Last month capped off season 2 of the Rivals Championship Series with a thrilling event at Genesis 5. This week, the competitive Rivals action keeps rolling with Frostbite 2018. Many familiar faces will head to the Midwest to challenge for their shot at tournament glory. For two players in particular, this will be an opportunity to prove their merit as top competitors. The Kings and Cubs compendium fund allowed unranked players (Cubs) a shot at earning a trip to Frostbite. Today, we’d like to help you get to know our Cubs, BlooD and Quote_A a little better.
How did you get into competitive Rivals?
BlooD: My competitive background is a little weird. I’ve been a long time Halo player. I went to large events since MLG Dallas 2006. However, Halo slowly died off leaving me with a competitive void. I joined the military and served my time. Afterwards, I came back home and started working at a LAN center. There I found Smash 4 and I’ve been competing in that game since. After I began to get bored with Smash 4, a friend showed me Rivals and I instantly fell in love with the game. The combo game just was so fun and fresh. Now that’s literally my main focus with my competitive drive.
Quote_A: I grew up on Smash Bros, so before Rivals was announced, I was a Smash 4 player. One day I saw Dan’s posts about Rivals on /r/smashbros, back when he was first starting development, and was immediately interested. I bought the game as soon as I could, and joined the actual competitive scene when the game got a ranked mode in May 2016.
What does it mean to you to be competing at Frostbite as an “unproven” Cub?
BlooD: I was completely shocked and humbled when I was chosen as the first Cub representative. I’ve only been playing since October and I made that clear when I submitted my application. It does set expectations kinda high. Being chosen over some highly skilled players weighs down on my shoulders a little bit. However, I will do my best.
Quote_A: I’m not exactly “unproven”, because I used to be considered a top player. However, I’d like to prove to everyone that I’m not washed up, and that I can still hold my own against some of the best players of the game. I might only just be a Cub going into the tournament, but I intend to show that I can be a king.
How did you choose your main in Rivals?
BlooD: My main in Rivals was picked because I like heavies. I played DK at a decently high level in Smash 4, so I instantly tried Etalus and Kragg. Etalus was the one I chose, mostly because of that sweet upair grab. I thought it looked sick. Also it made my friend complain when I played him, so it was win/win.
Quot_A: When I first got the game, the first thing I did was jump into practice mode on random, and played a little bit of each character. Out of all the characters in that build, Orcane stuck out to me because of his down tilt, which was super easy to start combos with.
I actually kind of dual-mained Zetterburn with Orcane for a while on release, but then I saw some gfys from Turquoise on the Rivals subreddit and wanted to be able to do cool things like he was doing. So I stuck with Orcane!
Who are you most looking forward to facing in bracket at Frostbite?
BlooD: Frostbite is going to be my first large tournament for Rivals of Aether, so I don’t expect to do great, but I have been grinding and can keep up with the best of them. I have only been playing since mid-October, so I think where I am at competitively already is pretty good. People I would like to play against are: Fullstream, Windows, Lord Bagel… or literally anyone in the top 50. I think I can prove my skill against these players.
Quote_A: I’m most looking forward to fighting MSB and Windows. I go relatively even with them in friendlies, but haven’t had good chances to play them in a tournament bracket for a while. I’m excited to see how I stack up under pressure.
At Genesis 5 we saw the reveal for the new Earth Rival, Sylvanos. What are your opinions of the character based on what we’ve seen?
BlooD: Sylvanos looks insane! He’s a zoner… but a heavy. Like, thats super rare in platformers. He probably will be a bit broken in the right hands, but I cant wait to try it out.
Quote_A: He looks like a really fun character! Right now he’s got a couple of things that look pretty busted, but I think he’ll be alright after the beta testers get access to him. I’m excited to play him.
Now some less tournament-focused questions: When you’re not travelling to Rivals tournaments, what do you like to do in your free time?
BlooD: My free time is very limited. I am a stay-at-home dad so that is my main focus. I’ve been coined as Papa BlooD in my local community because of it and honestly I am blessed being able to stay home with my daughter every day.
Quote_A: I play Rivals online instead! When I’m not playing Rivals, I play a lot of Path of Exile. And when I’m not playing anything, I’m probably working on homework because college is horrible.
What are the three best types of breakfast food?
BlooD: The best breakfast foods are:
1. Pancakes
2. Cereal
3. Bacon
(list is ordered)
QuoteA: Pancakes, scrambled eggs, and cereal. Fruity Pebbles, please sponsor me.
Who would win in a fight between Orcane and Blastoise?
BlooD: Okay this is a difficult question. Blastoise is strong… but if you have seen Adam Carra’s video, you would know Orcane is savage as hell. He doesn’t take prisoners.
Quote_A: Orcane could just back air Blastoise before he even had a chance to do anything, so I’m gonna go with Orcane.
Our thanks to BlooD and Quote_A for their time. Be sure to wish them luck on Twitter as they prepare for the tournament. You can catch all the Rivals action at Frostbite 2018 beginning on February 9th!