With the conclusion of the spring season of the 2GG Championship Series for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, 2GGaming have announced summer’s season finale. Titled Nairo Saga, this event will see the world’s greatest Zero Suit Samus player fighting to see if he can defeat the Saga Curse and earn a spot at the 2GG Championships at the end of this year.
This event will be held at the usual venue: the Esports Arena in Santa Ana, California from June 10th to 11th. As with other 2GGC Sagas, top 8 placers at this event will gain circuit points to go to an eventual spot at the Championships at the end of 2017. As it currently stands, RNG|Dabuz is at the top of the table following his victory at Civil War, with TSM|ZeRo in second and FS|Fatality in third. For more information on upcoming Sagas, check out the 2GGC smash.gg page.
To chart their player’s path to his Saga, NRG Esports has also released a short trailer which chronicles Nairo’s rise to prominence in the Smash community. From his early days back in Brawl to his recent successes, the video shows clips of big moments of Nairo’s career, along with words from the man himself.
As the mainstream Smash games were duking it out on the main stage at Genesis 4, the side streams bustled with activity from other communities. Catherine, Street Fighter V and Towerfall all had their place in the sun, with an entire row on the left side of the convention hall dedicated to these side games. Here you could find the Rivals of Aether community, playing together in the largest single gathering of fans that the platform fighter has ever seen. Players from all over the USA and a few contenders from Europe had made the journey to San Jose to share the love of Rivals and battle it out for the Rivals Championship Series crown.
It is a community of mixed heritage, with veteran Smashers, multi-game competitors and players whose first platform fighter was Rivals of Aether. They wielded tools of all descriptions, from battle scared Gamecube controllers, to light up Xbox 360 pads and pristine Xbox One controllers. The tournament organizers even commissioned special Gamecube to Xbox controller adapters so all fans were welcome to play. From just watching friendlies, the Rivals community seems like quite the melting pot of players, with all attendees just enjoying their chance to play the game that they love with fellow competitors.
As someone who dabbled with Rivals upon its initial Early Access launch, the speed at which players were fighting was a marvel to watch. With dedicated players mastering each character’s kit, as well as now integrating wavelands and wavedashes into their general movement, matches are like a furious ballet as players weave in and out of neutral. Speaking to Tandori, a top Maypul player, Rivals is a game with the “tech of something like Melee with the punishing combos of 64”, meaning that a single hit in neutral can lead into death. If there was anything that players should learn going into Rivals, “movement, movement and movement” was Tandori’s mantra.
The combination of speed and raw power makes Rivals an explosive game to watch. With every character having this burst damage capability, it ensures that almost every character gets a look in at the competitive level. “I really love that every character can win honestly,” said Fullstream, one of the top contenders going into the event. “There’s always something else you can do and I love how you’re almost expected to learn to play more than one character,” meaning that character diversity is actively encouraged at the higher levels of play.
Having said that, Rivals creator Dan Fornace still believes that there is more work to be done to bring out each character’s true potential. Forsburn is one such fighter, a character who can kick up clouds of smoke to hide in, as well as summon a clone of himself to confuse his enemies. For a character based on deception, Fornace believes that there is still room to bring out the best of his kit. He said that the team “experimented with turning his moveset into something like Cloud’s from Smash 4, where each special can be powered up”. While “they liked the variety it was meant to bring”, what happened was that “none of the powered up specials (with the exception of Down Special) felt cool enough to match the rest of his design.” As such, the team are currently in the process of refining the character to make him a viable threat in competitive play, while also keeping true to the initial design idea of this deceptive assassin.
Etalus is an example of a character that took a typical Smash archetype and made it work for high level play. While grapplers and big bodies like Bowser and DK seldom make it past mid-tier, the burly polar bear Etalus goes toe to toe with the faster fighters in Rivals. The success of Etalus main Arcanine at Genesis–who was able to beat one of the titans of Rivals Ralph–is a testament to how the Rivals design team was able to make a heavy character be a viable threat in a platform fighter.
As for Genesis itself, the tournament was the final event of the RCS and saw all the major contenders in Rivals finally collected in one place. The three titans of the game, Ralph, MrLz and Fullstream were there, alongside Europe’s best player Khaos and other major threats like Arcanine and CakeAssault. According to Tandori and Dan, these three are like the pillars of high level Rivals. For Tandori, you can see Ralph as “the veteran” who cut his teeth on Melee, MrLz is “the prodigy” who is trying to make his mark like he did in Project M, while Fullstream is “the worker” with Rivals being his first competitive game. Speaking to Fullstream, his love but lack of access to Melee actually spurred him to play Rivals, as the tech skill and speed looked so similar.
Dan likened Ralph and Fullstream to “ZeRo and MKLeo”, with Ralph “dominating the Rivals scene during Early Access and not dropping a set (even in small online events) for months.” Fullstream on the other hand came out of nowhere, winning the Rivals tournament at SXSW 2016 before going onto win almost every other event he entered and racking up the most amount of points in the US branch of the RCS. Fullstream was certainly prepared to win, stating that he was going to “beat everybody” when I talked to him before the tournament began.
Luckily for him, he kept up his promise. Unfortunately, the fated Ralph and Fullstream set didn’t materialise as Fullstream made it all the way to Winners’ Finals without dropping a game. It was actually Arcanine’s Etalus that drew first blood against Fullstream, taking him all the way to game 5. Having already upset the bracket by defeating Ralph, Fullstream had to not only deal with a high level Etalus, but work out Arcanine’s ferocious playstyle. According to Dan, there had just recently been a change to Etalus’ ice armour mechanic just before Genesis 4, adding yet another hurdle for Fullstream to deal with. While on the verge of a reverse 3-0 from the polar bear from the frozen north, Fullstream held his nerve and won the set 3-2. Arcanine would eventually get third, losing to MrLz’s Maypul in yet another five game set, come losers finals.
Ralph did not go quietly however, as his match against CakeAssault in Losers’ was, by Dan’s admission, “as one of the craziest Rivals sets of all time.”. Ralph was set to take the match quite comfortably, taking a quick 2-0 lead with his battle-hardened Orcane. In a stroke of either desperation or pure genius, CakeAssault switched off of Wrastor and picked Zetterburn. As Rivals’ most straight forward character, CakeAssault’s Zetterburn switch would mean he would have to beat Ralph with pure fundamentals, rather than with gimmicks. The switch did pay off, with the flaming lion beating the four legged seal in games 3 and 4. The crowd started to then rally behind CakeAssault going into game five, chanting his name as he was primed to take out the number one seed for the event. However, disaster struck as CakeAssault threw away a stock lead after purposely killing himself after he thought he’d taken Ralph’s final stock. Ralph was able to recover, racking up a quick 50% and making CakeAssault the potential recipient of the infamous “taunt to get bodied” combo. However, fate sided with the plucky Zetterburn with CakeAssault securing the win with a super-powered uppercut.
If Genesis 4 is anything to go by, Rivals of Aether has a bright competitive future ahead of it. But, you may ask, what is in the pipeline following the game’s full release? A special guest character is planned for release in the spring, with a pack of four new DLC characters and another guest fighter before the end of the year. This will finish off the cast with a grand total of 14 fighters. “I now know how Sakurai and his team felt in some ways,” said Dan when discussing the guest character selection process. If all else fails, the design team will just “not show the results though and add Bayonetta.”
As for future tournaments, RCS Season two is planned to start shortly after launch, with Dan, community manager George Rogers and several Rivals TOs already planning out events for the future. The first main event to watch out for will be CEO Dreamland in April, which even has its own special DLC which reskins a stage to look like the famous CEO wrestling ring. The Rivals team are great for cool community features like skins and taunts, with special event and holiday skins coming out at regular intervals. My bright pink Valentine’s Day Zetterburn has been my favourite, I have to say. Dan calls the RCS “baby esports”, with the team trying to work within a relatively limited budget to hold quality events. Events like Genesis and CEO, as well as online events run with the help of smash.gg have been “a huge benefit” but it has meant leveraging development time to attend tournaments. With the main bulk of development wrapping up with the game’s release, expect the second season of the RCS to be bigger and better than the last.
Dan’s main advice for platform fighter designers to “experiment and iterate” on Smash in order to create something fresh. Rivals embraces the competitive nature of platform fighters results in much needed concessions like tutorials and an extensive training mode, but it comes at the cost of losing the instant accessibility of Smash. However, Dan hopes that by focusing on fluid movement and teaching new players about the basics of movement, both casual and traditional fighting game players will take to Rivals much quicker than something like Melee.
From both the community and mechanical side of the equation, Rivals of Aether sets a hopeful precedent for the future of platform fighters. With their popularity only growing, now is the time to join in on the fun.
With the full release coming up next Tuesday, the Rivals of Aether team are planning to release a set of special colors to commemorate those who have been playing throughout Early Access. These Gameboy-esque colors will be available to anyone who bought and played Rivals of Aether during its Early Access period, marking those veteran platform fighters from the crop of new players.
Along with the colors–which cannot be recreated in the game’s Custom Color mode–Early Access players will also have a colored Steam name to mark them out to fellow players. The actual color choice is a reference to Dan Fornace’s previous retro platform fighter, Super Smash Land. While it was just a fan game back then, certain elements of Super Smash Land–like Vaporeon’s moveset–were integrated into Rivals of Aether.
There is still some time to get these colors if you’re one for exclusive in-game items, so long as you buy Rivals of Aether on Steam before Tuesday. Those players who bought Rivals of Aether on Xbox’s Game Preview will also get access these retro colors, once the team sort out how to publish DLC for the console.
One of Texas’ most prestigious events and a staple in the Summer of Smash, Tourney Locator is bringing Low Tier City back for its fifth installment from August 5th to 6th. Featuring the original Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Project M, the Lone Star state is going all out for this year’s event.
Project M, Smash 4 and Melee are all set to have doubles as well as singles, with a guaranteed $5000 pot bonus to be split across events. Low Tier City 5 will feature as part of 2017’s Championship Circuit for Project M, with the PM community always coming out in their droves to support LTC events. Last year’s event saw 233 entrants for PM, making it the second largest event on the circuit, behind Smash ‘n Splash 2’s 234 attendees.
Low Tier City 5 will be held at the Irving Convention Center in Irving, Texas. For more details and to register for the event, head on over to the LTC5 smash.gg page for all the relevant details.
Platform fighters like Super Smash Bros. and Rivals of Aether obviously owe a lot to platform games. An emphasis on free movement, fast reactions and of course platforms; all of these are integral to making a platform fighter. But, what would happen if you took the movement techs of a game like Melee, and used them to make a platformer?
Well, rologfos’ WaveLand does exactly that. Taking techniques like wavedashing, air dodging, shine stalling and wavelanding, rologfos has created a high speed platformer which requires players to utilize these techs to complete levels. You slowly unlock these techniques as the game progresses, teaching players how to perform each ability before throwing them into a fast-paced gauntlet of lasers, spikes and instant-death pits.
If played with a GameCube controller, WaveLand may be a fantastic way of mastering something like wavedash, outside of boredom of Training Mode. I cannot wait for a Melee speedrunner like Fuzzyness to get their hands on their platform fighter inspired platformer.
After a lengthy period on Steam Early Access, lightning-fast platform fighter Rivals of Aether is finally officially launching on March 28th. With a meaty update coming as part of the official release, lead designer Dan Fornace and the whole Rivals of Aether team have announced what exactly will be coming as part of next Tuesday’s launch.
The main bulk of the update is the game’s single player modes, with updates to Abyss Mode and the debut of the game’s Story Mode. The Story Mode gives players an introduction to all the Rivals through traditional Arcade Mode-esque fights, while also revealing more about the mysterious Aether. From there, Abyss Mode acts as a sort of fighting game Horde mode, where you and up to three friends can work together to defeat various enemies and complete special challenge waves.
There is a meta progression system in Abyss Mode, with players leveling up their individual Rivals and gaining special Runes to power up specific moves and special attacks. Once you’ve created the ultimate Rival, you can then compete against your pals in Abyss Versus with these super-powered fighters.
As for multiplayer, the full release of RoA increases the stage count from seven to eleven stages. To account for this larger stage list, competitive play will now introduce a Super Smash Bros.-esque neutral and counterpick system, complete with two stage bans. The Rivals team will be actively listening to the community and will change the stage list, based on player feedback.
With a brand new crop of players coming in with the Steam release, there will be a general rank reset for all players. The top players from the previous leaderboard will have their names enshrined in history, but everyone will go back to 1000 ELO for launch. There are also plans for seasons on ladder, in order to shake up the ranks every three months.
To celebrate the launch, there will be a special pre-release party stream this Sunday over on the Rivals of Aether Twitch channel. The stream will begin at 3pm PDT, with special guests and run-throughs of all the new content. Controller Chaos have also partnered up with Rivals of Aether, and are now offering an exclusive line of custom controllers based of the Rivals roster. You can see four of the designs in the gallery below, and they are now available to order via the Controller Chaos website.
Rivals of Aether launches on Steam March 28th, with the Xbox One version set to exit Xbox Game Preview in about a month’s time.
Ahead of 2GGC: Civil War this weekend, Evil Geniuses have announced their first foray into the world of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. To herald their entry, they have signed PGR Rank 16 and one of the U.S.A.’s best Diddy Kong players, Julian “Zinoto” Carrington.
As one of the Midwest’s shining stars, Zinoto is known for his highly technical Diddy, which has earned him high placings at tournaments like Frostbite 2017, 2GGC: Midwest Mayhem Saga, CEO 2016, Smash ‘n Splash 2, and Combo Breaker 2016. He has won three of the seven Midwest Mayhem events held in his region, and works to raise up local players in his home state of Michigan.
His teaching is not limited to the local area however, as his Cram School series of videos hopes to teach players how to get around certain tricky character matchups. With content creation becoming an increasingly large reason for picking up players, Evil Geniuses have certainly picked a winner with Zinoto’s informative and well-researched tutorials.
In a statement announcing his addition to EG, CEO Peter “ppd” Dager said that the team are “thrilled that we have the opportunity to pick up Zinoto who I know will be an incredibly positive influence in the space.” You will be able to see Zinoto rocking the blue jersey this weekend as 2GGC: Civil War, so look out for this Diddy making waves in bracket.
For those who cannot attend 2GGC: Civil War this weekend, you can still help sway the battle for the team of your choice. In collaboration with smash.gg, 2GGaming are hosting an online ladder for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, where players can face off to raise points for their chosen side. If you pick Team ZeRo, you will be matched up against enemy Team Ally players, with each victory netting your team one point.
The ladder opened on Wednesday, with it running until Sunday at 2pm PDT–to coincide with the actual Civil War crew battle at Esports Arena. The online ladder is open at the following times:
Friday (3/24) 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM PDT
Saturday (3/25) 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM PDT
Sunday (3/26) 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM PDT
At time of writing, Team Ally is on top, holding onto a slim lead ahead of Team ZeRo. Expect the lead to fluctuate going into the actual Civil War, so get signed up if you want to support your chosen side. You can check the leaderboard and the overall ladder standings over the official Civil War smash.gg page.
Acting as Europe’s largest Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournament to date, along with the Netherlands’ biggest Super Smash Bros. Melee event, Syndicate is returning in September 2017. Held in Utrecht in the Netherlands, Syndicate 2017 will host singles and doubles for both Melee and Smash 4, gathering top talent from across the continent.
Hosted by seasoned European TO teams Avalon and GGWP, Syndicate 2017 hopes to follow up on the overwhelming success of last year’s event by breaking more attendance records. There will be an initial cap of 256 players for each game, but based on last year’s success, expect these caps to be lifted as sign ups flood in. Registration will be available from May 1st, so check back in on Syndicate’s smash.gg page once May Day rolls round. Syndicate’s venue is the Jaarbeurs Utrecht, the Netherlands’ premier location for holding big events and conventions. It’s located right next to the country’s largest train station, so getting to the event couldn’t be easier.
While Melee’s ruleset is locked in, the Syndicate ruleset for Smash 4 is still up in the air. With Europe now starting to make the shift to 2 stock following BEAST, expect an official ruling from the TO team to confirm if Syndicate will be following suit.
Continuing his “Art of” series of character guides, IzAw has turned his attention to the Mushroom Kingdom’s biggest baddie, Bowser. With a brutal grab game, decent ground control, and his immense weight, the Koopa King is one fearsome contender. Bowser is best suited for defensive play, luring opponents into trap before dealing massive damage with his throws or smashes.
As a grappler, the game plan for a Bowser player should be to frustrate enemies with a wall of jabs, tilts and Flame Breaths before pivot grabbing and leading into one of his many up-throw follow ups. He can kill off of three grabs, and he only gets stronger with Rage, so never get too eager versus a Bowser.
Patience is key to playing Bowser well as while he can hit hard, his large frame and weight make him easy combo food. Much like fellow grappler DK, Bowser struggles to land back to stage safely, making him a prime target for ledge traps and easy edgeguards. Without the greatest of approach options, it is fairly easy to camp out this burly turtle as well. If you have the percent lead, there is no real reason to go running into his clutches.
