Join the Legion Community Tournaments

Interested in winning some exclusive vanity items?  In getting to the know the community around Rivals?  Playing that guy again that beat you on ladder with higher levels, but this time without any advantage?

Yes? Then join the Legion Community Tournaments, hosted on the Official Rivals Discord.

To sign up for Legion August 4, join the Discord and click on the green check mark to apply. Deadline is Sunday, August 30.  This week we are doing Kane & Strongarm ONLY, meaning you have to choose between those two commanders.

We also have another tournament, the August Arena, a live single-elimination tournament that is broadcast by 13lade and Gazpoole, which starts 15:00 UTC this Saturday. Register for the August Arena here.

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Balance Patch August 2020 -- Liang nerfed to death

 Yes! After some months of waiting, the new Rivals balance patch is out.

Buffs:

• Catalyst Gunship has faster attack speed and the gas grenade also comes faster
• Kane Obelisk damage increased by +50%, making it much better against the biggest tech units (Avatar, Titan, Mammoth)

Nerf and Buff:

• Grenadier now costs 80 (+10) Tiberium, but moves faster
• Mammoths are now slower, but a bit cheaper again (250 to 230 Tiberium)
• Shatterer +85% attack speed vs -50% damage reduction, speed increase vs stun duration reduction from 0.95s to 0.2s

Nerfs:

• Liang cannot move after being deployed. This is a heavy-handed approach. Maybe it was "necessary" as better changes were too difficult to implement. But that the cost stays at 50 is actually a joke. Without movement, a cost decrease to 30 would have been the least necessary change to prevent Liang usage to drop to zero (which cannot be the goal)
• Razorback attack speed reduced, damage -5% and health -5%. This seems like a very strong nerf, esp. as it becomes one-shottable by Phantom
• Fanatic boosts have been reduced in duration (from 8s to 5s) and impact (25% to 10% reload speed boost, 65% to 45% attack speed boost, 40% to 25% attack speed boost. This is also a big nerf.
• Phantom reload time increased from 6.5s to 8s
• Titan, Rockworm, Centurion and Kodiak see their infantry damage nerfed. This is relevant esp for Titan and Rockworm and indirectly buffs heavy infantry a bit.
• Zone Troopers see a significant -12% health nerf, and nerf to Infantry damage. 
• Laser Drones move slower and get a reduced harvester/structure damage. This will make it easier for Nod, as attacking into bikes will be harder, dodging laster troopers will be harder, and chasing Stealth Tanks as well. Good players will take them out because of this, less good players because of the harv damage nerf. 
• Orca Bomber damage was reduced at the outer parts of the bombing radius. Needs to be tested how significant that change is.
• MSV attack speed buff down from +75% to +50%, reload speed buff reduced and health reduced by -22%. In my view, over-nerfed, and it would have needed at least a cost reduction to stay somewhat playable.

Some first Predictions:

1. With Liang and RB nerfs, it seems likely that many GDI players move towards Dog/Sniper or Rifle/Drones, both combinations come with established deck options working well with them (Suzaku APC deck anyone?)
2. Fanatic players might switch to Rifle/Wheel (more money for earlier Shade/Stealth/Scorpion) or Militant/Chem or Militant/Buggy. With Oxanna, ability to boost key units stays intact.
3. Laser Drones will mostly disappear from the meta. As Shade is strong and was not nerfed, I expect it to see a lot of increase in popularity
4. Inferno decks seem very attractive, as they are not impacted by the buffed units -- and Borca will be a less attractive alternative for bomber aficionados
5. Nod tech is untouched, so Confessor/Basilisk or Flame Tank decks could gain in popularity
6. Marauder/Chuggy is untouched, and heavily benefits from the nerfs to Fanatics and RBs
7. Chuggy + Shade will be the new hate units in the Nod arsenal

Emergence of new Tournament Formats

With relatively rare balance patches in the recent months, a problem for tournaments had been that certain units and decks were played very often, leading to more predictable, less exciting games. 

To counter that, tournament organizers have been toying with modifications, such as to force players to play both factions, or ban specific units and commanders (such as Razorback, Fanatics, Liang).

In one of his latest tournaments, the Game.TV Finals, 13lade introduced an even more sophisticated system that actually worked great: Both players ban some units or commanders that the opponent can't chose. This allows for an interesting metagame, e.g.:

1. Do I ban the strongest units/commanders, or what I think this opponents likes / needs the most?
2. If I ban these units, what will the opponent play? How can I counter it?
3. Can I bait my opponent into playing a certain type of deck by banning a specific unit?

But see for yourself, it's a 2.5h well spent for any Rivals fan:

What I would like to see more in future tournamnets is more pre-determined maps. E.g. that it's clear which 5 maps are played in order for the semi-finals. This could allow players to come up with a game plan stretching the full series vs. just for each map.