The RRWC 2024 Preview
Ahead of the fifth world championship
The wait is almost over, the format is set, and the players are ready. The 2024 Roulette Rivals World Championship is just around the corner, which means constant roulette action from Thursday’s group stage draw until the Grand Final on December 8th.
The Roulette Rivals World Championship is the most popular and prestigious event in the Hitman community, hosted by Frote7’s Speedrun Community. If you’re interested in the basic rules of roulette, check out the articles about the basics here. This post will feature the favorites and major changes since the previous event.
What’s New?
RRWC 2024 will feature more changes than usual. First of all, all boosts besides particle boosts and cover aims were unbanned: a compromise to hopefully satisfy both sides of the boosting argument.
Following an extensive condition survey (and admin discussions), Loud Elimination is now allowed for Sean, the Maelstrom, Vanya, and Hush, while Fire for Yuki is now banned. Furthermore, two brand new conditions have been added for Sierra: Shoot the Car and Destroy the Car via Explosive.
Most importantly though, the RRWC format has undergone its biggest change since 2020. The 32-player knockout stage is now a single-elimination bracket, players have no second chances after the group stage. As a result, knockout matches are longer than ever, starting from First-to-8 and ending with a record First-to-14 RRWC Grand Final.
The Favorites
While 2021 will forever be remembered for rookie DaniButa winning the world championship, the eventual winner will likely come from these sixteen players. Defending champion TheTimeCube and 2024 winners In4Fun, Scruffy, and Phanium are ranked first, ahead of the best non-champions of the year.
Behind the RR14 runner-up The Rieper 47, Dein Nomos is a first seed for the first time in his career, while Moo and Music Inc prepare for their first world championship. Losing eighth place by the narrowest of margins, Frote7 will be the best and scariest of the second seeds, only matched by six-time champion Ducker.
Twelve of the Top 16 are either RR champions or runners-up, and even the other four produced impressive runs in big cross-platform events. Above average in winrate and Elo, no second seed is a pushover, they can reasonably fight to win any group. For the first time, everyone from the preliminary Top 16 has signed up to play, no big names are skipping this world championship.
Dark Horses
The third and fourth seeds are also better than ever in the most competitive world championship yet. Champions Pigiero and Yannini are always threatening in the group stage, with the right Top 2 seeds they can easily make up the Group of Death.
RRWC 2024 is the grand return of the rapid Nezuko Chan, who last played in RR13, but has been playing many matches in the Roulette League recently. Whoever is drawn against BigMachete13 can expect a Santa Fortuna pick from the best specialist of the community, with linux_penguin, Vulcat, Parapluie, and TK47 all considered solid all-rounders.
IlikeHitman is certainly the star of the fourth pot, even though his best 2024 result is 17th place, his ceiling is the highest of these eight. Just behind him, graory achieved a Top 10 in RR15 as a rookie and has the second-best stats from Pot 4. Rocky and mikulers advanced from their groups twice in the last three years, they’ll be in the mix, as well as newer players such as Apricope, HOUSEN, and Camel.
Fittingly, OhShitMan is 32nd on our current list, and his group stage journey has been more interesting than most. He’s finished fifth for the last three years, missing the knockout stage by three, four, and one point respectively. Can he make the jump in 2024?
Fighting to Advance
Most players in the 5th and 6th pots didn’t participate in all three 2024 tournaments but still managed to win a few matches this year. They have varied experience, ranging from Some Random Person’s 16 tournaments to Alph and Dynaso debuting two months ago. Players like Random, Fuzk, and zRune are scary opponents thanks to their best placements, even though they weren’t achieved this year.
Sixth, even seventh seeds have won groups before, so advancing to the knockout stage is far from impossible for them. Several fifth seeds (CurryMaker, Peter Dutton MP, zRune) have never failed to advance, and they’ll be eager to keep their streaks going. Combined with Rommel and Redfox from Pot 6, there are many scenarios where all six of the first six seeds will fight for four spots.
Rookies and Returnees
ChrisX3 is back! This was the biggest news since signups opened last Monday, as few expected the return of the RR6 runner-up after a three-year hiatus. It was similarly great seeing Cabben return after two years and Meekah sign up for the first time since the last world championship.
Apart from three high-profile returning players, three rookies are getting ready to debut in just a few days: Indonesian Harmaa.-, Russian AlexHiller and gekko from the Netherlands.
Though late signups can change this, the current roster of 7th seeds consists of Channel Reindeer and aphro returning after RR13, Ashton, Fly4u, and Dammchicu after RR14, as well as bLULW, Max Masters and SovietDubov who participated in RR15. They all scored 33rd in their one RR this year, which means they only have to go one better for a place in the knockout stage.
Groups of Death
As of Monday afternoon, 62 signups will be drawn into groups of seven and eight, with the top four per group advancing to the knockout stage. The playing field is deeper than ever, likely resulting in closer and more exciting groups than before.
Two potential Groups of Death are described above, one based on Elo and one based on statistics. Groups like this are not only a problem for the players involved, but the results can shape the entire knockout stage.
The time for speculation is almost over: signups close on Wednesday evening, and the group stage draw is scheduled for Thursday evening. The 7.5-week journey to crown a world champion is about to begin!
The 2024 Roulette Rivals World Championship is held from October 18th to December 8th in Frote7’s Speedrun Community.