Top 10 - The Greatest RRWC Groups
Unforgettable mini-tournaments
The Roulette Rivals World Championship has a unique format, its group stage guarantees that everyone gets to play as many as seven matches. The seeding system ensures that direct tournament favorites are placed in different groups, but those groups can vary from unbalanced to wildly unpredictable.
As of 2024, there have been four world championships and a total of 32 groups, some closer than others, some deadlier, and some simply better. Today we’re going to be counting down the top 10 greatest RRWC groups, from the most entertaining to the mathematically closest ones.
#10 - Group A of RRWC 2022
We begin our journey in the group of the 2021 world champion, DaniButa. As is tradition for the reigning champs, he was placed in Group A, along with capable opponents such as Frote7, Meekah, ChromeX, and returning Joats. Though the Hungarian won his group last year as a rookie, this time he didn’t manage to do the same, losing to both Frote7 and Meekah.
Meanwhile, Joats racked up consistent results and an upset win against ChromeX, so before their match on the final day, he and Dani were on equal 17 points. Any chance for a shock result quickly faded away though, with DaniButa setting the Miami and the Santa Fortuna records on consecutive maps. With a 4-2 win over Meekah, Frote7 won the group, but Dani had the last laugh as the eventual champion.
Watch: Meekah vs DaniButa, three maps full of adrenaline.
#9 - Group H of RRWC
Group H of the inaugural world championship was a novelty in several ways. Thanks to TheContractor’s last-minute signup, 33 players had to be divided into eight groups. Headlined by RR2 PS4 runner-up Speedster, Group H featured five players: they all had the chance to play eight (not just six) matches in 2020’s unique double-round-robin format.
The group was not only busy, but it was also quite even: only two of the 27 matches1 were 6-0 sweeps. Undefeated in eight games, gordiniroy cruised to a convincing group win, as Speedster narrowly advanced ahead of rookie Pigiero, securing second place on the very last map of the group.
#8 - Group H of RRWC 2022
This is the first of several groups with five contenders, all of which could have been eliminated at some point. First-seeded Jokerj only won two of his first four games but finished his group stage strong with 32 points, partially thanks to his streak of seven Dartmoor picks in a row.
On a busy October 30th, first OhShitMan ended his group stage on 25 points, then barbegue climbed up to 30, challenging Joker’s lead with one match to go. JoeTheBabyGrabber also finished on 30 points, only losing to barbegue, meaning that despite scoring so high, OhShitMan could only advance if TK47 scored fewer than two points against barbegue. But as TK47 won the first map (and the entire match), Ohs’ fate was quickly sealed.
While not as intense as other groups, 29 points is the highest amount achieved by a fourth-place finisher, and 25 is still the record for being eliminated with the most points, tied with two other victims from this list.
#7 - Group A of RRWC 2023
Normally no group should be featured here if someone won it by 15 points, but last year's Group A was special for two reasons.
Phanium inherited retiring DaniButa’s #1 seed, the then four-time champion awaited his opponents from the first position. As he avoided the lower-seeded heavyweights, his objective gradually changed from winning the group to achieving it undefeated and even perfectly. And that’s what he did, quietly dominating his group to become the second person ever to win an RRWC group without losing a point.
The battle for second place balanced out the obvious winner, as none of the Group A veterans or newcomers managed to stand out. With four wins and a draw, rookie Kum Boychuk narrowly clinched second place ahead of mikulers. The final match of the group saw Peter Dutton MP beat OhShitMan to tie him on points, eliminating the Norwegian via head-to-head results.
#6 - Group F of RRWC 2021
What if Redfox didn’t forfeit from RRWC 2021? It’s one of Roulette Rivals’ great what-ifs: though the American is famous for his many no-shows, his disqualification from the world championship was the most consequential.
The favorites in RRWC 2021’s Group F were T_Nort23 and MrMike, with the consistent gordiniroy, the volatile Redfox, and the up-and-coming The_Buff_Guy all vying for a Top 4 spot. Since PapaLevy’s 6-0 win against gordiniroy in the opener, this group was hotly contested among six players.
Most of the group finished their matches early, but three of Redfox’s games were still pending. On November 12th he failed to show up against gordiniroy, and due to the limited time remaining (and Redfox’s notoriety), he was given no more chances: all his results were removed.
This decision immediately ended the group, as all other matches were done already: the gallant gordiniroy agreed with the disqualification, even though this meant elimination by a single point, while the redfoxless Top 3 were separated by only three points.
Watch: the “match” with the most casters simultaneously, as Redfox’s forfeit turns into an impromptu RRWC podcast.
#5 - Group B of RRWC 2023
The following two groups, both from last year’s world championship, may not be similar but are classics in different ways. Before the tournament, Scruffy, Pigiero, Nezuko Chan, and Ebramehdi were predicted to advance, but Gorg and lukedotpng immediately made this group more complicated.
In a group with the least diverse map picks ever, Scruffy dominated, Nezuko Chan underperformed and Ebramehdi dropped out. All matches not involving Scruffy or Falcon ended 4-2, and the tiny margins favored Pigiero more, clinching second place with a win over lukedotpng on the final weekend.
Nezuko Chan had by far the most interesting group stage of these six. Over six days, he played all his matches: losing to all his main competitors, beating Falcon, but drawing against Scruffy, the group and tournament favorite. As a result, he finished on 14 points, part of the second-ever three-way tie2, becoming the first player to be eliminated by a three-way head-to-head count.
#4 - Group H of RRWC 2023
While Group B had only 15 matches, Group H had the full 28, only two groups started and ended with eight players last year. This was considered the Group of Death of the most competitive world championship to date, with two former champions and another two finalists awaiting the challenges of Redfox and three newer but promising players.
Frote lost the second map of his tournament to MrMike, but went on to have the longest ever streak of maps won: 19 in the group stage, and 9 more in the knockout stage. Redfox wasn’t as successful as two years ago, he finished winless this time.
MrMike only won three of his seven games, but never got swept; Sphegamer won five of his matches, but never with a sweep, and he also failed to win any other maps. This resulted in what is the main appeal of the RRWC group stage: maps matter, not matches, so MrMike finished in third, while Sphegamer was eliminated in sixth.
The battle for fourth place was even closer: it ended in a tie between Americans davidredsox and SpottheCat. Spot needed at least a draw against davidredsox in his final match, but narrowly lost, allowing david to pull through with a sweep on the final day.
#3 - Group C of RRWC 2021
Group C of the 2021 world championship was the original Group of Death. First seed Yannini won two titles that year, Foppr and Meme Junkie had both scored Top 6 finishes recently, and Some Random Person was fresh off a 9th place from RR6. But what made this group scary was sixth-seed k-kaneta, who went winless in his rookie tournament in RR6, but finished second in the community event Roulette Raceway a few weeks before RRWC.
The five players would battle fiercely for the four qualifying spots, with no clear leader, as everyone dropped at least one match along the way. Yannini lost to k-kaneta and drew against Foppr, while Kaneta also lost to Foppr. The Dutchman would have made a great giant killer in the knockout stage but his losses to Meme Junkie and Some Random Person were proven costly. With one more map from either of them, Foppr would have finished third or fourth.
k-kaneta’s first world championship started with an impressive group stage, finishing on 34 of a maximum of 42 points. Yannini’s fate for first place was in his own hands, but he lost the final map to Random and only reached 33 points with a Meme Junkie sweep.
One side note about the smaller competition for sixth place, the three players have timed out on eight of their nine maps together, except for a late Derek win in a Chongqing decider, earning him sixth place.
#2 - Group C of RRWC 2023
While this group might be missing some elements of Hollywood storytelling, no other group was as close as this one. IlikeHitman dominated this pack, only losing two maps along the way, while ThomasTheGremlin’s rookie tournament ended with no match wins, but a Hokkaido win against Apricope.
Other than ILH and Thomas, there was very little between these Group C players, proven by the fact that none of these five players swept one another. Five became four when Kingcamel dropped out after the first week, despite scoring seven points in three matches, being right in the mix with others.
After CurryMaker took a crucial map against IlikeHitman to reach 16 points, all eyes were on Fuzk and TK47. It looked more and more likely that only the winner of their match would move on, but to everyone’s surprise, they produced a 3-3 tie instead. After the final game (Fuzk securing a necessary sweep against Thomas), second through fifth were separated by one point, with Fuzk and TK47 in an identical tie.
As it was for a place in the knockout stage, breaking the tie was necessary, so for the first time in RR history, a decider match was scheduled: a first-to-six game with picks but no bans. The Decider eventually took place on the Tuesday after the knockout bracket draw, with Fuzk defeating TK47 6-0.
#1 - Group B of RRWC 2022
The greatest and most dramatic RRWC group of all time almost defined the third world championship. It defied all expectations of being a boring group, led by Yannini and Phanium, with perhaps a close battle for third.
The upsets started right out of the gate as Nezuko Chan swept Phanium in just the fifth match of the entire tournament. The then two-time champ bounced back with convincing wins, while Nezuko Chan fell to Fuzk later, still no favorite emerged. Then Phanium lost to Cabben and The Rieper 47 within 24 hours, making the group even less predictable. As players finished their matches, the possibility of a Phanium elimination started to look real.
Yannini, Nezuko, Cabben, and Rieper entered the final day with 29, 29, 25, and 24 points respectively, with the latter having one match remaining against Swastik. Phanium had 21 points before his final game against Yannini, and due to an unfavorable tiebreak, he needed five points to overtake Cabben for fourth.
The battle of the two top seeds resulted in one of the best group stage matches of all time, from Phanium narrowly taking his Colorado, to both players struggling with Ljudmila electrocution, and Yannini losing his Miami lead due to a wrong kill. Phanium took the sweep he needed to stay alive in the competition, Yannini lost the match and first place (as Rieper swept Swastik to finish the group), but Cabben lost even more, becoming one of only three players to be eliminated from RRWC with 25 points. With a surprise winner, upsets from start to finish, and an unforgettable final day, this is rightly considered the greatest RRWC group of all time.
Do you agree with this list? What do you consider the best-ever RRWC group? What would you like to read about next? Let me know in the comments!
The final, inconsequential match was canceled, as timothymark and getro_gamer didn’t find time to play each other.
The first one had no knockout implications: it was a tie for sixth place in 2021’s Group A.