Top 10: 2024's Defining RR Moments
What the year will be remembered for
With the world championship over and competitive roulette winding down for 2024, the community celebrates the end of roulette’s fifth full year. Over 21 weeks of Roulette Rivals action, 539 matches were played, and though no new champions were crowned, two players debuted in an RR Grand Final.
Today, we will be counting down Roulette Rivals’ top 10 most defining moments from 2024, from the greatest plays to the most exciting matches and all the topics that got the community talking. Some of the following points were nominated as Moment of the Year for this year’s RR Awards, so CurryMaker’s custom-made video summaries accompany them.
#10 - RR14-WC24: The boost discourse
We begin our list with probably the one exception: the boost discourse was not a moment but rather a year-long series of discussions regarding the place of particle boosts and cover aims in roulette. Cover aims were found in late 2023 and tested throughout RR13 as people kept adding feedback for or against the new technique.
Following an almost even split of opinions in the post-tourney survey, admins decided to test out the extremes: RR14 allowed both cover aims and particle boosts, while for RR15, all types of boosts were deemed illegal.
Two tourneys of experimenting didn’t shift public opinion much, with about half for and half against boosting. A compromise decision was implemented for the world championship, allowing any boost except for cover aims and particle boosts. In the latest RR survey, most players supported this decision, perhaps ending one of the year’s most significant talking points.
#9 - September 8th: Phanium wins Roulette Rivals 15
RR15, also known as the Summer Event of 2024, was memorable for several reasons, some of which will be explained below. It welcomed a new finalist in Music Inc, who defeated a strong line of competitors in the Winners’ Bracket, including Phanium in Round 3. After being down 0-4 against Parapluie, Phanium began his staple comeback performance, winning seven matches in a row to make it back to the Final for a rematch against Music. Apart from his rookie tournament, Phanium has been undefeated in finals, and he extended his streak with a first-ever 10-0 victory, sweeping Music to win his fifth title.
Watch: the RR15 Grand Final between Music Inc and Phanium.
#8 - June 5th: The Rieper 47 breaks his 4th-place curse
Ever since his debut in RR9, The Rieper 47 was regarded as one of the hardest-working players in the community. Through persistent practice, he quickly rose through the ranks to finish fourth in RR11, only losing to TheTimeCube on the final map. Rieper then finished fourth in RR12, and in RR13 as well, leaving some to wonder if he’s got a curse preventing him from scoring a podium.
His breakthrough came at the next tournament, where he defeated Phanium 6-2 in Round 9 of the Losers’ Bracket, then beat In4Fun 9-3 in the LB Final to advance to his first-ever Grand Final. Although he was outmatched by Scruffy, who won the RR14 title with a score of 10-2, Rieper left the tournament knowing he had reached the top of roulette.
Watch: the RR14 Grand Final between Scruffy and The Rieper 47.
#7 - RR15 & WC24: Music Inc’s two finals in his rookie year
It’s always great to welcome new players into roulette, no matter their previous experience and game knowledge. And every once in a while, a newcomer rocks the roulette world with how quickly they get up to speed: think of DaniButa’s rookie title in 2021, TheTimeCube almost doing the same next year, and Dein Nomos’ unbeaten run until the RR12 final last year.
Music Inc debuted in RR14 and got off to a flying start, defeating HOUSEN and Ducker without losing a single map. After losses to The Rieper 47 and Lord Munk, the Canadian ended his first tourney in 9th. The next time, though, there was no Winners’ Bracket loss, and Music went to the Grand Final, only losing to Phanium there. In his first world championship, he was even more relentless, staying undefeated in the group stage and making his way to the Grand Final again convincingly. Though Scruffy won the final, thanks to his two runner-up finishes, many see Music Inc becoming RR’s newest champion next year.
Watch: the RRWC 2024 Semi-final between The Rieper 47 and Music Inc.
#6 - November 10th: The single-elimination bracket draw
The bracket draw itself was a triumphant moment and a culmination of a long process beforehand. During the fifth year of Roulette Rivals, many felt that the double elimination stage was getting too stale to participate in. After surveys and discussions, RRWC 2024 was the first tournament to adopt a different type of bracket: single-elimination, with no second chances but longer matches to play. Games would start at First-to-8, previously only a staple of Semi-Finals, and reach unprecedented lengths of First-to-12 and First-to-14. Moreover, random maps for these knockout stage matches were hidden, limiting practice for the players.
A bracket draw always carries high stakes, but the single-elimination bracket draw of the world championship was the most meaningful one yet. While the entire field was stacked, and every bracket would have looked deadly, one quarter stood out in the end. Due to the new format, only one of Moo, Nezuko Chan, Scruffy, or Phanium could have made it to the Semi-Finals, with matchups among them projected for the earlier rounds.
#5 - August 30th: Ducker eliminates Scruffy from RR15
After Scruffy lost an exciting match against Jokerj, he had the task of recovering his RR15 tournament life through the Losers’ Bracket. In Round 6, he faced Ducker: the six-time champion wasn’t considered a tournament favorite anymore but enjoyed his best tournament run in a year, defeating Pigiero, HOUSEN, and The Rieper 47 earlier in August.
Coming back from the world championship and its eight, nine, and ten map matches, a First-to-6 almost feels too short: Scruffy had a late rip in Colorado, missed Sophia by a second on the Isle of Sgàil, and lost a narrow photo finish in Sapienza. He didn’t play poorly, but it was enough for Ducker to end the match with a 6-0 sweep. Ducker defeating Scruffy was rightfully called the “Upset of the Year,” and its ramifications affected the rest of RR15 and likely RRWC as well.
#4 - WC24: ChannelJoined’s breakthrough performance
Everyone loves an underdog story, and many keep hoping one will define a tournament, especially the world championship. Although one can argue that the RRWC Knockout Stage can’t feature upsets, saying that “anyone in the Top 32 can beat anyone,” several results piqued the community’s interest.
RR15 champion Phanium had a quiet group stage, losing twice and finishing second behind lukedotpng. Before being projected to meet Scruffy in the Round of 16, he faced ChannelJoined, who was outmatched by Yannini and The Rieper 47 in the group stage but only dropped one other map. Phanium had already beaten Channel in RR15 and took a 4-2 lead here, but this returning rival turned the tide with clean plays to eliminate the champion from RRWC2024.
The reward for ChannelJoined scoring the year’s second-biggest upset was an even more difficult match against Scruffy. But after losing Dubai in record time, Channel turned on a surprising steamroll to take three maps in a row as his opponent struggled. Down 2-6, Scruffy had to face three match points against the American, but with a combination of quick maps and flawless gameplay, the comeback was complete. Although Channel couldn’t pull off the double upset, he gave hope to his fellow players that no one is unbeatable in roulette.
#3 - December 8th: Scruffy wins RRWC 2024
The most important RR match of 2024 deserves its place on this top 10 list. The roulette community has always paid extra attention to the year-ending world championship, with admins implementing special rules for its format and players signing up in greater numbers than other “regular” RR tournaments.
Throughout seven weeks, 64 entrants became 32 over the group stage, then whittled down even more in RR’s first-ever single-elimination knockout stage. Each day came with more matches and more eliminations, raising the stakes for the eventual World Championship Final.
Scruffy made it to the final after coming back from match points against ChannelJoined, hoping to do one better than last year’s RRWC Final, where TheTimeCube narrowly beat him 10-8. Music Inc also had plans to do better after losing the RR15 final to Phanium. This first-to-14 marathon began with a Scruffy steamroll, taking an 8-0 lead, making people think a sweep could be on the cards. Music Inc came back to the match by taking three maps, but Scruffy finished the job on map 10 in Colorado. After losing the final last year and suffering an uncharacteristic early loss in RR15, Scruffy added the final reward missing from his cabinet and became the world champion.
#2 - March 10th: In4Fun wins Roulette Rivals 13
There wasn’t much to set RR13 apart from the other tournaments this year. Other than players experimenting with cover aims in and outside matches, business was as usual: Scruffy beat Phanium for the second time in three WB Finals, while The Rieper 47 was knocking on the door of the Top 3.
In4Fun had a relatively quiet 2023, playing only two tournaments, scoring 7th in RR11 and 4th in RRWC. After losing the WB Semi-Final to Scruffy, he swept ThatObserver and The Rieper 47 to face Phanium in the LB Final, which he won, defeating the then-four-time champion for the first time in his career.
In the first-ever match to feature all Big 51 maps, In4Fun took a surprise 6-0 lead before Scruffy’s strong comeback: he not only equalized but took the lead 8-6 and looked strong to finish the job on Bangkok. After the photo finish went narrowly to In4Fun, players prepared for the final map in Chongqing. With nerves taking the better of both players, it was In4Fun who finished first to win his second title, 3.5 years after his first, ending a streak of three Grand Finals lost.
Honorable mentions
There was plenty more to get excited about in 2024. The year was about comeback players performing well: k-kaneta returned for one tournament, finishing 5th in RR13 (March 5th), Lord Munk finished 7th (June 1st) two years after his only tournament, and ChrisX3’s return (October 7th) was just as exciting as his Top 8 run.
Besides the closest matches and this year’s finals, MuIIIKeTeP vs. DeadlyMuffin_Man (May 21st) might also be remembered for a while due to the four tied maps and narrow unfortunate losses it had.
Last but not least, 2024 was an excellent year for resources: TheTimeCube finished his extensive roulette documents on January 1st, and CurryMaker and ThatObserver put Roulette Resources’ knowledge into the Discord bot Rory on October 11th. Both resources are available in Frote7’s Speedrun Community Discord.
#1 - August 20th: Scruffy and Jokerj tie the decider map
The match that was not supposed to happen like this. The match that could not have been written any more exciting. Scruffy and Joker’s Round 4 match in RR15 was so good that it already has its article here, so to summarize the game quickly, it had:
a photo finish tie in Dartmoor (1-1),
a convincing Scruffy win in Marrakesh (3-1),
a timeout tie in Mumbai (4-2),
a narrow Joker photo finish win in Sgàil (4-4),
a late Scruffy rip in Miami (4-6).
Everyone thought the match ended in five thrilling maps before Scruffy double-checked the photo finish results. It turned out that one of his loads wasn’t counted, so Sgàil should have ended in a tie. After consideration from players and admins, the result was changed (to 5-5), and players returned the following night to play the Bangkok decider.
The second day of this match turned this classic match into an all-timer. Players thought they would return for one spin, worth four or six minutes, but these evenly matched players managed to finish one last spin in sync. For the first time in RR history, an untimed decider map was tied, and as a result, the score remained at 5-5, issuing a second Bangkok spin. After restarts from both players on the respin, Jokerj won the match, for real this time.
+1 - December 15th: CurryMaker hosts the first RR Awards
After the final match of 2024 had ended, there was one more show to attend. Announced on September 8th, the RR Awards is a project by CurryMaker to celebrate outstanding players and moments of great importance from the roulette community. After three months of nominating and a week of voting, Curry hosted a professional award ceremony, announcing the winners of 17 awards.
2024 was undoubtedly the year of Scruffy, winning a record five awards, including Player of the Year, and another three thanks to his Match of the Year against Jokerj. In4Fun (3) and Redfox (2) also left with multiple medals, making it a total of fifteen players who won an award this December evening. With nominations beginning at the start of next year, everything is set for CurryMaker’s great initiative to become the community’s next tradition.
The Hitman Roulette Substack wishes everyone in the roulette community happy holidays and a successful 2025!
Do you agree with this list? What do you think were the biggest moments of 2024? Let me know in the comments!
The five maps with 3+ targets that are generally considered the hardest are Colorado, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Haven Island, and Berlin.