Welcome to the first Rivals Community Rankings (RCR)! The RCR is a list of the top 25 players in North America competing in Rivals of Aether each calendar year. The rankings are created by a community panel that considers data from across the continent and the year to construct a comprehensive list that highlights active top players and their accomplishments.
View more articles in the 2025 NA Community Rankings:
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- Introduction & Methodology + #25-16
- #15-6 (You are here.)
- #5-1
15. Willow
“Meechole without needle: “Feed me!”
The second beloved TO in the MDVA scene in a row, Willow found his way into the top 15 with respectable placements at Super Midoff 10 where he found his way to a 4th place finish. He also boasted a specialty 2-0 record over Sethie, giving him a massive leg up over the other qualifying players. This and his 2-1 record against Rice, win over HitTheGriddyForUkraine, and 2-1 record with Bicycle solidified him within our top echelon of players. With all these achievements across the season, Willow would like to continue travelling to events, promoting a healthy scene, and possibly drop some more Rivals of Aether content for others to enjoy.
Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)
14. Ahntye
“If you’re not taking 5 stocks a game, are you truly playing?”
Another RCS veteran, Ahntye was the first previously-ranked player on this list to have attended an online bracket in Last One, where she found wins over the likes of Meechole and Julie. More notably than her wins, she didn’t miss a top 8 in all three brackets she attended, including her first ever top 8s at Heat Wave and Genesis. Ahntye sported impressive consistency this year, only losing to players who have been previously ranked in the top 10 of RCS offline, and beating other top 50 mainstays such as Plastic Dinos and CheesyPotato. She intends to continue competing at whatever offline events she can reach.
13. Meechole
“It doesn’t miss until you let go” – Zoomander
The only Ranno to make the list, Meechole’s best wins came from his runs at Riptide and Hitfall 4. In those brackets, he beat elkiies, TheViralMelon, and HitTheGriddyForUkraine, along with Bicycle, a set he especially prepared for. He also showed impressive consistency in his online runs, with a 7th place finish at The Hunt: Finale and 4th at Last One. Meechole intends to continue traveling to events to compete with the best of the best and gatekeep TheViralMelon in particular.
Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)
12. ZeeBee
“I’m 100% a cat-person.” -ZeeBee
Zeebee is a familiar face in the upper echelon of play here in Rivals, and it’s no different for 2025. He took down players such as elkiies, Bucketfullabiscuits, and Juno, and boasts impressive consistency, reaching top 8 in every bracket he entered. Although they won’t be able to travel to events specifically for it, ZeeBee still plans to attend any brackets for Rivals 1 that coincide with his travels to compete in its sequel.
Photo credit: OoDa
11. HitTheGriddyForUkraine
“Griddy works a 9-5 getting me to kill percent nearly every stock” – Jubilo
The highest-ranked Sylvanos player of the year, HitTheGriddyForUkraine’s meteoric rise first within MD/VA, and later North America as a whole, earned them 11th on the 2025 rankings. Though their 5th place finishes at Riptide and Full Stack 2 are undeniably impressive, their best and most cherished run was to 2nd place at Bracketfullabiscuits Supernova, where they found wins over Rice, ZeeBee, and Bucketfillabiscuits. With additional wins over Fennec and The Real Man, HitTheGriddyForUkraine showed themself to be a bracket threat to even the best of the best. They hope to reach the top 8 of a Hitfall event next year, as its two installments were the only offline brackets where they failed to achieve that result in 2025.
Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)
10. The Real Man
“I found that if you have a goal, you might not reach it. But if you don’t have one, then you are never disappointed.”
The Real Man is a seasoned player in the MDVA scene and makes his mark on our list as the first member of the top 10. He had impressive placings this season, achieving second at Riptide. There, he ran through Pity and Meechole, as well as Rice, in both the winners’ and losers’ side of the bracket. Additionally, The Real Man towered over every other competitor at Bracketfullabiscuits Supernova with a commanding first place finish with wins on Rice, CheesyPotato, and two on HitTheGriddyForUkraine. Coming into the next year, The Real Man will likely take a step back from competing seriously, though, if there’s any doubles or Bear Armada, you’ll be seeing him.
9. Rice
“I do not think therefore I do not am”
Rice was an out-of-region demon this season, taking names at Riptide, Bracketfullabiscuits Supernova, Full Stack 2, and Heat Wave 8. During this cross-country takeover, Rice defeated TheViralMelon, humanlime, Zeebee twice, HitTheGriddyForUkraine, Nbad, HenArten, and Willow. Along with being proud of his wins throughout the country, Rice is also happy to boast a (nearly) undefeated record in doubles side brackets this season with his good pal windy, and he hopes to have a similar season next year, planning to travel far and wide for top level doubles and SK gameplay.
Photo credit: OldManSpidey
8. TheViralMelon
“bang” – Meechole
When you think of Mollo nowadays, it’s none other than TheViralMelon who comes to mind. Honorary owner of the Mollo discord, and bomb logic connoisseur, they exploded onto the scene with a breakout performance at Hitfall 3.5, where they outplaced their 21st seed by 5 rounds, beating HitTheGriddyForUkraine, and CheesyPotato, to secure a 4th place finish. It was after this big win where many would have returned to mediocrity, but TheViralMelon didn’t waver. They continued on their tear, getting 3rd at Full Stack 2, 7th at Super Midoff, and 4th at The Hunt: Finale. Overall, TheViralMelon is proud to have brought Mollo into the limelight. And they’re not done yet — ideally, they’ll continue this path of improvement with Mollo and in-person bracket conditions to land a tournament win of their own.
7. Bicycle
“BMS at home? BMS at home.”
Bicycle is historically the king of MD/VA. Despite being a long-time competitive threat, this year is his debut on the NA rankings at a landmark 7th place. He achieved strong placements both in-region, where he took 5th place at both Hitfall 3.5 and Hitfall 4, and out-of-region with a staggering 1st place finish at Full Stack 2, his first significant out-of-region tournament win. Along the way, he accumulated wins over Meechole, Rice, and Willow, along with an unbelievable three wins against windy. Next year, he’s hoping to win doubles at a major.
Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)
6. elkiies
“i never learned how to play neutral. i just learned how to dsmash. it’s like that one bruce lee quote.”
Thanks to a win at Hitfall 3.5 early in the year, alongside a 3rd place finish at Heat Wave, 2nd at Genesis, and 5th at Super Midoff 5, elkiies managed to maintain her top 10 position from RCS season 8. Her well-known and unique style of play lent her set wins on humanlime at Hitfall 3.5, Spyker at Genesis, and both ZeeBee and Rice at Heat Wave. She additionally secured wins on unranked but high-performing players like Akashi and twice against Penguin to win Hitfall 3.5. Though she intends to take a step back from competing to focus on her other hobbies, elkiies hopes to continue being ranked in future seasons with the events she does enter.
Stay tuned for placements #5-#1 to be revealed tomorrow!