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Genesis 5 / RCS S2 Wrap Up

Genesis 5 is over, and with it came the conclusion of season 2 of the RCS and the crowning of a new champion. If you’re new to the scene, the Rivals Championship Series is our premiere circuit for official Rivals events. Players compete over the season to earn points and prizes, and eventually duke it out at our finals which took place at Genesis 5 this year. Read on for an in-depth wrap up on all of the action there as well as a hint at our competitive plans for 2018.

Rivals Top 6

Character Reveal

Local events are always a great experience, and sometimes we get to make them even better by bringing something special. This time we revealed our next character – Sylvanos, The Heart of the Forest – and also held a live version of our new developer podcast.

Players who were able to make it over to the Folsom Street Foundry also got a chance to get their hands on him early by playing him in the GameVibes pre-G5 event.

Singles

In addition to this singles bracket being our most stacked tournament ever, we also had a record breaking prize pool of over $12,500. Players came from all over to meet their Rivals friends, compete, and test their mettle in the RCS World Finals. At the end of it all T2 | CakeAssault stood victorious as the RCS season 2 champion after winning an uphill battle through a game 5 reset.

Congratulations to all of our top 16, and thanks to all of our competitors who joined us at the event to help make this a piece of Rivals history.

Standing Player Character
1st T2 | CakeAssault Forsburn
2nd Panda Global | FullStream Ori
3rd MrLz Maypul
4th TUX | LBO Zetterburn
5th TUX | DolphinBrick Orcane
5th AF | Windows WrastorKragg
7th Protagify Absaclairen
7th Kaos Maypul Etalus
9th FlySociety | TurtleBox Kragg
9th TwistedSin | FailWhale EtalusKragg
9th T2 | Penguin Absa ranno
9th VexX | AZCards kragg@32
13th Jesier Ori
13th MSB absa@32
13th Ralph clairen
13th ZeeBee Kragg
Full Standings >

If you missed the action while it was live, you can find the VoDs from ShowdownGG and VGBootCamp already on YouTube. Jarek has also released one of his patented highlight videos if you’re looking for a shorter recap:

Doubles

The doubles bracket took place solely on Friday and also broke Rivals records for the level of talent and size of the event. Players made some exciting showings with their friends or sponsored teammates, with T2 | Penguin and T2 | CakeAssault eventually taking home the gold.

Standing Team Character
1st Team Tempest T2 Esports Team
(T2 | CakeAssault & T2 | Penguin)
forsburn absa
2nd Twisted Team
(TS | FailWhale & TS | SBS)
forsburn kragg
3rd FullBox
(PG | FullStream & FS | TurtleBox)
Ori kragg
4th Cerveaux d’escargots
(Kaos & VexX | AZCards)
maypul kragg
Full Standings >

You can find the doubles event VoD playlist on ShowDownGG’s YouTube channel.

Event Photography

This year we brought out Xenos Mccloud for some dedicated Rivals photography at G5. He did an impressive job capturing the event and you can find all of the images in his flickr album. Take a look to find a picture of you and your friends, or just get a better glimpse of what a major is like if you weren’t able to attend.

What’s Next?

Even though this closes out season 2, competitive Rivals fans have nothing to fear. We’ve got plenty of esports endeavors in store for this year. In addition to our next Rivals event at Frostbite 2018, we have plans for a new official PR, season 3 of the RCS, and new events with exciting new partners.

Keep an eye out for more competitive news as well as a 2018 event schedule coming soon.

G5 Interview Series: Before the Storm

One year ago, we crowned the first-ever RCS champion. Since then, we’ve seen new sponsors join the Rivals scene, new stars rise to challenge the old guard, and more Kragg forward-airs than any man could count. This weekend, the next chapter of Rivals of Aether’s competitive history will be written as every top player heads to Genesis 5 to battle for the title of “best in the world”. We caught up with several of the biggest contenders for the throne to hear about how they’ve been preparing for the RCS championship.

What are your goals for the tournament at Genesis 5?

FullStream: My goal for G5 is to win, but I think that’s obvious. There’s not much more to explain there.

AZCards: I think it is everyone’s goal, but to get first place. I don’t want to settle for anything less because I know I am capable of getting the gold.

Windows: My main goal is to get top 8, that was my mindset going into RCS October and I won that so clearly I’m going to win Genesis. In all seriousness, I want to remain composed, as long as I don’t let my nerves get to me and I play my best I’ll be happy with whatever placing I get.

LBO: To perform well. I don’t care about placements as much as I care about performing to the best of my ability. If I play like a god and lose to a better god, I’ll be fine. My biggest disappointment comes when I don’t play to my potential.

Kaos: I want to have fun and show some good plays. I realized I play my best and enjoy playing more when I don’t care about winning or losing, so that’s my goal.

Dolphinbrick: I want to play better than I was before. I want to be able to watch my replays from G4, compare them to G5 and notice a substantial difference.

Penguin: My goal is to show just how good I can be at a local. I don’t think my previous tournament placings have shown my full skill and I want to use this as an opportunity to beat a few of the people I’ve never beaten offline.

What have you been doing to prepare for the event?

AZCards: To prepare, I have been playing friendlies with the guys from ICE. Our skill levels are really close so it’s easy to push each other to get better. I also make sure and give myself breaks so that I can have time to digest what I have been learning.

Windows: Not for Genesis in particular, but for my overall well being I’ve been working out and taking breaks from RoA when I need them. Improving my physical and mental health will be key factors going into G5, I’m confident in my skills as a player enough to not need to grind out tech.

LBO: Practicing a ton. I debated switching characters but I think I’ll be going all Zetter once again. My Zetter is better than ever and I have some new tricks up my sleeve that I’ve labbed out.

Dbrick: Playing whenever I can. I try to get games in with the best players that are available. I also watch replays to catch my bad habits and nail down bad habits from other players.

Who are you most excited to see at G5?

FullStream: I don’t think there’s one person in particular that I’m the most excited to see. I enjoy seeing everyone in the Rivals community for each event, and then there’s going to be an Ace house so I’ll be spending more time with them as well. On top of that I get to see the same, and some more, Panda Global people at G5, so I’m excited for that as well!

AZCards: I am always most excited to see my friends from ICE. They are a great group of people to be around and we always have fun. They’re the reason why I’m still playing this game and if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be at the level I am today. I owe a lot to them.

Windows: I honestly can’t answer this with one person, this will my first chance at hanging out with so many friends I’ve made online, I look forward to seeing everyone.

Kaos: SNC and Windows because it’s always cool to meet people that you only knew online before. But overall I’m also excited just to be there and meet everyone again.

DolphinBrick: All of the ICE boys!

Penguin: I’m most excited to meet some of the other ACE members IRL and hang out with them the whole weekend at our Airbnb. I’m also extremely excited to potentially meet Turtlebox’s dog, “Waffles”.

Outside of the singles bracket, what are you most looking forward to?

FullStream: Basically everything! Doubles, seeing everyone again, watching Melee/Smash 4 top 8, etc. The whole event is something I greatly look forward to.

Windows: Even including the singles bracket, I’m looking forward to doubles the most. I feel like the RoA Doubles meta is vastly unexplored, and Slime Mage is someone who’s shares the same drive for 2v2 that I do. Aside from that, this will be my first local event that I know I’m going to commentate in advance, and I can’t wait to have fun on the mic at such a prestigious tournament.

Kaos: Doubles bracket of course! LBO and I realized that it would be too easy for us if we teamed again, so I’m teaming with AZCards this time.

What does it mean to you that Rivals has been a part of Genesis for back-to-back years?

FullStream: Genesis seems to be the event for rivals since it is the Season Finale two years in a row. That alone makes Genesis very important to me and brings a lot of hype to the event.

AZCards: It means that the game is doing well and you can see that it has been growing in popularity since last year. I’m really happy for Dan, and the rest of the crew, that the game is doing so well and has exceeded expectations.

LBO: I think it’s awesome. It shows that the growth has been going well for the game and we didn’t just fall off.

Kaos: Back when I played Brawl I remember watching the stream of the first Genesis and Armada’s run on Melee. Streaming was still in its infancy back then and it was a really cool moment, watching some high quality Smash with other friends and players at the same time. Having around 300 entrants was also impressive back then, Smash tournaments were a lot more niche with a small community of passionate players. Genesis always reminds me of these good memories, and I’m glad that RCS finals are held there and that I have the opportunity to participate. It’s also nice that this time top 6 is played on Sunday in the theatre, just like Melee and Sm4sh, which shows that RoA established itself as a major game too.

Who are you looking forward to facing in bracket?

AZCards: I look forward to playing MSB at every tournament. Our matches are always tense but somehow he can still make it fun. I’m also hoping that I can beat some of the other top players like Fullstream, MrLZ, and LBO. It’s definitely a confidence booster if I manage to get a win from one of these guys.

Windows: I hope I get a runback with MSB at some point, our set at Dreamland was very close, and win or lose I feel like we’d put on a good show.

LBO: We only have a couple of truly top tier players. I want to be counted amongst them. I think if I can beat Ralph, Lz or Cake in locals then that will show that my double elimination of FullStream wasn’t a fluke and that I should be counted amongst the very best. That’s my goal.

Kaos: I’d like to face FullStream because I’ve been to the US twice already and never got the chance.

CakeAssault: Fullstream, MrLz, Arcanine, LBO. I want to finally not buster out against Fullstream. MrLz and Arcanine took me out at G4. LBO is fun to play against.

Penguin: I’m most looking forward to facing MSB, as I’ve played offline in tourney three times and I’ve yet to beat him. I’ve been close every time however.

This will be the first major tournament to feature Ranno and Clairen. How will the new characters affect the tournament meta?

FullStream: I’m pretty sure Ranno and Clairen are going to make big appearances at this tournament. If not both, then at least one of them, but they’re both just really good and aren’t too hard to pick up in my opinion. Having them appear in a local tournament for the first time will be very interesting to see.

LBO: They both absolutely trash Zetterburn so it will be an uphill battle for me. Expect to see them do exceptionally well overall especially in the middle rankings.

Kaos: I don’t think any player will rise or fall because of the new characters. That being said Ranno and Ori specifically are really strong and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of them in the higher rankings

DolphinBrick: Ranno is going to force people to tighten up their punish game, his fast aerials are good at breaking combos. Clairen is less developed, I’m not sure we’ll get to see a top-level Clairen yet.

We’ve gotten some hints, but what are your predictions for the new DLC characters coming this year?

Windows: I predict Bradshaw in a mech and anyone who suggests otherwise is a harlot. I’m also hoping for a sand snake, it’s anyone’s guess at this point until they’re revealed, Dan loves to troll us.

AZCards: It’s hard to say who the Earth Rival is. A lot of people think it’s metal- or sand-related but I’m not even sure. Even with beta insight, I still have no idea. The Air Rival is definitely a snake of some sort that pilots a mech. Dan held that Twitter poll and the snake won, plus the art on Elranno’s Twitter page looks just like a snake. Here’s hoping that the Earth Rival is a penguin who wields the power of sand.

Kaos: A snek in a mech, with an overheating mechanic like Rumble in LoL. Some kind of rabbit. And for the guest character, car from Rocket League.

CakeAssault: We’re definitely getting a snake in a mech suit. Then we’re gonna get a DLC skin that turns the mech suit into Car from Rocket League, sorta like Mario and Doc in PM.

DolphinBrick: They’re gonna be broken af.

Huge thanks to all our players for participating in our Road to Genesis interviews. You’ll find all their Twitter info below, make sure you support them as they prepare for the RCS finals. Genesis 5 kicks off on January 19th, so make sure to follow Rivals of Aether for all news and stream info. You can also see where and when to watch with the full Genesis 5 stream schedule.

@XFullStream
@LiveBreatheOwn
@KaosSmash
@RoA_Windows
@DolphinBrick
@VexX_AZCards
@RoA_Penguin
@T2CakeAssault

Brawlhalla and Rivals of Aether Crossover Skins

We’re excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with Brawlhalla to release our first ever crossover skin! You can now turn Maypul into the Legend Ragnir with this fiery alternate skin, including all new art and sound effects.

Check out the trailer below to learn more on how this crazy collaboration even came about:

Full details on Ragnir Maypul can be found on the Steam store:

To learn more about Ranno’s cameo as an alternate skin for Wu Shang, visit https://www.brawlhalla.com/news/brawlhalla-patch-3-09/.

G5 Interview Series: SNC

by Trent Murray

Rivals of Aether had a phenomenal 2017. Although the calendar year is over, there’s still one matter left to resolve–crowning the RCS champion. At Genesis 5, we’ll not only see the best talent from around the United States fighting for the title, there will be challengers from all over the world.

For Australia, all hopes lie with a player who recently dethroned fan-favorite Gabe as the AUS regional champion. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Australia’s new star, SNC.

SNC Interview - AU RCS Champion

Tell us a bit about your competitive gaming history before Rivals?

SNC: Rivals is actually my first look at competitive gaming. I had been watching a lot of Melee and Smash 4 in the year leading up to Rivals early access release, so when I saw it’s release on steam early access I instantly bought 2 copies, one for myself and one for a close friend of mine. We eventually discovered the Aus Smash discord server was running tournaments and both decided to give it a go, which lead us to our local scene.

The first event we attended my mate knocked me out in Winners Round 1, but I somehow managed to make the losers run all the way to Grand Finals to place 2nd losing to local legend Dreadtech. That little taste of the top left me wanting more and pushed me to stay in the scene and learn as much as possible.

How did you choose your main?

SNC: Despite being known for it, I actually didn’t start with Kragg. When I sat down to play my first local tournament I realised I had to decide who to play and settled on Zetterburn. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted with Zetterburn though and the longer I played him the more I felt that he didn’t suit me, so after 6 months of practicing Zetterburn I started looking elsewhere for a new main.

MSB had been releasing combo videos at the time and locally our best player was Dreadtech, Australia’s first Kragg main. I thought Kragg was still relatively unexplored and used them both as inspiration to learn as much as I could about the character.

Outside of the singles bracket, what are you most excited to do during your time in the States?

SNC: Unfortunately, my trip to the states isn’t going to be as long as I initially hoped, as I’ll need to be coming back home to work. Luckily for me, the week I have there is going to be so jam-packed that I can’t possibly be disappointed. To meet all of the players and community figures, the developers, housing with the TSMSB boys and just being a part of Rivals history–being at G5 is honestly a dream come true.

 

When you’re not playing Rivals, how do you spend your time?

SNC: I’ve had the past year off from Uni, so I’ve been mostly working part-time, spending a lot of time with my loving girlfriend and playing plenty of video-games! I adopted a dog in the last six months as well, which has been a huge challenge in itself, but I’ve loved having a pet in the house.

How did your family react when you told them you’d be travelling to the US to compete in a video game tournament?

SNC: They’re all honestly very supportive. They’ve known about it for a long time now, so they knew how badly I wanted to win the RCS series and have my shot over there. My girlfriend has even watched some of the streams for majors that I’ve entered in the past, such as BAM 9. Some of my old high school and Uni mates were a bit surprised when I told them, as most of them had no idea I was even playing video games competitively in the first place, but they’re all really excited for me now.

What does it mean to you to be representing your region at the biggest Rivals tournament as the AUS champion?

SNC: Nerve-wracking [laughs]! The best part about the Australian scene is that we’re a real tight knit community, everyone has met each other at local events, been to each other’s places for practice and travelled together for tournaments. We’re not just random usernames competing in tournaments anymore, in fact most of the scene call each other by their first names!

Travelling out to G5, it’s definitely a comfort to have their support, and I know that when I’m sitting down to play that the Aus scene will be back home cheering me on. So, as much I want to do well for myself I just want to make all those boys proud.

With a smaller practice pool in AUS, what have you been doing to prepare for the new DLC characters, since there’s less tournament footage of them played at the highest level?

SNC: Thankfully a couple of decent players picked up Clairen here, so I was able to lab out some setups and figure out a nice tempo to play against her, but in the case of Ranno I spent a long time practising the character myself.
Some of my findings can be found in the Ranno homework channel on the academy server, but after a solid month of only Ranno I had a pretty good feel for what he could do and how I had to approach fighting one. I haven’t decided whether my Ranno will be up to scratch to bring out in bracket though, so I’m putting all my efforts into Kragg now.

 

Who are you most looking forward to facing in bracket at Genesis?

SNC: I’d really like the opportunity to play either MSB or AZCards and flex my stuff in the Kragg ditto. It’s a relatively simple matchup, but there’s so many crazy things that the character can do that I would love to fight it out with one of NA’s best Kragg mains. RiskyCB is another player I would love to come up against in bracket, I really love his approach to the game and have learned a lot from watching him.

As the game continues to grow, how do think AUS compares to other regions in overall strength?

SNC: It’s difficult for me to say. I think there’s a really defined gap in skill in Australia, where our top 5 or so are being left unchallenged for the most part. Being a smaller scene makes it difficult for those players, I think, as we won’t have access to the same level of experience, matchups or even resources in some cases. Any of our top players could have success in America if they worked hard enough to overcome those problems.

I’ve personally made a real effort this RCS season to learn as much as I can about the game, being added to the Beta Team and becoming a mentor on the Rivals of Aether Academy Discord. I also spent four months writing a full Kragg guide, which definitely helped me as a player, and I hope some of you as well!

Two players I would really like to see travel to America for a national would be Neeson or Dave. Neeson has mained 6 characters in his time as a player, most at the highest level of play. If he were to travel to a major I know he would put everything he had into it. Dave has the most defined neutral of any player in Australia, and I’d love to see that stack up against the best talent that NA has to offer.

Anything else you’d like to share with readers?

SNC: Last week we released the latest Australian Power Rankings, so definitely check that out and share some love for our boys.

Australian Rivals of Aether PR

I also want to reach out to any Australian players out there who may not be in our community yet. If you’re from Australia and you want to play Rivals, you need to be in our discord. We’re always welcoming to new players, so join us at http://discord.gg/smash and introduce yourself in the #competitive-roa channel.

Our thanks to SNC for the interview, be sure to follow him on Twitter, and support all of our top players as they compete for the RCS championship at Genesis 5 on January 20th and 21st. Don’t forget to follow Rivals of Aether as well for more player interviews as we continue on the Road to Genesis.

Patch 1.2.5 Notes – Genesis Time!

We’re releasing a small patch today that’s a preparation for Genesis 5 next week. Most of the changes are bug fixes we wanted to fix before the big tournament but we also took a look at Ranno’s Forward Special to add some counter play to the attack.

 

banner_general

  • We added a Sound Test to the Character Select screen that allows players to change the menu songs.

Bugfixes

  • Fixed a bug that made the knockback on Kragg’s Rock Shards inconsistent
  • Orcane’s Jab artwork was updated to match his hitboxes.
  • Ori’s Dash Attack Jump Cancel only works on the sweet spot now. Before it could work during the last two frames of the sour spot which was not intended.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to ASDI certain moves such as Absa’s Up Strong and jump to get out of hitstun immediately.
  • Etalus Fair armor should no longer halt him when hit by two attacks in quick succession.
  • Maypul dash attack now links as intended (i.e. is more reliable) between hit one and two.

 

banner_ranno

  • We updated the startup of Forward Special (Tongue) to have a visual that is easier to detect and react to.
  • The tip of the tongue during Forward Special now changes its visual when it is no longer active. This should help players approach Ranno after he misses a tongue by knowing when it is safe.
  • Forward Special now has extra frames of lag when parried and a new animation when it is parried. (10 > 68 frames) He lingers in the air for a bit if parried during aerial Forward Special. He now goes into normal parry lag at the end of the animation instead of extended parry lag which ends up with a total increase of around 30 frames in most cases when Forward Special is parried. This is to give Forward Special a bigger risk in performing since the reward is often quite high.
  • Ranno will no longer get his double jump back if he jump cancels his Up Special dive kick into another Up Special. This worked because of how Up Specials are restored for Tap Jump but Ranno was able to abuse it by chaining Up Specials which was not intended.

 

banner_kragg

  • Kragg can now perform a Rockless Nspecial on a pillar that already has a rock pulled from it instead of Neutral Special doing nothing in that case.