The People of Rivals of Aether: Europe – hok0ri

This article is part of a community-made interview series featuring some of the top players and volunteers behind the grassroots European scene.

Good morning! to close off these interviews, I thought I’d answer the questions myself as well!

View the other interviews from this series:

Who are you?

I am hok0ri, a commentator, small-time graphic maker, Shovel Knight main from the UK and someone who is very passionate about this game and its community.

When did you first join the community?

Well, I first played the game in 2020 on Xbox, I was first introduced to Rivals the same way many may have been, through Alpharad, the videos that really stick out in my memory were some of his alpha vids, his video from when Abyss mode was being added and specifically his videos on Shovel Knight being added.
A year later, in June I picked the game up on steam and decided to foolishly enter that seasons RCS Finals, a week after picking the game up, since then I have spent the past two years being as active as I could be in the community, entering our our amateur brackets, crew battles, ft5 exhibitions and even got the chance to meet the friends I made in locals.

What has been your best/favourite moment with Rivals?

It’s a close tie between Rivals Odyssey Winter 2022 and Spring 2023, it was my first time leaving the UK on my own accord, and while both trips had hiccups when it came to travel, they both gave me some of my fondest memories, whether it was competing against people I had only met online, or being able to commentate two amazing tourneys live. Both events ended with a group of us taking photos together and going out for dinner. though if I had to pick just one moment it would have been commentating Grand Finals of Odyssey Spring, OliveOily vs TheDripCollector, both of their runs were fantastic, ending with an unforgettable final set, being able to commentate that with MidoMidori and hear everyone else reacting was such a surreal experience.

How would you describe your playstyle in Rivals?

Goofy. I just play in a way that I find fun, while I have fundamental and technical knowledge of the game, my application of said knowledge isn’t the best, Shovel Knight was always gonna be my main, because their moveset is perfect for my Rivals mentality.

What are you looking forward to most in Rivals 2?

Seeing how this community adapts to all the additions and changes, seeing new champions rise and how they master the game. Also seeing more of the roster in 3D and their costumes.

Any closing statements?

I am truly lucky to be a part of this community. It’s unreal how much a platform fighting game has affected my life. I have met some of the best people I know and made lifelong friendships because of this silly platform fighter
I want to thank Silva, our RAS TO for being a great friend recently, Frikinin for being such a ray of sunshine for the whole community, Readek for running basically everything behind the scenes for streams, my friends in Cobalt for being so kind for years, of course to all of you for the impact you have let this game have in the past 7 years and to everyone in the Rivals of Aether: Europe Discord server for welcoming me in and giving me opportunities to not only commentate, but to make something like these interviews happen.

I hope you all enjoyed reading through these, it was an honest pleasure to hear from these people and to get a better look into the community I love.
This was made possible thanks to everyone who chose to buy things from the RCS Championship Chest and put the proceeds to Europe’s Finals Pot.

Look forward to the community combo video and perhaps another surprise for our community… <3