News

Australian Rivals Championship Series Finals Month

By SBS — December 30, 2020

Earlier this month we outlined the pay structure for the Australian finals in a separate article. Now, we are happy to announce the details for the AU RCS Finals month!

AU Finals Week

Similar to other regions, we have decided to make the AU RCS Finals a multi-day event, with Singles, Doubles, and Arcadian Singles on the docket. Top 8 of Rivals Singles will be streamed live on the official Rivals of Aether Twitch.

Here is our current schedule:

  • Saturday, January 23rd: Rivals Doubles and Rivals Singles!
    • Rivals Doubles will be hosted as a for-fun event with no prize pool.
      • Bracket will play to completion.
    • Rivals Singles, our main event, with a stacking prize prize pool of up to $1,500!
      • Top 6 from the RCS season will automatically advance into the second phase of bracket, skipping Phase 1 Pools.
      • Bracket will play up to Top 8.
  • Sunday, January 23rd: Rivals Singles Finals and Arcadian Singles!
    • Rivals Singles Top 8 to completion.
    • Rivals Arcadian Singles is a special Singles tournament where all players on the 2020 Australian PR and all players that ranked top 6 of previous PRs are banned!
      • Bracket will play to completion.
      • Standard RCS rules apply, contact Katsune with any questions.

Players will be able to earn the brand new Champion Ori and Shovel Knight skins just for playing and for reaching phase two of the Singles bracket, respectively.

Singles Prize Structure

While this was covered in a previous article, we wanted to reiterate the prize pool for any players who may have missed the news.

  • Australian Finals will be a two day event with a stacking prize pool.
    • Starting prize pool will be $1,000
    • At 75 entrants, there will be an additional $250 added to the pool for a total of $1,250.
    • At 125 entrants, there will be an additional $250 added to the pool for a total of $1,500.

Weekly Tournaments with BIG Prizes

While there is no elemental theme for the month itself, the AU weekly Discord events hosted by Gabe have been such a hit, we wanted to honor them! We are going to celebrate each week with the phase 2 DLC prize from each Elemental Major. Weeklies will alternate between Thursdays and Tuesdays as follows:

  • January 7th: All participants earn a Champion Clairen skin.
  • January 12th: All participants earn a Champion Elliana skin.
  • January 21st: All participants earn a Champion Maypul skin.
  • January 26th: All participants earn a Champion Ranno skin.

AU Finals Signups are Open HERE

Categories: Announcement, Community, Esports, Events, News | Comments: 1

European Rivals Championship Series Finals Month

By SBS — December 30, 2020

Earlier this month we outlined the pay structure for the European finals in a separate article. Now, we are happy to announce the details for the EU RCS Finals month!

EU Finals Week

Similar to other regions, we have decided to make the EU RCS Finals a multi-day event, with both Singles and Doubles on the docket. Each event will be played and streamed on the official Rivals of Aether Twitch over the course of of the weekend.

Here is our current schedule:

  • Saturday, January 23rd: Rivals Doubles and Rivals Singles!
    • Rivals Doubles will be hosted as a for-fun event with no prize pool.
      • Bracket will play up to Top 8 (subject to change based on total entrants).
    • Rivals Singles, our main event, with a stacking prize prize pool of up to $2,500!
      • Top 12 from the RCS season will automatically advance into the second phase of bracket, skipping Phase 1 Pools.
      • Bracket will play up to Top 8.
  • Sunday, January 23rd: Rivals Doubles Finals and Rivals Singles Finals!
    • Rivals Doubles Finals to completion.
    • Rivals Singles Top 8 to completion.

Players will be able to earn the brand new Champion Ori and Shovel Knight skins just for playing and for reaching phase two of the Singles bracket, respectively.

Singles Prize Structure

While this was covered in a previous article, we wanted to reiterate the prize pool for any players who may have missed the news.

  • European Finals will be a two day event with a stacking prize pool.
    • Starting prize pool will be $1,500
    • At 150 entrants, there will be an additional $500 added to the pool for a total of $2,000.
    • At 200 entrants, there will be an additional $500 added to the pool for a total of $2,500.

Friday Tournaments with BIG Prizes

While there is no elemental theme for the month itself, the EU weekly Discord events hosted by OliveOily  have been such a hit, we wanted to honor them! After the New Year’s Holiday, we are going to celebrate each week with the phase 2 DLC prize from each Elemental Major.

  • January 1st: No prize due to the Holiday. OliveOily has been kind enough to run a stress free bracket for those who still want to get their Rivals fix!
  • January 8th: All participants earn a Champion Clairen skin.
  • January 15th: All participants earn a Champion Elliana skin.
  • January 22nd: All participants earn a Champion Maypul skin.
  • January 29th: All participants earn a Champion Ranno skin.

EU Finals Signups are Open HERE

Categories: Announcement, Community, Esports, Events, News | Comments: 1

Patch 2.0.7.0 out now on Steam and Switch!

By George — December 15, 2020

Our first major patch for the Definitive Edition is out now on Steam and Nintendo Switch! In addition to bugfixes, this update also includes some balance changes for the cast. Though we don’t plan on making balance updates a regular occurrence in the Definitive Edition, we’re always keeping an eye on the state of the game. The flurry of events and new players in the last few months have shaken things up enough that we feel some changes are warranted. Read on for the full notes including Switch online improvements, balance, and gameplay updates.

  • Sound effects added for teching, missed tech, missed tech bounce, and walljumping.
  • Airdodges can now snap to platforms while moving, making it possible to snap to a platform from the side.
    • Previously they would only snap to platforms during the first 2 frames.
  • Straight horizontal airdodges will now snap downward onto platforms up to 8 pixels below you on startup.

  • You can no longer fall through platforms while in hitpause after being parried.
  • Bug Fix: Wall teching invincibility is no longer delayed by 1 frame.
  • The bottom blastzone is now 40px lower when a player is not in hitstun (or in hitstun moving upward).

  • The bottom blastzone is now 64px lower for projectiles.
    • Only affects Etalus Fspecial, Kragg Rock, SK Rock, and Mobile Gear.
  • Fixed a rounding error on purple kill effect calculations that caused pixel-perfect false positives.
  • Post-DI knockback angles are now rounded to integer values
    • Prevents the purple kill effect from giving false positives due to non-integer angles.
  • Camera max speed when moving away from the default position: 4 > 7.
  • Camera acceleration when moving away from the default position: 0.2 > 0.5.
  • Camera now has a 100px buffer zone before returning to the default position when a character is offstage
    • This makes the camera follow offstage characters better and decreases camera jerkiness when characters are moving around near the ledge.
  • Keyboard double tap now works with tap jump.

  • Charged Nspecial knockback scaling: .4 > .3
    • The buff from last patch ended up being a bit stronger than we intended.
  • Uspecial multihits angle flipper: 1 > 2
    • Since the spacing of the final hit no longer matters as much, the multihits now pull inward for more consistent linking.

  • Sourspot Utilt damage: 3 > 4.
  • Fair’s recovery window can now be walljump-cancelled.
  • Bair sweetspot knockback scaling: .75 > .9.
  • Bair sweetspot knockback angle: 361 > 45.
    • No more angle 40 on grounded opponents.
  • The first 3 hits of Dair can no longer produce the purple kill effect.
  • Dspecial bubbles max vertical speed: 5 > 4.
    • They still reach above the top platform of ToH.

  • Nair endlag decreased from 12 > 10 on hit (18 > 15 on whiff)
    • This is halfway between the pre-1.4.25 value and the post-1.4.25 value.

  • Ustrong sweetspot hit lockout: 10 > 20.
    • This prevents Kragg’s own rock shards from interrupting the knockback of his Ustrong.
  • Pillar will no longer break when reaching ground height unless both sides of the pillar are touching the ground.
  • Pillar will now snap players to the top of the pillar when it reaches its final height
    • This makes crouching above a rising pillar consistent in regard to when you land on the pillar. This does not affect situations where you do not CC the pillar.

  • Fstrong hit 1 hitstun modifier: x1.0 > x1.5
    • Usually adds around 6 frames of hitstun, making it link better against aerial opponents.
  • Ustrong hit 2 startup: 6 > 4
    • Addresses the issue of opponents being able to parry the 2nd hit without crouch cancelling the first hit.
  • Clone will now use the pre-definitive recovery tactics again.

  • Dash attack hit 1 active frames: 4 > 6
    • Reduces the inactive frames between the hits.
  • Lily can no longer be bashed while she’s stunned.

  • Bair angle: 32.5 > 32.

  • Can no longer cancel the hitpause of Uspecial with an airdodge.
  • Broken Fspecial projectiles will no longer create a hitbox when landing.

  • Can no longer bash a stunned Lily.
  • Maximum distance adjusted for bashing Lily and Elliana’s grounded mine
    • Ori should no longer be able to bash these objects from extremely long distances.

  • Dstrong sweetspot base knockback: 10 > 9.
  • Dstrong sweetspot knockback scaling: 1.3 > 1.25.

  • Successful Dspecial counter now restores her double jump.
  • Successful Dspecial counter will no longer lose invincibility if you run out of parry invincibility.
  • Plasma field will now properly destroy Sylvanos’ jab-special projectile.

  • Uair 1 angle flipper removed.
    • This makes Uair link better when hitting with the back side of the attack while moving slightly forward.
  • Uair 2 damage: 3 > 5 (Total move damage: 6 > 8).
  • Double jump and airdodge are restored 1 frame earlier when emerging with Uspecial.

  • Can now hover with the shorthop button.
    • Only hovers for a short time, since holding down the shorthop button does nothin).
  • Ground friction: 1.0 > 0.65 (to buff her running parry).
  • Utilting a rock while it’s being thrown by another attack will no longer crash the game.
  • Uspecial’s invincibility starts immediately when she ejects from the mech (1 frame earlier than before).
  • Getting hit on frame 1 of landing after Uspecial will now properly restore her in-mech stats (weight, walljump speed, and hurtbox size).

  • Gem multiplier for attacks: 15x damage > 17x damage.
  • Jab knockback angle: 361 > 60.
  • Nair knockback angle: 361 > 45.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed the projectile-blocking hitbox of Dair to be parried.
  • Bug Fix: Utilt’s collision circle is no longer expanded when detecting collision with Kragg’s pillar.
  • Dtilt hit 2 knockback: 7+.4 > 8+.5.
  • Uair now has a body hitbox that reaches 50px lower than the propeller hitbox. It can only hit grounded opponents and disappears for the final hit.

  • DStrong now has a lingering sourspot for 8 frames after the final hitbox.
    • Because the endlag window is now shorter, Shovel Knight is actionable 3 frames earlier on whiff (timing is the same on hit).
  • Uspecial rising hit 1 and 2: 7+.4 at 60 degrees > 10+.3 at 65 degrees.
  • Uspecial rising hit 2 BKB decays from 10 > 7.
  • Uspecial’s recovery frames are shortened by 1/4 if the move hits someone.
  • Uspecial can no longer recover resources before landing.
  • Golden Fish value: 750 > 500.

Switch Bugfixes and Improvements

  • Frameskip has been added to the Switch netcode. This should reduce the amount of matches that run consistently slower than 60 FPS on Switch.
  • Input delay has been reduced by 1 frame on connections over 48 ping.
  • Caesar buddy will now stay unlocked properly.
  • Ranno & Clairen milestone rewards are no longer swapped.
  • Players can now create friends-only lobbies on Switch, as well as filter for displayed lobbies.
  • Fixed various crashes (for all sorts of reasons ranging from gameplay interactions to disconnecting your controller) thanks to player bug reports in our discord.
  • Story Mode completion now saves properly.
  • Default control scheme across Handheld Mode, Joy-Con pair, and Switch Pro controllers aligned.
  • Various UI and controller fixes added for GameCube Controller support.
  • Fixed several tutorial crashes and bugs.
  • Addressed a few points in the game where players could become softlocked.
  • Leaderboards now work properly.

Categories: News, Patch notes | Comments: 8

Rivals Championship Series Finals Month

By SBS — December 10, 2020

RCS Finals Month is Coming!

January marks the end of our 5th Season of the Rivals Championship Series. Each year we bring our Series to a crescendo with a massive finals event, bringing top players together from around the world with huge pot bonuses and a finals day event at the Paramount Theatre on Genesis Finals day.

We can’t wait for the return of offline events

To accompany each RCS season, we put together a compendium to support Rivals Esports, featuring skins and other merch with 100% of profits going to our community. The compendium shop for Season 5 would fund every single RCS Major in each of our three regions.

Collectively, the Rivals community helped raise over $20,000 for RCS events with $5,200 adding to Developer matches for our regular season events and $15,000 for the finals. Even our sponsor, Hit Box, joined the fray by contributing an additional $2,000! The RCS Season 5 Finals promises to be the biggest online tournament Rivals has ever seen.

To add to our fabulous prizes, players will be able to earn the brand new Champion Ori and Shovel Knight skins just for playing and for reaching phase two of the Singles bracket, respectively.

Let’s take a look at what’s to come:

NA Finals Week

True to our roots, we have decided to make the RCS Finals a multi-day event, chock full of side events! On the docket we have our main Rivals Singles event, Rivals Workshop, Rivals Doubles, and Tetherball Doubles. All events will be streamed on the official Rivals of Aether Twitch and Steam accounts.

Here is our current schedule:

  • Friday, January 15th: A high stakes Tetherball Doubles event!
    • All participants earn a Champion Elliana skin for participating.
    • Players will compete for their share of a $500 prize pool.

  • Saturday, January 16th: Rivals Doubles, Rivals Workshop, and Rivals singles!
    • Rivals Doubles returns to our finals with a $1,000 prize pool.
      • Bracket will play up to Top 8 (subject to change based on total entrants).
    • Rivals Workshop has been thriving since its creation, now we bring it back to the RCS finals with a $1,000 prize pool!
      • Bracket will play up to Top 16 (subject to change based on total entrants).
    • Rivals Singles is our main event with a prize pool of over $10,000!
      • Bracket will play up to Top 32.
  • Sunday, January 17th: Finals for Rivals Doubles, Rivals Workshop, and Rivals singles!
    • Rivals Doubles to completion
    • Rivals Workshop to completion
    • Rivals Singles to completion

Friday Tournaments with BIG Prizes

While there is no elemental theme for the month itself, our weekly Discord events hosted by TheFailWhale and Menace13 have been such a hit, we wanted to honor them! After the New Year’s Holiday, we are going to celebrate each week with the phase 2 DLC prize from each Elemental Major.

  • January 1st: No prize due to the Holiday. TheFailWhale and Menace13 have been kind enough to run a stress free bracket for those who still want to get their Rivals fix!
  • January 8th: All participants earn a Champion Clairen skin.
  • January 15th: All participants earn a Champion Elliana skin. This event will double as the RCS Finals Tetherball event.
  • January 22nd: All participants earn a Champion Maypul skin.
  • January 29th: All participants earn a Champion Ranno skin.

 

EU Finals

More information is on its way regarding the European RCS Finals, but we wanted to cover prize splits before dates are formally announced.

  • European Finals will be a two day event with a stacking prize pool.
    • Starting prize pool will be $1,500
    • At 150 entrants, there will be an additional $500 added to the pool for a total of $2,000.
    • At 200 entrants, there will be an additional $500 added to the pool for a total of $2,500

AU Finals

More information is on its way regarding the Australian RCS Finals, but we wanted to cover prize splits before dates are formally announced.

  • Australian Finals will be a two day event with a stacking prize pool.
    • Starting prize pool will be $1,000
    • At 75 entrants, there will be an additional $250 added to the pool for a total of $1,250.
    • At 125 entrants, there will be an additional $250 added to the pool for a total of $1,500.

NA Finals Signups are Open HERE

Categories: Announcement, Community, Esports, Events, News | Comments: 1

Creatures of Aether Holiday Update!

By SBS — December 9, 2020

Creatures of Aether has a big content update coming December 16th. On top of exciting Holiday Bundles, we are releasing four new mini-legendary cards that are sure to shake up the meta!


This Holiday update caps off a 3 months of updates since the App’s release in September. Let’s take a look at everything happening with Creatures this month.

Season 5

December 1st launched the Season 5 Battle Pass, which saw the release of fan-favorite Rival from the Rivals of Aether series, and face of the Creatures of Aether App icon, Wrastor.

Wrastor allows you to relocate any card without even entering the field!

In addition to the all-new Battle Pass, December 1st also brought a huge update to the ranked ladder, making it much more fun to climb the ladder while also allowing players to check out leaderboards and see the decks that top competitors are using.

Get ideas to improve your own deck and see how you stack up by checking out the Leaderboard!

Still to come, we have four “mini-legendaries” that promise to add even more depth into our constantly evolving game. Rivals of Aether fans may recognize these cards from our greater universe.

Master Cai:

If your opponent doesn’t take the card quickly, Master Cai will poison all their cards on each of your turns.

Swiftwing:

Swiftwing swoops across the board and takes as many cards as he can along his flight path.

Renburn:

Renburn razes the battlefield upon his entrance, taking power away from all cards on the board.

Zolt:

Zolt’s metal coat allows you to chain special abilities through it and forces your opponent to use a capture to remove it, while leaving Zolt un-turned afterwards.

That’s it for December, let’s check out some earlier additions to the game!

Season 4

November 1st launched the Season 4 Battle Pass, bringing Etalus, The Glacier’s Might, and an entirely new card ability, push, to the game!

Etalus freezes any cards he flips upon entering the battlefield!

The new Push ability  attracts the nearest cards before casting them to the edge of the field!

There has never been a better time to get into Creatures of Aether and the Holiday sales will continue until the New Year. Get it on iOS and Android today!

Download on Google Play

Download on Apple Store

Categories: Announcement, Community, Development, Esports, News, Patch notes | Comments: 4

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