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Super Smash Con 2017 Wrap Up

Super Smash Con 2017 is officially all wrapped up! Smash Con has a special place in our hearts as it’s one of the earliest conventions we ever brought Rivals to. This being our 3rd year in a row meant a lot when we were able to come back in a big way and see so many returning fans. This tournament was also our largest live event yet with a 160 player bracket for singles and 42 teams participating in doubles, in addition to a character reveal panel. If you missed the action last weekend this recap should bring you up to speed.

Character Reveal Panel

We revealed our newest Rival – Ranno, the poisonous pacifist on Friday morning.

Along with this reveal trailer we also did a panel that delved deeper into some of Ranno’s lore, moveset, and design with a Q&A at the end. This was broadcast by VGBootCamp and you can watch the entire panel on their channel.

Xbox One and Ori DLC Launch Date

We’ve finished our Xbox One version of Rivals and Xbox players will be able to get the full version of the game on August 23rd. Players who’ve already purchased the game on Game Preview will be automatically updated to the launch version of the game for free.

xbox-ori-release-date-3

Rivals Singles Tournament

This year’s singles event was the largest Rivals of Aether tournament to date, with a 160 player bracket that we capped off with our top 8 Saturday morning on VGBootCamp. Congratulations to Edax | FullStream for his first place finish and dominating performance that netted him the lion’s share of the $2,000 pot bonus. This was the second live event we’ve seen FullStream mix it up with characters other than Wrastor, with him playing Zetterburn for the majority of the tournament and even a suprise Etalus pick to reverse 3-0 Fable | MSB.

You can watch the VoDs from the event on VGBootCamp’s VoD channel.

If you’re interested in just the highlights, youtuber Jarek4 Gaming also put together a great highlight reel here from the event:

Final Standings:

Standing Player Character
1st Edax | FullStream
2nd T2 | CakeAssault
3rd Fable | MSB
4th Ceztellz
5th VexX | DolphinBrick
5th Edax | TurtleBox
7th Penguin
7th Skittles
Full Standings >

Rivals Doubles Tournament

This doubles tournament had a bit of a twist as both Ori and Sein along with Ranno were legal. Many teams tried out the new characters to varying success and at the end of it all Edax | FullStream and Edax | Turtlebox were crowned the champions. Congratulations to the double Edax Pro squad for securing first place and maintaining their undefeated record at RCS events in doubles.

Standing Player Character
1st Edax | FullStream / Edax | TurtleBox
2nd Sparx21 / VexX | DolphinBrick
3rd Dunk / Jesier
4th Penguin / Ceztellz
Full Standings >

Event Photos

Edax | Zam took some great photos at the event and kindly uploaded an album for everyone to enjoy. Browse through for a look into Super Smash Con 2017, the Rivals community, or to find some pictures of yourself if you attended.

View the Full Album >

Later this week

The official Rivals twitch channel will be doing some match analysis from the top 32 this week since those games weren’t able to be streamed at the event. If you were a player in the top 32 who would be interested in having your game looked at, leave a comment below!

Renzo was also hard at work during the event making sure we got all of the replays from the top 32. He’s planning to upload them to his YouTube channel so people can see some of the great matches from pools.

Upcoming events

Thanks again to everyone in the community (as well as the new players) who came out for Super Smash Con. The event was a blast and we can’t wait for the next one. We’ll see you all at Shine on August 25th! We’ll also be at these events later this year:

Rivals Summer Events Date
Shine 8/25 – 8/27
PAX West 9/1 – 9/4
Balcy’s Palace 9/8 – 9/10
Heat Wave 9/23
GameTyrant Expo 2017 9/29 – 10/1

Shine Interview Series: Gabe

by Trent Murray

In Rivals of Aether, most of the competitive conversation revolves around the United States. This is where all the major tournaments take place and where, most believe, all the best players in the world currently reside. However, thanks to the generosity of the Rivals community, two players will be traveling across the world to challenge that claim. Shine 2017 offered a compendium with ambitious goals to fly out the best player in Europe, and the best in Australia. Surpassing all expectations, the Rivals community stepped up in a big way, funding every compendium goal, including our two world warriors.

Gabe Couch Warriors Top 3-croppedIn the first of our Shine 2017 interview series, we talked to the Australian legend himself, Gabe. Coming from so far away, Gabe’s compendium goal was significantly higher than his fellow competitors. Being fully funded, it’s clear that the community has high expectations for Australia’s best player. Currently ranked #1 in AU, Gabe shares his competitive history, some insight on the Australian community, and why he’s excited to make his way to the United States.

Trent: Tell us a little about your competitive history before Rivals.

Gabe: Unsurprisingly, the first game I ever tried to get good at was Smash Bros (On the N64). I used to play the hell out of that game and I even thought I was pretty good, beating my older brother and his friends 3v1, winning all the little tournaments they hosted for their friends. “Thought” was the key word there, though. Sometime in high school (year 11) one of my mates mentioned he knew a dude named Yitzi who lives nearby that’s pretty good, and in my hubris I went to Yitzi’s house to trash him in some smash. Needless to say I got consistently 5-stocked and figured out just how bad I was.

A little later I moved on to melee and then found out there was a competitive scene [from the documentary] where I started to go to tournaments and get better (I even invited Yitzi to a tournament just so I could knock him out). Eventually I became one of the better players in my region playing [Game and Watch] in melee and made it to the national PR for Project: M and started running/helping run tournaments for my local scene. This is pretty much where RoA came in.

Trent: What made you want to be a serious competitor in Rivals?

Gabe: When I first saw alpha footage of RoA I got pretty hyped, since I’ve always liked pixel art stuff and SNES games. My excitement was justified once I finally got my hands on the game in early access and I immediately started to foster a local scene for it. My goal was never really (and still isn’t) to be a serious competitor in RoA, I was more interested in having an outlet to play via growing a scene for the game.

I just played a lot, since the game is fun. And since I played so much I eventually got good. Since I’m also the main TO for my state, I also attended every tournament, so I got more tournament experience than most other players. Me also being a beta tester got me to analyse frame data and how different characters interact a lot deeper than most players. So while I never really had a drive to be the best in Aus it just sorta happened with how involved I was with the competitive scene and the making of the game. But hey, I guess making some bus money from winning tournaments is nice as well.

Trent: What other hobbies do you have outside the game?

Gabe: Most of my time nowadays is taken up by doing my PhD (In population genetics). Sitting in my office at uni writing (As I’m doing right now) is my main activity outside of video games. Apart from Uni and RoA/Smash I also enjoy ceramic art, messing around with electronics, going to independent art galleries, heading to the pub with some mates or just watching some dank movies.

Trent: Tell us a little bit about your local scene. Are there any other players that you think would compete with the top of the U.S. if they got to travel?

Gabe: The Australian scene is pretty special compared to the rest of the world. I think we’re the only big scene that mainly focuses on offline play, as opposed to the U.S. and E.U. which are all online. We have consistent offline events, which is pretty great. The game is just so different offline and once you try it you never want to touch netplay again.

As a consequence of an offline scene, we’re all pretty close and friendly. It’s not rare for the best players in the country to invite newer and intermediate players over for some games which has led to even our newest players having a pretty solid understanding of the game, which is great. As for players that would compete with the best over in the states, I’d say Dave and SNC would probably do better than I if they went over. For one, both of those guys would take it a lot more seriously than I am but they’re also extremely good players. From what I can tell, SNC is the best Kragg player in the world and he’s been on a big grind recently. Dave also played the game like nobody I’ve seen in the states (thankfully), he’s more than happy to just sit there doing nothing while you screw up an input, with [really passive play].I’d also love to see Jet play over there, because he’s my boy.

AUS-local

Trent: Is there anything aside from the tournament you’re excited about during your visit to the US?

Gabe: While I’m excited to get to compete in these tournaments, I’m even more excited to meet the community. My main goal in heading to the US is to finally meet all the people I’ve interacted with online via RoA. I’m most keen to meet MSB, Handbutt, Etalus, Youngblood, Kaos, the food server guys, Dan the man himself and Etalus again.

One place I’ve always wanted to visit in the USA is New York City (which has been described to me as The Sydney expansion pack) and thankfully my man Toko (an EC RoA player and certified top bloke) offered to house me in Queens for the entire month, so that worked out perfectly. I think MSB is going to stay with us for a while so we should be able to get in some good practice in between tournaments. Since I’ve got housing, I’ll also be able to go to Super Smash Con, and hopefully meet even more cool people there.

The other thing I plan to do is a little networking at a New Jersey university, attempt to find some not-trash coffee in New York, and meet Qerb (The best melee GnW player in the world). So I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.

Trent: Which players are you most excited to face in bracket?

Gabe: It’d be nice to play Fullstream, just because he’s considered the best at the moment. Being able to knock him out would lend some pretty solid legitimacy to the AU RoA scene and I just love the Wrastor vs Zetterburn match up. if I manage to knock [him] out, I’d just laugh. It would be the greatest kek the RoA community has ever seen.

Trent: Which players are you hoping to avoid in bracket?

Gabe: The only players I don’t want to play in bracket are MSB and Toko. Not because I think they’ll be able to beat me, but because I’m going to be spending so much time with them over my stay that I’d prefer to play some other people once I’m at the events. Apart from that, I’m fine with whoever I get to play. I’ve never been to a US RoA tournament, so everyone is a new and fun match up.

Trent: What does it mean to you that your compendium goal got funded?

gabe-compendiumGabe: It’s nice to know that people care about the Australian scene enough to fly me out, so it does lend a lot of legitimacy to our scene. More than that though, I see this as some sort of affirmation that I’ve made a significant and positive impact on the global RoA scene and it’s really encouraged me to keep on doing whatever I can to help the scene grow (both in Australia and internationally).

Trent: What are your expectations for your performance at the tournament at Shine 2017?

Gabe: I honestly have no idea. I’ve heard predictions from top players saying I’ll place anywhere from 15th to 2nd, so it’s a pretty wide range to go off. Since I’ll be in the states for the whole month I’ll have time to learn some new stuff, practise with MSB and figure out a realistic goal for Shine. No matter how I do though, I’ll be pretty happy, since I’m there for the people not the prize money.

Trent: Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

Gabe: I’m sure I’ll get the chance to say plenty to them all IRL , so for now I’d just like to say: Thanks for flying me out and I’ll see you soon.

Thanks again to Gabe for his time and wonderful insight! Follow him at @GubbaFlubba and watch him compete at Super Smash Con next weekend, as well as at Shine 2017 on August 25th-27th. Be sure to keep your eyes right here on rivalsofaether.com for more interviews leading up to Shine 2017.

Editor’s note: Shine registration closes on 8/6 so there’s still time to sign up! If you want to come play Rivals with Gabe, the devs, and everyone else coming out for this gaming experience make sure you sign up on smash.gg.

RCS Compendium and Arcade Maypul

Super Smash Con is right around the corner and we’ve just broken triple digits for registrants! With SSC and so many other exciting events on the Rivals Championship Series circuit this year, we want to make sure all of them get the love and support they need. To help meet this goal we’ve been working on something special with smash.gg – a standing compendium for the RCS.

Rivals Championship Series Compendium - Get Rivals of Aether merch and support the community at the same time! Everything raised here goes directly to RCS events or back to the players attending in the form of prize money, travel support, and more.

This special shop will be available for the entirety of season 2, and contain Rivals skins and swag that you can’t get anywhere else. We’ll be rotating in goals as events come up (like Super Smash Con) as well as keeping our finals goal that can always be donated to. The best part is that 100% of the funds raised here go back to supporting our players and community.

To kick off the opening of the RCS compendium we’re including a brand new skin in the shop – Arcade Maypul! Pick her up on smash.gg to support Super Smash Con and get some sweet arcade effects for Maypul and Lily.

Arcade Maypul Rivals of Aether skin

We love doing events and giving back, so if you want to keep seeing tournaments like these make sure you show up to represent (or at least let us know you’re a fan online)! Here’s our current list through the summer. Hope to see you there!

Rivals Summer Events Date
Low Tier City 5 8/5 – 8/6
Super Smash Con 8/10 – 8/13
Shine 8/25 – 8/27
Balcy’s Palace 9/8 – 9/10
Heat Wave 9/23

Rivals Rep Icon Contest Wrap Up

During our second ranked season this summer we teamed up with some amazing organizations to run our Rivals Rep contest. In case you missed it, the event involved players repping their favorite esports teams for three weeks by equipping team icons in ranked matches. Each win a player earned while wearing an icon counted as a point for that team.

Though it started out fairly close between Burrito Esports, Edax Pro, Fable Esports, Panda Global, Tempo Storm, and VexX Gaming, Burrito Esports ended up clinching the win after nearly 20,000 games logged by our excited community.

Burrito-Esportslogo-square

This event wasn’t just for glory though. The winning organization also got the opportunity to add a skin to Rivals that was themed around their team. Since Burrito Esports has a pretty clear-cut aesthetic, we won’t spend too much time explaining our design process behind this skin. Without further ado we present Burrito Kragg:

Burrito Kragg

Burrito Kragg is available now in the RCS compendium. Just like this friendly competition was all about people banding together to support a common goal, picking up this skin continues that theme. Each Burrito Kragg purchase gives a 50/50 split to Burrito Esports and RCS events. This is a win/win that lets players support a great organization and the Rivals scene at the same time.

We’d like to thank all the teams who participated and encourage people to follow them and their exploits in the games you love. Gaming and esports is full of passion that extends throughout the whole scene, from the players to the CEOs, and this is one way we hope to bring people together to support it.

We heard a lot of great things about this event from our players and can’t wait to do another. If you’re an org interested in participating in our next icon contest we’d love to hear from you at [email protected].

Congratulations again to Burrito Esports and all the players who repped them on the ladder. We’re expecting great things from their top tier pickup LBO at the smash super major Shine later this month!

RCS Finals Return to Genesis

Group Photo after GrandsLast year we began the Rivals Championship Series (RCS) and brought a developer supported circuit to our dedicated community. As the series grew, we needed a special finals event to cap it off, so we ended the first season at Genesis 4.

We were thrilled with the reception and Rivals players were too. People came from all over the world for the competition and camaraderie. With a 120 person bracket and a prize pool of over $11,000, players took away some amazing stories and friendships from the event.

Now the second RCS season is underway and already blowing last year’s numbers out of the water. We’re excited to announce that the finals will once again take place at Genesis – this time at Genesis 5 in Oakland, CA! Rivals registration was just announced yesterday with the main lineup of games and is now available here: https://smash.gg/G5

We’ll have players from all over the world attending our season 2 finals, including our newest RCS region in Australia. Make sure you sign up to be a part of this amazing event celebrating our community. The first 500 people to register for Genesis 5 also get $10 off and a free shirt so make sure you get in early.