We're happy to share the news about an exciting community event happening this week! Make sure to tune in live on Twitch[www.twitch.tv] or Youtube for Wisely Wars - a creator team tournament hosted and organized by Wisely[bio.link], featuring 24 creators + 6 coaches. The event takes place over 3 days in a multi-part format, where players and coaches adapt, learn, and practice throughout the week for a Sunday showdown.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

The show starts at 3pm PT / 6pm ET on each date:

• (12/17) Wednesday - Round Robin 1

• (12/19) Friday - Round Robin 2

• (12/21) Sunday - Finals

View all 6 teams in the image gallery:

Grab the Wisely Wars icon by watching 1 hour of the stream during any day of the event. You can earn it by watching on the mainstream Wisely channel, or any of the participating players' or coaches' channels on Twitch.

Details on How to Unlock your Drop:

Once you've earned the Drop by watching for 1 hour, you'll see a notification in your Twitch Inventory in the top right where you can claim your item.
1. Visit your Twitch Drops Inventory[www.twitch.tv] to claim your icon. You can also track progress on the unlock there.

2. Visit the Aether Account Twitch Drop Link page[account.aetherstudios.com], where you can log into your Aether Account, then click the "Unlock your Twitch Drops items in ROA2" button. Make sure you link your correct account or you won't receive your drops in game. If you're not sure what your Aether Account email address is, just press start on the main menu of Rivals II to see your account email.

3. Open the game and check your icon list. You should have the new Wisely Wars icon at the end!

We hope you'll tune in and support this community event!

It’s not every day that the tree can cut YOU down instead. Our midmonth bundle includes the Yuletide Galvan skin, emote, icon, and the jolly new “sleigh!” critical hit! The bundle also includes 25,000 coins and 250 Aether bucks.  Yuletide Galvan also features a custom win jingle and custom sfx on his Forward Special, Neutral Special, Getup Special, Galvanized Up Special, and on his intro.

Advanced tutorials are here! Level up your game by checking out and completing the new Advanced Movement, Advanced Defense 1 & 2, and Advanced Offense 1 & 2 lessons!

Rich Presence has been added so you can see what your friends are up to in Rivals II on Discord and Steam. On Discord, this means you will also be able to invite or join your friends in a public lobby using various Discord features (overlay, chat, friend profile, etc). You can invite or request to join a private lobby as well.

• Please note that the Discord setting “Share my activity” must be enabled if you want to use these features.

On top of our mid-month bundle, we have a few new bundles to celebrate the holiday season as well! Check them, and our new shop items out:

Etalus is getting a Grizzly skin, since you can't be an ice-themed Rival without also loving the holiday season! This small bundle comes with the Grizzly Etalus base skin, plus Winterfest palette and icon.

By popular request we're adding Winter Festival palettes for some of the cast that didn't have seasonal looks yet, so even Rivals without a holiday skin can join in on the fun. This bundle includes 11 palettes:

• Wrastor Winterfest Palette

• Absa Winterfest Palette

• Fleet Winterfest Palette

• Zetterburn Winterfest Palette

• Clairen Winterfest Palette

• Forsburn Winterfest Palette

• Kragg Winterfest Palette

• Olympia Winterfest Palette

• Maypul Winterfest Palette

• Orcane Winterfest Palette

• Ranno Winterfest Palette

• Midnight Abyss Forsburn Palette

• Yellow Snowman Kragg Palette

• White Krampus Forsburn Palette

• White Santa Zetterburn Palette

• Mini Plush Fleet Icon

• Mini Plush Ranno Icon

• Mini Plush Maypul Icon

• Avatar Bradshaw Icon

• Avatar Hailhog Icon

New to this patch are custom sfx in the taunts for Clown Ranno and Franken Etalus. We’ve also added  custom sound effects to Clown Ranno’s Intro, Forward Strong, Up Strong and both the Sweetspot hit of Forward Strong and the pie hit of Forward Strong.

We've seen lots of players asking when the next balance update is planned. We've answered this question elsewhere, but thought it best to include in the notes as well: You can look forward to a balance update that includes most of the cast with the release of La Reina on Tuesday January 6th, 2026!

• Fixed Keyboard not having binding for UI Right Stick.

  • Note: This means keyboard players can now rotate their position on a team.

• Fixed Button displayers for team position not showing the correct buttons.

• Mouse cursor should now lock/unlock and show/hide correctly.

  • Note: Matches no longer lock the mouse to the viewport unless a mouse button is being used by a tag in the match.

  • Note 2: This also fixes mouse flickering issues.

• Default Switch Pro Controller analog settings have been changed to better reflect players feedback.

  • Default Sensitivity: 100% -> 120%

  • Default Deadzone: 20% -> 10%

  • Note: If a tag existed in a player's save file with Switch Pro's analog settings set to the old default they will be auto updated on next boot.

Note: We're still expecting an update for SDL to fix PC mode GCC adapters under Steam Input. Until then we recommend players using PC mode adapters to disable Steam Input.

Join George and Diego as they chat La Reina with a focus on animation this Thursday for our weekly dev stream.

• Times: 1pm ET / 12pm CT / 10am PT / 7pm CET

• Youtube: https://youtube.com/live/yFx32wuwSek?feature=share

• Twitch: https://twitch.tv/RivalsOfAether

Our first character release for 2026 has been revealed! Get the first look at La Reina in her official trailer here - that just premiered moments ago LIVE during the Evo Announcement Show[evo.gg]:

La Reina joins the roster on January 6th in our fifth free character update. This update is going to be a big one, including gameplay changes across the cast, so mark your calendars for The Crowd Magnet's premiere in Rivals II in just a few short weeks.

Paola Del Castillo brings her talent to the ring this January via our open casting call! Please join us in welcoming Paola as the voice of La Reina in Rivals 2. You can follow her at @paodlcastillo on Twitter.

Learn more about La Reina's past:

Nestled on the western edge of the Archai Mountains sits the hollow mountain city of La Gran Colina. At the heart of the city lies a gladiatorial stage, the Arena de Campeones. This is where the city founders settled disputes. This is where wars between gangs, businesses and nations were decided. “Truth Through Strength” was the motto of La Gran Colina - but that was in simpler times.

The escalating hostilities between the Air Armada, Flame Imperium and Water Trade Company had seen a spike in mining orders. Pressure from outside competitors like Badger Co. led to in-fighting and cut-corners in the mines of Gran Colina. One humble worker saw the decay of her culture and society and said “no more.”

La Reina put on her mask and came to the ring to take on all challengers. She fights in the Arena de Campeones to remind her people of their pride and indomitable spirit. Wherever she goes she promotes Gran Colina’s strength, but always returns home to defend her title and the honor of her people.

Keep up to date with more info and early looks at La Reina before her release by following us on your favorite social media channels here[linktr.ee]!

• Moved starting position calculation to only happen for native GCC adapters.

  • Note: This prevents drifting after plug-in that some non-GCC users are experiencing.

• Fixed Steam Input causing issues with controllers not showing as the correct type.

  • Note: There is still an issue with GCC adapters when in PC mode where the controller type doesn't get recognized properly. This will be fixed soon but for the time being if you are using a GCC adapter in PC mode please disable Steam Input.

• Fixed non-recognized controller showing up with no glyphs. Everything that is unrecognized will now use Xbox glyphs and use the "other" controller option in the full screen controller settings tab.

• Fixed Switch controllers that appear as GCC not being able to use left bumper.

• Fixed keyboard not being able to rebind movement keys without causing weird crouching/walking behavior when pressed.

  • Note: If you were having issues with this you need to reset you controls for the tag you were having issues with. Once reset you can then rebind the action as you desire.

• Polished up mouse hide/show and lock/unlock from window logic to better fit what users expect.

• Mouse will no longer be able to active a playerslot ever.

  • Note: This was done to prevent people from clicking on the window when their queue pops accidentally causing their game to treat them as using keyboard.

• Fixed a bug causing gamepads under Steam Input to not accept trigger input.

  • Note: This also fixes Steam controller and Steam Deck triggers.

• Fixed a bug causing some glyphs to not show up in the button rebinding tab of the playerslot.

• Fixed free cam issues when being used outside of a replay.

Time to bring out the blankets and sip on some hot chocolate as the season arrives for our Winter Festival 2025 event! From 12/2 - 1/6, earn free holiday cosmetics like the Reindeer Absa Skin and Icon, the Christmas Platform, Elf Clairen emote, Christmas death effect, plus coins and bucks. The paid bundle includes 3 new winter skins - Santa Zetterburn, Elf Clairen, and Artic Fleet with their own icons to match, plus coins and bucks.

Artic Fleet comes with custom sounds for her Forward Special and empowered Strong Attacks, while Elf Clairen has holiday swipes and custom tippers sounds.

Players equipping any event skins above, and any of the following holiday skins will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track: Snowday Ranno, Snowman Kragg, Krampus Forsburn, White Elephant Loxodont - all of these skins besides the White Elephant Loxodont have been added to the Feature Store for Aether Coins (White Elephant Loxodont can still be earned for free from the 2024 Winter Event).

North America has two Online R2CS events happening - first is Platfight Online Gaming Championships[www.start.gg] on December 14th, and then a brand new Hungrybox R2CS online on 12/20[www.start.gg] with a voucher to Genesis X3 that promises to bring the heat!

To celebrate Platfight joining the R2CS, we’ve added the brand new Platfight Lovers Zetterburn palette bundle to the shop!

Similar to the previous Hungrybox Qualifier Events, participants will receive the HungryBox Baseball Clairen palette for free.

Europe will be hosting their final regular season event at No Time To Tilt 2025[www.start.gg] in Deutschland, where the current top 2 players Dia and Neylax will be sure to provide a show!

We have added the No Time To Tilt Slam Dunk Ranno bundle to the shop for players to pick up and represent the event!

If you purchase any event bundles but already own the base skins, you’ll receive an Aether Bucks refund to make it even just like with our other bundles. These palettes are FREE for all players attending the respective events. 

You can check out upcoming & past events and the region leaderboards on our official league page[www.start.gg].

• Midnight Abyss Orcane Palette

• Purple Winter Stoat Maypul Palette

• Pink Forsburn Palette

• Black Snowday Ranno Palette

• Mini Plush Zetterburn Icon

• Mini Plush Kragg Icon

• Mini Plush Wrastor Icon

• Capychilla Icon

• Brutice Icon

• Hornfrost Icon

• Zetterburn Neutral Special Icon

Champion Forsburn has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for The Exiled Flame.

• Clown Ranno, Franketalus and the Low Poly skin will receive custom SFX for the first time/again in the near future but we're keeping them in the oven for a bit longer to ensure they're positive additions and won't be disruptive for players who already bought them.

• Fixed a bug that made Fleet's strong attack charging sound silent when she was empowered by NSpecial.

We know controllers are still in a tough spot for some people, and wanted to reassure everyone that we're working hard on all of the different complications that have come up in our controller overhaul. We'll continue to improve issues from this transition until everything is fixed, so please continue to share bugs and your hardware information with us. Since we’ve rolled out SDL, we have updated the game with several hotfixes:

Past fixes include:

• 11/21 Steam Article focusing on Steam Controller glyphs, deadzones, mappings and more.

• 11/26 Steam Article focusing primarily on GameCube controllers and controllers copying existing ones on plugin,  with a few other changes as well.

• 11/26 hotfix that allows players to use RPS in tournament mode once again.

New to this patch:

• Fixed a bug where GCCs with alternatively installed digital only trigger modifications would not release shield.

• Fixed a bug where unplugging and re-plugging in a controller would create a new playerslot instead of taking over the now empty playerslot.

• Fixed a bug for playerslots 2 and up where controller glyphs would not update if a new controller was bound.

• Fixed a bug where mouse could open a playerslot. Now only a keyboard can open a playerslot and the mouse will funnel its input via the first player with keyboard.

  • Note: If a keyboard player is player 2 in a local match the mouse hover and click will effect player 1 in the css. However, in a match inputs from the mouse will funnel to the keyboard player if mouse buttons are bound.

Here's a small serving of hotfix patchnotes before we're off to enjoy our Thanksgiving feasts tomorrow! We're still tracking and working on other issues related to controllers, so please keep bug reports coming as we weed out issues.

• Fixed digital GCC trigger release immediately setting value to 0 instead of the actual analog value of the trigger.

• Fixed a bug where unplugging a GameCube adapter didn't mark used playerslots as open. This effectively soft locked the playerslot until you left the character select screen and reentered.

Note:

• We've been made aware of a bug where when you plug in a controller it seems to copy the controls of the existing controller. IE: P1 is a Switch Pro controller and P2 plugs in a PS5 controller, the PS5 will now show the same glyphs as the Switch Pro controller and have the same control bindings. From what we can tell this is an issue with Steam Input. Please disable Steam Input for the time being if you encounter this while we are working on a more permanent solution. You can do this easily without affecting other games by right clicking Rivals II in your Steam library, clicking "Properties...", choosing "Controller" in the popup sidebar, and then setting the dropdown menu on the right to "Disable Steam Input".

Also fixed in an unnumbered hotfix on Tuesday 11/25:

• Fixed not being able to pick a tag online if you're player 2 or above.

• Added trigger tricking for GameCube controllers.

• Added support for GameCube digital only triggers.

• Fixed not being able to cycle forward (with right bumper) your palette color in casual queue.

• Input display toggle is now accessible in replays.

Hey all, here's the detailed notes from our hotfix released last evening. We apologize that our big controller update has been rocky, but we're working hard on getting things playing smoothly for everyone again with as frequent updates as possible. These changes will allow us to support more controllers in a better way (without emulation) and provide the best compatibility once we iron things out.

• Steam Controller glyphs now properly show up and are bindable.

• Steam Deck glyphs now properly show up and are bindable.

• Changed "Sensitivity Settings" tab name to "Analog Settings".

• Added right and left trigger deadzones as an option under Analog Settings.

• Default GCC deadzone upped 5% -> 20% (now matches the default Xbox deadzone).

• All analog axis will now record their starting position on plug in and use it as it's 0,0.

• Added a bunch of default controller mappings, should prevent inverted stick for those that were having issues with that.

• Airdodging horizontally on the first frame of a fullhop will now perform a wavedash.

  • This already happened with shorthops, so this is for consistency.

• Replay menus now work properly.

• Free cam now works properly.

• Added parry as a counter option in training mode.

• Input displayers should show up only when intended now (not showing your opponents input online).

• Analog tab sliders now increment by 1% instead of 5% for more granular tuning.

• Trigger tricking is being ironed out. When this makes it live it will be accompanied by digital GCC trigger buttons counting as a full 1.0 trigger press.

Also included previously (version # did not increase for this):

• The default controls popup will no longer constantly reappear.

• Fixed a bug preventing you from being able to pick a tag.

• Fixed lobby codes spamming Ctrl+v