» Category: Events

Genesis X Workshop Roster

This year we’re doing something new for the workshop roster at Genesis X! We’re taking as many of the characters submitted for the Rivals Workshop Character Creation contest as we can, and having players battle it out with only these brand new community creations. This decision was made as a way to show off the countless hours of work put in by creators across the community for the contest, giving them their own event to celebrate crossing the finish line.

Download the collection of characters right here and start practicing for Genesis today:

With the help of workshop community leaders, we worked through the 100+ characters submitted in order to get an understanding of each character’s potential power levels, whether or not they have game breaking bugs, and if they have been completed to a playable standard. We would like to emphasize that any characters not in the collection for the above reasons are not disqualified from the Character Contest itself, they have just been removed from the playable Genesis X roster. We have also worked with Workshop Community leaders to allow custom stages related to their creations as an option for players to go to – both players must agree to play on Workshop stages in order to play on them in bracket. The Workshop stages eligible for competition at Genesis X are included in the Official Collection. If you have questions regarding the list, please contact us via Twitter and we would be happy to answer.

This collection includes a healthy variety of characters and stages that competitors will be able to use throughout the bracket. Given that this character list is a showcase of developer contest submissions, a lot of these characters were recently released to the public and may not have every detail ironed out. With that in mind we are banning any infinite combos and infinite stalls that may be found leading up to the event. Should any players break these rules, they will be automatically given a game loss on a first infraction, then a set loss on a second infraction.

Genesis X is just on the horizon and aims to be a celebration of the Workshop Community’s dedication to creation. We hope you’ll join us either in person or at home as the entire workshop bracket will be streamed on February 16th!

The RCS Finals are Here!

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.

Heat Wave 4 Wrap-Up

Season 6 of the Rivals Championship Series continued with the return of Heat Wave! After two years the biggest Rivals focused event in the world was back and better than ever with an amazing new venue and drastically upgraded production for this 102 entrant event. Rivals players across multiple continents converged to bring us the fiercest competition from start to finish that Rivals has ever seen.

VODS

As always we start with the VoDs in case you’ve managed to avoid spoilers so far. There are a lot to unpack between the two streams dedicated to Rivals and even side events such as Lethal League Blaze by Reptile Games. All Rivals VODs are now up on our Official YouTube channel, while all other games can be found on the AZ Rivals Youtube. The entire event was streamed on our Official Twitch and the AZ Rivals Twitch by Arizona’s own SAK Gaming and Frame Sync Media.

Rivals Singles

Rivals Doubles and Workshop

Windjammers / Slap City / Lethal League Blaze

Pre-Heat Wave Local: Rivals Singles

 

TOP 8 HIGHLIGHTS

If you’re interested in a quicker watch, check out our official highlight videos for Rivals Singles Top 8 and Workshop by LilFox15.

 

Photos

Three separate photo albums of the event are available to the public! Keep an eye out for a special video being put together by On The Rocks Productions in the coming weeks.

THE CHAMP

Top 8 of Heat Wave! Photo by Xenos.

Congratulations to the Heat Wave 4 Champion – CakeAssault! CakeAssault made a phenomenal run through losers bracket, with several Game 5 sets to grind his way to Grand Finals and secure the crown after a bracket reset.

SINGLES RESULTS


Full Standings >

WORKSHOP RESULTS


Full Standings >

DOUBLES RESULTS


Full Standings >

We hope you enjoyed the the return of Heat Wave! Make sure to sign up or join us on stream next weekend as well for the continuation of our monthly Online RCS. It’ll be the third online event of the season with a brand new skin reward: RCS Season 6 Fireworks.

Rivals Championship Series Season 6

Get ready for RCS Season 6!

Following the record-shattering attendance of Riptide and the recent announcement of Genesis 8, we are ecstatic to announce the newest Rivals Championship Series installment! Season 6 of the RCS will bring back monthly Online Majors, but will also mark the return of live events with our first hybrid season. Join us as we celebrate Rivals in even more regions on our biggest stages yet!

We’re going workshop steam punk for Season 6!

Format and Schedule

Despite the tough year last season was a fantastic success thanks to our community, breaking attendance records on multiple occasions during an exclusively online season set on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving into Season 6, we have seen local events slowly emerge with the increasing accessibility of vaccines. Keeping this in mind, we are bringing the North American RCS back to in-person majors on three separate occasions in conjunction with four unique online majors.

With a live finals event planned this year, we are also bringing back flight vouchers for the Top 4 North American league point holders at the conclusion of our December online event. North American players who top the leader board during the regular season will be given a complimentary flight to our Finals at Genesis 8. For our friends in Europe and Australia, the top point holder from each region will be awarded 500 USD for their accomplishments.

Here is our official schedule:

Event Date Region
Riptide (Registration Cap Reached) September 10-12,2021 Sandusky, OH (NA)
Hot Springs Major September 18, 2021 Online (NA)
Hot Springs Major (EU/OCE) September 2021 Online (EU/AU)
Melody Major (NA/EU/OCE) October 2021 Online (NA/EU/AU)
Heat Wave 4 (Registration OPEN) November 13-14 2021 Phoenix, AZ (NA)
Fireworks Major (NA/EU/OCE) November 2021 Online (NA/EU/AU)
Crystal Major (Registration TBA) December 2021 Online (NA/EU/AU)
EU/AU Regional Finals (Registration TBA) January 2022 Online (EU/AU)
RCS Finals at Genesis 8 (Registration OPEN) January 28-30, 2022 San Jose, CA (NA)

More information regarding events in Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia can be found below.

Regional Finals and Opt-In Events

We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing battle, with some areas struggling to return to a sense of normalcy more than others. In order to accommodate regions affected by event uncertainty and travel restrictions, we are introducing regional online finals for Europe and Australia. Each finals event will feature uncapped shop goals to allow players to fund their own scenes directly. In addition to our new finals events, we have a brand new Opt-In system for local events in Europe and Australia, and online events for the emerging regions of South America and Asia.

For Europe and Australia:

  • As local events return in a safe and functional manner, tournament organizers will be able to apply for RCS prize support for their events.
  • Events added through our Opt-In system will receive prize support but will not give players league points in order to prevent unfair advantages on the leader boards.

For South America and Asia:

  • South America and Asia will both have opportunities to receive DLC support on par with the other regions.
  • Tournament organizers from each region will be allowed to apply for one event every month, starting in September, to receive new and older RCS exclusive skin rewards.
  • Sub-regions that are unable to compete in certain events, such as Brazil, can contact SBS or Etalus to ensure that they can have their own tournaments included.

Monthly Themes

Elemental themed months are returning from Season 5 with a fun twist! Starting in September, each month leading up to our January finals will have a special theme based on characters from the upcoming Workshop Character Pack that will affect how the community interacts with the series including special bundles from our upcoming shop, a chance to acquire brand new and previously retired RCS DLC skins, and even unique prize opportunities for competitors participating in each major.

When each month’s major event comes around, we highly encourage players to record every character used on their tournament runs. The highest placing competitor to exclusively use rivals matching the month’s elemental theme will receive an item from the Season 6 RCS shop. If a player happens to WIN the monthly major using only Rivals matching the month’s elemental theme, they will be awarded a voucher from us for a custom controller by our friends at Controller Chaos.

Season 6 Reward Structure

As mentioned above, there will be special rewards for the highest placing player(s) using only rivals matching each month’s elemental theme, but that’s not all. Each month’s online event will have a dedicated prize pool and each finals event will have an uncapped prize pool, all funded by our shop. On the DLC front, we are happy to introduce brand new skins (TBA) for participants of each online major. Offline events will also feature pot bonus compendium goals and new themed skins!

 

Season 6 Rankings

For those curious about how our yearly rankings will be weighed, players looking to qualify for the Season 6 Top 50 will need to enter a minimum of 3 RCS events. We understand that there may be some hesitancy for players to mix online and offline events together, so players will only be ranked according to their placements at their best three events of Season 6 (player matchups may still be considered for all events).

Links!

This post has a lot of information to digest, so please refer to all relevant links for event pages! Stay tuned in the weeks to come for more RCS news as we lead up to the start of the season this September!

Registration is now OPEN for our November online event, Heat Wave, and for Genesis 8!

EU Rivals Championship Series Season 5 Wrap-Up

Season 5 of the European Rivals Championship Series concluded this month with our first ever region-specific Finals event making its way online. The EU RCS Finals brought out new the 2020 talent, with a few newer faces seizing the opportunity to make a name for themselves.

Some amazing sets with both Doubles and Singles live-streamed made this weekend one to remember. Read on for a recap featuring highlights, event breakdown, and more.

VODS

Let’s start with the VoDs in case you’re here to avoid spoilers. You can find everything we had on stream throughout RCS Season 5 over at our official channel. Singles and Doubles are available now.

EU RCS Finals | Singles

EU RCS Finals | Doubles

THE CHAMP

Congratulations to Fireicey for winning the RCS Championship!

Fireicey cemented himself as a household name after claiming the EU RCS Season 4 title and traveling to Genesis 7. Fireicey started Season 5 off with some familiar competition from Transco, Falling in RCS Fire and Air, before finding his first Major win at RCS Earth. Things looked a bit dicey as Fireicey dropped into losers side just before top 8, paving to way for a monstrous Sunday run, losing only 3 games in 6 sets to secure his victory.

Fireicey also went on to win an impressive doubles bracket with his teammate, OliveOily. Congratulations to our EU Champion!

SINGLES MAIN EVENT RESULTS

Just before Top 8, alki and Shayd achieved game 5 stunners to knock top seeds Fireicey and Japal into losers. This opened the door for Z0nyx to make a run of a lifetime, reaching the winners side of Grand Finals before eventually falling to a seemingly unstoppable Fireicey coming from the Losers side.

Standing Player Character
1st Fireicey
2nd Z0nyx
3rd alki
4th Japal
5th Shayd
5th DJ Dacus (Sportsfreund)
7th Jimbenator
7th Hukon
Full Standings >

DOUBLES RESULTS

OliveOily and Fireicey ran though a difficult Doubles bracket, dropping a few games early on but securing perfect victories in Winners Finals and Grand Finals.

Standing Player Character
1st OliveOily / Fireicey  
2nd FullMetal / Slimepuffen  
3rd DJ Dacus (Sportsfreund) / Dima Richman  
Full Standings >

VOLUNTEERS

A special shout-out to Frikinin for taking up the responsibility of head T.O. during RCS Season 5. This is not an easy job and he stepped up to the plate to create a wonderful competitive environment while working with production czar, Readek, who held down some amazing streams on  our official Twitch throughout the Season. In addition to streaming, Readek helped out Frikinin and OliveOily with event seeding, and put extra care into creating a universal stream tool while adding region specific aspects for the EU RCS events!

Finally, thank you to all of the wonderful commentators who helped bring the hype to the RCS Finals: Cyberstorm, Raven, Zakip, Hermoise, Guidobaldo, Defileus, Slimepuffen.

We hope you enjoyed the final event of the season. We hope to bring you more events soon, thank you!