We’ve once again got two separate RCS Finals events this year to support both the NA and EU regions. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:
North American RCS Finals
The North American Finals for RCS Season 8 comes to a head at a familiar battleground. Genesis X (Feb 16th-18th) in beautiful San Jose, California aims to cap off another competitive year of Rivals, with multiple attendees collecting Major championships and several more competitors right on their heels.
The top NA pointholders heading into the season finals.
CakeAssault sits on an insurmountable point lead resulting from his consistent awe-inspiring performances throughout 2023. As such, he has earned a $500 travel voucher to Genesis X, where he aims to win his fourth Genesis in a row and fifth overall.
No matter what happens next month, one thing is for certain: the winner will walk away with the lion’s share of a huge pot bonus. The Genesis X prize pool is just under $8,000 at the time of this article’s release and will continue to rise as we approach Season 8’s conclusion. Keep an eye out and help contribute to the Finals Pot Bonus as we introduce one of our most ambitious Genesis skins of all-time.
Genesis X will also be a momentous occasion for another reason. Over the course of the weekend, we will be simultaneously running the first ever publicly available Rivals 2 bracket, which reached its entrant cap of 256 attendees within just the first few days of its announcement. Be sure to tune in as we aim to stream plenty of matches. While there is no monetary prize, honor and the players’ chance to engrave themselves in the history books are on the line in what promises to be an exciting celebration of our upcoming title.
European RCS Finals
Across the world we have another exciting RCS Finals brewing on February 10th-11th. This features 2 days of events including Singles, Doubles, and Workshop. The EU Rivals of Aether scene has been hard at work in Season 8, building a community-funded Finals Pot Bonus while blowing past each of its three stretch-goals with $3,300 raised and counting.
The EU rankings has a favorite of their own with Fireicey commanding a near-perfect season. Fireicey has only three set losses total across the season, and a full sweep of every bracket he has attended. He’s also won five out of six EU RCS events, including all four online brackets and the larger of the two offline events.
The top EU pointholders heading into the season finals.
Of the EU funds raised, $250 will be allocated to each side event – Doubles and Workshop. The EU community also had unique stretch goals in the RCS shop this year. Through reaching these they added the November and December Online Majors, unlocked player interviews by community leaders, and also unlocked a combo video to highlight their scene.
After chatting with EU community leaders, we’re excited to announce that seven different interviews will be posted to our site, ranging from current/former stars to the hard working volunteers holding up the scene from behind the curtain! For the combo video – plans are also in the works to collect clips from each major for a greater community showcase to be released when ready. We have seen what the EU scene can do with their annual PR videos and cannot wait to see how it turns out.
After Season 7’s return to form, we’re continuing the hybrid nature of online and LAN events across the region! We have worked directly with community leaders from the EU scene to tailor a season balancing several different countries for LAN events beginning in July, and maintaining two to four regular season online events starting in September. Be sure to check out the stream for Rivals Rave this weekend (previously announced) in Deutschland. Additional events will be added as the season continues. Here is our official schedule:
As seen above, the official lineup of events for the EU RCS starts out with two LAN and two online events. More events are on the way through tournament organizers in Europe and money raised in the EU RCS goal on the RCS Season 8 Compendium.
The RCS shop this year provides several new rewards for the EU scene as money is raised for the EU RCS Finals event in January 2024. At $600, two more online events will be added to the RCS providing funding for Readek to produce more high quality streams. At $1200, new player spotlights with current and former EU players will be created to highlight the EU scene. Finally, at $1800, a brand new combo video will be created and played before Top 8 of the EU RCS Finals. Brand new items launched throughout the year with all profits going back to the community will be available to help reach these new goals.
We’re also excited to round out the remaining Champion Skins once again this year, with Champion Pomme and Champion Hodan DLC skins coming as participation rewards to the various online events EU has to offer. Players who enter either the RCS September or RCS October Online events will receive Champion Pomme. More information on Champion Hodan will be revealed as Season 8 progresses!
EU Season 8 Finals
The EU RCS Finals have become a staple since RCS Season 5, and we aim to end RCS Season 8 with a bang in January 2024. The EU RCS Finals date will be announced later this year, with special rewards mentioned in the above section helping contribute to the experience and the prize pool itself.
Players entering RCS events can expect their achievements to be rewarded as the EU Power Rankings Panel will be evaluating data throughout the course of Season 8 as they lead up to their newest Top Player Rankings.
Links!
We are aware that this post has a lot of information to digest, so please refer to all relevant links in this one convenient spot!
This year we’re excited to introduce the eighth season of the Rivals Championship Series. Eight years is a long time running for any esports league, and certainly a long time for a small indie game that had big competitive goals. This season has us feeling a bit sentimental as we look back on past years, while at the same time our studio is working on the future of the Aether franchise with Rivals 2. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of the players, fans, and tournament organizers that have taken part in the past or supported the RCS in any way. Attending events, viewing streams, grabbing skins that help fund events, or even just talking about the RCS online has helped it come to life. As we gear up for season 8, here are the details for how everything will look:
Events
RCS Season 8 has seven unique tournaments ranging coast to coast and traversing the world wide web. This season we’ll be following a similar format to previous years, focusing on one event per month spanning from July 2023 to our Finals in January 2024. We’ll be kicking off Season 8 with 3 events this summer – an online event, a massive community-ran sequel, and the return of a Goliath.
The Season 8 kickoff is shaping up to be a diverse representation of the North American competitive scene while the second leg is largely composed of events yet to be announced. Let’s take a look at our full schedule as it stands:
As always, the RCS will see a healthy injection of developer support including the completion of our Champion skin line, paid DLC skins with profits going directly to prize pools, and travel vouchers to our January Finals. This season we’re looking to release Champion Skins for Pomme and Hodan at the first and last online events respectively, while aiming to unveil all new paid skins for characters such as Olympia, Kragg, and more to pump up pot bonuses across the board. Our RCS Season 8 shop will be kicking off soon, but for now you can sign up for the July Online Major and get the Pomme Champion skin for free by simply competing.
Travel vouchers this year will look a bit different than the previous seasons, reserving just one spot for the top player on our leaderboards and a second wildcard voucher for the highest standing points-holder that has never attended an in-person Finals before. Competition for these vouchers is expected to be stiff as our previous King of Rivals, CakeAssault, has shown some rare vulnerability to some familiar faces at GoTE 8 this past weekend. Gear up and get ready for a fight!
While our news today is entirely concerning the North American region, community members from EU and World regions should stay tuned for more news as we are get closer to Season 8’s kickoff.
Rankings
Each season brings new structure, and with that comes new guidelines to qualify for our annual Top 50 Rankings. RCS Season 8 has seen the magnificent return of the community circuit, the Grassroots League, which aims to connect the North American community and eventually carry the torch through events across the region by utilizing the power and resources of the dedicated and talented individuals responsible for some of the most influential community-ran events in the scene. We love to see that passion and have a system this year dedicated to ensuring their Showcase Events count for the Rivals Top 50 Rankings.
Our Top 50 Ranking requirements and event weight are as follows:
A minimum of four total events, two of which MUST be RCS (meaning two can be either RCS or GRL Showcase).
RCS events will carry the highest weight, with the Finals weighing the heaviest and the others being based on attendance size and strength.
GRL Showcase events will be considered anywhere between high to low weight, with their individual strengths and weaknesses being evaluated by our Top 50 panel.
GRL Opt-In events will NOT count for rankings, though they do provide GRL points for their own league’s leaderboard, so check them out if you can!
Rivals esports has proven to be a cornerstone of our community, bringing out passions, rivalries, and every emotion imaginable over the course of seven years. Since Season 1 and our emergence into the competitive world, we’ve seen the eras of Ralph, FullStream, CakeAssault, Xaro, and CakeAssault’s return in his current unrelenting reign. Over the years we’ve spanned continents, built up to share stages with the greatest Smash legends in the world, and have repeatedly broken our own attendance records with what we consider to be the best gaming community in the world (no bias).
If you’re shooting to aim high on the rankings for season 8, make sure to sign up for RCS events here. Grassroots League has already ran three Showcase Events and has plenty more on the docket so be sure to check out their page here for qualifying events as well. We can’t wait to kick off another amazing season of Rivals esports!
Welcome to the North American RCS Season 7 Top 50! Each year we look back on the previous competitive season and the players who influenced our scene by creating a Top 50 Players list. The rankings are created by a community panel that considers data from across the season to construct a comprehensive list that highlights our top players and their accomplishments.
View more articles in the Season Seven NA Rankings Series:
“How to tell if your washing machine is from Japan.”
10. darai
Kicking off our top 10 is the Sunnyshore tournament organizer, event photographer, and highest ranked player on the West Coast. Darai has been playing Rivals since 2017, but only started competing seriously at the start of 2020. Darai’s Season 7 propelled him to new heights as he placed in the Top 8 at five different tournaments, three of which were Premier tier, and won Back In Blood 5 after an intense eight game Grand Finals. Make sure you keep an eye on him as he’s already won the first event of Season 8, and enter his next Sunnyshore event when registration goes live as part of Grassroots League.
“Try to do good, recklessly.” – Alsnapz
9. Akashi
The player most likely to mess up our commentary schedule jumps up from 33rd in Season 6 to 9 in Season 7! Akashi approached this season with a goal of broadening his comfort level with competition, focusing on entering every event with a small goal, and leaving with a new one. As it turns out, this approach complemented his playstyle extremely well, as he was able to gradually upset player after player while securing 3rd place at Heat Wave 5 over ZeeBee and 4th place at The Big House 10 over Penguin. Akashi’s climb throughout Season 7 was nothing short of meteoric as he continuously struck down opponents as the underdog all the way up to Genesis 9, where he placed 7th and then commentated Top 6 on the mainstage the next morning. As Season 8 revs up, you can catch Akashi helping with events, commentating, and even doing voiceover work and writing for Stats of Aether.
“Hey it’s me, your washing machine. I’m from Japan.”
8. CheesyPotato
CheesyPotato is another top 10 player who has actively created amazing experiences outside of the game. CheesyPotato has worked on everything from start.gg web extensions, to an entire website dedicated to the history of Rivals Esports, all while finding niche and experimental in-game advanced techniques to attempt to push the meta. CheesyPotato only missed Top 8 twice in Season 7 out of the the 10 brackets she attended, never placing below 9th and even winning Sunnyshore over the likes of darai, Wai, and Plastic Dinos. Despite the impressive results and unwavering consistency, CheesyPotato feels that she did not improve as much as she had hoped this season and she hopes to focus on active thinking and dealing with pressure while on the big stage.
“YES I DO ACTUALLY WORK AT MCDONALDS ITS AWESOME”
7. Kusi
Coming in at seven is the best Ori & Sein main in the world. Kusi placed 5th at five of his six events, placing 4th at GOML 2022. His consistency in Season 7 was immaculate, only dropping a single set to someone ranked below him and one more to a former hidden boss known as Halite. School and work has been a main priority for Kusi as the season dragged on, but that did not stop him from making the top 10 rankings and shutting the door on countless competitors trying to break through to the Sunday stage. Next season, Kusi wants to aim for #1 but has the specific goal of defeating the elusive ZeeBee Mollo.
6. Xaro
Xaro lands at number six this Season after placing Top 3 in all three offline events he attended and Top 8 in both Online Premier events. Xaro held an impressive 6-0 game count over ZeeBee in offline events and was one of only two players to take multiple sets off of Seggo in Season 7. As Season 8 kicks off, Xaro has his eyes set on an ambitious goal that not many have achieved over the years, winning an offline major.
“My friends are awesome :)”
5. Penguin
Penguin is a legend in the Rivals community, known for his nearly perfect doubles record and his ability to push the best player in the world to his breaking point like no one else ever has. During Season 7, Penguin moved out for college and is using the opportunity to see friends and enjoy the social aspect of events more. Season 7 may not have been up to the competitive standards a titan like Penguin normally holds himself to, but he was one of only three players to take a set off of CakeAssault, one of three players to beat Soulrifle211, and still placed in the Top 8 of each of the eight offline tournaments he attended.
“Corruption’s such an old song that we can sing along in harmony, and nowhere is it stronger than in Albany.” – Hamilton (Nonstop)
4. ZeeBee
Moving up two spots from Season 6, ZeeBee became an entirely new threat in Season 7 as he balanced his character pool around a new main – Mollo. ZeeBee put down the Kragg partially through the season and began to really refine a character that seemed like a counterpick at first. Before long, ZeeBee was able to take a set off of CakeAssault, get consistent wins over Kusi and Penguin, and placed 2nd at The Big House 10 and 4th at Genesis 9.
“Please for the love of god nerf Forsburn.”
3. Soulrifle211
One of the youngest and most passionate competitors in the game took his electric popoffs to every stage possible, placing in the Top 3 at every Premier event he attended. Soulrifle211 was able to take at least one set off of every player he played this season other than CakeAssault, and only lost to three players in his seven events. We have yet to see Soulrifle211 take first at a major, but at this rate it is only a matter of time until he breaks through the seemingly unbreakable wall set up by CakeAssault.
“#3MSWEEP”
2. Seggo
Seggo made history at Heat Wave 5, becoming a part of an exclusive club consisting of a handful of players that have won an offline RCS Major. Seggo has long proven himself to be a top player threat and even won three different community events in Season 7, but there was something different about his magical run at Heat Wave 5. This event not only cemented Seggo in history due to his win, but also spoiled the #CakeSweep movement that had seen CakeAssault nearly demoralizing any and all competition as he ruled over Season 7 with an iron fist. Following up his magical run, Seggo was out to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no fluke involved in his victory, beating CakeAssault at PPS and taking another set against the king of Rivals before finishing 2nd at the Genesis 9 Finals.
1. CakeAssault
CakeAssault, the king of Rivals is once again here to defend his throne in what seemed like a sure thing up until his fall at Heat Wave 5. Immediately after the Heat Wave 5 loss, CakeAssault dominated the December RCS and proceeded to trade the RCS Gold online brackets with Seggo, putting all eyes on what would happen at the Genesis 9 finals. CakeAssault entered the Genesis Top 6 from the winners side for the first time ever, where he would meet and fall to Seggo in a shocking Winners Finals before coming back with a vengeance to take the finals and once again cement himself as the best player in the world.
CakeAssault entered 12 different brackets, placing first place in 10 of them, and 2nd in the remaining two. His domination is hard to comprehend as even his most fierce opponent could not hold a candle to the pure fire pumping through his veins. CakeAssault’s 1st place in Season 7 marks the fourth time he has topped our rankings.
Thank you everyone for a phenomenal Season 7. We cannot wait to see what comes next.
Welcome to the North American RCS Season 7 Top 50! Each year we look back on the previous competitive season and the players who influenced our scene by creating a Top 50 Players list. The rankings are created by a community panel that considers data from across the season to construct a comprehensive list that highlights our top players and their accomplishments.
View more articles in the Season Seven NA Rankings Series:
MattyIce is a titan of Rivals history, holding onto one of the longest active local Top 8 streaks and seemingly returning to the game at any time without skipping a beat. MattyIce was able to attend the first Premier event of Season 7 with a 5th place finish while taking down Kodako, MSB, and Backpack on the way. Following GoTE 4The Kids 7, MattyIce made his presence known as an online threat, placing 9th and 7th respectively at both RCS Gold events. Outside of Rivals, MattyIce works for the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays as a Major League Baseball employee. Fittingly, he also competes at a top level in the Mario Superstar Baseball community and holds the world record for the game’s Any % category.
“Mash smarter, not harder.”
19. Codek
Leaping into 19th this season is a Ranno main who originally aimed to crack the top 20 next season. Little did he know that his accomplishments this season would land him comfortably in this goal a year early. Codek secured 3rd place at The Kingpin 10 with big time wins over Seggo, darai, and Sawtooth before having his run extinguished by the #1 and #2 frontrunners of Season 7. After multiple seasons of primarily online events, Codek aims to travel to more LAN events and take a shot at earning his place as the world’s best Ranno.
“It’s ride or get rode.”
18. Gizmo
Gizmo is an old school Rivals player that has been playing and competing online for eight years. Season 7 marks Gizmo’s first appearance on the Top 50 Rankings at an incredible #18 while finally experiencing the thrill of traveling to offline tournaments. Gizmo picked up multiple top 10 wins along the way, proving to be a menace with a deep character pool, ready to counterpick opponents with Zetterburn or Wrastor in the rare occasions his Maypul wasn’t cutting it. Gizmo is now in college and is using his time studying computer science and jazz studies while maintaining a love of the outdoors and weight lifting lifestyles. If you do see him at majors during Season 8, you can expect him to be enjoying his time as a spectator or exploring whatever city he may be in with friends.
“Do you seriously think that I’m going to give you more advice after that blunder you just did?”
17. Giga
Giga comes in at 17, marking the highest placing Sylvanos and Hodan of the Top 50 rankings! He had an extremely active Season 7, traveling to five of the seven LAN Premier events, both RCS Silver, and a RCS Bronze event. During this time, Giga spent a good chunk of the season figuring out how to make his new Hodan co-main work in matchup spreads, starting off Season 7 with a massive 2nd place finish at TAPS 5 and recognizing that Sylvanos could help him make those adjustments to punch even higher above the belt than ever before. This formula looks to boil over into Season 8 as Giga plans to make a run at the top 10 to cement himself even deeper in Rivals history.
“All this McDonalds is finally paying off.”
16. Nbad
Nbad is a veteran Canadian player who has been a community leader and T.O. for the online RCS for several years. While always a top level threat, he had his breakout tournament this year at Heat Wave 5, where his cinderella losers run capped out with seven straight sets to earn a remarkable 4th place at the event. Nbad’s Heat Wave 5 victories consisted of seven unique current and former Top 50 players, including a 3-0 over top 10 mainstay, ZeeBee. Beyond his Heat Wave 5, Nbad had a solid online presence with a 9th place finish at The Kingpin 10 and 13th place at RCS June. Looking to Season 8, Nbad looks forward to helping out with events through T.O. duties at weeklies and seeding for majors.
15. Bagel
As if there was a theme for Canadian players with cinderella stories, coming in at 15 is Bagel, who had been a beacon for consistency up until his grueling losers run at Genesis 9. After giving up on his dream of reaching the big stage at the RCS Finals, Bagel went on the run of a lifetime to take out multiple top 10 players back to back to stun the Rivals world with a 5th place finish. Bagel was incredibly active this season, attending Premier and community events left and right, while also acting as the driving force to bringing Rivals to GOML 2022. As a competitor, and a community leader, Bagel has been batting a thousand, with his eyes set on the return of GOML in 2023, where he hopes to blow the previous year’s event out of the water.
“Please sub to my YouTube.”
14. Sparx21
After breaking into the top 10 in Season 4, Sparx21 felt like he had met his goal of being a threat to any player in the game. After the pandemic hit and locals slowly returned in Season 6, Sparx21 realized that he wanted to remain an active obstacle to anyone trying to make a run, while also spreading himself out to other hobbies and games. He has placed within the top 15 for two seasons in a row and has been able to place in the Top 6 of two separate events in Season 7, soundly accomplishing that goal. Sparx21 is looking forward to entering more traditional FGC games this year while attempting to continue his balancing act at COST 2023 and various other Grassroots League events in Season 8.
“Hydraulics Pumping.”
13. MSB
What can we say about MSB that hasn’t been said since RCS Season 1? The Kragg specialist and legendary competitor attended 14 of the 17 eligible events in Season 7, besting several top 10 players with his signature flair along the way. Despite his exceedingly active lifestyle, MSB has been focusing on content creation, game development, and picking up a new secondary in the few hours he isn’t in a bracket. Since Season 7 has concluded, MSB has already made waves in Season 8 with a 2nd place finish at Major Upset after a thrilling Grand Finals reset, and a trip to Arizona for Smash Camp, where he has been both terrorizing and teaching their local scene the ways of the turnaround rock-shine. Since he has already signed up for GoTE 4TheKids 8, we think it is safe to say that you should expect to see a lot more of the wonder Kragg and his trusty sidekick, Sylvanos at a slew of events throughout the year.
“Que sera, sera.”
12. Tapscott
In his first real season of maining Wrastor, Tapscott has seemingly skyrocketed up the Top 50 with a volley of top level wins and excruciatingly close sets against Rivals legends like CakeAssault and Penguin. Tapscott was able to place in the Top 8 at two Premier events and 5th at TAPS 5, turning heads with his safe and deliberate neutral and his ability to turn a single opening into a stock. Tapscott expects to travel to events less frequently next season, but we can be certain that his intensity and determination to win will put fear into his opponents wherever he appears.
“There’s nothing to it but to do it.”
11. Wai
Wai first came out to an offline major at Genesis 7, where he was able to upset several top level players in a vision of things to come. Fast forward to RCS Season 7 and Wai made a name for himself with a 2nd place finish at Sunnyshore and a shocking run to place 3rd at The Big House 10. Wai became one of the most consistent players in the community with snapshots of glory, including wins over the likes of Penguin, ZeeBee, and many more. He hopes to collect this energy and focus on improving to win a major with Ranno in Season 8. Don’t be surprised with the world’s best fall one by one as Wai continues his journey.
The top NA pointholders heading into the season finals.
The top EU pointholders heading into the season finals.
