Esports – Page 17 – Rivals of Aether

Season Four Top 50 – Introduction

By SBS — March 9, 2020

Each year we look back on the previous competitive season and the players who influenced our scene by creating a Top 50 Players list. Season 4 (March 2019 – January 2020) saw a lot of growth, with competitive community-run events popping up across the country. We are incredibly excited to witness this community beyond our typical RCS events sprouting up before our eyes!

Before we delve into the rankings this year, here’s an introduction on how the list was formed along with our events list and hidden bosses.

View more articles in the Season Four NA Rankings Series:

Player Qualifications

During season 3 we saw events like Cold Snap and TAPS lead the Grassroots community down an exciting path, but ultimately decided not to count them towards Top 50. As we unveiled the Season 3 Top 50, we shared this announcement:

“It’s worth noting that excitingly, more Rivals-only events are beginning to become large enough, competitive enough, and diverse enough to entertain this list encompassing events outside of the RCS. Our ranking council did hold a discussion on this but ultimately decided to wait until next season to begin including them.”

Now that Season 4 is here we’ve expanded outside of only including RCS events by popular request. For the Season 4 rankings, we only considered players with 2 or more events from the list below. All players considered had to have attended at least one offline RCS event and had to be based in the North American (NA) region to be included in the Rivals Top 50.

Methodology

This year, we brought back the panel system from Season 3, ranking players based on a combination of their best wins/worst losses and their placements at eligible events.

Whether the event took place offline or online was also taken into consideration. Online events are always a contentious piece of the puzzle for our top 50 rankings, and this year we’ve continued the trend of placing importance heavily on offline results. Exceptional players that only competed online have been included, but may appear lower on the list due to lack of offline results. Keep in mind this is not intended to disrespect their skill, but rather our concession that we’re unable to place them accurately in the context of the full season’s events and offline finals.

Once this ranking system was completed, a council made additional adjustments to the order based on head-to-head results, activity, and other data. This group consisted of Menace13, MSB, Renzo, SBS, and Sparx21.

Hidden Bosses

Players given the title of Hidden Boss were recognized by the panel as major threats to tournaments this season that just didn’t quite meet the requirements to be ranked.

Adi, gracefulknight, Kenneth, Wai

Categories: Community, Esports, News | Comments: 1

New Hire – Esports Manager

By George — February 12, 2020

Today we’re thrilled to welcome Stephen Sobansky (who you might know around the scene as SBS) to the Rivals Dev Team as Esports Manager! He’ll be working part-time with the team to keep Rivals Esports going strong in 2020.

We’ve got lots of exciting esports projects that he’ll be joining in on – from our Season 4 Top 50 list to upcoming events like Frostbite, CEO: Dreamland, and more still in store with the Definitive Edition on the horizon.

We first met Stephen back all the way back in 2016 when we were expanding Rivals Esports with the freshly announced Rivals Championship Series.

Since then it’s been almost four years of passion for him – cultivating his local scene, hosting the largest Rivals-only event for years on end, and even spearheading his own league project in partnership with grassroots organizers across the country.

We know he’ll do a fantastic job on official events and can’t wait to see competitive Rivals evolve this year. If you’d like to reach SBS, you can talk to him on twitter @SBSarizona or message @SBS on discord.

Categories: Announcement, Esports, News | Comments: 3

Rivals Workshop Official Side Event

By George — January 13, 2020

As part of the excitement surrounding the Rivals Championship Series finals, our community came together to back a Workshop side event later this month at Genesis 7. This will be our first time featuring original characters from the community at a major event – complete with their own stream time and prize pool!

Character List

We’re excited to see what players can do with new characters in a tournament setting. To help make the event manageable we’ve chosen a 16 character roster players can compete with:

You can download all of these characters at once in this G7 Workshop Steam collection.

Stage List

Only the official in-game stages will be usable during this event. We did find some great workshop creations, but opted off of a workshop list for game stability reasons.

Other Details

If you’re attending Genesis 7, you can sign up for this event in person at the Rivals area any time Friday or Saturday morning. This event has a $500 prize pool funded by the community from the Genesis compendium.

For viewers at home, keep an eye out for a future announcement with the full stream schedule including where and how to watch all of the Rivals goodness at G7. For now you can bookmark Saturday January 25th as the date until more time/channel details are available.

Categories: Esports, Events, News | Comments: 1

Make Your Mark: Panda Etalus

By George — July 2, 2019

Events with the Make your Mark banner offer a prize like no other – a chance for the winner to get their very own skin in the game. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes on our latest one and are excited to finally reveal Panda Etalus. This skin is inspired by FullStream’s win at Genesis 6 and his team Panda Global.

Because this is a full reskin (meaning every frame has been drawn over to give Etalus an adorable panda face), this skin is priced at $3.99 on Steam. We are splitting the revenue 50/50 with FullStream and hope to see him at many more events this year!

Categories: Announcement, Esports, News | Comments: 0

NA RCS Season 3 Top 50: #10 – 1

By George — June 29, 2019

This week we’re counting down the Top 50 Players from season 3 of the North American Rivals Championship Series. For more information about this historical rankings and its process, check out our introduction and honorable mentions post from earlier in the week.

Other Articles in this Series:

NA RCS S3 #10 – Corkxx

NA RCS S2 Rank: 39

<.< Corkxx showed us just how good he really is this year with a fantastic showing at offline events. Win or lose, his aggressive Forsburn gets the crowd excited and is a treat to watch. Corkxx used his fast-paced play this year to take sets from Windows, MattyIce, Jesier, SBS and more. Unfortunately it looks like he'll be out of the country during most of season 4, but he's earned his spot here in the top 10 for us remember him by until he returns.

NA RCS S3 #09 – MattyIce

NA RCS S2 Rank: N/A

Broken Alliance’s MattyIce is the only player in the top 10 that was completely unranked last year. Bursting into the national scene in season 3, the rest of the Rivals world quickly learned what everyone in Florida already knew – that MattyIce was sick. His unique style is satisfying to watch where he’ll often use lightning fast combos into aerial strong attack traps that spell the end for opponents with unfortunate DI. In addition to being a top player, MattyIce is also a community leader and organizer in his home region. We’re looking forward to seeing more of him in season 4, as even though he’s near the top it seems he still has room to rise.

NA RCS S3 #08 – ZeeBee

NA RCS S2 Rank: 23

While ZeeBee is always open to making the crowd laugh, his gameplay is no joke. His improvement from season 2 to season 3 was absolutely huge with him advancing from someone who could be called a solid player to a threat taking games off of the top 5 with regularity. His secondaries are quickly catching up to the speed and precision that his Kragg is known for, and if he can turn these wins into an everyday occurrence ZeeBee certainly has a bright future ahead of him.

NA RCS S3 #07 – MSB

NA RCS S2 Rank: 06

MSB is a fan favorite and inspiration to every Kragg below him on this list. His fascinating tech, Rock tricks, and recovery add seasoning to a character that MSB has proven is anything but straightforward as he seems. Like everyone else in the top 10, MSB’s win record is extensive. However his trouble clinching consistent wins over the top 5 keeps him just outside this group even though he’s still making forward progress. As he continues to grow as a player, MSB has also grown greatly as a community leader and mentor bringing to life countless events both online and off in the Tristate area. We can’t wait for more popoffs in season 4.

NA RCS S3 #06 – Bagel

NA RCS S2 Rank: 17

Bagel is a player who has risen above adversity to achieve a top 10 ranking this year. Battling from a region with few practice opportunities and tough travel arrangements, Bagel perseveres to put up results event after event. Though his gameplay isn’t overly fancy, his Etalus quickly becomes a problem for anyone who gives him an inch as shown with set wins over the likes of CakeAssault, Windows, MSB, Jesier and more. With just a bit more consistency in his placings Bagel certainly has the potential to be a top 5 player and one we’re excited to watch in season 4.

NA RCS S3 #05 – DolphinBrick

NA RCS S2 Rank: 05

What MSB is to Kragg, Tuxedo Esports’ Dolphinbrick is to Orcane. One of the most skilled veterans to solo main a character over the years, he single-handedly keeps The Puddle Jumper on the map. DolphinBrick’s style is versatile but can be characterized with combo heavy play featuring tech chases and mixups that keep his opponents in a world of pain. His frequent attendance at events (placing in a whopping 12 over the season), along with his lovable personality make him a fan favorite. Lately we’ve heard rumors that after 3 years he’s finally looking for a tournament secondary, but we’re excited to see him in season 4 no matter who he brings to the stage.

NA RCS S3 #04 – Windows

NA RCS S2 Rank: 07

Windows has always had lofty goals, and this year he once again levels up and solidifies his name in Rivals history with a top 5 ranking that is indisputable. His patient and punishing play go hand in hand with his character, and his consistency was only Rivaled by the 3 other players in the world on his level. Even more, his distinctive hot pink Wrastor seemed to be the only thing able to send CakeAssault to losers during much of season 3. This year Windows hopes to take his skills over to Ultimate as well as Rivals, so we’re excited to cheer him on in both events during season 4.

NA RCS S3 #03 – Penguin

NA RCS S2 Rank: 09

Penguin is the youngest player in the top 10, which makes his resume this season where he holds the most placing of any player (16) even more impressive. He constantly makes Absa look like the fastest character in the game with his lightning quick movement, execution, and devastating combos that often go from 0 to death. Throughout season 3 his rise was an ever looming threat to the old guard as he got closer and closer each event to securing himself a first place. With Penguin participating in the grand finals of the last 6 offline events of the year it was only a matter of time before it came true at GT-X 2018 last fall. With his meteoric rise and the fact that it doesn’t look like he’s stopping any time soon, season 4 may be the year of the penguin.

NA RCS S3 #02 – FullStream

NA RCS S2 Rank: 01

Panda Global’s FullStream continues to be a dominant force in the Rivals scene. Winning the season 3 finals at Genesis 6 makes him the only 2 time title holder in the series and this isn’t by a stroke of luck. He spent much of season 3 playing different characters at each tournament and consintently bringing them into the top 8 with ease. Rivals is FullStream’s first platform fighter, and thanks to FullStream’s success in Rivals he’s also turned his eyes to Smash. Keep an eye on this player in both games in season 4 as he always brings the hype.

NA RCS S3 #01 – CakeAssault

NA RCS S2 Rank: 02

CakeAssault had another amazing year in Rivals with a simply staggering amount of first place finishes at national events. His Forsburn makes it seem like his opponents are playing a different, much slower game and he’s so good that this applies to literally everyone he plays against. His insanely consistent finishes were only broken twice this year, with a loss to Penguin at GT-X and a stumble at Genesis 6 to make it the only tournament where he didn’t play in grands. His dominant performance and top pedigree have earned him the crown and the right to take the number one on the top 50 players list for season 3.