Rivals Direct and Elliana Character Reveal

By George — March 30, 2018

Many people were suspicious when we announced that we were holding a Rivals Direct on April 1st. They thought surely we were setting them up. Surely it would be some elaborate prank, or maybe there wouldn’t even be a Direct. Well the joke’s on them, because there totally was a Direct. And even though it was 66% an elaborate prank, we did eventually reveal a brand new character – Elliana, The Aerial Arsenal – releasing tomorrow for PC alongside Sylvanos.

If you missed the Rivals Direct when it was live, you can still catch up on the fun with the VoD from our YouTube channel.

If you’d like to skip right to the character reveal, you can see that below. Sylvanos and Elliana will be available April 2nd, 2018 at 10AM PDT on Steam.

SANDBERT

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We also teased Sandbert as our newest character today, and have delivered by making them playable on our special April Fools’ branch. To access this navigate to your library in Steam, right click on Rivals, and head to the ‘Betas’ tab. From the dropdown menu there simply choose ‘April Fools’ to unlock a build that has Sandbert.

Categories: Announcement, News | Comments: 0

Rivals Top 50: #40-31

By George — May 16, 2017

This is part of an article series on the top 50 players in Rivals of Aether drawing data primarily from NA competitions.

Articles in the Series

For more information about the methodology and how rankings were decided, check out the Rivals Top 50 Introduction Post.

To enter free Rivals of Aether events online, head to the Rivals Championship Series 2 Smash.gg page.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
40	70.00

41st	33rd	9th	3rd
Summary

MiNi is a volatile player, sometimes able to play above his skill level and others below. He’s familiar with many characters and isn’t afraid to play them in tournaments, even going as far as playing a different character every game in a set if he thinks a new strategy is more suitable. He’s traveled across the country to play and is still grinding for that first place trophy. His best finishes to date were Super Smash Con 2016 where he placed 3rd and CEO Dreamland where he defeated CLG | PewPewU on his way to secure 9th.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
39	72.00

18th	N/A	31st	52nd
Summary

Quote_a is a long time Orcane player and constantly has his eye on the state of the game. He entered the competitive scene last summer and won a CCS within just a couple months of starting. Though he doesn’t have aspirations of taking home a trophy, he’s proof that you can play for fun and still take names. He’s caused some major upsets taking games off of Kisuno and Dolphinbrick to place 5th in RCS S1 #9.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
38	73.00

N/A	17th	19th	48th
Summary

Bumblebomb didn’t get to play in the RCS online events last season, but that was only because he spent most of his time casting the weeklies. When he’s not streaming or casting, Bumblebomb can be seen roaming exhibition and ranked clad in all green. His style of Kragg is more balanced, featuring solid fundamentals along with a flair for some dunking. Notable local wins includes defeating geqqo at Genesis 4 to place 17th.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
37	74.00

21st	N/A	24th	87th
Summary

Jorane put in work last season grinding in the weekly RCS series. He usually placed just inside or outside of the top 8 and was higher than top 32 in 10 out of the 12 weeklies. This dedication has put him solidly in the running when people search for good Absas to look up to. He’ll be traveling out to Bigger Balc on 5/27 to try and make his mark in RCS season 2.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
36	75.00

11th	N/A	1st	470th
Summary

Alexis is a very technical player who relies on spacing, mind-games, and patience to defeat his opponents. He was lauded during season 1 for his impressive clone play, often confusing the viewers as much as his opponents. Alexis is also able to perform at the local level and is currently the defending champion from Shine 2016. Notable victories include sets over Risky and Arcanine. He’s recently moved to SoCal which should let him travel to West Coast events much easier. We’ll also be seeing him at bigger balc.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
35	76.00

N/A	25th	N/A	84th
Summary

JCOnyx is one of the best players from the Pacific Northwest and one of the best Absas when it comes to local tournaments. JCOnyx brings technical and punishing gameplay from his hardcore PM background, and loves labbing. You can see this reflected at the Washington locals he runs. He was able to secure 25th at Genesis 4.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
34	76.70

N/A	13th	7th	N/A
Summary

Cupz has a storied history with Rivals, and has been involved in everything from the earliest tournaments to starting ICE. This crew of top players are mostly from the Pacific Northwest, and has turned the region into what is arguably the most concentrated area of Rivals’ talent. Though he doesn’t often play online, Cupz performs at local events and locked himself in for 13th place at Genesis 4 and 7th at PAX West.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
33	78.00

34th	13th	46th	N/A
Summary

Sino is a deadly Zetterburn with a stylish streak. Known as much for his skill as his combo videos he has the potential to contend with the top players. His strongest finish was at G4 where he placed 13th and defeated Mini, Bumblebomb, and Tandori. If he’s able to play more in online events I predict we could easily see him climbing the ranks.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
32	79.00

77th	N/A	8th	10th
Summary

Penguin has been playing for awhile and is steadily improving. He advanced through the 70 man bracket at Super Smash Con last year to 25th place, and has big plans to go even farther again this year. He has a huge number of NCS victories under his belt, third only to Kisuno and GamingClan above him.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
31	80.00

59th	9th	83rd	22nd
Summary

Dunk is a Kragg player with an excellent balanced playstyle. A proud member of TSMSB, he plays friendlies with MSB and other crewmates for practice. His best result from this past season was a stunning 9th place at Genesis 4. He has plans to play in the RCS season 2 and hopes to grab himself a ticket to Shine 2017.

Categories: Community, Esports, News | Comments: 0

New Feature – Take a trip through Aether!

By Dan — April 1, 2016

Since we launched on Early Access in September of last year, we have gotten a ton of feedback and requests. Often players come to us with balance suggestions, character ideas or even new gameplay features that they want added to the game. It is with great pleasure that I can announce that we will be adding one of the most requested features to Rivals of Aether – Tripping.

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Tripping is an extremely popular and well liked feature that you may have seen in other platform fighters. We know that players love losing control of their character. However, one of the complaints about tripping when it was implemented in another popular series is that it felt too random and unpredictable. Since Rivals of Aether is focused on competitive play, we wanted our implementation of tripping to be as competitive as possible. Therefore in Rivals, you will now trip EVERY time that you try to dash. You will no longer have to worry about a random number generator impacting your intense matches. This implementation will be the most competitive version of tripping ever!

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Now I know what you might be thinking, “Hey doesn’t that make characters who prefer the air much stronger?” Don’t worry! We thought about that too. In order to balance tripping around our entire cast, we are also introducing Air Tripping. Air tripping is triggered EVERY time you try to double jump. This makes it extremely balanced! We wouldn’t want to have some new ridiculous character such as a small bat with a sword terrorizing our high level play.

trip3_small

High level Rivals will now be even more competitive thanks to this new feature. The game will be extremely balanced and you will no longer have to worry about Forsburn’s awesome Dash Attack. Never before has tripping met the three F’s of competitive gameplay – Fair, Fun and Frequent! We expect fans of fighting games to be tripping over themselves trying to pick up a copy of Rivals of Aether.

Categories: Announcement, Development, News | Comments: 0

Character Reveal – Hidden Character 1

By George — August 6, 2015

We are very excited to reveal the latest character to join the Rivals of Aether roster! This is the first hidden character we are unveiling. If you don’t want to be spoiled for the final release, then ignore this post!

Click to reveal Hidden Character 1

Absa – The Storm Architect

Profile:

Absa is a famed engineer and secret martialist of the Elders of the Air Alliance, who live high above the cloudline in the Archai Mountains. Before the Air Armada, winged citizens of the Alliance would fly between the high trees of the Aetherian Forest and the mountaintops of Archai. The Elders of Air dispensed wisdom and law from the Archaian mountaintops, and Air society flourished under a peaceful neutrality. However, after the Fire Kingdom burnt down the Aetherian Forrest, the winged citizens began to question the peaceful policies of the mountain-dwelling Elders. A rift formed between the Air citizens who could fly and those who could not. Soon the winged Air-dwellers built the Air Armada and declared war on the Fire Nation… leaving the Air Alliance in tatters.

Absa was only a young girl when half of the Air Alliance left with the Armada. However, young Absa, math prodigy and wunderkind inventor, perceived the vulnerability of her mountaintop civilization. She studied the world of Aether and developed a defense to protect the mountains from war. She mastered weather patterns and harnessed the power of lightning to create a permanent electrical storm at the base of the Archai Mountains. This storm barricade has hidden the mountains so well that the Air Elders consider themselves impervious to the turmoil of Aether. Yet, Absa, the inventor of the storms herself, fears that the barricades may prove insufficient. Despite the laws of the Elders, Absa secretly developed her storm techniques for offensive use. In martial arts societies hidden in the caves of the Archai mountains, Absa honed skills that she hoped to never need.

Elemental Powers:

CLOUD CONTROL – Absa can place a cloud using her Neutral or Forward Special. This cloud hangs in the air until Absa bursts it by tapping her Neutral Special and knocking enemies away.

THUNDER BOLT – Absa can charge her Neutral Special to create a powerful lightning blast that connects her to her cloud. All opponents caught between the two will be knocked away at high speeds.

CONDENSED STORM – Absa focuses the power of a lightning bolt to the tip of her hoof. If she can line up one of her aerial kicks perfectly, she unleashes great power.

Gameplay:

Wrastor’s gameplay is based around him quickly closing distances and comboing his opponents into the air. Absa is about controlling space through her clouds and preventing her opponents from staying close for too long. She wants to separate herself and use her clouds and thunderbolt to keep her enemies at bay.

When fighting against Absa, you have to be aware of the Cloud placement. She can quickly burst a cloud to knock you away from it. She can combo her opponents between herself and her clouds. She can also electricute the air between the two. When you are getting close to death percents, you have to be careful about Absa trying to line up her Thunder Bolt.

Absa can also set off an electric chain using her down special. Once the two sides of the chain meet, it will explode outward knocking opponents away at high speeds. She can create it either on her cloud to make part of the stage unsafe for opponents or on herself to use it offensively.

Absa also has very powerful aerial attacks. Her forward air, back air and down air kicks all have multiple hitboxes. If you can hit opponents with the sweet spot on the tip of her hooves, then opponents will be knocked away with extreme force.

Additional Screenshots:

If you are near the East Coast, then head over to Super Smash Con this weekend to get hands-on play with this newest Rival!

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New Trailer – Maypul and Forsburn

By Dan — June 16, 2015

The third trailer was revealed today at E3 2015! In it we show off gameplay from both Maypul and Forsburn. Check them out right here:

The new character revealed today is Maypul, the Sylvan Watcher:

Learn more about Maypul and her leafy techniques on her character page.

We also showed gameplay of Forsburn, the Exiled Flame:

Learn more about Forsburn and his smokey deception on his character page.

Thanks for checking out the latest Rivals of Aether update. If you have any questions or feedback, let us know over at our Smashboards thread where we will be discussing the new additions to the game!

Categories: Announcement, News | Comments: 0

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