The End of October and the RRWC25 Group Stage
The Knockout Stage beckons
The 2025 Roulette Rivals World Championship is the latest edition of the premier Hitman tournament series, hosted by Frote7’s Speedrun Community. If you’re unfamiliar with the rules of roulette, check out the introductory articles covering the basics. Tournament results are available on RRStats, as well as the community spreadsheet.
In the previous Substack, we reviewed all eight groups of the 2025 Roulette Rivals World Championship ahead of the final week of the Group Stage. Now, 11 days later, we can finally wrap things up and look at how the final 32 players advanced to the Knockout Stage, albeit five days into bracket play. In any case, this article does not include any spoilers from the KO Stage.
So, how did things conclude in the Group Stage?
Group A
In Group A, following an impressive sweep against the defending champion, Meekah had the group win within reach. Needing seven points from their final two matches, the Canadian swept Zi before securing first place with a photo-finish tie against lukedotpng, finishing on 30 points with another map win.
Following that, the main talking point of the group was the battle for fourth place. Before the final match on Saturday, T_Nort23 sat on 14 points, three ahead of Zi, meaning Zi needed at least a draw or a win against rookie FuGu_AntOn to advance. After a hectic Santa Fortuna, the Russian took the lead, and Ambrose was no simple, either. In the end, though, Zi managed to turn things around and win the match, advancing to the second stage of a Roulette Rivals tournament for the first time in his career.
Group A winner Meekah is back: motivated and with a ceiling higher than most, they’ll be a dark horse for the title. Scruffy, although failing to win his group for the first time, remains one of the tournament’s top players and the favorite to win it all. Third-placed lukedotpng delivered a quiet but effective group stage, never losing his Hokkaido picks but drawing two via photo finishes. FuGu_AntOn finishes with 7 points to become the most successful rookie of the tournament, ahead of CurryMaker, who suffered narrow losses but managed to tie Zi.
Group B
Group B concluded with three placement matches in the final week. ChannelJoined first defeated The Rieper 47, before Alph played his two matches on Thursday, sweeping Channel and then losing 2–4 to TheTimeCube. As all other late matches ended in sweeps for the more experienced players, the standings were confirmed by Friday, even though ChannelJoined vs WelfareChexx could not be played in time.
Though he has only competed in RRWCs for the past two years, TheTimeCube shows no signs of being affected by limited match practice. With sweeps against the bottom four players and 4–2 wins against his closest rivals, Time may not be untouchable, but he appears to be in some of the best form among the 32 remaining players. The Rieper 47, despite missing RR17, returned seamlessly, losing only to Time and Channel in close matches. He ties (and wins on head-to-head) with Alph, who recorded five sweeps and two losses. On his day, Alph remains fully capable of making another Grand Final. If either had taken just one more map against TheTimeCube, we might have seen a different group winner.
ChannelJoined’s 24 points don’t tell the full story, as he’s missing six from against WelfareChexx, a match that got cancelled on the final day. Even so, he finished comfortably ahead of the bottom four but narrowly behind the three former Grand Finalists. Pac completed his best tournament to date with three wins and 15 points, even taking a map from The Rieper 47. He narrowly edged out GLeBaLK, who finished sixth with 13 points, including a sweep against WelfareChexx. The group was rounded out by Frank The Eagle and Welfare, who shared an entertaining 3–3 tie in the final week.
Group C
With Dein Nomos securing qualification early, three remaining spots were up for grabs, mainly decided by head-to-head results among three players. After sweeping Some Random Person, DeadlyMuffin_Man, and GiggsRH, apricope moved up to second place and stayed there until the end of the Group Stage. It took some time for the standings to settle in this tightly contested group, but Giggs’s four points from his final three matches were just enough to beat Kobalt00122, finishing with 18 and leaving the two sloths to battle for the last qualifying position.
Some Random Person played DeadlyMuffin_Man first, ending the match with a surprise 4-2, Muffin taking two valuable points away from Random. As a result, Pigiero needed only a draw against Muffin in the final hour of the Group Stage, and with a sweep, he ultimately finished third.
In the end, only five points separated second from sixth in one of the most unpredictable groups of the year. While Dein Nomos’s talent needs no introduction, apricope, Pigiero, and GiggsRH all showed they can produce excellent performances on their day. With 17 points and consistently strong play, Some Random Person and Kobalt00122 might have gone even further with a different group draw, while DeadlyMuffin_Man finished seventh, quadrupling his point total from last year’s RRWC.
Group D
This year didn’t feature a clear “group of death,” but based on player experience, Group D was one of the most difficult to call. Before the final week, graory, SkyL3R, and IlikeHitman were in comfortable positions to qualify, while Yannini soon joined them to round out the Top 4.
IlikeHitman quickly slotted into fourth place, looking to be a dangerous opponent for any potential group winner. Before the final match, SkyL3R knew his 30 points wouldn’t be enough to win the group, though certain results could still have earned him second place. Yannini began the unofficial decider with a smooth win in Colorado, but graory struck back with unmatched strategy on Haven Island, to push the group to a deciding map. Remarkably, the Mendoza spin first looked as an exact second tie, but after careful counting, graory was declared the winner of both the spin and Group D.
In the end, graory (32 points) edged out Yannini (32) via head-to-head tiebreaker, both finishing two points ahead of SkyL3R (30), with the Russian becoming the first person to win all their matches in the group, but only managing to finish third. Alongside dinkdoink in eighth, the three veterans who missed out on qualification were linux_penguin, Sparkles, and Channel Reindeer, all of whom have reached Knockouts before, and likely will again in the future.
Group E
KILiSION’s withdrawal on Tuesday allowed Group E to finish the quickest, with the final standings confirmed by Thursday. That same day, Duttykins earned two valuable points against Ducker, effectively ensuring both players’ advancement. Then on Thursday, the final qualifying spot was decided in a do-or-die clash between MrMike and OhShitMan, which the American won 6–0.
In what was a strong and consistent Group Stage performance, quatilyti lost only two of his eighteen maps, an Ambrose early on to OhShitMan and a Colorado to eventual runner-up Ducker. The Russian has long been considered a dark horse, and after winning his group for the first time, quatilyti now has a serious claim to go deep in RRWC 2025.
A very close battle saw Ducker narrowly claim second place over fellow veteran MrMike. Their consistency could serve them well in the Knockout Stage, which features hidden RNG maps. Duttykins took fourth, advancing from all three of his RRWC Group Stages to date; he’s now admittedly hoping to win at least one match in the Knockouts. OhShitMan fought valiantly; he is always close to advancing, but this time had to settle for fifth, ahead of fellow Nordic player Fuzk, who took a Hokkaido from MrMike.
Group F
Before the final week, most of the uncertainty in Group F revolved around top seed Qrescent7, who needed to win his remaining four matches to secure first place. He did more than that, scoring 22 of a possible 24 points and winning the group by four. As the remaining matches concluded without major upsets (though Blithe nearly defeated Qrescent7 if not for an unfortunate crash in Mumbai), the standings became clear faster than in most other groups.
In his second World Championship, Qrescent7 won his group for the first time, remaining in control when it mattered most. The American’s unpredictable strategies are gradually cementing his reputation as one of the tournament favorites, capable of beating anyone under the right conditions. The same can be said for the always entertaining HOUSEN and for Jokerj, who is playing his best Roulette since his finalist run in RR8, making him one of the most dangerous third seeds in the Knockouts.
Blithe is perhaps the most intriguing returning player; the RR7 champion entered his first tournament since RR11, more than two years ago. He shook off the rust as the matches progressed and settled into a comfortable fourth place, an awkward draw for both him and whichever group winner faces him next. Russian player Omni_TMN clinched fifth place after a tight contest ahead of Falcon and mikulers, with all three taking two wins each: one against each other and one against the always joyful veteran GuLe.
Group G
In terms of seedings, Group G could have been one of the simplest to predict, but surprising results and strong overperformance by several players turned it into the closest and most dramatic group of the year, right up to the final map. Eyes was the first to finish their matches; despite scoring zero points, the rookie looked more competitive than many of the seventh- and eighth-place finishers.
Apart from Eyes’s matches, only three games ended in a 6–0 score, none of them during the final week. Fly4u’s fourth and fifth matches netted him six points, putting him on 14 before the last match, behind In4Fun (27), magicdave94 (21), ChrisX3 (20), aphro (20), and the already eliminated Parapluie (18). To advance, Fly4u needed a sweep against aphro, who faced a unique situation: lose 0–6 and be eliminated, or win a map and secure second place. After strong performances by Fly in Haven Island and Miami, it all came down to the Colorado decider, which aphro ultimately won, claiming the second seed at the eleventh hour.
Though In4Fun won the group by five points, he didn’t have the cleanest group stage, but returned to the winning row after losing to graory last year. With second through sixth separated by only four points, any of these five players could have advanced in other groups. In the end, aphro and magicdave94 secured their first Knockout Stage appearances, ahead of former Grand Finalist ChrisX3. Like last year, Parapluie narrowly missed qualifying for the Knockouts, this time by just two points, despite a 4–2 win over ChrisX3.
Group H
Two key points stood out for Group H before the final week: the match between Nezuko Chan and Frote7 to decide first place, and AlexHiller’s potential push into the Top 4. In the battle for qualification, Alex did all he could, sweeping Gomadu3 on the final weekend. However, thanks to valuable points against both Frote7 and Nezuko Chan, TK47 also reached 16 points, winning the head-to-head tiebreaker to claim fourth place.
The contest for first place played on Friday, October 24th. Both Berlin and Mumbai lasted more than 20 minutes, with Frote7 eventually taking both maps and the Mendoza decider to secure a well-earned group victory. The Mendoza loss ultimately influenced the battle for second place as well, as CodenameKenny finished his group stage with sweeps over Veggerby and Gomadu3, overtaking Nezuko Chan on the final day.
AlexHiller became the only player this year (and the first since 2023) to miss out on qualification solely due to the head-to-head tiebreaker. Still, two wins and sixteen points represent a valiant effort in this group. Like two years ago, Veggerby was drawn into Group H, faced Frote7, and missed out on qualification, but this time doubled his win total, defeating TK47 as well as rookie Canadian Gomadu3, who already poses a threat on their home map pick of Ambrose Island.
Onto November
After 185 matches over 23 days, the Knockout Stage field is set. Of the final thirty-two, 21 players returned from last year’s Knockouts, six returned after a gap (including CodenameKenny, Blithe, and TK47, who made it through for the first time since 2022), and five are rookies at this stage: aphro, SkyL3R, magicdave94, Zi, and GiggsRH. Only three players repeated group wins from last year, with TheTimeCube claiming his group for the third consecutive year, and graory remaining perfect across two years.
Sunday’s Knockout Stage draw set the stage for the final and most exciting four weeks of the Roulette calendar. The first quarter features group winners quatilyti and Dein Nomos, but former finalists such as IlikeHitman, Jokerj, and The Rieper 47 can also challenge anyone. The firepower in this quarter is matched only by the second, led by four champions (Scruffy, Yannini, Frote7, Pigiero), two former finalists (Alph and ChrisX3), and wildcard Qrescent7. Any player emerging from this quarter could realistically contend for the title.
The third quarter offers a mix of veterans and newcomers, from the ever-consistent Ducker and Nezuko Chan to the dominant graory, with first-time KO players Zi, GiggsRH, and magicdave94 hoping to make a deep run under the radar. The final quarter features Meekah following their group win over Scruffy, joined by former world champion In4Fun, returning champion Blithe, resurgent MrMike, and the unbeaten SkyL3R, among others.
Although the Knockout Stage began on Monday and more than a dozen matches have already been completed, numerous questions remain, most importantly: who will navigate the dangerous double-elimination bracket best to become the 2025 world champion on November 23rd?
The 2025 Roulette Rivals World Championship is the latest edition of the premier Hitman tournament series, hosted by Frote7’s Speedrun Community. If you’re unfamiliar with the rules of roulette, check out the introductory articles covering the basics. Tournament results are available on RRStats, as well as the community spreadsheet.
Oh my gosh it’s drviing me crazy! I cant find wherever im supposed to watch this stuff live. Is there somewhere to watch the championships,live? Please help me out here