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
- #5-1 (You are here.)
5. Spyker
“Let ’em think you’re unremarkable and prove them wrong!” -Mammoth
A familiar face in the online rivals sphere, Spyker had his fair share of top 8s, not missing a single one for all 8 qualifying tournaments he entered this season. Among those, his best placing comes from Midoff 131, where he took first place beating Gremlin once and Sethie twice. His wins didn’t end there: throughout the season, Spyker boasted an astounding four set wins over TheViralMelon, another four over Sethie, two wins on Gremlin, and even managed wins on humanlime and windy. Spyker is most pleased with his Genesis X2 medal for third place, and hopes to continue playing simply for the love of the game.
Photo credit: bluerosetori
4. Fennec
“GOOD BETTER BEST / NEVER LET IT REST / ‘TILL YOUR GOOD GETS BETTER / AND YOUR BETTER GETS BEST!” -Ben Johnson
Fennec has been around for longer than most know, but here he makes his breakout season in 4th place on our list. You would recognize him most from a never-before-seen major win utilizing solo Shovel Knight at Riptide. On his road to victory, he bested HitTheGriddyForUkraine, Zeebee, and The Real Man twice, while also taking 1000 of Dan Fornace’s real life dollars as a reward for the feat. His prowess on the helmeted catfish didn’t end there, as he confidently blew through HitTheGriddyForUkraine, Bicycle, OoDa, and Bucketfullabiscuits on his path to 3rd place at Hitfall 4, and similar names to take 2nd at BMS 195 just the day before. This amazing seasonal performance lit a fire in Fennec, making him determined to keep himself consistent and remain at the top of Rivals competition for the foreseeable future.
Photo credit: Emmy Hubbard
3. windy
“Ori is top 3 and Pinden is a real chemist and I love Kragg.” – kevincake515
ne of the newest players on the rankings, windy started playing only shortly before the end of RCS, but quickly grew to be one of the strongest players in North America in both singles and doubles. He put himself on the map for most onlookers fairly late into the season, achieving a monumental 2nd place at Hitfall 4 — well ahead of his 11th seed — in a nailbiter game 10 Grand Finals with humanlime. Only a month later at Heat Wave, the largest bracket of the year, he secured his crown and redeemed himself against Wrastor, confidently taking 1st place. His record boasts multiple wins on Fennec, SBS, TheViralMelon, and HitTheGriddyForUkraine, alongside a set win on humanlime from the conclusion of Hitfall 4. In the future, windy would like to play and see more doubles.
Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)
2. humanlime
“Right as you said this I accidentally unplugged my pc with my foot” – TheViralMelon
humanlime makes his debut at 2nd place with fantastic results in both online and offline brackets, all while actively competing in Rivals 2, building up a record of wins against both ranked players — including windy, Fennec, Spyker, Bicycle, TheViralMelon, and Meechole — and unranked threats like Bucket, Sethie, Phantom, teri, 2JANK, and Games & Flames. Impressively, he’s also the only ranked player to achieve a win on Soulrifle211 in a qualifying bracket. Making waves early in the season with 3rd place at Hitfall 3.5 and 2nd at Super Midoff, humanlime’s attendance waned later in the season, but he stayed determined to finish the year with a bang. After an outlier 9th place finish at Riptide, he bounced back to take Hitfall 4 as his best and final performance of the season, securing him 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes at the last three instances of the MD/VA major. Despite disparate attendance in the latter half of 2025, humanlime is not done yet, and next year intends not to lose ever again.
Photo credit: Dawson Davis (Domo)
1. Soulrifle211
“Look at the screen.”
Despite the overwhelming volume of new talent in the top rankings, our #1 spot is taken commandingly by a familiar face. Though Soulrifle211’s expansive roster of characters was always known to some degree, in 2025, it was truly given the chance to shine, earning him victories at qualifying brackets with Absa, Etalus, and Forsburn. Almost nothing could stop him this season, as he earned 1st place at all but one of the qualifying brackets he entered. Along the way, he built up a record of notable wins too long to list in full, but including three on Gremlin, two on Spyker, four on TheViralMelon; single wins against elkiies, Bucket, Danzello, and Sethie; and a ludicrous 5-1 record on humanlime. Furthermore, he achieved all this while also making waves in the Rivals 2 competitive scene. Although he won’t be traveling much if at all, Soulrifle211 intends to continue competing online in the future. His focus on competition has declined since the end of RCS, but he nevertheless maintained a towering level of skill throughout the year. Only time will tell how long it will take the competition to catch up.