A couple details to be parsed from this:

• This podcast was recorded sometime early August
• The EVO announcement in late June was very last minute, nearly nothing was planned yet.
• They are currently in the pitching and planning phase.
• Aether Studios pitches everything about the character, including design and moves.
• They really liked how Shovel Knight turned out in Rivals of Aether, and that was fully Aether Studio's design. The early concepts of Shovel Knight were significantly more complex (such as bringing in Shield Knight for parry, or even more chest items).
• They have a lot of faith that the team is able to capture what makes a character so cool and unique, comparing to Sakurai's level of detail.
• They have a couple skins planned already that are "cool", and show her in "weird ways".
• This will be the debut of Mina's voice.

Video clip taken from @LocalLibraryCat on Twitter, though I bumped up the audio level.

#Don’t Get Tilted #300 | August 21st - 22nd | Garland, Texas

Been awhile since I’ve highlighted a non-major/gold tier event, hasn’t it? Despite Comicpalooza just having happened, this is now the largest Rivals of Aether II event ever held in Texas by entrants, as well as the largest event this weekend! It comes in as a bronze tier R2CS tournament.

This event is nearly fully composed of the depth of Texas. The easy favorite of this bracket is Beastly, who is the only ranked player in attendance, let alone being ranked top 10 in the world, and being the Genesis champion. Between all of the top 8 seeds, Beastly has a 23-1 set count against everyone else. It would be an insane upset if anyone here managed to take a set off of him, let alone win the tournament over the Beast.

I want to highlight some of the players of Texas here. Simon is the current best player within the state of Texas, though has surprisingly never had a set with Beastly. With it being a likely Zetterburn ditto, it will be interesting to see a battle between the best Zetterburn within the state, and the best Zetterburn from the state. Although Simon is currently ranked 1st in the state, Fox has historically been the highest ranked player. With him being mostly regionlocked within Texas, this being the biggest event of the weekend gives him a great opportunity to show the world what he can do. Brr is the only player in the top seeds who has taken a set off of Beastly, during the era of Olympia, with it being a ditto set. Nowadays, Brr is mostly on La Reina while continuing to do well in the region. And finally, Jimbly is a friend, and I like having an excuse to highlight him whenever I post about a tournament he attends.

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Events

• Rivals of Aether II Singles

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Streaming Information

• Stream

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Event Schedule (Times in CDT):

Time Zone Converter

Saturday, August 22nd:

• 14:00: Start

#Seeding

1. Beastly Zetterburn [Texas, USA]
2. Simon Zetterburn [Texas, USA]\
3. Fox Loxodont [Texas, USA]
4. Shnoopy Ranno [Texas, USA]
5. Noahsfriend Chumpkin La Reina Etalus [Texas, USA]
6. Brr La Reina [Texas, USA]
7. UM Jimbly Etalus [Texas, USA]
8. PRINCESS Passion Wrastor [Texas, USA]

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Other Information

startgg | Twitter

#CEO 2026 | August 14th - 16th | Orlando, USA

CEO 2026 once again as one of the biggest tournaments in all of the FGC, and it enters in as a gold tier event for the R2CS! Although light on top level talent, there is still a lot to look forward to, and the return of a face many will be excited to see compete again.

On paper, Ant is the clear favorite of this bracket, being the only top 10 level player present. That said, it is nowhere near an easy bracket path for him, as the remaining top four seeds are both talented, and match well into Absa character wise. vibe has been a consistently strong threat within the top echelon of players. This event could easily see him take the crown. Acorn’s Zetterburn also poses a massive threat, as they hold a 6-7 (don’t) set record against Ant. Although not expected to win, don’t be surprised if Acorn does end up making the dark horse run. Finally, enters SoulRifle21, aka Mr. Nice Guy, is entering his first offline Rivals of Aether II event since early 2025. Although he has been on Forsburn for most of the game's life, his Maypul has recently been making a return. Whoever they play, he is absolutely in the talks of taking the entire tournament.

Other players I want to highlight are the remaining top eight seeds: Dingo, Teri, Lucius, and sinbad.

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Events

• Rivals of Aether II Singles

• Rivals of Aether II Doubles

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Streaming Information

• Stream

---

Event Schedule (Times in EDT):

Time Zone Converter

Note: It is quite hard to read the event schedule for specific times, and sometimes it conflicts with what startgg has. Take all of these times with a grain of salt

Friday, August 14th:

• 17:00: Rivals 2 Doubles

Saturday, August 15th:

• 11:00-19:00: Rivals 2 Pools

Sunday, August 16th:

• 10:00: Rivals 2 Phase 2

• 12:00: Rivals 2 Top 16

• 14:00: Rivals 2 Top 8

#Seeding

1. Ant Absa Ranno [Florida, USA]
2. vibe Clairen [Michigan, USA]
3. Dansmello Soulrifle211 Forsburn Maypul [Georgia, USA]
4. AoC Acorn Zetterburn [Florida, USA]
5. BLZE Dingo Forsburn [Georgia, USA]
6. Teri Olympia [South Carolina, USA]
7. Lucius Ranno [New York, USA]
8. sinbad La Reina [Florida, USA]

---

Other Information

startgg | Twitter

Twitter Link: https://x.com/danfornace/status/2085857336825204765?s=46&t=LDd35GRh1w4XSzIW71Btvg

Full Post:

Also to clarify this since I know we're getting push back now to "caving to the complainers."

That's not entirely the case. I was already torn on the change while we tested it in beta.

We are acknowledging that there is a problem with Orcane's recovery in how safe he can make it by leaving a puddle one on side of the stage and fighting on another and using puddle primarily as an escape tool.

I also acknowledge that this change was able to address the issue pretty well at the top level. For what it was targeted to do, it does a solid job. You can see that in the tournament play that happened. If it didn't affect those matches at all, then it wouldn't have been a good change.

The problem with the change is that it affects many more players outside the top level and makes Orcane harder to play for everyone. New players have to learn additional rules to "oh you use your puddle to recover" and casual players now have the added stress of managing the puddle timer when playing Orcane.

At the end of the day, this exact issue falls on me. Both the negativity for it coming out and the negativity about the revert.

I am the one who let it through after seeing how it works and testing it out myself. I am the one making the call for the revert until we have the details sorted out how we want or we exhaust all other options.

It has very little to do with how loud Orcane mains are or that complaining will get reverts. But we do read the discourse and I think there were some valid arguments made in both directions.

We as developers of a live game have to believe in our changes because we're constantly defending them. And when we believe in them, it's easier to wade through the constant barrage of negativity that hits our socials.

But when we don't believe in a change, we have to be willing to take a step back and say "Okay, maybe this does need a little more time in the oven. We'll be back once we have something we believe in."

Yes, there is a solo Little Mac and Ganondorf in here

#Congratulations to the winner of The Cashbox #35: Rivals 2 Gouie Launch Edition!

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#Top 8 Bracket

#Bracket

VODs

---

The Cashbox #35 is the first large bracket since Gouie’s launch, but since it’s an online event, he is legal! With a rare Plup appearance, and him locking in on Gouie, odds seem against him! Unless?

---

Place	Player	Sent to Losers by	Eliminated by
1st	LG Sandstorm Galvan		---
2nd	Plup Gouie	FPZ	Sandstorm
3rd	Sophilo Zetterburn	Sandstorm	Plup
4th	AoC SapphireGD Zetterburn	Sandstorm	Plup
5th	NS Viviana Galvan	mr.oat0156	SapphireGD
5th	Jupiter Orcane	Sophilo	Plup
7th	NS FPZ Maypul	Jupiter	Viviana
7th	EWA mow_kitty Etalus	SapphireGD	Plup
9th	NU Kople Loxodont	Sandstorm	mow_kitty
9th	Animal Etalus	SapphireGD	Plup
9th	sword kapl Clairen Slade	mr.oat0156	FPZ
9th	Gusta Maypul	Sophilo	Viviana
13th	darai Ranno	Shard	mow_kitty
13th	Floppa Phantom Galvan	Oreo	Plup
13th	OLD SaintPat Kragg	kapl	SapphireGD
13th	BLZE Turnap Ranno	FPZ	Viviana

Grand Finals

Sandstorm // Twitter

vs

Plup (L) // Twitter

Galvan Sandstorm	-	3-1	-	Gouie Plup (L)
---	= Galvan	Julesvale	= Gouie	1 stock
1 stock	= Galvan	Julesvale	= Gouie	---
1 stock	= Galvan	Tempest Peak	= Gouie	---
1 stock	= Galvan	Hodojo	= Gouie	---

#Supernova 2026 | August 6th - 9th | Baltimore, USA

Supernova 2026 enters as one of the largest Rivals II events in terms of entrants for the year, and although lacking in depth of top players, it makes up for in sheer scale. This is still a major level event, and although not currently opted in, is likely a gold tier event for the R2CS!

Most eyes on who will win this event is on two players: CakeAssault and Stango. These two have had a rivalry that has evolved over the entire game's life. CakeAssault took consecutive close sets at the start with Stango on Zetterburn/Kragg, to Stango dominating during Olympia’s peak, and now trading sets with Stango on the Loxodont. That said, I would do a disservice to the scene if I just talked about these two.

Bbatts continues to be one of the most consistent top level threats, and with set wins over both CakeAssault and Stango, and win from the law student is far from out of the question. Beastly is yet another player you can’t ignore, still being this year’s Genesis champion and him taking his first set over CakeAssault in over a year just this past week at Get on my Level! Finally, let’s highlight our remaining top six seeds which define two different eras of players coming into this game: ZeeBee and Yoda Cage. ZeeBee is one of the longest running top players stemming from Rivals of Aether, and has continued to be one of the best and devious in its sequel. Meanwhile, Yoda Cage is still relatively new to the world of Rivals coming from Ultimate, yet has just had his biggest breakout performances with a top 8 at EVO and beating many top players. Once again, Rivals of Aether II has a way to unite many different platform fighter backgrounds like no other game can.

Other notable players I want to highlight include: Hyperflame, CheesyPotato, Marss, Switch, Lucius, ShadowHawke, Guthix, and Garfield! Gouie is not legal this tournament as it will be running the previous patch.

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Events

• Rivals of Aether II Singles

• Rivals of Aether Singles

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Streaming Information

• Stream

---

Event Schedule (Times in EDT):

Time Zone Converter

Friday, August 7th:

• Rivals 2 Singles (TBA)

• Rivals 1 Singles (TBA)

Saturday, August 8th:

• Rivals 2 Singles (TBA)

#Seeding

1. CakeAssault Forsburn Fleet [Pennsylvania, USA]
2. BOIKO Stango Loxodont [Pennsylvania, USA]\
3. Bbatts Fleet [New Jersey, USA]
4. Beastly Zetterburn [Texas, USA]\
5. Yoda Cage Absa [Pennsylvania, USA]\
6. NE ZeeBee Kragg [New York, USA]
7. sleetgg CheesyPotato La Reina [New Jersey, USA]\
8. HyperFlame Zetterburn Slade [Virginia, USA]

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Other Information

startgg | Twitter

#Get On My Level 2026 | July 31st - August 2nd | Mississauga, Canada

Get On My Level reaches new heights on July 31st - August 2nd for an incredible weekend of fighting game competition and community at the Hilton Airport Hotel in the city of Mississaug! This is a major level event, and a gold tier on the R2CS Season 2!

CakeAssault enters as the clear favorite, coming off not only a grand finalist appearance at EVO and a win at S Factor, but also an extremely dominant h2h against the rest of the field. It would be a massive upset for anyone to beat CakeAssault, let alone twice. That said, it’s impossible to ignore that the Genesis X3 champion is still present at this tournament: Beastly, while also a couple wins over CakeAssault over the games lifespan. Sandstorm and Rongunshu continue to make grand finals, yet neither have taken home the first place trophy yet, potentially this tournament is one of their big chances? With these being the top 10 players in attendance, it is extremely likely that they will be the ones to take it, but it isn’t exactly a guarantee.

This tournament is filled with players who mark either important returns, or arrivals: Mang0, Mr.R, and Vivania. Mang0 continues to ease himself back to offline play, with great finishes at both EVO and S Factor, so who’s to say if he will go even further this time? Mr.R travels outside of Mexico for the first time since the last GOML, so this is one of his few opportunities to show the rest of the world what he has been cooking. And then we have Viviana, who is entering their first ever offline major after some dominating performances online. Her seed of 16 is arguably too low, with most online player debuts such as ZeusDahGoose and Mang0 all having broken their seeds, often by a lot. It is quite likely she will make someone's path a nightmare.

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Events

• Rivals of Aether II Singles

• Rivals of Aether Singles

• Rivals of Aether II Doubles

---

Streaming Information

• Stream (TBA)

---

Event Schedule (Times in EDT):

Time Zone Converter

Friday, July 31st:

• 17:00: Rivals 2 Doubles

• 20:00: Rivals 1 Singles

Sunday, July 19th:

• 14:00: Rivals 2 Singles Wave A

• 16:00: Rivals 2 Singles Wave B

• 18:00: Rivals 2 Top Cut

• 20:00: Rivals 2 Top 8

#Seeding

1. CakeAssault Forsburn Fleet [Pennsylvania, USA]
2. Beastly Zetterburn [Texas, USA]
3. LG Sandstorm Galvan [Pennsylvania, USA]
4. GCU Rongunshu Clairen [Ontario, Canada]
5. Eggdog Salt Zetterburn [Texas, USA]
6. Mang0 Zetterburn [Socal, USA]
7. Mr. R Wrastor [Puebla, Mexico]
8. NS Godly Ranno [Ontario, Canada]

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Other Information

startgg | Twitter

#S Factor X3 | July 18th - 19th | Puebla, Mexico

Coming in as Mexico’s first Rivals of Aether II major (gold tier event on the R2CS), S Factor X3 is the first large-scale event since EVO!

CakeAssault enters as the clear favorite, coming off not only a grand finalist appearance at EVO, but also a dominating h2h across the field. That said, there are still plenty of killers in the water. Beastly is the one other EVO top 8er in attendance, having his best performance since his victory at Genesis X3, and potentially getting back into the swing of things. ZeeBee continues to strike fear with his play, and although he didn’t quite make the mark at EVO, he can absolutely make that fear real here. Mr.R enters his first major in a long time, and despite being region-locked and barred from entering USA tournament, his online practice suggests he is more than ready for this tournament. And finally, Mang0 enters his second ever Rivals II offline major, and from his strong EVO performance, hopes are high for him to potentially take the trophy home!

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Events

• Rivals of Aether II Singles

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Streaming Information

• Stream (TBA)

---

Event Schedule (Times in CST):

Time Zone Converter

Saturday, July 18th:

• 10:00: Pools A

• 12:00: Pools B

• 14:00: Top 32 (C)

• 16:00: Top 32 (D)

Sunday, July 19th:

• 18:00: Top 8

#Seeding

1. CakeAssault Forsburn Fleet [Pennsylvania, USA]
2. Beastly Zetterburn Olympia [Texas, USA]\
3. ZeeBee Kragg [New York, USA]
4. Mang0 Zetterburn [Socal, USA]
5. Mr. R Wrastor [Puebla, Mexico]\
6. Jbone Forsburn [Socal, USA]
7. Bluegx122 Clairen [Nuevo Leon, Mexico]
8. M8 Forsburn [Baja California Sur, Mexico]

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Other Information

startgg | Twitter

This is being posted for the audience in r/smashbros, r/SSBM, and r/SSBPM. I feel it would be amazing to support the first platform fighter at EVO in seven years! There are six images that you can scroll through:

1. General overview of tournament
2. Ultimate players attending
3. Melee players attending
4. PM/P+ players attending
5. Rivals players attending
6. Schedule

Unfortunately this subreddit doesn't support attaching multiple images, so this solo one will do. My other posts on this topic also includes an overview of the entire tournament/schedule/Melee players/and Ultimate players.

This is being posted for the audience in r/smashbros, r/SSBM, and r/SSBPM. I feel it would be amazing to support the first platform fighter at EVO in seven years! There are six images that you can scroll through:

1. General overview of tournament
2. Melee players attending
3. Ultimate players attending
4. PM/P+ players attending
5. Rivals players attending
6. Schedule

EDIT: The EVO Showcase is on Friday

This is being posted for the audience in r/smashbros, r/SSBM, and r/SSBPM. I feel it would be amazing to support the first platform fighter at EVO in seven years! There are six images that you can scroll through:

1. General overview of tournament
2. Ultimate players attending
3. Melee players attending
4. PM/P+ players attending
5. Rivals players attending
6. Schedule

EDIT: The EVO Showcase is on Friday

This is being posted primarily for the audience in r/smashbros, r/SSBM, and r/SSBPM, but I feel I should still post it here for additional background. There are six images that you can scroll through:

1. General overview of tournament
2. Ultimate players attending
3. Melee players attending
4. PM/P+ players attending
5. Rivals players attending
6. Schedule

EDIT: The EVO Showcase is on Friday

Shinda Lion Ganondorf 3-0 TamaPDaifuku Bayonetta, tragically offstream. Insanely, the rest of his projected bracket to top 8 are players he has already beaten at least once before this season (MildnaHO and KEN). Could we see Ganondorf top 8 winners at a major?

The lion does not concern himself with high tiers.

#EVO 2026 | June 26th-28th | Las Vegas, USA

This is it. Coming with a whooping 1022 entrants (pre-DQs), this is by far the largest Rivals of Aether event ever! With this absolutely staggering number of entrants, Rivals of Aether II has secured itself as the first platform fighter to be on the mainstage of EVO since 2019. The Rivals community, Aether Studios, offbrand games, and Ludwig should be proud of what they achieved for this event. If you are a fan of Rivals of Aether at all, this is not going to be an event you want to miss!

As for the talent, this event almost got everything you would want. Coming in as his first event since his victory last EVO, this is Plup’s first tournament since! It goes without saying that his win at EVO 2025 was legendary: piloting three different characters, and only dropping a single game in that entire run. Don’t mistake his recent offline inactivity for lack of practice however, as he still completely dominates the online leaderboard with four different alt accounts making up the top 10 of the online leaderboard at the time of writing! That said, perhaps the EVO seeders did indeed make that lapse in judgement, as there are two players seeded above him. Unsurprisingly, CakeAssault is one of those players, with his dual main of Forsburn and Fleet having led him to a near uncontestable run of being the overall best player of Rivals of Aether II. If there is a list of players who taking this event would be of no surprise, CakeAssault and Plup are easily the top of that conversation. Interestingly, neither of these players are entering as the top seed, with Stango taking that top slot. Stango’s recent form earned him a free flight and trip to this event from his victory at The Road to EVO, all with his meme character turned real threat: Loxodont. These three enter as the obvious favorites to win, but there’s more than just them eyeing that throne.

Even barring current top level talent, there is still far more beyond the undisputed best of this game, including the remainder of our top 8 seeds. Beastly is still coming off of his win at Genesis X3, so underestimating him would be greatly unadvised. Bbatts is one of the few players to have won a major this year as well, all while being a full time law student! Since release, Clairen has entered five different grand finals piloted by two different players, with three different opponents, yet has somehow exited with zero 1st place trophies. Despite this dire record, Rongunshu’s determination can easily take him to finally get to that podium. As Absa’s sole true top level representative, Ant has come so close to victory as well, yet has barely been shutout multiple times, so now is his biggest chance. And finally, I0N’s success cannot be understated, as he is the sole player outside of the top 3 to have won more than one major in this game's post-release life, so what is another?

Finally, we reach the players who aren’t as likely to win, but as well known names in their respective fields, and absolutely should be mentioned. Most notably, this is the GOAT’s first event returning since his ban: Mang0! Don’t let this absence fool you into thinking he’s unprepared, as Mang0 has been in the top 5/10 of the online leaderboard for weeks in preparation for this one event! Sandstorm is also most well-known for being the undisputed GOAT of Brawlhalla, yet has dedicated his time to this game, developing famously nasty movement as a best keyboard player as well. FullStream was the first best player in the world for Rivals of Aether, so his attendance here carries a legacy. And last but absolutely not least, VoiD still carries his legendary title of “World’s Greatest Gamer”. Some other famous players from other platform fighters include Mystery Sol, Salt, Dakpo, Yoda Cage, Stro, Ravenking, Lucky, Hungrybox, and of course: Ludwig.

One final note: With a variety of developer comments, not only are we near guaranteed a character reveal at this event, but likely a plethora of other information alongside that!

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Events

• Rivals of Aether II Singles

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Streaming Information

• Top 8 Stream

• Non-Top 8 Stream (?)

---

Event Schedule (Times in EDT):

Time Zone Converter

Friday, June 26th:

• Unannounced

Saturday, June 27th:

• Unannounced

#Seeding

1. BOIKO Stango Loxodont [Pennsylvania, USA]
2. CakeAssault Forsburn Fleet [Pennsylvania, USA]
3. Plup Random Orcane Forsburn [Florida, USA]
4. Beastly Zetterburn Olympia [Texas, USA]
5. Bbatts Fleet [New Jersey, USA]
6. GCU Rongunshu Clairen [Ontario, Canada]
7. Ant Absa [Florida, USA]
8. PAR I0N Kragg Olympia [Norcal, USA]
9. ShrugClub Sophilo Zetterburn [Norcal, USA]
10. NE ZeeBee Kragg [New York, USA]
11. LG Sandstorm Galvan [Pennsylvania, USA]
12. TCS elkiies La Reina Maypul [Norcal, USA]
13. Mystery Sol Galvan Fleet [Washington, USA]
14. Animal Etalus [New Jersey, USA]
15. ZeusDahGoose Kragg [Pennsylvania, USA]
16. Zekespot sly Clairen [Socal, USA]

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Other Information

startgg | Twitter

Posting this here just to feel something, anything really.

Source