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Season 5 Online Rankings: #30 – 21

By SBS — March 3, 2021

 

 

30. Lattim

Lattim returns to the Season 5 Top 50, entering both circuit Finals events with two Top 32 finishes and wins over CheesyPotato, Death By Hugs, Bookworm, and more.

 

 

29. Buster

Buster makes their first appearance on the Rivals Top 50 with five different Top 32 placements throughout the season. Buster’s consistent placements made him a force to be reckoned with, notching victories over the likes of Flarey, Windows, Danzello, and more.

 

 

28. Ceroas

Ceroas is a well established Absa mentor and the head Tournament Organizer for the Rivals Amateur Series, A.K.A. RAS, in the Rivals Academy Discord. After years of competing, this is Ceroas’ first season with enough events to qualify for Top 50, doing so in impressive fashion with results ranging from 33rd to 9th place. While falling just shy of their stretch goal of top 8 in an RCS event, Ceroas has certainly scratched the surface and we expect those results to start rolling in soon.

 

“Etalus Is The Best”

 

27. FullStream

A champion of the ages, FullStream has been enlightened the past few seasons by approaching the game with a more lighthearted outlook. Going into Season 5, FullStream aimed to play more of the cast while taking a heavy focus on content creation such as his tutorials on YouTube and his highly informative Twitch streams. Not withstanding, FullStream still managed to come out swinging with a 5th place showing at the ROCS Finals, touting a victory over his old adversary, CakeAssault. FullStream marks the first Top 50 member to earn Top 8 finish.

 

 

26. Kobra

Kobra is a former Xbox player that found solace in cheering on and performing against his friends during Season 5. Kobra’s Wrastor continues to impress, placing Top 32 in five of six events and earning 9th place at RCS Fire. His flashy punish game and consistently impressive results after his breakout performance at the latest Super Smash Con signal a lasting presence in the top of the Rivals meta-game.

 

 

25. Mentos

After dominant performances throughout the entirety of the ROCS, including a 4th place finish in the Finals, Mentos took an unconventional path during Season 5 by playing to the elemental theme of each major. While this made his performances less consistent and more open to upsets, Mentos still earned 7th place in RCS Fire with solo Forsburn and placed in the Top 32 for three of the four remaining RCS events. Playing to the elemental themes with Forsburn, Wrastor, Maypul, and Ranno allowed Mentos to have a bit more fun following the grueling ROCS grind. Outside of Rivals, Mentos enjoys himself with games such as Them’s Fightin’ Herds, Destiny 2, Geometry Dash, and Garry’s Mod.

 

 

24. Windows

Windows is a former Florida tyrant who recently moved to Wisconsin between RCS seasons. Windows aimed to ramp up his stream during lockdown by keeping a consistent schedule and making sure each of his tournament runs were played live for his viewers. Keeping his focus on content creation, Windows rarely brought out his famous Wrastor to accompany his main for the season, Kragg. Despite the shift in focus, Windows placed Top 32 in all three of his events, making a surprisingly strong losers run in the RCS Finals to earn his best placement of 9th.

 

“You don’t need to be unique in order to feel special”

 

23. Soulrifle211

Soulrifle211 is a Maypul player from Georgia with aspirations of becoming the best in the game. Since his first offline event at Dreamhack Atlanta 2019, Soulrifle211 has hit the grind, making new friendships, focusing on pushing his character to new heights, and improving his mentality along the way. Soulrifle211 wants to be the best, and have fun doing it.

 

“A beautiful shot won’t always hit. But, a proper shot is extremely beautiful.”

 

22. Starbos

Starbos set out with a simple goal this season, to work on consistency and to place at or above his seed at each event. While accomplishing this goal was no easy feat, Starbos earned victories against CheesyPotato, Flarey, and hoppyKnitz among others. Starbos’ game 5 stunner over Giga Bowser was his favorite moment from the season, one that might be shared with many of our viewers. Starbos originally staarted playing Rivals in 2016, and despite feeling accomplished in Season 4, jumped up an impressive 9 spots on the list in Season 5.

 

 

21. Giga Bowser

Giga Bowser is one of the game’s top Sylvanos players, and a huge reason for the character’s surge in the meta. Giga Bowser placed in the Top 32 of all six events this season, with three separate 13th placements. Giga Bowser had a breakout event at RCS Water with a wins over his bracket demon, CheesyPotato. After jumping up 9 placements from Season 4, we hope to see Giga Bowser continue the climb and break into the Top 20 next season!

 

 

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Categories: Announcement, Community, Esports, News | Comments: 2

Season 5 Online Rankings: #40 – 31

By SBS — March 2, 2021

 

 

40. CRSDCrusader

CRSDCrusader is the head of the Texas Rivals of Aether scene, organizing several online tournaments for the region and even creating a Power Ranking system for Texas. CRSDCrusader started to see dramatic growth this year, placing consistently in the Top 2 of the Official Rivals of Aether Discord Weeklies and 13th in RCS Earth.

 

“She is not in the room. She is currently unloading the dishwasher and I’m not helping her because it’s not my dishwasher.”

 

39. Darai

Darai originally set out this season to collect the Champion DLC Skins, but found steady improvement over the course of the season. Darai attributes his involvement with the community to Ahntye, who encouraged him to take the game more seriously at the onset of 2020. Darai has recently taken up a leadership role for California, launching a brand new Power Ranking season for their players. If you are a California Rivals player and would like more information, please contact darai via Twitter.

 

“A true baller never misses their shot.”

 

38. Mr. Olsen

Mr. Olsen is a middle school band teacher that has been playing Rivals since Early Access, with little opportunity to travel to events. Mr. Olsen has seen a steady rise in his gameplay over the past year, as he practices often with his deadly Florida counterparts. Mr. Olsen accomplished his goal of making Top 50 this year, and blew everyone away with a 3rd place finish in the RCS Finals Doubles side event alongside his partner, MattyIce. Now that Season 5 has come and passed, he has been arranging and recording video game covers on his Twitter, so be sure to check it out!

 

 

37. Wai

After entering his first ever local at Genesis 7 and earning a spot on our Hidden Bosses list last year, Wai decided to enter the final two events of Season 5 in order to qualify for this year’s rankings! Wai placed in Top 32 in both of his events, tallying victories over Bagel and darai along the way. All of this success with so few events under his belt makes it clear that Wai has great potential, something we hope to see blossom in our future seasons.

 

 

36. Death By Hugs

Death By Hugs has been playing Rivals since the alpha version. Over the course of five and a half years, he has seen a lot of growth with his eyes set on a career as an Aerospace Engineer. Who better to speak to his experience than himself:

“I started playing Rivals of Aether as an alpha tester at the ripe, young age of 11 years old. I’m 17 now. Admittedly, this community has seen both the best and worst of me. I am eternally grateful for the encouragement, support, and patience of my family and friends, as well as my crew, NEO! These people got me through tough times as they sharpened my play. Even though I take competition quite seriously, I have more importantly grown to be a better person because of all the wonderful people who play this game. Thank you for all you do, gamers.”

 

“Honor. No matter how dire the battle, never forsake it.”

 

35. Zora

Zora exceeded his goals this season by not only making it onto the Top 50 list for the first time ever, but by showing up on day two at the 35 spot! Not only did Zora prove to be a consistent threat in the ROCS earlier this year by terrorizing the Qualifiers, he also eventually placed 9th in the ROCS Finals to top off the circuit. While his attendance began to dwindle during the RCS Season, Zora carried that moxie into the RCS Finals Workshop by placing 5th in our official side event.

 

“Never tell me the odds.”

 

34. Guard

A Tampa local and one of the deadliest Clairens in the game, Guard became more active in the tail end of Season 5. While he only placed Top 32 in one of his 3 events, Guard had some unrelenting consistency, only dropping sets to players ranked above him. Guard considers himself to be primarily an offline player with intense motivation to hit the ground running with a bottled water in hand when locals eventually return.

 

 

33. ELPE

ELPE is a longtime player, dating back to our September 2015 Early Access release. After several years, ELPE picked up Maypul and began to see stark improvement. After a strong 9th place showing in Frostbite 2019, it was only a matter of time until we saw ELPE on a future Top 50 ranking. ELPE has been hitting the grind ever since the pandemic struck, practicing daily for months and earning a 1st place ranking on the recent Texas Power Rankings.

 

“I have an idea. I think my caps lock is lagging my internet.”

 

32. Nbad

Nbad is known for his unique brand of double dunks with both of his characters. Nbad typically finds himself in an online environment, making this the perfect season to show off his talent. He entered the last three events of Season 5, placing Top 32 in RCS Earth and winning several impressive sets against Guard, Wai, and Mr. Olsen in the RCS Finals to secure his best placement of 17th.

 

 

31. Bagel
Bagel is known for his fearsome Etalus that has, in a past season, gone so far as to beat the best player in the world. As of late Bagel has been whipping his Zetterburn into shape, putting a heavy focus on the task during Season 5. While his Etalus may be taking a bit of a back seat, it still has the ability to strike fear into his opponents when called upon, leading Bagel to a stellar 9th place at RCS Water. Outside of the game itself, Bagel has taken up a leadership role and has been working on his local scene by hosting region-locked tournaments to build up his community.

 

 

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Creatures of Aether – Kragg has Arrived

By Dan — March 1, 2021

Our last Creatures of Aether update on this blog was in December, but Creatures of Aether has been growing exponentially since then. Let’s highlight some of the updates.

Season 5

After launching Wrastor and the four mini-legendaries in December, we also launched a new Dungeon type called Prize Plunders. These are rare, free dungeons that you can sometimes find as a daily reward if you check the shop every day. Grabbing the shop tile gives you one pass to the dungeon that you must use before the day is over.

The Prize Plunders are a great way to get rewards!

The Prize Plunders have 4 bosses, one for each element, so you get to choose which boss you want to fight. Instead of standard battles, it has Prize Games which are one of the best ways in the game to grab a large amount of coins. You’ll have to use your cards wisely in order to open up all the chests and maximize your coin rewards.

Season 6

Season 6 launched on January 1st and introduced Sylvanos to the game. Like Wrastor before him, Sylvanos was a meta changing Rival as his ability completely changes the way you have to play against him. Sylvanos requires an elemental tile to use his ability, but once played on one, he can attack all cards on the board of that element from all sides. That’s right, any card with a number lower than his starting 3 value will get flipped.

Sylvanos also triggers a screen-wide homefield toward that element. Players can use Sylvanos either early or late into a match depending on their deck and what they need from him.

Later in January, we released four Shifter cards during Season 6. During Season 4 and 5, Avatar decks particularly with Etalus were seeing a lot of use on both the ladder and competitive play. We decided to nerf Avatar cards and give them more requirements while also introducing shifter cards as potential card to drop into their deck archetype.

Shifter cards change their element to match elemental slots and gain the buff. This is useful for when you need to get a certain element or want to use that triple slot that both you and your opponent had been avoiding.

Season 7

Season 7 started on February 1st with the release of Forsburn, the Exiled Flame. This Rival card is all about deception and you can get the most use out of playing him early.

When you play Forsburn, he creates smoke tiles in  3×3 grid around himself. At the end of your turn, you can teleport Forsburn to a smoke tile if you control him. Jumping to a new smoke tile allows Forsburn to trigger new flips. You can also play a “vanilla” card or a card without any abilities behind the smoke and hide the card from your opponent. They can try to flip it but won’t know the numbers that you hid. Forsburn is all about being sneaky and now you can be sneaky in Creatures of Aether as well!

After designing Forsburn, we decided to experiment more with the “vanilla” card design space. Before Season 7, epic vanilla cards were some of the least played cards in the game. Because while they had big numbers, they were often outclassed by Powerup or Avatar. To bring some luster and magic back to these cards we introduced two new abilities that both launched on February 15th.

The first ability is War Drums. If you control this card on the board, then your vanilla cards get +2 when they are played. You must control the drums when the vanilla card is played and your opponent can take the drums and use it for themselves. This creates an important card that both players can fight over.

The next ability that we released is War Horn. When this card is played, you can choose a vanilla card from your hand and place it anywhere on the board and then return it back to your hand. This ability synergizes with War Drums because the played card gets the +2 buff and retains it. Meaning you can play this card again later and get another buff from the same drum. War Horn and War Drum are most effective when played together and with some beefy vanilla cards. The combination of the three created a new vanilla deck archetype for us that is challenging the previous meta of either mono or avatar decks.

Season 8

Season 8 is launching today, March 1st, with the release of Kragg! Kragg is a powerful earth Rival that brings along his trusty rock from Rivals of Aether.

When you play Kragg, you get to choose anywhere on the board to place his rock. The rock prevents your opponent from playing on the tile. The rock tile also cannot be weakened if you play it on an elemental slot so homefield and scorch will not weaken it. You can however use homefield to make it stronger. The rock tile is something your opponent will have to play around because they know you will be looking to drop something strong on there near the end of the game.

Also launching today with Season 8 is Affection Level. It’s a new progression system for your cards! As you use your cards more, they will give you gifts as their Affection Level increases. Once you raise the level to 500, then you unlock a new Golden Skin for that creature!

There are two ways to raise the Affection Level. First, playing a match on ladder with that card grants you one Affection Level. You also gain one Affection Level for each card that you flip with that card during the match. Your favorite cards are going to love you back! Next, leveling up a card grants you 100 Affection Level. You can reach 300 Affection just by getting your card to Level 4! You can get another 100 by filling the xp bar past 4 and while your card won’t get stronger, you will get some Abyss Orbs for your hard work. Make sure you level up your favorites and show off your golden skins.

There has never been a better time to get into Creatures of Aether as Season 8 is just getting started with a new Rival Pass for Kragg. Get it on iOS and Android today!

Download on Google Play

Download on Apple Store

Categories: Announcement, Development, News, Patch notes, Press | Comments: 0

Season 5 Online Rankings: #50 – 41

By SBS — March 1, 2021

 

 

50. Vivi

Vivi, formally known as Prime, made their first appearance on the RCS Top 50 in Season 4. Vivi attended five of the six eligible events this season, racking up impressive wins on the likes of MSB, Mystic Deer, and more with their signature Ranno.

 

 

49. Zachial

Zachial piloted their Orcane with some impressive consistency throughout Season 5, while cracking Top 32 in RCS Fire and not placing below 49th in their five events.

 

“I LOVE CASUAL SCRUB WOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

 

48. OoDaShadowTheft

OoDaShadowTheft makes their debut on the Rivals Top 50. After first picking up the game in 2016, OoDaShadowTheft did not catch the competitive bug until 2019, where they contacted and subsequently trained with Guard, a top Clairen mentor in the Rivals Academy server. OoDaShadowTheft attributes their rapid growth to this experience, and was able to secure several Top 50 wins with impressive consistency throughout all six events of Season 5.

 

 

47. Mystic Deer

Mystic Deer is our first player to have multiple Top 32 placements in eligible events. Mystic Deer is a Xbox player that has migrated to the PC version of the game with a keen love of the outdoors and the gym. Mystic Deer works in the airline industry and is excited to use this benefit travel to majors once they return. We are very excited to see the rise of Mystic Deer first hand!

 

“I will always be me. Nothing more, nothing less.”

 

46. Akashi

Akashi is no stranger to the Rivals Top 50 with his iconic Absa as his co-pilot. While securing a Top 32 finish in RCS Water and even taking down Giga Bowser this season, Akashi turned his focus to improving his stream for our time on an online platform. He remained active and intent on studying the game, entering five of the eligible events while holding down commentary on the sixth. His kind soul and infectious attitude are always highlights of our events. We hope to see him on the mic more often as events continue into future seasons!

 

 

45. Oogapooki

Oogapooki makes their first Top 50 appearance after years of online tournaments. Oogapooki has never been to an offline tournament before, so the prospect of a completely online season was perfect. He made Top 32 twice this season, with a breakout performance at RCS fire, placing 17th after key wins over Ceroas and Zora before falling to CakeAssault in a nail-biter finish. Outside of Rivals, Oogapooki works as a video editor for various Twitch streamers, while being in front of the camera on occasion for his own stream.

 

 

44. Menace13

Menace13 has been well known in the Rivals community since his first event in 2016. Menace13 is hyper-involved with seemingly every aspect of the community as he juggles competing, T.O. responsibilities, seeding most major tournaments for the community, statistics tracking, and beta-testing the game. With all of this on his plate, Menace 13 managed to place in the Top 32 of two of our six eligible events, all while earning impressive wins over players such as Levin and OoDaShadowTheft and placing 2nd in the RCS Finals Tetherball Doubles event. If you ever need any questions answered about the game, listen to Dan, “Ask Menace, he’ll know.”

 

 

43. Danzello

Danzello’s Zetterburn made an appearance at every Elemental Major and the RCS Finals this season. Danzello secured victories over players such as Lucius and Menace13 during the regular season, before eventually finding a huge win over Windows in the Finals. With sporadic upsets throughout the season and stunningly flashy combos Danzello has proven time and time again that he can pose a threat to anyone’s bracket run.

 

 

42. Bookworm

Bookworm is widely recognized as one of the best Elliana’s in the game. As one of the heads of the Wisconsin/Illinois local scene, she was heavily involved in the organizing and running of brackets before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Reina has taken her talents online and has remained a constant bracket threat this season with two Top 32 finishes and victories over players such as Ceroas and Wai, all while aiming some of that work ethic towards new hobbies such as voice acting, cosplay, and story writing.

 

 

41. Tapscott

Tapscott only entered two of our Elemental Majors, but was able to perform well at each. Known for his Orcane, Tapscott brought out a new secondary Wrastor this season to spice things up a bit. In his two events, Tapscott was able to notably take down Windows, darai, and Minty along the way.

 

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Australian Rivals Championship Series Finals Month

By SBS — December 30, 2020

Earlier this month we outlined the pay structure for the Australian finals in a separate article. Now, we are happy to announce the details for the AU RCS Finals month!

AU Finals Week

Similar to other regions, we have decided to make the AU RCS Finals a multi-day event, with Singles, Doubles, and Arcadian Singles on the docket. Top 8 of Rivals Singles will be streamed live on the official Rivals of Aether Twitch.

Here is our current schedule:

  • Saturday, January 23rd: Rivals Doubles and Rivals Singles!
    • Rivals Doubles will be hosted as a for-fun event with no prize pool.
      • Bracket will play to completion.
    • Rivals Singles, our main event, with a stacking prize prize pool of up to $1,500!
      • Top 6 from the RCS season will automatically advance into the second phase of bracket, skipping Phase 1 Pools.
      • Bracket will play up to Top 8.
  • Sunday, January 23rd: Rivals Singles Finals and Arcadian Singles!
    • Rivals Singles Top 8 to completion.
    • Rivals Arcadian Singles is a special Singles tournament where all players on the 2020 Australian PR and all players that ranked top 6 of previous PRs are banned!
      • Bracket will play to completion.
      • Standard RCS rules apply, contact Katsune with any questions.

Players will be able to earn the brand new Champion Ori and Shovel Knight skins just for playing and for reaching phase two of the Singles bracket, respectively.

Singles Prize Structure

While this was covered in a previous article, we wanted to reiterate the prize pool for any players who may have missed the news.

  • Australian Finals will be a two day event with a stacking prize pool.
    • Starting prize pool will be $1,000
    • At 75 entrants, there will be an additional $250 added to the pool for a total of $1,250.
    • At 125 entrants, there will be an additional $250 added to the pool for a total of $1,500.

Weekly Tournaments with BIG Prizes

While there is no elemental theme for the month itself, the AU weekly Discord events hosted by Gabe have been such a hit, we wanted to honor them! We are going to celebrate each week with the phase 2 DLC prize from each Elemental Major. Weeklies will alternate between Thursdays and Tuesdays as follows:

  • January 7th: All participants earn a Champion Clairen skin.
  • January 12th: All participants earn a Champion Elliana skin.
  • January 21st: All participants earn a Champion Maypul skin.
  • January 26th: All participants earn a Champion Ranno skin.

AU Finals Signups are Open HERE

Categories: Announcement, Community, Esports, Events, News | Comments: 1

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