Share Your Story: The Rivals Community (pt. 1)

A place where my creative voice could be heard.
Coming from Sm4sh, my content would often be drowned out by everything that happens with that game on a daily basis. However when I came to Rivals, I just focused on becoming a better player. One day I just got a dumb idea to act like a complete bozo in front of a camera. I literally used my phone and a red solo cup for a tripod. That video is sitting at 9k views, which is huge for Rivals of Aether content creators. The rest is history, and I’m truly grateful to be surrounded by very supportive individuals 🙂

-Brightglow

When it comes to just simply putting art up, the Rivals community has taken me in open arms. I can post art on one discord and get like 2 thumbs ups, but Rivals, they send dozens of emotes and comments about my art. It’s honestly the few times I smile to myself for more than a few minutes. I love the community so much for that.

-Michael B.

This game and its community mean a ton to me! They gave me the chance to do what I love for other people. The amount of players who look at my comics and tell me they appreciate what I’m doing is absolutely appalling and I never thought I would get as far as I did in such a short amount of time. Even if it doesn’t mean much, I have to say thank you to the game developers, the game they made, and the community supporting the game for being so wonderful to me, and I hope to make even more dumb comics that people will like in the future.
my proudest moment was Dan Fornace following me on twitter :orcasm:

-GenericFurryDude

The Rivals community for me has been something that represents hard work and dedication. I’m from Brazil and our scene isn’t as big as in other places. With that said, we do exist since the early access, we’ve been organizing tournaments for over a year, we’ll have our PR when the year ends and all of this has only been done because the other TOs and I truly believe in the game.
Our discord server is a place where people feel welcome and we always try to make it grow however we can.
I strongly hope that Rivals gets only bigger from here on out, this game is way too good not to.
But yeah, the Rivals community, for me, simbolizes hours of dedication, brainstorming and hope.

-LeoD

I drove 7 and a half hours just to attend a WEEKLY for this game. The friends I have made through this game are definitely worth the drive. My love for this game encourages me to form, grow, and connect local scenes. Shout outs to all of the Florida scenes!

-Koji “K-Munny” Tilley

Proud hard work, I live in a country where even the smash community is not that big and I’ve introduced people into the game to the point where we had a Rivals tournament in the biggest major here, and I hope to make it grow even bigger next year.

-Alejandro Sagre – Janledroxa

This game only after 30 hours is amazing. The community by itself is amazing. I went over to the discord because I wanted to get good and when I got there, I got a lot of people helping when I asked to spar people. I learned a lot in those hours and genuinely felt happy playing the game, even if I lost. Losing also for the first time in a while didn’t feel bad. While is wasn’t as great as beating someone, it made me want to get better and play more. I remember playing with a guy on exhibition who was incredibly overpowering me at first. I just felt like I couldn’t get through. We eventually started rematching each other. We found each other on discord and we began sparring each other and he kept giving me tips and tricks. I eventually took a stock after 10-15 matches and I felt so happy I had improved. It slowly became consistent and I eventually was landing quick combos on him which felt really fun. I then spent a straight 8 hours facing him till I eventually beat him. I remember it being 12 at night and I kept saying I wouldn’t sleep till I beat him. When I eventually did it felt like the greatest thing in world. I felt I accomplished something great. I slept and then played the next morning to which it was noticeable improvements. Parry reads, consistent combos, and better movement. I have to say. RoA has the best community compared to the many games I’ve played.

-Regent | Sugar

It’s competitive, but it’s the perfect mix of salt, comebacks, and skill that makes this game alone special. But when i invite friends over or go to locals, it’s nothing but fun for everyone involved.

-TheFrogMan

I remember after my first online tournament since taking the game seriously (and being able to enter without computer complications, my PC was ass back then) I did really well. I got a 2-1 win on Danzello, a 2-1 win on MurderofCroz, and a 3-0 win on Ceztellz (but he was playing secondaries so I don’t really count it personally). But what I enjoyed the most was just chatting with ZeeBee after we played and he crushed me. He was nice, and he let me know what I could work on while mentioning how huge it was I did this well at my first online event. Idk, just stuck out to me, 99% of you guys are awesome, and I hope the community grows lager overtime.

-Prime

The rivals community means a group of people that when in need of help, i can always look to to further my understand and knowledge of the game, all while being friendly and nice. i have never seen a community so open to helping other players grow, and its truly something unique to this community. it is special to me for that reason.

-Dr. Osaka

It is for me a quite of a change… better change. Once I was sticking out with smash-like fangame, the community wasn’t really friendly at all. It kind of distorted the way on how I look on people now… I see Hope and a new way of fun in this community. I see some “memeish” people from time to time but they are not toxic at all, I can see a positive difference. My friend Strife (VA|Tenebrae) that bought me RoA for my birthday also shares the same view on you guys! Keep it up! Keep being peaceful and keep making the community stick together for ages!

-CelestialDrago

Coming from toxic communities, this place means so, so much to me. The kindness and strength of the community has helped me to come a lot more confident in myself, as well as get inspiration to actually start doing graphic design again.

-Austin “P a n t c h” Wynn

Grandes personas dispuestos a ayudar en cualquier problema del juego

-Gimpawer

I have met many of my best friends thanks to Rivals. It brings my friends and family together and makes us forget about all of the terrible stuff in our lives, makes us forget about our other opinions and immerse ourselves in the game . It also makes everyone equal. I’m not the fastest or strongest guy in the world, but I can fight my friends who are stronger and faster and be on equal ground with them. The Rivals community is a safe place where people appreciate me MS Paint drawings of Orcane. Everyone is supportive, nice and willing to help me improve. More people need to be apart of this community. I can always find someone to play against and they are 90% going to be one of the coolest people I’ve met. Thanks Rivals for making me feel welcome. 😉

-TJ Stiver

The rivals discords are great spots where you can meet great new people, who all share the same enjoyment of the game. and just schmooze with awesome or practice with dedicated mentors, depending on what you want. Either way, you’ll love it.

-Nasty_Crime_Boy

I’ve been playing the game since early access release in September of 2015, got roped in at a Smash local in SoCal. Didn’t really participate in the online community at all for a few months, but it’s been a pretty crazy two years. It’s weird that people recognize who you are when you’ve never seen or heard of them before, and your friends are people you looked up to two years ago, and you can casually talk and laugh with top players and even devs of one of your favorite games. It’s hard to remember sometimes, but at the end of the day we’re all just people with a similar passion for at least one thing together. Thanks to Dan, the entire dev team, and the community for giving me this fated encounter, and cheers to as long of a future as we all have together, however long that may be and whatever doors may be on the horizon as well.

-Shengon

The Rivals of Aether community is awesome. Everywhere I go, I find supportive, helpful people that love their community. This game is great, the community is great, the tournaments are great, the characters are great, and I love this game. Thank you, Rivals devs for the amazing game that you’ve given me. I’ve wasted so many hours playing it.

-Torin

The Rivals community is really quite special to me. I bought the game before Absa was released, so I have played this game for a long time, although only recently have I started truly pushing myself to become better (Just got a gc controller). I love how the game feels like a love letter to all smash bros players and how nice the community is. I’m sure the majority of the people on my friends list is from the community, and I could ask any of them for a friendly match any day and I’m sure they’d say yes. So thank you for being a sort of home.

-为西瓜

The RoA community is one of the most amazing communities I’ve ever been a part of. Everyone is so welcoming and willing to help you and be your friend. Ive had the game since when there were only 4 characters, but I never played it often. When I first saw a Rivals tournament (G4), I was amazed by what I saw and decided to start playing it a lot more competitively. MrLz, FullStream, ProDoubleSushi, Arcanine, Protagify, Turtlebox and Kenneth (most of all) are my greatest inspirations in the community. Watching them play is mesmerizing and learning from them is absolutely amazing. There are many more people who I look up to here that have helped me become a better (and happier) player both mentally and physically and I cannot thank them enough. My time playing RoA is far from over and I’m so grateful to continue to be a part of such a wonderful community! Thank you guys! 🙂

-SpykerFX

A great way to meet with a competitive yet casual and fun amounts of people online or locally. The community is a really awesome one whether it’s art or for the overly excessive amounts of great combo videos and montages you find in your feed. I’d like to thank the community for a good year since I started playing since last Christmas. It’s a fun experience and I wish to have more of it. ;3

-DaMemeChild (Joel)

One of the best parts of the rivals community in my eyes is that the devs are a part of it. Smash got tiring with it not being supported, no insight into what the devs think of the balance, and how they just feel so distant. With Rivals they’re so easy to get in contact with and they actually know what’s going on with not just the game, but the metagame and the community. When I first got the game I posted on Twitter making a joke of how badly I was getting bodied and was happy to see the Rivals Twitter encouraged me and linked me to the main and academy Discord without me even tagging them. I’ve heard Dan and Etalus commonly play online as well. It feels like even if they weren’t developers, they’d still be an active and important part of the community and that’s what I appreciate about them.

-a4955

I owe quite a lot to the Rivals community. At the time of the game’s release I was dealing with anxiety and depression, and games were my natural escape. From the very beginning, I made friends with those who streamed Rivals. It was never my intention to dedicate so much of my time to RoA, but the more I played, the more people I met, the more I felt this game had something special about it. The only reason I’ve stuck around for so long and reached the level of play I have is because of the friendships (and future marriage) I’ve obtained throughout my time playing. Rivals has changed my life for the better, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the community.

-Joshua “Windows” Rabow

It’s a community united by their love of competing and improving. The Rivals academy is a great example of that.

-Creatorbeats

The Rivals community means a lot. It taught me that a game’s players can always be encouraging — and that talking with developers can actually do something. Meeting people like LBO and Dan Fornace really changed my outlook on the game from “okay” to “best game”

-Tayson Jorgensen

Everyone in this community has been really fun and helpful. When I first started playing Rivals of Aether, I was of course, not very good at the game. But as time went on, it was becoming clear that I was not getting any better. Unwilling to give up, I kept entering matches with the hopes of improving in some way, or learning new tricks. Maybe a little here and there, but all in all, I was still really bad. But that all changed when someone stopped after a match and pointed me in the direction of the Rivals of the Aether Discord. There I met a vast community of players all willing to help in any way they can. From then on, I have made new friends, gotten better at the game, and enjoyed the amazing media, general, and announcement posts from the wonderful people here. I am glad to have found this place, and I hope that many others find their way here to share in that.

-Matthew Harris

I started playing rivals a year and a half ago. I usually went to Melee locals but didn’t have anyone to play against at home, so I thought playing rivals online would help me improve. But, about a year ago my brother had a bad car accident that left him severely injured. I started playing rivals every day because I couldn’t go out anymore after that. Many months later he was back home and we were living together as a family again. When things were starting to look up, I lost my father and grandfather within a week of each other. During that time I had the support of my friends, family, and even the rivals community. Everyone put up with the stupid things I would say and even make me laugh from time to time. I love playing Rivals with you guys.

-Vaporeon

The RoA community means so much to me, my life simply would not be the same without it. It’s allowed me to travel the world, achieve the impossible childhood dream of being a sponsored gamer and meet people that I’m now happy to call my friends. Thanks for putting this amazing game together guys, you’re awesome!

-Eu | Tom

Alpharad: His videos on rivals are what really got me first exposed and interested in the game. I checked it out and fell in love with Orcane (I mean, who didn’t) who eventually became my main. I recently came back to the game (once again thanks to Alpha’s videos on the new DLC)after a hiatus and have fallen in love with the game all over again.

-Paleo99

My favorite people in the community are the ones who encourage new players to continue playing. The ones who will stop being serious in an exhibition match just to try and teach their opponent something new. The ones who mentor others. The ones who help answer questions. All of the people like that are a big reason why many of the newer players haven’t given up yet, and it’s a big part of what will keep our scene alive in years to come.

-Zam

Windows and Fullstream, and Bumble for a very different reason. The reason I like Windows and Fullstream is because I really look up to them and the amount of time and dedication they put into getting better at the game while simultaneously helping to grow the community by exposing outsiders to this game. I like Bumble because he’s a pretty good shitposter and he’s chubby.

-The Clownster

Slime Mage has single handedly done so much for EU that I can’t believe he’s not getting paid for it. Between having a hand in organizing offline tourneys, streaming and restreaming online tourneys, uploading vods and combo videos, and managing the EU discord, he’s been a real model citizen who deserves a lot of kudos. He’s had a helping hand in every corner of the EU online scene. The fact that he’s also really good at the game and an all round nice dude is, like, the slimy icing on top.

-Age

Simple, Bumblebomb and Nebtune, best commentators for RoA in my opinion ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-Jazzy

All the Aus top players are dope dudes. Neeson, Callisto, SNC, Jamwa, Billy and Dave are all dank AF.
Kaos is a **** homie as well, chilling with him at Shine was dope. Just talking about fine food, pressures of international tournaments and just generally feeling sorry for everyone living in America. It was great.
Speaking of America, my trip there woulda been grim if not for a few dudes, mainly Toko and MSB. I was with Toko almost 24/7 for a month, and not once was he anything less than dope. Also how can you say no to MSB’s Jersey boy accent? (Spoilers, you can’t)
Other honorable USA mentions are: Risky, Sama~senpai , Turq, Niki, Dbrick, Adi Daddy, Hunter and Mr n Mrs Fullstream.
Also last up is the Devs. Even *if* the game was garbo tier, Trev, Etalus n Dan are all made chill dudes. Some of the best parts of SmashCon were trashing Dan n Trevor on a Melee (then getting rekt in PM by Trev) and having some KBBQ with George n Trev. I’ll see you lads at BAM10.

-Gabe

Sushi has been one of my favorite players since I first ran into him on twitch while looking for streamers to play, he was really good and his overall attitude was great. Was fun finally being able to meet him and play in person over Thanksgiving break.

-Razgriz

RiskyCB is my favorite person in the rivals community because he’s a beta tester and a real buddy of a streamer. I’m glad he made it into G5 through AZ’s funding!!

-ZeeBee