Riot
Riot is a renowned and experienced American player. Widely considered one of the best players of all time,[1][2] he is known for hosting and verifying the 1.9 Extreme Demon level Bloodbath, as well as hosting the 2.1 Extreme Demons Tartarus and Acheron, all of which had been the hardest Demon levels upon release, and establishing what would become the Demonlist. During his initial period in the game, Riot completed several of the former hardest levels. His most notable were ICE Carbon Diablo X, Cataclysm, Crimson Clutter, A Bizarre Phantasm, and Retention. After dropping his attempt to verify the 1.9 former hardest Demon Sonic Wave and completing various scattered Extreme Demons, Riot's activity in Geometry Dash dwindled before he officially quit the game on 17 June 2018.
Riot returned to Geometry Dash in 2020 after an incident that led to his YouTube channel being terminated, ending his more than two-year absence with the upload of his completion of Sonic Wave, his current hardest completion, on 31 October 2020. About five months after this, he posted a video of himself achieving 59% and a run of 56-97% on Zodiac. He then completed Sakupen Hell, aftermath, Phobos, Athanatos, and Auditory Breaker in a few days. He is currently trying to go for Tidal Wave as his next hardest and last completion in Geometry Dash.[3]
History
[edit | edit source]Riot joined YouTube on 10 March 2013, but did not upload any videos until 28 April 2014, when he beat yStep.[4]
By far, the level completion that propelled him into the ranks of the best players was verifying the Extreme Demon Bloodbath, which, at the time, became the hardest Demon ever beaten/verified. The level remained unbeaten until March 2016, when Quasar beat it.
Riot's account is mostly filled with challenges, but he has also shown himself to be a creator. The only two serious levels he has built are Sparks, an old level he created back in Update 1.6, and Quantum Processing, an Extreme Demon remake of Blast Processing for which he built some of the gameplay.
On 12 August 2015, he verified Bloodbath, a level that, at the time, the community considered the hardest ever verified in the game. Riot's popularity exploded after he verified it.
Following hacking accusations, on 12 September that year, Riot announced he would leave the community, but he returned within hours. A few months later, in December, he uploaded a video announcing that he was getting bored with Geometry Dash and would play it less. This video caused people to believe Riot was quitting forever. However, he later uploaded a video practising The Hell Factory and said he had not quit; he was playing less because he did not feel like playing. He later made a brief return by uploading his Rearmed completion video.
Riot would later attempt to verify Sonic Wave, but after dying at 96%, he asked Viprin to create a redecorated version called Sonic Wave Infinity. He initially tried verifying it before passing it to Sunix, who also dropped it. He then enlisted APTeam to redecorate the level, which then went through several verifiers before Xanii finally verified it. According to Riot, his biggest regret in Geometry Dash is when he gave up on verifying Sonic Wave.[5]
After attempting to verify Quantum Processing but later dropping it, he verified his third Extreme Demon on 22 May 2016: Red World Rebirth, a redecorated version of the notorious 1.8 collaboration, Red World, by Neptune and saRy. This level marked the beginning of a significant break Riot took from Geometry Dash. Months after taking a break, he briefly returned by getting 73% on the original Sonic Wave and finishing Audio Excursion.
On 1 December 2016, Riot uploaded a video practising Artificial Ideology, a new level created by the Team N2 members, which Aeidux was to verify but later passed to Riot. He made good progress on it on two separate occasions, achieving runs of 26-88% and 44-100%. He also got 40% in normal mode. On 2 January 2017, however, knobbelboy streamed himself verifying Artificial Ideology, saying that Riot gave up on the level, an unexpected move as Riot had stated in the description of one of his progress videos, 'I expect to beat this soon :)'.
On 4 January 2017, Riot said on his Twitter page that he was retiring from Geometry Dash and planned to make a video about it. This video has never been made; however, it is unknown whether it is still in progress or has been cancelled. Cancellation seems plausible, as on 14 July 2017, Riot returned by beating Saturn V and then beat a range of Demons, from Easy Demons like Universal Remote to Extreme Demons such as Allegiance.
On 14 September 2017, Riot released an announcement video stating that he would be retiring from Geometry Dash, presumably for the final time, due to returning finger pain that had plagued him for almost a year. He stated that his active projects are finished and that the verification videos would likely be the last Geometry Dash-related videos on his channel. Those videos were Sonic Wave Infinity and Necromancer (to be verified by Sunix), and Quantum Processing and Descent into Exile (to be verified by Rampage).
On 14 November 2017, Riot released a video exposing Noctalium for hacking certain Demons. Six days later, he responded to Noctalium's video; the next day, he released a video saying Noctalium had confessed. On 29 November 2017, Riot verified Galactic Machine by Komp, saying he 'ended up nerfing the level from what it was when he got it'.
On 17 June 2018, he made a video announcing his official departure from the game. He was moving on to Fortnite, and he wanted to be known for that instead of Geometry Dash.[6] He unlisted all of his Geometry Dash videos and put them in a playlist,[7] and later made a follow-up video.[8] His Fortnite videos performed well, with several of them surpassing a million views.
On 24 July 2018, Riot's YouTube channel was terminated for advertising his link to a Twitch stream that broke the Terms of Service. On 22 October 2018, Riot's YouTube channel should have been reinstated, but it was not. Riot contacted YouTube on Twitter, but they replied that he should file an appeal, which he did. Due to this, Surv made a video named #FreeRiot.[9]
On 23 February 2019, he returned to Geometry Dash by posting a gameplay revision video of Sonic Wave Infinity on his new channel, sparking a craze that he was returning to the game.[10]
On 27 August 2020, multiple users on Twitter revived the #freeriot hashtag after npesta's channel was restored to monetisation using a similar hashtag, #freenpesta. Eventually, YouTube staff saw the #freeriot hashtag and Riot's tweet and reinstated his old channel.[11] The same thing occurred with Nexus, AeonAir, Danzmen, and Dorami. Riot released a video on his channel titled 'I'm Back' (edited by Doggie), where he announced his return, talked about the backstory of how his channel was banned (stated previously), and what he was doing for the past two years. The video has since been unlisted.[12]
Afterwards, he began practising Sonic Wave, saying he would beat the level if he ever got his channel back.[13] As of 30 October 2020, he beat Sonic Wave.[14] According to the completion video's description, this was not the last time he would play or beat something in Geometry Dash, and there was more to come.
On 12 November 2020, Riot uploaded his verification of a level called Project Reunion by GrenadeofTacos, created in the 1.9 Geometry Dash Private Server (GDPS). This level was his first verification after years of inactivity on YouTube.[15]
After a few months away from the game, he began a Zodiac practice stream on 16 March 2021. He has achieved a current best of 59% and a run of 56-97% on the level. His more recent completions include Sakupen Hell, aftermath, Phobos, Athanatos, and Auditory Breaker.
On 7 July 2021, Riot uploaded the official showcase of Acheron, an upcoming Top 1 Demon level that he was hosting alongside ryamu.[16] A nerfed version of the level was uploaded to ryamu's account for open verification, and Zoink verified it on 22 August 2022. The original version is currently uploaded to Riot's account.
On 13 October 2023, Riot uploaded a showcase of Aeternus, a planned successor to Acheron, which many consider humanly impossible, or at the very least, approaching the human limit of difficulty.[17] The level is currently uploaded on Riot's account as an open verification. Currently, dewbbs holds the world record of 20% on Aeternus.
On 13 May 2024, Riot posted a poll on Twitter, asking the community which Demon he should attempt to complete as his final hardest, with the two choices being either Zodiac or Tidal Wave. Tidal Wave won with 70% of the votes. Riot posted on 15 May 2024 an image of the second wave in Tidal Wave with the caption 'how'.[18] As of now, he has not posted any progress on the level. It is unknown whether he is still attempting it, as Riot has remained mostly inactive since then.
Levels
[edit | edit source]- Unrated levels
- blood bathtub hard v - A buffed version of Bloodbath (dubbed Buffbath) with a secret way. Riot claimed that he made this copyable so people could try it with 'Ignore Damage'.
- EVW Challenge - A tiny-length challenge level for EricVanWilderman, who beat it.
- Sparks - A 1.6 level made by Riot himself. It is considered the only 'official' level Riot made.
- Extreme Demon levels
- Acheron (Featured on ryamu's account) - A Tartarus-inspired level and the unofficial Tartarus sequel, using 'Thermodynamix' by dj-Nate as the song. The level has gameplay similar to Tartarus, but it is overall more difficult. Zoink verified the level on his own buffed version on 23 August 2022.[19]
- Bloodbath (Featured) - A 1.9 hell-themed mega-collaboration by ASonicMen, Hinds, Vermillion, and many others. It was the hardest level in Geometry Dash for several months. This project was Riot's first featured level, and his verification took over 22,000 attempts.
- Red World Rebirth (Featured) - A slightly buffed remake of the original Red World by Neptune and SaRy. Decorated by Findexi, Viprin, and Hinds and verified by Riot. It is his second featured level to date.
- Tartarus (Featured on Dolphy's account) - A mega-collaboration hosted by Riot composed of constant game-mode transitions. Riot openly hack-verified and uploaded it with noclip as a challenge to see who could beat it first. On 6 January 2020, Russian player Dolphy verified the level after 61,742 attempts. The level was initially rated as an Extreme Demon on Mullsy's account. However, Mullsy requested that the level be rated on Dolphy's account, as Dolphy had beaten it first and had been confirmed by the Demonlist team as having beaten it legitimately.
- Quantum Dynamix (Featured on GrenadeofTacos's account) - A super-buffed remake of Electrodynamix and the sequel to Quantum Processing, verified by Cersia and published by GrenadeofTacos.
- Quantum Processing (Featured) - A remake of Blast Processing with several buffs and harder gameplay. It was started over two years ago and finally verified by Rampage in Update 2.1.
- Verified levels
- Cataclysm (Featured) - A hell-themed Extreme Demon, originally hack-verified by Ggb0y and presumably Cyclic and verified legitimate by Giron, and it was later update-verified by Riot.
- Collaborations participated in
- Night Rider (Epic on LmAnubis's account) - A massive mega-collaboration with alot of iconic creators, hosted by LmAnubis and verified by LeslieDB.
- Yatagarasu (Featured on TrusTa's account) - A mega-collaboration created by Viprin and more, verified and published by TrusTa.
- Necromancer (Featured on TGI's account) - A superbuffed remake of Necropolis that has very similar structuring and color scheme to the original.
- Descent Into Exile (Featured on GrenadeofTacos's account) - A mega-collaboration hosted by Riot that is similar to Quantum Dynamix, which was given to icedcave to finish the layout. This level was supposed to be the next GeoStorm mega-collaboration after Yatagarasu, verified by BGram and published by GrenadeofTacos.
- Cosmic Cyclone (Featured on APTeam's account) - The official sequel to Sonic Wave that was originally cancelled but revived by Riot and Zimnyte and remade by APTeam. DoSh7t verified it on 29 November 2021.
- Sonic Wave Infinity (Featured on APTeam's account) - A famous buffed dark remake of Sonic Wave. It is the official version hosted by Riot and Zimnyte and redecorated by APTeam, verified by Xanii on 30 May 2021.
- Upcoming levels
- Aeternus - A mega-collaboration hosted by both ryamu and Riot. The teaser shows a 1.9-style, hell-themed level inspired by both Acheron and Tartarus, as well as the unofficial Acheron sequel. It is set to be the hardest level in the game.[20][21]
- Misanthrope - An upcoming Extreme Demon mega-collaboration with alot of iconic creators, hosted by Brittank88.
- Cancelled/deleted levels
- Cosmic Cyclone - The official sequel to Sonic Wave. It was cancelled, but Zimnyte got Riot's permission to continue it.
- Dab reto xdddd - A short level with 346 objects with easy UFO, ship, wave, and robot gameplay. It was removed a few hours after release.
- GS One Space Fly v2 - A Tiny-length Insane level by Riot. The level includes no more than one extremely difficult, very tight ship sequence (one block between floor spikes and overhead spikes). However, this level was ruined when Anaban hacked his account (leaking Sonic Wave Infinity, Quantum Processing, and Riot's version of Yatagarasu without Manix's part), so Riot deleted it.
- GS One Space Wave - A wave challenge level.
- Retention 144Hz Ver - A simple copy of Retention. It was made for 144Hz monitor users due to bugs, but it was later removed after he retired from Geometry Dash.
- Riotgeist - The third and final level in the Riot Level Series.
- Riot Madness - The first level in the Riot Level Series and his first level ever created.
- Riot on Track - The second level in the Riot Level Series.
Nominations and awards
[edit | edit source]The Geometry Dash Awards
[edit | edit source]- Awards
- Awarded in the 2.0 Awards for Best Player
Other honours
[edit | edit source]- Geometry Dash Today's Top 100 Greatest Levels Of All Time
- Placed 4th with Bloodbath
- Placed 24th with Yatagarasu
- Placed 66th with Tartarus
- 10th Anniversary Awards
- Placed 3rd in the Favorite Player category
Achievements
[edit | edit source]| Level | Difficulty | Date Achieved | Total Attempts | Notable Fails | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deadly ClubStep | 
|
28 December 2014 | 16,569 | N/A | Link |
| Astronaut 13 |
|
14 May 2015 | 2,118 | N/A | Link |
| Cataclysm | 
|
20 May 2015 | 32,870 | 80% | Link |
| Necropolis | 
|
21 May 2015 | 20,690 | N/A | Link |
| ICE Carbon Diablo X |
|
23 May 2015 | 6,552 | 95% | Link |
| Stalemate |
|
8 June 2015 | 1,138 | ~80% | Link |
| Windy Landscape |
|
14 June 2015 | 2,802 | N/A | Link |
| Poltergeist |
|
18 June 2015 | 2,874 | N/A | Link |
| Supersonic |
|
19 June 2015 | 5,971 | 98% | Link |
| Fairydust |
|
19 June 2015 | 4,315 | N/A | Link |
| Jawbreaker |
|
20 June 2015 | 728 | N/A | Link |
| Nine Circles |
|
22 June 2015 | 2,428 | N/A | Link |
| Silhouette |
|
24 June 2015 | 1,436 | N/A | Link |
| The JanuS Miracle |
|
25 June 2015 | 1,487 | N/A | Link |
| Bloodbath Progress (48%) |
|
25 June 2015 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Bloodbath Progress (58%) |
|
13 July 2015 | N/A | 48% | Link |
| Beat Acropolis |
|
26 July 2015 | 4,336 | N/A | Link |
| Bloodbath Progress (65%) |
|
3 August 2015 | N/A | 58% | Link |
| Paracosm Circles | 
|
3 August 2015 | 215 | N/A | Link |
| Bloodbath Progress (90%) |
|
6 August 2015 | N/A | 65% | Link |
| Bloodbath Progress (94%) |
|
8 August 2015 | N/A | 90% | Link |
| Bloodbath Verified |
|
12 August 2015 | 25,000+ | 94% | Link |
| Sine Wavs |
|
16 August 2015 | 610 | N/A | Link |
| Crimson Clutter |
|
18 August 2015 | 3,007 | N/A | Link |
| UltraSonic |
|
2 October 2015 | 2,584 | N/A | Link |
| Ultra Fairydust |
|
28 October 2015 | 106 | N/A | Link |
| Old Ultra Paracosm | 
|
3 November 2015 | 51 | N/A | Link |
| Creeper Force |
|
5 November 2015 | 3,701 | ~80% | Link |
| Rupture |
|
12 November 2015 | 654 | N/A | Link |
| Updated Old Down Bass | (unrated)
|
24 November 2015 | 3,205 | N/A | Link |
| Ultimate Circles |
|
7 December 2015 | 81 | N/A | Link |
| Galatic Fragility |
|
9 December 2015 | 4,631 | 87% | Link |
| Alphabet X |
|
16 December 2015 | 1,891 | 96% | Link |
| Rearmed |
|
9 January 2016 | 1,711 | 93% | Link |
| Verified Updated Cataclysm |
|
14 January 2016 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Sonic Wave Progress (28-82%) |
|
16 January 2016 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Night Terrors |
|
7 February 2016 | 886 | N/A | Link |
| Theory of XoanoN |
|
15 February 2016 | 1,441 | 97% | Link |
| Labnity |
|
5 March 2016 | 575 | N/A | Link |
| Sonic Wave Infinity Progress (39-100%) |
|
30 March 2016 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Lunatic Doom Machine |
|
3 April 2016 | 992 | N/A | Link |
| Retention |
|
10 April 2016 | 4,711 | N/A | Link |
| Sonic Wave Infinity Progress (72%) |
|
23 April 2016 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| A Bizarre Phantasm |
|
13 May 2016 | 6,495 | ~70% | Link |
| Verified Red World Rebirth |
|
22 May 2016 | 4,640 | N/A | Link |
| Audio Excursion |
|
14 November 2016 | 1,038 | N/A | Link |
| Sonic Wave Progress (96%) |
|
18 November 2016 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Dem Travel |
|
2 December 2016 | 179 (on copyable) | N/A | Link |
| FusionX |
|
11 December 2016 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Quest For Perfection |
|
19 July 2017 | 2,136 | N/A | Link |
| Hate War |
|
20 July 2017 | 1,649 | N/A | Link |
| The Ultimate Phase |
|
20 July 2017 | 8,499 | N/A | Link |
| Heartbeat |
|
23 July 2017 | 4,317 | N/A | Link |
| Rebeat Updated Cataclysm |
|
23 July 2017 | 300 | N/A | Link |
| Allegiance |
|
27 July 2017 | 7,008 | 94% | Link |
| Verified Galactic Machine | (unrated)
|
27 November 2017 | 2,835 | N/A | Link |
| ClubStep Nightmares |
|
9 December 2017 | 1,168 | N/A | Link |
| Sonic Wave |
|
30 October 2020 | 90,000+ | 96% | Link |
| Verified Project Reunion |
|
12 November 2020 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Sakupen Hell |
|
7 April 2021 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| aftermath |
|
15 April 2021 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Phobos |
|
17 April 2021 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Athanatos |
|
22 April 2021 | N/A | N/A | Link |
| Auditory Breaker |
|
2 May 2021 | N/A | 94% | Link |
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- Riot has garnered over 368,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.[22]
- Riot was the third guest of The Dasher Podcast.[23]
- Riot was also the 19th guest of the Vernosis interviews.[24]
- Riot was the first player to complete ICE Carbon Diablo X and the second to complete Deadly ClubStep, after Rek3dge, the creator of DeCode.
- Riot was once the only player to have beaten Cataclysm three times. He beat it twice in the old version and once in the new version (he verified the new Cataclysm with user coins). Brandon Larkin has technically beaten Cataclysm six times, but the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth times were remakes of Cataclysm, such as BrandonClysm and SatchoClysm. He has confirmed beating Cataclysm eight times, but only twice without recording. TrusTa plans to beat Cataclysm 100 times. So far, he has 28 completions.
- Riot was formerly a list editor in the Geometry Dash Forum but was demoted due to inactivity.
- Riot is the fourth major Geometry Dash YouTuber to reach 100,000 subscribers on his channel.
- Riot was once among the Top 100 on the Global Leaderboard after focusing more on Demon-slaying instead of star-grinding. However, he fell out of the Top 100 and ended up well beyond the Top 1,000.
- Riot's channel was deleted from YouTube after he promoted his Twitch channel on YouTube, causing a lot of controversy. The appeal was rejected, and his channel was deleted from YouTube, prompting him to create a new channel where he uploaded some of his old videos.[25] He would finally get his old channel back on 27 August 2020, along with all his old videos.
- Riot stated on Twitter that the last level he will beat before he leaves the game is Zodiac.[26]
- Riot beat Sakupen Hell as wave practice for Enlex's wave part in Zodiac.
- Riot is a very skilled Call of Duty Zombies player, having reached Round 511 in Die Machine and 255, the max round cap for Black Ops 3 Zombies on Ascension.
- Riot has a part in the upcoming Top 1 Extreme Demon Misanthrope.
- Riot is the first person to beat the first 'impossible' spam legitimately of Silent Club on stream.[27]
Videos
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CibiX_gzBGA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXoPDvL9ICM
- ↑ https://x.com/xriott/status/1790170117159968880
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZCBqIa_Jfk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVryXkgZKPg
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hTHLiiOJQ4
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEKbCjSh8K86NVUAZxgpuRgsmpOSBMdqk
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ilRpHeQCBA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tju0moGS-_A
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_SbXPrlow
- ↑ https://x.com/TeamYouTube/status/1299111402804830208
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kTtt77NZpE
- ↑ https://x.com/xriott/status/1155922479480811520
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZnAim-_L0I
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TD4WKsNa14
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsP98Tu0YSo
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIjuyPd3kck
- ↑ https://x.com/xriott/status/1790867078150324393
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKR6aUorzA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er8cRvuDCNM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWIR5kq_Zw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@Riottt
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db0CT-7-nm0w1q
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhsJoNBmx98
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@riot2262
- ↑ https://x.com/xriott/status/1371274875298537472
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6_as_V0v_Q&t=33s