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Welcome back for the latest community roundup. Here we highlight our favorite fan-made Rivals stuff, from the lowliest memes to art of the highest order. Read on for our favorite music, art, general community happenings, and more.

ART

Zetterburn Wallpaper from CRcopper, an adaptation on ZomboGrub’s Zetterburn piece.

@danfornace Im watching @RivalsOfAether for a long time so i decited to make some kind of art. Btw, im a terrible artist… xd pic.twitter.com/dQKflI7zhi

— Kiyo🍄 (@WoofKiyo) May 25, 2017

Adorable Kragg by Kiyo.

“Beta screenshot from the Rivals Visual Novel DLC” leaked by Kenneth.

Commission done for @LordSnackington !
Rivals of Aether is a gr8 game, please play it! pic.twitter.com/ni7gyvlK4h

— Squiggles (@SquigglestonIII) May 25, 2017

Squiggles commission for the Etalus player LordSnackington.

GAMEPLAY

“Look behind you.” MrKibbles7 showcases Forsburn’s deceptive talents at their best.

Mrinohk shows us true deception with Forsburn in online play

Sino so fancy. Who says Zetterburn can’t recover?

Jarek also put his own Zetterburn combo video recently.

OTHER GOOD STUFF

ProDoubleSushi’s Forsburn Guide
ProDoubleSushi, a talented player with a long history in Rivals, has put out one of the most comprehensive guides ever for Forsburn. It’s filled with tons of useful information ranging from quick tips to detailed, specific strategies and data. I highly recommend this guide if you’ve ever been interested in Forsburn.

Golden Elite’s Absa Guide
Golden Elite (already known as far as guides go for his popular Zetterburn guide) has just put out a new guide for Absa. Following his other format it covers everything you’d ever want to know about Absa.

Steam Foil Badge for #RivalsofAether. 🔥🦁 pic.twitter.com/5BiEPI14EN

— Solar (@SolarRoA) May 22, 2017

Here’s a look at the foil Steam badge for Rivals of Aether. This is the first one the dev team has seen in the wild so congrats to Solar on crafting it.

A few eSports organizations have either added more Rivals players or entered the scene in the past few weeks. Here’s a recap for those who might have missed it.

We’ve expanded our RoA squad✊
Give them a warm welcome & drop them a follow. @Turtlebox_v2 @ProDoubleSushi #FlySociety pic.twitter.com/WiVDNsBrKJ

— FlySociety (@FlySocietyGG) May 13, 2017

Congratulations to Turtlebox and ProDoubleSushi on being picked up by FlySociety!

We’re happy to step into @RivalsOfAether with our new pick up @DolphinBrick! His first showing will be at #TheBiggerBalc! Drop him a follow pic.twitter.com/6Xeqrn1ETM

— VexX (@VexX_Gaming) May 9, 2017

Congratulations to DolphinBrick on being sponsored as VexX’s first Rivals of Aether player.

“A new Rival enters the arena!!”

We’re proud to welcome @VexX_AZCards to the @RivalsOfAether team! Check him out at the @TheBalc May 28th! pic.twitter.com/Wy5dCePg4p

— VexX (@VexX_Gaming) May 12, 2017

Congratulations to AZCards for also being picked up by VexX. Both of these players will be ones to look out for at Bigger Balc this weekend.

By: Yam, ERR40, OddBod, Slime Mage, Tom, Wisetom

This is part of an article series highlighting the European Rivals of Aether community, focusing on the top 20 EU players.

Articles in the Series

• #20 – 11
• #10 – 04
• #03 – 1

You can sign up for the first EU tournament in season 2 of our free, online circuit over on smash.gg. Everyone who plays in the event will receive a Champion Etalus skin. If the event reaches 125+ registrants, everyone who plays will also receive the brand new Champion Kragg skin.

Rank	Results	Rivals
10	#4
Summary

Acting as head TO of multiple local RoA events such as T.O.A.S.T. and Beast7, Yam strives to provide the best local tournament experiences possible. Often settling near the top 8 (with a solid 5th place during the RCS as well) Yam has established himself as one of the top Absa in EU with great utilization of all of Absa’s kit. He has taken sets off of Hukon, OddBod, as well as going close with Kaos. Yam is hungry and ready to jam for RCS season 2.

Rank	Results	Rivals
09	#30
Summary

Even though LZG, the Zetterburn from Portugal, is a relative newcomer to the competitive scene he’s already made his mark. People first started to take notice when he began routinely beating top tier players in tournaments and friendlies. His playstyle is comparable to Kaos in the sense that he consistently manages to create an opening in the neutral game and then rely on the fundamental strengths of the Zetterburn kit. With no signs of slowing down we are sure to see LZG rise even further in competitions this year.

Rank	Results	Rivals
08	#2
Summary

The orcane from Norway everyone fears – Hukon forces his opponent to change the way they fundamentally play the game. His spacing and neutral game are rock solid; a flawed engage will immediately be turned around with the sleek combo game we’ve come to expect from this top tier Orcane player. He’s patient, and picks his spots well. These factors make him a force to be
reckoned with, and because of that he landed the number eight spot on the power ranking.

Rank	Results	Rivals
07	#1
Summary

Though he’s not the most combo-heavy player on the list, Pat makes up for it with his wits and in-depth knowledge of each character’s kit. Despite being a multiple-character main, Pat always manages to keep up with the best of the region. His versatility gives him a unique advantage over his opponents by forcing them to adapt on a game-to-game basis. He’s comfortable in mixing up his own playstyle or counter-picking his opponents’ playstyles, character, or whatever particular weakness they might have. Pat has shown time and time again that he has what it takes to place within the top 6 at tournaments.

Rank	Results	Rivals
06	#1
Summary

Coming in strong from the very start of his career with the help of his background in Project M and Melee, Slime Mage has been one of the top EU rivals since the beta times. He’s gone through a variety of different characters and has seen consistent top 8 placings regardless of character picked up. He describes his style as a focus on movement akin to figure skating, being nimble and dancing across the stage.

Not afraid of going abroad, Slime has attended multipe local majors such as T.O.A.S.T. and has always placed at least top 3 in every event attended. His best local performance was first place at Beast7 in his homeland and he’s shown that he intends to stay one of the best EU players for the upcoming RCS season.

Rank	Results	Rivals
05	#13
Summary

“Wisetom: an enigma. Body of an adonis; his mind, akin to the greatest philosophers to have ever grazed this planet, crossed with Albert Einstein’s. Quick adaptations, unbelievable mindgames, unrivaled recovery game, all and more are part of his gameplay. But to Wisetom Rivals isn’t just a game, it’s a form of self expression. You can tell when Wise is playing, it becomes so much more than a game. It’s art, it’s drama, it’s comedy and above all it’s genius. That’s the one word you’ll always associate with the Tom and Only: genius.” ~ Wisetom, 2017

Rank	Results	Rivals
04	#3
Summary

OddBod is maybe the most legendary player of the EU community. As the creator and former head TO of the EU discord he’s responsible for bringing most of us together, but that’s not the only reason for his legendary status. OddBod goes all-in, always. With his overwhelmingly fast and accurate combo game, playing against OddBod will often times leave you feeling helpless. Thanks to his incredible proficiency with Zetterburn, OddBod manages to produce plenty of highlight plays and top placings in tournaments consistently.

By: Yam, ERR40, OddBod, Slime Mage, Tom, Wisetom

While the European scene might not be showcased as often as NA, Europe has many strong players and contenders vying for top spots within the community. To get to know some of our EU players better and highlight their talent, we’ll be counting down Europe’s top 20 players over the course of 3 days – finishing up before the first EU RCS.

This article series was put together by the group of EU players listed as authors above. While results did play a part in the making of this list it took a bit of a backseat to a more opinionated approach, meaning all panelists made their own individual lists of players and then averaged out the results. These players are all veterans in the EU scene with most participating in positions of authority, as TOs, or in other capacities that would give them insight into rankings.

Don’t forget, you can also still sign up for the first EU tournament in season 2 of our free, online circuit over on smash.gg. Everyone who plays in the event will receive a Champion Etalus skin. If the event reaches 125+ registrants, everyone who plays will also receive the brand new Champion Kragg skin.

Articles in the Series

• #20 – 11
• #10 – 04
• #03 – 1

Rank	Results	Rivals
20	#35
Summary

One of the head tournament organizers for the European Rivals scene, Tom rolls in on the edge of the EU top 20 list with a fiery Zetterburn. He secured this position through his consistency and a solid top 6 placement in the EU RCS. His passion for the game is strong and we’ll be sure to see more of him in upcoming tournaments.

Rank	Results	Rivals
19	#5
Summary

Though he started as one of the strongest players during season one of the EU RCS, _leon has dropped off considerably after his switch from Orcane to Maypul. However, his results during the time are still nothing to scoff at having taken sets off of ERR40, Oddbod and consistently beating Fullmetal. His ranking being held back by his recent performances, we hope to see a return to the glory days of _leon’s prime in season 2.

Rank	Results	Rivals
18	#3
Summary

Frogzy is another player with top 10 potential looking to return to his former glory in season 2. Frogzy plays a mean Zetterburn with great patience, his strongest performance being a top 3 finish at Saturday Rivals 10 where he double eliminated _leon as well as Fullmetal. With a top player goal in mind Frogzy intends to show his determination and take down the current champions of EU.

17. Fullmetal – Vincent Wolthuis, Netherlands
Rank	Results	Rivals
17	#16
Summary

This old ace Wrastor players completes our trifecta of competitors coming back to fight for relevance. After having switched off of Wrastor in favor of Kragg, he’s having a rocky start. However, he’s confident that we’ll soon be seeing progress and Fullmetal is sure to pull his own weight and make a return for season 2.

Rank	Results	Rivals
16	#26
Summary

Having one of the more unique Zetterburn playstyles in EU, Bert has shown his worth by being a fairly consistent top 8 placer in the latter half of the EU RCS as well as the Aethernity series. He has proven himself to be able to play very close with players of higher caliber such as Pat and ERR40. We wish to see his unique set of skills further develop to push his way into the top during Season 2.

Rank	Results	Rivals
15	#3
Summary

Amaranthx may not be the strongest Kragg in Europe, but he’s certainly no slouch when it comes to utilizing his kit. In addition to placing consistently near the top 8 in online events, Amaranthx also had a great showing at Beast 7 where he took down Yam to net himself 3rd place. Ama can tussle with the best of them on a good day and we’ll be glad to see more of his play in the future.

Rank	Results	Rivals
14	#6
Summary

Coming in as one of the definitive Absa mains in Europe, Wauschi’s usage of bread and butter combos has made him a force to be reckoned with. His use of Ftilt has developed phenomenally over his playtime and he’s seen even more improvement in other aspects of Absa play. With these new techniques being added to his arsenal and his play constantly improving, it’s only a matter of time before Wauschi is able to slay the top brass in the EU scene.

13. Godly Greedy, Finland
Rank	Results	Rivals
13	#10
Summary

Taking into account his limited but compelling results, GodlyGreedy has shown his strength with a multitude of characters in the past such as Absa, Etalus, and even Maypul originally. Though he is currently branded as inactive in the tournament scene we hope to see a burst of activity again for this new RCS season.

Rank	Results	Rivals
12	#9
Summary

The strongest keyboard player in Europe, Cyberstorm rolls in with a fierce Kragg that shows phenomenal usage of special moves and smart play. Cyber may have some of the more inconsistent placings of the people on this list, but also the capacity for the biggest upsets – able to take down plenty of Europe’s strongest such as ERR40, Slime Mage and Hukon Riisu. With any luck Cyber intends to keep up his strong showings in season 2.

Rank	Results	Rivals
11	#2
Summary

ERR40 is UK number one, admin of RoAEU, and one of the earliest players from around the European scene. Having one of the strongest mental games in the community, Error solidifies himself as one of the best and has never strayed from this path. Error has stayed with Kragg for his entire career and we see no hints of him ever stopping. He is certainly capable of playing at a higher level but unfortunately has had to withdraw from multiple tournaments due to his connection which holds him back on this list.

With The Bigger Balc coming up this weekend we wanted to put in some changes we’ve been working on before the big event. Though most of this patch was catching up on bugs, we’ve made some changes that will affect competitive play as well as big improvements to keyboard controls. We’ve also added the Champion skins that people earned last Saturday during the Road to Shine. Read on for the full patch notes.

Stage Updates

Several of the new stages have been tweaked with competitive play in mind.

• Tempest Peak – Platforms now indicate when they are about to move with visual cues on the air council statues. The platforms also move less often. Top blast zone reduced by 16px and side blast zones increased by 16px.
• Aethereal Gates – Players now start the match further apart.
• Endless Abyss – The huge space, lack of platforms, and massive blast zones really limited approach options and caused some slow play that was uncharacteristic of Rivals. We’ve reduced the size of this stage all around, taking 36 pixels off the sides and decreasing the total ground width by 160.

Skins

New promo skins are on the way as we get ready for summer events and season 2 of the Rivals Championship Series.

• New Seasonal Colors: Summer – In honor of the beautiful weather and summer themed events coming our way, a new set of summer colors are available for each character.
• New Champion Skins – Champion Kragg and Champion Wrastor have been added to celebrate the start of season 2 of the RCS. Earn these by playing in free online RCS events. You can sign up for NA, EU, and AU events on smash.gg.

Miscellaneous

• Team Spawns Updated – Spawn points for team matches have been made more symmetrical. Teammates now also spawn on the same side of the stage so that players can no longer start in an advantageous position below their opponent.
• Keyboard C Stick – Right stick buttons have been added to the keyboard controls.
• Sound Test Menu – You can now listen to the Rivals soundtrack in-game, accessible through the ‘Sound Test’ menu.

Bugfixes

• Zetterburn’s Fstrong hit 1 is now properly untechable again
• Etalus can no longer pull frozen enemies through moving platforms
• Fixed an Etalus shader issue that caused him to become oddly shiny in playtest
• Etalus Freeze can no longer cause an invincibility bug on the Aether version of Air Armada
• Players are no longer able to be frozen when standing on ice after a successful parry of hit 1 of Etalus’ Dspecial
• Orcane’s puddles now behave properly on platforms
• Strong attack press no longer makes Maypul Fstrong to the right in playtest
• Throwing a rock down now pops Kragg up the same amount whether he is on the ground or a platform
• Fixed a parry invincibility bug discovered by Arcanine:

• Fixed a crash that could occur when equipping runes and switching characters
• Fixed a playtest issue that produced a fatal “Out of Bounds” error
• Fixed a crash with Etalus ice in online playtest
• Fixed a crash involving Abyss XP Piñatas
• Fixed a replay desync issue involving custom controls
• Stage data corrected on stage select menu
• Hitboxes can now correctly hit both a rock and a pillar, instead of just one or the other
• Red team is no longer invincible to lightning on the Aether version of Tower of Heaven
• Cleaned up stray pixels on Absa’s character art
• Corrected menu issue where the cursor didn’t work for some players in the Custom Color menu

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

• #50 – 41
• #40 – 31
• #30 – 21
• #20 – 11
• #10 – 4

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
3	99.00
5th	5th	79th	1st
Summary

Ralph was the undisputed best at the game for almost all of early access, seeming to play on a completely different level than his opponents. With the help of his impressive Melee background he was able to win every event he attended before the RCS began.

Once our online league started he secured enough circuit points for his travel voucher to Genesis 4 by showing up to just the events he needed, calmly taking first place, and fading back to watch the others fight. After a brief stint away, Ralph is coming back to play in season 2 and see how he stacks up against the upstarts that have risen after our full launch.

Rank	Rating	Rivals
2	99.30
2nd	2nd	N/A	N/A
Summary

MrLz is another young pro that first became known in the platform fighter scene through Project M and Melee. He brought his skills to bear playing Maypul, one of the quickest and most technical characters in the cast. MrLz was dominant in the season one RCS events and finished people off with style (and more than his fair share of taunts). Since he was one of the only players people thought could stand up to Ralph, he was a heavy favorite at Genesis 4.

MrLz is on hiatus while recovering from a heart condition, but we know he’ll come back stronger than ever. The entire Rivals community wishes him and his family health and a speedy recovery!

Rank	Rating	Rivals
1	100
1st	1st	1st	1st
Summary

Though our other top 3 have history as high level players in smash games, FullStream is all our own. He began his platform fighter career in Rivals and rose to the top early in season 1, ultimately finishing our online circuit at #1. Going into Genesis 4, the question on everyone’s minds was would he be able to take down the titans that were Ralph and MrLz. Coming into the top 8 from winners’s side certainly gave him an advantage though he had a bit of a scare narrowly beating Arcanine in game 5 of their set. After that, the rest is history as he cleaned up MrLz 3 – 0 to take the trophy and the title of the first RCS Champion.

FullStream doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon either. You can see him and some of his crew members in Ace and FlySociety at the Bigger Balc next weekend as the first major in season 2 of the RCS kicks off.

Thanks to everyone who stayed with us during this series. We’ll be publishing an EU version soon put together by their community, and an honorable mentions section for this list so stay tuned for that. To enter our first s2 online monthly and receive a free Champion Kragg skin when you participate – head to the Rivals Championship Series 2 Smash.gg page.