Welcome to the North American RCS Season 8 Top 50! Each year we look back on the previous competitive season and the players who influenced our scene by creating a Top 50 Players list. The rankings are created by a community panel that considers data from across the season to construct a comprehensive list that highlights our top players and their accomplishments.
View more articles in the Season Eight NA Rankings Series:
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- Introduction & Methodology
- #50-41
- #40-31
- #30-21
- #20-11
- #10-1 (You Are Here)
10. Sparx21
Kicking off the prestigious final day is a familiar face, making his first Top 10 appearance since Season 4. It isn’t often that the Top 10 is so neatly separated from the rest of the pack, but from this point on we have an entirely different caliber of player. Sparx21 attended seven events with three Top 4 finishes and never placing below 9th at even our most challenging events.
Standing out among his events was a seemingly impossible TAPS 6 run where an early loss to OoDa would allow Sparx21 to win seven straight sets over the likes of Danzello, Giga, ZeeBee, CheesyPotato, and Penguin before eventually falling to CakeAssault to finish 2nd. Sparx21 looks forward to continue piloting his mech in Rivals 1 while dabbling with Loxodont until his true main’s eventual return in Rivals 2.
9. elkiies
“The world is your toilet. Lock in peep game. New Shadow Style: Dsmash in neutral.”
Next up we have a name that has been slowly climbing the rankings throughout the years, finally breaking into the Top 10. Elkiies has been on the grind since Season 1, winning an Online RCS event in 2018 and taking huge sets over her competitive career. Season 8 was a different story though, with elkiies becoming a household name and making Top 8 finishes something to expect from her by the season’s end.
On top of her fantastic season, elkiies won the Grassroots League Invitational in April without dropping a single set, even in the Round Robin pre-bracket. Elkiies wants to push herself in Rivals 1 to claim a Top 5 spot but also hopes to become a strong contender in Rivals 2 as the grind will seemingly never stop!
8. Wai
“Hey! It’s me, Wai!”
Wai had yet another impressive season, making a deep run at Riptide 2023 and winning CREST 2 over elkiies and Cork_xx. Throughout the season, Wai was consistent in his performance, only losing a single set to a player rankend outside of the Top 13 while attending eight different events. Wai’s favorite moment of the season was Soulrifle211 winning Genesis X and beyond Season 8, Wai intends to continue playing Rivals for the foreseeable future.
7. ZeeBee
“A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.”- Hamilton
A familiar face in the Top 10 makes another return, sporting a cycle of four different characters depending on the matchup and what his opponent can handle. ZeeBee managed to take sets off of CakeAssault, Kusi, and CheesyPotato while finding 2nd and 3rd place finishes at the July Online RCS and Hitfall 2 respectively.
In addition to his impressive RCS wins, ZeeBee was able to transfer his Rivals 1 and other platform fighting experience over to the first Rivals 2 public bracket at Genesis X. His first place finish on the Sunday stage capped off a dominating run where he only dropped two games in his 9-0 run for the crown. ZeeBee looks forward to a brand new Rivals meta with the sequel, where he hopes to show everyone what the game has to offer!
6. darai
“What a view.”
The mastermind behind the Sunnyshore series and a big contributor to the Grassroots League Invitational, darai weighs in as the top Ranno of Season 8! Darai managed to secure a 1st place finish at Major Upset and, over the course of the season, collected wins against the likes of Soulrifle211, Kusi, Penguin, and many more. His overall performance was nearly perfect, missing Top 8 just twice out of the 10 events he attended, and outside of one poor placement with a few uncharacteristic losses, only losing sets to current and former Top 15 players. Subscribe to his YouTube for more Rivals content!
5. Penguin
“Doubles is cool. :)” -Emily
Almost symbolically, the upper echelon of our final day are simply built different. From this point forward, these players were nearly unstoppable for those ranked below them and any blemishes on their records are only perceived that way as a result of the unnaturally high level of competition our Top 5 brought to the table this Season.
Penguin marks a second year in a row as the 5th Ranked player in North America, taking down Soulrifle211, CheesyPotato, darai, ZeeBee, Wai, elkiies, and Sparx21 in an impressive collection of Top 10 wins – only failing to beat CakeAssault while somehow never colliding with Kusi in tournament. It wouldn’t look that way to the untrained eye, but Penguin claims she accomplished her Top 8 appearances at all but one event with little to no practice. Her main drive for attending events in Season 8 was to hang out with friends and have a good time. Penguin once again exemplified what top level Rivals play looks like and we’re grateful to still see her in the community after all these years.
4. CheesyPotato
“What a view.”
Jumping up four spots from Season 7, CheesyPotato seemed like an entirely new beast as she attended an astounding 14 different events, finishing in the Top 8 in all but Rivals Recess Major 3. CheesyPotato won three different GRL events and finished 2nd at two different RCS tournaments. We saw nothing but improvement as she was able to win sets against almost every player she faced and came remarkably close to taking down a long time bracket demon of hers on three separate occasions. Everything came to a head as she attained a 4th place finish at the RCS Finals, outlasting the likes of Seggo and Penguin to do it.
“Filling out this form for what might be the last time is making me a little emotional… I’m forever grateful that I had the opportunity to travel to so many events this year and make so many memories with so many friends. I hope this community never dies, I’ll be here till the end :)”
3. Kusi
Kusi flies in at third place this season, doing so while winning his first and 2nd RCS majors and never placing below 3rd in any of his eight events. Kusi’s switch to Wrastor took many by surprise, as his classic bait and punish game cranked up to 11 to win our 2nd most stacked event of the season over CakeAssault. Kusi has a playstyle that can feel insurmountable at times while precisely punishing every misstep in neutral.
Kusi is an incredibly talented player, showing a deep understanding of top level play and exhibiting mastery in multiple platform fighters at once at major events. True to form, he carried his Wrastor into the Genesis X Rivals 2 bracket and placed 2nd on our biggest stage. We hope to see Kusi continue the grind, especially after watching his performance at GOML X last weekend.
2. Soulrifle211
“Don’t forget what it takes” – Caulin_26546
Coming in 2nd this year in an extremely close race is our Genesis X champion! Soulrifle211 picked up a 1st place finish at our biggest event, double eliminating CakeAssault in what might have been the most clean Rivals 1 gameplay in the history of the game. On top of his Genesis win, Soulrifle211 collected 1st place victories in all three GRL events he attended and placed 2nd after a Grand Finals reset at Heat Wave 6. The race this year was tight and given more time we could have easily seen Soulrifle211 snatch the crown.
“I’m looking forward to competing in Rivals 2. Now that I have a lot of competitive experience I hope to dominate Rivals 2 until I win a major with every character.”
1. CakeAssault
The prodigal son returns. CakeAssault at the top of our list may not seem like much of a surprise to some onlookers, but to those keeping track of the grueling RCS race of Season 8, they know that this could not have been any closer. CakeAssault finished 1st in four RCS events and two GRL events, placing 2nd in both RCS majors he did not win and 2nd/3rd in his remaining two GRL events.
Over the course of the season, CakeAssault had only two losses to players outside of the top 3; in both cases he got his revenge in the rematch later in bracket and then proceeded to win the tournament. While the race may have been too close to call, CakeAssault took the reins and proved time and time again this season that he is on another level. This marks CakeAssault’s 5th first place ranking out of the eight seasons the RCS has ran. Long live the king.