Rivals Rankings in an Online World
Last season following Genesis 7 and Frostbite 2020, we were excited to unveil the fiercest Top 50 list to date, culminating the accomplishments of players from RCS Majors to smaller grassroots Regional events. This year, everything pointed to an increasingly more powerful ranking, stemming from results in the upcoming Season 5. A brand new Grassroots League season was about to begin, and the highly anticipated RCS was in the planning stages for an intense fifth year. This is where things took a turn.
CakeAssault securing #1 on the season 4 Top 50. Simpler times.
As everyone is well aware, the pandemic shut down life as we know it across the globe. It was a time of uncertainty as we weighed our options moving forward. It was obvious that we could not allow our players to put themselves and others into harms way. Online events would be the responsible option.
We launched our first ever online circuit, the Rivals Online Championship Series (ROCS), with bi-weekly events in North America, Europe, and Australia. At this point, the severity and duration of the pandemic was still shrouded with uncertainty, so the call was made to have the ROCS Finals stand above the six qualifiers leading up to it. The event was announced to both carry the same weight as one of our upcoming scheduled offline events, and have a grand prize voucher to the RCS Season 5 Finals (or $500 should the pandemic continue).
The ROCS, originally planned as a stopgap to fill the void of our canceled offline events.
Fast forward to the ROCS finale. It was obvious that offline events would not be back anytime soon and, with the Definitive Edition around the corner, we wanted to make sure competitive Rivals players could get the attention they deserved. We determined that it was time to move our sacred RCS series to an entirely online format, jam-packed with four community and developer supported themed events and a January Finals.
So Where Does This Leave the Top 50
It was always our intention to cultivate a fifth Top 50 list. While the year has been full of turmoil and unpredictability, this vision has not changed. We will in fact be releasing a North American Online Rivals Top 50 list following the January Finals event, curated with the same attention to detail as the previous years.
Top 50 this season will be judged solely off of the ROCS Finals event, the four Elemental Majors, and the January RCS Finals.
We feel that these six events are without a doubt, indicative of competitive Rivals for this season. Each event has been given special indication of their importance well in advance, with the ROCS Finals initially counting towards the planned offline season and the RCS events donning the name of our most prestigious tournament series. Each event to date has seen over 400 entrants with cash and DLC prizes up for grabs, and players will need to have competed in at least two events to be considered for our upcoming rankings.
| Season 5 Ranking Events |
|---|
| ROCS Finals |
| RCS Fire |
| RCS Air |
| RCS Earth |
| RCS Water |
| RCS Finals |
All events eligible for ranking.
We understand that online rankings are often subjected to skepticism, but we truly want to reward the players who help breath life into our community day in and day out. While this season’s rankings won’t be directly comparable to previous years, it’s still important for us to record this season in our history. Without a dedicated competitive player-base, Rivals as we know it could never exist.
We hope this confirmation can bring excitement to the community, while rewarding those willing to compete in unprecedented circumstances. Three events remain, and it is far from too late to make your mark on the world of Rivals. Good luck!
