, the community has raised over $13,500 and our sponsor, Hit Box, has contributed a staggering $2,000 for the RCS Finals. This event is slated to be a monumental showcase of the Rivals Meta, and is definitely one you won’t want to miss out on. More details regarding this event are coming soon, so sit tight and stay focused on our next Elemental Major!

With just two events remaining, and competition becoming even more fierce, we are incredibly excited to watch them unfold.