Roulette Rivals 16 Goes Swiss
Recap of the first-ever Swiss stage of RR
Roulette Rivals 16 is the newest installment of the primary Hitman tournament series, hosted by Frote7’s Speedrun Community. If you’re interested in the rules of roulette, check out the articles about the basics here.
For five years, Roulette Rivals followed a rigid schedule: three double-elimination tournaments in February, May, and August, respectively, before the year ended with the World Championship. As players were increasingly tired of the formula, modifications were suggested: first, the RRWC Knockout Stage was turned into a single-elimination bracket, but more importantly, there was enough community support to try out the Swiss system for Roulette Rivals 16.
In the Swiss system, players face opponents with similar records, ensuring more fair matchups as the stage progresses. Six rounds of Swiss action began on January 31st, and 55 players entered in hopes of being one of the sixteen to advance to the Knockout Stage.
Round 1
The sixth year of Roulette Rivals began with linux_penguin defeating rookie GLeBaLK 6-0. The completely random draw didn’t produce a lot of nightmare openers, but Yannini and Ducker couldn’t have been happy to meet each other in Round 1.
In a battle between another two Top16 hopefuls, IlikeHitman defeated Pigiero in little over fifteen minutes, while in a highly anticipated rematch of their RRWC encounter, Qrescent7 beat ThatObserver once more.
Round 1 was relatively free from upsets, though two scorelines raised some eyebrows. RR15 Champion Phanium got off to a slow start against Purple, and with the help of a Dartmoor tie, neither player left victoriously. Although Pac didn’t score the win, his match against davidredsox went down to the wire, ending with an impressive 4-6 against the veteran.
Of the 27 matches, only three couldn’t be played in the five days allotted for Round 1, and with two inactive players removed from Round 2, the tournament has appeared to have gone off to a smooth start.
Round 2
The second round of Roulette Rivals 16 resembled regular RRs the most. Half the players faced fellow winners in their “Winners Bracket” while the other half was fighting for their first win, but without any elimination threat for now.
None of the winner vs winner matches went to five maps, as title contenders like Scruffy, Nezuko Chan, Dein Nomos, The Rieper 47, and ChrisX3 all took their second wins convincingly. Moo vs quatilyti, the headliner of Round 2, also ended in a 6-0 sweep.
The other half of the table featured longer and closer matches, including another 5-5 tie, this time aphro and Shadow sharing the point equally. Following closely fought matches going into five maps, both bLULW and Bdazzle scored their first-ever wins, the latter doing so in his first tournament after four years.
A total of 25 players were on one point after two rounds, including Pigiero, Alph, and MrMike all improving their winrate to 50%, and with Frote7 and In4Fun staying undefeated but skipping one round each. Unlike in previous regular Roulette Rivals tournaments, players with two losses still aren’t eliminated, as four points were estimated to be the cutoff for a Top 16 spot.
Round 3
The Swiss Stage continued with the only six-day round, using the extra time to ensure at least one Saturday for the players to schedule matches. Twelve players entered with two wins, and six of them stayed perfect. Moo, Scruffy, and ChrisX3 swept through Round 3, The Rieper 47 only dropped a map against davidredsox; while IlikeHitman defeated Jokerj, and Dein Nomos beat Hashashin47, both in five maps.
Thirteen players scored their second wins in Round 3, staying ahead of the curve at the halfway point. Phanium and ThatObserver found narrow 6-4 victories against Joats and Harmaa.-, respectively, while quatilyti defeated Yannini 6-0 in the toughest 1p vs 1p matchup.
Aside from quatilyti, three Russians scored their first wins this round, leaving their paths narrow but open toward the playoffs with three more wins. Ducker and Peter Dutton MP were also looking to begin their comeback story: if anyone could clinch the playoffs with four consecutive wins, it would be them.
Round 4
The highlight of Round 4 was the three matches between undefeated players; these three winners would become the first to secure a spot in the Knockout Stage. The Rieper 47 scored his fourth point with a sweep against Moo; ChrisX3 pulled off a comeback against Dein Nomos to win 6-4, and Scruffy extended his winning streak to 16 after a messy match against IlikeHitman.
Jokerj and In4Fun scored their third wins against long-time rivals Phanium and Frote7, respectively. While players like lukedotpng, MrMike, and quatilyti cruised through their fourth-round match without a map loss, the Nezuko Chan vs Hashashin47 game ended in a 5-5 tie, complicating matters around the 16th place cutoff. Along with veterans Pigiero, Yannini, and Ducker scoring their second wins, Zi also stayed alive as he scored his first-ever win against AlexHiller.
Round 5
After securing a Top 16 spot, the final three undefeated players set their eyes on winning the entire Swiss Stage. In a Berlin grudge match between Scruffy and ChrisX3, the world champion took a 4-0 lead after taking both map picks, before winning the match 6-2. Scruffy would not find anyone else on 5 points, as the 3-pointer Dein Nomos swept The Rieper 47, leaving the American on four.
Jokerj and lukedotpng advanced to the Knockout Stage with sweeps over ThatObserver and aphro, respectively, while Alph secured his spot by defeating MrMike 7-3. quatilyti won his fourth match by completing a reverse sweep against IlikeHitman, while Qrescent7 upset In4Fun with a strong comeback.
A long list of de facto elimination matches narrowed the playing field significantly. With a tight 6-4 win, Hashashin47 continued his remarkable comeback tourney, leaving Phanium at 2.5 points. Pigiero stayed alive after defeating linux_penguin, Frote7 beat fellow old timer davidredsox, and Yannini struggled to a 6-4 win against SkyL3R. But perhaps the most interesting win was by Zi, who continued his fairytale run with a 6-0 sweep against Peter Dutton MP.
Though they were played by already eliminated players, Round 5 produced plenty of entertaining matches, including Falcon’s 4-6 win over ChromeX, CurryMaker and Some Random Person’s 5-5 draw, and the first ever wins of both GLeBaLK and DeadlyMuffin_Man.
Round 6
The final round began with perhaps the most entertaining match in recent memory, with The Eagle With No Name tying My_pika 5-5, featuring late rips, unique strategies, and emotional map wins. After DeadlyMuffin_Man beat LookitsME for his second win in a row, attention shifted to the seven do-or-die matches involving 3-point players.
After Round 5 ended and the Round 6 dropouts were finalized, the community still wasn’t sure if four points were guaranteed to be enough for the Knockout Stage. Ultimately, victories by Frote7 and Nezuko Chan ensured that either a 3p vs 3p match ends in a tie or the last of the 4-point players would be eliminated in seventeenth.
With a clever Reza setup, Yannini clutched a Marrakesh win and a 6-2 victory over HOUSEN to become the first player to advance in Round 6. Most other spots were decided on Super Saturday, featuring three consecutive sweeps in decider matches: In4Fun defeated Pigiero, then ChannelJoined beat ThatObserver, and finally Hashashin47 advanced against IlikeHitman.
By this point, Zi has gone through a rollercoaster of emotions: he not only avoided the toughest Round 6 opponents but also rose to the occasion by scoring the win against TK47, to end up on four points. But as the chance of seventeen 4-point players solidified, and all of Frote7’s previous opponents ended up winning, Zi found himself on the outside looking in.
Zi needed one of the decider matches to end in a tie, but his final chance ended in an anticlimactic fashion: Ducker vs Moo, the last of the 3 v 3 matches, couldn’t be played due to internet issues by Ducker. This meant that Scruffy vs lukedotpng was the final match of the Swiss Stage, which the world champion narrowly won 6-4.
The Final Standings
Following six rounds and 142 matches, the final sixteen are now set. Though his match came down to the wire, Scruffy’s first seed was in no danger, he awaits the knockout stage as the only undefeated player. ChrisX3 follows him as the second seed, quickly consolidating himself as one of the best players despite not having played competitively for three years. The rest of the top seeds are relative surprises, and it’ll be interesting to see if Qrescent7, Alph, or Hashashin47 can live up to their strong Swiss performance: they are surely the dark horses of the Knockout Stage.
Zi’s 17th place elimination is equally impressive and heartbreaking, he overtakes multiple champions who ended the tournament on three wins. SkyL3R and Falcon finish around their personal best result but win a record three matches in one tournament. The bottom part of the standings is a mix of established players opting out from the final rounds and roulette heroes achieving their personal goals: all 53 players ended up winning at least a map, and in plenty of cases, we saw someone’s first map or match wins.
The Stage is Set
After the unique excitement of the Swiss Stage, the pure intensity of the Knockout Stage begins. Over the next two weeks, sixteen of roulette’s best players will battle it out for the Roulette Rivals 16 title and a share of the €140 prize pool. Will Scruffy take his third title in four tournaments, or can someone stop him from his quarter? Can ChrisX3 do one better, 3.5 years after his RR6 second-place finish? Who will manage this deadly bracket the best?
Roulette Rivals 16 is held from January 31st to March 16th in Frote7’s Speedrun Community. Spectators can follow the results in several places inside and outside the Discord server. All scheduled matches appear on the HITMAPS main page, while detailed match results appear on the RRStats website and the community spreadsheet.